On the heels of our announcement yesterday, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that DirecTV cannot sue individuals for "mere possession" of technology that is capable of intercepting DirecTV's satellite signal. This is a major victory, since this legal theory has been one of the fulcrums...

What do copyright reformers and independent auto mechanics have in common? They're both frustrated by mega-corporations that use digital locks to keep people from fully using the things that they buy. The potential solution, at least for mechanics, is the Motor Vehicle Owner's Right to Repair Act of 2003 (...

In a victory for the First Amendment rights of Internet users, jurors returned a verdict today acquitting University of Idaho graduate student Sami Omar Al-Hussayen of terrorism charges. Hussayen had been charged in federal court with providing "material support" to terrorists in the form of "expert advice and assistance,"...

Notes from the World Intellectual Property Organization's
Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights meeting, day
2, 8 June 2004.

Impressionistic transcript by Cory Doctorow (cory@eff.org), Wendy
Seltzer (wendy@eff.org) and David Tannenbaum
(davidt@public-domain.org)

Public-domain dedication:

On June 8, 2004, Cory Doctorow, Wendy Seltzer and David Tannebaum
...

Eric Grimm has a grim tale indeed over @ Dave Farber's IP list, describing in frightening, first-hand detail the over-reach that the USA PATRIOT Act currently enables. As Grimm points out, the law can serve as the ultimate blank check for the government -- due to "don't ask,...

Via Jim Tyre, Brenda Sandburg @ The Recorder, on what may be the stupidest copyright lawsuit ever (subs. req.):

How do you stop a charging porn thief? Take away his credit card. That's what a Beverly Hills pornographer is aiming to do in filing a copyright and...

Why offer technology that empowers people to do cool things when you can hobble it to force them to buy cool things?
So asks a report by Mako Analysis on SymbianOS phones, which are evidently too smart for their own good:

New mobile devices based on a...