Open Source Advocate, Canadian Copyfighter, and AT&T Whistleblower Win Pioneer Awards

Electronic Frontier Foundation Media Release

For Immediate Release: Thursday, February 21, 2008

Contact:

Katina Bishop
   Associate Director of Development
   Electronic Frontier Foundation
   katina@eff.org
   +1 415 436-9333 x101

Rebecca Jeschke
   Media Coordinator
   Electronic Frontier Foundation
   press@eff.org
   +1 415 436-9333 x125

Open Source Advocate, Canadian Copyfighter, and AT&T
Whistleblower Win Pioneer Awards

Mitchell Baker and the Mozilla Foundation, Michael Geist,
and Mark Klein to be Honored at San Diego Award Ceremony

San Diego - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is
pleased to announce the winners of its 2008 Pioneer Awards:
the Mozilla Foundation and its Chairman Mitchell Baker,
University of Ottawa Professor Michael Geist, and AT&T
whistleblower Mark Klein.

The award ceremony will be held at 7pm, March 4th at the
San Diego Marriott Hotel and Marina in conjunction with the
O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference (ETech).  Michael
Robertson -- founder and CEO of MP3.com, Linspire, MP3Tunes
and Gizmo5 -- will give the awards' keynote address: "What
to Expect When You're Expecting...To Be Sued."

Mitchell Baker is the Chairman of the Mozilla Foundation,
which is dedicated to promoting openness, innovation, and
opportunity on the Internet through its sponsorship of the
open-source Mozilla project.  The Mozilla Foundation
provides grants, legal services, and other support for
development projects involving the Firefox browser, the
Thunderbird email application, and other Mozilla software.
Baker was previously the attorney at Netscape responsible
for all legal issues related to product development and
intellectual property protection.  During that time she
wrote the Netscape and Mozilla Public Licenses.

Dr. Michael Geist is a law professor at the University of
Ottawa.  Last year, he led the public protest to proposed
Canadian copyright law changes that would have devastated
consumers' technology rights.  The groundswell of
opposition caused the government to rethink and ultimately
cancel introducing the legislation.  Geist serves on the
Privacy Commissioner of Canada's Expert Advisory Board and
on the Canadian Digital Information Strategy's Review
Panel.  Geist is also an internationally syndicated
columnist on technology law and writes a popular blog on
the Internet and intellectual property issues.

Mark Klein is a retired AT&T telecommunications technician
who blew the whistle on the government's warrantless
surveillance program.  When news reports of the illegal
spying surfaced in December of 2005, Klein realized that he
had been witness to -- and participated in setting up --
massive surveillance technology that violated the rights of
millions of Americans.  In early 2006, Klein brought EFF
authenticated documents showing how AT&T diverted
customers' communications to a room controlled by the
National Security Agency.  EFF now represents AT&T
customers in a class-action lawsuit over the illegal
spying.

"The Pioneer Award winners this year show us how one person
can truly make a difference in our digital world," said EFF
Executive Director Shari Steele.  "It's hard work to
protect freedom, and we are so grateful for the invaluable
contributions of Mitchell, Michael, and Mark."

Since 1991, the EFF Pioneer Awards have recognized
individuals and organizations that have made significant
and influential contributions to the development of
computer-mediated communications and to the empowerment of
individuals in using computers and the Internet. Past
winners include World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee,
Linux creator Linus Torvalds, and security researcher Bruce
Schneier, among many others.

The winners of the 17th annual Pioneer Awards were
nominated by the public and then chosen by a panel of
judges.  This year's panel includes Kim Alexander
(President and founder, California Voter Foundation),
Esther Dyson (Internet court jester and blogger, Release
0.9; founding chairman of ICANN; former chairman of EFF),
Mitch Kapor (President, Kapor Enterprises; co-founder and
former chairman EFF), Drazen Pantic (Co-director, Location
One), Barbara Simons (IBM Research [Retired] and former
president ACM), James Tyre, (Co-founder, The Censorware
Project; EFF policy fellow) and Jimmy Wales, (Founder,
Wikipedia; co-founder, Wikia; chair emeritus of the
Wikimedia Foundation).

TCHO is the Platinum Sponsor for the 2008 Pioneer Awards
ceremony.  TCHO is a new chocolate company for a new
generation of chocolate enthusiasts.  Founded by Wired
co-founder Louis Rossetto and legendary chocolatier and
former technologist Timothy Childs, TCHO will sample a
"beta release" of their dark chocolate during the awards
ceremony.  Attendees are invited to taste two different
formulas and vote for their favorite. Feedback directly
influences the national release bar.  Learn more about TCHO
at: http://www.tcho.com

Bronze sponsors of the event include Atomic PR, Barracuda,
JibJab, MOG, and Three Rings.

Tickets to the Pioneer Awards ceremony are $35. If you plan
to attend, RSVP to events@eff.org. You can also pay for
your tickets in advance at
http://secure.eff.org/pioneerfundraiser. Members of the
media interested in attending the event should email
press@eff.org.

For more on attending the Pioneer Awards:
http://www.eff.org/awards/pioneer

For this release:
http://www.eff.org/press/archives/2008/02/21

About EFF

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is the leading civil
liberties organization working to protect rights in the
digital world. Founded in 1990, EFF actively encourages and
challenges industry and government to support free
expression and privacy online. EFF is a member-supported
organization and maintains one of the most linked-to
websites in the world at http://www.eff.org/

About ETech and O'Reilly Media

For the past six years, the O'Reilly Emerging Technology
Conference has found new networked innovations before they
hit the mainstream. ETech balances pie-in-the-sky
theorizing with practical, real-world information and
conversation. O'Reilly Media spreads the knowledge of
innovators through its books, online services, magazines,
and conferences. Since 1978, O'Reilly has been a chronicler
and catalyst of leading-edge development, homing in on the
technology trends that really matter. For more information:
http://www.oreilly.com.


     -end-

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