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King666Field (talk | contribs) →History: add citation needed to uncited event |
Removing non-neutral language relying solely on primary sources from lead. More substantiated, independent claims could be added, but it shouldn't read like an ad. Also fixing citation needed tag. |
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EFF provides funds for legal defense in court, presents [[amicus curiae]] briefs, defends individuals and new [[Technology|technologies]] from what it considers abusive legal threats, works to expose [[government]] malfeasance, provides guidance to the government and [[court]]s, organizes political action and mass mailings, supports some new technologies which it believes preserve [[Liberty|personal freedoms]] and online civil liberties, maintains a [[database]] and web sites of related news and information, monitors and challenges potential [[legislation]] that it believes would infringe on [[Liberty|personal liberties]] and [[fair use]] and solicits a list of what it considers [[Patent misuse|abusive patents]] with intentions to defeat those that it considers without [[merit (law)|merit]].
==History==
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The Electronic Frontier Foundation was formed in July 1990 by [[John Gilmore (activist)|John Gilmore]], [[John Perry Barlow]] and [[Mitch Kapor]] in response to a series of actions by law enforcement agencies that led them to conclude that the authorities were gravely uninformed about emerging forms of online communication,<ref name=j1/> and that there was a need for increased protection for [[Internet]] [[civil liberties]].
In April 1990, Barlow had been visited by a U.S. [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] agent in relation to the theft and distribution of the source code for a series of Macintosh ROMs. Barlow described the visit as "complicated by [the agent's] fairly complete unfamiliarity with computer technology. I realized right away that before I could demonstrate my innocence, I would first have to explain to him what guilt might be." Barlow felt that his experience was symptomatic of a "great paroxysm of governmental confusion during which everyone's liberties would become at risk".
Barlow posted an account of this experience to [[The WELL]] online community and was contacted by Mitch Kapor, who had had a similar experience. The pair agreed that there was a need to defend civil liberties on the Internet. Kapor agreed to fund any legal fees associated with such a defense and the pair contacted New York lawyers Rabinowitz, Boudin, Standard, Krinsky and Lieberman about defending several computer hackers from a ''Harper's'' magazine forum on computers and freedom who had been the target of [[United States Secret Service|Secret Service]] raids.<ref name="j1">{{Harvnb|Jones|2003|p=172}}</ref> This generated a large amount of publicity which led to offers of financial support from [[John Gilmore (activist)|John Gilmore]] and [[Steve Wozniak]]. Barlow and Kapor continued to research conflicts between the government and technology and in June 1990, Barlow posted online the influential article entitled "Crime & Puzzlement" in which Barlow announced his and Kapor's plans to create an organization to "raise and disburse funds for education, lobbying, and litigation in the areas relating to digital speech and the extension of the Constitution into Cyberspace."<ref>{{cite web |title=Crime & Puzzlement |last=Barlow |first=John Perry |author-link=John Perry Barlow |date=June 8, 1990 |url=https://w2.eff.org/Misc/Publications/John_Perry_Barlow/HTML/crime_and_puzzlement_1.html |website=w2.EFF.org |publisher=Electronic Frontier Foundation |access-date=August 10, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141024192834/http://w2.eff.org/Misc/Publications/John_Perry_Barlow/HTML/crime_and_puzzlement_1.html |archive-date=2014-10-24 |dead-url=yes |df= }}</ref>
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