EFFector Vol. 22, No. 05  Friday 20, 2009  editor@eff.org

A Publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation
ISSN 1062-9424

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In our 500th issue:

Since EFF was founded in 1990, we've seen digital
technologies become increasingly central to our lives as
citizens, consumers, creators, innovators and social
beings. And over those nearly 19 years, EFF has been at the
forefront of the fight to ensure that these new tools are
used to enhance and extend our freedoms, rather than to
restrict them.

And for the past 18 years  we have kept our members and
supporters informed of our work with an electronic
newsletter delivered directly to their inbox every week or
two -- a novel idea in 1990. The first issue of EFFector was
sent out on December 10, 1990. Today, we have just
delivered the 500th issue to the inboxes of over 43,000
people.

Here are some highlights of our work that have been covered
in EFFector:

* May 1, 1991: EFF filed a complaint in Steve Jackson Games
v. U.S. Secret Service, claiming digital communications
require the same safeguards against unreasonable search and
seizures as other communications.

* April 16, 1993: EFF published criticism of the Clipper
Chip proposal, a government plan to force communications
technology providers  to build government surveillance
backdoors in their products.

* December 19, 1996: EFF convinced a federal district court
that software is speech in Bernstein v. DOJ.

* July 17, 1998: EFF announced defeat of the government's
Data Encryption Standard (DES) in less than three days
using relatively simple equipment and engineering.

* January 20, 2000: EFF defended publishers of 2600
Magazine, which the MPAA had sued for distributing and
linking to software that helps consumers make back-ups of
their DVDs.

* June 6, 2001: EFF brought suit in Felten v. RIAA,
asserting security researcher Ed Felten's right to present
a paper describing flaws in a proposed music watermarking
technology at a conference.

* June 6, 2002: In Newmark v. Turner Broadcasting Service,
EFF filed suit against the entertainment industry in
defense of customers' right to use a digital VCR for saving
shows and skipping commercials.

* June 30, 2003: EFF launched a campaign to oppose RIAA
attempts to shut down P2P networks and sue music fans.

* September 30, 2004: EFF brought the first successful suit
against abusive online copyright claims in Online Policy
Group v. Diebold.

* June 27, 2005: The Supreme Court in MGM v. Grokster
rejected an attempt to hold developers of devices with
multiple uses automatically liable for infringing actions
of their users.

* January 31, 2006: EFF sued AT&T for helping the National
Security Agency spy on millions of ordinary Americans in
Hepting v. AT&T.

* May 26, 2006: EFF successfully defended the right of
online journalists to require their ISPs to protect the
confidentiality of their sources in Apple v. Does.

* June 16, 2007: EFF's FOIA project secured the release of
documents concerning the FBI's use of National Security
Letters. Revelations from the documents were cited during
the Senate investigations that led to the resignation of
then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

* September 18, 2008: EFF filed suit directly against the
NSA in Jewel v. NSA, seeking to stop the illegal
warrantless wiretapping program.

Thank you, EFFector readers, for being with us every step
of the way!

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EFF Updates

* Facebook Battle Ends in Major Victory for Users
Facebook users have prevailed in a victory that reflects
the power of social networking as a tool for change.
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/02/facebook-battle-ends-major-victory-users

* New Zealand Goes All Black Against Three Strikes
Thousands are turning their sites and their icons black to
mourn the coming enforcement of the provision.
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/02/new-zealand-goes-all-black-against-three-strikes

* Apple Responds to EFF by Claiming that iPhone
Jailbreaking is Illegal
Jailbreaking an iPhone constitutes copyright infringement
and a DMCA violation, says Apple in comments filed in
opposition to EFF's proposed exception for jailbreaking
filed with the Copyright Office as part of the 2009 DMCA
triennial rulemaking.
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/02/apple-says-jailbreaking-illegal

* Do New Obama Policies Affect Bush Era Cases?
According to the Justice Department, it's a bad idea for
the court to wait to see whether the new administration's
open government guidelines will have any impact on EFF's
FOIA requests.
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/02/dazed-and-confused

* RAM, Litigation, and Battlestar Galactica
In an amicus brief filed in the appellate proceedings, EFF
and others urged the Ninth Circuit to overturn the district
court's conclusion that data held solely in RAM is subject
to discovery.
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/02/ram-litigation-and-battlestar-galactica

* Another iPhone App Banned: South Park
Apple argued that restricting the iPhone to run only
software from the iTunes App Store is great for application
creators. Apparently, they didn't mean the creators of
South Park.
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/02/south-park-iphone-app-denied

* Majority Want Investigations on Warrantless Wiretapping
A new USA Today/Gallup poll finds that a clear majority of
Americans favor at least some kind of investigation into
whether Bush administration officials and policies violated
the law.
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/02/poll-majority-want-investigations-warrantless-wire

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miniLinks

~ As Data Collecting Grows, Privacy Erodes
Third party data collection is growing, making real privacy
more and more elusive.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/16/technology/16link.html

~ NSA Offers Billions for Skype Hack
The NSA has a bundle of cash for anyone that can design
software that will allow eavesdropping on Skype
communications.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/02/12/nsa_offers_billions_for_skype_pwnage/

~ YouTube Tests Download and CC Licensing
Under a new plan, creators could allow others to download
and remix their work on Creative Commons licenses.
http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/12757

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Announcements

* Come See EFF at SCaLE and eTech!

The 7th Annual Southern California Linux Expo will be
February 20-22, 2009, at the Los Angeles Airport Westin
Hotel. EFF will have a booth on the expo floor, which is
open on the 21st and 22nd. Stop by to say hello, and update
your membership! EFF will also be at the O'Reilly Emerging
Technologies Conference in San Diego, California. Please
visit our booth and grab some EFF swag during exhibit
hours. We look forward to seeing you!

Use code et09sed40 to get a 40% discount on registration
for eTech!

For more information on SCaLE:
http://scale7x.socallinuxexpo.org/

For more information on eTech:
http://en.oreilly.com/et2009/public/content/home

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Administrivia

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

Editor:
Sara Bassett, Membership Services Assistant
sara@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/