Techdirt

We've mentioned a few times that there are more than $42 billion in broadband subsides about to drop in the laps of state leaders thanks to the 2021 infrastructure bill. Since the bill gives individual states leeway on how this money is spent, a lot of states (like Pennsylvania) are simply throwing the money in [...]

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. IIn this week's round-up of the latest news in online [...]

It turns out the internet was one Sam Alito petulant tantrum away from being a total disaster. In two key First Amendment cases, Alito was given the majority opinion to write. And, in both of them, his insistence on obliterating the old boundaries of the First Amendment caused other Justices to switch sides - and [...]

The state of New Jersey has been sued twice over its infant DNA program. Like the rest of the nation, New Jersey hospitals collect a blood sample from newborns to test them for 60 different health disorders. That part is normal. But New Jersey is different. Rather than discard the samples after the testing is [...]

The Complete IT for Beginners Bundle will gear you up with the core CompTIA skills you need to be an in-demand IT professional. This includes the four most popular IT Fundamentals, A+ Core1, A+ Core2, and Network. As a bonus, it includes three new Microsoft MTA courses. It's on sale for $50. Note: The Techdirt [...]

Remember last month when ExTwitter excitedly rejoined GARM" (the Global Alliance for Responsible Media, an advertising consortium focused on brand safety)? And then, a week later, after Rep. Jim Jordan released a misleading report about GARM, Elon Musk said he was going to sue GARM and hoped criminal investigations would be opened? Unsurprisingly, Jordan has [...]

Broadband providers poised to receive $42 billion in taxpayer broadband subsidies from the infrastructure bill are ramping up complaints about a small requirement affixed to the massive handout: they have to try to make broadband affordable to poor people. Earlier this month we noted that the GOP, in lockstep with the telecom industry, had launched [...]

Say what you will about the roster of Trump apologists being hosted by the Volokh Conspiracy (and I will say plenty if given the chance), but at least Eugene Volokh continues to surface truly interesting cases. (Ilya Somin remains worth reading as well.) And this one is one for the record books. Possibly the first [...]

One of the arguments sometimes made in defense of copyright is that without it, creators would be unable to compete with the hordes of copycats that would spring up as soon as their works became popular. Copyright is needed, supporters say, to prevent less innovative creators from producing works that are closely based on new, [...]

Donald Trump is no stranger to filing vexatious, speech-chilling SLAPP suits. For a guy whose supporters pretend he is a big free speech" supporter, it's kind of astounding how frequently Trump sues people and companies over speech he dislikes. Unfortunately, judges have allowed the cases to move forward in two separate recent SLAPP suits. It [...]

Broken clocks may be accidentally correct twice a day, and sometimes those broken clocks save the internet. The House GOP has killed KOSA over unclear concerns" about the version of KOSA that was approved earlier this week. There were rumors this might happen, but in a note at the bottom of a Punchbowl News Congressional [...]

The 2024 Video Editing Master Class Bundle has 5 courses to help you learn how to bring your vision to life. Courses cover Adobe After Effects, CapCut, Filmora 12, Canva, and Davinci Resolve. It's on sale for $50. Note: The Techdirt Deals Store is powered and curated by StackCommerce. A portion of all sales from [...]

Another anomaly has popped up, which has the chance to create enough of a circuit split that the Supreme Court will need to weigh in on this issue. The good news (albeit undercut a bit by good faith") is that another federal court has ruled the Riley warrant requirement applies at the nation's borders. Here's [...]

Back in March we noted how the GOP killed a popular program (the Affordable Connectivity Program, or ACP) that provided a $30 discount off of low-income users' broadband bills. At the time, 22 million Americans were enrolled in the FCC effort to bring down broadband access prices for the most vulnerable. But after House leader [...]

It's been a decade or so since one of the silliest ways to combat the symptom of a broken copyright system came to be: safe streaming settings in video games. Because of the way licensing works for the musical compositions in video games, and because some games include mainstream music a la Grand Theft Auto, [...]

The FCC has announced that it's taking more direct aim at prison phone and videoconferencing monopolies that have a long history of ripping off inmates and their families. According to an agency announcement, the FCC has voted to further lower price caps on prison phone calls and closed a loophole allowing companies to charge exorbitant [...]

