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Take a giant step towards your dream career or promotion with access to courses on everything from Unity 3D game development to Linux security. Virtual Training Company, one of the world's largest producers of online learning, promises top-notch instruction not only on building new skills but on mastering software from Autodesk, Adobe, and more. It's [...]

Recently, Karl had a post taking FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr to task for a painfully misleading Wall Street Journal article that attacked Kamala Harris. The article claimed that her policies resulted in the lack of new broadband deployments under Joe Biden's 2021 Infrastructure Bill that put aside $42.5 billion in broadband grants for underserved communities. [...]

Back in February, the Biden administration issued an executive order preventing the large-scale transfer" of Americans' personal data to countries of concern." The restrictions cover genomic data, biometric data, personal health data, geolocation data, and financial data, with the goal of preventing this data from being exploited by foreign intelligence agencies. This week the administration [...]

When it comes to comedy, there is a principle that a physical gag will be funny if done 3 times, but then will stop being funny on any further attempts unless it reaches a much higher number, like 9. To see this in action, you need only look at this clip of the classic gag [...]

Excited delirium just won't go away. No medical association recognizes this condition as factually true. And no cop shop will ever move away from using it as a handy excuse for in-custody killings, at least not until forced to by state legislators. Excited delirium actually pre-dates its current status as the go-to excuse for cops [...]

One of the many interesting aspects of the current enthusiasm forgenerative AIis the way that it has electrified the formerly rather sleepy world of copyright. Where before publishers thought they had successfully locked down more or less everything digital with copyright, they now find themselves confronted with deep-pocketed companies - both established ones like Google [...]

I'm not sure I've ever seen a government official go from sending a clearly censorial First Amendment-violating threat letter to quitting his job to telling a court, I was pressured to do that and I resigned so that I wouldn't do that again" so quickly. Last week, we wrote about the fairly notable ruling in [...]

People are censoring books all over the country, thanks mainly to a new wave of hatred encouraged and blessed by a failed businessman and marginal golfer who somehow managed to be elected president for a single term. These book ban laws encourage activists with conservative views" (you know which ones) to challenge" any content they [...]

uTalk can help you start speaking like a native within minutes. Using the uTalk learning App you can listen to real native speakers to help you navigate through your next vacation or business trip.With more than 2,500 words and phrases to learn in each of our 140+ languages, the app gives you a running start [...]

I talk a lot about confirmation bias here because it's at the heart of many of the debates and discussions regarding disinformation. It's something we can all fall prey to, at times. But lately, I've been thinking a lot more about what makes one more susceptible to confirmation bias, and I'm increasingly coming around to [...]

Back in July, the Biden FCC voted to make unlocking your phone easier. As a result, the agency is now crafting new rules that would require that wireless carriers unlock customers' mobile phones within 60days of activation, even if you're still under contract. Wireless giant T-Mobile, which used to have a consumer-friendly reputation until its [...]

As they say, the wheels of justice grind slowly. The presumed upside is that they grind finely, which means every periodic iteration should produce better outcomes. And maybe that's true in some cases. (Cases handled in the Fifth Circuit, not so much.) This one's in the Fifth Circuit but at least hasn't suffered the possible [...]

A few years ago agricultural equipment giant John Deere found itselfon the receiving end of an antitrust lawsuitfor its efforts to monopolize tractor repair. The lawsuits noted that the company consistently purchased competing repair centers in order to consolidate the sector and force customers into using the company's own repair facilities, driving up costs and [...]

There are examples of the Streisand Effect... and then there are examples of the Streisand Effect. And, frankly, what Intuit just decided to do to itself must surely be one of the most explosive and idiotic examples of the Streisand Effect I've ever come across. Readers here will be familiar with our posts about Intuit. [...]

Let's be honest, Christopher Rufo is the ratfucking king. While I don't agree with him about anything, when it comes to dirty tricks, nobody does it half as good as him, he's the best. Whenever Rufo releases a new report, the woke" tremble, and pray he's targeting someone else. Rufo's current crusade is focused on [...]

