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New York's finest just don't want to have to do the work that comes with being a cop. They've really never wanted to do it. A new law requires officers to collect more data during more encounters with New York residents, which has kicked off a new wave of bitching from those who think they [...]

A few weeks ago, Mike was the moderator on a panel hosted by CCIA all about link taxes - the various problematic efforts around the world to force internet companies to pay media outlets for sending them traffic. The panel featured Public Knowledge Policy Director Lisa Macpherson, Lion Publishers Executive Director Chris Krewson, and lawyer [...]

One of the most important transitions taking place today in technology is the shift to electric vehicles (EVs). Most attention is focused on electric cars. That's in part because they are big glamorous items, and they have high-profile cheerleaders like Elon Musk. But there is another side to this transition to electric power, less glamorous [...]

Meta has a long history of making sure no one but Meta, or Meta-approved apps, can operate on top of its services. And now, in a new court filing, it's going to somewhat ridiculous lengths to try to stop one developer from making sure he won't get sued for creating a tool that automates clicking [...]

This Little Wonder Solo Stereo Multi Connect 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 [...]

Serving your time is only part of the bargain. Once released, ex-cons can expect to live life with diminished constitutional rights, at least for as long as they're on parole or supervised release. (And after that point, they can expect a very uphill road back to anything resembling normal day-to-day life, since a lot of [...]

We recently noted how the telecom industry, with the help of the recent Chevron ruling, was gearing up to deliver what it hopes will be the killing blow to popular net neutrality protections. Protections designed to prevent telecom monopolies from abusing their market power to screw customers and competitors. They appear to be having some [...]

Putting cops in schools is never a good idea. The most likely result of bringing a cop indoors to police schools is that the officer(s) will, indeed, police" the school. Things that used to be handled with detention, meetings with parents, or suspensions instead become incidents" where officers will do the worst thing they can [...]

One of the drums upon which I've banged for many years now is the need for live sports to get its streaming shit together to actually deliver a great product to fans. Some leagues do this better than others, but decisions like this do tend to happen at the league level, rather than with individual [...]

ShotSpotter may be making the most headlines (and losing the most large contracts), but it has competitors in the field of gunshot detection. But, according to this report by Todd Feathers for Wired, its closest competitor isn't any better than the current market leader. In February 2023, San Jose began piloting AI-powered gunshot detection technology [...]

The RIAA just won't quit in attacking users on the internet and trying to get them banned from using the internet entirely. The latest news is that all the major record labels have sued Verizon for not kicking users the RIAA accuses (but has not litigated) of being infringers off the internet. But, there's a [...]

I can't even imagine what it must be like to fight an obviously bogus lawsuit for most of a decade. That's what activist DeRay Mckesson has been dealing with since 2017. Mckesson participated in a protest in Baton Rouge, Louisiana all the way back in July 2016. At that protest, Officer John Ford (previously known [...]

Project Management is global. This is one of those professions similar to being an accountant, where your skills and talents can be applied to any industry in any place. The 10-course Complete PMP Training Bundle provides a comprehensive training path for all things project management, including the most update to date courses including PMP 6th [...]

I supposed the court had no choice, but I'm always a little wary when the Fifth Circuit decides to take another look at some litigation, especially when it involves certain amendments like the First. Or the Fourth. This case, however, is a mess. It began (as far too many do these days) with a supposedly [...]

Hey, remember when the FCC tried to implement some really basic consumer privacy protections for wireless and broadband but AT&T convinced GOP Senators to kill those efforts before they could even take effect? Good times. Anyway, AT&T has revealed that the detailed call and text message data of millions of customers were illegally download" from [...]

Far too many law enforcement officers believe the best way to deal with suicidal people is to kill them. That's the case here with Washington County Deputy Brian Krook. He came across a suicidal person and decided to make that final decision for them, shooting and killing 23-year-old Benjamin Evans as he knelt on the [...]

Back when Vladimir Putin first launched his aggressive war of choice on Ukraine, much of the Western world mobilized into action in a way that was fairly impressive. All kinds of companies and brands voluntarily began pulling out of the market, sometimes at the request of Ukraine itself. Much was made of tech firms pulling [...]

