Electronic Frontier Foundation

Hacking the Law: Fights Over Cyber-Security and a Silicon Valley Divide

Privileged Information: The Fight for an Open Internet

Federal Agents Used Controversial Trackers Without Warrants

Controversial devices used to track cell phones and mobile Internet devices were used by local federal law enforcement without the necessary permission from a judge, according to recent e-mails. Federal investigators in Arizona have been taken to court over the use of "stingrays," electronic devic ... More >>

Mysterious Suitors: OkCupid's Latest Venture Might be a Ruse

Clogging the Courts With Technological Nonsense

Let's take a quick romp through a few recent examples of tech jackassery in the legal system: First, the Supreme Court has declined to review the case of Jammie Thomas-Rasset, the Brainerd, Minn., woman who is one of the more notable victims of the Recording Industry Association of America's insane ... More >>

S.F. Group Sues Over Predator Drone Privacy Rules

Do thoughts of miniature helicopters hovering and peeking into your bedroom keep you up at night? Maybe you are worried about Uncle Sam seeing what you do when nobody is watching? Well, so is the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a San Francisco-based digital civil liberties group that filed a lawsui ... More >>

Judge Temporarily Blocks Proposition 35, Sex Trafficking Law

Election Day has passed, and you know what that means: Now the lawsuits begin.Today a judge granted a temporary stay to block part of Proposition 35, the measure passed on Tuesday that says those convicted of sex trafficking should be restricted on the Internet. The measure also increases prison sen ... More >>

Movement to Digitize Libraries Gains San Francisco Ally

Some might think that libraries would hate the idea of being digitalized -- the scanning of books, papers and other texts and creating a virtual counterpart. But turns out, that's not actually the case.Organizations, including the San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation and the American L ... More >>

Turns Out, The Porn Industry Is as Sleazy as The Music Business

When you read a description like "Las Vegas attorney ... who represents a major adult film company," it's a safe bet that the fellow being described probably isn't fighting poverty or working on a human-rights campaign. And in this case, that bet would be the right one. Marc Randazza has been busil ... More >>

S.F. Digital Civil Liberties Group Defends TheOatmeal.com Creator

Here's a phrase you don't read in a federal lawsuit very often: ...a carnivorous, prehistoric flying reptile that first rips the intestines out of a man's anus, then flogs him with his entrails, then steals a pineapple from a boy, tears his head off, flings it [at] a girl and knocks her head off, t ... More >>

Digital Civil Rights Group Says Yelp Isn't Responsible for Bad Reviews

The San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation is urging a federal appeals court to block an attempt by disgruntled businesses" to hold online forums, including Yelp, responsible for customer's reviews. In a friend-of-the-court brief filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ... More >>

Megaupload Users Demand Data Recovery

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a local organization protecting civil liberties in the digital world, will ask a federal judge to allow lawful Megaupload users to have their files back. A hearing is scheduled for Friday at the federal courthouse in Alexandria, Virginia where EFF staff attorney ... More >>

S.F. Civil Liberties Group Wants Feds to Stop Being So Secretive about Drones

​The Electronic Frontier Foundation is suing the U.S. Department of Transportation, claiming that the feds are withholding important details about drones -- the unmanned aircraft used in the military --  and under what circumstances public and private entities be allowed to use them. Accordin ... More >>

Judge Grants Feds Access to Twitter Accounts as Part of WikiLeaks Investigation

Only you and the government know your passwords​In a major blow to Internet privacy, a district court judge ruled today that federal investigators were allowed to collect private records of three Twitter users as part of their investigation related to WikiLeaks.According to the Electronic Frontier ... More >>

Copyright Fight the Subject of Juvenile Flamewars

​To the uninitiated, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce might sound like a larger version of local chambers of commerce: something like the Elks or the Rotary Club, where dull businesspeople get together for dull meetings to eat rubber chicken and to "network." But the U.S. Chamber is the largest lobb ... More >>

WikiLeaks Investigation: Electronic Frontier Foundation Fights to Keep Twitter Records Private

How private can you really be on the Internet?​Last month, a lower court ruled against the San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation, which tried to block the U.S. Government from obtaining secret tweets for its WikiLeaks investigation. Now the EFF, which works to protect the people's dig ... More >>

Metal Detectors, ID Scans at S.F. Nightclubs up for Debate

Can't we have fun without killing each other?San Francisco is considering draconian safety measures at night clubs, including metal detectors and ID scans -- not even Oakland does that!Although Jocelyn Kane, executive director of the Entertainment Commission, tells SF Weekly that it's unlikely such ... More >>

Anarchy in the U.S.

Don't Panic

Internet 'Kill Switch' Bill -- What Is This, Egypt?

