"Speech on the Internet requires a series of intermediaries to reach its audience. Each intermediary is vulnerable to some degree to pressure from those who want to silence the speaker. Even though the Internet is decentralized and distributed, "weak links" in this chain can operate as choke points to accomplish widespread censorship." Free speech is only as strong as the weakest link
posted by rjs
on Nov 27, 2011 -
24 comments
William Lawrence Cassidy has been
indicted for a series of threatening tweets directed towards Alyce Zeoli, aka Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo, the leader of a Buddhist organization known as Kunzang Palyul Choling (KPC) to which Cassidy had belonged. There is however a small problem that federal prosecutors are employing a
vague anti-stalking law that makes 'intentional infliction of emotional distress' through the use of 'any interactive computer service' a felony, rather than focussing more narrowly upon the outright threats.
[more inside]
posted by jeffburdges
on Aug 1, 2011 -
34 comments
The Electronic Frontier Foundation has published a
criticism of Burning Man, LLC's
Terms and Conditions, saying that the automatic rights assignment to BMOrg for photos & video taken during the event is "creative lawyering intended to allow the BMO to use the streamlined “notice and takedown” process enshrined in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) to quickly remove photos from the Internet" and that this is corrosive to our freedom of speech. Burning Man
responds.
posted by scalefree
on Aug 14, 2009 -
123 comments
The SSD Project. "The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has created this Surveillance Self-Defense site to educate the American public about the law and technology of government surveillance in the United States, providing the information and tools necessary to evaluate the threat of surveillance and take appropriate steps to defend against it."
[Via]
posted by homunculus
on Mar 3, 2009 -
12 comments
Senator John McCain (R. - AZ) has
introduced legislation [PDF] that would hold blogs responsible for all activity in their comments sections and user profiles.
Provisions of the proposed bill include: (1) commercial websites and personal blogs "would be required to report illegal images or videos posted by their users or pay fines of up to $300,000," (2) bloggers with comment sections may face "even stiffer penalties" than ISPs, and (3) any social-networking site must take "effective measures" to remove any Web page that's "associated" with a sex offender. "Because 'social-networking site' isn't defined, it could encompass far more than just MySpace.com, Friendster and similar sites." The list could include any site that allows comments, authot and personal profiles. Kevin Bankston of the Electronic Frontier Foundation notes that this proposal may be based more "
on fear or political considerations rather than on the facts." "McCain’s legislation could deal a serious blow to the blogosphere. Lacking resources to police their sites, many individual blogs may have to shut down open discussion."
*
posted by ericb
on Dec 14, 2006 -
141 comments
Wired News has obtained a copy of a file detailing AT&T's involvement with the NSA that was sealed in the EFF's class-action lawsuit against AT&T. At 2AM EST this morning they have
published that file on their site for anyone to download
(this is the fixed link, the one on Wired is currently broken).
[via]
posted by Ryvar
on May 22, 2006 -
67 comments
Bush administration signals intent to invoke the obscure
state secrets privilege in order to stop the
EFF lawsuit against
AT&T, (previously discussed
here) for providing the NSA direct access
all 312 terabytes of its customers' telephone and internet traffic since 2001, (including those Good Vibrations charges you racked up).
In a nutshell, according to legal experts, invoking the privilege kills the judicial process dead: the courthouse doors are closed, and there's nothing but grownup stuff to see here; move along, kids.
posted by squirrel
on May 2, 2006 -
51 comments
Broadcast flag blues?! The EFF seems to be fighting a losing war against the FCC's proposed
"broadcast flag" initiative (Salon), but they're making a big last-minute push to get more people to spread the news and
contact the FCC. Will the broadcast flag initiative become a "gateway regulation", leading us to a future where Hollywood dictates to manufacturers what they can and cannot create? Mass exodus to Tokyo, anyone?!
posted by insomnia_lj
on Oct 27, 2003 -
4 comments
Morpheus is broken. The Netherlands-based provider of the technology used by Kazaa and Grokster upgrades their system, but leaves out Streamcast Networks' (formerly Music City) Morpheus network, and suddenly, everyone is locked out. Kinda punches a giant hole in their EFF-backed battle with the RIAA, which hinges on the assertion that their network is 'decentralized' and impossible to stop.
posted by pzarquon
on Feb 28, 2002 -
12 comments
Corporate censorship in China (via slashdot). I guess censorship and collusion in the repression of people is okay if you're making profits for your shareholders. An eye-opening look into the way that corporations are helping to facilitate censorship on the Internet in China. AOL and Yahoo's attitudes to what I thought were universal human rights is nothing short of sickening.
posted by pixelgeek
on Feb 18, 2002 -
8 comments
The register chimes in on new anti-terrorist bills that attack due process, the fourth amendment, and encryption. Sample letters and information on how to contact your reps are available at the
Electronic Frontier Foundation. Act quickly, because congress sure will.
posted by skallas
on Sep 24, 2001 -
42 comments
A quick break from all the WTC stuff... Considering the recent events, it's probably been overlooked.
Canada is proposing a
Consultation Paper on Digital Copyright Issues which is similar to the DMCA in the US.
All comments on it have to be received by Sept. 15th. You can read the
EFF Alert, for more information.
posted by Jairus
on Sep 14, 2001 -
2 comments
The EFF gets a meeting with Adobe, but does it come quickly enough? I, for one, am not ready to easily forgive and forget the company's actions, regardless how
strong Adobe's case against him. Keep your eye on the
ball and maybe we'll see a bad law overturned and an injustice corrected.
posted by Kikkoman
on Jul 20, 2001 -
20 comments
What the hell is Martin Garbus up to? Oozing incredulity, a federal appeals court smacked down the injunction barring publication of "The Wind Done Gone", a parody of "Gone With The Wind" from the perspective of a slave, flatly describing the lower-court ban as "an unlawful prior restraint in violation of the First Amendment" -- pretty much what most right-thinking copyright thinkers have
asserted all along.
So since when is Martin Garbus, lead counsel selected by EFF to run the DeCSS case, a man who got started by defending Lenny Bruce, a lawyer Feed described as having "a long and unparalleled record as an advocate for first amendment rights", whose free speech bona fides include at one point hiding the Pentagon Papers in his apartment -- why is this man representing Margaret Mitchell's heirs on the definitively wrong side of an open-and-shut First Amendment case?
posted by bumppo
on May 25, 2001 -
16 comments
Find a 10 million digit prime number, get $100,000!
"Now the bad news. Testing a single 10,000,000 digit number takes a full year on a 500 MHz Pentium III computer." This GIMPS organization merely provides software to do the searching process (not to mention they take most of the profits if you DO find a new prime).
posted by grank
on May 18, 2001 -
3 comments
Wired has an interesting interview this month with David Boies, chief counsel for Napster and DOJ vs. MS (unfortunately, this link just points to the fact that the content won't be online until 10.10. With the debate about Napster everywhere (including september 16th below), I thought it helped to clarify exactly what Napster's position is. I thought John Perry Barlow's (EFF) essay was helpful as well.
posted by Sean Meade
on Sep 18, 2000 -
1 comment
