Lobbyists for Charter Communications (Spectrum) have snuck some sneaky language into New York State’s latest budget bill in an effort to undermine popular community-owned broadband networks. Part of the budget bill addresses the state’s ConnectALL Initiative, which was launched in 2022 to help direct the billions in broadband funding contained in the 2021 COVID relief and infrastructure […]
I really cannot believe it’s 2024 and there are still video game publishers out there that want to go to war on their own modding communities. I expect this sort of thing from the Nintendos of the world, but those that publish to the PC gaming market really need to stop it with this crap. […]
Regular readers of Techdirt will know that we’ve never done any sort of April 1st jokes, even though people often send us ideas for them each year. The simple fact is: nearly all April Fools’ jokes are terrible, especially the silly corporate ones. They’re just bad. With one exception. Twenty years ago today, Google announced […]
Facial recognition tech is probably improving as time goes on. Given enough providers, controversy, and individuals who definitely want this tech to stop being so terrible at correctly identifying women and minorities, anything is possible. Rather than wait for the tech to catch up to the promises made by promotional materials, cops are apparently moving […]
Apparently, everything really is bigger in Texas, including the audacity of federal judges who think they’re above the rules. In a stunning display of hypocrisy, the Northern District of Texas has decided that new judicial shopping rules just don’t apply to them. Because that would make it harder to win culture war fights. But if […]
404 Media, the new news outlet formed by excellent journalists kicked to the curb by the successive brunchlord regimes overseeing Vice Media, continues to stake its claim as the best investigative media outlet in the country. Their latest effort digs deep into dubious claims made by up-and-coming surveillance tech company, Flock. Flock made its entry […]
Microsoft Windows 11 Pro is designed with the modern professional in mind. Whether you are a developer who needs a secure platform, an artist seeking a seamless experience, or an entrepreneur needing to stay connected effortlessly, Windows 11 Pro is your solution. This version is designed for PCs that need a new license for Windows […]
Elon Musk claims to be a “free speech absolutist,” but almost every time we look more closely at that claim, we discover that he’s one of the most censorial, free speech suppressors around. He just got called out by a judge for filing a SLAPP suit seeking to punish an organization for its speech. And […]
AT&T is under fire after a hacker last month posted the personal information (names, addresses, phone numbers, and social security numbers) of roughly 73 million customers to the open web. Troy Hunt, security researcher and owner of data breach notification site Have I Been Pwned, notes the data first appeared a few years ago courtesy of […]
This week, our first place winner is an anonymous comment invoking a famous quote in response to Missouri suing Media Matters: “Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: “There must be in-groups whom the law protectes [sic] but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.” –Frank Wilhoit In […]
We’re closing in on the end of our series of spotlight posts looking at the winners of the sixth annual public domain game jam, Gaming Like It’s 1928! We’ve already featured Best Visuals winner Flight from Podunk Station and Best Adaptation winner Mickey Party, Best Remix winner The Burden Of Creation, Best and Deep Cut […]
Almost exactly two years ago, we discussed a strange story in which video game publisher Bungie sued a bunch of John Does specifically for inputting fraudulent DMCA takedown claims on YouTube videos that contained Bungie content. Those notices purported to be from Bungie in some cases, but even Bungie’s own YouTube channel was hit by […]
Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a weekly podcast about the latest news in online speech, from Mike Masnick and Everything in Moderation‘s Ben Whitelaw. Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, Amazon Music, YouTube, or your podcast app of choice — or go straight to the RSS feed. In this week’s round-up of the latest news in online […]
One of the commonest arguments from supporters of copyright is that creators need to be rewarded and that copyright is the only realistic way of doing that. The first statement may be true, but the second certainly isn’t. As Walled Culture the book (free digital versions available) notes, most art was created without copyright, when […]
We know that a lot of politicians (and media folks) in the US are pushing to ban TikTok. It has seemed notable, of course, that European countries don’t seem all that worried about TikTok, which should raise questions about how serious the “threat” really is. However, one major country did decide to ban TikTok a […]
Earlier this week, reporting by Thomas Brewster for Forbes uncovered yet another way law enforcement is expecting companies like Google to perform their investigative work for them. For a few years now, we’ve covered the use of geofence warrants capable of turning multiple people into criminal suspects, as well as the even more dubious “keyword” […]
Headway is the revolutionary app designed to help you turn personal growth into a habit. With a lifetime subscription, you get unlimited access to a huge number of non-fiction bestsellers, summarized into 15-minute reads. Be it personal development, business strategies, or health insights, Headway has you covered. It’s on sale for $60. Note: The Techdirt […]
Here’s how people advocating for internet regulations for “bad speech” think things will work: an enlightened group of pure-minded, thoughtful individuals will carefully outlaw dangerous speech that invokes hatred, or encourages bad behavior. Then, that speech will magically and cleanly disappear from the internet, and the internet will be a better place. What could go […]
Last week you’ll recall that after a closed-door intelligence briefing, some members of Congress leaked word to Axios that they were “shocked” by various TikTok behaviors. Upon closer inspection, most of the stuff TikTok had been up to wasn’t at all different from the behaviors of a wide variety of foreign and domestic telecoms, app […]
The EU’s much-touted Digital Services Act, hailed as the gold standard for whipping those unruly internet platforms into shape, has hit an embarrassing snag. Apparently, the EU forgot to cc a few member states on the ‘Pretty Please Appoint a DSA Regulator’ memo. The internet sites under the thumb of the DSA aren’t allowed to […]
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