• @Aeri@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    726 days ago

    I didn’t know that the government was funding these things to begin with, but I don’t know many things.

    • aizakku
      link
      fedilink
      English
      346 days ago

      I also didn’t know this, but really we should all be putting money behind FOSS (myself included). We don’t need billionaires.

    • RepleteLocum
      link
      fedilink
      English
      306 days ago

      Because foss projects like tor are regularly used by the agencies. It’s little money for a lot of work they don’t need to do.

      • Scrubbles
        link
        fedilink
        English
        86 days ago

        Sounds like it may be time for some creative licensing

  • @chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    link
    fedilink
    887 days ago

    So I guess funds were cut, but then the courts ruled the president doesn’t have authority to do this himself since the funds were allocated by congress, and so as of now they have been restored, although congress needs to approve them every year and there’s concern they might not do so for next year.

    • @NOPper@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      link
      fedilink
      English
      167 days ago

      We need them here now more then ever unfortunately. But yeah, stay safe and spread out for sure.

      They’re the only thing I wear tee shirts for, have stickers all over my gear, and talk about way too often. Underappreciated champions of the people and nobody outside of these kinds of circles knows who the hell they are.

  • @Paddy66@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    877 days ago

    Urgh this is so backwards.

    Governments need to fund more FOSS not less!

    Hopefully the EU can increase its support to compensate.

      • Uriel238 [all pronouns]
        link
        fedilink
        46 days ago

        He’s doing a suck job of it. The things he’s gutting are pennies towards his dark-souled oligarch masters. Cutting small government projects like the NEA, PBS or like FOSS grants is only used as an appeal to fiscal responsibility conservatives that aren’t willing to cut into old-people benefits like Social Security and military sacred cows. Not because gutting tiny projects does anything useful, rather it gives the vibe that representatives are doing something.

        This is an appeal to the imbicile MAGA though the tech bros might have specific FOSS projects that compete with their own commercial offerings. Not enough to cut all FOSS grants, though.

        • @HurlingDurling@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          86 days ago

          In essence he’s trying to bankrupt the whole country so he and his circle can buy it all up. He’s trying to do the same thing that was done in Russia when the ussr collapsed.

      • @stink@lemmygrad.ml
        link
        fedilink
        English
        207 days ago

        They open sourced deepseek and the US government banned it 😭😭 even universities are barred from using it

        • @yet_another_commie@lemmygrad.ml
          link
          fedilink
          English
          14
          edit-2
          7 days ago

          Funny reading westoid commenters here bashing China for being “authoritarian” when it literally open sourced a groundbreaking innovation a month ago. Washingtobot crackers

            • @yet_another_commie@lemmygrad.ml
              link
              fedilink
              English
              36 days ago

              Still, all you got is whataboutism.

              We have hundreds of Marxist works. Let me quote some Lenin:

              The “free people’s state” was a programme demand and a catchword current among the German Social-Democrats in the seventies. This catchword is devoid of all political content except that it describes the concept of democracy in a pompous philistine fashion. Insofar as it hinted in a legally permissible manner at a democratic republic, Engels was prepared to “justify” its use “for a time” from an agitational point of view. But it was an opportunist catchword, for it amounted to nothing more than prettifying bourgeois democracy, and was also a failure to understand the socialist criticism of the state in general. We are in favor of a democratic republic as the best form of state for the proletariat under capitalism. But we have no right to forget that wage slavery is the lot of the people even in the most democratic bourgeois republic. Furthermore, every state is a “special force” for the suppression of the oppressed class. Consequently, every state is not “free” and not a “people’s state". Marx and Engels explained this repeatedly to their party comrades in the seventies.

              How much does Pooh pay you to write that stuff?

