Consent can mean a lot of things when you’re accosted by cops. Law enforcement officers tend to feel it’s always voluntary, even when you’re sitting in an interrogation room for what the “good cop” refers to as a “friendly chat” meant to “clear everything up.” Whenever a seizure is challenged, if cops didn’t have the […]
It’s no secret that copyright trolls have been a scourge on many countries for some time now. The typical method of the copyright troll is quite simple. You buy or acquire the rights to some media, you watch for any of that media to show up on the internet illicitly, and then you attempt to […]
The Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) was voted out of committee with a long list of amendments. Advocates had been warning about some severe unintended consequences that could arise out of this bill, the most concerning of which was forcing tech companies to out LGBTQ+ minors to their parents — potentially against their wishes. The […]
Earlier today, there was a Senate Judiciary Committee markup on the JCPA — the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act — put forth by Senator Amy Klobuchar. Last week I wrote a long post about just how broken the bill is. It does almost everything it seeks to do badly, in ways that are genuinely dangerous. […]
Get your Old Logo and Retro Logo gear on Threadless » As we continue our celebration of Techdirt’s 25th anniversary and gear up for our anniversary party this Friday, it’s time to launch some new gear in our Threadless store! First, it’s the return of something we offered for a limited time on our 20th anniversary […]
The Essential Risk and Information Systems Control Training Bundle has 5 courses to help improve your risk and info system skills. You’ll gain a high-level understanding of the risk management process by learning about risk identification, risk prioritization, risk response strategies, and more. It’s on sale for $30. Note: The Techdirt Deals Store is powered […]
The terrorists won. And it wasn’t a small victory. It was one that managed to make the American way of life significantly worse for anyone attempting to fly. Flying is how we get around in this sprawl of a nation that encompasses 50 states and ~3,000 miles between the coasts. And that’s just 48 of […]
New Politico owner and Axel Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner has called for a ban on TikTok at the Vox Media Code conference. In fact, the lion’s share of the conference involved folks hyperventilating in one form or another over the existential threat posed by a popular social media app: Like most of the folks freaking […]
This keeps getting better and better. We have been discussing a Texas law requiring that a school district display any posters that are donated by outside parties, so long as they follow a couple of defined rules. Those rules are that the posters can display no words beyond “In God We Trust”, that it must […]
As we’ve been noting for years now, the global internet is at risk. China walled off its part of the internet early on, and other authoritarian regimes followed suit, with Russia and Iran taking the lead. But, at the same time, we’ve seen other regimes start to layer on their own regulatory regimes that effectively […]
Some DEA agent field-tested sidewalk chalk and managed to arrive at this conclusion: Rainbow fentanyl is being sold in multiple forms, according to the DEA, including as pills, powder and blocks that resemble sidewalk chalk. This is from The Hill’s stenography of DEA bullshit, which doesn’t even remain consistent over the course of the six […]
As you know, Techdirt recently marked its 25th anniversary, and we’re celebrating with a special online party this Friday, September 9th at 11am PT / 2pm ET, where you can mix and mingle with Techdirt staff and other fans, and get the inside story on the history of the blog from Mike Masnick. Attendance is […]
I rather expected that not everyone would agree with the points I raised in my recent post on Cloudflare and my thinking regarding both Cloudflare’s statement of principles on content moderation at the infrastructure layer and, secondly, its decision to block Kiwi Farms. That turned out to be an accurate expectation. It has also resulted […]
Ace the AWS Certified Exam and start your career with the 4-part AWS Certified Dev and Ops Engineer Professional Training Bundle. You’ll learn how to use CloudFormation, Amazon CloudWatch, Amazon CloudTrail, how to protect your AWS resources from threats, and much more. It’s on sale for $30. Note: The Techdirt Deals Store is powered and […]
Called it! Virginia Attorney, Congressional Hopeful File Doomed Lawsuit Against Barnes & Noble Over ‘Obscene’ Books But I’m not here to pat myself on the back. Anyone (well, anyone other than the people filing the lawsuit) could have seen this coming. It really doesn’t take more than a mere acquaintance with the First Amendment to […]
For decades, federal regulators have turned a blind eye while your cable and broadband provider rips you off with a bevy of misleading fees. The fees usually come with nonsensical names like “regulatory recovery fee” or “internet cost recovery surcharge,” and are tacked below the line post sale, letting cable and broadband providers covertly jack […]
I’m not going to open this by stating I assume the Shasta County (CA) Sheriff’s Office (SCSO) has better things to do with its time. I know it has better things to do with its time. I’m also not going to pretend the SCSO didn’t have enough personnel to deal with local crime while sending […]
Cops love a good warrant exception. Anything that allows them to bypass the Constitution is considered a pretty good deal (I mean… at least for cops). Good faith? Love it. Plain view? Fantastic. Odor of marijuana? Your car is getting tossed, buddy. Exigent circumstances? Don’t even know what the word means, but let’s get it […]
We’ve got one more cross-post episode this week. If you’ve been following Techdirt recently, you’ve surely heard about California’s recently-passed bill, the Age Appropriate Design Code, and all its massive problems. Recently, Mike appeared on This Week In Google to discuss these problems, and you can listen to the whole conversation on this week’s episode […]
The government of Turkey, headed by exceedingly thin-skinned President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has devolved into a corrupt, anti-democratic state that still respects the freedom of the press in theory, but, in practice, only respects the freedoms of its favored press outlets, which are free to write anything the government allows them to write. Journalists who […]
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