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EFFector - Volume 24, Issue 8 - Sunshine Week: Do Open Government Laws Still Matter in the Era of WikiLeaks?

EFFECTOR

EFFector - Volume 24, Issue 8 - Sunshine Week: Do Open Government Laws Still Matter in the Era of WikiLeaks?

 
 
 
EFFector! Electronic Frontier Foundation
 
 

In our 566th issue:

Sunshine Week: Do Open Government Laws Still Matter in the Era of WikiLeaks?

March 14-18th is "Sunshine Week -- a week to focus on the importance of open government and how we can ensure accountability for our leaders. With all of the information WikiLeaks has brought to light over the last year, many have asked what WikiLeaks means for those of us who work with open government laws. While many believe that asymmetries of information may sometimes be necessary - for example, in times of war - there is clear evidence that governments sometimes abuse those asymmetries to keep secret knowledge that righly belongs in the public domain.

Court Rules Against Privacy in Battle Over Twitter Records

A judge in Virginia ruled that the government can collect the private records of three Twitter users as part of its investigation related to WikiLeaks. The court also refused a request to unseal the documents that the government submitted to the court to justify obtaining their records. EFF and the ACLU plan to appeal the decision on behalf of their client Birgitta Jonsdottir, an Icelandic parliamentarian.

Don't Let TPP Become the Next ACTA!

The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement involves a coalition of willing countries working to create new global IP enforcement norms that are higher than the current international standards. Like ACTA, the TPP is being negotiated in secret, and on a fast timetable. Please ask your congressional representatives to release the text and solicit public comments on it.
Take action now. (Note: this alert is only available in certain states)

A Privacy Emergency: Consumer Rights at Risk with Next Generation 911

The advent of advanced communication technologies offers an opportunity to improve responsiveness and accessibility of emergency services, but we must ensure that the Next Generation 911 will not inadvertently jeopardize consumer privacy or stifle innovation. The FCC has published a proposed framework for the future of 911 - including providing consumers the ability to send text messages, photos, emails and data files of medical information to responders. EFF submitted comments to the FCC expressing grave concerns about the potential privacy and innovation implications of the proposed framework, and urging the Commission to safeguard consumer rights.

EFF Updates

Supreme Court to Hear Challenge to Law That Removes Works from the Public Domain
The Supreme Court agreed to hear an important case about whether Congress has the power to “restore” copyright protection to works that already exist in the public domain.

Have You Benefited from Public Access to PubMed?
To celebrate the third anniversary of a policy that provides public access to NIH taxpayer-funded research, SPARC is calling for stories of individuals who benefited from access to this data.

China Deputizes Smart Phones to Spy on Beijing Residents' Real-Time Location
The Chinese government has announced plans to track the real-time location of all cell phones in the city of Beijing, but a few hacktivists and academics are exploring ways to circumvent this type of surveillance.

miniLinks

Web Seizures Trample Due Process (and Break the Law)
Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) criticized domain seizures that took down 84,000 sites.

2011 Netizen Prize to Tunisian Bloggers
Reporters Without Borders awarded the 2011 Netizen Prize to Tunisian bloggers at nawaat.org. Congratulations, Nawaat!

Egypt: Storming State Security
Protesters are securing secret documents throughout Egypt as State Security tries to shred, burn, and destroy evidence.

Administrivia

ISSN 1062-9424

EFFector is a publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
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Editor: Rainey Reitman, Activist
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Reproduction of this publication in electronic media is encouraged. Signed articles do not necessarily represent the views of EFF. To reproduce signed articles individually, please contact the authors for their express permission.

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Announcements

SXSW: South by Southwest Music + Film Interactive

Four of EFF's finest are presenters on three different panels at this year's SXSW Interactive!
Location: Austin, TX
Date: March 11-20, 2011

Crossing Boundaries: Conference on International News, Technology and Audiences

Marcia Hofmann, EFF Senior Staff Attorney, will be speaking on a panel discussing "Citizen vs. Government."
Location: Berkeley, CA
Date: March 18, 2011

Government Surveillance in a Digital World: An Evening with the Electronic Frontier Foundation

Join EFF Staff Activists Richard Esguerra and Rainey Reitman as they discuss how digital technology is changing the way we communicate, from the unprecedented exposure of our personal details to the legal ways the government can spy on your online communications.
Location: San Francisco, CA
Date: March 24, 2011

Fifth Annual Law & Information Society Symposium: Mobile Devices, Location Technologies & Shifting Value

Kevin Bankston, EFF Senior Staff Attorney and Lori Cranor, EFF Board Member, will discuss law and policy with respect to mobile devices as public values shift.
Location: New York, NY
Date: March 25, 2011

From Mad Men to Mad Bots: Advertising in the Digital Age

EFF Senior Staff Attorney Lee Tien joins a panel discussion on online advertising privacy at Yale Law School's Information Society Project's Spring Symposium.
Location: New Haven, CT
Date: March 25-26, 2011

SunshineWeek 2011 Webcast and Local Panel: The Road Forward on Open Government

EFF Activist Rainey Reitman joins Declan McCullagh, Chief Political Correspondent for CNET, and James Jacobs, Government Documents Librarian at Stanford, to discuss WikiLeaks and its relationship to Open Government.
Location: San Francisco, CA
Date: March 30, 2011

SOURCE Boston and SOURCE Seattle

EFF is a proud partner of two SOURCE Security Conferences! In addition to advanced technical talks, SOURCE offers workshops on entrepreneurship, management strategies, job interviewing, presentation skills, and proficiencies and strategies designed for the security industry.
Location: Boston, MA
Date: April 20, 2011
and
Location: Seattle, WA
Date: June 15-16, 2011

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