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========================================================================= ________________ _______________ _______________ /_______________/\ /_______________\ /\______________\ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\/ ||||||||||||||||| / //////////////// \\\\\________/\ |||||________\ / /////______\ \\\\\\\\\\\\\/____ |||||||||||||| / ///////////// \\\\\___________/\ ||||| / //// \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\/ ||||| \//// ========================================================================= EFFector Online Volume 09 No. 16 Dec. 30, 1996 editors@eff.org A Publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation ISSN 1062-9424 IN THIS ISSUE: Bernstein Takes on New Crypto Regs - Asks for Constitutional Review Press Release WHAT YOU CAN DO NOW 6th Annual EFF Pioneer Awards - Call for Nominations Upcoming Events Quote of the Day What YOU Can Do Administrivia Have a happy New Year! * See http://www.eff.org/hot.html or ftp.eff.org, /pub/Alerts/ for more information on current EFF activities and online activism alerts! * ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Bernstein Takes on New Crypto Regs - Asks for Constitutional Review ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Press Release * PROFESSOR ASKS FOR CONSTITUTIONAL REVIEW OF NEW ENCRYPTION REGS "Shell Game" Attempts to Continue Unconstitutional Rules December 30, 1996 Electronic Frontier Foundation Contacts: Shari Steele, Staff Attorney +1 301 375 8856, ssteele@eff.org John Gilmore, Founding Board Member +1 415 221 6524, gnu@toad.com Cindy Cohn, McGlashan & Sarrail +1 415 341 2585, cindy@mcglashan.com San Francisco - Laywers for Professor Dan Bernstein today asked the Government to delay enforcement of new encryption restrictions until they can be reviewed by a court for Constitutionality. The new regulations contain the same features struck down earlier this month by Judge Marilyn Hall Patel. "The government apparently decided to ignore Judge Patel's findings.", said Cindy Cohn, lead attorney in the case. "Instead of listening to Judge Patel's analysis and attempting to fix the regulations, they simply issued new ones with the same problems. We are giving them a a chance to fix this before we bring the issue up in court." President Clinton ordered on November 15 that the regulations be moved from the State Department to the Commerce Department. Judge Patel's decision of December 6 (released December 16th) struck down the State Department regulations as a "paradigm of standardless discretion" that required Americans to get licenses from the government to publish information and software about encryption. Over Christmas, the Clinton Administration published its new Commerce Department regulations, containing all the same problems, and put them into immediate effect today. The new regulations once again put Professor Bernstein at risk of prosecution for teaching a class on encryption and publishing his class materials on the Internet. His class begins on January 13 at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Professor Bernstein's letter of today proposes that the Government agree to delay enforcement of the new regulations while Judge Patel reviews them for Constitutionality. Failing that, Professor Bernstein will ask the court for a temporary restraining order to block their enforcement. "The government is forcing us to go back to Judge Patel again to have the new regulations declared facially unconstitutional." said Ms. Cohn. "This time we believe that a nationwide injunction against their enforcement is merited." "The new encryption rules are a pointless shell game," said John Gilmore, co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which backed the suit. "Industry and Congress had asked that the draconian State Department regulations be eliminated in favor of existing, reasonable, Commerce Department regulations. Judge Patel invalidated the State Department regulations because they were draconian. Rather than address the concerns of either, President Clinton moved the draconian regulations into the Commerce Department -- and made them tougher in the process. It's his political decision whether to ignore and anger industry leaders, but he can't ignore a federal district court judge." Civil libertarians have long argued that encryption should be widely deployed on the Internet and throughout society to protect privacy, prove the authenticity of transactions, and improve computer security. Industry has argued that the restrictions hobble them in building secure products, both for U.S. and worldwide use, risking America's current dominant position in computer and communications technology. Government officials in the FBI and NSA argue that the technology is too dangerous to permit citizens to use it, because it provides privacy to criminals as well as ordinary citizens. Background on the case