In The News: September, 2007
Machinima Licenses Spell Out New Rules for Creators
Monty Phan, Wired News
No recent event made a bigger splash in machinima makers' world than Tuesday's record-smashing release of Halo 3. But last month, a different kind of Microsoft release came pretty close.
In August, the company set forth guidelines (innocuously titled "Game Content Usage Rules") governing how its intellectual property could be used for such works as machinima...
Even digital rights advocacy group the Electronic Frontier Foundation signed off on the rules. Then, a few weeks after Microsoft issued its guidelines, Blizzard Entertainment, the developer of World of Warcraft, came out with its own machinima guidelines.
Fred von Lohmann, an EFF senior staff attorney who examined both sets of rules, said the main difference between them lies in a user's base set of rights. Blizzard includes an end-user licensing agreement with its game, essentially stripping players of all rights regarding its use for anything other than how it was intended. Now the company has given rights back to the player in the form of the machinima license.
EFF sues the DOJ for withholding records of telecom surveillance immunity lobbying
Ryan Paul , Ars Technica
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has filed a lawsuit against the US Department of Justice (DOJ) in an effort to obtain records that could shed light on telecommunication industry lobbying activities. The EFF suspects that major telecommunications companies like AT&T have attempted to use political leverage to compel lawmakers to support legislation that would grant the companies legal immunity for their involvement in the federal government's extralegal electronic surveillance program.
Apple's Options for Stopping Open Source iPhone Use
Brad Reed, Network World
Although Apple's Steve Jobs has declared war on iPhone hackers, no one knows for certain how he plans to stop them...
Seth David Schoen, a staff technologist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, thinks that fear of being prosecuted under the DMCA has proven effective in keeping several hobbyist open source developers from sharing their innovations on the Web.
EFF sues to uncover alleged telco lobbying
Stephen Lawson, InfoWorld
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) believes telecommunications carriers are pushing for an amnesty to protect them from lawsuits over alleged illegal wiretapping, and it is suing for the evidence...
The Bush administration has proposed granting amnesty retroactively to carriers who have helped the government in its antiterrorism spying efforts, said Kurt Opsahl, a senior staff attorney at EFF. Its proposals didn't make it into the recently passed Protect America Act of 2007, which expanded the government's power to intercept Americans' overseas communications without warrants, but could still be added to it, Opsahl said.
Ruling eases government's efforts for cell phone tracking
Linda Rosencrance , ComputerWorld
A federal court in Massachusetts has ruled that the government doesn't need probable cause to obtain a warrant allowing it to use a person's cell phone to track his past movements...
"This is the first decision that's been about historical tracking," said Jennifer Granick, civil liberties director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a privacy advocacy group in Washington.
"The idea is that the government is using this information, that most people don't know their cell phone transmits, in order to track you, and they are arguing for an extremely low standard under this complicated statutory regime," Granick said. "Most people probably consider this information to be very private -- where you travel and where you've been. So the concern is for something so invasive, the government should have to demonstrate that it's information that they really need."
More Legal Perils in the Social Media World (Web 2.0)
Nina Kaufman, Entrepreneur
In some ways, the Internet is the Wild West . . . and Web 2.0 is like the Wild West meets the Sci-Fi Channel — unpredictable, potentially dangerous, and often bizarre. If you’re involved in, or thinking about, doing business online at all, the Electronic Frontier Foundation is a great resource. They’re even hosting a one-day Compliance Bootcamp on October 10, 2007 for people who handle issues arising from users and user-generated content.
Creationist vs. Atheist YouTube War Marks New Breed of Copyright Claim
Rob Beschizza, Wired News
A dispute between an atheist group and a creationist group over some postings on YouTube has critics of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act crying foul. They say it's a new and inappropriate use of DMCA, which is becoming a frequent weapon in nasty political and cultural battles...
The videos were eventually reposted, and Rational Response Squad's account was reinstated. "The default, unfortunately, is that (sites like YouTube) take it down, and leave it to the user to issue a counter-notice," said Corynne McSherry, a lawyer with the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "It was clearly fair use, and their claim was clearly bogus. It was just the fastest way they could think of to get it taken down."
Telcos seek wiretapping immunity as legal pressure mounts
Timothy B. Lee, Ars Technica
Always eager to lighten the load of overworked bureaucrats, the Electronic Frontier Foundation has volunteered its services to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin. In a Wednesday letter, EFF legal director Cindy Cohn urged Martin to heed Rep. Ed Markey's request for an investigation into alleged lawbreaking by the nation's largest telecommunications carriers. Noting that EFF has been deeply involved in the controversy from its outset, Cohn offered to assist Martin in investigating the allegations.
