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EFFector - Volume 15, Issue 11 - Thank Gateway for Standing Up to Music Industry Bullies

EFFECTOR

EFFector - Volume 15, Issue 11 - Thank Gateway for Standing Up to Music Industry Bullies

                                                                         
EFFector       Vol. 15, No. 11,       April 12, 2002     editors@eff.org 
                                                                         
 A Publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation     ISSN 1062-9424  
                                                                         
In the 211th Issue of EFFector:

  * EFF Honors Pioneer Award Winners
  * ALERT: Thank Gateway for Standing Up to Music Industry
    Bullies [global]
  * Blizzard Freezes Bnetd Gaming Platform, Sues Own Customers
  * Hollywood Backs Down After Copyright Office Threatens Internet
    Radio Privacy
  * EFF at Computers, Freedom & Privacy Conference
  * "Consensus at Lawyerpoint" Alphabet Soup Contest Winners
  * Exchange Ideas with EFF Founders Kapor & Barlow

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

To join EFF or make an additional donation:
  http://www.eff.org/support/
EFF is a member-supported nonprofit. Please sign up as a member today!

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EFF HONORS PIONEER AWARD WINNERS

SAN FRANCISCO CEREMONY FOR GILLMOR, GIVENS, DECSS WRITERS

Electronic Frontier Foundation Media Advisory

For Immediate Release: Thursday, April 11, 2002

San Francisco - The ceremony for the Electronic Frontier Foundation's
11th Annual Pioneer Awards will take place at the Cathedral Hill Hotel on
April 17, 2002, in conjunction with the Computers, Freedom and Privacy
conference in San Francisco.

[Media professionals are invited to attend the ceremony at 8:00pm on
April 17, 2002, at the Japanese Pavilion at the Cathedral Hill Hotel,
1101 Van Ness Ave., at Geary Boulevard in San Francisco. Please contact
Katina Bishop at katina@eff.org if you would like to attend.]

The online civil liberties group chose to honor Dan Gillmor for his
commitment to accurate and cutting edge reporting on cybertech issues;
Beth Givens for her dedicated work in fighting for consumers' privacy
rights and in raising public awareness on privacy issues; and the DeCSS
Writers, to be accepted by Jon Johansen, for their pioneering work on the
pivotal program that enabled the development of a DVD player that runs on
the Linux operating system.

Since 1991, the EFF Pioneer Awards have recognized individuals who have
made significant and influential contributions to the development of
computer-mediated communications or to the empowerment of individuals in
using computers and the Internet.


Dan Gillmor

Dan Gillmor is a technology columnist for the San Jose Mercury News,
Silicon Valley's daily newspaper. His column runs in many U.S.
newspapers, and he appears regularly on radio and television, including
National Public Radio's Morning Edition and CNN. He has been listed by
industry publications as among the most influential journalists in his
field. Gillmor is a reporter on the bleeding edge of cyber-technology
issues. He has been known to spot a story and begin to cover it weeks
before other reporters see its importance. He often educates his
colleagues as well as the public and writes clearly about the intricacies
of the complex and often esoteric conflicts facing cyberspace today. His
website is:
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/business/columnists/dan_gillmor/


Beth Givens

Beth Givens is founder and director of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse,
a nonprofit advocacy, research, and consumer education program located in
San Diego, California. Established in 1992, The Clearinghouse maintains a
complaint/information hotline on informational privacy issues - the only
one of its kind in the country - and publishes a series of guides on a
variety of informational privacy issues. Givens has been fighting for
consumers' privacy rights long before the mainstream world recognized a
problem. She frequently speaks and conducts workshops on the issue of
privacy and has often testified on privacy-related public policy
concerns. In addition, Givens has been a member of several task forces
studying the privacy impacts of technology on society. She is the author
of The Privacy Rights Handbook: How to Take Control of Your Personal
Information (Avon Books, 1997). She is co-author of Privacy Piracy: A
Guide to Protecting Yourself from Identity Theft. Preferring to focus on
her work rather than her reputation, Givens keeps a low profile and just
gets things done, day after day, year after year. She is a committed and
pioneering activist. Her website is:
  http://www.privacyrights.org/


Jon Johansen and Writers of DeCSS

In 1999, while on vacation in France, Norwegian teenager Jon Johansen
bought a DVD-ROM and DVD movies. Frustrated by having to run Windows in
order to watch his movies when he brought them back to his own country,
he joined forces with two other programmers that he met online and
together they created the proof-of-concept DeCSS application. The source
code for DeCSS made it possible to play encrypted DVD movies on a Linux
machine. The program spread quickly among Linux developers who were eager
to create a DVD player for the Linux operating system.

