The Young Adult Library Services Association’s latest annual list of Great Graphic Novels is out! Books are nominated for inclusion on the list by members of YALSA, a division of the American Library Association, and then voted on by a committee made up of school and public librarians from across the United States. The books on the list are judged to exemplify “both good quality literature and appealing reading for teens.” From the long list of 55 titles, committee members also selected their top ten “titles that exemplify the quality and range of graphic novels appropriate for teen audiences.” And here’s the top ten list:
Non-Fiction
My Friend Dahmer by Derf Backderf
Go to high school with the nation’s most notorious serial killer.
Trinity: A Graphic History of the First Atomic Bomb by Jonathan Fetter-Vorm
A look at one of the most controversial decisions in American history.
Annie Sullivan and the Trials of Helen Keller by Joseph Lambert
You thought you knew the whole story.
Fiction
Ultimate Comics Spider-man, Vol. 1 by Brian Michael Bendis and Sara Pichelli
Witness the birth of a new Spider-man Miles Morales.
In a column in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Heins discusses some of the main themes of her book, including the background of the landmark Supreme Court decision in Keyishian v. Board of Regents (1967), which invalidated an anti-communist loyalty oath required of faculty in the State University of New York system. Heins also discusses more recent threats to the academic freedom protections Keyishian affirmed, especially from the Court’s controversial (and much opposed by FIRE) decision in Garcetti v. Ceballos (2006), which, as Heins notes, ruled “that statements [made by public employees] made ‘pursuant to their official duties’ can be subject to discipline without violating the Constitution.”
Heins identifies speech codes as another threat to academic freedom, highlighting one of FIRE’s hallmark cases, the shocking (and still unresolved) case of Donald Hindley at Brandeis University:
Yesterday, Congressman Mike Thompson (D-CA) released “A Comprehensive Plan That Reduces Gun Violence and Respects the 2nd Amendment Rights of Law-Abiding Americans,” which describes the recommendations of the Congressional Gun Violence Prevention Task Force. Nearly all of the recommendations the task force made pertain to guns, mental health, and school safety. However, the last recommendation pertains to violence in the media:
Address our culture’s glorification of violence seen and heard though our movie screens,television shows, music and video games: Congress should fund scientific research on the relationship between popular culture and gun violence, while ensuring that parents have access to the information they need to make informed decisions about what their families watch, listen to, and play.
In discussing the above point in more detail, the task force acknowledges that the current research does not support a link between violent media and violent behavior. Regardless, it advocates for further scientific research:
Many Americans are concerned that television programs, movies, video games and other forms of media are starting to desensitize young Americans to violence, specifically gun violence, at a very early age. While we have a shared responsibility in this area, it is essential that parents, educators, and our communities at ...
Monday, FIRE announced that it had added Eastern Kentucky University (EKU) to its exclusive list of 16 colleges and universities whose policies do not unduly burden free speech (or "green light" schools, if you prefer something shorter).
Today, EKU's student newspaper, The Eastern Progress, reports on the school's brand new green light rating and quotes FIRE's Director of Speech Code Research Samantha Harris.
One consequence of the recent gun violence tragedies in the United States is increased scrutiny of video games, films, and other media with violent content held in library collections. As a result, libraries are now receiving requests to remove or restrict access to these materials. The discussion points below provide an intellectual freedom framework for talking about the issue of violent video games and violence in media with library trustees, staff, and library users. Resources listed below the discussion points provide more detailed information and analysis about violent media and intellectual freedom.
Discussion points:
• Like literature and film, video games are a creative and expressive medium that entertains, educates, and tells a story. Many libraries collect and lend video games to their users and host video game festivals and contests just as they host book discussions and film festivals.
• The courts of law that have examined the legal status of video games have ruled that video games are a form of speech protected by the First Amendment. These courts have also ruled that laws restricting minors’ access to video games that are violent or are rated “Mature” are a form of censorship that violates minors’ First Amendment ...
Just two weeks after we first reported news of student vandalism at DePaul University, school officials have concluded their investigation and released a report on the students involved. As Torch readers may recall, the controversy first began when the campus chapter of Young Americans for Freedom erected a pro-life display consisting of 500 small blue and pink flags to mark the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. Rather than engage in a debate with their fellow students, several individuals tore up the display and tossed the flags into nearby trash cans. According to the school's report, the named students
had seen anti-abortion posters around campus earlier in the day that they found offensive. They had an emotional discussion prior to class, and after class they all walked out to the quad together. They then started pulling up all the flags and put them in garbage cans and carried some off to their next class.
Such a reaction is alltoocommonon campus today, as more and more students are bamboozled into believing that the destruction of another's expression is a permissible—even noble—action. But as FIRE's Peter Bonilla pointed out in his coverage of the incident, "Suppressing another ...
Join the CBLDF team in 2013, and show your pride by sporting some members-only apparel! With art by the legendary Jaime Hernandez, the only way to get these awesome shirts is by becoming a CBLDF Member today!
Since then, we’ve gotten a better look at the awesome shirts that have started shipping out to supporters, and we wanted to show off the apparel end of our Member premiums.
The FREE SPEECH FIGHTER raglan sleeve, jersey style tee comes in men’s and women’s sizes. This shirt comes with the standard Membership. Printed on high quality, brand name shirts, it reads “COMIC BOOK LEGAL DEFENSE FUND MEMBER 2013″ across the bottom and will be available to all members joining at the $100 level throughout the year.
The FREE SPEECH FIGHTER Hooded Pullover Sweatshirt comes with all Memberships starting at $250 or up ($500 and $1000). (There is an option for a classy, embroidered, polo-style shirt as well starting at the $500 level.) These sweatshirts are cozy as the dickens, and available in limited quantities to Members ...
