Free Speech
April 30, 2008
* Freedom of the Press 2008: A Global Survey of Media Independence

"Freedom House released Freedom of the Press 2008: A Global Survey of Media Independence today in advance of World Press Freedom Day on May 3. Release materials -- including country scores, draft reports, the overview essay, and the methodology -- are now available. The survey, released annually since 1980, assess the degree of press freedom in every country in the world. According to this year's survery, press freedom declines outnumbered advances two to one in 2007, with declines seen in authoritarian countries and established democracies."

April 28, 2008
* Control, Intimidation and Harassment of Lawyers in China

News release: "Chinese lawyers who take cases seen by the government as politically sensitive or potentially embarrassing face severe abuses ranging from harassment to disbarment and physical assaults, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today...The 142-page report, Walking on Thin Ice: Control, Intimidation and Harassment of Lawyers in China, details consistent patterns of abuses against legal practitioners. These include intimidation, harassment, suspension of professional licenses, disbarment, physical assaults, and even arrest and prosecution when lawyers take politically sensitive cases, seek redress for abuses of power and wrongdoings by party or government agents, or challenge local power-holders."

April 23, 2008
* Hundreds of EPA Scientists Report Political Interference Over Last Five Years

News release: "An investigation of the Environmental Protection Agency released today found that 889 of nearly 1,600 staff scientists reported that they experienced political interference in their work over the last five years. The study, by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), follows previous UCS investigations of the Food and Drug Administration, Fish and Wildlife Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and climate scientists at seven federal agencies, which also found significant administration manipulation of federal science."

March 30, 2008
* Pew Study: Most Chinese Say They Approve of Government Internet Control

News release: "Many Americans assume that China's internet users are unhappy about their government's control of the internet, but a new survey finds most Chinese say they approve of internet regulation, especially by the government."

  • Most Chinese Say They Approve of Government Internet Control,
    by Deborah Fallows, Senior Research Fellow, Pew Internet & American Life Project, March 27, 2008: "According to findings from the fourth and most recent of a series of surveys about internet use in
    China from 2000 to 2007, over 80% of respondents say they think the internet should be managed or controlled, and in 2007, almost 85% say they think the government should be responsible for doing it."
  • February 06, 2008
    * Joint CDT, PFF Project Tracks Online Child Protection and Free Speech Legislation

    "A joint project of the Center for Democracy & Technology and the Progress & Freedom Foundation tracks more than 30 pieces of federal legislation that seek to protect children online, some of which pose serious threats to free speech. The reports released today summarize and categorize child online safety bills introduced in the 110th Congress, analyze free speech implications of key bills, and provide recommendations to Congress on how it can promote child online safety without impinging on First Amendment rights. February 06, 2008."

  • Bill Tracking Report [PDF] February 06, 2008

  • CDT Analysis [PDF] February 06, 2008

  • PFF Analysis [PDF] February 06, 2008
  • December 10, 2007
    * CDT Urges Senate to Exercise Caution About Online Safety, and Stay Focused on Education

    "This week the Senate Judiciary Committee will consider a number of online safety bills that pose significant risks for free speech and innovation on the Internet. No less than seven bills relating to online safety are in play in Congress this week; CDT today released an analysis of each. CDT supports S. 2344, which promote online safety education, and H.R. 719, which focuses Internet restrictions on sex offenders who might pose risks to children online. CDT strongly opposes all or portions of five other bills now pending in the Senate."

  • Analysis--Free Speech Bills in Senate [PDF] December 10, 2007
  • July 13, 2007
    * Pew Research Report on China's Online Population Explosion

    Press release: "The Pew Internet & American Life Project has released a new report on China's internet user population. There are now an estimated 137 million internet users in China, second in number only to the United States, where estimates of the current internet population range from 165 million to 210 million. The growth rate of China's internet user population has been outpacing that of the U.S., and China is projected to overtake the U.S. in the total number of users within a few years. The influx of tens of millions of new online participants each year can be expected to have far-reaching consequences for the Chinese population, for China itself and for the larger world. At the very least, the internet will offer ever greater numbers of Chinese a much more sophisticated information and communications world than the one they currently inhabit. And because the Chinese share a single written language, despite the multiplicity of spoken tongues, it could have a unifying effect on the country's widely dispersed citizenry. An expanding internet population might also increase domestic tensions that could spill over into China's relations with the U.S. and other countries while the difference between Chinese and Western approaches to the internet could create additional sore points over human rights and problems with restrictions on non-Chinese companies."

