Intellectual Property Law

EFF Calls for Court to Affirm Downsized Copyright Damages

Posted on January 04, 2011
San Francisco - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) urged a federal court Monday to affirm downsized damages in Sony v. Tenenbaum, a file-sharing case in which a jury originally ordered a college student to pay $675,000 for infringing copyright in 30 songs...

EFF Wins Landmark Ruling Freeing Promo CDs for Resale

Posted on January 04, 2011
San Francisco - The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit has shot down bogus copyright infringement allegations from Universal Music Group (UMG), affirming an eBay seller's right to resell promotional CDs that he buys from secondhand stores and rejecting UMG's attempt to claim that a sticker on a CD created a license agreement forbidding resale...

2010 Trend Watch Update: Online Video

Posted on December 31, 2010
At the beginning of this year EFF identified a dozen important trends in law, technology and business that we thought would play a significant role in shaping digital rights in 2010, with a promise to revisit our predictions at the end of the year. Now, as 2010 comes to a close, we're going through each of our predictions one by one to see how accurate we were in our trend-spotting...

2010 Trend Watch Update: Web Browser Privacy

Posted on December 31, 2010
At the beginning of this year EFF identified a dozen important trends in law, technology and business that we thought would play a significant role in shaping digital rights in 2010, with a promise to revisit our predictions at the end of the year. Now, as 2010 comes to a close, we're going through each of our predictions one by one to see how accurate we were in our trend-spotting...

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2010 Trend Watch Update: Global Internet Censorship

Posted on December 30, 2010
At the beginning of this year EFF identified a dozen important trends in law, technology and business that we thought would play a significant role in shaping digital rights in 2010, with a promise to revisit our predictions at the end of the year. Now, as 2010 comes to a close, we're going through each of our predictions one by one to see how accurate we were in our trend-spotting...

2010 Trend Watch Update: Fair Use of Trademarks

Posted on December 29, 2010
At the beginning of this year EFF identified a dozen important trends in law, technology and business that we thought would play a significant role in shaping digital rights in 2010, with a promise to revisit our predictions at the end of the year. Now, as 2010 comes to a close, we're going through each of our predictions one by one to see how accurate we were in our trend-spotting...

2010 Trend Watch Update: Three Strikes: Truth and Consequences

Posted on December 28, 2010
At the beginning of this year EFF identified a dozen important trends in law, technology and business that we thought would play a significant role in shaping digital rights in 2010, with a promise to revisit our predictions at the end of the year. Now, as 2010 comes to a close, we're going through each of our predictions one by one to see how accurate we were in our trend-spotting...

2010 Trend Watch Update: Net Neutrality

Posted on December 27, 2010
At the beginning of this year EFF identified a dozen important trends in law, technology and business that we thought would play a significant role in shaping digital rights in 2010, with a promise to revisit our predictions at the end of the year. Now, as 2010 comes to a close, we're going through each of our predictions one by one to see how accurate we were in our trend-spotting...

2010 Trend Watch Update: Hardware Hacking

Posted on December 26, 2010
At the beginning of this year EFF identified a dozen important trends in law, technology and business that we thought would play a significant role in shaping digital rights in 2010, with a promise to revisit our predictions at the end of the year. Now, as 2010 comes to a close, we're going through each of our predictions one by one to see how accurate we were in our trend-spotting...

UPDATED: 2010 Trend Watch Update: Attacks on Cryptography

Posted on December 25, 2010
At the beginning of this year EFF identified a dozen important trends in law, technology and business that we thought would play a significant role in shaping digital rights in 2010, with a promise to revisit our predictions at the end of the year. Now, as 2010 comes to a close, we're going through each of our predictions one by one to see how accurate we were in our trend-spotting...

2010 Trend Watch Update: Social Networking Privacy

Posted on December 24, 2010
At the beginning of this year EFF identified a dozen important trends in law, technology and business that we thought would play a significant role in shaping digital rights in 2010, with a promise to revisit our predictions at the end of the year. Now, as 2010 comes to a close, we're going through each of our predictions one by one to see how accurate we were in our trend-spotting...

Genachowski Wins on Net Neutrality, Sort of

Posted on December 23, 2010
After a down-to-the-wire push, the Federal Communications Commission this week approved by 3-2 its long-awaited regulatory proposal on net neutrality. We haven?t finished combing through the actual rules document, all 200 pages of which were just released today, but nonetheless the summary documents gave us some important hints about what the rules contain...

Lawmakers Must Respect Freedom of Expression in Wikileaks Debate

Posted on December 22, 2010
San Francisco - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and a broad coalition of advocacy organizations sent an open letter to U.S. lawmakers today, calling on government officials to respect freedom of expression in the debate over the whistle-blower website Wikileaks...

2010 Trend Watch Update: Location Privacy

Posted on December 21, 2010
At the beginning of this year EFF identified a dozen important trends in law, technology and business that we thought would play a significant role in shaping digital rights in 2010, with a promise to revisit our predictions at the end of the year. Now, as 2010 comes to a close, we're going through each of our predictions one by one to see how accurate we were in our trend-spotting...

New EFF Member Cards

Posted on December 21, 2010
This week, EFF will introduce new annual membership levels and benefits. The most exciting part is that new and renewing members at the Copper Level or higher will receive an EFF Member Card! Back by popular demand, the EFF Member Card lets you show your commitment to online civil liberties...

EFF Announces Intellectual Property Legal Team

Posted on December 20, 2010
San Francisco - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is proud to announce its new lineup focusing on intellectual property issues: Intellectual Property Director Corynne McSherry; Senior Staff Attorney Abigail Phillips; and Staff Attorney Julie Samuels...

