EFFector Vol. 20, No. 36 September 11, 2007
editor@eff.org
A Publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation
ISSN 1062-9424
In the 440th Issue of EFFector:
- Who's in Your Five? EFF Documents Show the FBI Sought Details About "Communities of Interest"
- Court Rules National Security Letters Unconstitutional
- EFF Wins Protection for Security Researchers
- Noted Computer Crime Attorney Comes to EFF
- DHS Scraps ADVISE Data-Mining Software
- Apple Lays Foundation for DMCA Lawsuits?
- Victory Against School Biometrics in Illinois
- miniLinks (7): Big Victory for Limits to Copyright Law
- Administrivia
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effector: n, Computer Sci. A device for producing a desired
change.
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* Who's in Your Five? EFF Documents Show the FBI Sought
Details About "Communities of Interest"
Documents obtained by the Electronic Frontier Foundation
show that the FBI asked telecommunications companies to
turn over information about people in contact with
individuals the FBI was investigating, though a degree
removed from any suspicious activity and presumably
innocent.
The letters are part of the second set of FBI documents
released in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
lawsuit seeking information about the FBI's misuse of
National Security Letters (NSLs). In June, a federal judge
ordered the Bureau to disclose additional information
responsive to EFF's request every month. We anticipate that
this material will continue to reveal details about the
Bureau's use -- and abuse -- of NSL authority.
Read Eric Lichtblau's New York Times report, "F.B.I. Data
Mining Reached Beyond Initial Targets":
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/09/washington/09fbi.html?hp
For more information about EFF's FOIA work, visit our FOIA
Litigation for Accountable Government (FLAG) Project page:
http://www.eff.org/flag/
For this post and related links:
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/005427.php
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* Court Rules National Security Letters Unconstitutional
In a big victory for your online privacy and civil
liberties, a federal court ruled that "National Security
Letters" (NSLs) violate the Constitution.
Under the USA PATRIOT Act, NSLs allow the FBI to spy on
Americans' telephone, Internet, and other records without
any court approval and regardless of whether the target is
suspected of a crime. With a single piece of paper, the FBI
could force your ISP to turn over detailed information
about your Internet communications, including the Web sites
you've visited and the email addresses you've written to.
Worse still, an NSL recipient is barred from notifying
anyone else about the demand.
Last week, Judge Marrero ruled that this "gag order" is
unconstitutional, and, in so doing, struck down the entire
NSL statute. The gag not only tramples on the recipient's
First Amendment rights but also prevents courts from
fulfilling their Constitutional duty to check the other
branches of government and scrutinize the restriction.
Meanwhile, EFF is continuing to fight hard to expose the
truth about the NSL abuse through our Freedom of
Information Act litigation. In the wake of the inspector
general's report, EFF filed a lawsuit seeking fundamental
information about the FBI's power grab. On June 16, 2007, a
federal judge ordered the FBI to process 2,500 pages a
month responsive to EFF's request. You can find the
documents here:
http://www.eff.org/flag/07656JDB/
The ACLU has more on the decision here:
http://www.aclu.org/safefree/nationalsecurityletters/31580prs20070906.html
For this post and related links:
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/005423.php
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* EFF Wins Protection for Security Researchers
Court Blocks DirecTV's Heavy-Handed Legal Tactics
San Francisco - In an important ruling, the 9th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals blocked satellite television
provider DirecTV's heavy-handed legal tactics and protected
security and computer science research into satellite and
smart card technology after hearing argument from the
Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).
The cases, DirecTV v. Huynh and DirecTV v. Oliver, involved
a provision of federal law prohibiting the "assembly" or
"modification" of equipment designed to intercept satellite
signals. DirecTV maintained that the provision should cover
anyone who works with equipment designed for interception
of their signals, regardless of their motivation or whether
any interception occurs. But in a hearing earlier this
year, EFF argued that the provision should apply only to
entities that facilitate illegal interception by other
people and not to those who simply tinker or use the
equipment, such as researchers and others working to
further scientific knowledge of the devices at issue.
"Congress never meant this law to be used as a hammer on
those who use or tinker with new technologies," said EFF
Senior Staff Attorney Jason Schultz. "We're pleased the
court recognized that researchers need to be protected."
These cases were part of DirecTV's nationwide legal
campaign against hundreds of thousands of individuals,
claiming that they were illegally intercepting its
satellite TV signal simply because they had purchased smart
card technology. Because DirecTV made little effort to
distinguish legal uses of smart card technology from
illegal ones, EFF has worked to limit the lawsuits to only
those cases where DirecTV has proof that their signals were
illegally received.
"DirecTV always had legal recourse against those who pirate
their signal. The ruling today prevents satellite and cable
TV companies from piling on excessive damages that would
punish and chill legitimate encryption research," said EFF
Civil Liberties Director Jennifer Granick.
David Price and Trevor Dryer at Stanford Law School's
Cyberlaw Clinic also assisted in this case.
For the full opinion from the 9th Circuit:
http://www.eff.org/legal/cases/directv_v_huynh/directv_ruling.pdf
For more on this case:
http://www.eff.org/legal/cases/directv_v_huynh/
For this release:
http://www.eff.org/news/archives/2007_09.php#005434
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* Noted Computer Crime Attorney Comes to EFF
Jennifer Stisa Granick Named Civil Liberties Director
San Francisco - Noted computer crime attorney Jennifer
Stisa Granick has joined the Electronic Frontier Foundation
(EFF) as its new Civil Liberties Director, working on
government surveillance, Fourth Amendment, computer
security, and computer crime law.