Jon received a national student merit award in Norway for his work on
DeCSS. He was also included as a defendant in a lawsuit filed by the DVD
CCA in California. The MPAA recently filed a complaint leading to charges
in Norway, and Jon was indicted on criminal hacker charges. The trial is
scheduled to take place in the beginning of June 2002. EFF recognizes the
entire DeCSS team for their pioneering work on the program. As the rest
of the DeCSS writers have decided to remain anonymous after witnessing
the action against Jon, he has been chosen to accept the award as the
public face of the work. He has willingly put himself at great risk to
defend the rights of all of us, and EFF applauds his courage.

"We, as a community of people respecting rights in technology, do not
take enough opportunity to honor our own," stated Shari Steele, Executive
Director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "Dan, Beth and Jon are
shining examples of the spirit and energy that make the Internet great.
We're proud to present them with this year's Pioneer Awards."

The judges for this year's EFF Pioneer Awards were: Herb Brody (Deputy
Editor, Technology Review), Moira Gunn (Host, "Tech Nation", National
Public Radio), Donna L. Hoffman (Professor of Management and Co-Director,
eLab, Vanderbilt University), Peter G. Neumann (Principal Scientist, SRI
Intl.; Moderator, ACM Risks Forum), Drazen Pantic (Media & Tech.
Director, NYU Center for War, Peace & the News Media), Barbara Simons
(past President, Association for Computing Machinery, & U.C. Berkeley
Distinguished Alumnus), Karen G. Schneider (Coordinator of Librarians'
Index to the Internet).

The 11th Annual EFF Pioneer Awards ceremony will be held on the evening
of April 17th, 2002, at the Cathedral Hill Hotel in the Japanese
Pavilion. The ceremony and reception are made possible by contributions
from the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology.

Links:

For more information on the EFF Pioneer Awards, see:
  http://www.eff.org/awards/pioneer.html

Contact:

Katina Bishop, EFF Offline Activist / Education Dir.
  katina@eff.org
  +1 415-436-9333 x101

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ALERT: THANK GATEWAY FOR STANDING UP TO MUSIC INDUSTRY BULLIES

NEW AD CAMPAIGN ENCOURAGES CONSUMERS TO EXERCISE FAIR-USE RIGHTS TO
DIGITAL MUSIC

Electronic Frontier Foundation ACTION ALERT

(Issued: April 12, 2002 / Expires: April 26, 2002)


Introduction:

Never has the public's right to innovation and fair use been more
imperiled. The copyright industry is lobbying hard for sweeping laws that
would grant entertainment companies a veto over new technologies and new
features. Technology companies are seemingly so intimidated by the
studios' and labels' lobbying prowess that they are keeping mum, sitting
on their hands as Congress steamrolls over their customers' rights.

But Gateway Computers refuses to be cowed. In a new TV advertising
campaign, Gateway bravely asserts their customers' rights to format-,
time- and space-shift their music collections.

The commercial features Gateway CEO Ted Waitt piloting a truck with
Gateway's cow mascot on the passenger side, singing along to Elwood's
popular hit, "Sundown."

Gateway bucks the label bullies and tells the world that ripping the
tracks from the CDs you've bought, burning mixed CDs, and taking your
music with you on a portable MP3 player are NOT stealing, no matter what
the record companies want you to believe. Gateway's companion website at 
http://www.gateway.com/home/deals/offers/music/dmz.shtml goes one step
further, with explicit instructions for ripping, burning and mixing your
music collection.

Let's show Gateway how much we appreciate its valiant campaign to
preserve our rights. Write to Ted Waitt, Gateway's CEO, and thank him for
his company's willingness to take a stand. If Gateway gets enough
positive reaction for its campaign, it will open the gate (heh) for other
technology companies to stand up for our rights.


