   Free Speech ArchiveJuly 27, 2006India's Overbroad Content Blocking
Indian official says, "Because of a technological error, the Internet providers went beyond what was expected of them, which in turn resulted in the unfortunate blocking of all blogs."
July 21, 2006Pew Study on Bloggers
Pew presents stats on the diverse demographics of bloggers and reasons for blogging.
July 11, 2006Hao Wu Released
Chinese cyber-dissident is now with his family after nearly five months in prison.
July 05, 2006Bypassing the Great Firewall By Pretending It's not There
Richard Clayton shows how Chinese censorship systems can be simply ignored.
May 29, 2006Chicago School Pledge Against Free Speech
Students are obliged to limit their blogging if engaging in extracurricular school activities.
Apple v. Does in Bits and Pieces
Howell's blow-by-blow summary of the Apple v. Does case.
May 03, 2006Apple v. Does -- Unplugged!
MP3s of the recent oral argument in the online journalist rights case.
April 27, 2006GETV at EFF Email Debate
Geek Entertainment TV interviews moderator Mitch Kapor and debaters Danny O'Brien and Esther Dyson about the future of email.
April 14, 2006Chinese Food for Thought
The Center for Democracy and Technology's resources on tech company's work in China.
April 04, 2006Michigan Video Game Law Declared UnconstitutionalMarch 22, 2006Free Hao Wu
Chinese authorities have arrested blogger and filmmaker Hao Wu.
March 03, 2006How Will the Chinese Remember America?
Journalist Rebecca Mackinnon considers how Internet companies' (in)action today will impact tomorrow's Chinese citizens.
February 24, 2006Trademark not so Sweet for "Sweet Peas"
Companies and websites using the term "sweet pea" are being threatened with trademark violation suits by a Florida clothing firm.
February 21, 2006Your Friendly Local Censor
Local Homeland Security officers shake-down librarian Net users for what they're browsing.
February 17, 2006Human Rights Protesters, Business Groups Like EFF's Code of Conduct for China
Do we need government intervention, or might Internet companies be able to save themselves?
February 16, 2006Chinese Government Removes Over 2,000 Websites
"Unhealthy" domestic sites closed down because "they had too much sex, violence or politics."
February 07, 2006When Librarians Protect Terrorists
A disturbingly misdirected attack on a librarian defending his clients' communications, from the Boston Globe.
Lambda Legal Warns Blizzard Over Gay Rules
Gay legal group sends letter noting that World of Warcraft's bizarre anti-harassment rules against openly gay clans could be illegal.
February 02, 2006Human Rights, the Internet, and Congress
Harvard's John Palfrey, among others, briefs the Human Rights Caucus.
January 31, 2006Some Thoughts on Google in China
Matthew Skala with some thoughtful commentary on Google's options--both moral and stock.
January 27, 2006The Brin Defense
Sergey Brin gives his justification for censoring Google in China.
The Several Hundred Banned Words
Wikipedia, banned in China, shows you what is banned in China.
January 11, 2006What Tech Companies can do to Protect Free SpeechJanuary 09, 2006Microsoft and Falun Gong Repression
An FG organization pulls together the evidence of the extent of Microsoft involvement in Chinese repression.
December 22, 2005EU chief criticizes net firms over China's actions
European Commission Vice President Margot Wallstrom complains about Google and Yahoo's complicity in Chinese censorship and surveillance.
December 19, 2005The Dutch Net vs Scientology
Dutch ISP XS4ALL's decade-long battle against the censoring Scientologists finally reaches the end of the road, with a victory for free speech.
November 29, 2005Persecuted Iranian Blogger Escapes to Turkey
Seyyed Ahmad Seyyed Seraji Tabrizi is seeking assistance in the city of Van.
Trademarks vs Free Speech, Again
Local Ohio Republican party asks the court to shut down an opposing site on trademark grounds: motion denied.
I Have A Little List (of Bloggers)
A historical and growing database of legal action taken against bloggers.
November 18, 2005Intimidating the InternetFEC: Blogs Are As Much "Press" As Everyone Else
RedState reports on a decision in the right direction.
October 26, 2005An Open Letter to Yahoo's Jerry Yang
The full text of the powerful, damning message to Yahoo's co-founder, from Beijing dissident Liu Xiaobo.
