Press Releases: April, 2004
California Bans Insecure E-Voting Machines
Acting to ensure the integrity of California's November elections, California Secrectary of State Kevin Shelley on Friday announced the adoption of a new state policy making it so that all California voters will have the option of recording their votes on paper. In addition, the state has decertified Diebold's infamous TsX electronic voting machines, while mandating key security enhancements for the voting terminals that will remain in use.
Electronic Frontier Foundation Announces New Patent Busting Campaign
San Francisco, CA - In light of growing concerns about illegitimate software and Internet patents, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) today announced a new initiative to combat the chilling effects bad patents have on public and consumer interests.
"Patents traditionally only targeted large commercial companies," said EFF Staff Attorney Jason Schultz. "Now bad patents are threatening non-profits, small businesses, and even individuals who use software and Internet technology." These threats target non-commercial personal use, such as building a hobbyist website or streaming a wedding video to your friends.
The new EFF initiative seeks to document these threats and fight back against them. EFF has pledged to file "re-examination" requests with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (PTO), asking the agency to revoke patents that are having negative effects on Internet innovation and free expression.
"More and more, people are using software and Internet technology to express themselves," said EFF Staff Attorney Wendy Seltzer. "Patent owners who threaten this expression are creating a chilling effect on free speech."
The EFF announcement comes on the heels of two recent public criticisms of the patent system, one by the Federal Trade Commission and the other by the National Academy of Sciences.
For this release:
http://www.eff.org/Patent/20040419_eff_pr_patent.php
EFF Patent Busting Project White Paper and related materials:
http://www.eff.org/Patent/
Federal Trade Commission Patent Reform Report:
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2003/10/cpreport.htm
National Academy of Sciences Patent Reform Report:
http://www4.nationalacademies.org/news.nsf/isbn/0309089107?OpenDocument
Electronic Frontier Foundation Files Comments on FBI Plan
Washington, D.C. - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)
today submitted comments to the Federal Communications
Commission opposing an FBI proposal that would extend a
decade-old telephone surveillance law to the Internet. The
Communication Assistance for Law Enforcement Act of 1994
(CALEA) forced telecommunications carriers like your phone
company to build convenient wiretap features into their
networks. Congress never intended CALEA's requirements to
reach the Internet, but now the FBI is demanding that
broadband ISPs build "wiretappability" into their equipment
too.
Orlando Court Orders Record Companies to File 25 Separate Lawsuits Against Accused Filesharers
The Federal District Court in the Middle District of Florida today denied the motion of sixteen record companies to force the Internet Service Provider Bright House to provide the identities of 25 individuals accused of copyright infringement using the FastTrack peer-to-peer network. The Court decided that the record companies had improperly joined the 25 individuals, who had nothing in common other than their ISP, into a single lawsuit.
