========================================================================= ________________ _______________ _______________ /_______________/\ /_______________\ /\______________\ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\/ ||||||||||||||||| / //////////////// \\\\\________/\ |||||________\ / /////______\ \\\\\\\\\\\\\/____ |||||||||||||| / ///////////// \\\\\___________/\ ||||| / //// \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\/ ||||| \//// ========================================================================= EFFector Online Volume 08 No. 11 July 6, 1995 editors@eff.org A Publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation ISSN 1062-9424 IN THIS ISSUE: EFF California Relocation; Election of New Board of Directors Chair ALERT: Target House to Stop Internet Censorship Legislation Background The Latest News What You Can Do Now Sample Letter To The Editor For More Information List Of Participating Organizations Newsbytes USSS/RCMP Investigations and More Anti-Net Hysteria Generated by Hoax FBI to Investigate 3,000 People for E-Childporn? Or Is It 30,000? Jake Baker Charges Dismissed Calendar of 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: EFF California Relocation; Election of New Board of Directors Chair ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ELECTRONIC FRONTIER FOUNDATION STATEMENT OF THE BOARD EFF MOVES TO CALIFORNIA, ELECTS NEW CHAIRMAN ** Understanding guides action; action guides understanding. ** At its last board meeting, the Electronic Frontier Foundation made a number of significant decisions: * LOCATION: We will move our physical headquarters to California's San Francisco Bay Area. We hope to complete the move by the end of August. * BOARD: We have elected a new chairman, Esther Dyson, and vice-chairman, John Perry Barlow. The board also wishes to acknowledge the extraordinary efforts of Vin Cipolla, the newest board member (elected in April 1995) in accomplishing the transition. Cipolla sits on the executive committee and has been handling day-today management issues while we remain in Washington DC. The board also thanks co-founder Mitch Kapor, who remains an active board member, for his leadership since he co-founded the organization with John Perry Barlow in 1990, and David Johnson, for his recent temporary tenure as chairman (which he has relinquished to devote more time to starting up the Cyberspace Law Institute. Other board members are Dave Farber, John Gilmore and Rob Glaser. * STAFF: Moving with the organization to California will be Mike Godwin, staff counsel and perennial net presence, online services manager Stanton McCandlish, and systems & network administrator Dan Brown. We hope to maintain continuing ties with director of legal services Shari Steele, who prefers to remain in the Washington area. Shari is currently overseeing EFF's involvement in two precedent-setting legal cases: Bernstein v. U.S. Department of State (challenging the inclusion of encryption on the U.S. munitions list on 1st Amendment grounds) and RTC v. Netcom (determining if system operators are going to be held liable for the content of their users' speech). Likewise, we are sorry to leave behind director of finance and administration Darby Kay Costello, staff assistant Jordan Ramacciato, and assistant manager of online services Eric Tachibana. Eric hopes to join us in our new location in January, after he completes the last three courses of his master's degree. * MISSION: EFF's overall mission has not changed. We are dedicated to promoting civil rights *and* responsibilities in cyberspace. Especially now that governments have discovered the net and trying to figure out how to regulate it, it is important to establish a clearer understanding both in the public mind and within governments worldwide. Cyberspace should not be a lawless arena, but its diverse communities should be self-governing as much as possible. Specifically, we are dedicated to free speech, freedom of association, diversity in cyberspace, protection of privacy, the right to anonymity, and *proper* accountability (including immunity from liability for sysops not directly involved in illegal acts). Current hot issues include encryption (we support its availability from private sources worldwide), privacy (we support strong privacy protection both legally and technically, with maximum control of personal information in individual's hands), sysop liability (we favor immunity in most cases), censorship (we prefer private rating schemes for those who wish to control