Editing Questions for EFF

EFF's Civil Liberties Director Jennifer Granick will be answering your Coders' Rights legal questions at Noisebridge at 7:00 pm, Monday November 30th.

Noisebridge is, as you know, [[Getting_Here|located on the 3rd floor of 2169 Mission Street, San
Francisco, CA]].

Add your advance questions to this page:

* If Noisebridge were to use a government owned network without permission from the government whereas the contract for the network states that no non-government agency can use it, does that risk putting us in any sort of liability?
* Can you legally delete all the logs from your site every night? Is it legal to keep no logs for a site that allows unfiltered user generated content?
* Is the GPL a contract or a license?
* Noisebridge's wifi is open, and we generally have a fairly open door policy on people coming in. Does that affect NB member's "expectation of privacy" when they're on our network, or talking or meeting in our space? And if so, does that affect the actual legal protection for communications on the network, or what people say here?
* Where is the line between satire and libel? If you write terrible things about someone on the Internet, at what point are you culpable?
* How could I publicly write an open source botnet, with my name on it, without being a target for prosecution or paralegal harassment?
* Can officialdom of any sort confiscate Noisebridge and/or other individuals' equipment if they think some person in the space is breaking the law?

* If we were to have Deep Crack in the space, would this present any problems for non-US citizens?  (The whole non-export of crypto thing, ITAR I believe)

* At what point can the organization be held liable for the actions of members or non-members while in or out of the space?

* How much information, if any, are we required to give to an organization which accuses us of wrongdoing? Example: a company claims someone hacked them from NB and wants information about everyone who was at the space at the time.

* If cops want to confiscate your laptop, and you're certain that the confiscation is illegal (e.g. they want to confiscate all the laptops in the space because of an alcohol sales issue), would it be a good idea to not consent to the confiscation and thereby force them arrest you so that a) you can see a judge within 3 days to resolve it (rather than waiting 3-6 months to get your stuff back), and b) sue for false arrest etc?
* Does Noisebridge's status as a semi-public space affect whether we can refuse entrance to cops without a warrant?

* Suppose that Noisebridge is served with a subpoena and gag order e.g. under the Stored Communications Act or as a National Security Letter, and chooses EFF to be its legal representation. Given Noiebridge's unofficially decentralized decision making system does not permit any individual (e.g. Jake as nominal executive director) to make decisions on its behalf (such as authorization to hire a particular lawyer), to whom may this order be legally disclosed? Anyone at EFF? NB members who are also EFF members? the particular director who opens the mail? the whole board? members? friends of / donators to the space? Relatedly, how could Noisebridge be (re)structured in order to permit maximum disclosure without violating the law? What consequences would there be to a leak, if it can't be proven who leaked it?

* Is Noisebridge an "online service provider" within the scope of the PATRIOT act?

* Jacob Appelbaum has proposed a [[M.A.I.D.|(Mutually) Assured Information Destruction]] system that automatically destroys the key to encrypted data stores in a deadman switch fashion. Other similar systems can wipe your hard drive if you don't check in. How do these fare legally against charges of obstruction of justice, destruction of evidence, or prima faciae evidence of intent to commit a crime? What about simply claiming you've "forgotten" your key?

* Does [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bilski In re Bilski] overturn/prohibit software patents?