New Yorkers: You can speak up today to expand your digital rights. Tell your lawmakers to support S6309 (Breslin) and A7416A (Lupardo)—two right to repair bills that would make repair of phones, tablets and other digital electronic equipment easier and more accessible for New York residents.
In 2013, a patent troll called Personal Audio tried to shake down podcasters, big and small, for licensing fees. With help from Marc Maron and WTF podcast fans, we challenged the podcasting patent in the Patent Office and in the courts.
Now that patent trolls are losing ground in court, they're looking to get a boost in Congress. Working together with lobbyists for big pharma and IP lawyers' groups, patent trolls are working on a bill that will destroy some of our best legal tools for fighting patent trolls.
We're asking for your help: join Marc, and tell Congress that more bad patents won't help.
Right now, Senators are working to remove key legal protections that protect people from patent trolls and other abusers of the patent system.
Senators Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and Chris Coons (D-Del.) have published a draft bill that will undermine protections of Section 101 of the U.S. Patent Act.
Section 101 puts important limits on what can be patented. For instance, it bans patents on abstract ideas, natural phenomena, and laws of nature. Our patent laws are supposed to keep those basic ideas unpatented—they are the building blocks of scientific progress, available to all.
Over nearly two decades, the NSA has searched millions of Americans’ telephone call records—all without a warrant or, for the vast majority of these calls, any suspicion of wrongdoing.
It’s time to end the mass telephone Call Detail Records (CDR) program once and for all. Tell your members of Congress to support the Ending Mass Collection of Americans’ Phone Records Act (S. 936, H.R. 1942).
In December 2017, the FCC voted to roll back the 2015 Open Internet Order, giving Internet service providers (ISPs) free reign to engage in unfair and discriminatory data practices. This year, the House of Representatives voted in favor of the Save the Internet Act, which would restore the 2015 net neutrality protections and make them permanent. Tell the Senate to do the same and stand up for real net neutrality!
At a time when we are fighting to keep the future of broadband access from reverting back towards a monopoly, the recently introduced A.B. 1366 mirrors the FCC’s abandonment of consumers.
Tell California's lawmakers to oppose A.B. 1366, and instead promote competition and access—not abandon Californians to their broadband monopoly.
The way copyright works in the United States does need changing. But the Copyright Alternative in Small-Claims Enforcement Act (CASE Act), which will treat certain copyright claims like traffic tickets, does nothing to make any useful changes. Instead, it would invite abuse, magnify the existing problem of copyright’s unpredictable damages, and would give a lot of authority to a new, quasi-judicial body in the Copyright Office, not the actual courts.
In other words, if you’re looking for an answer to the problem of people improperly using copyrighted material online, this ain’t it, chief.
Californians have a fundamental right to understand the operations of the law enforcement agencies that they pay for.
One of the best ways to reach that understanding is to be able to review the policies, protocols, and training materials that officers must follow, whether it’s about the deployment of surveillance, or the use of deadly force.
Tell California Gov. Jerry Brown to sign S.B. 978 to require transparency by default for law enforcement rules and training materials across the state.
The Senate is considering legislation meant to protect free and fair elections in the U.S. But one of the current proposals doesn’t include the two most important elements: universal paper ballots, and automatic “risk-limiting” audits.
Let’s tell the Senate: if it doesn't include these essential features, it's not a real election security bill.