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Fact-Checking, COVID-19 Misinformation, and the British Medical Journal Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, authoritative research and publications have been critical in gaining better knowledge of the virus and how to combat it. However, unlike previous pandemics, this one has been further exacerbated by a massive wave of misinformation and disinformation spreading across traditional and online social media. The increasing volume of misinformation and urgent calls for better moderation have made processes like fact-checking—the practice that aims to assess the accuracy of reporting—integral to the way social media companies deal with the dissemination of content. But, a valid question persists: who should check facts? This is particularly pertinent when one considers how such checks can shape perceptions, encourage biases, and undermine longstanding, authoritative voices. Social media fact-checks currently come in different shapes and sizes; for instance, Facebook outsources th...

Podcast Episode: How Private is Your Bank Account? Podcast Episode 108 Your friends, your medical concerns, your political ideology— financial transactions tell the story of your life in intimate details. But U.S. law has failed to protect  this sensitive data from prying eyes.  Join EFF’s Cindy Cohn and Danny O’Brien as they talk to Marta Belcher, one of the leading lawyers working on issues of financial censorship and financial privacy, as they help you understand why we need better protections for our financial lives—and the important role courts must play in getting things right.  Click below to listen to the episode now, or choose your podcast player: %3Ciframe%20height%3D%2252px%22%20width%3D%22100%25%22%20frameborder%3D%22no%22%20scrolling%3D%22no%22%20seamless%3D%22%22%20src%3D%22https%3A%2F%2Fplayer.simplecast.com%2F70b42d72-f770-4cef-8d3b-e08a55d925ca%3Fdark%3Dtrue%26amp%3Bcolor%3D000000%22%20allow%3D%22autoplay%22%3E%3C%2Fiframe%3E Privacy info. Thi...

Podcast Episode: How Private is Your Bank Account? Podcast Episode 108 Your friends, your medical concerns, your political ideology— financial transactions tell the story of your life in intimate details. But U.S. law has failed to protect  this sensitive data from prying eyes.  Join EFF’s Cindy Cohn and Danny O’Brien as they talk to Marta Belcher, one of the leading lawyers working on issues of financial censorship and financial privacy, as they help you understand why we need better protections for our financial lives—and the important role courts must play in getting things right.  Click below to listen to the episode now, or choose your podcast player: %3Ciframe%20height%3D%2252px%22%20width%3D%22100%25%22%20frameborder%3D%22no%22%20scrolling%3D%22no%22%20seamless%3D%22%22%20src%3D%22https%3A%2F%2Fplayer.simplecast.com%2F70b42d72-f770-4cef-8d3b-e08a55d925ca%3Fdark%3Dtrue%26amp%3Bcolor%3D000000%22%20allow%3D%22autoplay%22%3E%3C%2Fiframe%3E Privacy info. Thi...

Welcome to the Public Domain, Winnie-the-Pooh In 2019, for the first time in 20 years, U.S. copyright law allowed formerly copyrighted works to join the public domain. Works in the public domain are no longer under copyright, and anyone can republish or use those works in whatever way they want. The public domain is the default home of all creative endeavors because culture isn’t owned by any single person or corporation—it’s shared. This year, the public domain opened up to include works from 1926 and a whopping 400,000 sound recordings . Of course, the real fun is that the third Hercule Poirot novel by Agatha Christie, Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises, and the original books of Winnie-the-Pooh and Bambi are now free for anyone to use. In particular, the popular images of Winnie-the-Pooh and Bambi have been dominated by one rightsholder’s vision for a long time: Disney. And while Disney’s versions of those stories remain under copyright, their exclusive hold on two corner...

It’s Copyright Week 2022: Ten Years Later, How Has SOPA/PIPA Shaped Online Copyright Enforcement? We're taking part in Copyright Week , a series of actions and discussions supporting key principles that should guide copyright policy. Every day this week, various groups are taking on different elements of copyright law and policy, addressing what's at stake and what we need to do to make sure that copyright promotes creativity and innovation. Ten years ago, a diverse coalition of internet users, non-profit groups, and internet companies defeated the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) , bills that would have forced internet companies to blacklist and block websites accused of hosting copyright-infringing content. These were bills that would have made censorship very easy, all in the name of copyright enforcement. This collective action showed the world that the word of the few major companies who control film, music, and television can’t control int...

Fighting For A More Open, Balanced Patent System: 2021 in Review At EFF, we’ve always stood up for the freedom to tinker and innovate. Unfortunately, our patent system doesn’t promote those freedoms. In some areas, like software, it’s causing much more harm than good. And the system is rife with patent trolls: companies that are focused on licensing and litigating patents, instead of making things. In 2021, the majority of all patent lawsuits were filed by these trolls. In fact, patent trolls have filed the majority of patent lawsuits for many years now .  But there’s reason for hope. Patent trolls have finally been seen as the problem they are, and both courts and Congress seem to be moving away from simplistic misconceptions like believing they can create more innovation just by handing out more patents.  This year, EFF fought hard for increased transparency in the patent system that will allow us to call out the worst actors, and ultimately get a more balanced patent...