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EFFector Online Volume 09 No. 12 Sept. 7, 1996 editors@eff.org
A Publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation ISSN 1062-9424
IN THIS ISSUE:
ALERT: Crypto Action Week Sep. 3-10; Pro-Crypto Petition
News from the frontlines
What you must do
Concluding the meeting
Tips on how to conduct your visit
Angles on encryption
Questions about encryption you might be asked
Participating Organizations / More Information
Online Civil Liberties Groups Condemn Singaporean Net Censorship
Alert: UK in Throes of Newspaper-Generated "Cyberporn" Hysteria
NewsNybbles
Chinese Government on a "spiritual pollution" Net Censorship Rampage
Pseudonymous Remailer anon.penet.fi Closed; No Online Privacy in Finland
Anti-Terrorism Bill's Fallout Looks Suspiciously Orwellian
AOL's Attempt to Block "Spam" Halted by Court
Upcoming Events
Quote of the Day
What YOU Can Do
Administrivia
* See http://www.eff.org/Alerts/ or ftp.eff.org, /pub/Alerts/ for more
information on current EFF activities and online activism alerts! *
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: ALERT: Crypto Action Week Sep. 3-10; Pro-Crypto Petition
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Please gear up for "Crypto Action Week", Sept. 3-10. Time to contact your
legislators and make your views heard loud and clear. In the interim,
*please sign the petition in support of the encryption deregulation bills.*
See http://www.crypto.com/petition/ for the petition.
___________________________________________________________________________
___ _____ _____ _____ ___
/ __| _ \ \ / / _ \_ _/ _ \ JOIN THOUSANDS OF OTHER NET.AMERICANS AS
| (__| /\ V /| _/ | || (_) | THEY WORK FOR BETTER PRIVACY AND ENCRYPTION
\___|_|_\ |_| |_| |_| \___/ September 3-10, 1996
___ ___ _____ ___ ___ _ _ __ _____ ___ _ __
/ _ \ / __|_ _|_ _/ _ \| \| | \ \ / / __| __| |/ /
| _ | (__ | | | | (_) | .` | \ \/\/ /| _|| _|| ' <
|_| |_|\___| |_| |___\___/|_|\_| \_/\_/ |___|___|_|\_\
SENATE PRO-CRYPTO PRO-CODE BILL COULD BE VOTED OUT OF COMMITTEE
YOUR HELP IS NEEDED TO PREPARE CONGRESS FOR THE DEBATE!
http://www.crypto.com/caw/
Reproduce this where appropriate until September 15, 1996
___________________________________________________________________________
Table of Contents
News from the frontlines
What you must do
Concluding the meeting
Tips on how to conduct your visit
Angles on encryption
Questions about encryption you might be asked
Participating Organizations / More Information
___________________________________________________________________________
NEWS FROM THE FRONTLINES
Congress as a whole is beginning to focus on encryption - bills moving
through both House and Senate would improve availability of privacy and
security for the Net. With three hearings in the Senate and one
scheduled in House Judiciary Committee for early September -
pro-encryption bills have a chance of passing, or at least helping to
lay the groundwork for the next Congress.
Recently in a live chat from the Republican Convention in San Diego,
Senator Conrad Burns (R-MT) said he believed he had enough votes to
pass Pro-CODE out of the Senate Sub-Committee and Committee. This
is the farthest encryption activists will have come in the crypto fight
in years.
We need your help to make the case to Congress that encryption is
important to privacy and security online, as well as the future potential
of the Internet to create jobs and promote US competitiveness. Here's what
you can do:
-sign the petition at http://www.crypto.com/petition/
-make an appointment with your legislator's local office
With the directions below, visit your Congressperson - urge them to
support the two bills: Pro-CODE "Promotion of Commerce Online in the
Digital Era" (S.1726) & SAFE "Security and Freedom Through Encryption"
(HR 3011).
Now is the time to tell your member of Congress that government
restrictions on encryption are unacceptable to the future of the
Internet. In recent months, the FBI and the White House have been
using local sheriffs to lobby members of Congress on this issue. If
you don't tell your member of Congress our side of the story, they
won't hear it from anyone.
WHAT YOU MUST DO
Here's what you need to do:
1. Make an appointment with your Senators'/Representative's local office.
It's probably best to make an appointment with the local office manager.
It's great if you can get an appointment with your legislator, but
don't worry if your legislator cannot be there.
If you don't know who your Representative and two Senators are, simply
call the local League of Women Voters office and ask! You might also
try using the Zipper at http://www.voxpop.org:80/zipper/
2. Sign the petition at http://www.crypto.com/petition/
A petition has been setup to help show Congress that encryption policy
must be driven by the market's concerns.
3. Setting up the meeting
When making the appointment, you should say that the topic is
privacy and encryption on the Internet. Ensure they know you are a
constituent. If possible, take a friend who owns a small Internet
business (web design, ISP, whatever) who also lives in the
district.
It's crucial that you do not wait to get someone to go before making the
appointment. Make the appointment, then go looking for someone to go
with you.
4. Carry the following message as a theme through your meeting.
Encryption is important to privacy - the Internet is vulnerable
and the future of American competitiveness is at stake. Encryption
is NOT a terrorist weapon any more than a hammer is a terrorist
weapon. While there are difficult national security issues,
these should not be the driving force of this debate.
The future of the Internet should not be held hostage by a cold-war
era world view.
