In the 36-year existence of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), the government has never disclosed classified FISA materials—the specific applications for surveillance and the factual affidavits that support the surveillance request—to a criminal defendant. That all changed in January 2014 when a federal judge in Chicago ordered the government to turn over surveillance applications and affidavits to the attorneys representing Adel Daoud, a 19 year-old accused of attempting to blow up a bar in Chicago. As the government appeals that decision to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, we’ve signed onto an amicus brief written by the ACLU and the…
Author: EFFSource
We’re still digesting today’s lengthy decision in the Oracle v. Google appeal, but we’re disappointed—and worried. The heart of the appeal was whether Oracle can claim a copyright on Java APIs and, if so, whether Google infringed that copyright. According to the Federal Circuit today, the answer to both questions was a qualified yes—with the qualification being that Google may have a fair use defense. Quick background: When it implemented the Android OS, Google wrote its own version of Java. But in order to allow developers to write their own programs for Android, Google relied on Java APIs. Application Programming…
A group of United States Senators and Representatives is asking Internet advertising networks to create a blacklist of alleged “piracy sites” and refuse to serve ads to those sites. If this idea sounds familiar, that’s probably because it was an integral part of the infamous Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA, legislation that was stopped in its tracks two years ago after a massive protest by Internet users. It’s disturbing that members of Congress are pressuring ad networks to follow a law that Congress didn’t pass, and probably never will. But it’s downright shocking for them to ask ad networks…
The most recent disclosure of classified NSA documents revealed that the British spy agency GCHQ sought unfettered access to NSA data collected under Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act. Not only does this reveal that the two agencies have a far closer relationship than GCHQ would like to publicly admit, it also serves as a reminder that surveillance under Section 702 is a real problem that has barely been discussed, much less addressed, by Congress or the President. In fact, the “manager’s amendment” to the USA FREEDOM Act, which passed unanimously out of the House Judiciary Committee, has weakened…
This statement was updated at 2:35 PM PST 5/7/14. Earlier today, the House Judiciary Committee passed a revised version of the USA FREEDOM Act. We’re pleased by Congress’ strong step toward ending bulk surveillance of phone records of Americans. This bill is a good start toward reforming an out-of-control surveillance state, and we urge members of Congress to support it as the bill moves forward through the legislative process. The USA FREEDOM Act includes a definition of call detail records which excludes cell site location data, a provision that will help safeguard the location privacy of millions of Americans from…
As centers of learning, universities are places where the exploration and investigation of new and often controversial topics is encouraged, where freedom of speech and thought should flourish. Under mass government surveillance, academic freedom and freedom of speech are severely chilled. When the government is monitoring communications, social media activity, and phone calls, students are less likely to organize and be politically active. That’s why we invite university communities across country to organize and raise their voices to join the call to stop the NSA’s illegal mass surveillance by writing and signing onto open letters to express deep concern about…
EFF has been fighting for years for the principle that if you bought it, you own it. The first sale doctrine – the law that allows you to resell books and that protects libraries from claims of copyright infringement – is crucial to consumers. Unfortunately, first sale has been under threat in the digital realm, as copyright holders increasingly insist on saddling “sales” with onerous restrictions. You may think you are buying a product (like software, music and ebooks), but as far as they are concerned, you are just renting it, on their terms, whether you know it or not.…
One of the bitterest struggles against DRM is still taking place on the Web’s own home turf — at the World Wide Web Consortium, the Web’s own standards organization. Last year, the consortium accepted as in scope the development of Encrypted Media Extensions, an addition to the HTML5 standard intended to support DRM within browsers. EME envisages a future where restricted content could be served within Web pages, apparently as a fully-fledged element of the Web ecosystem, but locked away from user control or fair use, and controlled by tools that can override user preferences. It’s been over a year…
EFF and the ACLU of Pennsylvania have joined forces to file an amicus brief in a long-running challenge to two criminal statutes that unconstitutionally limit the free expression of millions of adults who use the Internet and other electronic forms of communication. These statutes bring the threat of criminal sanctions for private, lawful speech and also violate important privacy rights, including both the First and the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution. At issue in the case, Free Speech Coalition v. Attorney General, are provisions of federal law that require anyone who produces a visual depiction of sexually explicit expression to…
Laws that make it illegal to interfere with digital rights management (DRM) technologies—also known as “anti-circumvention” laws—are already much too broad and restrictive in most countries. Unfortunately, the US Trade Representative is working hard to expand its reach even more using the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement. The TPP’s anti-circumvention provisions, if adopted, would introduce new barriers to users’ abilities to tinker with their devices and content, even for entirely lawful purposes. When the “Intellectual Property” chapter initially leaked in February 2011, we discovered that some of the most threatening provisions were found in the anti-circumvention portion of the copyright enforcement…