  • China's Online Population Explosion
  • January 21, 2007
    * Remarks by DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff to American Society of Newspaper Editors

    Remarks by Secretary Michael Chertoff to the American Society of Newspaper Editors, Washington, D.C., Release Date: January 18, 2007.

  • "I think we owe you clarity about who is an authoritative source. I think we ourselves have realized, in part, as part of our after-action on Katrina and some other things that have happened, that we have to be very straight on what is authoritative. And I think we need to build those relationships and that understanding and debate that ahead of time, because if we wind up without having that common understanding before an emergency, we could find ourselves making judgments about what we tell people that will have really serious, life-altering consequences that can't be taken back. And they will have real operational consequences."


  • November 21, 2006
    * California Supreme Court Backs Web Publishers Against Libel Suits

    Barrett v. Rosenthal, California Supreme Court, November 20, 2006: "In the context of defamation, the Communications Decency Act of 1996, codified at 47 U.S.C. section 230, prohibits "distributor" liability for Internet publications. Further, section 230(c)(1) immunizes individual "users" of interactive computer services, and no practical or principled distinction can be drawn between active and passive use."

    November 13, 2006
    August 11, 2006
    * Human Rights Watch Report on Chinese Internet Censorship

    Press release: "In the 149-page report, "Race to the Bottom: Corporate Complicity in Chinese Internet Censorship, Human Rights Watch documents how extensive corporate and private sector cooperation – including by some of the world's major Internet companies – enables...China's system of Internet censorship and surveillance."

  • Race to the Bottom: Corporate Complicity in Chinese Internet Censorship Report, August 10, 2006
  • August 03, 2006
    * Opposition to Mandatory Government Warning Labels on Web Content

    "CDT today urged lawmakers to reject legislation that would force Internet speakers to place government-sanctioned warning labels on a broad range of online content. "Mandatory labeling of legal online content under threat of criminal sanction is ineffective, unwise, and unconstitutional," CDT wrote in a pair of letters sent to the leaders of the Senate Commerce and Appropriations Committees. The language has been attached to a major telecommunications bill and more recently to an appropriations package. As written, the provision would apply to a broad range of Internet content, and could force online publishers to tag legal, and often socially valuable, material with a "digital scarlet letter." CDT supports voluntary labeling efforts and has long endorsed the use of voluntary parental control tools such as filters."

  • CDT Letter - Commerce [PDF] August 03, 2006

  • CDT Lettter - Appropriations [PDF] August 03, 2006

  • Deleting Online Predators Act of 2006, referred to the Senate, 7/27/2006.

  • Related legislation: S. 3499 - A bill to amend title 18, United States Code, to protect youth from exploitation by adults using the Internet, and for other purposes; and S. 3432 - A bill to protect children from exploitation by adults over the Internet, and for other purposes.
  • June 14, 2006
    * ACLU Files Suit to Obtain Domestic Surveillance Info on Peace Groups

    Press release: "The lawsuit was filed today in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania by the national ACLU and its affiliates in Florida, Georgia, Rhode Island, Maine, Pennsylvania and Washington. The lawsuit charges that the Defense Department is refusing to comply with national Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests seeking records on the ACLU, the American Friends Service Committee, Greenpeace, Veterans for Peace and United for Peace and Justice, as well as 26 local groups and activists."

  • Complaint in AFSC v. DOD (6/14/2006)

  • Related postings on domestic surveillance program
  • May 04, 2006
    * Gov't Terror Surveillance Includes Faith Based Groups

    Press release: "The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Georgia today released new evidence that the Federal Bureau of Investigation is using counterterrorism resources to spy on peaceful faith- and conscience-based advocacy groups. School of the Americas Watch (SOA Watch) and its multinational faith-based network is the latest organization uncovered by the ACLU to have been subject to Federal Bureau of Investigation counterterrorism surveillance."

  • See also the ACLU's Spy Files project

  • Related postings on domestic surveillance program

  • March 27, 2006
    * New FEC Rules on Political Speech

  • AP: FEC Won't Regulate Internet Politics

  • New FEC Rules (96 pages, PDF)
  • Supplement to FEC Rules (13 pages, PDF)
  • Two-Page Summary of FEC Rules (PDF)

  • March 24, 2006 posting, FEC Issues Draft Final Rules on Use of Internet In Connection with Federal Elections
  • March 24, 2006
    * FEC Issues Draft Final Rules on Use of Internet In Connection with Federal Elections

    Following up on several related postings on bloggers and campaign speech, today the FEC issued a 96 page document (PDF) promulgating its final rules that impact the publication of campaign related information. Declan McCullagh has more details and commentary.

