e>EFF in the News
EFF in the News: April 2006
April 30, 2006
Columbus Dispatch
"Voting's New Look"
By Robert Vitale
Ruth Fisher cast her first ballot in 1942 on a sheet of paper. In the years since, she's pulled levers, pushed buttons and poked punch cards to cast her votes in Franklin County...
Matt Zimmerman, a lawyer for the San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation, said a series of malfunctions and breakdowns reported across the country shows voting still carries the uncertainties exposed in Florida nearly six years ago.
"It's not that we think technology isn't a good thing," he said. "There's a lot of making this more complicated than it needs to be. Every time you add a million lines of code you increase the chances for error."
April 29, 2006
Reuters
"U.S. seeks to dismiss AT&T secrets suit"
The U.S. government has asked a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit by a San Francisco civil liberties group against AT&T because it says the case could reveal military and state secrets...
The Electronic Frontier Foundation said in a statement issued late on Friday that "evidence regarding AT&T's dragnet surveillance of its networks, currently filed under seal, includes a declaration by Mark Klein, a retired AT&T telecommunications technician, and several internal AT&T documents."
April 29, 2006
San Francisco Chronicle
"U.S. moves to quash privacy suit against AT&T"
By Bob Egelko
The Bush administration said Friday that it will ask a federal judge to dismiss a privacy rights group's lawsuit against AT&T over the company's reported role in a government surveillance program, because the case might expose state secrets...
Kurt Opsahl, a lawyer with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said Walker should reject the government's request to dismiss the suit.
"The state secret privilege should not be used to protect an illegal program from judicial scrutiny," Opsahl said.
April 29, 2006
San Jose Mercury News
"Security risk seen in suit against AT&T"
The U.S. Justice Department said government secrets may be disclosed in a lawsuit that claims AT&T is facilitating a domestic spying program.
The government intends to assert "military and state secrets privilege" to seek dismissal of the lawsuit filed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a San Francisco privacy rights group, that claims AT&T gave the National Security Agency access to customers' phone calls and e-mails without their permission.
April 29, 2006
New York Times
"U.S. Steps Into Wiretap Suit Against AT&T"
The government asked a federal judge here Friday to dismiss a civil liberties lawsuit against the AT&T Corporation because of a possibility that military and state secrets would otherwise be disclosed...
Responding to the filing, Cindy Cohn, legal director for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said, "We think the government's right to conduct this program should be considered separately from the issue of whether a telecommunications firm has the right to break the law."
April 28, 2006
Associated Press
"Feds move to dismiss lawsuit challenging spy tactics"
By David Kravets
The Justice Department says it is moving to dismiss a federal lawsuit challenging the Bush administration's secretive domestic wiretapping program...
"We believe AT&T violated the law by providing the communications of its clients to the government without warrants, which is prohibited by federal law," said Kurt Opsahl, an EFF attorney.
April 28, 2006
CNET
"U.S. trying to halt suit against NSA"
By Declan McCullagh
It's official: The Bush administration formally said Friday that it will try to halt a lawsuit that accuses AT&T of helping the National Security Agency spy on Americans illegally...
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights group based in San Francisco, filed the class action lawsuit against the federal government in January. The suit claims AT&T's alleged cooperation violates free speech and privacy rights found in the U.S. Constitution and also contravenes federal wiretapping law, which prohibits electronic surveillance "except as authorized by statute."
April 28, 2006
Wired
"Feds Drop Bomb on EFF Lawsuit"
By Ryan Singel
The federal government intends to invoke the rarely used "State Secrets Privilege" -- the legal equivalent of a nuclear bomb -- in the Electronic Frontier Foundation's class action lawsuit against AT&T that alleges the telecom collaborated with the government's secret spying on American citizens.
April 28, 2006
San Jose Mercury News
"Bids solicited in project to bring wireless access to all of Silicon Valley"
By Jessie Seyfer
Let the bidding for the largest wireless Internet project in America begin...
