Oral argument has just concluded before the US Supreme Court in MGM v. Grokster. Here, from the courthouse steps, is the first EFF dispatch.
The entire bench was engaged with argument from both sides. Three key points stood out:
In at least some questions, the Court seemed...

Over at The Chronicle of Higher Education, Fordham University history professor Doron Ben-Atar makes short work of the entertainment industry's and the US Solicitor General's arguments in MGM v. Grokster:

On the face of it, the case for harmony of interests between the studios and the nation...

The San Jose Mercury News gets it:Consider the following scenario. A drug company's research determines that one of its drugs already on the market is dangerous. The company decides the research results are proprietary trade secrets and bottles them up.It's clear that the public would be served by a...

EFF is pleased to announce that we have submitted a paper to the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), the UN agency that advises global leaders on telecommuncations policy, as part of its survey of "Digital Rights Management" (DRM) technologies (ITU-R Working Party 6M Report on Content Protection Technologies). Our...

A Slashdotter tells a personal story illustrating how a trade secret -- or what a company claims is a trade secret -- can be a matter of public importance:

Back in 1995 Steve Young of CNN told me "CNN protects its sources." I was on the phone with him...

Brazilian copyright scholar Pedro de Paranaguá Moniz has drafted a public letter arguing for broad reform in the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) -- including putting an end to the procedural blockades the organization has erected to stop public-interest organizations from fully participating in the decisionmaking over ...

Forbes asks rhetorically "Is Apple The New Microsoft?" Referencing the Apple v. Does case, Forbes Senior Editor Lisa DiCarlo notes that this "potential threat to First Amendment rights and Apple's crackdown on websites that, in general, love the company and its products" as well as the failure of...