Granick previously was Executive Director at Stanford Law
School's Center for Internet and Society as well as
Director of the Cyberlaw Clinic. Before Stanford, Granick
spent almost a decade practicing criminal defense law,
focusing on hacker defense and the interaction of free
speech, privacy, law, and technology.
"EFF plays a critical role in the battle to protect freedom
and privacy as new technologies transform our lives, and
I'm thrilled to be a part of this important work," Granick
said. "I'm especially looking forward to protecting privacy
rights in digital communications technologies, creating
standards for how new technologies are used in national
security and law enforcement investigations and promoting
network privacy by working with security researchers."
Granick was selected by Information Security magazine in
2003 as one of 20 "Women of Vision" in the computer
security field. She has spoken to the American Bar
Association, National Security Agency, Naval Postgraduate
School, International Security Forum, Computer Security
Institute, Black Hat security conference, and the
international Workshop on the Economics of Information
Security, among others.
"EFF has long wanted to expand into criminal defense work,
and Jennifer is the best there is," said EFF Legal Director
Cindy Cohn. "It's time to take a deeper look at how
technologies are being used in criminal and national
security prosecutions. We're all very excited about adding
this new depth to our work."
Granick received her J.D. degree from the University of
California Hastings College of the Law and her
undergraduate degree from the New College of the University
of South Florida.
For this release:
http://www.eff.org/news/archives/2007_09.php#005430
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* DHS Scraps ADVISE Data-Mining Software
Since 2003, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has
spent $42 million developing ADVISE software, which is
intended to identify patterns hidden in vast stores of data
that could reveal suspicious behavior. But the DHS
unceremoniously dumped the software in March after the
Government Accountability Office warned that the program
could lead to individuals being falsely linked to criminal
or terrorist activities. Subsequent investigations from the
DHS Privacy Office and the DHS Inspector General found that
live data, including personal information from real
individuals, was used to test the software, creating
"unnecessary privacy risks."
ADVISE, once touted as an essential tool in protecting
national security, joins a growing list of programs on the
government's scrapheap. The Transportation Security
Administration's (TSA) controversial passenger profiling
system, CAPPS II, was shut down after officials were caught
lying about the use of using real passenger data in testing
the system. And Congress de-funded TIA in late 2003 after
its privacy invasive data-mining scheme was revealed to the
public.
Unfortunately, like the cyborg cop in Terminator II, the
scattered pieces of these programs will slowly re-assemble
themselves, re-emerging later under new names.
Read the news.com article, "Report: DHS Kills Data-Mining
Project":
http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9773243-7.html
For the complete post and related links:
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/005431.php
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* Apple Lays Foundation for DMCA Lawsuits?
Apple's new product announcements last week may have laid
the foundation for the next round of DMCA lawsuits. It sure
looks like Apple is using the DMCA to block competition,
rather than stop "piracy."
Read Fred von Lohmann's entire analysis of Apple's latest
"lock-in" measures here:
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/005426.php
For our updated report, "Unintended Consequences: Seven
Years Under the DMCA":
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/004555.php
For more on DRM, see EFF's pages on Digital Rights
Management and Copy Protection Schemes:
http://www.eff.org/IP/DRM/
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* Victory Against School Biometrics in Illinois
In August of 2005, a public elementary school in Earlville,
Illinois (population 1,778), installed biometric equipment,
allowing the school to track students by scanning their
fingerprints. Use of the scans for school lunch was
apparently mandatory. When Joy Robinson-Van Gilder objected
to having her 7-year-old scanned for a hot lunch, she was
told: "If they don't scan, they don't eat."
Joy Robinson-Van Gilder, a mom of five, took this issue on
as a personal crusade and began a one-woman campaign to
fight the use of biometrics in her kids' schools. Ignoring
ridicule from neighbors, Joy and her husband Chris brought
their concerns to the administration, the school board, the
local paper, and then began lobbying the Illinois state
legislature.
Find out what happened in our complete post:
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/005432.php
Read the Chicago Times article," High Technology Off Menu":
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-lunch_07sep07,1,56341.story
For background on biometric technology:
http://www.eff.org/Privacy/Surveillance/biometrics/
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* miniLinks
The week's noteworthy news, compressed.
~ Big Victory for Limits to Copyright Law
The 10th Circuit Court recognized First Amendment
constraints on Congressional powers in copyright law.
http://www.lessig.org/blog/2007/09/a_big_victory_golan_v_gonzales.html
~ Internet Anonymity Tool Used for Eavesdropping
A security researcher found a way to use Tor to spy on
private communications.
http://www.wired.com/politics/security/news/2007/09/embassy_hacks
~ House Passes Bill to Revamp Patent Process
New legislation would limit damage awards.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/07/technology/apee-patent.html?ex=1346817600&en=f7ce2b7eb935170e&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss
~ UMG Carries Out Threat to Sue Veoh for Copyright
Violations
Veoh is just another Napster clone, according to Universal.
http://www.forbes.com/technology/2007/09/05/umg-veoh-copyright-tech-cx_pco_0905paidcontent.html
~ Does Google Mislead on Sponsored Links?
An Australian court hears arguments that Google favors
advertisers in search results.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070910/tc_afp/australiaitinternetcourtcompanygoogle
~ Unlocking the iPhone
It may be legal to unlock your iPhone, but don't tell
anyone else how to do it.
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/08/to-unlock-the-i.html#previouspost
~ Adding Custom Ringtones to Your iPhone
Third-party applications can help you get around Apple's
restrictions on customizing your iPhone.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,135425/article.html
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* Administrivia
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