The plaintiff in the case, Daniel J. Bernstein, Research Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, developed an "encryption algorithm" (a recipe or set of instructions) that he wanted to publish in printed journals as well as on the Internet. Bernstein sued the government, claiming that the government's requirements that he register as an arms dealer and seek government permission before publication was a violation of his First Amendment right of free speech. This was required by the Arms Export Control Act and its implementing regulations, the International Traffic in Arms Regulations. The new regulations have the same effect, using the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, the Export Administration Regulations, and a "state of national emergency" that President Clinton declared in 1994 and has re-declared annually. In the first phase of this litigation, the government argued that since Bernstein's ideas were expressed, in part, in computer language (source code), they were not protected by the First Amendment. On April 15, 1996, Judge Patel rejected that argument and held for the first time that computer source code is protected speech for purposes of the First Amendment. On December 6, Judge Patel ruled that the Arms Export Control Act is a prior restraint on speech, because it requires Bernstein to apply for and obtain from the government a license to publish his ideas. Using the Pentagon Papers case as precedent, she ruled that the government's "interest of national security alone does not justify a prior restraint." Judge Patel also held that the government's required licensing procedure fails to provide adequate procedural safeguards. When the Government acts legally to suppress protected speech, it must reduce the chance of illegal censorship by the bureacrats involved -- in this case, the State Department's Office of Defense Trade Controls (ODTC). Her decision states, "Because the ITAR licensing scheme fails to provide for a time limit on the licensing decision, for prompt judicial review and for a duty on the part of the ODTC to go to court and defend a denial of a license, the ITAR licensing scheme as applied to Category XIII(b) acts as an unconstitutional prior restraint in violation of the First Amendment." She also ruled that the export controls restrict speech based on the content of the speech, not for any other reason. "Category XIII(b) is directed very specifically at applied scientific research and speech on the topic of encryption." The new regulations continue to insist that the Government is regulating the speech because of its function, not its content. The judge also found that the ITAR is vague, because it does not adequately define how information that is available to the public "through fundamental research in science and engineering" is exempt from the export restrictions. "This subsection ... does not give people ... a reasonable opportunity to know what is prohibited." Judge Patel also adopted a narrower definition of the term "defense article" in order to save it from unconstitutional vagueness. ABOUT THE ATTORNEYS Lead counsel on the case is Cindy Cohn of the San Mateo law firm of McGlashan & Sarrail, who is offering her services pro bono. Major additional pro bono legal assistance is being provided by Lee Tien of Berkeley; M. Edward Ross of the San Francisco law firm of Steefel, Levitt & Weiss; James Wheaton and Elizabeth Pritzker of the First Amendment Project in Oakland; and Robert Corn-Revere, Julia Kogan, and Jeremy Miller of the Washington, DC, law firm of Hogan & Hartson. ABOUT THE ELECTRONIC FRONTIER FOUNDATION The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is a nonprofit civil liberties organization working in the public interest to protect privacy, free expression, and access to online resources and information. EFF is a primary sponsor of the Bernstein case. EFF helped to find Bernstein pro bono counsel, is a member of the Bernstein legal team, and helped collect members of the academic community and computer industry to support this case. Full text of the lawsuit and other paperwork filed in the case is available from EFF's online archives at: http://www.eff.org/bernstein The full text of today's letter from Professor Bernstein to the Government, and proposed stipulation, are at: http://www.eff.org/bernstein/Legal/961230.letter http://www.eff.org/bernstein/Legal/961230_proposed.stipulation The new Commerce Department Export Administration Regulations are available at: http://www.eff.org/pub/Privacy/ITAR_export/961230_commerce.regs * WHAT YOU CAN DO NOW Have a look at the regs, and make your voice heard. The Commerce Dept. is soliciting public feedback on these regulations, and needs to hear from a lot of people what the problems are. Written comments (six copies) should be sent to: Nancy Crowe, Regulatory Policy Division, Bureau of Export Administration, Department of Commerce, 14th Street and Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Room 2705, Washington, D.C. 20230 USA. DEADLINE: February 13, 1997. ------------------------------ Subject: 6th Annual EFF Pioneer Awards - Call for Nominations ------------------------------------------------------------- THE SIXTH ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL EFF PIONEER AWARDS: CALL FOR NOMINATIONS Deadline: February 1, 1997 * Please feel free to redistribute this notice in appropriate forums. * In every field of human endeavor,there are those dedicated to expanding knowledge,freedom,efficiency and utility. Along the electronic frontier, this is especially true. To recognize this, the Electronic Frontier Foundation established the Pioneer Awards for deserving individuals and organizations. The Pioneer Awards are international and nominations are open to all. In March of 1992, the first EFF Pioneer Awards were given in Washington D.C. The winners were: Douglas C. Engelbart, Robert Kahn, Jim Warren, Tom Jennings, and Andrzej Smereczynski. The 1993 Pioneer Award recipients were Paul Baran, Vinton Cerf, Ward Christensen, Dave Hughes and the USENET software developers, represented by the software's originators Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis. The 1994 Pioneer Award winners were Ivan Sutherland, Whitfield Diffie and Martin Hellman, Murray Turoff and Starr Roxanne Hiltz, Lee Felsenstein, Bill Atkinson, and the WELL. The 1995 Pioneer Award winners were Philip Zimmermann, Anita Borg, and Willis Ware. The 1996 Pioneer Award winners were Robert Metcalfe, Peter Neumann, Shabbir Safdar and Matthew Blaze. The 6th Annual Pioneer Awards will be given in Burlingame, California, at the 7th Conference on Computers, Freedom, and Privacy in March of 1997. All valid nominations will be reviewed by a panel of judges chosen for their knowledge of computer-based communications and the technical, legal, and social issues involved in computer technology and computer communications. There are no specific categories for the Pioneer Awards, but the following guidelines apply: 1) The nominees must have made a substantial contribution to the health, growth, accessibility, or freedom of computer-based communications. 2) The contribution may be technical, social, economic or cultural. 3) Nominations may be of individuals, systems, or organizations in the private or public sectors. 4) Nominations are open to all, and you may nominate more than one recipient. You may nominate yourself or your organization. 5) All nominations, to be valid, must contain your reasons, however brief, for nominating the individual or organization, along with a means of contacting the nominee, and your own contact number. Anonymous nominations will be allowed, but we prefer to be able to contact the nominating parties in the event that we need more information.. 6) Every person or organization, with the single exception of EFF staff members, are eligible for Pioneer Awards. 7) Persons or representatives of organizations receiving a Pioneer Award will be invited to attend the ceremony at the Foundation's expense. You may nominate as many as you wish, but please use one form per nomination. You may return the forms to us via email to: pioneer@eff.org You may fax them to us at: +1 415 436 9993 Just tell us the name of the nominee, the phone number or email address at which the nominee can be reached, and, most important, why you feel the nominee deserves the award. You may attach supporting documentation. Please include your own name, address, and phone number. We're looking for the Pioneers of the Electronic Frontier that have made and are making a difference. Thanks for helping us find them, The Electronic Frontier Foundation -------EFF Pioneer Awards Nomination Form------ Please return to the Electronic Frontier Foundation the following information about your nominee for the Pioneer Awards: Nominee's name: Title: Company/Organization: Contact number or email address: Reason for nomination: Your name and contact information: Extra documentation attached: DEADLINE: ALL NOMINATIONS MUST BE RECEIVED BY THE ELECTRONIC FRONTIER FOUNDATION BY MIDNIGHT, US PACIFIC STANDARD TIME, FEBRUARY 1, 1997. ------------------------------ 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 See also our new Now-Up-to-Date HTML calendar at: http://events.eff.org 1997 Jan. 10 - PHILADELPHIA - CALL FOR PAPERS!! - SIGIR '97 seeks original contributions (i.e. never before published) in the broad field of information storage and retrieval, covering the handling of all types of information, people's behavior in information systems, and theories, models and implementations of information retrieval systems. Subscribe now to SIGIR '97 mailing list by writing to <sigir97@potomac.ncsl.nist.gov> Information on SIGIR '97 will periodically be sent to the mailing list as well as posted at http://www.acm.org/sigir/conferences/sigir97/index.html The conference will be held