FC: 2003 EFF Pioneer Award winnders: A.Goodman, E.Moglen, D.Sobel

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

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Electronic Frontier Foundation Media Advisory

For Immediate Release: Friday, March 28, 2003


Contact:

Katina Bishop
   Director of Education & Offline Activism
   Electronic Frontier Foundation
   katina () eff org
   +1 415 436-9333 x101


Electronic Frontier Foundation Honors Net Pioneers in NYC

Goodman, Moglen, Sobel Receive Awards at 12th Annual Event

New York - Online civil liberties advocates from the
nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) will honor
three pioneers of Internet freedom and innovation at the
12th Annual EFF Pioneer Awards on April 2, 2003, at the
Empire State Building in New York. The online civil
liberties group will honor Amy Goodman for her long-term
commitment to freedom of expression; Eben Moglen for
campaigning to reformulate copyright, patent, and privacy
laws to fit the digital age; and David Sobel for
extraordinary efforts to protect privacy and open
government.

The Pioneer Awards will take place in conjunction with
the Computers, Freedom, and Privacy conference in New York.

EFF established the Pioneer Awards in 1991 to recognize
leaders of the electronic frontier who are extending freedom
and innovation in the realm of information technology.

The award winners are--

Amy Goodman

Amy Goodman is a longtime journalist, activist, and host of
Democracy Now!, a national, listener-sponsored news show
committed to broadcasting marginalized voices. A vocal
opponent of censorship, Goodman covers controversial issues
ranging from Chevron-related murders in Nigeria to the
struggle for independence in East Timor and documents the
global, grassroots opposition to a U.S.-led war in Iraq.

Goodman's resistance to the attempted takeover of the
Pacifica Radio network served as a rally point to force out
a hostile board of directors. She and an alliance of media
activists broadcast the show daily on the Internet and
through a backdoor to Pacifica's satellite while expanding
the program to television.

Democracy Now!'s website allows people to stream the show
live, search and browse through story archives, and listen
to current guest interviews. The website engages the show's
audience in gathering, sharing, and acting on the news,
which, in Goodman's words, "expands and preserves our
public media spaces, which now more than ever are crucial
to a vital democracy."

Eben Moglen

A computer programmer and law professor, Eben Moglen makes
the case that freedom on the Internet faces real challenges
from self-interested corporations and misguided legislators.
He has provided a conceptual framework for another digital
world, based on stewardship, rather than ownership of online
communications whether on peer-to-peer networks or on the
airwaves.

Campaigning ceaselessly to reformulate copyright, patent,
and privacy laws for the digital age, his essays and
articles stand as powerful and thoughtful works.

Moglen is General Counsel and serves on the board of the
Free Software Foundation. He is a Professor of Law and Legal
History at the Columbia Law School and was formerly a Law
Clerk to United States Supreme Court Justice Thurgood
Marshall.

David Sobel

David Sobel is General Counsel of the Electronic Privacy
Information Center (EPIC) and is well regarded in the
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) community for his tireless
efforts to protect open government.

David recently won two of the most significant FOIA
decisions in the last several years. In EPIC v. Office of
Homeland Security, David defeated the government's motion to
dismiss and has been granted discovery to determine whether
the Office of Homeland Security is a federal agency subject
to the FOIA. In EPIC v. DOD, a case where EPIC sought records
concerning the Total Information Awareness (TIA) project,
David prevailed against the government's efforts to use
trumped-up fee claims to obstruct public access to
government information. David continues to work in close
association with many other organizations, including the EFF
and the ACLU, on important civil liberties issues.


"David, Amy and Eben are doing amazing work to understand
how technology can be co-opted, to explain that to the
general public, and to fight to get bad laws changed,"
stated Shari Steele, Executive Director of the Electronic
Frontier Foundation. "We're proud to present them with this
year's Pioneer Awards."

The judges for this year's EFF Pioneer Awards were: Herb
Brody (Senior Editor, Technology Review), Beth Givens,
(Founder and Director of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse),
Moira Gunn (Host, "Tech Nation," National Public Radio),
Donna L. Hoffman (Associate Professor of Management,
Vanderbilt University), Peter G. Neumann (Principal
Scientist, SRI Intl.; Moderator, ACM Risks Forum), Drazen
Pantic (Media & Tech. Director, NYU Center for War, Peace, &
the News Media), Barbara Simons (past President, Association
for Computing Machinery, & U.C. Berkeley Distinguished
Alumnus), and Karen G. Schneider (Technical Director,
Shenendehowa Public Library, NY)

The 12th Annual EFF Pioneer Awards ceremony will be held
from 7:00 to 9:30pm on April 2, 2003, at the Empire State
Building. The ceremony will be held on the 80th floor, just
a few floors from the observation deck. Guests are
encouraged to arrive early to enjoy the view.

Members of the press are welcome. Please enter at the West
34th Street entrance next to Strawberry's and bring press
identification for security purposes.

For this advisory:
http://www.eff.org/awards/20030328_pioneer_pr.php

For more information on the EFF Pioneer Awards:
http://www.eff.org/awards/pioneer.html

For more information on the Computers, Freedom, and Privacy
conference:
http://www.cfp2003.org/

Democracy Now! website:
http://www.democracynow.org/

Eben Moglen website at Columbia Law School:
http://emoglen.law.columbia.edu/

Electronic Privacy Information Center website:
http://www.epic.org/




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