Techdirt

Is it too much to ask that politicians try to live in reality? The obsession over the past few years that anything bad that people say on the internet is the fault of the internet (rather than the people using it) and must be outlawed is already problematic enough. But the politicians and their “solutions” […]

Governments love targeting Twitter for user data requests, but apparently now more than ever. The latest Twitter transparency report says new records are being set in the data request sector. The social network saw “record highs” in the number of account data requests during the July-December 2021 reporting period, with 47,572 legal demands on 198,931 […]

Learn the tech skills that will get you the job you want, or start your own business working with apps, websites, and computers with the Certified Coding Bundle. This bundle includes the internationally accredited courses Mobile App Development with Flutter and Dart, Introduction to Coding with HTML, CSS, and Javascript, Building Your Own Computer, and WordPress Website and Blog […]

As you may have heard, a few days ago, the FTC announced that it was seeking to block Meta’s acquisition of Within Unlimited, a maker of a popular VR fitness app. I believe this is the first case in which the Lina Khan-run FTC has stepped in to block an acquisition by one of the […]

At some point U.S. regulators effectively declared that it was okay to rip off consumers with a dizzying array of bogus fees, letting companies falsely advertise one rate, then sock you with a bunch of additional surcharges when the bill comes due. That’s particularly true of the cable and broadband industry, which has saddled consumers […]

Over these many years, we’ve talked about a myriad of ways in which people and companies can respond to copyright infringement. The common reaction, and probably the one most natural, is for those copyright holders to absolutely freak out, scream about lost sales and “teh pirates!!1!”, and then turn to their lawyers. Others take a […]

NSO Group has gone from being an under-the-radar spyware darling selling powerful phone hackery to some of the absolutely worst governments in the world to being an extremely exposed malware pariah which has sold powerful phone hackery to some of the absolute worst governments in the world. A data dump last summer served as a […]

It is bizarre that the California legislature, in a state that has produced most of the biggest internet companies out there, has apparently decided it wants to destroy them all in a flood of purely vexatious litigation. There are a whole series of bills that the legislature is reviewing, and so many of them are […]

ShotSpotter — the gunshot analytic company with the rather sketchy reputation — is, once again, endearing itself to the public by doing things that seem… well… sketchy. On Friday, an attorney representing ShotSpotter, a gunshot-detection technology company, made the unusual request that a judge in a criminal case hold the company in contempt of court […]

Over the last few months, we’ve been covering a ridiculous situation in which Republicans are trying to force their spam into your inboxes. It began with a study that some Republicans misread (or deliberately misinterpreted) to claim that Google was “censoring” their political mailings. That study showed that for an untrained, brand new mailbox, Google […]

Looking for a way to practice your interviewing skills and get feedback? Frustrated with the interviewing process and not knowing what you’re doing wrong? Look no further than Huru. With Huru, you can practice as many interviews as you want and get feedback with AI. Also, the app generates interview questions from any job offers […]

The only surprise in this decision isn’t that the court ruled the way it did. It’s that the Grand Rapids, Michigan police department apparently believed it wasn’t a violation of rights. Here are the origins of the case, as summarized by ABC affiliate WZZM. (WZZM apparently feels no one needs to read the actual opinion […]

Democrats have a “strategy” they really love to employ that involves pushing bills they know will never pass. The idea is that while the bill may not pass, it will bring extra attention to whatever issue they’re pushing, and force the GOP to put their opposition to (policy X) on the record, shaming them publicly. […]

This week, our first place winner on the insightful side is That One Guy with a comment on our post asking why the media is lamenting Disney’s loss of copyright instead of celebrating the public domain: ‘Copyright is for companies, not the public!’ The US spent so long with nothing entering the public domain and […]

Five Years Ago This week in 2017, Senator Wyden was seeking answers about how many times Americans have been targeted by one of the least-discussed NSA surveillance programs, while we noted the silence from tech companies as the clock ticked down on Section 702 renewal (while newly released documents showed even more violations by the […]

I’ll preface this post with this short bit of throat-clearing: no writer or reader of this site should expect the average person on the street to understand the nuances of intellectual property at the same level of those of us interested in the topic. The law is complicated and nuanced, and the layperson is simply […]

Sometimes you’ve got to shoot a few civilians to make the public safe. (h/t Maggie McNeill) More often than not, police do not stop a mass shooting. In Denver over the weekend, they actually started one. According to the Denver Post, police in the Lower Downtown area opened fire to stop a man who allegedly pulled a […]

