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GPG Programmer Werner Koch Is Running Out of Money
New submitter jasonridesabike writes "ProPublica reports that Werner Koch, the man behind GPG, is in financial straits: "The man who built the free email encryption software used by whistleblower Edward Snowden, as well as hundreds of thousands of journalists, dissidents and security-minded people around the world, is running out of money to keep his project alive. Werner Koch wrote the software, known as Gnu Privacy Guard, in 1997, and since then has been almost single-handedly keeping it alive with patches and updates from his home in Erkrath, Germany. Now 53, he is running out of money and patience with being underfunded."
(You can donate to the project here..)
From the linked article:
Update, Feb. 5, 2015, 5:55 p.m.: After this article appeared, Werner Koch informed us that last week he was awarded a one-time grant of $60,000 from Linux Foundation's Core Infrastructure Initiative. Werner told us he only received permission to disclose it after our article published. Meanwhile, since our story was posted, donations have also poured into Werner Koch's website donation page to the tune of nearly $50,000 so far.
That guy sucks. I will give him money when he gives me that back door I've been asking for.
Michelangelo finished the pieta in 2 years. You've had 18!! Look, it's good stuff, and you could probably milk this till retirement. Even Michelangelo realized finally that if he took one more swing at his sculpture, he'd have detracted from it.
You keep this up, you're gonna turn out just like that Torvalds kid.
Too bad, I know of two of his relatives who have more money then they know what is morally correct to do with.
You mean donating $100 million to help build up a hospital in New York isn't morally a good thing?
http://freebeacon.com/blog/koch-brother-donates-money-to-hospital-liberals-protest-not-a-parody/
Another $100 Million for Cancer Research at MIT.
Another $25 Million for Cancer Research at MD Anderson in Huston TX.
Then there are donations to the Arts, National Museums and believe it or not *environmental* projects which are on record...
Yea, these Koch brother guys are the surge of the earth all right, spending all that money on such bad things...
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
They also gave money to the Berkeley Earth project. That one didn't quite turn out like they wanted.
They also tried to give money to the Florida State University Economics Department with some provisos:
First, the curriculum it funded must align with the libertarian, deregulatory economic philosophy of Charles Koch. Second, the Charles Koch Foundation would at least partially control which faculty members Florida State University hired. And third, Bruce Benson, a prominent libertarian economic theorist and Florida State University economics department chairman, must stay on another three years as department chairman — even though he told his wife he’d step down in 2009 after one three-year term.
So much for academic freedom.
You realize even taking taxes in to account, most people make a lot less than that and do just fine, right? When you see income reported, it is normally pretax. If you think most people are making more than 90,000 Euro a year, you are really out of touch. That's a lot of damn money, in any country, enough to live well. You aren't rich, but you are doing just fine.
Correct, their donations have no moral basis; they are only doing this because one of them had cancer and they are hoping to ensure their own survival. Gates on the other hand is fighting malaria and other diseases that are of moral concern because people don't need to worry about them.
Right, and all those donations don’t even add up to a fraction of the nearly $1B they plan on spending to influence the 2016 election.
If a Nazi donated $100 to a soup kitchen, does that forgive Auschwitz? And don’t lecture me on Godwin!
The goodness of their philanthropy does not excuse their usurpation of the 'Democratic Republic', the USA. They are part of the reason the US is now a Corporate Oligarchy!
Funny, in my experience it's the people who aren't blessed with Asperger's syndrome who are particularly prone to pontificate on the basis of choir-pleasing ass-pluck.
Perhaps we should really rename it obsessive factual reality disorder.
Furthermore, a great many people who read The Fountainhead at a young age and found it mind blowing went into politics. How I wish more of these people had enough Asperchlorians in their bloodstream to balance their own chequebooks.
Another right-wing canard to debunk. Oh well here goes...
For every Soros who is spending money to promote "collectivism" (code used by Ayn Rand-loving sociopathic troglodytes who haven't had a date this century) , there are ten or more Adelsons and Kochs promoting their fascism. It isn't even close dude.
I think it's great that the Koch brothers give to charity, but at those levels, it's like someone who earns $40K per year giving $100 in total to charity each year. Not exactly a sacrifice.
It's even worse because that worker earning $40K per year can't pay for all of their necessities for life on that salary, where the Kochs have already paid for everything they'll ever need.
I know it is against the rules to RTFA, but sometimes it is worth it:
As a side point, Stallman is endlessly criticized around here, laughed at, etc. But he inspired Koch to do something really important and that should be recognized a little bit. Obviously Koch deserves massive praise (and funding) because he did all the work, but it also struck me how important philosophical and moral principles can be in making the world a better place because they can inspire people to do the work.
What changed under Obama? Nothing Good
Asperchlorians
My new favorite fake word.
Not to unseat my favorite real word: quintessential.
If you think I voted for Trump because of this post, you're wrong. I voted for Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party. Again.