Intellectual Property Law

The Google Three: Italy's Personal Attack on Intermediary Liability

Posted on February 27, 2010
This week, an Italian magistrate convicted three Google employees for an Internet video that none of them had produced, uploaded, or even seen. The case arose from an Italian video that was uploaded in 2006 to Google Video, which showed a disabled child being bullied by other schoolchildren...

Epic Fail in Congress: USA PATRIOT Act Renewed Without Any New Civil Liberties Protections

Posted on February 26, 2010
Yesterday evening, the U.S. House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to renew three expiring provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act, after the Senate abandoned the PATRIOT reform effort and approved the extension by a voice vote on Wednesday night. Disappointingly, the government's dangerously broad authority to conduct roving wiretaps of unspecified or "John Doe" targets, to secretly wiretap of persons without any connection to terrorists or spies under the so-called "lone wolf" provision, and to secretly access a wide range of private business records without warrants under PATRIOT Section 215 were all renewed without any new checks and balances to prevent abuse...

Cryptome's Publication of Microsoft's Compliance Manual is a Fair Use

Posted on February 26, 2010
Yesterday, Microsoft used a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown notice to demand that a copy of the "Microsoft® Online Services Global Criminal Compliance Handbook" (the Compliance Manual) be removed from Cryptome, a security website. As a result, Network Solutions felt obliged to takedown the entire Cryptome...

Pentagon Discloses Hundreds of Reports of Possibly Illegal Intelligence Activities

Posted on February 25, 2010
The Department of Defense has released more than 800 heavily-redacted pages of intelligence oversight reports, detailing activities that its Inspector General has ?reason to believe are unlawful.? The reports are the latest in an ongoing document release by more than a half-dozen intelligence agencies in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit filed by EFF in July 2009...

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Practical Advice for Music Bloggers Worried About DMCA Takedown Censorship

Posted on February 24, 2010
Let's say you are a blogger who writes about music regularly and includes links to music in your posts. How do you avoid having your blog censored off the Internet by "DMCA takedown notices" sent out by music industry lawyers (as happened last week to several blogs hosted by Blogger)? Of course, you could get authorization from all the relevant copyright owners before you post or link to a song...

Google Book Search Settlement: Updating the Numbers, Part 2

Posted on February 23, 2010
In our last post, we set out some of Google's numbers for the total number of books that would fall under the amended settlement agreement. Now let?s look at how many and what sorts of rightsholders have come forward as a result of the oft-criticized notice program conducted by Google and the plaintiffs...

YouTube Should Permit Amy Greenfield Art

Posted on February 22, 2010
Today EFF and the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) wrote to YouTube, asking the video hosting giant to reconsider its removal of the work of internationally recognized video artist Amy Greenfield. Amy Greenfield received notice from YouTube that her works, which contain some artistic nudity, did not conform with YouTube?s "community standards...

Google Book Search Settlement: Updating the Numbers, Part 1

Posted on February 19, 2010
In the wake of yesterday's fairness hearing on the Google Book Search settlement, this might be a good time, while Judge Chin is deliberating, to take a moment to update some of the numbers about the settlement. These numbers were culled from settlement documents (thanks to Prof...

Redbox, Movie Studios, and Subversion of First Sale

Posted on February 18, 2010
As we've explained before, a number of Hollywood movie studios have been on the war path against Redbox, the kiosk-based DVD rental operation, because Redbox offers DVD new releases for rent at 99 cents per night. Thanks to the first sale doctrine in copyright law, Redbox's business is completely legal—the company buys legitimate DVDs to stock their kiosks...

EFF to Wisconsin: Just Say No to Warrantless GPS Tracking

Posted on February 16, 2010
ACLU National, ACLU of Wisconsin, and EFF have filed an amicus brief in the Wisconsin Supreme Court arguing that the law of that state prohibits police from installing a GPS device on you or your car without first getting a warrant from a judge. A growing number of state high courts have decided that their citizens should be protected from suspicionless GPS tracking, recognizing that uninterrupted around-the-clock surveillance is qualitatively different from ordinary police observations of a suspect...

Digital Books and Your Rights: A Checklist for Readers

Posted on February 16, 2010
San Francisco - What questions should consumers ask before buying a digital book or reader? Today the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) published "Digital Books and Your Rights," a checklist for readers considering buying into the digital book marketplace...

EFF Fights Illegal Search of Cell Phone in Thursday Hearing

Posted on February 16, 2010
Redwood City, Calif. - On Thursday, February 18, at 9:00 a.m., the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) will urge a judge in Redwood City, California, to suppress evidence illegally gathered from an iPhone. In People v. Taylor, police in Daly City, California, seized the suspect's phone during his arrest...

Google Buzz Privacy Update

Posted on February 16, 2010
Over the weekend, Google announced significant changes to its new social networking service, Buzz. Responding to criticism (including EFF's), Google moved away from the system in which Buzz automatically sets you up to follow the people you email and chat with most...

Music Journalism is the New Piracy

Posted on February 16, 2010
Imagine you're a music journalist who maintains a blog. You've just found a great, new, virtually-unknown artist that you want to tell the world about. How can you do so, in a way that is simple and convenient for your readers, but does not place you or your blog's host at risk of being sued? Thanks to the increasingly aggressive copyright-enforcement tactics of the music industry, this has become a startlingly complicated question with no good answer...

You Bought It, You Own It: Vernor v. Autodesk

Posted on February 12, 2010
You bought it, you own it. That's a concept we've been fighting to defend for years against erosion at the hands of patent and copyright owners, in contexts as diverse as printer cartridges, promo CDs, and software. The answer should be simple—if you bought it, a copyright or patent owner shouldn't be able to use federal intellectual property law to dictate whether you can resell it, simply by pointing to boilerplate in a license agreement or label...