what they or their children see), and intellectual property rights (we are exploring new models to encourage creators, support information integrity *and* foster the free flow of information -- a challenging task!). Obviously, all these issues are complex; if they were not, they would not be controversial. We see our mission as helping to provide clear thinking about them through rational argument and activism as needed. We carry out our mission through means such as our online presence and a legal "clinic", support (of various kinds) for relevant lawsuits, public education, speeches and other public appearances, articles and other documents of various kinds. We participate actively in groups such as the Stop 314 Coalition and the Interactive Working Group, in opposition to legislative attempts at censorship. In addition, many of our board and staff members are involved in a variety of related efforts, ranging from the NII Advisory Council (Esther Dyson), the Internet Society (Dave Farber), the IHPEG filtering technology initiative (Rob Glaser) and the Cyberspace Law Institute (David Johnson), and planning and support of the annual Computers, Freedom and Privacy Conference. We are seeking to expand our presence overseas, reflecting the importance of the Internet and civil liberties outside the United States. We actively encourage the formation of independent "electronic frontier" organizations in other parts of the world. * FINANCES: EFF will continue to seek funding from all who support our basic mission, be they individuals, foundations or corporations. We do not tailor our positions to please funding sources, but we do accept funds for specific projects that fit our overall mission, as well as for continuing operations. * CHANGES: Over the years, EFF has had an ambivalent relationship with Washington, DC. We started in Boston in 1990; we opened a second office in Washington in 1992 and then moved our headquarters there in late 1993. But over the years the world, Washington and EFF itself have changed. We are now moving to California to get closer to a major center of our natural constituency -- net-aware people -- and further away from Washington Beltway-centric thinking. There is now a sizable contingent of Net-aware people and organizations in Washington -- including most notably the Electronic Privacy and Information Center, the Center for Democracy and Technology and the Progress and Freedom Foundation. We believe that Silicon Valley in particular and the rest of the world in general still underestimate the magnitude of the social and political changes the Electronic Frontier will bring -- and we want to work out in the "real world" as well as on the Net to guide those changes in a positive direction. Together and individually, we look forward to working with all possible constituencies to make cyberspace a new frontier of self-governance where informed individuals can exercise their rights and fulfill their responsibilities. Contact: Esther Dyson, +1 212 924 8800, edyson@eff.org ------------------------------ Subject: ALERT: Target House to Stop Internet Censorship Legislation -------------------------------------------------------------------- CAMPAIGN TO STOP THE EXON/GORTON COMMUNICATIONS DECENCY ACT (SEE THE LIST OF CAMPAIGN COALITION MEMBERS AT THE END) Update: -The Latest News: The House is the next fight -What You Can Do Now -Meetings with House members should be scheduled -Letters to the Editor in response to sensationalistic stories, such as the Time "Cyberporn" story -Happy Fourth of July! CAMPAIGN TO STOP THE UNCONSTITUTIONAL COMMUNICATIONS DECENCY ACT July 4, 1995 PLEASE WIDELY REDISTRIBUTE THIS DOCUMENT WITH THIS BANNER INTACT REDISTRIBUTE ONLY UNTIL August 1, 1995 REPRODUCE THIS ALERT ONLY IN RELEVANT FORUMS Distributed by the Voters Telecommunications Watch (vtw@vtw.org) ________________________________________________________________________ CONTENTS Background The Latest News What You Can Do Now Sample Letter To The Editor For More Information List Of Participating Organizations ________________________________________________________________________ BACKGROUND The CDA (Communications Decency Act) (sponsored by Sen. Exon and Gorton) would criminalize many forms of expression on online systems. Many believe it to be unconstitutional, and a fight to oppose it has been waged since its introduction. It is opposed by advocates of smaller government, free speech, and civil liberties. Rep. Newt Gingrich and Sen. Patrick Leahy number among those that have publicly