ABOUT THE ELECTRONIC FRONTIER FOUNDATION ======================================== The Electronic Frontier Foundation P.O. Box 170190 San Francisco CA 94117 USA +1 415 668 7171 (voice) +1 415 668 7007 (fax) Internet: ask@eff.org Updated: Sept. 30, 1995 Table of Contents ----------------- Introduction Mission Statement EFF: Working to Protect Essential Civil Liberties EFF: Representing the Interests of the Public Online EFF: Building the Community Accomplishments and Goals EFF's Staff and Board How EFF Is Funded How and Where to Find EFF Online Membership in the Electronic Frontier Foundation: Why You Should Join EFF Membership Form EFF PGP Public Key for Encryption ____________________________________________________________________________ Introduction ------------ A new world is arising in the vast web of digital, electronic media which connect us. Computer-based communications media like electronic mail and computer conferencing are becoming the basis of new forms of community. These communities without a single, fixed geographical location comprise the first settlements on an electronic frontier. Digital networks offer a tremendous potential to empower individuals in an ever-overpowering world. However, these communications networks are also the subject of significant debate concerning governance and freedom. While well-established legal principles and the standards of physical communities give structure and coherence to uses of conventional media like newspapers, books, and telephones, the new digital media do not so easily fit into existing frameworks. What jurisdiction's laws can hope to apply justly to a medium that is both nowhere and everywhere at the same time? Serious conflicts come about as the law struggles to define its application in a context where fundamental notions of speech, property, and place take profoundly new forms. People sense both the promises and the threats inherent in the use of new computer and communications technologies, even as they struggle to master or simply cope with them in the workplace and the home: - How do we balance intellectual property rights with the free flow of information? - How do we simultaneously provide for free expression and allow individuals to shield themselves or their children from material they find offensive? - How do we determine which country's laws, if any, sensibly have jurisdiction over media that involve global communications? - How do we protect privacy and security while still fostering accountability and responsibility? - How do we ensure that legislators, access providers, and network users do not stifle speech they disagree with? The Electronic Frontier Foundation is dedicated to finding ways to resolve these and other conflicts while ensuring that essential civil liberties are protected. Mission Statement ----------------- The Electronic Frontier Foundation has been established to help civilize the electronic frontier; to make it truly useful and beneficial not just to a technical elite, but to everyone; and to do this in a way which is in keeping with our society's highest traditions of the free and open flow of information and communication. To that end, the Electronic Frontier Foundation will: * engage in and support educational activities which increase popular understanding of the opportunities and challenges posed by developments in computing and telecommunications; * develop among policy-makers a better understanding of the issues underlying free and open telecommunications, and support the creation of legal and structural approaches which will ease the assimilation of these new technologies by society; * raise public awareness about civil liberties issues arising from the rapid advancement in the area of new computer-based communications media; * support litigation in the public interest to preserve, protect, and extend First Amendment rights within the realm of computing and telecommunications technology; * encourage and support the development of new tools which will endow non-technical users with full and easy access to computer-based telecommunications. EFF: Working to Protect Essential Civil Liberties ------------------------------------------------- The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) was founded in July of 1990 to ensure that civil liberties, such as privacy and freedom of expression, are protected as new communications technologies emerge. To this end: * EFF sponsors cases such as the Steve Jackson Games case and Bernstein v. Department of State and NSA, in which users' online civil liberties have been violated. Additionally, EFF submits amicus briefs and finds pro bono counsel when possible for important legal cases. We continue to monitor for legal actions that merit EFF support. * EFF works to ensure that communications carriers do not deny service to network users solely on the basis of the content of their messages, and that carriers do not bear liability for the actions of users over whom carriers do not excercise control. * EFF produces legal white papers and testifies before legislative and regulatory bodies, to inform lawmakers, system operators, telephone companies, public utility commissions, national leaders and the public about the civil liberties implications of their actions and reactions. We monitor legislation and agency actions affecting the online community. We also work with EFF members