Techdirt

Well, this ought to prompt another round of police-protecting legislation in Florida. Governor Ron DeSantis recently signed two bills into law - one that creates a 25-foot no go" zone around police officers and one that strips police oversight boards of their independence. And that's on top of the immediate effort made by the legislature [...]

Over the last few years, there have been a ton of lawsuits, pretty much all of them dubious, arguing that social media is inherently harmful to children (something the research does not show) and that therefore there is some sort of magic product liability claim that will hold social media companies responsible. A bunch of [...]

The FCC on Thursday once again voted along party lines to restore popular net neutrality rules stripped away during the Trump administration in a flurry of protest and sleazy industry behavior. You might recall the 2017 repeal was so unpopular that telecom giants were caught using fake and dead people to create the illusion of [...]

Envy those picture-perfect vlogs and YouTube channels? You can easily re-create them Aduro's U-STREAM Home Streaming Studio. The 10'' ring light offers 3 distinct lighting options - white, warm yellow, and warm white. The brightness feature on the remote offers 10 different levels of brightness so you can choose what's best for you. Not only [...]

Apparently TikTok is so evil and pernicious that it must be banned from the United States... and so useful that the man who signed the ban, President Joe Biden, made sure to post a few new videos to the platform. It feels like maybe his concerns are a bit overblown? It seems that TikTok users [...]

Last month the New York Times' Kashmir Hillpublished a major storyon how GM collects driver behavior data then sells access (through LexisNexis) to insurance companies, which will then jack up your rates. Theabsolute bare minimumyou could could expect from the auto industry here is that they're doing this in a way that's clear to car [...]

MAGA SLAPP suits apparently aren't going out of style, but yet another one has been tossed out of court. Remember lawyer Steven Biss? He was the grand filer of tons of SLAPP suits for the MAGA crowd against media outlets. He had quite a losing streak, with nearly all of those cases failing. Last fall, [...]

The capricious nature of Nintendo's IP enforcement practices are, if you're a regular reader here, quite legendary. In this case, however, it seems like Nintendo's reputation is what played a part in some copyright fuckery, rather than the company engaging in said fuckery itself. If you're not familiar with Garry's Mod, then you obviously weren't [...]

Back in October last year, Walled Culture wrote about a proposed law in France that would seea tax imposed on AI companies, with the proceeds being paid to a collecting society. Now that the EU's AI Act has been adopted, it is being invoked as another reason why just such a system should be set [...]

As case law continues to be developed, it continues to look as though the best way to hold onto your Fifth Amendment rights is to secure your devices with a passcode. There's no solid consensus at this point, and the Supreme Court has yet to set precedent, but unless law enforcement really screws up while [...]

The failures of the NCMEC CyberTipline to combat child sexual abuse material (CSAM) as well as it could are extremely frustrating. But as you look at the details, you realize there just aren't any particularly easy fixes. While there are a few areas that could improve things at the margin, the deeper you look, the [...]

This Little Wonder Solo Bluetooth Speaker may look small, but it produces as clear and powerful a sound as any other speaker. It comes in a solid and metallic look that is great for any setting and decor at your home, office, pool, picnic spot, and more! Connect this speaker to your smartphone or tablet [...]

The system meant to stop online child exploitation is failing - and misaligned incentives are to blame. Unfortunately, today's political solutions, like KOSA and STOP CSAM, don't even begin to grapple with any of this. Instead, they prefer to put in place solutions that could make the incentives even worse. The Stanford Internet Observatory has [...]

When the Apple Vision Pro launched back in February, the press had a sustained, two-month straight orgasm over the product's potential to transform VR and the world of spatial computing. Downplayed were little sticking points like the lack of app support; the short battery life (despite a bulky external battery pack Steve Jobs would have [...]

There seems to be something rather specific when it comes to the current Italian government when it comes to strong-arming commerce over a protective stance on Italian cultural touchstones. This has traditionally expressed itself mostly in the food and drinks categories of commerce. Wines are particularly of note here, with several recent examples of Italy [...]

Welp, sometimes you gotta read Techdirt fast, or you just might miss something. And sometimes it's because Universal Music is acting to silence creativity yet again. Yesterday, we posted about how Dustin Ballard, the creative genius behind There I Ruined It, who makes very funny parody songs, had posted a lengthy disclaimer on his latest [...]

