Featured News

EFF Sues Barney the Dinosaur to Defend Online Free Speech
EFF asked a federal court Wednesday to protect the free speech rights of a website publisher who has suffered years of baseless legal threats over his parody of the Barney and Friends television show.
Full story, Read the complaint [PDF], Case page
August 23, 2006

Dangerous Patent Law Ruling Threatens Free and Open Source Software
In an amicus brief filed Tuesday, EFF has asked the United States Supreme Court to overturn a dangerous patent law ruling that could pose a serious threat to Free and Open Source Software projects.
Full story, Read the brief [PDF]
August 23, 2006

EFF Demands FTC Investigation and Privacy Reform After AOL Data Release
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) today asked the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate America Online (AOL) and require changes in its privacy practices, after the company recently released search history logs that exposed the private lives of more than a half-million of its customers.
Full story, Complaint [PDF], More on AOL's Data Leak
August 14, 2006

Innocent Target of File-Sharing Lawsuit Deserves Attorney's Fees
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), along with the American Association of Law Libraries, the ACLU, and Public Citizen, filed a brief with an Oklahoma district court Thursday, strongly urging a judge to award the innocent target of a file-sharing lawsuit the cost of her attorney's fees in battling the baseless allegations of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
Full story, Amicus Brief [PDF], Case page
August 8, 2006

Embroidery Fans Fight for Anonymity in Online Discussion Group
EFF has filed a motion to block a brazen attempt to unmask the identities of anonymous members of an online discussion group for embroidery fans.
Full story, Case page and documents
August 8, 2006

Judge's Refusal to Dismiss EFF's Spying Case Sets Stage for Congressional Showdown
A federal judge has refused to dismiss the Electronic Frontier Foundation's (EFF's) case against AT&T for collaborating with the NSA in illegal spying on millions of ordinary Americans, setting the stage for a congressional showdown over proposed dramatic changes in federal surveillance law.
Full story, For the judge's decision, Key quotes from the decision, More on the draft surveillance bill, More on the AT&T lawsuit
July 21, 2006

EFF and Libraries Support Google Image Search Against Adult Website
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and a coalition of library organizations filed a brief with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco on Thursday supporting Google Image Search in a showdown over critical digital copyright issues. Adult entertainment publisher Perfect 10 claims that Google's Image Search service violates copyright law by indexing Perfect 10 photos posted on unauthorized websites, then making and delivering thumbnail images of those photos in its search results. Perfect 10 also contends that Google should be held liable for any copyright infringement that occurs on sites that Google links to. "Perfect 10 wants to hold Google responsible for the misdeeds of the websites it links to," said Senior Intellectual Property Attorney Fred von Lohmann. "No search engine could survive if that were the rule, nor, for that matter, could most bloggers or other web publishers. If Perfect 10 succeeds in convincing the court that in-line linking and framing of images constitutes a public display or distribution of copyrighted work, then millions of web publishers and bloggers will suddenly be on the wrong side of copyright law—as well as the millions of web users who may follow a link to a website with infringing content."
Full story, For the full amicus brief, For more on Perfect 10 v. Google, Deep Link providing analysis of the lower court ruling
July 21, 2006

EFF's Spying Case Moves Forward - Judge Denies Government's Motion to Dismiss AT&T Case
A federal judge today denied the government's motion to dismiss the Electronic Frontier Foundation's (EFF's) case against AT&T for collaborating with the NSA in illegal spying of millions of ordinary Americans. This allows the case to go forward in the courts. EFF Staff Attorney Kevin Bankston, EFF Legal Director Cindy Cohn, and Robert Fram of Heller Ehrman LLP will analyze the ruling and answer questions in a conference call at 1:30pm on July 20, 2006. EFF filed the class-action suit against AT&T in January, alleging that the telecommunications company has given the National Security Agency (NSA) secret, direct access to the phone calls and emails going over its network and has been handing over communications logs detailing the activities of millions of ordinary Americans.
Full story, For the judge's decision, For more on the AT&T lawsuit
July 20, 2006

Texas Judge Briefed by EFF Affirms Phone Privacy
In the first ruling of its kind, a federal magistrate judge has held that the government must obtain a search warrant to collect the content of a telephone call, even when that content is dialed digits like bank account numbers, social security numbers or prescription refills. The decision from Magistrate Judge Smith in Houston closely follows the reasoning outlined in an amicus brief from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT). The Texas judge invited EFF to file the brief in response to requests from government investigators to use a "pen register" or "trap and trace device" to collect all numbers dialed on a phone keypad after a call has been connected. Investigators can typically get "pen/trap" orders under a legal standard much lower than the "probable cause" required for a typical phone-tapping warrant, because only phone numbers used to connect the call are collected, not the content of the phone call itself.
Full story, For the judge's decision, For EFF and CDT's amicus brief
July 20, 2006

Anonymity Preserved for Critics of Oklahoma School Official
Oklahoma school superintendent has dropped his attempt to unmask the identities of a website operator and all registered users of an Internet message board devoted to discussion of local public schools after the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) intervened in the case. Jerry Burd, superintendent of the Sperry, Oklahoma, school district, had sued anonymous speakers who criticized him on an online message board. As part of the case, he filed a broad subpoena seeking to identify the site's creator and everyone who had posted or even registered on the site, violating First Amendment protections for anonymous speech and association. Working with Tulsa attorneys Greg Bledsoe and Curtis Parks, EFF filed a motion to quash the subpoena on behalf of the site's operator and a registered user. The superintendent responded by dismissing the case on Monday.
Full story, EFF's full motion to quash, More on online anonymity
July 19, 2006

Proposed Surveillance Bill Would Sweep NSA Spying Programs Under the Rug
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter said today that he has negotiated a proposed bill with the White House regarding the NSA's illegal spying program. While the final bill is not public, a draft of the bill obtained by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is a sham compromise that would cut off meaningful legal review—sweeping current legal challenges out of the traditional court system and failing to require court review or congressional oversight of any future surveillance programs. "This so-called compromise bill is not a concession from the White House—it's a rubber stamp for any future spying program dreamed up by the executive," said EFF Staff Attorney Kevin Bankston. "In essence, this bill threatens to make court oversight of electronic surveillance voluntary rather than mandatory."
Full story, For the drafts of the Specter bill
July 14, 2006

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