In The News: April, 2009
RealDVD is a burning issue with Hollywood
By George Cole, The Guardian
Last week saw the start of a trial that pitches Hollywood studios against the technology industry, and whose outcome could change the face of home entertainment. The trial, taking place in San Francisco, centres around a $30 (£20) software package published last year called RealDVD...
RealNetwork's defence is that RealDVD strengthens DVD copy protection. Some observers, such as Fred von Lohmann, a senior lawyer with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, think Hollywood is fighting a losing battle: "I'm not sure what alternate version of reality the MPAA is living in, but consumers have been able to copy DVDs for a long time, thanks to free, widely available DVD rippers," he says.
Anti-DMCA crusaders fight for the right to crack DRM
By Nate Anderson, Ars Technica
Every three years, the US Copyright Office reviews the Digital Millennium Copyright Act's most controversial section—the ban on circumventing DRM, even for legal uses...
The three-year exemption process looked so broken back in 2005 that the EFF issued a screed about how the process wasn't worth participating in. One of the authors was Fred von Lohmann, EFF's super-sharp copyright lawyer, who tomorrow will find himself defending not one but three new exemption requests. What changed?
The EFF digs deep into the FBI's "everything bucket"
By Jon Stokes, Ars Technica
Earlier this week, the EFF published a new report detailing the FBI's Investigative Data Warehouse, which appears to be something like a combination of Google and a university's slightly out-of-date custom card catalog with a front-end written for Windows 2000 that uses cartoon icons that some work-study student made in Microsoft Paint.
Is RealDVD dispute really about a DVD jukebox?
By Greg Sandoval, CNET News.com
When it comes to RealNetworks' strategy to offer consumers a digital alternative to movie discs, RealDVD is only one facet...
If Real wins the case, it would open the door for others to create devices without having to first seek studio approval. EFF's von Lohmann has long accused the MPAA, which he says has a long anti-innovation history going back to the Sony Betamax, of targeting RealDVD to preserve its business models rather than to protect movies from piracy.
Obama’s 100 Days: High Marks for Science, Low for Privacy
By David Kravets, Wired News
As President Barack Obama marks his 100th day in office today, we’ve set out to grade the 44th president’s performance on the bread-and-butter issues near and dear to Wired.com: copyright, cyber security, science, net neutrality, transparency and privacy...
“It’s more Obama is cutting class than a particular grade,” says Fred von Lohmann, a copyright attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation. “I think the administration is facing more important priorities than copyright law right now. The economy is the most obvious issue right now. ”
Minnesota calls for 200-site net gambling blockage
By Dan Goodin, The Register
Minnesota officials have ordered 11 internet service providers to block all computers in the state from accessing nearly 200 online gambling sites...
Last year, Kentucky officials seized 141 domain names used by some of the world's biggest internet betting sites. That seizure was blasted by civil liberties groups, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which argued the laws of an individual state shouldn't trump the rights of everyone else to access sites that are perfectly legal elsewhere. Kentucky's Court of Appeals later reversed the action.
OdioWorks Drags Apple to Court in Free Speech Battle
By Erika Morphy, MacNewsWorld
With the Electronic Freedom Foundation backing it up, OdioWorks is playing David to Apple's Goliath in a lawsuit based on its First Amendment right to freedom of speech. The dispute centers on Apple's efforts to shut down online discussions that it claimed were violations of its copyrights.
Apple sued for threatening fan wiki
By Robert Munro, The Inquirer
The Electronic Frontier Foundation and a San Francisco law firm sued Apple yesterday, accusing the Cupertino flogger of expensive PCs and personal technotoys of having illegally suppressed open discussion of its gadgets on a fan forum late last year.
Apple is being accused of stifling free speech; again
By Jason D. O'Grady, ZDNet
In November 2008 Virginia-based OdioWorks, operator of BluWiki a non-commercial wiki that promises publishing without censorship, received a takedown notice from Apple demanding that it remove user postings about how to “write software that can sync media to the latest versions of the iPhone and iPod Touch"...
Two San Francisco-based law firms, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Keker & Van Nest have announced that they are taking up the case and representing BluWiki.
iTunes DRM spat pits EFF against Apple
By Paul Boutin, The Industry Standard
The Electronic Frontier Foundation filed a lawsuit against Apple on Monday. For a lot of MacBook toting, copyright-hating tech-sector workers, it's like watching our parents fight. But who's right?
Studios Assert RealDVD Violates Digital Millennium Copyright Act
By Erik Gruenwedel, Home Media Magazine
The second day of a three-day hearing pitting Hollywood studios against RealNetwork’s DVD copying technology saw a computer scientist testify that the RealDVD software circumvented encryption safeguards, thereby violating provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)...
Fred von Lohmann, senior attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a San Francisco-based civil liberties organization, attending the hearing said the studios are banking on the notion that the 1998 DMCA precludes a fair use right of duplication to consumers when encryption technology is circumvented.
Device identification in online banking is privacy threat?
