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/ Tell a friend about EFF: http://action.eff.org/site/Ecard?ecard_id=1061 effector: n, Computer Sci. A device for producing a desired change. : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : * 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 : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : * 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/ : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : * 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 : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : * 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 : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : * 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 : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : * 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 : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : * 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 : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : * 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/ : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : * 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 : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : * 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 Reproduction of this publication in electronic media is encouraged. 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