EFF Urges Sixth Circuit to Revisit Case Finding No Warrant Needed for Ten Weeks of Covert 24/7 Video Surveillance
EFF joined NYU Law School’s Brennan Center for Justice, ACLU, National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, the Libertarian National Committee, and former Congressman Bob Barr in urging the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals to revisit a recent opinion finding no reasonable expectation of privacy...
The Federal Circuit Sticks to Its Guns: Patent Owners Can Prevent You From Owning Anything
A “notice” slapped on the outside of a package saying “single use only” continues to ensure a manufacturer selling you the product can sue for patent infringement should someone dare reuse its goods. This is what the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit held on Friday, reaffirming its previous...
So What About Those Phone Records Now? EFF Writes to FISA Court
Now that the mass collection of telephone records by the NSA under Section 215 of the Patriot Act has ended due to the passage of USA Freedom, the question has arisen: what should the NSA do with the big mass of records that it already has? The secret FISA...
The Punishment Should Fit the Crime: Matthew Keys and the CFAA
One of the basic tenets of a civilized society is that the punishment should be proportionate with the crime. What essentially amounts to vandalism should not result in even the remote possibility of a 25-year jail sentence. But that very possibility is on the table in the government’s case against...
A Deeper Look Inside the PECB, Pakistan’s Terrible Cyber-Crime Bill
The Prevention of Electronic Crimes Bill (PECB) has received harsh criticism inside and outside of Pakistan since its radical re-drafting in April of this year. A coalition of Pakistan’s leading online rights groups and businesses warned the current version, written with no input from legal experts or technologists, would “adversely...
Movie Studios Scale Back Their Website-Blocking Strategy in the MovieTube case
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...
Judge Rules Respublika Cannot Be Forced to Take Down Articles; Kazakhstan To Proceed With Discovery
Preliminary Injunction Cannot Bar Respublika From Using “Stolen” Kazakhstan Emails in Its Reporting
The Republic of Kazakhstan has been blocked from using the U.S. court system to censor one of its most vocal and effective critics. In a victory for free speech rights, United States District Judge Edgardo...
Federal Circuit Confirms That Obscure Trade Court Cannot Regulate the Internet
Today, in a strong opinion from the Federal Circuit, an attempt for rightsholders to use an obscure trade court to block the “importation” of digital data was rejected. The Federal Circuit held that a court that has the ability to block “articles that infringe” does not have the ability...
EFF Challenges Informal Government Censorship
EFF, along with the Center for Democracy & Technology and the Association of Alternative Newsmedia, submitted an amicus brief to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in the case of Backpage.com v. Dart.
Backpage.com sued Thomas Dart, the sheriff of Cook County, Illinois, arguing...
Wikimedia v. NSA: Another Court Blinds Itself to Mass NSA Surveillance
We all know justice is blind. But that is supposed to mean that everyone before it is treated equally, not that the justice system must close its eyes and refuse to look at important legal issues facing Americans. Yet the government continues to convince courts that they cannot consider the...