What YOU Can Do Now:

  * Contact your legislators in Congress and tell them that you oppose
    technology mandates (see the Links section below for details on EFF's
    campaigns to oppose the Consumer Broadband and Digital Television
    Promotion Act [CBDTPA] and the Broadcast Protection Discussion Group
    [BDPG], and to repeal the Digital Millennium Copyright Act [DMCA]).
    For information on how to contact your legislators and other
    government officials, see EFF's "Contacting Congress and Other
    Policymakers" guide at:
      http://www.eff.org/congress.html
  * Send Gateway CEO Ted Waitt a letter letting him know how glad you are
    that his company is standing up for consumer rights and telling the
    powerful music lobby not to treat their customers like thieves.
  * Join EFF! For membership information see:
      http://www.eff.org/support/


Sample Letter:

Here's the template that you can use as to send your thank-you notes to
Gateway. Feel free to crib from it, or to improvise. Send to:

Ted Waitt, CEO
Gateway, Inc.
14303 Gateway Pl.
Poway, CA
92064
 
c/o corporate.communications@gateway.com
 
Fax: +1 858-848-3402

    Dear Mr. Waitt:
   
    I am writing to thank your company for standing up to the record
    labels' assault on my right to use the music I've bought however I
    see fit. We can't win this fight without brave, public stands like
    the one that Gateway is taking with its Consumer Advocacy Campaign.
   
    I'm grateful for your company's support of my right to transfer my
    music to other media, to make mixed discs, and to play it on any
    device that I own. The music industry's anti-American, anti-consumer,
    anti-technology assault must be opposed at every turn.
   
    Stand your ground! Work with organizations like the Electronic
    Frontier Foundation and DigitalConsumer.org to stop technology
    mandates that harm American businesses and the American public. Help
    us stand up against terrible laws like the CBDTPA and sinister
    back-room "consensus standards" like the one that the Broadcast
    Protection Working Group is cooking up in Los Angeles.
   
    Don't stop inventing fantastic products that enrich my life, keep the
    American economy strong and even offer new market opportunities for
    the entertainment industry (even if Hollywood's tunnel-vision blinds
    it to those opportunities!)
   
    Sincerely,
   
    [Your name;
    include full address for maximum effectiveness]
   
Tips:

Please remember to be polite but firm. Ranting, swearing, or lack of
clear focus and resolve will not make a good impression. Try to make it
brief (1 page or less written, or a few sentences spoken) and clear,
without getting into nitpicky details. Re-casting the letter in your own
words will be more effective than copy-pasting our sample.


Activists Around the World

This alert is for everyone everywhere, as Gateway has many international
customers, and the issues raised by DRM are hardly limited to the U.S.,
so keep an eye out in your own jurisdiction for related matters you can
act on. Many jurisdictions around the world are considering legislation
similar to the U.S. DMCA and CBDTPA.


Background:

An Unprecendented Assault

America is in the midst of an unprecedented assault on consumer freedom:
freedom to use, freedom to innovate, freedom to share. The copyright
industry, faced with a changing marketplace and consumer demand for new
distribution channels and formats, is responding with a kind of
technophobic panic, convincing technically unsophisticated lawmakers that
the sky is falling. It began with 1998's Digital Millennium Copyright Act
(DMCA), which made it illegal to circumvent copy-prevention measures.
This provision has proved a powerful weapon to attack academics,
inventors, and open-source technologists:

  * Edward Felten, a Princeton professor, and seven other researchers,
    were threatened with legal action if they published their research
    into the security vulnerabilities in the music industry's proposed
    Secure Digital Music Initiative
  * Jon Johansen, a Norwegian teenager, is facing criminal and civil
    penalties for his work on DeCSS, a software utility that allows Linux
    users to play lawfully acquired DVDs on their computers
  * The authors of bnetd, an open-source server for Blizzard ( a popular
    multi-player game) were threatened with civil and criminal
    prosecution for improving on Blizzard's own server

Now, two new initiatives threaten even more restrictive control over
technology. Senator Hollings' proposed Consumer Broadband and Digital
Television Promotion Act (CBDTPA) will require every new digital
technology to go through a punishing 12-month review process where
Hollywood's representatives will dictate, at lawyerpoint, what features
must and must NOT be included.

But Hollywood has prepared a back-up plan in the event that consumer
outrage stops the CBDTPA. The Motion Picture Association of American's
Copy Protection Technology Working Group has convened a special committee
in Los Angeles called the Broadcast Protection Discussion Group (BPDG).
The BPDG is working with a committee of technologists, cable- and
satellite-operators and broadcasters to establish a "standard" for all
devices that can receive or record digital television signals. (The FCC
will require all over-the-air TV broadcasts to be digital by the year
2006.)

