-------- Original Message --------
Subject: EFFector 19.28: Call Congress Now - Specter Rushing Thursday Vote on Surveillance
Bill
Date: Tue, 1 Aug 2006 12:57:47 -0500 (CDT)
From: EFFector list <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: EFFector list <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Organization: EFF
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
EFFector Vol. 19, No. 28 August 1, 2006 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
A Publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation
ISSN 1062-9424
In the 389th Issue of EFFector:
* Call Congress Now - Specter Rushing Thursday Vote on
Surveillance Bill
* Alternatives to Specter's Surveillance Bill
* Keep DOPA Out of Schools
* Administration Laughs at CALEA, Proposes to Eviscerate
Law's Compromise
* Open Letter Responding to Songwriters Guild Prez
* Come Visit EFF at DefCon and Nonprofit Bootcamp!
* miniLinks (7): Welcome to Telco Land
* Administrivia
For more information on EFF activities & alerts:
<http://www.eff.org/>
Make a donation and become an EFF member today!
<http://eff.org/support/>
Tell a friend about EFF:
http://action.eff.org/site/Ecard?ecard_id=1061
effector: n, Computer Sci. A device for producing a desired
change.
: . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . :
* Call Congress Now - Specter Rushing Thursday Vote on
Surveillance Bill
Because of phone calls and letters from constituents like
you, Senator Arlen Specter is feeling the heat. Having
previously delayed a vote on his dangerous surveillance
bill, he is now intent on moving it out of committee on
Thursday. This sham "compromise" bill will help the
government continue to break the law, vastly expanding the
president's power to spy on you without any meaningful
oversight from Congress or the courts. If you haven't
already, please use our Action Center and call your Senator
immediately and stop this dangerous bill.
<http://action.eff.org/fisa>
Your friends and family could be constituents of Judiciary
Committee members -- spread the word and urge them to call
Congress now. If you're a blogger, post a "Stop the
Surveillance Bills" button.
<http://www.eff.org/Privacy/Surveillance/NSA/fisabills/spreadtheword/>
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* Alternatives to Specter's Bill
While Sen. Arlen Specter continued to defend his dangerous
surveillance bill, he also declared his willingness to
consider alternatives in a hearing last week as well as in
recent press reports. That's welcome news. From the moment
the NSA's massive and illegal spying program was first
disclosed, Specter has tirelessly called for meaningful
limits and judicial review. To fulfill those laudable
intentions, we hope Specter will consider amending the bill
so that it reaffirms statutory limitations on surveillance
and allows legal challenges like ours to proceed in the
traditional court system.
In a Washington Post op-ed published Sunday, Specter
asserted that "President Bush's electronic surveillance
program has been a festering sore on our body politic" and
"If someone has a better idea for legislation that would
resolve the program's legality ... I will be glad to
listen." Specter conceded in a recent Baltimore Sun article,
as he did yesterday, that his bill "would not provide as
much judicial oversight as either he or his critics would
like."
In that article and at the hearing, Specter specifically
pointed out the court's decision in our case last week
denying the government's and AT&T's motions to dismiss. He
hoped that our case and others related to illegal spying
would be allowed to proceed.
We agree, and, for that reason, ask Congress to allow the
courts to continue to assess the legality of the warrantless
wiretapping program through litigation like ours. With Judge
Walker and others continuing to address pending motions,
Congress can simply hold off on Specter's or any other FISA
bill until the courts have an opportunity to issue
decisions. After reviewing the courts' decisions, Congress
is in a better position to assess what, if any, legislative
action need be taken.
If any legislative action is required, we humbly suggest
that Congress clarify that all cases dealing with
purportedly secret surveillance can be litigated in the
regular district courts pursuant to established security
procedures for handling sensitive evidence, as in our case
against AT&T. If the administration has a legitimate concern
about divulging highly classified evidence, Congress could
enhance existing measures to balance the importance of
security with the need for allowing a court to test the
government's extreme theories of executive power. Congress
should also explicitly clarify that these procedures preempt
the government's often misused state secrets privilege and
reaffirm FISA as the exclusive means of electronic
surveillance.
We commend Specter for his willingness to consider
alternatives, and we hope he reconsiders the bill as
drafted. For now, it's still critical to stop his
surveillance bill and others like it.
For Specter's op-ed:
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/23/AR2006072300578.html>
For the Washington Post's response:
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/25/AR2006072501408.html?sub=AR>
For the referenced Baltimore Sun article:
<http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nationworld/bal-te.specter24jul24,0,401580.story?coll=bal-nationworld-headlines>
For more about the surveillance bills:
<http://www.eff.org/Privacy/Surveillance/NSA/fisabills>
For more about our case:
<http://www.eff.org/legal/cases/att>
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* Keep DOPA Out of Schools
Recently passed by the House, the Deleting Online Predators
Act (DOPA) would require public schools and libraries to
block access to social networking sites and other
communication tools as a condition for receiving certain
government funding. Protecting children online is important,
but letting federal bureaucrats arbitrarily censor
legitimate speech is the wrong way to go.
