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Privacy’s Defender: My Thirty-Year Fight Against Digital Surveillance

Our Work

Our Work

US v. Jones

In January 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously confirmed that Americans have constitutional protections against GPS surveillance by law enforcement, holding that GPS tracking is a "search" under the Fourth Amendment.
In United States v. Jones (at times known as United States v. Maynard), FBI agents planted a GPS...

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US v. Arnold

On April 21st, the Ninth Circuit held in United States v. Arnold that the Fourth Amendment does not require government agents to have reasonable suspicion before searching laptops or other digital devices at the border, including international airports. Customs and Border Patrol are likely to use the opinion to...

US v. ASCAP

EFF has urged a federal court to reject bogus copyright claims in a ringtone royalty battle that could raise costs for consumers jeopardize consumer rights and curtail new technological innovation.
Millions of Americans have bought musical ringtones for their mobile phones often clips from a favorite popular song. Mobile...

US v. Cioni

EFF and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers asked a federal appeals court to block the government's attempt to wrongly expand federal computer crime law turning misdemeanor charges into felonies.
In an amicus brief filed in U.S. v. Cioni EFF argued that federal prosecutors abused computer crime law...

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US v. Councilman

To protect your privacy, EFF supported the prosecution of an email provider who illegally copied his customers' incoming mail to his own email account. After a federal court misinterpreted the Wiretap Act and dismissed criminal charges, EFF and several other groups filed briefs endorsing the federal government's request for a...

US v. Drew

The defendant Lori Drew was charged with violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) by using a fictitious name and age on a MySpace account and using that account to make hurtful comments to a teenage girl. Tragically the girl later took her own life. Federal prosecutors claim that...

Dimitri Skylarov

US v. ElcomSoft Sklyarov

The DMCA Is Not a Global Statute The FBI arrested Russian programmer Dmitry Sklyarov while he was attending a security conference in Las Vegas to discuss the Advanced eBook Processor, a program to decrypt Adobe eBook files. This made Sklyarov the first person to be criminally charged under the Digital...
Copyright Troll

USCG v. The People

This page provides resources to assist those sued by the U.S. Copyright Group aka SaveCinema.org aka the lawfirm of Dunlap Grubb & Weaver
Background
Starting in the Spring of 2010, a Washington D.C. law firm calling itself the "U.S. Copyright Group" (USCG) launched a series of predatory...

USP v. Durkee

EFF represented Savitri Durkee, an activist concerned with preserving the character of New York City's Union Square and Union Square Park. As one part of her education campaign, Durkee created a website parodying the official website of Union Square Partnership (USP), a group backing extensive redevelopment of the area. In...

Verizon / MCI

These cases, handled by the courts along with Hepting v. AT&T, included a consolidated class action complaint on behalf of customers against various Verizon and MCI entities, alleging wholesale dragnet surveillance. It also included a few cases against Verizon entities arising under various state privacy laws. All of these...

Vernor v. Autodesk

This case tests whether the "first sale doctrine" in copyright law -- which makes it legal to resell, lend, or give away books, CDs, DVDs, and software that you own -- will survive in the digital age of "licensed" content.
Timothy Vernor is an online software reseller who...

Viacom v. YouTube

In March 2007, Viacom sued YouTube and Google, alleging that they should be held responsible for the copyright infringements committed by YouTube users. The lawsuit sought more than $1 billion in damages and came on the heels of Viacom's delivery of more than 100 000 takedown notices targeting...

Trademark

Visa v. JSL Corporation

The English Language Belongs to Everyone Fighting the over-reach of trademark law, EFF signed on as co-counsel to a small travel services company, JSL, after credit card giant Visa convinced a federal court in Las Vegas to prevent the company from using the domain name "evisa.com." In December of 2003...

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