Email updates on news, actions,and events in your area.DEEPLINKS BLOGShare ItEthos Capital is at it again. In 2019, this secretive private equity firm that includes insiders from the domain name industry the nonprofit that runs the .ORG domain. A huge coalition of nonprofits and users . Governments expressed alarm, and ICANN (the entity in charge of the internet’s domain name system) . Now Ethos is buying a controlling stake in , the largest operator of “new generic top-level domains.” Donuts controls a large swathe of the domain name space. And through a recent , it also runs the technical...…Email updates on news, actions,and events in your area.DEEPLINKS BLOGShare ItEthos Capital is at it again. In 2019, this secretive private equity firm that includes insiders from the domain name industry the nonprofit that runs the .ORG domain. A huge coalition of nonprofits and users . Governments expressed alarm, and ICANN (the entity in charge of the internet’s domain name system) . Now Ethos is buying a controlling stake in , the largest operator of “new generic top-level domains.” Donuts controls a large swathe of the domain name space. And through a recent , it also runs the technical...WW…

Email updates on news, actions,and events in your area.DEEPLINKS BLOGShare ItRock climbers have a tradition of sharing “beta”—helpful information about a route—with other climbers. Giving beta is both useful and a form of community-building within this popular sport. Given that strong tradition of sharing, we were disappointed to learn that the owners of an important community website, , were abusing copyright to try to shut down another site . The good news is that OpenBeta’s creator is not backing down—and EFF is standing with him.Viet Nguyen, a climber and coder, created OpenBeta to...…Email updates on news, actions,and events in your area.DEEPLINKS BLOGShare ItRock climbers have a tradition of sharing “beta”—helpful information about a route—with other climbers. Giving beta is both useful and a form of community-building within this popular sport. Given that strong tradition of sharing, we were disappointed to learn that the owners of an important community website, , were abusing copyright to try to shut down another site . The good news is that OpenBeta’s creator is not backing down—and EFF is standing with him.Viet Nguyen, a climber and coder, created OpenBeta to...WW…

Email updates on news, actions,and events in your area.DEEPLINKS BLOGShare ItAntitrust enforcers charged with protecting us from monopolists have awoke from decades-long hibernation to finally address something users have known, and been paying for with their private data, for years: Facebook’s acquisitions of rival platforms have harmed social media users by reducing competition, leaving them with fewer choices and creating a personal data-hoovering behemoth whose profiling capabilities only cement its dominance.Now the government’s enforcers want Facebook broken up. The company’s...…Email updates on news, actions,and events in your area.DEEPLINKS BLOGShare ItAntitrust enforcers charged with protecting us from monopolists have awoke from decades-long hibernation to finally address something users have known, and been paying for with their private data, for years: Facebook’s acquisitions of rival platforms have harmed social media users by reducing competition, leaving them with fewer choices and creating a personal data-hoovering behemoth whose profiling capabilities only cement its dominance.Now the government’s enforcers want Facebook broken up. The company’s...WW…

Email updates on news, actions,and events in your area.DEEPLINKS BLOGShare ItThe Internet’s domain name system is not the place to police speech. ICANN, the organization that regulates that system, is legally bound not to act as the Internet’s speech police, but its legal commitments are riddled with exceptions, and aspiring censors have already used those exceptions in harmful ways. This was one factor that made the of the .ORG registry such a dangerous situation. But now, ICANN has an opportunity to curb this abuse and recommit to its narrow mission of keeping the DNS running, by placing...…Email updates on news, actions,and events in your area.DEEPLINKS BLOGShare ItThe Internet’s domain name system is not the place to police speech. ICANN, the organization that regulates that system, is legally bound not to act as the Internet’s speech police, but its legal commitments are riddled with exceptions, and aspiring censors have already used those exceptions in harmful ways. This was one factor that made the of the .ORG registry such a dangerous situation. But now, ICANN has an opportunity to curb this abuse and recommit to its narrow mission of keeping the DNS running, by placing...WW…

Email updates on news, actions,and events in your area.DEEPLINKS BLOGShare ItFacebook claims that their role as guardian of users’ privacy gives them the power to shut down apps that give users more control over their own social media experience. Facebook is wrong. The latest example is their legal bullying of Friendly Social Browser.Friendly is a web browser with plugins geared towards Facebook, Instagram, and other social media sites. It’s been around since 2010 and has a passionate following. Friendly offers ad and tracker blocking and simplifies downloading of photos and videos. It lets...…Email updates on news, actions,and events in your area.DEEPLINKS BLOGShare ItFacebook claims that their role as guardian of users’ privacy gives them the power to shut down apps that give users more control over their own social media experience. Facebook is wrong. The latest example is their legal bullying of Friendly Social Browser.Friendly is a web browser with plugins geared towards Facebook, Instagram, and other social media sites. It’s been around since 2010 and has a passionate following. Friendly offers ad and tracker blocking and simplifies downloading of photos and videos. It lets...WW…