5. Send us mail at vtw@vtw.org when you've made your appointment. Check
back at http://www.crypto.com/caw/ for progress and tips on Crypto Action
Week!
___________________________________________________________________________
CONCLUDING THE MEETING
There are a few things you should remember as you finish your meeting.
If talking to a member, find out if we can count on his/her support for the
PRO-CODE/SAFE bill. If talking to a staffer, make it their mission to
find out the answer to this question.
As you leave the meeting, run, don't walk, to the nearest card shop and
buy a thank you card. Write a thank you and address it immediately.
Stick it in the nearest mailbox.
Send us mail at vtw@vtw.org, letting us know how it went.
___________________________________________________________________________
TIPS ON HOW TO CONDUCT YOUR VISIT
Always be polite. Never threaten. Never lose your cool.
Many staffers have no idea what encryption is. Moreover, they might have
never used the Internet. You should view this as an opportunity:
you will get the chance to define the debate and educate them.
You may even want to bring a laptop with a modem and take the member/staff
on a breif Internet tour. (Be careful about what you show them.)
Remember we're all taxpayers, so the phrase "I'm a taxpayer" is
meaningless.
Be brief. If you're going in a group, plan out the topics each person
will hit. Appoint someone to act as a spokesperson for the group, so there
can be a central contact.
Remember the first law of Real Estate: LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION. It's
crucial that everyone at the meeting be a potential vote for the
legislator.
Remind yourself that your legislator probably hasn't yet made a decision
on this issue yet; you're there to educate as much as anything.
Go as *individuals* or *business owners* who have a stake in the debate
on encryption issue.
___________________________________________________________________________
ANGLES ON ENCRYPTION
Internet business angle: When speaking from the point of view of an Internet
Service Provider or Web design firm, you have available several arguments,
such as:
"The popularity of the Net has created a gold rush which has
benefitted my business and the local voters I employ. Concerns
about security on the net could dampen that excitement, and
diminish the potential for industry"
"Many types of services that I would like to offer online cannot
be done without strong security. The current level of security
is too weak to engender public trust, and will diminish the
types of business people will put on the net."
Clipper angle: If someone brings up the issue of Clipper and the idea that
government should be trusted to hold your private encryption key, you have
several options available to you:
"It's not clear that the Administration can be trusted to hold
any information secret, after incidents like the FBI Filegate
scandal."
"Handing over one's encryption keys to the gov't is just like giving
the local police station a copy of your house key, just in case they
need to search your apartment. Of course they would promise never
to use it unless authorized."
___________________________________________________________________________
QUESTIONS ABOUT ENCRYPTION YOU MIGHT BE ASKED
There are a number of questions you will probably be asked by the staff
or member that you should be prepared to answer. Here's a few of them
and some answers you should feel comfortable with.
WHAT IS ENCRYPTION?
Encryption is a method of scrambling information with one or more "keys"
so that only the sender and receiver can read it, and an eavesdropper
cannot. Your bank card PIN, telephone conversations, love letters, health
records, and business correspondence are all things that might need to
be encrypted.
WON'T TERRORISTS AND CRIMINALS USE ENCRYPTION?
Perhaps. But criminals and terrorists already have access to strong
encryption from overseas, and are unlikely to use encryption technologies
which they know are breakable by the US government. Would you send
sensitive information using a code that you knew your adversaries could
break?
Criminals and terrorists will, for better or worse, have access to strong
encryption regardless of U.S. efforts to restrict its availability.
Meanwhile, current U.S. policy leaves sensative personal and business
communications vulnerable and actually creates opportunities for crimes like
industrial espionage.
WHAT IS 40 BIT ENCRYPTION?
Quite often the strength of an encryption system is measured by the
size of the key. Forty bits is about the same as a five or six letter
word, such as "apple". The US government has stated that American
companies that wish to sell products with encryption can only implement
encryption whose keys are forty bits long.
At one time it was quite difficult to attack and recover messages that
were encrypted with 40 bit encryption. Because of advances in computer
power and research, it has become much easier to do this. As recently
as last year, a graduate student in France broke 40-bit encryption using
University resources he had available in his spare time.
DON'T EXPORT RESTRICTIONS PREVENT ENCRYPTION PRODUCTS FROM GOING ABROAD?
No. The idea that export restrictions actually keep encryption out of the
hands of non-U.S. citizens implies that all encryption products come
from the U.S. This is simply untrue, and the plethora of products
available from non-U.S. sources now shows how absurd it is to continue
to keep such regulations intact.
DO EXPORT RESTRICTIONS HURT U.S. COMPANIES IN THE GLOBAL MARKETPLACE?
Yes. American hardware and software companies compete globally with products
from around the world. For many companies, a majority of their business
comes from international sales. In the crowded marketplace of this fast-
paced business, developing a product with a single feature that outshines a
competitor's product can often be deciding factor in a consumer's mind.
Yet, American hardware and software businesses are at a disadvantage, as
many competing non-U.S. products can offer stronger encryption than they
can. This places American products at a distinct competitive disadvantage.
DO EXPORT RESTRICTIONS LIMIT AMERICANS' CHOICE OF SECURITY PRODUCTS?
Yes. Although it is possible to sell two versions of a product, one with
strong encryption for sale domestically and one with weak encryption
for sale abroad, most companies find this schizophrenic product
development approach to be too burdensome and risky. The result is that
companies that produce hardware and software products that require security
tend to omit such features entirely, or weaken them so that the same product
can be used for export as for domestic use.
