Publications

Recent news that the Home Office has ordered Apple to enable access to iCloud encrypted data has stirred public debate about the scope and secrecy of UK surveillance laws. Successive governments have argued that such powers are needed to combat nove...

If you've read about the sudden appearance of age verification across the internet in the UK and thought it would never happen in the U.S., take note: many politicians want the same or even more strict laws. As of July 1st, South Dakota and Wyoming e...

The Ninth Circuit upheld an important limitation on Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) subpoenas that other federal courts have recognized for more than two decades. The DMCA, a misguided anti-piracy law passed in the late nineties, created a bev...

In a victory for transparency, the government contractor Pen-Link agreed to disclose the prices and descriptions of surveillance products that it sold to a local California Sheriff's office. The settlement ends a months-long California public records...

From its initial launch and relentless coverage in the media for a solid 18 months, there had to be something more to the BeStreamWise anti-piracy campaign than initially met the eye. Anti-piracy campaigns come and go; BeStreamWise made itself comfor...

Early August, we reported on a remarkable court order handed down by the Dutch Business Court in Brussels. It compelled internet providers, hosting companies, and other intermediaries to block access to several ‘pirate’ sites and deny access to pay...

After 15 years of pirate site blocking by ISPs including BT, Virgin Media, Sky, TalkTalk, EE, and Plusnet, last month a new player quietly entered the UK site blocking arena. Cloudflare’s blocking measures in the UK were confirmed when attempts to...

Dear Friend of Press Freedom, It’s the 143rd day that Rümeysa Öztürk is facing deportation by the United States government for writing an op-ed it didn’t like, and the 62nd day that Mario Guevara has been imprisoned for covering a protest. After more...

Copyright holders have made numerous attempts in recent years to deter people from visiting pirate websites. Simply stating that piracy is illegal doesn’t appear to work very well, so anti-piracy messaging often tries to appeal to other emotions too....

The parallels are remarkable. There were “numerous reports that the Israeli authorities have prevented medical and other humanitarian assistance from reaching those in need”. The Red Cross was saying “that their staff have been threatened at gunpoin...