  • March 22, 2006 - The Commission Has Published Interim Final Rules on Definitions of Federal Election Activity in Today's Federal Register

  • March 21, 2006
    * Librarian Remains Under Gag Order Due to Patriot Act

    Following up on previous postings concerning the FBI's use of National Security Letters to obtain library patron records, the New York Times reports today, Librarian Is Still John Doe, Despite Patriot Act Revision

    March 14, 2006
    * Advocacy Groups Support Protections for Blogger's Speech on the Net

    Op-Ed in Roll Call by CDT Officials Supports Protecting Bloggers without Opening Soft Money Loopholes in the Campaign Finance Laws: "H.R. 4900 protects bloggers and small speakers far better than does H.R 1606, and by design, it does not create other loopholes in the campaign finance laws. Those who truly want to protect bloggers and ordinary citizens should support H.R. 4900. Those whose real goal is to undermine campaign finance laws should support H.R. 1606, which provides only limited protection to online speakers."

  • Related reference, House Cmte. Approves Exemption For Bloggers From FEC Regulations
  • March 11, 2006
    * Internet Free Speech Protection Act of 2006

    H.R. 4900: Internet Free Speech Protection Act of 2006 - To amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to exclude certain communications made over the Internet from certain requirements of such Act, and for other purposes.

  • See also House Cmte. Approves Exemption For Bloggers From FEC Regulations
  • February 15, 2006
    * The Internet in China: A Tool for Freedom or Suppression?

    House of Representatives Committee on International Relations, Subcommittee on Africa, Global Human Rights and International Operations, February 15, 2006 Hearing, The Internet in China: A Tool for Freedom or Suppression?

    Links to statements and testimony below are in PDF:

  • The Honorable Christopher H. Smith, The Honorable James A. Leach, Mr. James Keith, The Honorable David Gross, Mr. Michael Callahan (Senior VP & GC, Yahoo! - testimony in HTML), Mr. Jack Krumholtz (Microsoft), Elliot Schrage (VP, Google -- note, his testimony was posted on the Official Google blog in HTML), Mr. Mark Chandler (Senior VP and GC, Cisco Systems), Ms. Libby Liu (Radio Free Asia), Mr. Xiao Qiang, Ms. Lucie Morillon (Reporters Without Borders), Mr. Harry Wu, Ms. Sharon Hom

  • Related legislation from the House, introduced February 14, 2006: Global Online Freedom Act of 2006 (26 pages, PDF)


  • Related news:
  • New York Times, House Member Criticizes Internet Companies for Practices in China: "In a crowded House hearing room, Representative Christopher H. Smith, Republican of New Jersey, unleashed a scathing condemnation of four American Internet and technology companies — Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and Cisco — for a "sickening collaboration" with the Chinese government and for "decapitating the voice of the dissidents" there."

  • Online Firms Facing Questions About Censoring Internet Searches in China

  • AP: Congress Chides 4 Companies Over China

  • UK Times Online: Google and Yahoo face their Congressional critics

  • From Danny O'Brien, Electronic Frontier Foundation, open letter to the Committee, A Code of Conduct for Internet Companies in Authoritarian Regimes, February 15, 2006: "In considering how these companies might construct their services to best serve global human rights, we believe that simple guidelines, consciously followed, could significantly limit the damage caused by corporate engagement with these regimes..."

  • BusinessWeek.com - The Web and China: Not So Simple - Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft say they face a stark choice: Conform to Beijing's edicts or quit the market. The truth is much more complicated

  • January-February 2006 Legal Affairs, The latest American technology helps the Chinese government and other repressive regimes clamp down, by Derek Bambauer, fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School


  • Related information on domestic surveillance that was also the topic of discussion at the above referenced hearing today:
  • Declan McCullagh reports, "Under cross-examination during a congressional hearing, Yahoo's top lawyer refused on Wednesday to say whether the company opens its records for government surveillance without a court order." Declan's article includes an edited transcript of the exchange between Rep. Brad Sherman and Yahoo GC Michael Callahan on the NSA issue.

  • Also, Politicians lash out at tech firms over China, by Anne Broache and Declan McCullagh

  • Related postings on domestic surveillance

  • February 11, 2006
    * Net Censorship Abroad - Free Speech Colides With E-commerce?

    Follow-up to February 2, 2006 posting, Hearing Focuses on Internet Censorship in China, this WSJ free feature today: Internet Censorship - Web Firms Face Grilling on China.

    Related news:

  • New York Times, So Long, Dalai Lama: Google Adapts to China - "Google's local staff works closely with Chinese officials to ensure that search results from Google.cn do not include information, images or links to Web sites that the government does not want its people to see."

