Intellectual Property Law

U.S. Trade Office Withholds Documents on Secret IP Enforcement Treaty

Posted on September 18, 2008
Washington, D.C. - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and Public Knowledge have filed suit against the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR), demanding information about a secret intellectual property enforcement treaty that the government has put on a fast track to completion...

Gov. Palin's Yahoo Email Account Hacked

Posted on September 17, 2008
Last night, someone apparently obtained access to the Yahoo! email account of Governor Sarah Palin, the Republican candidate for Vice President. Screenshots of Gov. Palin's email account are now widely available on the sites such as Wikileaks and Gawker...

Copyright Enforcement Bill Being Pushed to Fast Track

Posted on September 16, 2008
Our friends at Public Knowledge have been getting the word out about S. 3325, the Enforcement of Intellectual Property Act of 2008. The bill was amended by the Senate Judiciary Committee last week, but it still aims to give the government the power to bring civil suits against infringers (where they would normally file a criminal lawsuit), allowing the Department of Justice to act as an enforcement tool for the entertainment industry, paid by your tax dollars...

New Details of Official Dissent in Spying Scandal

Posted on September 16, 2008
A new book containing explosive details about the NSA's illegal spying program hits stores today. Barton Gellman's "Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency," excerpted in the Washington Post in two parts (1 & 2), brings to light new information about the warrantless wiretapping scandal and the role played by the most powerful vice president in history...

To access this complete feed in the blog feed reader login or register for free.

Secret Counterfeiting Treaty Must be Made Public

Posted on September 15, 2008
EFF and more than 100 public interest organizations from around the world are calling for answers about the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) today. Based on leaked documents and industry comments about ACTA, we believe the treaty could require Internet service providers to monitor all consumers' Internet communications, interfere with fair use of copyrighted materials, and criminalize peer-to-peer electronic file sharing...

global minilinks for 2008-09-11

Posted on September 11, 2008
Bloggers Less Well-Defended than Press in MoroccoThe arrest and two-year sentence of Mohammed Raji marks the first time anyone has been punished for a blog post in Morocco. EDVIGE and the Angry FrenchOpposition to a massive new "Big Sister" database has been boosted by a member of President Sarkozy's own cabinet...

New Court Decision Affirms that 4th Amendment Protects Location Information

Posted on September 11, 2008
San Francisco - In an unprecedented victory for cell phone privacy, a federal court has affirmed that cell phone location information stored by a mobile phone provider is protected by the Fourth Amendment and that the government must obtain a warrant based on probable cause before seizing such records...

The Latest on DVD Copying

Posted on September 10, 2008
Real Networks has received quite a bit of attention thanks to the launch of its Real DVD software, designed to allow people to copy their DVDs to their hard drives for later playback. (Why is that a big deal? Because Hollywood DVDs are encrypted with CSS, and if you decrypt them without permission, the motion picture industry's lawyers may come a-callin'...

minilinks for 2008-09-10

Posted on September 10, 2008
Comcast Appeals FCC Web Traffic-Blocking DecisionAs expected, Comcast is challenging the FCC's authority to regulate the ISP's web traffic blocking behavior. Judge: Harry Potter Lexicon is Not Fair UseA fan's reference text to the Harry Potter series has been found to be infringing...

Google Cuts IP Log Retention to Nine Months

Posted on September 09, 2008
Yesterday, Google announced a revised log retention policy, saying "we'll anonymize IP addresses on our server logs after 9 months," instead of the previous 18-24 months. Other information, like cookies, will stay on the longer retention plan. The announcement was in conjunction with Google's response to the European Union's Article 29 Working Party...

Tell the FCC to Open Up White Spaces!

Posted on September 08, 2008
Last week, we sent out a call to action over the ?white spaces? issue soon to be addressed by the FCC. Let?s take a closer look at why this issue matters. It ought to be a no-brainer to say that the airwaves belong to everyone. We use the airwaves to carry TV and radio signals, for our cellphones and cordless phones, even for garage door openers and baby monitors...

Massive Takedown of Anti-Scientology Videos on YouTube

Posted on September 05, 2008
Over a period of twelve hours, between this Thursday night and Friday morning, American Rights Counsel LLC sent out over 4000 DMCA takedown notices to YouTube, all making copyright infringement claims against videos with content critical of the Church of Scientology...

global minilinks for 2008-09-04

Posted on September 04, 2008
Europe's Privacy Czar Attacks Telecom Amendments in EUSays that they could allow over-reaching controls over Internet technology. Kremlin Web Critic Shot by Police in IngushetiaMagomed Yevloyev, owner of the ingushetiya.ru site, and vocal critic of Ingushetia regional administration, was shot by a police officer, and died from his injuries, after being detained...

Keep Wireless Broadband on Track at the FCC

Posted on September 03, 2008
Since Google's announcement of the Free the Airwaves campaign, there has been renewed interest in wireless broadband, municipal wi-fi, white spaces -- all long-standing efforts to bring more Internet to more people by making the Internet access available in the airwaves, instead of through underground wires...

minilinks for 2008-09-03

Posted on September 03, 2008
AT&T Throws Blue Dog PartyAt the Democratic National Convention in Denver, AT&T threw a big party for Blue Dog Democrats who backed telecom immunity. Joe Biden's Pro-RIAA, Pro-FBI RecordThe Democratic nominee for Vice President has a history of uncompromising support for Hollywood, the recording industry and the intelligence community...

