In The News: October, 2009
Obama administration moves to stop release of classified information
By Jeanne Meserve, CNN
But Kevin Bankston, senior staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said the decision to invoke the state secrets privilege represented a continuation of Bush administration policy. He said it is a sharp contrast to the promises of greater government transparency and accountability made during the Obama campaign.
"It turns out that 'change we can believe in' hasn't really resulted in any change at all when it comes to government secrecy," Bankston said.
America's Chamber of horrors
By Andrew Leonard, Salon.com
You might think that an organisation boasting as long a history and as much accumulated savvy about how the American political system works as the US Chamber of Commerce would know better than to pick a fight with satirical hoaxsters who will only gain from more publicity. This is not the kind of behaviour we expect from such an august institution. As Corynne McSherry, a staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which is representing the Yes Men in its legal battle with the Chamber, told Salon, "We are surprised and disappointed that the Chamber of Commerce has chosen to go to court over obvious political criticism."
Attorney General Holder Asserts State Secrets in Wiretap Suit
By Karen Gullo, Bloomberg
“It’s disappointing that they campaigned for a return to the rule of law, and have them turn around and say that courts can’t even look at these cases,” said Cindy Cohn, legal director at the San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation, a privacy group that has challenged the warrantless wiretap program in court.
Obama Administration Invokes State Secrets Privilege…Again
By Jake Tapper, ABCnews.com
"The Obama administration has essentially adopted the position of the Bush administration in these cases," said Kevin Bankston, a lawyer for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, "even though candidate Obama was incredibly critical of both the warrantless wiretapping program and the Bush administration's abuse of the state secrets privilege."
EFF Creates a ‘Hall of Shame’ for Disputed Takedowns
By Marisa Taylor, Wall Street Journal Blogs
The Electronic Frontier Foundation’s latest effort to call out what it considers violations of copyright and trademark law comes in the form of a mock-awards page, complete with “honorees,” called the Takedown Hall of Shame.
Obama administration seeks to block wiretap suit
By Devlin Barrett, Associated Press
Kevin Bankston, a lawyer for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a civil liberties group in San Francisco that is pursuing a similar lawsuit against the government, called Holder's decision "quite disappointing."
"The Obama administration has essentially adopted the position of the Bush administration in these cases, even though candidate Obama was incredibly critical of both the warrantless wiretapping program and the Bush administration's abuse of the state secrets privilege," said Bankston.
The case against the FCC's Net neutrality plan
By Larry Downes, CNET News
In arguing against ancillary jurisdiction, Comcast has found a surprising ally: the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The advocacy group--strong supporters of the principles of neutrality--believes that the commission has no authority to issue these rules without sweeping new authority from Congress. Regulating neutrality under ancillary jurisdiction, the EFF worries, is a cure far worse than the disease; a "power grab that would leave the Internet subject to the regulatory whims of the FCC long after Chairman Genachowski leaves his post."
Internet turns 40 with birthday party
By Glenn Chapman, AFP
"It feels to me like the alumni meeting of the framers of the US Constitution," Electronic Frontier Foundation co-founder John Perry Barlow said as he addressed the gathering.
"There are a lot of people in this room who are honest to god uncles and aunts of the Internet. What you did is conceivably the most important technological event since the capture of fire."
Analyst: ‘Trigger Day’ Looms for Paramount, Redbox
By Erik Gruenwedel, Homemediamagazine.com
“Nothing would stop Netflix from renting titles under First Sale, other than the risk of losing the discount,” said Fred von Lohmann, senior staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Digital Bread Crumbs: Following Your Cell Phone Trail
Martin Kaste, NPR
Cell phones leave a data trail, and it is becoming standard operating procedure for police departments and federal agents to use this data to locate and track people. NPR talks to a forensic expert and to EFF attorney Jennifer Granick about the practice.
For Texas Instruments, Calculator Hackers Don't Add Up
David Kushner, IEEE Spectrum Magazine
Calculator hackers code games and even get USB peripherals running on their machines. There's one problem: Texas Instruments doesn't want hackers modifying their calculators. TI insisted hackers take down links leading to signing keys that enable such modifications. The incident raises compelling questions about the boundaries of innovation and collaboration online.
