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- EFFector Online Volume 09 No. 05 May 2, 1996 editors@eff.org
- A Publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation ISSN 1062-9424
-
- IN THIS ISSUE:
-
- Big Day for Crypto: New Bill, New Campaign, New Coalition
- Sen. Leahy Uses PGP in Open Letter to the Net on Crypto
- NewsNybbles
- New EFF Organizational Memberships
- Georgia Online Trademark Law Passed
- Upcoming Events
- Quote of the Day
- What YOU Can Do
- Administrivia
-
- * See http://www.eff.org/Alerts/ or ftp.eff.org, /pub/Alerts/ for more
- information on current EFF activities and online activism alerts! *
-
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
- Subject: Big Day for Crypto: New Bill, New Campaign, New Coalition
- ------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
- For Immediate Release May 2, 1996
-
- EFF Helps Plant Seeds of 'Golden Key' Grassroots Campaign
- For Secure Electronic Communications
-
-
- Electronic Frontier Foundation Contact: Lori Fena, Exec. Dir.
- +1 (415)436-9333
- lori@eff.org
-
-
- Using the symbols of a key and an envelope, the Electronic Frontier
- Foundation (EFF), along with many other organizations concerned with the
- security of electronic communication, is helping to spread the word about
- a new international grassroots campaign promoting online privacy. The
- purpose of the "Golden Key" Campaign for Private Communications Online is
- to urge the online community, computer industry, government agencies and
- lawmakers to support the protection of privacy and security on the
- rapidly growing Internet
-
- * About the Golden Key Campaign for Private & Secure Communications Online
-
- Both the key and the envelope symbolize historic means for
- communicating privately and protecting personal information. Today,
- encryption tools provide this privacy in the electronic world.
-
- "The importance of privacy as a common good in a society which
- values democracy is not new," said Lori Fena, executive director of EFF.
- "For the same reasons you would not send a love letter or your credit
- card number through the mail on the back of a post card, we need to
- ensure that encryption -- the electronic version of an envelope --
- remains widely available and truly useful."
-
- The Golden Key Campaign is being launched to raise awareness and
- support for the preservation of the right to communicate privately and
- the availability of new techniques which make it possible.
-
- Privacy, a fundamental human right, has been affirmed by the U.S.
- Supreme Court, the constitutions and laws of many countries, and the
- United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Privacy must be
- preserved as we move from paper to electronic communications.
-
- EFF is encouraging members of the online community to display the
- Golden Key logo wherever possible and help educate legislators in the
- U.S. and abroad about the importance of secure online communication. The
- logo may be freely obtained and redistributed by downloading any one of
- the several versions available on EFF's Golden Key site, at
- http://www.eff.org/goldkey.html - and please link your Golden Key
- encryption freedom icon to this URL or one of the ones mentioned below
- (the IPC home page or the Crypto Policy Resource Page).
-
-
- * Recent Events Highlight Importance of Electronic Encryption
-
- While security and privacy of communication is an age-old value,
- recent events in the courts and U.S. Congress (and elsewhere) have brought
- new attention to the issue.
-
- Just today, U.S. Sen. Conrad Burns, R-MT, introduced legislation that
- would relax export controls on commercial & public domain products
- containing technologies for privacy, such as encryption. Hearings on the
- Burns bill are expected to take place in early June. The proposal has
- already gathered support from a bipartisan coalition in Congress.
- The name of the legislation is the "Promotion of Commerce Online in the
- Digital Era (Pro-CODE) Act of 1996". Bill number: S. 1786.
-
- Two other similar bills, the "Encrypted Communication Privacy
- Act of 1996 (ECPA96)" (S. 1587) and the "Security And Freedom through
- Encryption (SAFE) Act of 1996" (H.R. 3011), were introduced March 5, by Sen.
- Patrick Leahy, D-VT, and Rep. Robert Goodlatte, R-VA, respectively.