The San Francisco project has aroused concern over how the private information and Web surfing habits of people using the network will be used. The American Civil Liberties Union, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Electronic Privacy Information Center wrote a joint letter to organizers of the Wireless Silicon Valley project asking them to consider such factors when choosing a company to build the network.
April 28, 2006
Daily Tech
"Groups Vehemently Oppose the PERFORM Act"
By Michael Hoffman
U.S. Senators Lindsey Graham and Dianne Feinstein yesterday introduced the PERFORM Act (Platform Equality and Remedies for Rights Holders in Music Act of 2006), which would ensure that all streaming media services used protected formats...
Both the Home Recording Rights Coalition (HRRC) and Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) are preparing to battle the legislation. The HRRC and EFF both believe that consumers would no longer be able to enjoy the flexibility of digital technology because the legislation will destroy Internet radio.
April 27, 2006
Hartford Advocate
"Your computer is not secure"
By Meir Rinde
When agents from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms arrested convicted felon Michael Crooker on a charge of illegally shipping a firearm across state lines, they searched his apartment in the Feeding Hills neighborhood of Agawam, Mass. and found substances that gave them pause...
So while DriveLock may not be wholly secure, software that uses Blowfish and other encryption methods remains widely available. To civil liberty advocates, that's good news, even if it means individuals like Michael Crooker can hide their secrets from law enforcement.
"Encryption software is becoming a very ordinary thing. That?s a very positive development in terms of limiting the erosion of privacy in certain ways," said Seth Schoen, a staff technologist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
April 27, 2006
CNET
"NSA spying comes under legal, political attack"
By Declan McCullagh and Anne Broache
President Bush's no-longer-secret surveillance program employing the National Security Agency came under a two-pronged attack this week on both political and legal fronts...
At issue in the AT&T lawsuit, filed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, is not only the company's actions (it has repeatedly declined to answer questions from CNET News.com). It's also over whether EFF will be able to unseal allegedly confidential documents it obtained, including a sworn statement by a retired AT&T telecommunications technician describing a "dragnet surveillance" scheme.
April 27, 2006
Wall Street Journal
"Do you know where your children are? These gadgets help"
By Li Yuan
A host of new products that help parents keep tabs on their children are hitting the market, including one-touch phones and even electronic tags that can be sewn into clothing...
"There is a difference between talking to your kids and sniffing your kids," says Lee Tien, an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit digital-rights organization in San Francisco.
April 27, 2006
CNET
"EFF reaches out to D.C. with new office"
By Declan McCullagh
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, the original digital rights group, is venturing inside the Beltway once again...
"There are a lot of meetings that we get invited to that we're not able to attend" because the nonprofit has its headquarters in San Francisco, said Shari Steele, EFF's executive director.
April 27, 2006
ZDNet
"VoIP products could face export crackdown"
By Declan McCullagh and Anne Broache
After spending the last decade denouncing Cold War-era laws against overseas shipments of data-scrambling encryption products, technology firms thought they were off the hook when President Clinton finally eased the rules in 1999...
"This appears to be a situation where the technology is overtaking the regulatory structure in ways that were not anticipated by the people who wrote the regulations," said Cindy Cohn, legal director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco.
April 26, 2006
Macworld
"iPod video users get a brake"
By Jason Snell
I realize that there are lots of skeptics out there who don't think that the iPod is suitable for watching videos, but they're wrong...
Before I go any further, let me give you the usual rigamarole: in many parts of the world, including the United States, it is apparently illegal to write software that extracts video off of commercial DVDs. And the Motion Picture Association of America would argue that it's illegal for consumers to use those tools, even on their own DVDs-a point that is disputed by others, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
April 26, 2006
Fortune
"No such thing as a free connection"
By Jia Lynn Yang
Privacy watchdogs are scrutinizing Google's plan to deliver free WiFi to San Francisco-and they don't like everything they're seeing...
In an April 19 letter to the city of San Francisco, the ACLU of Northern California, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and the Electronic Privacy Information Center outlined their concerns. "There's no way to choose not to be profiled by Google under the company's proposal," they wrote. "Fundamentally, the Google profiling is non-consensual, because in order to use the service, one must sign in and be tracked by the company."
