Intellectual Property Law

Senators Unveil Yet Another Flawed National ID Card Plan

Posted on March 22, 2010
Last Friday, Senators Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) outlined a proposal for immigration reform. At the top of their immigration reform agenda? A national, biometric identification card for all workers, citizen or immigrant. From the article: We would require all U...

Book Review: Property Outlaws

Posted on March 22, 2010
I've just recently finished reading Property Outlaws: How Squatters, Pirates and Protesters Improve the Law of Ownership, by Eduardo Moisés Peñalver and Sonia Katyal. Written by two legal scholars, one an expert in real property law, the other in intellectual property law, the book is a thoughtful rebuttal to the notion that property is absolute and trespassers are always "thieves...

EFF Appeals Dismissal of Warrantless Wiretapping Case

Posted on March 19, 2010
EFF today filed its appeal to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals of the dismissal of Jewel v. NSA, the case EFF brought against the U.S. government and government officials on behalf of AT&T customers to stop the National Security Agency's illegal, unconstitutional, and ongoing mass surveillance of their communications and communications records...

Ibis Reader "Checks Off" EFF's Digital Books Checklist

Posted on March 18, 2010
In February, we published "Digital Books and Your Rights," a checklist for readers considering buying into the digital book marketplace. The folks behind the Ibis Reader ebook service have gone ahead and posted thoughtful answers to each question, inviting their users into an honest discussion about the features, policies, and practices around its software...

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EFF Testifies in Congress on Transparency - Tells Lawmakers White House Must Lead by Example

Posted on March 18, 2010
Today, EFF Senior Counsel David Sobel testified in a congressional hearing on the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and the Obama administration. David's testimony outlined the disconnect between the White House's strong message on open government and the bureaucratic resistance to transparency in general...

Kentucky Supreme Court Reverses Ruling Challenging Domain Name Seizures, Tells Registrants to Try Again

Posted on March 18, 2010
Today, the Kentucky Supreme Court reversed a state court of appeals ruling blocking an attempt by the Commonwealth of Kentucky to seize 141 domain names allegedly tied to illegal gambling. The Kentucky Supreme Court held that while many of the arguments presented in opposition to the seizure order were "compelling" and that they "may have merit," the Interactive Media Entertainment & Gaming Association (iMEGA) and the Interactive Gaming Council (IGC) lacked standing to bring the challenge because it was not clear that they represented any party actually affected by the order...

FTC to Internet Companies: Start Using SSL

Posted on March 18, 2010
HTTPS is the backbone of web security. The protocol, which is also commonly known as the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), is what guarantees we can use the web to transmit sensitive information — financial, medical, or other — with relative confidence that it won't be intercepted or stolen...

Public Hearing on California's 'Smart Grid' on Friday

Posted on March 18, 2010
Worried about plans for California's "smart grid"? We are too. Energy usage data, with new hyper-close monitoring provided by the "smart grid", allows intimate reconstruction of your household activities -- like when you wake up, when you come home, and when you go on vacation...

Viacom Makes Its Case Against Yesterday's YouTube

Posted on March 18, 2010
Today, after three years of litigation, the Viacom v. YouTube combatants finally publicly released their briefs (Viacom's; YouTube's; Class Action Plaintiffs') in what most expect to be the main event in the case, namely, cross-motions for summary judgment (for the non-lawyers: a summary judgment motion asks the court to rule that the case is such a slam dunk in your favor that no trial is necessary)...

Hooking Up The Big Brother Machine... And Fighting It

Posted on March 17, 2010
Here's a movie pitch: One lone telecommunications technician, going about his ordinary daily work in San Francisco, begins to realize things aren't quite what they seem. There's a "secret room" downstairs, and ordinary employees aren't allowed to enter it...

Wiring Up The Big Brother Machine... And Fighting It

Posted on March 17, 2010
Here's a movie pitch: One lone telecommunications technician, going about his ordinary daily work in San Francisco, begins to realize things aren't quite what they seem. There's a "secret room" downstairs, and ordinary employees aren't allowed to enter it...

EFF Posts Documents Detailing Law Enforcement Collection of Data From Social Media Sites

Posted on March 16, 2010
EFF has posted documents shedding light on how law enforcement agencies use social networking sites to gather information in investigations. The records, obtained from the Internal Revenue Service and Department of Justice Criminal Division, are the first in a series of documents that will be released through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) case that EFF filed with the help of the UC Berkeley Samuelson Clinic...

EFF to Urge True Transparency in Congressional Hearing Thursday

Posted on March 15, 2010
Washington, D.C. - On Thursday, March 18, at 2 p.m., members of the U.S. House of Representatives Oversight and Government Reform Committee will hold a public hearing on the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and the Obama administration compliance with transparency law...

Sunshine Week 2010: FOIA Could Still Shed More Light

Posted on March 15, 2010
As the transparency community celebrates Sunshine Week, we here at EFF are reminded that most of the federal agencies we seek to monitor through our Freedom of Information Act work continue to cloak their activities in excessive secrecy. We have grown accustomed to receiving agency documents with large amounts of information blacked out — or "redacted" in the official parlance...

EFF Experts to Speak at Privacy Roundtable in Washington, D.C.

