It’s crazy just how many posts we’ve done here on the subject of tattoos. But if you go and review the posts we have done on this topic, you will notice that the majority of them involve tattoo artists as the ones asserting intellectual property rights, not those who got the tattoo on their person. […]
There have been plenty of laws passed to keep prisoners from profiting from depictions of their crimes, encompassing not only their own recountings, but those put together by others. These so-called “Son of Sam” laws got their name from serial killer David Berkowitz, who authorities speculated was going to sell off the rights to his […]
Recently, we announced our latest game project: FutureCast, created in partnership with the United Nations’ Global Pulse group. It’s a highly adaptable strategic forecasting tool that aims to explore “pathways of change” for different future scenarios by bringing together groups of stakeholders for a fun, insight-generating exercise. This week, we’re joined by Minke Meijnders and […]
One of Elon’s big promises when he took over Twitter was that he would get rid of spam bots. So far that’s been a huge fucking failure. That’s from the Wall Street Journal, which has been generally supportive of Musk’s tenure at Twitter. But, the article makes it clear that Musk has totally failed to […]
Copyright is still high on the list of censorial weapons. When you live in (or target) a country that protects free speech rights and offers intermediaries immunity via Section 230, you quickly surmise there’s a soft target lying between the First Amendment and the CDA. That soft target is the DMCA. Thanks to plenty of […]
This portable SSD 2TB hard drive is the perfect mobile database for you. Featuring its USB 3.1 high-speed transmission and Type-C interface, this will help you deliver ultra-fast data transfer speeds. It is plug and play, and compatible with Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS. It’s on sale for $34.97. Note: The Techdirt Deals Store is […]
Let’s start off with this point, which some seem to ignore when I talk about this stuff: I think many of the “concerns” about disinformation are totally overblown. People act as if disinformation has a sort of bizarre mind-control over other people (never themselves) to the point that they act as if disinformation itself is […]
While the Biden administration has been a bit of a hot mess on broadband consumer protection (see: the Gigi Sohn fiasco), the administration has done some amazing things for overall investment in broadband. Largely thanks to both COVID relief legislation (The American Rescue Plan Act, ARPA) and the IIJA (Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act). When […]
Law enforcement officers and sexual assault go hand-in-hand. Give someone enough power and they’re sure to abuse it. That’s just human nature. Only the best people should be trusted with this much power, but this nation tends to believe that only the most law enforcement will do. Consequently, our hiring practices — not to mention […]
The saga of Microsoft’s purchase of Activision Blizzard continues. The two biggest remaining hurdles over which Microsoft has to jump to get the deal over the finish line at this point are in the UK with the CMA and in America with the FTC. While Microsoft appeals the CMA’s refusal to allow the deal to […]
Elon Musk sure has a way of fucking over anyone who trusts him. A bunch of current and former employees, including some who agreed to stick around at Twitter with the explicit promise that they would receive the bonuses they were owed, are suing Twitter saying that those bonuses were never given (story found via […]
The California legislature is competing with states like Florida and Texas to see who can pass laws that will be more devastating to the Internet. California’s latest entry into this Internet death-spiral is the California Journalism Protection Act (CJPA, AB 886). CJPA has passed the California Assembly and is pending in the California Senate. The CJPA […]
Full disclosure time, Techdirt peeps! I am a resident of this state. And, as such, I am painfully familiar with the governor’s pro-Trump performativeness, as well as the state legislature’s general disdain for the people it serves. South Dakota is basically an on-shore tax shelter camouflaged by farmland and ultra-patriotic tourist traps. Governor Kristi Noem […]
The Agile Expert Project Management Bundle has three courses to help you master Agile. Originally developed for the software industry, Agile is the project management methodology that leverages quick, iterative sessions to rapidly identify defects and improve a product. Now that more companies are going digital, Agile is seeing even more popularity in the working […]
We already knew that Twitter had stopped paying its cloud computing bills from Google and Amazon as Elon continues his “pursuit of profitability” that he himself destroyed in Twitter (remember, Twitter was profitable in 16 of the previous 20 quarters before Elon took over at a much higher run rate, before Elon drove away somewhere […]
We’ve noted several times how European telecom giants have somehow convinced European policymakers that technology giants like Netflix and Google should annually give them billions of dollars… for no coherent reason. The proposal is dressed up to sound like a sensible adult policy aimed at shoring up broadband access to the downtrodden. In reality it’s net […]
This week, our first place winner on the insightful side is TFG responding to the suggestion that the Reddit protest will be quelled by simply removing the mods: As the polls show: the mods aren’t alone. The mods aren’t the only ones posting the john oliver pics – there’s no way that they could do […]
Five Years Ago This week in 2018, Ajit Pai was trying to pretend that everybody supported repealing net neutrality, while ISP lobbyists were trying and then succeeding at derailing California’s own net neutrality law. Pai was also pushing for rule changes that would benefit Sinclair Broadcasting, while being under investigation for his relationship with the […]
Any investigative report of any police department in the United States composed by the DOJ’s Civil Rights division can be described as “scathing.” Bad cops doing bad things trigger these investigations, which invariably find evidence of biased policing, excessive force deployment, and a general disregard — if not actual disdain — for the people these […]
We’ve noted for years how the steady, mindless consolidation by telecom monopolies has resulted in patchy broadband access, slow speeds, and high prices. But another longstanding trademark of the industry has been its abysmal customer service, created by mindless growth and a subsequent refusal to scale customer service to match. The latest customer satisfaction rankings […]
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