EFF Defends Creator of The Oatmeal | EFFector 25.18

	In our 613th issue: UPDATES MINILINKS ANNOUNCEMENTS EFF Defends Creator of The Oatmeal EFF is defending popular online cartoonist Matthew Inman of The Oatmeal (http://theoatmeal.com) against a bizarre lawsuit targeting his online comic strip's charity fundraising campaign. Inman started his fundraiser as part of his criticism of the frivolous legal threats he received from the website FunnyJunk. Rather than pay the $20k demanded, Inman was going to raise money and send a photo of the money to FunnyJunk, but send the money to charity instead. The fundraiser raised $220,024.00--almost exactly 11 times the original goal of $20k. The attorney for FunnyJunk, Charles Carreon, filed a lawsuit on his own behalf, suing Inman, the two charities, the online fundraising platform Indiegogo, 100 unidentified John Does, and even the California Attorney General, asserting trademark infringement, cybervandalism, and false advertising. Carreon seeks to take control over the fundraiser from Inman, and place the money in a trust. You Bought It. You Own. But in the Digital World, Those Rights are Threatened. The Supreme Court will soon review a court decision that, if upheld, could put handcuffs on our ability to sell digital goods--or even physical goods with copyrighted logos or artwork--simply because the goods were manufactured outside the U.S. This is just a small piece of a larger assault on ownership rights. Courts and copyright owners have quietly been creating a world in which digital goods are never truly owned, but only licensed, often with a plethora of legal restrictions. Join EFF and other rights groups in speaking out: Act now. Friday Hearing in Megaupload Case Over Users' Rights EFF, assisted by retired federal judge Abraham D. Sofaer, will ask a judge Friday to order the return of data to Kyle Goodwin, a Megaupload user who lost all access to his files when the cloud storage service was shut down by the U.S. government. The government has so far failed to help Goodwin and other lawful Megaupload users get access to their data, despite months of legal wrangling. EFF Updates More Evidence of a Broken Software Patent System A new report shows the economic damage reaped on our society by patent trolls - to the tune of $29 billion in 2011 alone--and, in a promising ruling, an influential federal judge threw out a high profile patent case between Motorola and Apple. A Newspaper Should Know Better: Trademark Allegations Put Occupied Chicago Tribune At Risk The Chicago Tribune is claiming trademark infringement by independent newspaper Occupied Chicago Tribune, which for months has been reporting and commenting on the Occupy movement. Hey Congress - Executive Privilege Getting in the Way of Public Accountability? EFF Feels Your Pain. And Here's a Way to Fix It. If Congress really wants to send a message to the Department of Justice for its repeated refusals to release documents about a botched investigation, it should focus on a long-term solution: cabining the Executive’s ability to assert executive privilege in the first place. If Europe Rejects ACTA, Will It Actually Go Away? The fifth and final European Union Parliamentary committee voted to reject the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). This signifies a major blow to ACTA, but its standing in the EU still comes down to the European Parliament vote scheduled during the first week of July. Defending Privacy at the Israeli Border: Information for Travelers Carrying Digital Devices Two young travelers to Israel were requested not only to provide their laptops to border agents for arbitrary searches, but to log in to their email accounts and allow Israeli officials to search through their email for specific strings and correspondence. Will Sudan Pull a Mubarak? In the Sudan, there are rumors of a potential Internet shutdown and speculation that authorities are using technology to track activists and journalists. Prominent bloggers have already been detained. Coders' Rights At Risk in the European Parliament The European Parliament is considering computer crime issues; EFF urges them to consider the public good provided by security researchers. miniLinks Speak Out Against the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement EFF is headed to San Diego to fight for users in the secret TPP negotiations. Add your voice to the tens of thousands who have already spoken out against backroom Internet regulations. The Ultimate Challenge to Lebanon’s Censorship Bureau A web mockumentary takes on Lebanon's notorious censorship bureau, a seemingly unaccountable body that relishes in randomly banning cultural works from local productions to Lady Gaga’s albums. Wikipedia Founder Opposes Extradition of UK Teen Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales penned a powerful op-ed opposing the extradition of UK teen Richard O'Dwyer to the US for alleged copyright infringement. Administrivia ISSN 1062-9424 EFFector is a publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. 454 Shotwell Street San Francisco, CA 94110-1914 USA +1 415 436 9333 +1 415 436 9993 (fax) eff.org Editor: Rainey Reitman, Activism Team editor@eff.org Membership & donation queries:membership@eff.org General EFF, legal, policy, or online resources queries: info@eff.org Reproduction

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Announcements Software Patents Endanger Innovation EFF launched a campaign against software patents last week, and already 5,895 people have spoken out against a broken system. Help us get to 6,000. TPP Stakeholder Negotiations and Public Kick-Off Rally The 13th round of Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations will be at the Hilton Bayfront Hotel in San Diego. Carolina Rossini and Maira Sutton of EFF's international IP team will participate in the official TPP stakeholder events at the Hilton. A rally is planned outside at a park between the convention center and the Hilton beginning at noon on Monday. Come hear Maira speak and rally for Internet freedom. July 2-10, 2012 San Diego, CA Global Voices Summit The Global Voices Summit convenes bloggers, activists, and technologists for public discussions and workshops about the rise of online citizen media movements worldwide. EFF's International Freedom of Expression Director Jillian York will be speaking on surveillance. July 2-3, 2012 Nairobi, Kenya HOPE Number 9 Come meet EFF activists, lawyers, and technologists at Hackers On Planet Earth, one of the most creative and diverse hacker events in the world. HOPE Number Nine will be taking place on July 13, 14, and 15, 2012 at the Hotel Pennsylvania in New York City. July 13-15, 2012 New York, New York From the EFF Community Our favorite feedback from the larger EFF community this week, posted byJack Heath on the EFF Google Plus account: "EFF is an awesome organization, they're like if Matlock and Supergirl had a baby, who grew up, started a software company, and then won the lottery."

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