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.


Litigation

» All Intellectual Property Cases

In The News

» All Intellectual Property News Articles

Other Resources

Related Issues

  • USCG v. The People
  • Terms Of (Ab)Use
    One cannot go online today without eventually being asked to accept a set of so-called Terms of Service (or TOS). These "terms" are actually purported legal contracts between the user and the online service provider (websites, MMORPGs, communication services, etc.), despite the fact that users never get a chance to negotiate their contents and can often be entirely unaware of their existence.
  • Patents
  • Digital Radio
    RIAA's Attempt to Control Recording From the Radio
  • No Downtime for Free Speech Campaign
    Learn about how copyright claims can inhibit free speech
  • File Sharing
    File Sharing and Peer to Peer issues
  • Broadcast Flag
    A mandate would force all future digital televisiontuners to include "content protection" (aka DRM) technologies.
  • Digital Video
    Digital Video Restrictions

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