stated their opposition to it. ________________________________________________________________________ THE LATEST NEWS The CDA passed the Senate by a vote of 84-16. Currently it is not attached to any fast-moving legislation in the House. The friendly Leahy alternative (which would commission a study of how effectively obscenity laws are prosecuted for online systems) is *already* attached to the House Telecomm bill, a win for the civil liberties side. In addition several prominent House members have come out against the CDA including Rep. Ron Wyden, Rep. Christopher Cox, and Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. We'll be seeing a House vote in the next few weeks, so we must start lobbying our members right now. Take some time to schedule an appointment with your Representative. Directions below. Note that a phone campaign will be coming soon. The media (both US and non-US) are not doing an accurate job at presenting both sides of the issue. Because hysteria sells better than calm reason, we're starting to see an upswing in the number of stories about "cyberporn". Your help is needed in reminding the media about their duty to responsible journalism. ________________________________________________________________________ WHAT YOU CAN DO NOW -- U.S. and non-U.S. citizens 1. Familiarize yourself with the Communications Decency Act FAQ, available either by World Wide Web at (URL:http://www.panix.com/vtw/exon), gopher at gopher.panix.com, or via email by sending mail to vtw@vtw.org with "send cdafaq" in the SUBJECT line. (not the body of the message) 2. (US Residents ONLY - This is very important) Schedule a meeting with your Representative. Let us know at vtw@vtw.org when you know who your rep is. We'll do our best to make sure every member of Congress is spoken to. You can obtain lobbying tips by sending mail to vtw@vtw.org with "send lobby" in the subject line. 3. Keep an eye on your local newspaper, television, and radio station. If you see an editorial that attempts to sensationalize the availability of porn in online systems, send them a well-worded letter to the editor about why net-restrictive legislation (such as the Communications Decency Act is the) wrong way to approach the problem. Feel free to start with the sample letter below. 4. If your editorial is printed, or a heavily biased story is run about the CDA, send it in to vtw@vtw.org. We'll reprint it in our archive. 5. Relax, you've earned your keep as an American citizen by participating in democracy. ________________________________________________________________________ SAMPLE LETTER TO THE EDITOR * Suggestions Letters usually must respond to a specific article or newscast. Randomly submitted letters are unlikely to be published. You *have* to keep it short. Likelihood of publication *increases* as number of words *decrease*. Try to keep it under 250 words. Fax or mail your letter to the paper (no e-mail) *** Please take the time to write your own article. *** *** Do not simply copy this one. *** Dear editor: Your article, "[title of article]", [name of paper and date the article appeared], implies that legislation (such as the United States' Communications Decency Act - CDA) is necessary to protect kids from finding porn on the Net. But the CDA would not accomplish the goal of keeping children shielded from pornography. The CDA is a American law and the Internet is a global network, reaching into parts of the world where American social customs do not extend. As any user of the Internet can tell you, a computer in the Netherlands looks just like a computer in Louisiana on the Internet. Furthermore the CDA would discourage providers from making "child-safe" sections of their networks by adding "all or nothing" liability to providers that take editorial control. Since most Internet service providers cannot afford such liability, providers will refuse to offer such areas. These infringements on our free speech and privacy rights are unnecessary. Screening products like SurfWatch and NetNanny already empower computer users - including concerned parents - to control the kind of information they receive through online networks. We need to send a message to Congress: Parents, and not government regulators, should be in charge of determining what their kids should see online. [signature] [position, if relevant] ________________________________________________________________________ FOR MORE INFORMATION Web Sites URL:http://www.panix.com/vtw/exon/ URL:http://epic.org/ URL:http://www.eff.org/pub/Alerts/ URL:http://www.cdt.org/cda.html URL:http://outpost.callnet.com/outpost.html FTP Archives URL:ftp://ftp.cdt.org/pub/cdt/policy/freespeech/00-INDEX.FREESPEECH URL:ftp://ftp.eff.org/pub/Alerts/ Gopher Archives: URL:gopher://gopher.panix.com/11/vtw/exon URL:gopher://gopher.eff.org/11/Alerts Email: vtw@vtw.org (put "send help" in the subject line) cda-info@cdt.org (General CDA information) cda-stat@cdt.org (Current status of the CDA) ________________________________________________________________________ LIST OF PARTICIPATING ORGANIZATIONS In order to use the net more effectively, several organizations have joined forces on a single Congressional net campaign to stop the Communications Decency Act. American Civil Liberties Union * American Communication Association * American Council for the Arts * Arts & Technology Society * Association of Alternative Newsweeklies * biancaTroll productions * Californians Against Censorship Together * Center For Democracy And Technology * Centre for Democratic Communications * Center for Public Representation * Citizen's Voice - New Zealand * Computer Communicators Association * Computel Network Services * Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility * Cross Connection * Cyber-Rights Campaign * CyberQueer Lounge * Dutch Digital Citizens' Movement * Electronic Frontier Canada * Electronic Frontier Foundation * Electronic Frontier Foundation - Austin * Electronic Frontiers Australia * Electronic Frontiers Houston * Electronic Frontiers New Hampshire * Electronic Privacy Information Center * Feminists For Free Expression * First Amendment Teach-In * Florida Coalition Against Censorship * FranceCom, Inc. Web Advertising Services * Friendly Anti-Censorship Taskforce for Students * Hands Off! The Net * Human Rights Watch * Inland Book Company * Inner Circle Technologies, Inc. * Inst. for Global Communications * Internet On-Ramp, Inc. * Joint Artists' and Music Promotions Political Action Committee * The Libertarian Party * Marijuana Policy Project * Metropolitan Data Networks Ltd. * MindVox * National Bicycle Greenway * National Campaign for Freedom of Expression * National Coalition Against Censorship * National Gay and Lesbian Task Force * National Public Telecomputing Network * National Writers Union * Oregon Coast RISC * Panix Public Access Internet * People for the American Way * Rock Out Censorship * Society for Electronic Access * The Thing International BBS Network * The WELL * Voters Telecommunications Watch (Note: All 'Electronic Frontier' organizations are independent entities, not EFF chapters or divisions.) ________________________________________________________________________ End Alert ------------------------------ Subject: Newsbytes ------------------ * USSS/RCMP Investigations and More Anti-Net Hysteria Generated by Hoax Electronic Frontier Canada reports that both the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the US Secret Service launched into full-scale "bomb threat" investigations, in response to a typical "anarchy file", giving dubious information about car bombs, posted to a local Nova Scotia newsgroup, because it mentioned the upcoming Halifax, NS G-7 summit. Most readers would recognize the post as wry, if rather tasteless and indiscrete, political humor, but the police took it seriously enough to investigate to a dead end the apparent (but forged) email address of the poster, and to "interview" a San Francisco man, Mike Johnson, who's email address was mentioned in the body of the message. Incidentally, an associate of Johnson recently received a similar visit from the FBI in connection with the UNABOMB investigations, following an anonymous tip that the friend was the bomber himself - Johnson suspects both his and his friend's email addresses were used by the same, unidentified, prankster. This might all be comical (except perhaps for Mike Johnson), were it not for the grandstanding that would-be censors are doing, using the hoax as a prop. As the efc-talk post reporting these events noted, "the Chairman of the [Canadian] Information Highway Advisory Council, David Johnston, couldn't resist mentioning the incident in a recent editorial in the Montreal Gazette and Ottawa Citizen...Following early reports of the 'Halifax internet bomber', some have been quick to call for Internet regulation to prevent foolish pranks like this. David Johnston...likes to mention the recent Oklahoma bombing for extra emphasis." One wonders if the boundary between fiction and reality seems more permeable for some people than for