 Welcome to Effector from the Electronic Friends Here Foundation. This is the audio edition of EFF's email newsletter geared towards keeping you on the bleeding edge of your digital rights. Check out the links in our description for all of our stories. This is Effector Volume 33, Issue 1, answers for internet creators on new copyright laws. This issue was published on February 25th, 2021, and I'm your narrator, member outreach assistant Christian Romero. Let's start with some top features. 1. Copyright for Internet Creators Town Hall Anyone who makes or shares things online is affected by copyright law, whether you're a YouTube creator, a fan fiction writer, or just interested in watching or sharing transformative works, or pretty much any other online content, you won't want to miss this town hall on how content creation is affected by copyright and what to do about it. On February 26th, at 10 a.m. pacific time, join EFF's Catherine Trenda Costa and Cara Gagliano, as well as Professor Casey Feisler, a member of the Legal Committee for Archive of Our Own. They will discuss a recent flurry of changes to copyright law, how copyright filters work, or don't work, and answer any questions you might have about copyright. This event will be live streamed via Twitch and is free to attend. It will also be streaming on Facebook Live and YouTube Live. Student surveillance vendor Proctorio files slap lawsuit to silence a critic. During the pandemic, a dangerous business has prospered, invading students' privacy with proctoring software and apps. In the last year, we've seen universities compel students to download apps that collect their face images, driver's license data, and network information. Last fall, Ian Linkletter, a remote learning specialist at the University of British Columbia, became a part of a chorus of critics concerned with this industry. Now, he's being sued for speaking out. This outrageous lawsuit, which relies on a bizarre legal theory that linking to publicly viewable videos is copyright infringement, will become an important test of a 2019 British Columbia law passed to defend free speech, the Protection of Public Participation Act, or PPPA. Next up, we've got some EFF updates. LAPD requested ring footage of Black Lives Matter protests. Along with other civil liberties organizations and activists, EFF has long warned that Amazon Ring and other network home surveillance devices could be used to monitor political activity and protests. Now, we have documented proof that our fears were founded. Cops using music to try to stop being filmed is just the tip of the iceberg. Someone tries to livestream their encounters with the police. We need to find that the police started playing music. In the case of a February 5th meeting between an activist and the Beverly Hills Police Department, the song of choice was Sublime's Santaria. The police may not got no crystal ball, but they do seem to have an unusually strong knowledge about copyright filters and how they can get important content taken off of the internet. Copyright should not be a fast track to getting speech removed that you do not like. This law is meant to encourage creativity. By giving artists a limited period of exclusive rights to their creations, it is not a way to make money off of criticism or a loophole to be exploited by authorities. EFF to First Circuit. Schools should not be policing students' weekend Snapchat posts. EFF filed an amicus brief urging an appeals court to protect students' free speech rights when they are not in school. In this case, we asked the court to hold that under the First Amendment, public schools may not punish students for their off-campus speech, whether they are expressing dissatisfaction with their schools' COVID-19 safety protocols, calling out instances of racism at schools, or organizing protests against school gun violence. We hope that the First Circuit and Supreme Court will take this opportunity to reaffirm the free speech rights of public school students and draw clear limits on schools' ability to police students' private lives. Facebook's latest proposed policy change exemplifies the trouble with moderating speech at scale. Hateful speech presents to be one of the most difficult problems of content moderation. At a global scale, it's practically impossible. That's why there is no good solution to Facebook's current dilemma of how to treat the term Zionism. Ultimately, the fact that Facebook is in the position to make such a decision is a problem. We hope that they will not limit yet another nuanced term that they lack the capacity to moderate fairly, but whatever they choose, they must ensure that their rules are transparent and that users have the ability to appeal to a human moderator any decisions that are made. Now, we've got some EFF announcements. Copyright for Internet Creators Town Hall. Please join us on February 26th at 10 a.m. Pacific time for a conversation about the state of copyright law in 2021 and what you need to know about it. Most importantly, we will give you a way to stay informed and fight back. NICAR 21 Investigating Local Police Surveillance Tips from Reporters on the Ground. EFF Director of Investigations Dave Moss will host a panel at the National Institute for Computer Assisted Reporting 2021 conference on March 5th at 12 p.m. Pacific time discussing tips and techniques used by reporters on the ground to reveal abuses, errors, and disproportionate policing. EFF at B-Sides 2021. EFF is proud to be a part of the first-ever virtual B-Sides SF, a conference dedicated to advancing the body of information security knowledge. Be sure to check out EFF's session from our Director of Investigations Dave Moss titled How to Observe Police Surveillance at Protests. And lastly, we've got some mini-links for you. This first one's from Gizmodo. Minneapolis becomes the latest city to ban government use of face recognition technology. With a unanimous city council vote, Minneapolis joins Boston, San Francisco, and more than a dozen cities across the country that have banned government use of face recognition technology. This next one's from the New York Times. The best law you've never heard of. Americans should feel angry about companies harvesting every morsel of our data to sell us sneakers or rate our creditworthiness. But a data protection law that few of us know about should give us hope. This last mini-link is from Politico. Groups press Biden to commit to transparency. A coalition of advocates for more access to government information and deliberations are urging President Biden to make such openness a higher priority and reverse what they contended was a deterioration in public access to the inner workings of government under former President Donald Trump. And that's it. Thanks for listening. If you like what you're hearing, be sure to sign up for the email version of Effector, which includes links to in-depth coverage of these stories and more. See past issues and subscribe at EFF.org slash Effector. That's EFF.org slash EFF E-C-T-O-R. Before we end this issue of the newsletter, I just want to let you know that EFF is a member-supported non-profit organization and you can help us protect privacy, security and free expression on the internet for everyone. Donate to EFF today and even grab a bit of gear by heading over to EFF.org slash Effect. That's EFF.org slash EFF E-C-T. You can become a member for as little as $25 or even sign up as a monthly or annual donor. Thanks for your support and I hope you'll join us for the next issue of Effector.