In our 567th issue:
EFF has asked an Illinois judge to quash subpoenas issued
in a "reverse class action" lawsuit accusing thousands of
people of illegally downloading pornography, and urged the
court to dismiss the case. The plaintiff, OpenMind
Solutions, is calling its complaint a "class action"
lawsuit against the alleged infringers. Normally a class
action is used by a group of plaintiffs with similar
complaints of a single defendant -- not a single plaintiff
targeting thousand of defendants with no attorney in place
to defend the rights of the accused. In a friend of the
court brief, EFF argued that the plaintiff's "class
action" strategy is an improper attempt to sidestep the
rights of the defendants.
Microsoft's Internet Explorer 9 incorporates two
significant new privacy features -- tracking protections
lists (blocklists) and a Do Not Track header that allows
users to request that websites not track them. Blocklists
are great for privacy because they can prevent your browser
from transmitting information about your reading habits to
third parties, and they can achieve that in a fairly
user-friendly way. Unfortunately, there are a number of
complications that mean that blocklists alone are not
enough. A Do Not Track header will be an important way to
create legal incentives for respecting users' choices.
EFF Updates
EFF Lets the Sunshine In To celebrate the seventh annual Sunshine Week, EFF has recently posted nearly nine thousand pages of government
documents to our site.
Spend an Evening with the EFF Activism Team Discussing
Privacy and Government Surveillance On Thursday, EFF staff activists will discuss the state of
government surveillance and privacy in the United States at
"Government Surveillance in a Digital World," an event
hosted by San Francisco Intersection for the Arts and
live-streamed by BAMM.tv.
miniLinks
Now on reddit: Q&A with EFF
What's new at EFF and how you can help us grow (hint: it's
not just donations).
The Urge to Classify EFF's David Sobel on Obama's failure to embrace transparency and the role of WikiLeaks.
Another House Panel Votes to Repeal Net Neutrality
A resolution to repeal the Federal Communications
Commission (FCC) rules passed the Energy and Commerce
Committee in a 30-23 party line vote, and is now headed to
the full House.
Administrivia
ISSN 1062-9424
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Announcements
ACTION! Don't Let TPP Become the Next ATCTA
Like ACTA, the Trans-Pacific Partnership is being
negotiated in secret, and on a fast timetable. Contact your
lawmakers and demand transparency!
ACTION! Rein in PATRIOT and Restore JUSTICE
Liberty-loving citizens have a brief window of time to
contact lawmakers and demand meaningful reforms to the
PATRIOT Act.
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 and livestreamed on Bamm.tv
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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