Techdirt

We're getting a bit more clarity and commonsense applied to lawsuits involving constitutional violations by TSA agents. As we're all painfully aware, to fly is to spend some time in often uncomfortably close proximity to a TSA officer. That's the bargain we make when we choose to board a plane. These searches are far from [...]

Last month we noted how the country's top telecom and media regulator has been under the bootheel of industry for the better part of seven years, and nobody much seems to care. For four years under Trump the agency was a glorified rubber stamp to industry interests. Telecom and media giants then lobbied Congress into [...]

Out of all the purveyors of facial recognition tech, Clearview is by far the sketchiest. It has compiled billions of photos and other personal info by doing little more than scraping the internet of anything that isn't locked down. Web scraping isn't inherently evil, but Clearview certainly makes scraping appear malicious. There are any number [...]

Video games are a form of art and a form of expression. While that used to be somewhat controversial to state decades ago, nobody of any value really argues that point any longer. And the moment you accept that simple fact, it throws into light how absolutely absurd it is that the preservation efforts of [...]

Pretty much everyone who isn't a UK legislator backing the Online Safety Bill has come out against it. The proposal would give the UK government much more direct control of internet communications. Supposedly aimed at limiting the spread of child sexual abuse material (CSAM), the proposal would do the opposite of its moniker by making [...]

As we've been covering over the last few years, there's been an almost entirely unsubstantiated moral panic over kids and social media." This is despite the fact that multiple large scale studies have found that way more kids have benefitted from social media than have been harmed by it. As we've noted time and time [...]

We just got done noting how Dish Network's long-hyped 5G wireless network is likely doomed. While they're technically building a wireless network," the network's coverage, phone selection, and overall quality has proven laughable so far, and there have been growing worries that Dish is running out of cash. Hoping to distract the press and regulators [...]

No one wants the bulky and tangled chargers anymore... and if all the power we need can be put in a little device, we'd take it, right? This Smart Keychain replaces the typical charging cable and uses the microcomputer electronic system to wirelessly charge the touch-sensitive Apple Watch by simply placing the watch on a [...]

Ever since the fall of 2018, the DHS has been threatening the American public with increased surveillance on top of the insults and intrusions TSA officers physically perform at security checkpoints. The first inklings of this rollout came in the form of a Privacy Impact Assessment released by the DHS in September 2018. The assessment [...]

We just got done noting how there's not much the federal government can do about right wing propaganda outlets like Fox News, given their protections under the First Amendment and the general limitations (both legally and courageously) at regulators like the FCC. But there is one thing that's likely to cause some serious trouble for [...]

The Chicago Police Department is extremely problematic, even by the extremely lax standards of US law enforcement. It has been home to a domestic black-site operation. It has been hit with reform mandates from federal courts. It has shown no interest in rooting out the worst of its officers. And it has engaged in a [...]

We've noted for decades how US broadband caps are little more than a predatory cash grab. The usage limits and overage fees have zero real technical function and don't manage congestion. Instead they're little more than a glorified price hike; a way for regional telecom monopolies to nickel-and-dime captive customers, charging them more money for [...]

Well, one terrible bill won't be a problem this year, though will come back next. The CJPA (California Journalism Protection Act) from Assemblymember Buffy Wick, won't move forward this year. Technically it's become a two-year bill" which basically means they can (and will) pick it back up again next year without having to revisit the [...]

And away we go. The ongoing saga that is Microsoft's attempt to acquire Activision Blizzard has been going on for months now, with a flurry of news and activity occurring over the past couple of those months as the deal sits before three major regulatory bodies in the EU, the UK, and here in America. [...]

It will surprise nobody to learn that when politicians trumpet the First Amendment, they are generally referring only to expression that they agree with. But occasionally, they demonstrate their hypocrisy in a fashion so outrageously transparent that it shocks even the most cynical and jaded First Amendment practitioners. Last week, we were treated to just [...]

As the name suggests, classification algorithms are what allow computers to well... classify new observations, like how your inbox decides which incoming emails are spam or how Siri recognizes your voice. The Essential MATLAB & Simulink Training Course will show you how to implement classification algorithms using MATLAB, one of the most powerful tools inside [...]