Ever since Reality Winner was arrested, we’ve written about the ridiculousness of her case. It was yet another in a long line of cases using the Espionage Act to go after whistleblowers who aren’t spies, but are actively trying to do the right thing — and, as per the Espionage Act — not even allowed […]

You might recall that John Oliver bit years ago about how Americans fall asleep when they hear the word “infrastructure.” We’ll obsess for hours over Elon Musk showmanship, or the innovative potential of NFTs, but the U.S. press in particular falls into a lazy stupor any time actual, essential infrastructure is mentioned. It’s a problem […]

Donald Trump, whose supporters still pretend is a “free speech” champion, has regularly been known to sue news organizations that are mildly critical of him. You may recall that back in 2020 he hired notorious-lawyer-for-suing-media-companies (yes, he once was the lawyer in a case against us), Charles Harder, and sued both the NY Times and […]

The Complete 2022 Java Coder Bundle has 9 courses to help you kick-start your Java learning, providing you with the key concepts necessary to write code. You’ll learn about Java, Oracle, Apache Maven, and more. From applying the core concepts of object-oriented programming to writing common algorithms, you’ll foster real, employable skills as you make your way […]

Ring has been bedding down as many law enforcement partners as possible, turning cops into brand evangelists with the implicit (and sometimes, explicit) promise they’ll have access to private citizens’ recordings. Ring likes this because it increases its market share. Cops like it because it gives them more camera coverage in the areas they patrol, […]

Comcast had a particularly ugly second quarter, according to the company’s latest earnings report. The nation’s biggest cable giant not only lost half a million pay TV subscribers as the cord cutting trend continued, it failed to add any new broadband customers for the first time in company history. Users are increasingly cutting the cable […]

Swatting is truly heinous. People angry about video game playing somehow believe they’re justified in attempting to end their opponents’ lives, literally. Toxic sub-humans who can’t handle losing turn to secondhand killing to get their revenge. Absolutely abhorrent behavior that plays into law enforcement’s shoot-first, handcuff-the-corpse-later warrior mentality. In this case, originating in a Wichita, […]

I’ve spilled many words on these pages talking about the outsized importance live sports has on the adoption of streaming as a primary entertainment platform compared with traditional cable. While cord-cutting is very much a thing, the vine that terrestrial cable is clinging to keeping it all from falling over the cliff remains live sports. […]

Colorado legalized recreational marijuana use in 2012. That’s an entire decade ago. Who knew the learning curve for cops would be so extreme? Learning to deal with legalized drugs after years of useless drug warring has posed problems all over the country. Cops in Kansas(!) had to be told by a federal appeals court that […]

Last month, we wrote about how Devin Nunes had lost yet another of his many, many SLAPP suits against various critics online for being mildly critical of the former congressman, who seems to have the thinnest skin imaginable. As you’ll recall, Nunes’ chronic SLAPP infatuation began a little over three years ago with a lawsuit […]

ShotSpotter has made a name for itself (and not a good one!) by telling cops its sensors and mics can convert soundwaves into actionable intel. It has become beloved by some cops, perhaps in part for being willing to alter its reports to reflect what cops want to believe happened, rather than what actually may […]

Aspiring filmmakers, YouTubers, bloggers, and business owners alike can find something to love about the Complete Video Production Super Bundle. Video content is fast changing from the future marketing tool to the present, and in these 10 courses you’ll learn how to make professional videos on any budget. From the absolute basics to the advanced shooting […]

Advocates for the problematic American Innovation and Choice Online Act (AICOA) (which includes groups and organizations I often agree with and work with) keep insisting that they have the votes to pass the bill and demanding that Senator Chuck Schumer bring it to the floor for a vote. Schumer, who correctly has no interest in […]

You might recall that the FCC under both Trump and Biden has made a big deal about forcing U.S. telecoms to rip out Huawei gear from their networks, under the allegation that the gear is used to spy on Americans. You’re to ignore, of course, that the United States spies on everyone, constantly. The U.S. […]

For roughly the past four years, we have been following the trademark lawsuit brought by the Girl Scouts of America (GSA) against Scouts BSA, formerly the Boy Scouts of America. While these two organizations coexisted peacefully for many years thanks to BSA’s “girls have cooties” viewpoint, that changed when BSA suddenly started allowing girls to […]

Here are just two of the many things the Securities and Exchange Commission forbids investment companies from putting in their marketing literature: (B) Representations implying that future gain or income may be inferred from or predicted based on past investment performance; or (C) Portrayals of past performance, made in a manner which would imply that gains or […]

