Most of the problems with the patent system stem from the flood of low quality patents granted by the Patent Office. Once a bad patent issues, it is expensive and challenging to fight. The much better solution is for overbroad patents not to issue in the first...

If you're looking for proof that new cultural works speak to and are embedded within a vast array of pre-existing works and ideas, you can't do much better than "The Office Time Machine," a new art project by video remix artist Joe Sabia. Over the course of the last...

After months of hearing about their own vulnerability at the hands of intelligence agencies like the NSA and GCHQ, next Wednesday, European Parliamentarians and their staff will have an opportunity to learn about defending Internet communications using strong encryption and trusted hardware and software. Unfortunately, unless the...

When it comes to trade policy, we've learned over and over that leaks are no substitute for transparency. Leaks can reveal inconvenient facts about what negotiators are advancing in the public's name; they can help inform and mobilize activists to push back against egregious provisions that haven't yet been...

Update (March 28, 2014): Microsoft has announced a new policy which is described in a new post.
EFF has long argued that law enforcement agencies must get a warrant when they ask Internet companies for the content of their users’ communications. In 2013, as part of our annual...

If you do any kind of shopping online, then you’re probably already familiar with the concept of a metasearch engine—a search engine that searches other search engines. When you’re looking for airline tickets or a used copy of The King in Yellow, you might use a metasearch engine to...

It's another troubling example in a frustrating trend: despite repeated and pointed calls for answers, the NSA is still relying on word games and equivocation to avoid answering recent questions surrounding potential surveillance of privileged attorney-client communications. The New York Times reported in late February that an American law...

Today, President Obama is meeting with prominent American tech companies to discuss the ongoing NSA spying controversy.
This comes just two days after Rajesh De, the general counsel of the NSA, stated before a government oversight board that tech companies were legally mandated to assist...

In a single year, the public learned more information about the NSA and its global surveillance dragnet than we learned during the previous 30 years combined. Much of that knowledge can be attributed to whistleblower Edward Snowden and the journalists tirelessly working to inform the public about the NSA’s surveillance...