Press Releases: September, 2004
Dangerous Ruling Menaces Rights of Free Software Programmers
Contract and Copyright Trump Fair Use and Competition in BnetD Case
St. Louis - Fair use was dealt a harsh blow today in a Federal Court decision that held that programmers are not allowed to create free software designed to work with commercial products. At issue in the case was whether three software programmers who created the BnetD game server -- which interoperates with Blizzard video games online -- were in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and Blizzard Games' end user license agreement (EULA).
BnetD is an open source program that lets gamers play popular Blizzard titles like Warcraft with other gamers on servers that don't belong to Blizzard's Battle.net service. Blizzard argued that the programmers who wrote BnetD violated the DMCA's anti-circumvention provisions and that the programmers also violated several parts of Blizzard's EULA, including a section on reverse engineering.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), co-counsel for the defendants, argued that programming and distributing BnetD was fair use. The programmers reverse-engineered Battle.net purely to make their free product work with it, not to violate copyright.
EFF Staff Attorney Jason Schultz said, "Consumers have a right to choose where and when they want to use the products they buy. This ruling gives Blizzard the ability to force you to use their servers whether you want to or not. Copyright law was meant to promote competition and creative alternatives, not suppress them."
EFF will appeal the case, challenging the court's ruling that creating alternative platforms for legitimately purchased content can be outlawed.
Contact:
Jason Schultz
Staff Attorney
Electronic Frontier Foundation
jason@eff.org
EFF Wins in Diebold Copyright Abuse Case
Voting Machine Company Liable for Damages, Costs in Landmark Ruling
Court Strikes Down Key USA PATRIOT Power
New York - The American Civil Liberties Union won a tremendous victory for Internet privacy today in the case of ACLU & Doe v. Ashcroft, challenging the constitutionality of "National Security Letters" (NSLs) under the USA PATRIOT Act. The letters, issued directly by the Department of Justice without any court oversight, can be used to demand sensitive financial and communications information about citizens even if they are not suspected of any crime. When Internet Service Providers (ISPs) receive such demands they are forbidden from revealing their existence to anyone.
Court of Appeals Revives Florida E-voting Lawsuit
Florida - The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals today overturned a lower court's ruling in a case that challenges the legality of Florida's paperless electronic voting machines. The federal suit, brought by Florida Congressman Robert Wexler, argues that the use of the machines violates the United States Constitutional guarantees of equal protection and due process. The Court of Appeals ruled that the existence of a related lawsuit in Florida state court does not prevent the federal district court from hearing the challenge.
Draft 9/11 Legislation Goes Too Far, Revives PATRIOT II
San Francisco, CA - Last week, House Republicans circulated draft legislation that contains provisions from the never-introduced "Domestic Security Enhancement Act of 2003," otherwise known as "PATRIOT II." The draft legislation is meant to implement intelligence reforms recommended by the 9/11 Commission Final Report.
Government to Demand Airline Records to Test "Secure Flight"
Washington, DC - The federal government on Tuesday announced plans to order all airlines to turn over the personal records of every air passenger who traveled domestically in June 2004, for use in testing the Transportation Security Administration's latest passenger-profiling scheme, "Secure Flight." The TSA's previous plans for a profiling system called CAPPS II were scuttled over concerns about its cost, effectiveness, and impact on civil liberties. Unfortunately, the new program poses many of the same problems.
EFF Releases Voting Machine Quick Reference Guides
San Francisco, CA - Today the Electronic Frontier Foundation released the results of research conducted jointly with the Verified Voting Foundation and American Families United into the strengths and weaknesses of the most popular models of e-voting machines. Organized into one-page quick reference guides, this research gives users critical information about widely deployed machines such as the Diebold Accuvote TS and the ESS iVotronic.
A New Hope for Patent Reform
Consumer and Public Interest Groups Seek to Narrow and Invalidate Ambiguous Patents that Harm Society
Washington, DC - Consumers Union, the publisher of Consumer Reports magazine, and two public interest organizations, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and Public Knowledge, filed a friend-of-the-court brief today with the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, DC, arguing that ambiguous patent claims should be invalidated and that claim terms should be interpreted as narrowly as possible by the courts to protect the public. Currently, courts uphold patent claims unless they are deemed too ambiguous, and the courts interpret vague claim terms as broadly as possible. These rules often result in improper patents of uncertain scope and lead to overzealous threat letters and lawsuits brought by patentees that chill innovation and deter beneficial competition.