October 24, 2005Iranian Blogger Receives 124 Lashes
The Committee to Protect Bloggers has more info and a show of support HTML snippet to include on your site.
October 20, 2005J'Accuse, Yahoos
Chinese human rights activist Liu Xiaobo writes to Jerry Yang, asking him to stop collaborating with Chinese repression.
October 13, 2005Your Right to Bare Arms
Thrown off an airplane for the message on your t-shirt? One clothing company will arrange free alternative travel.
September 30, 2005China's Internet Ten Commandments
What you can and can't do online in China, from Reporters Without Borders.
September 20, 2005Obscenity Regs to Hit the Net?
Susan Crawford looks at a draft telecom bill that could put the FCC in charge of "national consumer protection standards" aimed at stopping broadband, VoIP, and broadband video services from transmitting annoying or "indecent" speech.
September 06, 2005Is Open Spectrum a Free Speech Issue?
Article 19, the international free speech group, argues that unlicensed spectrum is a human right.
August 15, 2005Terry Pratchett Responds to Harry Potter Ban
"ANYONE WHO READS A WORD OF IT before publication day will be MADE TO SIT IN THE CORNER." (Despite appearances, forum is Hungarian, not Trollish.)
August 10, 2005Hearings on 2257 Regs - New Hope for Free Speech?
Representatives of the adult entertainment industry seem to be doing well in the legal fight against the onerous DOJ requirements that threaten everyone's free speech rights.
July 18, 2005Journalist Sacks Nanny for Being Too Personal on Private Blog, Gets Paid to Write About It for the NYT
Evidently it's not a sackable offense for the journalist to get personal.
July 12, 2005Export Restrictions on Repression
Not only is the US export of surevillance tools morally questionable, some argue it's illegal. Hiawatha Bray reports.
July 05, 2005Dear German ISPs, Please Break the Internet, Thx, Copyright Holders
German ISPs are being asked to poison their DNS caches to redirect Germans from allegedly infringing websites.
June 28, 2005Subscribe Youaregoingtojail-l
Brad Templeton highlights worries that child email-protection laws may make trouble for list managers.
June 22, 2005Iranian Censorship HOWTO
The OpenNet initiative takes a close look at how Iranian net censorship operates.
June 17, 2005Reporters Without Borders Freedom Blog Awards Announced
Congratulations to Jay Rosen of Pressthink, one of the amici in the Apple v. Does case, for winning the Americas section.
Hack Chinese MSN Spaces to Use Banned Words
Bennett Haselton hacks around Microsoft's Chinese blogging software that bans "freedom," "democracy," and other unapproved keywords.
June 16, 2005How I Became the Subject of a Secret Service Investigation
A blogger tells how posting a set of Flickr pictures protesting art-gallery censorship ended up bringing the feds to the door.
June 06, 2005ICANN Announces ".Polinc" TLD for Politically Incorrect and Dangerous Opinion Sites
EFF Chairman Brad Templeton on an idea whose time has come.
June 01, 2005ICANN Gives Preliminary Go-Ahead to .XXX Domain
Any bets on how long it'll take governments to attempt to ghettoize adult content?
May 18, 2005Majority Think Bloggers Should Have Same Rights as Journalists
Fifty-two percent of those polled by Web hosting company Hostway say that
bloggers should have the same First Amendment protections as mainstream
media.
May 13, 2005Filtering - Still Fallible
Consumer Reports tests show that filtering software has marginally improved, but
still blocks perfectly legitimate speech - including KeepAndBearArms.com and National Institute on Drug Abuse. (Via Freedom to Tinker Dashblog.)
May 02, 2005Life Without Electronic Free Speech
Michael Geist gives a first-person account of censorship behind the Great Firewall of China.
April 28, 2005Is That a Cell Phone In Your Pocket, Or...
The cell phone industry is gearing up to introduce its own content ratings, apparently to head off FCC rumblings that it may extend its indecency jihad to your phone.
April 27, 2005Bahrain - Washing the Internet
The country has issued a policy that appears to require any website dealing with Bahrain to register with the Ministry of Information. Students and reporters have launched a protest.
More Apple Dissection
This time it's the LA Times' Michael Hitzik with a clear, trenchant examination of Apple's unfortunate fight against free speech.
