Techdirt

Over the last few months, Elon Musk and Linda Yaccarino keep trying to claim that exTwitter is actually growing and more used than ever. Yaccarino has talked about largest usage days" without defining the term, and Elon says it's user-seconds per day of phone screentime as reported by iOS & Android" even though that's not [...]

As we noted last week, the Supreme Court put on hold the injunction issued by the 5th Circuit regarding the administration's efforts to influence how social media companies deal with misinformation. As you'll recall, Louisiana and Missouri and a variety of nonsense peddlers all sued the Biden administration, claiming that their 1st Amendment rights were [...]

Charge more devices while saving space with Adam Element's Mag 3 Magnetic 3-in-1 Foldable Travel Charging Station. This charging station replenishes your iPhone, Apple Watch, and AirPods in one shot. The foldable design minimizes the size for storage and traveling, while the included USB-C charging cable supports up to 15W of power. Charging both vertically [...]

In 2018, the Supreme Court handed down the Carpenter decision. That decision built on the one declaring phones off limits without a warrant - one delivered four years earlier. The rationale was this: phones are always on, all-knowing, and everywhere all the time. Given the amount of data generated by everyday smartphone use, the Supreme [...]

A few years ago we noted how a South Korean ISP named SK Broadband had sued Netflix, demanding that the streaming giant pay it more money simply because the hit series Squid Game was so popular. It was one small part of a global push by broadband providers to force streaming companies to pay them [...]

As many of you are probably already aware, a massive leak of internal documents at Microsoft occurred this week, all of which came out of the FTC's challenge to Microsoft's purchase of Activision Blizzard. We discussed a small portion of that leak a few days ago when we talked about Microsoft's decision to take the [...]

The United States is already a global leader in traffic-related fatalities, with athirty-percent jump in the last decade. That's in contrast toevery other developed country, which saw a decline. So of course it's a perfect time to flood American highways with a parade of extremely heavy EVs with unprecedented acceleration. Some of which are extremely [...]

Almost everyone I've seen talking about this new Insider article about how Elon had a special layoff just of trust and safety employees has shared it with the line wait, there are still trust & safety employees?" Elon Musk recently laid off more Twitter employees working on the platform's trust and safety efforts, roles typically [...]

Note: Since the publication of this article, the iBorderCtrl website has disappeared. We have updated the links in the post to point to an archived version of the site. Four years ago, Techdirt wrote about iBorderCtrl, a research project funded by the EU under the Horizon 2020 framework. According to the project's Web site: iBorderCtrl [...]

So, for all of the nonsense about what level of coercive power governments have over social media companies, it's bizarre how little attention has been paid to the fact that TikTok is apparently proposing to give the US government control over its content moderation setup, and the US government is looking at it seriously. As [...]

Learn Spanish, French, Italian, German, and many more languages with Babbel. Developed by over 100 expert linguists, Babbel is helping millions of people speak and understand a new language quickly, and with confidence. After just one month, you will be able to speak confidently about practical topics, such as transportation, dining, shopping, directions, making friends, [...]

The First Amendment doesn't just protect what you say. It also protects your right to hear what others say. It guarantees a right to published information. It protects a whole lot of stuff certain politicians sincerely wish it didn't because it gets in the way of pushing their bigoted ideals. Right now, there's a wave [...]

Apple has never looked too kindly upon users actually repairing their own devices, or using lower cost independent repair services. The company's ham-fisted efforts to shut down, sue, or otherwise imperil third-party repair shops arelegendary. As are the company's efforts to force recycling shops toshred Apple products(so they can't be refurbished and re-used). Recently, Apple [...]

It should be pretty well established by now that you just can't go around arresting people for expressing their displeasure with their fingers. It's not like it's a new issue or even an uncommon issue ([extremely laconic cowboy voice]: least not round these parts). It's something we've seen quite a bit of here at Techdirt. [...]

Almost exactly seven years ago, we discussed the absolute silliness that was Boise State University somehow getting the USPTO to grant it a trademark for a football field that is non-green." If you're not a college football fan, some context is in order. Decades back, the school didn't want to pay to have its field [...]

I mean, that's what we all were thinking, right? When you carve out a niche selling to outlaws, there's a good chance your product will be used illegally, no matter who's buying it. That's how it all plays out for NSO Group and its infamous Pegasus zero-click phone exploit - one capable of fully compromising [...]

