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EFFector - Volume 20, Issue 26 - It's Official: Senate Committee Issues Subpoenas for Key NSA Spying Docs

EFFECTOR

EFFector - Volume 20, Issue 26 - It's Official: Senate Committee Issues Subpoenas for Key NSA Spying Docs

EFFector Vol. 20, No. 26  July 3, 2007  editor@eff.org

A Publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation
ISSN 1062-9424

In the 430th Issue of EFFector:
  • It's Official: Senate Committee Issues Subpoenas for Key NSA Spying Docs
  • FISA Court Judge Criticizes Warrantless Wiretaps
  • REAL ID Dealt Setback in Senate -- Keep the Momentum Going!
  • Internet Radio Holds Day of Silence
  • Privatunes 0.9 Does Not Anonymize iTunes Plus Files
  • Doctorow Podcasts "The Hacker Crackdown"
  • Google's German Webmail Threatened by Proposed Legislation
  • Visit EFF at OSCON!
  • miniLinks (8): Did Real ID Help Derail Immigration Bill?
  • Administrivia
For more information on EFF activities & alerts:
 http://www.eff.org/

Make a donation and become an EFF member today!
 http://eff.org/support/

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effector: n, Computer Sci. A device for producing a desired 
change.

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* It's Official: Senate Committee Issues Subpoenas for Key 
NSA Spying Docs

After voting to authorize subpoenas for information on the 
NSA spying program last week, the Senate Judiciary 
Committee has now officially issued them.

    "Chairman Leahy issued subpoenas to the Department of 
Justice, the Office of the White House, the Office of the 
Vice President and the National Security Council for 
documents relating to the Committee's inquiry into the 
warrantless electronic surveillance program. The subpoenas 
seek documents related to authorization and reauthorization 
of the program or programs; the legal analysis or opinions 
about the surveillance; orders, decisions, or opinions of 
the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) 
concerning the surveillance; agreements between the 
Executive Branch and telecommunications or other companies 
regarding liability for assisting with or participating in 
the surveillance; and documents concerning the shutting 
down of an investigation of the Department of Justice's 
Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) relating to the 
surveillance."

This is a critical step toward revealing the full extent of 
the NSA's illegal spying and the role that 
telecommunications companies like AT&T played in the 
program. The deadline for the Administration to respond is 
July 18.

You can find links to the four subpoenas here: 
http://leahy.senate.gov/press/200706/062707a.html

For this post and related links: 
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/005340.php

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* FISA Court Judge Criticizes Warrantless Wiretaps

During a public speech last week, the judge who presided 
over the super-secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance 
Court (FISC) from 1995 to 2002 criticized the Bush 
Administration's warrantless domestic surveillance.

Judge Royce Lamberth made a simple point that bears 
repeating: "[J]udges understand the war has to be fought, 
but it can't be at all costs... We still have to preserve our 
civil liberties. Judges are the kinds of people you want to 
entrust that kind of judgment to more than the executive."

In other words, our system of checks and balances doesn't -- 
and shouldn't -- allow the executive to say "trust us" and 
get to spy on anyone and everyone at will.

EFF is skeptical that the new court orders actually satisfy 
the strict requirements of federal statutes or the Fourth 
Amendment, considering the broad program of dragnet 
surveillance alleged in our case against AT&T for its role 
in the program. Meanwhile, the Administration has tried to 
squash cases in the traditional court system, including 
EFF's lawsuit against AT&T, and has refused to answer 
Congress' questions about the program.

For this post and related links:
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/005338.php

For more on EFF's class-action lawsuit against AT&T:
http://www.eff.org/legal/cases/att/

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* REAL ID Dealt Setback in Senate -- Keep the Momentum 
Going!

We've still got a long way to go before the privacy-
invasive REAL ID Act is off the books, but Thursday's vote 
in the Senate may one day be seen as a critical moment on 
the road to victory.

A provision smuggled into the major immigration reform bill 
would have effectively forced every American to present a 
standardized national ID in order to get a job as part of a 
mandatory employment verification system. But by a vote of 
52-45, the Senate refused to end debate on an amendment 
that would have ripped the REAL ID provisions out of the 
bill. And now it seems that the entire immigration bill 
reform package is on ice, at least for the foreseeable 
future.

That change couldn't have happened without individuals like 
you, and it's critical that you keep this momentum going. 
Preventing REAL ID's expansion isn't enough -- it must be 
repealed entirely. Take action and demand that Congress 
dump the REAL ID Act now:
http://action.eff.org/site/Advocacy?id=275

To learn more about what's wrong with REAL ID, see our 
issue page:
http://www.eff.org/Privacy/ID/RealID/

For this post and related links: 
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/005341.php

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* Internet Radio Holds Day of Silence

When the new music webcasting royalty rates kick in on July 
15, your favorite station may sound just like it did on 
Tuesday -- silent. A broad coalition of music webcasters 
turned their stations off on Tuesday in protest of the 
Copyright Arbitration Royalty Board's recent rate ruling, 
which threatens to crush commercial services like Pandora 
as well as small and non-commercial webcasters.

