European Digital Rights: Activist Guide to the Brussels Maze (2012)

“The purpose of this booklet is to provide activists with an insight into where EU legislative and non-legislative Proposals come from, what can be achieved at each stage of the administrative process. As the lifetime of any EU Proposal of any description is very long, it is important to know where to target any activity at any given moment. Every institution is very powerful and influential at certain moments and very much a spectator at other moments. We hope that this guide will help serve as a map of the Brussels maze.”

Written by Joe McNamee, Kirsten Fiedler, Marie Humeau
Publisher European Digital Rights (EDRi), Brussels, 23 January 2012
The EDRi Papers, Edition 01
Creative Commons 3.0 License
26 pages

commentary (Bits of Freedom) [Dutch]
publisher

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EFF: Defending Privacy at the U.S. Border: A Guide for Travelers Carrying Digital Devices (2011)

Our lives are on our laptops – family photos, medical documents, banking information, details about what websites we visit, and so much more. Thanks to protections enshrined in the U.S. Constitution, the government generally can’t snoop through your laptop for no reason. But those privacy protections don’t safeguard travelers at the U.S. border, where the U.S. government can take an electronic device, search through all the files, and keep it for a while for further scrutiny – without any suspicion of wrongdoing whatsoever.

For doctors, lawyers, and many business professionals, these border searches can compromise the privacy of sensitive professional information, including trade secrets, attorney-client and doctor-patient communications, research and business strategies, some of which a traveler has legal and contractual obligations to protect. For the rest of us, searches that can reach our personal correspondence, health information, and financial records are reasonably viewed as an affront to privacy and dignity and inconsistent with the values of a free society.

Despite the lack of legal protections against the search itself, however, those concerned about the security and privacy of the information on their devices at the border can use technological measures in an effort to protect their data. They can also choose not to take private data across the border with them at all, and then use technical measures to retrieve it from abroad. As the explanations in this publication demonstrate, some of these technical measures are simple to implement, while others are complex and require significant technical skill.

by Seth Schoen, Marcia Hofmann, Rowan Reynolds
Published by Electronic Frontier Foundation, December 2011
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License
23 pages

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EFF: Teaching Copyright (2009)

There’s a lot of misinformation out there about legal rights and responsibilities in the digital era.
This is especially disconcerting when it comes to information being shared with youth. Kids and teens are bombarded with messages from a myriad of sources that using new technology is high-risk behavior. Downloading music is compared to stealing a bicycle — even though many downloads are lawful. Making videos using short clips from other sources is treated as probably illegal — even though many such videos are also lawful.

This misinformation is harmful, because it discourages kids and teens from following their natural inclination to be innovative and inquisitive. The innovators, artists and voters of tomorrow need to know that copyright law restricts many activities but also permits many others. And they need to know the positive steps they can take to protect themselves in the digital sphere. In short, youth don’t need more intimidation — what they need is solid, accurate information.

EFF’s Teaching Copyright curriculum was created to help teachers present the laws surrounding digital rights in a balanced way.

Teaching Copyright provides lessons and ideas for opening your classroom up to discussion, letting your students express their ideas and concerns, and then guiding your students toward an understanding of the boundaries of copyright law.

Published by Electronic Frontier Foundation, May 2009
Creative Commons Attribution license 3.0 US

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