FISA’s been a major topic since the 90s at the Computers, Freedom, and Privacy conference, and this year’s no exception. For the first time ever, we’ll be streaming video, and so the great content will be available whether or not you’re making the trek to Washington DC … and the Twitter backchannel will give a way to participate in the discussion as well.

Here’s a brief summary of some of the sessions that are likely to be of interest to Get FISA Right members — and anybody else interested in domestic surveillance, warrantless wiretapping, and a panoptic society.

– me, on the Get FISA Right blog

The rest of the post goes into more detail on Ari Melber’s Monday keynote on Net movements in the Obama era at the Twittering in the Trenches workshop, the back-to-back plenary sessions on Tuesday on Computers, Freedom and the Obama Administration and The Future of Security vs. Privacy, Wednesday night’s birds-of-a-feather (BoF) session on New strategies for fighting FISA and the PATRIOT Act, and NSA whistleblower Thomas Tamm’s participation in the closing plenary Panopticon: Internalizing the Gaze.

At last year’s CFP, Susan Crawford moderated the opening session, and McCain surrogate Chuck Fish’s description of telecom immunity as “selling indulgences” led to coverage in the Washington Post, New York Times, and National Review Online after Ryan Singel’s Wired story.  This year, Susan’s once again on the opening session (now as Special Assistant to the President for Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy), and Ryan’s moderating the Future of Security vs. Privacy debate.  Will lightning strike twice?  Stay tuned!

jon

Speaking of Newmark, Craigslist filed suit against the South Carolina AG “seeking declaratory relief and a restraining order with respect to criminal charges he has repeatedly threatened against craigslist and its executives.” Oddly enough, South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster has declared the action a victory.

The University of Michigan has changed the terms of its Library of the Future Project with Google. According to the new agreement, U of M will now get a digital copy of every book on its shelves. Sherwin Siy of Public Knowledge will be joined by Alex Macgillivray, on CFP’s panel about the Google Book Deal.  Macgillivray led negotiations for the original deal.

The Committee to Protect Journalists released a list of the “10 Worst Countries to be a Blogger.” CFP will have bloggers from two of the “worst” countries listed in attendance to discuss what it’s like first hand.

Highschool Hackers: Get ready!  The Pentagon wants to tap your talent. But be careful with your Facebook–there’s been another phishing attack.

In other government news, President Obama and former Vice President Cheney don’t agree on what should be kept secret.  CFP’s opening keynote will feature Susan Crawford of the Obama Administration, who will speak about policies in areas involving technology and liberty.  Also, a panel led by the ACLU’s Mike German will explore whether government secrecy makes sense in the internet age.

We’d love to hear about the news related to CFP topics that you’re interested in! Please share your links and ideas in the comments!