Email updates on news, actions,and events in your area.DEEPLINKS BLOGShare ItGitHub recently , a popular free software tool for downloading videos from YouTube and other user-uploaded video platforms. GitHub had taken down the repository last month after the .By shoehorning DMCA 1201 into the notice-and-takedown process, RIAA potentially sets a very dangerous precedent.The removal of youtube-dl’s source code caused an outcry. The tool is used by journalists and activists to save eyewitness videos, by YouTubers to save backup copies of their own uploaded videos, and by people with slow or...…Email updates on news, actions,and events in your area.DEEPLINKS BLOGShare ItGitHub recently , a popular free software tool for downloading videos from YouTube and other user-uploaded video platforms. GitHub had taken down the repository last month after the .By shoehorning DMCA 1201 into the notice-and-takedown process, RIAA potentially sets a very dangerous precedent.The removal of youtube-dl’s source code caused an outcry. The tool is used by journalists and activists to save eyewitness videos, by YouTubers to save backup copies of their own uploaded videos, and by people with slow or...WW…

Email updates on news, actions,and events in your area.DEEPLINKS BLOGShare ItThe antitrust lawsuit against Google filed by the Department of Justice (DOJ) and eleven state attorneys general has the potential to be the most important competition case against a technology company since the DOJ’s 1998 suit against Microsoft. The is broad, covering Google’s power over search generally, along with . Instead of asking for money damages, the complaint asks for Google to be restructured and its illegal behavior restricted.This suit flows from investigations by the DOJ Antitrust Division that have ....…Email updates on news, actions,and events in your area.DEEPLINKS BLOGShare ItThe antitrust lawsuit against Google filed by the Department of Justice (DOJ) and eleven state attorneys general has the potential to be the most important competition case against a technology company since the DOJ’s 1998 suit against Microsoft. The is broad, covering Google’s power over search generally, along with . Instead of asking for money damages, the complaint asks for Google to be restructured and its illegal behavior restricted.This suit flows from investigations by the DOJ Antitrust Division that have ....WW…

Email updates on news, actions,and events in your area.DEEPLINKS BLOGShare ItU.S. antitrust enforcers are reported to be crafting a lawsuit against Google (and its parent company, Alphabet). The Department of Justice and a large coalition of state attorneys general are meeting this week and could file suit . While it will reportedly focus on Google’s dominance in online advertising and search, the suit could encompass many more facets of Google’s conduct, including its dominance in mobile operating systems and Web browsers. This suit has the potential to be the most significant antitrust...…Email updates on news, actions,and events in your area.DEEPLINKS BLOGShare ItU.S. antitrust enforcers are reported to be crafting a lawsuit against Google (and its parent company, Alphabet). The Department of Justice and a large coalition of state attorneys general are meeting this week and could file suit . While it will reportedly focus on Google’s dominance in online advertising and search, the suit could encompass many more facets of Google’s conduct, including its dominance in mobile operating systems and Web browsers. This suit has the potential to be the most significant antitrust...WW…

Email updates on news, actions,and events in your area.DEEPLINKS BLOGShare ItShare ItIn a new round of talks this week to formulate a , EFF is calling for strictly limiting the scope of the convention’s international cooperation provisions and safeguards to ensure that states respect human rights when responding to legal assistance requests.EFF is among a group of ...Even in the face of strong public protest over a set of proposed revisions to criminal laws that infringe Indonesians’ free expression rights, the Indonesian Ministry of Law and Human Rights last month that threatens to...…Email updates on news, actions,and events in your area.DEEPLINKS BLOGShare ItShare ItIn a new round of talks this week to formulate a , EFF is calling for strictly limiting the scope of the convention’s international cooperation provisions and safeguards to ensure that states respect human rights when responding to legal assistance requests.EFF is among a group of ...Even in the face of strong public protest over a set of proposed revisions to criminal laws that infringe Indonesians’ free expression rights, the Indonesian Ministry of Law and Human Rights last month that threatens to...WW…

Email updates on news, actions,and events in your area.DEEPLINKS BLOGShare ItShare ItIn response to the very real pressures that online news outlets are facing, Congress continues to believe the very flawed Journalism Competition and Preservation Act (JCPA) is a magic solution. It is not. In fact, it is actively dangerous. And there’s a available....In May, Senators Mike Lee, Amy Klobuchar, Ted Cruz, and Richard Blumenthal introduced the “.” The bill, also called the “Digital Advertising Act” or just “DAA” for short, is an ambitious attempt to regulate, and even break up, the biggest online...…Email updates on news, actions,and events in your area.DEEPLINKS BLOGShare ItShare ItIn response to the very real pressures that online news outlets are facing, Congress continues to believe the very flawed Journalism Competition and Preservation Act (JCPA) is a magic solution. It is not. In fact, it is actively dangerous. And there’s a available....In May, Senators Mike Lee, Amy Klobuchar, Ted Cruz, and Richard Blumenthal introduced the “.” The bill, also called the “Digital Advertising Act” or just “DAA” for short, is an ambitious attempt to regulate, and even break up, the biggest online...WW…