T-Mobile hasn’t been what you’d call competent when it comes to protecting its customers’ data. The company has been hacked several different times over the last few years, with hackers going so far as to ridicule the company’s lousy security practices. This week the company finally paid a penalty for its continued lax security and privacy practices in the form of […]

So, we just had a post mocking the Democrats for whining about Hulu refusing their issue ads, and falsely calling it “censorship.” And now we have Republicans issuing a bullshit blustery threat letter to Google not to limit searches for sketchy fake abortion centers. If you’re unaware, malicious anti-abortion folks have set up fake abortion […]

The font of not-great ideas continues to overflow at Lawfare. To be fair, this often-overflowing font is due to its contributors, which are current and former members of spy agencies that have violated rights, broken laws, and otherwise done what they can to make internet communications less secure. We’ve heard from these contributors before. Ian […]

The Microsoft Office Bundle includes the courses Excel Training, Microsoft PowerPoint, and Microsoft Word to give you the full range of training needed to perfect your use of Microsoft Office. Learn how to create eye-catching, engaging slideshows and presentations to impress your audience in any setting, how to navigate Microsoft Word with ease by learning […]

What a terrible world it would be if Republicans and Democrats alike start pushing for 1st Amendment-violating demands on websites that they be compelled to carry speech they don’t want to. Over the last few years, we’ve seen mainly Republicans pushing for these kinds of “must carry” / “can’t moderate” rules in response to what […]

With the midterms looming, Democrats are apparently once again embracing one of their favorite “strategies”: pushing bills they know have no chance of passing, that may not even do the thing they claim to do, in a bid to make it look like at least they’re “doing something.” The latest case in point is a […]

Meta’s AI division has announced two exciting new projects in the field of machine translation: The first is No Language Left Behind, where we are building a new advanced AI model that can learn from languages with fewer examples to train from, and we will use it to enable expert-quality translations in hundreds of languages, ranging from […]

We all know this country is capable of evils normally associated with authoritarian regimes — things like torture, illegal spying, the occasional exhortation to commit suicide, etc. But we expect the country we love to only violate our sense of justice for big things: War on Terror, War on Drugs, War on… Equal Rights, I […]

Remember Judge Alan Albright? He was the former patent litigator who became a federal judge (the only federal judge) in Waco, Texas, which is part of the Western District of Texas. You may remember, going further back, that the Eastern District of Texas became quite infamous for being the favored venue for of patent trolls, […]

The bad news keeps pouring in. No doubt, the United States (and US law enforcement) will ultimately walk this debacle off, but it’s going to take just a bit longer this time. The school shooting in Uvalde has undermined law enforcement’s self-portrayal as the thin line between the public and the criminal element. Hundreds of […]

I do not understand the Democratic Party in the US for a wide variety of reasons. But one of the most confusing thing about them is their priorities. With everything else going on in the world that needs serious attention from Congress right now, Senate Dems have decided to host a markup on one of […]

Learn Linux from the ground up. LinuxPath training is a fun and interactive learning platform that lets you experience real-world applications in a highly qualified environment. Immerse yourself in a deep learning experience that increases retention of skills and knowledge, which will ultimately help you succeed on your certification exam. As you progress through the […]

Hertz rents cars, like many of its competitors do. What separates Hertz from the rental car pack is its willingness to let law enforcement perform its collection work by filing criminal charges against people. Maybe some people prefer a tough-on-crime rental agency, but it’s unlikely any of Hertz’s falsely accused customers choose Hertz for its […]

Earlier this month BMW took ample heat for its plans to turn heated seats into a costly $18 per month subscription in numerous countries. As we noted at the time, BMW is already including the hardware in new cars and adjusting the sale price accordingly. So it’s effectively charging users a new, recurring fee to […]

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals tends to be the cop-friendliest jurisdiction. Unexpected outbursts by recently appointed Judge Don Willett aside, the Fifth Circuit tends to maintain the law enforcement status quo. It has held this line so frequently even the Supreme Court — which made qualified immunity the mess it is today — has […]

There’s something odd going on in media reporting on the expiration of Disney’s copyright on the initial version of Mickey Mouse that is set to occur in 2024. Given the subject matter, we’ve talked Mickey Mouse quite a bit on this site, specifically noting the “coincidence” of copyright term extensions that have occurred roughly each […]

There’s no denying that the cryptocurrency world is chock full of scammers, Ponzi schemes, and sketchy sketchy offerings. But, the prevalence of such things in that world has lead some to argue that if cryptocurrencies were banned, we’d likely have less scams and fraud online. I’ve yet to see any data to support that — […]