The end result of this is that Americans end up with products that are
becoming increasingly incapable of protecting their privacy, hampered by
regulations that can longer accomplish their goal.
___________________________________________________________________________
PARTICIPATING ORGANIZATIONS / MORE INFORMATION
For more information on the encryption issue, check these important
organizations' WWW sites:
Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT): http://www.cdt.org
Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF): http://www.eff.org
Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC): http://www.epic.org
Voters Telecommunications Watch (VTW): http://www.vtw.org
Wired Ventures Ltd.: http://www.hotwired.com
Also check these great educational sites:
Encryption Policy Resource Page (http://www.crypto.com)
Internet Privacy Coalition (http://www.privacy.org)
========================================================================
------------------------------
Subject: Online Civil Liberties Groups Condemn Singaporean Net Censorship
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
*** GLOBAL ACTION BRIEF ***
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE August 28, 1996
* Please redistribute this document widely with this banner intact
* Redistribute only in appropriate places & only until 30 September 1996
Singapore Government Curtails Online Freedoms
The government of Singapore recently established strict controls on all
Internet Service Providers and many World Wide Web pages. ISPs and content
providers will be licensed, and required to adhere to a rigid set of content
guidelines which apply to political speech, ethnic and religious remarks
including satire, and public morals including "contents which propagate
permissiveness or promiscuity."
We believe that the licensing policy and broad content guidelines will
effectively chill the free flow of information not only in Singapore, but
worldwide. Because the Internet is global, transcending geographical
bounds, we are convinced that censorship within any nation or state, whether
implicit or explicit, poses a threat to all users of the global network. We
therefore encourage the government of Singapore, and other governments
implementing or considering policies of content control, to stress education
rather than regulation.
Singapore's approach, like the Communications Decency Act that was passed
but quickly rescinded in the U.S., applies a broadcast regulatory standard
to the Internet.
The application of broadcast-inspired, "one-to-many" regulation to this new
*many-to-many* medium indicates a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature
of the Internet.
Unlike television and radio broadcasting, the Internet does not push
material at the viewer, but simply makes material available on demand - not
unlike a rapid inter-library loan. And unlike broadcasting, the Internet
does not present the views of a limited few privileged speakers, but allows
all participants to publish, comment on, and even refute, what they read.
Recognizing that every culture has its own standards regarding what is or is
not appropriate, the undersigned organizations recommend that Singapore's
government allow its citizens to use Internet filtering tools, with which
they can block out any material that is offensive to them, rather than
embark upon a closed-border approach that will cut Singapore off from the
new global online library.
Support of individually customizable filtration services, instead of a broad
top-down censorship effort, would enable Singapore to participate in a more
positive and effective way in the evolution of this new open medium, and
would indicate trust in the ability of Singaporeans to choose what is right
for Singapore and for themselves.
***
WHERE TO FIND MORE INFORMATION
For more information on the Singapore censorship situation, and other global
efforts to abridge the flow of information over the net, see these web sites:
http://www.eff.org/~declan/global/index.html
and
http://www.io.org/~sherlock/doom/threat.html
Human Rights Watch's letter to George Yeo, Singapore Minister for
Information and the arts, is located on HRW's gopher, at
gopher://gopher.igc.apc.org:5000/00/int/hrw/asia/asia/4
WHO TO CONTACT
The following organizations have issued this advisory:
Press Contacts:
ALCEI - Electronic Frontiers Italy * http://www.nexus.it/alcei
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) * http://www.aclu.org
Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) * http://www.cdt.org
CITADEL-Electronic Frontier France * http://www.imaginet.fr/~mose/citadel
CommUnity (UK) * http://www.community.org.uk
EFF-Austin * http://www.eff-austin.org
Electronic Frontiers Australia * http://www.efa.org.au
Electronic Frontier Canada * http://www.efc.ca/
Elektronisk Forpost Norge (Electronic Frontier Norway) * http://www.sn.no/~efn
Electronic Frontier Foundation * http://www.eff.org
Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) * http://www.epic.org
Fronteras Electronicas Espan~a (Electronic Frontiers Spain) *
http://www.lander.es/~jlmartin
HotWired * http://www.hotwired.com
Voters Telecommunication Watch (VTW) * http://www.vtw.org
Please choose an organization above and visit their web site for contact
information.
A copy of this advisory is available on the World Wide Web, at
http://www.well.com/~jonl/singapore.html.
[END]
------------------------------
Subject: Alert: UK in Throes of Newspaper-Generated "Cyberporn" Hysteria
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*** GLOBAL ALERT ***
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE SEPT. 6, 1996
- Please redistribute this document widely
with this banner intact
- Redistribute only in appropriate places
& only until 30 September 1996
Global Alert: Hysteria in the UK Threatens Free Speech on the Net
The Sunday, August 25 issue of the London Observer splashed across its
front page a sensationalized account of child pornography on the Internet,
falsely accusing two Internet Service Providers, Clive Feather of Demon UK
(a full service site) and Johan Helsingius of anon.penet.fi (an anonymous
remailer) of involvement in the distribution of child pornography. Why
were these accusations made? Demon UK had refused to remove a broad
range of sexually-oriented newsgroups identified by UK authorities as
possible sources of child pornography, and anon.penet.fi was identified
without substantiation as a source for `90% of child pornography on the
Internet.'