This week, we've got another cross-post episode for you. Mike recently appeared on the Sidebar podcast from Courthouse News as part of an episode taking an in-depth look at why copyright is actually the biggest free speech restriction in the US, and the various questions, implications, and problems that arise from this. You can listen [...]

Get your dance moves on now, as TikTok may be going away. Okay, it's not going away that quickly and quite possibly isn't going away at all, but President Biden signed the bill this morning that requires ByteDance to divest itself from TikTok, or have the app banned from the Apple and Google app stores. [...]

Florida's governor, Ron DeSantis, and Florida's legislature have combined forces to craft and pass some of the most unconstitutional laws ever written in the United States. A series of bad laws has led to series of injunctions from federal courts, including one that traveled all the way to the Supreme Court just to have the [...]

The Premium Python Programming PCEP Certification Prep Bundle has 12 courses to help you become an expert Python coder. Courses cover everything from app creation to AI and machine learning. It's on sale for $35. Note: The Techdirt Deals Store is powered and curated by StackCommerce. A portion of all sales from Techdirt Deals helps [...]

This is a frustrating article to write. The FTC has come out with a very good and important policy ruling, but I'm not sure it has the authority to do so. The legal challenge (that was filed basically seconds after the rule came out) could do way more damage not just to some fundamental parts [...]

We've noted repeatedly how the mass hyperventilation about TikTok is a giant distraction from the country's broader failures on consumer privacy; namely our corrupt inability to pass even a baseline privacy law for the internet era, and our absolute refusal to regulate sleazy data brokers. As a result there's not a week that goes by [...]

While it doesn't happen nearly as often as I'd like, it is quite satisfying when a trademark bully is forced to walk back their bullying ways as a result of a public backlash. If you don't do a lot of your own cooking, particularly cooking Asian foods, you may not be familiar with chili crisp. [...]

While there's no doubt illegal fentanyl use is one of the leading causes of death in this nation, the DEA's persistent hysteria hasn't done anything to make anyone safer. Faced with the fact it can't make a dent in the fentanyl trade, the DEA has opted to drum up panic, pretending - despite all evidence [...]

In a world where copyright law has run amok, even creating a silly parody song now requires a massive legal disclaimer to avoid getting sued. That's the absurd reality we live in, as highlighted by the brilliant musical parody project There I Ruined It." Musician Dustin Ballard creates hilarious videos, some of which reimagine popular [...]

Last week, the US House of Representatives Judiciary Committee voted to advance the Protecting and Enhancing Public Access to Codes Act, or thePro Codes Act (H.R. 1631), to the full House. The bill would extend copyright protection to codes (such as building codes) that are developed by standards development organizations (SDOs) and incorporated by reference [...]

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is an utter asshat. Not only is he the chosen defender of litigation over unconstitutional laws passed by an equally idiotic legislature, but he's also the man behind plenty of Texas government action meant to make things worse for plenty of Texas residents. On top of that, Ken Paxton has [...]

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 [...]

Privacy issues have been at the root cause of so many concerns about the internet, but so many attempts to regulate privacy have been a total mess. There's now a more thoughtful attempt to regulate privacy in the US that is (perhaps surprisingly!) not terrible. For a while now, we've talked about how many of [...]

Major TV providers lost another 5 million paying TV subscribers last year, as users increasingly jump from fat and expensive cable bundles, to streaming. At the same time, a lot of the executives and bad ideas that plagued the traditional cable TV sector are coming along for the ride, resulting in a streaming sector that [...]

Open access publishing, which allows people to read academic papers without a subscription, seems such a good idea. It means that anyone, anywhere in the world, can read the latest research without needing to pay. Academic institutions can spend less to keep their scholars up-to-date with work in their field. It also helps disseminate research, [...]

Well, that was fast. It was just earlier this month that we talked about some interesting new rules Apple instituted for its App Store when it comes specifically to emulation apps. While emulators in and of themselves are not in anyway illicit, Apple did its best to keep them off its platform, and off iPhones [...]

Is the US government allowed to step in to deal with foreign influence on social media or not? According to at least some members of Congress, the answer appears to be yes, when we dislike what they're saying, and no when we like what they're saying." When the original House bill to ban TikTok" passed, [...]

Jonathan Haidt's new book, The Anxious Generation," has become a NY Times bestseller, and he's making media appearances basically everywhere you look, telling people that social media has rewired children's minds" and that it is uniquely harmful. We've talked about Haidt in the past, and especially his ability to consistently cherry-pick and misread the actual [...]

