Netflix’s new password sharing crackdown is a dumb cash grab. It’s unnecessary, confusing, risks annoying subscribers, duplicates existing monetization efforts (Netflix already forces you to pay for higher tiers of service if you want simultaneous streams), contradicts years of Netflix’s stated position on the issue, comes on the heels of other price hikes, and the […]
Jack Daniel’s, the famous whiskey maker out of Tennessee, is not a complete stranger to silly trademark battles. But it appears that the company may be getting into the trademark bullying game, or at least the trademark lack of comprehending the law game, more and more these days. This post will serve as another example […]
For two decades, frustrated towns and cities all over the country have responded to telecom monopolies by building their own fiber broadband networks. Data routinely shows that not only do these networks provide faster, better, and cheaper service, the networks are generally more accountable to the public — because they’re directly owned and staffed by […]
It’s always disappointing when an internet company that should know better decides to throw the open internet it relies on under the bus. You would think that a site like OnlyFans would know better. You expect this sorta thing from Meta or Google or Netflix, which have reached a size where they’re more willing to […]
Section 230: not just for those irascible tech giants politicians keep grandstanding about. We all may have a love/hate/really hate relationship with various social media services, but Section 230 also protects the little guys. So, while it might be momentarily satisfying to cheer on the latest comeuppance attempt by political opportunists, remember it’s going to […]
There has been a lot said about Gonzalez v. Google, the first Supreme Court Section 230 case in 22 years. Of course, in those 2+ decades Section 230’s “twenty-six words that created the internet” have generated their fair share of courtroom and political controversy. But even given 230’s lightning-rod status for free speech and the internet, interest in […]
The Angle Pro Knife Sharpener helps you get professional quality sharpening right in your own home. This 3-in-1 knife sharpener includes a stainless steel angle gauge for measuring your blade’s exact angle, three ceramic wheels for honing (straightening) your blade, three diamond wheels for sharpening your blade, and 3 tungsten carbide rods for putting a […]
A few months back, we wrote about California Rep. Buffy Wicks’ blatantly corrupt plan to use the California legislature to simply make Google and Facebook hand cash over to news orgs (the same news orgs she needs endorsements from to keep getting elected). We’ve gone over the basics many times before: link taxes not only […]
We’ve noted several times how European ISPs have somehow convinced European Commission that technology giants should repeatedly give them billions of dollars… for no coherent reason. This “fair share” proposal is dressed up to sound like a sensible adult policy aimed at shoring up broadband access. In reality it’s net neutrality 2.0: telecom giants using […]
Everyone likes an easy day at the office. Cops are no exception. They like easy excuses to disregard the Fourth Amendment. Pretextual stops are how cop business has been done for years. Any missing tail light or (subjectively) too dark window tint is enough to initiate a traffic stop and apply pressure on drivers to […]
As anyone who reads this site regularly will know, DMCA abuse happens all the time. Typically you see this sort of thing resulting from clear attempts to hobble a competitor, or to silence content someone doesn’t want to see, or pure trolling for the purposes of producing mayhem. But we also see this kind of […]
For as long as the United States Postal Service (USPS) has had scanners, the government has been able to obtain information about senders and recipients. Under the Third Party Doctrine, information shared with third parties (in this case, shared with the government directly) is the government’s to have. No warrant needed. The USPS has been […]
We had just recently written about the American Psychological Association’s very thorough and detailed report going through much of the research about the impact of social media on the mental health of kids. That report was careful, and nuanced, and basically said that there is little evidence that social media is inherently bad for kids. […]
The FBI has fucked around and now it’s on a collision course with Finding Out. The NSA likes its Section 702 collection — an upstream collection authorized to gather communications in bulk from foreigners as well as US persons communicating with foreigners. The NSA is supposed to minimize the incidental collection of US persons’ communications. […]
The TruGolf Mini is a new approach to learning the game of golf. Paired with E6 CONNECT software, this interactive swing studio analyzes and displays swing data after every shot, helping golfers of all skill levels understand the game. With TruGolf Mini, every shot you take is a lesson. It’s on sale for $199.97 until 11:59pm PDT on 5/31/23. […]
Over the last few months, we’ve written a bunch about DoNotPay, the company run by Joshua Browder, claiming that it is the “world’s first robot lawyer” — that is until people take him to court for various things, at which point he says the term is just meant to be for marketing, and not to […]
We’ve mentioned for years how there’s now an absolute ocean of telecoms, services, apps, and other companies that are busy collecting all manner of sensitive location, health, mental health, browsing, and sexual preference data, then selling access to it to a massive array of dodgy and poorly regulated data brokers. Despite this, we consistently refuse […]
This week, our first place winner on the insightful side is TKnarr with a comment about Elon Musk’s troublesome demands of Twitter employees, and those employees being encouraged not to keep written records: This sounds like prime examples of a rule I’ve had for decades: if your bosses don’t want a written record of something, […]
Five Years Ago This week in 2018, a report confirmed the deep flaws of automated facial recognition software in the UK while its use was spreading in the US, not least because (as the ACLU found out via documents it obtained) Amazon was handing out cheap tech to law enforcement. We looked at how the […]
Ah, Monster Energy. For regular readers of Techdirt, the name of the company alone is enough to get your eyes rolling harder than a teenager at a rave. Posts on the company’s trademark bullying ways are so legion that I dare not even begin listing them; if you’re unfamiliar with them, click the link and […]
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