Press Releases: April 2015
U.S. Trade Regulators’ Criticism of Other Nations’ IP Practices is Flawed, Biased
San Francisco – Overly broad intellectual property (IP) laws in Russia, Colombia, and Pakistan—which U.S. trade regulators say aren’t tough enough—stifle access to innovation and threaten artists, students, and creators around the globe with prison, censorship, and state prosecution, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) said in a new report released today.
EFF’s “Special 404 Report” is a response to the “Special 301 Report”—a deeply flawed annual assessment of international intellectual property rights policies released by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) today. The Special 301 Report is used to pressure countries to adopt IP laws supported by some powerful business interests.
In a first-of-its-kind analysis countering the USTR’s “name and shame” tactics, EFF demonstrates how the Special 301 Report paints a one-sided picture of IP rights and fails to disclose the damaging results of draconian IP policies. Examples include a human rights activist in Russia who was targeted by prosecutors using criminal copyright law, a biologist in Colombia who faces prison for sharing research, and students in Pakistan who struggle to exercise their rights under local law to study academic papers.
“The Special 301 Report is built on an opaque process that echoes the desires of certain members of private industry, like Hollywood rights holders,” said Jeremy Malcolm, EFF senior global policy analyst. “It’s meant to push countries to adopt stiffer IP laws, even if such laws aren’t in the best interests of the citizens of that country. Our report shows how, in countries targeted by the USTR report, stringent intellectual property laws have had shameful and frightening consequences.’’
EFF’s 404 report—named after the error code that appears on the web to show browsers that something is missing—features case studies from Canada, Chile, Pakistan, Romania, Colombia, and Russia. In addition to showing the chilling effects of copyright policies that the Special 301 Report condemns as not tough enough, the 404 report also highlights how flexible fair use interpretations can benefit communities, culture, and the economy. Additionally, EFF covers flaws in the USTR report, including lack of balance, questionable legal basis, lack of set criteria for analyzing copyright policies, and exclusion of a means by which countries can challenge findings.
“Our report puts a human face on the victims of defective IP policy, and tells the story of Diego Gomez, a masters student in Colombia who could be jailed and face huge fines after the government criminally prosecuted him for sharing an academic paper on Scribd,’’ said Maira Sutton, EFF global policy analyst. “Countries around the globe should be skeptical when considering the recommendations of the USTR Special 301 Report and push for fair use and open access when adopting and enforcing IP laws.”
For the full report visit:
https://www.eff.org/special-404
Contact:
Ruling from USPTO Invalidates All Claims Used to Threaten Podcasters
San Francisco - The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) invalidated key claims in the so-called “podcasting patent” today after a petition for review from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)—a decision that significantly curtails the ability of a patent troll to threaten podcasters big and small.
“We’re grateful for all the support of our challenge to this patent. Today is a big victory for the podcasting community” said EFF Staff Attorney Daniel Nazer, who also holds the Mark Cuban Chair to Eliminate Stupid Patents. “We’re glad the Patent Office recognized what we all knew: ‘podcasting’ had been around for many years and this company does not own it.”
The “podcasting patent” became big news in 2013, when a company called Personal Audio, LLC, began demanding licensing fees from podcasters including comedian Adam Carolla and three major television networks. Personal Audio doesn’t do podcasting itself, but instead used its patent to claim infringement and collect payouts from actual creators.
In petitions filed with Patent Office, EFF showed that Personal Audio did not invent anything new before it filed its patent application, and, in fact, other people were podcasting for years previously. Earlier examples of podcasting include Internet pioneer Carl Malamud's "Geek of the Week" online radio show and online broadcasts by CNN and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC).
“We have a lot to celebrate here,” said EFF Staff Attorney Vera Ranieri. “But unfortunately, our work to protect podcasting is not done. Personal Audio continues to seek patents related to podcasting. We will continue to fight for podcasters, and we hope the Patent Office does not give them any more weapons to shake down small podcasters.”
EFF partnered with attorneys working pro bono and the Cyberlaw Clinic at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society to craft the petition for review with the USPTO.
For the full decision on the Personal Audio “podcasting patent”:
https://www.eff.org/document/uspto-decision
Contact:
EFF Lawsuit Challenges Drug Enforcement Administration Surveillance of International Call Records
Los Angeles — Human Rights Watch, a nonpartisan organization that fights human rights abuses across the globe, filed suit against the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration late Tuesday for illegally collecting records of its telephone calls to certain foreign countries as part of yet another government bulk surveillance program. The group is represented by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), which has launched a series of legal challenges against unconstitutional government surveillance.
“The DEA’s program of untargeted and suspicionless surveillance of Americans’ international telephone call records—information about the numbers people call, and the time, date, and duration of those calls—affects millions of innocent people, yet the DEA operated the program in secret for years,’’ said EFF Staff Attorney Nate Cardozo. “Both the First and Fourth Amendment protect Americans from this kind of overreaching surveillance. This lawsuit aims to vindicate HRW’s rights, and the rights of all Americans, to make calls overseas without being subject to government surveillance.”
The DEA disclosed the existence of its surveillance for the first time in January, after a federal judge ordered the government to reveal more information about the program. The agency made the disclosure in a criminal case against a man accused of violating export restrictions on goods to Iran. In a declaration filed in the case, a DEA agent described the then-secret program of collecting telephone records of calls made from the U.S. to “designated foreign countries’’ that are connected with international drug trafficking. The declaration revealed that DEA relied on administrative subpoenas to amass the database of Americans’ call records. The DEA obtained the records without judicial oversight or approval.
News reports say the program, run by the DEA’s special operations division, began its bulk collection in the 1990s, using the collected records to create a database for domestic criminal probes. The information was shared with other law enforcement agencies, including the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security for reasons unrelated to drug trafficking, media reports said. Although the DEA has indicated the program was “suspended” in 2013, this suit seeks to ensure the program is permanently terminated, that it cannot restart, and that all of HRW’s illegally collected records have been purged from all government systems.
Human Rights Watch and its staff work regularly on issues in countries linked to drug trafficking, communicating with victims or witnesses to human rights abuses.
“Human Rights Watch often works with people in dire circumstances around the world. Our sources are sometimes in life or death situations, and speaking out can make them a target,” said Dinah PoKempner, general counsel of Human Rights Watch. “Who we communicate with and when we communicate with them is often extraordinarily sensitive—and it’s information that we would never turn over to the government lightly.”
“The NSA isn’t the only federal agency collecting Americans’ call records in bulk,” said EFF staff attorney Mark Rumold. “The DEA’s program is yet another example of federal agencies overreaching their surveillance authority in secret. We are asking the court to require the government to destroy the records it illegally collected no matter where they are held, and to declare—once and for all—that bulk collection of Americans’ records is unconstitutional.’’
EFF also represents plaintiffs in First Unitarian v. NSA, a case filed in 2013; Jewel v. NSA, a class action case filed in 2008; and Smith v. Obama, a lawsuit from an Idaho emergency neonatal nurse. Those lawsuits challenge NSA programs of dragnet surveillance of millions of ordinary Americans.
For the full complaint in Human Rights Watch v DEA:
https://www.eff.org/document/hrw-v-dea-complaint
Contact:
Nate Cardozo
EFF Staff Attorney
nate@eff.org
Mark Rumold
EFF Staff Attorney
mark@eff.org
Dinah PoKempner
Human Rights Watch
pokempd@hrw.org
Cynthia Wong
Human Rights Watch
wongc@hrw.org
eff.org/nsa-spying