The Federal Aviation Administration has finally released a new drone authorization list. This list, released in response to EFF’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit, includes law enforcement agencies and universities across the country, and—for the first time—an Indian tribal agency. In all, the list includes more than 20 new entities over the FAA’s original list, bringing to 81 the total number of public entities that have applied for FAA drone authorizations through October 2012.
Some of these new drone license applicants include:
The State Department
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
Barona Band of Mission Indians Risk Management Office (near San Diego, California)
Canyon County Sheriff’s Office (Idaho)
Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office (Northwest Oregon)
Grand Forks Sheriff’s Department (North Dakota)
King County Sheriff’s Office (covering Seattle, Washington)
And several new entities in Ohio, including:
Medina County Sheriff’s Office
Ohio Department of Transportation
Sinclair Community College
Lorain County Community College
The list comes amid extensive controversy over a newly-released memo documenting the CIA’s policy on the targeted killing of American citizens and on the heels of ...
Earlier this week, the Kids’ Right to Read Project, which is sponsored by CBLDF, sent a letter to the Prosser School District outside Yakima, Washington, in defense of A Child Called “It” and The Popularity Papers. Both books had been challenged as inappropriate by a high school social studies teacher in the district.
A Child Called “It” is a best-selling autobiographical account by David Pelzer that describes his survival of childhood abuse by his alcoholic mother. The book already requires parental permission for seventh and eighth grade students to check it out. On Wednesday, a nine-member review panel voted to retain the book. The Tri-City Herald reports that the book was retained because “it depicts something older children need to learn about, can be inspirational and could motivate children to seek help if they need it.”
The Popularity Papers, by Amy Ignatow, is an award-winning series aimed at fourth through sixth graders that follows the friendship of two girls as they navigate junior high school. The series deals with bullying and the social heirarchy of teens. Like A Child Called “It,” The Popularity Papers is under restricted access and only available to fifth graders in the district. The ...
Copyright troll Righthaven LLC just doesn’t know when to stay down. Faced with six district court judges determining it didn't have the right to sue people over copyrights it didn't own, it turned to a higher power: the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Yesterday, EFF appeared before that court to argue (audio) against Righthaven on behalf of Tad DiBiase, a criminal justice blogger who provides resources for difficult-to-prosecute "no body" murder cases and was one of Righthaven’s victims.
The leading issue on appeal was whether a newspaper could transfer the right to sue for copyright infringement to a copyright troll, while retaining all other rights in the newspaper articles. Under the Copyright Act, only the "owner of an exclusive right under a copyright is entitled ... to institute an action for any infringement of that particular right committed while he or she is the owner of it." In a previous case, the Ninth Circuit explained that the "Copyright Act does not permit copyright holders to choose third parties to bring suits on their behalf." Nevertheless, Righthaven insisted that it was entitled to sue because it claimed ownership of the copyright for an instant, before immediately returning the rights to the newspaper publisher. A secret agreement between Righthaven and Stephens Media ensured that the ...
Following the events of the 'Arab Spring,' numerous countries throughout the Middle East and North Africa have begun assessing—or reassessing—their regulation of the Internet. Last April, we criticized Iraq's attempt at legislation: a heavy-handed bill that, if passed, would impose life imprisonment for vaguely-worded "crimes" such as promoting "ideas which are disruptive to public order" and lesser sentences for a range of other offenses.
The Cybercrime Act, as it was dubbed, would also levy heavy punishments over infringements of copyright-like protections. This includes publishing or copying "any scientific research work, literary, or intellectual properties which belong to someone else and is protected by international laws and agreements" and accessing "a private website of a company or institution with the intent to [change, modify, delete or unduly use it]." Such vague language could expand protections over online content and research in ways that leaves the door wide open for abuse. Even the most questionable copyright infringement allegation, such as a student's school paper that quotes published research or even political comments made on a web forum, could be used as a basis for severe criminal penalties including imprisonment.
Fortunately, it looks as if this bill will not become law. A document ...
On Monday, Senator Frank Lautenberg and Congressman Rush Holt, both of New Jersey, re-introduced the Tyler Clementi Higher Education Anti-Harassment Act (S. 216 in the Senate and H.R. 482 in the House of Representatives), legislation that would require colleges and universities receiving federal aid to prohibit harassment based on certain personal characteristics, including sexual orientation and gender identity.
FIRE takes no position on what should be explicitly listed as protected classes under federal anti-discrimination laws. Nevertheless, we do have some concerns about these bills, assuming they are the same as prior versions (the text of the newly introduced bills are not yet publicly available, so we have not been able to review them).
Yesterday, in one of America's leading LGBTQ publications, LGBTQ Nation, I was given the opportunity to explain FIRE's concerns regarding the legislation:
"Policy makers and public university administrators have a moral and legal obligation to make sure that the definitions of harassment and bullying written into law and policy properly recognize both the need to provide safe learning environments for all and the need to comply with First Amendment's guarantee of free speech," Cohen (sic) said. "These two goals do not need to conflict."
You might be surprised to learn that the vast majority of new cars sold in the United States contain a device that continuously monitors the driver’s behavior and vehicle performance. This so-called “black box” or Event Data Recorder (EDR) records at least the last several seconds of vehicle and driver data before a crash, ostensibly for use by crash investigators. Last month, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) proposed rules that would mandate EDRs in all new cars and light trucks.
While we agree that EDRs can serve a valuable forensic function, we are concerned that the NHTSA’s proposed rules fail to address driver and car-owner privacy in a meaningful way.