and groups of members, and other organizations, on local, state and national levels to affect change in legislation and policy. * EFF provides a free telephone hotline for members of the online community who have questions regarding their legal rights. * EFF speaks to law enforcement organizations, state attorney bar associations, conferences and summits, and university classes on the work that we do and how these groups and individuals can become involved. EFF: Representing the Interests of the Public Online ----------------------------------------------------- EFF works to convince Congress that measures that support broader public access to information should be enacted into law. EFF supports an Electronic Freedom of Information Act and other legislation to make government information more accessible to citizens. EFF supports both legal and technical means to enhance privacy in communications. We, therefore, advocate measures that ensure the public's right to use the most effective encryption technologies available, and have testified before Congress as well as conducted online campaigns against the NSA's "Clipper Chip" initiative. EFF works to make sure that common carriage principles are upheld in the information age. Common carriage principles require that network providers carry all speech, regardless of its controversial content. EFF supports a new common carriage system in which system operators are shielded from liability for the actions of users, but without the regulatory burden presently associated with common carriage. EFF supports an Open Platform model of the global information infrastructure, providing non-discriminatory access, based on open, private- sector standards, and free from burdensome regulation. Finally, EFF works to craft policies that enable public and private information providers to distribute and sell their information products over the Internet. We encourage the government to provide support for schools, universities, and research labs that buy Internet services on the open market. We work on policies that encourage the government to stimulate the development of experimental, precompetitive, network technologies and to fund the development of applications that are of use to "low-end" users, who are traditionally underserved by advanced digital media. EFF: Building the Community --------------------------- In order to foster community and openness, EFF works with local organizations that support online communications issues. In January of 1993, EFF sponsored a summit of groups from around the country to discuss common goals. Since then, EFF, in an advisory ally role, has helped other "Electronic Frontiers" organizations get started in Ireland, Canada, Norway, Australia, New Hampshire and elsewhere around the country and the world. EFF, in conjunction with many other organizations, has formed and participates in a number of coalitions and summits to bring together thinkers from the non-profit/NGO world, communications and computing industry leaders, government policy makers (when appropriate), and grass-roots advocates in a nonpartisan setting to discuss communications policy goals and strategies and to form balanced solutions to problems. Such efforts to date have included the Communications Policy Forum, the Digital Privacy and Security Working Group, and the Intellectual Property Working Group (EFF organized), as well as the Interactive Working Group and the Stop S.314 Coalition (with EFF as an active participant). EFF publishes an electronic newsletter, _EFFector_Online_, to inform our members and other interested parties, including members of the press, several Senators, CEOs of high-technology enterprises, and key staffers in other organizations, about events and issues in online civil liberties and network-based social change. EFF maintains several communications forums on the Internet. We have our own Internet node which houses our FTP, gopher, and WWW information servers, as well as our own Internet and Usenet conferences, including comp.eff.org.talk. EFF also maintains active conferences on the Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link (WELL), CompuServe (CIS), America Online (AOL), GEnie, Women's Wire, and elsewhere. Outpost, the EFF bulletin board system, carries a wide selection of the files available on our Internet servers. Additionally, EFF answers hundreds of daily Internet-related and civil liberties questions from the community via telephone, postal mail and e-mail, whether they be technical ("How do I connect to the Internet?") or legal ("Does my boss have the right to read my e-mail?"). We have built up a strong reputation in the online communition as an excellent source of information about life in Cyberspace, and as the home of the largest archive of online civil liberties information in the world. Accomplishments and Goals ------------------------- In 1994: * EFF won the Steve Jackson Games case, where a federal court affirmed that electronic mail cannot be read by law enforcement officers without a court- authorized wiretap warrant. * EFF ensured that privacy protections for transactional information were added to the FBI's Digital Telephony legislation. This year, we will fight to keep its dangerous wiretap provisions from being funded without a strong showing by the FBI that such measures are necessary and justifiable. * EFF fought successfully