EFF filed suit against Apple Inc. to defend the First Amendment rights of an operator of a noncommercial public Internet "wiki" site known as Bluwiki.
EFF and the San Francisco law firm of Keker & Van Nest represent OdioWorks LLC which runs the BluWiki website. Like many “wiki” platforms such as Wikipedia it is open to the public for collaborative authoring and editing on any topic. The site is entirely noncommercial operated by OdioWorks as a public service.
Late last year after BluWiki users began a discussion about making some Apple iPods and iPhones interoperate with software other than Apple’s own iTunes Apple lawyers demanded removal of the content. In a letter to OdioWorks the attorneys alleged that the discussions constituted copyright infringement and a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s (DMCA's) prohibition on circumventing copy protection measures. Fearing legal action by Apple OdioWorks took down the discussions from the Bluwiki site.
OdioWorks filed the lawsuit in order to vindicate its right to restore those discussions. Filed in federal court in San Francisco the suit seeks a declaratory judgment that the discussions do not violate any of the DMCA's anti-circumvention provisions and do not infringe any copyrights owned by Apple.
In July 2009 Apple withdrew its legal threats against Bluwiki leading Bluwiki to dismiss the lawsuit and restore the wiki discussion that has been taken down.