EFFector 15.27: EFF, Verizon Guard Client Privacy,

EFFector ^ | 09-07-02 | staff

[backhoe]

> EFFector      Vol. 15, No. 27       September 6, 2002      ren@eff.org
>
> A Publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation     ISSN 1062-9424
>
> In the 226th Issue of EFFector:
>
>     * EFF, Verizon Guard Client Privacy, Consumers v. RIAA on P2P   
>       Anonymity
>     * Report on Pavlovich Hearing Before California Supreme Court
>     * EFF to Auction Wil Wheaton's Barney-Beating Boxing Gloves
>     * Deep Links: The National Journal on the Hollywood v. Tech War
>     * Deep Links: Death Knell Sounded for Web Radio?
>     * Administrivia
>
> For more information on EFF activities & alerts: http://www.eff.org/
>
> To join EFF or make an additional donation:
>   http://www.eff.org/support/
> EFF is a member-supported nonprofit. Please sign up as a member today!
>
>
> * Electronic Frontier Foundation, Verizon Guard Client Privacy,  
> Consumers v. Recording Industry on Internet Anonymity
>
> Washington, DC - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and eleven
> other consumer and privacy groups last week sided with Verizon in its
> struggle to protect customer privacy.
>
> The groups urged a federal court to prevent the Recording Industry
> Association of America (RIAA) from forcing Internet Service Provider
> Verizon to identify a customer the RIAA has accused of offering
> infringing music on a peer-to-peer system.
>
> "The court should require careful judicial consideration of facts
> supporting any accusations and hear the other side of the story before
> violating the privacy of an Internet user," said EFF Legal Director
> Cindy Cohn. "The RIAA asked the court to throw a long history of
> protection of anonymous speech out the window as soon as someone
> suspects copyright infringement on a peer-to-peer system."
>
> EFF, along with over a dozen other groups, including the National
> Consumers League, Electronic Privacy Information Center, Media Action
> Project, Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility, and the
> nation's oldest general farm organization The Grange, filed a "friend
> of the court" brief urging that the same strong protections that apply
> for anonymous speech in other contexts also apply for claims of
> copyright infringement.
>
> "The right to anonymous speech is as old as this nation," noted Megan
> Gray, who wrote the brief on behalf of the groups. "The authors of the
> Federalist Papers relied on anonymity and a growing body of law
> recognizes that anonymous Internet speakers deserve the same anonymity
> protections as those who use pen and ink."
>
> "Our privacy and free speech rights should not be collateral damage in
> the RIAA's war against the digital music revolution," added Cohn.
>
> The groups who have signed on to the consumer privacy amicus brief
> are, in alphabetical order:
>
> * Alliance for Public Technology
>
> * Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility
>
> * Consumer Alert
>
> * Electronic Frontier Foundation
>
> * Electronic Privacy Information Center
>
> * Media Access Project
>
> * National Grange of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry (Grange)
>
> * National Consumers League
>
> * Privacy Rights Clearinghouse
>
> * Privacyactivism
>
> * Public Knowledge
>
> * Utility Consumers' Action Network
>
> RIAA v. Verizon was filed in Washington, DC, federal district court.
> Links:
>
> EFF and other groups' amicus brief in RIAA v. Verizon:
> http://www.eff.org/Cases/RIAA_v_Verizon/20020830_eff_amicus.html
>
> For this release:
> http://www.eff.org/Cases/RIAA_v_Verizon/20020830_eff_riaa_pr.html
>
> Original filing in RIAA v. Verizon:
> http://www.eff.org/Cases/RIAA_v_Verizon/riaa_v_verizon_complaint.html
>
> - end -
>
>
> * California Supreme Court Considers Internet Jurisdiction Case
>
> San Francisco - The California Supeme Court heard oral arguments on
> September 5, 2002, in a case that tests the limits of California's
> jurisdiction over out-of-state web publishers. Texas resident Matthew
> Pavlovich, founder of the LiVid open-source software project, was sued
> by DVD-CCA based upon claims that he was involved in the publication
> of DeCSS on the LiVid website in 1999. The DVD-CCA is the Hollywood
> studios' DVD-licensing body, but it did not even own the license to
> the CSS software at the time of the claimed publication by Pavlovich.
> The LiVid project was working on developing a DVD player for Linux
> computers.
>
> Pavlovich claims that he is not subject to the state of California's
> jurisdiction since he doesn't live in California and has had no
> contacts to the state. His only "act" here was affilition with a
> passive website onto which DeCSS was published. The issue for the
> court to decide is whether simply publishing information on the
> Internet can be a sufficient basis to force a non-resident into court
> in California to litigate the underlying claims when the claimed
> "effect" of the publication is to hurt industries that are based on
> California. Both state and federal constitutions provide guarantees of
> due process of law which could be upset if the high court opens the
> floodgates of litigation by finding it has jurisdiction in this case.
> Links:
>
> EFF/Pavlovich Opening Brief to Calif. Supreme Court:
> http://www.eff.org/IP/Video/DVDCCA_case/20020114_pavlovich_casupct_brief.html
>
> EFF "Intellectual Property: DVD CCA (DVD Content Control Association)
> Case" Archive:
> http://www.eff.org/IP/Video/DVDCCA_case/
>
> - end -
>
>
> * EFF to Auction Wil Wheaton's Barney-Beating Boxing Gloves
>
> On August 22nd, 2002, Wil Wheaton (Stand By Me, Star Trek: The Next
> Generation, Internet Activist-Extraordinaire) routed Barney the purple
> dinosaur at a benefit for the Electronic Frontier Foundation's CAFE
> project. Now YOU can own a piece of the magic.
>
> That's right: we're auctioning Wil Wheaton's boxing gloves.
>
> If you saw the fight, you know what these are capable of. If you
> missed it, here's your chance to own a piece of celebrity boxing
> history! Each glove has an ultra-hip caricature of the contenders by
> Ben Claasen (www.bendependent.com) and all proceeds benefit the
> Electronic Frontier Foundation.
>
> Check out the auction at:
> http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2139094055
>
> - end -
>
>
> Deep Links
> Deep Links features noteworthy news items, victories, and threats from
> around the Internet.
>
> * The National Journal on the Hollywood v. Tech War
> Drew Clark and Bara Vaida on the increasingly bitter war that
> Hollywood is waging on the high-tech industry. Read it at:
> http://nationaljournal.com/about/njweekly/stories/2002/0906nj1.htm
>
> * Death Knell Sounded for Web Radio?
> CNET News.com article on a recent report by Jupiter Research on how
> the new webcasting royalty rates may bankrupt Internet radio. Check it
> out at:
> http://news.com.com/2100-1023-956730.html?tag=fd_top
>
> - end -
>
>
> * 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:
> Ren Bucholz, Activist
>   ren@eff.org
>
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>
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>
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>