========================================================================= ________________ _______________ _______________ /_______________/\ /_______________\ /\______________\ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\/ ||||||||||||||||| / //////////////// \\\\\________/\ |||||________\ / /////______\ \\\\\\\\\\\\\/____ |||||||||||||| / ///////////// \\\\\___________/\ ||||| / //// \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\/ ||||| \//// ========================================================================= EFFector Online Volume 09 No. 14 Dec. 10, 1996 editors@eff.org A Publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation ISSN 1062-9424 IN THIS ISSUE: US Supreme Court Schedules CDA Appeal: The Showdown Begins in Jan. EFF Analysis of Draft "Database Protection" Treaty NewsNybbles EFF's "Know Your CyberRights Sweepstakes" - Spread the Word! EFF Hosts anon.penet.fi Defense Fund SPA Drops ISP Lawsuits - "Code of Conduct" Still Advanced Upcoming 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: US Supreme Court Schedules CDA Appeal: The Showdown Begins in Jan. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The US Supreme Court on Friday scheduled briefing in the government's appeal of the 3-judge Philadelphia federal court ruling that the Communications Decency Act provisions of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 are unconstitutional, in the merged ACLU v. Reno and ALA v. Dept. of Justice cases against the recent Internet censorship law. * Briefing Schedule for Supreme Court Appeal of CDA Constitutionality Challenge (ACLU v. Reno, ALA v. DoJ merged case), as of Dec. 1996: Jan. 21, 1997 - Appellant (government) brief due Feb. 20, 1997 - Appellee (EFF, ACLU, ALA, CIEC, et al.) brief due Mar. 7, 1997 - Appellant reply brief due. Mar-Apr., 1997 - Oral arguments in the case will be scheduled It is important to note the announcement was not about whether the Supreme Court has chosen to review the lower court's decision in ACLU v. Reno -- the Court has *no choice* as to whether it will review that decision, so long as the government's appeal is not a frivolous one. According to Article III of the U.S. Constitution, the Supreme Court can be compelled by Congress to hear certain kinds of appeals, even though normally Congress lets the Court set its own docket. Pursuant to Article III, the Telecom Act, like the Voting Rights Act and certain other legislative measures, grants the government an "appeal as of right" whenever a provision of the act is found unconstitutional by a lower court . This is very different from the normal petition-for-certiorari process by which cases normally come before the Court. Congress intended that the contentious provisions of the Telecom Act be settled quickly, and wrote provisions into the law itself to ensure this. More importantly, the Court's announcement is not any indication, despite CDA supporters' claims, that the Supreme Court wants to overturn the lower court's ruling. What is significant about the news is that the Supreme Court has expressed 1) an interest in hearing oral arguments as well as 2) an interest in speaking *directly* to the issues raised by the case (as distinct from deciding the case summarily). Legal teams from both of the original, now merged, cases will continue to work cooperatively on countering the Justice Department's appeal. EFF remains very optimistic of the outcome of this case, as the CDA fails not one but *all* constitutionality tests. Previous documents from cases are available at: http://www.eff.org/pub/Legal/Cases/EFF_ACLU_v_DoJ/ More information about the CDA and similar Internet censorship measures: http://www.eff.org/pub/Censorship/Internet_censorship_bills/ ------------------------------ Subject: EFF Analysis of Draft "Database Protection" Treaty ----------------------------------------------------------- Having failed to win the day in Congress, the US Administration is strongly pushing for international treaties to "reform" copyright law - in ways that favor not the public interest, but a handful of commercial interests concerned with grabbing a property right to information itself - some of it information owned by you, the taxpayer. Patent and Trademark Commissioner Bruce Lehman, the primary architect of the would-be rewiring of global intellectual property law has brushed aside almost all criticism of these measures, even from the industrial interests he claims would most benefit from the changes. EFF, in response to a US Commerce Dept. "Request for Comments" has analyzed the likely effects of the GII copyright overhaul, which range from making it impossible to obtain public information under the Freedom of Information Act if that data was processed by contractors, to making it illegal to browse a publicly accessible web page without explicit permission. EFF's response to the Commerce Dept. RFC are appended below. EFF also submitted additional comments, as a member of the Digital Future Coalition. The DFC analysis is available at http://www.dfc.org * Background The PTO's theory has been that investment in