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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Sanity prevails: iiNet did not authorise its users' infringements
[edit: for more analysis, see EFA Chair Nic Suzor’s blog post: iiNet did not ‘authorise’; providing internet access is not providing the ‘means’ of infringement’; safe harbours are effective.] And with one tweet, iiNet CEO Michael Malone announces the result that we’ve all been waiting for: IiNet did not authorize the infringements #iitrial More analysis will follow when the full written judgment is handed down, but it is apparent that…
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SA Electoral amendments and anonymity online
There has been a lot of discussion about the recent changes to the South Australian Electoral Act 1985, and in particular the amendment to s 116 which extends the requirement of attribution to the internet. The law seems poorly drafted and unworkable, but it may not pose as much of a threat as is suspected. See over the jump for my analysis.
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Senate Internet Censorship Petition Update
Thank you to everyone who has signed the Senate Internet Censorship Petition. So far we have just under 10,000 signatories to the e-petition, but that is just the beginning. Please let your friends, family and colleagues know about the Government’s mandatory Internet filtering policy and what they can do to help defeat it, including signing the petition online as well as collecting paper signatures. We now have badges you can…
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ACTA negotiations underway; background information from Michael Geist
The negotiations for the ACTA, the secret Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, are underway in Mexico this week, and there’s been a lot of coverage around the world of the lack of transparency in these talks. For those who are not familiar with the agreement, I want to recommend Michael Geist’s excellent five part ACTA Guide: The ACTA Guide, Part One: The Talks To-Date ACTA Guide, Part Two: The Documents (Official and…
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Update on the Great Australian Internet Blackout
All this week Australian websites having been going black as part of the Great Australian Internet Blackout. So far this online demonstration has successfully reached a wide range of audiences, educating them about the problems with the Government’s mandatory Internet filter policy: There are 480 verified participating websites (and that only counts the websites that have directly submitted their sites for inclusion on our list), including the websites of the Australian…
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Australian web sites to go black on Australia Day
Electronic Frontiers Australia today announced that over 500 web Australian sites will be “blacked out” on Australia day in protest against the Rudd government’s mandatory Internet filtering plan. Included among them are the Australian Greens, an Internet service provider, media outlets, and hundreds of other Australian businesses and organisations. “This policy has caused considerable anxiety amongst Australian Internet users,” said EFA Vice-Chair Colin Jacobs. “The idea that the Government will…
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.