What a terrible world it would be if Republicans and Democrats alike start pushing for 1st Amendment-violating demands on websites that they be compelled to carry speech they don’t want to. Over the last few years, we’ve seen mainly Republicans pushing for these kinds of “must carry” / “can’t moderate” rules in response to what […]
With the midterms looming, Democrats are apparently once again embracing one of their favorite “strategies”: pushing bills they know have no chance of passing, that may not even do the thing they claim to do, in a bid to make it look like at least they’re “doing something.” The latest case in point is a […]
Meta’s AI division has announced two exciting new projects in the field of machine translation: The first is No Language Left Behind, where we are building a new advanced AI model that can learn from languages with fewer examples to train from, and we will use it to enable expert-quality translations in hundreds of languages, ranging from […]
We all know this country is capable of evils normally associated with authoritarian regimes — things like torture, illegal spying, the occasional exhortation to commit suicide, etc. But we expect the country we love to only violate our sense of justice for big things: War on Terror, War on Drugs, War on… Equal Rights, I […]
Remember Judge Alan Albright? He was the former patent litigator who became a federal judge (the only federal judge) in Waco, Texas, which is part of the Western District of Texas. You may remember, going further back, that the Eastern District of Texas became quite infamous for being the favored venue for of patent trolls, […]
The bad news keeps pouring in. No doubt, the United States (and US law enforcement) will ultimately walk this debacle off, but it’s going to take just a bit longer this time. The school shooting in Uvalde has undermined law enforcement’s self-portrayal as the thin line between the public and the criminal element. Hundreds of […]
I do not understand the Democratic Party in the US for a wide variety of reasons. But one of the most confusing thing about them is their priorities. With everything else going on in the world that needs serious attention from Congress right now, Senate Dems have decided to host a markup on one of […]
Learn Linux from the ground up. LinuxPath training is a fun and interactive learning platform that lets you experience real-world applications in a highly qualified environment. Immerse yourself in a deep learning experience that increases retention of skills and knowledge, which will ultimately help you succeed on your certification exam. As you progress through the […]
Hertz rents cars, like many of its competitors do. What separates Hertz from the rental car pack is its willingness to let law enforcement perform its collection work by filing criminal charges against people. Maybe some people prefer a tough-on-crime rental agency, but it’s unlikely any of Hertz’s falsely accused customers choose Hertz for its […]
Earlier this month BMW took ample heat for its plans to turn heated seats into a costly $18 per month subscription in numerous countries. As we noted at the time, BMW is already including the hardware in new cars and adjusting the sale price accordingly. So it’s effectively charging users a new, recurring fee to […]
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals tends to be the cop-friendliest jurisdiction. Unexpected outbursts by recently appointed Judge Don Willett aside, the Fifth Circuit tends to maintain the law enforcement status quo. It has held this line so frequently even the Supreme Court — which made qualified immunity the mess it is today — has […]
There’s something odd going on in media reporting on the expiration of Disney’s copyright on the initial version of Mickey Mouse that is set to occur in 2024. Given the subject matter, we’ve talked Mickey Mouse quite a bit on this site, specifically noting the “coincidence” of copyright term extensions that have occurred roughly each […]
There’s no denying that the cryptocurrency world is chock full of scammers, Ponzi schemes, and sketchy sketchy offerings. But, the prevalence of such things in that world has lead some to argue that if cryptocurrencies were banned, we’d likely have less scams and fraud online. I’ve yet to see any data to support that — […]
Four years ago, the Supreme Court took a long look at the wealth of data generated by cell phones and made a good call. It said warrantless access to months of cell site location data was an unreasonable search. If cops wanted weeks or months of cell site location info, they’d need a warrant going […]
We’ve explained the details of Twitter’s case against Elon Musk and the legal issues at play multiple times, but for reasons I don’t fully understand, the general narrative on Twitter seems to be that Elon is likely to win the case, and it’s because “Twitter lied about spam.” This is not even close to accurate, […]
TheGameCreators are pleased to bring to you the final and complete collection of classic GameGuru and AppGameKit bundle, including 36 DLC packages. This is undeniably the most comprehensive and definitive introduction to the exciting world of game design. GameGuru, the easy-to-use game-maker, provides the best solution for initial forays into game design with its intuitive […]
In April 2021, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals forced itself through uncomfortable legal contortions to award qualified immunity to Denver, Colorado police officers who detained a man, seized his recording device, and made an apparent attempt to delete his recording. According to the Appeals Court, this was legal and not a violation of rights. […]
We’ve noted for years how your mobile phone location data is routinely abused by a long list of bad actors, including your wireless carrier. We’ve also noted how the GOP Senate, hand in hand with the telecom sector, managed to kill FCC broadband privacy guidelines in 2017 that would have gone a long way in […]
This week, both our winners on the insightful side are replies to a comment asserting that the internet has existed all this time without net neutrality. In first place, it’s BernardoVerda with an explanation of why that’s the wrong way to look at it: Nah, the Internet was built on net neutrality; it was specified […]
Five Years Ago This week in 2017, we hit the deadline on the FCC’s comment period about rolling back net neutrality rules, and published Techdirt’s submission. We also looked at how AT&T tricked its customers into opposing net neutrality, and Comcast’s silly attempt to say killing the rules was necessary to help sick and disabled […]
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