OTF, which backs Tor, Let's Encrypt and more, sues to save its funding from Trump cuts

An organization that bankrolls various internet security projects has asked a Washington DC court to prevent the Trump administration from cancelling its federal funding – and expressed fears that if the cash stops flowing, the tools it supports could become harder to access. The Open Technology Fund (OTF) backs projects …

[BasicReality]

The biggest problem right now, Elon showed up with his chainsaw.

He should have shown up with an entire fleet of wood chippers instead.

At $36 trillion in debt, we’re not eliminating enough of the government. If it’s not listed in the constitution, shut it down.

[Jamie Jones]

I think this must be the most idiotic comments I've read on this site, and with the way things have been the last few years, that's saying something.

Like Musk, you clearly don't understand how governments are meant to work.

But yeah, first Elon got rid of the branches that were investigating HIM, and now I suppose he's following your philosophy, because I guess nuclear weapon controls and also the seed bank aren't in the constitution.

If you look at what USAID did, you may figure out why Russia was so pleased it was abolished.

As for the seeds, as Dr. Iago Hale (professor of specialty crop improvement at the University of New Hampshire) and Dr. Michael Kantar (associate professor of plant genetics at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.) put it:

"Such losses directly undermine the United States’ ability to ensure continued food security and dietary diversity amid challenges to our agricultural systems.

For the sake of all Americans, we denounce any attempts to weaken the N.P.G.S. The generations before us understood that it is the minimum function of a responsible government to invest in the long-term ability to feed its citizens."

https://www.ars-grin.gov/npgs/

https://archive.is/20250324150920/https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/22/opinion/doge-elon-musk-usda-crops.html

[BOFH in Training]

He said the D word - Diversity!

The food is a DEI product! Burn it all!!!

/s for those who don't understand

[Cliffwilliams44]

None of this is the fucking tax payers job to fund! We had the Biden regime killing chickens across this country because of a bird flu that was nothing more than a damn scare tactic!

We are just so tires of the "Russia/China fear tactics to keep the government grift going!

If your efforts are valuable, generate you're funding through private donations! Oh, wait, that tales work, it takes producing things of actual value!

[Casca]

Wow, more moronic comments. You really dont know what bird flu is do you...

Funding through private donations? LMAO

[Doctor Syntax]

"None of this is the fucking tax payers job to fund!"

The tragedy of the commons in one sentence.

[steviebuk]

I think some of them are bots. What better way than to get countries to just infight.

[SundogUK]

"Blah, blah, blah, how governments are meant to work."

As little as possible, you stupid Marxist.

[Anonymous Coward]

Filthy b*****d commies, I hate 'em! I hate 'em! Aaargh! Aaargh!

> "Marxist"

Translation: I'm a foaming-at-the-mouth right winger that thinks anything to the left of Ayn Rand is "Marxism", "Maoism", "communism" or whatever.

> "stupid"

The only question is whether *you're* genuinely "stupid" and/or ignorant enough to think the opinions expressed actually constitute Marxism. Or whether you're just enough of an unthinking, reactionary kneejerk drinker of the culture war Kool-Aid that you parrot the dumb-as-fuck line that anything to your left is "hurrrr durrrrr Marxism!!!!!11111"

(I'd guess the only reason "Marxist" is the preferred insult over "communist" these days is that the latter can't be taken seriously any more due to boy-that-cried-wolf overuse and association with swivel-eyed 1950s-style paranoids calling anything and everything "commie".)

[Freddie]

Re: Filthy b*****d commies, I hate 'em! I hate 'em! Aaargh! Aaargh!

Please don't feed the trolls.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Filthy b*****d commies, I hate 'em! I hate 'em! Aaargh! Aaargh!

They love Ayn Rand but foam at the mouth when you point out she had an abortion, was a regular user of amphetamines and spent a lot of her life on welfare.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Filthy b*****d commies, I hate 'em! I hate 'em! Aaargh! Aaargh!

Actual right wingers don't love Ayn Rand. You're confusing them with libertarians.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Filthy b*****d commies, I hate 'em! I hate 'em! Aaargh! Aaargh!

