Before most people even knew what the Internet was, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) was protecting it.

If the you imagine this still-young medium as a precocious teenager, then the EFF is its guidance counselor, offering advice, interpreting rules and protecting its charge from dangerous influences.

This year marks the 15th anniversary for the San Francisco-based organization, which continues to confront cutting-edge issues such as free speech, innovation, privacy and consumer rights.

Some of the EFF's legal victories include RIAA v. Verizon, DOE v. Ashcroft, and JibJab Media v. Ludlow Music. The EFF also represented Grokster in its 9th Circuit win against MGM, although the Supreme Court overturned that decision recently, leading several P2P businesses to close their doors.

The EFF is celebrating its birthday this weekend with an anniversary bash at its headquarters in San Francisco.

We spoke with EFF's Executive Director Shari Steele—who has been with EFF since 1992—about "radio TiVos", the Google Print library project, and the Patriot Act's impact on civil liberties.

So, you're having a big bash this weekend. What EFF highlights will you be celebrating at your party? Any toasts to copyright laws?

EFF has been fighting for online civil liberties for 15 years now. We've won cases protecting rights to not having your e-mail read by law enforcement without a warrant, allowing companies to use encryption to protect your credit card information when you make online purchases, protecting the rights of people to post anonymous criticisms on message boards, and ensuring that your vote on an electronic voting machine counts, to name a few. Whenever there's been any legal threat to the health and growth of the Internet, EFF has been there to help.

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Technology gets more complicated every day. How do you keep up with all the changes?

Most people here are genuinely interested in technology, so there's a lot of "natural" keeping up that occurs. We also have two people on staff who specifically have the title of Staff Technologist. It's their job to keep up with the technology and help the rest of the staff understand exactly what it does.

Sirius and XM Radio have come under fire recently from the music industry because of the purported development of "radio Tivos", which can record content off those services. Can you discuss the potential lawsuit and tell me what it means for the future of streaming radio?

The content communities have been very aggressive about going after people who copy their works, and technology manufacturers who create technologies that enable this copying. We believe that the ability to separate the songs from a stream and keep copies will upset the content industries, and we wouldn't be surprised if there are lawsuits attempting to shut this technology down.

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In the area of trademarks, I understand you're currently advising the publisher of The Acomplia Report against a giant pharmaceutical company. How does the outcome of a case like this bode for the independent online publisher?

We've always been able to comment and criticize the works of others. While the makers of Accomplia are claiming that their trademark in the name of that drug prohibits the publisher of accompliareport.com from using that name in its report, we think it's important to free expression that this online publisher be able make its comments, and refer to the drug as it makes those comments.

The Authors Guild recently moved forward in its lawsuit against Google for their Print library project, calling it a "massive" copyright infringement. How do you see EFF being involved with this case?

EFF will probably write an amicus brief to support Google in this one. No one will be able to access the full copies of the books Google is scanning. Their service will permit searchers to find excerpts that are relevant to their searches. This looks like a fair use to us, and it ultimately should end up in more sales for publishers, as people discover that there are books that go into detail on the things that interest them.

What's on the horizon for EFF? What are EFF's biggest areas of concerns in the next five years?

It's clear that the content industries aren't backing down, so the next five years will be full of work protecting the rights of innovators and individuals in this landscape. Civil liberties have continued to take a hit since the Patriot Act was passed, and its reauthorization has made it clear that there's going to be work trying to keep the government from taking away too many rights. And we have to continue to be diligent about teaching the public about some of these threats.

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