5 ms·

The "who pays you" FUD reminds me of the subpoena Personal Audio sought for a list of EFF donors in the podcasting patent case. The EFF is not a front for your

The "who pays you" FUD reminds me of the subpoena Personal Audio sought for a list of EFF donors in the podcasting patent case. The EFF is not a front for your competitors. People really care about this stuff.

CaptSpify 11y ago
To be fair, I can see why it looks and feels like AstroTurf to people who don't know any better. That kind of cynicism is probably pretty healthy for good reasons in companies like theirs.
- ocdtrekkie 11y ago
  I mean, that's true, and Google has spent plenty of money on the EFF. But the reason I trust the EFF, unlike most companies/organizations/government officials Google 'donates' money to, is that the EFF has taken Google to task, recently even: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/dec/02/google-eff-ftc-privacy-chromebook-gmail-spying-students http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/dec/02/google-eff...
- digi_owl 11y ago
  Except that anyone poking at the EFF history should quickly discover that they have been around for some time, and got started because of government overreach regarding computers and electronic networks.
  - CaptSpify 11y ago
    Oh, I agree. A basic google-search should have been enough to tip them off. And it seems they didn't even do that, so shame on them. I'm just saying their pre-search reaction is probably justified.
  - krisdol 11y ago
    Yes but so has congress and a good number of its members are fronts various industries' special-interests.
    - CaptSpify 11y ago
      pssst: I think you double-posted
  - krisdol 11y ago
    Yes but so has congress and a good number of its members are fronts various industries' special-interests. (to be clear, I don't think the EFF catering to T-Mobile's competitors, just that it's a healthy skepticism to have of organizations like it)
netneutralish 11y ago
People really care about this stuff. Hopefully enough people care about this to influence the FCC before T-Mobile meets them on January 15th to discuss their Binge On program as per: http://arstechnica.com/business/2016/01/t-mobiles-video-throttling-may-not-violate-net-neutrality-lawyers-say/ http://arstechnica.com/business/2016/01/t-mobiles-video-thro...
wl 11y ago
We see the same kind of thing with the National Rifle Association. It seems like many people opposed to them are convinced that it's just a proxy for the small arms industry (that would be the National Shooting Sports Foundation) and it can't possibly have the grassroots support it does.
- zepto 11y ago
  Is the NRA transparent about its finances? I personally have no idea who supports it.
  - wl 11y ago
    There have been accusations that they inflate their membership numbers, but conservatively, the NRA has over three million dues-paying members and they claim nearly five million. I was looking for EFF membership numbers as a point of comparison, but I couldn't find them. Does anyone know where to find them?
    - zepto 11y ago
      Those numbers seem easily plausible, but that's not really what I asked - do we have any actual transparency into it, and where else does the money come from? There could be 3m members but that still represent a minority of their support.
  - DrScump 11y ago
    How much they (NRA-ILA) spend on lobbying is transparent, duly reported like any other interest group. ILA is just one facet of what the NRA does; the rest is generally ignored by major media. (ILA = Institute for Legislative Action, the lobbying arm) BTW, I'm not saying that the rest of NRA isn't also financially transparent, I just haven't researched that in years.
- aidenn0 11y ago
  To me the NRA just seems to have gone off the deep-end in the last decade or so. Perhaps it's just a symptom of the increasing political polarization in the US in general, but recently it seems like their point of view has shifted to "no gun regulation is good gun regulation" which is almost a parody of what they used to stand for.
souterrain 11y ago
Really reminds me of this guy https://youtu.be/bajOUNg9_ms?t=280 https://youtu.be/bajOUNg9_ms?t=280

CaptSpify 11y ago

To be fair, I can see why it looks and feels like AstroTurf to people who don't know any better. That kind of cynicism is probably pretty healthy for good reasons in companies like theirs.

ocdtrekkie 11y ago
I mean, that's true, and Google has spent plenty of money on the EFF. But the reason I trust the EFF, unlike most companies/organizations/government officials Google 'donates' money to, is that the EFF has taken Google to task, recently even: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/dec/02/google-eff-ftc-privacy-chromebook-gmail-spying-students http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/dec/02/google-eff...
digi_owl 11y ago
Except that anyone poking at the EFF history should quickly discover that they have been around for some time, and got started because of government overreach regarding computers and electronic networks.
- CaptSpify 11y ago
  Oh, I agree. A basic google-search should have been enough to tip them off. And it seems they didn't even do that, so shame on them. I'm just saying their pre-search reaction is probably justified.
- krisdol 11y ago
  Yes but so has congress and a good number of its members are fronts various industries' special-interests.
  - CaptSpify 11y ago
    pssst: I think you double-posted
- krisdol 11y ago
  Yes but so has congress and a good number of its members are fronts various industries' special-interests. (to be clear, I don't think the EFF catering to T-Mobile's competitors, just that it's a healthy skepticism to have of organizations like it)

netneutralish 11y ago

People really care about this stuff. Hopefully enough people care about this to influence the FCC before T-Mobile meets them on January 15th to discuss their Binge On program as per: http://arstechnica.com/business/2016/01/t-mobiles-video-throttling-may-not-violate-net-neutrality-lawyers-say/ http://arstechnica.com/business/2016/01/t-mobiles-video-thro...

wl 11y ago

We see the same kind of thing with the National Rifle Association. It seems like many people opposed to them are convinced that it's just a proxy for the small arms industry (that would be the National Shooting Sports Foundation) and it can't possibly have the grassroots support it does.

zepto 11y ago
Is the NRA transparent about its finances? I personally have no idea who supports it.
- wl 11y ago
  There have been accusations that they inflate their membership numbers, but conservatively, the NRA has over three million dues-paying members and they claim nearly five million. I was looking for EFF membership numbers as a point of comparison, but I couldn't find them. Does anyone know where to find them?
  - zepto 11y ago
    Those numbers seem easily plausible, but that's not really what I asked - do we have any actual transparency into it, and where else does the money come from? There could be 3m members but that still represent a minority of their support.
- DrScump 11y ago
  How much they (NRA-ILA) spend on lobbying is transparent, duly reported like any other interest group. ILA is just one facet of what the NRA does; the rest is generally ignored by major media. (ILA = Institute for Legislative Action, the lobbying arm) BTW, I'm not saying that the rest of NRA isn't also financially transparent, I just haven't researched that in years.
aidenn0 11y ago
To me the NRA just seems to have gone off the deep-end in the last decade or so. Perhaps it's just a symptom of the increasing political polarization in the US in general, but recently it seems like their point of view has shifted to "no gun regulation is good gun regulation" which is almost a parody of what they used to stand for.

souterrain 11y ago

Really reminds me of this guy https://youtu.be/bajOUNg9_ms?t=280 https://youtu.be/bajOUNg9_ms?t=280