Needless to say, this "standard" will restrict your freedom to record,
share, archive and re-use digital television programming, but how it will
accomplish this is even more sinister. The BPDG's standard is intended to
be enacted into law. All digital television technologies -- including
those that integrate with your personal computer -- will be subjected to
the standard. It will be illegal to manufacture or distribute nonstandard
technology. New technologies will only come to market if Hollywood's
executives -- the people who tried to ban the VCR in 1984 -- approve
them.

As the BPDG's "standard" encroaches on your PC, it will have much the
same effect as the CBDTPA -- creating a technology world where everything
is either mandatory or forbidden.


Technology Mandates

The DMCA's anti-circumvention provision, the CBDTPA and the BPDG
"standard" are all examples of technology "mandates," laws that force
technology companies to manufacture certain devices and forbid them from
manufacturing other devices. These mandates punish consumers for crimes
they haven't committed -- they're the high-tech equivalent of requiring
every crow-bar to be made of foam-rubber on the off chance that someone,
somewhere, some day may use a crow-bar to commit a burglary.

That's not how it works in America. In our free economy, technologists
produce the devices they think their customers will buy. If customers buy
those products, they succeed; if customers don't buy them, they fail. It
is not the job of the American government to choose those technologies
that will succeed and pass laws forbidding competing technologies.

But technology mandates will choose the winners, and what's more, the
winners they choose will be the technologies that are most damaging to
consumer rights. The entertainment industry wants to extend the
boundaries of copyright in ways that will limit your ability to record,
share, duplicate, time-, space- and format-shift, give away, discard,
donate and loan your books, music and movies.

It gets worse. These mandates inevitably require that approved
technologies be wrapped in "anti-tampering" measures that preclude the
production of open source tools that act on digital media. The
entertainment industry is asking Congress declare a moratorium on open
source technologies that can touch digital media.

If this sounds like bad news for America's technology business, that's
because it will be. Imagine the export market for American technology in
the face of these mandates. What foreign customer would buy an American
device filled with expensive "features" that no one wants or needs --
especially when foreign competitors are free to manufacture and sell
devices that are free from these mandates? America's technology products
will be like the Yugo of yesteryear -- government-mandated junk whose
only customers are those poor souls who have no other choice. The $600
billion American technology sector will be sacrificed on Hollywood's
copyright altar.


Take a Stand

America's technology businesses are running scared. With a few notable
exceptions -- Apple's "Rip-Mix-Burn" campaign, Intel VP Leslie Vadasz's
brave remarks to Senator Hollings' copyright hearings, and Gateway's
latest campaign -- the technology sector in America has hardly uttered a
peep in protest.

It is crucial that we support those few companies that stand up for
consumer rights. Gateway's extraordinary bravery is not to be
underestimated here. Be sure to let the companies whose technologies you
purchase and use that you vote with your wallet and do not wish to
patronize those companies that sell your freedom down the Potomac in
Congress.


Links:

Gateway's Consumer Advocacy Campaign:
  http://www.gateway.com/home/deals/offers/music/dmz.shtml

Full text of CBDTPA (bill S. 2048):
  http://www.eff.org/IP/SSSCA_CBDTPA/20020321_s2048_cbdtpa_bill.pdf

For more information about CBDTPA (and its older "parent", SSSCA), see:
  http://www.eff.org/IP/SSSCA_CBDTPA/

For more information on the future of digital television, see:
  http://www.eff.org/IP/Video/HDTV/

EFF's "Frequently Asked Questions (and Answers) About Fair Use":
  http://www.eff.org/IP/eff_fair_use_faq.html

Declan McCullagh Wired News article on CBDTPA, "What Hollings' Bill Would
Do":
  http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,51275,00.html

EFF alert in support of Intel's Leslie Vadasz's statements on technology
mandates:
  http://www.eff.org/IP/SSSCA_CBDTPA/20020308_eff_sssca_alert.html

EFF Weblog covering the Broadcast Protection Discussion Group:
  http://bpdg.blogs.eff.org/

Blizzard sues bnetd under the DMCA:
  http://www.eff.org/IP/Emulation/Blizzard_v_bnetd/
20020408_eff_bnetd_pr.html

Edward Felten and seven other researchers versus the RIAA -- a professor
defends his right to research:
  http://www.eff.org/Cases/Felten_v_RIAA/

Free Jon Johansen, persecuted co-author of the DeCSS DVD utility:
  http://www.eff.org/IP/DeCSS_prosecutions/Johansen_DeCSS_case/

An appreciation of the Yugo automobile:
  http://www.hszk.bme.hu/~oj002/yugo/


CAFE Campaign:

This drive to reward Gateway for its brave stand on consumer rights is
part of a larger campaign to highlight intellectual property industry
assaults against the public's fair use rights, and what you can do about
it.