information and communication technology such as the Internet will be stimulated by granting more explicit copyright protection to online media, including an all-new, sweeping protection of databases that amounts to granting ownership over facts to those who catalog them. The Computer and Communications Industry Association, which includes AT&T and Sun, begs to differ, saying that the draft treaties would produce a liability morass that would-be investors will scramble to steer clear of. The provisions were first proposed in a Commerce Dept. "Green Paper", later surfacing in a "White Paper" with virtually no substantive fixes despite criticism from virtually all corners (see IPWG papers and critiques, http://www.eff.org/pub/Intellectual_property), then proposed as the doomed NII Copyright Act of 1996 and related US legislation (see http://www.eff.org/pub/Intellectual_property/NII_copyright_bill). At all stages, researchers and public interest organizations have drawn close attention to the fact that the proposals would directly undermine the public's fair use rights, important educational excemptions, Supreme Court precedent, and even the ability to test encryption systems. Hardly the way to foster increased online commerce. According to a Dec. 5 USIA report, Lehman is "mildly optimistic" that his end-run around Congress will succeed. The Commissioner's single-minded zeal in turning controversial ideas of how copyright should be "reformed" for the Information Age into international law may be flagging. Lehman admits that the database-related provision have raised "legitimate concerns" and appears to be taking seriously the research community's complaints that it would make their work difficult if not impossible. However, the Administration appears completely blind to fair use concerns in their rush to grant businesses ownership of facts themselves. The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) considering the language of the draft treaties is not readily reachable by citizen advocacy. However, should WIPO fail to heed the warnings and accept these shoddy efforts at appeasing the database lobby at the expense of the rest of the world, remember that Congress rejected these proposals once. As treaties have to be ratified before they take effect, Congress can reject them again. Please take a few moments to contact your legislators, and urge them to reject both the WIPO Literary and Artistic Works Treaty and the WIPO Treaty on Intellectual Property in Respect of Databases, should either survive the Dec. WIPO conference and be presented to Congress for ratification. Copyright may indeed need some updating, but ramrodding ill-conceived and already-rejected proposals down the throat of the world is not the way to do it. More information on the WIPO copyright "reform" is available at http://www.eff.org/pub/Intellectual_property/WIPO for the basics, or http://www.public-domain.org/ for a large amount of background material. * EFF Analysis of WIPO Online Intellectual Property Draft Treaties Mr. Keith M. Kupferschmid Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks Box 4, Patent and Trademark Office Washington, DC 20231 November 22, 1996 Dear Mr. Kupferschmid, I am writing in response to your request for comments on the Chairman's Text of the Diplomatic Conference on Certain Copyright and Neighboring Rights Questions. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is a civil liberties organization that works on issues involving personal rights and freedoms in digital technologies. We are very concerned about several aspects of the current proposals, and we appreciate the opportunity to provide you with our views. Problems With the Database Treaty Proposal There are many problems with the "Sui Generis Protection of Databases" treaty proposal. This treaty should be taken off the agenda in Geneva until interested parties within the United States have had the opportunity to discuss and debate the serious implications of its passage. There have been no public hearings on this proposal. It is premature to take any official U.S. stance at this time. This treaty would completely undermine the 1991 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Feist Publications, Inc. v. Rural Telephone Service. In Feist, the Court rejected a claim of copyright for data from a telephone directory's white pages, finding that facts cannot be copyrighted and that obvious items, such as listing names, addresses, and telephone numbers in alphabetical order, are not sufficiently creative to qualify for copyright protection. The Feist decision was based on the grounds that facts cannot be copyrighted or otherwise removed from the public domain. By creating a new property right for facts, the treaty will impose regulations on the use of facts. Under the treaty, private monopolies for the maintenance of public data will be sanctioned, and individuals will have to pay for facts in the public domain. This is particularly troubling because in the United States many government databases are maintained by private contractors. The pieces of information contained within