to exempt the Internet, BBSs, and other online services from the re-engineering and design requirements of the Digital Telephony legislation. * EFF educated health care reform legislators about the importance of security and privacy of health records and medical information. * EFF provided, through our online counsel and legal clinic, immediate assistance to hundreds of system operators and online service users in crisis, throughout the year. * EFF led the opposition against the "Clipper Chip" key escrow encryption proposal and the unconstitutional ITAR export restrictions on cryptographic products. We coordinated a massive grassroots and private-industry assault on the proposal. Clipper is now functionally dead, with large portions of the proposal completely abandoned and the rest unsupported by industry or the public. So far in 1995: * EFF assembled and sponsored the legal team that has filed a groundbreaking suit that will take on export controls on encryption in federal court. The export controls are a violation of free speech and press rights, and privacy, and are seriously hampering US participation in a fast-growing and increasinly important global field. * Helped find pro bono counsel to represent the key defendants in the Church of Scientology's assault on free speech on the Net. CoS has attempted to close down Usenet newsgroups, has filed a lawsuits against critics, and has obtained restraining orders against one online critic, his BBS system operator, and that operator's Internet service provider. In addition, COS has compromised the security of an Internet remailer service and has made legal threats against many other system operators, remailer operators, and users critical of Scientology's teachings and practices. * With other civil rights organizations, we called upon the G7 nations to establish the protection of the free flow of information as a core principle of the Global Information Infrastructure. * We are supporting board members Esther Dyson and Mitch Kapor in their work on the federal US National Information Infrastructure Advisory Council to develop privacy protection principles for the NII. We are assisting this civilian NII advisory panel on encryption, security, intellectual property, and free expression issues as well. * We have spoken with Senator Jim Exon's staff to reassess the proposed language of his dangerous "Communications Decency Act of 1995", and we have taken part in broad and successful coalitions to increase opposition to this and similar censorship measures, and to introduce and support counter-bills, such as those sponsored by Senator Leahy, and Representatives Klink, Cox and Wyden. * EFF has worked to expose the weaknesses and fallacies of the so-called "Carnegie-Mellon University online pornography study" by CMU student Marty Rimm. The study, which presented demonstrably false information as fact, had been the centerpiece of Sen. Charles Grassley's own Internet censorship efforts, and had been quoted as if conclusive by several legislators, news publications, and extremist pro-censorship organizations, Our efforts, in conjunction with independent investigative journalism and network users' fact-finding, have turned the tide, exposing the "study" as a little better than a hoax, and strongly influencing Congressional hearings on the Internet in the process. * We have filed an amicus brief opposing the conviction of the two system operators of a California bulletin board system, who were charged with distribution of obscenity in Memphis, Tennessee using Memphis community standards. Our brief argues that 1) individual states have little or no justification for attempting to regulate content when it is not on public display and does not otherwise affect any terrestrial community; 2) technological means rather than laws should be employed to allow people to screen themselves from material they do not want, and to prevent access to such material by their children; and 3) where these self-selection methods are employed, online communities should have the right to set their own standards. Our agenda for the coming year includes the following: * EFF will maintain our efforts to inform and organized concerned citizens, and foster directed action on crucial issues such as anti-cryptographic public policy mistakes, unconstitional legislation, ill-considered attempts to greatly expand law enforcement and intelligence agencies' surveillance capabilities and authority, public access to government information and to communications media, as well as the unsettled and unsettling intersection of outmoded law and new media. * EFF will continue to fight for the privacy of transactional data and to support the use and availability of strong encryption worldwide. Such privacy and security, and the technologies that make it possible, are essential to the continued growth and health of networked communications. * EFF will encourage and assisting in the formation of "Electronic Frontiers" civil liberties advocacy groups around the world, and will organize online and offline summits to forge a flexible alliance of grassroots activists acting locally on global issues when necessary, and acting globally on local issues when appropriate. * EFF will work for the development of legal definitions of the virtual community that are based not on physical location but on the voluntary association of such