We're not referring to the people who actually follow politics and have read any of her books. The folks we're talking about it's questionable whether they know how to spell her name.

[Jamie Jones]

Irony overload!

Stay in school, kiddo, you've lots to learn.

[Anonymous Coward]

Musk doesn't "understand" how governments are meant to work because he doesn't *care* about understanding.

The "efficiency" thing was only ever an excuse to tear down and vandalise what he's opposed to- regardless of the consequences- and remake it in his own right-wing ideological and self-serving image, i.e. having those functions replaced by large private businesses owned by him and his super-wealthy friends and tearing down any sort of regulation that gets in the way of letting him do whatever he wants.

[Andrew Scott]

Well, musk doesn't care. figures he'll always have enough to buy what he needs. the hoi polli needs weeding anyways.

[steviebuk]

And China, they're happy USAID is gone because they can ramp up their Belt and Road bollocks.

[Anonymous Coward]

Bollocks? From their perspective damn smart!

Anyway, anything is easily smarter than what this DEI Presidumb – who got the job only for being an entitled white male – does.

[Andy The Hat]

" this DEI Presidumb – who got the job only for being an entitled white male".

I must disagree, I believe he is orange.

[dmesg]

One of the things Jefferson did for the young US was to establish research gardens, gathering plants from around the world with agricultural or economic potential. They're still going strong. You can visit them at Monticello.

[An_Old_Dog]

Don't Throw Out the Baby with the Bathwater

One problem with governments, NGOs, and businesses is what I'll call "tentaclisation". This is the distribution of work among multiple people in such a way that you can't just eliminate a bunch of jobs and still get the organisational output you want, even though that desired output could reasonably be produced by the fewer people.

One could treat the organisation like a greenfield computer program, define carefully the outputs and priorities you want, create the needed structure, hire the right number of people to run it, and figuratively burn its bloated predecessor to the ground. (And, damn, wouldn't we love to do that?!)

The problem with such a restart is the loss of data which needs continuity (tax records, house deeds, medical records, etc.)

An alternative would be simple budget-slashing. The problem with that is the upper management, which makes financial decisions for the org, would protect their own jobs, and fire the people who do the real (vs make-)work.

Rather than chainsaws, wood-chippers, and flame-throwers, you need a swarm of army ants which would carefully pick apart these bureaus and get rid of what's not needed, taking extreme care that the swarm of army ants does not become a bureaucracy unto itself.

[NapTime ForTruth]

You don't understand what "debt" means...

...between governments.

It's not like you owing your friend or your dad money. If you have debt to your friend or your dad, they can sue you and get a court to confiscate your owed wealth to close out the debt. Or they can get some friends and kick your ass and take what you owe them plus a little extra for the inconvenience. Maybe they break your legs to improve your future motivation toward timely repayment. We've all seen those movies.

National or "sovereign" debt isn't like that. The closest solution to leg-breaking is war, and all sides lose in war, and all sides know this from the outset. It's too expensive and too damaging. Ask Russia how much wealth and treasure they're winning in Ukraine, and how much that "winning" is costing them. Go back in time and ask postwar Germany how that WWII investment paid off. Ask England and the United States of America why they helped rebuild the Germany that they just bombed back into the stone age, but without actually claiming Germany for their own.

So countries take or offer debt to bind others to them as partners, but as *voluntary* partners. Carrying debt is a way to signal connection and to encourage trade, kinda like your favorite restaurant giving you a 10 <your-currency-here> coupon even though you're already a good and paying customer - they want to ensure that relationship lasts.

It's also important to recognize that countries literally print money as needed. If the USA needs to pay a five billion dollar debt, they have the option of printing five thousand units of million dollar bills (or their digital equivalents) and delivering it to whatever country they owe. As long as the USA's creditors are willing to accept USA currency at the current exchange rate, job done. And if the creditors won't accept that currency, the USA either buys an equivalent amount of some other country's currency or...they do nothing and only lose the ability to do future business with the nation(s) that extended credit - much like your favorite restaurant might refuse to serve you if you stiffed them on the check last time.

