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Texas DPS Wants Uvalde Bodycam Footage Buried Because It Might Let School Shooters Know Cops Won’t Stop Them From Killing Children

3 years ago
The Uvalde Police Department — which currently avails itself of 40% of the town’s budget — did nearly nothing to stop an extremely horrific school shooting that resulted in 19 dead children, two dead teachers, and 17 others being wounded. While Robb Elementary turned into a bloodbath, Uvalde officers retreated after a couple of flesh […]
Tim Cushing

Daily Deal: The Two Million Dollar Puzzle

3 years ago
Are you a fan of solving puzzles? Do you like winning money? Then MSCHF has a treat for you. MSCHF, the makers of THE ONE MILLION DOLLAR PUZZLE, now brings you THE TWO MILLION DOLLAR PUZZLE. All you have to do is buy this 500-piece jigsaw puzzle, complete it, and get a chance to win […]
Gretchen Heckmann

Nonprofit Takes Aim At Fox News By Demystifying Ad Exchanges

3 years ago
Usually when people start whining about the propaganda dumpster fire that is Fox News, several things predictably happen. First, somebody with no idea how any of this works will yell out something about how the FCC should ban Fox from doing this (which is unconstitutional), or restore the mythologized Fairness Doctrine (which wouldn’t have applied […]
Karl Bode

Copyright Being Used To Stifle Attempts To Preserve A Dying Language

3 years ago
One of deep-seated problems with copyright is that its supporters believe everything created should be “owned” by someone and protected from being “stolen” by others. We’ve already written about how that’s a bad fit for writing music, and NBC News has a fascinating story about how the same issue is plaguing a very different world – […]
Mike Masnick

Report Shows Kansas Law Enforcement Seized $21 Million From People, Most Of Whom Were Never Charged With Crimes

3 years ago
A new report on asset forfeiture arrives at the same conclusions every other report on the subject has: forfeiture makes money for cops, does almost nothing to stop illegal activity, and rarely, if ever, results in criminal convictions. (via CJ Ciaramella at Reason) The new report [PDF], put together by the Americans for Prosperity Foundation […]
Tim Cushing

With The INFORM Act, Congress Plans To Empower Ken Paxton To Go After Amazon If It Doesn’t Tell Him Who Sold The Books He Doesn’t Like

3 years ago
Don’t think this headline is hyperbole; as this post will explain, it is not. But what follows here isn’t just about books, Amazon, or even Paxton himself. What the headline captures is but one example of the catastrophic upshot to the long-concerning INFORM Act bill, should it get passed, as may now happen, what with […]
Cathy Gellis

Ron DeSantis Continues To Waste Taxpayer Funds To Pay For His Unconstitutional Culture Wars

3 years ago
Remember when Republicans pretended they were the party of fiscal responsibility, not wasting taxpayer money, and limited government? Sure, sure, you say, that was all just sloganeering, and never actually true in practice, but it’s really starkly on display in Florida, where governor (and wannabe 2024 Presidential candidate) Ron DeSantis has taken this all to […]
Mike Masnick

Former Employees Say ID.me Grew Too Fast, Got Too Careless With Users And Their Data

3 years ago
ID.me hasn’t always been a government contractor powerhouse. For more than a decade, it wasn’t really on anybody’s radar. The personal identification software began as a Craigslist for military personnel before morphing into an ID service designed to combat fraud and ensure military members could access the many government programs available to them. Not exactly […]
Tim Cushing

Daily Deal: Microsoft Office Professional 2021 for Windows And MBA/Finance Courses Bundle

3 years ago
The Microsoft Office Professional 2021 for Windows And MBA/Finance Courses Bundle comes with a lifetime license for Microsoft Office 2021 Professional. It also includes three courses: one covers starting a business, another covers finance, accounting, modeling, and valuation, and the third covers financial analysis and investing. The bundle is on sale for $60. Note: The […]
Gretchen Heckmann

U.S. Broadband Maps Remain Unfinished As Billions In COVID Broadband Funding Starts To Flow

3 years ago
We’ve noted a few times how there’s an absolutely historic amount of money being thrown at the “digital divide” this year. The broadband infrastructure bill alone designates $42 billion to expanding broadband access. Billions more in COVID relief money started flowing this week courtesy of the Treasury Department. According to an announcement by the agency, […]
Karl Bode

Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt

3 years ago
This week, our first place winner on the insightful side is Toom1275 with a comment about the USPS seizing “defund the police” facemasks: Oh look, an actual rights violation by an actual common carrier. In second place, it’s a comment from Naughty Autie (that also won second place for Funny), responding to another commenter’s thoughts […]
Leigh Beadon

This Week In Techdirt History: June 5th – 11th

3 years ago
Five Years Ago This week in 2017, the Sixth Circuit was the latest court to say real-time cellphone location tracking is not a Fourth Amendment issue, and the Supreme Court finally decided to take up the question. Tom Cotton introduced a bill to renew Section 702 surveillance forever, just as Congress was getting pretty mad […]
Leigh Beadon

Having True Fans Can Create A True Business

3 years ago
We have written several times about the “true fans” idea as an alternative approach to the traditional remuneration models employed by the copyright industry players, such as publishers, recording companies and film studios. It’s a simple approach: get the people who really love an artist’s work to support it directly, and in advance, rather than […]
Mike Masnick

Trump’s ‘Free Speech’ Social Network, Truth Social, Is Banning People For Truthing The Truth About January 6 Hearings

3 years ago
In news that will surprise basically no one, Truth Social, Trump’s social network that was pitched as being about bringing free speech back and not doing any “viewpoint discrimination,” even as its terms of service promised it would be heavily moderated, is now banning users for trying to spread some “truths” about the January 6 […]
Mike Masnick

Colorado Brings The ‘Right To Repair’ Movement To Wheelchairs

3 years ago
Last week, New York State became the first state to pass right to repair legislation. The bill was the culmination of years of consumer frustration with repair monopolies, obnoxious DRM, shrinking repair access, high repair costs, and impossible to find tools, parts, and documentation. While the bill only covered some consumer electronics, activists hope it […]
Karl Bode

China Completely Disappears Famed Online Influencer For (Accidentally) Referencing Tiananmen Square, Causing Lots Of People To Try To Figure Out Why

3 years ago
It’s no secret that China wants to erase from history the student protests at Tiananmen Square, and the resulting massacre by the government, but it keeps proving more and more difficult in the internet age. Even with China’s infamous Great Firewall. The latest example is really quite striking. Li Jiaqi is an astoundingly popular social […]
Mike Masnick