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In our 604th issue:
Two Congressmembers have introduced a bill that would require game publishers to add a "clear and conspicuous" warning label to most new video games. HR 4204, the Violence in Video Games Labeling Act, is only the most recent in a series of legislative attempts to restrict or otherwise hinder speech in the form of interactive media. We've put together an action alert that lets you to tell your Congressmember that you stand against the unnecessary and burdensome regulation of speech in video games, and that she should too.
In the coming months, Congress and the Senate will consider a confusing variety of cybersecurity bills -- all of which purport to keep U.S. companies and infrastructure safe from "cyberattacks." But as Congress continues to weigh this legislation and negotiate potential amendments, users should ask some serious questions about how these proposals will affect everybody, and tell Congress that we won't stand for cybersecurity bills that undermine our civil liberties.
The patent system is getting a much needed jolt of sanity in the form of a clear Supreme Court ruling affirming a basic but sometimes forgotten principle: laws of nature, and obvious methods of working with them, are not patentable. The Supreme Court's ruling in Mayo v. Prometheus unanimously struck down a patent covering a medical diagnostic test that took laws of nature and merely included "well-understood, routine, conventional activity previously engaged in by researchers in [the] field."
EFF Updates
ISPs Set to Launch "Graduated Response" Backroom Deal on July 1
RIAA CEO Cary Sherman has confirmed that the country's largest ISPs will voluntarily roll out by July 1 a "graduated response" program aimed at discouraging unauthorized downloading. Under the new system, a rightsholder accusing an ISP subscriber of infringement will trigger a series of ever-increasing consequences.
NSA Chief Appears to Deny Ability to Warrantlessly Wiretap Despite Evidence
Director of NSA General Keith Alexander testified at a House subcommittee hearing, denying that his agency was intercepting emails, phone calls, Google searches, and phone records of individuals in the United States -- as well as the technical capabilities of the program's software. Alexander also seemed to claim the NSA did not have the technical ability to collect Americans' emails and Internet traffic even if it weren't required to get a warrant.
New Counterorrism Guidelines Gives Authorities Vast Access to Private Info of Innocent Americans
Attorney General Eric Holder has signed expansive new guidelines for terrorism analysts, allowing the National Counter Terrorism Center to mirror entire federal databases containing personal information and hold onto the information for an extended period of time. Despite the "terrorism" justification, the new rules affect every single American, and expand the amount of time the government can keep private information on innocent individuals by a factor of ten.
EFF Again Reminds Court Forced Warrantless DNA Collection Violates Fourth Amendment
A recent decision by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals found no constitutional problems with the government's ability to collect DNA from recent arrestees without a search warrant. EFF has joined a challenge to that decision, filing a brief explaining that blanket suspicionless collection of DNA for the sole purpose of law enforcement investigation cannot survive Fourth Amendment scrutiny.
EFF Files Comments Protesting Reexam Fee Hikes
The Patent and Trademark Office has issued proposed guidelines for certain supplemental examination procedures, recommending a huge increase in fees for filing certain patent reexaminations. This is a terrible idea: the reexam process is an essential part of the patent ecosystem, forms the basis for our Patent Busting Project, and allows us to attack dangerous and overbroad patents like those that are asserted against cash-strapped municipalities.
Appellate Court to Rehear Expansive Border Search Case
When it comes to the government's ability to search your electronic devices at the border, we've always maintained that the border is not an "anything goes" zone, and that the Fourth Amendment doesn't allow the government to search whatever it wants for any (or no) reason at all. Now the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has agreed to rehear a case that gave the government carte blanche to search through electronic devices at the border.
French President Sarkozy Sees Opportunity for Censorship, Seizes It
In the wake of a horrific rampage by an armed extremist, French president Nicolas Sarkozy has begun calling for criminal penalties for citizens who visit web sites that advocate for terror or hate. Apart from the obvious flaws in Sarkozy's plan -- users can, of course, use anonymizing tools to view the material or simply access it from a variety of locations to avoid appearing as "habitual" viewers -- there are numerous other reasons to be concerned about criminalizing access to information.
FTC Final Privacy Report Draws a Map to Meaningful Privacy Protection in the Online World
The Federal Trade Commission has released its final report on digital consumer privacy issues after more than 450 companies, advocacy groups and individuals commented on the December 2010 draft report. The final report creates strong guidelines for protecting consumer privacy choices in the online world. We're pleased by the flexible and user-centric nature of the privacy report, but we will continue to monitor how such principles are actually enacted.
miniLinks
Judge rules in favor of Bradley Manning supporter, allows lawsuit challenging laptop search
A federal judge has denied the government's motion to dismiss a lawsuit challenging the suspicionless search and seizure of electronics belonging to activist David House when he reentered the U.S. after a vacation.
FBI taught agents they could 'bend or suspend the law'
The FBI taught its agents that they could sometimes "bend or suspend the law" in their hunt for terrorists and criminals. That's just one of the disturbing results of the FBI's six-month review into how the Bureau trained its counterterrorism agents, which did not result in a single disciplinary action for any instructor.
NY Times Op-Ed: "When Stealing Isn't Stealing"
Copyright infringement isn't theft, and it's not just a question of nomenclature. What we choose to call a given type of crime ultimately determines how it’s formulated and classified and, perhaps most important, how it will be punished.
Administrivia
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Parker Higgins, Activist
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