Congress Should Just Say No to NO FAKES

There is a lot of anxiety around the use of generative artificial intelligence, some of it justified. But it seems like Congress thinks the highest priority is to protect celebrities – living or dead. Never fear, ghosts of the famous and infamous,...

Podcast Episode: Right to Repair Catches the Car

If you buy something—a refrigerator, a car, a tractor, a wheelchair, or a phone—but you can't have the information or parts to fix or modify it, is it really yours? The right to repair movement is based on the belief that you should have the right...

Congress: Don't Let Anyone Own The Law

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....

The Motion Picture Association Doesn’t Get to Decide Who the First Amendment Protects

Twelve years ago, internet users spoke up with one voice to reject a law that would build censorship into the internet at a fundamental level. This week, the Motion Picture Association (MPA), a group that represents six giant movie and TV studios,...

Making the Law Accessible in Europe and the USA

EFF Legal Intern Alissa Johnson contributed to the writing of this blog post.Earlier this month, the European Union Court of Justice ruled that harmonized standards are a part of EU law, and thus must be accessible to EU citizens and residents...

EFF to Ninth Circuit: There’s No Software Exception to Traditional Copyright Limits

Copyright’s reach is already far too broad, and courts have no business expanding it any further, particularly where that reframing will undermine adversarial interoperability. Unfortunately, a federal district court did just that in the latest...

More Than a Decade Later, Site-Blocking Is Still Censorship

As Copyright Week comes to a close, it’s worth remembering why we have in it January. Twelve years ago, a diverse coalition of internet users, websites, and public interest activists took to the internet to protest SOPA/PIPA, proposed laws that...

What Home Videotaping Can Tell Us About Generative AI

It’s 1975. Earth, Wind and Fire rule the airwaves, Jaws is on every theater screen, All In the Family is must-see TV, and Bill Gates and Paul Allen are selling software for the first personal computer, the Altair 8800. But for copyright lawyers,...

Fragging: The Subscription Model Comes for Gamers

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, addressing...

The Public Domain Benefits Everyone – But Sometimes Copyright Holders Won’t Let Go

When something enters the public domain, you’re free to copy, share, and remix it without fear of a copyright lawsuit. But the former copyright holders aren’t always willing to let go of their “property” so easily. That’s where trademark law...

It's Copyright Week 2024: Join Us in the Fight for Better Copyright Law and Policy

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, addressing...

2023 Year in Review

At the end of every year, we look back at the last 12 months and evaluate what has changed for the better (and worse) for digital rights. While we can be frustrated—hello ongoing attacks on encryption—overall it's always an exhilarating reminder...

The Great Interoperability Convergence: 2023 Year in Review

It’s easy to feel hopeless about the collapse of the tech sector into a group 0f monopolistic silos that harvest and exploit our data, hold our communities hostage, gouge us on prices, and steal our wages.But all over the world and across...

Congress Shouldn't Limit The Public's Right To Fight Bad Patents

The U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Intellectual Property will debate a bill this week that would dramatically limit the public’s right to challenge bad granted patents. The PREVAIL Act, S. 2220 would bar most people from petitioning the U.S. Patent...

A Broad Federal Publicity Right Is a Risky Answer to Generative AI Problems

As users continue to experiment with generative AI tools, artists are increasingly concerned that use of the tools to mimic their respective “styles” will put them out of business. In addition to the now-infamous AI-generated song that seemed to...

Supreme Court Sends Bad Spaniels Back to Obedience School, Leaves Rogers Test Mostly Intact

The question of when you can use a trademark is one we see all the time—and one that is often misunderstood. Many of the world’s largest and most powerful companies are fanatical about their trademarks. But that means the public is often in the...

To Save the News, We Must Open Up App Stores

This is part four of an ongoing, five-part series. Part one, the introduction, is here. Part two, about breaking up ad-tech companies, is here. Part three, about banning surveillance ads, is here.When Steve Jobs unveiled the iPad in 2010, he...

Congress Must Exercise Caution in AI Regulation

Artificial intelligence technologies (AI) are all the rage in Washington D.C. these days. Policymakers are hearing stories of utopian opportunities and certain doom from technologists, CEOs, and public interest groups and trying to figure out when...

To Save the News, We Must Shatter Ad-Tech

The news is in trouble. It’s not just the mass closures of newsrooms - it’s also the physical and ideological attacks on journalists.News websites are plastered with ads, but more than half of the money those ads generate is siphoned off by...

What the Supreme Court’s Decision in Warhol Means for Fair Use

The Supreme Court has issued its long-awaited decision in Andy Warhol Foundation v. Goldsmith, a fair use case that raised fundamental questions about rights and obligations of commercial artists. The Court’s opinion did not answer many of those...