DEF CON 21 - Panel - Ask the EFF The Year in Digital Civil Liberties
Channel: DEFCONConference
Date: 23/12/2013

Ask the EFF: The Year in Digital Civil Liberties 
KURT OPSAHL ELECTRONIC FRONTIER FOUNDATION 
MARCIA HOFFMANN FELLOW, EFF 
DAN AUERBACH STAFF TECHNOLOGIST, EFF 
EVA GALPERIN GLOBAL POLICY ANALYST, EFF 
MARC JAYCOX POLICY ANALYST AND LEGISLATIVE ASSISTANT, EFF 
MITCH STOLTZ STAFF ATTORNEY, EFF

Get the latest information about how the law is racing to catch up with technological change from staffers at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the nation's premiere digital civil liberties group fighting for freedom and privacy in the computer age. This session will include updates on current EFF issues such as surveillance online and fighting efforts to use intellectual property claims to shut down free speech and halt innovation, discussion of our technology project to protect privacy and speech online, updates on cases and legislation affecting security research, and much more. Half the session will be given over to question-and-answer, so it's your chance to ask EFF questions about the law and technology issues that are important to you.

Kurt Opsahl (@kurtopsahl)(@eff) is a Senior Staff Attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation focusing on civil liberties, free speech and privacy law. Opsahl has counseled numerous computer security researchers on their rights to conduct and discuss research. Before joining EFF, Opsahl worked at Perkins Coie, where he represented technology clients with respect to intellectual property, privacy, defamation, and other online liability matters, including working on Kelly v. Arribasoft, MGM v. Grokster and CoStar v. LoopNet. Prior to Perkins, Opsahl was a research fellow to Professor Pamela Samuelson at the U.C. Berkeley School of Information Management & Systems. Opsahl received his law degree from Boalt Hall, and undergraduate degree from U.C. Santa Cruz. Opsahl co-authored "Electronic Media and Privacy Law Handbook". In 2007, Opsahl was named as one of the 'Attorneys of the Year' by California Lawyer magazine for his work on the O'Grady v. Superior Court appeal, which established the reporter's privilege for online journalists.

Marcia Hoffmann is an EFF Fellow. Now in private practice, Marcia was previously a senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, where she focuses on computer crime and security, electronic privacy, free expression, and other digital civil liberties issues. Prior to joining EFF, Marcia was staff counsel and director of the Open Government Project at the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC).

Dan Auerbach is a Staff Technologist who is passionate about defending civil liberties and encouraging government transparency. Coming to EFF with a background in mathematical logic and automated reasoning, as well as years of engineering experience at Google, Dan now works on EFF's various technical projects and helps lawyers, activists, and the public understand important technologies that might threaten the privacy or security of users.

Eva Galperin is EFF's Global Policy Analyst, and has been instrumental in highlighting government malware designed to spy upon activists around the world. A lifelong geek, Eva misspent her youth working as a Systems Administrator all over Silicon Valley. Since then, she has seen the error of her ways and earned degrees in Political Science and International Relations from SFSU. She comes to EFF from the US-China Policy Institute, where she researched Chinese energy policy, helped to organize conferences, and attempted to make use of her rudimentary Mandarin skills.

Mark Jaycox is a Policy Analyst and Legislative Assistant for EFF. His issues include user privacy, civil liberties, EULAs, and "cybersecurity" (online security). When not reading legal or legislative documents, Mark can be found reading non-legal and legislative documents, exploring the Bay Area, and riding his bike. He was educated at Reed College, spent a year abroad at the University of Oxford (Wadham College), and concentrated in History and Politics. The intersection of his concentration with advancing technologies and the law was prevalent throughout his education, and Mark's excited to apply these passions to EFF. Previous to joining EFF, Mark was a Contributor to ArsTechnica, and a Legislative Research Assistant for LexisNexis.

Mitch Stoltz is a Staff Attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, focusing on intellectual property. Before joining EFF, Mitch worked on copyright and antitrust litigation for high-tech clients at Constantine Cannon LLP in Washington DC. Long ago, in an Internet far far away, Mitch was Chief Security Engineer at Netscape Communications and Mozilla.org, where he put out fires and cajoled hackers on three continents. He also interned at the Computer and Communications Industry Association and the office of Massachusetts State Senator Jack Hart. Mitch has a JD from Boston University and a BA in Public Policy and Computer Science from Pomona College, where he co-founded the student TV station Studio 47.