Here's more detail and a pint up top to get you through it:

https://www.investopedia.com/articles/economics/10/sovereign-debt-default.asp

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: You don't understand what "debt" means...

Isn't the core problem that the US has pretty much blackmailed most countries in the world to use USD for energy purchases and international trade and so forced them to also take on USD reserves?

As far as I can see, that's where the problem now sits for the US - there used to be no alternatives because the US bombed or embargoed nations back to the stone age if they didn't play along (ask Iraq). Now, with everyone seeking to switch away from oil et al and China being a tad too big to bomb on account that they're big enough to return the favour, there's a (for the US) troubling event on the horizon for the US.

It'll take a few years to play out, but Thorium reactors stand to change the whole ballgame of power generation and it's here now, not continuously 20 years away (but I think we will eventually get nuclear fusion to work too). Worse, China has just discovered massive new Thorium deposits and - and this is crucial - actually holds most of the patents on how to build these reactors because they actually invested the money to develop this technology. Also fun fact: China has had its own currency accepted by the World Bank as a reserve currency, ages ago.

The issue is thus that there is an ever increasing powerful alternative to trading in USD, and I think it's at this point that their National Debt might come back to bite the US in the rear end. Just printing more notes if you need to pay someone only works if what you print has value and nobody talks about the inflation you so create. The moment that trust even just weakens you have a whole house of cards collapsing, and then it can get mighty ugly. They talked themselves out of a lie with CDOs (which, by the way, are being sold again, I guess on the principle that you cannot let a good scam go to waste), I am uncertain there is enough BS in the world to cover up this one when it happens.

I have no clue about finance (obviously, see above :) ), but I do see problems. And if I see them it'll be abundantly clear to US people who do have a clue, so I expect capital flight. In my opinion, that is the whole purpose of the current US government: grab as much as they can and bail..

[NapTime ForTruth]

Re: You don't understand what "debt" means...

"Isn't the core problem that the US has pretty much blackmailed most countries in the world to use USD for energy purchases and international trade and so forced them to also take on USD reserves?"

I mean, as core problems go, that's at least one of them...

But it's a long list. Hey, aren't we about due for a pointless "war" in a mostly defenseless and unprepared country? Magic Eight Ball says yes!

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: You don't understand what "debt" means...

"Isn't the core problem that the US has pretty much blackmailed most countries in the world to use USD for energy purchases and international trade and so forced them to also take on USD reserves?"

This WAS a problem. The world changed. Some years ago, Gaddafi tried to change the oil price to euro - he was promptly killed. Saddam as well. But now we have SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organization) that pretty much provides nuclear umbrella to their members - Iran included. So, USA cannot threaten a lot of regimes with their nukes anymore. Only conventional weapons. But Iran has A LOT of conventional weapons.

So, the balance of power changed. Smaller countries can defy both USA / Israel / UK / France and get away with it.

But better to have a lot of weapons to do that. Both conventional and cyber.

[algol60forever]

Re: You don't understand what "debt" means...

Yup. Remember December 29, 2006. That's when we finally paid off our war debt to the US. Thanks for bailing us out.

[jeanluke]

Re: You don't understand what "debt" means...

Thank you. I'm not being fecitious(sp).As a left ponder I thank you on behalf of all those here, who have no idea of what Europe was like at the end of WW2.

[UnknownUnknown]

I don’t think Wood-chippers and Chainsaws are in the constitution you cock-womble.

Perhaps because they hadn’t invented the internal combustion engine in 1788…. oh and electricity .. and many more things..

Guess we are banning ICE’s then and back to horses. Thankfully the steam engine is good though.

Moronic fuckwit … Leopards Eating Peoples Faces Party member.

Oh and *adding* a further $4tn to the USA Debt, to fund $4.7tn of tax cuts for corporations and the rich won’t bring the debt down.

[Cliffwilliams44]

Get a fucking clue! The tax cuts were for EVERYONE! Every level of taxpayer got a cut under the trump tax cuts!

But we know, even if you give the middleclass gets a 10% cut, if the rich get 1% then "That's tax cuts for the rich!"