- The texts of these bills and various statements regarding them can be
- found at http://www.eff.org/pub/Privacy/ITAR_export/Crypto_bills_1996/
-
- Electronic communication security and export of encryption has
- also been an important issue in Federal courts recently. In a landmark
- decision two weeks ago, a U.S. District Judge in San Francisco denied the
- government's motion to dismiss mathematician Daniel Bernstein's case in
- which he seeks the ability to freely export his encryption algorithm,
- "Snuffle." The decision was the first time that a U.S. court recognized
- software as Constitutionally protected speech. See
- http://www.eff.org/pub/Legal/Cases/Bernstein_v_DoS/ for more info.
-
- On the down side, a case in some ways similar to Bernstein's - the Phil
- Karn case - was dismissed with a largely opposite ruling, in a different
- district. That dismissal is on appeal. And the State Department is even
- sending legal threat letters to authors of software that does not include
- encryption capabilities, but only software "hooks" to allow encryption
- functions to be added. Crypto export overhaul could not come a moment
- sooner.
-
- Outside the US: France, Beligium, Russia and other coutries have cracked
- down on even the use of encryption, while the United Kingdom is a step
- closer to imposing an crypto key "escrow" system, in which all users'
- private keys are duplicated and held by a third party or the government
- itself, for the conveniece of law enforcement and intelligence agents.
- For more information see:
- http://www.eff.org/pub/Privacy/Key_escrow/Foreign_and_local/UK/
-
- Users and organizations abroad are urged to create their own Golden Key
- resource pages, to inform users in their own areas about crypto-privacy
- action on the local front.
-
-
- * EFF Joins EPIC, CDT, VTW & Others in Forming Internet Privacy Coalition
-
- The Internet Privacy Coalition (IPC) is the first attempt to bring
- together a broad base of companies, cryptographers and public interest
- organizations around the central goals of promoting privacy and security
- on the Internet and urging relaxation of export controls on encryption tools.
- The coalition is maintaining a web page at http://www.privacy.org/ipc/
-
- The site will serve as a central depository for information and discussion
- regarding online encryption and secure electronic communication. There
- is also a sister site that will be of interest, whether you are new to
- the topic, or an active participant in the debate: the Encryption Policy
- Resource Page at http://www.crypto.com
-
-
- * The Electronic Frontier Foundation
-
- The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is a nonprofit public
- interest organization devoted to the protection of online privacy and
- free expression. EFF was founded in 1990, and is based in San Francisco,
- California. It maintains an archive of information on privacy and
- cryptography at http://www.eff.org/pub/Privacy/
-
- EFF has been involved for several years with the protection of
- secure and private electronic communication. In 1993-4, EFF and other
- civil liberties organizations successfully opposed implementation of the
- U.S. Administration's "Clipper" or "Skipjack" system - hardware
- encryption for voice and data communications in which all encryption keys
- are held by government for the convenience of law enforcement and
- intelligence agencies.
-
- In 1994, EFF helped ensure that crypto export became a major
- legislative topic, laying the groundwork for eventual liberalization of
- the ITARs. In 1994 and 1995 EFF opposed implementation of and helped
- defeat funding for the FBI's "Digital Telephony" scheme, in which up to
- one person on every city block could be simultaneously wiretapped in some
- areas.
-
- ------------------------------
-
-
- Subject: Sen. Leahy Uses PGP in Open Letter to the Net on Crypto
- ----------------------------------------------------------------
-
- [Note: The URL given below for the Senator's homepage appears to have
- changed to http://www.senate.gov/member/vt/leahy/general/ or
- http://www.senate.gov/~leahy (both of these work.)
-
- This letter was sent by Sen. Leahy today, to various organizations and
- mailing list forums, including EFF's "ACTION" list.]