those databases rightfully are part of the public domain; there is no other source for this information. The private vendors who receive government contracts to maintain information owned by the people should not be given a property interest in that government information. Furthermore, under the proposed database treaty, the government will be permitted to avoid compliance with the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) if it uses private contractors, since the contractors will be said to have property rights to the public information. In addition, there are problems with several definitions contained within the treaty. The definition of "database" is all-encompassing and will include many things that are not traditionally considered to be databases, such as collections of government documents. The term "substantial" is troubling, in that it takes into account the database maintainer's perceived lost value in the marketplace. Under this definition, it is reasonable to assume that even small portions of information used from a database would be considered a substantial portion of the database and would constitute violation of the treaty. With no fair use rights, database users would be precluded from using any bits of information they receive from a database if the database maintainer has charged for that information. It is also unclear as to when the term of protection begins to start again. It seems from the language of the treaty that any changes to a database (i.e., any addition of data) will reset the clock for protection purposes. This will give database maintainers an infinite copyright in their databases. The treaty also includes strong civil and criminal penalties for third-party disseminators of this information. Internet service providers and others who merely provide the conduit for communications should not be held liable for any unauthorized actions of their users. Yet this treaty attempts to establish system operator liability under international law. Finally, as in the proposed "Protection of Literary and Artistic Works" treaty, the database proposal is accompanied by very strict prohibitions against the "importation, manufacture or distribution of protection-defeating devices . . . by any person knowing or having reasonable grounds to know that the device" may be used for circumventing the rights created in the treaty. This turns current Supreme Court law (See Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc., 464 U.S. 417 (1984)) on its head; today a technology is legitimate to make, import and distribute if it has ANY legitimate uses -- not if ALL of its uses are legitimate. Under this novel theory, common office supplies like correction fluid and scissors could be outlawed because they can be used to eliminate copyright markings on documents. The Supreme Court made the correct call for society; the social good of an entire technology should not be suppressed merely because it causes quantifiable or alleged harm to one party. Furthermore, the "protection-defeating device" restriction obviously covers both reverse-engineering tools and encryption technology. Reverse engineering is the process of discovering exactly what a competitor has built by detailed examination of an end-user product. Eliminating the legal right to reverse-engineer makes it much easier to establish monopolies enforced by the state. This harms society by slowing the flow of improved products, benefiting the few at the expense of the many. The restriction also makes it illegal to "crack" or seek to crack encryption systems, an essential part of building real security into encryption systems (including copy protection systems). Only if a security system is constantly open to public testing and scrutiny can its worth be assured and its security be improved. It's clear that this part of the law would not stop criminals from circumventing technical copy protection systems; the much larger crime they are involved in is the theft of the intellectual property itself. But it would stop professors, students, and competitors from studying copy protection systems to analyze their flaws and propose improvements. And it would prohibit consumers from being able to obtain products which they would use in completely legal and legitimate ways; for example, to recover access to their own encrypted files. Problems with the Literary and Artistic Works Treaty Proposal As with the "Sui Generis Protection of Databases" treaty proposal, EFF has many concerns about the "Protection of Literary and Artistic Works" treaty proposal to be considered by the diplomatic conference. The way it is currently written, Article 7 would inhibit browsing on the World Wide Web. Article 7 requires signatories to treat temporary copies, such as the ephemeral random access memory (RAM) copies made on servers as a piece of information moves through the Internet, as a "reproduction" that could violate the exclusive reproduction right. Temporary reproduction for technological purposes should not be given copyright protection. All electronic communications would be copyright