Here on Techdirt we’ve chronicled the rise of a bunch of terrible age verification laws, including many focused specifically on adult content. We’ve also highlighted how MindGeek, the company behind a bunch of largest adult content sites, including Pornhub, have started geoblocking entire states in response to these problematic laws, while the Free Speech Coalition […]
We’ve documented in detail how the series of mergers (AT&T—>Time Warner—>Discovery) that created the Warner Brothers Discovery entertainment empire may just be one of the most destructive, pointless, and incompetently managed “business” transactions in modern media history. Since its beginning in 2016, the absurd saga has generated hundreds of billions in debt, saw more than 50,000 […]
There’s a massive gap between how the policed view “reasonable” policing and the view held by those who do the policing. While most of us would prefer more accountability, transparency, and de-escalation, those who claim to “serve and protect” seem to prefer the polar opposite. We get opacity, violence, and insular behavior any time we […]
Massachusetts is now poised to make calls for prison inmates and their families free. The decision comes after decades where the government’s coddling of prison telecom monopolies resulted in inmate families being charged an arm and a leg simply to chat briefly with their incarcerated loved ones. According to Bolts, the reforms are part of […]
Professor Andrew Przybylski from the Oxford Internet Institute is one of the best, most important researchers out there providing thorough, comprehensive, empirical evidence that every tech moral panic is not supported by the data. We’ve covered his work before, including the complete lack of evidence that social media makes kids unhappy, how there’s actually some […]
Facial recognition tech is faulty. It’s an unavoidable fact, especially when it comes to women and minorities. No matter how good the tech, the potential for false positives and negatives remains. And pre-existing biases are amplified by things the tech simply can’t do well: reliably identify people who aren’t white and male. Detroit law enforcement […]
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So, you might have heard the news about how Special Counsel Jack Smith obtained a warrant for Donald Trump’s Twitter account data, that Twitter resisted, and was fined $350,000 before handing over the data, and (finally) that Twitter lost an appeal about all of this, leading to most of the details being unsealed by the […]
Pretty much every time Verizon wanders outside of its core competencies (operating telecom networks, lobbying to hamstring competition, undermining the most basic of regulatory oversight), the telco amusingly falls flat on its face. It’s quite honestly starting to get a little weird. Whether it’s the company’s Go90 video streaming platform, its video joint venture with RedBox, its news website Sugarstring (which […]
If you go take a look at all the different posts we’ve done on the topic of Pokémon, you will be left with one undeniable conclusion: the people behind Pokémon content take IP rights very seriously. This has particularly been true when it comes to some of the franchise’s most dedicated fans trying to express […]
Sometimes, the best ideas for blog topics (or anything, really), come over a good meal with an amiable companion, and a few glasses of wine. As one does after a few glasses, my husband and I randomly ended up on the topic of data privacy — specifically, an aspect of data privacy and rights that […]
As you may recall, we weren’t fans of The Social Dilemma, the documentary manipulated people with misinformation in the course of complaining about that exact practice. But now there’s a much better and more interesting documentary in the space, and one that’s worth your time: The YouTube Effect by Alex Winter. It takes a deep […]
It has been known for years that polygraph tests can be beaten. This supposed thing of science can be manipulated to clear guilty people if guilty people know how to trick it. But law enforcement still likes polygraph tests because they can also be exploited in the other direction. When it’s your word against the […]
We’ve been writing about the problem of “judge shopping” for years in a variety of contexts. While there used to be concerns about “forum shopping,” in which plaintiffs would seek out specific courts that were deemed more favorable (such as the Eastern District of Texas for patent troll cases), it got more ridiculous in recent […]
Microsoft Office 2021 Professional is the perfect choice for any professional who needs to handle data and documents. It comes with many new features that will make you more productive in every stage of development, whether it’s processing paperwork or creating presentations from scratch – whatever your needs are. The free Microsoft Training Bundle is […]
As Trump’s favored performing monkey during his elected years, former NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani managed to set a lot of precedent. Sure, none of this precedent was set in court, but it’s been all of NEVER since Americans have been blessed by the omnipresence of a TOP LAW GUY who has (1) leaked dark fluid […]
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 as it tries to meet regulatory deadlines for 5G deployment. Hoping […]
It appears I slightly exaggerated the state of the Taco Tuesday trademark saga in my last post. After decades of ridiculous bullying coming from Taco John’s concerning the trademark it somehow was granted on “Taco Tuesday” — a term that is generic on its face, became more generic over time, and is also at least […]
I do understand why so many people, especially creative folks, are worried about AI and how it’s used. The future is quite unknown, and things are changing very rapidly, at a pace that can feel out of control. However, when concern and worry about new technologies and how they may impact things morphs into mob-inspiring […]
While I can comprehend the fact that Donald Trump has access to money (even if it’s unlikely he’s playing with house money at this point), I cannot understand how he hasn’t been reduced to a pro se litigant at this point. This man has a headful of bad legal ideas and somehow — despite his […]
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