Copied from their webpage.............

"Based in San Francisco, EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) is a donor-supported membership organization working to protect our fundamental rights regardless of technology; to educate the press, policymakers and the general public about civil liberties issues related to technology; and to act as a defender of those liberties. Among our various activities, EFF opposes misguided legislation, initiates and defends court cases preserving individuals' rights, launches global public campaigns, introduces leading edge proposals and papers, hosts frequent educational events, engages the press regularly, and publishes a comprehensive archive of digital civil liberties information at one of the most linked-to websites in the world: http://www.eff.org."

My comments:

Almost every case they take on I agree with. In an age where everything the government is now doing seems to be justified with national security or the fight against terrorism, I am glad there is an organization like the EFF around. The most recent thing they have done that I approve of is their fight against the RIAA’s campaigns to sue individual file swappers. I don’t file share, but the RIAA's actions are completely misguided.

On a separate note the Supreme Court just recently struck down Eldred vs. Ashcroft. The goal was to challenge Congress's bill EXTENDING copyrights another twenty years so Disney could hold on to Mickey Mouse.

Copyrights should eventually expire. They were not meant to be permanent. The framers of the Constitution never intended or expected copyrights to last forever. The recent League of Extraordinary Gentlemen movie would not have been possible unless those characters were in the public domain which they now are. Mickey Mouse should also now be in the public domain but since Disney owns Congress it is not. And it won’t be for at least another 20 years when of course Disney will again pay off Congress to extend it.

Ok, I am rambling now. Regardless, I highly recommend you go and become a member of the EFF. They are one of the only organizations that are actually fighting for an individual's privacy and reasonable legislation and laws regarding IP. Join and do at least the $65 membership!

End commercial…..

This is good reading. I believe very strongly in a lot of the issues the EFF is currently fighting for and that is why I recently joined them. If you are at all concerned about digital rights and freedoms, I highly recommend making the $65 or $100 donation and joining the organziation at http://www.eff.org

EFFector Vol. 16, No. 28 October 18, 2003
donna@eff.org

A Publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation ISSN
1062-9424
In the 267th Issue of EFFector:

* Action Alert: USA-PATRIOT Act Reform: Tell Congress to Ask Tough
Questions
* RIAA Gets Ready to Sue More Music Fans: EFF's "The Great MP3
Caper"
Tells the Story
* EFF Defends Alleged Filesharer: Another Error in Record
Companies' Crusade
* ISP Rejects Diebold Copyright Claims Against News Website: EFF
Defends
Right to Publish Links to Electronic Voting Memos
* SunnComm Threatens Princeton Student Over "Shift Key" Research;
Backs Down
* EFF Thanks SnapGear for Hardware Donation
* Deep Links (11): FCC May Give DTV Hollywood Ending
* Staff Calendar: 10.18.03 - Wendy Seltzer speaks at ISPCon,
Santa Clara, CA.; 10.24.03 - Lee Tien speaks at BayNet, San
Francisco, CA.
* Administrivia

For more information on EFF activities & alerts:
<http://www.eff.org/>

To join EFF or make an additional donation:
<https://secure.eff.org/>

EFF is a member-supported nonprofit. Please sign up as a member today!

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* USA-PATRIOT Act Reform: Tell Congress to Ask Tough Questions

A nationwide movement to reform the USA-PATRIOT Act is gaining steam,
and you
can help. The Senate Judiciary Committee is holding hearings on
Monday, October
21st, to assess the government's use of its broad new surveillance
powers.
Let's make sure that the proceedings aren't just for show. Tell the
committee
members that you want them to ask tough questions about protecting your
civil
liberties!

Make your voice heard with the EFF Action Center:
<http://action.eff.org/action/index.asp?step=2&item=2807>

Become an EFF member today:
<https://secure.eff.org/>

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* Recording Industry Gets Ready to Sue More Music Fans

EFF's "The Great MP3 Caper" Video Tells the Story

San Francisco - The recording industry has started a second round in
its
campaign against music fans who use file-sharing programs, sending a
flood of
letters this week to threaten them with lawsuits.