Season?s Greetings from EFF's International Team

Posted on December 17, 2010
The Internet is global, and so are threats to digital freedom. That’s why EFF works in a range of international policy venues and with partner organizations worldwide to defend your digital rights. Here are some of the great things EFF achieved this year with our global partners and supporters like you: Protecting Freedom of Expression...

Knowledge is Power: Facebook's Exceptional Approach to Vulnerability Disclosure

Posted on December 17, 2010
It's no surprise to EFF members that the Internet is full of security flaws, some of them severe. Yet many Internet companies try to deal with these problems internally, or not at all. They don't encourage outsiders to report flaws discovered when using or testing a website, and may even be hostile toward those who reveal facts they don't want to hear...

Commerce Department's Online Privacy Report a Positive Step, But Self-Regulation Isn't Enough

Posted on December 17, 2010
Online privacy continues to be a hot topic in Washington, D.C. A few weeks ago, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a staff report calling for greater protection of online consumer privacy. A House subcommittee heard testimony on the increasingly popular idea of ?do not track? for the Internet...

Viacom Round-Up: Still Complaining about YouTube Even as They Profit from It

Posted on December 17, 2010
Viacom?s appeal of the district court?s decision in Viacom v. YouTube is well underway, and now the amicus briefs supporting Viacom have been filed as well. The arguments in Viacom?s opening brief largely rehash many of the same arguments Viacom made—unsuccessfully—the first time around: Generalized awareness of some infringing content, and failure to take down such unidentified content, disqualifies a service provider from the DMCA?s safe harbors; YouTube?s compliance with the DMCA proves its DMCA-disqualifying ability to control the infringing activity on its network; DMCA protection for YouTube?s ?storage? of uploaded content does not include the display of the content on the site; and so on...

Not-So-Gentle Persuasion: US Bullies Spain into Proposed Website Blocking Law

Posted on December 17, 2010
It?s no secret that the US government has used its annual Special 301 Report to intimidate other countries into adopting more stringent copyright and patent laws by singling out particular countries for their "bad" intellectual property policies, and naming them on a tiered set of "watch lists"...

Human Rights Organizations Worldwide Decry Attacks on Freedom of Expression

Posted on December 16, 2010
It has been almost two weeks since cablegate.wikileaks.org, the website hosting leaked US diplomatic cables, was taken down, and the right of Wikileaks to publish truthful information was immediately besieged. Since then, human rights organizations around the world have condemned the attacks on WikiLeaks and have raised their voices to protect freedom of expression online...

Indian Government Detains E-Voting Researchers

Posted on December 16, 2010
This year, EFF was proud to present one of its Pioneer Awards to Hari Prasad, an Indian security researcher who, along with his colleagues Alex Halderman and Rop Gonggrijp exposed serious flaws in the electronic voting machines used in India. The Indian government rewarded his hard work by arresting Prasad for alleged theft of the electronic voting machines which he had studied —the criminal charges made against him are still pending...

Lawmakers and Legal Experts Call For Restraint in Wikileaks Hearing

Posted on December 16, 2010
The House Judiciary Committee held a surprisingly subdued hearing this morning on the legal and constitutional issues surrounding Wikileaks' publication activities. Committee members repeatedly emphasized the importance of protecting First Amendment rights and cautioned against overreaction to Wikileaks...

Judge Blocks Copyright Trolls in Porn-Downloading Lawsuits

Posted on December 16, 2010
San Francisco - In a big victory in the fight against copyright trolls, a judge in West Virginia has blocked an attempt to unmask accused file sharers in seven predatory lawsuits involving the alleged illegal downloading of pornography. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), working with Charles J...

House Judiciary Committee to Hold WikiLeaks Hearing Tomorrow

Posted on December 15, 2010
The full House Committee on the Judiciary will hold a hearing on the Espionage Act and legal and constitutional issues raised by WikiLeaks tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. EST. You can watch the hearing live here and here. We'll also be tweeting our impressions throughout the morning...

EFF Location Privacy Victory at Third Circuit Stands, With Implications Far Beyond Your Cell Phone

Posted on December 15, 2010
In EFF's second major privacy victory in as many days, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals today denied the government's request that it reconsider its September decision regarding government access to cell phone company records that reveal your past locations...

A Mixed Ninth Circuit Ruling in MDY v. Blizzard: WoW Buyers Are Not Owners ? But Glider Users Are Not Copyright Infringers

Posted on December 14, 2010
The Ninth Circuit today issued its decision in the second of a trio of cases that raise the critical legal question of whether "magic words" in a end-user license agreement (EULA) slapped onto a consumer product can turn buyers (or gift recipients) into mere licensees, rather than owners...

Work With EFF's International Policy Team Next Summer! Google Policy Fellowship Now Accepting Applications

Posted on December 14, 2010
Are you a student who is passionate about protecting citizens' civil liberties and the free and open Internet? Do you love debating technology law and Internet policy issues? Then consider applying for a Google Policy Fellowship to work with EFF's international policy team next summer! Now in its fourth year, the Google Policy Fellowship program offers successful applicants the opportunity to work with one of 17 host organizations at the forefront of Internet and technology public policy —including EFF...

Breaking News on EFF Victory: Appeals Court Holds that Email Privacy Protected by Fourth Amendment

Posted on December 14, 2010
In a landmark decision issued today in the criminal appeal of U.S. v. Warshak, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that the government must have a search warrant before it can secretly seize and search emails stored by email service providers...

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