The Fifth Circuit Appeals Court continues to hand down dumb decisions rewarding law enforcement for rights violations. And the Supreme Court - yes, this Supreme Court - keeps sending those decisions back for a do-over. In December 2017, Laredo PD officers arrested local independent journalist, Priscilla Villarreal, for the alleged crime of misusing official information." [...]

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Often when internet companies change their terms of service, there will be a short freakout from people overreacting and not really understanding the language of what's in there. We see these stories every so often, frequently around things like licensing terms (which sites are effectively required to have to get permission to host user-generated content). [...]

For much of the last decade, cable giants like Comcast (Xfinity) and Charter (Spectrum) have been protected from TV cord cutting" by one simple fact: they enjoyed a monopoly over broadband access across vast swaths of the U.S. That monopoly means that if a customer ditched traditional TV, Comcast or Charter could recoup any losses [...]

The Supreme Court's Carpenter decision created a warrant requirement for obtaining location data from service providers. It was a limited ruling, albeit one that has had far-ranging implications. Thanks to this ruling, law enforcement agencies have started buying location data from third-party brokers, rather than suffer the apparent indignity of having to ask a judge [...]

I've talked about Shawn Layden before. And in admiring terms, too. In the wake of the much of the industry consolidation we saw in the video game space last year, his comments about both what that would mean for creativity within gaming, the creation of entirely new titles, and even moreso what he said about [...]

Fortunately, not everything the Supreme Court does these days is absolutely horrible. In this case (handled by the Institute for Justice) a Missouri man can resume his lawsuit against the officer who arrested him for... well, for reasons the cop ginned up well after the arrest had already happened. Mason Murphy was minding his own [...]

Remember a few weeks ago when Elon Musk misleadingly claimed that George Soros was secretly buying a propaganda machine to influence how you think"? Can you imagine the kind of shitstorm that would be playing out on ExTwitter and Fox News if George Soros were out there offering $1 million per day to people to [...]

What an absolute shocker. What a completely unexpected turn of events. Oh how will we, as Americans, process this latest in a never-ending string of abuses of trust by law enforcement. What a time to be alive. Etc. Cops are always trying to hide the tech they use from criminal defendants, even when plenty of [...]

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In a stunning display of technological and regulatory ineptitude, Italy's Piracy Shield' law has managed to block access to Google Drive, apparently confusing the popular cloud storage service with a hotbed of illegal activity. Bravo, Italy, bravo. Earlier this year, we wrote about Italy's new Piracy Shield" nonsense, in which the country's telecom regulator, AGCOM, [...]

As we recently noted, the FCC has announced that's finally taking a look at" broadband usage caps. We've noted for decades how such limits are completely artificial, technically unnecessary constructs that exist specifically so your local telecom monopoly can rip you off. They don't manage congestion," they exist exclusively to price gouge captive broadband customers [...]

This week, both our winners on the insightful side come in response to our post about the judge who smacked down Florida's attempt to censor abortion initiative ads. In first place, it's an anonymous comment about our description of the legislature being confused" about the first amendment: Make no mistake: They know exactly how it [...]

Five Years Ago This week in 2019, states were rushing to protect net neutrality followed by the court ruling that shot down the FCC's attempt to prevent them. Marc Benioff was being extremely hypocritical about Section 230, the guy who tried to extort YouTubers with bogus DMCA takedowns agreed to a settlement, and a guest [...]

I have to admit, the volume of trademark dispute stories in the brewing industry I've done over the course of these many years here at Techdirt have surprisingly slowed down the last few years. I'm not sure if this is a function of the slowdown in industry growth in the craft brewing industry, market consolidation [...]

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 [...]

Professor Eric Goldman continues to be the best at tracking any and all developments regarding internet regulations. He recently covered a series of cases in which the contours of Section 230's liability immunity is getting chipped away in all sorts of dangerous ways. As it's unlikely that I would have the time to cover any [...]

For many, many years we've pointed out that broadband usage caps are hugely profitable bullshit, used by regional telecom monopolies to rip off captive customers. The limits serve no technical purpose outside of price gouging. ISPs like Comcast spent years pretending they were necessary to manage network congestion," but after numerous journalists, academics, executives, and [...]