U.S. collecting personal data on travelers
Dallas Morning News
The U.S. government is collecting much more detailed electronic records than previously disclosed on the travel habits of millions of Americans, according to documents obtained by a group of civil liberties advocates and statements by government officials...
But DHS TRIP does not allow a traveler to challenge an agency decision in court, said David Sobel, senior counsel with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which has sued the DHS over information concerning the policy underlying the system. Because the system is exempted from certain Privacy Act requirements, including the right to "contest the content of the record," a traveler can't correct erroneous information, Mr. Sobel said.
Legal Issues Surrounding Online Music Storage
Michael Hoffman, Daily Tech
Are you worried about legal ramifications against online file locker services? I contacted the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an organization aimed at "defending freedom in the digital world," hoping to get a brief view of basic legal rights that users have.
The topic of users being safe from possible lawsuits is a hard topic to discuss, but "users are pretty safe," according to Fred von Lohmann, EFF senior staff attorney. "It'd be a long shot" to see the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) or other copyright holders attempt to take legal action against users.
Legal Suicide for Web 2.0 start-ups: A beginner's guide
Rafe Needleman, Webware
I got an email from Fred von Lohmann of the Electronic Frontier Foundation yesterday. It began, "Half the companies you blog about have copyright or privacy legal issues simmering just under the surface. Since most of them are thinly capitalized, when they get into trouble, they're likely to call EFF for legal advice. Several already have."
I called von Lohmann right away, since I've had a nagging feeling for months that too many of the interesting products I've been seeing were legally shaky. So I talked with him to come up with this list: 9 Fun Ways Web 2.0 Startups Can Commit Legal Suicide.
Drivers test paying by mile instead of gas tax
Larry Copeland, USA TODAY
Beginning early next year, drivers in six states will begin testing a new way to pay for roads and transit: Commuters will be charged for the miles they drive rather than paying taxes on gasoline purchased...
Privacy advocates worry about the use of satellite navigation technology to track drivers' movements. "Where you go is something that, for the most part, people consider private," says Lee Tien, an attorney who specializes in privacy issues for the San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation. "The second point is, it's the sort of thing we do to the bad guys. Where do you hear a lot about GPS tracking? It's for prisoners or people who are out on probation."
Audio: Music biz's future rests on key changes
Bob Moon, Marketplace - NPR
When it comes to file sharing and illegal downloads, it's the big music labels that complain the loudest about being ripped off. Bob Moon reports on some ideas that might help the recording industry face the musical future.
(Featuring EFF's Fred von Lohmann)
Audio: Free? Illegal? ... What's the difference?
Bob Moon, Marketplace - NPR
Free doesn't always mean legal when you're downloading music. And critics say the recording industry's muddying the waters its spent years in court trying to clear up. Bob Moon reports.
(Featuring EFF's Fred von Lohmann)
Kevin Bankston | New threats to privacy
Patrick Marshall, Government Computer News
As a staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, one of Kevin Bankston’s primary responsibilities is to monitor the effects of new technologies on citizens’ privacy rights and occasionally undertake litigation to protect those rights. Recently, he experienced the issue firsthand when he was, without his knowledge, photographed by Google Street View, and his image was posted online.
Audio: No pause in music industry's tough play
Bob Moon, Marketplace - NPR
The recording industry has gotten serious about illegal file sharing. In the last four years it has filed thousands of lawsuits. But, as Bob Moon reports in a special series, even those targeted by mistake, like Tanya Andersen, get no reprieve.
(Featuring EFF's Fred von Lohmann)
DirecTV faces setback in dubious antipiracy campaign. Good.
Declan McCullagh, CNET News.com
DirecTV lost an important case on Tuesday. Programmers, security researchers, and anyone who believes in a limited government won...
Now, I'm not arguing that we should be applauding blatant DirecTV piracy. Neither is the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which entered this case on the side of the defendants. If DirecTV can prove that Huynh and Oliver were watching TV shows for free, they should pay reasonable damages. But they shouldn't face six-figure fines for merely buying a smart-card programmer.
Unlocked iPhones For All
Andy Greenberg, Forbes.com
Seventeen-year-old George Hotz's much-publicized hacking of the iPhone involved ripping open his $600 device and diving in with a soldering iron--not a technique for the faint of heart...
