
EFF goes to court, quashes patent troll’s attempt to grab donor names - Jtsummers
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/03/eff-goes-to-court-quashes-patent-trolls-attempt-to-grab-donor-names/
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jfasi
Don't celebrate. However ridiculous they might seem, defending against legal
actions like this takes time, money, and focus away from efforts that will
actually drive the EFF's mission forward.

Instead of patting the EFF on the back for quashing this motion, think of all
the resources that went into this hollow victory, and do your best to
replenish them.

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rayiner
This wasn't a ridiculous legal action. EFF raised money to challenge this
company's patent, and the company wanted to know who donated to that campaign.
Its not like they asked for EFF's donor list out of nowhere. The speech issue
is implicated, sure, but on the other side also the right of litigants to know
who the opposing party really is.

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venomsnake
Then they should as like that - is any of the following named defendants
donated for this. And probably get an answer.

But I would have think that a rule against EFF would clash with some of the
fallout from Citizen United and the related cases. IIRC there is right now a
way to inject money in politics that are very hard to trace to the source.

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danso
On the face of it, and my assumptions that are mostly based on what I know of
political donations, I'm actually surprised EFF won this...Yes, these aren't
political donations, but if it has something to do with a pending lawsuit
regarding something that is kind of political, well, who knows.

In any case, I'll state for the record that I donate to EFF and would be happy
to be listed among their supporters, any time, any place.

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anaphor
It's more that the first amendment is supposed to protect people from having
their association with the EFF exposed if they haven't done anything wrong.

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rayiner
So now we agree that money is protected speech?

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Crito
The implication being that there exists some notion of "we" which has
internally consistent and coherent positions?

It's really easy to feel superior to others when you construct an imaginary
person (typically named after 'communities' and given names such as "HN", or
"Reddit") in your head that is the nuanceless contradictory amalgamation of
all of the various opinions that you have heard.

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gcb0
isnt this the same kind of thing that allows most companies to hide behind
riaa/mpaa?

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dublinben
The membership of the RIAA/MPAA is no secret. You can privately donate to an
organization like the EFF and not want your name published as a supporter.

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nomailing
this is exactly why I would only donaze anonymously using Bitcoin.