April 26, 2006
SecurityFocus
"Breach case could curtail Web flaw finders"
By Rob Lemos
Security researchers and legal experts have voiced concern this week over the prosecution of an information-technology professional for computer intrusion after he allegedly breached a university's online application system while researching a flaw without the school's permission...
The prosecution of the IT professional that found the flaw shows that security researchers have to be increasingly careful of the legal minefield they are entering when reporting vulnerabilities, said Lee Tien, senior staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital-rights advocacy group.
"I think the bottom line is that anybody that does disclosures of security vulnerabilities has to be very careful (so as to) not be accused of being a hacker," Tien said. "The computer trespass laws are very, very tricky."
April 26, 2006
MIT Technology Review
"The Total Information Awareness Project Lives On"
By Mark Williams
In April, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), the advocacy organization for citizens' digital rights, filed evidence to support its class-action lawsuit alleging that telecom giant AT&T gave the National Security Agency (NSA), the ultra-secret U.S. agency that's the world's largest espionage organization, unfettered access to Americans' telephone and Internet communications.
April 25, 2006
San Francisco Bay Guardian
"The great e-mail debate"
By Annalee Newitz
Geeks turn social events into intellectual debates, so it should be no surprise that intellectual debates are often an excuse for geeky socializing. This was certainly the case at a recent benefit for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (my former employer), held at a San Francisco indie movie theater known for its seedy-progressive ambiance.
April 24, 2006
ZDNet
"RIAA and DMCA madness"
By Suzi Turner
The RIAA has struck again, this time suing a family that has no computer and no internet connection...
I think this legislation is leading down a treacherous road, and the folks at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) seem to think so, too.
April 21, 2006
ZDNet
"EFF's sender-pay email debate ends in draw"
By Dan Farber
Last night Mitch Kapor, Esther Dyson and Danny O'Brien debated the pros and cons of sender-pay email at a fundraiser for the Electronic Frontier Foundation held at the Roxie Film Center in the Mission district.
April 21, 2006
PowerPage.org
"The Apple Core: EFF Stands Up for Online Journalists Rights in Apple v. Does"
By Jason O'Grady
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) told a San Jose, California appeals court Thursday that denying protections for confidential sources would deliver a dangerous blow to online journalism and independent media.
April 21, 2006
San Francisco Chronicle
"Apple tries to keep its secrets"
By Ellen Lee
Apple Computer Inc. argued Thursday that neither a journalist nor a blogger has the right to publish a company's trade secrets, in a case that could determine just how much protection publishers -- online or off -- have in the digital age...
Apple "ran around" First Amendment and state laws protecting journalists, said Kurt Opsahl, the attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Had Apple gone directly to the bloggers, they -- as journalists -- would not have to hand over the identity of their source.
"They are reporters and editors," he said at Thursday's hearing.
April 20, 2006
EcommerceTimes
"Apple Still Seeking Closure on Blogger Suit"
By Jennifer LeClaire
Apple v. Does -- a case with broad implications for bloggers and journalists and their right to protect the confidentiality of their sources -- began on Thursday before a San Jose, Calif., appeals court...
"The California courts have a long history of supporting and protecting freedom of the press," said EFF staff attorney Kurt Opsahl. "We are looking forward to the opportunity to ask the Court of Appeal to correct a ruling that endangers all journalists."
April 20, 2006
San Jose Mercury News
"Judges press Apple on effort to get blogger's source"
By Howard Mintz
A state appeals court in San Jose today appeared openly hostile to Apple Computer's attempts to pry information from bloggers that would reveal who may have leaked confidential information on a new company product...
Kurt Opsahl, a lawyer with the Electronic Frontier Foundation who argued for O'Grady, told the court that Apple had failed to do enough to find out the source of the leak before going after the blogger's sources. The company has investigated 25 employees with access to the Asteroid documents.
