For the better part of thirty years telecom giants (and the consultants, think tanks, and lobbyists paid to defend them) have fought against every effort at coherent federal oversight. It didn’t matter whether it was modest privacy standards or basic pricing transparency, the argument that was if you stripped away coherent state and federal government […]
Updated: This post has been updated, as the original potentially overclaimed both what the FTC settlement said regarding what Evolv could market as well as Evolv’s response to it (suggesting it would try to limit the settlement it agreed to). We regret the misleading descriptions and have updated the article accordingly. Evolv might be new […]
The new year is approaching fast, and that means it’s time for our annual look at the highest-voted comments of the year on Techdirt (as usual, including the top three in each category). This year’s list is something of an inverse of last year’s: while 2023 had only a couple winning comments from anonymous commenters, […]
As we announced earlier this month, we’re once again celebrating the new year with the latest edition of our public domain game jam, Gaming Like It’s 1929! With 2025 just a few days away, it’s time to get ready. Whether you’re an experienced game designer, a total newbie, or anything in between, we want you […]
Earlier this year, we talked about a fairly silly trademark dispute in the UK between beverage company Thatchers and German grocer Aldi. At issue was competing lemon cider products offered by both companies. Thatchers makes a product named its “Cloud Lemon Cider”, while Aldi sells its “Taurus Cloud Cider.” Thatchers complained that the products were […]
It takes a pretty weird string of coincidences to turn a Google Street View car into a potential witness for the prosecution. But that’s what has happened here. Street View is pervasive. Some may also call it intrusive. Millions of miles are logged by drivers and pedestrians, year after year. And while those efforts to […]
I had seen this story before Christmas making the rounds on Bluesky, claiming that United Healthcare had sent DMCA takedowns to Teepublic to remove artist Rachel Kenaston’s illustration of Luigi Magione, the guy arrested for shooting and killing United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson. While it does appear that Teepublic did, in fact, remove the image […]
A central theme of Walled Culture the book (free digital versions available) and this blog is that the copyright industry is never satisfied. Now matter how long the term of copyright, publishers and recording companies want more. No matter how harsh the punishments for infringement, the copyright intermediaries want them to be even more severe. Another […]
This DevDojo Pro subscription gives you access to a set of tools to help you build your next great idea. Start with the Page Creator, where you’ll find Tailwind CSS Page Builder, a tool for crafting beautiful landing pages. Then, move on to Wave SAAS Starter Kit, where you’ll learn how to build your Software […]
As much as I write about cops, you’d think I’d rarely be surprised by them or their thought processes. But, every so often, they surprise even me. Let’s take a ride back to early 1989, when the Broward County (FL) Sheriff’s Office was actually bragging about this sort of thing: A chemist with the Broward […]
U.S. automakers have long tried to monopolize repair, in a bid to cash in on captive customers. But they also want to cash in on user behavior, driving, and phone data without much in the way of oversight, transparency, or consumer privacy. That’s why they’ve historically been so opposed to “right to repair” reforms that […]
I have to thread the needle a bit on this one. On the one hand, I have very much evangelized how much sports video games has done to educate lots of people on some of the finer points of professional and college sports, myself included. Even though, at times, I like to poke fun about […]
In an era where digital devices are everywhere, the term “screen time” has become a buzz phrase in discussions about technology’s impact on people’s lives. Parents are concerned about their children’s screen habits. But what if this entire approach to screen time is fundamentally flawed? While researchers have made advances in measuring screen use, a detailed […]
Few things have been more enjoyable than watching the collapse of New York City mayor Eric Adams’ personal, cop-focused empire. Granted, if you’re a NYC resident, your mileage will vary because violently disintegrating governments rarely later resolve as fully functional enterprises. But there’s still something incredibly satisfying as watching a law-and-order mayor bind himself to […]
Walled Culture has been following the sorry saga of Italy’s automated blocking system Piracy Shield for a year now. Blocklists are drawn up by copyright companies, without any review, or the possibility of any objections, and those blocks must be enforced within 30 minutes. Needless to say, such a ham-fisted and biased approach to copyright infringement is […]
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Few things seem to push government officials to become officious faster than the mild irritation of people making a slight mockery of government machinery. In the grand scheme of things, the scofflawishness is almost imperceptible. But it’s the scoffing part that bothers these officious entities the most. And that is almost always greeted with a […]
I’ve noted for years how the U.S. is simply too corrupt to pass a modern internet-era privacy law or regulate dodgy data brokers. So we are subjected to a parade of privacy and security scandals thanks to numerous industries that over-collect your data, fail to properly secure it, then sell access to any random asshole […]
Funny enough, it was only a few weeks back that we last discussed Dr. Keith Bell and the slew of lawsuits he has filed over depictions and/or retweets on social media of a passage he wrote, referred to as “The Winning Isn’t Normal” passage. These suits, which largely are over retweets of the passage, are […]
Copyright is built on a lie that most people seem to accept: artists can make a decent living from the current system of rewards that copyright provides. As Walled Culture the book (free digital versions available) explores, all the data about artist remuneration shows that isn’t true. Alongside such dry statistics, it’s good to hear […]
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