decoration decoration
Stories

GROKLAW
When you want to know more... 		decoration
For layout only
Home
Archives
Site Map
Search
About Groklaw
Awards
Legal Research
Timelines
ApplevSamsung
ApplevSamsung p.2
ArchiveExplorer
Autozone
Bilski
Cases
Cast: Lawyers
Comes v. MS
Contracts/Documents
Courts
DRM
Gordon v MS
GPL
Grokdoc
HTML How To
IPI v RH
IV v. Google
Legal Docs
Lodsys
MS Litigations
MSvB&N
News Picks
Novell v. MS
Novell-MS Deal
ODF/OOXML
OOXML Appeals
OraclevGoogle
Patents
ProjectMonterey
Psystar
Quote Database
Red Hat v SCO
Salus Book
SCEA v Hotz
SCO Appeals
SCO Bankruptcy
SCO Financials
SCO Overview
SCO v IBM
SCO v Novell
SCO:Soup2Nuts
SCOsource
Sean Daly
Software Patents
Switch to Linux
Transcripts
Unix Books

Gear

Groklaw Gear

Click here to send an email to the editor of this weblog.

You won't find me on Facebook

Donate

Donate Paypal

No Legal Advice

The information on Groklaw is not intended to constitute legal advice. While Mark is a lawyer and he has asked other lawyers and law students to contribute articles, all of these articles are offered to help educate, not to provide specific legal advice. They are not your lawyers.

Here's Groklaw's comments policy.

What's New

STORIES
No new stories

COMMENTS last 48 hrs
No new comments

Sponsors

Hosting:
hosted by ibiblio

On servers donated to ibiblio by AMD.

Webmaster
4 EFF Pioneer Awards Winners for 2010 Announced - I am one of them
Tuesday, October 19 2010 @ 08:46 PM EDT

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has announced four winners of their EFF Pioneer Awards for 2010. I am a winner this year.

When I heard the news, I got goosebumps. Previous winners of the EFF Pioneer Awards include Tim Berners-Lee, Linus and Richard Stallman. This is a day I'll remember. I never ever thought this was something that would happen. I feel the acknowledgment for me and our body of work here on Groklaw, and it feels very good. Thank you, EFF.

The others this year are Steven Aftergood, James Boyle, and Hari Krishna Prasad Vemuru. From the press release:

"These winners have all worked tirelessly to give critical insight and context to the tough questions that arise in our evolving digital world," said EFF Executive Director Shari Steele. "We need strong advocates, educators, and researchers like these to protect our digital rights, and we're proud to honor these four Pioneer Award winners for their important contributions."...

Awarded every year since 1992, EFF's Pioneer Awards recognize leaders who are extending freedom and innovation on the electronic frontier. Past honorees include World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee, security expert Bruce Schneier, and the Mozilla Foundation and its chairman Mitchell Baker, among many others.

Tirelessly. Well. I do get tired sometimes. But it's so nice to know someone noticed the effort. Boyle, if you recall, wrote the wonderful cartoon book on fair use, Bound by Law, although the award is mainly for his scholarship on threats to the public domain. The awards ceremony will be in San Francisco, my favorite US city, on November 8, and BoingBoing's Cory Doctorow will host. Does it get any better?

The press release:

*****************************

October 19th, 2010

Transparency Activist, Public Domain Scholar, Legal Blogger, and Imprisoned E-Voting Researcher Win Pioneer Awards
EFF to Honor Stephen Aftergood, James Boyle, Pamela Jones and Groklaw, and Hari Krishna Prasad Vemuru at San Francisco Ceremony

San Francisco - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is pleased to announce four winners of its 2010 Pioneer Awards: transparency activist Stephen Aftergood; public domain scholar James Boyle; legal blogger Pamela Jones and the website Groklaw; and e-voting researcher Hari Krishna Prasad Vemuru, who was recently released on bail after being imprisoned for his security work in India.

The award ceremony will be held at 7:30 p.m., November 8, at the 111 Minna Gallery in San Francisco. Author, blogger, and digital rights activist Cory Doctorow will host. A VIP event with Cory and the Pioneer winners -- as well as EFF founders, board members, and other luminaries -- will begin at 6:30 p.m.

