Eff Issues

Digital Millennium Copyright Act

Experience with section 1201 demonstrates that it is being used to stifle free speech and scientific research

By banning all acts of circumvention, and all technologies and tools that can be used for circumvention, the DMCA grants to copyright owners the power to unilaterally eliminate the public's fair use rights.

Rather than focusing on pirates, some have wielded the DMCA to hinder legitimate competitors

Further, the DMCA has been misused as a general-purpose prohibition on computer network access, a task for which it was not designed and to which it is ill-suited

Congress enacted the DMCA's anti-circumvention provisions in response to two pressures

Section 1201 has been used by a number of copyright owners to stifle free speech and legitimate scientific research.

In 2009, Apple threatened the free wiki hosting site BluWiki for hosting a discussion by hobbyists about reverse engineering iPods to interoperate with software other than Apple's own iTunes.

speech are vital to democratic discourse. Allowing dissenters to shield their identities frees them to express critical, minority views

with a number of other public-interest organizations to ensure that the Federal Election Commission (FEC) doesn't gag bloggers' election-related speech

the Center for Democracy and Technology and the Electronic Privacy Information Center.

to demand that material be immediately taken down without providing any proof of infringement

prohibit the use of helpful assistive technologies and stamp out innovative new technologies that could make copyrighted works universally accessible

All makers of HDTV receivers will be required to build their devices to watch for a "flag" embedded in programs by copyright holders.

People have always explored and modified the technologies in their lives – from crystal radios to automobiles to computer software

Since they were enacted in 1998, the "anti-circumvention" provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA") have not been used as Congress envisioned.

Tired of the entertainment industry treating you like a criminal for wanting to share music and movies online? We are too -- EFF is fighting for a constructive solution that gets artists paid while making file sharing legal.

Whether you are quoting someone on your blog, inserting clips of CNN into your own video news report, or using a song sample in a musical parody

While patent rights were designed to promote investment, public disclosure, and most importantly, useful innovation, the patent system is often abused

One cannot go online today without eventually being asked to accept a set of so-called Terms of Service (or TOS).

Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement

The World Intellectual Property Organization's (WIPO) "Treaty on the Protection of Broadcasting Organizations" is protection, all right: a protection racket for middlemen in the TV and Internet worlds.

n October 2004, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) took the historic step of agreeing to consider the impact of its decisions on developing nations

EFF has hundreds of donors and thousands of active supporters throughout Europe. As part of our expanded international work, EFF has been increasing its participation in European issues, providing publicity and logistical support for combatting bad European tech policy in co-operation with the many digital rights groups across Europe to fight effectively for consumers' and technologists' interests.

The U.S. government is employing a new strategy to effect the global entrenchment of overly restrictive copyright law: incorporating DMCA-like copyright provisions in its free trade agreements.

The Global Network Initiative is a coalition of information and communications companies, major human rights organizations, academics, investors and technology leaders to produce guidance and oversight for companies facing civil liberties challenges in the ICT industries.

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is the UN agency responsible for treaties involving copyright, patent, and trademark laws.

Many people don't want the things they say online to be connected with their offline identities. They may be concerned about political or economic retribution, harassment, or even threats to their lives.

EFF and a coalition of public interest, industry, and academic groups filed suit in 2005 challenging the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) unjustified expansion of the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA).

Can the government use your cell phone records to track your physical location without first obtaining a warrant based on probable cause?

Like music and movies before them, books are going digital, and each new development is a source of excitement and concern for avid

Modern communications mean most Americans today walk around with a beacon that transmits their location. Mobile phones register to a nearby tower as the owner moves through space and the phone company can collect that data in real time or retrospectively to physically place the phone with varying degrees of accuracy.

The U.S. government, with assistance from major telecommunications carriers including AT&T, has engaged in a massive program of illegal dragnet surveillance of domestic communications and communications records of millions of ordinary Americans since at least 2001.

New web technology has created many unexpected ways for corporations to track your web activity without your knowledge. Countless advertising networks are able to secretly monitor you across multiple websites and build detailed profiles of your behavior and interests.

In the first ruling of its kind, a federal magistrate judge held that the government must obtain a search warrant to collect the content of a telephone call, even when that content is dialed digits like bank account numbers, social security numbers or prescription refills.

The federal government is trying to force states to turn your drivers license into a national ID. Unless you tell your state legislator to push back, the Real ID Act will create grave dangers to privacy and impose massive financial burdens without improving national security in the least.

Libraries, schools, the government, and private sector businesses are adopting radio frequency identification tags, or RFIDs — a technology that can be used to pinpoint the physical location of whatever item the tags are embedded in. While RFIDs are a convenient way to track items, they are also a convenient way to do something far less benign: track people and their activities through their belongings

Google, Yahoo, MSN, AOL and other search engines record your search queries and maintain massive databases that reach into the most intimate details of your life

The Fourth Amendment generally requires law enforcement to obtain a warrant based on probable cause before searching a person, her home, or her belongings.

Sites like Facebook and Twitter provide users with a place to share personal information with friends, family, and the public — an activity that's proven to be hugely compelling to Internet users.

Before you get on an airplane, the government wants to sift through the personal details of your life. If the data analysis says you're a security risk, too bad -- you may have no way of challenging the error. Worse still, that black mark could follow you for the rest of your life, and there may be little stopping the government from using your data for purposes far outside of travel screening.

Many states are hastily implementing flawed electronic voting machines and related election procedures. EFF is protecting your right to vote in the courts while working with legislators and election officials across the country to ensure fair, transparent elections.

EFF's FOIA Litigation for Accountable Government (FLAG) Project aims to expose the government's expanding use of new technologies that invade Americans' privacy. Through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, the project helps to protect individual liberties and hold the government accountable.

One cannot go online today without eventually being asked to accept a set of so-called Terms of Service (or TOS).

In May 2007, Comcast began engaging in protocol-specific interference with the activities of its subscribers. When confronted by users and by EFF,