Not all hope is lost, though. In 2002, an Internet radio 
day of silence helped spur Congress to reduce royalty rates 
and save small and non-commercial webcasters. Bills 
currently in the House and Senate would nullify the royalty 
ruling and bring some sensible changes to the rate-setting 
standards.

Visit SaveNetRadio.org to learn more and take action to 
support these bills:
http://www.savenetradio.org/

Read Kurt Hanson's Radio And Internet Newsletter (RAIN) 
article:
http://www.kurthanson.com/dos/

For this post: 
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/005337.php

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* Privatunes 0.9 Does Not Anonymize iTunes Plus Files

On Wednesday, Slashdot and Wired Compiler ran posts about 
Privatunes, a program that claims to remove personally 
identifying information from iTunes Plus files (the current 
version is closed source and Windows only, though the site 
says that this will change in the future.)

Privatunes 0.9 overwrites the user's name and address. 
Unfortunately, the Privatunes coders didn't read our last 
post about iTunes tracking data -- aside from the name and 
email address, there are other fields that Apple, or a 
litigant that subpoenas Apple, could use to identify the 
purchasers of iTunes Plus files, even if they've been run 
through Privatunes 0.9.

Read EFF's latest discovery: 
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/005342.php

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* Doctorow Podcasts "The Hacker Crackdown"

Somewhere in his busy schedule -- in between writing 
brilliant sci-fi novels, commenting on the current state of 
copyright law and intellectual property, co-editing the 
popular blog BoingBoing, and teaching at USC -- EFF Fellow 
Cory Doctorow finds time to podcast.

Since 2005, Cory has been podcasting his fiction as 
serialized MP3s that can be downloaded from his site. 
Having mostly sped through his own work, Cory is now moving 
on to other people's stuff, and he's starting with Bruce 
Sterling's seminal book, The Hacker Crackdown.

Sterling's 1992 book recounts the early history of the 
hacker subculture, the rise of the Internet, and the 
founding of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The book 
was a major influence on a generation of hackers, writers, 
techies, and activists, and obviously Cory was one of them. 
Notably, Sterling released the book in downloadable form in 
1994, a bold statement that Cory credits as having inspired 
him to do the same.

Hear Cory's podcasts:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/doctorow_podcast

For Cory's work:
http://craphound.com/

Download Bruce Sterling's, The Hacker Crackdown:
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/101

For this post:
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/005339.php

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* Google's German Webmail Threatened by Proposed 
Legislation

Germany's Federal Ministry of Justice has circulated a 
controversial draft bill that is bad news for online 
privacy. From preliminary reports, it seems that the bill 
attempts to outlaw the ability to send anonymous email by 
ordering ISPs to retain data traceable to individuals, and 
requiring a passport from anyone attempting to set up a 
webmail account.

Notably, Google is already pushing back. The German paper 
Heise reports that Google has threatened to shut down its 
email service in Germany if the bill becomes law (though 
this may be overstating the case.) And Google Privacy 
Counsel Peter Fleischer has come to the defense of 
anonymous communication, describing the many legitimate 
scenarios in which a person might want an anonymous email 
account.

Read the entire post: 
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/005344.php

Read the Heise article: 
http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/91681

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* Visit EFF at OSCON!

EFF will be at the O'Reilly Open Source Convention (OSCON) 
in Portland, Oregon on July 25-26. Come visit us at booth 
#121 and grab some schwag:
http://conferences.oreillynet.com/os2007/

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* miniLinks
The week's noteworthy news, compressed.

~ Did Real ID Help Derail Immigration Bill?
"The Real ID requirement was a poison pill that derailed 
this bill..."
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070629-did-real-id-help-derail-immigration-bill.html

~ How the Record Industry Committed Suicide
Failure to embrace collective licensing in 2000 led to the 
industry's decline, says Rolling Stone.
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/15137581/the_record_industrys_decline/print

~ The Day the Music Dies
Net radio is fighting back against Copyright Royalty Board.
http://www.sfweekly.com/2007-06-27/news/the-day-the-music-dies/

~ Lieberman Calls for Wider Use of Surveillance Cameras
Senator Joe Lieberman (ID - CT) thinks the U.S. should copy
the British and install cameras -- everywhere!
http://www.hillnews.com/leading-the-news/lieberman-calls-for-wider-use-of-surveillance-cameras-2007-07-01.html 

~ Senate Bill Would Restrict Online Display of SSNs
A new bill cracks down on identity theft by limiting the 
use of SSNs by local and federal governments.
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/07/senate-bill-wou.html

~ EU, U.S. to Share Passenger Data
Traveler data can be saved for up to 15 years under the 
terms of a new agreement.
http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/06/29/europe.data.ap/index.html

~ How Vista Harvests Personal Data
A total of 47 Windows Vista features and services collect 
user data.
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Forget-about-the-WGA-20-Windows-Vista-Features-and-Services-Harvest-User-Data-for-Microsoft-58752.shtml

~ Google Sued in the UK
Can Google be held liable for linking to defamatory 
comments under UK law?
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/legal/article2720094.ece

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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:
Julie Lindner, Education Outreach Coordinator
 julie@eff.org	

Membership & donation queries:
 membership@eff.org

General EFF, legal, policy, or online resources queries:
 information@eff.org

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