"The record companies still aren't listening to their fans," said EFF
Staff
Attorney Wendy Seltzer. "Instead of continuing their litigation
crusade, the
record labels should give their customers the option of paying a
reasonable fee
to continue file sharing."

EFF has urged the recording industry to craft a rational solution to
the
conflict over file sharing: offering fans a legal way to use
file-sharing
services while ensuring that artists get paid.

EFF this week released "The Great MP3 Caper" video, which provides a
fun way to
tell the serious story of the recording industry's crusade against
music
filesharers. The video is available for free at the EFF website.

For the press release:
<http://www.eff.org/share/20031017_eff_pr.php>

EFF "Let the Music Play" campaign:
<http://www.eff.org/share/>

EFF "The Great MP3 Caper" video:
<http://www.eff.org/share/mp3caper.php>

Alternative ways to get artists paid:
<http://www.eff.org/share/compensation.php>

How not to get sued by the RIAA:
<http://eff.org/ip/p2p/howto-notgetsued.php>

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* EFF Defends Alleged Filesharer

Another Error in Record Companies' Crusade

San Francisco - EFF this week announced that it will defend Ross Plank
of Playa
Del Rey, California, against a wrongly filed complaint, among the 261
copyright
infringement lawsuits the recording industry has filed against
individuals.

The federal lawsuit filed against Plank in Los Angeles accuses him of
making
hundreds of Latin songs available using KaZaA filesharing software
earlier this
summer. Plank does not speak Spanish and does not listen to Latin
music. More
importantly, his computer did not even have KaZaA installed during the
period
when the investigation occurred.

The recording industry previously withdrew a lawsuit against Sarah
Ward, an
educator, artist, and grandmother from Massachusetts who owns only a
Macintosh computer which cannot run KaZaA.

"Whether the error was made by Comcast or the RIAA, the issuance of a
federal
complaint on such slim evidence demonstrates the serious flaws in the
recording
industry's litigation campaign," said Wendy Seltzer, an EFF staff
attorney
representing Plank. "If the labels don't dismiss the complaint, we'll
look
forward to discovery into how they made this misidentification in the
first place."

Links:
For the full release:
<http://www.eff.org/ip/p2p/20031014_eff_pr.php>

Recording industry withdraws lawsuit in Sarah Ward case:
<http://www.eff.org/ip/p2p/20030924_eff_pr.php>

EFF "Let the Music Play" campaign:
<http://eff.org/share/>

CNET op-ed: "RIAA's College Lawsuits a Wrong Answer":
<http://news.com.com/2010-1069-5075853.html>

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* ISP Rejects Diebold Copyright Claims Against News Website

EFF Defends Right to Publish Links to Electronic Voting Memos

San Francisco - Defending the right to link to controversial
information about
flaws in electronic voting systems, EFF announced this week that it
will defend
an Internet Service Provider (ISP) and a news website publisher against
claims
of indirect copyright infringement from the electronic voting machines'
manufacturer.

"What topic could be more important to our democracy than discussions
about the
mechanics and legitimacy of electronic voting systems now being
introduced
nationwide?" said EFF Staff Attorney Wendy Seltzer. "EFF won't stand
by as
corporations like Diebold chill important online debate by churning out
legal
notices to ISPs that usually just take down legitimate content rather
than face
the legal risk."

Links:
For the full release:
<http://www.eff.org/legal/isp_liability/20031016_eff_pr.php>

Cease-and-desist letter sent by Diebold to OPG:
<http://www.eff.org/legal/isp_liability/cease_desist_letter.php>

Security researchers discover huge flaws in e-voting system:
<http://www.eff.org/activism/e-voting/20030723_eff_pr.php>

Chilling Effects Clearinghouse on DMCA safe harbor provisions:
<http://www.chillingeffects.org/dmca512/>

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* SunnComm Threatens Princeton Student Over "Shift Key" Research; Backs
Down

CD copy-protection vendor SunnComm Technologies Inc., threatened last
week to
sue Princeton graduate student J. Alex Halderman for publishing a paper
that
reveals that simply holding down the shift key can defeat its latest
copy-protection technology. One day later, the company backed down.
EFF had
offered to represent Mr. Halderman if SunnComm made good on its
litigation threat.