Punked US Chamber sues faux press release pranksters
By Cade Metz , Register UK
But even after the Yes Men acknowledged the hoax, the press release remained online, and the Chamber couldn't help but toss a DMCA takedown at the pranksters' ISP. Those net watchdogs at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) cried foul over the takedown notice, arguing that parody is protected under copyright law and the US Constitution's First Amendment.
EFF opens the "Takedown Hall of Shame"
By Nate Anderson, Ars Technica
The Electronic Frontier Foundation is a big fan of naming and shaming... So when it wanted to highlight the overzealous use of DMCA takedown notices on the Web, the EFF went a similar route with its new "Takedown Hall of Shame."
Hoaxed US Chamber thumps pranksters with blunt instrument
By Cade Metz, Register UK
The Net watchdogs at EFF have come out against the Chamber's DMCA tactics, demanding the takedown notice be rescinded. "We are very disappointed the Chamber of Commerce decided to respond to political criticism with legal threats," EFF staff attorney Corynne McSherry said from inside a press release.
Obama & Google (a love story)
By Jia Lynn Yang and Nina Easton, Fortune Magazine
"Google will know what pages you read and how often you read it," says Cindy Cohn, legal director for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which represented authors in the settlement with Google. "Google has come out with a policy saying it promises to protect our privacy, but it doesn't have any specific commitments -- it's pretty thin gruel."
Judge Urged To Not Restrict Comments on Google Settlement
By Norman Oder, Library Journal
While the largest library organizations are not signatories to the letter, among the signers are the Urban Libraries Council; the networks Lyrasis, Nylink, and BCR; and the Open Book Alliance, (OBA) which includes the New York Library Association and SLA. Among the other signatories are the American Society of Journalists and Authors; the Electronic Frontier Foundation; Microsoft; Yahoo; law professor Pamela Samuelson; and various foreign publishing societies.
ISP Takes Down Parody After Chamber Of Commerce Complains
By Wendy Davis, Mediapost
The digital rights organization Electronic Frontier Foundation fired back a letter on behalf of the Yes Men, arguing that the site is protected by fair use principles because it "is obviously designed for purposes of criticism and comment."
EFF defends Yes Men from business rage over climate hoax
By Matthew Lasar, Ars Technica
But lawyers from the Electronic Frontier Foundation are telling the Chamber to cool off about the whole affair.
What's the furor about? The Yes Men staged a fake press conference this week at the National Press Club in Washington. A "Yes Man" calling himself "Hingo Sembra" actually took to the podium in front of reporters to announce the Chamber's shift on climate change, only to have the whole spectacle turn truly bizarre when a real Chamber official showed up.
Judge Throws out Craigslist Lawsuit
By Nancy Gohring, PC World
"Meritless cases brought by law enforcement officers, amounting to little more than publicity stunts with little to no chance of success, do little to address the officers' underlying concerns," Matt Zimmerman , a senior staff attorney with the EFF, wrote in a blog post. "Service provides are not liable because Congress correctly understood that the soap box should not be held responsible for the speech of others. Just as phone companies are not liable for harassing phone calls, or e-mail software providers for deceptive messages, online message boards like Craigslist are in most instances not liable for their users' posts."
Judge rejects sheriff's prostitution suit against Craigslist
AFP
While prostitution is a serious problem, targeting websites like Craigslist is simply "a cheap and easy way to score political points," wrote Matt Zimmerman of the advocacy group Electronic Frontier Foundation.
"Meritless cases brought by law enforcement officers, amounting to little more than publicity stunts with little to no chance of success, do little to address the officers' underlying concerns," he wrote in a blog posting.
"Service provides are not liable because Congress correctly understood that the soap box should not be held responsible for the speech of others."
France adopts three-strikes law for piracy
By Greg Sandoval, CNET News
There is yet another way that copyright owners could get ISPs to help in their antipiracy efforts, according to Gwen Hinze, international policy director for the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
FCC proposes network neutrality rules (and big exemptions)
By Nate Anderson, Ars Technica
In an odd twist, the Electronic Frontier Foundation agrees. Despite supporting neutrality, the group argues that "Congress has never given the FCC any authority to regulate the Internet for the purpose of ensuring net neutrality."
Web Sites Donate Ad Space for Social Good
By Allison Mooney, Advertising Age
Their goal is to raise both awareness and money for worthy organizations, which currently include the Alliance for Climate Protection, Architecture for Humanity, Charity:Water, Donors Choose, Electronic Frontier Foundation and National Resources Defense Council.
