2015 has been quite an interesting year for copyright law around the world—at least in the sense of that apocryphal Chinese curse, “may you live in interesting times.” That is to say that most of this year's copyright developments have been bad for users, but with one notable exception.
...

Our campaign to fight the anti-user Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement was a rollercoaster this year. Our mobilization against the Fast Track trade bill resulted in some major twists and turns before the sudden conclusion of the negotiations in the Fall, then finally after more than five...

When we look back at 2015, we will remember this as the year we launched our most ambitious technology project to date. EFF, Mozilla, and our partners gave the world the Let's Encrypt certificate authority. Certificates became available to the public on December 3.
...

In recent years, the stock photo industry has sent out thousands of boiler plate demand letters asking Internet users to pay for photos that appear on blogs and other websites. In many cases, the industry appears to be leveraging the threat of litigation to extract settlements well beyond any actual...

Earlier this fall, EFF and MIT co-hosted the Freedom to Innovate Summit, bringing together student researchers from around the country to discuss threats to research and how universities can better support students. Video from several sessions recently became available online.
The Summit featured several noteworthy speakers, including...

Getting a patent demand letter from a troll can be a scary experience. The letters often include a lot of legal jargon, not to mention a patent that is often impenetrable (at least, not without hiring an expensive lawyer to translate it for you).
But suppose you are concerned...

All too often, new police surveillance tools are initially applied to only the “worst of the worst” and then slowly—but surely—expanded to include an ever-growing number of less culpable individuals. We’ve seen it with DNA collection. And now we’re starting to see it with GPS tracking. That’s why...