  • Reuters: Fresh US outrage ahead of China Internet hearings - "U.S. Internet companies faced bipartisan criticism in the Congress on Thursday amid a rising controversy over Yahoo Inc.'s alleged role in the Chinese government's imprisonment of a second dissident."

  • February 02, 2006
    * Hearing Focuses on Internet Censorship in China

    Congressional Human Rights Caucus Members' Briefing: Human Rights and the Internet - The People's Republic of China, Wednesday, February 1, 2006: "China has one of the most sophisticated content-filtering Internet regimes in the world. The Chinese government employs sophisticated methods to limit content online, including a combination of legal regulation, surveillance, and punishment to promote self-censorship, as well as technical controls. Informational websites, including that of the BBC, Radio Free Asia, Voice of America and the public encyclopedia, Wikipedia, have been partially or completely blocked in China."

    Related references:

  • Remarks by Congressman Tom Lantos, Co-Chairman, Congressional Human Rights Caucus

  • BBC: Members of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus said four US firms were putting profits before American principles of free speech.
  • Time, February 3, 2006 - Google Under the Gun - For access to China, the Web giant agreed to censor itself. Why the company made a hard bargain

  • * Sen. Boxer Calls For Hearings on Censorship of Gov't Scientists

    Follow-up to January 29, 2006 posting, Gov't Climate Change Expert Contends Censorship of Data - today Sen. Barbara Boxer issued a press release that included the text of her letters to ranking members of two Senate committees stating, "It has come to my attention that the director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, Dr. James E. Hansen, has had his public papers and statements on critical scientific matters severely restricted by Bush Administration officials. Considering the gravity of these allegations, I strongly urge you to hold a hearing to investigate these charges."

    January 29, 2006
    * Commentary on Gov't Rationale for Domestic Surveillance

    New York Times editorial, January 29, 2006, Spies, Lies and Wiretaps: "A bit over a week ago, President Bush and his men promised to provide the legal, constitutional and moral justifications for the sort of warrantless spying on Americans that has been illegal for nearly 30 years. Instead, we got the familiar mix of political spin, clumsy historical misinformation, contemptuous dismissals of civil liberties concerns, cynical attempts to paint dissents as anti-American and pro-terrorist, and a couple of big, dangerous lies."

    Related news:

  • ABC News: President Bush Has More Explaining to Do on Domestic Spy Program, GOP Sen. Chuck Hagel Says

  • Palace Revolt - They were loyal conservatives, and Bush appointees. They fought a quiet battle to rein in the president's power in the war on terror. And they paid a price for it. A NEWSWEEK investigation.

  • Postings on domestic surveillance


  • January 14, 2006
    * ALA Announces Intention to File Patriot Act FOIA Request

    American Libraries Online, January 13, 2006: "The American Library Association's Executive Board intends to file a Freedom of Information Act request with the Federal Bureau of Investigation to determine if the FBI has been collecting information on the Association and its leaders as a result of their opposition to certain provisions of the USA Patriot Act. ALA OIF Deputy Director Deborah Caldwell-Stone said the FOIA request builds on the American Civil Liberties Union's discovery of information that leads it to believe that the FBI has been scrutinizing organizations that advocate changes to the Patriot Act. The request would focus on activities relating solely to the Association's advocacy concerning the Patriot Act."

    January 13, 2006
    * Wiki Provides Global Guidance to Keep Free Speech Alive

    Spirit of America sponsors The Anoniblogging Wiki: "This wiki contains our five initial guides on how to blog more safely [targeted to citizens in Saudi Arabia, Iran, China, Malaysia and Zimbabwe]. Across the globe, countries that discourage free speech have followed their citizens into the blogosphere. According to one count, in the last two years at least 30 bloggers (and there are no doubt more) have been interrogated, arrested, tortured and sentenced to long prison terms for the "crime" of speaking critically about their governments. Regardless of your culture, your country, your politics or religion, we believe you deserve to speak your mind without falling afoul of state power. Unfortunately, what you deserve and what you get are not always the same thing. So, for those of you who wish to speak out on your blogs, but who do not wish to risk imprisonment or worse for doing so, we have prepared guides that will help you to blog more safely by blogging more anonymously."

    January 10, 2006
    December 10, 2005
    * Online Rights Canada Launched

    "Online Rights Canada (ORC) is a grassroots organization that promotes the public's interest in technology and information policy. We believe that Canadians should have a voice in copyright law, access to information, freedom from censorship, and other issues that we face in the digital world." [press release]

    October 04, 2005
    * ACLU Files Appeal With Supreme Court on Librarian Gag Order

    Follow-up to my September 29, 2005 posting, Broad Coalition Pushes to Lift Gag Order Against Librarian, AP reports that yesterday the ACLU filed an appeal with the Supreme Court, the text of which is censored, to release an anonymous Connecticut librarian from a gag order concerning an FBI investigation into his/her organization's patron records.

