EFF has asked judges in Washington D.C. to quash subpoenas issued in predatory lawsuits aimed at movie downloaders arguing in friend-of-the court briefs that the cases which together target several thousand BitTorrent users flout legal safeguards for protecting individuals' rights. Public Citizen and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Foundation...

Lexmark one of the largest makers of laser printers is a believer in the "give away the razors but charge them for the blades" tactic counting on the fact that consumers routinely underestimate "life cyle costs" for products like printers. In other words if you low- ball you customers on...

In re Aimster case description.

This case alleges alleges that the Bush Administration illegally targeted the leaders of an Islamic charity and their lawyers for warrantless surveillance by the NSA. Their claims are based on a secret document that was accidentally disclosed to the plaintiffs by the government that the plaintiffs allege demonstrates they were...

EFF is representing prominent Saudi human rights activist Loujain AlHathloul in a lawsuit against spying software maker DarkMatter Group and three of its former executives for illegally hacking her iPhone to secretly track her communications and whereabouts.AlHathloul is among the victims of an illegal spying program created and run by...

EFF filed an amicus in support of a John Doe who was denied attorneys fees under the California SLAPP law. The case was handled by the Stanford cyberlaw clinic. The appeals court agreed with Stanford and EFF and reversed the lower court ruling.
Outcome: Attorneys fees granted for John...

EFF has joined the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the New Jersey-based Tarver Law Offices in urging the U.S. Supreme Court to ensure the Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination extends to the digital age by prohibiting law enforcement from forcing individuals to disclose their phone and computer passcodes.In...

EFF urged a federal judge to protect fair use of news coverage and reject the Associated Press’ (AP’s) dangerously narrow view of what is “transformative” in a copyright court battle over a news-tracking service.
In Associated Press v. Meltwater, AP claims its copyrights are infringed when Meltwater, an electronic...

A U.S. federal magistrate judge has ordered Apple to break the security of an iPhone as part of the investigation into the 2015 San Bernardino shootings. Apple is fighting the order which would compromise the security of all its users around the world.In March 2016, FBI announced that it had...

In Arista v. Lime Wire the recording industry plaintiffs seek to hold Lime Wire liable for acts of copyright infringement by users of its software. The case is among the first to apply the inducement doctrine announced by the Supreme Court in MGM v. Grokster in 2005.EFF and a...

Sacramento’s public-owned utility and police are searching entire zip codes’ worth of people’s private data without any legal authorization or a specific investigation, creating a mass surveillance program that invades the privacy of entire communities.The Sacramento Municipal Utility District’s (SMUD) data sharing with the Sacramento Police Department violates people’s right...

EFF filed an amicus brief in Atlantic v. Howell an Arizona lawsuit brought as part of the RIAA's national campaign against individuals for file-sharing. Although the case also received attention over the issue of whether CD ripping is legal the main event in the case was about...

Background of the HathiTrustAs an offshoot of the Google Books Search project, the HathiTrust was founded in 2008. According to the HathiTrust website:HathiTrust Digital Library is a digital preservation repository and highly functional access platform. It provides long-term preservation and access services for public domain and in copyright...

EFF and the ACLU of Southern California each sent California Public Records Act requests to the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department seeking documents about each agency's use of Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) systems—sophisticated cameras mounted on squad cars and street poles that read...

In 2018, an unnamed National Security Letter recipient petitioned the FBI to review three NSL nondisclosure orders it received in 2011. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California held that the indefinite gag orders did not violate the First Amendment and should stay in place "unless and...

On May 1 2008 EFF and the law firm of Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton filed a motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought against the operator of the popular online encyclopedia Wikipedia arguing that federal law immunizes it against suits over statements made by its users.

The Supreme Court's ruling in Sony v. Universal Studios (aka the Betamax case) is a landmark copyright precedent that has sheltered a wide array of technology innovators from lawsuits at the hands of the entertainment industries. In 1984 the Court held that a company -- in this instance a VCR...

Blue Spike v. Audible Magic is a patent case in which EFF intervened in order to achieve greater public access to the proceedings.
In this case, Blue Spike accused Audible Magic of infringing various patents. The parties filed motions for summary judgment relating to various allegations made in the...

Directory of information on Netherlands entertainment industry organizations' suit against Kazaa (a P2P software company) for the Dutch equivalent of contributory copyright infringement.

Police shouldn’t be able to get your sensitive location data – information that can reveal your religion, health, hobbies, and politics – on a whim. That’s why EFF and the ACLU of Northern California are sponsoring California Senate Bill 1434, the Location Privacy Act, which would ensure law enforcement obtains...

If a computer DNA matching program gives test results that implicate you in a crime, how do you know that the match is correct and not the result of a software bug? EFF is urging a California appeals court to allow criminal defendants to review and evaluate the source code...

In 2018, California enacted SB 822, providing protections for net neutrality and banning practices by Internet service providers that would harm Californians’ ability to speak, learn, organize, and compete online. This page collects letters of support for the bill from a wide range of organizations.

On August 10 2006 EFF along with the American Association of Law Libraries the ACLU and Public Citizen filed an amicus brief with an Oklahoma district court urging the judge to award attorney's fees to an innocent defendant who successfully fought the recording industry when it sued her for the...

EFF and a coalition of advocacy groups have asked a federal appeals court to block record labels’ attempt to thwart federal law in Capitol v. Vimeo—a case that could jeopardize the free speech and innovation and the sites that host it. In this lawsuit, the record labels sued online video...

