Patent Trolls on the Hot Seat
Today Congress heard overwhelming evidence about how patent trolls—companies that assert patents as a business model instead of creating products—are abusing the system to stifle innovation. At a hearing before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property and the Internet, witness after witness testified about patent trolls who...
With VAWA, A Major Step Forward in Combating Violence, But Constitutional Concerns Remain
It's hard to think of a more worthy goal than combating domestic violence. With its recent reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) (PDF), Congress created and expanded federal programs to assist local communities and victims deal with domestic and sexual abuse. But along with these great...
Finally, Some Limit to Electronic Searches at the Border
In an important new decision, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals created the first explicit limits on the government's ability to search electronic devices at the border. The court's decision in United States v. Cotterman (PDF) establishes that government agents must have "reasonable suspicion" before conducting a forensic examination...
You Won't Like What Your Facebook 'Likes' Reveal
Have you clicked “like” next to “Bret Michaels” or “I Love Being a Mom” on Facebook?
Did you also click “like” next to “Austin Texas”?
Or maybe you clicked “like” next to “Never Apologize For What You Feel It’s Like Saying Sorry For Being Real,” because...
Copyright Troll Faces Hard Questions In Federal Court
Yesterday, the federal court in Los Angeles held a hearing in a consolidated set of copyright troll cases, filed by the notorious Prenda Law on behalf of holding companies AF Holdings and Ingenuity 13. At first, this case was just one of hundreds of similar lawsuits in which copyright trolls...
Startups and Innovators Send Letter to Congress Demanding CFAA Reform
Today, a group of entrepreneurs and startups sent a letter to the House Judiciary Committee urging it to reform the draconian Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA). The letter, organized with the help of TechFreedom, the Competitive Enterprise Insitute, and the Center for...
34 Civil Liberties Groups Speak Out Against CISPA in Lead Up to Hearings
On Monday, EFF and over 30 other Internet rights organizations sent a letter to members of Congress demanding they vote no on the "cybersecurity" bill known as CISPA. The letter starts off a week in which Congress will hold three different hearings about CISPA and computer and...
Fifteen Years of DMCA Abuse
San Francisco - Fifteen years after Congress passed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and just as legislators and the public are debating the law's dangerous impact on consumers who want to unlock their cell phones, the evidence of much broader negative effects continues to mount. In its latest update to...
Sunshine Week: The Year in Drones
It’s been a busy year for EFF’s Transparency Project (read our greatest hits here), but no issue has occupied us, and garnered more attention with the public, than our work on domestic drones.
Since EFF started sounding the alarm about domestic drones in late 2011, the issue...
Sunshine Week: EFF Takes Fight Against Secret Surveillance Law to Federal Court
Section 215 of the Patriot Act has been secretly interpreted by the government in ways, according to Senators briefed on the interpretation, that are misleading and would “stun” the American public. Today, EFF will ask a federal judge in Oakland to order the government to turn over those...
