A new federal government policy will result in the government releasing more of the software that it creates under free and open source software licenses. That’s great news, but doesn’t go far enough in its goals or in enabling public… Read More ›
Tag Archive for ‘Innovation’
Stand Up for Open Access. Stand Up for Diego.
Diego Gomez is a recent biology graduate from the University of Quindío, a small university in Colombia. His research interests are reptiles and amphibians. Since the university where he studied didn’t have a large budget for access to academic databases,… Read More ›
Stupid Patent of the Month: Solocron Education Trolls With Password Patent
Another month, another terrible patent being asserted in the Eastern District of Texas. Solocron Education LLC, a company whose entire “education” business is filing lawsuits, owns U.S. Patent No. 6,263,439, titled “Verification system for non-traditional learning operations.” What kind of… Read More ›
Patents: The Next Open Access Fight
When Universities Sell Patents to Trolls, Publicly Funded Research Is Compromised There’s been a lot of talk lately about the state of publicly funded research. Many, including EFF, have long called on Congress to pass a law requiring that publicly… Read More ›
Stupid Patent of the Month: Storage Cabinets on a Computer
How do you store your paper files? Perhaps you leave them scattered on your desk or piled on the floor. If you’re more organized, you might keep them in a cabinet. This month’s stupid patent, US Patent No. 6,690,400 (the… Read More ›
Happy Birthday Alice: Two Years Busting Bad Software Patents
This week marks the second anniversary of the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Alice v. CLS Bank. In Alice, the court ruled that an abstract idea does not become eligible for a patent simply by being implemented on a generic… Read More ›
Big Win for User-Generated Content Hosts in Vimeo Case
The Second Circuit has released its long-awaited opinion in Capitol Records v. Vimeo, fully vindicating Vimeo’s positions. EFF along with a coalition of advocacy groups, submitted a friend-of-the-court brief in the case, supporting Vimeo. The Second Circuit considered three important… Read More ›
The OPEN Government Data Act Would, Uh, Open Government Data
The Bill Is a Great Step for Government Transparency The U.S. government has made huge strides in its open data practices over the last few years. Since it launched in 2009, data.gov has become a crucial source for everything from… Read More ›
EFF’s Badge Hack Pageant Returns to DEF CON
We are proud to announce the return of EFF’s Badge Hack Pageant at the 24th annual DEF CON hacking conference in Las Vegas. EFF invites all DEF CON attendees to stretch their creative skills by reinventing past conference badges as… Read More ›
Copyright Doesn’t Mean Unlimited Control
Industry Arguments Shouldn’t Deter the FCC from Unlocking Cable Boxes True competition could finally come to the market for TV set-top boxes thanks to a new set of proposed rules from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Under the FCC’s “Unlock… Read More ›