violations under this provision. Article 10 would substantially expand the exposure of online service providers. Article 10 creates a new exclusive right of communication to the public, which appears to be broader than either the distribution right or public performance right now granted by the U.S. Copyright Act. This new right, when combined with Article 7's treatment of RAM copies as reproductions, significantly increases the likelihood that an online service provider would be found directly liable for a subscriber's infringement. Article 12 would undermine many of the exceptions of the U.S. Copyright Act. Article 12 would apparently eliminate exceptions that currently permit the use of copyrighted works for distance learning and performance of music in religious ceremonies. These are but two examples. It may also narrow the application of the fair use doctrine with respect to both commercial and non-commercial uses. Article 13 contains the exact same troubling language as the proposed "Sui Generis Protection of Databases" treaty (discussed above) that would make reverse-engineering and the cracking of encryption illegal. In conclusion, the Electronic Frontier Foundation believes that it is premature for the United States to take a public stance on the issues involved in the "Sui Generis Protection of Databases" treaty proposal. If the United States does take a stance, we strongly urge that it propose the rejection of the current draft. We hope that the U.S. delegation will pull that proposal from discussion in Geneva until a national debate has taken place. EFF has the same level of reservations about the "Protection of Literary and Artistic Works" treaty proposal in its current form. Thank you for consideration of our views on these important issues. Please feel free to contact me if I can provide you with any additional information. Sincerely, [sig] Shari Steele, Staff Attorney Electronic Frontier Foundation ssteele@eff.org P.O. Box 649 301/375-8856 (voice) Bryans Road, MD 20616 301/283-5337 (fax) ------------------------------ Subject: NewsNybbles -------------------- * EFF's "Know Your CyberRights Sweepstakes" - Spread the Word! As part of its educational and public awareness mission, EFF has launched a sweepstakes based on a series of online civil liberties questions and answers. Winners will receive a variety of prizes, including a Gibson guitar signed by UK recording artists The Cure. The guitar was signed at Eden MusicFest, a 3-day mega-concert EFF helped organize to raise awareness of Internet privacy and free speech. EFF members might not find the challenges very tough, but perhaps you'll consider passing around the following contest announcement to your favorite online haunts, posting it on your web page, etc. Please feel free to simply create links to the sweepstakes' official web page at http://www.eff.org/sweeps/ [Please redistribute widely in appropriate places, but no later than Dec. 16, 1996.] EFF's "KNOW YOUR CYBERRIGHTS SWEEPSTAKES" Play EFF's "Know Your CyberRights Sweepstakes," and win one of the 60+ great prizes we're giving away - maybe even the the Gibson guitar autographed by the Cure! Every day, decisions are being made that will affect your life online. Since 1990, The Electronic Frontier Foundation has been looking out for you - and your Constitutional rights. EFF's "Know Your CyberRights" Sweepstakes is your chance to pick up pointers while you earn chances to win great prizes. Just by answering one multiple choice question in each of the four rounds, entering your e-mail address and clicking on "Submit answer," you could win the guitar, an EFF T-shirt signed by The Spin Doctors, one of 10 EFF T-shirts, or one of 50 Blue Ribbon pins! To participate in EFF's "Know Your CyberRights Sweepstakes," go to http://www.eff.org/sweeps. Answers to Round 1's free speech question are due Monday, December 16, at 11:59 a.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST). So, enter now, know your cyberrights, and play to win! The "Know Your CyberRights Sweepstakes" is organized by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and nonprofit public interest organization devoted to protecting civil liberites and promoting responsibility in new media, and Yoyodyne Entertainment, a privacy-conscious and innovative Internet company specializing in free online games. [end announcement] ******************************************** * EFF Hosts anon.penet.fi Defense Fund As reported in previous issues of EFFector, Johan Helsingius, operator of the (former) pseudonymous remailer anon.penet.fi will appeal a Finnish court ruling that Penet's thousands of users, who depended on the remailer to protect their privacy, have no expectation of privacy under Finnish law, in response to Church of Scientology legal actions to gain access to the real identity of a Penet user accused of copyright infringement. Helsingius is also considering legal action against a UK newspaper who slandered the remailer and it its operator in an attempt to paint yet another "Internet is an evil den of child pornographers" schlock stories. Helsingius, who