at the DoubleTree Hotel in Philadelphia, PA, USA, July 27 -- July 31, 1997 Jan. 13 + LANCASTER, UK - ECSCW'97, the Fifth European Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work; deadline for paper submissions is January 13, 1997; papers must contain an abstract of not more than 100 words and not exceed 16 pages in length; full formatting instructions are available from http://www.comp.lancs.ac.uk/computing/research/cseg/ecscw97/papers/ queries: ecscw97-papers@comp.lancs.ac.uk for more information: snail mail: ECSCW'97 Conference Office Computing Department Lancaster University Lancaster LA1 4YR UK URL: http://www.comp.lancs.ac.uk/computing/research/cseg/ecscw97/ email: ecscw97@comp.lancs.ac.uk Jan. 15- 17 - WASHINGTON, DC - Universal Service '97: Redefining Universal Telecommunications Service for the Emerging Competitive Environment; for more information contact: tel: +1 800 822 MEET +1 202 842 3022 x317 URL: http://brp.com Jan. 16- 17 - ARLINGTON, VA - NCSA International Virus Prevention Conference '97; event will investigate "the continuing, worrisome, costly problem of computer virus attacks, disasters and recovery; Crystal Gateway Marriott (+1 703 271 5212); more information: tel: +1 717 258 1816 email: ivpc97@ncsa.com Jan. 19- 21 - PALM SPRINGS, CA - Upside Technology Summit; "Managing Digital Mania: An Extreme Sport for Technology Executives"; examining effective business models and strategies in the booming world of e-commerce; Al Franken has been invited to give a closing speech; La Quinta Resort & Club, Palm Springs, CA; for more info contact: URL: http://www.upside.com tel: +1 888 33 UPSIDE Jan. 21 *! CDA unconstitutionaly Supreme Court case: government brief due. Jan. 23- 25 - CAMBRIDGE, MA The Economics of Digital Information and Intellectual Property Harvard University symposium to broaden and deepen understanding of emerging economic and business models for global publishing and information access and the attendant transformation of international information markets, institutions, and businesses. First Announcement and Call for Papers; Prospective authors should submit short abstracts for review and comment as soon as possible. Acceptances of abstracts and outlines are conditional pending receipt of a satisfactory draft by December 15, 1996. Sponsored by Harvard Law School. email: iip@harvard.edu regular mail: Tim Leshan, Information Infrastructure Project, John F. Kennedy School of Government, 79 John F. Kennedy St., Cambridge, MA 02138 tel: 617-496-1389 fax: 617-495-5776 Jan. 28- 31 - RSA Cryptography Conference - Computerworld called last year's event the sine qua non event of the crypto community; at various facilities atop Nob Hill in San Francisco, the luminaries of cryptography will gather; Right now, preparations for this conference are underway. There are many exciting ways for corporations and individuals to participate. Read on for information about presenting, exhibiting, or just attending http://www.rsa.com/conf97/ Feb. 10- 11 - Internet Society Symposium on Network and Distributed System Security; for those interested in the practical aspects of network and distributed system security, focusing on actual system design and implementation, rather than theory. Dates, final call for papers, advance program, and registration information will be available at the URL: http://www.isoc.org/conferences/ndss97 Feb. 18- 20 - SAN JOSE, CA - DCI Internet Expo; the world's largest Internet, Web and email conference and exposition; comprehensive program will cover Web-enabled marketing, best practices for e-commerce and application development; San Jose Convention Center; also will be held April 22-24 at McCormick Place in Chicago, IL; email: ExpoReg@dciexpo.com URL: http://www.dciexpo.com Feb. 20 *! CDA unconstitutionaly Supreme Court case: Appellee (ACLU/ALA/ EFF/CIEC) brief due. Feb. 24- 28 + ANGUILLA, BRITISH WEST INDIES Financial Cryptography '97 - CALL FOR PAPERS; this is a new conference on the security of digital financial transactions. FC97 aims to bring together persons involved in both the financial and data security fields to foster cooperation and exchange of ideas. Send a cover letter and 9 copies of an extended abstract to be received by November 29, 1996 to the Program Chair at the address given below: Rafael Hirschfeld FC97 Program Chair CWI Kruislaan 413 1098 SJ Amsterdam The Netherlands email: ray@cwi.nl phone: +31 20 592 4169 fax: +31 20 592 4199 URL: http://www.cwi.nl/conferences/FC97 Mar. 1- 5 - ACM97: The Next 50 Years of Computing; San Jose Convention Center, March 1-5, 1997; Registration information: URL: http://www.acm.org/acm97 tel: +1 800 342 6626 Mar. 3- 5 - NEW YORK CITY - Consumer Online Services TV; Jupiter Communications conference featuring Steve Case of AOL and Steve Perlman of WebTV; for more information contact: tel: +1 800 488 4345 URL: http://www.jup.com Mar. 7 *! CDA unconstitutionaly Supreme Court case: govt. reply