-
-
- From: Senator_Leahy@leahy.senate.gov
- Date: Thu, 02 May 96 12:02:02 EST
- Message-Id: <9604028310.AA831063527@smtpgwys.senate.gov>
- Subject: Letter From Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) On Encryption
- To: action@eff.org (action mailing list)
-
-
- Please post where appropriate
-
- - ---BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
-
- LETTER FROM SENATOR PATRICK LEAHY (D-VT) ON ENCRYPTION
-
- May 2, 1996
-
- Dear Friends:
-
- Today, a bipartisan group of Senators has joined me in supporting
- legislation to encourage the development and use of strong,
- privacy-enhancing technologies for the Internet by rolling back
- the out-dated restrictions on the export of strong cryptography.
-
- In an effort to demonstrate one of the more practical uses of
- encryption technology (and so that you all know this message
- actually came from me), I have signed this message using a
- digital signature generated by the popular encryption program
- PGP. I am proud to be the first member of Congress to utilize
- encryption and digital signatures to post a message to the
- Internet.
-
- As a fellow Internet user, I care deeply about protecting
- individual privacy and encouraging the development of the Net as
- a secure and trusted communications medium. I do not need to
- tell you that current export restrictions only allow American
- companies to export primarily weak encryption technology. The
- current strength of encryption the U.S. government will allow out
- of the country is so weak that, according to a January 1996 study
- conducted by world-renowned cryptographers, a pedestrian hacker
- can crack the codes in a matter of hours! A foreign intelligence
- agency can crack the current 40-bit codes in seconds.
-
- Perhaps more importantly, the increasing use of the Internet and
- similar interactive communications technologies by Americans to
- obtain critical medical services, to conduct business, to be
- entertained and communicate with their friends, raises special
- concerns about the privacy and confidentiality of those
- communications. I have long been concerned about these issues,
- and have worked over the past decade to protect privacy and
- security for our wire and electronic communications. Encryption
- technology provides an effective way to ensure that only the
- people we choose can read our communications.
-
- I have read horror stories sent to me over the Internet about how
- human rights groups in the Balkans have had their computers
- confiscated during raids by security police seeking to find out
- the identities of people who have complained about abuses.
- Thanks to PGP, the encrypted files were undecipherable by the
- police and the names of the people who entrusted their lives to
- the human rights groups were safe.
-
- The new bill, called the "Promotion of Commerce On-Line in the
- Digital Era (PRO-CODE) Act of 1996," would:
-
- o bar any government-mandated use of any particular
- encryption system, including key escrow systems and affirm
- the right of American citizens to use whatever form of
- encryption they choose domestically;
-
- o loosen export restrictions on encryption products so
- that American companies are able to export any generally
- available or mass market encryption products without
- obtaining government approval; and
-
- o limit the authority of the federal government to set
- standards for encryption products used by businesses and
- individuals, particularly standards which result in products
- with limited key lengths and key escrow.
-
- This is the second encryption bill I have introduced with Senator
- Burns and other congressional colleagues this year. Both bills
- call for an overhaul of this country's export restrictions on
- encryption, and, if enacted, would quickly result in the
- widespread availability of strong, privacy protecting
- technologies. Both bills also prohibit a government-mandated key
- escrow encryption system. While PRO-CODE would limit the
- authority of the Commerce Department to set encryption standards
- for use by private individuals and businesses, the first bill we
- introduced, called the "Encrypted Communications Privacy Act",
- S.1587, would set up stringent procedures for law enforcement to
- follow to obtain decoding keys or decryption assistance to read
- the plaintext of encrypted communications obtained under court
- order or other lawful process.
-
- It is clear that the current policy towards encryption exports is
- hopelessly outdated, and fails to account for the real needs of
- individuals and businesses in the global marketplace. Encryption
- expert Matt Blaze, in a recent letter to me, noted that current
- U.S. regulations governing the use and export of encryption are
- having a "deleterious effect ... on our country's ability to
- develop a reliable and trustworthy information infrastructure."
- The time is right for Congress to take steps to put our national
- encryption policy on the right course.
