Updated April 2, 2015

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence was created in 2004 to serve as central authority for intelligence activities in the United States. To illustrate its mission, several years ago the agency created a poster outlining a series of eight goals that the agency believed would lead to "the most insightful intelligence possible."

Unfortunately, this list of goals, which is still in use today, does not include language related to privacy, civil liberties, or the Constitution.

So what if the ODNI's official mission statement reflected the ideals of a free society as opposed to just the goals of a spy network? Here's our rewrite, with the underlined text representing our proposed additions to the text: 

The way copyright lawyers talk about the public domain as something works “fall into” when the copyright terms finally expires, it sometimes sounds like some kind of trash heap. But that couldn't be further from the truth: The public domain is a fantastic resource for learning, creativity and innovation—our cultural commons.

We were very happy to learn that Flickr has released a feature this weekend that allows any uploader to use Creative Commons tools to take easy affirmative steps to support that resource. Flickr users can now easily mark their photos as public domain materials in two ways: either by using a Public Domain Mark (for images already available without copyright restrictions), or using the CC0 waiver (to release whatever restrictions might be in place).

by EFF staff members, current and former.

When you think of EFF, you may think of our attorneys arguing for individual rights in front of courts across the country, our activists working to coordinate the Internet-wide blackout to protest digital censorship, and technologists developing free software tools to help Internet users safeguard their privacy and security. What many folks don’t realize, however, is that for more than twenty years, there’s been someone less visible who made all of this work possible: Shari Steele.

EFF is fighting for vehicle owners’ rights to inspect the code that runs their vehicles and to repair and modify their vehicles, or have a mechanic of their choice do the work. At the moment, the anti-circumvention prohibition in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act arguably restricts vehicle inspection, repair, and modification. If EFF is successful then vehicle owners will be free to inspect and tinker, as long as they don’t run afoul of other regulations, such as those governing vehicle emissions, safety, or copyright law.

You can support EFF's exemption requests by adding your name to the petition we'll submit in the rulemaking.

A security flaw in New South Wales’ Internet voting system may have left as many as 66,000 votes vulnerable to interception and manipulation in a recent election, according to security researchers. Despite repeated assurances from the Electoral Commission that all Internet votes are “fully encrypted and safeguarded,” six days into online voting, Michigan Computer Science Professor J. Alex Halderman and University of Melbourne Research Fellow Vanessa Teague discovered a FREAK flaw that could allow an attacker to intercept votes and inject their own code to change those votes, all without leaving any trace of the manipulation.

Mandatory data retention legislation is never a good idea, which is why EFF has vigorously opposed it in the United States, where Congress tried and failed to pass it in 2009. That year, two ill-conceived bills would have required all Internet providers and operators of Wi-Fi access points to keep records on Internet users for at least two years to assist police investigations. Nevertheless, governments around the world, individually, and in concert, continue to argue that the stockpiling of the private, personal data of entire populations become a global norm. It's a constant battle, but one with some clear victories, most notably in the European Union, and most recently in Paraguay.

The Entertainment Software Association doesn’t want anyone to restore the functionality of older videogames that are no longer supported by their publisher, because, says ESA, this is “hacking,” and all hacking is “associated with piracy.”

Much of EFF’s transparency work centers around government activities in the executive and legislative branches. But transparency in the courts is also important. That’s why yesterday we sent a letter to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit asking for greater free public access to orders issued by the court.

The White House Office of Management and Budget has published a new standard recommending full HTTPS on all federal web sites and web services. They are accepting public comments until April 14; if you care about privacy and security, you should weigh in.

This post is our public comment: we whole-heartedly support the federal government's adoption of this essential cybersecurity standard. We also urge all state, local, and national governments worldwide to follow suit, as soon as possible.

La neutralidad de la red requiere que todos los datos que viajan a través de Internet sean tratados igualmente. Esto significa que las empresas de telecomunicaciones no deben bloquear contenidos en función de su origen o destino, ni deben discriminar y/o priorizar ciertas aplicaciones, tampoco imponer tasas especiales de acceso que harían más difícil que los contenidos puedan llegar a sus usuarios.

En Paraguay, recientemente, las empresas de telefonía solicitaron a la Comisión Nacional de Telecomunicaciones (CONATEL), que las aplicaciones que proveen llamadas de voz sobre datos como WhatsApp sean reguladas y cuenten con una licencia para operar en el país.

When a customer signs up for Internet access from a broadband provider such as Comcast or Verizon, they're signing up for more than just access to that ISP's network. After all, ISPs provide the "last mile" connection to their customers, but these ISPs do not own the entire infrastructure of the Internet. To reach the rest of the Internet, traffic needs to leave the physical network owned by the ISP and travel over other networks owned by other parties. Sometimes these other parties are other ISPs, and sometimes they are content providers such as Netflix or "content delivery networks" such as Akamai that serve content from a variety of clients. Either way, it is these interconnections, where two networks exchange traffic with each other, that make the Internet what it is: an interconnected network of networks. How well these interconnections function (and whether or not they're subject to persistent congestion) has a huge impact on the quality of people's Internet connections.

