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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Email your A-G and request the release of the discussion paper (one click tool from Gamers4Croydon)
New political party, Gamers 4 Croydon, have created a one-click tool to email your Attorney-General and request the release of the R18+ Discussion Paper. The next meeting of the Standing Committee of Attorneys-General is apparently Thursday and Friday this week; if you care about an R18+ rating, send an email to your A-G now!
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ACTA copyright negotiations underway: still secret, still worrying
The new round of Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) negotiations has started in Seoul. This round sees the introduction of the long-anticipated internet enforcement measures, which the US has drafted in secret. Michael Geist reports that the draft text is modeled on the US – South Korea free trade agreement, and focuses on five issues: Baseline obligations inspired by Article 41 of the TRIPs which focuses on the enforcement of intellectual…
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Disappointing L4D2 demo released; write to the Minister!
The Australian version of the Left 4 Dead 2 demo has been released, and the highly cut version is a bitter disappointment for many Australian gamers. First impressions from Australian gamers indicates that the highly-censored version results in a vastly inferior atmosphere to the original, uncut version. The lack of an R18+ rating is likely to significantly harm Australian sales of the game, and we expect that many Australians will…
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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Australia's lack of an R 18+ rating
Asher Moses is reporting on the outrage caused by leaked footage of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, which allows players to play the part of a terrorist as part of a cut-scene. Once again, this story really shows how expressive video games can be. They’re constructed, like films, to elicit emotional responses in players, and some of them deal with fairly gritty subject matter. Films often show the villain’s…
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EFA Annual Report for 2009
The EFA Board has released its annual report to members for the year 2008/09. The EFA AGM will be held on 16 November 2009. Thank you all for all of your continued support throughout the year. — Nic Suzor, EFA Chair
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A short story about the olympics and non-commercial CC photos
Richard Giles has a few posts on his blog about a matter you may have heard about. Richard took some photographs at the Beijing Olympics and posted them on his Flickr account. Last week he was sent a rather forceful cease and desist letter from the IOC, which he also put up. The story was picked up by a number of influential sites, and people all over the world voiced…
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.