“But something like encryption, which is something we were very involved in, it took us a while to get the ACLU involved because they didn’t understand why it was important and what it meant. Once they understood, they got involved and used their resources, and they were quite wonderful.”

Some have called the EFF the “911 of the Internet.” You call them when some new and unforeseen technological emergency arises — they’re the ones who will rush to the rescue. That’s a real value. But it’s also a problem. “Unfortunately for us, part of what we have to do is be able to react to whatever is going on,” says Steele. “If there’s a new threat that shows up from a particular place, that’s where we have to focus resources.” Representatives from the ACLU did not return calls at press time.

As the EFF has established itself as an important advocate and defender with the expansion of the Internet’s reach and the profusion of new technologies in the last several years, so too is it forced to live on the fly, keeping an unblinking eye on the pitfalls and snares on the road to innovation.

“The truth is, the most important issues EFF is likely to work on in the next five years are issues that I haven’t thought of yet, and neither have you,” says Cohn. “It’s gonna break, it’s gonna be on the front page of the papers, and that will be what we’re doing. Someone’s going to need someone to stand up for them, and we’ll do it.”

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On the Web:

EFF: //www.eff.org/
Download Tor: //tor.eff.org/
EFF's legal guide for bloggers: //www.eff.org/bloggers/lg/
Mitchell Kapor: //www.kapor.com/
John Perry Barlow's conversations with friends: //barlow.typepad.com/barlowfriendz/
John Gilmore: //www.toad.com/gnu/
The Well: //www.well.com/
Downhill Battle: //www.downhillbattle.org/
ACLU: //www.aclu.org/
GYBO: //www.gybo.org/
Digital Eargasm: //digitaleargasm.blogspot.com/
The Onion: //www.theonion.com
JibJab: //www.jibjab.com/