others. * FBI to Investigate 3,000 People for E-childporn? Or Is It 30,000? The _Cincinnati_Enquirer_ reports, June 20, that the FBI has "identified more than 3,000 people who allegedly have violated federal law by viewing child pornography pictures on their computers and the printing copies of the pictures or storing them in their computer's memory" [sic] "as part of a nationwide investigation into computerized child pornography, according to FBI and Justice Department records." A "high-level" FBI source indicated that the FBI is preparing to make its move within the next few weeks - "There is a lot of pressure from Justice [Department] to wrap this up." According to the Justice Dept., the investigation began when Justice was informed that some customers of America Online were exchanging pictures of "naked children -- some engaged in sex acts with adults, animals, and other children", according the _Cincinnati_Enquirer_, which reviewed FBI reports on the investigation. The investigation appears to be targeting both the posters and subsequent downloaders of the illegal materials. This would appear to be the first large-scale case in which both alleged posters of child pornography and those who make copies of the online materials are under investigation. Is it really 3000? The aforementioned FBI source told _CE_, "That number is fluid, as there are new people being identified daily, and the lawyers will make the final decision as to who will be included." An activist, in a June 23 news, posting warned that the FBI may plan to search as many as *thirty thousand* or more American homes, on the pretext that these people *may have* viewed some form of child pornography sometime, somewhere. No further information is known at this time (e.g. whether there is any real evidence of the alleged crimes, whether the material in question actually exists, and if so, whether or not it is actual child pornography, or faked computer graphics, etc.) Many questions remain to be answered. The FBI plan was apparently "leaked", and was reported by the Rush Limbaugh show (June 21), _USA_Today_, and newspapers in several locations, including Ft. Wayne, IN, and Connecticut. The poster of the net.alert, W. K. Gorman, expressed some understandable skepticism about the ethics that may be followed - or abandoned - in the execution of the upcoming raids, citing previous cases of serious abuse of civil liberties during search-and-seizure operations. While one can expect that the law is followed in most cases, 3000 (not to mention 30,000) is an awful lot of investigations and raids to conduct perfectly. The overall investigation has been elevated to "major case" status - the highest level - by FBI officials, "who have given the green light to lead agents to use virtually unlimited staffing and financial support, according to FBI records", according to _CE_. That financial support has already reached at least $250,000 - and the FBI expects it to be "much higher" in the end. The _CE_ coverage states that "America Online, according to FBI records, is giving agents access to the company's customer list and telephone and electronic billing records so agents can identify who has posted and downloaded the child pornography pictures." AOL itself is not expected to be subject to the investigation, or to subsequent prosecution - a good sign in these times of increasing danger of liability to system operators. Other signs may not be so good. Louis Sirkin of the First Amendment Lawyer's Association noted that though the case is "interesting", it may pose several Constitutional problems, citing both privacy and Fourth Amendment concerns, and adding, "There's also the issue of entrapment. In this investigation, is the government working a sting operation? Is the FBI luring people into this?" Sirkin called the situation "[a]nother example of where technology is ahead of the law." Privacy activists have been aware that something was going on for several months. _The_Advocate_ reported, back in February, that "the FBI has launched an extensive probe targeting people who place pornographic material on America Online (AOL), one of the nation's largest computer services, based in Vienna, VA. In late December the agency (FBI) subpoenaed customer lists and telephone records from AOL and also... access to copies of users' E-mail messages and logs of conversations between users...AOL officials refused to say what documents are covered by the subpoena, but Pam McGraw, the company's public relations director, said, 'We were subpoenaed