EFF IP Attorney Wins (Another!) Award

Posted on September 02, 2008
EFF Senior Staff Attorney Fred Von Lohmann just won a much-prized acknowledgment from Public Knowledge, a public interest group based in Washington, DC whose mission to promote innovation and protect consumer rights often complements our mission at EFF...

Computers Seized from Berkeley Activist Space

Posted on August 28, 2008
Yesterday, the FBI, UC Berkeley police, and Alameda County Sheriff's deputies conducted a raid on the Long Haul Infoshop, a community space that is home to a number of leftist and anarchist groups, including a newspaper and a radio station. Armed with a warrant (PDF), authorities entered and quickly removed every computer in the Long Haul space...

EFF Urges Copyright Office to Fix Digital Music Mess, but Carefully

Posted on August 28, 2008
In comments filed today, EFF joined with other public interest and consumer groups in urging the Copyright Office to clarify the process for licensing digital music services, but to steer clear of larger digital copyright controversies. The comments were filed in a rulemaking involving the Section 115 compulsory license for "digital phonorecord deliveries" (DPDs) that has been dragging on since 2001 (read the July 16, 2008 "notice of proposed rulemaking" for a summary of the tortured history of the proceeding)...

Required Reading for "User-Generated Content" Sites: Io Group v. Veoh

Posted on August 28, 2008
In an important ruling handed down yesterday, a federal district court threw out a copyright infringement suit brought by adult video producer Io Group against Veoh, concluding that the video hosting site qualifies for the DMCA safe harbor. The ruling should be required reading for the executives of every "Web 2...

EFF and ACLU of Northern California to ISPs and Content Owners: Do Your Part to Protect Political Speech

Posted on August 25, 2008
Coauthored by ACLU of Northern California Technology and Civil Liberties Policy Director Nicole A. Ozer On blogs, personal and political websites, and through user generated content sites, ordinary citizens in extraordinary numbers are recreating a public sphere and reinvigorating the democratic debate at the core of our political system...

The Secret Room: EFF Designer's Cartoon on Illegal Spying

Posted on August 22, 2008
I was asked recently to create a mural-sized political cartoon (and to paint it live!) at a show of experimental drawings and cartoons at the Mission Cultural Center in San Francisco. I chose as my subject the NSA's "secret room" at AT&T's Folsom Street facility...

minilinks for 2008-08-21

Posted on August 21, 2008
Senators: FBI Rules Could Target Innocent PeopleFour Democrats criticized proposed attorney general guidelines that the Senators say would allow the FBI to spy on innocent Americans. Watch-Listed Fliers Can SueAn appeals court ruled that passengers can sue the government to have their names removed from no-fly lists...

Appeals Court Remands Gov't Appeal in Hepting v. AT&T

Posted on August 21, 2008
Today, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit returned the Hepting v. AT&T case to the District Court. In a two sentence order, the court wrote: In light of the FISA Amendments Act of 2008, Pub. L. No. 110-261, we remand this case to the district court...

Order Against Comcast Issued, FCC Credits EFF

Posted on August 21, 2008
The FCC has finally published its order (adopted on August 1) directing Comcast to stop blocking BitTorrent traffic. The 34-page ruling makes for surprisingly enjoyable reading, at least as FCC publications go. The order follows the basic outline that was explained by Chairman Martin in his statement on August 1, 2008...

Judge Rules That Content Owners Must Consider Fair Use Before Sending Takedowns

Posted on August 20, 2008
A judge's ruling today is a major victory for free speech and fair use on the Internet, and will help protect everyone who creates content for the Web. In Lenz v. Universal (aka the "dancing baby" case), Judge Jeremy Fogel held that content owners must consider fair use before sending takedown notices under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA")...

The FCC and Regulatory Capture

Posted on August 20, 2008
Earlier this month, Internet users welcomed the FCC's ruling against Comcast for interfering with BitTorrent uploads, celebrating the action as a victory for net neutrality. Reigning in Comcast's dishonest behavior was the right thing to do in this case, but many observers are worried that the FCC is establishing a dangerous habit of interfering with the Internet, especially since the FCC has a spotty history when it comes to serving the public...

MIT Coders' Free Speech At Stake

Posted on August 19, 2008
As regular Deeplinks readers know, EFF's Coders' Rights Project is defending the rights of three MIT students who were prevented from presenting their research on security vulnerabilities in Boston's transit fare payment system. The students were hit with a temporary restraining order that silenced their planned presentation at DEFCON...

Judge Lifts Unconstitutional Gag Order Against MIT Students

Posted on August 19, 2008
Boston - Today, a federal judge lifted an unconstitutional gag order that had prevented three Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) students from disclosing academic research regarding vulnerabilities in Boston's transit fare payment system. The court found that the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Agency (MBTA) had no likelihood of success on the merits of its claim under the federal computer intrusion law and denied the transit agency's request for a five-month injunction...

Victory for MIT Students in MBTA Lawsuit Hearing

Posted on August 19, 2008
Today, Judge George O'Toole lifted the gag order on three MIT students who were sued by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority for discovering a security vulnerability in the MBTA's fare payment system. The Court found that the MBTA was not likely to prevail on the merits of its claim under the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act...

What If the Kindle Succeeds?

Posted on August 18, 2008
The news recently has been full of reports that Amazon's e-book reader, the Kindle, is doing better than expected. Analyst Mark Mahaney from Citibank says Amazon is on track to sell about 380,000 Kindles this year, and says the Kindle "is becoming the iPod of the book world," with sales expected to hit $1 billion by 2010...

Bloggers, promote your law blog by nominating your blog for inclusion in USLaw.com's Law Blog Directory and RSS Reader. Benefits described.