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a weekly podcast about the latest news in online speech, from Mike Masnick and Everything in Moderations Ben Whitelaw. Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, Pocket Casts, YouTube, or your podcast app of choice - or go straight to the RSS feed. In this week's round-up of the latest news in online [...]

StackSkills is the premier online learning platform for mastering today's most in-demand skills. Now, with this exclusive limited-time offer, you'll gain access to 1000+ StackSkills courses for life! Whether you're looking to earn a promotion, make a career change, or pick up a side hustle to make some extra cash, StackSkills delivers engaging online courses [...]

The government had a few years to sort this out, but as usual, the final call came down to the last minute. Shortly after Section 702 expired at midnight, April 19, the Senate pushed through a two-year reauthorization - one pretty much free of any reforms. This happened despite there being a large and vocal [...]

I've mentioned more than a few times how the singular hyperventilation about TikTok is kind of silly distraction from the fact that the United States is too corrupt to pass a modern privacy law, resulting in no limit of dodgy behavior, abuse, and scandal. We have no real standards thanks to corruption, and most people [...]

This week, both our winners on the insightful side come in response to our post about Google blocking news sites in California because of bad link tax laws, and specifically in reply to a commenter who suggested the link tax would just be Google giving back" money. In first place, it's an anonymous reply: What. [...]

Five Years Ago This week in 2019, Starz was going after tweets about a TorrentFreak article, then issuing a laughably unbelievable excuse and apology. The EU nations, as expected, rubber stamped the copyright directive, while the Parliament moved on to the terrorist content regulations and quickly pushed those through too. We learned some more about [...]

The Fourth Amendment exists for a reason. It's supposed to protect our private possessions and data from government snooping, unless they have a warrant. It doesn't entirely prevent the government from getting access to data, they just need to show probable cause of a crime. But, of course, the government doesn't like to make the [...]

We've had plenty of posts discussing all manner of behavior from the Los Angeles Police Dept. and/or the LAPD union here at Techdirt. As you might imagine if you're a regular reader here, the majority of those posts haven't exactly involved fawning praise for these supposed crimefighters. In fact, if you went on a reading [...]

I think we could witness one of the most important First Amendment legal showdowns ever. The U.S. Supreme Court is being asked to rule on the constitutionality of mandatory age verification for porn websites. If the high court takes up the case, it would queue up a landmark debate pertaining to the First Amendment and [...]

Apparently, the TikTok ban bill is back. Speaker Mike Johnson plans to include TikTok divestiture legislation already passed by the House in a fast-moving aid package for Ukraine and Israel that the chamber is set to clear on Saturday. The Senate is expected to quickly take up the measure, and President Joe Biden promised Wednesday [...]

The Ultimate Adobe CC Training Bundle has 12 courses to help you get the most out of the Adobe Creative Cloud Suite. Courses cover Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Dreamweaver, After Effects, and more. It's on sale for $40. Note: The Techdirt Deals Store is powered and curated by StackCommerce. A portion of all sales from Techdirt [...]

A few months ago, we wondered if Wired had fired its entire fact-checking staff because it published what appeared to be a facts-optional article co-authored by professional consistently wrong Jaron Lanier and an academic I'd not come across before, Allison Stanger. The article suggested that getting rid of Section 230 could save everything." Yet the [...]

Last month Oregon state lawmakers passed a new right to repair" law making it easier and cheaper to repair your electronics. The law requires that manufacturers that do business in the state provide users with easy and affordable access to tools, manuals, and parts. It also cracks down on practices like parts pairing," which often [...]

Cops hate being watched, no matter where they're located. In the United States, we've seen several arrests and prosecutions of journalists and citizens for daring to record public officials performing their public duties. The case law isn't completely settled in the United States, but in most parts of the country, it's understood the First Amendment [...]

We've had several posts on the video game sensation that is Palworld in the past. Given that the game has been described by others as Pokemon, but with guns", we kicked things off both wondering if Nintendo was going to try to take some kind of misguided legal action on the game, while also pointing [...]

Let's say I told you a harrowing story about a crime. Criminals from halfway around the world used fraudulent means and social engineering to scam a teenager, causing them to effectively destroy their lives (at least in the mind of the teen). The person whose life was destroyed then took an easily accessible gun from [...]