Responses inline. Sent from a mobile device On Jan 20, 2014 4:27 PM, "Mark Schneider" <[email protected]> wrote: > > Am 20.01.2014 01:22, schrieb Austin Hook: >> >> On Sun, 19 Jan 2014, Mark Schneider wrote: >> >>> Swiss bank accounts are the most safe worldwide. Some donating people >>> want to stay anonymous so it is neccessary to ofer them such posibility. >> >> OpenBSD has donors that sometimes don't want their names listed >> publicly, but I don't think there are any would be donors who need to >> remain absolutely secret for fear of being found out. > > I can imagine that some foreign agencies, military and banks would donate > as they also need a trustable and secure operating system for their own IT infrastructure. > They will never do it directly but use other possibilities to do it in a as safe as possible way > to achieve the highest level of anonymity.
I don't know how familiar you are with tax havens and anonymous banking, but Switzerland would be lowest on my list. Again, consider FATCA and the US/Canada relationship. I work for a multinational bank and would be glad to share my thoughts on this privately (not on a public mailing list). Regardless, I'm certain if the project really did have the problem of "multiple countries are trying to secretly donate millions but just don't know which Swiss account to wire it to", Mr. de Raadt would probably be aware of this as they would have contacted him in some way. I highly doubt this is an actual problem. > As far as I can remember NSA was using OpenBSD in the past. > Probably they didn't use it anymore because of possible FBI backdors in OpenBSD And this is where I check out. > and stopped their donations due to some political issues and pressure of the government. > >> OpenBSD is an entirely legal project, and there is scarcely any endeavor >> that attempts to be more transparent than OpenBSD. >> >> The software produced is intended to be a tool of perfection. Good guys, >> bad guys, citizens or spies, governments and secret agencies they control, >> are all able to use it -- just like a hammer or wrench. It has no >> political agenda except pushing the idea that good software is better for >> all the world than bad software. >> >> Of course, individuals within the OpenBSD developer or user community tend >> to be pretty sharp, and if there is a law against that I have never yet >> heard it proclaimed. They also have as many different political visions >> as a rainbow has colours. If some chose to be controversial and others >> chose to be apolitical, that is entirely their choice. >> >> If through shear envy some centre of power seeks to ban contributions to >> OpenBSD, then we will all have plenty of time to re-adjust. That can be >> dealt with if such an unlikely even ever happens. So Swiss banks >> accounts, even in the good/bad old days when they were absolutely >> inviolable, aren't really needed for the foreseeable future. > > Swiss banks have changed a lot within last few years. > >> More over, confiscating accounts that are close to being overdrawn >> wouldn't net enough to matter, nor would they be very interesting for >> Swiss bank managers to add to their portfolio. If OpenBSD had a horde of >> cash to hide, it wouldn't have to be asking for more.... :-) > > There is no reason to hide cash. > The point is the anonymity of donors and independency of OpenBSD. > >>> Further it is rather difficult (in particular for foreign secret service >>> agancies) to monitor payments and/or to block money of nonprofit >>> fundations when the account is just in a neutral country like Switzerland. >> >> All donations to OpenBSD, through the various channels, are open for >> inspection upon request of Canadian tax authorities, if only to ascertain >> that they are true gifts, and not fee for service or something like that. >> Why would secret agencies feel the need to compete with Canada Revenue? > > It can happen, that one day it will be neccessary to pay taxes for donations too. > I don't know the current Canadian financial law and future tax plans. > > Kind regards, Mark > > -- > [email protected] > > http://rsync.it-infrastrukturen.org > Am 20.01.2014 01:22, schrieb Austin Hook: > On Sun, 19 Jan 2014, Mark Schneider wrote: > > Swiss bank accounts are the most safe worldwide. Some donating people >> want to stay anonymous so it is neccessary to ofer them such posibility. >> > OpenBSD has donors that sometimes don't want their names listed > publicly, but I don't think there are any would be donors who need to > remain absolutely secret for fear of being found out. > I can imagine that some foreign agencies, military and banks would donate as they also need a trustable and secure operating system for their own IT infrastructure. They will never do it directly but use other possibilities to do it in a as safe as possible way to achieve the highest level of anonymity. As far as I can remember NSA was using OpenBSD in the past. Probably they didn't use it anymore because of possible FBI backdors in OpenBSD and stopped their donations due to some political issues and pressure of the government. OpenBSD is an entirely legal project, and there is scarcely any endeavor > that attempts to be more transparent than OpenBSD. > > The software produced is intended to be a tool of perfection. Good guys, > bad guys, citizens or spies, governments and secret agencies they control, > are all able to use it -- just like a hammer or wrench. It has no > political agenda except pushing the idea that good software is better for > all the world than bad software. > > Of course, individuals within the OpenBSD developer or user community tend > to be pretty sharp, and if there is a law against that I have never yet > heard it proclaimed. They also have as many different political visions > as a rainbow has colours. If some chose to be controversial and others > chose to be apolitical, that is entirely their choice. > > If through shear envy some centre of power seeks to ban contributions to > OpenBSD, then we will all have plenty of time to re-adjust. That can be > dealt with if such an unlikely even ever happens. So Swiss banks > accounts, even in the good/bad old days when they were absolutely > inviolable, aren't really needed for the foreseeable future. > Swiss banks have changed a lot within last few years. More over, confiscating accounts that are close to being overdrawn > wouldn't net enough to matter, nor would they be very interesting for > Swiss bank managers to add to their portfolio. If OpenBSD had a horde of > cash to hide, it wouldn't have to be asking for more.... :-) > There is no reason to hide cash. The point is the anonymity of donors and independency of OpenBSD. Further it is rather difficult (in particular for foreign secret service >> agancies) to monitor payments and/or to block money of nonprofit >> fundations when the account is just in a neutral country like Switzerland. >> > All donations to OpenBSD, through the various channels, are open for > inspection upon request of Canadian tax authorities, if only to ascertain > that they are true gifts, and not fee for service or something like that. > Why would secret agencies feel the need to compete with Canada Revenue? > It can happen, that one day it will be neccessary to pay taxes for donations too. I don't know the current Canadian financial law and future tax plans. Kind regards, Mark -- [email protected] http://rsync.it-infrastrukturen.org