House Considers Limiting Patriot Act Spy Powers
By David Kravets, Wired News
Kevin Bankston, a privacy lawyer with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, applauded the latest NSL proposal.
“As currently written, NSLs can be used to obtain the records of somebody not suspected of a crime. It’s a suspicionless standard. Under the proposal they must relate to an agent of a foreign power, of somebody working for a foreign government or foreign terror organization, ” he said. “That ensures that there is a particularized suspicion rather than allowing them to go on a fishing expedition.”
Getting bugged by e-mail subpoenas
By Eric Zorn, Chicago Tribune
"The law hasn't kept up with technology," said Cindy Cohn, legal director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "Up through most of the 1900s, the idea was that when you wrote something down, it was a signal that it was somehow important. Therefore it was reasonable for the law to say that written communication and other documents could be deemed relevant in criminal and civil proceedings."
White House readies phone-tap case concession
By Josh Gerstein and John Bresnahan, Politico
“The Executive Branch will be providing to the Electronic Frontier Foundation in its FOIA suit a large number of e-mail communications between House staffers and Executive branch employees regarding the legislation involving immunity to telecommunications companies enacted as part of the [revised Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act] legislation last year,” Nathan wrote.
Texas Instruments: Don't hack your calculators, or else
By Bobbie Johnson, Guardian UK
"This is not about copyright infringement. This is about running your own software on your own device - a calculator you legally bought," said EFF Civil Liberties Director Jennifer Granick. "Yet TI still issued empty legal threats in an attempt to shut down discussion of this legitimate tinkering. Hobbyists are taking their own tools and making them better, in the best tradition of American innovation."
Why hack a calculator? Why climb Mount Everest?
By Stephen Shankland, CNET News
Some complied with TI's demand, but while the company may have won a battle, it may yet lose the war. The Electronic Frontier Foundation argues TI's DMCA letters are baseless, and some TI calculator hackers represented by the EFF plan to republish their posts later this month.
Judge: Cellphone Ringtones Are Not Concerts
By David Kravets, Wired News
“The ruling is an important victory for consumers, making it clear that playing music in public, when done without any commercial purpose, does not infringe copyright,” wrote Fred von Lohmann, a copyright attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Internet watchdog challenges VoIP patent
By Marguerite Reardon, CNET News
The Electronic Frontier Foundation says it has discovered another bogus patent, and it's taking the newly found evidence to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to have the patent invalidated.
45th Mersenne prime revealed
By Austin Modine, Register UK
This prime among Mersenne Primes is now a certified record-smasher, and it will net GIMPS a $100,000 award from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) for finding a prime number over 10 million digits.
EFF Challenges VOIP Systems Patent
By Roy Mark, eWeek
As part of its Patent Busting Project, the Electronic Frontier Foundation claims it has discovered a prior patent and published reference material that should invalidate a patent granted to Acceris for implementing VOIP using analog telephones as endpoints
Apple Tweaks iPhone 3GS to Lock Out Jailbreakers
By Richard Adhikari, MacNewsWorld
"Apple is certainly entitled to modify its hardware as it likes -- just like Toyota can use nonstandard parts to make it hard on replacement part makers," Fred von Lohmann, EFF's senior staff attorney, told MacNewsWorld. "What Apple should not be entitled to do is invoke the DMCA to block hobbyists from tinkering with their own property -- just like a car company shouldn't be able to use the DMCA to prevent me from using replacement parts of my choice."
EFF: TI calculator hackers didn't violate DMCA
By Stephen Shankland, CNET News
The Electronic Frontier Foundation on Tuesday rebutted legal assertions by Texas Instruments that enthusiasts who figured how to install their own operating systems on TI calculators violated the Digital Millenium Copyright Act.
EFF challenges Texas Instruments over calculator mods
By John Timmer, Ars Technica
Those issues were elaborated in a letter to TI from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which has agreed to represent the three bloggers targeted by DMCA takedowns. The EFF points out that the keys don't actually control access to the OS in residence on the calculators, which TI makes available as a free download.
Google Books: Scanning the Future
By Ben Hallman, The American Lawyer
Fred von Lohmann, a lawyer for the digital rights group the Electronic Frontier Foundation, says the proposed settlement may encourage stakeholders to "stop worrying about control, and to start worrying about remuneration.
