Intellectual Property
You'd like to move the tracks you bought from Rhapsody to a personal stereo like Apple's iPod, but the copy protection prevents you. Creating or using the software necessary to make the switch could put you behind bars.
You want to distribute your band's music, but the P2P system that's revolutionized your ability to reach listeners is being sued out of existence, a company claiming to own a patent to all streaming media technology is demanding licensing fees, and record labels are breathing down your neck over the samples you've looped.
You want to criticize Vivendi Universal on your website or blog, but the plug's been pulled on your "vivendisucks" domain name because of its unflattering reference to the company's trademark.
EFF fights to preserve balance and ensure that the Internet and digital technologies continue to empower you as a consumer, creator, innovator, scholar, and citizen.
Intellectual Property Cases
- Sapient v. GellerEFF is fighting back against Uri Geller -- the "paranormalist" famous for seemingly bending spoons with his mind -- on behalf of a YouTube critic who was silenced by Geller's baseless copyright claims.
- Kelly v. Arriba Soft
- Electric Slide Litigation
- MGM v. Grokster

- The Betamax Case

- Online Policy Group v. Diebold
- Elektra v. Barker
- Marvel v. NCSoft
In The News
- PC WORLD | January 18, 2008 Could Traffic Filtering Get AT&T Into Trouble?
- IN THESE TIMES | January 18, 2008 Save the Dramatic Chipmunk
- WIRED NEWS | January 11, 2008 DRM Is Dead, But Watermarks Rise From Its Ashes
Other Resources
- May 15, 2008 The Lost Art of Orphan Works
- Chilling Effects[chillingeffects.org]
- The Endangered Gizmos list
Related Issues
- Patents
- Digital RadioRIAA's Attempt to Control Recording From the Radio
- No Downtime for Free Speech CampaignLearn about how copyright claims can inhibit free speech
- File SharingFile Sharing and Peer to Peer issues
- Broadcast FlagA mandate would force all future digital televisiontuners to include "content protection" (aka DRM) technologies.
- Digital VideoDigital Video Restrictions
- DMCADigital Millennium Copyright Act
Whitepapers
- 2006 Unintended Consequences: Seven Years under the DMCA
- 2006 IAAL*: What Peer-to-Peer Developers Need to Know about Copyright Law
- 2005 When Push Comes to Shove: A Hype-Free Guide to Evaluating Technical Solutions to Copyright Infringement on Campus Networks
- 2005 Digital Rights Management: A failure in the developed world, a danger to the developing world
- 2005 Fair Use and Digital Rights Management: Preliminary Thoughts on the (Irreconcilable?) Tension between Them
- 2003 Digital Rights Management: The Skeptics' View
Deeplinks Posts
- October 10, 2008 Why Hollywood Hates RealDVD
- October 02, 2008 Why MPAA Should Lose Against RealDVD
- September 24, 2008 Capitol v. Thomas: Judge Orders New Trial, Implores Congress to Lower Statutory Penalties for P2P
Press Releases
- September 26, 2008 EFF Urges Court to Protect Innovation in Arista v. Lime Wire
- August 18, 2008 Innocent Customers Potentially Dragged Into Legal Battle Over Satellite TV
- January 31, 2008 EFF Takes Aim at Bogus Online Gaming Patent