By Elinor Mills, ZDNet
A widely used technology to authenticate users when they log in for online banking may help reduce fraud, but it does so at the expense of consumer privacy, a civil liberties attorney said during a panel at the RSA security conference last week...
Even though none of the information gathered during a log-in is personally identifiable, the bank shouldn't have to collect regular data on when, how often and from where a consumer accesses a bank account, said Jennifer Granick of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Such information can be compiled with other more sensitive information to create profiles and cross referenced to learn more about consumers, she said.
Obama Urged To Name FTC Commissioner
Tech Daily Dose
Representatives from consumer, privacy and other public interest organizations urged President Obama on Monday to fill a vacant commissioner post at the FTC with someone who will uphold the agency's mandate of protecting American consumers. The Center for Digital Democracy, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Electronic Privacy Information Center, the World Privacy Forum and others signed a letter arguing that charge has "too often been ignored in the recent past."
Apple Is Sued After Pressuring Open-source ITunes Project
By Robert McMillan, PC World
The operator of a technology discussion forum has sued Apple, claiming that the company used U.S. copyright law to curb legitimate discussion of its iTunes software...
The lawsuit was filed jointly in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and attorneys representing OdioWorks a small Herndon, Virginia, company that runs Bluwiki. Lawyers argue that the iPodhash discussions were about reverse-engineering software, not breaking copy protection, and ask for a court ruling to clarify the matter.
Apple sued over legal threats to wiki operator
By Jacqui Cheng , Ars Technica
The operator of a public wiki site has filed a lawsuit against Apple in an attempt to defend its rights to publish information under the First Amendment. OdioWorks LLC, which runs BluWiki, filed the lawsuit in a US District Court in the northern district of California today with the help of the Electronic Frontier Foundation in order to seek a declaratory judgment that would protect the company from continued attacks by Apple's legal team.
Judge Cool to DVD Copying
By Zusha Elinson, The Recorder
Bart Williams calmly held up an "Eyes Wide Shut" DVD to emphasize how RealNetworks' new DVD-copying software will supposedly harm his Hollywood movie studio clients...
Corynne McSherry of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which has been critical of the movie studios' claims, said the case is all about control.
"What this case is about iswhether Hollywood is going tobe allowed to control innovation," McSherry said. "Whether Hollywood can use its copyrights to control how people use what they own."
RSA 2009: Benefits and dangers of device fingerprinting
By Shaun Nichols , vnunet.com
Security experts and privacy advocates weighed the merits of device fingerprinting on Thursday...
Electronic Frontier Foundation civil liberties director Jennifer Granick warned that the information banks gather from the digital fingerprints could be used for more than just security.
"The question is what kind of privacy protection is there, and the answer is very little," said Granick.
"One thing we really do not want is for this information to be shared with affiliates who do advertising or marketing, because then you have the same problem we have with cookies, but much worse."
Quotations of the day
Associated Press
"If Hollywood wins, I don't think much changes in the real world. Anybody who wants DVDs copied can download software for free in 10 minutes." Fred von Lohmann, an attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The movie industry is challenging RealNetworks Inc. in court over software it contends allows the illegal copying of films.
Wikipedia Art dispute pits artists against Wikimedia Foundation
By Chris Foresman , Ars Technica
Two artists attempted to create a performance art piece by establishing a Wikipedia entry entitled "Wikipedia Art," which could then be freely edited and "transformed" by anyone choosing to do so...
The EFF's Corynne McSherry likewise noted the irony (and in her opinion, futility) of Wikimedia pursuing legal action in this particular matter, despite the EFF being a staunch advocate for Wikipedia in the past.
Hollywood in showdown over DVD 'ripper'
By Paul Elias, Associated Press
Hollywood calls it "rent, rip and return" and contends it's one of the biggest technological threats to the movie industry's annual $20 billion DVD market — software that allows you to copy a film without paying for it...
"If Hollywood wins, I don't think much changes in the real world," said Fred von Lohmann, an attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "Anybody who wants DVDs copied can download software for free in 10 minutes."
RealNetworks vs. Hollywood
KUOW Radio
In a San Francisco courtroom today Hollywood is going after Seattle–based RealNetworks for its software that makes it a snap to copy DVDs. The movie industry says it will destroy them. Are they right? Is ripping DVDs stealing? An interview with EFF's Fred von Lohmann.
ACLU: US Attorney used GPS to track cell phones
By Angela Delli Santi, Associated Press
A former federal prosecutor running for governor approved the tracking of citizens through their cell phones without warrants while he was head of the U.S. Attorney's Office for New Jersey, civil rights attorneys said Thursday...
The documents are part of an ongoing lawsuit by the ACLU and Electronic Frontier Foundation on how the government tracks cell phone users. The ACLU sought documents under the Freedom of Information Act to learn about the tracking because the cases are typically under court seal, ACLU lawyer Catherine Crump said.
Obama Administration Lock(e)s And Loads Against Movie Piracy
By Liza Porteus Viana, Intellectual Property Watch
The Obama administration will fight for the movie industry and work to aggressively enforce its intellectual property protections both at home and abroad, United States Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said here Tuesday...
