In our 678th issue:

• UPDATES
• MINILINKS
• ANNOUNCEMENTS

Senate Attempts Last-Ditch Effort to Reauthorize Patriot Act Spying

Senator Mitch McConnell is attempting to extend the NSA's mass phone records surveillance program. A few days ago, he introduced a bill to extend Section 215 of the Patriot Act for 60 days. McConnell's temporary reauthorization is designed to deflect public attention on this issue and give NSA apologists more time to water down reform efforts.

With your help, we can stop him. If you're in the United States, please pick up the phone and call your Senators. If you're outside the United States, please share this urgent alert on Facebook and Twitter.

Right now, we're in a powerful position to push for strong reforms to mass spying. On June 1, Section 215 is set to expire. Perhaps more importantly, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit recently ruled the whole program illegal. Let's send a strong message to Congress: not one more day of phone record surveillance. Let's rein in NSA mass spying under the Patriot Act, then use that energy to fuel our larger agenda of ending global mass surveillance once and for all.

Fast Track Looms for Trans-Pacific Partnership

For a few hours last week, it looked like the tide had turned against the massive and sprawling Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement, as a group of Senate Democrats refused to let the Fast Track deal proceed to the floor for debate. We've targeted Fast Track because it's considered essential for TPP: without a deal to limit Congress to an up-or-down vote on the entire secretive agreement only after it's been finalized, the text and its anti-user, anti-consumer clauses would face scrutiny that they simply could not withstand.

On Thursday, though, the Senate reached a compromise and will allow Fast Track to proceed to the debate and vote stage. TPP and its ilk remain a looming threat as we turn our attention to the Senate floor, and to the House of Representatives, in order to stop our elected lawmakers from greasing the skids for an agreement the public cannot read but knows spells trouble.

If you are in the United States, it's more important than ever that you speak up now and tell your lawmakers to oppose Fast Track.

EFF Updates

New EFF '404' Report Shows How Draconian Copyright Policies Stifle Online Speech Worldwide

Overly broad intellectual property laws in Russia, Colombia, and Pakistan—which U.S. trade regulators say aren’t tough enough—stifle access to innovation and threaten artists, students, and creators around the globe with prison, censorship, and state prosecution. EFF's newest report documents these and other problems with intellectual property laws worldwide, offering a first-of-its-kind analysis countering the U.S. Trade Representative's annual report.

EFF and Gamers to Copyright Office: Multiplayer Matters (Of Course)

The Entertainment Software Association responded to EFF's submission in the ongoing rulemaking on Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act by saying it doesn't think online multiplayer play really matters. In a comment to the Copyright Office, the ESA has claimed that "it is inaccurate to suggest that multiplayer gameplay over the Internet is a ‘core’ functionality of [a] video game." We couldn't disagree more.

California Wants to Create a Task Force to Review Computer Crime Policies--Guess Who's Not Invited to the Table

Whenever lawmakers congregate to discuss computer crime, you can reliably predict that the debate will gravitate toward expanding police powers, leaving the realistic concerns of everyday Internet users by the wayside. The make-up of California's proposed High Technology Crimes Task Force, which would be assigned to reevaluate the laws governing prosecution of identity theft, credit card fraud, and unspecified "Internet crimes," suggests more of the same.

What Every Librarian Needs to Know About HTTPS

For librarians, simply protecting people's book check-out records is no longer enough. Library patrons frequently access catalogs and other services over the Internet. We have learned in the last two years that the NSA is unconstitutionally hoovering up and retaining massive amounts of Internet traffic. That means that before a patron even checks out a book, their search for that book in an online catalog may already have been recorded. And the NSA is not the only threat. Other patrons, using off-the-shelf tools, can intercept queries and login data merely by virtue of being on the same network as their target. Fortunately, HTTPS is a solution, and it's getting easier to deploy every day.

EFF Asks Patent Office to Focus On Protecting Public from Bad Patents

EFF has joined Public Knowledge and Engine in submitting written comments to the Patent Office regarding its Patent Quality Initiative. We urge the Patent Office to ensure that this program actually reduces the number of invalid patents being issued. Its quality efforts should serve the public interest, not the special interests of patent applicants.

miniLinks

Organization of American States on NSA's Metadata Programs

The top human rights watchdog for the Americas, the Organization of American States, has issued a strong call for reform of the NSA mass surveillance metadata programs to bring them into line with international human rights law.

John Deere: You "Own" Your Tractor, But We Can Still Rip You Off

Our request for copyright law exemptions to cover car security research and repair has kicked off a major debate about what manufacturers think "ownership" really is. Here, Cory Doctorow takes on John Deere's latest entry: a letter to dealers about what they're actually selling.

Canadian Prime Minister Letter Confirms Industry Lobbying Tied to Copyright Extension

Michael Geist has obtained a revealing letter from Candian Prime Minister Stephen Harper to Music Canada, an industry lobbying group.

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Administrivia

Editor: Rainey Reitman, Activism Director
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EFFector is a publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
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