for our records, and of course we cooperated fully.'" One privacy advocate noted that an AOL attorney said that AOL is hit with subpoenas for subscriber information "every day". EFF is tracking these events carefully. Besides possible civil liberties violations during the expected raids, other problems are likely to surface - in particular the probability that those with censorship on their agendas will use this investigation and the resulting prosecutions to bolster their cases for governmental control of the Internet, despite the AOL source of the imbroglio. Activists and media watchers: Keep an eye on your local press for coverage of the investigations, raids and prosecutions, and take the time to correct erroneous and inflamatory reports (not to mention beat the sensationalists to the punch by producing your own op-ed pieces, articles, radio show calls, and letters to the editor before any poorly informed reporters get the chance to get it wrong in the first place.) * Jake Baker Charges Dismissed Charges of transmission of threats across state lines against U. of Michigan student Jake Baker were thrown out of court by US District Judge Avern Cohn recently. Previous charges, based on Baker's posting of a violent sex fantasy story to Usenet, which named a fellow classmate as the victim, had already been dropped, though Baker remains suspended from the University due to the posting. The threat transmission charges stemmed from other online communications of Baker's - email to a Canadian that mentioned kidnapping, rape, and other criminal activity that was not actually committed, but only discussed. The dismissal of the charges hinged on the failure of the prosecution to prove intent to carry out the threats. This outcome of the case is viewed by some as a free speech victory, but by others as a defeat for anti-hatespeech efforts, and remains rather controversial, as was the arrest, the handling of the case's early stages by the university, and the story that started the whole ball rolling. Some background information on the case is available at: http://www.eff.org/pub/Legal/Cases/Baker_UMich_case/ ftp.eff.org, /pub/Legal/Cases/Baker_UMich_case/ gopher.eff.org, 1/Legal/Cases/Baker_UMich_case ------------------------------ Subject: Calendar of 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, are marked with "!" in place of the "-" after the date. If you know of an event of some sort that should be listed here, please send info about it to Stanton McCandlish (mech@eff.org) The latest full version of this calendar, which includes material for later in the year as well as the next couple of months, 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 Updated: July 5, 1995 1995 ---- July 5- 7 - Key Players in the Introduction of Information Technology: Their Social Responsibility & Professional Training; Namur, Belgium. Sponsored by CREIS. Email: nolod@ccr.jussieu.fr, clobet@info.fundp.ac.be July 5- 8 - Alliance for Community Media International Conference and Trade Show. [See Jan. 31 for proposal submission deadline info]. Contact: Alliance c/o MATV, 145 Pleasant St., Malden, MA 02148 Fax: (617) 321-7121; Voice: Rika Welsh (617) 321-6400 Email: matv@world.std.com July 5- 8 - 18th International Conf. on Research & Development in Information Retrieval; Sheraton Hotel, Seattle, Wash. Email: sigir95@u.washington.edu July 6- 7 ! Interoperability & the Economics of Information Infrastructure; Freedom Forum, Rosslyn, Virginia. IITF/NSF/Harvard/FFMSC joint workshop to "analyze and evaluate economic incentives and impediments to achieving interoperability in the National Information Infrastructure. The goal is to help agencies, associations, the Administration, and the Congress to develop sound policies for realizing the vision of a seamless, interoperating NII. Deadline for proposals: Mar. 17. Deadline for submissions: June 15. Contact: +1 617 495 8903 (voice), +1 617 495 5776 (fax) Email: kahin@harvard.edu July 11- 15 - '95 Joint International Conference: Association for Computers and the Humanties, and Association for Literacy and Linguistic Computing; UCSB, Santa Barbara, Calif. Will highlight the development of new computing methodologies for research and teaching in the humanities Contact: Eric Dahlin, +1 805 687 5003 (voice) Email: hcf1dahl@ucsbuxa.ucsb.edu July 12- 14 * Interactive Services Association 10th Annual Conference & Expo; Marriott Copley Place Hotel, Boston, Mass. Featured speakers include Esther Dyson (EFF Board of Directors), and executives of CompuServe, Prodigy, Netcom, AOL, Tribune