EFF joined with attorney Venkat Balasubramani of the law firm Focal PLLC to represent The Oatmeal creator Matthew Inman in a bizarre lawsuit targeting the online comic strip's fundraising campaign in support of the American Cancer Society and the National Wildlife Federation.
Inman started his campaign last...

Two social justice organizations—the Center for Genetics and Society and the Equal Justice Society—and an individual plaintiff, Pete Shanks, have filed suit against the state of California for its collection and retention of genetic profiles from people arrested but never convicted of any crime. EFF and the Law Office of...

On February 1 2007 EFF warned the Chicago Auto Show to back off attempts to muzzle protestors who posted a parody of the show's website.
The parody site autoshowshutdown.org is a clearinghouse for information about "Auto Show SHUTDOWN Festival" -- an annual event where hundreds of cyclists...

EFF filed an amicus brief in the Supreme Court arguing that individuals should be able to bring so-called facial challenges to laws that violate the Fourth Amendment by authorizing unconstitutional warrantless searches.
Los Angeles Municipal Code § 41.49 requires hotel operators to maintain certain guest registry information and to...

EFF has urged a Washington State judge to dismiss "cyberstalking" charges stemming from rude comments left on a blog. In an amicus brief, EFF argues that the case is based on an unconstitutional law that criminalizes free speech.

(aka Movies Studios v. TorrentSpy)
In this copyright infringement case the district court issued a dangerous ruling compelling TorrentSpy to create and store logs of its users' activities as part of electronic discovery obligations in a civil lawsuit.
TorrentSpy was a popular search engine that indexed materials made...

EFF filed an amicus brief with the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, asking it to rule police must get a search warrant in order to access historical cell site information. We argued that as cell phones and especially smartphones become prevalent, and the number of cell towers and cell sites increases,...

EFF urged the high court of Massachusetts to protect the rights of passengers in cars that law enforcement are tracking with GPS surveillance technology, arguing that both the driver and the passenger of a car have legal standing to challenge the collection of sensitive location data gathered by the GPS...

The Department of Justice has an office called the Computer Crimes and Intellectual Property Section which works to develop and implement strategies for combating computer and intellectual property crimes. Among other things CCIPS advises front-line agents how to perform electronic surveillance. EFF has submitted FOIA requests for versions of...

On June 20 2006 EFF filed an amicus brief arguing that a battle between Internet real estate services over copyrighted images should not threaten the rights of users to surf webpages and send emails anonymously.
The case began when CoStar a real estate information database subpoenaed LoopNet an online...

EFF and a coalition of public interest groups and law professors have asked a California appeals court to protect craiglist from a lawsuit that could spur websites to be less helpful in responding to complaints about user behavior.
In Scott P. v. craigslist Inc. the plaintiff complained about a...

In this Freedom of Information Act lawsuit the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) seeks information about two electronic surveillance systems developed by the FBI: DCS-3000 and Red Hook.
Little is publicly known about these spying tools. DCS-3000 was developed in the wake of "Carnivore" or DCS-1000 a controversial surveillance system...

EFF filed an amicus brief in this case, arguing that the government cannot require Americans to go through an export licensing scheme prior to posting and sharing 3-D printer design files online, because publishing technical information is a form of speech protected by the First Amendment.

EFF has urged a federal court to dismiss a politically motivated copyright lawsuit. The case started in April 2013, when California Republican Party Vice Chairman Harmeet K. Dhillon sued an anonymous blogger over the use of a five-year-old campaign photo in a critical post on “The Munger Games” website –...

In July 2009 EFF requested copies of all complaints to DHS's Traveler Redress Inquiry Program (TRIP). The request included complaints of erroneous watch list mismatches and travel difficulties caused by DHS programs such as the http://www.eff.org/foia/ats">Automated Targeting System US-VISIT and Secure Flight.
In January 2010 the Department...

EFF filed suit on November 1 2007 against the man behind "craigslist-perverts.org" -- a website that publicized responses to fake personal advertisements posted on Craigslist.org -- on behalf of an online journalist who criticized the controversial outing campaign and received legal threats in return.
In a March 2007 settlement...

EFF has long been concerned about the privacy risks associated with the collection, testing, storing and sharing of genetic data. DNA contains an extensive amount of sensitive personal information beyond mere identifying information and has the potential to reveal intensely private details about a person’s life and future, including who...

EFF handled this leading case with the ACLU of Washington State. In it a federal district court in the Eastern District of Washington held that the identities of 23 participants in an Infospace chatroom were protected from disclosure. The case contained a strong endorsement of the right to anonymous speech...

The ACLU of Northern California (ACLU-NC) and EFF filed a federal class-action lawsuit to block implementation of unconstitutional provisions of Proposition 35 – a ballot measure passed by California voters that restricts the legal and constitutionally protected speech of all registered sex offenders in California.
Proposition 35 requires anyone...

EFF has urged a federal appeals court to block administrative subpoenas from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that would reveal the identities of three pseudonymous Gmail users. In an amicus brief filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, EFF argued that the SEC failed to...

This Freedom of Information Act case seeks disclosure of FBI records concerning the scope and privacy impact of the Bureau’s Investigative Data Warehouse (“IDW”) a huge database that contains hundreds of millions of records containing personal information. Following the terrorist attacks of September 11 2001 the FBI began development of...

EFF urged a Pennsylvania court to dismiss defamation claims against the controversial website DontDateHimGirl.com arguing that federal law shields the website from liability to protect the free flow of information online.
DontDateHimGirl.com was created by Tasha Joseph as a forum for women to share information about men. One of...