EFF White Papers

These are papers that our staff has produced, sometimes in collaboration with other groups, which present the results of our research or offer in-depth analysis on some of our key issues. Keep in mind that older papers may not reflect the latest technological developments.

P2P on College Campuses

• When Push Comes to Shove: A Hype-Free Guide to Evaluating Technical Solutions to Copyright Infringement on Campus Networks (2005)

End User License Agreements

• Dangerous Terms -- A User's Guide to EULAs (2005)
  This is a guide for the "user" in EULA, the person who stands to lose the most by allowing companies to assert that these click-through agreements count as binding contracts. When users click "I Agree" on a EULA, they may be inviting vendors to snoop on their computers, or allowing companies to prevent them from publicly criticizing the product they've bought. They also click away their right to customize or even repair their devices.
  
  If you have been harmed by a EULA, or threatened with legal action because of one, EFF wants to hear your story. E-mail us at EULAharm@eff.org.

Free Speech

• Noncommercial Email Lists: Collateral Damage in the Fight Against Spam (2004)
  This paper argues that the free speech of groups who manage large noncommercial mailing lists is being chilled by current antispam techniques. The paper also includes a section on best practices for balancing antispam efforts and free speech for online service providers and mailing list managers. (PDF [114k] also available.)

Privacy and Anonymity

• Let the Sun Set on PATRIOT (2004)
  A series of short essays on the privacy implications of 13 provisions in the USA-PATRIOT Act.
• Data Logging and Retention: Best Practices for Online Service Providers (2004)
  In this paper, EFF offers some suggestions, both legal and technical, for best practices that balance the needs of OSPs to retain network data with their users’ privacy and civil liberties.
• Universities Should Resist Network Monitoring Demands [PDF 104k] (2003)
  When universities install software that monitors students' P2P usage, it destroys privacy.
• Biometrics: Who's Watching You? (2003)
  A primer on what biometrics are and how they will be used to track your movements, profile your behaviors, and invade your privacy.
• Trusted Computing: Promise and Risk (2003)
  
• Top 12 Ways to Protect Your Online Privacy (2002)
  A few simple rules that can help prevent people from harvesting your personal information online.

Intellectual Property

• IAAL: What Peer-to-Peer Developers Need to Know about Copyright Law (January, 2006)
  
• Patent Busting: An EFF Initiative To Protect Innovation and Free Expression (2004)
  
A Better Way Forward: Voluntary Collective Licensing (2004)
How can P2P coexist with the music industry? The concept is simple: the music industry forms a collecting society, which then offers file-sharing music fans the opportunity to "get legit" in exchange for a reasonable regular payment. Find out more about how this would work, and how it's worked before.
• How Not to Get Sued by the RIAA for File-Sharing (2003)
  The title speaks for itself.
• Unsafe Harbors: Abusive DMCA Subpoenas and Takedown Demands (2003)
  The DMCA has been used to invade the privacy of Internet users, harass Internet service providers, and chill online speech. Here are some examples.
• Five Years Under the DMCA: Unintended Consequences (2003)
  A description of some of the very real problems that have already appeared because of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
• Fair Use and Digital Rights Management: Preliminary Thoughts on the (Irreconcilable?) Tension Between Them (2002)

Electronic Voting

• E-Voting Machine Quick Reference Guides (2004)
  A series of reference sheets on the seven most popular e-voting machines: how they work, and what kinds of problems people have reported with them.
• Accessibility and Auditability in Electronic Voting (May, 2004)