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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 [...]

ShotSpotter hasn't been doing all that well lately. While it's the market leader in acoustic detection tech for law enforcement, it has seen several large contracts slip through its re-branded fingers in recent months. While ShotSpotter executives and press releases tout the accuracy of its sensors, real-life experience hasn't been quite as stellar. Even if [...]

A year ago, Walled Culture wrote aboutan extremely important casethat was being considered by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), the EU's top court. The central question was whether the judges considered that copyright was more important than privacy. Thebad newsis that the CJEU has just decided that it is: The Court, [...]

As the country most famous for enshrining civil rights, it sure seems like we spend a lot of time and money reminding the government of this fact. And it shouldn't need to be reminded! These rights were defined by the government and considered inherent to American life. They weren't granted. They were recognized as natural [...]

You probably already know the benefits of learning a language, so let's focus on the app. Right off the bat, let's be clear about one thing: When we say app" we don't mean that you're limited to using Babbel on your phone. You can use Babbel on desktop, too, and your progress is synchronized across [...]

What if banning social media from schools actually put kids at even greater risk? One of the more annoying things in talking about tech policy is how many people refuse to think one step ahead about how the world reacts to their policy proposals. We've talked about this in many contexts, but one that keeps [...]

Now that streaming subscriber growth has slowed, we've noted repeatedly how the streaming TV sector is falling into all of the bad habits that ultimately doomed traditional cable TV. That has involved chasing pointless growth of growth's sake" megamergers and imposing bottomless price hikes and new annoying restrictions - all while simultaneously cutting corners on [...]

You know what kind of person kills animals on the regular? Psychopaths, at least according to a casual survey of pop culture references. You know who else? Cops. But I repeat myself. Laurel Matthews, a supervisory program specialist with the Department of Justice's Community Oriented Policing Services (DOJ COPS) office, says it's an awful lot. [...]

All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others." I'm sure you'll recall specifically which type of animal on George Orwell's Animal Farm made that proclamation. In other words, we're back to Orwellian lawmaking in this country. And not the usual kind. The 9/11 attacks in 2001 led to one sort of Orwellian [...]

Correction & Retraction: The original BBC article implied that the NY Times was threatening Worldle and demanding it change its name. That now appears to be incorrect, and it simply opposed letting Worldle register its own trademark, noting that it was too close to its own Wordle. Which... is not a crazy interpretation. While the [...]

Editor's note: We've written a few times about NY's SAFE for Kids Act" and it's many problems. There's a decent chance that bill gets voted into law this week. Samuel Johnson posted a wonderfully detailed letter about why he, as a parent, opposes the law, and sent it to his elected officials. He also posted [...]

The Complete ChatGPT Artificial Intelligence OpenAI Training Bundle has 4 beginner-friendly courses to help you become more comfortable with the capabilities of OpenAI and ChatGPT. You'll learn how to write effective prompts to get the best results, how to create blog posts and sales copy, and how to create your own chatbots. It's on sale [...]

EU internet regulations and courts never fail to stupefy. The entire concept of shadowbanning" has gotten distorted and changed over time. Originally, shadowbanning was a tool for dealing with trolls in certain forums. The shadowbanned trolls would see their own posts in the forums, but no one else could see them. The trolls would think [...]

Back in April the Biden FCC finally got around to restoring both net neutrality rules, and the agency's Title II authority over telecom providers. The modest rules, as we've covered extensively, prevent big telecom giants from abusing their monopoly and gatekeeper power to harm competitors or consumers. They also require that ISPs be transparent about [...]

We recently discussed Spotify's decision to completely brick the Car Thing products it sold to customers up until very recently. While this was a very niche product without a ton of adoption, Spotify's decision caught my attention for two reasons. First, the company could have updated the devices it didn't want to support any longer [...]

Minnesota is the latest state to eliminate a pointless state ban on community owned and operated broadband networks ghost written by the telecom lobby. New legislation, just signed into law by Gov. Tim Walz, eliminates two statutes that sought to protect large monopoly telecommunications providers from community-based competition. Minnesota is one of 17 (now 16) [...]

In the last year, the Canadian rap artist Drake has embroiled himself in several high profile controversies involving AI-generated music. The ongoing saga underscores how existing laws apply to artificial intelligence, dispelling the myth that AI, including AI music, is unregulated. In April 2023, TikTok user ghostwriter977 released Heart on My Sleeve," featuring AI-generated vocals [...]

