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The FBI and DOJ have always felt comfortable going after Islamic extremists. That’s the sort of thing they like to do. They like it so much they’ll radicalize vulnerable people for the sole purpose of locking them up for multiple decades. A lot of digital ink has been spilled covering the FBI’s success rate in […]

Learn how to improve your data skills with the 2024 Beginner Data Science Bundle. The bundle has 9 courses covering Python, SQL, Power BI, Tableau, and more. It’s on sale for $36. Note: The Techdirt Deals Store is powered and curated by StackCommerce. A portion of all sales from Techdirt Deals helps support Techdirt. The […]

Automation and language learning models aren’t inherently bad. But when half-cooked automation is layered on top of very broken systems by greedy, incompetent people, it certainly can be. See, for example, the way brunchlords are using “AI” to cut corners or undermine labor in journalism, or the way insurance companies are using it to automatically […]

Have you been missing patent trolls destroying innovation and making products you like more expensive? Have you felt that, maybe, some lawyers who did nothing but send extortionate shakedown letters weren’t getting rich enough? Well then, good news for you, Congress is looking to bring all that back! In the early years of Techdirt, we […]

Update: Annnnnnnnd… Cloudflare has already said it will isolate and block Brazilian IP addresses from reaching ExTwitter. Original story below. It appears that Elon has decided to take the Brazilian hornet’s nest he’d already kicked over the last few weeks and start slamming it with a baseball bat. It’s unlikely this will end well. I’ve […]

This morning, the House Energy and Commerce Committee held a pretty long markup about KOSA, COPPA 2.0, and other bills. The quick summary is that both of those bills passed out of committee and could be taken to the House floor this session. The longer version, though, is that cracks in the coalition pushing these […]

Wikipedia seems such an essential and benign aspect of the online world that it is hard to understand why people would want to attack it in the courts. But it is nonetheless subject to lawsuits that try to force it to censor its articles because they contain facts that are inconvenient for someone. The Wikimedia […]

Florida’s legislative antipathy towards free speech and general overall bigotry has generated plenty of bad laws and plenty of fully justified lawsuits. Earlier this month, the state’s quasi-book bans became the defendant in a federal lawsuit filed by multiple big-name publishers. But that was just the latest lawsuit, and the first to actually sue the […]

This DevDojo Pro subscription gives you access to a set of tools to help you build your next great idea. Start with the Page Creator, where you’ll find Tailwind CSS Page Builder, a tool for crafting beautiful landing pages. Then, move on to Wave SAAS Starter Kit, where you’ll learn how to build your Software […]

Back in 2022, you might recall that ex-Moviepass executives Theodore Farnsworth and J. Mitchell Lowe were charged by the DOJ for wire and securities fraud, after it was found they’d repeatedly misled investors about the profitability of their “all you can eat” movie ticket efforts. Lowe this week pleaded guilty to a securities fraud conspiracy […]

If you had that Congress was going to take bad “protect the children” bills and make them worse on your bingo card, congratulations, you’ve won this week’s easiest prediction. This seems like a not great situation. As mentioned, the House Energy & Commerce Committee is holding a markup today for a bunch of bills. Yesterday, […]

It’s amazing just how many of the trademark disputes we cover here are only disputes because the USPTO granted a trademark that it shouldn’t have. The examples of this sort of thing are legion, but they typically revolve around trademarks that are either generic, descriptive, or both. Which brings us to Chickie’s and Pete’s, a […]

Thierry Breton has finally taken the next logical step in his role as the EU’s censor: he’s talked himself out of his job. Over the last few years, Thierry Breton, the former CEO of France Telecom, has spent the last few years as the Commissioner for the Internal Market in the EU, where he has […]

If you’re a Techdirt reader (or any tech news reader) you’ve already heard a lot of stories about the chaos of Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter, but no matter how much you know, there’s a lot to learn in a new book that hits the shelves today. Character Limit: How Elon Musk Destroyed Twitter, by […]

Just when you thought it was safe to go back on the internet, KOSA rears its ugly head once again. The rumors of KOSA’s demise in Congress may have been overstated. Following a big push by supporters of the bill, including Senator Marsha “we need this to protect kids from the transgender in our culture” […]

It’s been a whirlwind few months for NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban, at least in terms of press coverage. None of it has been positive, though. A few months ago, reporting from ProPublica exposed Commissioner Caban’s efforts to make the NYPD even less accountable than it always has been. Public records and other information obtained by […]

The Database Administration Super Bundle has 9 courses to help you go from data novice to expert administrator. You’ll discover how to build and manage databases with MySQL and MongoDB. Courses also cover Microsoft SQL Server, Informatica, Minitab, Tableau, and regression modeling. It’s on sale for $60. Note: The Techdirt Deals Store is powered and […]

Today, the new book by NY Times reporters Kate Conger and Ryan Mac, Character Limit: How Elon Musk Destroyed Twitter, comes out. If you’re at all interested in what went down, I can’t recommend it enough. It’s a well-written, deeply researched book with all sorts of details about the lead-up to the acquisition, the acquisition […]

AT&T’s $86 billion merger with Time Warner resulted in an ocean of chaos, layoffs, and quality control problems. That was followed up with T-Mobile’s $26 billion merger with Sprint, which resulted in thousands of layoffs and an immediate end to wireless price competition in the U.S. Not to be outdone, struggling satellite TV providers Dish Network (owned […]

It was almost exactly a year ago to the day that Unity updated its pricing program for its game engine in a way that seemed perfectly designed to piss everyone off. Whereas Unity was once a subscription-based game engine, rather than one which collected royalties, suddenly Unity went in the opposite direction, with per-install fees […]