On November 4 and 5, the Internet Archive will host the Fifth Annual Aaron Swartz Day and Hackathon. Aaron would have turned 31 on November 8. The late activist, political organizer, programmer, and entrepreneur was a dear friend of EFF’s… Read More ›
Archive for October 2017
Stupid Patent of the Month: Bad Patent Goes Down Using Procedures at Patent Office Threatened by Supreme Court Case
At the height of the first dot-com bubble, many patent applications were filed that took common ideas and put them on the Internet. This month’s stupid patent, U.S. Patent No. 6,738,155 (“the ’155 patent”), is a good example of that… Read More ›
Who Speaks for The Billions of Victims of Mass Surveillance? Tech Companies Could
Two clocks are ticking for US tech companies in the power centers of the modern world. In Washington, lawmakers are working to reform FISA Section 702 before it expires on December 31st, 2017. Section 702 is the main legal basis… Read More ›
EFF Files Brief in Support of Ability to Challenge Bad Patents at the Patent Office
The Patent Office doesn’t always do the best job. That’s how Personal Audio managed to get a patent on podcasting, even though other people were podcasting years before Personal Audio first applied for a patent. As we’ve detailed on many… Read More ›
A Win for Music Listeners in Florida: No Performance Right in Pre-1972 Recordings
Another court has ruled that the public still has the ability to play old music that almost everyone believed they lawfully had the ability to play. The Florida Supreme Court, following in the footsteps of New York State’s high court,… Read More ›
Twitter’s Ban on Russia Today Ads is Dangerous to Free Expression
Freedom of speech “presupposes that right conclusions are more likely to be gathered out of a multitude of tongues, than through any kind of authoritative selection. To many this is, and always will be, folly; but we have staked upon… Read More ›
It’s Time for Congress to Pass an Open Access Law
The public should be able to read and use the scientific research we paid for. That’s the simple premise of the Fair Access to Science and Technology Research Act, or FASTR (S. 1701, H.R. 3427). Despite broad bipartisan support on… Read More ›
Certbot Development Livestream (Halloween Edition!)
UPDATE: Tune in to the livestream here! Do you want to know what it’s like to be an open-source developer? Want to see how we work on Certbot behind the scenes? This Halloween, an EFF Certbot developer will be live-streaming… Read More ›
Oakland Privacy and the Fight for Community Control
Many groups in the Electronic Frontier Alliance work to ensure that their neighbors have the tools they need to maintain control of their information. Others devote their efforts to community organizing or advocacy, assuring that authorities respect the civil and… Read More ›
Proposal to Restrict Technical Assistance Demands Before Secret Surveillance Court Raises More Questions About Section 702
As we detailed yesterday, a bill introduced this week by Sens. Ron Wyden and Rand Paul would represent the most comprehensive reform so far of Section 702, the law that authorizes the government to engage in mass warrantless surveillance of… Read More ›