Posted on March 15, 2010
Washington, D.C. - On Wednesday, March 17, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is hosting its final public roundtable on technology privacy challenges in Washington, D.C. Two experts from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) are taking part. EFF Senior Staff Technologist Peter Eckersley and EFF Boardmember Edward W...

EFF Asks Illinois Appellate Court to Block Unmasking of Anonymous Online Critic

Posted on March 15, 2010
Chicago - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the Media Freedom and Information Access Practicum (MFIA) at Yale Law School filed a friend-of-the-court brief today urging the Illinois Court of Appeals to block the unmasking of an anonymous online critic of a local political candidate...

Fox and National Public Radio Have Something in Common: Taking Down Obvious Fair Uses

Posted on March 12, 2010
The Fox News Channel boasts that it takes a different approach to news coverage than, say, CBS, NBC, or NPR. But it appears Fox takes the same approach as its competitors when it comes to fair uses of its news coverage in political advertisements: to try shut them down using the Digital Millennium Copyright Act's rapid-fire notice and takedown process...

New "Smart Meters" for Energy Use Put Privacy at Risk

Posted on March 10, 2010
The ebb and flow of gas and electricity into your home contains surprisingly detailed information about your daily life. Energy usage data, measured moment by moment, allows the reconstruction of a household's activities: when people wake up, when they come home, when they go on vacation, and maybe even when they take a hot bath...

The Beginning of the End of Data Retention

Posted on March 10, 2010
Last week, the German Constitutional Court issued a much-anticipated decision, striking down its data retention law as violating human rights. It was an important victory for Europe?s Freedom Not Fear movement, which was formed to oppose the EU Data Retention Directive...

Better U.S. Net Rules for Iran, Cuba and Syria

Posted on March 10, 2010
The Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced on Monday key amendments to the regulation of United States sanctions against Cuba, Iran and Sudan. The new provisions give a blanket license for the export of "certain services and software incident to the exchange of personal communications over the Internet, such as instant messaging, chat and email, social networking, sharing of photos and movies, web browsing, and blogging, provided that such services are publicly available at no cost to the user...

All Your Apps Are Belong to Apple: The iPhone Developer Program License Agreement

Posted on March 08, 2010
The entire family of devices built on the iPhone OS (iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad) have been designed to run only software that is approved by Apple—a major shift from the norms of the personal computer market. Software developers who want Apple's approval must first agree to the iPhone Developer Program License Agreement...

Adult Photography Record-Keeping and Inspection Law Threatens Free Speech, Privacy

Posted on March 05, 2010
San Francisco - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed a friend-of-the-court brief today urging a federal court judge to block two criminal statutes that unconstitutionally limit the free expression of millions of adults who use the Internet and other electronic forms of communication, bringing the threat of criminal sanctions for private, lawful speech...

Federal Intellectual Property Enforcement Gears Up

Posted on March 05, 2010
The Obama Administration has been slowly ramping up its attention to intellectual property issues. Over the past few months, we've seen an IP "summit" at the White House. We've seen the successful nomination of a new cabinet-level "IP Czar" position...

Photos from EFF's 20th Birthday Party

Posted on March 04, 2010
Last month, we celebrated the 20th anniversary of the founding of EFF at the DNA Lounge in San Francisco, joined by Adam Savage, the founders of EFF and dozens of other Internet luminaries. For non-local EFF supporters, we've put the gorgeous photos that John Adams and Johnny Grace captured at the event up on our Flickr page...

The Weakest Link Redux

Posted on March 04, 2010
We often criticize DMCA takedown abuse here at EFF, but last week's Cryptome snafu highlights another facet of the problem: how a DMCA takedown for one item can result in the removal of lots of lawful material. To recap, Cryptome posted Microsoft?s global criminal compliance manual...

Thousands Sign Petition Protesting Net Neutrality Loopholes for Copyright Enforcement

Posted on March 04, 2010
San Francisco - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) submitted a petition signed by more than 7000 people to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) today demanding that the agency close a loophole for copyright enforcement in its proposed regulations for network neutrality...

Unintended Consequences: 12 Years Under the DMCA

Posted on March 03, 2010
EFF today released Unintended Consequences: 12 Years Under the DMCA. This is the sixth update to the report, which aims to catalog all the reported instances where the DMCA's ban on tampering with DRM have been abused to stymie fair use, free speech, and competition, rather than to attack "piracy...

Unintended Consequences: Twelve Years Under the DMCA

Posted on March 03, 2010
San Francisco - Twelve years after the passage of the controversial Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), the law continues to stymie fair use, free speech, scientific research, and legitimate competition. A new report from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) collects reported examples of abuses of the DMCA and the ongoing harm the law continues to inflict on consumers, scientists, and small businesses...

EFF Panel in Pittsburgh: Architecture Is Policy

Posted on March 03, 2010
Pittsburgh - On Monday, March 8, at 4 p.m., board members of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) will discuss the societal impact of technology design in a panel at Carnegie Mellon University. Technology design can maximize or decimate our basic rights to free speech, privacy, property ownership, and creative thought...

YouTube's Content ID (C)ensorship Problem Illustrated

Posted on March 03, 2010
As we've pointed out repeatedly, poor design decisions in YouTube's "Content ID" system have resulted in over-blocking of videos that remix copyrighted materials. Today we got perhaps the most vivid example of the problem: the "silencing" of a lecture by Prof...

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