The proposed rules are open for public comment due by next Monday, February 11. EFF plans to submit our own formal comments to the NHTSA, but we also wanted to give our supporters a preview of our concerns so that any of you who are so inspired can share your own views with the NHTSA. You don’t have to be a lawyer or an engineer, and in fact comments are best submitted online. You can even submit comments anonymously.
The next time you allow a guest into your home for dinner, should you be worried they're secretly video recording every detail of your home for the government? In a new amicus brief filed in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, we've asked the court to reconsider a decision finding that allowing someone into your home means you're also placing yourself at the risk of warrantless home video surveillance.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife agents were investigating Ricky Wahchumwah for the federal crime of selling bald eagle and gold eagle feathers. An undercover agent who went to Wahchumwah's home pretending to be interested in buying feathers was secretly recording all the details of Wahchumwah's home with a small video camera hidden in his clothes. The agent did not obtain a search warrant before recording. After the trial court found no Fourth Amendment violation and refused to suppress the video, Wahchumwah was convicted and eventually appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. We filed an amicus brief in support of Wahchumwah, but a three judge panel of the Ninth Circuit rejected our arguments, finding no Fourth Amendment problems. In our new amicus brief asking the entire Ninth Circuit to rehear the case, ...
Dear Mayor Bloomberg and Borough President Markowitz:
The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE, thefire.org) is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to defending and sustaining freedom of speech, legal equality, due process, religious liberty, and academic freedom at our nation's colleges and universities. We write today to express our concern about recent statements made by elected officials that threaten the academic freedom of the City University of New York's Brooklyn College.
At issue is an event at Brooklyn College scheduled for February 7 and titled "BDS Movement Against Israel." (BDS is an acronym for "boycott, divestment, and sanctions.") The event is co-sponsored by Brooklyn College's political science department as well as at least one student group, Students for Justice in Palestine, and features two speakers, Judith Butler and Omar Barghouti, who are well-known proponents of the BDS movement.
As you know, several New York city and state lawmakers have responded with calls for Brooklyn College to cancel the event, or, failing that, for the political science department to withdraw its sponsorship. These requests have in some cases been accompanied by threats to the public funding of Brooklyn College and CUNY. An example of this is found in a ...
Patent trolls — companies that assert patents as a business model instead of creating products — have been in the news lately. This is hardly surprising, given that troll lawsuits now make up the majority of new patent cases. And the litigation is only the tip of the iceberg: patent trolls send out hundreds of demand letters for each suit filed in court. At EFF, we have been following this issue closely and are working hard to bring reform to fix the patent mess.
The recent news is not all bad. Just last month, for instance, online retailer Newegg won a long and hard-fought battle against a particularly egregious troll. To its credit, Newegg has a policy of never settling with patent trolls. So, after Soverain Software LLC, a company that sells no products but claims to own online “shopping cart” technology filed suit, Newegg took the case all the way to trial in the Eastern District of Texas. It lost that trial — but it lost for a strange reason: the judge refused to let Newegg argue to the jury that the patent was obvious (if a party can prove that a patent was obvious at the time it ...
The Office for Intellectual Freedom sponsors IFAction, an email list for those who would like updated information on news affecting intellectual freedom, censorship, privacy, access to information, and more. Click here to subscribe to this list. For an archive of all list postings since 1996, visit the IF Action archive. Below is a sample of articles from January 14 –February 3, 2013.
In case you missed them, here are some of the news stories that hit immediately before, during, and after the ALA Midwinter Meeting!
The Washington Post boldly led a front-page story last weekend with the claim: "The federal government wants to create super WiFi networks across the nation, so powerful and broad in reach that consumers could use them to make calls or surf the Internet without paying a cellphone bill every month."
Let's get one thing straight: the government is not creating its own "super WiFi network", but its plans will indeed make awesome new WiFi networks possible. Technically, what the FCC is actually trying to do is increase the amount of open spectrum that is available for WiFi networks of all sorts—and for other "unlicensed" uses. This is a very good idea. Increasing the amount of unlicensed spectrum will lead to better functioning routers, tablets, laptops, and smartphones—and to a host of other new products in the marketplace. It will enhance the quality and supply of extremely useful open wireless networks, but it will also increase the quality of (somewhat less efficient) password-locked WiFi networks as well.
Leaving spectrum open was a necessary historical step for the creation of WiFi in the first place: all of the popular 802.11 devices and standards we use at home, work, and other places—as well ...
The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) announced last week that Cowboys for Life, a pro-life student organization, has filed a First Amendment suit against Oklahoma State University (OSU). The lawsuit, Cowboys for Life v. Sampson, filed on January 25 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma, alleges that two OSU policies are unconstitutional and that the school engaged in viewpoint discrimination by restricting the group's speech on campus.
According to the suit and a report in The Oklahoman, Cowboys for Life requested a space near the OSU student union to set up a pro-life display with materials provided by an outside organization, Justice For All, on October 24–26, 2012. OSU denied its request, citing concerns over "the declining condition of OSU's three Library Lawns as of Spring 2012." However, the Office of Campus Life had already approved several other events for the same space in the 2012–2013 school year, including an event during the same week as the group's planned event—clear evidence of a double standard.
The group elected to cancel this display and move forward with two other planned events for the same week, a smaller display and a table at the "Chi-O Clock," ...
Another day, another patent troll. Or so it seems. The threat of the patent troll is not new—we’ve written about it time and again. But the troubling trend of suing downstream users and content providers really makes us mad. First it was the app developers, then those who scan documents to email. Now, the latest outrage: podcasters. Yes, really. And EFF wants to help organize those facing the threat so that we can gauge the size of the problem and hopefully help people find counsel and a way to work together in response.
