Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) Copyright Lawsuit

The EFF Is Suing Over One of the Worst US Copyright Rules

Adi Robertson | July 21, 2016

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is attempting to overturn a US copyright provision that can stop people from doing anything from remixing videos to fixing cars. In a lawsuit filed today, it argues that the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s rules against circumventing copy protection — designed to stop people from pirating copyrighted works — places unconstitutional limits on free speech.
The EFF filed suit on behalf of Johns Hopkins computer science researcher Matthew Green and hacker / inventor Andrew "bunnie" Huang, both of whom argue that the DMCA’s rules are impeding their work.

July 21, 2016

EFF Lawsuit Takes on DMCA Section 1201: Research and Technology Restrictions Violate the First Amendment

Future of Technology and How It’s Used Is At Stake

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 & Rosati, challenges the anti-circumvention and anti-trafficking provisions of the 18-year-old Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). These provisions—contained in Section 1201 of the DMCA—make it unlawful for people to get around the software that restricts access to lawfully-purchased copyrighted material, such as films, songs, and the computer code that controls vehicles, devices, and appliances. This ban applies even where people want to make noninfringing fair uses of the materials they are accessing. 

Ostensibly enacted to fight music and movie piracy, Section 1201 has long served to restrict people’s ability to access, use, and even speak out about copyrighted materials—including the software that is increasingly embedded in everyday things. The law imposes a legal cloud over our rights to tinker with or repair the devices we own, to convert videos so that they can play on multiple platforms, remix a video, or conduct independent security research that would reveal dangerous security flaws in our computers, cars, and medical devices. It criminalizes the creation of tools to let people access and use those materials.

Source: https://www.eff.org/press/releases/eff-lawsuit-takes-dmca-section-1201-research-and-technology-restrictions-violate

<more at http://www.theverge.com/2016/7/21/12248454/eff-files-copyright-lawsuit-section-1201-anti-circumvention-rules; related articles and links: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/10/jailbreaking-now-legal-under-dmca-for-smartphones-but-not-tablets/ (Jailbreaking now legal under DMCA for smartphones, but not tablets. Arbitrary rulings illustrate fundamental brokenness of the DMCA. Octobe 25, 2012) and https://www.eff.org/press/releases/eff-lawsuit-takes-dmca-section-1201-research-and-technology-restrictions-violate (EFF Lawsuit Takes on DMCA Section 1201: Research and Technology Restrictions Violate the First Amendment. Future of Technology and How It’s Used Is At Stake. July 21, 2016)>