Satellite TV provider Dish Network isn’t having much fun. Despite oodles of direct government assistance during the Trump era, the company’s attempt to pivot from mediocre satellite TV provider to modern streaming TV and 5G wireless giant has been a consistent dumpster fire. Both the company’s dying satellite TV service and its streaming TV platform (SlingTV) have […]
This week, our first place winner on the insightful side is radix with a summary of Reddit CEO Steve Huffman’s comments about the blackout protest: “We don’t do things for free, so all the unpaid mods should get back to work” is quite the statement. In second place, it’s miked with some additional info on […]
Five Years Ago This week in 2018 began with a much-anticipated day: the official end of net neutrality rules. We took a long look at Ajit Pai’s latest comments about the change, while the FCC was busy fending off questions about the DDoS attack it made up (and also, randomly, about Pai’s big coffee mug), […]
Amazon-owned Twitch appears to be running something of an experiment to see just how much it can piss off its creative community before a mass exodus occurs. Reading back through our posts on the platform, you will be left with the understanding that there are two types of policy rollouts when it comes to Twitch. […]
Via Tarah Wheeler (who just destroyed the EARN IT Act recently) we find out that, while the White House has announced that it wants public comment on AI regulation, it hasn’t made it at all easy to figure out how to actually comment. I’m smashblogging on a Saturday because I came across this story on […]
NSO Group is irredeemable. It must know that by know. Its investors know it. The public knows it. Even the government of the country it set up shop in — a shop filled with ex-government employees — can hardly seem to stomach being associated with it. At any point, this could have been prevented. The […]
Back in college, I took an arbitration class, and it was one of my favorite classes. The professor (James Gross, who just retired last year after teaching for an astounding 56 years) was amazing, and I became a little obsessed with the entire idea and process of arbitration as an alternative to the costly and […]
It’s renewal time again, and this time the snooper squad is facing unprecedented push back. Sure, a lot of it is politically motivated, what with the post-Trumpians still getting high on their own “deep state” supply. Even as opportunistic as they are, they still have a point: some of their own have been subjected to […]
Tableau 10 is the data visualization tool that breaks mounds of information down into clear, actionable insights, making it a valuable tool for any data-driven guru. This course will show you how to get started with Tableau 10, so you can create powerful visualizations and guide your business with solid, accessible answers. It’s on sale […]
Steve Huffman, the CEO of Reddit, has decided to just keep on talking. After his disastrous AMA helped inspire more subreddits to join a 48 hour blackout, and his dismissal of the protesting subreddits as something not worth paying attention to resulted in many subreddits extending their protests indefinitely, Huffman apparently thought it would make […]
You may have noticed that for-profit healthcare in the U.S. is already a hot mess, especially in the most already marginalized parts of the country. Giant, mismanaged health care conglomerates have long pushed their underfunded staffers to the brink, while routinely under-investing in necessary technical upgrades and improvements. It’s getting consistently worse everywhere, but in […]
Open access has been discussed many times here on Techdirt. There are several strands to its story. It’s about allowing the public to access research they have paid for through tax-funded grants, without needing to take out often expensive subscriptions to academic titles. It’s about saving educational institutions money that they are currently spending on over-priced academic […]
You may recall that, back during the last net neutrality open comment period, the FCC’s comment system was overrun by millions of faked comments, including from many dead people. Not surprisingly, it was eventually determined that legacy broadband companies funded the fake comment submissions, which they felt they needed to do because actual activists were […]
Well, here’s some welcome news! It appears the EU Commission may have learned something from the less-than-wholehearted support it received following the introduction of its CSA (Child Sexual Abuse) bill. The proposal hoped to curb the spread of CSAM (child sexual abuse material) by mandating (among other things) client-side scanning of user content. All well […]
There are some questions about whether or not Section 230 protects AI companies from being liable for the output from their generative AI tools. Matt Perrault published a thought-provoking piece arguing that 230 probably does not protect generative AI companies. Jess Miers, writing here at Techdirt, argued the opposite point of view (which I found […]
The DOJ must not have much confidence in its case against Backpage executives Michael Lacey and James Larkin. This prosecution is now more than a half-decade old and the government still hasn’t found a way to lock up the many Backpage employees and founders it arrested. The Backpage site was seized in 2018. This followed […]
Get the most out of your devices with this powerful, compact charging station. This 7-in-1 charging dock has universal compatibility that works with most iPhones, iPads, and many other devices throughout your home. It also features a super-speed 30W Fast PD port and intelligent identification technology to keep the device safe and healthy. With its […]
To be honest, I’m somewhat amazed that more copyright lawsuits haven’t been filed against Twitter yet. There have been multiple reports of how the company’s DMCA takedown response systems have been broken/ignored since Musk took over. Without looking for it, I’ve seen full length high def movies show up in my Twitter feed (including movies […]
The auto industry has spent several years trying to dismantle efforts in Massachusetts to make auto repair more affordable and convenient. And they just got help from US auto safety regulators. Techdirt has obtained a copy of a letter sent by the The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to major auto manufacturers, effectively giving […]
Well, that was fast. In the ongoing saga of Microsoft’s attempt to purchase Activision Blizzard, we just discussed the FTC’s petition to the court to have a temporary restraining order put in place preventing the two companies from finalizing the purchase while regulatory bodies were still doing their thing. Honestly, the most interesting part of […]
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