Shove it you disingenuous ass!

[Anonymous Coward]

only disingenuous ass is you and your lies.

the previous term tax cuts from orange turd for middle/poor were time limited and had other shit to make em worthless, the cuts for rich fuckers wasn't.

the new cuts for trumpy turd are just for rich useless fuckers

you must be so far up trumpy's ass you can see his tonsils

[Anonymous Coward]

Tax cuts!

Tax cuts only affect people who pay tax.

The people in most need of the money are likely to not pay any of the taxes that have been cut, so will see absolutly no benefit from tax cuts.

The types of cuts given by Trump benefit the people who pay the most tax, who are often the people who need it least!

[dmesg]

Re: Tax cuts!

... and the programs those people depend on are being cut, and the minimum wage continues to stagnate. They're losing ground.

[Jamie Jones]

Ahhh Cliff, as you obviously flunked maths in high school, it's best to keep out of debates with any form of numbers in them.

As this debate unfolds, policymakers and the public should understand that the 2017 Trump tax law:

Was skewed to the rich. Households with incomes in the top 1 percent will receive an average tax cut of more than $60,000 in 2025, compared to an average tax cut of less than $500 for households in the bottom 60 percent, according to the Tax Policy Center (TPC).

As a share of after-tax income, tax cuts at the top — for both households in the top 1 percent and the top 5 percent — are more than triple the total value of the tax cuts received for people with incomes in the bottom 60 percent."

- https://www.cbpp.org/research/federal-tax/the-2017-trump-tax-law-was-skewed-to-the-rich-expensive-and-failed-to-deliver

[Anonymous Coward]

Seems like some people don't understand maths. If you reduce a tax that is based on a % of earnings it will obviously make for a much bigger $ saving for someone earning $1,000,000 vs someone earning $20,000.

[Anonymous Coward]

.. if applied linearly.

That is exactly where the problem lies. If literally everyone paid 20% tax on their entire income there would not be a problem or a deficit. But it's exactly the elebvated tax on those who have little that creates all the issiues. If the top 1% would pay the same percentage as the average cleaner there would not be an issue.

[dmesg]

Umm, recent figures show this here Social-Security-dependent retiree paying about $1500 annually in additional taxes, and other programs for health, nutrition, and energy upgrades/assistance drying up. While the morbidly wealthy get huge breaks, less IRS enforcement, and fox-in-the-henhouse regulation.

[el_oscuro]

I'm in the middle class and my taxes actually went up. So no, "everyone" didn't get a tax break.

[Dan 55]

The government doesn't need to manage its finances like a household because the government is not a household. The analogy is a false one, but that hasn't stopped people falling for the argument over the past 40 years or more.

[Anonymous Coward]

If it’s not listed in the constitution, shut it down.

Nothing invented in the last 250 years is listed in the constitution you moron

[Felonmarmer]

Not hurting the right people?

I know you want a combination of Mad Max and 1984, but why do you assume you will be in one of the MAGA compounds and not with the hordes out in the wilderness fighting over the last can of beans?

There's only room for the billionaires on the nice side of the fence, and maybe a few slaves to serve them - want the job of Trump's toilet attendant?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Not hurting the right people?

We reached 1984 when O'Biden took office.

Remember the claims like 'people are better off, they just don't realise it' or the other classic about how 'inflation will pop up a little and go back down again'?

[flayman]

Re: Not hurting the right people?

Have you ever read it? Don't answer that.

[Irongut]

Re: Not hurting the right people?

Reading hard. Comprehension even harder.

He not even spell comprehension.

Ug.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Not hurting the right people?

Ah, I see we're going with the old 'I'm intellectually superior to you' approach.

Yes, I've read 1984. Have you?

[flayman]

Re: Not hurting the right people?

I sure have. And I thought maybe you hadn't because what you wrote makes little sense. Could you explain how the two examples you cite intersect with Orwell?

[Doctor Syntax]

Re: Not hurting the right people?

"Yes, I've read 1984"

But are you the same A/C? How would we know?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Not hurting the right people?

We are legion!

