http://www.eff.org/IP/
Intellectual Property
You'd like to move the tracks you bought from Rhapsody to a
personal stereo like Apple's iPod, but the copy protection prevents
you. Creating or using the software necessary to make the switch
could put you behind bars.
You want to distribute your hip hop band's music, but the P2P
system that's revolutionized your ability to reach listeners is
being sued out of existence, a company claiming to own a patent to
all streaming media technology is demanding licensing fees, and
record labels are breathing down your neck over the samples you've
looped.
You want to criticize Vivendi Universal on your website or blog,
but the plug's been pulled on your "vivendisucks" domain name
because of its unflattering reference to the company's
trademark.
You want to build an open-source video recorder, but threats of a
"broadcast flag" technology mandate are driving the TV tuners you
need off the market.
In each of these instances and many more, your freedom runs up
against intellectual property (IP). IP serves important public
purposes: encouraging creativity (copyrights) and innovation
(patents and trade secrets) and protecting the public from being
defrauded by misleading advertising (trademarks). At the same time,
IP must be carefully limited to protect your rights to create,
access, and distribute information, as well as to develop new ways
to do so.
In the move from analog to digital, offline to online, this
delicate balance is becoming dangerously tilted, as legislators,
courts, and IP holders push for ratcheting up IP rights.
EFF fights to preserve balance and ensure that the Internet and
digital technologies continue to empower you as a consumer,
creator, innovator, scholar, and citizen.