Is EZ-Pass infringing on people’s privacy?
By Bruce Landis, Providence Journal
“That can very easily be used to track people’s location history,” said Lee Tien, an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a San Francisco nonprofit that supports civil liberties in the high-tech arena. “It’s something people just don’t think about, that the system knows where you are and when you pay.”
Democrats Split on Patriot Act
By Daphne Eviatar, Washingon Independent
Civil liberties advocates quickly expressed their disappointment. The American Civil Liberties Union called it “a watered-down version” of the original Leahy bill. Kevin Bankston of Electronic Frontier Foundation similarly described it as having “even fewer PATRIOT reforms than the original Leahy bill.”
File-hosting site up in arms over Firefox plug-in
By John Timmer, Ars Technica
The SkipScreen developers, however, have gotten the Electronic Frontier Foundation to take up their case. In a letter that has also been sent to Mozilla, the EFF calls MediaFire's claim's "baseless," arguing, "SkipScreen, like many other add-ons, simply automates certain browser tasks in order to improve the user experience." The letter points out that only users who set up accounts agree to the company's acceptable use policy; downloaders just go straight through to the file. Furthermore, it notes, there's no real difference in total bandwidth use for downloads initiated with or without the plugin.
Firefox Automation Plug-In Draws Legal Threat
By Thomas Claburn , InformationWeek
The Electronic Frontier Foundation has elected to help SkipScreen defend itself and senior staff attorney Fred von Lohmann offers this succinct response in a blog post: "It's my browser, and I can ignore your ads if I want to."
Civil Libertarians Dismayed by Patriot Amendments
By Daphne Eviatar, Washingon Independent
I just spoke to Kevin Bankston, the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s senior attorney specializing in free speech and privacy law, about his reaction to today’s Senate Judiciary Committee markup session on the Patriot Act, which resulted in passage of the Leahy-Feinstein bill, with a few amendments. Bankston, who’s been following this debate closely, was not pleased.
Telephone Company Is Arm of Government, Feds Admit in Spy Suit
By Ryan Singel, Wired News
The Electronic Frontier Foundation wanted to see what role telecom lobbying of the Justice Department played when the government began its year-long, and ultimately successful, push to win retroactive immunity for AT&T and others being sued for unlawfully spying on American citizens.
The feds argued that the documents showing consultation over the controversial telecom immunity proposal weren’t subject to the Freedom of Information Act since they were protected as “intra-agency” records...
The Norm Coleman Web crash and full disclosure
Network World
In contrast, Attorney Jennifer Granick is the Civil Liberties Director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Executive Director of the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford Law School. According to her, neither Richards nor Wikileaks.org broke the law. "Based on her knowledge of this case, as well as the law, Granick said it was legal for Richards to view the Web directory on which Coleman's donor list resided. "There has to be some kind of indication that information is locked away," she said.
Google, Authors Given Until November To Fix Book Settlement
By Wendy Davis, Mediapost
Separately, digital rights advocates like the Electronic Frontier Foundation and ACLU objected to the deal on the grounds that Google had not guaranteed to preserve readers' privacy. They argued that the deal should not go forward without assurances from Google that it will guarantee readers the same privacy and anonymity that patrons of brick-and-mortar libraries have.
This week, the digital rights groups, along with a coalition of authors and other interested parties, asked Google to revise the settlement by including "enforceable privacy protections."
Twitter user who helped G20 protestors facing charges
AFP
According to the police complaint obtained by the non-profit Electronic Frontier Foundation and posted online on Tuesday, Madison and another man were in the motel room when police arrived.
Publishers disconnect on e-book biz
NPR - Marketplace
Fred von Lohmann represents the Electronic Frontier Foundation. He warns publishers are inviting piracy.
FRED VON LOHMANN: I do think that's going to become a real threat if publishers decide to take the view that people only get to read what they tell them to read, in the format they tell them to enjoy, at the price point that they insist on. That's exactly the kind of short-sighted, anti-customer attitude that landed the music industry in so much trouble.
Web surfers say no to tailored ads, study found
By Alejandro Martinez-Cabrera , San Francisco Chronicle
"The problem is not so much the customization of advertising but the customization of the data the advertising is based from. It's an indication that people are being watched in a profound and surreptitious way they're unaware of," said Peter Eckersley, a senior technologist with the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
