a Better Bubble™

TechDirt 🕸

Stupid Patent Of The Month: Traxcell Tech Gets Ordered To Pay Attorneys’ Fees 

2 years 3 months ago
If someone loses a patent lawsuit very badly—to the point where they face orders to pay attorneys’ fees—you wouldn’t think they would be eager to come back to court with a nearly identical lawsuit. But that’s what has happened with this month’s patent. What’s more, the lawyer representing the patent owner, William Ramey, has been […]
Mike Masnick

News Publishers Admit They Get Value From Search Traffic, Even As They Demand Extra Compensation For It

2 years 3 months ago
In recent years, major media organizations have been lobbying Congress to enact legislation, the “Journalism Competition and Preservation Act,” requiring search engine providers to engage in a form of collective bargaining about the tax they would pay to media publishers for the privilege of providing links to their news articles, backed up by mandatory interest arbitration in which […]
Mike Masnick

DeSantis May Be Learning What The Copyright World Has Always Known: Disney’s Lawyers Don’t Fuck Around

2 years 3 months ago
We’ve already covered how Florida man Governor Ron DeSantis flipped out that Disney, the largest employer in his state, offered some mild criticism over one of his unconstitutional censorship bills, and decided to retaliate by (1) removing the stupid questionable “theme park exemption” his office had directly worked with Disney to insert into his unconstitutional […]
Mike Masnick

Midjourney CEO Says ‘Political Satire In China Is Pretty Not Okay,’ But Apparently Silencing Satire About Xi Jinping Is Pretty Okay

2 years 3 months ago
As a rule, it’s a good idea to be particularly suspicious of defenses of censorship that — coincidentally — materially benefit the people espousing them. In this case, the argument in favor of censorship is coming from founder and CEO of AI image generator Midjourney, David Holz. And Holz makes clear that he is willing […]
Mike Masnick

Daily Deal: Rosetta Stone

2 years 3 months ago
With its intuitive, immersive training method, Rosetta Stone will have you reading, writing, and speaking new languages like a natural in no time. You’ll start by matching words with images just like when you learned your native language as a child. Then you’ll move onto interactive lessons where speech recognition technology works to evaluate and […]
Gretchen Heckmann

Media Has No Interest In Paying For Twitter Blue

2 years 3 months ago
It’s been so weird the way Elon Musk and his friends have been jealous of underpaid, overworked journalists who happened to have blue check marks next to their name. There’s some sort of deep-seated insecurity to think that just because Twitter decided some people should be verified to avoid problems with impersonation that it was […]
Mike Masnick

New York The Latest State To Ponder A Netflix Tax

2 years 3 months ago
Hungry to boost municipal budgets, a growing roster of states and cities have spent the last five years or so trying to implement a tax on Netflix, Hulu, and other streaming services. Sometimes (like in Chicago) this has involved expanding an existing amusement tax (traditionally covering book stores, music stores, ball games and other brick and mortar […]
Karl Bode

MLB Tries To Trademark 3 City Names, Runs Away After Law Profs School Them

2 years 3 months ago
It’s opening day and already Major League Baseball has struck out. It’s a story as old as time: major sports league tries to trademark a bunch of city names only to be schooled on the internet and media by law professors and dropping the applications. Well, okay, so that’s not that common of a story, […]
Dark Helmet

Colorado Eyes Killing State Law Prohibiting Community Broadband Networks

2 years 3 months ago
U.S. telecom monopolies like AT&T and Comcast spent millions of dollars and several decades quite literally buying shitty, protectionist laws in around twenty states that either ban or heavily hamstring towns and cities from building their own broadband networks. Even in instances and areas where AT&T and Comcast have repeatedly refused to upgrade their networks. Quite often, […]
Karl Bode

Daily Deal: The Ultimate Advanced Cybersecurity Bundle

2 years 3 months ago
The Ultimate Advanced Cybersecurity Bundle has 5 courses to help you become a cybersecurity expert. You’ll learn how to architect, engineer, integrate, and implement secure solutions across complex environments to support a resilient enterprise while considering the impact of governance, risk, and compliance requirements. Courses will introduce you to the NIST Risk Management Framework, and […]
Gretchen Heckmann

Appeals Court Reverses Awful Decision Finding That Holding Up A Sign Telling Drivers There Are Cops Ahead Is Not Free Speech

2 years 3 months ago
Officer Richard Gasparino of the Stamford, Connecticut police department couldn’t stand to have his “revenue diverted.” So, he arrested Michael Friend for the imaginary crime of holding up a sign warning motorists there was a sting operation in progress further up the road. The officer claimed Friend was “interfering with a police investigation” despite there […]
Tim Cushing

Fifth Circuit Finally Finds A Cop Unworthy Of Immunity, Strips Protection From Officer Who Shot Man Five Times During Routine Traffic Stop

2 years 3 months ago
To be fair, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals doesn’t always hand out immunity while waving away egregious, often horrific rights violations perpetrated by law enforcement officers. But it certainly seems to frequently find creative ways to let cops exit lawsuits, no matter how awful their behavior. Even the Supreme Court, which has done the […]
Tim Cushing

Winnie The Pooh Escapes Copyright Hell, Grabs Some Weapons, And Immediately Gets Kicked Out Of Hong Kong

2 years 3 months ago
The life-plus-seventy-years sentence imposed on Winnie the Pooh by Cher’s ex-husband is finally over. Petitions for an early release went unheeded, forcing the butt naked childhood icon to perform tricks for the heirs of its creator’s estate until it was finally allowed to roam free — nearly 40 years after the bear’s sentence should have […]
Tim Cushing