TechDirt 🕸

The EU is currently proposing a plan to tax Big Tech companies, and throw that money at Big Telecom companies. For no coherent reason. The proposal is part of the EU’s efforts to craft digital policies for the next few decades. While this is purportedly for “broadband expansion,” it’s not… really. Both EU and U.S. telecoms […]

For years, the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department has had a gang problem. And for just as many years, sheriff after elected sheriff have refused to address this problem. It’s not simply a matter of taking a hands-off approach to discipline. It’s been a matter of flat-out denial from sheriffs that deputies are forming gangs seemingly […]

While U.S. consumer protection is generally a hot mess, one promising bright spot continues to be the bipartisan traction seen on right to repair issues. For decades, tech giants across numerous sectors have attempted to monopolize repair, making it harder and more expensive to repair things you own due to repair center consolidation, annoying DRM, […]

Cops keep letting us know who they really are. They can’t seem to help themselves. They demand to be viewed as good guys, but far too often, they align themselves with fascists, racists, and opportunistic politicians who align themselves with fascists and racists. When the latest presidential election delivered a loss to Donald Trump, his […]

There are, certainly, all sorts of questions about what is generally referred to today as AI, and what it will do, and if it needs to be regulated, but it would help if we had law makers who had the slightest clue what they were talking about. Senator Rand Paul is upset about AI and […]

For as long as the FBI has had access to NSA collections under its Section 702 authority, the FBI has abused this access. Section 702 allows the NSA to collect content and communications via “upstream” channels. It’s a powerful dragnet and one that is supposed to be foreign-facing, so as not to violate the rights […]

xTiles is the simplest way to visualize your workflows, projects, and ideas. Visual search and real-time collaboration enable you to make your work life more efficient. xTiles allows you to collaborate and build off ideas by sharing notes, links, and media in a second. Whether you’re brainstorming your work and personal projects or just trying […]

It’s no secret that Twitter isn’t paying many of its bills, including the rent for its headquarters. That was rumored last fall, but became much more clear when the landlords sued the company in January. Now a new lawsuit, filed last week by six former employees, provides a lot more details on Elon’s view of, […]

Despite years of cable industry executives claiming that cord cutting (ditching traditional cable TV) was either a fiction or a fad, that wound up being… not true. Executive claims that cord cutting was finally slowing down and would soon effectively stop? Also, surprisingly, not true. When I’d write about the cord cutting trend I’d get […]

This week, our first place winner on the insightful side is Stephen T. Stone (who has a lot of wins this week) responding to the argument that Elon Musk’s attacks on George Soros are not anti-semitic: It is anti-Semitic, however, to posit that George Soros is part of, or the mastermind behind, a decades-long multi-national […]

Normally on Saturday we have our “this week in history” posts, highlighting Techdirt stories from many years ago. But this week I wanted to highlight a story that didn’t happen on Techdirt, but turned into a Techdirt thing. Twenty years ago today, actress/singer Barbra Streisand sued photographer Kenneth Adelman for daring to photograph her coastal […]

I don’t often highlight the things that cops do right. That’s for several reasons. First, I don’t think it’s worth applauding officers for managing to do their jobs without violating anyone’s rights. Second, I don’t think it’s cute when cops pull over people to give them Thanksgiving turkeys or aid and abet marriage proposals. That’s […]

It’s frustrating how few news organizations these days are willing to call out nonsense for being nonsense. Too many feel they need to do one of those “view from nowhere” things where they pro/con everything. That’s why I appreciate The Verge, a news site that has spent years actually taking a stand. Its latest is […]

Lame duck president and serial bad faith litigant Donald Trump has yet again been told his arguments are bad and he should feel bad. The Man Who Couldn’t Stop Suing sued multiple times over the publication of a book by his niece, Mary Trump, which detailed plenty of stuff the on-his-way-out-the-door president didn’t want published. […]

We noted yesterday that Montana’s embarrassment of a governor, Greg Gianforte, was about to cost the state a ridiculous amount of taxpayer money having to defend his obviously unconstitutional ban on TikTok. What I hadn’t realized was that by the time I’d published that article, the first such lawsuit had already been filed. Five TikTok […]

Nibble is an educational tool disguised in the shape of a retro game console. It’s a new and improved version of MAKERbuino that makes learning about electronics and programming fun! With a build guide, assembling the kit will be easy peasy. This DIY console comes preloaded with 4 retro games inspired by cult classics — […]

This is definitely more “for the children” thinking. That is, the kind of thinking that figures anything is ok, so long as it can be portrayed as making children safer. This bill making its way through the New York state legislature probably won’t make many (or any!) kids safer, but it’s already gathered the sort […]

For years all I’ve ever wanted from TV manufacturers is a “dumb” TV that has a whole bunch of HDMI inputs, but no “smart” internals. Since I know the real money is increasingly made from spying on users and monetizing their every fart (while failing to properly secure the collected data), I’ve even been willing […]

Last year, we discussed two insane rulings coming out of Denmark stating that a newspaper’s depiction of a statue of The Little Mermaid in cartoon form was somehow copyright infringement. If you’re not familiar with the case, you may be surprised to learn that this is not Disney being Disney. Instead, it is the estate […]

Our long national wait for how the Supreme Court would rule regarding Section 230 is over, and the answer is… we need to keep waiting. The headlines note, correctly, that the court punted the matter. But there are other elements of the actual rulings that are kind of interesting and could bode well for the […]