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In our 566th issue:
March 14-18th is "Sunshine Week -- a week to focus on the
importance of open government and how we can ensure
accountability for our leaders. With all of the information
WikiLeaks has brought to light over the last year, many
have asked what WikiLeaks means for those of us who work
with open government laws. While many believe that
asymmetries of information may sometimes be necessary - for
example, in times of war - there is clear evidence that
governments sometimes abuse those asymmetries to keep
secret knowledge that righly belongs in the public domain.
A judge in Virginia ruled that the government can collect
the private records of three Twitter users as part of its
investigation related to WikiLeaks. The court also refused
a request to unseal the documents that the government
submitted to the court to justify obtaining their records.
EFF and the ACLU plan to appeal the decision on behalf of
their client Birgitta Jonsdottir, an Icelandic
parliamentarian.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement involves a
coalition of willing countries working to create new global
IP enforcement norms that are higher than the current
international standards. Like ACTA, the TPP is being
negotiated in secret, and on a fast timetable. Please ask
your congressional representatives to release the text and
solicit public comments on it.
Take action now. (Note: this alert is only available in certain states)
The advent of advanced communication technologies offers an
opportunity to improve responsiveness and accessibility of
emergency services, but we must ensure that the Next
Generation 911 will not inadvertently jeopardize consumer
privacy or stifle innovation. The FCC has published a
proposed framework for the future of 911 - including
providing consumers the ability to send text messages,
photos, emails and data files of medical information to
responders. EFF submitted comments to the FCC expressing
grave concerns about the potential privacy and innovation
implications of the proposed framework, and urging the
Commission to safeguard consumer rights.
EFF Updates
Supreme Court to Hear Challenge to Law That Removes Works from the Public Domain
The Supreme Court agreed to hear an important case about whether Congress has the power to “restore” copyright
protection to works that already exist in the public
domain.
Have You Benefited from Public Access to PubMed?
To celebrate the third anniversary of a policy that
provides public access to NIH taxpayer-funded research,
SPARC is calling for stories of individuals who benefited
from access to this data.
China Deputizes Smart Phones to Spy on Beijing Residents'
Real-Time Location
The Chinese government has announced plans to track the
real-time location of all cell phones in the city of
Beijing, but a few hacktivists and academics are exploring
ways to circumvent this type of surveillance.
miniLinks
Web Seizures Trample Due Process (and Break the Law)
Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) criticized domain seizures that
took down 84,000 sites.
2011 Netizen Prize to Tunisian Bloggers
Reporters Without Borders awarded the 2011 Netizen Prize to Tunisian bloggers at nawaat.org. Congratulations,
Nawaat!
Egypt: Storming State Security
Protesters are securing secret documents throughout Egypt
as State Security tries to shred, burn, and destroy
evidence.
Administrivia
ISSN 1062-9424
EFFector is a publication of
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Announcements
SXSW: South by Southwest Music + Film Interactive
Four of EFF's finest are presenters on three different
panels at this year's SXSW Interactive!
Location: Austin, TX
Date: March 11-20, 2011
Crossing Boundaries: Conference on International News, Technology and Audiences
Marcia Hofmann, EFF Senior Staff Attorney, will be speaking
on a panel discussing "Citizen vs. Government."
Location: Berkeley, CA
Date: March 18, 2011
Government Surveillance in a Digital World: An Evening with the Electronic Frontier Foundation
Join EFF Staff Activists Richard Esguerra and Rainey
Reitman as they discuss how digital technology is changing
the way we communicate, from the unprecedented exposure of
our personal details to the legal ways the government can
spy on your online communications.
Location: San Francisco, CA
Date: March 24, 2011
Fifth Annual Law & Information Society Symposium: Mobile
Devices, Location Technologies & Shifting Value
Kevin Bankston, EFF Senior Staff Attorney and Lori Cranor,
EFF Board Member, will discuss law and policy with respect
to mobile devices as public values shift.
Location: New York, NY
Date: March 25, 2011
From Mad Men to Mad Bots: Advertising in the Digital Age
EFF Senior Staff Attorney Lee Tien joins a panel discussion
on online advertising privacy at Yale Law School's
Information Society Project's Spring Symposium.
Location: New Haven, CT
Date: March 25-26, 2011
SunshineWeek 2011 Webcast and Local Panel: The Road
Forward on Open Government
EFF Activist Rainey Reitman joins Declan McCullagh, Chief
Political Correspondent for CNET, and James Jacobs,
Government Documents Librarian at Stanford, to discuss
WikiLeaks and its relationship to Open Government.
Location: San Francisco, CA
Date: March 30, 2011
SOURCE Boston and SOURCE Seattle
EFF is a proud partner of two SOURCE Security Conferences!
In addition to advanced technical talks, SOURCE offers
workshops on entrepreneurship, management strategies, job
interviewing, presentation skills, and proficiencies and
strategies designed for the security industry.
Location: Boston, MA
Date: April 20, 2011
and
Location: Seattle, WA
Date: June 15-16, 2011
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