              Millions of xibucks

                • @yet_another_commie@lemmygrad.ml
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  16 days ago

                  The Scheidemanns and Kautsky’s speak about “pure democracy” and “democracy” in general for the purpose of deceiving the people and concealing from them the bourgeois character of present-day democracy. Let the bourgeoisie continue to keep the entire apparatus of state power in their hands, let a handful of exploiters continue to use the former, bourgeois, state machine! Elections held in such circumstances are lauded by the bourgeoisie, for very good reasons, as being “free”, “equal”, “democratic” and “universal”. These words are designed to conceal the truth, to conceal the fact that the means of production and political power remain in the hands of the exploiters, and that therefore real freedom and real equality for the exploited, that is, for the vast majority of the population, are out of the question. It is profitable and indispensable for the bourgeoisie to conceal from the people the bourgeois character of modern democracy, to picture it as democracy in general or “pure democracy”, and the Scheidemanns and Kautskys, repeating this, in practice abandon the standpoint of the proletariat and side with the bourgeoisie.

                  Marx and Engels in their last joint preface to the Communist Manifesto (in 1872)[A] considered it necessary to specifically warn the workers that the proletariat cannot simply lay hold of the ready-made (that is, the bourgeois) state machine and wield it for their own purpose, but that they must smash it, break it up. The renegade Kautsky, who has written a special pamphlet entitled dictatorship of the proletariat, concealed from the workers this most important Marxist truth, utterly distorted Marxism, and, quite obviously, the praise which Scheidemann and Co. showered on the pamphlet was fully merited as praise by agents of the bourgeoisie for one switching to the side of the bourgeoisie.

                  It is sheer mockery of the working and exploited people to speak of pure democracy, of democracy in general, of equality, freedom and universal rights when the workers and all working people are ill-fed, ill-clad, ruined and worn out, not only as a result of capitalist wage slavery, but as a consequence of four years of predatory war, while the capitalists and profiteers remain in possession of the “property” usurped by them and the “ready-made” apparatus of state power. This is tantamount to trampling on the basic truths of Marxism which has taught the workers: you must take advantage of bourgeois democracy which, compared with feudalism, represents a great historical advance, but not for one minute must you forget the bourgeois character of this “democracy”, it’s historical conditional and limited character. Never share the “superstitious belief” in the “state” and never forget that the state even in the most democratic republic, and not only in a monarchy, is simply a machine for the suppression of one class by another.

                  The bourgeoisie are compelled to be hypocritical and to describe as “popular government”, democracy in general, or pure democracy, the ( bourgeois ) democratic republic which is, in practice, the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, the dictatorship of the exploiters over the working people. The Scheidemanns and Kautskys, the Austerlitzes and Renners (and now, to our regret, with the help of Friedrich Adler) fall in line with this falsehood and hypocrisy. But Marxists, Communists, expose this hypocrisy, and tell the workers and the working people in general this frank and straightforward truth: the democratic republic, the Constituent Assembly, general elections, etc., are, in practice, the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, and for the emancipation of labor from the yoke of capital there is no other way but to replace this dictatorship with the dictatorship of the proletariat.

    • Or China! Open source is basically digital communism so maybe they’ll step in and support it like they did with the World Health Organization

  • @misteloct@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    18
    edit-2
    6 days ago

    If you use these services, please donate once or regularly if you’re able. They are free as in puppy, not beer - dev work costs money. I would guess many people using Tor/privacy tools are tech savvy enough to have financial comfort due to a good career. If you do it you’re doing an everyday act of rebellion for the sake of progress!!!

  • @SpiceDealer@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    link
    fedilink
    English
    35
    edit-2
    6 days ago

    While it sucks that FOSS projects will have their funding sapped, let’s remember why the open source model is used in the first place: it can’t be bought. If it goes down, someone will just fork the last known repository and have it up and running again.

  • @rumba@lemmy.zip
    link
    fedilink
    English
    326 days ago

    Lets encrypt could run a patreon and stay funded. Plenty of people with money depend on them.

  • Alex
    link
    fedilink
    267 days ago

    FLOSS projects can only be sustainable if their are enough shared interests able to support it through contributions of all kinds. Fortunately the code is free so that constellation of support can change over time. It’s a shame this particular line of government funding is coming to an end but others can help.

  • @novacomets@lemmy.myserv.one
    link
    fedilink
    English
    77 days ago

    That would be good for government to cut funding. Users should give away their own cash to support the projects.