But regardless of who has created unlocking software first, a larger question may be whether it's legal. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1999 prohibits users from circumventing technological locks that protect proprietary content. But in November 2006, Jennifer Granick, a cyber-law attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, won an exemption that makes it legal for users to break such locks to enable use of their phones on competing wireless networks.
Ready or Not, Voting Paper Trail Nears House Vote
Roy Mark, eWeek
The House of Representatives may vote as early as next week on legislation requiring a paper trail for electronic voting machines, according to a spokesman for bill sponsor Rush Holt, D-N.J. If successful in Congress, the bills provisions would take effect in time for the 2008 elections...
"Our support for H.R. 811 is tempered by profound disappointment that one of the bills pillars has been watered down to the point of ineffectiveness due to pressure from the proprietary software industry," the EFF said in a statement on its Web site.
The EFF added, "Having litigated cases in which prompt access to voting system source code is critical, EFFs strong advocacy for this bill has been based in large part on the source code disclosure requirement."
Court allows limited fines for theft of DirecTV signal
Bob Egelko, San Francisco Chronicle
People who use equipment to watch satellite television without paying for it can be fined up to $10,000, but they aren't subject to a commercial piracy law aimed at manufacturers that carries damages as high as $100,000, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday...
The ruling is important because DirecTV has sent hundreds of thousands of letters seeking damages from people who have bought devices that can be used to intercept programs, said attorney Jason Schultz of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, who argued the case. He said the court not only reserved the higher penalties for commercial pirates but also implicitly recognized that only those who actually use the equipment for satellite interception - as opposed to innocent hobbyists and researchers - are subject to any penalties.
The latest bad idea from the RIAA: "ringle" to combine CD singles, ringtones
Nate Anderson, Ars Technica
There's a place where good ideas go to die; unfortunately, the RIAA has just visited the facility and come back with the "ringle," whose name should tell you all you need to know about its chances of success...
Now, none of this ringtone foolishness would even exist if users could more easily create their own ringtones from music they have legally purchased. That's the EFF's position, and the group has just issued a call to arms against the cell phone and music industries for locking down ringtones.
Rogue FBI Letters Hint at Phone Companies' Own Data Mining Programs
Ryan Singel, Wired News
An FBI office under criminal investigation for sending emergency phone record requests to phone companies that included knowingly false statement also included requests for the phone companies to identify the "community of interest" for the targeted phone numbers, according to documents acquired through a government sunshine lawsuit...
See the original letters in this document (.pdf), acquired by the Electronic Frontier Foundation through a government sunshine request.
Army insists Web sites follow rules
Leo Shane III, Stars and Stripes
Army personnel who monitor online security believe that official service Web sites are doing a good job protecting sensitive information despite a recent report showing nearly 2,000 violations last year...
Documents released last month as part of a lawsuit by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit digital rights group, showed results of the AWRAC’s review of Army-run Web sites and soldiers’ blog sites between January 2006 and January 2007.
License plate scanners help recover stolen cars, raise concerns
Associated Press
Officer David Callister was about to drive past the 1991 Nissan sedan when an alert sounded inside his cruiser and an image of a license plate flashed on his laptop. It was a signal that the run-of-the-mill clunker was stolen...
The most frequently cited potential drawback comes from privacy advocates, some of whom worry authorities will use the readers to track the movements of law-abiding people, a risk they said will grow as the devices drop in price and proliferate.
People may drive to abortion clinics, substance-abuse counseling meetings, race tracks or other lawful gatherings but might prefer to keep that private, the advocates said.
"I shouldn't have to take extra precautions to prevent the government from seeing what I am doing every Thursday night," said Lee Tien, an attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a group concerned about privacy rights in the digital age.
FBI Data Mining Reached Beyond Initial Targets
Eric Lichtblau, New York Times
Based on records released through an EFF FOIA lawsuit against the Justice Department, the New York Times reported that the FBI asked telecommunications companies to turn over information about people in contact with individuals the FBI was investigating, though a degree removed from any suspicious activity and presumably innocent. An an EFF analysis explained, there is no question that this investigative technique is unlawful.
Federal judge slams government response to FOIA requests on surveillance program
Joshua Pantesco, Jurist
A federal judge on Wednesday ordered the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Office of Legal Counsel, and the office of the Attorney General to submit more information to the court in support of their motion for summary judgment in a consolidated lawsuit seeking the release of documents related to the government's domestic surveillance program...
The court is considering a consolidated lawsuit originating from FOIA requests filed by several privacy advocates, including the Electronic Privacy Information Center, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and the National Security Archive.