brief due. Mar. 11- 14 * 7th Conference on Computers, Freedom & Privacy (CFP97), San Francisco Airport Hyatt Regency Hotel in Burlingame, CA. The "cyberliberties" mega-event. Speakers will include EFF staff counsel Mike Godwin, and many others. EFF's annual Pioneer Awards ceremony will be held at CFP97. Early registration is advised (registration will probably open in Jan., and reg. info will appear on the CFP site listed below). Email: cfpinfo@cfp.org. URL: http://www.cfp.org Apr. 8- 11 - FRACTAL 97: Fractals in the Natural & Applied Sciences 4th International Working Conference; Denver Colorado. Sponsored by IFIP; paper submissions due by Aug. 5, 1996. Contact: Miroslav Novak, +44 181 547 2000 (voice), +44 181 547 7562 or 7419 (fax) Email: novak@kingston.ac.uk Apr. 22- 24 - CHICAGO, IL - DCI Internet Expo; the world's largest Internet, Web and email conference and exposition; comprehensive program will cover Web-enabled marketing, best practices for e-commerce and application development; San Jose Convention Center; also will be held February 18-20 at the San Jose Convention Center; email: ExpoReg@dciexpo.com URL: http://www.dciexpo.com June 2- 4 - American Society for Information Science 1997 Mid-Year Conference; gathering will focus on privacy and security issues online; Scottsdale Arizona; paper submissions due Nov. 1, 1996. Contacts: Gregory B. Newby, Co-Chair GSLIS/UIUC Tel: (217) 244-7365; Email: gbnewby@uiuc.edu Mark H. Needleman, Co chair UCOP Tel: (510) 987-0530; Email: mhn@stubbs.ucop.edu Karla Petersen, Panel Sessions Tel: (312) 508-2657; Email: kpeter1@luc.edu Richard Hill, Executive Director, ASIS Tel: (301) 495-0900; Email: rhill@cni.org URL: http://www.asis.org June 14- 19 + CALGARY, CANADA ED-MEDIA/ED-TELECOM 97--World Conference on Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia and World Conference on Educational Telecommunications are jointly held international conferences, organized by the Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE). These annual conferences serve as multi- disciplinary forums for the discussion and dissemination of information on the research, development, and applications on all topics related to multimedia/hypermedia and distance education. We invite you to attend ED-MEDIA/ED-TELECOM 97 and submit proposals for papers, panels, roundtables, tutorials, workshops, demonstrations/posters, and SIG discussions. Proposals may be submitted in either hard copy (send 5 copies or fax 1 copy) or in electronic form. Electronic proposals in the form of URL addresses or ASCII files (uncoded) are preferred. Submission Deadline: Oct. 25, 1996; Send to: Program Chairs ED-MEDIA 97/AACE P.O. Box 2966 Charlottesville, VA 22902, USA E-mail: AACE@virginia.edu; Phone: 804-973-3987; Fax: 804-978-7449 URL: http://www.aace.org/conf/edmedia June 19- 20 - WASHINGTON, DC - CyberPayments '97 Conference will investigate issues of online commerce including electronic cash and checks, credit cards, encryption systems and security products; Sheraton Washington Hotel, Washington, DC For more information contact: email: vinceiaboni@msn.com tel: +1 216 464 2618 x228 +1 800 529 7375 July 13- 17 - ACUTA 26th Annual Conference; Atlanta, Georgia. Contact: +1 606 278 3338 (voice) Sep. 7 - 11 + LANCASTER, UK - ECSCW'97, the Fifth European Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work; deadline for paper submissions is January 13, 1997; papers must contain an abstract of not more than 100 words and not exceed 16 pages in length; full formatting instructions are available from http://www.comp.lancs.ac.uk/computing/research/cseg/ecscw97/papers/ queries: ecscw97-papers@comp.lancs.ac.uk for more information: snail mail: ECSCW'97 Conference Office Computing Department Lancaster University Lancaster LA1 4YR UK URL: http://www.comp.lancs.ac.uk/computing/research/cseg/ecscw97/ email: ecscw97@comp.lancs.ac.uk Sep. 12- 14 SAN DIEGO - Association of Online Professionals Annual Conference; sysop trade association's yearly gathering to discuss issues of relevance to the industry URL: http://www.aop.org/confrnc.html Oct. 28- 31 - EDUCOM '97; Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota. Contact: +1 202 872 4200 (voice) Email: conf@educom.edu Dec. 1 - Computer Security Day (started by Washington DC chapter of the Assoc. for Computing Machinery, to "draw attention to computer security during the holdiay season when it might otherwise become lax." ------------------------------ Subject: Quote of the Day ------------------------- "At least one way of measuring the freedom of any society is the amount of comedy that is permitted, and clearly a healthy society permits more satirical comment than a repressive, so that if comedy is to function in some way as a safety release then it must obviously deal with these taboo areas. This is part of the responsibility we accord our licensed jesters, that nothing be excused the searching light of comedy. If anything can survive the probe of humour it is clearly of value, and conversely all groups who claim immunity from laughter are claiming special privileges which should not be granted." -- British comedian & satirist Eric Idle (of Monty Python's Flying Circus) 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! http://www.eff.org/join (or send any message to info@eff.org). 