communities' constituents. * EFF will establish a Cyberspace Law Institute to analyze and develop new forms of dispute resolution better adapted to the still developing jurisdictions of cyberspace. * EFF will analyze potential threats and contributions to the Net worldwide. We are beginning to build the information base necessary to produce an annual "State of the Net" report which will study the Interet as an evolving system using an ecology and organism model. * EFF will study the condition of digital intellectual property rights and convene various interested parties to examine how value is currently being, and can be, exchanged online. Part of this process may also include a test bed of digital cash and transaction schemes, with a particular focus on privacy and security issues. EFF's Staff and Board --------------------- * EFF Board of Directors Esther Dyson Chair of the Board esther@eff.org John Perry Barlow Vice-Chair/Co-Founder barlow@eff.org Stewart Brand Boardmember Emeritus sbb@well.sf.ca.us Denise Caruso Boardmember Emeritus dcaruso@eff.org David Farber Boardmember farber@cis.upenn.edu John Gilmore Boardmember/Co-Founder gnu@toad.com Rob Glaser Boardmember robg@prognet.com Mitchell Kapor Boardmember/Co-Founder mkapor@kei.com Jane Metcalfe Boardmember Emeritus jane@wired.com Tim O'Reilly Boardmember tim@eff.org * EFF Staff Lori Fena Executive Director lori@eff.org Dan Brown Systems Administrator brown@eff.org Mike Godwin Staff Counsel mnemonic@eff.org Stanton McCandlish Online Activist mech@eff.org Shari Steele Staff Counsel ssteele@eff.org Eric Tachibana Online Services Coordinator erict@eff.org How EFF Is Funded ----------------- The Electronic Frontier Foundation is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt, non-profit non-governmental organization in Washington, DC. Our total budget ranges from approximately $1.5 million to $2 million annually. Like many other public interest advocacy groups, EFF sustains its activities through membership dues, individual donations and gifts, and foundation and corporate grants. EFF is not government-funded. Supporters have included: Adobe Systems Apple Computers AT&T Bauman Foundation Bell Atlantic Benton Foundation Dun & Bradstreet Electronic Messaging Association IBM Interval Research Kaleida Lotus Development Corp. MCI Telecommunications Microsoft Corporation Netscape Communications Newspaper Assoc. of America NCTA PictureTel RSA Data Security Sun Microsystems Tides Foundation UUNet/AlterNet Ziff-Davis EFF's policy goals and advocacy positions are determined by EFF's board and staff. In support of these positions, EFF does, from time to time, assemble political coalitions that include EFF corporate funders and other public interest organizations. For example, corporations such as Lotus Development Corporation, RSA Data Security, and Apple Computer have contributed funding for EFF's digital privacy work, and such concerned funders may work with EFF to give testimony before Congress, issue policy analyses, and otherwise disseminate information and effect change. Major individual donations and foundation and corporate grants range from $10,000 to $250,000+. EFF also receives many smaller donations from individuals supportive of its work. EFF has over 2,000 members who give dues of $10-$500 annually (average membership dues are $40 per year). Additionally, special projects and programs may generate funding in other ways. Examples of this include the EFF/Aerosmith Virtual World Tour of Cyberspace, and the EFFweb sponsorship program. EFF will continue to seek funding from all who support our basic mission, be they individuals, foundations or corporations. We do not tailor our positions to please funding sources, but we do accept funds for specific projects that fit our overall mission, as well as for continuing operations. How and Where to Find EFF Online -------------------------------- Please note that our archives and forums are updated frequently. You may wish to check back periodically. * Internet and USENET News Services and Forums for Discussion: If you receive any Usenet newsgroups, your site may carry the newsgroups comp.org.eff.news and comp.org.eff.talk. The former is a moderated newsgroup for announcements, newsletters, and other information; the latter is an unmoderated discussion group for talk and debate on EFF and issues relating to the electronic frontier and civil liberties. Also, Usenet's alt.politics.datahighway may be of interest. This conference was started by EFF in November of 1993, to provide a forum for discussion of the national and global information infrastructure, from testbed deployment, through privacy and free speech issues, to debunking of hype. There are also redistributions of these newsgroups via electronic mail, as well as other EFF mailing lists: comp-org-eff-talk Mail<-->news gate of newsgroup comp.org.eff.talk (high-traffic) ACTION A working group and news forum for online activism and grassroots civil liberties advocacy. effector-online Distribution of EFFector Online, EFF's bi-weekly newsletter (same as comp.org.eff.news). net-guide- Monthly updates to EFF's Guide to the Internet (previously Big Dummy's Guide, published in hardcopy by MIT Press as Everybody's Guide.) alt-politics-datahighway Mail<-->news gateway of the newsgroup alt.politics.datahighway comp-academic-freedom-talk Discussion of Computers and Academic