First, some background. A company called Personal Audio is claiming that it owns a patent that covers podcasting technology and has sent podcasters letters, demanding that they pay Personal Audio to use the technology. As with many patents, this one is dangerously broad and vague, allegedly covering, well, any and all podcasting. Just take a look at this language:
Apparatus for disseminating a series of episodes represented by media files via the Internet as said episodes become available…
Of course, as with most software patents, this one fails to explain how that “apparatus” would actually work, apparently letting its owner make the ridiculous claim that ...
With every coming round of negotiations over the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)—a trade agreement that carries intellectual property provisions that could have hugely harmful consequences for the Internet and our digital rights—the Office of the US Trade Representative has continually whittled away at any remaining opportunity for the public to have input into the drafting process. The TPP has been under negotiation for three years and the opaqueness has only worsened.
EFF has therefore joined a diverse coalition of civil society organizations and public stakeholders to send a letter to Barbara Weisel, the lead US trade negotiator for the TPP, to clearly outline our baseline demands for transparency and increased civil society engagement in these secretive backdoor meetings.
Our demands include that the schedule of the meetings be published well in advance to allow ample time for civil society representatives to organize travel and accomodations near the negotiation venue; that we be granted access to the venue itself (which we were denied in the last round in Auckland, New Zealand); and that a requirement be made to hold stakeholder presentations and tabling events at a time when official negotiations are not in session. These "stakeholder" events are ...
Senator Lamar Alexander (R-KY) wasn’t the only senator to blame video games for gun violence last week. Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) claimed during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing that “[there] are too many video games that celebrate the mass killing of innocent people — games that despite attempts at industry self-regulation find their way into the hands of children.”
The Hill reported on Grassley’s comments, during which Grassley mentioned Call of Duty: Modern Warfare specifically because Anders Behring Breivik, the Norway mass shooter, cited the game as a training tool. During his statement, Grassley asked, “Where is the artistic value in shooting innocent civilians?” He further stated that he shared Vice President Biden’s disbelief in manufacturer claims that video games do not have an impact on real world violence.
Scientific evidence does not support Grassley’s (or Vice President Biden’s) conclusion. The Washington Post‘s Max Fisher recently looked at the statistics related to gun violence in the countries with the highest rate of violent video game usage and found that the United States was a statistical outlier in a trend that actually shows a slight decrease in gun violence as per capita video game usage increases. ...
A final settlement was reached last week in the Davis County, Utah book removal case. In addition to returning the book In Our Mothers’ House unrestricted to school library shelves, the school district agreed not to remove or restrict access to any library books based on Utah’s ban on having “instructional materials” that contain “advocacy of homosexuality.”
“We received invaluable assistance from the Freedom to Read Foundation, which helped provide resources for challenging the restriction and identifying expert witnesses who could testify about how In Our Mothers’ House was well within the mainstream of children’s literature and that the school’s decision to restrict access to the book violated bedrock principles of school library science.”
FIRE announces its Speech Code of the Month for February 2013: Wesleyan University.
Although Wesleyan is a private university, it claims to value free speech. Its Student Handbook states that (PDF) "Academic institutions exist for the transmission of knowledge, the pursuit of truth, the development of students, and the general well-being of society. Free inquiry and free expression are indispensable to the attainment of these goals." Moreover, the handbook also contains a statement (PDF) on the "Responsibility of the University to Its Members" which explicitly provides that
It is the responsibility of every member of the University to respect the rights and privileges of all others in the University as enumerated below.
1. Freedom of assembly, speech, belief, and the right of petition ....
The university's speech codes directly contradict these statements by placing substantial restrictions on students' expressive rights. Most notably, the same policy that obligates the university and its members to respect the right of free speech also requires "every member of the University" to refrain from
[A]ctions that may be harmful to the health or emotional stability of the individual or that degrade the individual or infringe upon his/her personal dignity.
In the wake of social justice activist Aaron Swartz’s tragic death, Internet users around the country are taking a hard look at the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), the federal anti-hacking law. As we’ve noted, the CFAA has lots of problems. In this three-part series, we'll explain these problems in detail and why they need to be fixed. In part 1, we described the kinds of innocuous activites that are terms of service violations and therefor could be deemed criminal.
As Congress discusses Aaron's Law, it will debate how the law should treat users who work their way around technical measures aimed at identification, tracking, or preventing interoperability with other programs or services. Right now, the law is written in a way that treats those folks as criminals just the same as those who bypass access barriers in order to steal information or commit other malicious acts. The current draft of Aaron’s Law, posted on Reddit by Rep. Lofgren on February 1, goes part of the way to fixing this, but not all the way yet.
Of course, companies are free to use technological measures to serve their business purposes, such as efforts to try ...
Can Congress embrace and enact sensible copyright policy? Four years ago, for a brief shining moment, it seemed the answer might be yes, as various interested stakeholders rallied around long-overdue legislation that would have helped to fix the orphan works problem. Orphan works are those whose owner cannot be located. Consequently, those who would like to use and share these works may hesitate to do so out of fear that they could later be found liable for copyright infringement because they didn’t get permission. In 2008, a variety of interested parties managed to come up with a way to limit that liability. It wasn’t perfect, but it represented real progress.
Sadly, that effort collapsed, thanks in part to a vigorous FUD campaign. In the past several months, however, momentum started slowly building once again toward a solution. Last spring, scholars, librarians and activists gathered in Berkeley, California, to discuss possible solutions. Shortly thereafter, the Copyright Office asked the public to weigh in. Today, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Public Knowledge responded, asdidmanyothers.
