Open access has been discussed many times here on Techdirt. There are several strands to its story. It’s about allowing the public to access research they have paid for through tax-funded grants, without needing to take out often expensive subscriptions to academic titles. It’s about saving educational institutions money that they are currently spending on over-priced academic […]
You may recall that, back during the last net neutrality open comment period, the FCC’s comment system was overrun by millions of faked comments, including from many dead people. Not surprisingly, it was eventually determined that legacy broadband companies funded the fake comment submissions, which they felt they needed to do because actual activists were […]
Well, here’s some welcome news! It appears the EU Commission may have learned something from the less-than-wholehearted support it received following the introduction of its CSA (Child Sexual Abuse) bill. The proposal hoped to curb the spread of CSAM (child sexual abuse material) by mandating (among other things) client-side scanning of user content. All well […]
There are some questions about whether or not Section 230 protects AI companies from being liable for the output from their generative AI tools. Matt Perrault published a thought-provoking piece arguing that 230 probably does not protect generative AI companies. Jess Miers, writing here at Techdirt, argued the opposite point of view (which I found […]
The DOJ must not have much confidence in its case against Backpage executives Michael Lacey and James Larkin. This prosecution is now more than a half-decade old and the government still hasn’t found a way to lock up the many Backpage employees and founders it arrested. The Backpage site was seized in 2018. This followed […]
Get the most out of your devices with this powerful, compact charging station. This 7-in-1 charging dock has universal compatibility that works with most iPhones, iPads, and many other devices throughout your home. It also features a super-speed 30W Fast PD port and intelligent identification technology to keep the device safe and healthy. With its […]
To be honest, I’m somewhat amazed that more copyright lawsuits haven’t been filed against Twitter yet. There have been multiple reports of how the company’s DMCA takedown response systems have been broken/ignored since Musk took over. Without looking for it, I’ve seen full length high def movies show up in my Twitter feed (including movies […]
The auto industry has spent several years trying to dismantle efforts in Massachusetts to make auto repair more affordable and convenient. And they just got help from US auto safety regulators. Techdirt has obtained a copy of a letter sent by the The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to major auto manufacturers, effectively giving […]
Well, that was fast. In the ongoing saga of Microsoft’s attempt to purchase Activision Blizzard, we just discussed the FTC’s petition to the court to have a temporary restraining order put in place preventing the two companies from finalizing the purchase while regulatory bodies were still doing their thing. Honestly, the most interesting part of […]
In Walled Culture the book (free digital versions available) there’s a chapter about the widely-used “notice and takedown” system, and its many abuses. One indicator of how bad things are, and how they are still getting worse, is the number of requests that Google receives to de-list links from its search results. Last year, Google […]
As you’re hopefully aware, over the last few years, our Copia Institute think tank, in partnership with Randy Lubin’s Leveraged Play, have been using games and game-like tools for exploring complex realities in the present, as well as exploring potential future scenarios. On the latter front, we’ve done things like our Threatcast election disinformation simulator, […]
I’ve mentioned a few times that one of the decentralized social media services I’m following closely is nostr, which is an incredibly lightweight protocol, enabling lots of people to (very simply) create their own relays and clients. Unlike Mastodon or Bluesky, Nostr isn’t federated. You don’t join a server. You just get a key pair… […]
This was probably supposed to be a slam dunk: a legislative proposal mandating client-side scanning to prevent the spread of CSAM (child sexual abuse material). Who would be against that? Surely no one, thought those pushing the bill through. But when criticism and resistance started rearing their heads, those pushing the bill went incoherent. Rather […]
User Experience (UX) and User Interface (UI) design are two very different fields that work toward the same goal: create a functional product that’s a breeze for users to use and interact with. The iOS UX & UI Design Course breaks down the differences between both and helps you apply this knowledge to your app-building […]
Oops. As you likely know, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman, desperate to show Wall St. that his company can make money, decided to lock away the information on Reddit behind a paywall by turning Reddit’s free API to paid, creating quite a mess. In response, thousands of subreddits went dark on Monday, with a plan for […]
Story after story after story has showcased how the intentionally convoluted adtech and data broker market sloppily traffics in all manner of sensitive consumer data, whether it’s your daily physical movements (say, the last time you visited an abortion clinic), your granular browsing habits, your medical history, your household energy use patterns, or even your mental health data. This massive trove […]
We’ve been covering Microsoft’s attempt to acquire Activision Blizzard for months now and it just keeps getting more and more interesting. A very quick primer: Microsoft is seeking to acquire the company for a bonkers amount of money, the EU has already approved the deal, while the UK’s CMA has blocked it, and the FTC […]
In late 2020, Massachusetts lawmakers (with overwhelming public support) passed an expansion of the state’s “right to repair” law. The original law was the first in the nation to be passed in 2013. The update dramatically improved it, requiring that all new vehicles be accessible via a standardized, transparent platform that allows owners and third-party repair shops […]
When talking about content moderation, it’s easy to focus entirely on centralized platforms. But now, with the rise of more federated and decentralized systems like ActivityPub and Bluesky (and many others), it’s becoming more and more important to talk about how content moderation works in a decentralized space. This week we’re joined by Yoel Roth, […]
A few weeks back, we wrote about the Supreme Court’s decision in the case between the Andy Warhol Foundation and Lynn Goldsmith, regarding the copyright on certain images that Warhol painted based on a Goldsmith photograph, and exploring under what conditions it was protected by fair use. We felt that the Court completely ignored the […]
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