Electronic Frontier Foundation
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| Founded | July 6, 1990 |
|---|---|
| Founders | Mitch Kapor, John Perry Barlow, John Gilmore |
| Type | 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization |
| 04-3091431 | |
| Purpose | Digital rights Internet activism, lobbying, and litigation |
| Location |
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| Coordinates | 37°46′57″N 122°25′18″W / 37.78262°N 122.42158°WCoordinates: 37°46′57″N 122°25′18″W / 37.78262°N 122.42158°W |
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Area served
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International |
| Brian Behlendorf | |
| Cindy Cohn | |
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Revenue
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$17.1 million (2015) |
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Employees
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49 |
| Website | eff |
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is an international non-profit digital rights group based in San Francisco, California.
EFF provides funds for legal defense in court, presents amicus curiae briefs, defends individuals and new technologies from what it considers abusive legal threats, works to expose government malfeasance, provides guidance to the government and courts, organizes political action and mass mailings, supports some new technologies which it believes preserve personal freedoms and online civil liberties, maintains a database and web sites of related news and information, monitors and challenges potential legislation that it believes would infringe on personal liberties and fair use, and solicits a list of what it considers abusive patents with intentions to defeat those that it considers without merit.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation was formed in July 1990 by John Gilmore, John Perry Barlow and Mitch Kapor in response to a series of actions by law enforcement agencies that led them to conclude that the authorities were gravely uninformed about emerging forms of online communication, and that there was a need for increased protection for Internet civil liberties.
In April 1990, Barlow had been visited by a U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation agent in relation to the theft and distribution of the source code for a series of Macintosh ROMs. Barlow described the visit as "complicated by [the agent's] fairly complete unfamiliarity with computer technology. I realized right away that before I could demonstrate my innocence, I would first have to explain to him what guilt might be." Barlow felt that his experience was symptomatic of a "great paroxysm of governmental confusion during which everyone's liberties would become at risk".
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