Fred von Lohmann of the Electronic Frontier Foundation downplayed Locke’s strong enforcement message. “We all agree that commercial piracy and counterfeiting are a bad thing and ought to be the subject of enforcement,” he said. “Rather, it’s other aspects of the MPAA agenda, often misleadingly cloaked in ‘piracy’ rhetoric, that have given the public interest community reason for concern.”
Why Did The NSA--And Not The FBI--Conduct The Wiretap Which Snagged Harman?
By Brian Beutler , Talking Points Memo
Sunday's bombshell article by Jeff Stein--and the New York Times' helpful follow up piece--open up so many new lines of inquiry it's hard to know where to begin...
One benign possibility is that the NSA was surveilling this agent for completely separate reasons. But Electronic Frontier Foundation's Kevin Bankston cautions that there "has been a greater level of cooperation since 9/11," so there's no reason to assume the NSA wasn't involved from the outset.
Senate Proposal Could Put Heavy Restrictions on Internet Freedoms
By James Osborne, Fox News
The days of an open, largely unregulated Internet may soon come to an end...
Others are concerned about the potential erosion of civil liberties. "I'm scared of it," said Lee Tien, an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a San Francisco-based group.
"It's really broad, and there are plenty of laws right now designed to prevent the government getting access to that kind of data. It's the same stuff we've been fighting on the warrantless wiretapping."
College Police Target Linux User; Bloggers Up in Arms
By Katherine Noyes, LinuxInsider
We've all heard arguments about whether the command line is a powerful and elegant tool or an unnecessary pain, but does using a no-pretty-colors interface constitute suspicious behavior?...
It all apparently began when an email was sent to a Boston College mailing list alleging that a particular student was gay, according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). "Police say they know who sent the email and that the sender committed the crimes of 'obtaining computer services by fraud or misrepresentation' and obtaining 'unauthorized access to a computer system,'" the EFF explained.
Congress Ponders Cybersecurity Power Grab
By Timothy Lee, Techdirt
There was a lot of attention paid last week to a new "cybersecurity" bill that would drastically expand the government's power over the Internet...
Perhaps even more troubling, the EFF notes a section that states that the government "shall have access to all relevant data concerning (critical infrastructure) networks without regard to any provision of law, regulation, rule, or policy restricting such access."
Copyright Alliance Wants Administration To Promote Innovation, Protect Rights
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable
TV and movie studios, publishers (indlucing B&C parent Reed Elsevier) and other copyright holders have written the president to argue that the administration does not need to choose between protecting IP and spurring innovation.
The letter came in response to one sent to the White House earlier this month by Public Knowledge, Consumer Electronics Association, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and more than a dozen other fair use fans asking that appointments to administration posts dealing with intellectual property--including at State and the U.S. Trade Representative--"reflect the diversity of stakeholders affected by IP policy."
Plans to expand Internet access in Cuba prompt censorship warnings
By Aliya Sternstein, Nextgov
Democracy activists are urging the Obama administration and industry leaders to prevent Cuba from restricting Internet access, as the United States moves ahead with plans to offer expanded telecommunications services in that country. But the administration says it is too early -- and could be legally difficult -- to broker preconditions barring Cuba from suppressing political dissent on the Internet...
Even if the United States cannot gain assurance that Cuba will protect online freedoms, Cubans will find ways to circumvent restrictions, said Eddan Katz, the international affairs director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit civil liberties group.
Promises, Promises: Obama keeps some Bush secrets
By Michael J. Sniffen, Associated Press
Despite a pledge to open government, the Obama administration has endorsed a Bush-era decision to keep secret key details of an FBI computer database that allows agents and analysts to search a billion documents with a wealth of personal information about Americans and foreigners...
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights advocacy group, had sued under the Freedom of Information Act to get records showing how the FBI protects the privacy of Americans whose personal information winds up in the vast database...
"In light of all the fanfare at the highest levels of the administration about a new transparency policy, it's remarkable that not one word of additional material has been released as a result of that new policy," said David Sobel, the foundation's lawyer in the case.
Has online piracy reached a tipping point?
By Greg Sandoval, CNET News.com
For years, digital technology and the Internet have provided a virtual buffet of digital content from which millions have feasted for free...
"It's not that they might not obtain their short term aims," said Danny O'Brien, International outreach coordinator for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a group that advocates for Internet users and technology companies. "But what is the long-term goal? What is the end game? You take out The Pirate Bay and people will still make copies of movies. People will continue to share music online...It's been five years since Grokster. How has that helped the music industry?"
Pirate Bay: Music file-sharing site's co-founder ordered to pay $3.6 million, serve year in jail
By Wailin Wong, Chicago Tribune
Peter Sunde, one of the founders of file-sharing site The Pirate Bay who was sentenced on Friday to a year in jail for copyright violation, wasted no time in thumbing his nose at the entertainment industry...
