Press Releases: December 2014
First Public Court Challenge to “Upstream” Internet Spying
Oakland - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) will argue on Friday before a federal court that the National Security Agency (NSA) is violating the Fourth Amendment by copying and searching data that it collects by tapping into the Internet backbone. The hearing on a motion for partial summary judgment in Jewel v. NSA will be at 9 am on Dec. 19 before Judge Jeffrey White at the federal courthouse in Oakland.
Jewel was filed in 2008 on behalf of San Francisco Bay Area resident Carolyn Jewel and other AT&T customers. EFF has amassed a mountain of evidence to support the case, including documents provided by former AT&T technician Mark Klein, which show that the company has routed copies of Internet traffic to a secret room in San Francisco controlled by the NSA. Other whistleblowers—including Thomas Drake, Bill Binney and Edward Snowden—have revealed more detail about how this technique feeds data into the NSA's massive databases of communications. Since June 2013, the government has confirmed that it searches much of the content it collects as part of its "upstream" collection without a warrant. The government claims the content searches are justified under Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act and do not violate the Fourth Amendment.
Under the government's legal theory, it can copy virtually all Internet communications and then search them from top to bottom for specific "identifiers"—all without a warrant or individualized suspicion—as long as it does so quickly using only automated processes.
EFF Special Counsel Richard Wiebe will argue before the court that the Fourth Amendment definitively bars this type of dragnet. As EFF presented in its motion, enough information now exists on the record for the court to rule that the government's technique represents an unconstitutional search and seizure.
What: Motion for Partial Summary Judgment
Who: Richard Wiebe, EFF Special Counsel
Date: Friday, Dec. 19, 2014
Time: 9:00 am
Where: Oakland Federal Courthouse
Courtroom 5, 2nd Floor
1301 Clay St.
Oakland, CA
Wiebe and EFF staff attorneys will be available for comment immediately following the hearing.
For more on Jewel v. NSA: https://www.eff.org/cases/jewel
Contact:
Dave Maass
Media Relations Coordinator
Electronic Frontier Foundation
press@eff.org
Battle to Stop Patent Troll Reaches Oral Argument
Alexandria, Va. - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) will argue at a public hearing Wednesday that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) should invalidate key claims of a patent used by notorious patent troll Personal Audio to shake down podcasters.
Personal Audio claims it owns a patent that covers podcasting, despite the fact that many examples of what we now call podcasting existed before the patent was issued. In May 2013, EFF launched its "Save Podcasting" campaign in response to Personal Audio's spate of legal threats and lawsuits. Buoyed by support from its members and the podcasting community, EFF filed a petition challenging five claims of U.S. Patent No. 8,112,504 in October 2013.
Personal Audio is known as a "non-practicing entity"—a company that doesn't do podcasting itself but instead bases its business model on demanding license fees from actual creators, from garage podcasters to major broadcasters. At this hearing, EFF's pro bono counsel will argue before the panel of USPTO judges that Personal Audio did not invent anything new or non-obvious that should entitle Personal Audio to a patent.
What: Public Hearing in IPR 2014-00070
Date: December 17, 2014
Time: 1 p.m. ET
Where: Madison Building, East Wing
Hearing Room A
600 Dulany Street
Alexandria, VA 22314
The hearing is open to the public, although hearing badges will only be issued on a first come, first served basis. The patent office asks that visitors arrive 30 minutes early and bring identification.
EFF Staff Attorney Vera Ranieri will be available for interviews directly following the hearing.
For more on EFF's challenge: https://www.eff.org/cases/eff-v-personal-audio-llc
Contact:
Dave Maass
Media Relations Coordinator
Electronic Frontier Foundation
press@eff.org
Groups Demand That Negotiators Release Text of Secret Trade Deal
Washington, D.C. - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has joined dozens of civil society groups from around the world in calling for the release of the secret text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)—a massive proposed trade agreement that could quash digital rights for Internet users everywhere in the name of intellectual property protection.