April 20, 2006
Associated Press
"Apple Questioned in Trade Secrets Case"
By May Wong
A case that could jeopardize the right of journalists to protect the confidentiality of sources and give companies more legal leeway to track down supposed leaks of trade secrets is now in the hands of a state appeals court...
A lower court last year ruled in Apple's favor but the Electronic Frontier Foundation, whose attorneys represent the online journalists of AppleInsider.com, PowerPage.org and MacNN.com appealed. The civil liberties organization contended Apple's protection of trade secrets in this case should not outweigh the journalists' First Amendment right to confidential sources nor the privacy protections of e-mails allowed under federal law.
April 20, 2006
CNET
"Apple Pushes for Blogger Records"
By Ina Fried and Declan McCullough
Apple Computer faced tough questioning Thursday in its bid to gain access to electronic records of Mac enthusiast sites that published leaked details of an unreleased product...
After the hearing, EFF lawyer Kurt Opsahl said, "It sounds like the court understood the important issues at stake here."
"The California Court of Appeals has a long history of protecting freedom of the press," Opsahl said.
April 20, 2006
CNET
"Apple Pushes to Unmask Product-Leaker"
By Declan McCullough
A California court in San Jose on Thursday is scheduled to hear a case brought by Apple Computer that eventually could answer an unsettled legal question: Should online journalists receive the same rights as traditional reporters?...
"The California Court of Appeals has a long history of protecting freedom of the press," Kurt Opsahl, an EFF staff attorney who is arguing the case, said on Wednesday. "We're hopeful they'll continue to do so."
April 20, 2006
PC World
"Copying Video to a Handheld"
By James A. Martin
You paid your twenty bucks for the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory DVD. Now you'd like to copy the movie onto your Apple iPod, Sony PlayStation Portable, PDA, or notebook for an upcoming trip. Can you do it?...
Making any digital copy of any CSS-protected content--even if it's for your own use--can be interpreted as a violation of the DMCA, explains Fred von Lohmann, senior intellectual property attorney for the San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation.
April 20, 2006
Utne.com
"Ignorance and Internet Bliss"
By Bennett Gordon
The biggest threat to the internet today is intelligence. This is not to say that telecommunication companies are stupid. In fact, they might not be stupid enough...
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital freedom advocacy group, accused AOL of censorship when it failed to deliver emails containing links to www.dearaol.com, a website critical of AOL's "CertifiedEmail" plans.
April 20, 2006
The Guardian Unlimited
"Jockeying for attention"
Fancy seeing Stanley Kubrick's horror movie The Shining as a feelgood family romance? How about Sleepless in Seattle as a stalker thriller?...
"I don't think the studios know what they want. It changes every day," argues Jason Schultz, staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
April 19, 2006
The Guardian Unlimited
"You've Got (Paid-For) Mail"
You may have worried occasionally whether an email you sent had arrived...
The process by which "paid-for" emails could lead to a two-tier internet will be the topic of a debate tonight in California between Esther Dyson, editor of Release 1.0 for CNet Networks, who favours paid-for email delivery, and Danny O'Brien, of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), who will argue that the effects of such initiatives could spread far and wide until they engulf the "neutral" internet that we like to think exists now - and so must be stopped.
April 19, 2006
Wired News
"Braking the News, Apple Style"
By Leander Kahney
Apple Computer's mastery of rumor and speculation has become the keystone of its strategy for new product launches...
O'Grady's appeal, supported by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, has been billed as an important test of journalistic freedom. According to the EFF, the case undermines all journalists' ability to protect confidential sources, an important source of information in this age of nondisclosure agreements, secrecy clauses and job insecurity.
April 19, 2006
Newsday
"Still Needed: Clarity on NSA"
Is AT&T illegally helping the government invade its customers' privacy? That's the allegation in a class action lawsuit accusing the telecommunications giant of participating in the government's secret program to monitor vast numbers of international phone calls and e-mail communications without warrants or court authorization...