"We're glad that cooler heads prevailed at SunnComm," said Fred von
Lohmann, EFF
senior staff attorney. "But this is just the latest example of the
chill that
the DMCA has injected into the computer security research community.
These
irresponsible legal threats imperil not only First Amendment values,
but also
scare future generations of researchers away from important computer
security
investigations."

Links:
For the media advisory:
<http://www.eff.org/news/breaking/archives/2003_10.php#000981>

Wired article on the SunnComm threat:
<http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,60780,00.html>

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* EFF Thanks SnapGear for Hardware Donation

We at EFF would like to thank SnapGear for their generous donation of a
sme570
firewall appliance router. The router will allow EFF's office to load
balance
and automatically switch over service between our T1 and DSL lines in
the event
of an outage. Donations like this one help to ensure that EFF has the
resources
necessary to continue to fight the good fight for online freedom.

Thank you, SnapGear!

Links:
<http://www.snapgear.com>

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* Deep Links
Deep Links features noteworthy news items from around the Internet.

~ Bad Grades for a Voting-Machine Exam
Salon on shoddy security measures for electronic voting machines.
(Ad-viewing
nonsense required.)
<http://www.eff.org/cgi/tiny?urlid=20>

~ All the President's Votes?
Contains a good synopsis of the many problems with e-voting:
<http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=452972>

~ EPIC Looks Into Justice Department's Pro-PATRIOT Act Lobbying
It's generally frowned upon when a political appointee engages in
lobbying. So
why did Attorney General Ashcroft tell all 93 United States Attorneys
to fight
PATRIOT Act reform legislation?
<http://www.eff.org/cgi/tiny?urlid=22>

~ Brits Tap the U.S. for Anti-Spam Recipes
Our neighbors from across the pond want the U.S. to pass more
legislation
banning salty, processed email:
<http://www.washtimes.com/business/20031014-092600-3179r.htm>

~ Movies Come from Hollywood - Especially on P2P Networks
Researchers at AT&T Labs downloaded 285 movies from P2P nets and found
that 77%
had been leaked by industry insiders:
<http://lorrie.cranor.org/pubs/drm03.html>

~ Illegal Art in the City of Brotherly Love
The exhibit is ending its national tour in Philadelphia:
<http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/magazine/daily/7014772.htm>

~ "TIA's Not Scary; It's Necessary!"
The National Review on how much safer we'd be in DARPA's
surveillance-based
dystopian future:
<http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/webb-lehrer200310150826.asp>

~ FCC May Give DTV a Hollywood Ending
If a broadcast flag mandate is adopted, be prepared to buy more
expensive
equipment with fewer features:
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/a32173-2003oct15.html>

~ Four Jewish Websites Deemed "Terrorists" by U.S. State Department
Two of the sites are held by cybersquatters, not a suspected-militant
Jewish
group. Evidently, the State Department doesn't know how to use
"whois":
<http://washingtontimes.com/national/20031010-112733-8086r.htm>

~ Bad Database Bill Clears First Hurdle
The Database and Collections of Information Misappropriation Act of
2003 is bad
mojo. We're not excited that copyright-like protection for facts lived
through
subcommittee:
<http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/10/16/hnsubbill_1.html>

~ Fighting to Preserve Old Programs
Wired on EFF Board Member Brewster Kahle's fight to save digital
history:
<http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,60770,00.html>

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* Staff Calendar
For a complete listing of EFF speaking engagements (with
locations and times), please visit:
<http://www.eff.org/calendar/>

~ October 20 -
Wendy Seltzer will speak at ISPCon
Santa Clara, CA.
- 11:30 a.m.- 12:30 p.m. "ISPs: Carriers or Nannies?"
<http://www.ispcon.com/fall2003/attend-sessionlist.asp?cs_id=976>

~ October 24 -
Lee Tien will speak at BayNet, San Francisco Public Library
San Francisco, CA.
- 9:00 a.m.- 10:00 a.m.

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* 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:
Donna Wentworth, Web Writer/Activist
donna@eff.org

To Join EFF online, or make an additional donation, go to:
<https://secure.eff.org/>

Membership & donation queries:
membership@eff.org

General EFF, legal, policy or online resources queries:
ask@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.