For years, the UK government has sought to expand its surveillance powers. And, for years, it has rarely been prevented from doing so. Sure, there’s been a bunch of bureaucratic inactivity and unforced errors (like Brexit) that make it a bit more difficult to push legislation through, but the UK government’s thirst for more power […]
Countless companies and industries enjoy making up scary stories when it comes to justifying their opposition to making it easier to repair your own tech. Apple claims that empowering consumers and bolstering independent repair shops will turn states into “hacker meccas.” The car industry insists that making it easier and cheaper to repair modern cars […]
It’s been a while since this last happened, but we’ve got a double-winning comment this week, taking the first place spot on both the funny and insightful leaderboards. And it’s an anonymous comment too, responding to Elon Musk’s plans to add ID-based verification to Twitter: I have complete confidence that the man notorious for not […]
Five Years Ago This week in 2018, after years of fighting, Prenda boss Paul Hansmeier followed the path of John Steele and pleaded guilty to mail fraud, wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. The DOJ was trying to force Facebook to break encryption on voice calls, the EU was moving forward with legislation […]
It’s always nice when you get several stories in a row that contrast with one another in order to make a point. We were just discussing Rockstar’s decision to scoop up a roleplaying and modding community in order to build in new and interesting ways to play GTA and Red Dead Redemption games. What I […]
Back in 2015 domain registrar Tucows announced it would hope to modestly kickstart stagnant broadband competition by buying a small Virginia ISP by the name of Blue Ridge InternetWorks (BRI). Operating under the Ting brand name, the company said the goal was to bring a “shockingly human experience and fair, honest pricing” to a broken broadband market […]
As you’ll recall, Montana passed a law earlier this year to ban TikTok (and ban mobile app stores from offering TikTok for download). The bill has lots of problems, not the least of which was that Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen flat out told the NY Times that the purpose of the bill was to […]
In 2014, the Supreme Court made it clear: phone searches require warrants. While it did note the case involved a search “incident to an arrest,” the precedent was undeniable. If a phone search attached to an arrest requires a warrant, it would logically follow that any phone search by law enforcement — even those not […]
MagStack is the perfect on-the-go wireless charging station that also transforms into a floating stand for smartphone FaceTime or video playback while charging. This 3-in-1 foldable design enables charging for up to 3 devices simultaneously, including iPhone, Apple Watch, AirPods Pro, AirPods with Wireless Charging Case, other Qi-compatible Android phones, and Bluetooth earbuds. With its […]
There is no space for nuanced discussion about reality any more, as it seems that nonsense floods the zone. So, please try to follow along here as there needs to be some nuance to finally get down to the details of this issue. It’s nonsense, piled on top of nonsense, piled on top of nonsense, […]
We’ve noted repeatedly how the hyperventilation about TikTok privacy is largely just a distraction from the U.S.’ ongoing failure to pass even a basic privacy law or meaningfully regulate data brokers. We haven’t done those things for two reasons. One, the dysfunctional status quo (where companies mindlessly over-collect data and fail to secure it, resulting […]
Earlier this summer, we talked about Trader Joe’s joining the list of large companies combatting unionization efforts through the most petty of methods: complaining about those unions over “trademark infringement.” Trader Joe’s isn’t the first company to go down this route of course, as we’ve seen Walmart and Medieval Times have behaved similarly. Nor will […]
This case involves both civil forfeiture and criminal forfeiture. First one, then the other. Not that the order matters as much as the government’s unwillingness to do much more than sit on the $30,000 in cash they took from an Ohio couple during a supposed drug investigation. Civil forfeiture allows the government to keep seized […]
Back in June, we wrote about a ridiculously weak lawsuit from the big music publishers against exTwitter, claiming that the platform, mostly known for text, and which barely has any reasonable system for posting or listening to music, was a music piracy haven. As we noted, the publishers’ lawsuit seemed misguided in multiple ways, beyond […]
I guess the feeling was that some protesters needed to be arrested. And when most protesters are protesting cops, it’s probably a whole lot easier to go after those that aren’t. That’s how this lawsuit got started. Following the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, protests against police violence began all […]
Podurama is a leading podcast player with a collection of more than 30 million podcasts in every genre. The app makes it easy to organize your podcasts into folders or create multiple playlists of your favorite episodes. You can also take notes or bookmark within an audio. Very few podcast players have the ability to […]
Stephen Thaler has spent years trying, and almost always failing, to convince both patent and copyright bodies to give him patents and copyrights on works he says are created by AI systems he’s built. He’s failed at this process. A lot. I mean, really, a lot. His latest attempt was to sue the Copyright Office […]
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has backed off of its ill-advised opposition to right to repair after presumably getting an earful from reformers and the Biden administration. This past June, NHTSA issued guidance advising the auto industry to basically ignore Massachusetts’ new right to repair law, which required that all modern vehicle systems […]
Pretextual stops are law enforcement’s favorite way to fish for larger catches. Any minor moving violation can predicate a stop. That leads to conversations — often non-consensual — with drivers and passengers. Any number of factors can be opportunistically read by officers to add up to “reasonable suspicion.” Once that “develops,” the party begins. Cars, […]
Well, this certainly isn’t an outcome I would have predicted. While the saga of Microsoft’s attempt to acquire Activision Blizzard has certainly taken a long and winding road, as it stands today all the regulatory hurdles have seemingly been cleared save for the UK’s Competition & Markets Authority (CMA). Unlike the FTC’s challenge to the […]
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