Unintended Consequences: Seven Years Under the DMCA
We've just updated our Unintended Consequences report (also available as a print-friendly PDF), which collects reported cases of the anti-circumvention provisions of the DMCA being used not against pirates, but against consumers, scientists, and legitimate competitors. In the seven years since the DMCA was enacted, this has grown into quite a list:
- Chilling Free Expression and Scientific Research
- DMCA Delays Disclosure of Sony-BMG "Rootkit" Vulnerability
- Cyber-Security Czar Notes Chill on Research
- Professor Felten's Research Team Threatened
- SunnComm Threatens Grad Student
- Hewlett Packard Threatens SNOsoft
- Blackboard Threatens Security Researchers
- Xbox Hack Book Dropped by Publisher
- Censorware Research Obstructed
- Dmitry Sklyarov Arrested
- Scientists and Programmers Withhold Research
- Foreign Scientists Avoid U.S.
- IEEE Wrestles with DMCA
- 2600 Magazine Censored
- CNET Reporter Feels Chill
- Microsoft Threatens Slashdot
- GameSpy Menaces Security Researcher with DMCA
- AVSforum.com Censors TiVo Discussion
- Mac Forum Censors iTunes Music Store Discussion
Fair Use Under Siege
- Copy-protected CDs
- Fair Use Tools Banned: DVD Back-up Software
- Advanced e-Book Processor and e-Books
- Time-shifting and Streaming Media
- embed and Fonts
A threat to innovation and competition
- DMCA Used to Lock Cell Phones to Carriers
- Apple Threatens Real over Harmony
- Tecmo Sues to Block Game Enhancements
- Nikon's Encrypted RAW Format Blocks Adobe
- HP's Region-Coded, Expiring Printer Cartridges
- StorageTek Attempts to Block Independent Service Vendors
- Lexmark Sues Over Toner Cartridges
- Sony Sues Connectix and Bleem
- Sony Threatens Aibo Hobbyist
- Sony Attacks PlayStation "Mod Chips"
- Blizzard Sues bnetd.org
- Apple Harasses Inventive Retailer
DMCA Shoulders Aside Computer Intrusion Statutes
- Disgruntled Company Sues Former Contractor For Unauthorized Network Access
Related Updates
Who needs a DDoS (Denial of Service) attack when you have a new president? As of February 2nd, thousands of web pages and datasets have been removed from U.S. government agencies following a series of executive orders. The impacts span the Department of Veteran Affairs and the ...
Last week’s BMG v. Cox decision has gotten a lot of attention for its confusing take on secondary infringement liability, but commentators have been too quick to dismiss the implications for the DMCA safe harbor. Internet service providers are still not copyright...
EFF, Public Knowledge, and the Center for Democracy and Technology Urge The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit to Protect Internet Subscribers in BMG v. Cox.
No one should have to fear losing their Internet connection because of unfounded accusations. But some rights holders want to...
Washington D.C.—The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) sued the U.S. government today on behalf of technology creators and researchers to overturn onerous provisions of copyright law that violate the First Amendment.
EFF’s lawsuit, filed with co-counsel Brian Willen, Stephen Gikow, and Lauren Gallo White of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich...
If you only listened to entertainment industry lobbyists, you’d think that music and film studios are fighting a losing battle against copyright infringement over the Internet. Hollywood representatives routinely tell policymakers that the only response to the barrage of online infringement is to expand copyright or even create new copyright-adjacent...
Copyright Lawsuits Won’t Stop People from Sharing ResearchIn principle, everyone in the world should have access to the same body of knowledge. The UN Declaration of Human Rights says that everyone deserves the right “to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.”The reality is a bit messier. Institutional subscriptions...
Right now the FCC is considering a set of rules that would allow Internet providers to offer faster access to some websites that can afford to pay. We need to stop them.
Let’s start with the obvious: The Internet is how we communicate and how we work,...
The content lobby's narrative about the Internet's impact on the creative industry has grown all too familiar. According to this tiresome story, Hollywood is doing everything it can to prevent unauthorized downloading, but people—enabled by peer-to-peer technologies, “rogue” websites, search engines, or whatever the bogeyman of the moment is—keep doing...
In July 2009, South Korea became the first country to introduce a graduated response or "three strikes" law. The statute allows the Minister of Culture or the Korean Copyright Commission to tell ISPs and Korean online service providers to suspend the accounts of repeated infringers and block or...
The "Copyright Alert System" – an elaborate combination of surveillance, warnings, punishments, and "education" directed at customers of most major U.S. Internet service providers – is poised to launch in the next few weeks, as has been widely reported. The problems with it are legion. Big...