In our 562nd issue:

• UPDATES
• MINILINKS
• ANNOUNCEMENTS

EFF's 21st Birthday Party

EFF is celebrating 21 years of defending civil liberties in the digital world! Join us as nerdcore and chiptune artists Dual Core, Crashfaster, Trash80, and Doctor Popular sling dope rhymes and bangin' bleeps for EFF's 21st birthday at the future-focused BAMM.tv studio in San Francisco. There will be an open bar while supplies last! You can get tickets now at https://www.eff.org/birthday or watch the performance live streamed at bamm.tv

Act Now to Stop the Next PATRIOT Act Sneak Attack!

Tell your congressperson to vote NO to the PATRIOT Act! The PATRIOT reauthorization bill being fast-tracked to the House floor contains NO reforms to the law, and is expected to be voted upon any day now, likely with NO debate and NO opportunity for amendments to add oversight and accountability. Help stop this sneak attack on your civil liberties: tell your Congressperson to vote "NO" on H.R. 514, the PATRIOT extension bill.

Unsealed! EFF Fights Legal Demands for Twitter Records in Wikileaks Investigation

A federal court has unsealed motions filed by the EFF, the ACLU, and others concerning government attempts to obtain Twitter account records in connection with its Wikileaks investigation. One motion asks for the unsealing of court records detailing the government's attempts to collect private records from Twitter as well as other companies who may have received demands for information from the government. The second motion seeks to overturn the court order requiring Twitter to provide information about its users.

EFF Updates

Egypt's Internet Blackout Highlights Danger of Weak Links, Usefulness of Quick Links
The Internet blackout in Egypt demonstrated a strength of the Internet in terms of circumventing censorship: it is highly amendable to the establishment of "quick links," the kind of relatively easy, quick-and-dirty solutions that get devices and communications content itself onto the Internet.

EFF to Judge: Watch for Fairness in Mass Copyright Suits
Judges across the country are cracking down on unfair tactics by copyright trolls. EFF has asked a federal judge in Washington, D.C. to do the same, urging her to consider recent developments recognizing it is improper to join thousands of people in one lawsuit based solely on the fact that they all allegedly used the same software protocol to share one or more copyrighted works.

FBI, DOJ and DEA Stall Release of Records on Bid to Expand Surveillance Laws
EFF is fighting federal law enforcement attempts to stall the release of critical records that could influence debate on surveillance law. In a brief filed in a FOIA lawsuit, EFF asked the court to order the agencies to produce the information within 10 days.

FCC "Ancillary" Authority to Regulate the Internet? Don't Count on It
EFF is wholly in favor of net neutrality in practice, but a finding of ancillary jurisdiction would give the FCC nearly boundless authority to regulate the Internet for whatever it sees fit.

As International Privacy Day is Celebrated, Governments Continue to Chip Away at Privacy Rights
Privacy advocates and government officials in countries across the world celebrated the 5th annual International Privacy Day — even as individual privacy is threatened by surveillance proposals and security breaches worldwide.

miniLinks

Dropping the Case Against Assange
Prof. Tim Wu argues that this is no time to bring a case against Wikileaks.

Homeland Security Tries And Fails To Explain Why Seized Domains Are Different From Google
Homeland Security Special Agent James Hayes attempts to respond to queries about how the seizure of domain names under the questionable theory that linking to infringing material is, by itself, criminal copyright infringement.

Handing Control of the Internet to Governments: Bad Idea
ICANN has finally concluded that we should expand the domain name space, but the Dept. of Commerce is trying to grant governments veto power -- a move that could be used for online censorship.

Administrivia

ISSN 1062-9424

EFFector is a publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
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Editor: Rainey Reitman, Activist
editor@eff.org

Membership & donation queries: membership@eff.org

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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.

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