Steven Aftergood directs the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) Project on Government Secrecy, which works to reduce the scope of official secrecy and to promote public access to government information. He writes and edits Secrecy News, an email newsletter and blog that reports on new developments in secrecy and disclosure policy. Secrecy News also provides direct public access to various official records that have been suppressed, withdrawn, or that are simply hard to find. In 1997, Mr. Aftergood was the plaintiff in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the Central Intelligence Agency that successfully led to the declassification and publication of the total intelligence budget for the first time in 50 years.

James Boyle is William Neal Reynolds Professor of Law and co-founder of the Center for the Study of the Public Domain at Duke Law School. Professor Boyle is recognized for his exceptional scholarship on the "second enclosure movement" -- the worldwide expansion of intellectual property rights -- and its threat to the rich public domain of cultural and scientific materials that the Internet might otherwise make available. An original board member of Creative Commons and co-founder of Science Commons, Professor Boyle has worked for over 20 years as both an academic and institution builder to celebrate and protect the values of cultural and scientific openness.

When Pamela Jones created Groklaw in 2003, she envisioned a new kind of participatory journalism and distributed discovery -- a place where programmers and engineers could educate lawyers on technology relevant to legal cases of significance to the Free and Open Source community, and where technologists could learn about how the legal system works. Groklaw quickly became an essential resource for understanding such important legal debates as the SCO-Linux lawsuits, the European Union antitrust case against Microsoft, and whether software should qualify for patent protection.

Hari Krishna Prasad Vemuru is a security researcher in India who recently revealed security flaws in India's paperless electronic voting machines. He has endured jail time, repeated interrogations, and ongoing political harassment to protect an anonymous source that enabled him to conduct the first independent security review of India's electronic voting system. Prasad spent a year trying to convince election officials to complete such a review, but they insisted that the government-made machines were "perfect" and "tamperproof." Instead of blindly accepting the government's claims, Prasad's international team discovered serious flaws that could alter national election results. Months of hot debate have produced a growing consensus that India's electronic voting machines should be scrapped, and Prasad hopes to help his country build a transparent and verifiable voting system.

"These winners have all worked tirelessly to give critical insight and context to the tough questions that arise in our evolving digital world," said EFF Executive Director Shari Steele. "We need strong advocates, educators, and researchers like these to protect our digital rights, and we're proud to honor these four Pioneer Award winners for their important contributions." Tickets to the Pioneer Awards ceremony are $35 if purchased in advance or $40 at the door. Tickets are available online at http://www.eff.org/pioneerfundraiser. Sponsors of the 2010 Pioneer Awards ceremony include the Computer Electronics Association (CEA), JibJab, and Junk Email Filter.

Awarded every year since 1992, EFF's Pioneer Awards recognize leaders who are extending freedom and innovation on the electronic frontier. Past honorees include World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee, security expert Bruce Schneier, and the Mozilla Foundation and its chairman Mitchell Baker, among many others.

Pioneer Award candidates are nominated by the public. The winners were chosen by a panel of judges including Kim Alexander (president and founder, California Voter Foundation), Jim Buckmaster (CEO, craigslist), Cory Doctorow (award-winning author and activist), Mitch Kapor (Kapor Capital; co-founder and former chairman EFF), Drazen Pantic (co- director, Location One), Barbara Simons (computer scientist, IBM Research [retired] and former president ACM), and James Tyre (co- founder, The Censorware Project and EFF policy fellow).

For more information about the Pioneer Awards: https://www.eff.org/awards/pioneer


  


4 EFF Pioneer Awards Winners for 2010 Announced - I am one of them | 321 comments | Create New Account
Comments belong to whoever posts them. Please notify us of inappropriate comments.
4 EFF Pioneer Awards Winners for 2010 Announced - I am one of them
Authored by: jac41 on Tuesday, October 19 2010 @ 08:51 PM EDT
Congratulations.



---
No matter where I go
there I am.

