Techdirt

We’ve noted a few times that Elon Musk’s Starlink broadband service is great if you have no other options. It’s also great if you’ve spent an eternity stuck on an expensive 3 Mbps DSL line straight out of 2003, or a traditional, capped, expensive satellite broadband connection. Being able to get 100 Mbps in the […]

Along with the call for law enforcement reforms following the inflection point created by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin’s murder of George Floyd, there has been increasing demand for bail reform. Bail reform isn’t new. It’s something activists and politicians have attempted to achieve for years. The problem with bail is that it exacerbates what’s […]

Oh, Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. Whatever will you do next? The qualified immunity complaints of Judge Don Willett notwithstanding, the Fifth Circuit is where you go if you want batshit decisions that run contrary to common sense, much less established constitutional law. If you need a decision that sides with the government — no […]

Back in the early aughts, when I wrote exclusively about the broadband sector, you literally couldn’t go a week without a story about a cable broadband technician falling asleep on the job, blowing up homes, occasionally murdering people or getting arrested for torturing and spray painting kittens. The problem was several fold: one, these companies’ executives were so fixated […]

Back in May, an 11th Circuit appeals court panel found that Florida’s ridiculous content moderation law was clearly unconstitutional, mostly upholding a district court ruling saying the same thing. As you’ll recall, Florida passed this law, mainly in response to Trump being banned from social media, that limits how websites can moderate content, largely focused […]

This refurbished iPad 7 is a great choice for anyone who loves to read, surf the web, and play games. This 10.2-inch A10 Fusion powerhouse has a beautiful “Retina” display, is powered by a four-core 2.33 GHz Apple A10 Fusion processor, and has up to 10 hours of battery life. With 8MP back camera, 1.2MP […]

When a Cellebrite device is hooked up to a seized phone, the operator presses a few buttons to pull pretty much every bit of data from the device. From there, investigators can try to find the evidence they’re seeking. While the FBI continues to claim device encryption is preventing law enforcement from accessing evidence, plenty […]

So, we’ve talked quite a bit about the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act (JCPA), Senator Amy Klobuchar’s attempt to do Rupert Murdoch’s bidding and force successful internet companies to send cash to media companies for… linking to them. Yes, not only do the news orgs want the traffic from Google, but they also want to […]

In 2019, the Supreme Court of the United States resolved a long-running lawsuit over asset forfeiture. Indiana resident Tyson Timbs had his $42,000 Land Rover seized by law enforcement following his sale of $260 of heroin to an undercover officer. The basis of his challenge were the 8th and 14th Amendments of the US Constitution, […]

Remember when AT&T spent more than $200 billion to acquire Time Warner and DirecTV in the belief it would help the telecom dominate video advertising? Then remember when company leadership was so monumentally incompetent they had to run to the exits in terror? Good times. After AT&T’s gambit fell apart, the company returned to what […]

When the Elon Musk/Twitter drama landed in the Delaware Court Of Chancery, it thrust specialist publication The Chancery Daily into the spotlight, and they began offering up excellent explainers on this important court that most people knew very little about. The people behind the publication have decided to remain anonymous amidst the influx of attention, […]

Courthouse News Service takes home another win in the ongoing fight for the respect of the First Amendment. For years, courts received filings printed on paper. Those filings were routinely made available to journalists almost immediately. Whatever processing needed to be done could be interrupted long enough to make copies for reporters. Nothing slowed down […]

The problems with Clearview AI’s facial recognition system, particularly in the hands of police, are myriad and serious. That the technology exists as it does at all raises significant ethical concerns, and how it has been used to feed people into the criminal justice system raises significant due process ones as well. But an article […]

The Microsoft Surface Laptop (refurbished) delivers incredible performance with its 2.5 GHz Intel Core i5 processor and 8GB of RAM. It offers an improved 13.5″ PixelSense display. It has either a 128GB or 256GB hard drive capacity. You can be productive anywhere you go. Its compact size makes it perfect for travel or taking to […]

Legal battles have been fought for most of a decade now over access to the full CIA Torture Report. A limited release at the tail end of 2014 — the 525-page, heavily redacted “Executive Summary” — is all the general public has been given access to. What was in the summary was horrifying enough. But […]

This FCC this week formally announced it had finally started gathering more accurate broadband mapping data from U.S. ISPs after more than a decade of complaints about mapping accuracy. “On June 30, the Federal Communications Commission opened the first ever window to collect information from broadband providers in every state and territory about precisely where […]

At this point, we probably have enough stories about companies trying to bury leaked information or content that hasn’t been publicly released via DMCA takedowns that it warrants its own metatag. It’s both amazing and frustrating that this is still a tactic companies, particularly tech companies, think somehow works. It doesn’t. Once a leak is […]