[Doctor Syntax]

Re: Not hurting the right people?

'inflation will pop up a little and go back down again'

Isn't that what Trump said not long ago when he went from threatening tariffs to imposing them? I suppose he's contradicted it since as he says a lot of self-contradictory things.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Not hurting the right people?

Except inflation is coming down.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Not hurting the right people?

nope, the orange shit gibbon and his nazi pals are trying to change how it calculated to make it look like its coming down, it's an old playbook from thatcher's years she did the same shit in the UK like the rest of the tory wankers

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Not hurting the right people?

I bet you are fun at parties! Maybe look into some therapy for your anger issues.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Not hurting the right people?

Typical right winger. Come out with hateful crap and then moan or make a snide comment when called out on it.

[Doctor Syntax]

Re: Not hurting the right people?

Are all four of you the same A/C?

Curious minds want to know.

[flayman]

Re: Not hurting the right people?

Anywhere from one to four cowards whose opinions coalesce on something that is hardly worth the effort to rebut. Anyway, I had my question effectively answered by silence.

[el_oscuro]

Re: Not hurting the right people?

The price of things now during Trump 2.0, at my local grocery store

Eggs: $13

Dawn dish soap: $19

Wait until his 25% car tariffs take effect. At least we will have less traffic because no one will be able to afford one.

#TRUMPFLATION

[jeanluke]

Re: Not hurting the right people?

You got it Dude!!

[dmesg]

Re: Not hurting the right people?

Thanks. I needed a good laugh this afternoon.

[jeanluke]

Re: Not hurting the right people?

You are welcome ;)

[Hubert Cumberdale]

Re: Not hurting the right people?

And Oceania has always been at war with Eurasia!

[jeanluke]

Re: Not hurting the right people?

Since when has the orange head really KNEW what the hell he was talking about?

[abend0c4]

If it’s not listed in the constitution

I'm pretty sure Executive Orders aren't in the constitution, though it does say that the president "shall take care that the Laws be faithfully executed"".

[Anonymous Coward]

What? Someone tell Trumpelstilzkin! He seems to love bigly signing Executive Mental Disorders.

[Doctor Syntax]

Basic reality?

Getting rid of the difficult bit in the title. No wonder it was in episode 1 of series 1, it's so fundamental.

[Irongut]

> If it’s not listed in the constitution, shut it down.

Because you want to live in 1787? Are you going to shut down US industry and return to using horses and farming?

[Doctor Syntax]

Farming at a level which can be wiped out by murrains and rust (the mycological sort).

[Anonymous Coward]

But they have the seed bank to mitigate problems like that. Oh, wait....

[UnknownUnknown]

… and Muskets, not AR-15 assault rifles.

[dmesg]

I would propose s/he try living without any medical advances that received any government funding to develop or deliver.

[John Smith 19]

Absolutely right!

I am sure that you are 100% correct!

[Bebu sa Ware]

I don't think the adminstration sees the problem...

"leave millions of people worldwide trapped behind authoritarian information firewalls."

as they are likely calling for EOI for information firewalls for the Mexican and Canadian borders. You don't want undocumented ideas supplanting the regime approved ones in the heads of decent Americans. /s

[BartyFartsLast]

Idiocracy was a documentary

Jesus fucking Christ, Kari Lake?

Government by reality TV, it literally is Idiocracy.

[RPF]

Re: Idiocracy was a documentary

Especially if it's Fox.

[Lazlo Woodbine]

Re: Idiocracy was a documentary

Kakistocracy

Government ruled by the worst, least qualified, or most unscrupulous citizens, derived from the Greek words "kakistos" (worst) and "kratos" (rule).

[Lazlo Woodbine]

Re: Idiocracy was a documentary

Downvotes on a dictionary definition, it seems even language offends the MAGA bots...

[Doctor Syntax]

Re: Idiocracy was a documentary

The way it works is that you point out to somebody that they said something wrong. If they can accept that, they say "Oh, yeah" and move one. Some can't. Their only response is to downvote all your postings. Those downvotes mean that something you posted hit home because you were right and they were wrong. Cherish your downvotes.