Freedom (available in several versions). For more detailed descriptions, send a message containing the commands: HELP LONGINDEX in the body of your message to listserv@eff.org. Those in FidoNet and some other BBS networks can probably get the newsletter and other low-traffic lists via gateway systems. Ask your network coordinators for more information. EFFWeb and the EFF Online Library A document library containing all EFF news releases and other publications of interest - including recent and proposed legislation, materials for online activists, archives of electronic publications, records of trials and legal cases, action alerts, and other related documents & papers - is available via the World Wide Web, anonymous FTP and Gopher. If you are on the Internet, you can use your host's FTP program to connect to ftp.eff.org. Login as "ftp" and use your e-mail address as the password. Our gopher server is gopher.eff.org. EFFWeb, our WWW server, provides indexing of our file archives, and also presents other information, including staff and board bios, audio and video material, and a searchable version of our guide to the Internet. Additionally, like our gopher server, EFFweb provides links to numerous other areas of interest in cyberspace, and presents information in easy-to-navigate menus, allowing you to read online and save what you want to disk on your own machine. Send a note to ftphelp@eff.org if you have difficulties or are unable to use FTP, Gopher or the Web. If you don't have access to a Gopher client, but do have access to telnet, you can use another site's Gopher client by telnetting to consultant.micro.umn.edu, login: Gopher. From there, select "Other gopher servers", then "North America", "USA", "Washington DC", "Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)". There are a couple of new e-mail servers for accessing Gopher sites - start off by sending mail with a subject and message body of "help" (no quotes) to gophermail@ncc.go.jp or gophermail@calvin.edu. SunSITE also offers several public services via telnet login, including Gopher (login: gopher) and World Wide Web (login: lynx - select g http://www.eff.org/ to get to EFF). Email-only users can get WWW files via email (you will need an HTML reader or WWW browser configured for local file-reading); send a message body of: SEND http://www.w3.org/hypertext/WWW/Agora/Help.txt to agora@w3.org to use the WWWmail server. * Outpost - EFF Online (the EFF BBS) The EFF bulletin board system, Outpost - EFF Online, begun in March 1994, supports 300-14400bps connections (V.32bis, V.42bis, 8 bits, no parity, 1 stop-bit - 8N1) on it's dialup lines. The system is available 22 hours per day (3am-5am eastern time reserved for mail transfers and maintenance routines). When fully operational, the board will be available 24 hours per day, will support 4 lines at faster speeds, and will feature online conferences from a variety of networks including FidoNet, Usenet/Internet, and more, as well as the full selection of files available from EFF's FTP archive, EFF membership materials, bulletins on the latest issues affecting civil liberties in cyberspace, and other related files and services. The data phone number for the system is +1 202 861 1224. Outpost's FidoNet address is 1:109/1108. Access to the BBS is free (besides calling costs; at present we do not have a toll-free number.) Other network addresses: WishNet - 19:1202/101; StormNet - 181:193/1; IndraNet - 369:1011/2 New 2nd node: +1 202 861 1223 (300-14400bps V.32b/V.42b, 16800bps ZyXEL; 8N1) NOTICE: After Aug. 18, 1995, the BBS will be down for a period, which probably will not exceed more than a few months at most. * The Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link (WELL) The WELL, based in the San Francisco area, is host to an active EFF conference, as well as many other related conferences of interest to EFF supporters. Telecom access is available through the CompuServe Packet Network. If you have an Internet connection, you can reach the WELL via telnet at well.sf.ca.us; otherwise, dial +1 415 332 6106 (data, 300-2400bps) or +1 415 332 8410 (data, 9600-14400bps). The WELL's (voice) customer support number is +1 415 332 4335. To get to the EFF conference, type "g eff". * The Spring The Spring is a new conferencing system in Austin TX, hosting many conferences including a new EFF forum. Spring can be reached via telnet at spring.com, and has local dialup access as well. The EFF forum is accessible by simply following the menus into the conferences area, and choosing the Select Conference item, specifying the EFF conference. * CompuServe Information Service (CIS) Our forum on CompuServe is also open. GO EFFSIG to join. Many of the files on ftp.eff.org, as well as other items of interest, are mirrored in the EFFSIG Libraries, and a lively debate and chat area exists with more than 15 online message areas. CIS can be reached via telnet at compuserve.com. CompuServe Customer Support is available at 1-800-524-3388. * America Online (AOL) EFF has opened up a forum on America Online. Go to keyword EFF to join. Some basic EFF files are available, as well as a large and diverse discussion and debate area. In addition, EFF may occasionally host or take part in interactive discussions in the live "auditorium" area. You can contact AOL Customer Support at 1-800-827-6364. * GE Network for Information Exchange (GEnie) The "Public Forum * Non-Profit Connection RT" hosts an EFF forum on GEnie, including a stock of EFF newsletters and info in Library 13, and an EFF discussion area (Category 7, Topic 17). Please support this volunteer effort and add your thoughts to the forum. The Public Forum is keyword PF (or page 545). GEnie's voice sign-up number for new users is 1-800-638- 9636; the sign-up code (which will get you some free time online to check out the system) is MHC524. * Byte Information Exchange (BIX) An EFF forum is available on BIX. The online EFF area is located at topic "eff" in the "security" conference, and BIX can be reached via telnet to x25.bix.com or bix.com. Like our area on GEnie, the BIX forum is a volunteer activist effort - please participate, and help make this a great virtual community of activism and discussion! * Other Services, BBSs and Networks From time to time, EFF-oriented resources may appear on other systems; for instance, Illuminati Online's Metaverse service will feature an EFF "virtual office", while FidoNet locally gates both comp.org.eff.talk and comp.org.eff.news in several areas. If you have difficulty finding online material from the listed sources, try shopping around and you may find what you are looking for. All EFF materials are redistributable, and can be found on many BBS systems around the globe. System operators interested in carrying our material should contact ask@eff.org, Stanton McCandlish at 1:109/1108 (FidoNet), or call 202-861-7700 and ask for Stanton. Membership in the Electronic Frontier Foundation: Why You Should Join EFF ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Every day decisions are being made that will affect your life online - decisions about what sorts of technology you can use to protect the privacy of your communications; decisions about what services you will be able to get over the emerging national information infrastructure; *decisions that are made before you even know that there are choices.* The Electronic Frontier Foundation has been working since July 1990 to ensure that the civil liberties guaranteed in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights are applied to new communications technologies. Our members join EFF to make sure that they are informed about the issues and debates that will shape the future of electronic communications. EFF members enjoy the following benefits: * subscription to our frequent electronic newsletter and action bulletin, _EFFector_Online_; * online bulletins that will keep you informed about the key legal, legislative and social developments affecting your online communications; * an online response mechanism to make themselves heard on key issues. * EFF's legal hotline, which, in the event that your civil liberties are violated, can help you find legal information and assistance. EFF is a respected voice for the rights of users of online technologies. We feel that the best way to protect your online liberties is to be fully informed and to make your opinions heard. EFF members are informed, and are making a difference. Join EFF today! More information about the details of the form and commonly asked questions follow the form itself. * MEMBERSHIP FORM Print out in monospaced (non-proportional) font and mail or fax to: Membership Coordinator (membership@eff.org) Electronic Frontier Foundation P.O. Box 170190 San Francisco CA 94117 USA. +1 415 668 7171 (voice) +1 415 668 7007 (fax). Or upload to our Internet ftp site: ftp.eff.org, /incoming (when uploading, please name the file uniquely, e.g. jane_smith.form.) Feel free to delete portions of the form you won't use before printing to reduce form length, and add more address lines if needed. ------- MEMBERSHIP FORM -------- cut here --------------- I wish to join the Electronic Frontier Foundation at the following annual tax-deductible membership rate: ___ Fellow $500 ___ Benefactor $250 ___ Pioneer $100 ___ Advocate $65 ___ Supporter $40 ___ Student/Low-income $20 ___ SysOp/Recruiter - $10 (see sysop sub-form below). I am ___ a new member ___ renewing: member number___________ I wish to make an additional tax-deductible donation in the amount of $__________ to further support the activities of EFF. I would like ___ EFF t-shirts at $10 each. (XL only) ___ I'm renewing at a higher rate and would like a free shirt. PAYMENT METHOD: ___ Check or money order payable to Electronic Frontier Foundation. ___ MC ___ Visa ___ AmEx Card Number: ______________________ Expiration Date: ____________ Signature: ________________________ Name: _________________________ Organization: _____________________ Address: __________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________ E-mail address: ___________________________________________________ ___ EFF may distribute my name & contact info, only to organ- izations sharing similar goals. (See privacy policy below.) ___ I am interested in local "Electronic Frontier" activism. ___ I am interested in volunteering/interning with EFF. I got this form from ______________________________________________ -- end of form ------------- cut here --------------- Please tell us where you found this form, so we see how far it goes. SysOp/Recruiter members should place their name, system/service name, and member number in the "I got this form from" line when distributing the form via their systems, publications, etc. This is how the