Skip to main content

Deeplinks Blog

Deeplinks Blog

The Season of Bad Laws, Part 1: TM Dilution Revision Act

Congress appears to be awash in dangerous trademark and copyright bills. One is H.R. 683, "The Trademark Dilution Revision Act," a revision to the trademark laws that includes a little-noticed change that will put those who want to poke fun at big brands in jeopardy. EFF, Public Citizen, Public...

Did EMI and UMG Lie to Antitrust Investigators?

Did EMI and Universal Music Group lie to the Department of Justice in order to throw federal investigators off the scent during the antitrust investigation involving the major labels, MusicNet, and pressplay? According to a ruling issued last week, the evidence suggests they did.
This is the latest...

DMCA Encourages Bad Security

Professor Ed Felten has been posting this week (1, 2, 3) about HDCP, a content protection technology rapidly becoming ubiquitous in the world of high-def video, whether from your cable, satellite, or next-gen Blu-Ray/HD DVD player.
Apparently, HDCP has serious security weaknesses, Hollywood knew it, and...

High-Def DVD Formats Take Use Restrictions to New Heights

This week, the first HD-DVD releases entered the US market. The standards battle with Blu-Ray is the talk of the town, but that's not the only element of this format roll-out that will inevitably frustrate consumers. These discs come ready to restrict legitimate uses far beyond what you've faced with...

Court Case to Determine Rights of Online Journalists

Arguments Set for April 20 in San Jose San Jose - On April 20, EFF Staff Attorney Kurt Opsahl will argue Apple v. Does – a case with broad implications for journalists and their right to protect the confidentiality of their sources – before a San Jose, California, appeals court...

Calling for Sunshine at the Smithsonian

As we mentioned in a prior post, the Smithsonian and Showtime Networks have entered into a deal with troubling implications for the public domain (especially in light of the proposed WIPO Broadcasting Treaty). A FOIA request has been sent to the Smithsonian seeking public disclosure of the terms...

EFF Debate: "Email - Should the Sender Pay?"

Esther Dyson and Danny O'Brien Face Off April 20 in San Francisco San Francisco - What is the future of email? Should anyone ever have to pay to send it? Or would payments undermine free speech on the Internet? These are just a few of the questions raised recently by...
Free Speech banner, an colorful graphic representation of a megaphone

EFF Defends American's Free Speech Against Foreign Court

Your online speech may be perfectly legal under our laws, but when can a US court be made to enforce a foreign law against you? Can the First Amendment be undermined by court decisions from nations that are less protective of free speech? That's the issue addressed in an...

AOL Censors Email Tax Opponents

Won’t Deliver Emails Mentioning www.DearAOL.com UPDATE After this press release was sent out Thursday afternoon, AOL stopped blocking email with links to www.DearAOL.com. Officials at the company stated that problems of this nature generally take three to five working days to fix. However, this was fixed after 24 hours of...

Digital Copyright Law Hurts Consumers, Scientists, and Competition

EFF Report Highlights More Unintended Consequences in Seven Years of DMCA San Francisco - In the seven years since Congress enacted the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), examples of the law's impact on legitimate consumers, scientists, and competitors continue to mount. A new report released today from the Electronic Frontier...

CinemaNow's Funny Definition of "Anywhere"

Much has already been written about major movie studios' recently agreeing to sell downloads on Movielink and CinemaNow with remarkably high price points and ridiculous DRM restrictions. Buyer beware -- these services are misleading about how little you'll get to do with your media.For instance, CinemaNow's ...

Your Tax Dollars at Work ... for Viacom

The Washington DC legal newspaper, Legal Times, is reporting (sorry, subscription link) that Kevin Murphy, a legislative aide to Senator Gordon Smith (R-Ore.), has recently taken a job with cable and film giant Viacom. Senator Smith, you may remember, is one of the Hill's leading proponents of the...

Pages

Back to top

JavaScript license information