Techdirt

For decades now, airlines, hotels, cable companies, banks and a long list of other companies have bilked U.S. consumers out of billions of dollars annually via bullshit fees that unfairly jack up the advertised price of service. More interesting perhaps is the fact that it it took until 2023 for a U.S. federal regulator to [...]

This week, our first place winner on the insightful side is also our second place winner on the funny side. It's from That One Guy in response to our refusal to take down our posts about Appin: Someone didn't do their homework... If only there had been some way for Rajat Khare and Appin to [...]

As you likely know, at the beginning of January we launched the latest edition of our public domain game jam, Gaming Like It's 1928! We invited designers of all stripes to make analog and digital games using the material that entered the public domain this year (including the big one, Mickey Mouse). Now, the jam [...]

In January, after a lot of back and forth with TikTok, Universal Music Group announced it would not be renewing its license with the platform for its catalog of music that users could use in their videos. UMG's claimed reasoning for this was three-fold: TikTok wasn't doing enough to combat deepfakes of the artists it [...]

As our Error 402 series continues, I swear that eventually we're going to get to some of the more promising models and stuff that actually has been working in some cases shortly, but we're still covering some of the stuff that hasn't fully panned out (or, has only panned out in limited setups). For this [...]

We've well documented how giant telecom companies have taken billions of dollars in tax breaks, subsidies, and regulatory favors in exchange for fiber networks they only half deploy. We've also noted that when those big ISPs do finally deploy service, they tend to prioritize white, affluent neighborhoods - which generally see faster, cheaper, service than [...]

We've covered a few stories this week related to the Senate hearing on kids safety" and there's going to be a lot more in the coming weeks as those same Senators grandstand and yell about protect the children!" and generally make fools of themselves. I think Casey Newton's summary of the spectacle is about right: [...]

A half-decade ago, Amazon was an emerging player on the facial recognition scene. Its proprietary blend was called Rekognition." At the outset, Amazon was definitely interested in getting it in the hands of as many cops as possible. Documents obtained by the ACLU showed the company was courting law enforcement agencies, seeking to sell them [...]

MagStack is the perfect on-the-go wireless charging station that also transforms into a floating stand for smartphone FaceTime or video playback while charging. This 3-in-1 foldable design featuring 3 wireless charging spots, enables charging for up to 3 devices simultaneously, including iPhone, Apple Watch, AirPods Pro, AirPods with Wireless Charging Case, other Qi-compatible Android phones, [...]

For years now we've been covering the big ongoing fights between the US and the EU regarding the transfer of user data across the Atlantic. The main issue was that due to somewhat different data protection/privacy laws between the EU and the US, the two keep trying to work out a deal" that allows (mostly) [...]

Early last year new journalism outlet named The Messenger" launched to great fanfare. The brainchild of former The Hill owner Jimmy Finkelstein, the outlet launched with $50 million in backing anda lot of chatterabout how it was going to revolutionize U.S. journalism. Finkelstein claimed he wanted to build an alternative to a national news media" [...]

Well, this is certainly moving fast. We had begun talking about the recently released PC game Palworld as a great example of the idea/expression dichotomy in copyright law, specifically as the game has both been described as Pokemon, but with guns" while also not containing any specific Pokemon copyrighted expression within it. While the Pokemon [...]

A pair of conservative Republican lawmakers in the Utah state legislature have introduced legislation that would require porn filteringon all mobile devices sold within the state. Technically, the bill would require retailers and manufacturers to enable parental controls on phones and tablets sold in the Beehive State in a bid to protect minors from adult [...]

Back in April, we were joined on the podcast by Chris Riley, the Executive Director of the new nonprofit Data Transfer Initiative that aimed to promote data portability and empower users to transfer their data from one service to another. Today, the Initiative has released its first annual report (pdf link), and Chris is back [...]

So as you probably know, yesterday, the Senate held one of its semi-regular let's call tech CEOs to Congress and make ourselves look out of touch and foolish" hearings. This time the focus of the discussion was on children's safety," but there was little to no discussion on what it actually takes to protect children [...]

US Private Vaults has an interesting business model. It offered something akin to end-to-end-encryption for physical goods. Unlike banks and their safety deposit boxes, US Private Vaults did not collect or retain information about its customers. Nor did it retain master keys that would allow it to access stored goods. This lack of master keys [...]

