Promoting And Protecting Digital Rights Since 1994
EFA is an independent non-profit association that relies on membership subscriptions and donations. If you’re concerned about digital rights in Australia, please join or donate today.
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The Happy Birthday song copyright scam ends
The Happy Birthday song hasn’t been in copyright for generations, and everybody knew it. That didn’t stop Warner Chappell music from running a scam where they extorted “royalties” from movies and restaurants that featured the song, charging less than it would cost anyone to litigate the question. Until, that is, a documentary about the song decided to fight the question in court. They won. U.S. District Judge George H. King ruled…
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New Open Letter Calls on TPP Negotiators to Stand up for User Safeguards
Copyright restricts all kinds of important, everyday uses of creative works—even worse, these strict rules last nearly two lifetimes for any given work. We are fighting to reform and push back against these restrictions in the secret Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), especially those that undermine the public’s ability to use, research, remix, or otherwise modify digital content and devices. And one of the most critical issues in this trade deal is…
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IETF approves .onion as ‘special purpose domain’
The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) recently approved “.onion” as a “special-use” domain. This means, in effect, “.onion” will be treated in the same way .local, .localhost, and .example have been dealt with previously — that is, outside the global Domain Name System (DNS). Adding .onion to the Special-Use Domain Names registry will also enable hosts on the Tor network to obtain validated SSL certificates. The “.onion” domain is used…
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Australia: global village idiot (again)?
Australian Internet pioneer Geoff Huston thinks our data retention laws will result in our web browsing history being retained and thinks this relegates us to global village idiot status. Again. I recall from some years back, when we were debating in Australia some national Internet censorship proposal de jour, that if the Internet represented a new Global Village then Australia was trying very hard to position itself as the Global…
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EFA again calls for ISP Copyright Code to be halted
EFA reiterates its call for the ISP Copyright Code to be halted. New research released last week by Choice confirms what EFA and most informed observers (including the Communications Minister) have been saying for some time, namely that the primary drivers of online copyright infringement in Australia are lack of timely availability and price discrimination. The Australian market has been transformed this year with the introduction and explosive growth of a number…
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High public officials must have at least basic computer skills
It is no longer acceptable for high-ranking public officials to not possess at least the most basic computer and electronic communication skills as are required for the most junior entry-level positions. Legal professionals particularly are required to undertake a minimum level of professional development throughout their careers. It is therefore very difficult to understand how any legal professional could attain a high public office without having gained even basic computer…
Help fight for our digital rights
What We Do
Policy
We actively monitor a number of policy areas and specific issues. The topics below provide a detailed view of EFA’s policy positions.
Copyright
Australia’s copyright laws are outdated, inflexible and not fit for the digital age. As such, EFA is a long-standing supporter of reform of Australia’s Copyright Act.
Privacy & Security
Privacy is fundamentally about consent and control over access to information, and goes hand-in-hand with security. Privacy is a human right.
Censorship
Adults should be able to make their own informed decisions about what content they create and consume.
Encryption
Access to encryption technologies is vital for individuals and groups to be able to safeguard the security and privacy of their information.
Internet Safety
Surveillance is not safety. Safety for whom, against what? This complex problem is more likely to be exacerbated, rather than solved, by measures that allow for unaccountable surveillance and the undermining of communications security.
Surveillance
EFA is committed to ensuring that Australian’s home life is not subject to arbitrary interference.