Consider the following examples under the current system:
A library has a vast archive of photos and music from the Depression Era. It would ...
A court in Vietnam on Monday sentenced 22 activists to jail terms ranging from 12 years to life in prison for “aiming to overthrow” the one-party communist government, according to rights groups and relatives of the accused who condemned the lengthy jail terms.
The verdict against the members of the little known group, Hoi Dong Cong Luat Cong An Bia Son, was delivered by a court in Phu Yen province following a five-day trial and marks the latest in a series of harsh punishments by the government as part of a crackdown on dissent.
The group, whose name translates as the Council for the Laws and Public Affairs of Bia Son (a provincial mountain), is led by 65-year-old Phan Van Thu and is considered a terrorist organization by Vietnamese authorities, who say it has several hundred members and branches in a number of central and southern provinces.
Nguyen Tan Xe, the father of defendant Nguyen Thai Binh, told RFA’s Vietnamese Service that his son and the other group members on trial had all received varying lengths of jail time.
“They handed out sentences to all of them,” Xe said. “One person was sentenced to life, while the others received [a ...
The last few days have seen controversy brewing over a planned event at Brooklyn College. The planned February 7 event, titled "BDS Movement Against Israel" and co-sponsored by several student groups as well as Brooklyn College's political science department, is slated to feature Judith Butler and Omar Barghouti, two proponents of the push to boycott, divest from, and sanction Israel (hence the "BDS" shorthand).
Particularly controversial has been the political science department's co-sponsorship of the event—which some have criticized as constituting an official endorsement of the event and the views of its speakers by Brooklyn College. Political Science Chair Paisley Currah has released a clarifying statement promising that "We welcome—indeed encourage—requests to co-sponsor speakers and events from all student groups, departments, and programs." Currah further writes that "[e]ach and every request will be given equal consideration." The college, meanwhile, has firmly defended the department's academic freedom, with spokesperson Jeremy Thompson telling the New York Post that
As a university, we are committed to academic freedom and the free exchange of ideas. We don't tell student groups or academic departments what topics they can or cannot discuss.
(Glad to hear this positive attitude towards academic freedom, since that hasn't always ...
Last Friday, the National Coalition Against Censorship sent a letter to the Paterson Free Public Library in Paterson, New Jersey, to protest a new policy that bans the playing of certain video games, in particular first-person shooters, on library computers. CBLDF is one of the organizations that signed the letter, which argues that the video games are protected by the First Amendment and cannot therefor be censored by officials at the library.
The letter takes library officials to task for subscribing to the same unsupported views that led to video game bans in Massachusetts, a presidential recommendation and proposed bill mandating research on video games and violence, and the fallacious claim by one senator that video games are a “bigger problem” than guns. NCAC writes in their letter:
The library has not offered any sound justification for removing access to specific games. Instead, according to published reports, librarians are taking this action to “prevent our kids from learning these behaviors.’’ This assumes that viewers will simply imitate behaviors represented in fictional settings without any independent mental intermediation, a proposition that is palpably false and that the library implicitly rejects by offering access to all sorts of internet sites ...
In the wake of social justice activist Aaron Swartz’s tragic death, Internet users around the country are taking a hard look at the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), the federal anti-hacking law. As we’ve noted, the CFAA has lots of problems. In this three-part series, we'll explain these problems in detail and why they need to be fixed.
Here is the CFAA's greatest flaw: the law makes it illegal to access a computer without authorization or in a way that exceeds authorization, but doesn’t clearly explain what that means. This murkiness gives the government tons of leeway to be creative in bringing charges.
For example, overzealous prosecutors have gone so far as to argue that the CFAA criminalizes violations of private agreements like an employer’s computer use policy or a web site’s terms of service. Thankfully, some federal courts have recognized the absurdity of this argument, but Congress needs to fix the law to make it crystal clear. Vague laws are dangerous precisely because they give prosecutors and courts too much discretion to arbitrarily penalize normal, everyday behavior.
So, under the government’s theory, what innocuous activities could the CFAA criminalize? Here are a few things that could ...
Today is the last day to order a signed or personalized gift and get it in time to surprise your sweetie on Valentine’s Day! CBLDF is offering you the chance to get graphic novels personalized by Brian K. Vaughan, Craig Thompson, Brian Wood, Cliff Chiang, Terry Moore, Jeffrey Brown, and Paul Pope for your nearest and dearest comics fan!
We also have excellent gifts signed by Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman,and Howard Cruse, and an amazing assortment of fragrances from Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab. To cap it all off, every donation supporting CBLDF as part of this drive will include an exclusive gift card featuring art from SAGA by Fiona Staples! You can check out the entire collection here.
Your donation to CBLDF doesn’t just get you the best romantic gift for the comics fan in your life, it also helps protect the freedom to read. Contributions to CBLDF allow us to provide expert legal defense for First Amendment emergencies, respond to challenges to comics in libraries, and create important tools to support the rights of kids, parents, and adult readers to have access to the full range of comics. To learn more about our important work, please visit ...
Law Enforcement Should Not Gather Genetic Information Without a Warrant
San Francisco - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) urged the Supreme Court Friday to block DNA collection from everyone arrested for a crime, arguing that law enforcement must get a warrant before forcing people to give samples of their genetic material.
EFF's amicus brief was filed Friday in Maryland v. King – a case challenging a law in the state of Maryland that requires DNA collection from all arrestees, whether they are ultimately convicted of a crime or not. Maryland officials claim that DNA is necessary for definitive identification, but they do not use the sample to "identify" the arrestee. Instead, they use the sample for other investigatory purposes – retaining and repeatedly accessing the wealth of personal information disclosed by an individual's genetic material despite lacking individualized suspicion connecting the arrestee to another crime. This violates the Fourth Amendment.