Is the snooping needed? Is it effective? Can the law be retooled to accommodate the snooping and protect the right of Americans to be free from unreasonable government intrusion? After four years of warrantless wiretaps it's shameful that Washington hasn't had that debate.
April 18, 2006
MacNewsWorld
"Free Speech Rights at Issue This Week in Apple Lawsuit"
By Gene J. Koproski
A judgment entered in December against bloggers, alleging that they illicitly disclosed trade secrets from Apple Computer online, may have free speech implications for all online publishers...
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, along with co-counsel Thomas Moore III and Richard Wiebe, is representing the online journalists to protect their anonymous sources, said EFF spokeswoman Rebecca Jeschke.
April 17, 2006
San Jose Mercury News
"San Jose court to weigh blogger's rights"
By Howard Mintz
At PowerPage.org, a Pennsylvania blogger offers up a daily menu of passionate online dish about all things Apple Computer. It looks like just another run-of-the-mill site in the vast and exploding blogosphere -- advertisements, links and an introduction that says "Publishing since 1995"...
"The First Amendment wasn't designed to protect the organized press," said Kurt Opsahl, a lawyer with the Electronic Frontier Foundation who is representing O'Grady in the case. "It was to protect the right of the lonely pamphleteer who put a pamphlet up on the walls. A blogger is much more akin to those lonely pamphleteers."
April 16, 2006
The Guardian, London
"AOL accused of blocking critical e-mail messages"
Internet service provider AOL has come under fire after it emerged that the company was blocking e-mails critical of its services...
"The fact is ISPs like AOL commonly make these kinds of arbitrary decisions -- silently banning huge swaths of legitimate mail on the flimsiest of reasons," said Danny O'Brien, a spokesman for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights campaign group.
April 16, 2006
The Guardian, London
"Consumer rights advocates decry HD-DVD system"
Imagine someone creeping into your living room and tweaking your DVD player so that it no longer played any discs. Or what about a DVD disc that didn't like the look of your television, and so only displayed low-quality video pictures?...
But as Seth Schoen, staff technologist of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (www. eff.org), points out, this system won't help reduce piracy: "The key management system is aimed at preventing people from making unauthorized players, not from making unauthorized copies, and it probably won't prevent file sharing either."
April 14, 2006
Infoworld
"How the Copyright Office Protected Sony's Rootkit"
By Ed Foster
When Congress passed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act in 1998, it threw one small bone to those who feared the new law imperiled fair use rights. It mandated the U.S. Copyright Office to conduct a rulemaking process every three years to study and correct any adverse effects the law might have. And since we all know that the DMCA has had little but adverse effects ever since, it certainly leads one to wonder when the Copyright Office is going to do something about it.
Prompting this train of thought is yesterday's publication by the Electronic Frontier Foundation of an updated version of its long-running DMCA "Unintended Consequences" documentation. EFF's paper is the best summary yet of the many ways the DMCA has been abused and misused since it was enacted.
April 14, 2006
InternetNews.com
"Report Details DMCA Misuses"
By David Miller
A new report from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) takes aim at the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), a controversial law enacted seven years ago to protect intellectual property in the digital age...
Stories like these show that "rather than being used to stop piracy, the DMCA has predominantly been used to threaten and sue legitimate consumers, scientists, publishers and competitors," said EFF senior staff attorney Fred von Lohmann.
April 13, 2006
Daily Record (Morris County, New Jersey)
"7 Parsippany H.S. students suspended for postings, photos on MySpace.com"
By Rob Jennings
Seven Parsippany High School students will serve 5-day suspensions starting next Monday for setting up two MySpace.com accounts filled with photos and "vulgarities" about classmates and teachers...
Kevin Bankston, an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco, said it was hard to gauge the reasonableness of the suspensions without knowing more about what was shown on the MySpace sites.
"They have to have proof that it was causing a serious material disruption in the classroom," Bankston said, whose group advocates "digital rights."