Check the EFF Campaign for Audivisual Free Expression (CAFE) website
regularly for additional alerts and news:
  http://www.eff.org/cafe/


About EFF:

The Electronic Frontier Foundation 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 websites in the world:
  http://www.eff.org


Contacts:

Will Doherty, EFF Online Activist / Media Relations
wild@eff.org
+1 415 436 9333 x111

Katina Bishop, EFF Offline Activist / Education Dir.
katina@eff.org
+1 415 436 9333 x101

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BLIZZARD FREEZES BNETD GAMING PLATFORM, SUES OWN CUSTOMERS

ELECTRONIC FRONTIER FOUNDATION DEFENDS GAMERS' RIGHTS

Electronic Frontier Foundation Media Release

For Immediate Release: Monday, April 8, 2002

St. Louis - Game maker Blizzard Entertainment, along with its parent
company Vivendi Universal Games, late Friday sued a small Internet
Service Provider and its owner for distributing free software that
emulates Blizzard's free Battle.net gaming service.

The lawsuit claims that the creation and offering of the "bnetd" free
software emulator for Blizzard games violates copyright and trademark
laws.

"Blizzard contacted our lawyer at the Electronic Frontier Foundation
(EFF) saying they would consider dropping the case if we help find ways
to prevent pirates from using the bnetd server software," noted Tim Jung,
Internet Gateway ISP owner of the and defendant in the case. "While we
bnetd developers spent many hours last week trying to help Blizzard, they
apparently spent many hours preparing to sue me and my small business."

"The complaint is a classic big corporate attempt to scare the little
guy," noted EFF Senior Intellectual Property Attorney Fred von Lohmann
who represents Jung and Internet Gateway pro bono. "This software was
developed by hobbyists using longstanding, legal reverse engineering
techniques -- the same ones used by major hardware and software
manufacturers. If bnetd is vulnerable to copyright challenge, then most
reverse engineering projects designed to create interoperable products,
from games to printers to network cards, are also vulnerable."

"The bnetd software has many uses that have nothing to do with piracy,
and everything to do with improving the gaming experience for legitimate
purchasers of Blizzard games," added EFF Legal Director Cindy Cohn.
"Suing your customers for making your product more fun to play is a poor
use of corporate resources, as well as unfounded by law."

The bnetd software allows Blizzard game purchasers online or on a local
area network to chat, find competition, and start multiplayer games. A
group of volunteers, including Jung, created the bnetd project for
Blizzard games because Blizzard's Battle.net service was undependable and
had limited functionality.

Blizzard sent a cease-and-desist letter to Internet Gateway in late
February, claiming violations of the anti-circumvention provisions of the
Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) along with copyright violations.
Internet Gateway has removed the bnetd software temporarily in response
to the letter. The current complaint does not claim DMCA violations, but
instead adds trademark claims never mentioned before.

This case, entitled Davidson & Associates d.b.a. Blizzard Games and
Vivendi Universal Games v. Internet Gateway and Tim Jung, was filed in
Federal District Court in St. Louis, Missouri.


Links:

Blizzard's complaint against Jung and Internet Gateway:
http://www.eff.org/IP/Emulation/Blizzard_v_bnetd/
20020405_blizzard_complaint.pdf

Earlier correspondence and other case material:
http://www.eff.org/IP/Emulation/Blizzard_v_bnetd/

Bnetd website:
http://www.bnetd.org/

Blizzard's explanation:
http://www.battle.net/support/emulationfaq.shtml

Earlier media coverage and websites related to the case:
http://www.eff.org/sc/bnetdcoverage.html
http://www.infoworld.com/articles/op/xml/02/03/11/020311opsource.xml
http://www.boycottblizzard.org/
http://research.yale.edu/lawmeme/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=149


About EFF:

The Electronic Frontier Foundation 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 websites in the world:
  http://www.eff.org/


About Internet Gateway:

Founded in 1995, Missouri-based Internet Gateway provides Internet and
networking solutions, as well as consulting services, to businesses
and end users across the country. Internet Gateway provides Internet
access, consulting and support to other ISPs as well as to its own
customers. In addition to nationwide consulting and support, Internet
Gateway currently provides Internet access to five cities including
the St. Louis metro area, Cape Girardeau, Sikeston, Perryville and the
St. Charles/St. Peters metro area. The company website can be found at
  http://www.igateway.net/


About bnetd Project:

The bnetd project is a collaboration focusing on development of a
server that attempts to emulate Blizzard's Battle.net gaming server.
The bnetd project is run by volunteers and is neither supported by nor
affiliated with Blizzard Entertainment. The project website is at
  http://www.bnetd.org/


Contacts:

Cindy Cohn, EFF Legal Director
  cindy@eff.org
  +1 415-436-9333 x108

Fred von Lohmann, EFF Senior Intellectual Property Attorney
  fred@eff.org
  +1 415-436-9333 x123

Tim Jung, President, Internet Gateway Inc.
  tjung@igateway.net
  +1 636 936-8655 x100


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HOLLYWOOD BACKS DOWN AFTER COPYRIGHT OFFICE THREATENS INTERNET RADIO PRIVACY


EFF is pleased to report that the Recording Industry Association of
America (RIAA) has dropped its request to the U.S. Copyright Office
that webcasters be required to submit detailed records of user
information.

Last week, EFF released a joint comment to the Copyright Office, along
with The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), the California
community broadcaster KPFA, and the Fresno Free College Foundation,
operator of KFCF 88.5, opposing the proposed recordkeeping
requirements.

In that comment, EFF and friends asked the Copyright Office to drop
all requirements that webcasters gather and report to copyright owners
information about individual listeners, including their country of
origin, local time zone, and a unique user identifier.

The RIAA's decision to drop the reporting requirements is exciting
news. Unfortunately, however, the RIAA's orginal request is still part
of the regulation being proposed by the Copyright Office. It's time to
make your voice heard again.

The Copyright Office continues to take public comments on this issue
until April 26. For more information on filing comments, see:
  http://www.loc.gov/copyright/fedreg/2002/67fr5761.html


Links:

"Groups Fear Webcast Listeners Will Lose Privacy," by Brenda Sandburg of The Recorder:
  http://www.law.com/cgi-bin/gx.cgi/AppLogic+FTContentServer?pagename=law/View&c=Article&cid=ZZZ7K0VZWZC&live=true&cst=1&pc=0&pa=0&s=News&ExpIgnore=true&showsummary=0

EFF Media Release on joint comments we sent to the U.S.Copyright Office:
  http://www.eff.org/IP/Audio/20020410_joint_co_comments_pr.html

EFF, EPIC, KPFA, and Fresno Free College Foundation comments to U.S. Copyright Office:
  http://www.eff.org/IP/Audio/20020405_joint_co_comments.html
  http://www.eff.org/IP/Audio/20020405_joint_co_comments.pdf

U.S. Copyright Office proposed recordkeeping regulations and comments of interested parties:
  http://www.loc.gov/copyright/carp/114/comments.html


Contact:

Fred von Lohmann, EFF Senior Intellectual Property Attorney
  fred@eff.org
  +1 415-436-9333 x123

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EFF AT COMPUTERS, FREEDOM & PRIVACY CONFERENCE

Come to the 12th Annual Conference on Computers, Freedom and Privacy
(CFP-2002) on April 16-19 in San Francisco, and see EFF staff members
discussing current civil liberties issues on a variety of panels.


About CFP:

CFP has played a major role in the public debate on the future of privacy
and freedom in the online world for over a decade. This year, CFP will
explore the most important issues facing the Internet and freedom,
including: consumer privacy, broadband issues, wireless privacy and
security, digital divide, critical infrastructure issues, public records,
filtering, ICANN, disabilities access and much more.