has long had a policy against illegal abuse of the remailers services was needlessly investigated for child pornography as a result of the unfounded accusations - and cleared of any wrongdoing. As the US is the largest aggregate of Net users who may wish to support Helsingius's appeal of the Finnish court's anti-privacy ruling and recovery of damages for defamation (of not just himself but essentially all privacy advocates and Internet users by implication), EFF will serve as a clearinghouse for US donations to the Penet Legal Defense Fund. Donations may be made by sending checks or money orders to: Electronic Frontier Foundation attn: Penet Fund 1550 Bryant St., Suite 725 San Francisco CA 94103 IMPORTANT! Checks/MOs should be made out to "EFF" or "Electronic Frontier Foundation", and clearly marked "Penet Fund" or "Penet Legal Defense Fund" in the note space at the bottom. Otherwise they could be mistaken for donations to EFF itself. WE CANNOT PROCESS DRAFTS MADE OUT TO "PENET FUND". We would have to have a business license and a new account in that name. Please also note that small donations such as $5 would be consumed by currency conversion fees and such. Please be generous. Consider it a holiday spirit gift to Internet privacy. If you wish to send non-US funds (or even, better for Penet, Finnish funds), your best bet is to contact Helsingius directly at julf@penet.fi and make arrangements, so the donation is not reduced by the US-to-Finland exchange and transfer process. * SPA Drops ISP Lawsuits - Code of Conduct Still Advanced In late Nov., the Software Publishers Association dropped two suits against internet service providers (ISPs). SPA had intended to hold the ISPs liable for the alleged coyright infringments of users. SPA had also been advancing an "ISP Code of Conduct" demanding, among other things, the appointing of a staff member to monitor and censor not only what all of the ISPs customers said and posted online, but also to screen all pass-through Net traffic being routed through their sites. Though SPA had already dropped suit against one service provider, Community ConneXion, by mid-Nov., and backpeddaled from one of the other suits so forcefully as to give the access provider what amounts a lot of free advertising in an SPA press release about settling the case, the industry group curiously still proposes it's "Code" (renamed "ISP Guidelines for Intellectual Property Protection", apparently in the hope to make it sound more attractive. Industry likes "guidelines" it can subscribe to but bridles at being force-fed a "code of conduct"). The ISP industry just isn't going for this ostensible carrot, and the SPA's stick has no sting. The Association of Online Professionals issued a warning to Internet access companies to avoid the SPA "Code" like the plague, as it undermines the ISP raison d'etre (to provide open access to communications) and would greatly increase ISP liability for user actions, with no return. EFF analyzed the problems inherent in the "Code", and also criticized SPA's "kill the messenger" legal tactic of suing providers for the actions users beyond their control - and for such "crimes" as making WWW links to pages that might be infringing or even providing information about software cracking. Electronic Frontiers Georgia proposed a counter-policy addressing the SPA document's complete lack of any requirement that copyright infringement complainants show any evidence that they actually have a valid claim. As of e-press time, SPA has yet to respond to any of the above, though their dropping of the remaining suits against ISPs is certainly a good sign. The above documents may all be found at: http://www.eff.org/pub/Legal/Cases/SPA_cases/ ------------------------------ 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 1996 ---- Dec. 18 - MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA - first meeting of the Bay Area Chapter of the Webmasters' Guild; The Webmasters' Guild is an organization dedicated to providing industry education and business networking opportunities for web site professionals. 6:30 PM; Netscape Communications, 487 E. Middlefield Rd., Mountain View, CA; Customer Briefing Center (Mozilla room); Registration will begin at 6:30 PM with the meeting starting promptly at 7:00 PM. URL http://www.webmaster.org R.S.V.P. to the Bay Area Chapter President, Bob Koche, at bkoche@cruzio.com 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 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. 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. 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 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 ------------------------- "Censorship, like charity, should begin at home; but, unlike charity, it should end there." - Clare Boothe Luce 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/EFFdocs/join_eff.html (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 organization, 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. * 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 #14 Digest ************************************* $$