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
- The Betamax Case

- MGM v. Grokster

- Napster Cases Archive
- RIAA v. The People
- MPAA v. The People
- Electric Slide Litigation
- 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.
- Bowers v. Baystate
In The News
- ARS TECHNICA | November 16, 2009 Mac cloner guilty, but "hackintosh" tools will persist
- WIRED NEWS | October 15, 2009 Judge: Cellphone Ringtones Are Not Concerts
- CNET NEWS | October 15, 2009 Why hack a calculator? Why climb Mount Everest?
Other Resources
- August 14, 2009 Canada Action Alert: Speak Out on the Future of Digital Copyright
- Google Book Search Settlement and Reader Privacy for Authors and Publishers
- Google Book Search Settlement and Reader Privacy
- A Guide to YouTube Removals
- January 15, 2009 Free Your Phone
- Chilling Effects[chillingeffects.org]
- May 15, 2008 The Lost Art of Orphan Works
- 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
- November 19, 2009 Google Books Settlement 2.0: Evaluating Competition
- November 19, 2009 Stopping the ACTA Juggernaut
- November 17, 2009 Google Books Settlement 2.0: Evaluating Access
Press Releases
- November 13, 2009 International Activists Launch New Website to Gather and Share Copyright Knowledge
- July 22, 2009 Apple Withdraws Threats Against Wiki Site
- July 02, 2009 ASCAP Makes Outlandish Copyright Claims on Cell Phone Ringtones