April 07, 2005US Blogger Scuttles Canadian Gag Order
The Canadian government has ordered news outlets to keep quiet about details in a high-profile political scandal, but a Minneapolis blogger is ignoring the publication ban.
German Publisher Fined for Linking
Heise Zeitschriften Verlag has been fined 500,000 Euros for publishing a story with links to a site that provided DVD-ripping software.
USA Today on Apple v. Free Press
Nice editorial for those just getting acquainted with the case.
Take this Job and Blog ItMarch 30, 2005Who Are You Calling a Journalist?
David Shaw of the LA Times makes an incoherent argument about why bloggers shouldn't get the same protections as traditional journalists. Slate's Jack Shafer rebuts.
Posted by Ren Bucholz at 09:26 PM
March 23, 2005Free Speech Goes Dutch in Scientology Case
Dutch Attorney General argues that copyright shouldn't trump political discussion.
Remixing the News
A new study from the Columbia University says of blogs and traditional news media: "In effect, Americans are shifting from being consumers of news to proactive partners in creating their own personalized news account each day, and traditional journalism is only part of that mix."
March 22, 2005CNET Slams Apple
And in covering the court's decision to help Apple hunt journalists, CNET caps the sentiment of journalists everywhere: “With today's ruling, Jobs is in danger of leaving a big black blot on an otherwise remarkable legacy."
The Guardian Slams Apple
I'm sensing a trend: “It remains a mystery as to why Apple should so actively seek to alienate the people who are its fans and customers. … Suddenly this company is asking to be loathed and subverted - which doesn't seem to make much business sense.”
March 16, 2005Aussies to Bar Anonymous Political Blogs
The searing political commentary at sites like MarkLathamSucks.com has apparently drawn the fire of Australian regulators.
March 09, 2005France Fines Programmer for Revealing Security Holes
When all security research is outlawed, only outlaws will conduct security research.
Discontent in the Cult of Mac
Apple's attempts to squelch free speech have left some of the faithful pondering conversion.
German Court Bans Some Links
A German news site has been banned from linking to a website that provides software for circumventing copy protections.
Utah Governor's Wacky Interpretation of the First Amendment
Utah Governor Jon Huntsman wants to require ISPs to block sites deemed pornographic. This might be good politics in Utah, but even the state's own legislative counsel says, "the significant restrictions placed on constitutionally protected speech suggest that the adult content registry has a high probability of being held unconstitutional."
March 07, 2005(Real) Blogger Gets White House Press Credentials
Garrett Graff of FishbowlDC decided to test - and write about - the alleged ease of obtaining White House press credentials.
March 02, 2005When to Censor 101
China said it will toughen its already rigid censorship of the Internet during its annual parliamentary session to keep at bay those with "ulterior motives."
February 23, 2005Rallying for Jailed Iranian Bloggers
Iran is cracking down on free speech, but bloggers are getting louder.
February 17, 2005Blogging on the Dole
That's what some people may be doing as more and more employers crack down on those self-publishing from within cubicle walls.
No Web for You!
China reportedly shut down more than 12,000 Internet cafes in 2004.
February 08, 2005Quidditch Cup 2005: Hogwarts v. US Army?
"Harry Potter" author J.K. Rowling is gunning for the US Army after discovering familiar-sounding characters in a monthly equipment maintenance publication.
Fox Censors Super Bowl Ad About Censorship
The racy commercial for GoDaddy.com -- an Internet domain name registrar -- featured a faux-hearing on broadcast censorship and is still widely available on the still-public Internet.
February 02, 2005Weirdest Defamation Case Ever
In a bizarre show of legal straw-grabbing, a business man has sued CNN for failing to police the postings of "Wolfblitzzer0" on a non-CNN site. The man claims that Wolfblitzzer0's postings are defamatory, and that CNN's failure to assert trademark claims against him/her has caused harm. We assume, by the way, that the poster is not the cuddly anchor of CNN fame.
February 01, 2005Kids Down on Free Speech
According to this scary study, over a third of US students think the government should pre-approve news stories.
January 26, 2005China Bans 50 Video Games for "Corrupting the Youth"
FIFA Soccer was on the list, as was a Microsoft game that allows players to act out Greek mythology. No word yet on whether "Grand Theft: Xizang" made the cut.
