a Better Bubble™

TechDirt 🕸

Gavin Newsom Signs California’s Own FOSTA

1 year 7 months ago
A month ago, we explained how California bill AB 1394, kind of a mini-FOSTA for California, was so problematic, and was likely to be found unconstitutional, just like last year’s “Age Appropriate Design Code.” AB 1394 is yet another of those “but think of the children” laws that California loves these days, and it passed […]
Mike Masnick

A Gentle Reminder That Censoring Books Is Never A ‘Reasonable’ Solution

1 year 7 months ago
Conservatives are making the rounds again, placing op-eds and analytical pieces explaining how book bans aren’t really book bans. For example, Education Week published a column by a pair of authors from the American Enterprise Institute and the Heritage Foundation trying to justify laws across the country that restrict and even remove certain texts from many public […]
Mike Masnick

New York Pushing Yet Another Unconstitutional Social Media Age Verification Bill

1 year 7 months ago
It never ends with these moral-panic-driven, blatantly unconstitutional state bills “for the children.” The latest, from New York state Senator Andrew Goundardes and Assemblymember Nily Rozic was announced this week with direct support from NY Governor Kathy Hochul (who has been pushing for such unconstitutional bills for a while now, mainly to redirect attention away […]
Mike Masnick

Daily Deal: The Premium (ISC) SSCP And CISSP Training Bundle

1 year 7 months ago
The Premium (ISC) SSCP And CISSP Training Bundle has 2 courses with 67 hours of instruction to help you learn about cybersecurity. The CISSP course is crafted around eight pivotal domains of information security, encompassing everything from risk management to software development security. This ensures that candidates emerge with a holistic understanding of the cybersecurity […]
Gretchen Heckmann

FTC Pushes New Rule To Try And Kill Bullshit ‘Junk Fees’

1 year 7 months ago
As a reporter who has covered telecom for the better part of two decades, I’ve spent much of that time watching broadband giants like AT&T and Comcast sock their captive customers with a wide variety of bullshit, sneaky fees designed to help them advertise one price, then charge you with a higher rate. It’s a […]
Karl Bode

Error 402: Exploring The Little Understood History Of Online Monetization

1 year 7 months ago
I realized recently that I had now passed 30 years on the internet, having obtained my first internet access in August of 1993 — the same year that many consider to be the year that the internet became commercial. That was back when you had to obtain access to the internet, rather than just… having […]
Mike Masnick

Math Problem For Linda Yaccarino: If 90% Of The Top Advertisers Have Come Back, But Are Only Spending 10% Of What They Used To, How Screwed Are You?

1 year 7 months ago
Last week, we highlighted how it appears that exTwitter’s ad revenue remains in freefall. We noted that exTwitter CEO-in-name-only Linda Yaccarino had just gone on stage at the Code Conference to try to dismiss the idea that the ad revenue was in trouble, claiming that reports of a 60% decline were “months and months old” […]
Mike Masnick

Facial Recognition Tech Again Fingers The Wrong Person For The Job

1 year 7 months ago
As was always going to be the case with tech that can more reliably identify white middle-aged males than anyone else, another minority has been nabbed because of a facial recognition fuck up. The only good news pertains to the city of Detroit and its law enforcement agencies, which are finally not the perpetrators in […]
Tim Cushing

Daily Deal: Cisco CCNA 200-301 Exam Complete Course with Practical Labs

1 year 7 months ago
The Internet is extremely important in modern life today and this reliance is only predicted to continue with the growth of the Internet of Things (IoT) in the next few years. The Cisco CCNA 200-301 Exam Complete Course will teach you how networks actually work and how you are able to connect to websites like […]
Gretchen Heckmann

AT&T Looking To Dump DirecTV After Years Of Merger Headaches

1 year 7 months ago
AT&T spent $200 billion to acquire Time Warner and DirecTV, believing this would turn the dodgy old phone company into an innovative new media juggernaut. But despite $42 billion in tax breaks and oodles of regulatory favors from the Trump administration (like killing net neutrality), AT&T simply couldn’t overcome its own nature as a bumbling, government-pampered telecom monopoly. As […]
Karl Bode

Apples And Oranges: The US Patent And Trademark Office Combined Copyright And Trademark And Nothing Good Will Come Of That

1 year 7 months ago
Last week I found myself assigned to speak on a “streaming piracy” panel that had gotten bolted onto an event otherwise focused on trademark counterfeiting, despite the latter being a completely separate legal issue connected with a completely separate legal doctrine. It was all part of the USPTO’s roundtable on “future strategies in anti-counterfeiting and […]
Gretchen Heckmann

Journalists Ask DOJ To Stop Treating URL Alterations As A Federal Crime

1 year 7 months ago
The DOJ — following a period of questionable leadership under Donald Trump — said it has little interest in prosecuting journalists. It has also made it clear it will not abuse the CFAA to punish people who did nothing more than access sites in ways not intended by the sites’ creators. Why? Because there are […]
Tim Cushing

Daily Deal: Apple Watch Wireless Charger Keychain

1 year 7 months ago
The Apple Watch Wireless Charger Keychain is the perfect accessory for Apple Watch users on-the-go. With a built-in 950mAh lithium-ion battery, it can charge all series of Apple Watch. The technology allows it to be used as a base for a bedside table or table for convenient charging. Its portable, pocket-size design makes it easy […]
Gretchen Heckmann