It can always get dumber. And when we're talking about the 5th Circuit, you have to assume it will always get dumber. And that's what has happened now with the 5th Circuit issuing a stay on an injunction that had blocked an obviously unconstitutional law. But we'll get to those details in a moment. Just [...]

It's hard to keep your devices clean. And if you have any AirPods, you'll know how difficult it can be to clean the nooks and crannies of the device-especially when they're so tiny! Now it's a whole lot easier with the Multi-Use AirPods Cleaning Pen. It helps you clean hard-to-reach areas or any other corners. [...]

Former president Donald Trump has been engaged in plenty of questionable litigation. And not just during and following his mercifully short-lived stint as the supposed leader of the free world. But this still remains one of the weirdest lawsuits Trump has filed. This lawsuit - which he has already lost - claims the Democratic Party [...]

With the Biden FCC now having a full slate of commissioners and a full voting majority, the net neutrality debate has already started to heat back up. That means a renewed effort by broadband giants to try and downplay the need for net neutrality rules, usually via lazy op-eds run in lazy publications like The [...]

So, the fact that Microsoft would be taking the next game in the Elder Scrolls series, the 6th game, to Xbox and PC exclusively isn't the world's biggest surprise. Xbox chief Phil Spencer made waves back in 2021 (before all the drama surrounding Microsoft's future acquisition of Activision Blizzard) noting that he saw advantages to [...]

As has been noted here before, it's often the worst people that generate the best case law. People staring down the barrel of several years in prison are extremely motivated to find any reason to have the evidence against them dismissed. People not faced with the same reality rarely find a reason to trouble the [...]

We've got a slightly unusual (at first glace) crosspost episode for you this week! Recently, Mike joined Dave Cooper, CEO and Founder of brand protection agency IPSecure, on the company's Owning The Buy Box podcast. As you probably know, we're pretty skeptical of brand protection companies here at Techdirt, but Dave has a history of [...]

So, remember when Elon first announced his plans to buy Twitter, and he claimed that it was the de facto town square" and his top priority was to eliminate spam and scam bots? A top priority I would have is eliminating the spam and scam bots and the bot armies that are on Twitter. They [...]

Last week Techdirt wrote about an important development in the long-running saga of the UK's Online Safety Act, which has just become law. The UK government said at that time it would not use controversial powers in the new law to break end-to-end encryption until it was technically feasible" to do so while preserving users' [...]

Linux is the most fundamental technology required by all real developers. It is required in almost all fields of Software engineering. DevOps, Cloud, Full Stack, and App developers must have a working knowledge of Linux. With five comprehensive modules and over 40 Linux technologies covered, the 2023 Complete Linux Training Bundle offers a detailed program [...]

Some good news! Federal Judge Beth Labson Freeman has recognized what some of us have been screaming about for over a year now: California's Age Appropriate Design Code (AB 2273) is an unconstitutional mess that infringes on the 1st Amendment. We can add this to the pile of terrible moral panic protect the children!" laws [...]

We've noted a few times now how the 2021 infrastructure bill includes more than $42.5 billion to shore up broadband access. And while a huge chunk of that money will absolutely be going to giant telecom monopolies with a long history of subsidy fraud, a lot of the funding is genuinely going to help fund [...]

The world of the cosmetics industry is no stranger to trademark disputes. Without really diving in, I can think of several reasons why this would be. It is a saturated market in which both very large and much smaller companies play. It's an industry which produces products that basically beg for descriptive product names and [...]

Wayne County, Michigan cops and prosecutors love seizing property. According to law enforcement, seizing cash and cars from people (while often not charging them with crimes) is the best way to break up criminal organizations and disrupt the illegal drug market. What's left unexplained is how Wayne County's forfeiture program does anything more than make [...]

For many, many years we've detailed how big pharma companies, who only care about the monopoly rents they can receive on medicine while under patent, have concocted all sorts of scams and schemes to avoid having to compete with generic versions, even after their patents have expired (or been invalidated). But one of their older [...]

You hate to see it. But you know it's always there. And it's not even hidden below the surface. It's right there on top: the disdain expressed by law enforcement officers for the people they're supposed to be serving. If you believe the people you swore to serve and protect are worth less than the [...]

I don't think I've ever had a story sent in to me more than Bill Willingham's Substack/press release announcing that he was putting the Fables comic book property into the public domain, as part of a dispute he's having with DC Comics. As of now, 15 September 2023, the comic book property called Fables, including [...]