[Jamie Jones]

Re: Idiocracy was a documentary

I almost feel guilty upvoting instead of downvoting you for that!

[BartyFartsLast]

Re: Idiocracy was a documentary

They seem to be incredibly sensitive little snowflakes and they're getting more sensitive the more his incompetence is laid bare.

Drinking those MAGA tears

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Idiocracy was a documentary

We're not the ones smearing poop on teslas.

[Doctor Syntax]

Re: Idiocracy was a documentary

Prove it. I'm sure it was done anonymously.

[flayman]

Re: Idiocracy was a documentary

There are some people vandalizing Teslas and/or Tesla factories, which is dumb. I'm not one of those people. What I'm doing is sitting here watching the rule of law implode while you nod along, perhaps even clapping with glee.

[Rafael #872397]

Re: Idiocracy was a documentary

President Camacho was way more entertaining.

[BartyFartsLast]

Re: Idiocracy was a documentary

Camacho was also willing to learn and make changes for the better of his people, unlike trump who onlyakes changes if they benefit him and his collection of ass lickers,

[Dan 55]

Do the OTF fund Signal?

If they don't, they'd better start now, and they should be safe.

The Atlantic: The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans

In which we see war planning by emoji, in case you doubted their suitability to run a government.

[Benegesserict Cumbersomberbatch]

Re: Do the OTF fund Signal?

War planning, to the extent that the current Vice-President and Secretary of State could plan a piss-up in a brewery.

At least they can be prosecuted under the Espionage Act by anyone with the balls to do it, and not rely on the now demonstrably ineffectual impeachment process.

[BartyFartsLast]

Re: Do the OTF fund Signal?

Yeah, but nothing will happen to them because, remember, this is a regime headed up by an orange shitgibbon who thought stealing nuclear secrets and storing them in a bathroom at a golf club was ok.

[BartyFartsLast]

Re: Do the OTF fund Signal?

There we go, as predicted, Trumplethinskin has dismissed it as "a glitch".

[security.interactive]

Open Source has a USGov achilles heel

How Open is Open Source if it relies on State funding (as in USA) to survive?

The current US administration has shown that there are no sacred cows in his slashing of what they see as over-reach in Government funding.

How many other OS projects would be endangered by a change of government, regardless of country?

[Alex 72]

Re: Open Source has a USGov achilles heel

There are alternatives and roll your own options but a large portion of people making money and doing non profit things with information technology are in the US. A large portion of leadership in the space was in the us. Things like lets encrypt got funding from the government as it is a public good and keeps the US in a leading position in a hugely influential and profitable space. The EU could fund similar things to lets encrypt and more decentralised or alternatively funded secure messaging systems could be run outside the US, it wont be instant and the biggest harm that would do is to take leadership and soft power away from the US.

Also people and/or organisations can move to Canda or the EU for the moment, so thats possible if there is a hostile environment in uncle Sam's house.

[Doctor Syntax]

Re: Open Source has a USGov achilles heel

"the biggest harm that would do is to take leadership and soft power away from the US."

Harm?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Open Source has a USGov achilles heel

well before the orange shit flinger got power, countries at east thought the USA was sane and possibly a help to the world in some ways.

Now we just consider it a fucked up mess with insane leaders that suck dictators cocks!!

What that means is every time I have to deal with an american, I first have to figure out how stupid and insane they are before telling them to fuck off.

[jeanluke]

Re: Open Source has a USGov achilles heel

I'm an a left pondian, but that doesn't make me stupid. However many of my countrymen and country women are of the orange head's dupes, but that doesn't mean all left ponders are. Have a great day!

[Adair]

Re: Open Source has a USGov achilles heel

Of course you are right, which is a huge shame for decent sensible folk living in the USA, but we all know that once trust is lost it can only be regained by actual and ongoing demonstrations of honesty and good faith—which can take a while.

In the meantime people see what they see, and what they see coming out of the USA right now is nothing to be proud of, nor in any shape or form is it building trust and good faith. And so, instead of starting out from a basic position of trust, people are now being led to start with suspicion.