Cutting off social networking's legitimate uses is bad
enough, but DOPA also gives the FCC wide latitude to define
the block-list. It potentially covers IM, blogs, wikis,
discussion forums, and other sites far beyond MySpace.
Despite its limited exceptions, DOPA would restrict
children's and adults' online research, distance learning,
and use of community forums, among other activities.
Two Congressionally-commissioned studies say education, not
blocking access, is a more effective way to keep kids safe
online. In fact, by hampering educators' ability to teach
Internet safety skills, DOPA may put children more at risk.
This isn't the first time Congress has meddled with school
and library computers. EFF fought hard against the
Children's Internet Protection Act, which required use of
Web filtering. If DOPA passes, where might this slippery
censorware slope lead next?
DOPA has been referred to the Senate Commerce Committee and
is unlikely to move forward until after the August recess.
We'll keep you updated on the status and on how you can help
fight to keep DOPA out of schools.
For a copy of the bill:
<http://www.eff.org/Censorship/Censorware/HR5319_DOPA.pdf>
For more on censorware:
<http://www.eff.org/Censorship/Censorware/>
For this post:
<http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/004860.php>
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* Administration Laughs at CALEA, Proposes to Eviscerate
Law's Compromise
After a petition from the FBI and other federal law
enforcement agencies, the FCC ruled last year that companies
like Vonage and private institutions that provide Net access
must redesign their networks to facilitate wiretaps. By
forcing broadband Internet and interconnected voice over
Internet Protocol (VoIP) services to abide by the
controversial Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement
Act (CALEA), the FCC ignored the statute's plain language
and threatened privacy, security, and innovation.
The FCC ruling has been challenged in court by EFF and
others and may end up before the Supreme Court. But the DOJ
-- apparently tired of our lawsuits and hoping to avoid such
suits in the future -- has now proposed draft legislation to
codify and expand the FCC ruling.
Learn more about how you may soon be forced to finance this
unnecessary expansion of government surveillance:
<http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/004829.php>
Learn more about CALEA:
<http://www.eff.org/Privacy/Surveillance/CALEA/>
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* Open Letter Responding to Songwriters Guild Prez
Earlier this month, we published "Frequently Awkward
Questions for the Entertainment Industry" -- a sample list
of tough questions you can ask RIAA or MPAA representatives
at conferences or public speeches. Songwriters Guild
President Rick Carnes sent us an email in response entitled
"Aways [sic] Awkward Questions for EFF." EFF's Fred von
Lohmann responds:
<http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/004857.php>
For our Frequently Awkward Questions:
<http://www.eff.org/IP/faq/>
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* Come Visit EFF at DefCon and Nonprofit Bootcamp
EFF will head down to DefCon in Las Vegas, Nevada, on August
4-6. Along with hanging out at our booth, EFFers will
present two panels, including a special presentation about
our case against AT&T:
<http://www.defcon.org/>
Prior to DefCon, Vegas 2.0 will once again host a fundraiser
for EFF on August 3, from 9 PM until midnight. More details
to follow here:
<http://www.vegassummit.org/>
On August 19, the Craiglist Foundation will host a bootcamp
about how to run your own nonprofit. EFF will be
participating:
<http://www.craigslistfoundation.org/eflyer06/npbc06.htm>
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* miniLinks
miniLinks features noteworthy news items from around the
Internet.
~ Welcome to Telco Land
An instructive essay on telcos' inability to innovate.
<http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_31/b3995070.htm?chan=topStories_ssi_5>
~ California's Copyright Curriculum
Ars Tecnica reports on our efforts to clarify a local
copyright education bill.
<http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060726-7359.html>
~ New GPL v3 Draft Released
DRM sections clarified.
<http://www.fsf.org/news/gplv3-dd2-released.html>
~ Kazaa Settlement Has Merely "Symbolic Importance"
Biz analyst Jonathan Arber also concludes, "in terms of
actually reducing piracy, people migrated to other file-
sharing networks a long time ago."
<http://news.com.com/Kazaa+settles+suits+with+more+than+100+million/2100-1027_3-6099064.html?tag=nefd.top>
Carr on Web Pro-Ams
~ Carr on Web Pro-Ams
Nick Carr offers some meta-commentary on the blogosphere and
the shifting roles of amateurs.
<http://www.roughtype.com/archives/2006/07/jason_calacanis.php>
~ The Other OSS
Scientists employ the open source model.
<http://pubs.acs.org/cen/science/84/8430sci1.html>
~ India's Overbroad Content Blocking
Indian official says, "Because of a technological error, the
Internet providers went beyond what was expected of them,
which in turn resulted in the unfortunate blocking of all
blogs."
<http://www.zdnetindia.com/news/business/stories/150552.html>
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* Administrivia
EFFector is published by:
The Electronic Frontier Foundation
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Derek Slater, Activist
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