Electronic Frontier Foundation Launches "Let the Music Play" Campaign

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

EFFector       Vol. 16, No. 17       July 1, 2003        ren () eff org

A Publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation
ISSN 1062-9424
In the 256th Issue of EFFector:
    
    * EFF Launches "Let the Music Play" Campaign
    * EFF Defends Prisoner Rights
    * Study Released on Internet Blocking in Schools
    * Supreme Court Supports Library Internet Blocking Law
    * Deep Links (6): Student Shakedown: Jesse Jordan Stands Up
      to the RIAA
    * Staff Calendar: 6.2.03: EFF at iLaw
    * Administrivia

For more information on EFF activities & alerts:
  http://www.eff.org/

To join EFF or make an additional donation:
  http://www.eff.org/support/

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* EFF Launches "Let the Music Play" Campaign

Urges 60 Million Music Lovers in U.S. to Demand Legal Rights

San Francisco - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) on
Monday, June 30, launched a "Let the Music Play" campaign urging
the more than 60 million U.S. citizens who use file-sharing
software to demand changes in copyright law to get artists paid
and make file- sharing legal.

The EFF Let the Music Play campaign counters the Recording
Industry Association of America's (RIAA) announcement that it
will file thousands of lawsuits against individuals who use file-
sharing software like Kazaa, Grokster, and Morpheus.

"Copyright law is out of step with the views of the American
public and the reality of music distribution online," said EFF
Executive Director Shari Steele. "Rather than trying to sue
people into submission, we need to find a better alternative that
gets artists paid while making file sharing legal."

EFF's Let the Music Play campaign provides alternatives to the
RIAA's litigation barrage, details EFF's efforts to defend peer-
to-peer file sharing, and makes it easy for individuals to write
members of Congress. EFF will also place advertisements about the
Right to Share campaign in magazines such as Spin, Blender,
Computer Gaming World, and PC Gamer.

"Today, more U.S. citizens use file-sharing software than voted
for President Bush," said EFF Senior Staff Attorney Fred von
Lohmann. "Congress needs to spend less time listening to record
industry lobbyists and more time listening to the more than 60
million Americans who use file-sharing software today."

According to online media analyst Big Champagne, more than 60
million Americans are using file-sharing software.

For this release:
http://www.eff.org/IP/P2P/20030630_eff_pr.php

EFF file-sharing campaign site:
http://www.eff.org/share

EFF alert requesting Congressional hearings on file-sharing
technologies:
http://action.eff.org/action/index.asp?step=2&item=2713

EFF file-sharing ad:
http://www.eff.org/IP/P2P/music-to-our-ears.php

How to not get sued for file sharing:
http://www.eff.org/IP/P2P/howto-notgetsued.php

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* EFF Defends Prisoner Rights

Opposes Prison Ban on Materials Printed From the Internet

San Francisco - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) on June
30 asked a federal appeals court to rule that state prison
inmates should not be denied access to valuable information
simply because it originated online.

The case, entitled Clement v. California Department of
Corrections, involves an unreasonable and arbitrary rule that
bans prisoners from receiving letters that contain any material
downloaded and printed from the Internet, including hard copies
of email messages. Prisoners may not access the Internet
directly, so they rely on friends and family to send them
material printed from the Internet and enclosed in letters.

"In the name of mailroom efficiency, California prisons are
violating the free speech rights of prisoners and those who
correspond with them, based on an unreasonable and unwarranted
distinction between words published on paper and those published
on the 'Net," said EFF Attorney and Equal Justice Works Fellow
Kevin Bankston.

EFF filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the case on behalf of
Prison Legal News, a non-profit legal newspaper. The majority of
Prison Legal News subscribers, as well as most of its writers,
are currently incarcerated. The brief argues that the ban on mail
printed from the Internet prevents inmates from receiving, and
their loved ones from sending, vital information that is
available only online, violating First Amendment rights without
any corresponding benefit to the safety or efficiency of the
prison.

