1) That you have the same privacy online that you do offline. Everything you do online -- sending email, browsing websites, searches on Google, and much more -- can be recorded and kept in a form that is easily traceable to you. Unfortunately, the law doesn't protect this private information in the same way it protects, for example, documents you've stored inside your home or Blockbuster's records of your DVD rentals. When you store your email with a third- party or type a search into Google, that company can use that information however it likes, subject to only a few exceptions. It's all too easy for the government or a private litigant to get access to that information as well. The best way to protect yourself is to use privacy tools like Tor.

2) That when you buy something, you own it. Offline if you buy something, say a pair of sneakers, you own them. You can do what you want with them--paint them purple, rip them up, sell them, use them in art projects, wear them during performances. Increasingly, this isn't so online or with digital products. Copyright holders are using "digital rights management" (DRM) to lock up digital media and taking away your fair use rights; for instance, DRM can restrict your ability to back-up a DVD you've purchased or move a song to the portable player of your choice. What's more, nearly everything is "licensed" to you, with restrictions and limitations that continue long after you've paid your money.

3) That no one but a Judge can take down your speech online. Unlike offline speech, all online speech depends on intermediaries like ISPs, a web hosts, and domain name registrars. Because of this, a person seeking to censor your speech doesn't need to come to you -- if they can convince your ISP to take down your website, they can silence you without any showing of wrongdoing, much less a court determination that you've done something wrong. And the best way to convince an intermediary to silence you is to threaten the intermediary with liability for your actions. That's why laws like CDA 230, which protects intermediaries from responsibility for defamation and other claims, and the DMCA safe harbors, which protect intermediaries from claims of copyright infringement, are so important. And it's also why we need to stand up for intermediaries who stand up for their customers and refuse to take down legal speech without proper legal authority."

- Cindy Cohn is the Legal Director for the Electronic Frontier Foundation as well as its General Counsel. She is responsible for overseeing the EFF's overall legal strategy and supervising the EFF's staff attorneys. Ms. Cohn has testified before Congress, been featured in the New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle and elsewhere for her work protecting electronic rights and freedoms.
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1. Written by This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it , on 22-01-2008 05:13 , i like it!

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