Bruce Ennis, Stephanie Perrin, and myself (Seth Finkelstein) have been honored as Internet luminaries, winners of the 2001 Electronic Frontier Foundation Pioneer Awards. The press release below is also available on the web, at http://www.eff.org/awards/20010305_pioneer_press_release.html __ Seth Finkelstein Consulting Programmer sethf@sethf.com http://sethf.com Electronic Frontier Foundation Press Release March 5, 2001 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Monday March 5th, 2001 ELECTRONIC FRONTIER FOUNDATION (EFF) PIONEER AWARDS HONOR INTERNET LUMINARIES Ennis, Finkelstein, and Perrin Presented Awards at EFF's Tenth Annual Pioneer Awards Ceremony Contact: Katina Bishop, Electronic Frontier Foundation (415) 436-9333 ext. 101 or (617) 492-1234 - during CFP from 3/5 - 3/9 Monday, March 5, 2001, Boston, MA -- The ceremony for EFF's Tenth Annual Pioneer Awards will take place at the New England Aquarium on March 8, 2001, in conjunction with the Computers, Freedom and Privacy conference this week in Cambridge, MA. The online civil liberties group chose to honor Bruce Ennis, in appreciation of his lifelong commitment to the legal defense of free expression and the First Amendment; Seth Finkelstein, for his dedication to raising the level of public awareness about the dangers to free expression posed by Internet content blocking and labeling systems; and Stephanie Perrin, for her instrumental and long-term role in advancing understanding and protection of privacy internationally and in her home country of Canada. Since 1991, the EFF Pioneer Awards have recognized individuals who have made significant and influential contributions to the development of computer-mediated communications or to the empowerment of individuals in using computers and the Internet. Bruce Ennis - Described by the legal press as one of the most influential attorneys in the country, Bruce Ennis devoted much of his life and practice to defending intellecual freedom. Bruce argued many crucial First Amendment cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and lower courts, including the landmark free speech victory in ACLU v. Reno (the "Communications Decency Act" case). Sadly, Ennis passed away earlier this year, but his contributions to free expression on the Internet live on but his contributions to free expression and press in the Internet, news reporting, political and other spheres live on. Seth Finkelstein - Anti-censorship activist and programmer Seth Finkelstein spent hundreds of unpaid and uncredited hours over several years to decrypt and expose to public scrutiny the secret contents of the most popular censorware blacklists. Seth has been active in raising the level of public awareness about the dangers that Internet content blocking software and rating/labeling schemes pose to freedom of communication. His work has armed many with information of great assistance in the fight against government mandated use of these systems. Stephanie Perrin - internationally recognized privacy and freedom of information expert Perrin spent 5 years engineering Canada's inspiring new privacy law (PIPEDA), among 15 years of important privacy and cryptography policy work, and has bridged the government, nonprofit and commercial sectors in privacy technology, policy, standards and education. Perrin has also been involved in privacy protection issues at the global scale, on the OECD Security and Privacy Committee, and made signifcant contributions to understanding technical privacy protection issues. "We, as a community of people respecting rights in technology, do not take enough opportunity to honor our own," stated Shari Steele, Executive Director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "Bruce, Stephanie and Seth are shining examples of the spirit and energy that makes good things happen. We're proud to present them with this year's Pioneer Awards." The judges for this year's EFF Pioneer Awards were: Herb Brody (Senior Editor, Technology Review) Whitfield Diffie (Distinguished Engineer, Sun Microsystems) Moira Gunn (Host, "Tech Nation", National Public Radio) Donna L. Hoffman (Associate Professor of Management, Vanderbilt University) Peter G. Neumann (Principal Scientist, SRI Intl.; Moderator, ACM Risks Forum) Drazen Pantic (Media & Tech. Director, NYU Center for War, Peace, & the News Media) Barbara Simons (past President, Association for Computing Machinery, & U.C. Berkeley Distinguished Alumnus) Karen G. Schneider (Technical Director, Shenendehowa Public Library, NY) The Tenth Annual EFF Pioneer Awards ceremony will be held on the evening of March 8th, 2001, at the New England Aquarium. The ceremony and reception are made possible by contributions from Guardent, Michael Golub and Mark Belden, MEconomy, Inc, Organic, Inc, Privada, Inc., and Sun Microsystems. For more information on EFF Pioneer Awards, see: http://www.eff.org/awards/pioneer.html For more information on the Electronic Frontier Foundation see: http://www.eff.org 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, privacy, and openness in the information society. EFF is a member-supported organization and maintains one of the most linked-to Web sites in the world: http://www.eff.org ************************************************************************** Subscribe to Freematt's Alerts: Pro-Individual Rights Issues Send a blank message to: freematt@coil.com with the words subscribe FA on the subject line. 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