If there's one thing nearly everyone on Capitol Hill can agree on, it's that the federal government just isn't interfering enough with social media services. The Democrats think social media services should be regulated because they're allowing too much hate and misinformation to spread. The Republicans think social media services should be regulated because not [...]

I've spent the better part of two decades writing about how telecom monopolization (and the corruption that protects it) results in expensive, spotty, sluggish, broadband and historically terrible customer service. The cause of our substandard broadband isn't much of a mystery, but because of these companies' political influence, state and federal policymakers often lack the [...]

Finally! We've been covering famed burger chain In-N-Out's longstanding bullshit tactic for retaining trademark rights all over the world by standing up popup locations briefly once every couple of years just to satisfy the requirements to use the mark in commerce. What is far too common in the coverage about lawsuits or threats of suits [...]

Let's get this out of the way right up front: NSO Group - as ethically horrendous as it is - offers at least one unbeatable product. Its Pegasus malware is a zero-click exploit capable of fully compromising targets' phones. This means the company is worth something, even if it's not the sort of company most [...]

If you're a Techdirt reader, you're surely familiar with Cory Doctorow: we've written about him often, he's appeared on the podcast several times and, of course, he's a prolific science fiction author whose books brilliantly engage with many of the subjects we cover. Next week, if all goes according to plan, Cory will be joining [...]

Elon Musk's Twitter is apparently really hard up for cash. In addition to not paying rent or other important bills, it is now trying to claw back bills that were paid just prior to Elon getting the keys to Twitter. As you may have heard, last week, Twitter sued Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, well [...]

The worst people can make the best case law. That's the way it works here in the United States, where the court system occasionally works like it should and the old disagree with what you say but defend your right to say it" axiom is upheld by judges who frequently have to deal with speech [...]

The Complete AWS Cloud Engineer, Developer & Architect Course Bundle has 10 courses designed to help you master AWS. You'll learn about the basic use case for cloud computing and specifically for selecting AWS services. Courses will teach you how to become a Cloud Engineer, Cloud Architect, Cloud Developer, and a SysOps Admin. You'll also [...]

You may have seen some headlines recently about some authors filing lawsuits against OpenAI. The lawsuits (plural, though I'm confused why it's separate attempts at filing a class action lawsuit, rather than a single one) began last week, when authors Paul Tremblay and Mona Awad sued OpenAI and various subsidiaries, claiming copyright infringement in how [...]

When it comes to Fox News' democracy-soiling propaganda, there's not a whole lot the federal government has been able to do. The First Amendment generally protects the network's ability to spew race-baiting conspiratorial bile, and the nation's top media regulator, the FCC, generally either lacks the authority or backbone to stop the news" channel from [...]

Although overall theEU Copyright Directiveis bad news for the digital world because of things like its need for the use of automatedupload filters, it does contain a few glimmers of good sense. For example, it rectifies a failing of the previous EU legislation in this area, the2001 Infosec Directive. The 2001 law allowed Member States [...]

A few months ago, when the EU designated 17 companies as VLOPs" - Very Large Online Providers - subject to the most stringent regulations, one name that I heard lots of folks in the US be confused about was Zalando, which is a large EU-focused online retailer. It was also one of only two companies [...]

Here we go again. It was only a month ago that Karl Bode wrote about Disney's absolutely and totally cool process of removing a bunch of content from its Disney Plus streaming platform not because the content sucks and nobody liked it, but because it gets to play accounting tricks as to its assets in [...]

As you'll recall, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman whined about what he called the landed gentry" among moderators of subreddits that were protesting his ridiculous extractive API changes. He insisted that perhaps things should be more democratic. In response, many subreddits took a vote on how subscribers to those subreddits wanted the mods to handle things, [...]

People are finding cool new (probably illegal) ways to unmask people they want to sue. In this case, it's a guy who didn't like some things said about him. But in order to get a libel lawsuit going, the plaintiff needs to have a defendant to sue. Here's where all the bad faith begins, as [...]

End the frustration of carrying tangled cables and the bulkiness of multiple accessories forever with this WonderCube Pro. This is the smallest all-in-one mobile solution that carries 8 smartphone essentials right at your fingertips. This device features a 1'' foldout flexible USB cord that measures 3'' when extended. It has a built-in gold-plated connector that [...]

