Member Spotlight: Electronic Frontier Norway

This is the seventh article of the series “EDRi member in the Spotlight” in which our members introduce themselves and their work in depth.

Today we introduce our Norwegian member Electronic Frontier Norway (EFN).

1. Who are you and what is your organisation’s goal and mission?

Electronic Frontier Norway is working for digital rights, such as freedom of speech, privacy, freedom from surveillance, open standards, public access to publicly funded research and data, user-controlled software and the right to copy.

2. How did it all begin, and how did your organisation develop its work?

EFN was initiated as a discussion mailing list by Micha Reisel in 1990 (efn-listen). In 1995, EFN was established as a formal member organisation with a board and bylaws.

EFN made a breakthrough in national media around 2001-2002 because of the “DVD Jon” court case. Jon Lech Johansen was sued and arrested for decrypting a DVD copy control system to view DVDs on the Linux operating system and for making the program that enabled this available on the internet.

3. The biggest opportunity created by advancements in information and communication technology is…

…the possibility for every person on the planet to speak to any other person, and the grassroot bottom-up cooperation and democracy it enables.

4. The biggest threat created by advancements in information and communication technology is…

…surveillance and control technology abused by governments and private entities.

5. Which are the biggest victories/successes/achievements of your organisation?

Our biggest single victory is probably that of the DVD Jon court case and the “awakening” of a large number of people in connection with it. We have also managed to gain considerable visibility and contributed articles, opinions, consultations and the like in many cases and situations, without having paid staff.

6. If your organisation could now change one thing in your country, what would that be?

We would give all politicians a solid background in science and engineering.

7. What is the biggest challenge your organisation is currently facing in your country?

On an internal level, we are working to further increase our visibility, in order to increase our impact in the long run. Even though we are a very well known organisation among a certain group of people, we are not well known by general public.

On an external level, we are fighting a rearguard action on the encroachments on digital rights. While we feel we have been able to contribute to slow down these encroachments, nevertheless we seem to be losing ground.

8. How can one get in touch with you if they want to help as a volunteer, or donate to support your work?
We are always looking for new members and donations. If you want to volunteer, just send an email to . There is no shortage of tasks for volunteers – but here are a few of them listed: https://efn.no/no/vart-arbeid/bidra

Become a member of EFN (only in Norwegian)
https://efn.no/no/bli-medlem

Donate to EFN (only in Norwegian)
https://efn.no/no/vart-arbeid/donasjoner

EDRi member in the spotlight series
https://edri.org/our-work/member-in-the-spotlight-series/

(Contribution by Thomas Gramstad and Tom Fredrik Blenning, EDRi-member Electronic Frontier Norway)