Toronto Electricians and Electrical Contractors

What We’re Thankful for at EFF This Year Thanksgiving is a time to take stock of what’s happened in the past year and focus on the things that we appreciate most. In the spirit of the holiday, we here at EFF are taking some time to name some things that we’re giving thanks for this year—from victories that protect the rights we hold dearest, to allies that work with us, to the supporters who make our work possible. A Great Win for the First Amendment The freedom of speech is an important right to protect, and we’re thankful that a federal judge ruled that it is unconstitutional for government officials who use their Twitter accounts to conduct official business to block individuals simply because they disagree with their views. U.S. District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald in May ruled that President Donald Trump could not block people, and therefore prevent them from seeing his communication with the public or interacting in the otherwise public spaces created by each of his tweets....

EFF’s Newest Annual Report For nearly thirty years, member support has allowed EFF to grapple with technology and its impact on the future of our civil liberties. When our eyes are so keenly focused on the horizon, sometimes we forget how far we’ve come.  Our just-published Fiscal Year 2017 Annual Report  includes a snapshot of that progress, with an update from EFF Executive Director Cindy Cohn  and highlights from the year, including: EFF’s  groundbreaking border search case  and our battle against the dangerous rise of surveillance technology ; our continuing fight to preserve the open web  and  protect creators and fight poor patent claims ; and our efforts to meet the security needs of growing communities  and speak up for bloggers and technologists silenced by the state . You’ll also find information about our finances for fiscal year 2017 . EFF is deeply grateful for supp...

It’s Repair Day: No One Should Be Punished for “Contempt of Business Model” Repair is one of the secret keys to a better life. Repairs keep our gadgets in use longer (saving our pocketbooks) and divert e-waste from landfills or toxic recycling processes (saving our planet). Repair is an engine of community prosperity: when you get your phone screen fixed at your corner repair shop, your money goes to a locally owned small business (my daughter and the phone screen guy’s daughter go to the same school and he always tut-tuts over the state of my chipped and dented phone at parent-teacher nights). Fixing stuff has deep roots in the American psyche, from the motorheads who rebuilt and souped-up their cars, to the farmers whose ingenuity wrung every last bit of value out of their heavy equipment, to the electronics tinkerers who are lionized today as some of the founders of Silicon Valley. Repairs are amazing : they account for up to 4% of GDP, create local jobs (fix a ton of electron...

Federal Appeals Court Misses Opportunity to Rule that Section 230 Bars Claims Against Online Platforms for Hosting Terrorist Content Although a federal appeals court this week agreed to dismiss a case alleging that Twitter provided material support for terrorists in the form of accounts and direct messaging services, the court left the door open for similar lawsuits to proceed in the future. This is troubling because the threat of liability created by these types of cases may lead platforms further filter and censor users’ speech. The decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in Fields v. Twitter is good news inasmuch as it ends the case. But the court failed to rule on whether 47 U.S.C. § 230 (known as “Section 230”) applied and barred the plaintiffs’ claims. That’s disappointing. The Ninth Circuit missed an opportunity to rule that one of the Internet’s most important laws bars these types of cases. Section 230 provides online platforms with broad immunity f...