Re: [tor-talk] Non-free country law preventing Tor from getting donations

[grarpamp <grarpamp@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Sun, Jun 15, 2014 at 12:03 PM, Joe Btfsplk <joebtfsplk@xxxxxxx> wrote:
> Where such a transaction would not benefit the country,  or even the private donor, in any
> financial, military, political manner, etc.; only promoting access to free speech & information,
> which in all likely hood, could lead to citizens *forcing change* on the very policies / actions, that
> lead to the country being embargoed in the first place.

Yes, and tor going through its contacts at the state department
might be useful in attempting to secure permission on those
grounds.

Even draining Sponsors non-directed funds could be seen
as generically helping tor, which could help Sponsor say,
hack the US. Same if Sponsor directs funds for better obfs,
etc. And countries hacking each other is top political speak
these days.

So if you knowingly go accept Sponsors funds without
a letter of permission, you better be ready to defend
yourself against closure of your entity. (Which currently
pays the wages for a handful of people [with strong beliefs
in the entity, etc] so taking a pill that could kill you would
not be easy.)

That said, tor is BSD licensed so it would still be around.
But who would be able to carry it the same or better.

> I wouldn't expect any one or small group to just jump in & defy the current
> interpretation of embargo laws - without serious research & consideration.

Depends a lot on if the donation amount is "significant", and/or
if you're in it just to fight it.

> If Torproject ending it's close ties w/ U.S. military funding (by some
> means) isn't important for it's reputation & appearance to the broader
> internet community, I'm not sure what is.

The code is open for inspection so it's not an overt issue, and the
cash funds a lot of good research. Outright bribery or force "here's
a million or an NSL/order, don't implement this", has a reasonably
good chance of resulting in a sitdown protest closure of the project.
So the only issue I see is covert, "here's a million, go research this
(which might keep you too busy to discover or implement this other
thing we don't like)". Yes, the US is a curious home for tor in these
regards. Yet moving it someplace else will have a different set of
pressures (though probably lesser), a different set of donors, coders,
etc.
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