[ Reply to This | # ]

Congratulations
Authored by: PolR on Tuesday, October 19 2010 @ 08:58 PM EDT
This is awesome.

[ Reply to This | # ]

4 EFF Pioneer Awards Winners for 2010 Announced - I am one of them
Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, October 19 2010 @ 09:12 PM EDT
Well deserved for a truly outstanding site. Bravo!

[ Reply to This | # ]

Peer recognition for a great effort
Authored by: dmarker on Tuesday, October 19 2010 @ 09:12 PM EDT


PJ you do something unique & new. A real innovator. We can all expect to
benefit from your pioneering effort.

The only thing that might surpass this might be if one day Yarro, McBride (&
god forbid O'Gara) openly admitted you were spot in your efforts.

Congratulations

Doug Marker

[ Reply to This | # ]

Congratulations...
Authored by: jesse on Tuesday, October 19 2010 @ 09:17 PM EDT
Be careful if you are thinking of attending the ceremony in
person.

[ Reply to This | # ]

4 EFF Pioneer Awards Winners for 2010 Announced - I am one of them
Authored by: inode_buddha on Tuesday, October 19 2010 @ 09:25 PM EDT
How very well deserved - way to go! You're in good company. And you know, I *do*
look forward to a book from you someday. I'm sure you could get published.

---
-inode_buddha

"When we speak of free software,
we are referring to freedom, not price"
-- Richard M. Stallman

[ Reply to This | # ]

Congratulations!
Authored by: webster on Tuesday, October 19 2010 @ 09:49 PM EDT
You have earned it with what you write, what you put up, the tone you maintain,
and what others contribute. Your site is at the top of diverse crowds.

[ Reply to This | # ]

4 EFF Pioneer Awards Winners for 2010 Announced - I am one of them
Authored by: chad on Tuesday, October 19 2010 @ 09:59 PM EDT
Do you plan to attend? It's a cross-country trip, yes?

[ Reply to This | # ]

There's An Old Polish Proverb That Says, "Living Swell Is The Best Revenge"
Authored by: TheBlueSkyRanger on Tuesday, October 19 2010 @ 10:10 PM EDT
Hey, PJ!

I know you are a decent and modest and humble person.

So allow me to look at Darl McBride and MoG and all the others who were trying
to remake the world of software in their image, where cyberspace is actual
property and they were the land barons.

And how the only influence they have had is to unite people against them.

Here's the thing -- everyone has it in them to change the world. Typically,
though, the world is changed by fighting someone. It is the rare rare person
who changes the world by inspiring people instead of threatening them.

Your work speaks for itself. If Stallman is the god of Open Source and Linus is
the patron saint, you are the archangel who fights the devil and his minions.

And those who sought your destruction are learning just how hard it is to truly
fight their own obscurity.

Have a hoagie on my, PJ. You've earned it. It may be a group effort, but
without you guiding and not giving in, it would have fallen apart. Rest well,
guardian angel.

With greatest respect,
The Blue Sky Ranger

[ Reply to This | # ]

Well Done. Well Deserved.
Authored by: SilverWave on Tuesday, October 19 2010 @ 10:33 PM EDT
:-)

---
RMS: The 4 Freedoms
0 run the program for any purpose
1 study the source code and change it
2 make copies and distribute them
3 publish modified versions

[ Reply to This | # ]

4 EFF Pioneer Awards Winners for 2010 Announced - I am one of them
Authored by: thechuckster on Tuesday, October 19 2010 @ 10:57 PM EDT
T-shirts need a pythonesque theme.

They should read "I'm PJ and so is my wife!"

Charles from Oz

[ Reply to This | # ]

Corrections thread
Authored by: artp on Tuesday, October 19 2010 @ 10:59 PM EDT
Eror -> Error

Canonicals, anyone ?


---
Userfriendly on WGA server outage:
When you're chained to an oar you don't think you should go down when the galley
sinks ?

[ Reply to This | # ]

Off Topic Thread
Authored by: artp on Tuesday, October 19 2010 @ 11:00 PM EDT
Please change the Title Block.


