EFFector Vol. 14, No. 10 May 25, 2001 editor@eff.org
A Publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation ISSN 1062-9424
EFFector Vol. 14, No. 10 May 25, 2001 editor@eff.org
A Publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation ISSN 1062-9424
For more information on EFF activities & alerts: http://www.eff.org
To join EFF: http://www.eff.org/support/
While we usually let the content of our EFFector newsletter speak for itself, this issue we'd like to address you, the subscriber, more directly. We're excited about some recent changes and victories and want to share the news with you. The fight for online civil liberties is alive and well! Our readership has grown over the past year, and the community of people like you who read our newsletter is now more than 27,000, with more and more of you joining as members every day -- doubling our membership over just the past four months to nearly 4,500 supporters. You're helping us do what EFF does best, which is to be on the cutting edge in identifying emerging threats to Internet freedom and acting to stop these threats.
Just last month, supporters packed a New York courtroom as EFF's legal team defended free speech in the appeal of 2600 Magazine against eight major motion picture studios, based upon the magazine's publication of and links to computer code that would enable DVDs to be played on computers using the Linux operating system. On April 20th, hundreds of people turned out as EFF launched our "Open Audio License" at the New York Music & Internet Expo, where EFF board member John Perry Barlow, was honored for his work to promote liberty and artist empowerment. As you'll read below in this issue of EFFector, EFF just won several more victories for free speech rights online as Medinex dropped its law suit against anonymous online critics, and the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear arguments on the unconstitutionality of the Child Online Protection Act (COPA).
You probably agree with us that there is a lot at stake for all of our rights. Join us -- we really need your support in order to be able to continue our important work. If you're already a member, please consider making an additional donation to our work.
You can join/donate online at:
http://www.eff.org/support
Please don't hesitate to write to us at EFF. Thanks for your support.
Contact:
Lauren Gelman, EFF Public Policy Director
gelman@eff.org
+1 202-487-0420
Robert C. Holtzapple, Farella, Braun & Martel
bholtzapple@fbm.com
+1 415-954-4400
San Francisco -- Medinex Systems, Inc., yesterday dismissed its suit intended to force disclosure of the identities of 14 John Does who participated on a Yahoo! message board devoted to discussions about the company. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), along with San Francisco law firm Farella, Braun & Martel, defended the right of these anonymous critics to express their views online without fear of arbitrary disclosure of their identity.
"It's clear from the dismissal of its lawsuit that Medinex's primary goal was to identify and silence their critics," said Lauren Gelman, EFF's Director of Public Policy. "This is simply one more example of a company dropping a spurious lawsuit once EFF steps in to protect individuals right to speak anonymously."
Medinex sued the John Does, identified by their screen names such as "zippershut," "awe2bad4mdnx," and "dotcommie2000" after they made remarks critical of the company on Yahoo! message boards. Medinex stock has dropped precipitously in the past few months and is allegedly on the verge of being dropped from the NASDAQ exchange for non-compliance with NASDAQ's $1 minimum bid price requirement.
The critics, some self-identified as shareholders and employees of the company, stated their opinions about the mismanagement of the company and other factors leading to its financial difficulties. Medinex alleged defamation, tortious interference with business relationship and wrongful interference with a prospective economic advantage. The company then issued a subpoena to Yahoo! in California seeking the identities of their critics without first proving any illegal actions.
A similar case entitled In re 2theMart.com, in which a Seattle court quashed a subpoena seeking the identity of Internet posters on an Infospace message board after a motion brought by the EFF and the ACLU of Washington, may have influenced Medinex's dismissal.
"These people were simply expressing their opinions. Unfounded subpoenas such as these chill everyone's speech on the Internet. Since some of the Does claim to be employees, we are also worried that Medinex brought this suit in order to identify and retaliate against them, rather than because of any real defamation," said Robert Holtzapple of Farella, Braun and Martel, which is handling the matter pro bono.
