Intellectual Property Law

minilinks for 2008-10-15

Posted on October 14, 2008
NSA Spying Overseas: Legal or Not?Marty Lederman asks whether NSA spying on Americans abroad — as described by new whistleblowers — is a violation of FISA or the 4th Amendment. Savage Sued for TakedownStanford's Fair Use Project says the radio host sent a bogus takedown notice to YouTube...

McCain Campaign Feels DMCA Sting

Posted on October 14, 2008
Yesterday, the McCain-Palin campaign sent a letter to YouTube describing the troubles it has been having with bogus DMCA takedowns targeting its videos: [O]verreaching copyright claims have resulted in the removal of non-infringing campaign videos from YouTube, thus silencing political speech...

global minilinks for 2008-10-11

Posted on October 11, 2008
A Contentious Meeting with New Zealand's Copyright MinisterColin Jackson hits a brick wall when he and others talk to New Zealand ministers about the new copyright act. Former Pink Floyd Manager: End the P2P LawsuitsPeter Jenner continues to advocate for collective licensing, this time in Berlin...

Why Hollywood Hates RealDVD

Posted on October 10, 2008
Why does Hollywood hate RealDVD so much? Here's a hint: it has nothing to do with piracy and everything to do with controlling innovation. Earlier this week, a district court in San Francisco extended the temporary restraining order (TRO) blocking RealNetworks' distribution of its RealDVD software, at least until a full-dress preliminary injunction hearing can be held sometime in late November...

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New NSA Whistleblowers Say NSA Spied on US Service Members and Aid Workers

Posted on October 10, 2008
This has been a bad week for President Bush's warrantless wiretapping program. First, a government study reported that data-mining is actually a hindrance in the fight against terrorism. And now, two new whistleblowers have come forward with firsthand accounts of how innocent Americans' communications have been swept up in the NSA's dragnet...

Freedom Not Fear 2008

Posted on October 08, 2008
Freedom Not Fear is the world's ongoing demonstration against the encroachment of civil liberties by anti-terrorist laws -- particularly in the online world. This year the protests take place this Saturday, October 11th in nearly thirty countries, including the very first events in the Americas...

Government Painfully Fuzzy on the Effects of Infringement

Posted on October 08, 2008
Last week, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce urged President Bush to sign the PRO-IP Act, claiming that "counterfeiting and piracy of [intellectual property] is a growing problem that costs U.S. businesses nearly $250 billion in revenue each year [and] has already caused the loss of an estimated 750,000 American jobs...

EFF Challenges Bogus Patent on Internet Music Files

Posted on October 08, 2008
San Francisco - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is challenging a bogus patent on Internet music files that could stifle new innovations in online music distribution. Seer Systems was awarded this illegitimate patent for a system and method for joining different musical data types together in a file, distributing them over the Internet, and then playing that file...

Robots for EFF: Artist Creates Robots and Monsters As a Benefit for EFF

Posted on October 06, 2008
The artist Joe Alterio has just announced a fantastic benefit that we heartily support. He is re-launching his project, Robots and Monsters: A Charitable Menagerie, trading original, custom-made art for donations to EFF! Here's how it works: visit Joe's site, give him $50 along with three words or phrases to work from, and he'll send you an original work of art...

Chinese Skype Client Hands Confidential Communications to Eavesdroppers

Posted on October 03, 2008
This Wednesday, Information Warfare Monitor published damning evidence showing that TOM-Skype, the version of the voice and chat program distributed in China not only blocks keywords from chat conversations, but also spies on and remotely reports the contents of Skype users' private text conversations...

minilinks for 2008-10-03

Posted on October 03, 2008
Passport Hack Resurrects ElvisA hacker was able to access the personal data on an RFID passport, inserting the identity of Elvis Aaron Presley. House Limits Constituent EmailsA massive influx of public input on the bailout bill has led the House to limit emails in an attempt to prevent websites from crashing...

Book Review: ©ontent by Cory Doctorow

Posted on October 02, 2008
A glowing review of Cory Doctorow's latest book on EFF's Deeplinks should come as no surprise. Not only is Cory is one of the loudest and most prominent promoters of EFF, tirelessly promoting the cause of digital freedom in his blog, his opinion pieces and even his novels, but Cory is also — full disclosure — a former employee, current Fellow and generous supporter of EFF...

Why MPAA Should Lose Against RealDVD

Posted on October 02, 2008
Earlier this week, the motion picture industry sued RealNetworks over its RealDVD software. The MPAA companies also asked for an immediate temporary restraining order (TRO) to block Real from distributing the product, which allows consumers to copy their DVDs onto their personal computers for later playback...

California Governor Signs Off On New Protections for Free Speech

Posted on October 02, 2008
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger yesterday signed Assembly Bill 2433 and filled a significant gap in protection for anonymous speech online. Authored by Assemblymember Paul Krekorian and co-sponsored by EFF, the California Anti-SLAPP Project and the California Newspaper Publishers Association, the new law allows speakers who successfully oppose the use of bogus out-of-state litigation to obtain their identities to recover attorneys' fees...

RIAA Lawsuit Campaign Losing Credibility

Posted on October 01, 2008
San Francisco - Five years after the Recording Industry of America (RIAA) began its massive litigation campaign against music fans suspected of sharing copyrighted music files over the Internet, the campaign has failed to get artists paid or reduce peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing...