January 11, 2005French Security Researcher Could Be Jailed for Finding Bugs
Guillaume Tena found and wrote about exploits in a piece of antivirus software, and its publisher has now initiated two lawsuits against the researcher. If found guilty, Tena could spend six months and jail and be fined almost a million euros.
CNN: The Most Trusted Name in Censorship
The news organization has sued several Internet sites for allowing users to translate CNN stories into Arabic. The sites provide automated translation engines like Altavista's BabelFish, but CNN has decided to only target operators in the Arab world.
December 13, 2004Sony Picks on Blogger Over Jeopardy Spoiler
When blogger Jason Kottke posted an audio clip of Ken Jennings' final appearance on Jeopardy, he wasn't expecting the show's parent company to call in the lawyers. After all, Sony didn't send nastygrams to the Washington Post or an ABC affiliate that disseminated the same info.
December 10, 2004Australia Rejects Mandatory Net Filtering
The plan to combat child pornography was going to be
expensive, but Communications Minister Helen Coonan
clarified, "The biggest issue is not so much the money
but such an expensive scheme would not necessarily
solve the problem and small to medium ISPs would be
driven out of business for little or no benefit."
November 10, 2004Salon on the Indymedia Whodunnit
The servers were seized; the servers were returned. Salon looks at what happened in between.
Iran Continues Net Crackdown
More journalists have been jailed and sites have been blocked in the government's ongoing campaign to squelch free speech and pro-democracy propaganda.
October 26, 2004How Nastygrams Chill Speech
The Free Expression Policy Project has a report on how cease & desist letters cause people to self-censor.
The Skinny on Indymedia's Server Seizure
Team EFF has assembled the authoritative account of how Indymedia servers in England were seized - and returned - following an international bricolage of secret legal maneuvers.
October 15, 2004Indymedia Protests Seizure of Servers
Indymedia, a group of independent, progressive online journalists, has launched a campaign to protest the government seizure of two servers hosting several of its websites. The two servers have been returned, but no one will say what happened. Now Indymedia is seeking signatures from people and organizations who condemn the action as a violation of the First Amendment. Here's where you can sign their petition.
October 12, 2004JibJab Releases Another AnimationOctober 05, 2004Diebold Loses Copyright Case
The decision in the Diebold Memos case came down last week, and EFF's clients were victorious.
China to Promote "Healthy" Computer Games
They're not talking about LAN-parties that serve only wheat grass and tofu, mind you. The Chinese government plans to rate games on "pornography, violence, horror, social morality and cultural implications."
September 16, 2004Law Lets Public Library Kick Out Patrons for Surfing
The ACLU is challenging the law on behalf of a man who was banned from the Hawaii State Library for visiting a gay & lesbian website.
September 08, 2004Gag-Happy Government Wants ACLU to Shut Up
The USA PATRIOT Act allows the government to issue "National Security Letters," which carry a gag-order for the recipient that prevents the disclosure that one has been received. But the DoJ has interpreted this to mean that the ACLU, in its work to examine how the letters are being (ab)used, can't publicly quote from published Supreme Court opinions or refer even vaguely to the circumstances of its case.
August 29, 2004Olympics Wins Second Gold Medal for Stupid Internet Policy
This time it's for banning "coaches, support personnel and other officials, from writing firsthand accounts for news and other websites."
August 25, 2004Italian Protest Site Censored
Time to say "ciao" to free speech on our favorite Mediterranean peninsula?
August 12, 2004Iran Cracks Down on Internet Use
A new law would increase jail terms for dissident speech and "give the police the power to search Internet users' homes or the premises of any legal entity involved in Internet activity, without a judge's authorisation."
August 06, 2004Valenti-isms for the Ages
Tim Wu has compiled a fantastic list of quotes from Jack Valenti, the king of lobbyists and hero of hyperbole. See, e.g., Valenti on the nascent cable industry in 1974: “[Cable will become] a huge parasite in the marketplace, feeding and fattening itself off of local television stations and copyright owners of copyrighted material. We do not like it because we think it wrong and unfair.”
July 27, 2004Politics as Usual in South Korea
And by that we mean taking students to court for creating provocative political parodies that could impact public opinion.
July 15, 2004Understanding the Media Monopoly
This is a great introduction to the FCC's controversial media ownership rules (or lack thereof). Required reading.