The focus on harnessing new Web tools, rather than pursuing legal action, is a more sustainable strategy, said Rebecca Jeschke, a spokeswoman for the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
The EFF has criticized the recording industry's litigious approach to combating illegal file-sharing. It supports a system where the music industry would form "collecting societies" that charge consumers a "reasonable regular" fee to download and share content across any platform.
'Torture memos' embolden liberal groups
By Josh Gerstein, Politico
President Barack Obama’s decision to release the so-called “torture memos” has emboldened civil-liberties activists and top Democrats in Congress to step up their demands for ever broader disclosure of the most closely held secrets of the Bush anti-terror fight...
“Certainly, this demonstrates what we all already know. Which is the administration can, when it chooses to, declassify things and share them with the public. They can and should do so when it comes to the memos regarding warrantless surveillance,” Kevin Bankston of the Electronic Frontier Foundation said. “I think the same exceptional circumstances there apply here.”
Teen Twitter worm writer gets job, spreads new worm
By Elinor Mills, CNET News.com
The teenager who takes credit for the worms that hit Twitter earlier this week has been hired by a Web application development firm and on Friday released a fifth worm on the microblogging site, he said...
Asked earlier in the week about the prosecution scenario for Mooney, Jennifer Granick, an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said in an e-mail: "If he's 17, he will not be federally prosecuted and the sentencing, should he be found or plead guilty, should be more about rehabilitation than punishment."
Is Obama listening to Dick Cheney?
By Nat Hentoff, United Media
Very soon after taking office, President Barack Obama ringingly pledged: "My administration is committed to creating an unprecedented openness in government. ... Openness will strengthen our democracy." However, as with an increasing number of his promises to repair the Bush-Cheney administration's deep cracks in our rule of law, Obama is giving defenders of the Constitution less and less hope they can believe in...
On April 3, Obama's Department of Justice filed an answer to a federal lawsuit against warrantless wiretapping of Americans brought by the San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation, which has been the lead litigator concerning lawless Bush, and now Obama, violations of our privacy.
Obama reverses course on FOIA
By Ben Bain, Federal Computer Week
On his first full day in office, President Barack Obama said the “Freedom of Information Act should be administered with a clear presumption: In the face of doubt, openness prevails.” Open-government groups cheered the Obama administration’s initial policy statements, but they’re waiting to see if change has really come to a government that grew opaque under the previous administration...
The FBI is one of the agencies that open-government advocates sued during the Bush administration because of its response to FOIA requests. In one holdover case brought by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the new Obama guidance appears to uphold the previous decision to withhold information. Justice said in a court filing April 13 that it did not intend to reverse its decision.
Video: Obama Administration Claims “Sovereign Immunity” in Attempt to Dismiss Lawsuit Against NSA over Domestic Surveillance
Democracy Now
We speak to attorney and blogger Glenn Greenwald about how the Department of Justice has demanded the dismissal of a lawsuit brought by the Electronic Frontier Foundation based on “state secrets” and “sovereign immunity.”
Senate panel to probe wiretapping violations
By Pamela Hess, Associated Press
The head of the Senate Intelligence Committee said Thursday that the panel would hold a hearing to get to the bottom of reports that the National Security Agency improperly tapped into the domestic communications of American citizens...
Kevin Bankston, an attorney with the privacy group Electronic Frontier Foundation, said the revelation shows the "NSA surveillance program is not narrowly targeted against international terrorist communications as the government has claimed, but actually sweeps in masses of domestic communications from telecommunications companies fiber optic networks."
Google must defend suit over ad keywords, court says
Bloomberg
Google Inc., owner of the most popular internet search engine, must defend itself against claims that its sponsored links on search results violated a New York company’s trademark rights, an appeals court said.
Google was supported by consumer groups Public Citizen and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which said Rescuecom’s claims would “improperly expand the boundaries of trademark use and chill speech.”
The NSA is Still Wiretapping. And We’re Surprised?
By Daphne Eviatar, Washington Independent
Just the other day, when I was writing about the case of Jewel v. NSA (and responding to the Columbia Journalism Review’s criticism that no one was covering this important case about warrantless wiretapping), I remarked that while everyone’s been up in arms about the Obama administration’s claiming the case should be dismissed because it would reveal “state secrets” — the same argument the Justice Department has made repeatedly in previous cases alleging illegal wiretapping and abusive interrogation programs — no one seemed to notice that the Jewel case charges that the wiretapping program is still going on...
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif) and the Senate Intelligence Committee today promised to investigate. They might want to call the Electronic Frontier Foundation and their clients in the Jewel case as witnesses.
BC student fights warrant seizing his computer
By Jaikumar Vijayan, ComputerWorld
Boston College (BC) is finding itself in the middle of a controversy over its handling of a case involving a student who allegedly sent an e-mail claiming that a fellow student was gay and used a college computer network to change grades...
The March 30 search and seizure is being challenged by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a civil liberties group, and Boston law firm Fish & Richardson, which works with the EFF and has agreed to represent Calixte in the case.
