Electronic Frontier Foundation Announces $50,000 Grant from The Parker Family Foundation

Donation to Support Patent-Busting Project San Francisco - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), the leading civil liberties organization working to defend freedom in the digital world, has received a $50,000 grant from The Parker Family Foundation of Lexington, Massachusetts, for EFF's Patent-Busting Project. “We are concerned about the growing number...

EFF at DMCA Reform Hearing

After Daylong Debate, the Future of H.R. 107 Looks Bright Washington, D.C. - Today at 10:00 AM., the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on Trade, Commerce and Consumer Protection held a hearing on H.R. 107, also known as the Digital Media Consumers' Rights Act (DMCRA). Introduced by Rep. Rick Boucher...

Electronic Frontier Foundation Announces New Patent Busting Campaign

San Francisco, CA - In light of growing concerns about illegitimate software and Internet patents, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) today announced a new initiative to combat the chilling effects bad patents have on public and consumer interests. "Patents traditionally only targeted large commercial companies," said EFF Staff Attorney Jason...

Electronic Frontier Foundation Files Comments on FBI Plan

Washington, D.C. - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) today submitted comments to the Federal Communications Commission opposing an FBI proposal that would extend a decade-old telephone surveillance law to the Internet. The Communication Assistance for Law Enforcement Act of 1994 (CALEA) forced telecommunications carriers like your phone company to build...

Orlando Court Orders Record Companies to File 25 Separate Lawsuits Against Accused Filesharers

The Federal District Court in the Middle District of Florida today denied the motion of sixteen record companies to force the Internet Service Provider Bright House to provide the identities of 25 individuals accused of copyright infringement using the FastTrack peer-to-peer network. The Court decided that the record companies had...

FCC Faces Suit on Regulation of Digital Broadcast Television

Washington, D.C. - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) joined five library associations, Public Knowledge, the Consumer Federation of America, and the Consumers Union in suing the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) last week to block overbroad regulation of next-generation televisions and related devices.
"The FCC's digital broadcast television mandate is...

European Parliament Adopts Controversial IP Enforcement Directive

The European Parliament today voted to adopt an overbroad Directive on Intellectual Property Enforcement that gives rightsholders powerful new enforcement tools to use against intellectual property infringers. EFF opposed the proposed Directive because it did not distinguish between unintentional, non-commercial infringement by consumers and for-profit criminal counterfeiting enterprises. "Under this...

Case Update: Pennsylvania Court Orders Record Industry to File 203 Separate Lawsuits

Here is a brief update on some of the cases in which
Public Citizen, Electronic Frontier Foundation, and the
American Civil Liberties Union and its local affiliates
have filed amicus briefs arguing that persons accused of
file sharing should be accorded minimal due process rights
...

Federal Judge Rules That Part of the USA PATRIOT Act Is Unconstitutional

The Federal District Court for the Central District of California today released a ruling declaring unconstitutional a provision of the USA PATRIOT Act that made it a crime to advise or assist an organization designated as 'terrorist' by the U.S. government, even when that support is solely intended to promote...

Music Industry Must Respect Privacy of Accused Music Sharers

Saint Louis, Missouri - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and 21 other consumer and privacy groups today sided with Charter Communications, Inc., in its struggle to protect customer privacy.
The groups urged a federal court to prevent the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) from forcing Internet Service Provider...

Johansen Acquittal Final

The Norwegian authorities have decided not to appeal the aquittal of Jon Johansen to the Norwegian Supreme Court. Johansen was prosecuted for his role in the creation of DeCSS software that decrypts DVDs so that they can be played on computers running the Linux operating system. "The prosecution of Johansen...

EFF Helps Win Ninth Circuit Appeal, Right to Use English Language, for eVisa.com

Evisa.com today won its appeal at the Ninth Circuit over whether its domain name diluted Visa's trademark for credit cards, keeping the word "visa" in the dictionary (and DNS servers) for now. "Visa is a generic word used throughout the world to describe foreign travel and was used long...

Secretary of State Shelley Announces Electronic Voting Machine Requirement

Sacramento, CA - Responding to a raft of reports detailing
flaws in electronic voting systems, California Secretary of
State Kevin Shelley today announced that he is requiring all
electronic voting systems purchased by California counties
to provide a paper printout to allow voters to verify their
...

EFF on Chamberlain v. Skylink DMCA Garage Door Opener Case

The Northern District of Illinois District Court today ruled that the universal garage door clicker sold by Skylink Technologies that interoperates with Chamberlain Group garage door openers does not violate the DMCA "We're pleased the court recognized consumers' reasonable expectation that they can replace lost or damaged remote controls...

More RIAA Lawsuits

The recording industry has started the second round of its campaign against American music fans by sending letters threatening them with lawsuits and offering to discuss settlement. "The record companies still aren't listening to their fans instead of continuing their litigation crusade, the labels should give their customers the option...

SunnComm Backs Down

CD copy-protection vendor SunnComm Technologies has said that it will not sue J. Alex Halderman under the DMCA for publishing a paper that disclosed weaknesses in the company's latest MediaMax protection technology. The final concession comes after a week of off-again, on-again threats against the Princeton computer science...

EFF Supports the Benjamin Franklin True Patriot Act

EFF applauds the introduction last week of legislation that would repeal USA PATRIOT Act provisions that threaten citizens' privacy rights. The Benjamin Franklin True Patriot Act (HR 3171), introduced by Congressman Dennis Kucinich along with 20 Congressional cosponsors, would repeal more than ten sections of USA PATRIOT, including those authorizing...

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