---
Userfriendly on WGA server outage:
When you're chained to an oar you don't think you should go down when the galley
sinks ?

[ Reply to This | # ]

News Picks Threads
Authored by: artp on Tuesday, October 19 2010 @ 11:02 PM EDT
Please put the URL somewhere in your comment. It will scroll off the sidebar
eventually.


---
Userfriendly on WGA server outage:
When you're chained to an oar you don't think you should go down when the galley
sinks ?

[ Reply to This | # ]

Comes Goes Here
Authored by: artp on Tuesday, October 19 2010 @ 11:04 PM EDT
For transcripts converted from PDF to Groklaw-style HTML.

Could I suggest that long transcripts should be entered as a reply to a summary.
It's entirely self-centered. It takes a long time to scroll past some of the
transcripts.

---
Userfriendly on WGA server outage:
When you're chained to an oar you don't think you should go down when the galley
sinks ?

[ Reply to This | # ]

4 EFF Pioneer Awards Winners for 2010 Announced - I am one of them
Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, October 19 2010 @ 11:27 PM EDT

This is so awesome!!

You certainly deserve this - it's very good to see your tireless dedication and
amazing insight recognised in this way.

A toast to you !

[ Reply to This | # ]

Congratulations!
Authored by: IMANAL_TOO on Wednesday, October 20 2010 @ 12:16 AM EDT
Congratulations!

"But it's so nice to know someone noticed the effort."

What?! So, we, your loyal followers haven't clued you in yet? ;)

Congratulations, again, to your inimitable you and your fantastic efforts!





---
______
IMANAL


.

[ Reply to This | # ]

  • LOL - Authored by: DaveJakeman on Wednesday, October 20 2010 @ 04:29 AM EDT
Will the whole IBM committee show up?
Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, October 20 2010 @ 12:37 AM EDT
Maybe Sutor or Weir can accept it on behalf of you all. (Cough cough.)

[ Reply to This | # ]

4 EFF Pioneer Awards Winners for 2010 Announced - I am one of them
Authored by: wood gnome on Wednesday, October 20 2010 @ 01:57 AM EDT
Congratulations and well deserved pride on your side PJ!

[ Reply to This | # ]

4 EFF Pioneer Awards Winners for 2010 Announced - I am one of them
Authored by: old joe on Wednesday, October 20 2010 @ 03:21 AM EDT
Congratulations. Well done and well deserved.

[ Reply to This | # ]

Congratulations
Authored by: The Cornishman on Wednesday, October 20 2010 @ 04:23 AM EDT
Groklaw was a fantastic idea, and, to the extent that the circumstances didn't
predicate the idea, came at more or less the exactly right moment. It needed
vision to create, and it needed even more your personal qualities to build the
*ethos* of Groklaw, which remains one of the sane atolls in the ocean of
mediocrity and abuse which is the Internet.

Well done; it's not the first of your awards, but I'm guessing this one is
pretty special.

---
(c) assigned to PJ

[ Reply to This | # ]

Getting the Cream and Rubbing in the Salt
Authored by: DaveJakeman on Wednesday, October 20 2010 @ 04:37 AM EDT
You know, there are certain people, the likes of O'Gara and probably Darl, that
will just HATE this more than anything -- even losing. And there's no better
way to get back at them.

Way to go, PJ!

[ Reply to This | # ]

May you have many imitators!
Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, October 20 2010 @ 04:52 AM EDT
Richly deserved recognition.

--- from Halfhuman, not logged in

[ Reply to This | # ]

What? AGAIN? Awards, awards, awards. That's all it is here!
Authored by: cybervegan on Wednesday, October 20 2010 @ 06:09 AM EDT
I'm proud, but not that surprised at this. Your collection is getting quite big
now!

Well done, PJ.

We all know what effort and energy you put into Groklaw. We also know what it
has cost you in terms of your personal life and security. I'm so glad to see you
getting the recognition that you deserve.

Regards,
-Cybervegan



---
Software source code is a bit like underwear - you only want to show it off in
public if it's clean and tidy. Refusal could be due to embarrassment or shame...

