EFF

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization dedicated to preserving first amendment rights particularly at risk in today's digital age. EFF has taken responsibilities to this effect in several ways:

• providing or funding legal defense in court
• defending the individual and new technologies from the chilling effects of baseless or misdirected legal threats
• providing guidance to the government and courts
• organizing political action and mass mailings
• supporting new technologies to preserve our freedoms
• maintaining a database and web sites of related news and information
• monitoring and challenging potential legislation that has the potential to infringe on our rights and erode fair use
• soliciting a list of patent abuses with intentions to defeat those without merit

History

The Electronic Frontier Foundation was founded in July 1990 by Mitch Kapor, John Gilmore and John Perry Barlow. It is a membership organization supported by donations and is based in San Francisco. Its main goal is to "... educate the press, policymakers and the general public about civil liberties issues related to technology; and to act as a defender of those liberties."

The creation of the organization was motivated by the raid on Steve Jackson Games by the United States Secret Service. Its second big case was Bernstein v. United States, where programmer and professor Daniel Bernstein sued the government for permission to publish his encryption software, Snuffle, and a paper describing it. More recently the organization has been involved in defending Edward Felten, Jon Johansen, and Dmitry Sklyarov.

Major supporters

• On February 18, 2004, the EFF announced that it has received $1.2 million from the estate of Leonard Zubkoff. It will use $1 million of this money to establish the EFF Endowment Fund for Digital Civil Liberties.
• EFF often receives additional pro bono legal assistance from Prof. Eben Moglen.
• Lawrence Lessig: EFF boardmember and Stanford professor

Milestones and accomplishments

[ these need dates and detail... ]

• Steve Jackson Games
• Professor Edward Felten: DMCA used to censor his research to break Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI)
• 2600 Magazine: defense against application of DMCA to publishing the DeCSS code and links
• Fighting for electronic voting reform
• Fighting for online privacy
• Supports the Chilling Effects Clearinghouse efforts to organize a database of IP law abuse and educate potential victims
• April 19, 2004: Initiated the Patent Busting Project to challenge "illegitimate patents that suppress non-commercial and small business innovation or limit free expression online"
• As of July 15, 2004: Has emailed 298 issues of the EFFector newsletter, keeping members and subscribers informed of current issues, urging action through Action Alert, and providing a variety of background information and links
• August 19, 2004: in the appeal.