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. The CDA is likely to be found unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. But, bowing to pressure from theocratic organizations, Congress is likely to introduce and attempt to pass a slightly modified version. Let your legislators know you will not stand for censorship, nor for the wasting of millions of tax dollars on years of Supreme Court litigation over laws that should never have even been proposed much less passed in a democracy. Business/industry persons concerned should alert their corporate govt. affairs office and/or legal counsel about such censorship measures, TODAY, while there is still time to plan. Join in the Blue Ribbon Campaign - see http://www.eff.org/blueribbon.html Support the EFF Cyberspace Legal Defense Fund: http://www.eff.org/pub/Alerts/cyberlegal_fund_eff.announce 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. * Unconstitutional Restrictions on Encryption In an effort to evade a federal judge's finding that software is protected expression on the First Amendment, the Administration is playing a regulatory shellgame, scrapping old State Dept. crypto regs for "new" Commerce Dept. regs that are as bad, and in some cases worse. The Commerce Dept. is seeking input from the people on these regulations. Don't miss this opportunity to provide feedback to government in this vital area. The full text of the new regulations can be found at: http://www.eff.org/pub/Privacy/ITAR_export/961230_commerce.regs Have a look at the regs, and make your voice heard. The Commerce Dept. is soliciting public feedback on these regulations, and needs to hear from a lot of people what the problems are. Written comments (six copies) should be sent to: Nancy Crowe, Regulatory Policy Division, Bureau of Export Administration, Department of Commerce, 14th Street and Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Room 2705, Washington, D.C. 20230 USA. DEADLINE: February 13, 1997. The EFF-sponsored Bernstein case is making major headway in getting rid of the unconstitutional export restrictions against encryption software and publications. However, the case is only in its first phase. It will probably have to go all the way to the Supreme Court, and takes resources. Please support EFF's Cyberspace Legal Defense Fund (http://www.eff.org/pub/Alerts/cyberlegal_fund_eff.announce), and/or become a member of EFF (http://www.eff.org/join). * 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. If you are having difficulty determining who your US legislators are, try contacting your local League of Women Voters, who maintain a great deal of legislator 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 Communications Decency Act: http://www.currents.net/congress.html (NB: Some of these folks have, fortunately, been voted out of office.) * 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 ============= EFFector Online is published by: The Electronic Frontier Foundation 1550 Bryant St., Suite 725 San Francisco CA 94103 USA +1 415 436 9333 (voice) +1 415 436 9993 (fax) Membership & donations: membership@eff.org Legal services: ssteele@eff.org General EFF, legal, policy or online resources queries: ask@eff.org Editor: Stanton McCandlish, Online Activist, Webmaster (mech@eff.org) This newsletter is printed on 100% recycled electrons. Reproduction of this publication in electronic media is encouraged. Signed articles do not necessarily represent the views of EFF. To reproduce signed articles individually, please contact the authors for their express permission. Press releases and EFF announcements may be reproduced individ- ually at will. To subscribe to EFFector via email, send message body of "subscribe effector-online" (without the "quotes") to listserv@eff.org, which will add you to a subscription list for EFFector. Back issues are available at: ftp.eff.org, /pub/EFF/Newsletters/EFFector/ gopher.eff.org, 1/EFF/Newsletters/EFFector http://www.eff.org/pub/EFF/Newsletters/EFFector/ To get the latest issue, send any message to effector-reflector@eff.org (or er@eff.org), and it will be mailed to you automagically. You can also get the file "current" from the EFFector directory at the above sites at any time for a copy of the current issue. HTML editions available at: http://www.eff.org/pub/EFF/Newsletters/EFFector/HTML/ at EFFweb. HTML editions of the current issue sometimes take a day or longer to prepare after issue of the ASCII text version. ------------------------------ End of EFFector Online v09 #16 Digest ************************************* $$