fulfillment of the recruitment requirements is tracked. The Electronic Frontier Foundation is a U.S. nonprofit, 501(c)(3) organization supported by contributions from individual members, corporations and private foundations. Memberships and donations are tax-deductible. Merchandise (e.g. t-shirt) orders are not tax-deductible. EFF's tax exemption number is 04-3091431. EFF is a nonpartisan equal opportunity membership organization. Membership will never be denied to anyone because of race, color, religion, national origin, political affiliation, etc. (In fact, EFF has never denied membership to anyone for any reason.) * PRIVACY POLICY: EFF occasionally shares our mailing list with other organizations promoting similar goals. However, we respect an individual's right to privacy and will not distribute your info without your explicit permission. Under no circum- stances will your information be sold, rented or given to advertising companies, nor revealed to government agencies. NOTES about local activism and volunteers: EFF will begin compiling a (private) list of people interested in local "Electronic Frontier" organizing and activism, to better help local groups get started. Initially we'll just collect names and email addresses, and later put people in the same area in touch with eachother when there are enough people to get the ball rolling. EFF also from time to time seeks volunteers and interns, on both a local in-person basis, and a virtual over-the-Net basis. If you are an attorney interested in doing local pro bono legal work in support of civil liberties online, please contact EFF staff counsel Shari Steele (ssteele@eff.org), who maintains a (private) list of attorneys to refer people to. NOTES about credit cards: EFF does NOT recommend sending credit card info via email, unless it is encrypted. See our PGP encryption key, below. When submitting credit card info via email, please PGP-sign your membership form in lieu of a regular signature. RIPEM, RSA, or other cryptographic signatures are also acceptable, but PGP is preferred. If you do not have access to PGP, aren't inclined to encrypt your form, etc., please fax your membership form or send it via postal mail. NOTES regarding Student membership: This works on the honor system - we do not request copies of school paperwork or the like. This membership price range is also open to those under the poverty line. NOTES about EFF t-shirts: This is the classic EFF shirt, printed front (EFF logo) and back (large artwork) in two colors on white cotton shirts. Available for $10 to new and non-members; members who renew at a higher rate above Supporter membership (e.g. "upgrade" from Supporter to Advocate, or from Student to Pioneer) receive a free shirt if requested! NOTES regarding SysOp/Recruiter membership: System Operator & Recruiter members are required to bring in 10 or more new members to renew at the "SysOp/Recruiter" membership rate (otherwise "Supporter" rates apply). Send queries to membership@eff.org for more info. NOTE: CIS, AOL, etc. forum sysops and co-sysops ARE eligible for SysOp membership, as are system administrators at Internet access providers, and the moderators of echomail conferences, mailing lists, and Usenet newsgroups. Print publishers, librarians, and any others who wish to recruit are also eligible for this membership category. * IMPORTANT: SysOp/Recruiter members should include the mini-form below with their membership applications. Recruitment is usually fulfilled by distributing EFF membership forms via the SysOp/Recruiter member's system (or forum, or publication, or place of business, as applicable.) Business persons who are not interested in active recruitment but are interested in supporting the Foundation with monetary or in-kind donations should contact EFF directly (membership@eff.org via email). EFF has a program whereby, for your special donations, you may be listed as a supporting online business (or library, or individual, etc.) on our World Wide Web site, with a link to your own site. This is great recognition for you, and your donations help us protect your civil liberties in new media! For more information, contact membership@eff.org. Frequently asked question: "How come I don't get monthly full-color glossy newsletters, and mouse-pads and posters and widgets when I join?" EFF devotes all funding to our work (and overhead, of course). We do not feel it is right to spend your donations on gimmicks. From time to time, we do produce bumperstickers and such as part of our educational mission, and if and when a company donates some useful product or service for EFF members (e.g. t-shirts, discount coupons, etc.), we will be happy to include such things as part of the membership benefits, provided they are appropriate, and do not add appreciably to overhead. At EFF your money goes to WORK, not to waste. Frequently asked question: "How come, as an EFF member, I don't vote on what EFF is doing, who the board members are, etc.?" EFF was incorporated as a different sort of non-profit. The organization is not a populist group such as a trade association. We have a set and certain mission, and EFF members are those who support our mission and want to see it succeed. Your membership dues are actually a donation in support of the organization's goals, not a payment for representation of changing agendas. EFF cares very much what our