RECOMMENDED: The Electronic Frontier Foundation gets my financial support

Wednesday, August 7, 2024

This is a friendly message from the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

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Membership Update

Dear Ferdinand,

Thanks to you, EFF championed aggressive efforts to protect user rights and secured significant victories in the last year. We wanted to let you know that your annual Sustaining Donor contribution is scheduled to be charged next week. Thanks for continuing your support for the coming year!

If you donate using a credit card on file and wish to update or change your recurring payment information, visit eff.org/recurring. If you donate using PayPal, please log into your PayPal account to make changes.

Please reply to this email if you would like assistance or have any questions about your recurring donations.

We can’t express how much we appreciate your commitment to supporting digital civil liberties and human rights. Sustaining donors help EFF continue to spot and thwart threats to online freedom wherever they arise, and it’s only possible with your ongoing support.

Thanks again, 

Christian Romero

EFF Membership Team

P.S. EFF is a member-supported U.S. 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with a top rating by Charity Navigator. Donations are tax-deductible as allowed by law.

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I put my money where my mouth is.  Not a huge amount, but every little bit helps to steer the ship.

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Technology: Publishers seek a new form of monopoly; time to revisit IP and Copyrights

Sunday, July 10, 2022

https://www.eff.org/press/releases/internet-archive-seeks-summary-judgment-federal-lawsuit-filed-publishing-companies

Internet Archive’s Controlled Digital Lending Program Is Lawful Fair Use That Preserves Traditional Library Lending in the Digital World
Press Release
July 8, 2022

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SAN FRANCISCO—The Internet Archive has asked a federal judge to rule in its favor and end a radical lawsuit, filed by four major publishing companies, that aims to criminalize library lending.

The Internet Archive, headquartered in San Francisco, is a 501(c)(3) non-profit library which preserves and provides access to cultural artifacts of all kinds in electronic form. The motion for summary judgment, filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and Durie Tangri LLP, explains that the Archive’s Controlled Digital Lending (CDL) program is a lawful fair use that preserves traditional library lending in the digital world.

The brief explains how the Internet Archive is advancing the purposes of copyright law by furthering public access to knowledge and facilitating the creation of new creative and scholarly works. The Internet Archive’s digital lending hasn’t cost the publishers one penny in revenues; in fact, concrete evidence shows that the Archive’s digital lending does not and will not harm the market for books.

“Should we stop libraries from owning and lending books? No,” said Brewster Kahle, the Internet Archive’s founder and digital librarian. “We need libraries to be independent and strong, now more than ever, in a time of misinformation and challenges to democracy. That’s why we are defending the rights of libraries to serve our patrons where they are, online.”

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When do we put a stop to BIG X (Pharma, Auto, Government, Medicine, etc.), in this case Big Publishing, from trying to monopolize everything?

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TECHNOLOGY: The FBI Should Stop Attacking Encryption

Saturday, March 13, 2021

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/03/fbi-should-stop-attacking-encryption-and-tell-congress-about-all-encrypted-phones

The FBI Should Stop Attacking Encryption and Tell Congress About All the Encrypted Phones It’s Already Hacking Into
BY JOE MUL

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The first step is to start keeping track of what’s happening. Congress should require that federal law enforcement agencies create detailed audit logs and screen recordings of digital searches. And we agree with Upturn that agencies nationwide should collect and publish aggregated information about how many phones were searched, and whether those searches involved warrants (with published warrant numbers), or so-called consent searches. Agencies should also disclose what tools were used for data extraction and analysis.

Congress should also consider placing sharp limits on when consent searches can take place at all. In our January blog post, we suggest that such searches be banned entirely in high-coercion settings like traffic stops, and suggest some specific limits that should be set in less-coercive settings.

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As a little L libertarian, my first step would be “no warrant; no search”.  PERIOD!

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LIBERTY: DNA ain’t like a fingerprint

Monday, January 7, 2013

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/12/time-supreme-court-weigh-forced-dna-collection

December 29, 2011
By Rebecca Jeschke
Time for Supreme Court to Weigh in on Forced DNA Collection

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Can the government force people who are arrested – but not yet convicted of a crime – to give a DNA sample without a search warrant, or does that violate the Fourth Amendment?  One arrestee is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to consider this important question, and this week EFF urged the court to take the case.

A federal law mandates DNA collection for those who have been arrested for felonies. The FBI analyzes the samples, and puts a profile into CODIS, a national database.  Those who aren’t eventually convicted of a crime can get their information removed if they request to do so, but data from other individuals remains indefinitely.  In this case from the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, U.S. v. Mitchell, the defendant argues that the DNA collection violates his Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable searches and seizures.

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Clearly, it”s more than just a tool for “identification”.

As pointed out, it gives your heritage, your health, your health prospects, and who knows what else.

And, “arrested”; not “convicted”.

Also, do you really trust the Gooferment to do ANYTHING?

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