-
- I am looking forward to hearing from you on this important issue.
- Throughout the course of the recent debate on the Communications
- Decency Act, the input from Internet users was very valuable to
- me and some of my Senate colleagues.
-
- You can find out more about the issue at my World Wide Web home
- page (http://www.leahy.senate.gov/) and at the Encryption Policy
- Resource Page (http://www.crypto.com/). Over the coming months, I
- look forward to the help of the Net community in convincing other
- Members of Congress and the Administration of the need to reform
- our nation's cryptography policy.
-
- Sincerely,
-
- Patrick Leahy
- United States Senator
-
-
-
- - ---BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
- Version: 2.6.2
-
- iQCVAwUBMYjdVBM5YGSLu9/1AQGFwwQArk/HYG65cSOr3dsykvkDFonjISjur7xb
- SEMCFLI3E4KSoXSy4+6cNogICGADxDnwI8j/29Gviu+d93eQ2veeNmKP43+r0R+S
- Zcv86b3/pK6btq3QqVN6+x3G8CEA2MnDtuSWbNyANEdValtpOYTCzU2Sm6gNfg9Q
- 4QxUZ4R4+Ps=
- =VJ87
- - ---END PGP SIGNATURE-----
-
- ------------------------------
-
-
- Subject: NewsNybbles
- --------------------
-
- * New EFF Organizational Memberships
-
- EFF now has two new membership categories:
-
- - Nonprofit/Educational/Library - $100/year
- Open to any not-for-profit NGO, or similar organization (e.g. in
- countries that don't have official non-profit categories, or
- organizations denied such status for political reasons
- by hostile governments). Also open to schools and to libraries.
-
- - Corporate - $5000
- Please pledge your support, and help us make a difference! This
- category is for the large and small companies alike. If you'd like to
- help out with larger contributions, donation of services or equipment, or
- with project cooperation, please contact us at ask@eff.org or
- +1 415 436 9333 (voice), +1 415 436 9993 (fax).
-
- For an EFF membership for (for fax, snail mail, email or upload), please see:
- http://www.eff.org/EFFdocs/join_eff.html
- ftp.eff.org, /pub/EFF/join.eff (login: anonymous) or
- gopher.eff.org, path: 1/EFF/join.eff
-
-
- * Georgia Online Trademark Law Passed
-
- The Georgia "Net Police" bill reported on last issue was signed into law,
- despite objections from the public, the industry, and civil liberties
- organizations. The bill poses many potential free speech and privacy
- threats due to its poor wording.
-
- A new bill to repeal this law has been introduced in the state legislature.
- (No online text available as of yet).
-
- BellSouth denies being behind the legislation, despite suggestions to
- the contrary from at least one Georgia State Representative. Whatever
- really went on behind closed doors, BellSouth did have this to say about
- the bill:
-
- "...it is probably overkill and unduly complicating to make acts of
- trademark infringement, misrepresentation and passing off on the
- Internet a crime under state law. There is already ample
- legislation and common law in place to effectuate the intent of
- this law."
-
- ------------------------------
-
-
- Upcoming Events
- ---------------
-
- This schedule lists EFF events, and those we feel might be of interest to
- our members. EFF events (those sponsored by us or featuring an EFF speaker)
- are marked with a "*" instead of a "-" after the date. Simlarly, government
- events (such as deadlines for comments on reports or testimony submission,
- or conferences at which government representatives are speaking) are marked
- with "!" in place of the "-" ("!?" means a govt. speaker may appear, but
- we don't know for certain yet.) And likewise, "+" in place of "-"
- indicates a non-USA event. If it's a foreign EFF event with govt. people,
- it'll be "*!+" instead of "-". You get the idea.
