Topic: Electronic Frontier Foundation

A discussion on the Prevnar 13 pneumonia vaccine leads to a remembrance of Electronic Frontier Foundation co-founder John Perry Barlow. Barlow reportedly blamed medical errors at Stanford for his declining health before eventually succumbing to pneumonia-related complications.

John Perry Barlow, the Grateful Dead lyricist and co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), has passed away following complications from a 2015 heart attack. His complex political history, including managing a campaign for Dick Cheney and his role in early internet activism, is recounted alongside personal anecdotes about his poetic nature and past disputes over the MTV.com domain.

John C. Dvorak attended the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) Pioneer Awards in San Francisco, where he met famous whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg. He also spoke with Larry Lessig about Creative Commons and noted the presence of various "journalism tools" developers. Dvorak observed that the attendees were largely preoccupied with NSA surveillance and Russian political issues.

The hosts acknowledge several "7413" and "69" club donations, including many from the ham radio community. They advise listeners to redirect their Wikipedia and WikiLeaks donations to No Agenda instead. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is criticized for being an "icon changer" organization that provides the illusion of activism without uncovering real government secrets.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) obtained court documents revealing the government's defense of telecom immunity. The feds argued that communications between the government and AT&T are "intra-agency" records because they share a common interest in litigation defense. The hosts interpret this as a legal admission that AT&T effectively operates as a federal agency or an arm of the CIA.