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EFFector Online Volume 09 No. 14      Dec. 10, 1996       editors@eff.org
A Publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation        ISSN 1062-9424


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
nformation 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 
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


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 
s very different from the normal petition-for-certiorari process by
contentious provisions of the Telecom Act be settled quickly, and wrote 

More importantly, the Court's announcement is not any indication, 
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
nterest in speaking *directly* to the issues raised by the case (as

Legal teams from both of the original, now merged, cases will continue to 

EFF remains very optimistic of the outcome of this case, as the CDA fails 
not one but *all* constitutionality tests.


More information about the CDA and similar Internet censorship measures:

------------------------------


Subject: EFF Analysis of Draft "Database Protection" Treaty
-----------------------------------------------------------

Having failed to win the day in Congress, the US Administration is 
n ways that favor not the public interest, but a handful of commercial
nterests 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 
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 
t impossible to obtain public information under the Freedom of
llegal to browse a publicly accessible web page without explicit
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 
those who catalog them.  The Computer and Communications Industry 
Association, which includes AT&T and Sun, begs to differ, saying that the 

The provisions were first proposed in a Commerce Dept. "Green Paper", later 
criticism from virtually all corners (see IPWG papers and critiques, 
the doomed NII Copyright Act of 1996 and related US legislation (see 

At all stages, researchers and public interest organizations have drawn close
attention to the fact that the proposals would directly undermine the 

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 

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 
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
ll-conceived and already-rejected proposals down the throat of the world
s not the way to do it.

More information on the WIPO copyright "reform" is available at 


* 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,

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 
current proposals, and we appreciate the opportunity to provide you with our 
views.



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
n Feist Publications, Inc. v. Rural Telephone Service.  In Feist, the Court
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 
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 

This is particularly troubling because in the United States many government
contained within those databases rightfully are part of the public domain; 
there is no other source for this information.  The private vendors who 
Furthermore, under the proposed database treaty, the government will be 
f it uses private contractors, since the contractors will be said to have

the treaty.  The definition of "database" is all-encompassing and will 
nclude many things that are not traditionally considered to be databases,
troubling, in that it takes into account the database maintainer's 
users would be precluded from using any bits of information they receive 
from a database if the database maintainer has charged for that information.

(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
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
circumventing the rights created in the treaty.  This turns current
Supreme Court law (See Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, 
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 
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
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 
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 
ntellectual 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.



As with the "Sui Generis Protection of Databases" treaty proposal, EFF has
many concerns about the "Protection of Literary and Artistic Works" treaty 

The way it is currently written, Article 7 would inhibit browsing on the
World Wide Web.  Article 7 requires signatories to treat temporary copies, 
as a piece of information moves through the Internet, as a "reproduction" 
that could violate the exclusive reproduction right.  Temporary 
under this provision.

Article 10 would substantially expand the exposure of online service
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
nfringement.

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 
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 

nvolved in the "Sui Generis Protection of Databases" treaty proposal.
national debate has taken place.  EFF has the same level of
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

.O. Box 649 :70

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 
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 


[Please redistribute widely in appropriate places, but no later than Dec.

               EFF's "KNOW YOUR CYBERRIGHTS SWEEPSTAKES"

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
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
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,
n 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 
another "Internet is an evil den of child pornographers" schlock stories.
Helsingius, who has long had a policy against illegal abuse of the 

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 
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
San Francisco CA 94103

Foundation", and clearly marked "Penet Fund" or "Penet Legal Defense Fund"
n the note space at the bottom.  Otherwise they could be mistaken for

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 
and such. Please be generous. Consider it a holiday spirit gift to 
the US-to-Finland exchange and transfer process.


* SPA Drops ISP Lawsuits - Code of Conduct Still Advanced

against internet service providers (ISPs). SPA had intended to hold the 
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 

Though SPA had already dropped suit against one service provider, 
Community ConneXion, by mid-Nov., and backpeddaled from one of the other
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 
communications) and would greatly increase ISP liability for user actions, 
also criticized SPA's "kill the messenger" legal tactic of suing 
"crimes" as making WWW links to pages that might be infringing or even 
Georgia proposed a counter-policy addressing the SPA document's
complete lack of any requirement that copyright infringement complainants

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:

------------------------------


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
ndicates a non-USA event.  If it's a foreign EFF event with govt. people,
t'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

See also our new Now-Up-to-Date HTML calendar at:


----

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


----
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 
  - Clare Boothe Luce

Find yourself wondering if your privacy and freedom of speech are safe 
the rush to make us secure from ourselves that our government 
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!   

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 
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 

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:

for information to ask@eff.org.

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
s one very important strategy of activism, and an essential way of
making sure YOUR voice is heard on vital issues.

try contacting your local League of Women Voters, who maintain a great 
that matches Zip Codes to Congressional districts with about 85%
accuracy at:

Computer Currents Interactive has provided Congress contact info, sorted 
by who voted for and against the Communications Decency Act:
fortunately, been voted out of office.)


* Join EFF!

You *know* privacy, freedom of speech and ability to make your voice heard
n 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
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
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
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/

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:
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
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