The world on your desktop
Economist
“EARTH materialises, rotating majestically in front of his face. Hiro reaches out and grabs it. He twists it around so he's looking at Oregon. Tells it to get rid of the clouds, and it does, giving him a crystalline view of the mountains and the seashore.”
That vision from Neal Stephenson's “Snow Crash”, a science-fiction novel published in 1992, aptly describes Google Earth, a computer program that lets users fly over a detailed photographic map of the world...
“When the coverage is everything and everywhere, there is going to be a big problem,” says Lee Tien, a lawyer at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an internet campaign group.
EFF Looks Back at Four Years of RIAA Lawsuits
Yahoo! Tech
This Saturday marks the fourth anniversary of the RIAA's first lawsuits against consumers, alleging that they were violating copyright by sharing songs on peer-to-peer networks. More than 20,000 (and probably about 30,000) people have been targeted since, and the RIAA shows no signs of slowing down. And yet, P2P networks continue to grow in popularity. Are the lawsuits having any effect?
The EFF takes us on a candid and interesting history lesson [PDF link] in this report, walking us through the RIAA's initial attempts to sue the technology companies out of existence, then, when that failed, to issue "DMCA subpoenas by the thousands," which eventually led to the first wave of settlements: One of the first to settle was a 12-year-old girl living in NYC public housing, forced to publicly apologize for her actions and pay a $2,000 settlement.
UC Berkeley, Stanford crack down on illegal downloading
Verne Kopytoff, San Francisco Chronicle
College students beware: Universities are ratcheting up punishments for illegally downloading music and video from your dorm rooms this school year in an effort to tamp down the popular pastime...
Fred von Lohmann, a staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights group, said that universities aren't taking a more aggressive stance against file sharing simply to protect students from lawsuits. Congressional committees, encouraged by the entertainment industry, have held hearings about illegal music downloading, which has universities scared that they could lose federal funding, he said.
House to consider e-voting reform bill
Grant Gross , ComputerWorld
The U.S. House of Representatives is set to vote as early as Thursday on a bill that would require a paper record for electronic voting machines...
The Holt bill faces several obstacles to becoming law, said Matt Zimmerman, a lawyer at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), which supports the bill.
"It is not at all clear whether the bill will pass or, even if it does, whether a substantively similar companion bill will then pass the Senate," Zimmerman wrote on the EFF blog. "Like it or not, with election officials arguing that they're running out of time to implement wholesale changes, this likely amounts to Congress' only attempt to make any serious improvements to the nation's election procedures ahead of the 2008 presidential election."
Feds Tell Secret Spying Court to Keep Opinions Secret
Ryan Singel, Wired News
The Justice Department told a secret spying court Friday that the court lacked the power to even hear the ACLU's request for it to release court opinions about the government's so-called Terrorist Surveillance Program...
While the government said that government sunshine requests were the more appropriate avenue to unseal the records, it also told the court that earlier in August another court ruled the documents were too secret to release, even in part. That ruling came in response to a suit brought by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which had sought the same records via the Freedom of Information Act.
Consumer groups back patent bill
Grant Gross, InfoWorld
Five consumer groups have given their support to legislation that would overhaul the U.S. patent system, saying the bill would create fairer penalties for infringement.
The Patent Reform Act of 2007 could come before the U.S. House of Representatives for a vote as soon as this week despite objections from some labor unions, small inventors, and some small tech vendors. The bill, backed by several large tech vendors, also found support from Consumer Federation of America, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Knowledge Ecology International, Public Knowledge, and U.S. Public Interest Research Group.
Analysis: RIAA wants universities to do its dirty work
Timothy B. Lee, Ars Technica
The recording industry has continued to ratchet up its war against peer-to-peer file sharing, and lately it has been working overtime to draft universities into the fight...
A better solution is the one proposed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation in a recent report: instead of transforming college campuses into a miniature surveillance state, record labels and universities could enter into a collective licensing agreement under which the university would pay a flat fee to the record labels in exchange for the right to utilize peer-to-peer applications on campus.
AT&T Plaintiffs Cite McConnell Remarks
Ellen Nakashima, Washington Post
Plaintiffs suing AT&T in connection with the government's warrantless surveillance program this week filed a motion asking a federal appeals court in San Francisco to consider as evidence the recent admission by the government's top intelligence official that telecommunications companies aided the program...
"Taken in context, it is clear that [McConnell] is referencing the defendant telecommunications companies in this litigation" as well as dozens of other cases pending in federal court, wrote attorneys for Electronic Frontier Foundation, which filed the class-action lawsuit last year on behalf of AT&T customers in California who claim that they were wiretapped.