In fact, Demon UK was simply acknowledging that Internet Service
Providers (ISPs) cannot police the data that traverses their systems, or
assume responsibility for it, any more than the post office can assume
responsiblity for content that is sent through traditional mail. And
Helsingius, contrary to allegations in the London Observer, had long before
restricted the size of files that could be transferred through anon.penet.fi,
effectively eliminating the possibility that binary files containing pictures
could be exchanged.
This story was extreme, but not without precedent: much has been written
associating the Internet with those who make and distribute child porn, and
there have been many attempts to hold ISPs responsible for objectionable or
illegal content.
ISPs are not content providers; they channel content provided by their users.
It is outside the scope of the ISP to monitor, evaluate, and attempt to remove
objectionable content. In fact, any attempt by an ISP to block particular
kinds of content will ultimately be fruitless, as providers of that content
will simply find alternate channels of distribution.
Moreover, it is wrong to assume that the Internet has no rules, and is
friendly to the exchange of objectionable materials. In fact the Internet is a
`virtual community' of users with a distinct culture incorporating diverse
views but finding consensus in opposition to censorship and access control.
There is also strong opposition to the exploitation of children; in fact, many
Internet users have cooperated in attempts to identify those who create and
distribute child pornography.
Summary: The physical abuse and exploitation of children is a very real
problem demanding a proactive response; however we vigorously oppose
attempts to stifle the free and open exchange of information over the
Internet in the mistaken belief that overbroad restrictions on the flow
of information will protect children from abuse. We support Demon UK
and anon.penet.fi (which Helsingius has shut down), and deplore the
Observer's lurid attempt to make respectable Internet providers the
"cause" of a problem for which they have no responsibility.
The Observer story is not the first of its kind: it represents an ongoing
confusion about a complex new medium. Unfortunately this
misunderstanding has become a global problem, represented in proposed or
enacted restrictive legislation as well as negative press.
Consider these possible analogies to the Internet:
- The Internet is a vast mail system, like a post office. Would you favor a
law that required postal authorities to open each piece of mail and
evaluate its acceptability?
- The Internet is a huge library system. Would you favor a law that
would restrict information a library can provide?
- The Internet is a collection of virtual communities. Would you favor a
law that required routine searches of your community?
Our position: These measures constrain everyone because of the misdeeds
of a few. It is more sensible to find and deal with the sources of child
pornography than to impede the flow of data over the Internet. The
imposition of censorship and additional constraints applied to ISPs will not
solve the existing problem, but will create a new problem, a barrier to the
free and democratic exchange of ideas.
For press contacts, and for more information about the Internet, see
homepages for the signatories to this message:
ALCEI - Electronic Frontiers Italy * http://www.nexus.it/alcei
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) * http://www.aclu.org
CITADEL-Electronic Frontier France * http://www.imaginet.fr/~mose/citadel
CommUnity (UK) * http://www.community.org.uk
Electronic Frontier Foundation (USA) * http://www.eff.org
EFF-Austin (USA) * http://www.eff-austin.org
Electronic Frontier Canada * http://www.efc.ca/
Electronic Frontiers Australia * http://www.efa.org.au/
Electronic Frontiers Houston (USA) * http://www.efh.org
Elektronisk Forpost Norge (Electronic Frontier Norway) *
http://www.sn.no/~efn
Fronteras Electronicas Espan~a (Electronic Frontiers Spain) *
http://www.lander.es/~jlmartin/
HotWired * http://www.hotwired.com
------------------------------
Subject: NewsNybbles
--------------------
* Chinese Government on a "spiritual pollution" Net Censorship Rampage
Furthering previous moves to limit Western news distribution, by piping it
through the government-controlled Xinhua news agency, Beijing has announced
blockage of as many as 100 Web sites around the world, prevening those in
China from reaching these sites. The "blacklist" includes US new media
(CNN, Wall Street Journal), Taiwanese and Hong Kongese news and commentary,
sites critical of Chinese policy, and a few (but hardly all) sites
providing sexually explicit material, such as Playboy.
[Sources: Wall Street Journal, 960905.]
* Pseudonymous Remailer anon.penet.fi Closed; No Online Privacy in Finland
Losing a year-long battle with the Church of Scientology, Johan "Julf"
Helsingius has closed his popular privacy-protecting remailer service
at anon.penet.fi. A preliminary court ruling in a case brought under
Finnish law by representatives of the Church of Scientology has concluded
that under current Finnish law, there is essentially no privacy online.
Helsingius predicts a rapid change to his country's privacy laws to fix
the loophole, has kept the anon.penet.fi system operational for it's
500,000+ users' non-pseudonymous communications, and brushes off claims
that he is shutting the system down due to the child pornography
allegations of UK newspaper _The_Observer_. "Julf" says he will be
filing a defamation suit against the newspaper, and will appeal the
Finnish court ruling, but is taking the system down to prevent a repeat
of an earlier CoS victory: the court ordered Helsingius to produce the
identifying information of person who had allegedly used the remailer to
violate CoS intellectual property rights.
In a press release, Helsingius wrote, "I will close down the remailer for
the time being because the legal issues governing the whole Internet in
Finland are yet undefined. The legal protection of the users needs to be
clarified. At the moment the privacy of Internet messages is judicially
unclear."