  • ALA Joins Patriot Act Challenge in Supreme Court
  • September 22, 2005
    * Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-Dissidents

    From Reporters Without Borders, a new resource: Handbook for bloggers and cyber-dissidents (46 pages, PDF):

  • "Bloggers are often the only real journalists in countries where the mainstream media is censored or under pressure. Only they provide independent news, at the risk of displeasing the government and sometimes courting arrest. Reporters Without Borders has produced this handbook to help them, with handy tips and technical advice on how to to remain anonymous and to get round censorship, by choosing the most suitable method for each situation. It also explains how to set up and make the most of a blog, to publicise it (getting it picked up efficiently by search-engines) and to establish its credibility through observing basic ethical and journalistic principles."
  • August 31, 2005
    * Public Submits Questions for Roberts' Confirmation Hearings

    The Washington Post reported today (reg. req'd) on a new e-government initiative that is worth noting. Through the efforts of seven Democratic Senators (Barbara A. Mikulski, Barbara Boxer, Patty Murray, Mary L. Landrieu, Debbie Stabenow, Maria Cantwell, and Hillary Clinton), this website, Ask John Roberts, provides a voice to citizens to communicate their questions about Judge Roberts to the Judicary Committee.

    June 15, 2005
    * Civil Liberties Groups Submit Amicus Brief on Listserv Membership Protection Issue

    "EPIC joined eight civil liberties organizations to submit a "friend of the court" brief (38 pages, PDF) in Forensic Advisors v. Matrixx Initiatives, a case before the Maryland Court of Special Appeals in which a pharmaceutical company is attempting to force a newsletter publisher to disclose his subscriber list. The company wants to use the list in connection with a law suit it filed against numerous unidentified people who posted derogatory comments about the company on Internet discussion boards. The brief argues in favor of protecting the list under a Maryland law that protects journalists' sources. It also argues that the list is protected under the First Amendment, since disclosure of the list would deter readership and violate constitutionally established privacy rights."

    March 13, 2005
    * Memorable Quotes from Dan Rather

    From the National Journal, this article is worth savouring for those who appreciated what are referred to as "Ratherisms". Example:

  • "Let's pause and take a deep breath, appreciate it for what it is. This is the dance of democracy. This is as close as we come to a kind of a sacred time in this country. Election Day, where people go and pull the curtain behind them, no one but you and the electronics -- or however you vote -- just you and the ballot. This day votes only talk, everything else walks."
  • Will Dan become a blogger?
  • December 10, 2004
    * Blogging, Political Campaigns and Ethics

    This CBS News article examines the role of blogs and bloggers in the recent political campaigns. Specifically, it spotlights the use of blogs in support of Republican John Thune's race for the South Dakota Senate seat. The bloggers in question did not provide disclaimers on their respecitve sites indicating they had received payment totaling $35,000 as Thune's "paid advisors."

    Related References

  • From the Center on Democracy and Technology, Background on Free Speech & Campaigns/Elections: "The rapidly growing use of the Internet by ordinary citizens to express political opinions and participate in electoral activities - one of the medium's most promising aspects - is on a collision course with federal campaign finance law."
  • From AP: Election rules could reach Internet Court ruling: Extend some finance and spending limits to Net

  • From Howard Dean, a commentary on online fundraising: It's about people, not just money

  • December 11, 2003
    * McCain-Feingold Upheld by Supreme Court

    The text of Wednesday's Supreme Court decision, McConnell v. Federal Election Commission, upholding the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform bill (S. 25), is here in pdf (298 pages).

    December 02, 2003
    * Information Rights and the Internet

    The Internet and the right to communicate: "This paper examines the development of a right to communicate and how it can be defined and implemented."

    November 17, 2003
    * Freedom of Speech in the Digital Age

    Media Ownership and Democracy in the Digital Information Age - Promoting Diversity with First Amendment Principles and Market Structure Analysis (313 pages, pdf).

    November 14, 2003
    * E-Voting Machine Co. Docs. on Product Flaws Published on Web

    An EFF advisory addresses a legal challenge (initiated by two Swarthmore students, an ISP and a privacy group) in response to cease and desist orders issued by an electronic voting machine manufacturer. These orders were in response to the publication on the web of some 13,000 pages of internal corporate documents which included extensive discussion of equipment flaws. The manufacturer, Diebold Systems, Inc. is one of the country's largest suppliers of touch screening voting technology, with 33,000 of their machines in use in 37 states.