"Aggressive patent holders are using vague patent language to cause havoc in the software and Internet fields," said Jason Schultz, EFF staff attorney and organizer of EFF's Patent Busting Project. "We're asking the court to rein in these claims by limiting their scope to only those things clearly laid out in the patent itself."
"Placing clear limits on patents will provide much-needed protection for the public domain and create a fertile environment for technological growth," said Gigi Sohn, President of Public Knowledge.
In a recent example, Acacia Research sent more than 4,000 patent demand letters to universities and colleges across the nation, claiming its vaguely worded patents cover all known methods of streaming pre-recorded educational lectures over the Internet. Were the appeals court to rule that such vague patent claims are invalid or must be interpreted narrowly, the threatened universities and colleges could defend or dismiss these lawsuits with far greater ease.
The brief was filed for Consumers Union, EFF, and Public Knowledge by students and faculty of the Glushko-Samuelson Intellectual Property Law Clinic of the Washington College of Law, American University, in a case called Phillips v. AWH Corporation, following a request from the appeals court for industry and public opinions on several issues of current patent law. The IP Clinic's Assistant Director and Counsel of Record on the brief, Joshua Sarnoff, said that "this may be the most important patent case ever decided. Claim meaning is the name of the game in patent law, and the Federal Circuit has the chance to lay down clear rules to determine claim meaning that will benefit society."
Contacts:
Joshua Sarnoff
Assistant Director
Glushko-Samuelson Intellectual Property Law Clinic
jsarnoff@wcl.american.edu
Jason Schultz
Staff Attorney
Electronic Frontier Foundation
jason@eff.org
Transportation Department Fails to Protect Traveler Privacy
Washington, DC - In a blow to the privacy of air travelers, the Department of Transportation has dismissed a complaint against Northwest Airlines. The complaint alleged that Northwest airlines, by giving three months' worth of passenger data to NASA for research into passenger profiling without the knowledge or consent of its customers, violated its own privacy policy and committed an unfair and deceptive trade practice.
Court Rejects Government's Bid for Secrecy in Airport ID Appeal
San Francisco, CA - The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has rejected the government's attempt to bar the press and the public from a trial where plaintiff John Gilmore is challenging the constitutionality of requiring airline passengers to show ID.
BBC Charter Opens the Gates to Cultural Renaissance
Electronic Frontier Foundation Supports BBC's "Creative Archive"
London, UK -- The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) provided written testimony on Saturday to the UK government committee evaluating the charter renewal for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). The testimony supports the BBC's request to build the "Creative Archive," a groundbreaking project that would make the entire archive of BBC material available online.
New Induce Act Proposal Is a Bad Idea
Today, the Copyright Office provided the Senate Judiciary Committee with recommended language meant to replace Senator Orrin Hatch's "Induce Act," S. 2560.
Pennsylvania Court Rules Website-Blocking Law Violates First Amendment
Law "Blacked Out" More than a Million Legitimate Websites
The Federal District Court in Philadelphia ruled today that a state law requiring Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to block access to websites that allegedly host child pornography violates the First Amendment. In order to comply with the law, ISPs had been forced to over-block websites that shared domain names or IP numbers with those identified by the state Attorney General as containing child porn.
EFF on Copyright Bill Moving in Congress
The Washington Post reports that the House Judiciary Committee has marked up and reported H.R. 4077, the Piracy Deterrence and Education Act (PDEA). The measure is now ready for a vote by the entire House of Representatives. The Senate has taken no action on any companion bill.
EFF Files Brief in Email Privacy Case
Councilman Case Should Be Heard Before Full Court
Boston, MA - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) today submitted a friend-of-the-court brief in a case that will have a profound effect on the privacy of Internet communications.
The brief argues that US v. Councilman, previously decided by a panel of First Circuit judges, should be reheard by the entire First Circuit Court of Appeals. In the earlier panel decision, the court ruled that it does not violate criminal wiretap laws when an email service provider monitors the content of users' incoming messages without their consent.
Court Ruling Opens Door to More Competition in After-Market Parts
Court Rules Copyright Law Cannot Be Used to Stifle Competition for Garage Door Openers
Washington, DC - A federal appeals court in Washington, DC, yesterday upheld a lower court ruling that allows the marketing of "universal" remote controls for garage door openers, an important decision that helps pave the way for competition and lower prices in the after-market and replacement parts arena.
Want to learn how you can defend free speech, stand up for privacy, fight for government transparency, support consumer rights, and protect your right to innovation in the digital world? Visit http://eff.org/fight to find ways to help.