Background materials about this case are available on the
EFF website at:
Materials concerning the 2TheMart case are available at:
The Electronic Frontier Foundation ( http://www.eff.org ) is the leading civil liberties organization working to protect rights in the digital world. Founded in 1990, EFF actively encourages and challenges industry and government to support free expression, privacy, and openness in the information society. EFF is a member-supported organization and maintains one of the most-linked-to websites in the world.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation seeks a Media intern to focus on media tasks such as media interview assignments, media releases, media professional relationships, and mediabase and media coverage archival.
Basic HTML skills and general computer competence necessary. Very helpful if you have your own laptop and/or home Internet access.
Interns will be in the San Francisco Bay Area, and in the EFF office at least two days per week. School credit may be available.
Timeframe: Needed immediately, for each semester. Minimum commitment 2 days per week for at least three months.
For more information, see the EFF website at:
Or contact Will Doherty, Online Activist / Media Relations
wild@eff.org
Contact:
Shari Steele, Executive Director, EFF
ssteele@eff.org +1 415 436-9333 x103
Will Doherty, Media Relations, EFF
wild@eff.org +1 415 436-9333 x111
San Francisco -- The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) today welcomed the United States Supreme Court decision yesterday to hear arguments on the Child Online Protection Act (COPA).
"COPA is just as unconstitutional now as when federal courts struck it down in 1999 and again in 2000," confirmed Shari Steele, EFF Executive Director. "We are pleased the United States Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case so that COPA can follow its predecessor, the Communications Decency Act, into the dustbin of history."
In a legal challenge argued in 1999 by the Electronic Frontier Foundation in conjunction with the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a federal court issued a preliminary injunction against enforcement of the law on the grounds that it is probably unconstitutional. On June 22, 2000, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the injunction because "we are confident that the ACLU's attack on COPA's constitutionality is likely to succeed on the merits."
The COPA legislation is overly broad, vague in defining key terms such as "commercial," illegally attempts to force adults to give up privacy to exercise their right to read, places prior restraints on publication, and enforces a flawed "community standards" approach that would allow the most conservative jurisdiction in the United States to set the "decency" standards for all Web content nationally (indeed, globally).
"Providing a safe environment for children online is a laudable goal, but COPA unnecessarily sacrifices constitutionally protected free speech for adults in a fatally flawed attempt to 'protect' children," commented Will Doherty, EFF Online Activist.
The Children's Online Protection Act, also known as "CDA II," was part two of Congress' ongoing attempts to "protect" children while negating the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Part one was the Communications Decency Act (CDA) and part three is the Children's Internet Protection Act (CHIPA or CIPA).
For more information on the COPA case, see
For more information on the CHIPA cases, see
For more information on the CDA case, see
For more information on related online free speech issues, see
http://eff.org/br/
The Electronic Frontier Foundation is the leading civil liberties
organization working to protect rights in the digital world. Founded in
1990, EFF actively encourages and challenges industry and government to
support free expression, privacy, and openness in the information
society. EFF is a member-supported organization and maintains one of the
most linked-to Web sites in the world:
http://www.eff.org
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
Editors:
Katina Bishop, EFF Education & Offline Activism Director
Stanton McCandlish, EFF Technical Director/Webmaster
editors@eff.org
Membership & donations: membership@eff.org
General EFF, legal, policy or online resources queries: ask@eff.org
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 & articles may be reproduced individually at will.
To subscribe to EFFector via e-mail, send message BODY (not subject) of:
subscribe effector
to majordomo@eff.org,
which will send you a confirmation code and then add you to a subscription
list for EFFector (after you return the confirmation code; instructions
will be in the e-mail).
To unsubscribe, send a similar message body to the same address, like so:
unsubscribe effector
(Please ask listmaster@eff.org">listmaster@eff.org to manually add you to or remove you from the list if this does not work for you for some reason.)
To change your address, send both commands at once, one per line (i.e., unsub your old address, and sub your new address).
Back issues are available at:
http://www.eff.org/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, via the Web:
Return to EFFector Newsletter Menu
![[*]](http://www.eff.org/Icons/home_blue_icon.gif){kind=icon}
EFF Welcome Page
Please send any questions or comments to webmaster@eff.org