  • From the Baltimore Sun, November 13: "Dr. Aviel D. Rubin, the technical director of Hopkins' Information Security Institute, who identified security lapses in the voting system Maryland is adopting took his warnings to Annapolis Thursday, telling legislators he has no confidence the flaws are being fixed."
  • [Link]

    Related resources from EFF:

  • Online Policy Group v. Diebold case archive

  • Security researchers discover huge flaws in e-voting system

  • Students Fight E-Vote Firm and Diebold threatens publishers of leaked electronic-voting documents

  • Related articles include:

  • From the New York Times, Machine Politics in the Digital Age

  • From the Daily Princetonian, Students sue over voting vulnerability

  • From PCworld.com, Diebold Voting Case Tests DMCA

  • November 06, 2003
    * Coalition of Booksellers, Publishers and Librarians Files Brief Challenging Patriot Act

    "On November 3, the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression and free speech groups representing librarians, publishers, writers and others filed a brief [in support of the ACLU's complaint filed July 30] that strongly supports a legal challenge to the constitutionality of the provision of the USA Patriot Act that gives the FBI virtually unlimited access to personal, organization and business records, including bookstore and library records. The U.S. Justice Department has filed a motion to dismiss the case." [Link]

  • Text of the brief, filed in the District Court, ED Michigan.
  • October 15, 2003
    * Prosecutors Request That Computer Fraud Conviction Be Reversed

    Bret McDanel, a former employee of Tornado Development, Inc., served a 16 month sentence for violating the Computer Fraud & Abuse Act. After leaving Tornado, a provider of Unified Messaging (UM) solutions, he sent an email to thousands of the company's customers detailing a corporate email security flaw. End of story? Apparently not, as today AP reported that Assistant U.S. Attorney Ronald L. Cheng (LA) requested that the court reverse Mr. McDanel's conviction, stating that an "error" had been made, as McDanel did "not intentionally impair the [email] system by reporting its security flaws."

    July 01, 2003
    * CA Court Rules Former Employee's Spam Protected Speech

    From Boston.internet.com: "In a blow for chipmaker Intel, the California Supreme Court Monday found that senders of spam e-mails cannot be sued under state law forbidding property trespass. The 4 to 3 ruling reversed a lower court injunction preventing former Intel engineer Ken Hamidi from sending e-mails critical of Intel to thousands of its employees." See my previous posting, California Supreme Court Reviews E-Mail Case, which links to numerous resources on this case.

    June 23, 2003
    * Supreme Court Backs Net Filters For Libraries

    In a 6 to 3 decision (56 pages, pdf) released today in United States v. American Library Association (02-361), the Supreme Court ruled that the Children's Internet Protection Act does not violate the First Amendment, and Congress can thereby require the use of Internet filters by public libraries receiving federal funds.

    See also:

  • My related postings on this case here and here.

  • This June 23 press release from the American Library Association (ALA), ALA denounces the Supreme Court ruling on Children's Internet Protection Act.

  • ACLU Disappointed in Ruling on Internet Censorship in Libraries, But Sees Limited Impact for Adults

  • An April 1, 2003 article from Library Journal (registration req'd), Supreme Court Justices Appear Highly Divided in CIPA Case, that provides quotes from the March 5 oral arguments.
  • and
  • The Court and the University, by Ronald Dworkin, from the May 15, 2003 New York Review of Books.

  • Many libraries will skip grants to avoid using Net filters

  • New York Times Editorial, Internet Filters and Free Speech


  • May 30, 2003
    * Piracy and Free Speech Issues In California Case

    DVD-CCA v. Bunner, on appeal before the California Supreme Court, involves the posting of free software for the DeCSS code (to decrypt DVDs) by Andrew Bunner on his website. Prior to the beginning of this case in 2000, the DeCSS code had been published widely on sites around the world. According to SFGate.com, "California Attorney General Bill Lockyer joined the movie industry in contending that the DeCSS code was simply a burglary tool designed for breaking, entering and stealing a trade secret -- the industry-owned code designed to prevent unauthorized playback of movies recorded on digital versatile discs, or DVDs." See also this posting on the case from Freedom to Tinker.

    May 19, 2003
    * CIPA, Net Filtering and the Supreme Court

    From Seth Finkelstein's Infothought blog, this informative posting on Internet software filtering company N2H2's current 10Q filing which includes the following language: "Free speech and privacy concerns could adversely affect the demand for our Internet filtering solutions."

