Back in February, a copyright case that somehow made it past me, but embedded below, was filed by BMG against MGA Entertainment over a song the latter used for one of its toys. That song was called “My Poops” and is a parody of The Blackeyed Peas’ “My Humps.” You can go hear the song, […]
This case contains multitudes. Let me explain. There’s an exception to the Fourth Amendment known as “inevitable discovery.” That theory says the evidence obtained by possibly unlawful means would still have been discovered by lawful means. That means the evidence is still usable. The most common source of “inevitable discovery” is the “inventory search.” If […]
Landmark Technology’s U.S. Patent No. 7,010,508, and its predecessor, are very likely two of the most-abused patents in U.S. history. These patents, under two different owners, have been used to threaten thousands of small businesses since 2001. In just one 18-month period, the ‘508 patent was the subject of more than 1,800 patent demand letters sent […]
Way back in 2016, Ken White posted a “lawsplainer” about “opening up our libel laws,’“ as Donald Trump had promised on the campaign trail. In it, he noted that unlike (for example…) Roe v. Wade, there was no decades-long effort by the Federalist Society to undermine 1st Amendment principles, such as those established by the […]
Minors attending public schools may find their rights are limited, due to a variety of factors: school safety, access to learning, etc. But they’re not nonexistent. This much courts have made clear, including the top court in the land. Nevertheless, school administrators seem to feel students should be treated as suspects until proven otherwise. In […]
With its intuitive, immersive training method, Rosetta Stone will have you reading, writing, and speaking new languages like a natural in no time. You’ll start by matching words with images just like when you learned your native language as a child. Then you’ll move onto interactive lessons where speech recognition technology works to evaluate and […]
It seemed pretty blatantly obvious that a state can’t just ban a popular app used for speech, but Montana insisted otherwise earlier this year, and gleefully passed a law banning TikTok. The law was immediately challenged, and there’s been a lot of back and forth on the docket, including a ridiculous amicus brief from Virginia […]
Groups like the National Digital Inclusion Alliance have consistently released studies showing that telecom giants like AT&T, despite billions in subsidies and tax breaks, routinely avoid upgrading minority and low income neighborhoods to fiber. Not only that, the group has documented how users in those neighborhoods even struggle to have their existing (older and slower) DSL lines repaired. Regional […]
This week, our first place winner on the insightful side is an anonymous comment about disinformation and censorship on ExTwitter: Anyone remember Musk happily censoring content for Modi instead of challenging the censorship order as Dorsi would have? His justification was that he believes in free speech up to, but not beyond, the law (and […]
Five Years Ago This week in 2018, a federal court dumped another lawsuit accusing Twitter of contributing to worldwide terrorism, a law firm made the stupid decision to threaten Somthing Awful over a hot-linked picture, and it appeared that Epic Games DMCA’d its own Fortnite trailer. Washington State laughed at the federal attack on net […]
It is a deal that has been two years in the making, but Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard has been completed. If you haven’t followed along for the full play by play of this saga, you can go back and look at all the posts we’ve done on the topic. But the primer on this […]
Body cameras can’t possibly solve all the problems of current US law enforcement. No single thing can. But even though body cameras have so far proven more useful to prosecutors than lawsuit litigants and accountability efforts, that doesn’t mean they’re mostly useless. They’re still capable of creating incontrovertible evidence. That’s why prosecutors love them, even […]
California Governor Gavin Newsom has been on a bit of a tear lately vetoing bills that successfully pass the state legislature, including an effort to legalize psychedelics, an attempt to provide free condoms to high school students, an effort to cap insulin prices at $35, an attempt to provide severance to grocery store workers laid […]
There’s an interesting story on Wired about “functional music” – things like white noise and brown noise – which is widely available on music streaming platforms. These kind of streams are causing a problem that arises from the fact that the money earned by streaming platforms is allotted in a rather odd way. All the revenues are put together, […]
Elon Musk has made it clear that he’s no fan of the media. And while he seems to whine and pout when big media sites leave exTwitter, he keeps insisting that exTwitter doesn’t need journalists, because the his view of citizen journalism will magically be so much better. Of course, at the same time, he […]
The 7-Day Android Pie App Bootcamp will give brand-new programmers all of the skills that they need to create an app and submit it to the Google Play store! Other mega courses online offer 40+ hours of video content, but this course that specially created to be more manageable for beginners, without the fluff. You’ll learn […]
Alt-right semi-personality Laura Loomer just can’t win. And she shouldn’t! She’s ridiculous. She’s perhaps most famous for treating her own unwillingness to perform routine car maintenance as an act of anti-Loomer terrorism. When you think your decaying tires are somehow evidence of Islamic violence, it’s probably time for you to get off the internet (or, […]
For decades now, cable TV has been plagued by programming contract feuds that routinely end with users losing access to TV programming they pay for. Basically, media companies will demand a rate hike in new content negotiations, the cable TV provider will balk, and then each side blames the other guy for failing to strike a […]
We’ve talked about this sort of thing before, but here we go again, I guess. For the last decade or so, video games have gotten realistic enough in terms of how they visually depict wartime scenarios that misinformation utilizing video game footage has become a somewhat regular thing. Regular enough that the larger world has […]
As we’re all painfully aware by now, former Israeli intelligence analysts are capable of producing private sector malware companies faster than the CIA can produce successful coups. While both are capable of handing over inordinate amounts of power to truly terrible people, only the Israeli companies have been formally asked by the US federal government […]
stLouIST