[ Reply to This | # ]

November 8th?
Authored by: Steve Martin on Wednesday, October 20 2010 @ 06:41 AM EDT
Wow, just noticed ... between this and the SCO bankruptcy hearing on the asset
sale, November 8th is gonna be a busy day!


---
"When I say something, I put my name next to it." -- Isaac Jaffe, "Sports Night"

[ Reply to This | # ]

so much more than the idea
Authored by: mcinsand on Wednesday, October 20 2010 @ 09:51 AM EDT
The award references the winners as 'tirelessly' pursuing their ideas, but that
word just isn't quite right. As PJ noted, she does get tired ;>) Words that
come to my mind are diligent, disciplined, and open. This could easily have
morphed into several directions, but PJ's hand has steadily been on the tiller
to keep Groklaw as the objective, documented resource that it has grown to be.
That has taken a lot of time and, no doubt, frustrations.

The community could have shifted to morph into the single perspective that SCOX
et al like to portray us as being. All opinions are accepted, as long as they
meet some basic criteria such as decorum, non-maliciousness, other traits that
might be associated with trolling. That is the other direction the project
could have taken, and that balance between accepting dissenting opinions versus
managing trolls cannot be underestimated as a challenge.

The idea of building a community to research and document these legal questions
is impressive, but, especially in light of how Groklaw has grown, the task of
keeping Groklaw so consistently to such high standards leaves me in awe.

*applause*

mc

[ Reply to This | # ]

4 EFF Pioneer Awards Winners for 2010 Announced - I am one of them
Authored by: eggplant37 on Wednesday, October 20 2010 @ 09:53 AM EDT
This is so outstanding... I'm left speechless. All I can say is
well deserved congratulations are in order, and I'm glad to have
helped.

[ Reply to This | # ]

An Ode to PJ
Authored by: cricketjeff on Wednesday, October 20 2010 @ 10:07 AM EDT
That PJ's a hero is plain to us all
She stands for the right on the side of the small
She's fair in her dealings polite to a fault
The staunchest of allies against an assault
On Groklaw she's shown us the the ways of the law
The parts that are good and the parts to abhor

That PJ's hardworking is hard to deny
She's always here blogging as cases pass by
The fools who tell lies find she's always a pain
She searches for truth without financial gain
To SCOundrels and SCOfflaws our PJ's a pest
To those who seek fairness and truth she's the best!






---
There is nothing in life that doesn't look better after a good cup of tea.

[ Reply to This | # ]

A plot to root out the real PJ?
Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, October 20 2010 @ 11:38 AM EDT
Could evil forces have infiltrated the EFF and rigged the voting to expose the
real PJ?

How will all those IBM bloggers fit on the stage to accept the award?

Will SCO be waiting in the wings to serve PJ with papers to appear the appeal?


Congratulations

[ Reply to This | # ]

Tireless
Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, October 20 2010 @ 12:38 PM EDT
It's not that you don't get tired. You didn't stop because you got tired. You
didn't stop because you got stalked. You didn't stop because you got sick (OK,
you did for about a month, and then you came back).

And you didn't get bitter from all the garbage you had to go through. You
remained fair and honest. You remained a decent person in the middle of
completely undeserved attacks.

That's quite an achievement.

MSS2

[ Reply to This | # ]

Few can deserve a prize so emblematic!
Authored by: ftcsm on Wednesday, October 20 2010 @ 01:46 PM EDT
PJ,

Being one of the early followers (few days after SCO saga begin) all I can say
is: Thank you! Well deserved! Congratulations!

Your work will be historic for generations to come (Library of Congress to
help on that, of course) and more than your name, your ideas will outlive us
all. Together we are so powerful they fear us. Put your name on top of it, as
the person who united us all, and you sure have a cherry on top of the cake.

Please, keep going. Keep pointing the right direction. We'll try to endure as
much as you already did.

For EFF, I praise you for remembering the almight importance of PJ and
Groklaw. The effects of persistence begins to be shown and there is so much to
do ... Sure a prize like this is a welcome incentive to aleviate the illness
cause by SCO, MS, Oracle and some of the more constant suspects. Fighting
against them could only be done on a different playing field that they can't
control: the community level.

