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EFFector - Volume 21, Issue 19 - Urgent Action Alert: Tell Congress “No Deal On Telecom Immunity”

EFFECTOR

EFFector - Volume 21, Issue 19 - Urgent Action Alert: Tell Congress “No Deal On Telecom Immunity”

EFFector Vol. 21, No. 19  June 11, 2008  editor@eff.org

A Publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation
ISSN 1062-9424

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In our 472nd issue:

* URGENT ACTION ALERT: TELL CONGRESS "NO DEAL ON TELECOM
IMMUNITY"! Recent intelligence indicates that high-ranking
Republicans and Democrats are hoping that a "compromise"
foreign intelligence surveillance bill can be rushed
through both the House and the Senate before the July 4th
holiday -- maybe even next week.

The drafting process has been secretive, but one thing is
clear: the "compromise" is almost certain to contain
blanket immunity for phone companies that assisted in the
NSA's warrantless wiretapping program and prevent any court
from ruling on whether they broke the law.

We've stopped telecom immunity in its tracks before, but
the empty "compromise" rhetoric surrounding this bill makes
it extremely dangerous. Please contact your Senators and
Congressperson to remind them that we're watching, and that
we won't accept any false compromises on immunity for
lawbreaking telecoms!
http://www.eff.org/action/no-false-compromises

* IN ANOTHER BATTLE AGAINST ABUSIVE DMCA TAKEDOWNS, EFF has
asked a federal court to protect the free speech rights of
an animal welfare group after its video critiques of animal
treatment at rodeos were removed from YouTube due to sham
copyright claims. The Professional Rodeo Cowboys
Association (PRCA) filed takedown demands for 13 videos
from the group Showing Animals Respect and Kindness
(SHARK), claiming that the videos infringed their
copyrights -- even though the PRCA has no copyright claim
in live rodeo events. The lawsuit is part of EFF's No
Downtime for Free Speech Campaign, a response to increasing
misuse of the DMCA to demand that material be removed from
the Internet without providing any proof of infringement.
http://www.eff.org/press/archives/2008/06/09-0

* EFF WELCOMES LEADING INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ATTORNEY
MICHAEL KWUN, who brings years of copyright, trademark, and
patent litigation experience to EFF's legal team. A
long-time geek, Kwun worked on early DMCA cases and, as
Google's litigation managing counsel, defended Google in
copyright cases about YouTube, Google Book Search, and
Google Image Search; trademark cases about Google AdWords;
and patent cases in connection with a wide variety of
Google products.
http://www.eff.org/press/archives/2008/06/09

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EFF Updates

* Supreme Court Victory for Patent First Sale Doctrine
Supreme Court backs the patent world's version of the "you
bought it, you own it" principle.
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2008/06/supreme-court-victory-patent-first-sale-doctrine

* Laser Printers Found Guilty of "Making Available" Crimes
Researchers at the University of Washington discover severe
flaws in the mass collection of IP addresses for the
entertainment industry's DMCA takedown campaign.
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2008/06/laser-printers-found-guilty-making-available-crime

* McCain Revises Stance on Warrantless Wiretapping, Again
Between voicing skepticism and completely embracing the
administration's flawed legal justifications for
warrantless wiretapping, McCain settles on describing the
President's actions as "ambiguous." 
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2008/06/mccain-revises-stance-warrantless-wiretapping

* McCain Campaign Staffed By Telecom Immunity Lobbyists
Strong connections between telecom immunity lobbyists and
the McCain campaign raise serious questions about McCain's
about-face on warrantless wiretapping.
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2008/06/mccain-campaign-staffed-telecom-immunity-lobbyists

* Fair Use Defense Ruled "Likely to Prevail" in "Imagine"
Copyright Infringement Suit
Filmmakers making use of John Lennon's "Imagine" win the
first round in a copyright infringement suit brought by
Yoko Ono.
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2008/06/fair-use-defense-ruled-likely-prevail-imagine-copy

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miniLinks

~ What the FISA Debate Is Not About
Marty Lederman asks why reverting to the old FISA rules is
supposedly such a problem for the intelligence community.
http://balkin.blogspot.com/2008/06/what-fisa-debate-is-not-about.html

~ ISP Plan to Block Child Porn -- Will There Be Chilling
Effects?
The New York Attorney General says 3 major ISPs have agreed
to block child porn -- but the plan could set a precedent
that challenges the Communications Decency Act's
protections for online content hosts. 
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/06/analysis-commun.html

~ Movies on Cable Before DVD? 
A plan would bring movies to cable faster -- but you won't
be able to watch on a high-def TV, and don't even think
about TiVo.
http://opinion.latimes.com/bitplayer/2008/06/movies-on-cable.html

~ Wiki for Listing Legitimate Uses of P2P
A wiki has been set up to collect all the various
legitimate uses for P2P software.
http://www.boingboing.net/2008/06/06/wiki-for-listing-leg.html

For more miniLinks:
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2008/06/minilinks-2008-06-10

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Announcements

* EFF at RoboGames
Can't get enough extreme robot action?  Neither can we! EFF
will be at the 2008 RoboGames at Fort Mason in San
Francisco on June 13-15:
http://www.eff.org/calendar/2008/06/12/eff-robogames

* Music Benefit for EFF in San Francisco on Wednesday, June
18th
http://www.eff.org/calendar/2008/06/18/sf-wiretap-music-benefit-eff

* EFF at Personal Democracy Forum 2008
Visit EFF at Personal Democracy Forum 2008 in New York City
on June 23-24, 2008.
http://www.eff.org/calendar/2008/06/23/eff-personal-democracy-forum-2008

* EFF at Velocity
Velocity is the new O'Reilly conference for people building
at Internet scale, taking place on June 23-24, 2008, at the
San Francisco Airport Marriott in Burlingame, California.
http://www.eff.org/calendar/2008/06/23/eff-velocity-2008

* Second Annual Institute on CyberLaw in Washington D.C.
June 19-20, the American Bar Association, in cooperation
with the Association for Computing Machinery, presents a
conference on cutting-edge legal topics: copyright
enforcement, the future of ICANN, and much more.
http://www.abanet.org/cle/programs/n08ceh1.pdf

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Administrivia

EFFector is published by:
The Electronic Frontier Foundation
 http://www.eff.org/about

Editor:
Richard Esguerra, EFF Activist
 richard@eff.org

Membership & donation queries:
 membership@eff.org

General EFF, legal, policy, or online resources queries:
 information@eff.org

Back issues of EFFector are available at:
 http://www.eff.org/effector/

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