Designed for the world of hybrid work, Windows 11 can help you work more simply and seamlessly from anywhere. Windows 11 Pro also includes a number of productivity-focused features, such as the ability to snap multiple windows together and create custom layouts, improved voice typing, and a new, more powerful search experience. Personal and professional [...]

Who among us has not considered shoving a camera into our underwear... but for the greater good... on the public's dime? No need to raise your hands. We already know where they are. The only thing better than lots of surveillance is even more surveillance. That's the unofficial tagline of the Intelligence Community, as headed [...]

The cord cutting" trend cable execs spent a decade claiming was a fad just broke another round of new records. According to Leichtman Research, major cable TV providers lost another 1.7 million subscribers last quarter, as users flock to streaming, over the air TV, TikTok, or, you know, books. Roughly 17,700 customers cut the cord [...]

This week, our first place winner on the insightful side is James Burkhardt, responding to a commenter who compared Elon Musk's silly server-destroying adventure to Alexander cutting the Gordian knot, and taking the analogy further: Except after Alexander cut this knot, the ox cart kept dumping goods on the road, because the knot kept the [...]

Five Years Ago This week in 2018, ISPs were using new tactics to try to stop California's net neutrality bill on the home stretch, while California was also eyeing a more questionable bill to fix the internet of broken things, and Ajit Pai was falsely claiming that states are powerless to protect broadband consumers. We [...]

Well, this is a bit of a doozy. This case - via the Institute for Justice - involves a possible First Amendment violation but somehow ends with a judicial blessing of cops who make things up after the fact to justify an arrest that has already taken place. That's literally what happened here. Mason Murphy [...]

Back in March we were greatly dismayed by the the ruling in Hachette v. the Internet Archive over the legality of controlled digital lending" and the Archive's Open Library." It seemed clear that Judge John Koeltl did not understand some of the fundamentals of fair use (it also appeared that he went into their oral [...]

Hoo-boy, if you pay even mild attention to the video game industry, you're already going to be aware of the complete shitshow famed game-engine Unity has on its hands right now. By way of throat-clearing, you need to know how Unity got to where it is to understand what's happening now. The game engine has [...]

As the US government stumbles around to try to come up with an AI regulatory policy, it seems like they're focused on trying every bad idea on for size. You may have heard how Senator Schumer just had the first of his AI Summits, including a bunch of big name folks, who probably are not [...]

The US government may try to prosecute you for violating sites' terms of service. But it won't be handling its own actions the same way. Instead, the government embraces fakery of all sorts, from fake colleges used to eject immigrants just trying to further their education to setting up fake drug stash houses to entrap [...]

Say goodbye to the hassle of multiple cords and hello to a simplified, streamlined charging experience. With the 3-in-1 USB-C cord, you can now charge your iPhone, AirPods, and Apple Watch all at the same time. With three ports for dual charging, this versatile cable cuts back on wire clutter while boasting extra length for [...]

So, last Friday, the 5th Circuit released its opinion in the appeal of an absolutely ridiculous Louisiana federal court ruling that insisted large parts of the federal government were engaged in some widespread censorial conspiracy with social media, and barred large parts of the government from talking to social media companies and even academic researchers. [...]

To be clear: SpaceX's Starlink service is a game changer for those out of range of broadband access. Getting several hundred megabits per second in the middle of nowhere is a decidedly good thing, assuming you can afford the $600 hardware and $110 a month subscription cost. That said, a few telecom analysts had quietly [...]

It shouldn't surprise anyone that the NCAA has appeared all over Techdirt, representing itself as a jealous and prolific defender of all the intellectual property rights the college athletics organization has, or imagines it has. Like any good cabal, the NCAA is both extremely insular and also aggressive when it comes to anyone else using [...]

California is poised to be the third state in the U.S. (behind New York and Minnesota) to pass right to repair" legislation after the state's Right to Repair Act SB 244 passed 50-0 vote in the Assembly followed by a 38-0 vote in the Senate. Those three states alone comprise roughly 20 percent of all [...]

One of the things we've tried to get across over the years (perhaps unsuccessfully), is that not only are laws to get rid of hate speech almost always abused, they're also counterproductive in the actual fight against hate. For those who support those laws, they seem to think that without them, that means that there [...]

Like it or not, there are a lot of unconstitutional harassment laws on the books. While it's always nice to see the First Amendment protect speech we like, it's just as likely to protect speech we don't like. And harassment laws are often written far more broadly than they should be, given the First Amendment [...]