EFFector Vol. 13, No. 7 Sep. 8, 2000 editor@eff.org
A Publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation ISSN 1062-9424
IN THE 155th ISSUE OF EFFECTOR (now with over 25,000 subscribers!):
* New EFF Offices & Address as of Oct. 2000
* Sep. 11 "BayFF" Meeting Celebrates RSA Patent Expiration
* EFF Now Accepts e-gold & PayPal Transactions for Memberships
* Administrivia
For more information on EFF activities & alerts: http://www.eff.org
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New EFF Offices & Address as of Oct. 2000
EFF is relocating as of Oct. 1, 2000 to new office space. We remain on
the cusp of the Mission and Potrero Districts in San Francisco. The
office is retrofitted warehouse space that will allow our staff to
nearly double in size, and which will be more convenient to visitors,
as it will be ground-floor and have a waiting and reception area.
Construction is being handled in-house by our indomitable asst.
webmaster Henry "Owlswan" Schwan, who is incidentally a licensed
contractor. Progress on the cleanup and buildout can be followed by
interested members here:
http://www.eff.org/Misc/Graphics/pics/eff/newhome.html
Our phone numbers should remain the same, and our site should be up
continuously during the transition. (VA Linux has generously donated
us a secondary server; during the move, the new box will transparently
become eff.org temporarily, while the original server is switched off
and moved). Site visitors should experience no difficulties during the
transition.
New contact info:
Electronic Frontier Foundation
454 Shotwell Street
San Francisco CA 94110 USA
+1 415 436 9333 (voice)
+1 415 436 9993 (fax)
We will have a forwarding order in place, but for best results send
any postal mail to the Shotwell Street address starting Sep. 23, 2000.
FedEx and other 1st- or 2nd-day delivery packages should be sent to
the old address until Sep. 30.
The move is happening both because we desperately need more space, and
because our current lease is up, and the price, should we renew it,
would be much higher. In our new location we are actually paying
considerably less per square foot that we would if we were to stay in
our current building (which has no room for expansion anyway). LAN
cabling will also be handled in-house. Members can rest assured that
their donations are not being unduly consumed by moving-related
overhead.
EFF's Washington DC branch office will also relocate soon. Details
forthcoming.
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Sep. 11 "BayFF" Meeting Celebrates RSA Patent Expiration
Media Advisory
Whit Diffie and Dave Del Torto Speak of the RSA Algorithm's Past and Future
WHO: Electronic Frontier Foundation, Whit Diffie, Dave Del Torto and
music by NSA
WHAT: "BayFF" Meeting on RSA Patent Expiration
WHEN: Monday September 11th, 2000 at 7:30PM
WHERE: Hyatt Regency San Francisco Airport, Burlingame CA,
+1 650 347 1234
See DIRECTIONS below.
In honor of its 10th Anniversary of defending civil liberties online,
EFF presents a series of monthly meetings to address important issues
where technology and policy collide. These meetings, entitled "BayFF,"
kicked off on July 10th and will continue throughout the year. The
upcoming BayFF features famed cryptographer Whitfield Diffie and
MEconomy's Master of Secrets, Dave Del Torto. They will help us
celebrate the RSA patent's expiration on September 20th, 2000. How
will these changes effect the public at large? What are the benefits?
Are there any drawbacks?
Whitfield Diffie, who holds the position of Distinguished Engineer at
Sun Microsystems, is best known for his 1975 discovery of the concept
of public key cryptography, for which he was awarded a Doctorate in
Technical Sciences (Honoris Causa) by the Swiss Federal Institute of
Technology in 1992. Diffie received a Bachelor of Science degree in
mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1965.
For a dozen years prior to assuming his present position in 1991,
Diffie was Manager of Secure Systems Research for Northern Telecom,
functioning as the center of expertise in advanced security
technologies throughout the corporation. Since 1993, Diffie has worked
largely in public policy, in the area of cryptography.
Dave Del Torto's career in Internet privacy and security started in
the late 1980s at the University of California at Berkeley, where he
was one of the original "Cypherpunks." He joined Pretty Good Privacy
Inc. (PGP) as a founding employee in 1996, and in 1997 was part of the
four-man team that published the entire PGP source code in 13 paper
volumes, which resulted in the first legal international PGP freeware
(exports of 128-bit crypto have since been greatly deregulated).
He currently serves as the Executive Director of the CryptoRights
Foundation (a human rights security organization) and is the Chief
Security Officer of MEconomy, Inc., a privacy infomediary company
based in San Francisco.