Dive into Godot - a rising star in the game engine world. You'll learn to create platformers, RPGs, strategy games, FPS games, and more as you master this free and open-source engine with easily expandable systems. Plus, you'll also explore techniques for game design and game asset creation - giving you the ultimate techniques to [...]

Back in December, we wrote about Appin. We were not writing about the reports (of which there have been many) that the organization that started as a sort of cybersecurity training school, but morphed into a kind of hack-for-hire" scheme was involved in all sorts of nefarious activity. Rather we wrote about their (ab)use of [...]

When last we checked in with right wing propaganda mill One America News (OAN), the conspiratorial gibberish farm was busy trying to pretend (with the help of numerous Republican AGs) that DirecTV's decision to boot the network from its cable lineup was part ofa vast, diabolical cabalto censor conservatives (it wasn't, the channel simply isn't [...]

Here we go again. In the long and vaunted history of DRM in software, and especially in video games, there is one general truism: DRM tends to effect only legitimate buyers while so-called pirates" route around it completely. There are all kinds of anecdotal stories as to the annoyances at best, and game-crippling outcomes at [...]

One of the things we talk about quite a lot on Techdirt is how the easy" policy ideas that many people have aren't quite so easy, because everything has tradeoffs. You want strict privacy laws? Well, that might create issues for free speech and competition. You want stronger liability on social media services? Well, that's [...]

Last November, Maine residents voted overwhelmingly (83 percent) to pass a new state right to repair law designed to make auto repairs easier and more affordable. More specifically, the law requires that automakers standardize on-board diagnostic systems and provide remote access to those systems and mechanical datato consumers and third-party independent repair shops. But as [...]

As you've likely heard, this morning the Senate did one of its semi-regular hearings in which it drags tech CEOs in front of clueless Senators who make nonsense pronouncements in hopes of getting a viral clip to show up on the very social media they're pretending to demonize, but which they rely on to pretend [...]

Lots of things look pretty great up front but completely terrible in retrospect. Most of us, however, tend to weather our worst decisions without getting a foreign military force involved. Unfortunately for UK resident Aditya Verma, something that seemed funny at the moment soon turned into an international incident. Here's how it started, as reported [...]

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Starting this week, Amazon Prime Video customers (who already pay $140 per year) will be charged $3 extra every month just to avoid ads that didn't previously exist. Shifting toward ad-based tiers has been popular among streaming companies like Netflix, Max, Disney+, and Paramount. But whereas those services make a cheaper ad-based tier an opt-in [...]

Well, this is not that much of a surprise, but in the leadup to the Senate child safety" dog and pony show that will be happening in a few hours, Microsoft decided to twist the knife in to some of its competitors. Microsoft's Vice Chair and President, Brad Smith (who was formerly the company's general [...]

And here we go. We have spent the past couple of years discussing Microsoft's acquisition, and all the trials and tribulations that led to it, of Activision Blizzard. This deal, that faced mostly flaccid opposition from several national regulatory bodies throughout the world, cost Microsoft $69 billion, with a b", to consummate. And that's just [...]

You probably recall the subreddit WallStreetBets from the whole GameStonks! episode three years ago. Over the last year or so there's been a different legal issue related to that subreddit, though. Jaime Rogozinski, who created the WSB subreddit, ended up suing Reddit, after they shut down his account. There were a few different issues at [...]

First Amendment principles are nothing new. A ton of precedent has been established that firmly limits what the government can do to stop someone from saying something (and, less often, to force someone to say something). Prior restraint is pretty easy to recognize. And yet, every so often, a judge decides to rewrite the First [...]

The DOJ can be some vindictive sons of bitches. This has nothing to do with justice at all. This is just pure spite. As has been detailed over and over again, while the public story was that Backpage was taken down for facilitating sex trafficking, the real story is very, very different. The site actually [...]

Hey, everyone makes mistakes. Ring certainly did. Amazon's home surveillance acquisition realized there was no one in the residential space willing to slavishly cater to cops. Ring decided it would provide this supposed public service." It gave cops cheap/free cameras and urged them to hand them out to as many private citizens as possible. The [...]

You probably already know the benefits of learning a language, so let's focus on the app. Right off the bat, let's be clear about one thing: When we say app" we don't mean that you're limited to using Babbel on your phone. You can use Babbel on desktop, too, and your progress is synchronized across [...]