    Funders of any project can influence decisions, but users giving from their own personal money can keep open source software free from any influences.

  • @HiroProtagonist@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    English
    -66 days ago

    Does this government funding really ever result in a hands off approach. In the case of Tor I wouldn’t be surprised that funding comes with backdoor access.

    • @rbesfe@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      126 days ago

      TOR fundamentally cannot be backdoored. The US government funds it because more traffic on the network helps mask the traffic coming from CIA agents and the like

        • @KeenFlame@feddit.nu
          link
          fedilink
          26 days ago

          Excuse me? Are you saying using guard discovery is a backdoor someone gave to the government? I mean, you can think whatever, but the technology isn’t really… backdoorable? It doesn’t make sense in the context. Where will the backdoor lead? It has no where to go.

          • JackbyDev
            link
            fedilink
            English
            26 days ago

            (I am a different person, not arguing anything about this particular vulnerability or the government’s funding of Tor.)

            I think you’re defining backdoor too literally. I get your point, but colloquially it just means to get something nefarious in. If someone is saying “the government has a backdoor in an encryption algorithm” it would mean they believe the government has a vulnerability in that allows them to easily break the encryption, not necessarily a separate “door” or something.

            • @KeenFlame@feddit.nu
              link
              fedilink
              04 days ago

              Yeah the government has an institutional thing I forget what it is called, with massive amount of known exploits. That’s not backdoors. A backdoor is a “planted” exploit, not a discovered exploit. It makes no sense to call all exploits backdoors.

          • @HiroProtagonist@lemmy.ca
            link
            fedilink
            English
            -56 days ago

            Okay buddy keep it going as long as you need to. You might enjoy Reddit more, it’s a safe space for people who cannot change their opinions. Bye.

            • @KeenFlame@feddit.nu
              link
              fedilink
              14 days ago

              Why? I am trying to understand what you mean so I can change my opinion. I’m not changing it because you are fuming and escalating the aggression, in fact, that has the exact opposite effect

  • @shalafi@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    -227 days ago

    Why was the US funding FOSS projects? That strikes me as weird, inappropriate and suspicious.

    • @Metz@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      417 days ago

      Not that unusual. e.g. TOR started as a governement project. it was invented in the U.S. Naval Research Lab.

    • @RvTV95XBeo@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      347 days ago

      If US uses FOSS software in its operations (it does, everyone does) it has a vested interest in keeping these projects alive.

      Also many of the sponsored projects help people circumvent authoritarian government overreach, which is something that until recently has been considered “good” for the US. The more freely information can flow the harder it is for authoritarian regimes to exert control.

      • @Zerush@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        37 days ago

        FOSS is already stale for a long time by large corporations (Google, Microsoft, Meta, Amazon, X, etc), all of these with own developments of FOSS, these are not affected by this cuts for OpenSource proyects, but small startups, individual devs and small companies and oprganisations. It’s not against FOSS, it’s about control and clear against freedom.

        Fuck the US https://interoperable-europe.ec.europa.eu/eu-oss-catalogue

        • @RvTV95XBeo@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          46 days ago

          Use it? The US invented it. The US has historically funded it as part of their human rights initiatives. Like I said:

          Also many of the sponsored projects help people circumvent authoritarian government overreach, which is something that until recently has been considered “good” for the US. The more freely information can flow the harder it is for authoritarian regimes to exert control.

          Given the nature of the Tor network, it’s likely any “official” use within the US government would probably involve things like communicating with people working undercover / informants, etc., and not be something broadly discussed.

    • Why was the US funding FOSS projects? That strikes me as weird, inappropriate and suspicious.

      A mixture of the elements within the US that actually believed the stuff about personal rights and democracy still existing behind the more sinister realities, as well as it being in the same pot of funded projects like Radio Free Asia, Radio Liberty and the likes, which always were a mix of just outright propaganda organs, but also providing the scaffolding of free media access for some regions in the past.

      So, it’s complicated, ultimately rooted in a mix of the cynical US wanting to support dissidents in other countries, and the idealist US also having people actually believing in personal freedom and privacy, even within their government/state structures.