After Police Confiscate His Computer, Boston College Student Fights Back
By Jeffrey R. Young, Chronicle of Higher Education
A Boston College undergraduate has asked a judge in Massachusetts to invalidate a search warrant issued to the police last month that led to the seizure of the student’s computers, iPod, cellphone, digital camera, and other electronic devices...
The Electronic Frontier Foundation issued a statement this week on behalf of Mr. Calixte, whom The Chronicle could not reach for comment.
BC senior fights seizure of his computer
By Erin Ailworth and Hiawatha Bray, Boston Globe
A senior at Boston College is locked in a legal battle with the school and the state, after authorities confiscated his computer, cellphone, and iPod as part of an investigation into alleged computer fraud...
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a San Francisco nonprofit group that pursues high-profile legal cases involving civil liberties and the Internet, has gone to court on Calixte's behalf, seeking to quash the warrant.
Apparently, using Linux is a crime at Boston College
By Christopher Dawson, ZDNet
The Electronic Frontier Foundation reported over the last couple of days that a Boston College computer science student has been targeted by BC police largely on the basis of using Linux.
Obama’s (State) Secrets
By Eric Etheridge, New York Times
For weeks, lefty commentators have been hammering away on President Obama for dawdling disastrously on bank nationalization and being too easy on Wall Street...
As Greenwald noted, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which is suing the government for warrantless wiretapping in the case Jewel v. NSA, has described the Obama administration’s latest arguments for dismissing the case as worse than those from Bush officials.
US mulls stiffer sentences for common Net proxies
By Jordan Robertson, Associated Press
"Proxy" servers are an everyday part of Internet surfing. But using one in a crime could soon lead to more time in the clink...
"Even if someone did use a technology that made law enforcement's life harder, and even if they did have criminal intent, technologically it may not be sophisticated at all," Seth Schoen, staff technologist with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a San Francisco-based nonprofit focused on online free speech and privacy. The EFF also helped fund development of the Tor anonymity proxy service.
"They're proposing to make a kind of judgment that this is something unusual or remarkable, which just doesn't match my experience with the technology. This is an everyday technology."
Use A Command Line At Boston College... Have Your Computer Equipment Confiscated
By Mike Masnick, Tech Dirt
A bunch of folks have submitted various versions of a story in Boston, involving Boston College police being granted a warrant which they used to confiscate the computers of a student as part of an investigation over an email sent to a mailing list...
Luckily, the EFF is now representing the student, pointing out how this appears to be a pretty significant violation of the student's rights.
Magid: Internet access too important to be cut off arbitrarily
By Larry Magid, San Jose Mercury News
Viva la France! French lawmakers have unexpectedly rejected a bill that would have cut off Internet access to people who repeatedly download music or videos illegally. The law, which was supported by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, could have resulted in a year's suspension of Internet access for individuals after being warned by both an e-mail and a letter...
Based on the number of votes, I'd hardly call the outcome in France a repudiation. The Electronic Frontier Foundation's international outreach coordinator, Danny O'Brien, expects the bill to be reintroduced and passed. But he thinks it will then be reviewed by France's Constitutional Council, which is roughly equivalent to our Supreme Court.
"There's a strong chance that the council will have something to say about this," said O'Brien, "because it does raise so many questions about natural justice and civil liberties."
An emerging progressive consensus on Obama's executive power and secrecy abuses
By Glenn Greenwald, Salon
In the last week alone, the Obama DOJ (a) attempted to shield Bush's illegal spying programs from judicial review by (yet again) invoking the very "state secrets" argument that Democrats spent years condemning and by inventing a brand new "sovereign immunity" claim that not even the Bush administration espoused, and (b) argued that individuals abducted outside of Afghanistan by the U.S. and then "rendered" to and imprisoned in Bagram have no rights of any kind -- not even to have a hearing to contest the accusations against them -- even if they are not Afghans and were captured far away from any "battlefield"...
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) -- which, to the cheers of liberals everywhere, was one of the nation's most stalwart defenders against the Bush assault on core civil liberties -- declared last week: "In Warrantless Wiretapping Case, Obama DOJ's New Arguments Are Worse Than Bush's."
Cybersecurity Act would give president power to 'shut down' Internet
By Greg Fulton, Raw Story
A recently proposed but little-noticed Senate bill would allow the federal government to shut down the Internet in times of declared emergency, and enables unprecedented federal oversight of private network administration...
Adds Jennifer Granick, civil liberties director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, "Essentially, the Act would federalize critical infrastructure security. Since many systems (banks, telecommunications, energy)are in the hands of the private sector, the bill would create a major shift of power away from users and companies to the federal government."
iPhone Jailbreaking More Popular Than Ever
By Mel Beckman, PC World
Although most iPhone users seem satisfied with the smorgasbord of applications delivered by Apple's iPhone App Store, power users yearn for more. Copy and paste, video recording and streaming, Internet tethering, and content search are just a few features third-party developers have already delivered to users hungry enough to "jailbreak" their iPhones...