July 09, 2004House Fails to Limit PATRIOT Powers
The latest attempt to reform the USA PATRIOT Act - this time regarding government access to library records and reading habits - was foiled after a round of voting chicanery.
July 05, 2004China to Filter Billions of Text Messages
Chinese citizens use "texting" to spread forbidden information on issues like SARS and democracy, so the government is setting up a system to sanitize billions of messages every day.
June 24, 2004Fighting Internet Filtering in PA
The Center for Democracy and Technology is taking a stand against a Pennsylvania law that requires ISP to use flawed filtering technology.
June 22, 2004Papers, Please
The Supreme Court recently upheld a Nevada law that makes it a crime to remain silent if a police officer asks for your identity.
June 14, 2004Some Libraries Pass on Cash-for-Censorware Program
Libraries that accept certain types of federal funds are unfortunately obligated to install "filtering" software on Net-connected PCs. Now, however, some are refusing this funding because the software too often blocks innocuous sites and is a hassle to maintain.
June 10, 2004Harry Potter's Alternate Universe
The whole world may be swooning over the third Harry Potter movie, but a few of us are also getting a kick out of Brad Neely's quirky, unauthorized remix of the first film's soundtrack.
June 07, 2004Banning Subway Photography to Fight Terrorism?
When you take photos on the train you commute with Bin Laden.
Amateur Videos Targeted by Chinese Government
The Chinese government is cracking down on amateur videos exploring the country's social problems by banning their broadcast or distribution on the Internet.
June 03, 2004China Bans Video Game for "Distorting" History
The Swedish-made "Hearts of Iron" depicts several parts of China as independent nations and treats Taiwan as part of Japan.
May 31, 2004Pushing the Definition of "Aid and Comfort" in Idaho
A Muslim graduate student at the University of Idaho is on trial after being prosecuted under PATRIOT for serving as a webmaster for several Islamic fundamentalist sites.
May 26, 2004Diebold. We're From the Private Sector and We're Here to Help
Diebold Variations is a collection of clever "faux-sters" criticizing the embattled election-software company.
May 14, 2004Gag Removed from Anti-Spam Company
The restraining order against SpamCop was removed because the judge hadn't actually read some of the papers. Perhaps they got caught in her spam filter?
April 20, 2004Court Strikes Ban on Prisoner Access to the Net
The 9th Circuit rejected a rule that made a nonsensical distinction between information on the Net and the stuff that's printed on paper.
French Law Would Mean Lifetime Liability for Web Publishers
You read that right - it would throw out the statute of limitations for publishers and allow defamation suits to be brought years after an incident. Pas bon du tout.
April 09, 2004Fighting Censorship with P2P
Ross Anderson envisions a future in which government censors and news syndicates don't regulate what news we view.
April 08, 2004Wal-Mart Joins the Copyfight?
The company will soon sell DVD players equipped with ClearPlay - an on-the-fly editing technology designed to excise racy scenes. Directors claim that it violates copyright law and unacceptably drains the films' mojo.
April 07, 2004Lord of the Sims
Reason on unexpected patterns of social (mis)behavior in "The Sims Online."
Search Engines Won't Gamble on Net Casinos
Google and Yahoo will no longer carry ads for online casinos - many of which may be illegal for use by U.S. citizens - because of a "lack of clarity" in the legal and regulatory environment.
France Moves Forward on "Digital Economy" Bill
The controversial legislation increases ISP liability for material that they host and lowers protections for email privacy.
April 05, 2004Gov't Clarifies Rule on Editing Foreign Work
A recent rule seemed to ban scientists from editing the work of colleagues in embargoed countries; the feds say that's not their intent.
March 29, 2004Blogs Go Black As China Blocks More Sites
This time the country is blocking all blogs from the hosting service Typepad.
March 24, 2004Korean Student Arrested for Posting Political Parodies
One image depicted the opposition party being trounced by the Uri party in a game of Starcraft. No, seriously.
March 22, 2004The Other Silver Lining in Janet's Bustier
Lauren Gelman points out that Hollywood's "broadcast flag" would have prevented the public from distributing and discussing clips of the incident that launched a thousand letters to the FCC.
.XXX: the Net's Red Light District?
Look out for laws that would put anything sexual - like sex education sites - into the filterware-ready domain.
March 19, 2004China Gags Blogs
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