While this ruling [PDF] is likely correct under current Fourth Amendment case law, it does raise questions about the propriety of mass data grabs that aren’t particularized to suspected criminals or investigation targets. (h/t Orin Kerr) Tennessee resident Matthew Bledsoe was recently convicted during a jury trial for his participation in the January 6, 2021 […]
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Next Friday, September 9th, we’ll be hosting our 25th anniversary event. We’ll post the actual details later this week, but the best way to make sure you can attend is to be a regular paying subscriber to Techdirt. You can back us via the qualifying Techdirt Insider packages (Crystal Ball, Watercooler, or Behind the Curtain — or the equivalent […]
Unfortunately, last night, the California Senate passed some horribly dangerous bills that we’ve been warning about the past few weeks — and they’re heading to Governor Newsom’s desk for signing. It seems likely he will sign them, even as that will be a huge, and dangerous mistake. First up was AB 2273 the “Age Appropriate […]
The challenge with passing a functional, useful privacy law for the Internet era is several fold. One is the need for baseline competency in lawmakers, an increasing challenge in U.S. politics. But the other issue is corruption, and the fact that any meaningful privacy law first has to run a gantlet of lobbyists with unlimited […]
Secularists teaching the state of Texas a lesson in unintended consequences appears to be becoming something of a theme. To be fair, this is a problem of Texas’ own making, as the state continues to churn out laws that aren’t just conservative, which would be fine, but at least questionable from a constitutionality standpoint. The […]
It appears that free speech absolutist Elon Musk is, once again, not such a fan of free speech when it criticizes him or his companies. Perhaps he’s too busy penning columns for China’s official internet censor to know this, but given other reports about how much he micromanages things happening at Tesla, you have to […]
Vic Mignogna is an American voice actor specializing in English dubs of Japanese anime. His career dates back to the early 2000s. Unfortunately for Mignogna, he’s now mostly known as a serial sexual harasser. Those accusations began surfacing in 2019, with some accusations dating back nearly a decade before he became a successful voice actor. […]
Look, I’m a small journalism outfit. A very small one. So, in theory, a law that effectively lets me demand free cash from Google and Facebook should be a good thing for me. But, it would actually be a disaster. That’s why I spoke out against the idea last year when Senator Amy Klobuchar and […]
If you thought cookie pop-ups were an annoying nuisance, just wait until you have to scan your face for some third party to “verify your age” after California’s new design code becomes law. On Friday, I wrote about the companies and organizations most likely to benefit from California’s AB 2273, the “Age Appropriate Design Code” […]
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It’s not often you see a civil forfeiture case handled by an appeals court. Most cases are never given their day in court. Many go completely unchallenged. The evidentiary bar for the government is low and the obligations placed on those whose property has been taken is high. Most people can’t afford to fight forfeitures, […]
We’ve noted a few times how there’s an absolutely historic amount of money being thrown at the U.S. broadband “digital divide” this year. The broadband infrastructure bill alone designates $42 billion to expanding broadband access. Billions more in COVID relief money started flowing this week courtesy of the Treasury Department. But there’s a tiny problem. Despite a […]
This week, both our winners on the insightful side come in response to our post about the impossibility of complying with the child protection bill being pushed in California. In first place, it’s That One Guy with a comment focusing on the carve-out for telcos and broadband providers: ‘They paid us off so of course […]
Five Years Ago As you probably know, this week was Techdirt’s 25th anniversary! And this week in 2017, of course, we were marking the 20th anniversary (and also published a podcast reflecting on the history of the site). As for other events this week in 2017: we saw yet another example of the problems with […]
The Los Angeles Police Department is one of the largest in the United States. To say it’s resistant to change would be an understatement. It — like the NYPD — is also resistant to oversight, transparency, and accountability. It may not be as openly antagonistic as the NYPD but it has a multitude of problems […]
After imploding in a spectacular fireball several years ago, MoviePass is giving things another try. The service has announced that it’s preparing to relaunch on Labor Day, nearly three years after the company was effectively shamed out of existence in spectacular fashion. While the remnants of MoviePass were sold to a private equity firm in […]
This week we’ve been writing about California bill AB 2273, a dangerous bill that has effectively sailed through the California legislature with little pushback, because it’s wrapped up in “protect the children” language and no one wants to be seen as not wanting to “protect the children.” But, like so many bills that frame themselves […]
Most protest activity targets government entities. So, it’s really no surprise that government entities prefer to target protesters. While most “free” nations won’t go so far as to introduce life sentences for protesting and/or fire a majority of local officials and replace them with handpicked loyalists, the general understanding is that protests targeting government entities […]
As was to be expected, the Twitter / Elon Musk showdown has been zooming ahead. With a trial set for mid-October (after the Chancellor overseeing the case mostly sided with Twitter on the preferred timeline), we’re deep in the discovery process, and there have been some disputes over how that’s going. On Wednesday, there was […]
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