April 12, 2006
Jerusalem Post
"Desktop: Performance-Based Litigation"
By David Shamah
Recently, Google came out with a product for PCs, called Google Desktop, which does the same indexing job on your local hard drive. It's a popular product - but also risky, at least according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (http://tinyurl.com/btdp9), which says "Unless you configure Google Desktop very carefully, and few people will, Google will have copies of your tax returns, love letters, business records, financial and medical files, and whatever other text-based documents the desktop software can index."
April 9, 2006
New York Times
"Some Worries As San Francisco Goes Wireless"
By Laurie J. Flynn
When Mayor Gavin Newsom announced 18 months ago that he intended to provide free wireless access to all of the city's 760,000 residents, Chris Vein said he felt sorry for the "poor guy" who would have to carry out the complex task...
Early last week, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Electronic Privacy Information Council released a joint report calling the EarthLink and Google proposal "privacy-invasive," because it would involve "cookies" that track users from session to session to enable customized delivery of ads.
April 8, 2006
San Francisco Chronicle
"Wi-Fi plan stirs Big Brother concerns"
By Verne Kopytoff
Privacy advocates are raising concerns about Google Inc.'s plans to cover San Francisco with free wireless Internet access, calling the company's proposal to track users' locations a potential gold mine of information for law enforcement and private litigators...
"The greatest concern is that once you have that treasure trove of information, will people start to come looking for it?" said Kurt Opsahl, staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a privacy watchdog group.
April 7, 2006
ComputerWorld
"EFF files evidence against AT&T in wiretapping suit"
By Denise Pappalardo
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) announced Friday that it filed evidence with the courts backing up its claims that AT&T provided unfettered access to its network for the purpose of wiretapping.
April 7, 2006
CIO
"E-Voting Critics Take Message to Washington"
By Al Sacco
About 200 "citizen lobbyists" who descended on Washington, D.C., this week called for the U.S. Congress to require that electronic voting machines include paper-trail records...
The I Count Coalition is supported by Common Cause, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, VerifiedVoting.org and several other groups.
April 6, 2006
ZDNet
"Apple v. Me"
By Jason O'Grady
Would you ever want to be on the business end of legal action from a company with US$9 billion in cash? What about being targeted for deletion by one of most powerful multi-national corporations in the world? What if a company with US$14 billion in revenue and 14,000 employees wanted a piece of your ass? Welcome to my world...
After the subpoenas were issued the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) approached me and offered to defend me pro bono, arguing that the anonymity of my sources are protected by the same laws that protect sources who leak information to journalists.
April 6, 2006
CNET
"AT&T whistleblower claims to document illegal NSA surveillance"
By Declan McCullagh
Evidence provided by a former AT&T technician proves that the telecommunications company secretly and unlawfully opened its networks to government eavesdroppers, the Electronic Frontier Foundation said Thursday.
April 5, 2006
CNET
"Google-EarthLink get S.F. wireless nod?"
By Elinor Mills
A panel has recommended that San Francisco officials choose a proposal from Google and EarthLink to offer free wireless Internet access throughout the city, the Associated Press reported on Wednesday...
Earlier on Wednesday, a report scrutinizing the privacy practices of five of the six bids the city received concluded that the Google-EarthLink bid was among the worst. The privacy comparison analysis was conducted by the Electronic Privacy Information Center and the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
April 5, 2006
San Francisco Chronicle
"I'm an Internet Poacher"
By Caille Millner
Every morning I stumble out of bed and plug my laptop into the wall. I insert my wireless card. I repair my IP address. Then I troll for access to someone else's wireless connection...
"Stealing isn't the right word for what you're doing," said Kurt Opsahl, staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "In fact, most people I know who have open Wi-Fi are conscious of it. They're willing to provide it as a public service."
April 4, 2006
The Hill
"Hundreds of activists to demand paper trail and open tallies on voting devices"
By Jessica Alaimo
Hundreds of activists will lobby Congress this week for legislation to make electronic voting more secure and accountable...
This week's lobbying events are sponsored by a coalition of national organizations, including VoteTrustUSA, Verified Voting, VotersUnite, Common Cause, Working Assets and the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