-
- The latest version of the full EFF calendar is available from:
-
- ftp: ftp.eff.org, /pub/EFF/calendar.eff
- gopher: gopher.eff.org, 1/EFF, calendar.eff
- http://www.eff.org/pub/EFF/calendar.eff
-
-
- May 3 + Symposium: "The Law of Information Superhighways and
- Multimedia," sponsored by the Eurpoean Lawyers Union, Monaco.
- URL: http://www.iway.mc/groupecx/uae
-
- - "THE TELECOMMUNICATIONS ACT OF 1996: PROSPECTS, PROBLEMS,
- PROJECTIONS," sponsored by the MIT Research Program on
- Communication Policy; 1:00-5:30pm, Massachusetts Institute of
- Technology, MIT Room 9-15, Cambridge, MA.
- Contact: +1 253 0108
- Email: weinmann@mit.edu
- URL: http://web.mit.edu/tac/www/home.html
-
- May 4 - ACLU forum on Censorship and the Internet User; Souls Unitarian
- Church, 4500 Warwick, Kansas City, MO; featuring Laura Murphy,
- Executive Director of ACLU's national office in Washington, D.C.
- Contact: +1 816 756 3113
- Email: bbarrish@falcon.cc.ukans.edu
-
- - Internet and Journalism Conference, sponsored by the Detroit
- Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists; 9am-3:30pm,
- Dearborn Inn & Marriott Hotel, 20301 Oakwood, Dearborn, MI.
- Contact: +1 313 336 1503
-
-
- May 6-
- 7 - Automated Medical Payments Conference; San Francisco, CA.
- Contact: +1 312 983 6133
-
- May 6-
- 8 - IEEE/IACR Security & Privacy Symposium; Oakland, Calif.
- Deadline for submissions: Nov. 6, 1995.
- Contact: +1 503 725 5842 (voice), +1 503 725 3211 (fax)
- Email: sp96@cs.pdx.edu
- URL: http://www.cs.pdx.edu/SP96/
- FTP: ftp.cs.pdx.edu, /pub/SP96/
-
- May 6-
- 10 + 5th International WWW Conference; Paris, France.
- Email: bneu@ncsa.uiuc.edu
- URL: http://jeeves.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Public/IW3C2/#conf
-
- May 7 - National Library Legislative Day, sponsored by the District of
- Columbia Library Association and the American Library
- Association; Washington, DC.
- Contact: Mary Costible +1 202 628 8410
- Email: mrc@alawash.org
-
- May 9 - HotWired Electronic Frontiers Forum; online event, 7pm PST
- "speak"ers will include Jerod Pore of Scamizdat. Users can
- participate via either WWW (http://www.hotwired.com/club/) or
- telnet (chat.wired.com2428).
- URL: http://www.hotwired.com/club/
-
- May 9-
- 11 + Visions of Privacy for the 21st Century: A Search for Solutions;
- Victoria, BC, Canada.
- Contact: http://www.cafe.net./gvc.foi
-
- May 10 *! Last day in court on appellate-level EFF/CDT/VTW/CIEC/ACLU/ALA
- Communications Decency Act legal challenge (ACLU & ALA, et al. v.
- Reno & Dept. of Justice, merged case). Next stop: the Supreme
- Court! Help pack the Philadelphia Courtroom!
- Contact: ACLU, +1 212 944 9800
- Email: cda-stat@cdt.org (update infobot)
-
- - New Jersey Intercampus Network presents "Telecommunications Act
- of 1996: Should we? Can we? Must we?"; Stevens Institute of
- Technology, Hoboken, NJ.
- Contact: Kraig Roajphlastein, +1 201 216 5483
-
- - Workshop on Medical Records Privacy, sponsored by the Consumer
- Project on Technology, Washington, D.C.
- Contact: Manon Ress, +1 202 387 8030
- Email mress@essential.org
- URL: http://www.essential.org/cpt
-
- May 10-
- 12 - Alliance for Community Media/Northeast Region and Community
- Technology Centers Network's Spring 1996 regional conference:
- "Public Access Goes Digital - Building Out Communities in the
- Information Age"; Champlain College, Burlington, VT.