"Organizations with important information for prisoners, such as
the advocacy group Stop Prisoner Rape, can only afford to publish
online," said EFF Senior Staff Attorney Lee Tien. "Even the
California Department of Corrections refers people to their
website, although it is apparently off limits to California
prisoners."

For this release:
http://www.eff.org/Cases/Clement_v_California/20030630_eff_pr.php

EFF amicus brief in Clement v. California:
http://www.eff.org/Cases/Clement_v_California/20030630_amicus.php

Prison Legal News:
http://www.prisonlegalnews.org/

Stop Prisoner Rape:
http://www.spr.org/

District court decision in Clement v. California:
http://www.aclunc.org/cyber/020913-clement.pdf

ACLU brief in Clement v. California:
http://www.aclunc.org/cyber/030625-clement.pdf

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* Study Released on Internet Blocking in Schools

Filtering Software Overblocks and Miscategorizes Websites

San Francisco, CA - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and
the Online Policy Group (OPG) on June 23 released a study
documenting the effects of Internet blocking, also known as
filtering, in U.S. schools. The study found that blocking
software overblocked state-mandated curriculum topics extensively
-- for every web page correctly blocked as advertised, one or
more was blocked incorrectly.

The Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA) requires all
schools and libraries receiving certain federal funds or
discounts to install and use a technology for blocking visual
depictions that are obscene, child pornography, or in the case of
minors, "harmful to minors."

"Restrictions on viewing constitutionally protected speech
contradicts the primary educational mission of schools," said EFF
Media Relations Director Will Doherty. "CIPA holds students and
teachers hostage to Internet blocking software that does not and
cannot fulfill legal requirements and likely prevents students
from obtaining a well-balanced, globally competitive education."

Researchers analyzed the extent to which blocking software blocks
information related to state-mandated curriculum topics.

The report drew the following conclusions:

+ The use of Internet blocking software in schools cannot help
schools comply with the law because schools do not and cannot set
the software to block only the categories required by the law,
and because the software is incapable of blocking only the visual
depictions required by CIPA.

+ Blocking software does not protect children from exposure to a
large volume of material that is harmful to minors within the
legal definitions. Blocking software cannot adapt adequately to
local community standards. Most schools already have in place
alternatives to Internet blocking software, such as adoption and
enforcement of Internet use policies, media literacy education,
directed use, and supervised use.

+ Blocking software in schools damages educational opportunities
for students, both by blocking access to web pages that are
directly related to the state-mandated curriculums and by
restricting broader inquiries of both students and teachers.
Teachers and students 17 years or older (most high school juniors
and seniors) should be exempt, yet suffer the consequences of
CIPA implementation.

After testing nearly a million web pages related to state-
mandated curriculums, the researchers found that of the web pages
blocked, 97 - 99% of a statistically significant sample were
blocked using non-standard, discretionary, and potentially
illegal criteria beyond what CIPA requires.

For this release:
http://www.eff.org/Censorship/Censorware/net_block_report/
20030623_eff_pr.php

EFF and OPG "Internet Blocking in Schools" study:
http://www.eff.org/Censorship/Censorware/net_block_report/

OPG media release on study:
http://www.onlinepolicy.org/media/schoolblocking020918.shtml

EFF media release on ALA v. US decision:
http://www.eff.org/Censorship/Censorware/net_block_report/
20030623_eff_cipapr.php

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* Supreme Court Supports Library Internet Blocking Law

Damages Free Speech of Library Patrons and Web Publishers

San Francisco - The Supreme Court ruled Monday, June 23, that a
federal statute requiring Internet blocking, also known as
filtering, in libraries receiving certain federal funds or
discounts is constitutional. Reversing a lower court decision by
the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the court noted that the
use of Internet blocking to comply with the Children's Internet
Protection Act (CIPA) in libraries is constitutional because the
need for libraries to prevent minors from accessing obscene
materials outweighs the free speech rights of library patrons and
website publishers.