"Your DNA is the roadmap to an extraordinary amount of private information about you and your family," said EFF Staff Attorney Jennifer Lynch. "It contains data on your current health, your potential for disease, and your family background. For government access to personal information this sensitive, the Fourth Amendment requires ...
At the Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) website, the organization posts a nice response from DePaul University President Dennis Holtschneider in response to the recent vandalism of the campus YAF chapter's pro-life display. Holtschneider assures YAF president Kristopher Del Campo that a thorough investigation of the vandalism is being conducted. He also acknowledges that the vandalism is "deeply upsetting in that your and your fellow students' opportunity to give voice to your beliefs was unacceptably stifled by other students." That's right.
I had planned on ending this blog entry right there. Then I read to the bottom of the page, to the comments, where "Maria" had posted a reply arguing that removing the flags was also an act of free speech.
I would just like to point out that taking down the flags was just as much of an act of freedom of speech as putting them up were. I think for a man (Kris) to push his views on a college campus, where many women do not believe a man has any right to say one way or another what to do with their bodies, he got what he deserved. The students showed their right to activism ...
FIRE's Student Spotlight feature recognizes students who are doing outstanding work to promote individual rights on their campuses. In honor of Free Press Week, we have a special Student Spotlight for February: Danielle Susi, the Senior Managing Editor of The Quad News at Quinnipiac University.
Back in 2008, students working for the Quinnipiac campus newspaper, The Quinnipiac Chronicle, were frustrated by QU administrators' efforts to muzzle the paper, including an absurd demand from President John Lahey that the paper not publish articles online before they were in print. In the face of these threats to a free press, the student editors decided to form a new, independent student news source online: The Quad News. Almost five years later, the website is still publishing campus news daily.
As The Quad News celebrates five years on campus, I asked Danielle to talk about her experience as a student journalist and tell me what advice The Quad News staff has for other students who want to stand up for press rights on campus. You can read her full interview on the Student Spotlight page.
Congratulations to Danielle and The Quad News staff! Check back on The Torch next ...
ATLANTA, February 1, 2013—A federal jury today found former Valdosta State University (VSU) President Ronald M. Zaccari personally liable for $50,000 for violating the due process rights of former student Hayden Barnes in the case of Barnes v. Zaccari. In May 2007, Zaccari expelled Barnes for peacefully protesting Zaccari's plan to construct two parking garages on campus, calling a collage posted by Barnes on his personal Facebook page a "threatening document" and labeling Barnes a "clear and present danger" to VSU. Barnes first came to the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) for help in October 2007.
"College administrators have been blatantly and willfully violating student rights for decades, but they have far too often dodged personal responsibility. Not so today," said FIRE President Greg Lukianoff. "We hope this serves as a much-needed wake up call to college administrators that it's time to start paying close attention to the basic rights of their students."
"After five years, I finally feel vindicated. This is a victory for me but it's also a victory for students everywhere," said Barnes. "I hope that other college administrators take heed and see that violating students' rights can ...
As we wrap up Free Press Week, we take a look today at the unique challenges that college students face when engaging in satire and humor on campus, from humor magazines and editorial cartoons to satirical flyers and blogs. Like newspaper theft and denial of newspaper funding (which we have already explored this week), this is an issue that FIRE has seen time and time again on university campuses over the years.
For any number of reasons, parody, jokes, and satire-whether in print or otherwise—tend to rankle students and university administrators alike as few other forms of expression do. Consequently, student humor is often the target of calls for campus censorship and punishment. This despite the fact that, as FIRE has argued many times, parody, jokes, and satire exist precisely to challenge, to amuse, and even to offend. To witness, in Hustler Magazine v. Falwell, 485 U.S. 46 (1988), the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the First Amendment protects even the most outlandishly offensive parody—in that case, a satirical advertisement suggesting that the Reverend Jerry Falwell lost his virginity in a drunken encounter with his mother in an outhouse. With respect ...
Representative Zoe Lofgren has posted on Reddit a modified draft of Aaron's Law, a proposal to update the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and wire fraud law in honor of our friend Aaron Swartz and to make sure that the misguided prosecution that happened to him doesn't happen to anyone else. We're very pleased with the proposal's progress and we're hopeful about the future of this important bill.
EFF believes that any reform to the computer crime laws must have three crucial elements:
Computer users must not face criminal liability for violating private agreements, policies, or duties.
If a computer user is allowed to access information, simply doing it in an innovative way must not be a crime.
Penalties need to be proportionate to computer crime offenses.
This draft bill works toward achieving the first two elements.
The proposal meets our first goal by enshrining two recent decisions from federal appeals courts into the text of the CFAA. Those decisions said that running afoul of private computer-use policies and duties doesn't violate the statute. Aaron's Law would update the CFAA to exend that important precedent to the entire country, and that's great news.
The Department of Justice has announced that Christjan Bee, 36, of Monett, MO was sentenced this week to three years in federal prison without parole, followed by five years of supervised release because of comics he possessed on his computer. Last fall Bee pleaded guilty to possession of what the government characterized as a “pornographic cartoon, which depicted children engaging in sexual behavior.” Prosecutors assert the material “is categorized as obscene and therefore illegal,” despite the fact that the material was not tried in court under the Miller obscenity test. Bee pleaded guilty to possession of obscene material rather than stand trial under the original indictment of receiving child pornography. He did not contact the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund for assistance in his case.