Though some Net users feel distraught at the closure of anon.penet.fi,
others point out that the remailer system was intentionally designed to
avoid government censorship and privacy invasion. Nodes in this
meta-network are expendable, with others, in different jurisdictions,
popping up to replace those that go down. And anon.penet.fi may have
gone down just in time. Noting the Scientology cases' preliminary
ruling, the government of Singapore (busy aren't they?) has begun
demanding that Helsingius tell the the real identity of a person who has
posted messages critical of Singaporean regulation policies.
Internet security thinkers point out that cryptographically-protected and
truly anonymous "Type II" remailers do not keep databases that translate
pseudonym to real email address, but instead strip the real address out
entirely. This precludes being able to reply to anonymous messages, but
also precludes seizure of the email address database, or court-ordered
release of information on those who have used the system.
Related information:
hysterical London _Observer_ article
http://www.scallywag.com/obtext.htm
Helsingius' press release
http://www.eff.org/pub/Privacy/Anonymity/960830_penet_closure.announce
[Source: Reuters, 960830; Hotwired "Netizen", 960906; Helsingius press
release, 960830.]
* Anti-Terrorism Bill's Fallout Looks Suspiciously Orwellian
In the wake of the House Anti-Terrorism Bill's demands for increased
airport security, various proposals have been floated, including a
particularly disturbing one from an aviation commission led by US Vice
President Al Gore. The commission recommends computerized background
checks on all airline passengers, seeking travel "irregularities" that
supposedly indicate possibility of terrorist activity, to determine
whose luggage should be searched! Such background checks might include
travel histories, financial records, and contact information.
[Source: New York Times, 960901]
* AOL's Attempt to Block "Spam" Halted by Court
For some time, America Online has been running an e-blockade to prevent the
"spamming" (junk e-mailing) of AOL subscribers by Cyber Promotions and
other online marketing companies who have aroused the ire of, well, just
about everyone with an email address. CP says AOL is being
hypocritical, since the online service sends AOL-sponsored unsolicited
ads to the same subscribers (and, though CP didn't point this out, much
of the "spam" that's hit Usenet and a thousands of mailing lists was
sent by people abusing free temporary AOL trial accounts). CP also
claims the filtration violates AOL users' right to read what they want,
and CP's rights to publish and disribute what it wants.
Some numbers: AOL receives 1.8 million junk emails per day (not counting
the internally generated ones.) CP accounts for about 900,000 of them, and
sends an additional mass-mailing of 400,000 ads to non-AOL Internet
addresses daily, according to CP president Sanford Wallace.
CP, filing suit against AOL in March, moved in the Philadelphia district
courtroom of Judge Charles Weiner for a temporary restraining order
against AOL interfering with Cyber Promo's advertising emailings. The
judge granted the order (which does not affect AOL's block against
two other "spammers") on Sept. 5, pending a civil trial set for November.
AOL may appeal the order, according to AOL counsel David Phillips.
How does the online community feel about all of this? A majority appear
to detest e-junkmailing, but an increasinly vocal minority criticize
attempts to cancel or block "spam" as a violation of advertisers' free
speech rights, at least in a philosophical if not legal sense. And opinions
on AOL's actions range from considering the AOL blockade to be a kind of
imperialism on the online service's part, to another example of AOL trying
to give back to and participate more fully in the Internet.
The eventual solution to the problem of swelling, ad-filled email boxes
and increasingly unreadable newsgroups filled with virtual billboards may
rely on technical changes to various Usenet and Internet protocols that
make massmailing more difficult, improvements to personal filtration
software, and/or tighter online service contracting. Marketers' viewpoints
tend toward preserving the ability to broadly advertise while narrowing
target audiences by profiling and other direct marketing techniques, many
of which raise user privacy concerns. However this plays out over the
next few years, whether online adverts follow postal models, are
illegalized via extension of junk fax laws, or subject to some other
outcome, it's going to be "interesting", in more ways than one.
Related information:
Full text of Judge Weiner's TRO
http://www.phillynews.com/Sep/06/aolmail.htm
[Source: New York Times, 060905; Philadelphia Inquirer, 960906.]
------------------------------
Upcoming Events
---------------
This schedule lists EFF events, and those we feel might be of interest to
our members. EFF events (those sponsored by us or featuring an EFF speaker)
are marked with a "*" instead of a "-" after the date. Simlarly, government
events (such as deadlines for comments on reports or testimony submission,
or conferences at which government representatives are speaking) are marked
with "!" in place of the "-" ("!?" means a govt. speaker may appear, but
we don't know for certain yet.) And likewise, "+" in place of "-"
indicates a non-USA event. If it's a foreign EFF event with govt. people,
it'll be "*!+" instead of "-". You get the idea.