The CIPA law requires all schools and libraries that receive
federal funds or discounts to install and use a technology for
blocking Internet speech that is obscene, child pornography, or
in the case of minors, "harmful to minors." However, based on
extensive evidence, the lower court in this case found that many
studies report that Internet blocking software is incapable of
blocking only the materials required by CIPA, a conclusion
supported by many independent studies. The CIPA law is also
problematic because speech that is harmful to minors is still
legal for adults, and not all library patrons are minors.

"The Supreme Court today dealt a tremendous blow to the free
speech rights of child and adult library patrons and Internet
publishers by supporting Congress' mandate that libraries must
install faulty Internet blocking software to obtain federal
funding or discounts," said Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)
Attorney Kevin Bankston, an Equal Justice Works / Bruce J. Ennis
Fellow. 

"The tragedy is that millions of library patrons now join the
millions of students, many of them no longer minors, who face the
Internet blocking barrier to obtaining a proper education at
schools nationwide," said EFF Media Relations Director Will
Doherty. "The Children's Internet Protection Act holds library
patrons and students hostage to faulty blocking software created
with arbitrary standards foreign to their own communities."

EFF participated as co-counsel with the American Civil Liberties
Union in the case. 

Links: 
Supremem Court CIPA decision (PDF 766k):
http://www.eff.org/Censorship/Censorware/
20030623.ussupremecourt.cipalibrarydecision.02-361.pdf

ALA v. USA case archive:
http://www.eff.org/Cases/ALA_v_US/

EFF and Online Policy Group study on the effects of Internet
blocking in schools:
http://www.eff.org/Censorship/Censorware/net_block_report/

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* Deep Links
Deep Links features noteworthy news items, victories, and threats
from around the Internet.

~ Student Shakedown: Jesse Jordan Stands Up to the RIAA
An RIAA lawyer forces Jesse to fork over his life savings while
employing a bizarre intimidation-through-dentistry metaphor.
We're not kidding: 
http://www.chewplastic.com/
modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=22

~ Orrin Hatch's Glass House
The Senator's website contained unlicensed code just days after
he advocated the destruction of computers used to infringe music
copyrights:
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,59305,00.html

~ Reforming Copyright
Harvard Law Professor Jonathan Zittrain on the sorry state of a
copyright regime that forces Girl Scouts who sing "Puff, the
Magic Dragon" to pay royalties:
http://www.legalaffairs.org/issues/July-August-2003/
feature_zittrain_julaug03.html

~ Opinion: RIAA's Lawsuits are a Threat to Civil Liberties
Fordham Law School's Sonia Katyal on the RIAA's decision to sue
individuals P2P users:
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-
katyal27jun27,1,5508840.story?coll=la-news-comment-opinions

~ Where Have All the CDs Gone?
The record industry blames piracy and downloading for sagging
sales - here's the whole story:
http://soundandvisionmag.com/
article.asp?section_id=2&article_id=453&page_number=1

~ Illegal Art Comes to San Francisco!
The amazing exhibit is on the move and opening in San Francisco.
Details are available here:
http://www.illegal-art.org/

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* Staff Calendar
For a complete listing of EFF speaking engagements (with
locations and times), please visit:
http://www.eff.org/calendar/

~ Wednesday, July 2: Fred von Lohmann and Wendy Seltzer will be
speaking at the Berkman Center's iLaw program at Stanford  - (All
day event):
http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/ilaw/stanford03/stanford.html

~ Thursday, July 3: Panel discussion on Illegal Art with
moderator Marcia Tanner, Lawrence Lessig (Stanford Law Professor
and EFF Boardmember), Carrie McLaren, (Stay Free! magazine),
Kembrew McLeod (artist and University of Iowa professor), and
Rick Prelinger (Prelinger Archives):
http://www.illegal-art.org/

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* Administrivia

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