Are you sure about that? The e-gold people felt the same way until the US treasury arrested them and threatened them with money laundering. Here's a fine summary of the situation, http://stakeventures.com/articles/2008/07/22/the-man-finally-brought-e-gold-down

My guess is that this situation is exactly what the EFF is nervous about. They can continue to sue the NSA and US Government all day long on fundamental freedom rights. But taking on the banking regulation industry is an entirely different thing. Just because bitcoins use cryptography and mostly exist on the Internet, doesn't mean it's an "electronic frontier" anything. It's just a form of currency. Some places use sheep (as in the livestock) as currency.

Stripe, dwolla, and paypal all took on the banking regulation industry with wide-eyed plans to revolutionize how people do banking. And now look, each one of them has been coerced into accepting the common regulations and acting more like a bank. Look at MtGox and Intersango. They both have to honor banking regulations or they get shut down. "Know your customer" and anti-fraud regulations are an unforgiving bitch.

As soon as the treasury and their enforcement regimes wake up to bitcoins, or find evidence of heavy illegal activity with bitcoins, you can be sure the multi-pronged attack will make bitcoins sure seem illegal. None of this will matter until there is a court case precedent (at least in the US) stating bitcoins are legal or illegal as a currency.

The global banking world doesn't like competition. You can be sure when the eye of sauron gazes on bitcoin, it will separate the adults from the children quickly.