      Also, just in general, a lot of FOSS projects get funding from governments, US or otherwise. If I remember correctly ReactOS got a lot of funding from Russia, for example, because they saw a potential way to get away from Microsoft in it.

      From what I gather, there was no open influence wielded over those projects, I at least don’t remember the OTF forcing a backdoor onto Tor Browser for the CIA or something like that - thankfully the open source structure makes that easier to control - but the weakness becomes apparent now, of course, because funds could now be withdrawn, as the government turned fascist.

    • @pastermil@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      167 days ago

      If it makes you feel better (or worse), thr NSA has contributed a great deal of work to the Linux kernel. In fact, they created SELinux, which you may be using at this very moment.

    • @Telorand@reddthat.com
      link
      fedilink
      777 days ago

      This is not an example of leopards eating someone’s face. Unless those projects threw their support behind Trump’s admin, and I have no reason to believe they did, this is simply falling victim to fascist idiots.

    • @tetris11@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      367 days ago

      Uhh… these projects are the backbone of the free and modern web. How is less funding a good thing?

      • Not the one you answered to, but I think I can understand the idea of US funding having been a toxic source of dependency, and it being better in the long run to get money elsewhere. That “elsewhere” is a good question, though.

        Just me, personally, my dream would be an international fund, carried by the UN or maybe an independent NGO, that can get funding from both private and public funds, that prioritises free internet access the way the WHO prioritises health. But I think that’s still far off.

        • @freagle@lemmygrad.ml
          link
          fedilink
          English
          67 days ago

          No. UN and related independent NGOs have shown their cards. They cannot be trusted. ICANN is the quintessential example of an ossified vulturous bureaucracy laser focused on oligarchic control. And the ITU has designs to rewrite current Internet protocols to have a fee structure built in at the packet level to ensure no packed flow without someone paying money.

          We cannot trust the systems we have now. We must focus on diversifying income sources for us to be safe

        • Matengor
          link
          fedilink
          2
          edit-2
          7 days ago

          Isn’t the OTF already an NGO that can receive funding from different sources?

          • Kind of, I wouldn’t really call them an international organisation in the way I would be imagining, see how easy it was to cut their funding when national interests turned openly fascist. Their affiliation with the US government above more independent, international organisations meant, that they would support privacy and a free and open internet, as long as it helps dissidents in other, non-aligned countries, but quick to cut it, if it reaches their own doorsteps.

        • @MalReynolds@slrpnk.net
          link
          fedilink
          English
          17 days ago

          US funding having been a toxic source of dependency, and it being better in the long run to get money elsewhere.

          Yup, pretty much my intent, that and the insecurity it engenders, rather surprised by the reaction.

          • @eldavi@lemmy.ml
            link
            fedilink
            English
            37 days ago

            the reaction makes sense; these organizations are modeled after for-profit corporations since that’s where most of its leaders come from and oriented towards simpler modes of funding like the american gov’t; this is effectively a disaster for this sort of posture and it’s hard from them to imagine any other form.

      • @MalReynolds@slrpnk.net
        link
        fedilink
        English
        47 days ago

        Not a good thing, just an inevitable one, as they conflict with the interests of the US (oligarchs and techbros).

    • chebra
      link
      fedilink
      147 days ago

      @MalReynolds Are you saying F-Droid, TOR, Tails or Let’s Encrypt supported Trump? I’d like to read more about that.

      • @MalReynolds@slrpnk.net
        link
        fedilink
        English
        -97 days ago

        How could you read it that way ? I’m saying eventually they were going to conflict with the interests of the US (oligarchs and techbros) and lose funding. Shocker, it happened under cheeto.

        • chebra
          link
          fedilink
          107 days ago

          @MalReynolds Leopards eating faces implies that they voted for the Leopards. But ok, issue clarified, all good.

          • @MalReynolds@slrpnk.net
            link
            fedilink
            English
            -107 days ago

            Yeah, I have a broader view of the phrase, which includes complacency (not actively working at alternatives) as well as just voting, seems most agree with you.