You can find Uma on the internet, too...​Looking back at the momentous goings on in Egypt of late, there are plenty of takeaways to go around. Here's one: Should the government have the power to sever society from the Internet?  U.S. lawmakers are considering another attempt to push through a ... More >>

Wikileaks Supporters Rally in San Francisco

Gil RiegoRainey Reitman of the Electronic Frontier Foundation speaks in support of Julian Assange and Bradley Manning​ Martin MacKerel wanted to make sure no one got confused about the location of a hastily organized rally in favor of Wikileaks and its founder, Jullian Assange. Around 50 demon ... More >>

Travel writer Edward Hasbrouck sues Homeland Security over travel data

Nina Draws the Truth

Berkeley NIMBYs Sue to Halt Mitch Kapor's 10-Car-Garage Mansion

Okay, that's not the Berkeley Hills; it's Versailles. But even at Versailles they don't have a 10-car garage. ​Residents of of the Berkeley hills wouldn't seem to be the type that minds ostentatiousness. Typical dwellings, such as the one enjoyed by Tenderloin poverty Czar Randy Shaw, sport upward ... More >>

Will Big Winners in Facebook Privacy Flap Be Politicians?

And Facebook users are making it easy for him...​We've written a bit about how the furor over Facebook's opening of more user data to prying eyes could cost Attorney General candidate -- and former Facebook Chief Privacy Officer -- Chris Kelly. But for politicians who don't have high-profile Faceb ... More >>

Disclosing Your Love of Drugs and Porn on Facebook Now Worse Idea than Ever

Facebook now allows its users to embarrass themselves more effectively than ever! ​Remember -- it ain't a secret if it's between you, your friends, and millions of Internet voyeurs. So, your job at the Wienerschnitzel, hobby of cultivating vast quantities of marijuana, and deep appreciation for th ... More >>

DJ, Party Guest Given Back Laptops Confiscated By Cops

SF Weekly's Jennifer Maerz earlier this month broke the story about an apparently far-reaching San Francisco Police strategy to keep that damn noise down. Cops, it seems, were systematically seizing the laptops of DJs playing at underground parties -- or, in some cases, even some who claim they were ... More >>

SFPD Returns Laptops to DJ, Party Guest (from The Snitch)

Tom Dougherty​Fellow SF Weekly reporter Joe Eskenazi followed up on the story I broke Nov. 16 about problems DJs and partygoers were having with the SFPD seizing laptops and DJ equipment. This morning, Electronic Frontier Foundation's Jennifer Granick represented a DJ and a partygoer from a SOMA H ... More >>

S.F. cops may have gone too far in seizing DJ gear at underground parties

Worms in the Apple

Two rebels take on America's most beloved computer company.

Local Tech Activists Advise You to NOT Use a Computer?

During the aftermath of the Iranian elections, protesters widely utilized Twitter to communicate. More and more, activists in foreign countries ruled by oppressive governments are using social networking and the Web to connect with each other. Of course, when even the U.S. government has employed co ... More >>

Who Owns Muni's Arrival and Departure Times? That Depends on Whom You Ask.

Jim HerdIs the city having a NextBus meltdown?It was Benito Mussolini who was credited for making Italy's trains run on time -- even though he didn't, and the notion of an Italian train running on time is rather novel. The notion of San Francisco trains running on time is quaint as well, which is wh ... More >>

Cruise Control

Public health advocates want gay hookup Web sites to promote safe sex.

Swiss Bank Tells Wikileaks: "Just Kidding!"

EFF, ACLU Go to Bat for Wikileaks

Proudly Wasting Bandwidth in SF Weekly Letters

BitTorrent, Comcast, EFF Antipathetic To FCC Regulation of P2P Traffic

This Week's Day-by-Day Picks

Polishing the Brass

Judging from last week's Music Law Summit West, the future of the music biz is unclear – but that's not what the RIAA wants you to think

Raw Sue-age

Let us not squander the gift of mass lawsuits against average Joes: Fuck the RIAA!

Download or Die

The RIAA's war on the consumer

The International Poindextering of Poindexter

Is it good or bad if 124 Web sites around the world post the home phone number of the architect of Total Information Awareness?

House of Tudor

Free-speech wrestlers, all-girl boy bands, musical ninjitsu, and a restored Metropolis

Ransom Notes

Can one man convince millions of people to pay for their "free" music?

Dog Bites

Unspun

Slap Shots

Dog Bites

Night Crawler

Mondo 1995

Mondo 2000 nailed the emerging cybersexcomputerdrug Zeitgeist with its first issue in 1989, making media mavens out of its founders, Queen Mu and R.U. Sirius. But the trippy, fractious family that was Mondo began to implode in 1993, torn asunder by inter