EFF the System

I would like to take a moment to thank the Electronic Frontier Foundation, or EFF, for their service to society. The EFF is a group of people who stand up to fight companies that use hardball tactics to limit our freedoms. Somehow these companies, which include tech corporations and media conglomerates, have managed to buy all kinds of lawmaker influence. As a result, it seems that someone introduces new legislation or lawsuits to limit the way people use products every day.

What's their rationale? Protection of their intellectual property, of course! They seem to believe that they have the right to control how you use the music, movies, games, and television programming that you pay for. Why do they care so much? Well, aside from trying to stop piracy (good luck), I honestly don't know. Maybe they get a kick out of making our lives less enjoyable. Maybe they want to preserve the grand visions of the artists they employ. Maybe their wives/husbands have been irritating them a lot lately and they're taking out their frustrations on average citizens. Most likely, they simply think they can get more money from us by restricting what we do.

While the power and apparent mental retardation of the federal government may seem daunting, the EFF has done a pretty good job of standing up for people. Please check out their site to get a better understanding of who they are, what they do, and why they're important.

Some direct links:
EFF Home
Extinct and Endangered Gizmos
DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act)
Digital Rights Management
The Sad State of the Patent System