Gene Hoffman

Gene Hoffman (born August 14, 1975) is an American entrepreneur and activist. Hoffman was the co-founder of eMusic, one of the first internet music companies, the co-founder of Vindicia, and the co-founder of the Calguns Foundation.

Hoffman was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, and grew up in Matthews, North Carolina, He attended high school at Charlotte Latin School. At the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Hoffman was a manager of the men's basketball team. He also co-founded the UNC Darkside ultimate team. While in college he co-founded PrivNet, an internet privacy software company that pioneered ad-blocking software, web cookie management, and search integrated into web browsers. PGP, Inc. acquired PrivNet in November 1996.

eMusic

Hoffman co-founded eMusic in January 1998. As head of eMusic, Hoffman was an advocate for the distribution of DRM-free music on the Internet. He was featured on the cover of Forbes Magazine as a member of the July 1999 E-Gang, and named one of the 100 most influential entrepreneurs in technology in Upside Magazine's November 2000 Elite 100. Hoffman led the acquisition of EMusic by Vivendi/Universal in June 2001.

Vindicia

Hoffman co-founded Vindicia in January 2003. Vindicia offers a subscription acquisition and retention platform to clients that include NASCAR, Bloomberg, Vimeo, Encyclopedia Britannica, Star Trek Online, eMusic, and Leap Frog. Vindicia was named a Red Herring 2012 Top 100 Americas leading private technology company. Vindicia was one of the fastest-growing companies in Silicon Valley in 2011. Hoffman was named one of the 40 Under 40 by the San Francisco Business Times in March 2012.

Calguns Foundation

Hoffman co-founded and is the past chairman of the Calguns Foundation in March 2008. Hoffman was responsible for promoting and designing certain elements of a magazine lock for California Legal AR-15 pattern rifles known as the bullet button and obtaining an admission from the California Department of Justice that the bullet button made certain rifles California legal.

The Calguns Foundation has been responsible for many high-profile defenses of innocent Californians accused of violating California's complex weapons laws. The Calguns Foundation served as amicus to the appellants in McDonald v. Chicago and Nordyke v. King and has filed many civil rights cases in California to overturn laws they consider unconstitutional.

Many cases have to lose in lower courts. Teixeira v. County of Alameda is an excellent example of how cases may be forced to create circuit splits with cases like Ezell v. City of Chicago to obtain serious review under the Second Amendment.

One of these civil rights cases, a case which was filed against the state's "may-issue" carry licensing law enforced by the Sacramento County Sheriff's Office, resulted in the historic first settlement that required the sheriff's office to issue a carry license for self-defense to residents of the county, subject to background investigation.

Under Hoffman's chairmanship, the Calguns Foundation was honored as the 2009 Grassroots Organization of the Year by the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, and Hoffman was named the Gun Rights Defender of the Year by them in 2010. Calguns Foundation was again recognized as the 2012 Grassroots Organization of the Year.

Hoffman was an early collaborator on the 2013 film Assaulted: Civil Rights Under Fire, working closely with director Kris Koenig to create the story arc. Narrated by Ice-T, the documentary takes a critical look at gun laws and the movement to restrict our Second Amendment rights. It features many gun rights advocates including singer Ted Nugent and author/attorney Dave Kopel.