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Daily Deal: The Complete MATLAB Programming Master Class

1 year 7 months ago
MATLAB allows matrix manipulations, plotting of functions and data, implementation of algorithms, creating of user interfaces, and interfacing with programs written in other languages. That’s all well and good, but it means nothing if you don’t have a firm grasp of the data types used within MATLAB. In this course you’ll cover not just data […]
Gretchen Heckmann

TikTok Users Challenge Court To Save Their Favorite App

1 year 7 months ago
Who has a stronger case that the TikTok ban is unconstitutional? TikTok itself… or its users? We may find out, as both are trying. Last week, TikTok officially filed a petition to challenge the Constitutionality of the TikTok ban law. I’ve heard a few people say that they don’t believe TikTok has that strong of […]
Mike Masnick

Streaming Sector Continues Its Steady Transformation Into Boring Old Cable TV

1 year 7 months ago
Streaming video still provides some meaningful advantages to traditional cable: it’s generally cheaper (assuming you don’t sign up for every service under the sun); customer satisfaction ratings are generally higher; and users have more power to pick and choose and cancel services at a whim. But the party simply isn’t going to last. Thanks to […]
Karl Bode

Private Equity Is Using Copyright To Cannibalize The Past At The Expense Of The Future

1 year 7 months ago
Walled Culture has been warning about the financialization and securitization of music for two years now. Those obscure but important developments mean that the owners of copyrights are increasingly detached from the creative production process. They regard music as just another asset, like gold, petroleum or property, to be exploited to the maximum. A Guest Essay in the New […]
Mike Masnick

Techdirt Podcast Episode 391: Generative AI Is Doomed

1 year 7 months ago
There’s no shortage of prognostication about the future of generative AI, including plenty of predictions that it won’t actually be around forever for various reasons. A lot of these takes are a little too speculative or just not very interesting, but one that stands out comes from law professor and returning podcast guest Eric Goldman, […]
Leigh Beadon

When ‘Lol, No’ Is Not Enough: Lawyer Explains Why Bogus Takedown Over ‘Fuck The LAPD’ Shirt Should Result In Paying Legal Fees

1 year 7 months ago
You may recall last month’s hilarious story of lawyer Mike Dunford’s response to a vexatious angry demand letter from IMG, representing the LAPD Foundation, claiming that a t-shirt with the following “Fuck the LAPD” logo violated its IP rights: The response was as simple as it was direct: Lol, no. As we highlighted in our […]
Mike Masnick

Flock Safety Customers Continue To Act As Government Contractors, Only Without All That Pesky Paperwork

1 year 7 months ago
Flock Safety wants in on the law enforcement surveillance action. It began making inroads by appealing to the next best fascists: homeowners associations. Pitching its ALPRs (automatic license plate readers) to gated communities, Flock promises a crime-free future its pseudo-research can’t back up. Not that any of that mattered to any of these suburban authoritarians. […]
Tim Cushing

Daily Deal: Headway Premium

1 year 7 months ago
Headway Premium 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 […]
Gretchen Heckmann

Having Secured A Clean 702 Reauthorization, The FBI Gets Back On Its Backdoor Search Bullshit

1 year 7 months ago
There was more contention than usual prior to the most recent reauthorization of Section 702 surveillance powers. The blame for the multiple fights leading up to a clean renewal lies entirely at the feet of the FBI, which has constantly abused its access to NSA collections to perform warrantless searches targeting US persons’ communications. Normally, […]
Tim Cushing

Bipartisan Bill To Repeal Section 230 Defended In Facts-Optional Op-Ed

1 year 7 months ago
Section 230, the legal backbone of the internet, is under attack again. This time, it is from a bipartisan pair of legislators who seem to fundamentally misunderstand how the law works and what the consequences of repealing it would be. We’ve talked about plenty of attempts to reform Section 230, and why all of them […]
Mike Masnick

Congress Told ISPs To Remove All Huawei Network Gear, Failed To Fund The Effort, Then Just Forgot About It

1 year 7 months ago
Long before TikTok histrionics took root, you might recall that numerous members of Congress spent numerous years freaking about another Chinese company: Chinese telecom equipment maker Huawei. The argument, made without much in the way of public evidence, was that Huawei was systematically using its network gear to spy on Americans at a massive scale. […]
Karl Bode

Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt

1 year 7 months ago
This week, our first place winner on the insightful side is MrWilson, with a comment on our post about ChatGPT and privacy rights in Europe, specifically in response to someone who raised the issue of “false light” torts: False light is a privacy tort in the US. We’re talking about Europe. But also, false light […]
Leigh Beadon

This Week In Techdirt History: May 5th – 11th

1 year 7 months ago
Five Years Ago This week in 2019, there was a legal fight over whether it’s protected speech to flash your headlights to warn of hidden cops. We looked at how little the FCC had done to police wireless location data scandals, and how it was doubling down on bogus claims about broadband availability, as well […]
Leigh Beadon