Intellectual Property Law

Seer Systems Threatens EFF with Defamation Lawsuit

Posted on March 06, 2009
Seer Systems, Inc. and Stanley Jungleib have issued a written litigation threat to EFF over statements made as part of EFF's Patent Busting Project. EFF responded today, noting that its discussions of Seer and Jungleib were protected by the First Amendment...

Additional Details on Choruss, Collective Licensing on Campus

Posted on March 05, 2009

Irish Blackout: Why Irish ISPs Should Stand with Their Customers

Posted on March 04, 2009

EXCLUSIVE: Google Takes a Stand for Location Privacy, Along with Loopt

Posted on March 04, 2009

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Last.fm and the Diabolical Power of Data Mining

Posted on March 03, 2009

MAPLight.org Illuminates Anti-Open Access Bill Money Trail

Posted on March 03, 2009

minilinks for 2009-03-03

Posted on March 03, 2009

EFF Releases How-To Guide to Fight Government Spying

Posted on March 03, 2009

EFF and ACLU Urge Court to Reject Warrantless GPS Tracking

Posted on March 03, 2009

White House Responds to Privacy Complaints?

Posted on March 02, 2009

Bush Administration Claimed Fourth Amendment Did Not Apply to NSA Spying

Posted on March 02, 2009

Yes We Scan: Carl Malamud for Public Printer

Posted on March 02, 2009

DOJ Releases Secret Bush Era OLC Memos

Posted on March 02, 2009

Victims of Warner Censorship: Literal Videos

Posted on February 27, 2009

Ninth Circuit Appeals Court Denies Government Appeal in Al-Haramain Warrantless Wiretapping Case

Posted on February 27, 2009

EFF's Two New Staff Members

Posted on February 26, 2009
We've made two amazing additions to our staff with a new Systems Administrator and a new Membership Coordinator. Here's a quick introduction to our two newest staff members! Aaron Jue comes to us from the New England Aquarium, where he gained experience working as membership coordinator, and the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles, where the history of internment of Japanese citizens during WWII got him interested in civil liberties...

Hey, Warner, Leave those Kids Alone

Posted on February 26, 2009
Last month we reported that Warner Music Group was using YouTube?s Content I.D. (aka Video I.D.) tool to effectively censor myriad fair uses. We asked people to contact us if they needed legal help and put up a YouTube removal primer to give folks information about their options...

"Open Access" Policies Threatened by Copyright Bill

Posted on February 25, 2009
Scientists who receive funding from the National Institutes of Health are required to make their research publicly available within 12 months after the research is published. This "open access" policy not only promotes free scientific communication and innovation, it strikes many as fundamentally fair...

minilinks for 2009-02-23

Posted on February 23, 2009
As Data Collecting Grows, Privacy ErodesThird party data collection is growing, making real privacy more and more elusive. NSA Offers Billions for Skype HackThe NSA has a bundle of cash for anyone that can design software that will allow eavesdropping on Skype communications...

EFFector #500!

Posted on February 20, 2009
Since EFF was founded in 1990, we've seen digital technologies become increasingly central to our lives as citizens, consumers, creators, innovators and social beings. And over those nearly 19 years, EFF has been at the forefront of the fight to ensure that these new tools are used to enhance and extend our freedoms, rather than to restrict them...

global minilinks for 2009-02-20

Posted on February 20, 2009
Italian Government to Research Skype InterceptionGrowing attempt by governments seeking to understand and perhaps undermine encrypted VOIP. Rightsholders Scold Canada, China & Sweden for Internet PiracyLatest report by media industries to US government highlighting their top targets for new copyright legislation...

Patent Office to Reissue Narrowed Version of NeoMedia Patent

Posted on February 20, 2009
In April 2007, as part of our Patent Busting Project, we asked the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) to revisit its decision to grant NeoMedia a patent that broadly claimed to cover database lookups using things like barcodes. In October 2007, the PTO agreed to take another look, and last July, it issued an initial opinion that all 95 claims of the NeoMedia patent were invalid...

Facebook Battle Ends in Major Victory for Users, But the War Continues

Posted on February 19, 2009
A David and Goliath-type battle erupted this weekend when the public realized that Facebook had changed the rules governing their use of the popular social networking site. In the end, the users prevailed in a victory that reflects the power of social networking as a tool for change...

Dazed and Confused: Do New Obama Policies Affect Bush Era Cases?

Posted on February 17, 2009
Last week, we told you about our efforts to ensure the White House makes good on its commitment to a more transparent government. Among other things, we've asked courts to postpone or ?stay? several of our Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) cases until the Attorney General releases guidelines to implement a new presumption of disclosure in FOIA decisions, as required by the President on his first full day in office...

Another iPhone App Banned: Apple Deems South Park App "Potentially Offensive"

Posted on February 17, 2009
In its filing with the Copyright Office a few days ago, Apple argued that restricting the iPhone to run only software from the iTunes App Store is great for application creators. Apparently, they didn't mean the creators of South Park, whose app has been rejected multiple times: We first announced our iPhone App back in October, after we submitted the Application to Apple for approval...

New Zealand Goes All Black Against Three Strikes

Posted on February 17, 2009
Whether you're following a New Zealander on Twitter, or have friended a Kiwi on Facebook, you will not have missed Net users from that country protesting Section 92A in NZ's new Copyright Act. Thousands are turning their sites and their icons black to mourn the coming enforcement of the provision, which passed last year over the protests of ISPs and technology experts and activists...

Apple Says iPhone Jailbreaking is Illegal

Posted on February 13, 2009
Jailbreaking an iPhone constitutes copyright infringement and a DMCA violation, says Apple in comments filed with the Copyright Office as part of the 2009 DMCA triennial rulemaking. This marks the first formal public statement by Apple about its legal stance on iPhone jailbreaking...

Poll: Majority Want Investigations on Warrantless Wiretapping

Posted on February 13, 2009
A new USA Today/Gallup poll finds that a clear majority of Americans favor at least some kind of investigation into whether Bush administration officials and policies violated the law. Respondents were asked about whether there should be a criminal investigation, an investigation by independent panel — or neither — into questions of politicization of the Justice Department, torture and warrantless wiretapping...

EFF to Obama Administration: Time to Make Open Government a Reality

Posted on February 12, 2009
When President Obama, in one of his first official acts, issued directives committing his new administration to creating ?an unprecedented level of openness in Government,? we joined with other transparency advocates in welcoming the announcement of a new direction...

Stimulus Roundup

Posted on February 12, 2009
The massive stimulus bill being wrangled through Congress has been making headlines for days. Unfortunately, many have sought to make additions to the bill that raise serious concerns for privacy and free speech online. Because the final text has not yet been made public, we can't be certain what was and wasn't included...

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