    On a related issue, see my April 10 posting: U.S. District Judge Richard G. Stearns (MA) dismissed a lawsuit by the ACLU on behalf of Harvard law student and cyber-activist Ben Edelman who argued a first amendment right to create software to decrypt an Internet blocking program by N2H2.

    May 12, 2003
    * ACLU Report on 9/11

    A new 28 page ACLU report (pdf), Freedom Under Fire: Dissent in Post-9/11 America, documents instances of "censorship, surveillance, detention, denial of due process and excessive force" on the part of the government. See the press release here.

    April 29, 2003
    * Supreme Court Rejects Internet Jurisdiction Case

    The Supreme Court has declined to hear the appeal of Healthgrades.com v. Northwest Healthcare Alliance Inc.

    April 22, 2003
    * Supreme Court Considers Internet Jurisdiction Case

    The Supreme Court is scheduled to consider this Friday the case of Healthgrades.com v. Northwest Healthcare Alliance Inc. for their fall docket (No. 02-1250). This case is of considerable interest in light of the recent Internet jurisdiction decision from Australia, Dow Jones and Company v. Gutnick, which was back in the news last week.

    For a well documented discussion of the 9th Circuit decision, Northwest Healthcare Alliance Inc. v. Healthgrades.Com, Inc., (C.A. 9 (Wash.), 2002 WL 31246123 (unpublished), please see 9th Circuit Adopts "Effects Test" in Online Jurisdiction Case.

    April 03, 2003
    * California Supreme Court Reviews E-Mail Case

    On April 2, the California Supreme Court heard oral argument in the appeal of Intel v Hamidi. Hamidi is a former Intel employee who after his termination, on six separate occasions, used the company's internal e-mail address listing to send messages to 30,000 employees.

    See also these related articles: Intel e-mail issue divides court and Trespassing or Free Speech?

    March 06, 2003
    * CDT Opposes Maryland Bill Impacting ISPs

    Maryland House Bill 661, Internet Child Pornography - Removal, is opposed by the advocacy group Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT). CDT staff counsel John B. Morris testified before the Judiciary Committee Maryland House of Delegates on March 4 that the bill has "...due process problems under the Fourteenth Amendment, free speech problems under the First Amendment, technical problems that create a risk of instability for the Internet, and effectiveness problems..."

    The CDT contends that the Maryland bill is substantively similar to a Pennsylvania law, and would result in the indiscriminate blocking of potentially hundreds of sites.


    February 06, 2003
    * EU Protocol on Internet Speech

    From Writ, this article, Can Europe Block Racist Websites from its Borders? refers to the Additional Protocol to the Convention on cybercrime, concerning the criminalisation of acts of a racist and xenophobic nature committed through computer systems, ETS No.: 189. This treaty is now open for signature by the States which have signed the Treaty ETS 185, the Convention on Cybercrime.

    January 28, 2003
    * Homeland Security Dept. to Limit Data

    The Department of Homeland Security quickly issued, without benefit of public comment, new final interim regulations limiting public access to secret and sensitive agency information under the Freedom of Information Act and Privacy Act Procedures.

    January 03, 2003
    * Another Internet Libel Suit

    From the High Court of Australia, to the Fourth Circuit, and now the Fifth Circuit, jurisdiction issues as they apply to Internet libel cases are in the spotlight. The Fifth Circuit, in Oliver "Buck" Revell v. Lidov and Columbia University, affirmed the United States District Court For the Northern District of Texas decision that Revell, former Associate Deputy Director of the FBI under Reagan, and a resident of Texas, could not sue the author of an article critical of his role in the Pan Am Flight 103 tragedy over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988, that was posted on a Columbia University owned website.

    December 26, 2002
    * Australian Libel Law Suit

    Penn State Prof. of Journalsim R. Thomas Berner's commentary on the December 10 Australian Internet libel case highlights concerns voiced elsewhere that ramifications of the case may include blocking access to sites in other countries to avoid more such litigation.

    December 19, 2002
    * Net Snooping Here and Abroad

    There is evidence of a slow but steady groundswell of citizen concern about, and local government response to, increased online surveillance as a result of the Patriot Act. Wired highlighted the work of a new grassroots organization called the Bill of Rights Defence Committee that is assisting municipalities in the passage of resolutions opposing the Patriot Act and related executive orders. According to the organization, "21 cities, towns, and counties...have already passed resolutions."

    Across the Atlantic, there is also growing concern over similar surveillance and data collection efforts focused on UK citizens. See this BBC article for details.

    December 11, 2002
    * Liability on the Internet Goes Global

    The High Court of Australia issued a ruling on December 10 in the Internet defamation case Dow Jones and Company v. Gutnick. The case may have global implications for the increasingly wired publishing world. It stipulates that Web publishers of any description (be they huge corporate entities or individual weblogers) can be sued anywhere in the world in which an individual contends the publication is available and has harmed/defamed him/her.

