January 2012

The Problem – Smartphones, tablets, and video game consoles are powerful computers with lots of untapped potential. Yet many of these devices are set up to run only software that’s been approved by the manufacturer. Modifying a device to run independent software – known as jailbreaking – is important to programmers, enthusiasts, and users. But jailbreaking creates legal uncertainty. Some device manufacturers claim that jailbreaking violates Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which carries stiff penalties.

The Solution – EFF is asking the U.S. Copyright Office to declare that jailbreaking does not violate the DMCA, and we need your help. In 2010, the Copyright Office said jailbreaking smartphones doesn’t violate the DMCA. This year, we’re asking them to renew that exemption (otherwise it will expire) and expand it to cover tablets. We’re also asking for a new exemption to allow jailbreaking of video game consoles.

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation has quietly released details of plans to continuously monitor the global output of Facebook, Twitter and other social networks, offering a rare glimpse into an activity that the FBI and other government agencies are reluctant to discuss publicly.

The plans show that the bureau believes it can use information pulled from social media sites to better respond to crises, and maybe even to foresee them. The information comes from a document released on 19 January looking for companies who might want to build a monitoring system for the FBI. It spells out what the bureau wants from such a system and invites potential contractors to reply by 10 February. The bureau's wish list calls for the system to be able to automatically search "publicly available" material from Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites for keywords relating to terrorism, surveillance operations, online crime and other FBI missions. Agents would be alerted if the searches produce evidence of "breaking events, incidents, and emerging threats". Agents will have the option of displaying the tweets and other material captured by the system on a map, to which they can add layers of other data, including the locations of US embassies and military installations, details of previous terrorist attacks and the output from local traffic cameras.

The European Union signed up to the controversial Anti Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) despite widespread opposition, particularly in Poland, where people took to the streets in protest.

The agreement was officially signed in Tokyo by 22 European member states. Cyprus, Estonia, Slovakia, Germany, and the Netherlands did not sign, but committed to do so in the near future, according to the European Parliament's Green party. The agreement seeks to enforce intellectual property rights and combat online piracy and illegal software. But opponents of ACTA claim it goes far beyond the U.S.' doomed SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) legislation and encourages ISPs to police the internet without any legal safeguards. SOPA is being revised after receiving broad criticism. The ACTA agreement, meanwhile, has been mired in controversy from the beginning due to secrecy imposed by the U.S. and worries that it may not uphold E.U. rules on data privacy. The most controversial paragraph in the final text leaves the door open for countries to introduce the so-called three-strikes rule, which would require Internet users to be cut off if they continue to download copyright material after receiving two warnings, as national authorities would be able to order ISPs to disclose personal information about customers. Although the agreement has been signed, it still has to go through a ratification procedure in the EU.

Two controversial anti-piracy bills, now effectively dead in the water, attracted enormous lobbying attention on both sides. A total of 145 companies and organizations lobbied the House of Representatives for and against the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), while 157 groups lobbied for and against its sister bill in the Senate, the Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA), according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

The largest proponents came primarily from the commerce and media industries. Comcast was by far the biggest lobbyist, spending upwards of $5 million on the issue. Visa and MasterCard spent several hundred thousand dollars, as did National Amusements, AT&T News Corp. and Time Warner, CNNMoney's parent company. The cable, motion picture and recording industry lobbies also spent heavily in support of the bills.

In opposition to the bills, Google was the largest lobbyist, spending about $4 million. Also opposing the bills were eBay, Yahoo, Amazon and the Web's domain registry, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.