This is an interesting case with some very serious implications. For the most part, anything discarded by a suspect fleeing from law enforcement officers can be searched or seized without a warrant. For years, this wasn't necessarily a problem. The stuff discarded ranged from bags containing substances" to wallets to the occasional backpack. The intrusion [...]

When I posted my defense of the Supreme Court's 303 Creative decision, a common criticism was that the principle the decision vindicated was likely to only be upheld in situations where discriminatory social values were being advanced and not situations where it was inclusive ones. While I don't think that's a reason to criticize the [...]

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 [...]

It's a running joke here at Techdirt that many elected officials in charge of copyright policy seem wholly ignorant of the subject. But sometimes, it's still shocking when people who should definitely know better brazenly parade their cluelessness. Enter Jerry Nadler, the highest-ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, and a man who has been [...]

Fifth-generation wireless (5G) was supposed to change the world. According to wireless carriers and gear makers, not only was it supposed to bring about the fourth industrial revolution," it was supposed to usher forth amazing new smart cities and help withcancer treatment.Wireless giants routinely portrayed a world full of 5G powered robots giving tattoos or [...]

The Wild West we all imagine contains two forms of law: the brave people who've decided to be sheriffs. And the vigilantes who perform frontier justice when not cashing in bounties while ignoring the enshrined civil rights (the Constitution came out ahead of the Wild West, non-American folks) of the people they beat, tortured, threatened, [...]

Depending on just how often you use Google News, you may have noticed that Google News was down recently. Down hard. No, it wasn't just you;GoogleNews suffered a pretty sizable outage this morning, impacting the service on desktop and mobile. Impacted users took toDowndetectorand social media to note the issues and that no stories were [...]

At the latest committee hearing about its repeal bill, Congress finally deigned to bring in one witness who spoke in defense of Section 230. Engine Executive Director Kate Tummarello got a little bit of time to explain how Section 230 isn't about protecting big tech, it's about protecting the hosts and users of all kinds [...]

This was entirely predictable, but it's still worth calling out. Donald Trump, who started the whole we should ban TikTok" idea before changing his mind as soon as Joe Biden decided it was a good idea (and a billionaire Trump backer who also was heavily invested in TikTok gave Trump a call), is now joining [...]

Here's yet more unsurprising news about Israeli malware developer NSO Group and its preferred customers. More phones infected by NSO's flagship Pegasus malware have been discovered by Citizen Lab researchers. And yet again those targeted are journalists, critics, dissidents, and opposition leaders. The latest investigation identifies seven additional Russian and Belarusian-speaking members of civil society [...]

Headway Premium is the revolutionary app designed to help you turn personal growth into a habit. With a lifetime subscription, you get unlimited access to a huge number of non-fiction bestsellers, summarized into 15-minute reads. Be it personal development, business strategies, or health insights, Headway has you covered. It's on sale for $60. Note: The [...]

ProPublica has quite a scoop of a story, highlighting how various witnesses and potential witnesses in the long list of lawsuits Donald Trump is facing, suddenly, coincidentally, seem to be getting large payouts from Trump, his companies, and his campaign. The benefits have flowed from Trump's businesses and campaign committees, according to a ProPublica analysis [...]

The FCC's Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), part of the 2021 infrastructure bill, provided23+ millionlow-income households a $30 broadband discount every month. But the roughly 60 million Americans benefiting from the program are now facing much higher broadband bills because key Republicans - who routinely dole out billions of dollars onfardumberfare-refused to fund a $4-$7 billion [...]

In my basement at home, I have a handful of old gaming consoles that were left to our family after other family members either got too old to want them any longer or after they passed away. Coming along with them are a handful of games for those consoles. As a result of the physical [...]

Kind of an odd bit of Fourth Amendment jurisprudence here, given all the factors. (h/t FourthAmendment.com) Obviously, some conversations have an expectation of privacy, even when they're held in police interrogation rooms. Those would be ones between the suspect and their legal representation. But that's not really a Fourth Amendment issue as it is about [...]

In recent years, there have been concerns about social media and disinformation. The narrative has three dominant threads: (1) foreign troll farms pushing disinfo, (2) grifter influencers" pushing disinfo, and (3) the poor kids these days suckered in by disinformation. A new study in Science suggests that instead of the kids or the trolls, perhaps [...]

