The Future of Book Banning?
Farhad Manjoo over at Slate has written the best summation to date on Amazon's 1984 scandal, in which digital versions of the Orwell classic were surreptitiously removed from users' Kindles without their permission.
Amazon has apologized and promised never to delete books in this fashion in the...
Don't Let Google Close the Book on Reader Privacy!
Update: Members of the reading public can find detailed information on EFF's page on Google Book Search and Privacy. But EFF is also gathering a group of authors (or their heirs or assigns) and publishers who are concerned about the Google Book Search settlement and its effect on the...
SF Chronicle: Obama Position on Wiretapping is "Mind-Boggling"
Calling the Obama administration's position on warrantless wiretapping "mind-boggling," the San Francisco Chronicle ran an editorial Monday calling for a federal court not to dismiss EFF's Jewel v. NSA, which seeks to bring an end the illegal spying program.
The editorial reminds us that Obama himself has...
President Lula and the Brazilian Cybercrime Bill
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Da Silva, popularly known as Lula, announced during the recent Fórum Internacional de Software Livre (FISL) that "No one is more creative than we are. What we need is an opportunity. This law here... it doesn't aim to fix the abuse of the Internet. It...
Orwell in 2009: Dystopian Rights Management
In George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, the protagonist Winston Smith labors in obscurity to make information appear and disappear at the whims of the Ministry of Truth:
This process of continuous alteration was applied not only to newspapers, but to books, periodicals, pamphlets, posters, leaflets, films, sound-tracks, cartoons, photographs —...
ASCAP and Copyright Doublespeak
Just a few days ago, we pointed out that ASCAP is arguing in federal court that every time your musical ringtone rings in public, you're violating copyright law by "publicly performing" it without a license. Now ASCAP has fired up its spin control machinery and issued a statement...
Record Labels' $1.9 Million Win in Thomas Retrial Constitutional?
The jury in the retrial of Ms. Jammie Thomas-Rasset deliberated only a few hours today before concluding that she had willfully infringed the copyrights of 24 songs and awarding $1.92 million in statutory damages ($80,000 per recording) to the record label plaintiffs. The verdict represents a huge increase over...
Google Considering More HTTPS, Other Services to Follow?
Earlier this week, privacy and security researchers urged Google to improve the security of Gmail, Google Docs, and Google Calendar by enabling the more secure HTTPS encryption by default. As it stands, all users currently log in to Google services over HTTPS. However, most conduct the remaining bulk of...
Trade Sanctions and Web 2.0: Are US Regulations Hurting Free Speech in Iran?
For the past few days, Iranians have been taking advantage of US-hosted communication services like Twitter and Facebook to communicate with each other about their contested election, uncover and compare facts, and convey their experiences to the rest of the world. They've done that despite apparent attempts to ...
Cookies Crumbling: YouTube Takes a Small Step to Increase Privacy of Whitehouse.gov Visitors
After discussions with EFF, YouTube has implemented additional privacy protections for visitors to Whitehouse.gov viewing embedded videos hosted by YouTube.
When the Whitehouse.gov website launched in January, including embedded videos from YouTube, privacy advocates raised concerns that without extra privacy measures, YouTube would be improperly tracking visitors to...