EFFector Vol. 23, No. 10 April 9, 2010 editor@eff.org A Publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation ISSN 1062-9424 effector: n, Computer Sci. A device for producing a desired change. : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : In our 533rd issue: * JOURNALIST EVAN RATLIFF WILL DISCUSS HIS ATTEMPT TO "VANISH" at the next installment of EFF's dynamic Geek Reading series on Tuesday, April 13. In a groundbreaking experiment last August, Evan challenged readers of Wired Magazine to track him down as he dodged across the country. Evan will share his behind-the-scenes experiences of what it means to disappear in the digital age, exploring the questions of privacy, surveillance, and identity. Join us this upcoming Tuesday at 7 PM at 111 Minna Gallery in San Francisco. Hope to see you there! For ticketing information: http://action.eff.org/site/Calendar?view=Detail&id=100181 * THE D.C. CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS DEALT A BLOW TO THE FCC'S PROPOSED NET NEUTRALITY REGULATIONS by overturning the FCC ruling against Comcast for interfering with the BitTorrent traffic of its subscribers. This is the right outcome for the court case -- if the FCC's "ancillary jurisdiction" argument had been accepted today for net neutrality regulations (something we might like), it could just as easily have been invoked tomorrow for any other Internet regulation that the FCC dreams up (including things we won't like). The fight now moves back to Congress and the FCC, with numerous net neutrality advocates urging the FCC to "reclassify" Internet access services under Title II of the Communications Act -- another effort to find FCC authority to regulate ISPs without having to go to Congress. In the meantime, everyone who cares about net neutrality will continue to watch ISPs closely for more evidence of discriminatory practices. For more about the FCC, Comcast, and net neutrality: http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/04/court-rejects-fcc-authority-over-internet : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : EFF Updates * EFF's Fred von Lohmann Wins Copyright Award Kudos to EFF Senior Staff Attorney Fred von Lohmann, who was named the 2010 winner of the L. Ray Patterson Copyright Award issued by the American Library Association Office for Information Technology Policy (OITP) and its Copyright Advisory Subcommittee. http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/03/effs-fred-von-lohmann-wins-copyright-award * Digital Due Process: Coalition Urges Privacy Reforms EFF and a broad coalition of technology companies and privacy groups issued recommendations for strengthening the federal privacy law that regulates government access to private phone and Internet communications and records, including cell phone location data. http://www.eff.org/press/archives/2010/03/30 * Court Rules That Warrantless Wiretapping Violated Law Chief Judge Vaughn Walker of the federal district court in San Francisco found that the government illegally wiretapped an Islamic charity's phone calls. http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/03/court-rules-warrantless-wiretapping-illegal * Sham Email Subpoena Violates Constitutional Rights EFF defends email privacy once again, after a prosecutor used a sham grand jury subpoena to obtain a whistleblower's personal email communications. http://www.eff.org/press/archives/2010/03/31 * Fair Use Gets a Fair Shake in Second Life Linden Lab updated the Terms of Service for its virtual world, Second Life, to include language that will protect fair use of screenshots and machinima. http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/04/fair-use-gets-fair-shake-second-life * Sony Steals Feature From Your PlayStation 3 A remote firmware update to the video game console removed support for the option to run GNU/Linux, again demonstrating how DRM silently waits to protect someone else's interests, at the expense of the user's. http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/03/sony-steals-feature-from-your-playstation-3 * 50,000 New Lawsuits Against Movie Downloaders A group of lawyers has quietly targeted 20,000 BitTorrent users for legal action, explicitly for the purpose of extracting money from the peer-to-peer users. http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/03/50-000-i-new-i-lawsuits-against-movie-downloaders * New Protections from Hidden Video Surveillance Needed EFF argued for better privacy laws at a Congressional hearing convened in response to reports that school administrators secretly spied on students in their homes by remotely activating the webcams on school-issued laptops. http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/03/privacy-protections-against-hidden-video : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : miniLinks ~ UK to Disconnect Suspected Infringers The House of Lords passed the Digital Economy Bill, which allows users to be disconnected from the Internet for suspected copyright infringement. http://www.openrightsgroup.org/campaigns/disconnection/why-care ~ Free Speech Unmoored in Copyright's Safe Harbor Copyright scholar Wendy Seltzer's paper on why the DMCA is chilling free speech. http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1577785 ~ Don't Feed The Troll! Electronic Frontiers Australia on why a mandatory government censorship scheme is just "feeding the trolls." http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/a-mollycoddling-internet-policy-is-just-feeding-the-trolls-20100328-r535.html : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : Announcements * "Life 2.0" at the San Francisco International Film Fest EFF is proud to be a presenter of Life 2.0, directed by Jason Spingarn-Koff, at the 53rd San Francisco International Film Festival (April 22-May 6). EFF consulted with the filmmakers during the making of this film. Documented both online and in the real world, Life 2.0 examines the effects both humorous and unnerving of the virtual world Second Life by focusing on the lives of its users and chronicling their successes, failures, lives and loves. Showings at the Sundance Kabuki Cinemas: Friday, April 30 at 3:00 PM Sunday, May 2 at 1:00 PM Wednesday, May 5 at 9:15 PM For more information on Life 2.0, visit http://fest10.sffs.org/films/film_details.php?id=45 For tickets and more information on SFIFF53: http://fest10.sffs.org * Work With EFF and Tor for Google's Summer of Code EFF and Tor are looking for student coders to help us with tech projects as part of Google's Summer Of Code 2010. Projects at EFF include: 1) TOSBack, which tracks changes to the terms of service of the Internet's most popular websites; 2) OurVoteLive, which tracks problems in elections with polling places and voting machines across the US; and 3) Switzerland, a passive IP-layer network neutrality testing system. Our friends and colleagues at the Tor project have dozens of ideas for improving their software, which allows users to route around Internet censorship and surveillance. For more about the Google Summer of Code with EFF: http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/03/gsoc * Help EFF Go to SouthEast LinuxFest! EFF is looking for donations of airline miles, flight vouchers, and hotel points for travel to SouthEast LinuxFest in Spartanburg, NC, as well as other conferences and speaking engagements. If you have enough airline miles for a free ticket and would like to send an EFF staffer to a conference, let us know, and we will help you with the process of making the reservation. Please note that at this time we are unable to combine miles from multiple individuals. We are also looking for hotel rewards points to help reduce our overall travel costs. As a thanks for your donation, we can offer a free membership and a mention in EFFector (if you'd like). Please contact aaron@eff.org if you can help! : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : * Administrivia EFFector is published by: The Electronic Frontier Foundation 454 Shotwell Street San Francisco CA 94110-1914 USA +1 415 436 9333 (voice) +1 415 436 9993 (fax) http://www.eff.org/ Editor: Richard Esguerra, EFF Activist richard@eff.org Membership & donation queries: membership@eff.org General EFF, legal, policy, or online resources queries: information@eff.org 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. Press releases and EFF announcements & articles may be reproduced individually at will. Current and back issues of EFFector are available via the Web at: http://www.eff.org/effector/
