Helping the EFF

Inspired in part by Rusty’s donation, I’ve decided to donate my Amazon Associates revenue for this quarter (Jan-Mar) to the Electronic Frontier Foundation. My Associates revenue came to about $275 for Q4 2001, but hopefully it’ll be more this time around. So for the next couple months, if you see me link to something you’d like to buy at Amazon, a portion of the purchase price (5-15%) will go to the EFF.

I’m donating money to the EFF because I’m concerned (“upset” would be a better word) about current copyright laws, the U.S. patent system, and the like, and the (grossly understaffed and underfunded) EFF is fighting to do something about these issues. If you’re interested in helping out, here are some things you can do:

- Support the EFF through membership or donation.

- Volunteer with the EFF. They are looking for media people, research assistants, & Perl/CGI folks for a variety of projects.

- If you have a weblog and link to books, movies, or music at Amazon, why not donate your revenues or link to Amazon using the EFF’s Associates code (“electronicfro-20”)? Using the EFF’s code is easy: here’s a link to Amazon’s front page and here’s one to EFF board member Larry Lessig’s new book, The Future of Ideas: The Fate of the Commons in a Connected World. Me donating my little bit of revenue is one thing, but a whole lot of weblogs donating their revenues…now that would be something else. Let’s go!