CBLDF Executive Director Charles Brownstein says, “At this time, little is known about the material Bee pleaded guilty to possessing. Based on the government’s characterization of the material, I remain unpersuaded that it is legally obscene under the Supreme Court’s Miller obscenity test. It is also distressing that Bee is being sent to prison for mere possession of obscene material, where there is precedent that the court’s power ‘does not extend to mere possession by ...
The open access movement is a long-standing campaign in the world of research to make scholarly works freely available and reusable. One of its fundamental premises is that the progress of knowledge and culture happens scholarly works of all kinds are widely shared, not hidden in ivory towers built with paywalls and shorn by harsh legal regimes.
Scholarly journal publishers currently compile research done by professors (for free), send articles out to be peer reviewed (for free), and distribute the edited journals back to universities around the world (for costs anywhere up to $35,000 each). Subscription prices have outpaced inflation by over 250 percent in the past 30 years, and these fees go straight to the publisher. Neither the authors nor their institutions are paid a cent, and the research itself—which is largely funded by taxpayers—remains difficult to attain. Skyrocketing costs have forced university libraries—even Harvard's, the richest American university—to pick and choose between journal subscriptions.
The result: students and citizens face barriers accessing information they need; professors have a harder time reviewing and teaching the state of the art; and cutting-edge research remains hidden behind paywalls, depriving it of the visibility it deserves.
On January 24th, the editorial board of the University of Wisconsin, Madison’s student newspaper, The Badger Herald, decided not to run artist Vincent Cheng’s “Ya Boi, Inc.” comic strip for that day. Cheng’s strip (shown above) depicts a middle-aged man updating his musical “Likes” on Facebook based not on his actual interests but on their cultural value. After liking some “interesting” and classical music, the man decides he needs to add “some ‘mainstream’ artists that I surprisingly claim to sincerely enjoy.” The man does not actually know any mainstream artists so after pondering for a second, he asks himself, “What are the names of some black people?”
The Badger‘s Editor-in-Chief Ryan Rainey decided to not run the cartoon, a decision that was supported by his two chief advisers. Rainey’s decision was based on the possibility that UW’s campus would misinterpret the cartoon; he argues that “editors of college newspapers like the Herald, which has been at the center of many unnecessary and preventable campus-wide controversies before and throughout my time here, often have to take a lesser-of-two-evils approach to those ethical decisions.”
Rainey feels the risk was not worth it, explaining that “I did not feel like ...
A federal judge granted a temporary restraining order Thursday sharply reducing the boundaries of the “clean zone” set up by the city for the upcoming Super Bowl game. The “clean zone” — which had included the French Quarter and Faubourg Marigny — is an area in which only officially authorized vendors can sell souvenirs or other items. It also prohibits the display of unauthorized signs, banners and the like.
Creation of such “clean zones” is one of many actions the National Football League demands of cities hosting the Super Bowl. Similar zones are created for many other special events such as the Essence Music Festival and other major sports events.
Responding to a suit filed by the ACLU of Louisiana on behalf of two individuals, Judge Kurt Engelhardt ruled that the restrictions “may result in an infringement of plaintiffs’ rights of free speech.” He ordered that the restrictions on noncommercial speech be limited to the public areas around the Mercedes-Benz Superdome and New Orleans Arena.
The order essentially allows individuals to carry signs, flags and other previously prohibited media throughout the French Quarter, Faubourg Marigny and the rest of the Central Business District, said Marjorie Esman, executive director of the ACLU.
A verdict in Barnes v. Zaccari is expected today. The jury began deliberations yesterday afternoon. The Valdosta Daily Times (Ga.) has more from inside the courtroom proceedings, highlighting Bob Corn-Revere's argument on behalf of former Valdosta State University student Hayden Barnes, who was expelled for peacefully protesting the planned construction of campus parking garages:
[Former Valdosta State University President Ronald] Zaccari was looking for any route he could find to dismiss Barnes, according to Corn-Revere, although no one, including the university police chief, found any information about Barnes that would classify the junior transfer as a threat.
"When Dr. Zaccari testified, he said Barnes was under-performing and doesn't know why he was ever admitted to the university," said Corn-Revere. "Why would Dr. Zaccari know that much about a single student. It's because he wanted a way to get rid of this particular student and had been spending large amounts of time analyzing Hayden's background and surveilling him.
When Barnes' grades began improving, Zaccari looked for other ways to get rid of him and began focusing on the e-mails and the political cartoon, said Corn-Revere. And on a day deemed the 911 of university systems, Barnes and Zaccari held ...
The banning of cartoons and graphic novels by the foreign regimes they criticize is an all-too-common story. So, it is always a welcome change to report a formerly banned work’s re-release. A once-banned graphic novel that criticized Hosni Mubarak’s government is now back on Egyptian bookshelves.
Magdy al-Shafee’s Metro is a noir tale of software developers struggling against a fundamentally corrupt economy and government under Hosni Mubarak’s regime. Published in a limited release in January 2008, it quickly gained notoriety when it was banned by the Egyptian government, and al-Shafee was fined for “infringing upon public decency.” Al-Shaffee vowed at the time to fight both the banning and the fine:
Shafee told Daily News Egypt that he was aware that sections of Metro — which contains limited content of a sexual nature — might offend some readers and that it was for this reason that a ” for adults only” warning was put on the front cover. Shafee added that the comic’s content does not mean that it should be removed from the market.
“It is unethical to suppress freedom of speech and take books off the market,” Shafee said. “This is about more than ‘Metro.’ If we stay ...
A Tampa, FL jury has ruled in favor of radio DJ Bubba the Love Sponge Clem in the defamation trial brought against him by Todd ‘MJ’ Schnitt.