The latest version of the full EFF calendar is available from:
ftp: ftp.eff.org, /pub/EFF/calendar.eff
gopher: gopher.eff.org, 1/EFF, calendar.eff
http://www.eff.org/pub/EFF/calendar.eff
See also our new Now-Up-to-Date HTML calendar at:
http://events.eff.org
1996
----
Sep. 9- INTERNET LAW SYMPOSIUM 96 (ILS96); second annual international
10 - law and policy summit for the global Internet; experts on and
delegates from business, education, public policy, legislation,
security, and justice will examine places where technology and
law converge; Seattle, Washington, USA
http://www.internetlaw.org
Sep. 9-
10 - "The Communications Act of 1996 - Deriving Order from Chaos";
! Two-day conference Washington, DC, conference will examine the
* sweeping changes in store for the telecommunications industry and
public with the implentation of the Telecoomunications Reform Act;
Congressmen Rick Boucher, Jack Fields and Senator Conrad Burns are
scheduled to participate; sponsored by Bell Atlantic. Similar
programs to take place in Chicago, IL (Sep. 11-12), Dallas, TX
(Sep. 16-17), San Francisco, CA (Sep. 19-20; EFF Board Member
Louise Velazquez will join a panel discussion here).
Contact: Bell Atlantic
Telephone: 1-800-242-7675
Fax: 1-609 452-1288
Sep. 9-
11 - Connect 96: The Global Summit on Building Electronic
Communities; information society leaders will discuss the
challenges of developing electronic infrastructures; hosted by
Smart Valley, Inc., and Stanford University (event is on campus);
contact: Leslie Kareckas (408) 562 7747 or email: lesliek@svi.org
Sep. 10 * Workshop on Digital Cash and Public Policy sponsored by the
! Institute for Technology Assessment; EFF Staff Counsel Shari
- Steele will speak on legal issues surrounding online banking
and commerce; Members of Congress will attend and participate
in discussions; U.S. House of Representatives' Cannon Office
Building;
Email ita@ita.mtppi.org for more infomration
Sep. 17 + Advanced Surveillance Technologies II; Ottowa, Ontario, Canada.
Email: pi@privacy.org
Sep. 18-
19 +! Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners, Ottawa, Ontario,
Canada. No Contact Info.
Contact: Conference Coordinator, 112 Ketn St., Ottawa,
Ontario, Canada, K1A 1H3
Phone: +1 613 995 2410
Fax: +1 613 947 6850
Email: jroy@fox.nstn.ca
URL: http://infoweb.magi.com/~privcan/
Sep. 24-
26 - Electronic Publishing 1996; an international conference in Palo
Alto (USA) organized by Xerox Palo Alto Research Center;
Contact: EP96; Xerox Corporation; XSoft Division;
3400 Hillview Avenue PAHV-127; Palo Alto, California 94304; USA
tel: +1 415/813-7293; fax: +1 415/813-7188
email: ep96@xsoft.xerox.com
Sep. 27 * American Bar Association Forum on Communications Law; EFF Staff
- Counsel Shari Steele will speak on issues of trademark online,
including the recent Georgia law which has greatly chilled free
speech online; New York City.
American Bar Association
740 15th St., NW
Washington, DC 20061-0001
Phone: (202) 331-2200
Oct. 8-
11 - EDUCOM '96; Philadelphia, PA
Contact: +1 202 872 4200 (voice)
Email: conf@educom.edu
Oct. 11 * American Bar Association Forum on Communications Law; EFF Staff
- Counsel Shari Steele will speak on issues of trademark online,
including the recent Georgia law which has greatly chilled free
speech online; San Francisco
American Bar Association
740 15th St., NW
Washington, DC 20061-0001
Phone: (202) 331-2200
Oct. 12-
13 - Supreme Law Seminars - Freedom Law and Internet Technology:
The Full Faith and Credit Clause; Holiday Inn Palo Verde in
Tucson, Arizona; focus of the seminar will be the constitutional
law of freedom, and available Internet technologies for
teaching and learning this law, and making freedom a reality.
Richard McDonald of Canoga Park, California will be the featured
guest speaker; Advanced tickets are available by sending $100 in
cash or blank U.S. Postal Money order to Paul Andrew Mitchell,
Supreme Law Seminars, c/o 2509 North Campbell, Apartment 1776,
Tucson, Arizona. For more info, Email to:
Paul Andrew Mitchell
Oct. 16-
19 - Web Net-96: World Conference of The Web Society, organized by
the Association of Computing in Education; San Francisco, CA.
Contact: +1 804 973 3987
Email: AACE@virginia.edu
URL: http://aace.virginia.edu/ace
Fax: +1 804 978 7449
Oct. 19-
20 - Computer Professionals for Social Reponsibility (CPSR) -
Two-day conference at Georgetwon University (Washington, D.C.,
USA) will investigate the role of computers in political
activism, election processes, and rights of access to information.
Invited keynote speaker is Ralph Nader. More info contact CPSR:
tel: 415-322-3778, 703-739-9320
email: cpsrannmtg@cpsr.org
Internet: http://www.cpsr.org/home.html
Oct. 19-
24 - ASIS 1996 Annual Meeting - Global Complexity: Information, Chaos
and Control; meeting will consider the complexity of the working
world of information professionals as well as theoretical
perspectives involving the nature and use of information;
Baltimore, Maryland, USA; more information, registration...
see http://www.asis.org under Conferences
Oct. 23 + International Bar Association's Media Law Seminar - Berlin;
Seminar discussion of Internet freedom of expression issues;
part of IBA annual conference drawing 4,000+ lawyers from all
acround the globe.
Oct. 29-
30 ! "The First 100 Feet: Options for Internet and Broadband
- Access," sponsored by the Freedom Forum, the Harvard Information
Infrastructure Project, the National Economic Council, and the U.S.