New Liberty Mecha T-Shirts and Posters!

Posted on February 12, 2010
Who needs a jetpack when you have a digital freedom-fighting robotic exoskeleton? Check out EFF's 20th Anniversary commemorative t-shirt and poster designed by Hugh D'Andrade! The artwork features the EFF Liberty Mecha warrior lighting the way and kicking down walls for your online rights...

Protect Your Privacy on Google Buzz

Posted on February 12, 2010
Google's new social networking service, Buzz has upset a lot of people who have inadvertently posted the list of the people they email and chat with most frequently on their profile. If you took the default options and didn't opt-out or edit this list during profile creation, the list becomes part of your profile...

Online Software Reseller Battles Bogus Infringement Allegations

Posted on February 11, 2010
San Francisco - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), joined by a coalition of public interest, consumer, and library groups, urged a federal appeals court Thursday to preserve consumers' rights and the first sale doctrine in a battle over an Internet auction of used computer software...

10 Year Term of EFF Chairman Winds Down with EFF's 20th Anniversary Tonight

Posted on February 10, 2010
i.author{display:none} Announcement by Brad Templeton In early 2000, after a tumultuous period in the EFF’s history, and the staff down to just a handful, I was elected chair of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. I had been on the board for just a few years, but had been close to the organization since it was founded, including participating with it as a plaintiff in the landmark supreme court case which struck down the Communications Decency Act in 1996...

Appeals Court Backs EFF Push for Telecom Lobbying Documents Disclosure

Posted on February 09, 2010
San Francisco - Today a federal appeals court rejected a government claim of "lobbyist privacy" to hide the identities of individuals who pressured Congress to grant immunity to telecommunications companies that participated in the government's warrantless electronic surveillance of millions of ordinary Americans...

EFF Fights for Cell Phone Users' Privacy in Thursday Hearing

Posted on February 08, 2010
Philadelphia - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) will be arguing this Thursday before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit in Philadelphia, urging the court to block a government attempt to seize telephone company records detailing a cell phone user's past locations without first getting a search warrant...

EFF Asks Court to Suppress Evidence Illegally Gathered From Password-Protected Phone

Posted on February 08, 2010
Our cell phones aren't just for calls anymore. They hold our address books, our calendars, our emails, and our grocery lists. They may even include things like a list of questions to ask your doctor, pictures of your girlfriend, or URLs of web sites you've visited...

Google Superbowl Ad Explains The Need for Search Privacy

Posted on February 08, 2010
Google's ad during yesterday's Superbowl explained in less than a minute how the story of someone's life can be pieced together from their search queries. Using only the search terms and user's clicks of the search results, Google told the story of a user who seeks love while studying abroad in Paris, finds it, moves to Paris, marries and has a child...

Patent Office Grants EFF Request for Reexamination of Dangerous VOIP Patent

Posted on February 05, 2010
San Francisco - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has won reexamination of an illegitimate patent on voice-over-Internet protocol (VoIP) that could cripple the adoption of new VoIP technologies. A company named Acceris Communications Technologies, now C2 Communications Technologies, was awarded the bogus patent for hardware, software, and processes for implementing VoIP using analog telephones as endpoints -- covering many telephone calls made over the Internet...

Know Before You Go: Tickets May Come at a Higher Price Than You Realize

Posted on February 05, 2010
As part of our Terms of Ab(use) project, we pay close attention to the fine print of online agreements for provisions that are potentially dangerous to consumers. We've noticed a troubling change in the way event planners restrict the rights of individuals who attend their shows...

EFF's 20th Birthday Commemorative Poster

Posted on February 02, 2010
UPDATE: Downloadable wallpaper now available. To celebrate 20 years of fighting for your digital rights, EFF staff designer Hugh D'Andrade came up with a commemorative poster! You can download your own hi-res copy from our Flickr page (on a Creative Commons Attribution License), and limited edition prints will be given to VIP Donors at our upcoming 20th Birthday celebration on February 10th at the DNA Lounge in San Francisco...

Seven "Corporations of Interest" in Selling Surveillance Tools to China

Posted on February 01, 2010
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's announcement of a new U.S. policy on global Internet Freedom included a bold new statement about the responsibilities of American technology companies: ...We are urging U.S. media companies to take a proactive role in challenging foreign governments' demands for censorship and surveillance...

Blogging ACTA Across The Globe: Lessons From Korea

Posted on January 29, 2010
If there's one country that might have insight into what a post-ACTA future may look like, it's the Republic of Korea. Korea is known as having one of the most advanced networks in the world, but more recently it has also been the recipient of some of the strongest foreign pressure to ramp up its IP laws...

Blogging ACTA Across The Globe: The View from France

Posted on January 28, 2010
Today is day three of the seventh round of ACTA negotiations, currently taking place in Guadalajara, Mexico. La Quadrature Du Net is a French advocacy group formed to promote digital rights and online freedom. Its name comes by analogy between the unsolvable mathematical problem of "squaring the circle", and similarly impossible attempts to "effectively control the flow of information in the digital age by the law and the technology without harming public freedoms, and damaging economic and social development"...

Obama Reverses Position on Disclosing Lobbyist Contacts

Posted on January 28, 2010
In yesterday's State of the Union address, President Obama made an important commitment to openness and transparency in government: It's time to require lobbyists to disclose each contact they make on behalf of a client with my Administration or Congress...

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