EFF needs your help to defend privacy and free speech online. Learn why you're crucial to the fight in this edition of campfire tales from our friends, The Encryptids. These cunning critters have come out of hiding to help us celebrate EFF’s summer membership drive for internet freedom.
Through EFF's 34th birthday on July 10, you can be a member for just $20 and receive 2 rare gifts (including a Bigfoot enamel pin!), and as a bonus new recurring monthly or annual donations get a free match! Join us today.
Today’s post comes from international vocal icon Banshee. She may not be a beast like many cryptids, but she is a *BEAST* when it comes to free speech and local activism...
-Aaron Jue
EFF Membership Team
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hat’s that saying about being well behaved and making history? Most people picture me shrieking across the Irish countryside. It's a living, but my voice has real power: it can help me speak truth to power, and it can lend support to the people in my communities.
Free expression is a human right, full stop. And it’s tough to get it right on the internet. Just look at messy content moderation from social media giants. Or the way politicians, celebrities, and companies abuse copyright and trademark law to knock their critics offline. And don’t get me started on repressive governments cutting the internet during protests. Censorship hits disempowered groups the hardest. That’s why I raise my voice to prop up the people around me, and why EFF is such an important ally in the fight to protect speech in the modern world.
Free expression is a human right, full stop.
The things you create, say, and share can change the world, and there’s never been a better megaphone than the internet. A free web carries your voice whether your cause is the environment, workers’ rights, gender equality, or your local parent-teacher group. For all the sewage that people spew online, we must fight back with better ideas and a brighter vision for the future.
EFF’s lawyers, policy analysts, tech experts, and activists know free speech, creativity, and privacy online better than anyone. Hell, EFF even helped establish computer code as legally protected speech back in the 90s. I hope you’ll use your compassion to protect our freedom online with even a small donation to EFF (or even start a monthly donation!).
Free expression is a human right
So the next time someone tells you that you’re being shrill, remind him to STFU because you have something to say. And be grateful that people around the world support EFF to protect our rights online.
Down for the Cause,
Banshee
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This post was authored by the mysterious Raul Duke.
The weather was unusually cool for a summer night. Just the right amount of bitterness in the air for attorneys from all walks of life to gather in San Francisco’s Mission District for EFF’s 16th annual Cyberlaw Trivia Night.
Inside Public Works, attorneys filled their plates with chicken and waffles, grabbed a fresh tech-inspired cocktail, and found their tables—ready to compete against their colleagues in obscure tech law trivia. The evening started promptly six minutes late, 7:06 PM PT, with Aaron Jue, EFF's Director of Member Engagement, introducing this year’s trivia tournament.
A lone Quizmaster, Kurt Opsahl, took the stage, noting that his walk-in was missing a key component, until The Blues Brothers started playing, filling the quizmaster with the valor to thank EFF’s intern fund supporters Fenwick and Morrison Forrester. The judges begrudgingly took the stage as the quizmaster reminded them that they have jobs at this event.
One of the judges, EFF’s Civil Liberties Director David Greene, gave some fiduciary advice to the several former EFF interns that were in the crowd. It was anyone’s guess as to whether they had gleaned any inside knowledge about the trivia.
I asked around as to what the attorneys had to gain by participating in this trivia night. I learned that not only were bragging rights on the table, but additionally teams had a chance to win champion steins.
The prizes: EFF steins!
With formalities out of the way, the first round of trivia - “General” - started with a possibly rousing question about the right to repair. Round one ended with the eighth question, which included a major typo calling the “Fourth Amendment is Not for Sale Act” the “First Amendment...” The proofreaders responsible for this mistake have been dealt with.
I was particularly struck by the names of each team: “Run DMCA,” “Ineffective Altruists,” “Subpoena Colada,” “JDs not LLM,” “The little VLOP that could,” and “As a language model, I can't answer that question.” Who knew attorneys could create such creative names?
I asked one of the lawyers if he could give me legal advice on a personal matter (I won’t get into the details here, but it concerns both maritime law and equine law). The lawyer gazed at me with the same look one gives a child who has just proudly thew their food all over the floor. I decided to drop the matter.
Back to the event. It was a close game until the sixth and final round, though we wouldn’t hear the final winners until after the tiebreaker questions.
After several minutes, the tiebreaker was announced. The prompt: which team could get the closest to Pi without going over. This sent your intrepid reporter into an existential crisis. Could one really get to the end of pi? I’m told you could get to Pluto with just the first four and didn’t see any reason in going further than that. During my descent into madness, it was revealed that team “JDs not LLMs” knew 22 digits of pi.
After that shocking revelation, the final results were read, with the winning trivia masterminds being:
1st Place: JDs not LLMs
2nd Place: The Little VLOP That Could
3rd Place: As A Language Model, I Can't Answer That Question
EFF Membership Advocate Christian Romero taking over for Raul Duke.
EFF hosts Cyberlaw Trivia Night to gather those in the legal community who help protect online freedom for tech users. Among the many firms that dedicate their time, talent, and resources to the cause, we would especially like to thank Fenwick and Morrison Foerster for supporting EFF’s Intern Fund!
If you are an attorney working to defend civil liberties in the digital world, consider joining EFF's Cooperating Attorneys list. This network helps EFF connect people to legal assistance when we are unable to assist.
Are you interested in attending or sponsoring an upcoming EFF Trivia Night? Please reach out to tierney@eff.org for more information.
Be sure to check EFF’s events page and mark your calendar for next year’s 17th annual Cyberlaw Trivia Night
