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FEATURED NEWS Electronic Frontier Foundation Announces $50,000 Grant from The Parker Family Foundation San Francisco - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), the leading civil liberties organization working to defend freedom in the digital world, has received a $50,000 grant from The Parker Family Foundation of Lexington, Massachusetts, for EFF's Patent-Busting Project. "We are concerned about the growing number of illegitimate software and Internet patents," said Glenn Parker, trustee of The Parker Family Foundation. "By investing in EFF, we know that we will be helping to protect the rights of individuals, nonprofits and others that have legitimate noncommercial uses of software and Internet technology."
Patent Busting Project May 13, 2004 Annalee Newitz and Tim Pozar Join EFF Staff San Francisco, CA - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a nonprofit civil liberties organization based in San Francisco, is pleased to announce several new hires. Annalee Newitz comes on board as Media Coordinator/Policy Analyst, and Tim Pozar will be EFF's Technical Director. "EFF has been attracting some incredibly talented people, and I'm really looking forward to working with Annalee, Tim and the rest of the EFF staff to protect civil liberties in the electronic world," says EFF Executive Director Shari Steele.
Full Release May 4, 2004 California State Secretary Bans Insecure E-Voting Machines San Francisco, CA - California Secretary of State Kevin Shelley today announced new state rules ensuring that every California voter will have the option to cast a paper ballot in the November presidential election. Responding to widespread concern about the security and reliability of paperless voting terminals, Shelley banned Diebold machines used in four counties. In addition, Shelley de-certified all other touch-screen voting systems unless or until they are equipped to produce a voter-verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) or meet 23 security requirements. The counties seeking re-certification by meeting these requirements must also give voters the option of recording their votes on paper ballots.
Secretary of State's Media Release (PDF) April 30, 2004 Electronic Frontier Foundation Honors Pioneer Award Winners San Francisco, CA - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) will hold its 13th Annual Pioneer Awards presentation at 6:30 pm on April 22nd at the Chabot Space and Science Center in Oakland, California, in conjunction with the 2004 Computers, Freedom & Privacy (CFP) conference. The online civil liberties group chose to honor Kim Alexander, David Dill, and Aviel Rubin for spearheading and nurturing the popular movement for integrity and transparency in modern elections.
Tell the FCC to Keep CALEA Off the Net The FBI wants to apply a decade-old telephone surveillance law to the Internet - and it's going to cost you. The Communication Assistance for Law Enforcement Act of 1994 (CALEA) forced phone companies to build convenient wiretap features into their networks, but at least it provided money for the changes. That money is long gone, and now the FBI wants the FCC, network equipment companies, broadband ISPs and their customers to pay for a new surveillance regime. This novel interpretation of the law will be bad for innovation, consumers and civil liberties.
Electronic Frontier Foundation Files Comments on FBI Plan Washington, DC - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) today submitted comments to the Federal Communications Commission opposing an FBI proposal that would extend a decade-old telephone surveillance law to the Internet. The Communication Assistance for Law Enforcement Act of 1994 (CALEA) forced telecommunications carriers like your phone company to build convenient wiretap features into their networks. Congress never intended CALEA's requirements to reach the Internet, but now the FBI is demanding that broadband ISPs build "wiretappability" into their equipment too.
Orlando Court Orders Record Companies to File 25 Separate Lawsuits Against Accused Filesharers The Federal District Court in the Middle District of Florida today denied the motion of sixteen record companies to force the Internet Service Provider Bright House to provide the identities of 25 individuals accused of copyright infringement using the FastTrack peer-to-peer network. The Court decided that the record companies had improperly joined the 25 individuals, who had nothing in common other than their ISP, into a single lawsuit. The court noted that joining the defendants together would result in "unreasonable prejudice and expense to the Defendants" and cause "great inconvenience" to the court.
California Bill Backed by Hollywood Attacks Internet Privacy "These California anti-anonymity bills would force everyone - including children - to put their real names and addresses on all the files they trade, regardless of whether the files actually infringe copyrights," said EFF Legal Director Cindy Cohn. "Because the bills require Internet users to post personally identifying information, they fly directly in the face of policy goals and laws that prevent identity theft and spam and protect children and domestic violence victims."
FCC Getting Fuzzy on Digital Television "If I have paid for high-definition ESPN or HBO, there is no reason that I should be forced to use a lower-quality analog signal just because the motion picture industry wants to impose more content protection restrictions on me," said EFF Senior Intellectual Property Attorney Fred von Lohmann. "Until the FCC acts to prohibit 'down-rezzing,' consumers won't know whether their DirecTV and cable set-top boxes will continue to provide them with the high-definition content they paid for."
FCC Faces Suit on Regulation of Digital Broadcast Television "The FCC's digital broadcast television mandate is a step in the wrong direction because it would make digital television cost more and do less, undermining innovation, fair use, and competition," said EFF Senior Intellectual Property Attorney Fred von Lohmann, "The FCC overstepped its bounds, unduly restricting consumers and manufacturers when it issued its broadcast flag ruling."
European Parliament Adopts Controversial IP Enforcement Directive The European Parliament today voted to adopt an overbroad Directive on Intellectual Property Enforcement that gives rightsholders powerful new enforcement tools to use against intellectual property infringers. EFF opposed the proposed Directive because it did not distinguish between unintentional, non-commercial infringement by consumers and for-profit criminal counterfeiting enterprises. "Under this Directive, a person who unwittingly infringes copyright - even if it has no effect on the market - could potentially have her assets seized, bank accounts frozen, and home invaded," said EFF staff attorney Gwen Hinze.
Court Overturns Ban on Posting DVD Descrambling Code, Finding a Free-Speech Violation "We are thrilled that the Appeal Court recognized that the injunction restricting Andrew Bunner's freedom of speech was not justified," said Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) Staff Attorney Gwen Hinze. "The Court's ruling that there was no evidence that CSS was still a trade secret when Bunner posted DeCSS vindicates what we have said all along: DeCSS has been available on thousands of websites around the world for many years."
European Parliament Considers Warped Intellectual Property Directive "EFF is urging its members to ask their MEPs to seek an amendment to the proposed European Intellectual Property Enforcement directive because it does not distinguish large-scale commercial infringement and counterfeiting enterprises from unintentional, non-commercial infringement by individuals," said EFF Staff Attorney Gwen Hinze. "If the European Parliament adopts this directive, a person who unwittingly infringes copyright -- even if it has no effect on the market -- could potentially have her assets seized, bank accounts frozen, and home invaded."
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