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It's not unheard of for us, or other publications, to paraphrase what a court ruling says at times. This time, however, the quote in the headline is actually 100% a direct quote from Judge Mark Walker, the Chief Judge of the Northern District of Florida federal court in a ruling against the state of Florida. [...]

States are poised to receive $42.5 billion in broadband grants thanks to the 2021 infrastructure bill. While a lot of this money will be going to the usual entrenched monopoly incumbents, a lot of it is also going to a growing list of popular cooperatives, municipalities, and city-owned utilities to expand affordable fiber. This Broadband [...]

After the ACLU obtained a settlement from the city of Chicago over the PD's unconstitutional stop and frisk" program, the Chicago PD decided to take the show on the road. Literally. The number of traffic stops in Chicago surged after the settlement with ACLU Illinois over stop-and-frisk pedestrian stops, while pedestrian stops fell from a [...]

We've been writing stories about how, when it comes to digital purchases, we typically do not own what we've bought. Instead of buying a product, such as the digital version of a video game, what we are instead buying is a non-transferable license to use that product. While readers here will be largely familiar with [...]

Felony murder" laws are still problematic, even if that law has led to a corrupt drug warrior finally being punished for the evil he has committed under the color of law. Gerald Goines headed up a Houston PD drug squad for years and was never one to let facts or a lack of evidence stand [...]

We are living under a sea of AI-generated slop, where AI deepfakes and non-consensual intimate content abound. Congress, a self-interested creature, naturally wants to create protections for themselves, their favorite celebrities, and their wealthy donors against online impersonation. But until now, visions of so-called AI protections have been limited. From my lair, I've seen how [...]

There are few things the government loves less than admitting wrongdoing, especially when the admission might affect multiple levels of government. That's why nearly every settlement paid out to litigants includes a disavowment of any wrongdoing. And that's why courts - at multiple levels - are so extremely reluctant to give possibly innocent people an [...]

The Ultimate Python and Artificial Intelligence Bundle has 9 courses to help you take your Python and AI knowledge to the next level. You'll learn about data pre-processing and visualization, artificial neural networks, how to use the Keras framework, and more. It's on sale for $40. Note: The Techdirt Deals Store is powered and curated [...]

It has been rumored for a while that Elon wants to remove the official block" functionality on ExTwitter, but now it's official. The company has announced that it will soon start rolling out a new version of block" that no longer blocks content, only interactions. That's ExTwitter's engineering team saying: Soon we'll be launching a [...]

While FTC boss Lina Khan certainly has had some growing pains, she's fought for consumer protection and antitrust reform in a way that U.S. regulators haven't seen for the better part of a generation. Whether it's taking on automaker privacy abuses, supporting right to repair reforms, or taking aim at Amazon's attempt to dominate the [...]

It can be easy for people to dislike the secondary market if they aren't the ones selling into it. Commonly referred to as scalpers", the fact is that the secondary market is a very important part of the economy. It's how goods retain some of their value, for instance. And when goods are sold several [...]

There is simply too much going on here to pretend there's a way to succinctly sum up what's led us to this point in our coverage. A small Kansas newspaper's offices, the home of its 98-year-old owner (who died shortly after the raid), and the home of Marion vice mayor Ruth Herbel were all raided [...]

Over the summer we noted how the brunchlords in charge of Paramount (CBS) decided toeliminate decades of MTV News journalismandComedy Central historyas part of their ongoing and utterly mindless cost saving" efforts. It was just the latest casualties in an ever-consolidating and very broken U.S. media business routinely run by some of the least competent [...]

Of course, Elon Musk had to take Twitter private. If he had to answer to shareholders, he would have been ousted months ago for his systematic, single-minded destruction of the company's value. Pretty much every move he's made has been some level of bad, ranging from confusing to annoying to infuriating to catastrophic. Alienating long-term [...]

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When Congress passed the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) in 1994, they were assured by then-FBI Director Louis Freeh that the mandated wiretap backdoors posed no security risks. Fast forward to today, following the news of a massive CALEA hack and Senator Ron Wyden is reminding the DOJ of that history, while urging [...]