I've spent many years trying to explain to people the impossibility of doing content moderation well at scale. I've created dozens of case studies on impossible decisions. I've made two separate video games about content moderation and trust & safety. I've written so so so many articles. But I think I've now found just a [...]

It's 2016 all over again. The FBI can't get everything it wants from a dead person's phone, so it has decided to start revving up its anti-encryption engine. The DOJ took Apple to court in hopes of securing precedent compelling tech companies to crack encrypted devices for it after it recovered the San Bernardino shooter's [...]

Go from absolute zero to GIMP pro with this comprehensive 9 course bundle. Jump into the Complete Master GIMP Design Bundle, and you'll go all the way from installing the GIMP software and configuring it to run on Windows, to producing banners, book covers and even memes that you'll display using Facebook and other social [...]

The 2024 Paris Olympics is drawing the eyes of the world as thousands of athletes and support personnel and hundreds of thousands of visitors from around the globe converge in France. It's not just the eyes of the world that will be watching. Artificial intelligence systems will be watching, too. Government and private companies will [...]

We've noted repeatedly that in the wake of the Sprint T-Mobile merger, wireless carriers immediately stopped trying to compete on price (exactly what deal critics had warned the Trump administration would happen when you reduce sector competition). Recently, T-Mobile imposed another $3-$5 per month price hike on most of its plans - including customers who [...]

The asset forfeiture playing field is still far from level, but it at least got a little bit better in Virginia, thanks to a recent state appeals court decision. Here's Graham Moomaw with more details for the Virginia Mercury: A Virginia court erroneously ruled authorities could keep $35,293 seized from a Chesterfield County auto repair [...]

One of the central ideas of Walled Culture the book (free digital versionsavailable) is that there is a fundamental difference between analog and digital, and that copyright fails to recognize that. Instead, it seeks to impose what is an inherently analog approach based on scarcity to the online world where abundance is the norm. The [...]

Apparently, Congress only listens to the children" when they agree with what the kids are saying. As soon as some kids oppose something like KOSA, their views no longer count. It's no surprise given the way things were going, but the Senate today overwhelmingly passed KOSA by a 91 to 3 vote. The three no [...]

Good news for free speech enthusiasts. And that should be everyone in this nation, especially those living in Florida. And that goes for everyone who supports Governor Ron DeSantis and dumbass legislation like the Stop WOKE Act." Whether you like it or not, the First Amendment protects speech you disagree with, not just the stuff [...]

The 2024 Graphic Design for Beginners Bundle has 4 courses to help you learn about graphic design. Courses cover working with Adobe Illustrator, using your iPhone for filming, and starting your own graphic design business. It's on sale for $30. Note: The Techdirt Deals Store is powered and curated by StackCommerce. A portion of all [...]

Please. I beg of people: stop it. Stop it with the conspiracy theories. Stop it with the nonsense. If you can't find something you want on social media, it's not because a billionaire is trying to influence an election. It might just be because some antifraud system went haywire or something. Last week we wrote [...]

Automakers are among the worst tech" companies in America when it comes to your privacy. They hoover up an ocean of contact, location and behavior data from your car and phone, don't really clearly tell you they're doing it, then sell access to that data to a rotating crop of super dodgy and largely unregulated [...]

You will likely have noticed that we have begun talking more frequently over the past couple of years about the importance both of video game preservation efforts as well as the idea that people should either be better informed of the terms of buying a digital version of a game, or should have more rights [...]

Low-key vigilantism is the new Crime Stoppers. I'm pretty ambivalent about this new law enforcement effort (with the emphasis on lack of effort"), but this is how things are going in one part of Australia right now. Here's Lewin Day writing for The Autopian with more details: As covered byThe Canberra Times,Australian Capital Territory police [...]

Even though parents insist that it is good and right to share things, the copyright world has succeeded in establishing the contrary as the norm. Now, sharing is deemed a bad, possibly illegal thing. But it was not always thus, as a fascinating speech by Ryan Cordell, Associate Professor in the School of Information Sciences [...]

Before the news had broken that NSO Group's clients were utilizing its powerful spyware to target journalists, dissidents, activists, religious leaders, opposition party members, and anyone else that might have irritated the autocrats and human rights abusers that made up a disproportionate percentage of its customer list, NSO was sued by Meta and WhatsApp. That [...]