Open source browser developer Mozilla joined the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) in requesting an exemption to the DMCA specifically clarifying that installation of legal apps on cell phones does not infringe the phone manufacturer's copyright.
Computer science student challenges tech seizure
By Stephanie Condon, CNET News.com
A Boston graduate student is challenging the legality of a warrant that enabled police to search his dorm room and seize several of his computers, an iPod, a cell phone, and other devices...
The EFF is arguing it is irrelevant whether or not Calixte sent the e-mails, since the application for the warrant fails to establish probable cause that sending such an e-mail is a criminal offense.
Calixte "stands accused of fraud, though no money or thing of value is at issue," EFF said in its statement of support. "He is accused of 'hacking' merely by sending an e-mail to a list server. Without a crime, there is no just cause for the search."
Examiner Editorial: Keep government from snooping in our e-mail
San Francisco Examiner
Civilian libertarians were apoplectic about President George W. Bush’s “warrantless wiretap” program, which sought to monitor communications from terrorist networks overseas...
Jennifer Granick, director of civil liberties at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said such an approach would actually make the Internet even more vulnerable by “basically establish[ing] a path for the bad guys to skip down.” The best response to increasing cyber threats, then, is less centralization, not more.
On 'State Secrets,' Meet Barack W. Obama
By Jake Tapper, ABCNews.com
In February, President Obama's Justice Department quietly argued in a San Francisco court that it was maintaining the same position as President Bush's Justice Department on a case involving detainees trying to sue a private company for its role in their (allegedly) extraordinary renditions...
This time the issue was the National Security Agency's warrantless wiretapping program, and whether courts would be able to assess its constitutionality in a case called Jewel v. NSA, where the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is challenging the NSA surveillance by suing on behalf of AT&T customers whose records may or may not have been caught up in the NSA "dragnet."
Obama and State Secrets? Shhh…
By Clint Hendler, Columbia Journalism Review
Obama, like Bush, decides to limit what the courts and the people can know about warrantless wiretapping. Isn’t that a big story?
Not just yet.
On April 3, the Holder Justice Department filed arguments in Jewel v. National Security Agency, a lawsuit being waged by the Electronic Frontier Foundation on behalf of five people who claim that their constitutional rights were abridged when they were subjected to the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping program.
Pundits escalate attacks against Obama
By Carla Marinucci and Joe Garofoli, San Francisco Chronicle
It took fewer than 100 days for conservative critics to start lobbing the F-bomb at President Obama...
And the San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation ripped the Obama Justice Department this week for "continuing the Bush administration's cover-up of the National Security Agency's dragnet surveillance of millions of Americans" - a stance echoed by progressive MSNBC commentator Rachel Maddow over the past several weeks.
Obama's State Secrets Overreach
By Dan Froomkin, Washington Post
There are two things you really need to know about the "state secrets" privilege...
The three cases in question are Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation v. Obama; Mohammed v. Jeppesen Dataplan, in which five victims of "extraordinary rendition" say Jeppesen, a Boeing subsidiary, participated in their delivery to countries that tortured them; and Jewel vs. NSA, in which the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is suing the government on behalf of AT&T customers.
Podcast: EFF on French rejection of piracy bill
By Larry Magid, CNET News.com
By a vote of 21 to 15, the lower house of France's Parliament rejected a bill that would have required Internet service providers to suspend access to people who have received three warnings for illegally downloading copyrighted music...
EFF's International Outreach Coordinator Danny O'Brien explains his organization's position on the issue.
EFF: YouTube's ContentID more strict than DMCA
By Justin Mann, Tech Spot
Google has for a long time enjoyed a good reputation with many Internet users. Often people point to them as an example of a company that does things “the right way” and works to maintain user freedom. It seems, however, that not everyone takes that same stance towards them. In fact, a lawyer for the Electronic Freedom Foundation has harshly criticized YouTube, one of Google's sore spots.
Big Break From Bush on ‘State Secrets’ Unlikely Under Obama
By Daphne Eviatar, Washington Independent
In an interview that aired Wednesday night on the CBS Evening News, Attorney General Eric Holder suggested to Katie Couric that the Obama administration is unlikely to depart dramatically from the Bush administration’s position on the use of the state secrets privilege, noting just one case out of about 20 currently under review in which the Justice Department is seriously considering changing its stance. He did not say which case that was...
For example, in a federal court in San Francisco on Friday, the Obama Justice Department moved to dismiss the Jewel case based in part on the state secrets privilege. The AT&T customers who filed suit, represented by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, claim the National Security Agency illegally intercepted their calls and obtained their phone records as part of a broad-reaching, ongoing national security surveillance program and in violation of the First and Fourth Amendments of the United States Constitution, the separation of powers doctrine and federal statutes.
EFF: Obama DOJ's Warrantless Wiretapping Arguments Are Worse Than Bush's
By Mike Masnick, Tech Dirt
On the issue of warrantless wiretapping, we've never been given a clear explanation by anyone why it makes sense to allow the government to totally skip over the warrant process...
