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This Week In Techdirt History: November 12th – 18th

1 year 11 months ago
Five Years Ago This week in 2018, the RIAA made a court filing where it warned about overprotection from copyright, Nintendo secured a huge settlement against ROM site (probably just to scare other ROM sites), and the Girl Scouts sued the Boy Scouts over trademark. CNN filed a lawsuit seeking to show that Trump can’t […]
Leigh Beadon

WV Supreme Court: Omnipresent Concern Like ‘Officer Safety’ Can’t Be Used To Excuse Constitutional Violations

1 year 11 months ago
The things said by law enforcement when trying to keep evidence from being tossed all sound the same. There are only a handful of acceptable excuses for performing warrantless searches and, man, do they get used so frequently we can probably all repeat them in our sleep. “Exigent circumstances.” This one means things were happening […]
Tim Cushing

Yet Another ‘Social Media Trend’ That Only Went Viral Because Of The Media

1 year 11 months ago
We’ve done this a few times now where people start talking about a social media trend that actually only went viral because of the media coverage of the supposed (but not really) social media trend. And each time there’s some outrage moral panic about how “social media” is destroying the children or whatever, when it’s […]
Mike Masnick

Surveillance Tech Companies Are Writing Press Releases For Cops. Worse, News Agencies Are Publishing Them.

1 year 11 months ago
There’s nothing new about cop shops letting their tech providers write their press releases for them. Law enforcement officers love power but often think nothing of surrendering their autonomy to the providers of the snooping tools. For years, Harris Corporation — the maker of Stingray devices — told cops what they could or couldn’t say […]
Tim Cushing

Daily Deal: StackSkills Unlimited

1 year 11 months ago
StackSkills is the premier online learning platform for mastering today’s most in-demand skills. Now, with this exclusive limited-time offer, you’ll gain access to 1000+ StackSkills courses for life! Whether you’re looking to earn a promotion, make a career change, or pick up a side hustle to make some extra cash, StackSkills delivers engaging online courses […]
Gretchen Heckmann

The FCC Is Trying To Stop Discrimination In Broadband Deployment. Telecoms And Republicans Are Big Mad About It

1 year 11 months ago
For decades, big ISPs like AT&T have refused to upgrade low income and poor communities to fiber, despite billions in subsidies, regulatory favors, and tax breaks that were supposed to accomplish precisely that. Groups like the National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA) have released studies on cities like Cleveland and Detroit, documenting how this discrimination lines […]
Karl Bode

McDonald’s Loses Trademark Suit In Australia Against Hungry Jack’s Over ‘Big Jack’ Burger

1 year 11 months ago
Three years ago we discussed an interesting trademark battle between McDonald’s and Hungry Jack’s in Australia. It’s interesting for a number of reasons. For starters, Hungry Jack’s is a part of Burger King, McDonald’s chief rival globally, making this something of a proxy war. Second, this suit was filed on the heels of McDonald’s losing […]
Dark Helmet

Error 402: Searching For Ways To Pay For Content

1 year 11 months ago
Last week in our Error 402 series on the history of web monetization, we wrote about the earliest forms of web advertising: banner ads. As we noted, this “simple” way of making money seemed to derail other forms of monetization, including early attempts at paywalls (which had many other problems and were destined to fail). […]
Mike Masnick

Indiana’s Top Court Adds More Due Process To Forfeiture, Says A Jury Needs To Be Part Of The Process

1 year 11 months ago
The courts in Indiana have made significant moves in recent years to do what the legislature won’t: limit asset forfeiture abuse. A case that made its way from Indiana’s Supreme Court to the US Supreme Court ended with a declaration that certain forfeitures violated constitutional protections against excessive fines. In that case, Tyson Timbs was […]
Tim Cushing

Sarah Silverman’s AI Case Isn’t Going Very Well Either

1 year 11 months ago
Just a few weeks ago Judge William Orrick massively trimmed back the first big lawsuit that was filed against generative AI companies for training their works on copyright-covered materials. Most of the case was dismissed, and what bits remained may not last much longer. And now, it appears that Judge Vince Chhabria (who has been […]
Mike Masnick

Daily Deal: 4K Dual-Camera Drone for Beginners with Intelligent Obstacle Avoidance

1 year 11 months ago
Reach new heights (literally) with this 4K Dual-Camera Drone. It’s equipped with an HD 4K front camera that supports a remote 90° control angle and a bottom camera with a 120° wide angle. This drone also uses optical flow positioning, allowing the bottom camera to accurately capture the ground or any object, keeping the drone […]
Gretchen Heckmann

UK Law Enforcement Continues To Expand Use Of Facial Recognition Tech

1 year 11 months ago
UK law enforcement seems incapable of recognizing warning signs. Officials seem willing to compete with China in terms of Most Cameras Per Capita. And it’s not enough to just have cameras covering every bit of open space. Those cameras must contain questionable tech that is notoriously inaccurate, at least when deployed by UK law enforcement. […]
Tim Cushing

Apple’s ‘180 On Right To Repair’ Was Widely Overstated

1 year 11 months ago
The consumer quest to be able to affordably repair your own tech is going well, if you hadn’t noticed. Maine just became the fourth state to implement right to repair protections in the wake of laws passed in New York, California, and Minnesota. As that vote (84 percent of Maine voters approved) illustrates, support for […]
Karl Bode

Indiana: Another Age Verification Bill Criminalizing Legal Pornography

1 year 11 months ago
Another state lawmaker has introduced an age verification bill looking to block minors’ access to porn websites. This time, Indiana state Sen. Mike Bohacek of the community of Michiana Shores has introduced a preliminary draft that proposes copycat age verification policies similar to other states, including Louisiana, Texas, Utah, and others. The Indiana bill would […]
Mike Masnick

Does Elon Grok The Trademark Issues With ‘Grok’? AI Chip Company Groq Does

1 year 11 months ago
As you likely know by now, last week, Elon Musk released the initial version of the AI chatbot he created earlier this year via “xAI” which may or may not be part of his many other companies, but definitely uses employees, technology, and resources from those other companies. He named it “Grok,” though also claimed […]
Mike Masnick

Steamed Hams, Except It’s The EU Commission’s Alleged CSAM Regulation ‘Experts’

1 year 11 months ago
Everyone who wants client-side scanning to be a thing insists it’s a good idea with no potential downsides. The only hangup, they insist, is tech companies’ unwillingness to implement it. And by “implement,” I mean — in far too many cases — introducing deliberate (and exploitable!) weaknesses in end-to-end encryption. End-to-end encryption only works if […]
Tim Cushing

Daily Deal: DevDojo Pro

1 year 11 months ago
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 […]
Gretchen Heckmann