Schedule of EFF Speakers:

Tuesday, April 16

  * 9:45-11:00: "Fair Use By Design?" Workshop, Policy Context, with EFF
    attorney Fred von Lohmann (panelist)
  * 2:00- 5:30: "Internet Activism Basics: What Works, What Doesn't and
    What Will Get You Arrested", with EFF Legal Director Cindy Cohn
    (tutorial leader) and Online Activist Will Doherty (panelist)

Wednesday, April 17

  * 11:15-12:30: "Truth is the First Casualty of War - Availability of
    Information Post 9/11", with EFF attorney Lee Tien (panelist)
  * 8:15-9:30pm: Join us after dinner for our eleventh annual EFF Pioneer
    Awards

Thursday, April 18

  * 3:45-5:30pm: "The DMCA and You", with EFF attorney Robin Gross
    (panelist)
  * 5:30-6:30pm: "Debate on the Future of Intellectual Property", with
    EFF cofounder John Perry Barlow (debating Steve Metalitz of the
    International Intellectual Property Alliance)

Friday, April 19

  * 12:30-2:00pm: "Peer to Peer and Copyright", Box Lunch Session with
    Fred von Lohmann (panelist)
  * 2:00-3:15pm: "Should We Meet John Doe? Civil Litigation and Anonymity
    in Cyberspace", with Cindy Cohn (panelist)

CFP 2002 will be held at the Cathedral Hill hotel in San Francisco,
located at 1101 Van Ness Ave. at Geary Blvd.

Links:

For more information on CFP 2002, see:
  http://www.cfp2002.org/

Full program:
  http://www.cfp2002.org/program/

Pioneer Awards:
  http://www.eff.org/awards/pioneer.html

Cathedral Hill hotel:
  http://www.cathedralhillhotel.com/

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"CONSENSUS AT LAWYERPOINT" ALPHABET SOUP CONTEST WINNERS

Thanks very much to all those who entered the EFF's "Consensus at
Lawyerpoint" Alphabet Soup Contest in the last issue of the
EFFector.

And now for the winners:

  * Steven Cherry is the winner for best decoding of the Consumer
    Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act (CBDTPA) as "Consume,
    But Don't Try Programming Anything". Honorable mentions to Jim Bauer
    for "Customers Be Damn Terrorists and Pirates Act" and to the
    gracious Ian Goldberg and Kat Hanna who started off this contest with
    their suggestion "Consumers Better Dump This Pernicious Act".
    
  * Paul Jimenez is the winner for best decoding of the Copyright
    Protection Technical Working Group (CPTWG) as "Clueless People
    Threatening World's Gadgets". Honorable mentions to Brett Glass for
    "Consumer Products Transformed into Watchdogs and Guards" and to
    Steven Cherry for "Copyright Protection Trumps Web's Greatness".
    
  * Jim Bauer is the winner for transforming the Broadcast Protection
    Discussion Group (BPDG) into "Bribes Predetermine Digital Gadgets".
    Honorable mentions to Brett Glass for for "Big Producers Demonstrate
    Greed" and to Kian-Tat Lim for "Billionaires Producing Damaged
    Goods".

For more information on the ongoing attack on your fair use rights by
Congress and industry alike, keep reading the EFFector and the EFF
website at http://www.eff.org/

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EXCHANGE IDEAS WITH EFF FOUNDERS MITCH KAPOR AND JOHN PERRY BARLOW

AT APRIL 16TH BENEFIT DINNER

You are invited to join an intimate group of fifteen for a lively evening
of fine food, history and conversation with the original EFF co-founders,
Mitch Kapor and John Perry Barlow. This exchange of ideas will take place
on Tuesday, April 16th at 7:30 p.m. and will benefit EFF's work to
protect rights in the digital age.

Mitch and Barlow founded EFF in July of 1990 to protect civil liberties
where law and technology collide. (See Barlow's compelling account from
that time at http://www.eff.org/Publications/John_Perry_Barlow/HTML/
eff.html). In its 11-1/2 year history, EFF has been on the forefront of
high tech issues, fighting to ensure that reading email requires a
warrant, software is recognized as speech, restrictions on encryption
export are illegal, and fair use survives in the digital age.

The dinner will take place at the classic Waterfront restaurant in the
North Room. While looking out over the San Francisco Bay, you will have
the chance to take part in an in-depth conversation about EFF's
fascinating role in the universe. You will also be contributing to an
important cause, as the money raised from this unusual evening will go to
furthering our work.

The evening includes the full cost of your dinner and drinks, the
opportunity to talk with Mitch and Barlow, a vintage EFF t-shirt, and
other surprises. The cost is $500. As there are only 15 available seats,
space will fill up quickly.

Please contact Katina Bishop, katina@eff.org, for more information and to
RSVP at +1 415-436-9333 x101.

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ADMINISTRIVIA

EFFector is published by:

The Electronic Frontier Foundation
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Editors:
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Stanton McCandlish, EFF Technical Director/Webmaster
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