- Contact: Marisa Vitielo, +1 802 862 1645
- Email: Marisa@CCTV.org
- URL: http://www.together.net/~onectc3/ne-conf.htm
-
- May 14-
- 17 - Community Networking '96 Conference: "Bringing People Together";
- Taos, NM
- Email: mailing@laplaza.taos.nm.us
- URL: http://laplaza.taos.nm.us/comnet96.html
-
- May 15 ! Telecommunication and Education National Issues Forum, sponsored
- by the Douglass Policy Institute; Washington Court Hotel;
- Washington, D.C.
- Contact: +1 202 488 8458
- Fax: +1 202 484 7029
- URL: http://www.council100.org/dpi.html
- May 15-
- 17 - 4th CICNet Conference on Datafication; Marshall University,
- Huntington, West Virginia. Proposals due by "mid December" '95.
- Contact: +1 708 866 804 (voice)
- Email: rd-reg@cic.net
- URL: http://www.marshall.edu/rd4/
-
- May 16 - HotWired Electronic Frontiers Forum; online event, 7pm PST
- "speak"ers will include Sameer Parekh of Community Connection.
- Users can participate via either WWW (http://www.hotwired.com/club/)
- or telnet (chat.wired.com 2428).
- URL: http://www.hotwired.com/club/
-
- May 16-
- 17 - CLE/University of Texas Law School presents, "Communicating and
- Conducting Business Online"; Four Seasons Hotel, Austin, TX
- Contact: +1 512 475 6700
- Fax: +1 512 475 6876
- Email: utcle@mail.law.utexas.edu
-
- May 20-
- 21 ! Internet Privacy and Security Workshop, sponsored by the
- Privacy and Security Working Group of he Federal Networking Council
- and the Research Program on Communications Policy Center for
- Technology, Policy, and Industrial Development at Massachusetts
- Institute of Technology; Haystack Observatory, Boston, MA.
- Deadline for abstracts: April 14.
- Contact: Internet Security and Privacy Workshop c/o Joseph
- Reagle, Research Program on Communications Policy, MIT, One
- Amherst St. (E40-218), Cambridge, MA 02139
- Voice: +1 617 253 4138
- Fax: +1 617 253 7326
- Email: papers@rpcp.mit.edu
-
- May 20-
- 22 - The Digital Revolution: Assessing the Impact on Business,
- Education and Social Structures, and ASIS Annual Meeting; San
- Diego, CA. Notification of intent to submit a paper must be
- received by November 15, 1995. [NOTE! We've also seen the date
- given as May 18-22, so you should ask what the correct dates are.]
- Email: asis96@chestnut.lis.utk.edu
- URL http://pepper.lis.utk.edu/call.html
-
- May 23 - HotWired Electronic Frontiers Forum; online event, 7pm PST
- "speak"ers will include Gary Chapman.
- Users can participate via either WWW (http://www.hotwired.com/club/)
- or telnet (chat.wired.com 2428).
- URL: http://www.hotwired.com/club/
-
-
- May 28-
- 31 - Harvard Conference on the Internet and Society, Harvard
- University, Cambridge, MA.
- Contact: +1 617 432 1NET
- Email: harvnet@harvard.edu
- URL: http://www.harvnet.harvard.edu
-
- May 29-
- 31 - 18th Annual Meeting of the Society for Scholarly Publishing:
- Assessing the Reality of New Markets and New Media; Minneapolis
- Hilton and Towers, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
- Contact: 303-422-3914
- Fax: 303-422-8894
-
- May 30-
- 31 - "Networked Information: Challenges and Solutions," sponsored by
- CAUSE and the Coalition for Networked Information, University of
- Pennsylvania, Phialdephia, PA.