It is no secret that Senator Lindsey Graham hates Section 230. It's also no secret that he has no clue how the internet or Section 230 actually work. He's pushed bills to repeal 230 directly, and he's pushed bills to repeal 230 indirectly. He does not like Section 230 in a house, or with a [...]

Despite a lot of rhetoric by customers about how they were sick of Netflix price hikes and headed to the exits, the company's latest earnings report showed impressive growth. The company added 13.1 million customers worldwide in the fourth quarter, up from the 8.76 million added the previous quarter. All told, the once-disruptive streaming upstart [...]

The latest generative AI tools are certainly impressive, but they bring with them a wide range of complex problems, as numerous posts on Techdirt attest. A new academic paper, published on arXiv, raises more of them, but from a new angle. Entitled A Shocking Amount of the Web is Machine Translated: Insights from Multi-Way Parallelism", [...]

Just days ago, we were talking about the release of PC game Palworld, an open-world monster collecting game that has often been described as Pokemon, but with guns." The point of my post was that this game served as a great example of the idea/expression dichotomy in practice. This game, whatever similarities it may have [...]

Despite all evidence to the contrary, law enforcement officials continue to pretend being in the same room as dread drug fentanyl is enough to hospitalize officers, if not actually kill them. This myth has been irresponsibly perpetrated by a number of law enforcement agencies. To date, not a single case of contact overdose has been [...]

The Supreme Court is about to review Texas' HB20 law, that (among other unworkable things) says that websites cannot moderate based on viewpoint." Of course, websites don't moderate based on viewpoint, but rather whether or not they think you've violated their rules/terms of service. Should the law be allowed to go into effect, it's not [...]

Buying domestic data from data brokers is just something the government does all the time. Bypassing restraints enacted by the Supreme Court, federal agencies (along with local law enforcement agencies) are hoovering up whatever domestic data they can from private companies all too happy to be part of the problem. Sure, the government can pretend [...]

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Over and over again, we see politicians browbeat companies until they agree to support terrible legislation. Back when FOSTA was being debated, there was tremendous pressure from the media and Congress for tech to support it, falsely claiming that without it they were enabling sex trafficking. Eventually, after a ton of pressure was put on [...]

When last we checked in with Hewlett Packard (HP), the company had just been sued (for the second time) for crippling customer printers if owners attempt to use cheaper, third-party printer cartridges. It was just the latest in a long saga where printer manufacturers use DRM or dodgy software updates to wage all out war [...]

This week, both our top comments on the insightful side come in response to our post about the misrepresentation of Ben Franklin's opinion on content moderation by private platforms. In first place, it's an anonymous commenter with some clarification: So you, too, are unable to comprehend pretty basic sentences. Franklin is explaining that he can [...]

Five Years Ago This week in 2019, we took a close look at an interesting and challenging case about Section 230, while Google asked the Supreme Court to overturn the ruling about copyright in APIs. We wrote about the decline in broadband network investment post-net-neutrality despite promises from Ajit Pai and the telecoms. US media [...]

The mice finally agreed how they wanted the cat to behave, and congratulated each other on the difficult consensus. They celebrated in lavish cheese island retreats and especially feted those brave heroes who promised to place the bells and controls.The heroes received generous funding, with which they first built a safe fortress in which to [...]

As you may recall, Utah was the first of a bunch of states to pass one of the now increasingly popular laws trying to ban kids from social media. Utah legislators knew they'd get sued over it, and for that reason set a date for the law to go into effect in March of this [...]

The FBI's counter-terrorism work has always been noted for its willingness to radicalize people just to arrest them. The FBI has a lot of wins in the win column, but many of those wins have been obtained through... well, let's call it what it is: cheating. People with mental issues or deep wells of insecurity [...]

Okay, look, this post is basically a repost of a post from two years ago. But, because David Mamet has decided to refile the exact same amicus brief he filed for the 5th Circuit again at the Supreme Court, I figured we can repost the same exact post ripping it apart (with a few tiny [...]

There's not much that's more inadvertently hilarious than the efforts of law enforcement officials to convince the general public that simply being in the immediate area of fentanyl could result in instant death. That's not how drugs work. Drugs need to be ingested. While some drugs can obviously be absorbed through the skin, it takes [...]