The EFF has an analysis of the new Justice Department in trying to get one of the warrantless wiretapping cases dismissed, noting that the new administration appears to be taking an even more extreme position than the previous administration (which was already quite extreme).
Keith Olbermann's scathing criticism of Obama's secrecy/immunity claims
By Glenn Greenwald, Salon
Several weeks ago, I noted that unlike the Right -- which turned itself into a virtual cult of uncritical reverence for George W. Bush especially during the first several years of his administration -- large numbers of Bush critics have been admirably willing to criticize Obama when he embraces the very policies that prompted so much anger and controversy during the Bush years...
Even better, Olbermann tonight will have on as a guest Kevin Bankston of EFF, the lead counsel for the plaintiffs suing Bush officials for illegal spying, which means Olbermann intends to cover this issue again tonight.
Video: EFF's Kevin Bankston on Countdown with Keith Olbermann
EFF's Kevin Bankston interviewed by MSNBC's Keith Olbermann.
Government opts for secrecy in wiretap suit
By Bob Egelko, San Francisco Chronicle
The Obama administration is again invoking government secrecy in defending the Bush administration's wiretapping program, this time against a lawsuit by AT&T customers who claim federal agents illegally intercepted their phone calls and gained access to their records...
Kevin Bankston of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a lawyer for the customers, said Monday the filing was disappointing in light of the Obama presidential campaign's "unceasing criticism of Bush-era secrecy and promise for more transparency."
US Trade Office Releases Information on Secret Piracy Pact
By Grant Gross, PC World
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has released some new details about an anticounterfeiting trade agreement that has been discussed in secret among the U.S., Japan, the European Union and other countries since 2006...
ince last June, Public Knowledge, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and Knowledge Ecology International (KEI) have filed Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for information about ACTA. USTR had argued that most of the information about the trade pact was classified while releasing just 159 pages of information on the agreement in January. Public Knowledge and EFF said then that USTR was withholding more than 1,300 pages of information.
EFF's von Lohmann: YouTube worse than DMCA for fair use
By Richard Koman, ZDNet
I passed Jason’s post about getting DMCA’d by Warner Music onto Fred von Lohmann at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. You’ll recall that Jason and his wife put up on Vimeo a reunion slideshow with several tracks of music and that Warner Music Group promptly filed a DMCA take-down notice.
Beware online programs that promise cash
By James Temple, San Francisco Chronicle
A pyramid scheme that regularly surfaces during recessions is gaining momentum, this time supercharged by the social-networking power of the Internet, according to the Better Business Bureau and other consumer watchdog groups...
Under the Communications Decency Act of 1996, Web sites aren't liable for content generated by their users, even if it's illegal, said Kurt Opsahl, senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco, which advocates online free speech rights...
The law fostered "an environment where you can have media being democratized and all the voices of ordinary people going online," Opsahl said. "If they were subjected to liability depending on the content, the Internet would become the province of only rich, cautious media companies."
Obama Administration Seeks Dismissal of Wiretapping Lawsuit
Bay City News
The Obama administration Justice Department has asked a federal judge in San Francisco to dismiss a lawsuit that alleges the government engaged in illegal "dragnet surveillance" of American's telephone and e-mail communications...
Electronic Frontier Foundation attorney Kevin Bankston said his group was disappointed the Obama administration is continuing the position of the previous administration.
Bankston charged that the current administration "is continuing the Bush administration's cover-up of the National Security Agency's dragnet surveillance of millions of Americans."
He said, "It feels like deja vu all over again."
Google loses on appeal, will face AdWords trademark suit
By John Timmer , Ars Technica
Google's ability to continue to use other companies' trademarked names in selling and placing advertising will be decided at trial. That's the message sent last Friday by the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, which vacated an earlier ruling in Google's favor. The search giant may still prevail at trial, but the Electronic Frontier Foundation is already voicing concerns about the possibility that the case could have far reaching consequences for company critics.
New and worse secrecy and immunity claims from the Obama DOJ
By Glenn Greenwald, Salon
When Congress immunized telecoms last August for their illegal participation in Bush's warrantless eavesdropping program, Senate Democratic apologists for telecom immunity repeatedly justified that action by pointing out that Bush officials who broke the law were not immunized -- only the telecoms...
Taking them at their word, EFF -- which was the lead counsel in the lawsuits against the telecoms -- thereafter filed suit, in October, 2008, against the Bush administration and various Bush officials for illegally spying on the communications of Americans.
Consumer Interest Groups Ask Obama To Stop Appointing RIAA Lawyers
By Mike Masnick, Tech Dirt
With the Obama administration appointing a whole bunch of copyright maximalists to various positions (despite an early indication that perhaps he recognized issues with copyright law), a bunch of public interest and consumer interest groups have gotten together to write a letter to Obama, asking him to recognize that he seems to be filling every open slot with a very heavily biased viewpoint which could do significant harm towards innovation...
Still, the EFF also took the opportunity to point out that it seems likely that Obama violated copyright himself, in giving a gift of an iPod filled with music to the Queen of England.