- Contact: +1 303 939 0315
- Email: conf@cause.colorado.edu
- URL: http://cause-www.colorado.edu/conference/regional-hp.html
-
- ------------------------------
-
-
- Subject: Quote of the Day
- -------------------------
- "This court can find no meaningful difference between computer language,
- particularly high-level [programming] languages..., and German or
- French...Whether source code and object code are functional is
- immaterial to the analysis at this stage. Contrary to [government]
- defendants' suggestion, the functionality of a language does not make it
- any less like speech...Defendants argue in their reply that a
- description of software in English informs the intellect but source code
- actually allows someone to encrypt data. Defendants appear to insist
- that the higher the utility value of speech the less like speech it is.
- An extension of that argument assumes that once language allows one to
- actually do something, like play music or make lasagne, the language is
- no longer speech. The logic of this proposition is dubious at best. Its
- support in First Amendment law is nonexistent."
-
- - Federal District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel, decision rejecting government
- motion to dismiss, _Bernstein_v._US_Dept._of_State_, Apr. 15, 1996
-
- Find yourself wondering if your privacy and freedom of speech are safe
- when bills to censor the Internet are swimming about in a sea of of
- surveillance legislation and anti-terrorism hysteria? Worried that in
- the rush to make us secure from ourselves that our government
- representatives may deprive us of our essential civil liberties?
- Concerned that legislative efforts nominally to "protect children" will
- actually censor all communications down to only content suitable for
- the playground? Alarmed by commercial and religious organizations abusing
- the judicial and legislative processes to stifle satire, dissent and
- criticism?
-
- Join EFF!
-
- Even if you don't live in the U.S., the anti-Internet hysteria will soon
- be visiting a legislative body near you. If it hasn't already.
-
- ------------------------------
-
-
- Subject: What YOU Can Do
- ------------------------
-
- * The Communications Decency Act & Other Censorship Legislation
-
- The Communications Decency Act and similar legislation pose serious
- threats to freedom of expression online, and to the livelihoods of system
- operators. The legislation also undermines several crucial privacy
- protections.
-
- Business/industry persons concerned should alert their corporate govt.
- affairs office and/or legal counsel. Everyone should write to their own
- Representatives and Senators, letting them know that such abuses of
- public trust will not be tolerated, that legislators who vote against
- your free speech rights will be voted against by you in the next elections.
-
- Join in the Blue Ribbon Campaign - see http://www.eff.org/blueribbon.html
-
- PARTICIPATE IN BLUE RIBBON ACTIVISM EFFORTS:
- http://www.eff.org/blueribbon/activism.html
-
- Support the EFF Cyberspace Legal Defense Fund:
- http://www.eff.org/pub/Alerts/cyberlegal_fund_eff.announce
-
- For more information on what you can do to help stop this and other
- dangerous legislation, see:
-
- ftp.eff.org, /pub/Alerts/
- gopher.eff.org, 1/Alerts
- http://www.eff.org/pub/Alerts/
-
- If you do not have full internet access (e.g. WWW), send your request
- for information to ask@eff.org.
-
- IMPORTANT! KEEP AN EYE ON YOUR LOCAL LEGISLATURE. All kinds of wacky
- censorious legislation is turning up at the US state and non-US
- national levels. Don't let it sneak by you - or by the online activism
- community. Without locals on the look out, it's very difficult for the
- Net civil liberties community to keep track of what's happening locally
- as well as globally.
-
-
- * New Crypto-Privacy Legislation
-
- Urge your Represenatitives to support the Pro-CODE crypto export bill
- (and to fix the few remaining bugs in it). Join in the Golden Key Campaign!
- See
- http://www.eff.org/goldkey.html
- http://www.privacy.org/ipc/
- http://www.crypto.com/
- for more info.
-
-
- * Digital Telephony/Comms. Assistance to Law Enforcement Act
-
- The FBI has been seeking both funding for the DT/CALEA wiretapping
- provisions, and preparing to require that staggering numbers of citizens be
- simultaneously wiretappable.
