EFFector Vol. 19, No. 21 June, 2006
A Publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation ISSN 1062-9424
In the 382nd Issue of EFFector:
- Appeals Court Corrects Dangerous Web Privacy Ruling
- Announcing Line Noise: The EFF Podcast
- FSF DRM Protest, Saturday, June 10
- miniLinks (7): Forty-Eight Million Americans Have Created Net Content
- Administrivia
effector: n, Computer Sci. A device for producing a desired change.
Appeals Court Corrects Dangerous Web Privacy Ruling
Judges Agree with EFF Brief in DirecTV Case
San Francisco - The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has corrected a dangerous lower court ruling that threatened Internet privacy. In doing so, it preserved the privacy of password-protected websites as well as the right to read public sites. The decision followed the arguments made in an amicus brief filed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).
"A real privacy disaster was averted today," said EFF Staff Attorney Kevin Bankston, who authored the brief. "The court affirmed important legal protections for truly private websites, and also protected your right to read public content on the Internet without getting sued."
The case began when Michael Snow, the publisher of an anti- DirecTV website, sued the company for unauthorized access under the Stored Communications Act (SCA). Snow's site had a banner and purported Terms of Service forbidding DirecTV representatives from entering the site or using its message board, but it was configured such that anyone in the public could do so.
A lower court had rightly dismissed the case, but for the wrong reasons -- holding that the SCA did not protect websites at all, even if they were configured to be private. However, the 11th Circuit clarified that websites are protected by the SCA, except when they are designed to be readily accessible to the general public.
"Through the World Wide Web, individuals can easily and readily access websites hosted throughout the world. Given the Web's ubiquitous and public nature, it becomes increasingly important in cases concerning electronic communications available through the Web for a plaintiff to demonstrate that those communications are not readily accessible," the opinion reads. "If by simply clicking a hypertext link, after ignoring an express warning, on an otherwise publicly accessible webpage, one is liable under the SCA, then the floodgates of litigation would open and the merely curious would be prosecuted. We find no intent by Congress to so permit."
For the full opinion:
http://www.eff.org/legal/cases/Snow_v_DirecTV/200513687.pdf
For EFF's brief:
http://www.eff.org/legal/cases/Snow_v_DirecTV/EFF_amicus.pdf
For this release:
http://www.eff.org/news/archives/2006_06.php#004720
Announcing Line Noise: the EFF Podcast
We've had many requests recently for an audio summary of EFF news. While we thought that dictating all the motions and filings, press releases, newsletters and blog postings that we file every month might make for an exciting six hour commute, audience research indicated that might be a little ... overstimulating. So instead we present Line Noise, a super-compressed, five minute audio summary of the current hot topics at EFF.
For this first podcast, we have a few words with Kurt Opsahl, the EFF attorney who successfully argued for online journalist's rights in the Apple v. Does case at the California Court of Appeal, information on the Sony BMG settlement, and what you can do to help in the AT&T case. We're still experimenting, so do let us know what and who you'd like to hear in future episodes.
You can find a Line Noise RSS feed for MP3 players here, as well as another version with Ogg Vorbis enclosures. And if you're a EFF-supporting podcaster yourself, don't forget we have a selection of public service announcements you can use in your own productions.
For Episode 00.01
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/podcasts/2006-05-26.mp3
For our mp3 feed:
http://www.eff.org/rss/linenoisemp3.xml
For our ogg feed:
For EFF podcast PSAs:
For this post:
The Free Software Foundations' DRM activism group,
DefectiveByDesign.org sent their thanks to those EFF members
in Seattle WA, who attended their launch event on May 23rd.
The group is organizing more events at Apple stores in New
York, San Francisco, Boston, Seattle, Chicago and Plano this
Saturday -- if you'd like to join, RSVP to
appleflash@defectivebydesign.org, or sign up for future
actions at:
miniLinks features noteworthy news items from around the
Internet.
Forty-Eight Million Americans Have Created Net Content
RIAA Honchos Interviewed
Gonzales Says ISP Logging Needed in War Against Terrorism
Dutch Music Lovers Get Caught in DRM's Ratchet
"The Generative Internet" by Jonathan Zittrain
Send Your Mail to the Australian Government With Just One
IBM Exploits Data Retention Laws
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http://www.eff.org/press/PSA/
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/004710.php
FSF DRM Protest, Saturday, June 10
http://defectivebydesign.org
miniLinks
That's over a third of the US Internet-using population.
http://www.clickz.com/news/article.php/3609461
Feel good about prosecuting grandmothers, optimistic about
making radio receivers illegal.
"'We want this for terrorism,' Gonzales said, according to
one person familiar with the discussion."
http://news.com.com/Terrorism+invoked+in+ISP+snooping+proposal/2100-1028_3-6078229.html
David Berlind hears about the decreasing rights of the
customers of a European music download service.
http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=3108&tag=nl.e539
Or, the future of the Internet and how to save it;
Zittrain's take on the open PC-Internet "grid," and the
emerging (inevitable?) backlash.
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=847124
Click
A commendable trust in people's ability to not game (or
accidentally submit incriminating data) to a government-run
spam blacklist.
http://www.theage.com.au/news/technology/spam-help-just-one-click-away/2006/05/30/1148956345871.html
Sold to corporations in the U.S. for HIPAA and Sarbanes-
Oxley compliance, but capable of far more -- IBM sees a
bright future for the 56Tb "TotalStorage Data Retention
450."
http://www.infoworld.com/article/04/02/19/HNibmdataretain_1.html
Administrivia
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Derek Slater, Activist
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