Co., MCI Info. Services, NYNEX, Continental Cablevision, AT&T, WordPerfect, Microsoft, eWorld, Arlen Comms., BFD Prod., Fujitsu, and others. Fax: +1 301 495 4959 July 22- 26 - Syllabus'95; Sonoma State U., Rohnert Park, Calif. "The premier conference covering the use of technology in the curriculum" Contact: 1-800-773-0670 (voice, US-only), +1 408 746 200 (voice, elsewhere) Email: syllabus@netcom.com Aug. 4- 6 - DEF CON III; the Tropicana Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada; "a convention for the "underground" elements of the computer culture...the Hackers, Phreaks, Hammies, Virii Coders, Programmers, Crackers, Cyberpunk Wannabees, Civil Liberties Groups, CypherPunks, Futurists, Artists, Etc." Members of the enforcement & security communities are also regularly in attendance. Email: dtangent@defcon.org or len@netsys.com Aug. 4- 9 - Seminar on Academic Computing '95: Tough Choices, Radical Opportunities; Snowmass Village, Colorado. Email: bridd@ccmail.orst.edu WWW: http://www.princeton.edu/~sac/ Aug. 6- 11 - SIGGRAPH '95 - International Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques; Los Angeles, Calif.; sponsored by the Assoc. for Computing Machinery. Email: siggraph95@siggraph.org Aug. 10- 12 - Tenth Annual Conference on Computing and Philosophy (CAP); Pittsburgh, Philadelphia. Contact: +1 412 268 7643 (voice) Email: rc2z@andrew.cmu.edu Aug. 13- 16 - Conference on Organizational Computing Systems (COOCS'95); Silicon Valley Sheraton, Milpitas, Calif.; sponsored by the Assoc. of Computing Machinery. Contact: +1 408 456 7667 (voice), +1 408 456 7050 (fax) Email: kswenson@ossi.com Aug. 14- 18 - Computers in Context: Joining Forces in Design; Aarhus, Denmark. Contact: Computers in Context, Aarhus University, Dept. of Computer Science, Bldg. 540, Ny Munkegade 116, DK-8000 Aarhus C, Denmark. Aug. 16- 19 - Libraries of the Future - IFLA; Istanbul, Turkey. Email: mkutup-o@servis.net.tr - AI-ED'95: 7th World Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Education. Washington, DC. Sponsor: The Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education Contact: +1 804 973 3987 (voice) Email: aace@virginia.edu Aug. 16- 20 * ONE BBSCon '95; Tampa Conv. Ctr., Tampa, Florida Largest BBS sysop/user convention in the world Probably will feature EFF speakers. Contact: +1 303 693 5253 (voice) ------------------------------ Subject: Quote of the Day ------------------------- "This is not politics... it's to protect the innocence of children." - Sen. Bob Dole on the introduction of his new "Protection of Children From Computer Pornography Act of 1995." 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? 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 ------------------------ * EFF Relocation If you'd be interested in volunteering for EFF in the Bay Area, please drop us a line at ask@eff.org - AFTER the relocation (specific date will be announced when settled upon. * Anti-Net Hysteria Write letters to the editors and op-ed pieces for your local publications, cricize hypey and inaccurate reporting (especially on tv), call in to talk radio shows, and set these people straight. Fight b.s. with the inescapable facts. * Internet Censorship Legislation Business/industry persons concerned should alert their corporate govt. affairs office and/or legal counsel. Everyone should write to their own Representatives and ask them to support the Cox/Wyden bill. For more information on Internet censorship (and anti-censorship!) 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, send your request for information to ask@eff.org. * 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. 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 do not know who your Representatives are, you should contact you local League of Women Voters, who typically maintain databases that can help you find out. * 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 1667 K St. NW, Suite 801 Washington DC 20006-1605 USA +1 202 861 7700 (voice) +1 202 861 1258 (fax) +1 202 861 1223 (BBS - 16.8k ZyXEL) +1 202 861 1224 (BBS - 14.4k V.32bis) Membership & donations: membership@eff.org Legal services: ssteele@eff.org Hardcopy publications: pubs@eff.org General EFF, legal, policy or online resources queries: ask@eff.org Editor: Stanton McCandlish, Online Services Mgr./Activist/Archivist (mech@eff.org) This newsletter 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. ------------------------------ End of EFFector Online v08 #11 Digest ************************************* $$