The Trolls’ Favorite Template Has Been Retired, but Don’t Get Too Excited
It’s easy to file a patent complaint. All a patent owner has to do is say that they own a patent and that the defendant infringed it. The patent holder doesn’t even need to identify which product...

Coders have never been more important to the security of the Internet. By identifying and disclosing vulnerabilities, coders are able to improve security for every person who depends on information systems for their daily life and work. Yet this week, the South African's Department of Justice and Constitutional Development...

What if, in response to the terrorist attacks in Paris, or cybersecurity attacks on companies and government agencies, the FBI had come to the American people and said: In order to keep you safe, we need you to remove all the locks on your doors and windows and replace them...

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a government, in the wake of a national security crisis—or hostage to the perceived threat of one—will pursue and in many cases enact legislation that is claimed to protect its citizens from danger, actual or otherwise. These security laws often include wide-ranging provisions...

Like clockwork, cynical calls to expand mass surveillance practices—by continuing the domestic telephone records collection and restricting access to strong encryption—came immediately following the Paris attacks. These calls came before the smoke had even cleared, much less before a serious investigation completed. They came from high places too, including ...

The U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) fears the grassroots tech community, and rightly so. Internet users are the community that killed SOPA and PIPA in the U.S. Congress and ACTA in the European Parliament. The USTR is right to fear that the same could happen to the Trans-Pacific...

On Friday, the major US movie studios quietly backed away from the worst parts of the censorship power-grab they attempted in July in the Paramount v. John Does (MovieTube) case. The studios are still hoping to take MovieTube’s Internet domain names away, but they are no longer asking...

If you live in San Francisco (or spend much time on social media) you probably saw a lot of discussion last month about Proposition F, a controversial proposal to regulate short-term property rental services like Airbnb. You may also know that Airbnb spent millions opposing the measure, many...

New Copyright Bot Raises Questions About Fair Use and Privacy
In general, Facebook has some pretty decent copyright policies. If you upload content to Facebook and it’s removed because of a bogus takedown request, you can file a counter-notice via a form on Facebook’s website. If the claimant...

Internet users generally think of YouTube as a platform where, if you play by the copyright rules, the content you post is safe from takedown and, if it's taken down improperly, you have some recourse. But that's not the case, thanks to an additional barrier to lawful sharing: meet YouTube's...