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Comment by deft | Hacker News Reader

Warning: conspiracy below

What's with PIA buying out IRC networks and 'donating'/funding so many OSS projects? It's weird. On freenode other VPN services have been banned. What's their goal with krita? PIA doesn't have FOSS. Why are they sponsoring so many FOSS projects?

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Well... The team member who contacted me told me he had got Krita on his arch laptop and loved it. And since it's impossible to attach strings to something like Krita...

I have to admit, two weeks ago I (and Irina, who does the artist interviews on krita.org) got some very insistent mails from some company that promised a 20k/month income if only we'd embed their hidden tor node software in Krita. I deleted those mails, of course, but not having heard of Private Internet Access before, I initially thought they were related!

But no, not at all. And, yes -- I have to admit, do live under a stone, in a cave. I spend so much time on Krita that large parts of the world pass me by. To me, a VPN is an ssh connection...

Thanks for the information, that's very interesting... Glad that offer was turned down :)

I'm not saying the PIA thing is bad, and getting funding is amazing. I just find what PIA is doing weird. As you said you can't really attach strings to krita so it's fine.

Thanks!

Advertising to FOSS nerds who are more likely to become their customers. There are a lot of VPN services out there and it probably helps them stand out from the crowd as legitimate and not creepy or fly-by-night.

Yes, smart advertising. I use PIA every now and then when I go on trips. Seeing this donation made me feel really good about choosing PIA.

It would be nice if this kind of philanthropy were more common so that it would no longer be weird. I've found PIA to be more of a company of principles than profits. They were booted out of Russia due to their refusal to compromise on their logging practices. Not every company has to be so money obsessed, especially those who don't have to face the pressure of outside investors. Hogging money can only bring so much happiness. There's also a ton of positive PR involved with the tech-savvy community (their consumer base) when donating to foundations / projects like this.

> They were booted out of Russia

What do you mean by that? I'm in Russia and using PIA with no issues.

https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/forum/discussion/21779...

I just asked on #freenode. There is no such VPN ban.

It's good marketing for them. And it helps FOSS projects. Win win.

Customer trust is one of the most valuable metrics for a VPN provider, so this is extremely good PR for them.

I think people are just a bit paranoid given what happened with Kite over the past week.

PIA took over freenode? That's really bizarre and worrysome. I had not heard this, and was somehow under the impression that freenode must have been run by a non-profit foundation, not a for-profit entity.

the announcement: https://freenode.net/news/pia-fn (from April)

This is extremely worrisome. What is their endgame? Who are the people behind PIA, and what is their motivation? Sure, freenode is an important network to keep alive, but PIA seems to be spreading it's influence in a lot of places.

Freenode in its original form was slowly dying - running in partnership with Private Internet Access means they don't have to stress out quite so much about stretching every penny and the behind-the-scenes of running a non-profit, and can focus on the longer-term projects they've been trying to implement.

Freenode is registered as a "private company limited by guarantee without share capital" performing "activities of other membership organisations not elsewhere classified", with Christel and Andrew Lee (PIA's founder) as officers, and Andrew Lee having the majority of voting rights. Any profits are not to be distributed under their articles of association, making it a not-for-profit company.

Frankly speaking... I suspect that Andrew Lee is a techie who came into a pile of money and actually, legitimately wants to prevent IRC from dying.

> I mean, funding projects is nice, but doing so while requiring the projects you fund to do what you request (see Freenode/Snoonet and other VPNs)

Do you have proof of PIA "required the projects [they] fund to what [they] request?" Do you have proof that the takeover of Freenode is related to that?

I'll agree that the takeover of Freenode is troubling, but you are making unsubstantiated claims, stating them as fact, and mixing in things that are actually facts (as if they somehow make your claims more true).

As someone else helpfully mentioned,

> Freenode is registered as a "private company limited by guarantee without share capital" performing "activities of other membership organisations not elsewhere classified", with Christel and Andrew Lee (PIA's founder) as officers, and Andrew Lee having the majority of voting rights. Any profits are not to be distributed under their articles of association, making it a not-for-profit company.

This means that Andrew Lee has lone control over freenode, holding the majority of voting rights. That's all I need to know to see that this is not him just funding projects, but actually about getting power in them.

If it was just about funding them, he wouldn't have to hold majority voting rights, and could just drop funding if they start doing something he disagrees with.

In general, this is a single person buying up power over major parts of the FLOSS scene, and that's not a behaviour that we should condone, or support.

You're right about this:

> that's not a behaviour that we should condone, or support

but you're extrapolating from limited data to form this opinion:

> That's all I need to know to see that this is not him just funding projects, but actually about getting power in them.

By owner you mean Andrew Lee? Wikipedia also mentions some "Ted Kim", but the citation does not support that claim.

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