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Email Encryption Software Relies on One Guy, Who Is Going Broke

propublica.org

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Re: Email Encryption Software Relies on One Guy, Who Is Going Broke

#31

Post by jepper »

nitrogen wrote: post #28
andrewla wrote: post #22

For bitcoin donations, you can go to [1], which gives the address as 12LKeo24XCzgz6ASSxcUa8BvUfzkEyCpGq [2]. The address is not generated per user, and is dedicated to GnuPG. [1] https://www.wauland.de/en/donation.nojs.html [2] https://blockchain.info/address/12LKeo24XCzgz6ASSxcUa8BvUfzk...

Is this address verifiable on the GPG site?

See: https://gnupg.org/donate/index.html

The Wau Holland Stiftung takes the BTC and pays it out to the GnuPG project. Its a foundation that has its roots in the CCC and supports all kind of open source and/or hactivists projects.

Re: Email Encryption Software Relies on One Guy, Who Is Going Broke

#32

Post by tptacek »

mseebach wrote: post #26

Given the general scarcity of talent in the business, it should really be trivial for a high end IT security consultancy to pay Werner a €3000/month (ie. enough to live on, if not extravagantly) retainer to be available ~10 hours a month to consult on encryption matters (or something like that). I wonder if it all really comes down to "Really I am better at programming than this business stuff." or if there is some u…

The task of maintaining GPG isn't principally cryptographic. GPG is one of those classic un-fun projects that the open source community is notorious for neglecting. So the problem isn't finding and funding cryptographic experts to work on it; the problem is finding Werner Koches who are willing to take on the slog of making sure GPG continues to work.

Look at how many crappy, trivially broken crypto messaging systems are posted to HN every year. Some of them even get funded! Nobody wants to work on GPG, which makes what Koch is doing even more important.

Re: Email Encryption Software Relies on One Guy, Who Is Going Broke

#33

Post by adl »

gandalfu wrote: post #15
agwa wrote: post #4

Calling GnuPG "email encryption software" really understates its importance. It's also used in countless applications to encrypt data at rest, and GPG signatures are used to secure the distribution of software. For instance, GPG is an essential part of the package managers of Debian, Ubuntu, and RedHat. Here is a link to the donation page: https://gnupg.org/donate/index.html

Thanks for the link, just donated!

GPG is an integral part of the Open and Free internet.

Imagine all the workflows that depend on verified encryption signatures like Debian, Ubuntu, etc and that's just software distribution, not counting privacy issues like journalists, political dissidents, whistle blowers, etc using it for secure communications.

It was pretty easy to donate, took me less than 2 minutes. I encourage everybody that is able to make a donation, however small, every euro counts.

Re: Email Encryption Software Relies on One Guy, Who Is Going Broke

#34

Post by ChuckMcM »

I wonder sometimes if this is the legacy that RMS was thinking about. Sometimes, in my more cynical moments, it seems like we have somehow managed to trick a whole generation of programmers into giving "free stuff" to the world, enabling the creation of the very successful mega corporations which have then kept the value for themselves.

Would it be impossible to create some sort of stipend program at FSF? After all the creation and maintenance of software is allowed to cost money under the GPL.

Re: Email Encryption Software Relies on One Guy, Who Is Going Broke

#35

Post by twothamendment »

moreati wrote: post #21

In the last hour or so (I think since this hit the front page) there have been approximately €2000 of donations added to the drive at https://gnupg.org/ , nudging it over €40000. Please do your part, and keep that bar moving.

I gave my 0.02. Ok, a bit more than that, but everything helps. I don't know what I'd do without GnuPG. It has so many uses beyond email...

Re: Email Encryption Software Relies on One Guy, Who Is Going Broke

#36

Post by malandrew »

gandalfu wrote: post #15
agwa wrote: post #4

Calling GnuPG "email encryption software" really understates its importance. It's also used in countless applications to encrypt data at rest, and GPG signatures are used to secure the distribution of software. For instance, GPG is an essential part of the package managers of Debian, Ubuntu, and RedHat. Here is a link to the donation page: https://gnupg.org/donate/index.html

Thanks for the link, just donated!

Me too. This software is too important to not have someone dedicated to it full time.

I left a note that he (like the EFF and the ACLU) should have a recurring donation option, or at least an option to receive a once yearly email asking for a donation. There are many people that would happily go with a recurring donation if that option were available.

Re: Email Encryption Software Relies on One Guy, Who Is Going Broke

#37

Post by gommm »

I've just donated. It's an important project and Werner Koch needs to be rewarded.

I feel that we, as a community, are really bad at supporting some of the opensource projects that powers our infrastructure. I'm not sure what can be done to improve this. Maybe we need a foundation that raises money for those projects and does the marketing needed to remind us to donate.

I for one wouldn't mind giving say 30 euros/month to be redistributed between projects like GPG, openssh, varnish, nginx, openssl...

Re: Email Encryption Software Relies on One Guy, Who Is Going Broke

#39

Post by Torgo »

pyre wrote: post #19
lawl wrote: post #8

I think the biggest problem is visibility for these projects. They need to be louder. In the case of openssl, I had no idea that they were severly underfunded (until heartbleed). Same for GPG until now. I didn't hear they asked for donations. And I doubt I'm the only one. So I quickly checked if maybe this was big on HN at a point and I just missed it. https://hn.algolia.com/?query=GPG%20donation&sort=byPopulari... h…

I knew that the developer pool for GPG was pretty small, and that this is a big reason why development isn't always fast. On the other hand, I had no idea that he was working full-time on it, and having money trouble. Also: If you search for "GPG Koch" you can come across this comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6942254 EDIT: An example of development that is slow-coming: library support. Most GPG "librarie…

is gpgme not a proper library?

https://www.gnupg.org/%28it%29/related_software/gpgme/index....

I haven't used it, so I really don't know.

Re: Email Encryption Software Relies on One Guy, Who Is Going Broke

#40

Post by malandrew »

lawl wrote: post #8

I think the biggest problem is visibility for these projects. They need to be louder. In the case of openssl, I had no idea that they were severly underfunded (until heartbleed). Same for GPG until now. I didn't hear they asked for donations. And I doubt I'm the only one. So I quickly checked if maybe this was big on HN at a point and I just missed it. https://hn.algolia.com/?query=GPG%20donation&sort=byPopulari... h…

I'm wondering if there is a meta-donation page that lists a bunch of the most important open source projects, how you can donate to them and their yearly funding goals (and how many developers are being supported).
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