EFFector Vol. 20, No. 36 September 11, 2007 editor@eff.org A Publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation ISSN 1062-9424 In the 440th Issue of EFFector:
- Who's in Your Five? EFF Documents Show the FBI Sought Details About "Communities of Interest"
- Court Rules National Security Letters Unconstitutional
- EFF Wins Protection for Security Researchers
- Noted Computer Crime Attorney Comes to EFF
- DHS Scraps ADVISE Data-Mining Software
- Apple Lays Foundation for DMCA Lawsuits?
- Victory Against School Biometrics in Illinois
- miniLinks (7): Big Victory for Limits to Copyright Law
- 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. : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : * Who's in Your Five? EFF Documents Show the FBI Sought Details About "Communities of Interest" Documents obtained by the Electronic Frontier Foundation show that the FBI asked telecommunications companies to turn over information about people in contact with individuals the FBI was investigating, though a degree removed from any suspicious activity and presumably innocent. The letters are part of the second set of FBI documents released in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit seeking information about the FBI's misuse of National Security Letters (NSLs). In June, a federal judge ordered the Bureau to disclose additional information responsive to EFF's request every month. We anticipate that this material will continue to reveal details about the Bureau's use -- and abuse -- of NSL authority. Read Eric Lichtblau's New York Times report, "F.B.I. Data Mining Reached Beyond Initial Targets": http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/09/washington/09fbi.html?hp For more information about EFF's FOIA work, visit our FOIA Litigation for Accountable Government (FLAG) Project page: http://www.eff.org/flag/ For this post and related links: http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/005427.php : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : * Court Rules National Security Letters Unconstitutional In a big victory for your online privacy and civil liberties, a federal court ruled that "National Security Letters" (NSLs) violate the Constitution. Under the USA PATRIOT Act, NSLs allow the FBI to spy on Americans' telephone, Internet, and other records without any court approval and regardless of whether the target is suspected of a crime. With a single piece of paper, the FBI could force your ISP to turn over detailed information about your Internet communications, including the Web sites you've visited and the email addresses you've written to. Worse still, an NSL recipient is barred from notifying anyone else about the demand. Last week, Judge Marrero ruled that this "gag order" is unconstitutional, and, in so doing, struck down the entire NSL statute. The gag not only tramples on the recipient's First Amendment rights but also prevents courts from fulfilling their Constitutional duty to check the other branches of government and scrutinize the restriction. Meanwhile, EFF is continuing to fight hard to expose the truth about the NSL abuse through our Freedom of Information Act litigation. In the wake of the inspector general's report, EFF filed a lawsuit seeking fundamental information about the FBI's power grab. On June 16, 2007, a federal judge ordered the FBI to process 2,500 pages a month responsive to EFF's request. You can find the documents here: http://www.eff.org/flag/07656JDB/ The ACLU has more on the decision here: http://www.aclu.org/safefree/nationalsecurityletters/31580prs20070906.html For this post and related links: http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/005423.php : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : * EFF Wins Protection for Security Researchers Court Blocks DirecTV's Heavy-Handed Legal Tactics San Francisco - In an important ruling, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals blocked satellite television provider DirecTV's heavy-handed legal tactics and protected security and computer science research into satellite and smart card technology after hearing argument from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). The cases, DirecTV v. Huynh and DirecTV v. Oliver, involved a provision of federal law prohibiting the "assembly" or "modification" of equipment designed to intercept satellite signals. DirecTV maintained that the provision should cover anyone who works with equipment designed for interception of their signals, regardless of their motivation or whether any interception occurs. But in a hearing earlier this year, EFF argued that the provision should apply only to entities that facilitate illegal interception by other people and not to those who simply tinker or use the equipment, such as researchers and others working to further scientific knowledge of the devices at issue. "Congress never meant this law to be used as a hammer on those who use or tinker with new technologies," said EFF Senior Staff Attorney Jason Schultz. "We're pleased the court recognized that researchers need to be protected." These cases were part of DirecTV's nationwide legal campaign against hundreds of thousands of individuals, claiming that they were illegally intercepting its satellite TV signal simply because they had purchased smart card technology. Because DirecTV made little effort to distinguish legal uses of smart card technology from illegal ones, EFF has worked to limit the lawsuits to only those cases where DirecTV has proof that their signals were illegally received. "DirecTV always had legal recourse against those who pirate their signal. The ruling today prevents satellite and cable TV companies from piling on excessive damages that would punish and chill legitimate encryption research," said EFF Civil Liberties Director Jennifer Granick. David Price and Trevor Dryer at Stanford Law School's Cyberlaw Clinic also assisted in this case. For the full opinion from the 9th Circuit: http://www.eff.org/legal/cases/directv_v_huynh/directv_ruling.pdf For more on this case: http://www.eff.org/legal/cases/directv_v_huynh/ For this release: http://www.eff.org/news/archives/2007_09.php#005434 : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : * Noted Computer Crime Attorney Comes to EFF Jennifer Stisa Granick Named Civil Liberties Director San Francisco - Noted computer crime attorney Jennifer Stisa Granick has joined the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) as its new Civil Liberties Director, working on government surveillance, Fourth Amendment, computer security, and computer crime law. Granick previously was Executive Director at Stanford Law School's Center for Internet and Society as well as Director of the Cyberlaw Clinic. Before Stanford, Granick spent almost a decade practicing criminal defense law, focusing on hacker