For years, studios and networks have depended on San Diego Comic-Con to get fans excited about their upcoming shows and movies. Though the format shifted to an online format this year, that didn’t stop the likes of Marvel, CBS, and Cartoon Network from showing up and streaming their events online....

Did you know that anything created by federal government employees, under American law, can’t be copyrighted? They go right into the public domain. That means it’s impossible for there to be any copyright infringement on, say, a report by the Special Counsel on the investigation into the President and...

Update August 10, 2018: Google has confirmed that it has removed Topple Track from its Trusted Copyright Removal Program membership due to a pattern of problematic notices.Symphonic Distribution (which runs Topple Track) contacted EFF to apologize for the improper takedown notices. It said that “bugs within the system that resulted...

Using word searches to find infringement is a bad way to go about things. It is likely why Volkswagen filed three takedown requests for art of beetles. Not Beetles with four wheels and headlights. Beetles with six legs and hard, shiny carapaces. For the record, Volkswagen holds no rights to...

Don Henley and Glenn Frey's attorneys submitted a YouTube counter-notice and issued a cease & desist letter threatening massive copyright liability damages to A political ad supporting a voter proposition regulating private "hotel-like" short-term rentals, Prop F. At issue was a parody song "Hotel California," titled "Hotel San Francisco."The takedown...

A YouTube channel called LiberalViewer regularly engages in political commentary, and usually criticizes Fox News’ presentation of news events. In one such video, uploaded in January 2008, LiberalViewer criticized the way Fox News abruptly cut away from a speech being delivered by then-candidate Obama. Back then, Obama’s campaign frequently...

There’s a community of AIDS denialists trying to convince the world that the medical science behind, and treatment for, HIV/AIDS is all wrong. What is worse, they are trying to convince HIV positive people not to take life-saving medications. One of their principal propaganda tools is the movie “House of...

The Alberta tourism bureau—which shares a law firm with some of the Canadian province's major oil companies—used a copyright takedown notice to try to smother a movie trailer that satirizes Alberta's oil sands project. The two-and-a-half-minute trailer used about four seconds of an Alberta travel advertisement to contrast its lush...

The Raspberry Beret Lifetime Aggrievement Award is granted for extraordinary abuses of the takedown process in the name of silencing speech. And of course we're proud to bestow the inaugural title on the artist formerly known as The Artist Formerly Known As Prince himself.
Prince is far from alone...

Fox owns a TV show called Homeland. It doesn't own the word "homeland," the concept of a homeland, or the many other works that go by the name "Homeland." But it seems no one thought to tell that to Fox's automated copyright enforcement bots that are programmed to send massive...

Louisville-based Kern's Kitchen has asserted a trademark over the term "Derby Pie," a popular Southern dessert made with chocolate and walnuts. For decades, Kern’s has threatened and sued restaurants that include derby pies on the menu and magazines that have the temerity to share “derby pie” recipes, even though...

In mid-July 2011, technology news blog Techdirt featured an article that explored the copyright ambiguities that arose after a monkey took some amusing self-portraits. The monkey used a camera left out by photographer David Slater, who was working for Caters News Agency. Though the question of who—if anybody—owns the...

In late June of 2011, media advocacy group Free Press launched their "Change the Channels" campaign, condemning examples of covert media consolidation around the United States. A week later, broadcast company Newport Television sent over a cease-and-desist letter, alleging that Free Press infringed on its copyrights by showing a...

Obscure but true — phone companies and Internet service providers charge U.S. law enforcement and spy agencies a fee to turn over subscribers' communications and records, pursuant to law. Whistleblower site Cryptome published a leaked a copy of Yahoo's "Compliance Guide for Law Enforcement," the web company's marketing material...

In September 2009, "Photoshop Disasters" -- a blog covering egregious photo editing missteps -- published a photo of a Polo Ralph Lauren ad in which the model's body was grotesquely smaller than her head. Internet culture blog Boing Boing noticed the oddity and reposted the picture, with some additional commentary....