Cindy Cohn is an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
attorneyA lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
specializing in
InternetThe Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
law. She represented
Daniel J. BernsteinDaniel Julius Bernstein is a mathematician, cryptologist, programmer, and professor of mathematics at the University of Illinois at Chicago...
and the
Electronic Frontier FoundationThe Electronic Frontier Foundation is an international non-profit digital rights advocacy and legal organization based in the United States...
in
Bernstein v. United StatesBernstein v. United States is a set of court cases brought by Daniel J. Bernstein challenging restrictions on the export of cryptography from the United States....
, and in 1997 was recognized by
California Lawyer MagazineCalifornia Lawyer is a monthly legal magazine based in San Francisco, California. The magazine combines legal news, case commentary, and coverage of technology and business trends. Each issue includes news, reviews, profiles and opinion...
as one of the
Lawyers of the Year for this work. She currently serves as Legal Director and
General CounselA general counsel is the chief lawyer of a legal department, usually in a corporation or government department. The term is most used in the United States...
for the
Electronic Frontier FoundationThe Electronic Frontier Foundation is an international non-profit digital rights advocacy and legal organization based in the United States...
. In 2006, Ms. Cohn was named one of the 100 most influential lawyers in America by the National Law Journal. Ms. Cohn also serves on the Board of Directors of the nonprofits Human Rights Advocates and the Verified Voting Foundation.
She studied law at the
University of MichiganThe University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
. She received her undergraduate degree at the
University of IowaThe University of Iowa is a public state-supported research university located in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. It is the oldest public university in the state. The university is organized into eleven colleges granting undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees...
and the
London School of EconomicsThe London School of Economics and Political Science is a public research university specialised in the social sciences located in London, United Kingdom, and a constituent college of the federal University of London...
.
In addition to Bernstein, some of Ms. Cohn's significant cases include
Hepting v. AT&THepting v. AT&T is a United States class action lawsuit filed in January 2006 by the Electronic Frontier Foundation against the telecommunications company AT&T, in which the EFF alleges that AT&T permitted and assisted the National Security Agency in unlawfully monitoring the communications of...
(class action against AT&T for collaborating with the
National Security AgencyThe National Security Agency/Central Security Service is a cryptologic intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the collection and analysis of foreign communications and foreign signals intelligence, as well as protecting U.S...
program to wiretap and data-mine Americans' communications),
In re Sony BMG Tech. litigationThe Sony BMG CD copy protection rootkit scandal concerns the copy protection measures included by Sony BMG on Compact Discs in 2005. Sony BMG included the Extended Copy Protection and MediaMax CD-3 software on music CDs. XCP was put on 52 titles and MediaMax was put on 50 titles...
(class action against Sony BMG for placing dangerous
digital rights managementDigital rights management is a class of access control technologies that are used by hardware manufacturers, publishers, copyright holders and individuals with the intent to limit the use of digital content and devices after sale. DRM is any technology that inhibits uses of digital content that...
(DRM) on customers' computers),
OPG v. DieboldOPG v. Diebold, 337 F. Supp. 2d 1195 , more officially known as Online Policy Group , Nelson Chu Pavlosky, and Luke Thomas Smith v. Diebold, Incorporated and Diebold Election Systems, Incorporated , was a lawsuit involving an archive of Diebold's internal company e-mails and Diebold's contested...
(
DieboldDiebold, Inc. is a United States-based security systems corporation that is engaged primarily in the sale, manufacture, installation and service of self-service transaction systems , electronic and physical security products , and software and integrated systems for global financial and...
was held liable for sending out unfounded cease and desist notices to
internet service providerAn Internet service provider is a company that provides access to the Internet. Access ISPs directly connect customers to the Internet using copper wires, wireless or fiber-optic connections. Hosting ISPs lease server space for smaller businesses and host other people servers...
s (ISPs) in an effort to stop public discussion of the flaws in its
electronic voting machinesVoting machines are the total combination of mechanical, electromechanical, or electronic equipment , that is used to define ballots; to cast and count votes; to report or display election results; and to maintain and produce any audit trail information...
), and DVDCCA v. Bunner (representing Andrew Bunner against the
DVD Copy Control AssociationThe DVD Copy Control Association is an organization primarily responsible for the copy protection of Blu-ray Discs and DVDs. The Content Scramble System was devised for this purpose to make copyright infringement difficult, but also presents obstacles to some legitimate uses of the media...
defending his right to republish a computer program that he found republished elsewhere on the Internet).
External links