p>After many years and many failed attempts, patent reform legislation is about to pass Congress and become law. (President Obama has signaled he will sign the current bill, which should make it out of Congress this week.) The good news: Washington, D.C. recognizes that the patent...

For years, Tunisians suffered in relative media silence as the Ben Ali regime curtailed digital rights, blocking websites and surveilling citizens. Then, thanks to the hard work of Tunisian free expression advocates who for many years worked to raise awareness of the country’s pervasive Internet controls, censorship fell...

As part of an emerging international trend to try to ‘civilize the Internet’, one of the world’s worst Internet law treaties--the highly controversial Council of Europe (CoE) Convention on Cybercrime--is back on the agenda. Canada and Australia are using the Treaty to introduce new invasive, online surveillance...

This spring, agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) executed a search warrant at the home of Nolan King and seized six computer hard drives in connection with a criminal investigation. The warrant was issued on the basis of an Internet Protocol (IP) address that traced back to...

In response to outrage over last week's shutdown of cell phone service in four San Francisco stations on rumors of a planned protest, BART officials have repeatedly claimed their decision was necessary to maintain public safety. BART spokesman Linton Johnson has gone so far as to invent a new...

Google announced yesterday that it has finally struck a deal with the National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) and it is calling the deal an important step forward in making sure publishers and songwriters benefit from the creative uses musicians and fans make of copyrighted compositions in YouTube videos. Equally...

Dan Ward, attorney to pro-democracy activist and blogger Du Daobin, issued a statement yesterday that noted the efficacy of EFF's campaign to spread awareness about Cisco’s responsibilities to stand up for human rights:
As I have previously stated, recent events lead us to believe that the safety of...

This week, EFF has seen censorship stories move closer and closer to home — first Iran, then the UK, and now San Francisco, an early locus of the modern free speech movement. Operators of the Bay Area Rapid Transit system (BART) shut down cell phone service to...

After several days of destructive riots throughout the UK, British Prime Minister David Cameron is practically tripping over himself in his eagerness to sacrifice liberty for security. In a speech before an emergency session of Parliament today, Cameron highlighted concern over rioters’ use of social media tools such as Facebook...

By now, we’ve all heard the traditional content industries complain about how technology hurts their business model. But, of course, the story does not end there. While the record labels, movie studios, and video game producers have not figured out a way to compete with free, others have. And this...