members think and feel, and we always welcome your feedback, positive or negative. EFF also supports the creation of independent local "Electronic Frontier" organizations, in lieu of rigidly-controlled chapters. If you are interested in starting such an organization, please contact EFF online activist Stanton McCandlish (mech@eff.org). **** SYSOP MEMBERSHIP SECTION *********************************** * * * Please include this section with your membership application, * * if joining as a SysOp/Recruiter member. Delete parts that * * don't apply, if you wish. * * * * Data Ph.: _________________ Speed/Protocol: _______________ * * (duplicate above line for multiple nodes if you wish.) * * Other access means: _________________________________________ * * (e.g. for Internet service, AOL forum, etc.) * * BBS Info: BBS/Service/Name: ________________________________ * * SysOp(s)/Proprietor(s)____________________________ * * Network Address(es): _____________________________ * * BBS Notes (OS, modem types/speeds, Internet connectivity, * * access requirements, hours, fees, software, focus or special * * interests, unique features, etc. Or, publication/business/ * * library info): * * ____________________________________________________________ * * (duplicate above line to add more info as needed). * * * * ____ Include my BBS/service in the EFF Member Service List. * * * ***************************************************************** EFF PGP PUBLIC KEY FOR ENCRYPTION ================================= This is the ASCII-armored PGP 2.62us public key for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). It is compatible with PGP vers. 2.2 - 2.7. PGP is an ecryption (data security encoding) program, available for DOS, OS/2, Unix, Macintosh and several other platforms. PGP is the de facto Internet standard for encryption, and is available from many BBSs, FTP sites, and other online services. (If you have trouble locating PGP, see ftp.eff.org, /pub/Net_info/Tools/Crypto/README.Dist). Note that mail sent with this key will be considered addressed to EFF in general, not to a specific person, unless otherwise noted in plaintext. To send encrypted personal mail to someone at EFF, for whatever reason, please use that person's own key, or arrange some other method of communication. This key is provided principally for the sending of sensitive legal information, and the transmission of credit card numbers over the Net securely when becoming a member of EFF. It takes us time and effort to decrypt, so please don't use this key trivially. If sending something other than a membership form, please begin your "Subject:" line with "URGENT -" (unless it's non-urgent of course). Thank you. Please expect a delay, as the message will have to be transferred to another system for decryption (we do not keep PGP or our secret keys on our Internet systems for security reasons.) To add this key to your PGP key ring, save the key as a text file called pgpkey.eff, then use the following DOS or Unix commandline (several RISK architectures may also use this commandline), in your PGP directory: pgp -ka pgpkey.eff pubring.pgp If your public key ring has another name, use that instead of "pubring.pgp". You may need to specify a full path to PGP, or otherwise modify the above command. If you have trouble, please refer to the PGP documentation and/or ask your local system administrators for help. For MacPGP, pick "Add Key" from the "Key" menu, select pgpkey.eff as the file to get the key from, and pubring.pgp (or whatever your public keyring is named) as the file to add the key to. To encrypt a message, please see the PGP documentation, and remember that you will almost certainly need to generate the result as an ASCII-armored file, so you can email it (non-ASCII-armored PGP ciphertexts are binary, and will get mangled if you try to email them.) *** NOTE! PLEASE INCLUDE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS *INSIDE* THE ENCRYPTED MESSAGE any time you send us crypto-mail. Please also include it in plain text just before the beginning of the encrypted text. Otherwise, we may not be able to reply, if the original email headers are lost and/or we encounter difficulties decrypting your message. The key itself: -----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- Version: 2.6 mQCPAy7QlNwAAAEEAKMNCpEGP2868gPmT+5ILWveARJEFRQius+CP8hHG331YAyw beLmllnFUNLEKBKSlX9gyNL7/KKZXCaK1hbfaB7jC0f6KyK68dOeMR1jkpw73NqC i6/U9RqMBDGzzMz5dnDoqz9s5f33xrYZC+qwTKmGyh0mcFaCzJ21/+6ZWS/tABEB AAG0LEVsZWN0cm9uaWMgRnJvbnRpZXIgRm91bmRhdGlvbiA8ZWZmQGVmZi5vcmc+ iQCVAwUQLtCVljZAgYw09MRxAQHRLwP8CrE03giPMN0JVMR7aRxmn/XF9sQp9GtJ mOZFxyvZnkyvW1hM2oMxRVmShWlewg0uphUsB2ayiACYgUhIK36mr7bDpSTqGR7r J+VT+tVz802Q4GgdXUaVKnFb4bbZ9+xREXblDv5GgAjtqq9cdxxan+KeoqIEQlw9 iIKOzYGfAF+JAJMDBRAu0JVmnbX/7plZL+0BAQzQA/DyX64lOrLNvn0xDSFfMGVg EueZjn1pGm0CBUGctzAHjRlrAeUUReh0JJTOaVcm6lnPZHgmZjFzzmeQbfpHd+6k OkV2Yx1fouDJR8ewOMVE+VauC9Xe1YA4/VkAxVjRmlNUs+nyDNaqVwhdkOgalQGO 57UtUMy9mrFLNJW/eLW0JUVGRiA8ZWZmQHdlbGwuY29tLCBlZmZAd2VsbC5zZi5j YS51cz60HkVGRiA8NzY3MTEuMzE3QGNvbXB1c2VydmUuY29tPrQYRUZGIDwxOjEw OS8xMTA4QEZpZG9OZXQ+tBlFRkYgPDE5OjEyMDIvMTAxQFdpc2hOZXQ+tBlFRkYg PDM2OToxMDExLzJASW5kcmFOZXQ+tBhFRkYgPDE4MToxOTMvMUBTdG9ybU5ldD60 IERpc2NhcmQgb2xkZXIga2V5IC0gaXQncyByZXZva2Vk =2A8+ -----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- [Final note: beware line wrapping - key will not work if mangled!]