2013 in Review: Revelations, Tragedy, and Fighting BackRainey Reitman This was the year we received confirmation and disturbing details about the NSA programs that are sweeping up information on hundreds of millions of people in the United States and around the world. This set off a cascade of events, from EFFs newest lawsuit against the NSA to protests in the streets to a United Nations resolution to Congressional bills both promising and terrifying. In December, a federal judge even found the surveillance likely unconstitutional, calling it almost-Orwellian. It was also a year we lost a beloved friend and activist, Aaron Swartz. Aaron was a fellow freedom fighter working to bring the world access to knowledge. Were still mourning his suicide, which was spurred in part by an aggressive prosecution under the vaguely worded and over-penalized Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA). In his memory, EFF and our friends at Demand Progress created a coalition to fight for reform of the CFAA. We also went on the offensive against patent trolls with our new website TrollingEffects.org. Patent trolls buy up patentsoften vague software patents that should never have been issued in the first placeand use them to bully legitimate companies. EFF attorneys fought back on behalf of the victims of patent trolls, including podcasters like the Adam Corolla Show. We then took the battle to Congress, where a bill designed to tackle patent trolls called the Innovation Act successfully passed the House of Representatives. We wouldnt be able to do our work without the support of more than 26,000 card-carrying EFF members. Join us. 2013 in Review Tragedy Brings CFAA Into the Spotlight And just for fun, heres a graphical interpretation of the words most frequently used on the Deeplinks blog in 2013: 