And praise to us all, who supports PJ but also keeps her so busy we don't
leave time for her to think about bad things ... (ok, joking)

Flavio Machado
Brazil

---

------
Faith moves mountains but I still prefer dynamite

[ Reply to This | # ]

4 EFF Pioneer Awards Winners for 2010 Announced - I am one of them
Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, October 20 2010 @ 02:17 PM EDT
congratulations, well deserved!

[ Reply to This | # ]

4 EFF Pioneer Awards Winners for 2010 Announced - I am one of them
Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, October 20 2010 @ 08:07 PM EDT
Fantastic!!! You deserve the award and more. I am extremely grateful to you and
Groklaw. The SCO case is the very first time I got a real "inside"
look at the working of the US legal system. The way you have made it accessible
and interesting was nothing less than extraordinary. You even made dissecting
legalese fun for engineers! Imagine!

I realize there was quite a crew helping you and they too deserve recognition.
But YOU made it possible.

Thank you very much
Philippe

[ Reply to This | # ]

4 EFF Pioneer Awards Winners for 2010 Announced - I am one of them
Authored by: sjvn on Wednesday, October 20 2010 @ 08:27 PM EDT
Yea! Well deserved.

Steven

[ Reply to This | # ]

4 EFF Pioneer Awards Winners for 2010 Announced - I am one of them
Authored by: n6lv on Wednesday, October 20 2010 @ 08:46 PM EDT
Mere congratulations don't cover it. I've been lurking on Groklaw for five years
watching how it has developed and grown. You have done something unique and
powerful and not without personal cost. It's remarkable. There's more I'd like
to say, but I doubt if I could express it well.

I'll just leare it at: Thanks
for the now and future Groklaw, and thanks for who you are.

jim

[ Reply to This | # ]

Guy Fowlkes
Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, October 20 2010 @ 09:00 PM EDT
how about everybody wears Guy Fowlkes masks?

[ Reply to This | # ]

4 EFF Pioneer Awards Winners for 2010 Announced - I am one of them
Authored by: odysseus on Thursday, October 21 2010 @ 02:59 PM EDT
Many congratulations PJ, more confirmation of what we've all known for a long
time, that this is a very special site run by a very special person who is
making a very special contribution to the community.

I would ask you to reconsider your decision not to go to SF to collect in
person, you really deserve to be there to experience the community's
appreciation for your hard work. You don't have to risk your safety and
identity by getting up on stage or publicly identifying yourself. Find out what
size the crowd and venue is going to be, if it's big enough you can quietly slip
in the back and watch the ceremony unnoticed as just another geek. If it's too
small, hang out back stage pretending to be an admin person. Then when your
acceptance speech is read by someone worthy, or by you as a pre-recorded avatar,
you can quietly take the applause with no-one being the wiser. Arrange with the
FSF to meet the VIP's before or after in a private location so they can present
the award and thank you in person at no risk. You deserve it. Even if you
don't go to the ceremony, at least go to SF to collect in person in private.

[ Reply to This | # ]

4 EFF Pioneer Awards Winners for 2010 Announced - I am one of them
Authored by: Rubberman on Thursday, October 21 2010 @ 03:48 PM EDT
To join the Mob - Congratulations! You and this site are most deserving of this
recognition, IMHO. It is definitely part of my daily read. Best wishes for
future success.

[ Reply to This | # ]

4 EFF Pioneer Awards Winners for 2010 Announced - I am one of them
Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, October 22 2010 @ 01:44 PM EDT
Although I disagree with much of your opinions, I do think this award was well
deserved.

Congratulations.

[ Reply to This | # ]
Groklaw © Copyright 2003-2013 Pamela Jones.
All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective owners.
Comments are owned by the individual posters.

PJ's articles are licensed under a Creative Commons License. ( Details ) 		Site layout based on Woodlands theme by Bryan Bell.
Groklaw logo by John Crowley.
News Picks logo by Ted Thompson.
Powered By GeekLog
Created this page in 0.06 seconds