General Information about the Electronic Frontier Foundation

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General Information about the Electronic Frontier Foundation
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The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) was founded in July, 1990,
to assure freedom of expression in digital media, with a particular
emphasis on applying the principles embodied in the Constitution
and the Bill of Rights to computer-based communication.

>From the beginning, EFF was determined to become an organization
that would combine technical, legal and public policy expertise, and
would apply these skills to the myriad issues and concerns that arise
whenever a new communications medium is born.

By remaining faithful to this initial vision, EFF has become an
organized voice for the burgeoning community of nationally and
inter- nationally networked computer users. We perform the
multiple roles of guardian, advocate and innovator, to serve and
protect the public interest in the information age.

We have defended civil liberties in court. We have shaped the policy
debate on emerging communications infrastructure and regulation.
We have increased awareness both on the Net and among those law
enforcement officials, policy makers and corporations whose
insufficient under- standing of the digital environment threatened
the freedom of Cyberspace. Yet there is still much to be done.

Goals of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, 1993

EFF's mission is to understand the opportunities and challenges of
digital communications, in order to foster openness, individual
freedom and community.

We expect to carry out our mission through activities in the following
areas:

POLICY DEVELOPMENT AND ADVOCACY. EFF has been working to
promote an open architecture for telecommunications by various
means, including the Open Platform Initiative, the fight against the
FBI's Digital Telephony wiretap proposal, and efforts to free robust
encryption technologies from NSA control.

FOSTERING COMMUNITY. Much of the work we have done has been
directed at fostering a sense of community in the online world.
Because we realize that we know far less about the conditions
conducive to the formation of virtual communities than is necessary
to be effective in creating them, we will devote a large portion of our
R & D resources to developing better understanding in this area.

LEGAL SERVICES. EFF was born to defend the rights of computer
users against overzealous and uninformed law enforcement officials.
This continues to be an important focus of EFF's work. We provide
legal information to individuals who request it and support for
attorneys who are litigating. We maintain print and online legal
archives, disseminate this information, and make it available for
downloading. Our board and staff are continuously engaged in
writing and speaking about these issues.

RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT. We have started many projects over the
years as their need became apparent. Going forward, EFF will allocate
resources to investigate and initiate new projects. To ensure that our
projects have the greatest impact and can reasonably be completed
with the resources available, EFF will sharpen its selection and
review process.

Structure of EFF

EFF currently maintains offices in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and
Washington, D.C. In June, all operations will be consolidated into our
Washington office.

EFF's Cambridge office currently deals with member services, some
legal services and our online communications. The Cambridge office
also maintains the central library and our main computing facilities,
including our Internet site, eff.org, which hosts our mailing lists;
ftp.eff.org, home of our anonymous ftp archives; and our Gopher
server, which enables users to locate and download files using the
Gopher client program.

EFF's Washington office is charged with policy-making, coalition
building, forming congressional liaisons, and the administration of
the Communications Policy Forum. EFF's legal services and
publications functions are also coordinated out of Washington.

EFF is a nonprofit 501(c)3 organization. We are an operating
foundation and do not make grants. EFF is a membership
organization with both individual and corporate members from
throughout the United States and the world.

                         How to Connect to the EFF

Internet and USENET:

General information requests, submissions for EFFector Online, and
the like can be mailed to eff@eff.org.

If you receive any USENET newsgroups, your site may carry the
newsgroups comp.org.eff.news and comp.org.eff.talk. The former is a
moderated newsgroup for announcements, newsletters, and other
information; the latter is an unmoderated discussion group for
discussing the EFF and issue relating to the electronic frontier.

For those unable to read the newsgroups, there are redistributions
via electronic mail.  Send requests to be added to or dropped from
the eff-news mailing list to eff-request@eff.org.

Mail eff-talk-request@eff.org to be added to a redistribution of
comp.org.eff.talk by mail; please note that it can be extremely high-
volume at times.

A document library containing all of the EFF news releases, John
Barlow's "Crime and Puzzlement", and other publications of interest is
available via anonymous FTP from ftp.eff.org. Mail ftphelp@eff.org if
you have questions, or are unable to use FTP.

To be on a mailing list specific to a discussion of technical and policy
pub-infra-request@eff.org.

The WELL:

There is an active EFF conference on the WELL, as well as many other
related conferences of interest to EFF supporters. Access to the WELL
is $15/month plus $2/hour. Outside the San Francisco area, telecom
access for $4.50/hour is available through the CompuServe Packet
Network. If you have an Internet connection, you can reach the
WELL via telnet at well.sf.ca.us; otherwise, dial 415 332 6106 (data). 
The WELL's voice number is 415 332 4335.

CompuServe:

Our forum on CompuServe has also opened recently. GO EFFSIG to
join. Many of the files on ftp.eff.org, as well as other items of interest,
are mirrored in the EFFSIG Libraries.

America Online

EFF is planning to host its own area on AOL.  Cliff Figallo (Fig on AOL)
is coordinating the creation of this area.  A selection of EFF
information files already exists in the Awakened Eye Sig which is
also in the MCM Forum. 

Our Addresses

Electronic Frontier Foundation, Inc.
666 Pennsylvania Avenue S.E., Suite 303
Washington, DC 20003
+1 202 544 9237
+1 202 547 5481 FAX
Internet: eff@eff.org

Electronic Frontier Foundation, Inc.
238 Main St.
Cambridge, MA 02142
+1 617 576 4500
+1 617 576 4520 FAX
Internet: eff@eff.org

MEMBERSHIP IN THE ELECTRONIC FRONTIER FOUNDATION

In order to continue the work already begun and to expand our
efforts and activities into other realms of the electronic frontier, we
need the financial support of individuals and organizations.

If you support our goals and our work, you can show that support by
becoming a member now. Members receive our bi-weekly electronic
newsletter, EFFector Online (if you have an electronic address that
can be reached through the Net), answers to your legal questions,
special releases and other notices on our activities. (Because we
believe that support should be freely given, you can receive these
things even if you do not elect to become a member.)
Your membership dues and other donations are fully tax deductible.

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Mail to:
Electronic Frontier Foundation, Inc.
238 Main St.
Cambridge, MA 02142

I wish to become a member of EFF. I enclose: $_______
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This allows any organization, if it wishes, to designate up to five
individuals
within the organization as members.)

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Our privacy policy: The Electronic Frontier Foundation will never sell
any part of our membership list. We will, from time to time, share
this list with other nonprofit organizations whose work we determine
to be in line with our goals. However, you must explicitly grant us
permission to share your name with these other groups. Member
privacy is our default.

I hereby grant permission to EFF to share my name with other
nonprofit groups from time to time as it deems appropriate [ ].
Initials:___________________________

Last Update: 16 February 1993

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