It's well-known that cops can lie to suspects to obtain confessions or further information from suspects. But not always. This Delaware case, brought to us by FourthAmendment.com, demonstrates that while lying in interrogation rooms is usually cool and fine, it isn't when it moves someone to consent to a search they wouldn't have agreed to [...]

Elon Musk declaring the EU DSA regulation as exactly aligned with my thinking" and agreeing with everything" it mandates is looking pretty hilarious at this point. Elon Musk loves endorsing things he clearly doesn't understand and then lashes out when they backfire. Last week, we had the story of how he was demanding criminal prosecution [...]

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As has often been said about ICE and CBP, the cruelty is the point. Both agencies have seemingly gone out of their way to harm people, even though their directives don't demand the often cruel actions they take. Both CBP and ICE have been separating immigrant families for years, even though Trump's decision to badmouth [...]

By now we've well established that the AT&T->Time Warner->Discoveryseries of media mergers were some of the dumbest, most pointless business" exercises ever conceived. The utterly senseless saga burned through hundreds of billions in debt, saw more than50,000 people lose their jobs, killed off numerous popular brands (like Mad Magazine and HBO), createdoceans of animosity among [...]

This week, our first place winner on the insightful side is an anonymous comment about Gina Carano's lawsuit against Disney, in response to another commenter asserting that all she's asking for is consistency": What makes you think she's entitled to it? Disney is not bound by her subjective personal view of what she said. In [...]

Five Years Ago This week in 2019, we wrote about how getting rid of Section 230 would just strengthen the internet giants, the dangers of forthcoming deep fake legislation, and why thinking of privacy as a property right would end badly. We looked at the backwards approach of the UK's online harms legislation, while UK [...]

Cops love a pretextual stop. A perceived traffic infraction is all that's needed to cast out a fishing net in hopes of landing something bigger than a citation for an illegal lane change. That's why cops have historically led most traffic stops with a leading question: do you know why I've pulled you over? It's [...]

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 [...]

Karl Bode was just talking through some of the changes that Netflix is making to its subscriptions, most of which revolve around charging more for same or lesser service. In the case of Netflix, this means raising subscription rates while injecting advertisements where once there were none. This so-called enshittification" process - a word I [...]

During the Trump administration, ICE came up with the highly questionable scheme of setting up a completely fake college solely for the reason of setting up immigrants on H-1B visas for failure. The DHS and ICE created a faux university in Michigan (the University of Farmington"), complete with a (fake) social media presence. Then it [...]

MagStack is the perfect on-the-go wireless charging station that also transforms into a phone stand for 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, and [...]

Elon Musk's ExTwitter just set a new speed record: from enthusiastic joiner of an advertising coalition to potential plaintiff against the same organization in just over a week. Sometimes, timing is everything. This week has been a travel week for me, so on Tuesday evening, I wrote up a short article on last week's news [...]

Like a growing number of states, the FTC under Lina Khan continues to show it's somewhat serious about protecting consumers' rights to repair their own tech. In 2021 the agency issued a useful report busting a lot of lobbying myths about repairability, and over the last few years has been cracking down on companies that [...]

Here we are again, with yet another example of how buying digital products, or buying products that have a digital component to them, doesn't mean you have any actual ownership and control of those products. We have seen a bunch of examples of this recently, from Oral-B removing Alexa-based features from one of its toothbrush [...]

The famous line is Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." But what do you call it when Elon Musk fools advertisers over and over again into believing that ExTwitter will protect their brand safety, despite making it clear that he has no interest in doing so? At this point, [...]

One of the common themes here at Techdirt over the last 20 years is how in the digital and internet-connected era, the very meaning of ownership" and property" has changed - often for the worse. It simply takes a merger or an ill-timed firmware update to render something you thought you owned - completely obsolete. [...]

I'm not going to go through all the background on this story, because we just did that yesterday. If you missed that post, it will help to go read it before reading this one. I concluded that post by noting that, thanks to district court Judge Terry Doughty petulantly claiming he can't stay an obviously [...]

