ELECTRONIC FRONTIER FOUNDATION INTRODUCED IN WASHINGTON 7-10-90 10 July 90 --- Mitch Kapor, the founder of Lotus Development Corp., announced at a news conference this morning that his newly formed Electronic Frontier Foundation is giving $275,000 to Computer Profes sionals for Social Responsibility to expand their program on computers and civil liberties. CPSR will host a series of policy round-tables in Washington during the next two years, to bring together lawmakers, computer users, industry representatives, and law enforcement officials "to ensure that our civil liberties protections are not lost amidst policy confusion about the use of new computer technologies," according to a press release. "CPSR also plans to develop policy papers on computer and civil liberties, to oversee the Government's handling of computer crime investigations, and to act as an information resource for organizations and individuals interested in civil liberties issues." In addition, Kapor said EFF will foot the legal costs to recover a computer bulletin-board system seized about 4 months ago from Steve Jackson Games of Austin, Texas. Reasons for the seizure are still unclear, since no charges have yet been filed, and the warrant for the seizure was sealed by the court. During the raid the Secret Service also confiscated drafts of a role- playing game that SJG was about to release, believing it to be a training manual for computer crime. The game - GURPS Cyberpunk - has since been published (with modifications), but this morning Jackson asserted that the delay and the work needed to reconstruct the game cost his company some $125,000. "I am a horror story," he began. Picking up on metaphors used by John Perry Barlow, who preceded him to the microphone, Jackson called himself "one of the homesteaders on the electronic frontier... One day I came home to find the barn burned down, the horses set loose...and the culprits who did it weren't desperados. They were the cavalry!" Jackson's lawyer, Harvey Silverglate, added that taking the BBS that SJG used for customer support was analogous to seizing presses from the New York Times. Terry Gross, a lawyer for Craig Neidorf, pressed the point further as he told of his client's problems. Neidorf, a college student who edits an electronic newsletter called "Phrack," has been charged with perpetrating a "wire fraud scheme" by electronically receiving "stolen goods" (a BellSouth internal memo describing 911 system features) and transmitting a digest of the memo as an article in Phrack. "This is like prosecuting the New York Times or the Washington Post for wire fraud for publishing the Pentagon Papers," Gross argued. These charges wouldn't have been brought if Phrack were published on paper, he added. Some of the charges against Neidorf are specific to electronic transmission. In thanking EFF for the grant, Marc Rotenberg, CPSR's spokesman in Washington, said the Jackson and Neidorf cases epitomize the tough moral and legal issues we'll be grappling with for years to come. Gross, Silverglate and Rotenberg agreed that these early cases are especially important because they may set precedents. Kapor repeatedly emphasized that the Electronic Freedom Foundation isn't a "hackers defense fund." "Unauthorized intrusion into computer systems is improper behavior and should be illegal," he declared. EFF's purpose is to see that First Amendment rights aren't trampled in overreaction to real or imaginary threats posed by computer crackers. A basic feature of today's "information society" is anxiety about our dependence on electronic media whose workings we don't understand, Kapor explained. Barlow added that we're on "the learning curve of Sisyphus": technology is evolving faster than we can understand, and it always will be. Kapor suggested that hackers are increasingly portrayed as threatening sorcerers mainly because they don't share most people's anxiety and ignorance about computer technology. He described the current anti-hacker hysteria in terms of the sci-fi movie classic, "The Forbidden Planet": the monsters, it turns out in the end, were all Dr. Morbius' projections. "Hacker" used to be a term of high praise, Kapor pointed out. Hackers also created the multi-billion dollar personal computer industry, so it is appropriate that EFF is funded by Kapor, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, and a "Silicon Valley pioneer" who wishes to remain unnamed. Kapor warned that "polarization and misunderstanding" of hackers could slow public acceptance of computer networks as a valuable tool in everyday life. If we want useful nets for everyone, he said, we must make them both open AND secure - a programming feat that calls for hacker-type ingenuity. To improve public understanding of electronic networks and the resources they provide, Kapor announced that EFF will sponsor the development of "intelligent front-ends" for UNIX e-mail, to be used on Apple/Mac and DOS machines. This software would be available at little or no cost, and so easy to use that even a "hacker's mother" won't find it intimidating. Making networks more accessible will greatly expand the market for hardware and software, he concluded. The Electronic Frontier Foundation can be contacted at One Cambridge Center, Suite 300, Cambridge, MA 02142 (617-577-1385; fax 617-225-2347; Internet eff@well.sf.ca.us. (An earlier version, with essentially the same information - this earlier version is the one actually distributed at the press converence): FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEJuly 10, 1990 NEW FOUNDATION ESTABLISHED TO ENCOURAGE COMPUTER-BASED COMMUNICATIONS POLICIES Contact: Cathy Cook (415) 759-5578 Washington, D.C., July 10, 1990 -- Mitchell D. Kapor, founder of Lotus Development Corporation and ON Technology, today announced that he, along with colleague John Perry Barlow, has established a foundation to address social and legal issues arising from the impact on society of the increasingly pervasive use of computers as a means of communication and information distribution. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) will support and engage in public education on current and future developments in computer-based and telecommunications media. In addition, it will support litigation in the public interest to preserve, protect and extend First Amendment rights within the realm of computing and telecommunications technology. Initial funding for the Foundation comes from private contributions by Kapor and Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple Computer, Inc. The Foundation expects to actively raise contributions from a wide constituency. As an initial step to foster public education on these issues, the Foundation today awarded a grant to the Palo Alto, California-based public advocacy group Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (CPSR). The grant will be used by CPSR to expand the scope of its on-going Computing and Civil Liberties Project (see attached). Because its mission is to not only increase public awareness about civil liberties issues arising in the area of computer-based communications, but also to support litigation in the public interest, the Foundation has recently intervened on behalf of two legal cases. The first case concerns Steve Jackson, an Austin-based game manufacturer who was the target of the Secret Service's Operation Sun Devil. The EFF has pressed for a full disclosure by the government regarding the seizure of his company's computer equipment. In the second action, the Foundation intends to seek amicus curiae (friend of the court) status in the government's case against Craig Neidorf, a 20-year-old University of Missouri student who is the editor of the electronic newsletter Phrack World News (see attached). "It is becoming increasingly obvious that the rate of technology advancement in communications is far outpacing the establishment of appropriate cultural, legal and political frameworks to handle the issues that are arising," said Kapor. "And the Steve Jackson and Neidorf cases dramatically point to the timeliness of the Foundation's mission. We intend to be instrumental in helping shape a new framework that embraces these powerful new technologies for the public good." The use of new digital media -- in the form of on-line information and interactive conferencing services, computer networks and electronic bulletin boards -- is becoming widespread in businesses and homes. ÿùûHowever, the electronic society created by these new forms of digital communications does not fit neatly into existing, conventional legal and social structures. The question of how electronic communications should be accorded the same political freedoms as newspapers, books, journals and other modes of discourse is currently the subject of discussion among this country's lawmakers and members of the computer industry. The EFF will take an active role in these discussions through its continued funding of various educational projects and forums. An important facet of the Foundation's mission is to help both the public and policy-makers see and understand the opportunities as well as the challenges posed by developments in computing and telecommunications. Also, the EFF will encourage and support the development of new software to enable non-technical users to more easily use their computers to access the growing number of digital communications services available. The Foundation is located in Cambridge, Mass. Requests for information should be sent to Electronic Frontier Foundation, One Cambridge Center, Suite 300, Cambridge, MA 02142, 617/577-1385, fax 617/225-2347; or it can be reached at the Internet mail address eff@well.sf.ca.us.