    December 04, 2002
    * More On Internet Censorship In China

    Jonathan Zittrain and Benjamin Edelman from the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School have published a new report on Web censorship: Empirical Analysis of Internet Filtering in China.

    From the abstract: "The authors are collecting data on the methods, scope, and depth of selective barriers to Internet access through Chinese networks. Tests from May 2002 through November 2002 indicate at least four distinct and independently operable methods of Internet filtering, with a documentable leap in filtering sophistication beginning in September 2002."

    December 02, 2002
    * China Net Censorship

    Amnesty International has published a well researched report on the impact of state controls on Internet access to one of world's fasted growing population of users. The report provides a timeline that documents the imposition of various controls and regulations on Web access since its introduction to the public in 1995, and their impact on individuals and the society as a whole.

    If you are interested in this issue, I refer you to related work on this topic referenced under my other postings here.

    November 02, 2002
    * Child Online Protection Act Back in Court

    The controversial Child Online Protection Act which specifies the "requirement to restrict access by minors to materials commercially distributed by means of the World Wide Web that are harmful to minors," is currently under review again by U.S. Court of Appeals, Third Circuit. In May 2002, the Supreme Court remanded the case, Ashcroft v. ACLU, back to this court to once again consider the constitutionality of creating barriers to Internet access. The 3rd Circuit had granted a preliminary injunction in the case, ACLU v. Reno, in June 2002.

    EPIC maintains a resource center with links to court and legislative documents from these cases.

    October 30, 2002
    * Advocacy Group for Free Speech

    The Free Expression Project, founded in 2000, is sustained by grants from a diverse group of backers that include the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and the Rockefeller Foundation. The organization advocates in court, through the publication of reports and surveys, and by the sponsorship of conferences, for an end to restrictions of expression on publicaly funded organizations such as libraries, museum, and universities.

    October 09, 2002
    * Student Web Site Prevails in Battle with University

    The University of California at San Diego has taken alot of flack for their attempt to force a student site to remove web links to revolutionary groups on university owned servers. See my previous posting on this topic.

    The University has now decided to recind their demand on basis of the students right to free speech, but maintains that the students should remove link to terrorist organizations from another site they operate.

    October 08, 2002
    * Student Press Law Center

    The Student Press Law Center is a non-profit organization that advocates on behalf of the legal rights of student journalists. The site boasts excellent graphics and useful content that includes news releases, a legal resource center with links to materials on Press Freedom & Censorship, Access to Records, Meetings & Places, Cyberlaw: Internet & Online Media, Libel & Privacy Invasion, Protecting Sources & Information, Copyright Law and Advertising, and a State Open Records Law Request Letter Generator.

    October 04, 2002
    * Briefs in Cyberslapping Cases

    cyberSLAPP.org maintains a library of briefs for researchers to track cases in which users of e-mail or web sites were sued for their speech and ISP's were sued for access to personal data on such individuals.

    * Global Internet Censorship

    There is a growing concern in the U.S. about state sponsored Internet censorship in countries throughout the world. Jonathan Zittrain and Benjamin Edelman at Harvard are skillfully documenting this activity. Now Congress is responding to Web filtering with a bi-partisan legislative initiative, H.R. 5524. This bill seeks to "develop and deploy technologies to defeat Internet jamming and censorship."

    * Recording Industry Battles Verizon Over Music Trader

    Declan McCullagh's coverage of the RIAA v. Verizon cases notes that at issue are copyright, privacy and free speech arguments. The two companies are battling over access to the identity of a subscriber accused of file trading. Declan links to an amicus brief filed on behalf of Verizon by high profile advocacy groups that include EPIC and the EFF, which also happens to maintain an archive of links to legal documents on this case.

    For those that are interested, the RIAA v. Verizon Complaint is here, and Verizon's reply is here.

    October 02, 2002
    * What Are CyberSLAPP Lawsuits?

    Cyber-critics, free speech and online anonymous web postings have become a combustable combination. The result is cyberSLAPP law suits, which seek to force ISPs to reveal the names of those who have posted anonymous statements critical of high profile individuals.

    An example of just such a case involves a Pennsylvania judge and a now defunct web site, which I discussed in my posting, Judge v. Anonymous Web Critic.

    To monitor cases and information on this issue, I recommend cyberSLAPP.org, founded in July 2002, and "sponsored by a coalition of civil liberties and privacy groups." Here you will find links to full-text of cyberSLAPP briefs and opinions.