The jury of six people listened to about three hours of closing arguments and a rebuttal Wednesday morning before deliberations started.
Clem and his lawyers celebrated the verdict with a group hug.
“The First Amendment prevailed today. As unpopular as my speech is at times, it’s necessary for me and it’s necessary for you guys (the media),” said Clem, surrounded by his legal team outside the courthouse. “If this would’ve gone through it would’ve been a slippery slope.”
Schnitt sued Clem and the BTLS Radio Network for what he says were “highly offensive, insulting or fighting words and defamatory statements” made on-air in 2008 about him and his wife, Michelle.
“None of it was malice, none of it was intended to hurt- it was classic radio-war 101,” said Clem.
Carolyn Forsman, a former librarian who supported free expression by becoming an award-winning jewelry designer and creating pieces that celebrated the freedom to read, including her well-known “I Read Banned Books” bracelet, died on Jan. 19 in New York City following a short illness. She was 69.
Forsman developed the “I Read Banned Books” bracelet in 2005 in conjunction with the American Library Association’s Freedom to Read Foundation (FTRF). The bracelet, which consists of tiles depicting the covers of challenged books, is sold in over 200 museum stores and independent bookstores across the U.S., Canada, and the United Kingdom.
Over the years, FIRE has repeatedly gone to bat for student newspapers and student journalists faced with censorship. That censorship came in many forms, ranging from newspaper theft, reduced support from student activity funds, and the firing of faculty advisors, to prior review and editorial control of content. Since it's Free Press Week, here, in no particular order, are three of the most egregious examples of free press violations from FIRE's case archives.
Prior restraint was the censorship tool of choice for administrators at Quinnipiac University (QU) from 2007 through much of 2008. Back then, the university prohibited the student editors of The Quinnipiac Chronicle from publishing news online prior to the same news appearing in print. The university president claimed that the policy was necessary so that he could read the news in print "before the external world hears about it."
The policy didn't sit too well with the paper's editor-in-chief, Jason Braff, who then challenged the policy. The university responded by declaring that "student leaders, especially those in paid positions, are expected to generally be supportive of university policies." Then the administration took control over the selection ...
Last year, we saw more battles in Congress over Internet freedom than we have in many years as user protests stopped two dangerous bills, the censorship-oriented SOPA, and the privacy-invasive Cybersecurity Act of 2012. But Congress ended the year by ramming through a domestic spying bill and weakening the Video Privacy Protection Act.
In 2013, Congress will tackle several bills—both good and bad—that could shape Internet privacy for the next decade. Some were introduced last year, and some will be completely new. For now, here's what's ahead in the upcoming Congress:
Reforming Draconian Computer Crime Law
The Computer Fraud and Abust Act (CFAA), was one of the key laws the government used in its relentless and unjust prosecution of Aaron Swartz. Zoe Lofgren has proposed "Aaron's Law," which ensures that breaking a terms of service or other contractual obligation does not amount to a CFAA violation. Lofgren's reforms are a terrific start and will be introduced in Congress over the coming weeks. EFF has also proposed revisions to Lofgren's language and overall reform to the CFAA that reduces the draconian penalties and clarifies key definitions in the statute. The proposed reforms will go a long way in preventing a ...
Dispiriting news is coming out of New Orleans, as The Times-Picayune is reporting the cancellation of a long-planned event co-sponsored by two student organizations at the Louisiana State University (LSU) School of Medicine. The event, originally scheduled for today (three days before the Super Bowl), was supposed to have featured a lecture by former New Orleans Saints offensive tackle Kyle Turley to draw attention to the health and safety hazards arising from head injuries in professional football.
The Times-Picayune reports:
Fliers said the event was sponsored by the LSU Medical Student Association and a group called Ethikos. It was scheduled for Thursday afternoon on the campus of LSU's Health Sciences Center in New Orleans. School officials are refusing to comment on the cancellation.
Turley said he had planned to introduce an as-yet unreleased film by Sean Pamphilon, the film producer who helped inflame the Saints bounty scandal with the release of an audio recording of former defensive coordinator Gregg Williams directing his players to inflict pain and injury on their opponents -- the San Francisco 49ers.
Turley commented on the cancellation to the Times-Picayune:
"At the last minute they decide to pull the plug. They have ...
The Senate Judiciary Committee began holding hearings regarding gun violence on Wednesday. During a day of heated and frequently preposterous commentary, the most ridiculous statement came from Senator Lamar Alexander (R-KY), who told MSNBC’s Chuck Todd that violent video games are a “bigger problem” than guns are.
When Todd asked Alexander whether he would support a universal background checks bill, Alexander responded with the following:
Chuck, I’m going to wait and see on all of these bills. I think video games is [sic] a bigger problem than guns, because video games affect people. But the First Amendment limits what we can do about video games, and the Second Amendment to the Constitution limits what we can do about guns.
And just in case Alexander’s statement seems too unbelievably obtuse to be true, there’s video:
Jason Linkins with the Huffington Post covered the story, writing about the frequent –and false — connection pundits make between video games and gun violence:
I was never too convinced by the argument: Video games, unlike the act of shooting up an entire school of children, were and remain popular, with… millions of people partaking in the escape. ...
The Young Adult Library Services Association’s latest annual list of Great Graphic Novels is out! Books are nominated for inclusion on the list by members of YALSA, a division of the American Library Association, and then voted on by a committee made up of school and public librarians from across the United States. The books on the list are judged to exemplify “both good quality literature and appealing reading for teens.” From the long list of 55 titles, committee members also selected their top ten “titles that exemplify the quality and range of graphic novels appropriate for teen audiences.” And here’s the top ten list:
Fiction