**** You can subscribe to receive future BayFF annoucements. To
subscribe, email majordomo@eff.org and put this in the text (not the
subject line): subscribe bayff.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (http://www.eff.org) is the leading
civil liberties organization working to protect rights in the digital
world. Founded in 1990, EFF actively encourages and challenges
industry and government to support free expression, privacy, and
openness in the information society. EFF is a member-supported
organization and maintains one of the most-linked-to Web sites in the
world.
For more information on online privacy, see:
http://www.eff.org/Privacy
_________________________________________________________________
DIRECTIONS
Hyatt Regency San Francisco Airport
1333 Bayshore Highway
Burlingame, CA 94010
(650) 347-1234
From: San Francisco or SFO Airport
1. Highway 101 South
2. Exit: Millbrae Ave. East
3. Go over the Overpass - toward the Bay (east)
4. Turn right at stoplight - onto Bayshore Highway
5. Go through 4 stoplights
6. Hyatt will be visible on right side of the street
From: San Jose
1. Highway 101 North
2. Exit: Broadway, stay to the right
3. Turn left at the stoplight - onto Bayshore Highway
4. Go through 1 stoplight
5. Hyatt will be visible on left side of the street
From: Lower East Bay
1. Highway 880 South (Nimitz Freeway)
2. Exit: Highway 92 (San Mateo Bridge)
3. Exit: 101 North
4. Exit: Broadway, stay to the right
5. Turn left at the stoplight - onto Bayshore Highway
6. Go through 1 stoplight
7. Hyatt will be visible on left side of the street
From: Oakland/Berkeley
1. Highway 80 West (over the Bay Bridge)
2. Highway 101 South
3. Exit: Millbrae Ave. East
4. Go over the overpass - toward the Bay (east)
5. Turn right at stoplight - onto Bayshore Highway
6. Go through 4 stoplights
7. Hyatt will be visible on right side of the street
Contact:
John Marttila - EFF Administrative Assistant
+1 415 436 9333 x104
jm@eff.org
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EFF Now Accepts e-gold & PayPal Transactions for Memberships
See:
http://www.eff.org/support
to join EFF via PayPal, e-gold, or other means.
e-gold is a free-to-users web-based online payment system, in which
gold and other precious metals are "banked" and exchanged in lieu of
dollars or other government-issued currency. When you "spend" us some
gold or palladium, EFF's e-gold account is credited with that amount
of commodity metal, which we can then easily exchange for only a very
small transaction fee and turn back into dollars to pay for legal
cases and other work.
PayPal is a free-to-users online payment system through which one can
effectively e-mail someone else money, in a secure fashion. It is very
easy to use, and works either through credit cards or bank withdrawals
on the back end (or via "stored" money in PayPal; e.g. if you sold
something on an online auction house and were payed via PayPal, you
could donate some of those funds to EFF without any interaction
between PayPal and your bank account or credit card, since the money
is already in the PayPal system). In essence it is basically a virtual
bank account and alternative electronic funds transfer system.
Currently it only supports US users, but this is going to change very
soon according to their press releases.
PayPal's privacy policy is better than most, and they do not appear to
have any designs on spamming their users or selling their information
to anyone else. e-gold's privacy policy seems to match ours exactly,
other than e-gold may send you mailings about your account and their
services unless you opt out, which is easy to do. Even so, EFF does
not officially endorse PayPal or e-gold over other online transaction
services. We support e-gold and PayPal transactions on our site
because an increasing number of members have requested them. We plan
to add additional membership/donation transactions options in the
future.
If you would like to use e-gold but do not already have an account
with them, you can sign up at this URL:
https://www.e-gold.com/e-gold.asp?cid=102948
By doing so, rather than by signing up through the e-gold front page,
you can effectively add a small amount to your donation, free (e-gold,
has a rather complicated-in-the-details but automatic referrer bonus
program).
If you would like to use PayPal but do not already have an account
with them, you can sign up at this URL:
https://secure.paypal.x.com/affil/pal=accounting%40eff.org
By doing so, rather than by signing up through the PayPal front page,
you can effectively add $5 to your donation, free (PayPal, for the
time being, is giving $5 "referral bonuses" automatically; you don't
have to add the $5 your total manually).
If you are planning to make a large donation, you may wish to send a
check, as PayPal and any credit card-based system incur 2-5% fees to
EFF, effectively reducing the amount of your member donation to us.
(e-gold doesn't.)
Thank you for your support! Without it, our work on the DVD cases,
stopping Internet censorship legislation, and protecting online
privacy could not continue!
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Administrivia
EFFector is published by:
The Electronic Frontier Foundation
1550 Bryant St., Suite 725
San Francisco CA 94103-4832 USA
+1 415 436 9333 (voice)
+1 415 436 9993 (fax) http://www.eff.org
Editor: Stanton McCandlish, Online Communications Director/Webmaster
(editor@eff.org)
Membership & donations: membership@eff.org
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