-
- To oppose the funding, write to your own Senators and Representatives
- urging them to vote against any appropriations for wiretapping.
-
- We are aware of no major action on this threat at present, but keep your
- eyes peeled. It will be back.
-
-
- * Anti-Terrorism Bills
-
- Several bills threatening your privacy and free speech have been introduced
- recently. One passed, but none of the rest them are close to passage at
- this very moment - however, this status may change. Urge your
- Congresspersons to oppose these unconstitutional and Big-Brotherish
- bills, which threaten freedom of association, free press, free speech,
- and privacy. One such bill passed last week, stripped of most of the
- more onerous provisions. Keep it up. Write to your legislators: No secret
- trials and deportations, no expansion of wiretapping scope or authority,
- no national or "smart-card" ID systems!
-
- For more information on some of this legislation, see
- http://www.eff.org/pub/Privacy/Terrorism_militias/
-
-
- * The Anti-Electronic Racketeering Act
-
- This bill is unlikely to pass in any form, being very poorly drafted, and
- without much support. However, the CDA is just as bad and passed with
- flying colors [the jolly roger?] in Congress. It's better to be safe
- than sorry. If you have a few moments to spare, writing to, faxing, or
- calling your Congresspersons to urge opposition to this bill is a good
- idea.
-
-
- * Medical Privacy Legislation
-
- Several bills relating to medical privacy issues are floating in Congress
- right now. Urge your legislators to support only proposals that *truly*
- enhance the medical privacy of citizens.
-
- More information on this legislation will be available at
- http://www.eff.org/pub/Privacy/Medical/ soon. Bug mech@eff.org to make
- it appear there faster. :)
-
-
- * Find Out Who Your Congresspersons Are
-
- Writing letters to, faxing, and phoning your representatives in Congress
- is one very important strategy of activism, and an essential way of
- making sure YOUR voice is heard on vital issues.
-
- EFF has lists of the Senate and House with contact information, as well
- as lists of Congressional committees. (A House list is included in this
- issue of EFFector). These lists are available at:
- ftp.eff.org, /pub/Activism/Congress_cmtes/
- gopher.eff.org, 1/EFF/Issues/Activism/Congress_cmtes
- http://www.eff.org/pub/Activism/Congress_cmtes/
-
- The full Senate and House lists are senate.list and hr.list, respectively.
- Those not in the U.S. should seek out similar information about their
- own legislative bodies. EFF will be happy to archive any such
- information provided.
-
- If you are having difficulty determining who your Representatives are,
- try contacting your local League of Women Voters, who maintain a great
- deal of legislative information, or consult the free ZIPPER service
- that matches Zip Codes to Congressional districts with about 85%
- accuracy at:
- http://www.stardot.com/~lukeseem/zip.html
-
- Computer Currents Interactive has provided Congress contact info, sorted
- by who voted for and against the Communcations Decency Act:
- http://www.currents.net/congress.html
-
-
- * Join EFF!
-
- You *know* privacy, freedom of speech and ability to make your voice heard
- in government are important. You have probably participated in our online
- campaigns and forums. Have you become a member of EFF yet? The best way to
- protect your online rights is to be fully informed and to make your
- opinions heard. EFF members are informed and are making a difference. Join
- EFF today!
-
- For EFF membership info, send queries to membership@eff.org, or send any
- message to info@eff.org for basic EFF info, and a membership form.
-
- ------------------------------
-
-
- Administrivia
- =============
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- EFFector Online is published by:
-
- The Electronic Frontier Foundation
- 1550 Bryant St., Suite 725
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- Assoc. Editor: Ryan Thornburg, Communications Intern (rmt@eff.org)
-
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-
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-
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- at EFFweb. HTML editions of the current issue sometimes take a day or
- longer to prepare after issue of the ASCII text version.
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- ------------------------------
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-
-
-
-
- End of EFFector Online v09 #05 Digest
- *************************************
-
- $$
-