And Walmart Makes Three: Another Music Service Plans to Shut Down DRM Support

Posted on September 29, 2008
Following in the footsteps of MSN Music and Yahoo! Music, Walmart has notified customers that it will be shutting off its DRM servers in less than two weeks. Walmart's been selling DRM-free music since February, but anyone who bought music before that date will not be able to transfer those songs to ?unauthorized computers,? or access the songs after changing operating systems...

Court Protects Privacy of Satellite Receiver Owners

Posted on September 29, 2008
Last month, EFF filed an amicus brief in Echostar v. Freetech, where Echostar sought the identities of every consumer who purchased a Freetech "CoolSat" free-to-air (FTA) satellite receiver during the past five years. EFF argued that this demand, issued in discovery in a lawsuit between Echostar and Freetech, represented an unwarranted intrusion into the privacy of individual consumers...

minilinks for 2008-09-26

Posted on September 26, 2008
Spore Makers Sued for Duplicitous DRMGame maker Electronic Arts is facing a lawsuit for the use of copy protection that secretly installs a restrictive program on a user's computer. ISP: It's Impossible For Us to Stop Illegal P2PA Belgian ISP, ordered by a court to stop illegal file-sharing, now says that effective filtering is impossible...

EFF Urges Court to Protect Innovation in Arista v. Lime Wire

Posted on September 26, 2008
New York - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and a coalition of groups representing both consumers and industry filed an amicus brief today in the first major lawsuit since MGM v. Grokster against a creator of peer-to-peer (P2P) filesharing software, warning that the case has profound implications for the development of new software and hardware...

YouTube Anti-Scientology Takedowns: Good News, Bad News

Posted on September 25, 2008
Now that the dust has settled on the anti-Scientology video takedown controversy, it's time to take stock. For those of you who missed this one: on September 4th and 5th, hundreds and possibly thousands of videos critical of the Church of Scientology were taken down as a result of DMCA notices reportedly sent by by American Rights Counsel, Dr...

Capitol v. Thomas: Judge Orders New Trial, Implores Congress to Lower Statutory Penalties for P2P

Posted on September 24, 2008
Joining the ranks of federal district judges in Arizona and Massachusetts, District of Minnesota Chief Judge Michael Davis today concluded [44-page PDF] that simply making a music file available in a shared file does not violate copyright law, and ordered a new trial in Capitol Records v...

DoJ Agrees: IP Enforcement Bill is a Bad Idea

Posted on September 24, 2008
Yesterday, the Department of Justice delivered a letter to Senators Specter and Leahy, blasting S.3325, the "Enforcement of Intellectual Property Right Act of 2008." In the letter, the DoJ echoes, almost exactly, the concerns that EFF and other public interest groups have had for months: We strongly oppose Title I of the bill, which not only authorizes the Attorney General to pursue civil remedies for copyright infringement, but to secure "restitution" damages and remit them to the private owners of infringed copyrights...

global minilinks for 2008-09-23

Posted on September 23, 2008
South Korean Government Seeks to End Anonymity, Allow Arbitrary Content TakedownAll forum and chat room users will be required to make verifiable registrations using their real names; Web sites can be taken down for 30 days if they receive complaints of fraud or slander...

Internal DHS Documents Detail Expansion of Power to Read and Copy Travelers' Papers

Posted on September 23, 2008
San Francisco - Recently obtained documents show that last year the Department of Homeland Security quietly reversed a two-decades-old policy that restricted customs agents from reading and copying the personal papers carried by travelers, including U...

Comcast Unveils Its New Traffic Management Architecture

Posted on September 22, 2008
Late on Friday night, Comcast filed an overview of its new traffic management arrangements with the FCC. This is the long term replacement for its controversial practice of using forged TCP Reset packets to limit the use of peer to peer protocols. The new system appears to be a reasonable attempt at sharing limited bandwidth amongst groups of users...

Government Files to Dismiss NSA Telecom Surveillance Cases

Posted on September 20, 2008
Late Friday night, the Government started the formal process for retroactive immunity for the telecommunications companies sued by EFF and others for their involvement in the warrantless surveillance of millions of ordinary Americans. The immunity is a key part of the unconstitutional FISA Amendments Act passed by Congress in July...

Law Firm Uses Bogus Trademark Claim in Attempt to Silence Online News Site

Posted on September 19, 2008
San Francisco - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and Public Citizen, joined by Public Knowledge and Citizen Media Law Project, urged a federal judge in Chicago Friday to dismiss a law firm's baseless trademark claims, which were apparently aimed at quashing speech by an online news site...

DOJ View on Email Privacy May Hamper Prosecution of Palin Hackers

Posted on September 18, 2008
On Wednesday, some hackers apparently obtained unauthorized access to Gov. Sarah Palin's Yahoo! email account by posing as Gov. Palin and getting a new password (Michelle Malkin and Wired News have details). Yesterday we noted that, based on the facts in newspaper reporting, a court would likely consider this a violation of the Stored Communications Act (SCA)...

minilinks for 2008-09-18

Posted on September 18, 2008
New Bill Would Tighten Rules for Laptop SearchesThe Border Search Accountability Act would place limits on the governments ability to seize and search computers at the border. RIAA, MPAA Resume Lobbying on Copyright LawThe recording industry and the motion picture industry are pushing the latest version of the Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights Act...

EFF Sues NSA, President Bush, and Vice President Cheney to Stop Illegal Surveillance

Posted on September 18, 2008
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed a lawsuit against the National Security Agency (NSA) and other government agencies today on behalf of AT&T customers to stop the illegal, unconstitutional, and ongoing dragnet surveillance of their communications and communications records...

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