5 ms·
Can someone please clarify what it means to "endow a chair." I get from the article it has something to do with the EFF but no idea what it actually means.
by lukejduncan 14y ago
Can someone please clarify what it means to "endow a chair." I get from the article it has something to do with the EFF but no idea what it actually means.
- alanctgardner2 14y agoI believe he's covering all their expenses; salary, travel, etc. Effectively a free extra employee for the EFF.
- pmh 14y agoHis donation will be used to fund a position at the EFF to help battle software patents. I think the original EFF press release covers it better than the article: https://www.eff.org/press/releases/eff-patent-project-gets-half-million-dollar-boost-mark-cuban-and-notch https://www.eff.org/press/releases/eff-patent-project-gets-h... Previous discussion here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4944322 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4944322
- Wilduck 14y agoIt means that he has donated enough money to the EFF's endowment[1] to fund a position at the EFF in perpetuity. That is, it's a big enough chunk of money that it can sit in an investment account, and the interest can be used to pay for a person's salary and other costs. Calling it a "chair" just means that Mark Cuban's name gets associated with the position, and the role comes with specific instructions. In this case, fighting stupid patents. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_endowment http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_endowment
- adventured 14y agoThat isn't the case here. While it's a nice sum of money, Notch and Cuban agreed to give $250,000 (the news broke back on Dec 20th about this). That won't be enough to perpetually fund a position, but perhaps enough to hire two lawyers for a year.