Dept. of Energy; The Freedom Forum Building, Arlington, Va.;
submission deadline: June 20
Contact: Tim Leshan, Coordinator, Information Infrastructure
Project, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, 79 JFK
St., Cambridge, MA 02138
Phone: +1 617 496 1389
Fax: +1 617 495 5776
Email: leshan@ksgrsch.harvard.edu
URL: http://ksgwww.harvard.edu/iip/first.html
Nov. 6-
8 + ETHICOMP96: Ethical Issues of Information Technology; Universidad
Pontificia de Salamanca - Madrid, Spain; seeks to provide practical
guidance on socially and ethically sensitive applications of IT --
the social benefits and drawbacks of using IT; will include the
presentation of case studies which raise or illustrate significant
ethical problems of IT usage (1) in the workplace, (2) in education,
(3) at home and (4) in leisure. Nov. 6-8, 1996
For further general information contact:
Centre for Computing and Social Responsibility
School of Computing Sciences
De Montfort University
The Gateway
Leicester
LE1 9BH UK
Telephone: +44 116 257 7475
Fax +44 116 254 1891
E-mail: ccsr@dmu.ac.uk
Nov. 13-
15 - Fourth Biennial Participatory Design Conference, sponsored by
Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility; Cambridge, MA.
Submission deadline: May 3.
Email: pdc96@ncat.edu
URL: http://www.cpsr.org/cpsr/conferences/pdc96/pdc96.html
Nov. 15-
22 + Communication and the Empowerment of Civil Society in Africa,
10th Biennial Conference; Cape Town, South Africa.
Contact:
Tel. 25~2-216135 /227043
Fax:25~2-216135/750329/229168
Email: acceb@arcc.permanet.org
URL: http://www.ru.ac.za/departments/journ/civil.html
Dec. 1 - Computer Security Day (started by Washington DC chapter of the
Assoc. for Computing Machinery, to "draw attention to computer
security during the holdiay season when it might otherwise become
lax."
Dec. 5-
8 + Tel*Ed/Multimedia '96, "a conference where communication
technology is used to create learning experiences for the
participants...where participants show, not tell, how
telecommunication can bridge distances"; Tampa, FL and
Monterrey, Mexico.
Email: mriel@iearn.org
URL: http://isteonline.uoregon.edu
------------------------------
Subject: Quote of the Day
-------------------------
"Indeed, the Government's asserted 'failure' of the Internet rests on the
implicit premise that too much speech occurs in that medium, and that
speech there is too available to the participants. This is exactly the
benefit of Internet communication, however. The Government, therefore,
implicitly asks this court to limit both the amount of speech on the
Internet and the availability of that speech. This argument is profoundly
repugnant to First Amendment principles."
- Judge Stewart Dalzell, ACLU v. Reno, 1996.
Find yourself wondering if your privacy and freedom of speech are safe
when bills to censor the Internet are swimming about in a sea of of
surveillance legislation and anti-terrorism hysteria? Worried that in
the rush to make us secure from ourselves that our government
representatives may deprive us of our essential civil liberties?
Concerned that legislative efforts nominally to "protect children" will
actually censor all communications down to only content suitable for
the playground? Alarmed by commercial and religious organizations abusing
the judicial and legislative processes to stifle satire, dissent and
criticism?
Join EFF!
http://www.eff.org/EFFdocs/join_eff.html (or send any message to info@eff.org).
Even if you don't live in the U.S., the anti-Internet hysteria will soon
be visiting a legislative body near you. If it hasn't already.
------------------------------
Subject: What YOU Can Do
------------------------
* New Crypto-Privacy Legislation
Urge your Represenatitives to support the Pro-CODE crypto export bill
(and to fix the few remaining bugs in it).
For years US export controls on encryption have hampered the development
of secure communications online. This technology is vital for online
commerce, for national security, and for YOUR electronic privacy.
The new Pro-CODE legislation will go a long way to rectifying the situation.
Join Crypto Action Week - see lead article in this issue for more info.
Join in the Golden Key Campaign - see http://www.eff.org/goldkey.html
PARTICIPATE IN GOLDEN KEY ACTIVISM EFFORTS:
http://www.eff.org/goldkey/activism.html
Support the EFF Cyberspace Legal Defense Fund:
http://www.eff.org/pub/Alerts/cyberlegal_fund_eff.announce
See also:
http://www.eff.org/pub/Privacy/
http://www.privacy.org/ipc/
http://www.crypto.com/
for more info.
* Digital Telephony/Comms. Assistance to Law Enforcement Act
The FBI has been seeking both funding for the DT/CALEA wiretapping
provisions, and preparing to require that staggering numbers of citizens be
simultaneously wiretappable.
To oppose the funding, write to your own Senators and Representatives
urging them to vote against any appropriations for wiretapping.
In the wake of the Olympics bomb, the US government, both legislative and
executive branches, are hot to pass new wiretapping laws, and fund the
DT/CALEA wiretapping provisions. SPEAK OUT NOW. There is not a moment to
lose! See lead article in this issue for more information.
See http://www.eff.org/pub/Privacy/Digital_Telephony_FBI/ for background
info.
* Anti-Terrorism Bills
Several bills threatening your privacy and free speech have been introduced
recently. Urge your Congresspersons to oppose these unconstitutional and
Big-Brotherish bills, which threaten freedom of association, free press,
free speech, and privacy. One such bill passed some time ago, stripped
of some of the more onerous provisions. It could have been worse, and
could yet still be worse: A new anti-terrorism bill posing many threats
to YOUR privacy may arise this month. SPEAK OUT NOW. There is
not a moment to lose!