Hopefully, before too long, there will be a genuine cleaning of the Augean stables in the good 'ol US of A.

[Alex 72]

Re: Open Source has a USGov achilles heel

I am native to a small foggy island off the main European continent so not directly harm to me.

I was referring to harm to the economy/people of the USA, whether that would in the long run harm the rest of the planet is less clear. If the US continue to head in an authoritarian direction I see your point it could be said leadership shifting away from there might not be harmful but desirable, depending where it shifts to.

I do find it hard to see what direction the US will take in the next financial quarter, this makes working out if the US will return to operating within expected parameters after a second term of hateful orange. So long term it does seem to be a question: will it be harm if the US looses leadership?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Open Source has a USGov achilles heel

Well thankfully the US is moving away from the authoritarian 'world police' that they have become in the last few decades. Long may it continue under President JD in 2028.

[Doctor Syntax]

Re: Open Source has a USGov achilles heel

"I am native to a small foggy island off the main European continent"

In which case you may well recognise the significance of the phrase "mostly harmless".

[jeanluke]

Re: Open Source has a USGov achilles heel

To answer your question, from my viewpoint, YES! His orange headness has a even more obnoxious second in command!

[doublelayer]

Re: Open Source has a USGov achilles heel

It's as open as it ever is: anyone who wants can access the source and modify it freely. The people who maintain it now will still be doing it. Open source is difficult to fund, and when it gets support indirectly from government action, that adds to the instability of funding, but it doesn't diminish the openness.

Now, in both the cases mentioned in the headline, these systems aren't just open source projects. Both use plenty of open source code, and those codebases are truly open, but both maintain large systems that they run themselves. Let's Encrypt is mostly the certificate authority itself, not the software used to implement it. Tor has a higher proportion of code in it, but the Tor-operated network is the major one, and forking the code but not operating in that network would be less useful. In both those cases, the resulting system's openness or lack thereof* is not the responsibility of those delivering funds to the project.

* Let's Encrypt is arguably less community-based than Tor is, but it is very difficult to compare them because they do completely different things. In addition, while there are several mostly compatible definitions for open source or synonymous terms, there is basically no definition for open with respect to a distributed system.

[Anonymous Coward]

Nice portrait

Trump illuminated by a hill of burning books, piled on top of the Constitution just in case that pesky piece of paper should survive on an updraft.

And is that a cross on top, about to catch fire?

[Charlie Clark]

Don't talk about who it protects abroad

That is just an invitation for the MAGA MAGGOTS to go after something… The technology itself is useful and of value to Americans, and the costs of keeping support are tiny.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Don't talk about who it protects abroad

What they give out might be tiny but looking at the OTF structure they have a lot of likely very well paid lawyers and lobbyists on staff.

[Anonymous Coward]

The OTF funded tools to permit internet access without tracking or censorship

This was not a budget-buster, it was a relatively small investment in providing tools and training for journalists and anyone who felt they couldn't communicate or even access information on the Internet for fear of persecution, censorship or blocking. I am sure some of their investments didn't pan out, but for a government-funded effort, this was surprisingly down to earth, realistic and useful. Cancelling this program only helps those authoritarian governments who want to control information ... oh, maybe that's why it was cancelled.

[Diogenes8080]

Re: The OTF funded tools to permit internet access without tracking or censorship

Well, if they don't even renew the registrations behind the basic infrastructure for those projects then that will be a huge opportunity for someone.

[Pantagoon]

All the reasons cited for the funding not to be cut are all the reasons why Trump wants it cut. He wants to weaken America, he wants Russia and China to oppress people. He wants US citizens to have fewer protections.

He does not care about anyone but himself.

He needs to be eliminated.

[David Newall]

Congressionally authorized to counter authoritarian censorship and repressive surveillance

I bet they never expected to use their funds countering home-grown authoritarian censors.

[SU]

At this point in time freedom from autocratic, dictatorial thought police is needed more than ever and access to information sources that give a free and balanced viewpoint are more important than ever - in the USA.

[Anonymous Coward]

BasicReality

joined 22 Jul 2024

'Nuff said?