Electronic Frontier Foundation

Type:	Non-Profit
Industry:	Internet
Founded:	USA, 1990
Founder(s):	John Perry Barlow, Mitch Kapor, John Gilmore
Headquarters:	Electronic Frontier Foundation 454 Shotwell Street San Francisco CA 94110-1914
Country:	USA
Email:	information [at] eff.org
Website:	eff.org
Facebook:	EFF
Twitter:	@eff
Key People
Kevin Bankston, Senior Staff Attorney Kellie Brownell, Development Associate Andrea Chiang, Accounting Manager Cindy Cohn, Legal Director Peter Eckersley, Senior Staff Technologist

EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) is a donor-funded non-profit organization that defends free speech, privacy, innovation, and consumer rights today. EFF blends the expertise of lawyers, policy analysts, activists, and technologists to achieve its goals on behalf of consumers and the general public.

It focuses on issues relating to free speech, innovation, intellectual property, international, privacy and transparency.

EFF is an accredited observer at WIPO and a participant of the Global Network Initiative..

Its head office is located in San Fransisco, California, thought it also has staff members in Washington D.C..

History

EFF was founded in July,1990 by John Perry Barlow, Mitch Kapor and John Gilmore in response to a search and seizure on Steve Jackson Games by the U.S Secret Service.

The U.S Secret Service conducted a series of raids to track the distribution of a document called E911, copied illegally from a BellSouth computer. It was alleged that the systems operator at Steve Jackson Games was one of the recipient of the E911 document. The Secret Services seized all the electronic equipment and copies of an upcoming game book from Steve Jackson Games' office.

Without the electronic equipment, Steve Jackson Games' business was badly hurt and it had to fire nearly half of it's employees. Meanwhile, unable to find the E911 document on the computers, the Secret Service dropped the charges against Steve Jackson Games and returned the computers.

When the employees and Steve Jackson have inspected the returned computers, they found out that all the mails on their computers have been accessed and deleted. Steve Jackson became furious that his rights as a publisher had been violated and the free speech and privacy rights of his users had been violated. He tried to approach civil liberties groups, but none of the civil liberties groups of those days understood technology and thus, were not able to understand the complexity of the issue.

This issue was highlighted in an electronic community called the Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link and John Perry Barlow, Mitch Kapor and John Gilmore came together to form an organization to work on civil liberties issues raised by new technologies. The first case they took up was the Steve Jackson Games' case and brought a lawsuit on United States Secret Service.

EFF Pioneer Award

Since 1992, The EFF has hosted an annual award ceremony to recognize leaders "who are extending freedom and innovation on the electric frontier". Both individuals and organizations are eligible; past winners include Vinton Cerf, Jon Postel, Craigslist, Jimmy Wales, Douglas Engelbart, and others; the typical number of winners in a given year is 3, although as many as 9 people have been recognized in a single year.

Projects

• Bloggers' Rights
• Coders' Rights
• FOIA Project
• Patent Busting
• Surveillance Self-Defense
• Teaching Copyright
• Takedown Hall of Shame
• TOSBack

Electronic Frontier Foundation