Keep up the pressure. Write to your legislators: No
secret trials and deportations, no expansion of wiretapping scope or
authority, no national or "smart-card" ID systems!
For more information on some of this legislation, see
http://www.eff.org/pub/Privacy/Terrorism_militias/
* The Communications Decency Act & Other Censorship Legislation
The Communications Decency Act and similar legislation pose serious
threats to freedom of expression online, and to the livelihoods of system
operators. The legislation also undermines several crucial privacy
protections.
Business/industry persons concerned should alert their corporate govt.
affairs office and/or legal counsel. Everyone should write to their own
Representatives and Senators, letting them know that such abuses of
public trust will not be tolerated, that legislators who vote against
your free speech rights will be voted against by you in the next elections.
Join in the Blue Ribbon Campaign - see http://www.eff.org/blueribbon.html
PARTICIPATE IN BLUE RIBBON ACTIVISM EFFORTS:
http://www.eff.org/blueribbon/activism.html
Support the EFF Cyberspace Legal Defense Fund:
http://www.eff.org/pub/Alerts/cyberlegal_fund_eff.announce
For more information on what you can do to help stop this and other
dangerous legislation, see:
ftp.eff.org, /pub/Alerts/
gopher.eff.org, 1/Alerts
http://www.eff.org/pub/Alerts/
If you do not have full internet access (e.g. WWW), send your request
for information to ask@eff.org.
IMPORTANT! KEEP AN EYE ON YOUR LOCAL LEGISLATURE. All kinds of wacky
censorious legislation is turning up at the US state and non-US
national levels. Don't let it sneak by you - or by the online activism
community. Without locals on the look out, it's very difficult for the
Net civil liberties community to keep track of what's happening locally
as well as globally.
* The Anti-Electronic Racketeering Act
This bill is unlikely to pass in any form, being very poorly drafted, and
without much support. However, the CDA is just as bad and passed with
flying colors [the jolly roger?] in Congress. It's better to be safe
than sorry. If you have a few moments to spare, writing to, faxing, or
calling your Congresspersons to urge opposition to this bill is a good
idea.
* Medical Privacy Legislation
Several bills relating to medical privacy issues are floating in Congress
right now. Urge your legislators to support only proposals that *truly*
enhance the medical privacy of citizens.
More information on this legislation will be available at
http://www.eff.org/pub/Privacy/Medical/ soon. Bug mech@eff.org to make
it appear there faster. :)
* Child Privacy Legislation
A new bill to protect children from unethical marketing practices (e.g.
tricking kids into revealing personal information by offering prizes or
games) has been introduced. EFF and other civil liberties organizations
like, and dislike, various points in this bill. The legislators
sponsoring the bill appear interested in resolving the problems in the
statutory language they have proposed. More information on this will be
provided soon.
* Find Out Who Your Congresspersons Are
Writing letters to, faxing, and phoning your representatives in Congress
is one very important strategy of activism, and an essential way of
making sure YOUR voice is heard on vital issues.
EFF has lists of the Senate and House with contact information, as well
as lists of Congressional committees. These lists are available at:
ftp.eff.org, /pub/Activism/Congress_cmtes/
gopher.eff.org, 1/EFF/Issues/Activism/Congress_cmtes
http://www.eff.org/pub/Activism/Congress_cmtes/
The full Senate and House lists are senate.list and hr.list, respectively.
Those not in the U.S. should seek out similar information about their
own legislative bodies. EFF will be happy to archive any such
information provided to us, so pass it on!
If you are having difficulty determining who your US legislators are,
try contacting your local League of Women Voters, who maintain a great
deal of legislator information, or consult the free ZIPPER service
that matches Zip Codes to Congressional districts with about 85%
accuracy at:
http://www.stardot.com/~lukeseem/zip.html
Computer Currents Interactive has provided Congress contact info, sorted
by who voted for and against the Communcations Decency Act:
http://www.currents.net/congress.html
* Join EFF!
You *know* privacy, freedom of speech and ability to make your voice heard
in government are important. You have probably participated in our online
campaigns and forums. Have you become a member of EFF yet? The best way to
protect your online rights is to be fully informed and to make your
opinions heard. EFF members are informed and are making a difference. Join
EFF today!
For EFF membership info, send queries to membership@eff.org, or send any
message to info@eff.org for basic EFF info, and a membership form.
------------------------------
Administrivia
=============
EFFector Online is published by:
The Electronic Frontier Foundation
1550 Bryant St., Suite 725
San Francisco CA 94103 USA
+1 415 436 9333 (voice)
+1 415 436 9993 (fax)
Membership & donations: membership@eff.org
Legal services: ssteele@eff.org
General EFF, legal, policy or online resources queries: ask@eff.org
Editor: Stanton McCandlish, Online Activist, Webmaster (mech@eff.org)
This newsletter is printed on 100% recycled electrons.
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 may be reproduced individ-
ually at will.
To subscribe to EFFector via email, send message body of "subscribe
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Back issues are available at:
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To get the latest issue, send any message to effector-reflector@eff.org (or
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at EFFweb. HTML editions of the current issue sometimes take a day or
longer to prepare after issue of the ASCII text version.
------------------------------
End of EFFector Online v09 #12 Digest
*************************************
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