Back in January there was some hope that the panel of judges hearing the latest version of the challenge to FOSTA's constitutionality had recognized the problems with the law. That's because during oral arguments they seemed to express skepticism about its constitutionality, noting that it appeared to criminalize any efforts to legalize prostitution. But as [...]

During peak pandemic, the FCC launched the Emergency Broadband Benefit (EBB program), giving lower income Americans a $50 ($75 for those in tribal lands) discount off of their broadband bill. Under the program, the government gave money to ISPs, which then doled out discounts to users if they qualified. But (and I'm sure this will [...]

This week, our first place winner on the insightful side is Cdevon2 with a response to the notion that it's somehow ironic for people who wanted to leave Twitter to be complaining about not being able to read tweets: You assume that the same people who are actively leaving the site are the ones complaining [...]

Five Years Ago This week in 2018, the latest text of the EU Copyright Directive showed it to be even more disastrous than expected. Thus, its defenders and apologists were busy responding variously with substance-free denial, vague defenses lacking any understanding of the issues, accidental revelations of the true scope of their internet-destroying goals, and [...]

The ongoing saga that is Microsoft's attempt to purchase Activision Blizzard continues! As a brief review of the scoreboard will show: the EU has approved the purchase, the UK's CMA has blocked it and Microsoft has appealed that decision, and the lawsuit brought by the FTC in the States is currently in the pretrial phase. [...]

NetChoice has been quite busy the last few years suing to stop a wide variety of terrible state laws designed to mess up parts of the internet. It took on Florida's social media content moderation law and won (twice). It took on Texas' social media content moderation law and won at the district court, and [...]

The Internet is amazing, but it's not perfect. There are many aspects that are unsatisfactory - its protocols are inefficient, and it is far from resilient. The InterPlanetary File System,created in 2014, aims to address some of these deficiencies.On its main siteit is described as: A peer-to-peer hypermedia protocol designed to preserve and grow humanity's [...]

It appears the race is on to see whether it will be the EU or the US in promulgating worse regulations around generative AI tools. The EU (as has been its MO over the last few years) is taking the lead. A few weeks back the EU Parliament passed a draft regulation for AI. There's [...]

Late last year, Senator Josh Hawley - the fist-pumping supporter of Trump-approved insurrection - generated the last bit of his Missouri state government legacy. Having been successfully sued for violating state public records laws while acting as the state attorney general, Hawley was ordered to pay $12,000 by Judge Jon Beetem. The total bill included [...]

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There have been a bunch of attempts over the last few years to try to get around Section 230, and to sue various websites under a negligence" theory under the law, arguing that the online service was somehow negligent in failing to protect a user, and therefore Section 230 shouldn't apply. Some cases have been [...]

While recent evolutions in AI" have netted some profoundly interesting advancements in creativity and productivity, its early implementation in journalism has been a sloppy mess thanks to some decidedly human-based problems: namely greed and laziness. If you remember, the cheapskates over at Red Ventures implemented AI over at CNET without telling anybody. The result: articles [...]

The depressing tale of how the European Union passed copyright's worst new law, the EU Copyright Directive, occupies some 36 pages in Walled Culture the book (digital versionsavailable free). The main legislation was finalized over four years ago, but countries are still grappling with the problem of implementing its sometimes contradictory requirements in national laws. [...]

Just fucking fight it out already. The whole stupid cage match" brawl thing was started when Meta execs made some (accurate) cracks about Elon's management of Twitter, and Elon couldn't handle it. But, now with the launch of Meta's Threads, Elon feels the need to send a ridiculously laughable legal threat to Meta. Elon's legal [...]

Never mind fitting the description, even though that, too, has its own problems. In Texas, it apparently only matters how your name is spelled. If you share a name with a criminal suspect, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals has said you have no recourse if you're wrongly arrested and detained for multiple days. That [...]

As you may have heard, yesterday Meta finally launched Threads, its Twitter-like microblogging service, built on ActivityPub, but using Instagram account credentials for login. The reaction from across the internet has been fascinating. I've seen everything from people insisting that this will clearly finally be the one single Twitter killer" everyone's been waiting for, to [...]

Last week's 6-3 decision in the 303 Creative v. Elenis case, with all the conservative justices vindicating a website designer's ability to refuse to build a website celebrating gay marriage, may seem at first glance to be a blow to gay rights. And maybe that's what some or all of the six justices in the [...]

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