defense and the interaction of free speech, privacy, law, and technology. "EFF plays a critical role in the battle to protect freedom and privacy as new technologies transform our lives, and I'm thrilled to be a part of this important work," Granick said. "I'm especially looking forward to protecting privacy rights in digital communications technologies, creating standards for how new technologies are used in national security and law enforcement investigations and promoting network privacy by working with security researchers." Granick was selected by Information Security magazine in 2003 as one of 20 "Women of Vision" in the computer security field. She has spoken to the American Bar Association, National Security Agency, Naval Postgraduate School, International Security Forum, Computer Security Institute, Black Hat security conference, and the international Workshop on the Economics of Information Security, among others. "EFF has long wanted to expand into criminal defense work, and Jennifer is the best there is," said EFF Legal Director Cindy Cohn. "It's time to take a deeper look at how technologies are being used in criminal and national security prosecutions. We're all very excited about adding this new depth to our work." Granick received her J.D. degree from the University of California Hastings College of the Law and her undergraduate degree from the New College of the University of South Florida. For this release: http://www.eff.org/news/archives/2007_09.php#005430 : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : * DHS Scraps ADVISE Data-Mining Software Since 2003, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has spent $42 million developing ADVISE software, which is intended to identify patterns hidden in vast stores of data that could reveal suspicious behavior. But the DHS unceremoniously dumped the software in March after the Government Accountability Office warned that the program could lead to individuals being falsely linked to criminal or terrorist activities. Subsequent investigations from the DHS Privacy Office and the DHS Inspector General found that live data, including personal information from real individuals, was used to test the software, creating "unnecessary privacy risks." ADVISE, once touted as an essential tool in protecting national security, joins a growing list of programs on the government's scrapheap. The Transportation Security Administration's (TSA) controversial passenger profiling system, CAPPS II, was shut down after officials were caught lying about the use of using real passenger data in testing the system. And Congress de-funded TIA in late 2003 after its privacy invasive data-mining scheme was revealed to the public. Unfortunately, like the cyborg cop in Terminator II, the scattered pieces of these programs will slowly re-assemble themselves, re-emerging later under new names. Read the news.com article, "Report: DHS Kills Data-Mining Project": http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9773243-7.html For the complete post and related links: http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/005431.php : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : * Apple Lays Foundation for DMCA Lawsuits? Apple's new product announcements last week may have laid the foundation for the next round of DMCA lawsuits. It sure looks like Apple is using the DMCA to block competition, rather than stop "piracy." Read Fred von Lohmann's entire analysis of Apple's latest "lock-in" measures here: http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/005426.php For our updated report, "Unintended Consequences: Seven Years Under the DMCA": http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/004555.php For more on DRM, see EFF's pages on Digital Rights Management and Copy Protection Schemes: http://www.eff.org/IP/DRM/ : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : * Victory Against School Biometrics in Illinois In August of 2005, a public elementary school in Earlville, Illinois (population 1,778), installed biometric equipment, allowing the school to track students by scanning their fingerprints. Use of the scans for school lunch was apparently mandatory. When Joy Robinson-Van Gilder objected to having her 7-year-old scanned for a hot lunch, she was told: "If they don't scan, they don't eat." Joy Robinson-Van Gilder, a mom of five, took this issue on as a personal crusade and began a one-woman campaign to fight the use of biometrics in her kids' schools. Ignoring ridicule from neighbors, Joy and her husband Chris brought their concerns to the administration, the school board, the local paper, and then began lobbying the Illinois state legislature. Find out what happened in our complete post: http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/005432.php Read the Chicago Times article," High Technology Off Menu": http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-lunch_07sep07,1,56341.story For background on biometric technology: http://www.eff.org/Privacy/Surveillance/biometrics/ : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : * miniLinks The week's noteworthy news, compressed. ~ Big Victory for Limits to Copyright Law The 10th Circuit Court recognized First Amendment constraints on Congressional powers in copyright law. http://www.lessig.org/blog/2007/09/a_big_victory_golan_v_gonzales.html ~ Internet Anonymity Tool Used for Eavesdropping A security researcher found a way to use Tor to spy on private communications. http://www.wired.com/politics/security/news/2007/09/embassy_hacks ~ House Passes Bill to Revamp Patent Process New legislation would limit damage awards. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/07/technology/apee-patent.html?ex=1346817600&en=f7ce2b7eb935170e&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss ~ UMG Carries Out Threat to Sue Veoh for Copyright Violations Veoh is just another Napster clone, according to Universal. http://www.forbes.com/technology/2007/09/05/umg-veoh-copyright-tech-cx_pco_0905paidcontent.html ~ Does Google Mislead on Sponsored Links? An Australian court hears arguments that Google favors advertisers in search results. http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070910/tc_afp/australiaitinternetcourtcompanygoogle ~ Unlocking the iPhone It may be legal to unlock your iPhone, but don't tell anyone else how to do it. http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/08/to-unlock-the-i.html#previouspost ~ Adding Custom Ringtones to Your iPhone Third-party applications can help you get around Apple's restrictions on customizing your iPhone. http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,135425/article.html : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : * 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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