Good news everyone! The Patent Office has granted a patent on a cure for cancer. Last December, the Patent Office issued Patent No. 8,609,915 on a “potent drug” that “rebukes cancer, cancer cells, and kills cancer.” According to the patent, this drug cures a litany of other maladies. What is this wonderful invention, you ask? It is a combination of “evening primrose oil, rice, sesame seeds, green beans, coffee, meat, cheese, milk, green tea extract, evening primrose seeds, and wine.” As the patent’s abstract says, “it works.” There is no reason to doubt the sincerity of the person who filed…
Author: EFFSource
Wizards, Browncoats, Sherlockians, and Other Creative Communities Join EFF in “Project Secret Identity” Photo Campaign Atlanta – The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), sci-fi blog io9, and a coalition of fan communities are launching “Project Secret Identity,” a cosplay photo campaign to raise awareness of the importance of anonymity and privacy during the annual pop culture convention Dragon Con in Atlanta, Georgia, Aug. 29 – Sept. 1. The campaign, online at ProjectSecretIdentity.org, is supported by a cross-fandom coalition of organizations, including: Southeastern Browncoats, a Firefly-inspired non-profit; the Harry Potter Alliance, an activism organization; the Baker Street Babes, a Sherlock Holmes fan…
Last week was a bad day for freedom of expression in Brazil. Judge Paulo César de Carvalho, in the state court of Espírito Santo, issued a preliminary injunction ordering the removal of Secret—an anonymous sharing application that lets people share messages with friends, friends of friends, or publicly—from the Apple App store and Google Play store, as well as Cryptic (Secret’s application for the Windows Phone) from Microsoft’s store. The injunction also ordered the three companies to remove the applications from phones belonging to their Brazilian users. What’s the problem? The prosecutor alleges: “…people are falling victim to embarrassment and…
The longer my information is out there, the worse the issue gets, yet still no action. I have paid for unpublishing my information for years as I testified in a murder trial. Now, my wife, children, and I are [a]ll in danger; and I have nowhere to turn. Four years ago, users of Comcast’s phone service who had paid for their personal information to be unlisted noticed that something was amiss. Complaints started appearing from these individuals who found their names, addresses, and telephone numbers in phone directories both online and off. Later, it was revealed that this breach of…
We at EFF are always excited to unveil new ways for our technically skilled community to help expand and defend our rights online. And time and again our members demonstrate an unbelievable drive and ability to take action in truly game-changing ways. Look at what happened when we asked coders earlier this year to help EFF build our new open-source tool to contact members of Congress. We thought the project would take weeks, but we finished it in two days. That’s because 142 volunteer coders joined forces to help. We were in awe. Now, in that similar spirit, we are…
Americans Deserve Full Protection of the Fourth Amendment for their Telephone Records, Groups ArgueWashington, DC – The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) today filed an amicus brief in Klayman v. Obama, a high-profile lawsuit that challenges mass surveillance, arguing that Americans’ telephone metadata deserves the highest protection of the Fourth Amendment. Larry Klayman, conservative activist and founder of Judicial Watch and Freedom Watch, was among the first plaintiffs to sue the National Security Agency (NSA) over the collection of telephone metadata from Verizon customers that was detailed in documents released by Edward Snowden. In…
Traducido por Jacobo Najera, ContingenteMX Sabado 23 de agosto, EFF participará junto a Wikimedia Mexico, Rancho Electronico, Contingente MX, Fundación Karisma, Panoptykon Foundation, Hackbo, Enjambre Digital, RedPaTodos and May First Mexico se uniran para editar y mejorar artículos en español relacionados con derechos digitales en Wikipedia. En la ciudad de México, el HackerSpace Rancho Electrónico será la sede para el “editatón”, mientras que en Colombia el Hacko. Este evento será una colaboración entre dos hackerspaces en América Latina, en compañía con varias organizaciones de derechos digitales y los wikipedistas, que trabajarán en conjunto los contenidos en español, en las entradas…
Saturday, August 23, EFF will join Wikimedia Mexico, Rancho Electronico, Contingente MX, Fundación Karisma, Panoptykon Foundation, Hackbo, Enjambre Digital, RedPaTodos and May First Mexico to edit and improve the Spanish text of digital rights-related articles on Wikipedia. Joining from Mexico City, hackerspace Rancho Electronico will be hosting its own “editathon,” while hackerspace Hackbo will follow suit in Bogotá, Colombia. This event will be a great collaboration between two hackerspaces in Latin America, along with several digital rights organizations and Wikipedians, who will work together to revise the Spanish content in digital rights entries on Wikipedia. “Editathons” are hackathons where participants…
Big news from Texas: Adam Carolla has settled with the podcasting patent troll Personal Audio. Although the settlement is confidential, we can guess the terms. This is because Personal Audio sent out a press release last month saying it was willing to walk away from its suit with Carolla. So we can assume that Carolla did not pay Personal Audio a penny. We can also assume that, in exchange, Carolla has given up the opportunity to challenge the patent and the chance to get his attorney’s fees. EFF’s own challenge to Personal Audio’s patent is on a separate track and…
With major protests in the news again, we decided it’s time to update our cell phone guide for protestors. A lot has changed since we last published this report in 2011, for better and for worse. On the one hand, we’ve learned more about the massive volume of law enforcement requests for cell phone—ranging from location information to actual content—and widespread use of dedicated cell phone surveillance technologies. On the other hand, strong Supreme Court opinions have eliminated any ambiguity about the unconstitutionality of warrantless searches of phones incident to arrest, and a growing national consensus says location data, too,…