The Complete 2024 Photography Master Class Bundle has 10 courses to help you become a great photographer. Courses cover night shots, macro photography, studio portraiture, using an off camera flash, landscape photography and more. It's on sale for $40. Note: The Techdirt Deals Store is powered and curated by StackCommerce. A portion of all sales [...]

If you've been paying any attention to the political news in the last week, you may have seen stories about couch fucking, or dolphin porn, or burnt monkey testicles, or even cat ladies. Or really just about any of the comments coming out of the Harris campaign, or from other Democratic supporters, calling out the [...]

The FCC has long run an $8 billion federal subsidy program to help bring phone and broadband services to lower income homes and schools called the Universal Service Fund. The bipartisan program has historically been funded by a fee on traditional phone lines. But with traditional phone lines dying, there's been a long, ongoing discussion [...]

This week, our first place winner on the insightful side is an anonymous reply in a discussion about how to deal with trolls: This kind of condescension mixed with vague references that assume everyone else is an idiot is completely useless because not only are you expecting people to read your mind, but you're assuming [...]

Five Years Ago This week in 2019, we looked at how the FTC's settlement with YouTube pissed everyone off and how its settlement with Facebook got everything backwards. Oakland was on its way to becoming the third city to ban facial recognition tech while Orlando police ended their facial recognition deal with Amazon and a [...]

I don't know what the legislative intent of Massachusetts wiretapping law was, but I can't possibly imagine it was erected solely to allow public employees to get people arrested for filming them performing their public duties in public places. I mean, maybe it was. Maybe that's the reason the law was enacted. But certainly no [...]

There is some confusion about whether the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) regulates content or design on digital platforms like Instagram or TikTok. It's easy to see why that is, because the bill's authors claim they are attempting to make the bill about design. This is a good move on their part, as regulations on [...]

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 the first ever live recording of Ctrl-Alt-Speech, Mike and [...]

There are some decent uses of AI. And then there's everything else. While those with horses in the AI race continue to proclaim the miracles their horses will soon be performing at some indefinite point in the future, a whole lot of entities just see AI as a way to shed human capital and replace [...]

The Raspberry Pi and Arduino Bootcamp Bundle has 5 courses to help you dive into the world of hands-on programming. Courses cover Arduino, Raspberry Pi, and ROS2. It's on sale for $30. Note: The Techdirt Deals Store is powered and curated by StackCommerce. A portion of all sales from Techdirt Deals helps support Techdirt. The [...]

On Thursday, as expected, the Senate voted for cloture" on the extremely problematic Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA). The cloture vote is a procedural vote necessary to bring a full vote to the floor. Previously, attempts to move KOSA forward by unanimous consent" could be (and were) blocked by objections from at least one Senator [...]

With a unanimous 5-0 vote, the FCC says it is moving forward with plans that should make unlocking your mobile phone easier than ever. According to a new FCC announcement, the agency say it will begin crafting new rules that will require that wireless carriers unlock customers' mobile phones within 60days of activation. At various [...]

For the non-sports loving crowd out there, here is something of a necessary primer. Lamar Jackson is the reigning MVP of the National Football League. He plays for the Baltimore Ravens and wears number eight. Troy Aikman is a hall of fame former NFL quarterback that played for the Dallas Cowboys and wore, you guessed [...]

In 2023, Tennessee enacted a new law - one that rewrote part of its existing adult entertainment statutes for the sole purpose of making it easier to prosecute drag performers. Sure, legislators took care to talk around the issue when debating it on the floor, but the bill's language added male or female impersonators" to [...]

Call me crazy, but I don't think it's okay to go beyond what the law allows even in pursuit of good" intentions. It is consistently frustrating how this FTC continues to push the boundaries of its own authority, even when the underlying intentions may be good. The latest example is in its order against a [...]

The recent Supreme Court case, Moody v. NetChoice & CCIA, confronted a pivotal question: Do websites have the First Amendment right to curate content they present to their global audiences? While the opinion has been dissected by many, this post peeks behind the Silicon curtain to address the practical aftermath of tech litigation. Well before [...]

Italy continues to push its way towards shitshow as it's overtaken by far-right, fascism-adjacent politicians. There's nothing here that signals the country will try to move back towards the center. Having apparently learned nothing from history, the government continues to move further right while still (somehow!) dealing with a woke" court. Here's a brief recap [...]

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 [...]