You might think that perusing Techdirt posts on the topic of fan-made video games using the IP of others would yield you only one kind of story in which threats and lawsuits abound. Fortunately, that’s something of a misconception. While there are indeed plenty of stories of that nature, there are also examples of studios […]
The War on Terror will never end. It’s a multi-billion dollar boondoggle that ensures we will always live in fear, even if we realistically have nothing to fear. The war we waged for the hearts and minds of Afghanistan residents lasted long enough that soldiers participating in another US losing effort weren’t even born when […]
Summary: Elon Musk has demonstrated contempt for free speech in general, and journalism in particular, with his behavior at Twitter. He is also demonstrating why it is foolhardy for anyone to rely on centralized platforms to create and distribute vital information. Journalists — among many information providers and users — should move to decentralized systems […]
It’s no secret that Elon Musk is desperately trying to cut costs at Twitter, the company he overpaid for and saddled with approximately an extra billion dollars a year in interest payments by leveraging the buyout. He’s cut staff somewhere around 75% and we still keep hearing rumors of further cuts. He’s turning off data […]
The Microsoft Surface 3 features a quad-core Intel Atom x7-Z8700 processor. The device comes with 2GB of RAM and 64 of storage, which is expandable up to 200GB by adding a microSD card. The display on the device supports up to 4K at 1920×1280 resolution. The device has two USB 3.0 ports and a kickstand […]
Nearly a half-decade ago, the DHS began rolling out biometric scanning at international airports. The early efforts targeted foreign travelers, but it was always clear the DHS (and its underling, the TSA) ultimately desired facial recognition tech to be the status quo in US airports. The slow rollout that began with scanning foreigners’ faces was […]
Back in 2016 we noted how U.S. power utilities like Florida Power & Light created entirely fake consumer groups to try and derail legislation that would have brought more competition to market. Six years later and the company has again found itself in the middle of another scandal, this time for buying favorable news coverage […]
Law enforcement officers really enjoy performing warrantless searches. To get to that point, however, they need to be in certain places (airports, roadsides) and have one certain thing: “reasonable suspicion.” But what seems “reasonable” to someone like you or me is nowhere near what seems “reasonable” to a law enforcement officer. For instance, behold the […]
Several sources familiar with the nomination process tell me that the Biden Administration is not only planning to re-nominate Gigi Sohn to the FCC in 2023, but that Sohn still has the full support of the Administration and of Biden personally. At points in 2022 it wasn’t entirely clear that team Biden had the political […]
In one of Mike’s recent posts about the radical reshaping of the social media landscape currently underway, he noted that Mastodon/ActivityPub might have a “Gmail moment“, when bigger players enter and boost the sector. Although that could be good in terms of broadening the appeal of Mastodon, the emergence of huge, dominating “instances” (Mastodon servers) […]
Very few issues have generated as much ridiculous legislation as preventing minors from accessing pornography. Almost everyone agrees something must be done. And most seem to agree that doing anything — no matter how stupid — is better than doing nothing. Extremely stupid versions of “something” have cropped up around the nation, most of them […]
A new Congress has begun, but in the waning days of the last one, we got one final bipartisan bill to “amend” Section 230. It officially died with the last Congress, but it sure is a sign of what to expect from this new one (introducing it at the very end of the session with […]
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Oh, man. This is just dumb as fuck. There’s no way around it. The New York Times seems extremely willing to suffer fools (especially its own!) Here’s yet another fool given prime internet/printed real estate to push bad ideas, worse arguments, and absurd conclusions. This time it’s Reid Blackman, a self-described “ethicist” who focuses on […]
We’ve noted for decades how, despite all the political lip service paid toward “bridging the digital divide,” the U.S. doesn’t actually have any idea where broadband is or isn’t available. The FCC’s past broadband maps, which cost $350 million to develop, have long been accused of all but hallucinating competitors, making up available speeds, and excluding a key […]
Sign up for the Public Domain Game Jam on itch.io » A new year has begun, and with it, a new edition of our annual public domain game jam! This year, it’s Gaming Like It’s 1927! There’s a host of exciting new works that just entered the public domain in the US, and we’re calling on […]
Happy new year, everyone! 2022 has ended, and that means it’s time for a look at the funniest and most insightful comments of the year at Techdirt. As usual, we’ll be honoring the top three winners in both categories, as well as taking a rare look at the list of comments that performed best when […]
Five Years Ago This week in 2017, people were still discovering that their dead loved ones had been used for fake comments supporting the death of net neutrality, while New York State was considering its own net neutrality law, and we wondered if Verizon would give back the taxpayer subsidies it got under Title II. […]
Long term readers of Techdirt know that, since 2008, I’ve written a final post of the year on reasons to remain optimistic. It started when some people kept telling me that when they read what I wrote I sounded angry and frustrated, but when they’d meet me in person, I always seemed optimistic about the […]
New York State has finally passed a landmark “right to repair” bill proving American consumers some additional protection from repair monopolies. After some annoying delays created by lobbyists, New York State Governor Kathy Hochul signed the legislation on December 29. The legislation gives New York consumers the right to fix their electronic devices themselves or […]
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