PHP is an invaluable tool to help web developers build powerful websites. The beginner-to-advanced Ultimate PHP Training Bundle will teach you all things PHP so you'll be able to build seamless, interactive sites before you know it. It's on sale for $20. Note: The Techdirt Deals Store is powered and curated by StackCommerce. A portion [...]

It's a problem that likely dates back to the department's inception, but in 2015, the New York City Inspector General released a report that explained why residents were forced to shell out millions every year to foot the bill for police misconduct: Historically, NYPD has frequently failed to discipline officers who use force without justification. [...]

Back in April the Biden FCConce again voted along party linesto restore net neutrality rules stripped away by the Trump FCC in a flurry of sleazy industry behavior that included using fake and dead peopleto create the illusion of public support. The Trump FCC was also caughtmaking up a DDOS attackto explain away public outrage [...]

Most people would respond to a possible drug overdose by seeking immediate medical attention and following up with medical professionals to see how the victim is faring. I mean, that's what the EMTs who responded to a drug overdose call did. They took Corban Elmore's son to the emergency room and, from there, medical professionals [...]

On any given Sunday there's simply no shortage of U.S. antitrust violations, where some giant predatory corporation leverages its consolidated power to derail price competition and harm consumers. But because U.S. antitrust enforcement is a feckless and inconsistent mess, in most instances (see: telecom), a company can engage in these kinds of practices for decades [...]

There's a stunning degree of fear mongering and lack of humility about what California AI bill SB 942 can or can't do. Honest conversation about this bill's limitations are essential to ensuring we don't pass this ineffective law. But its proponents have obstructed reasoned policy development by injecting panic into that conversation and pretending it [...]

RFK Jr. seems to believe that being a Kennedy and spouting anti-vax nonsense qualifies him to be President. Now, he's taking his delusions to a whole new level by arguing that the Supreme Court's Murthy decision means the government can't even talk to social media companies anymore. Buckle up, folks, this is going to be [...]

The Complete 2024 Penetration Testing & Ethical Hacking Training Bundle has 9 courses to help you learn to fight back against cyber threats. Courses include hands-on lessons on penetration testing for AWS, IoT, and web apps, along with hacking basics and a few certificate exam prep courses. It's on sale for $50. Note: The Techdirt [...]

An ex-big city cop who blew into a small town under suspicious circumstances to become police chief. A business owner seeking a liquor license who spent a lot of time driving around with a suspended license due to DUI violations. A small town paper that dug into all of these stories and more to the [...]

We've illustrated repeatedly how as streaming subscriber growth has slowed, streaming giants have had to pivot to some bad industry habits to ensure Wall Street gets those sweet improved quarterly returns. That's included everything from utterly pointless layoff-creating mergers and price hikes, to annoying new restrictions and a steady increase in ads (that you have [...]

As all DOJ investigations of law enforcement agencies are, the one targeting the Phoenix, Arizona Police Department was scathing in its assessment of the department's officers and tactics. It led off with this, before providing graphic details covering everything from routine abuse of force to unchecked biased policing that led the DOJ to conclude PhxPD [...]

Last month we noted how the brunchlords in charge of Paramount (CBS) decided to eliminate decades of MTV News journalism history as part of their ongoing cost saving" efforts. It was just the latest casualty in an ever-consolidating and very broken U.S. media business routinely run by some of the least competent people imaginable. We've [...]

It was over six years ago when we last had Renee DiResta on the podcast for a detailed discussion about misinformation and disinformation on social media. Since then, she's not only led extensive research on the subject, she's also become a central figure in the fever-dream conspiracy theories of online disinformation peddlers. Her new book [...]

Remember that SLAPP suit, financed by Elon Musk, that actor Gina Carano filed against Disney after they chose not to renew her contract for the Mandalorian? That's the one where Carano seems to be insisting that failing to renew her contract after she made some controversial political comments is somehow a violation of her First [...]

Microsoft Windows 11 Pro is designed with the modern professional in mind. Whether you are a developer who needs a secure platform, an artist seeking a seamless experience, or an entrepreneur needing to stay connected effortlessly, Windows 11 Pro is your solution. This version is designed for PCs that need a new license for Windows [...]