The US government passed the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act in 1986, years before computers became something everyone had at home and carried around in their pockets every day. The CFAA had a purpose, but its value declined as computing advanced. The abuse it was written to address tended to take a backseat to abuses […]

The EU Copyright Directive contains one of the worst ideas in modern copyright: what amounts to a requirement to filter uploads on major sites. Despite repeated explanations of why this would cause huge harm to both creators and members of the public, EU politicians were taken in by the soothing words of the legislation’s proponents, who even went […]

Current Los Angeles County sheriff Alex Villanueva campaigned with the promise he would clean up the literally gang-infested Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department (LASD). Once he took office, however, he just became part of the problem. Rogue units of deputies continued to freely operate, resulting in federal lawsuits, a bunch of whistleblowing, and [re-reads report] the […]

Disneyland can be a fun experience for kids (and potentially a frustrating one for parents), but it’s a very controlled environment in which everything is set up to bend over backwards to be welcoming to children. And that’s great for what it is, but the world would kinda suck if everything was Disneyland. I mean, […]

Sporting a full-sized 9.7″ LED-backlit Retina display with a resolution of 2048×1536, this refurbished 5th Gen iPad lets you surf the web, watch videos, or view files on a clearer, wider screen. Powered by a dual-core 1.8GHz Apple A9 processor, with 4GB of RAM and 128GB of flash memory storage, this iPad gives a smooth […]

The Saudi government is decidedly unconcerned that other nations may have concerns about its censorship efforts. I mean, if need be, it will murder and dismember critics who prove unwilling to be silenced by less drastic efforts. Having some of the keys to the oil kingdom helps, providing leverage against foreign governments that may want […]

When it comes to manhandling US regulators and gutting telecom industry oversight, the nation’s biggest telecom monopolies have had an impressive five year run. Under Trump, they managed to lobotomize FCC consumer protection authority, dismantle federal net neutrality rules, dismantle media consolidation rules and get all of their planned megamergers approved, kill off broadband privacy […]

It seems anti-cheat technology is the new DRM. By that I mean that, with the gaming industry diving headfirst into the competitive online gaming scene, the concern over piracy has shifted into a concern over cheating making those online games less attractive to gamers. And because the anti-cheat tech that companies are using is starting […]

No matter how expensive law enforcement is, it can always get more expensive. Most agencies demand outsized portions of local budgets. That’s just the ground floor. Cops want more money and less accountability. Perpetually. The cost of keeping bad cops on the payroll is far, far more than their paychecks. Bad cops generate lawsuits, which […]

It’s been seven years since Congress last introduced a federal anti-SLAPP law (and that was six years after the previous attempt). So here we are, and once again we’ve finally got a federal anti-SLAPP law introduced in Congress, this time by Rep. Jamie Raskin, who recently held a hearing focusing on SLAPP lawsuit attacks against […]

You might recall that Elon Musk claims that he hates taxpayer subsidies. They should all be “deleted.” Except for the subsidies given to his companies, apparently. You might recall that Musk’s Starlink gamed the Trump FCC Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) to grab $886 million in taxpayer dollars. It was a deal consumer groups noted […]

The “Constitution-free zone” — the area within 100 miles of any border crossing, port of entry, or international airport — now apparently covers the entire country in perpetuity. Border agencies — mainly Customs and Border Protection (CBP) — have steadily increased the number of device searches they do every year. Sometimes the search is limited […]

Go anywhere and stay connected with 4G LTE (unlocked, must provide own SIM) on the refurbished Galaxy Tab A (8.4″”, 2020). With a long-lasting battery, you can stream your favorite music, shows, and movies for over 10 hours on a single charge. Whether you’re traveling, unwinding, or enjoying a quick break, Galaxy Tab A’s compact, […]

A story made the rounds recently about how Airbnb effectively banned Bethany Hallam for life. Hallam, an Allegheny County, Pennsylvania councilperson received a notification from Airbnb that a third party it used for background checks had noted a “criminal records match” in doing a background check, and she would not be able to use Airbnb […]

During the COVID crisis, the FCC launched the Emergency Broadband Benefit (EBB program), which gives lower income Americans a $50 ($75 for those in tribal lands) discount off of their broadband bill. Under the program, the government gave money to ISPs, which then doled out discounts to users if they qualified. But (and I’m sure […]

This week, our winners on the insightful side are a pair of responses to the fearmongering CS professor who insisted that California’s protect-the-kids code is nothing to worry about. In first place, it’s an anonymous comment about misleading claims regarding Instagram and body image issues in teen girls: Why do those worried about body image […]

