a Better Bubble™

TechDirt 🕸

Daily Deal: The Complete Master GIMP Design Bundle

6 months 1 week ago
Go from absolute zero to GIMP pro with this comprehensive 9 course bundle. Jump into the Complete Master GIMP Design Bundle, and you’ll go all the way from installing the GIMP software and configuring it to run on Windows, to producing banners, book covers and even memes that you’ll display using Facebook and other social […]
Daily Deal

Trump FCC Tries To Bully Comcast Away From Its Already Flimsy Dedication To Civil Rights

6 months 1 week ago
Since his appointment by Trump in 2017, the FCC’s Brendan Carr has never stood up to telecom giants on any issue of substance to consumers. It doesn’t matter whether we’re talking about the company’s destruction of net neutrality, privacy violations, bullshit hidden fees, or its technically unnecessary usage caps, there’s nothing a company like Comcast […]
Karl Bode

Sony, MarkScan Go On ‘Bloodborne’ DMCA Blitz Of Fun, Fan-Made Creations

6 months 1 week ago
It’s always interesting to me to see companies identify what they see as a threat by looking at what type of content they attempt to DMCA or otherwise disappear. When actual direct and flagrant wholesale copying of a digital product occurs, you can understand why the takedowns are issued. We might still want to argue […]
Dark Helmet

Medical Equipment Maker Terumo Cardiovascular Trying To Monopolize Repair Of Costly Gear

6 months 1 week ago
Terumo Cardiovascular, a company that makes six-figure medical equipment used in heart surgeries, is apparently keen on attracting the ire of the “right to repair” movement. But given the Trump administration’s assault on state and federal consumer protection, it’s not clear they’ll face many meaningful repercussions for it. In a letter obtained by 404 Media, […]
Karl Bode

Steve Wynn Asks Supreme Court To Gut Key First Amendment Standard

6 months 1 week ago
Billionaires are already deleting parts of our government, as well as various safety mechanisms on the internet that sought to minimize hate and abuse. Do we also want them to be able to rewrite our understanding of the First Amendment? Steve Wynn’s latest Supreme Court petition represents a dangerous escalation in the ongoing assault on […]
Mike Masnick

Federal Court Allows Lawsuit Over Network Of 172 Flock ALPR Cameras To Move Forward

6 months 1 week ago
Late last fall, a number of Norfolk, Virginia residents — with the assistance of the Institute for Justice (IJ) — sued the city for blanketing Norfolk with nearly 200 automatic license plate readers (ALPRs) provided by Flock Safety. Flock Safety made its first inroads with the private market, selling plate readers to gated communities and […]
Tim Cushing

Daily Deal: The 2025 Business & Leadership Skills Bundle

6 months 1 week ago
The 2024 Business & Leadership Skills Bundle has 5 courses to help you learn skills you need to advance your career. Courses cover strategic planning, leadership styles, marketing communications, the art of professional poise and politeness, office politics, and more. It’s on sale for $25. Note: The Techdirt Deals Store is powered and curated by StackCommerce. […]
Daily Deal

GOP Is Quietly Freaking Out About Elon; Time For Them To Take A Stand

6 months 1 week ago
It turns out that when you let the world’s richest man take over significant portions of the federal government, some people might get nervous. Who knew? Last week we wrote about how some staunch conservatives were finally admitting that Elon’s takeover of the government represented a constitutional crisis. Then earlier this week, we showed how […]
Mike Masnick

Phone Companies Still Suck At Stopping Unwanted Scam Robocalls, Something That Will Get Much Worse Under Trump 2.0

6 months 1 week ago
We’ve long noted how absurd it is that scammers, debt collectors, and greedy telemarketers have ruined our voice communications networks. We’ve somehow just normalized it. We’ve also noted how a big reason our robocall problem never gets fixed is because Congress and regulators routinely fixate on scammers and not on the “legit” companies like debt collectors that use […]
Karl Bode

The Red Pill Was Hijacked

6 months 1 week ago
“Wake up, Neo. The Matrix has you.” These words marked a cultural moment—one that captured our collective anxiety about reality itself. The Matrix wasn’t just a movie about robots and kung fu. It was a story about questioning the systems of power and control that shape our understanding of the world. The red pill became a powerful metaphor for choosing difficult […]
Mike Masnick

Trump’s Latest Solution To Everything: Let’s Make Foreign Bribery Great Again

6 months 2 weeks ago
There have been legitimate debates about whether the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act — which makes it a criminal act for US entities to bribe foreign government officials — sometimes creates gray areas in international business. For example, over a decade ago, the Walmart Mexico case highlighted how Walmart payments to “speed up” permitting to build […]
Mike Masnick

Daily Deal: The Six Sigma Green & Yellow Belt Certification Training Bundle

6 months 2 weeks ago
Six Sigma is a detail-orientated crafted set of tools and techniques that help improve processes within an organization. The main goal of the Six Sigma certification is simple: to equip individuals with the skills to recognize errors in a business process and remove them. You will receive an introduction to the tools and methods that […]
Daily Deal

Musk Promised Government Transparency, DOGE Delivers Maximum Secrecy

6 months 2 weeks ago
Before the election, Elon Musk declared: “I think that the strong bias with respect to government information should be to make it available to the public. Let’s be as transparent as possible. Fully transparent.” When one of his fanboys tweeted that quote, Elon responded by making an even bigger claim, saying: “There should be no […]
Mike Masnick

Subaru Software Hacked, Allowing Remote Control And Access To The Location Histories Of Millions Of Drivers

6 months 2 weeks ago
Last year Mozilla released a report showcasing how the auto industry has some of the worst privacy practices of any tech industry in America (no small feat). Massive amounts of driver behavior is collected by your car, and even more is hoovered up from your smartphone every time you connect. This data isn’t secured, often isn’t encrypted, […]
Karl Bode

Appeals Court Says Town Can’t Forbid Cops From Flying The ‘Thin Blue Line’ Flag

6 months 2 weeks ago
While we all know the “Thin Blue Line” flag is just a bastardization meant to signify cops are above the law, there’s no constitutional way we can forbid cops from displaying their deliberate antagonism against their obligations to the people they serve: things like transparency, accountability, and the service and protection so many law enforcement […]
Tim Cushing