Favorite Two appeals courts have recently rejected efforts by private parties to use copyright to restrict access to the laws that most directly affect ordinary citizens: regulations that ensure our homes, workplaces, devices, and many other products, are safe and fit for purpose. Apparently hoping the third time will be the charm, a standards organization…
All posts tagged Open Access
Celebrating the Life of Aaron Swartz: Aaron Swartz Day 2024
Favorite Aaron Swartz was a digital rights champion who believed deeply in keeping the internet open. His life was cut short in 2013, after federal prosecutors charged him under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) for systematically downloading academic journal articles from the online database JSTOR. Facing the prospect of a long and unjust…
EFF Tells Yet Another Court to Ensure Everyone Has Access to the Law and Reject Private Gatekeepers
Favorite Our laws belong to all of us, and we should be able to find, read, and comment on them free of registration requirements, fees, and other roadblocks. That means private organizations shouldn’t be able to control who can read and share the law, or where and how we can do those things. But that’s…
EFF Appeals Order Denying Public Access to Patent Filings
Favorite It’s bad enough when a patent holder enforcing their rights in court try to exclude the public from those fights. What’s even worse is when courts endorse these secrecy tactics, just as a federal court hearing an EFF unsealing motion ruled in May. EFF continues to push for greater transparency in the case, Entropic…
Congress: Don't Let Anyone Own The Law
Favorite We should all have the freedom to read, share, and comment on the laws we must live by. But yesterday, the House Judiciary Committee voted 19-4 to move forward the PRO Codes Act (H.R. 1631), a bill that would limit those rights in a critical area. TAKE ACTION Tell Congress To Reject The Pro…
Access to Law Should Be Fully Open: Tell Congress Not to Be Fooled by the Pro Codes Act
Favorite It’s Open Access Week in the United States, which means it’s a chance to celebrate the accomplishments of the Open Access movement—and reinforce the need to keep fighting. We’ve come a long way, with governments, universities, and research funders all successfully pressuring publishers to improve access to knowledge and finding ways to do it…
Open Data and the AI Black Box
Favorite We’re taking part in Copyright Week, a series of actions and discussions supporting key principles that should guide copyright policy. Every day this week, various groups are taking on different elements of copyright law and policy, and addressing what’s at stake and what we need to do to make sure that copyright promotes creativity…
Podcast Episode: Making Hope, with Adam Savage
Favorite The joy of tinkering, making, and sharing is part of the human condition. In modern times, this creative freedom too often is stifled by secrecy as a means of monetization – from non-compete laws to quashing people’s right to repair the products they’ve already paid for. Adam Savage—the maker extraordinaire best known from the…
Inequitable Access: An Anti-Competitive Scheme by Textbook Publishers
Favorite It goes by many names, but no matter how you cut it, the new “Inclusive Access” model for college course materials is a bad deal for students. Educators are moving increasingly towards digital textbooks, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. This has left publishers scrambling to keep access limited and revenues high with paywalls, DRM, and expiring access.…
The Internet Archive Transforms Access to Books in a Digital World
Favorite In honor of Open Access Week, and particularly this year’s theme of structural equity, we wanted to highlight a project from the Internet Archive that is doing extraordinary work promoting access to knowledge. The bad news: that project is also under legal threat. The good news: the Archive, with help from EFF and Durie…