The Internet provides a wide-range of resources for LGBTQ youth to find community, health information, and other resources to explore and understand their identities. Unfortunately, many of these resources get censored, either intentionally or as collateral damage from the use of other filters. It can be difficult to access online resources without being outed to peers, family, and online advertisers. Young people need space to explore and experiment without fear that their curiosity will be punished or logged on their permanent records. Today we unveil a new playlist on Surveillance Self-Defense tailored to help young people safely access the information they need.

Durante la VII Cumbre de las Américas llevada a cabo en Panamá del 10 al 11 de abril pasado, gobernantes del continente como el anfitrión panameño Juan Carlos Varela, Cristina Fernández de Argentina, Dilma Rousseff de Brasil, Ollanta Humala de Perú, entre otros, posaron para la foto con un convidado especial: Mark Zuckerberg, el fundador de Facebook, promotor y vocero del portal internet.org.

Internet.org es un proyecto liderado por Facebook que reúne a empresas de tecnología, ONGs y comunidades locales, con la supuesta noble finalidad de conectar a “dos terceras partes del mundo sin acceso a la red”, según anuncian en su portal.

“Never before have I written so long a letter. I'm afraid it is much too long to take your precious time. I can assure you that it would have been much shorter if I had been writing from a comfortable desk, but what else can one do when he is alone in a narrow jail cell, other than write long letters, think long thoughts and pray long prayers?”

- Martin Luther King, Jr., “Letter from Birmingham City Jail”

April 16, 1963

There are some very disturbing videos circulating the Internet right now, depicting the deaths of unarmed civilians at the hands of trained, armed men. Many of these videos even show individuals being shot in the back, or as they try to flee.

These are videos of police officers in America killing unarmed black men like Oscar Grant and Eric Garner. And, as the most recent case shows, without these recordings, much of America might not have any idea exactly how much of a problem this is.

Citizen videos of law enforcement encounters are more valuable than ever. And for those who are wondering—it is legal to record the police.

On this day in 1993, the Clinton White House introduced the Clipper Chip, a plan for building in hardware backdoors to communications technologies. The chip would be used in American secure voice equipment, giving law enforcement agencies the explicit ability to decrypt its traffic using a key stored by the government. The White House promised that only law enforcement with proper "legal authorization" could access that key—and thus, the contents of the communications.

It's time to take a closer look at EFF's recent victory against bogus patents and highlight what we and others concerned about our patent system are up against. The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), acting on our request for review, last week invalidated claims from a patent Personal Audio LLC was using to assert that it invented podcasting.  At stake was the right of bloggers, podcasters, and broadcasters to air content, including popular shows like "This American Life"  and "Stuff You Should Know," online and operate their websites free of costly "settle or we’ll sue" threats from Personal Audio. The USPTO's decision works to stop the self-described "holding company" from using these patent claims to go after more companies, after previously targeting comedian and podcaster Adam Corolla, CBS, and others with patent lawsuits.

Our client, Chris Roberts, a founder of the security intelligence firm One World Labs, found himself detained by the FBI earlier this week after tweeting about airplane network security during a United Airlines flight. When Roberts landed in Syracuse, he was questioned by the FBI, which ultimately seized a number of his electronic devices. EFF attorneys now represent Roberts, and we’re working to get his devices back promptly. But unfortunately last week’s tweet and FBI action isn’t the end of the story.

During the VII Summit of the Americas held in Panama from 10 to 11 April, presidents from several Latin American countries, including the Panamanian host Juan Carlos Varela, Cristina Fernandez of Argentina, Dilma Rousseff of Brazil, and

EFF, Access, and a coalition of other digital rights organizations have launched a campaign opposing legislative attempts to make information sharing between companies and the government easier.  The 5 bills—touted as cybersecurity bills—would provide legal avenues for Internet companies to share unprecedented amounts of data with the US government, often with few protections for private information that may be included in these data dumps.

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors has unanimously voted in favor of a resolution today urging the district's congressional representatives to oppose Fast Track legislation for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement. Supervisor John Avalos put forth the resolution, which expresses concerns about the secret trade agreement's provisions that would impact the free and open Internet, among a host of other threats to the public interest.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Intelligence Committee Chair Senator Richard Burr introduced S. 1035 last night. The bill reauthorizes Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act—the provision used by the NSA to collect innocent Americans' everyday calling records—until 2020.

The announcement of the Canadian Government's plan to extend copyright terms for sound recordings came as a surprise when it was released in Canada's federal budget yesterday. The smooth stage management of the announcement has to be admired, accompanied as it was by pre-prepared soundbites from Canada's music A-list extolling the benefits of this handout. In fact, with all the drama and glamor of the announcement, all that was missing was any prior public consultation or debate that could give the government an actual mandate to make this sweeping change to Canadian law.

If you're trying to tinker with repair or even recycle your electronics—whether it's a computer, a tablet, or a toaster—you increasingly face two major hurdles. The first, bizarrely enough, is copyright law. See, you may own your device, but you probably just rent, or license, the software that runs it, and that license will come with all sorts of legal and technological restrictions. That particular problem has been getting a lot of attention in the last few days in the context of cars and tractors. Automakers have told the Copyright Office that car owners don't really own their cars, and shouldn’t be allowed to tinker with them.