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 the EU Copyright Directive is bad news for the digital world because of things like its need for the use of automated upload filters, it does contain a few glimmers of good sense. For example, it rectifies a failing of the previous EU legislation in this area, the 2001 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. […]
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