On July 28, the Senate Committee on the Judiciary held another in its year-long series of hearings on the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). The topic of this hearing was “How Does the DMCA Contemplate Limitations and Exceptions Like Fair… Read More ›
Archive for July 2020
In Historic Opinion, Third Circuit Protects Public School Students’ Off-Campus Social Media Speech
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit issued an historic opinion in B.L. v. Mahanoy Area School District, upholding the free speech rights of public school students. The court adopted the position EFF urged in our amicus brief… Read More ›
How Cops Can Secretly Track Your Phone
Since May, as protesters around the country have marched against police brutality and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, activists have spotted a recurring presence in the skies: mysterious planes and helicopters hovering overhead, apparently conducting surveillance on protesters…. Read More ›
The PACT Act Is Not The Solution To The Problem Of Harmful Online Content
The Senate Commerce Committee’s Tuesday hearing on the PACT Act and Section 230 was a refreshingly substantive bipartisan discussion about the thorny issues related to how online platforms moderate user content, and to what extent these companies should be held… Read More ›
University App Mandates Are The Wrong Call
As students, parents, and schools prepare the new school year, universities are considering ways to make returning to campus safer. Some are considering and even mandating that students install COVID-related technology on their personal devices, but this is the wrong… Read More ›
A Legal Deep Dive on Mexico’s Disastrous New Copyright Law
Mexico has just adopted a terrible new copyright law, thanks to pressure from the United States (and specifically from the copyright maximalists that hold outsized influence on US foreign policy). This law closely resembles the Digital Millennium Copyright Act enacted… Read More ›
Mexico's New Copyright Law Undermines Mexico's National Sovereignty, Continuing Generations of Unfair "Fair Trade Deals" Between the USA and Latin America
Earlier this month, Mexico’s Congress hastily imported most of the US copyright system into Mexican law, in a dangerous and ill-considered act. But neither this action nor its consequences occurred in a vacuum: rather, it was a consequence of Donald… Read More ›
Disability, Education, Repair and Health: How Mexico's Copyright Law Hurts Self-Determination in the Internet Age
Mexico’s new copyright law was rushed through Congress without adequate debate or consultation, and that’s a problem, because the law — a wholesale copy of the US copyright system — creates unique risks to the human rights of the Mexican… Read More ›
Tor’s Bug Smash Fund: Year Two!
Tor’s Bug Smash Fund: Year Two! isabela July 30, 2020 The Bug Smash Fund is back for its second year! In 2019, we launched Tor’s Bug Smash Fund to find and fix bugs in our software and conduct routine maintenance…. Read More ›
Turkey's New Internet Law Is the Worst Version of Germany's NetzDG Yet
For years, free speech and press freedoms have been under attack in Turkey. The country has the distinction of being the world’s largest jailer of journalists and has in recent years been cracking down on online speech. Now, a new law, passed by… Read More ›