A representative from OpenMedia International is presenting a letter from the coalition to several TPP delegates on Thursday and Friday at the TPP negotiations in Washington, D.C. The letter demands open debate and oversight of the trade deal, which threatens to extend restrictive intellectual property laws across the globe and rewrite international rules on its enforcement.
"The TPP has been under negotiation for five years, but the only real information we have about it has been through leaks," said EFF Global Policy Analyst Maira Sutton. "Those leaks show extremely troubling provisions, including expanding laws that hurt fair use and free speech along with a number of privacy-threatening enforcement proposals. We've recently seen the European Union take bold new steps to enable real public participation in its trade agreement negotiations with the United States, and it's time for TPP ministers to follow their lead, stop the secrecy, and release official drafts of the TPP text."
The most recent leak of the TPP confirmed that draft provisions on anti-circumvention could restrict tinkerers and makers from modifying legally purchased electronic devices, and that language on service-provider liability could encourage companies to scour all customers' communications just to track down any potential copyright infringement. The leak also revealed new, dangerously vague text on the misuse of trade secrets, which could be used to enact harsh criminal punishments against anyone who reveals or even accesses information through a "computer system" that is considered "confidential." This language could have alarming consequences if nations are obligated to enact new laws that could be used to crack down on journalists and whistle blowers.
"Twelve countries are involved in the TPP negotiations, but because of the interconnected nature of global communications, this agreement stands to hurt people around the world," EFF Senior Global Policy Analyst Jeremy Malcolm said. "We need transparency and real public debate now."
For the full letter to TPP negotiators:
https://www.eff.org/document/tpp-transparency-letter-dec-2014
For more on the TPP:
https://www.eff.org/issues/tpp
Contact:
Maria Sutton
Global Policy Analyst
Electronic Frontier Foundation
maira@eff.org
EFF, ACLU Support Smith in Fighting Mass Surveillance Before Ninth Circuit
Seattle - An appeals court will hear oral arguments in Smith v. Obama, a case filed by an Idaho nurse against a controversial National Security Agency (NSA) telephone data collection program, in Seattle on Monday, Dec. 8.
Anna Smith, a neonatal nurse from Coeur d'Alene, filed her lawsuit against President Barack Obama and several U.S. intelligence agencies in June 2013, shortly after the government confirmed that the NSA was collecting telephone records on a massive scale under Section 215 of the Patriot Act. Smith, a Verizon customer, argues the program violated her Fourth Amendment rights by amassing a wealth of detail about her familial, political, professional, religious, and intimate associations. Following a district court ruling against Smith, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the American Civil Liberties Union of Idaho joined the case as co-counsel in July 2014 to assist in crafting the appeal.
Attorney Peter Smith. Credit: Lukins & AnnisAnna Smith's husband, Peter Smith of Lukins & Annis, P.S., who filed the case and argued on Anna's behalf to the trial court, will present oral arguments before a panel of three judges (Hon. Michael Daly Hawkins, Hon. M. Margaret McKeown, and Hon. Richard C. Tallman) at the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
EFF presented appellate oral arguments in a similar case, Klayman v. Obama, last month. On Dec. 18, EFF will present arguments in San Francisco in Jewel v. NSA, asking the court to find that the NSA's mass copying of Internet communications violates the Fourth Amendment. EFF's other challenge to NSA surveillance, First Unitarian Church of Los Angeles v. NSA, remains pending before a trial judge.
What: Oral Argument in Smith v. Obama
Who: Peter Smith, counsel for Anna Smith
Date: Monday, Dec. 8, 2014
Time: 9:00 am PT (Smith is third on the calendar)
Where: William K. Nakamura Courthouse
7th Floor, Courtroom 2
1010 Fifth Ave.
Seattle, WA 98104
EFF and ACLU staff will be available for interviews following the arguments.
For Smith's appellate briefs:
https://www.eff.org/document/opening-brief-0
https://www.eff.org/document/smiths-reply-brief
Contact:
Dave Maass
Media Relations Coordinator
Electronic Frontier Foundation
press@eff.org
eff.org/nsa-spying
