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Stadia Developers Blindsided By Shutdown

2 years 11 months ago
Last week we noted how Google’s streaming game service, Stadia, is finally being shut down. Google had initially tried deny the obvious last July when rumors began circulating that the company was preparing its exit strategy. This denial apparently resulted in many of the service’s own developers being left in the dark, given they were […]
Karl Bode

UK Taqueira Under Trademark Threat Gets 100k People Worth Of Public Support

2 years 11 months ago
You will hopefully recall our recent discussion about a taco restaurant, or taqueria, in the UK being bullied by Worldwide Taqueria because the latter had somehow gotten a trademark on the word “taqueria.” As we pointed out in the original post on the topic, everything about this is ridiculous. First, it’s absurd that the company […]
Dark Helmet

Techdirt Podcast Episode 322: Celebrating 25 Years Of Techdirt

2 years 11 months ago
As you probably already know, Techdirt recently marked its 25th anniversary and celebrated the occasion with an online party for our Insider subscribers. At the event, Mike was joined by Techdirt co-founder Dennis Yang for an interview conducted by Alex Feerst of Murmuration Labs, in which they looked back on the history of the site […]
Leigh Beadon

Laura Loomer Loses Again; Appeals Court Affirms $124,000 Legal Fee Judgment In Bogus Lawsuit Over Twitter Ban

2 years 11 months ago
Engaging in performative litigation may be fun to do and score points with your fan base. But, sooner or later, these theatrical productions tend to generate actual costs — something that can’t be offset with shares and retweets, or even votes at the polls. Laura Loomer, an alt-right personality mostly known for ineffectively handcuffing herself […]
Tim Cushing

Daily Deal: Apple Watch Portable USB Charger

2 years 11 months ago
This Apple Watch Portable USB Charger allows you to charge anytime, anywhere. With a built-in magnetic adsorption module, you can charge your watch immediately after contact. This charger has the ability to charge your watch within 2 to 3 hours fully. It’s lightweight and portable, so you can charge your watch while traveling, when working […]
Gretchen Heckmann

In Agency First, FCC Employee Union Backs Gigi Sohn

2 years 11 months ago
Despite being hugely qualified and popular across both sides of the aisle, Congress still hasn’t approved Gigi Sohn to the FCC, leaving the agency without the voting majority to do anything popular or even remotely controversial, such as restoring net neutrality, the FCC’s consumer protection authority, or the media consolidation rules stripped away during the […]
Karl Bode

‘Central Park Karen’ Loses Defamation Suit Against Employer That Fired Her Following Viral Video Of Her Calling Cops On A Black Birdwatcher

2 years 11 months ago
The long saga of one of the most infamous internet “Karens” has come to a close as New York City resident Amy Cooper, a.k.a. “Central Park Karen,” has lost her defamation lawsuit against her former employer. (h/t Volokh Conspiracy) The same day unarmed black man George Floyd was being murdered by a white police officer, […]
Tim Cushing

Lazy-Ass House GOP Uses Foreign Stock Photos In Video About America

2 years 11 months ago
I get that stock photos are a thing and that political campaigns or teams may be pressed for time, but some things really shouldn’t be so hard. If you follow politics, you may be aware that House Republicans, led by Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, unveiled an agenda for 2023 politics it’s calling “Commitment to America.” […]
Dark Helmet

New Study Shows That High R&D Costs Don’t Explain High Drug Prices

2 years 11 months ago
For years, defenders of pharma patents loved to claim that the reason that they needed patents and the reason they had to charge extortionate rates for drugs was because of the high cost of R&D for new drugs. The numbers keep going up. When I first started covering pharma patents, the number bandied about was […]
Mike Masnick

DOJ, Senate Leader Continue To Stoke Irrational Fear That Drug Dealers Are Targeting Kids With Multicolored Fentanyl

2 years 11 months ago
People who fail to understand the basics of supply and demand continue to insist suppliers want to kill potential customers. The DEA is leading the charge, engaging in hysterics while pretending to present facts, claiming that recent busts involving multicolored fentanyl indicate drug dealers are targeting children — children prone to ingesting pills that look […]
Tim Cushing

Daily Deal: 13-in-1 Docking Station with Dual HDMI

2 years 11 months ago
With this 13-in-1 docking station, you can use all of your devices while they stay connected and ready to use. Not only is it equipped with 13 ports but is also compatible with numerous connections to the latest USB-C hardware and technology, including USB 3.0, HDMI ports, SD card, and gigabit Ethernet port. All of […]
Gretchen Heckmann

Publishers Lose Their Shit After Authors Push Back On Their Attack On Libraries

2 years 11 months ago
On Friday, we wrote about hundreds of authors signing a letter calling out the big publishers’ attacks on libraries (in many, many different ways). The publishers pretend to represent the best interests of the authors, but history has shown over and over again that they do not. They represent themselves, and use the names of […]
Mike Masnick

Dish’s ‘New 5G Network’ Remains Kind Of A Mess

2 years 11 months ago
You might recall that the Trump administration “fix” to the competition and layoff problems created by the Sprint T-Mobile merger (which consolidated four major wireless players into three major players) was to have Dish build a new 5G network. But the effort has been a sloppy mess from the start, and three months into its […]
Karl Bode

Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt

2 years 11 months ago
This week, our first place winner is an anonymous comment about Texas’s content moderation law, responding to the claim on Twitter that Wikipedia could easily comply with it by being more open and transparent: Tell me you don’t understand how Wikipedia works without telling me you don’t understand how Wikipedia works. I mean, Wikipedia is […]
Leigh Beadon

This Week In Techdirt History: September 25th – October 1st

2 years 11 months ago
Five Years Ago This week in 2017, the SESTA fight continued, and we took a look at how Google would survive the law, but startups might not, and how much of the supposed sex trafficking epidemic driving the bill simply didn’t exist. Ajit Pai’s FCC amusingly declared victory over wireless competition issues, the streaming exclusivity […]
Leigh Beadon

After Trying To Deny The Obvious, Google Announces It’s Shutting Down Stadia

2 years 11 months ago
While Google’s Stadia game streaming service arrived with a lot of promise, it generally landed with a disappointing thud. A limited catalog, deployment issues, and a quality that couldn’t match current gen game consoles meant the service just never saw the kind of traction Google (or a lot of other people) originally envisioned. Developers have been […]
Karl Bode