It appears Chicago's city leaders (well... excluding the mayor, Brandon Johnson) aren't afraid of spending nothing on do-nothing tech that even the city's watchdog says is a waste of money. They're not afraid to blow money on stuff that's doing nothing to make residents safer, even as residents continue to complain about the level of [...]

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 [...]

In anindictmentagainstDefend the Atlanta Forestactivists in Georgia, state prosecutors are citing use of encrypted communications to fearmonger. Alleging the defendants-which include journalists and lawyers, in addition to activists-in the indictment were responsible for a number of crimes related to the Stop Cop City campaign, the state Attorney General's prosecutors cast suspicion on the defendants' use [...]

Back in 2013, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos noted that his company's goal was to become HBO faster than HBO can become us." His point, at the time, was that Netflix wanted to become synonymous with quality and creative artistry in the same way HBO had after decades of hard work. 11 years later, and everything [...]

This week, our first place winner on the insightful side is a simple anonymous reply to a complaint that Techdirt has become more politically biased: Perhaps it isn't really Techdirt that has changed, have you ever considered that? In second place, it's an anonymous comment about the UK moral panic about kids having phones: Yeah, [...]

Five Years Ago This week in 2019, a report showed how EU ISPs were happily ignoring net neutrality rules. We wondered why Congress was moving forward with its plan to encourage more copyright trolling, and then Congress also started pushing a bill to bring back patent trolls. China was, once again, using the US's obsession [...]

This nonsense is somehow still going. To catch you up if you're not familiar with this story, the Ravinia Festival Association operates the Ravinia Festival venue in the north suburbs of Chicago. When a small brewery opened its doors in Highland Park, calling itself Ravinia Brewing Company, the RFA objected to its name and convinced [...]

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 response toa number of copyright lawsuits about AI training datasets, we are starting to see efforts to build non-infringing' collections of media for training AI. While I continue to believe that most AI training is covered by fair use in the US and therefore inherently non-infringing', I think these efforts to build safe' or [...]

I don't know why I'm drawn to doomed litigation but there's no denying this impulse. I know what the plaintiff wants to achieve. That much is made clear by Justin Rodrich's reporting on the lawsuit for the Daily Beast. But I don't know how he (or any other pronoun! - it's filed as Doe") expects [...]

The real fight for free speech means more than just doing that which matches the law." It means being willing to stand up to extremist authoritarian bullies, even when the odds are stacked against you. Challenging regimes where a single satirical post, a meme, or a critical blog can put someone behind bars requires bravery. [...]

Take your basic knowledge of cybersecurity to a whole new level with the Advanced Cyber Security bundle. This bundle offers you 6 courses on industry-standard certifications on cybersecurity so you can enjoy the wonders of modern tech without compromising your data and privacy. Courses cover CISA, CCSP, CISM, and CISSP certification prep. You'll also get [...]

This week all nine Supreme Court justices found in favor of the NRA. Not because they all like what the NRA is selling (although some of them probably do) but because the behavior of New York State, to try to silence the NRA by threatening third parties, was so constitutionally alarming. If New York could [...]

We've noted repeatedly how the primary problem with U.S. media and journalism often isn't the actual journalists, or even the sloppy automation being used to cut corners; it's the terrible, trust fund brunchlords that fail upwards into positions of power. The kind of owners and managers who, through malice or sheer incompetence, turn the outlets [...]

Alright, this one is going to get a bit convoluted, so stay with me here. There seems to be something going on in the foreign foodstuffs and restaurant industries lately when it comes to trademarking otherwise common phrases for niche foods in a way that pisses off other providers that operate in those same niche [...]

More bad news for ShotSpotter, which recently re-branded to SoundThinking" to distance itself from exactly this sort of negative press. Four legislators (three senators, one congressperson) are asking the DHS Inspector General to take a closer look at the tech the DHS is funding via one of its grant programs. The problem with Spotshotter is [...]

Two years ago, the independent repair advocates over at iFixit launched a partnership with Samsung in the hopes of making Samsung phones and other tech easier and cheaper to repair. It didn't work out. In an announcement issued this week, iFixit states that Samsung did very little to contribute to the partnership, and that its [...]