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Judge Torches Federal Prosecutors For Flipping A Defendant And Using Him To Spy On Defense Team

2 years 6 months ago
It’s no surprise the government cheats when it prosecutes people. Judge Jed Rakoff pointed this out while resigning from the DOJ’s Forensic Science Committee when it became clear the DOJ was not interested in rooting out junk science. He called the government’s refusal to allow defendants to examine forensic means and methods “trial by ambush.” […]
Tim Cushing

Yes, Elon Musk Is Fucking Up Twitter; But No, The Government Has No Business Getting Involved

2 years 6 months ago
So, yes, I’ve written a few things now on Elon’s silly excuses for his frantic speedrun through the content moderation learning curve. It’s getting more mainstream press because of journalist accounts getting banned (including, this morning, Insider’s Linette Lopez, who did not post any “doxing” info but has reported critically on Musk for years, which […]
Mike Masnick

Ten Years Later, The EU Orphan Works Directive Is Officially A Failure – Just As The Copyright Industry Intended

2 years 6 months ago
Every so often, Techdirt writes about the long-standing problem of orphan works, the huge collection of older creations that are out of circulation and have no obvious owners. Arguably, they should be called “hostage works”, since they remain uselessly locked away by rigid and outdated copyright laws, to no one’s benefit. Despite that, the copyright […]
Glyn Moody

Daily Deal: The 2023 CISSP Security And Risk Management Training Bundle

2 years 6 months ago
The 2023 CISSP Security and Risk Management Training Bundle has 8 courses to help you prepare for 8 different CISSP certification exams. CISSP is the gold standard for security certifications. It covers the breadth of information security’s deep technical and managerial concepts. You’ll be learning to effectively design, engineer, and manage the overall security posture […]
Gretchen Heckmann

Thursday Night Purge: Elon Musk’s Twitter Bans Tons Of High Profile Journalists

2 years 6 months ago
Well. Just after finishing that last post about Twitter banning the official Mastodon account on Twitter for tweeting about the ElonJet tracking account existing on Mastodon, it seems that whatever brakes or controls were in place at the new “free speech absolutist” Twitter have really come off. In quick succession, a whole bunch of high […]
Mike Masnick

Elon’s Commitment To Free Speech Rapidly Replaced By His Commitment To Blatant Hypocrisy: Bans The JoinMastodon Account

2 years 6 months ago
Oh, Elon. Following on yesterday’s nonsense in banning the ElonJet account that robotically posted the public information regarding Elon’s private plane flights, and then trying to justify it later (after initially promising to keep the account alive to demonstrate his “commitment to free speech”), it appears that Elon’s commitment to free speech continues to dwindle. […]
Mike Masnick

County Benchslapped For Illegally Detaining All Foreign-Born People For Pickup By ICE, Even If They’re American Citizens

2 years 6 months ago
This is some kind of ugly. When law enforcement starts talking about being “proactive,” it’s time to start worrying about your rights. Here’s what happened to Myriam Parada after a routine traffic stop. Parada ended up in the Anoka County Jail after an officer discovered that she had been driving without a license. While going […]
Tim Cushing

Despite Warnock Win, Gigi Sohn’s Path To The FCC Remains Mired In Dumb, Corrupt Bullshit

2 years 6 months ago
We’ve noted several times how telecom and media giants are running a sleazy year-long smear campaign against Biden FCC nominee Gigi Sohn, in the hopes of blocking her confirmation vote and miring the agency in perpetual consumer protection gridlock. The attacks have been carefully seeded across the US press through various think tanks and nonprofits, and accuse […]
Karl Bode

Daily Deal: Phone Vine Plus Rear View Mirror Vehicle Phone Mount

2 years 6 months ago
Get hands-free access to your phone conveniently displayed from your rearview mirror. Phone Vine Plus will maintain a steady grip on your device with the adjustable power grippers that expand to accommodate a phone up to 3.75 inches wide. The added pop-down feet give your phone extra support. Phone Vine Plus has the 360-degree rotating […]
Gretchen Heckmann

Greek Government Responds To Domestic Surveillance Controversy By Making Things Worse

2 years 6 months ago
Malware and exploit developers are generating a seemingly endless number of headlines, thanks to misuse of their products by government entities. Israel’s NSO Group has made the most headlines, but other Israel-located malware purveyors have made the news as well. Candiru, another Israeli exploit developer, was hit with the same sanctions the US Commerce Department […]
Tim Cushing

Patients Are Being Left High And Dry When Medical Implant Makers Implode

2 years 6 months ago
Techirt has long discussed how in the modern era, the things you buy aren’t actually the things you buy. And the things you own aren’t actually the things you own. Things you thought you owned can be downgraded, bricked, or killed off entirely without much notice. That game console with backward compatibility? It no longer has backward compatibility. That smart home […]
Karl Bode

Getty Images Watermark Shows Up In Latest Square ‘Final Fantasy’ Game

2 years 6 months ago
Square Enix, the game studio behind famous video game franchises like the Final Fantasy series, is well known to be a big believer in intellectual property enforcement. Just on our pages alone, we’ve talked about the times they struck out against folks selling replica swords from its games, or fan-made productions featuring Square IP in […]
Dark Helmet

Elon’s Promise Not To Ban Account Tracking His Jet Didn’t Last Very Long At All; Also Bans Guy’s Personal Account

2 years 6 months ago
Hilarious Update: A few minutes ago, the @ElonJet account returned to Twitter, but that came about 20 minutes after Elon himself justified the ban, saying it violated the company’s (new) doxxing policies (see the original update to this story at the bottom. Hilarious Update 2: And, a couple hours later, the account was suspended a […]
Mike Masnick

Big News: Apple Will Allow Outside App Stores In Response To EU Law

2 years 6 months ago
Here’s some potentially very big news in the world of the mobile internet: after years of refusing to do so, Apple is finally going to allow third party app stores on iOS devices. This has been a discussion for a long, long time. Many people forget now, but the app store didn’t even exist until […]
Mike Masnick

Hertz Shells Out $168 Million To Settle 364 False Theft Reports

2 years 6 months ago
All’s well OK that ends well OK. Months of reporting tied to lawsuits filed by Hertz renters falsely accused of theft should now come to a halt. Maybe. Here’s the company’s statement on the multi-million dollar settlement, which doesn’t say much about Hertz’s culpability, nor any plans it has in place to prevent something that […]
Tim Cushing

Daily Deal: MasterWriter 2-Year License

2 years 6 months ago
MasterWriter is a powerful collection of writing tools, reference and organization assembled in one easy-to-use program. Why struggle to find the right word when you can have all the possibilities in an instant? Their Word Families dictionary is like having a thesaurus on steroids. Also included are Phrases, Synonyms, Rhymes, Definitions, Metaphors, Similes, Onomatopoeia, Idioms, […]
Gretchen Heckmann

Twitter’s Big Ad Plan: Violate FTC Consent Decree, California Privacy Law & EU Privacy Laws To Force Users To Hand Over Info For Ad Targeting

2 years 6 months ago
The good folks over at Platformer broke the news that Twitter is experimenting with Elon’s desperate attempt to make money: forcing people to “opt-in” to share personal info so they can better target ads. And, yes, there’s a contradiction between “force” and “opt-in.” As everyone already knows, Elon is desperate for revenue, seeing as he […]
Mike Masnick