OHAI, Dnia wtorek, 3 marca 2015 07:59:07 piszesz:
On Tue, 03 Mar 2015 01:45:40 -0800, rysiek <rysiek@hackerspace.pl> wrote:
I cordially invite you to provide sufficient funding to all the freedom/privacy/human rights related initiatives that are government-funded today.
I'm not sure that cordially inviting an individual to single handedly replace the 'funding' provided by a violent organized criminal organization that can extract funds from entire populations under the threat of violence, and also 'print' their own goddamned money is really a solid counter argument.
Well, provide any funds, at all, at least, then.
Is the funding of FLOSS privacy enabling software a problem? Yes.
Glad we can agree here.
Does it therefore follow that lining up at the government's stolen money slop trough until another solution can be devised is ever going to be a good idea in the long run? I would argue 'No'.
I would argue "that's not an easy answer". Depends on many variables, and boils down to: are we hacking the system to have our way, or are we being co- opted by the system. It's never black or white, so it depends on a given situation.
Look at the history and deviousness of government infiltration of 60's counterculture groups that were deemed a threat to state power. Timothy Leary an FBI snitch [1]. Richard Aoki, the man who helped arm the Black Panthers, an FBI snitch. [2].
And yet he helped arm the Black Panthers.
Is it not reasonable to assume that these FLOSS privacy software projects represent a direct threat to state power? Is it not reasonable to assume that the state is therefore going to try and co-opt them?
Of course.
Say by creating financial dependence via a seductive flow of stolen money, among other tactics?
Of course. Does it follow that the state necessarily will succeed in co-opting such projects? I would argue "no". The outcome is not so clear, and I do find the fact that these projects *are* funded and can continue to deliver the great tools they do deliver a rather positive one. Until I see evidence of co-option (like backdoors in code or binaries, etc), I will continue to be cautiously optimistic here.
Look at this recent Pando.com expose of the BBG (Broadcasting Board of Governers) which recently started pouring money into these privacy projects via the Open Technology Fund. [3]. These people are not on our side.
Also, regarding funding as a method of control. What did the U.S. federal government do when certain states were balked at raising the drinking age to 21? They threatened to cut their federal highway funds. Every state ended up caving to this demand. That's just one high profile example.
The question is not if the state can use such a tactic, but if those projects will bow down to such a tactic. Again, until I see such a situation, I will consider such funding an option, as long as there are no otehr options. I prefer good FLOSS that is funded by the state money than no FLOSS at all.
It's simply disheartening to see how gleefully some privacy activists accept the tainted govt blood money and then look hard the other way.
I'm sure you, my friend, have a steady cashflow that is in no way connected to blood money, and I congratulate you on that. Not all of us are so fortunate. As long as these privacy activists do not bow down and bend over -- and I have not seen evidence of that as far as several projects discussed on this list are concerned -- I don't see a huge problem. It *would* be better to have them funded in some other way, but it's still better to have them funded at all.
Never mind that the money was obtained by putting a metaphorical gun to the head of every person it was taken from. Never mind what the ulterior motives are of the organizations which are lavishing this stolen money upon the software privacy projects. Never mind the dependence this is going to create and the subsequent influence and control this is going to buy.
The means *are* the ends. And when the means are corrupted, so are the ends.
Cool. So let me ask you this: if you can either have (in large part) gov't- funded FLOSS privacy-protecting projects, or next to none of such projects, what do you choose? -- Pozdrawiam, Michał "rysiek" Woźniak Zmieniam klucz GPG :: http://rys.io/pl/147 GPG Key Transition :: http://rys.io/en/147