Five Years Ago This week in 2017, Comcast sued Vermont to try to get out of having to expand its broadband network, while it was also continuing to insist its sneaky, misleading fees were a form of transparency. Charles Harder lost a defamation lawsuit against The Deal, while the infamous Monkey Selfie case reached a […]

Racism is a human problem. When that problem wears badges, carries guns, and has the power to deprive people of life and liberty, it’s a much more serious problem. Many US law enforcement agencies have racist roots, agencies formed for the purpose of catching escaped slaves to return them to their white owners. Not every […]

As far as I can tell, in the area the 5th Circuit appeals court has jurisdiction, websites no longer have any 1st Amendment editorial rights. That’s the result of what appears to me to be the single dumbest court ruling I’ve seen in a long, long time, and I know we’ve seen some crazy rulings […]

At some point in the last five years, people in positions of media influence and power unilaterally decided that NYU marketing professor Scott Galloway was supposed to be everywhere, constantly, pontificating about absolutely everything, constantly. As a result, you now can’t go fifteen minutes without Galloway, who makes an estimated $5 million annually in speaking […]

Tuesday, former Twitter cybersecurity executive Pieter “Mudge” Zatko testified in front of a congressional committee regarding his whistleblower complaint[1][2][3] against Twitter. Though I’m a techie, I thought I’d write up some comments from the business angle. It’s difficult getting an unbiased viewpoint of the actual issues. The press sides with whistleblowers. The cybersecurity community sides […]

On Thursday, the White House hosted the United We Stand summit, to bring together people to take action against what they refer to as “hate-fueled violence.” This seems like a good idea for a summit, at a time when so much of politics is focused on grievances and culture wars that seem to inevitably lead […]

codeSpark’s mission is to help all kids learn to code by igniting their curiosity in computer science and turning programming into play. The app is designed to teach kids 4 to 9 the foundations of computer science through puzzles, coding challenges, and creative tools. It’s a great way for your kid to learn how to […]

When a proposed new law is sold as “protecting kids online,” regulators and commenters often accept the sponsors’ claims uncritically (because… kids). This is unfortunate because those bills can harbor ill-advised policy ideas. The California Age-Appropriate Design Code (AADC / AB2273, just signed by Gov. Newsom) is an example of such a bill. Despite its purported […]

We’ve already noted how Netflix’s password sharing crackdown is a dumb cash grab. The company already cordons users off into pay tiers based on a number of different criteria, including how many simultaneous streams a single account can already use at one time. And it just got done imposing a major price hike on most […]

One of the cornerstones of trademark law in most countries is that you cannot trademark descriptive terms or words. The reason for this should be obvious. If I start a search engine and want to trademark my company name, calling it “Google” differentiates me from the rest of the market. But if I named my […]

Well, this is unfortunate. We’ve already highlighted the many, many problems with the Online Safety Bill in the UK, which will be a massive attack on free speech, in that (among many other problems) it seeks to force websites to remove content even if it’s “lawful,” meaning that they will massively overcensor. As I’ve pointed […]

This isn’t a surprise, but it’s still frustrating. Gavin Newsom, who wants to be President some day, and thus couldn’t risk misleading headlines that he didn’t “protect the children,” has now signed AB 2273 into law (this follows on yesterday’s decision to sign the bad, but slightly less destructive, AB 587 into law). At this […]

Just a somewhat periodic reminder: publicly-funded colleges are government entities. Almost every public university is. Sometimes, they seem to forget what they are and act in ways governments can’t — not without violating rights. That inability to remember constraints imposed on it by inalienable rights is causing problems for Texas A&M University. And its arguments […]

For many years, we’ve written about the myth — that is still believed by many, including many policymakers and journalists — that big companies always win out by simply copying smaller more innovative companies, and just grabbing the market from them. While there are a few examples of this happening, it is much, much more […]

The GameCreators Mega Maker Pack Bundle will help you develop your own dream video game, and publish it on multiple platforms with thousands of royalty-free, 2D and 3D assets. You get AppGameKit Studio, a fully featured game development toolset with two asset packs. The bundle also has GameGuru, a non-technical and fun game maker that offers an […]

Between COVID relief and the new infrastructure bill there’s a massive, historic, $50+ billion taxpayer subsidy headed for the broadband industry that should do a lot of good in shoring up access in underserved locations. But we’ve also noted how the government still doesn’t have a great idea of where that money should be spent, […]

It should not be this hard to stamp out a bad idea, but here we are, with the JCPA continuing to haunt the country like a zombie that simply refuses to die. The JCPA, for those just tuning in, is a bill designed to create a link tax. Its supporters sometimes blanch at that description, […]