DRM and the laws that back it up actively undermine our computer security. On this Day Against DRM, the first one since we learned about the US government’s efforts to sabotage the integrity of our cryptography and security technology, it’s more important than ever to consider how the unintended consequences of copyright enforcement make us all less safe. How does this happen? In a misguided effort to “protect” digital media, DRM makes computer users more vulnerable. It does this by inhibiting research on security and encryption, and by devising methods for computers to disobey their owners. Laws That Prop Up…
EVENT TODAY: We’re taking this day to educate people about the threats of DRM and the current policy challenges we face around DRM. We just completed a live video discussion at 10:00 AM PDT / 1:00 PM EDT to learn more about these fights and what we can do to take back our rights to control over the digital media and devices that we own. EFF Staff Attorney Mitch Stoltz, International Director Danny O’Brien, and Global Policy Analyst Maira Sutton were featured on this live discussion moderated by Activist April Glaser. Privacy info. This embed will serve content from youtube-nocookie.com…
In the latest legislative move to rein in NSA surveillance, Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner today released new language for the USA FREEDOM Act that will be reviewed this Wednesday by the House Judiciary Committee. If passed, the bill will move forward for the full House for a vote. EFF Senior Staff Attorney Lee Tien issued this statement on the proposed “manager’s amendment” text: While we are still analyzing the bill, Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner’s new language is a potentially powerful approach to stopping the mass collection of phone records under the Patriot Act—amending several legal provisions that the government can use to…
Last week, the White House released its report on big data and its privacy implications, the result of a 90-day study commissioned by President Obama during his January 17 speech on NSA surveillance reforms. Now that we’ve had a chance to read the report we’d like to share our thoughts on what we liked, what we didn’t, and what we thought was missing. What We Liked Support for ECPA Reform We were happy to see that the report recognized that email privacy is critical, and the law should “ensure the standard of protection for online, digital content is consistent with…
Today is Press Freedom Day. We, along with dozens of organizations, take this opportunity to highlight the cases of journalists and bloggers in danger around the world. But World Press Freedom day is more than that. Any journalist, online or off, will tell you that their freedom to report depends not just on their own safety, but on the safety of a network of contributors and supporters. Confidential sources risk their jobs, their own freedom, or even their lives to provide the leads that end up as a story. Editors, publishers, and Internet hosting services in many countries share legal…
EFF has been working with EarthRights International to quash subpoenas issued to Yahoo!, Google, and Microsoft for the email and personal information of dozens of Ecuadorian environmental activists, attorneys, and journalists in a case that is rooted in a decades-long battle over environmental damage caused by oil drilling in Ecuador. The case should have ended with a $19 billion judgment against Chevron in 2011. But the oil giant refused to pay up, and instead filed suit against the plaintiffs’ lawyer, claiming that the Ecuadorian judgment was the result of a massive conspiracy and fraud against it. As part of that…
EFF is launching a new extension for Firefox and Chrome called Privacy Badger. Privacy Badger automatically detects and blocks spying ads around the Web, and the invisible trackers that feed information to them. You can try it out today: Privacy Badger is EFF’s answer to intrusive and objectionable practices in the online advertising industry, and many advertisers’ outright refusal to meaningfully honor Do Not Track requests. This week, Mozilla published research showing that privacy is the single most important thing that users want from their web browsers. Privacy Badger is part of EFF’s growing campaign to deliver that privacy by…
The U.S. Supreme Court earlier this week heard oral argument in two cases involving whether the police, after arresting someone, can search his or her cell phone without a search warrant. Although the police have been allowed to do a limited search of a person after they’ve been arrested, this exception to the Fourth Amendment’s warrant requirement was never intended to cover the massive amounts of sensitive information on a cell phone. But as the oral arguments made clear, the government is relying on dangerous misconceptions about cell phone technology in an attempt to justify a significant privacy intrusion. The…
Debate Over Mass Surveillance Hampered by Undisclosed FISA Court DecisionsSan Francisco – In a continuing campaign to uncover the government’s secret interpretations of the surveillance laws underlying the National Security Agency (NSA)’s spying programs, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) today filed another lawsuit against the Department of Justice, demanding that the government hand over key Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA court) opinions and orders. “We can’t have an informed debate about mass surveillance with access to only half the story,” EFF Staff Attorney Mark Rumold said. “The government’s secret interpretation of laws and the Constitution needs to end. Disclosure of…
The Supreme Court heard oral argument today in another patent case, Limelight Networks, Inc. v. Akamai Technologies, Inc. In this case, the Court considers what to do when one party performs some steps of a patented method and another party performs the remaining steps. Specifically, Akamai wants to hold Limelight liable for patent infringement even though its customers perform one of the steps of the patent (i.e. four steps are performed by Limelight, one by the customers). The Federal Circuit had ruled for Akamai and effectively held Limelight responsible for the actions of its customers. In our amicus brief, we…