Coalition: administration needs balance, diversity on IP
By John Timmer, Ars Technica
One could be forgiven for thinking that intellectual property issues were simply a matter of determining how to enforce the rights of the owner of said property...
Several consumers groups, such as the Consumer Electronics Association and Consumers Union, signed on, as did Web organizations like the Internet Archive and Wikimedia Foundation. There are also several general public interest organizations, like the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Public Knowledge. All told, nearly 20 groups have signed on to the letter.
IPod: Gift 'Fit For A Queen' Might Violate Copyright Law
By Wendy Davis, Mediapost
This week, President Barack Obama gave the Queen of England an iPod preloaded with 40 tracks from Broadway shows. Did doing so violate the copyright law?
Fred von Lohmann at the Electronic Frontier Foundation says the answer might be yes.
Does Mark Cuban Have a Case?
By Ryan Corazza, ESPN
Friday night, Mark Cuban used his Twitter feed to complain about the refs during the Mavericks-Nuggets game. The NBA promptly fined him $25,000...
"In the example behind this story where somebody had re-posted his message in commenting on the NBA fine, it's really quite clear to me that that would be fair use," said Fred von Lohmann, an attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a group that has specialized in defending speech in the digital realm since 1990. "They are reporting the news about a public figure. Mark Cuban does not independently make money on these Twitter messages, so it's not displacing the market that he has for these copyrighted works. In my view, this is an easy fair use case."
Obama: Stop Filling Administration with RIAA Insiders
By David Kravets, Wired News
Nearly two dozen public interest groups, trade pacts and library groups urged President Barack Obama on Thursday to quit filling his administration with insiders plucked from the Recording Industry Association of America...
Groups such as Public Knowledge, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Consumer Electronics Association, the Wikimedia Foundation and, among others, the American Library Association, are demanding Obama to look outside the content industry when filling up his administration.
EFF Wonders: Did Obama Violate Copyright Law With iPod Gift?
By David Kravets , Wired News
President Barack Obama gave Queen Elizabeth II an iPod on Thursday with some 40 Broadway songs from popular musicals like West Side Story and the King and I.
Yet convoluted U.S. copyright laws make it unclear whether the chief executive is a copyright scofflaw. Fred von Lohmann, a copyright expert at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, explains:
"You know your copyright laws are broken when there is no easy answer to this question," he wrote.
iPhone OS 3.0 beta successfully jailbroken
By Dan Moren, Macworld
Despite the fact that iPhone OS 3.0 is still a ways from seeing the public light of day, those who are concerned over whether or not they’ll be able to jailbreak Apple’s newest iteration can take heart...
Not that this is likely to put a stop to jaibreaking, as is clearly evident from the 3.0 jailbreak. But I imagine that Apple felt it had to give itself some recourse that could be used in a legal situation if necessary, such as the issue that has arisen over the DMCA exemption proposed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Geek Reading Fundraises for the Electronic Frontier Foundation
VidSF
VIDEO: Author Cory Doctorow and others read from their works to raise funds and awareness for the EFF, a non-profit which defends digital civil liberties.
Is AT&T violating DMCA by not booting 'repeat infringers'?
By Greg Sandoval, CNET News.com
One of revelations that surfaced following last week's report that AT&T was helping the recording industry fight illegal file sharing was how differently Internet service providers interpret U.S. copyright law...
Nowhere in the DMCA does the law call on ISPs to send warning notices to customers on behalf of copyright owners, said Fred von Lohmann, senior attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a group that advocates for the rights of Web users...
The "repeat infringer" provision applies to all service providers, YouTube as well as AT&T, said von Lohmann. But he also said that AT&T is correct to leave the determination of who violates the law up to judges and not entertainment executives.
SeeqPod Files for Bankruptcy Following Major Label Lawsuits
By Eliot Van Buskirk, Wired News
SeeqPod has filed for bankruptcy protection as it fends off lawsuits from major labels seeking billions of dollars from the music search engine for alleged copyright infringement...
Despite its predicament, experts including Fred von Lohmann of the EFF have questioned whether SeeqPod's search engine — which hosts no music — constitutes copyright infringement under United States law. If anyone is infringing the labels' copyrights, one might argue, it's the sites that host the music played by SeeqPod.
Wireless Wars - Jailbreaking, Unlocking and the DMCA
By Luke Simpson, Wireless Week
It’s Apple, Virgin Mobile and CTIA versus the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), Skype, Mozilla, eBay, MetroPCS, Pocket Communications and The Wireless Alliance in a battle for control, security, choice and freedom. The outcome could revolutionize the way mobile manufacturers, carriers and content providers do business.
The State Of DRM: Is The Customer Right?
By Joel Rose, NPR
Back in the early 2000s, a bunch of online music services competed to sell music — each with its own form of Digital Rights Management (DRM) and each with its own set of restrictions on how and where those songs would play...
"They wasted years and years fighting the technology instead of figuring out how to work with it," says Corynne McSherry, a staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. She adds that the music industry gradually found that DRM wasn't preventing piracy — just sales.
