Name: Section 1201’s Harm to Security Research Shown by Mixed Decision in Corellium Case
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Section 1201’s Harm to Security Research Shown by Mixed Decision in Corellium Case

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Email updates on news, actions,and events in your area.DEEPLINKS BLOGShare ItUnder traditional copyright law, security research is a well-established fair use, meaning it does not infringe copyright. When it was passed in 1998, Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act upset the balance of copyright law. Since then, the balance has been further upset as it has been interpreted so broadly by some courts that it effectively eliminates fair use if you have to bypass an access control like encryption to make that fair use.The District Court’s makes this shift crystal-clear. Corellium is a company that enables security researchers to run smartphone software in a controlled, virtual environment, giving them greater insights into how the software functions and where it may be vulnerable. Apple sued the company, alleging that its interactions with Apple code infringed copyright and that it offered unlawful circumvention technology under Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.Corellium asked for “summary judgment” that it had not violated the law. Summary judgment is decided as a matter of law when the relevant facts are not in dispute. (Summary judgment is far less expensive and time-consuming for the parties and the courts, while having to go to trial can be prohibitive for individual researchers and small businesses.) Corellium won on fair use, but the court said that there were disputed facts that prevented it from ruling on the Section 1201 claims at this stage of the litigation. It also rejected Corellium’s argument that fair use is a defense to a claim under Section 1201.Fair use is part of what makes copyright law consistent with both the First Amendment and the Constitution’s requirement that intellectual monopoly rights like copyright – if created at all – must promote the progress of "science and the useful arts."We’re disappointed that the District Court failed to uphold the traditional limitations on copyright law that protect speech, research, and innovation. Applying fair use to Section 1201 would reduce the harm it does to fundamental rights. It’s also disappointing that the provisions of Section 1201 that were enacted to protect security testing are so much less protective than traditional fair use has been. If those provisions were doing their job, the 1201 claim would be thrown out on summary judgment just as readily as the infringement claim, saving defendants and the courts from unnecessary time and expense.We’ll to protect security researchers and the many other technologists and creators who rely on fair use in order to share their knowledge and creativity.Share ItA recent District Court decision in . is a for free speech. The Court firmly rejected the argument that copyright law creates a shortcut around the First Amendment’s protections for anonymous critics. In the case, a company tried to...Copyright law cannot be used as a shortcut around the First Amendment’s strong protections for anonymous internet users, a federal trial court ruled on Tuesday.The by a judge in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California confirms that copyright holders issuing subpoenas under the...A copyright holder can’t use a court order against the owner of an infringing website to conscript every intermediary service on the internet into helping make that website disappear, .The brief, filed in the U.S. District Court...EFF client Erik Johnson, a Miami University computer engineering undergraduate, reached a settlement in the lawsuit we brought on his behalf against exam surveillance software maker Proctorio, in a victory for fair use of copyrighted material and people’s right to fight back against bad faith Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)...Anonymous speech is an important protection for those concerned about political or economic retribution, harassment, or even threats to their lives. The shield that protects those speakers’ anonymity in U.S. court is the First Amendment, and applying the appropriate constitutional test during litigation allows a court to appropriately balance the...Software robots should not be deciding whether your creative content, whether written words, videos, photos, or music, ought to be pulled off the internet.That’s what we told the U.S. Copyright office in arguing against requiring service providers to embrace “standard technical measures” to address...Washington D.C.—The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) a federal appeals court to block enforcement of onerous copyright rules that violate the First Amendment and criminalize certain speech about technology, preventing researchers, tech innovators, filmmakers, educators, and others from creating and sharing their work.EFF, with co-counsel Wilson Sonsini Goodrich &amp;...The Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas will be . Those attending this weekend’s hybrid event will have a with the man who heads the department responsible for surveillance of immigrants, Muslims, Black activists, and other marginalized...Whether it’s “bringing the world closer together” (Facebook), “organizing the world’s information” (Google), to be a market “where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online” (Amazon) or “to make personal computing accessible to each and every individual” (Apple), the founding missions of tech giants reveal...Security research is vital to protecting the computers upon which we all depend, and protecting the people who have integrated electronic devices into their daily lives. To conduct security research, we need to protect the researchers, and allow them the tools to find and fix vulnerabilities. The Digital Millennium Copyright...Share It

Email updates on news, actions,and events in your area.DEEPLINKS BLOGShare ItUnder traditional copyright law, security research is a well-established fair use, meaning it does not infringe copyright. When it was passed in 1998, Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act upset the balance of copyright law. Since then, the balance has been further upset as it has been interpreted so broadly by some courts that it effectively eliminates fair use if you have to bypass an access control like encryption to make that fair use.The District Court’s makes this shift crystal-clear. Corellium...

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Section 1201’s Harm to Security Research Shown by Mixed Decision in Corellium Case

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