Katharine Trendacosta
EFF
Redmond, WA, United States
Contact Katharine
Discover and connect with journalists and influencers around the world, save time on email research, monitor the news, and more.
| Recent: |
|
| Past: |
|
Past articles by Katharine:
It’s Copyright Week 2023: Join Us in the Fight for Better Copyright Law and Policy
We're taking part in Copyright Week, a series of actions and discussions supporting key principles that should guide copyright policy. Every day this week, various groups are taking on different elements of copyright law and policy, and addressing what's at stake, and what we need to do to make... → Read More
Stop the Copyright Creep
In 2020, two copyright-related proposals became law despite the uproar against them. The first was the unconstitutional CASE Act. The second was a felony streaming proposal that had never been seen or debated in public. In fact, its inclusion was in the news before its text was ever made public.... → Read More
Tell the Copyright Office Who Is Really Affected by Filters
Right now, the U.S. Copyright Office is collecting information on the use of "standard technical measures" to address copyright infringement, as part of a longer effort that, we fear, will lead to filtering mandates.The Copyright Office is also holding a plenary session on February 22, to hear from... → Read More
California Prevails on Net Neutrality Rules
The Ninth Circuit ruled in favor of California over the large national internet service providers (ISPs), paving the way for California’s gold standard state net neutrality law to go forward. Throughout the long battle on net neutrality, from Ajit Pai’s repeal of federal net neutrality protections to state efforts to establish their own protections and all the resulting → Read More
It’s Copyright Week 2022: Ten Years Later, How Has SOPA/PIPA Shaped Online Copyright Enforcement?
Ten years ago, a diverse coalition of internet users, non-profit groups, and internet companies defeated the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA), bills that would have forced internet companies to blacklist and block websites accused of hosting copyright-infringing content. These were bills that would have made censorship very easy, all in the name of → Read More
YouTube’s New Copyright Transparency Report Leaves a Lot Out
YouTube recently released a transparency report on the status of copyright claims for the first half of 2021. It says it will release these numbers biannually from now on. We applaud this move towards transparency, since it gives researchers a better look at what’s happening on the world’s largest... → Read More
The Internet Needs Fair Rules of the Road – and Competitive Drivers
In the past few weeks, the Biden Administration has finally moved forward with nominations to the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Communications Commission. One of those nominees, Gigi Sohn (who, fair disclosure, has been an EFF board member), is testifying right now, and we expect a vote... → Read More
Why Is It So Hard to Figure Out What to Do When You Lose Your Account?
We get a lot of requests for help here at EFF, with our tireless intake coordinator being the first point of contact for many. All too often, however, the help needed isn’t legal or technical. Instead, users just need an answer to a simple question: what does this company want me to do to get my... → Read More
SHOP SAFE Is Another Attempt to Fix Big Tech That Will Mostly Harm Small Players and Consumers
Congress is once again trying to fix a very specific problem with a broad solution. We support the SHOP SAFE Act’s underlying goal of protecting consumers from unsafe and defective counterfeit products. The problem is that SHOP SAFE tackles the issue in a way that would make it incredibly difficult... → Read More
What Cops Understand About Copyright Filters: They Prevent Legal Speech
It's a shocking attempt to thwart activists’ First Amendment right to record the police—and a practical demonstration that cops understand what too many policymakers do not: copyright can offer an easy way to shut down lawful expression. → Read More
AT&T’s HBO Max Deal Was Never Free
When it launched HBO Max, AT&T also announced that usage of the service would not count against the data caps of its customers, a practice known as “zero-rating.” This means that people on limited data plans could watch as much HBO Max content as they wished without incurring overage fees. AT&T just declared that it would stop this practice, citing California’s net neutrality → Read More
An Antitrust Exemption for News Media Won’t Take Us Back to the Time Before Big Tech
Something is rotten online. Facebook and Google dominate the market on online advertising, depleting the resources needed by any other company reliant on serving digital content. For news media, the confluence of an increasingly digital world with Google and Facebook’s siphoning of online... → Read More
Cops Using Music to Try to Stop Being Filmed Is Just the Tip of the Iceberg
Someone tries to livestream their encounters with the police, only to find that the police started playing music. In the case of a February 5 meeting between an activist and the Beverly Hills Police Department, the song of choice was Sublime’s “Santeria.” The police may not got no crystal ball, but... → Read More
Some Answers to Questions About the State of Copyright in 2021
In all the madness that made up the last month of 2020, a number of copyright bills and proposals popped up—some even became law before most people had any chance to review them. So now that the dust has settled a little and we have some better idea what the landscape is going to look like, it is... → Read More
YouTube’s Copyright Filter Is Crushing Video Critique—And It’s Getting Worse
Video creators' legal content is being censored by YouTube’s copyright filter. And thanks to a new proposed law by Sen. Thom Tillis, Brewis’ experience could become virtually everyone’s. → Read More
This Disastrous Copyright Proposal Goes Straight to Our Naughty List
Just yesterday we saw two wretched copyright bills-the CASE Act and a felony streaming bill -- slipped into law via a must-pass spending bill. But it seems some people in Congress were just getting started. Today, Senator Thom Tillis launched a "discussion draft" of the so-called Digital Copyright... → Read More
Unfiltered: How YouTube’s Content ID Discourages Fair Use and Dictates What We See Online
ContentsIntroductionYouTube's Content ID: Culture of FearCase Study 1: hbomberguyHow Content ID Dictates Expression on YouTube: Practically, Fair Use Has No EffectCase Study 2: Todd in the Shadows Creators Cannot Leave or Meaningfully Challenge the System: Where Am I Supposed to Go?Case Study 3:... → Read More
What Really Does and Doesn’t Work for Fair Use in the DMCA
On July 28, the Senate Committee on the Judiciary held another in its year-long series of hearings on the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). The topic of this hearing was “How Does the DMCA Contemplate Limitations and Exceptions Like Fair Use?” We’re glad Congress is asking the question.... → Read More
Streaming Is Laying Bare How Big ISPs, Big Tech, and Big Media Work Together Against Users
HBO Max is incredible. Not because it is good, but because of how many problems with the media landscape it epitomizes. If you ever had trouble seeing where monopoly, net neutrality, and technology intertwine, well then thanks, I guess, to AT... → Read More
Internet Users of All Kinds Should Be Concerned by a New Copyright Office Report
Outside of the beltway, people all over the United States are taking to the streets to demand fundamental change. In the halls of Congress and the White House, however, many people seem to think the biggest thing that needs to be restructured is the Internet. Last week, the president issued an... → Read More