Electronic Frontier Foundation Survives on $5M/year • Hacker News Board

Re: Electronic Frontier Foundation Survives on $5M/year

#51

Post by homeomorphic » Sun, Jun 09, 2013, 6:03 PM UTC

jrockway wrote: post #47

homeomorphic wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Haha, sometimes the US-European disconnect is very cute. I mean no offense, but checks went out of use in my country like 20 years ago. (Anectodally, they can still be cashed, for a service fee of $30 or so). Oh, and mailing something to the US would alone be more than PayPal's cut.

So your banking system has no way of giving money to an organization you want to support, and you're calling us "very cute"? That makes a lot of sense.

Oh, no, of course I can. Charities/businesses publish account numbers and I push the money.

Re: Electronic Frontier Foundation Survives on $5M/year

#52

Post by incongruity » Sun, Jun 09, 2013, 8:26 PM UTC

skrebbel wrote: post #50

incongruity wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This. There are roughly 8 million people employed in science and technology in the U.S. Imagine if we each donated just $5 a month. While that's completely unrealistic to expect, what if we could average $1 a month for each of those workers?

Most people working "in science and technology" do work that's very marginally related to what the EFF does. Why would a biotech scientist working at a pharmaceutical firm be above-average interested in sponsoring an organisation that's all about software patents and the likes? It's nearly completely unrelated. I know this is and HN, and HN is about Silicon Valley, where "technology" equals "software", but really, th…

Your own assumptions are problematic, IMHO.

I drew my approximation from government data sources. Where have you gotten your idea that "most" are not interested in what the EFF does? Further, where, if at all, are you getting numbers to justify your quantitative approximation that most are not in technology? (Also, side note – the EFF deals with much more than software, despite your implications)

Speaking as someone with a educational and professional background in research psychology, I can honestly say my experience would say you're wrong. As a generalization, I found scientists to care a about free speech, IP laws, fair use and DRM, laws having to do with governmental oversight/intrusion to research. The EFF may not be the first place they'd go, but it's not far off, ideologically.

Re: Electronic Frontier Foundation Survives on $5M/year

#53

Post by nodata » Mon, Jun 10, 2013, 5:24 AM UTC

homeomorphic wrote: post #34

antoviaque wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can donate through Flattr, too: https://flattr.com/profile/EFF

Nice! Do you know how much of a cut Flattr takes? Wikipedia suggests 10%, which is just too much. Hey, EFF, if you ever read this: An option for being sent an email monthly with a link to a one-click payment of the same amount as last month would get people like me donating!

> which is just too much.

Compared to what? Surely the competition?

For micropayments they're cheap.