Law enforcement officers learned long ago that if all they have is a crime scene and no likely suspects, there was no reason to wear out shoe leather beating the streets for alleged criminals. They don’t even need to leave the office. All they have to do is produce a subpoena for certain third-party records […]
Hewlett Packard (HP) has been socked with yet another lawsuit for crippling the printers of consumers who use cheaper third-party ink cartridges. The lawsuit, filed by eleven plaintiffs in US District Court in the Northern District of Illinois, states that HP misleadingly used its “Dynamic Security” firmware updates to “create a monopoly” over replacement printer […]
D&D and Magic: The Gathering publisher, Wizards of the Coast (WotC), has certainly been pissing folks off as of late. Between its attempt to change its OGL license for D&D both in the future and retroactively last year combined with sending the literal Pinkerton Agency after someone who received some unreleased Magic cards in error, […]
Public records requesters in California recently scored a small victory in one of the state’s appeals courts. The EFF, which filed an amicus brief in this case, summarizes the decision at its website. Video footage captured by police drones sent in response to 911 calls cannot be kept entirely secret from the public, a California […]
Last year, soon after Elon completed his purchase of (then) Twitter, I wrote up a 20 level “speed run” of the content moderation learning curve. It seems like maybe some of the folks at Substack should be reading it these days? As you’ll recall, last April, Substack CEO Chris Best basically made it clear that […]
December was not just busy with Supreme Court briefs. The Copia Institute also joined many others, including copyright scholars and public interest organizations, in filing an amicus brief to support the Internet Archive’s appeal at the Second Circuit, seeking to overturn the troubling ruling holding its Open Library to be copyright infringement. We’ve written about […]
Things are still batshit insane in the Florida legislature. Again. Apparently, the state’s government won’t be satisfied until it’s attempted to violate every single constitutional amendment (except the 2nd!) via godawful bills crafted by godawful people. The latest insanity is a bill [PDF] written by state senator Jason Brodeur. It aims to completely rewrite defamation […]
StackSkills is the premier online learning platform for mastering today’s most in-demand skills. Now, with this exclusive limited-time offer, you’ll gain access to 1000+ StackSkills courses for life! Whether you’re looking to earn a promotion, make a career change, or pick up a side hustle to make some extra cash, StackSkills delivers engaging online courses […]
On Tuesday morning, former politician Tulsi Gabbard, who had to have the 1st Amendment clearly explained to her by a judge after she filed a ridiculous lawsuit to restrict the free speech of others, announced that she had cut a deal with Elon Musk to bring a “news show” to ExTwitter. Hilariously, she claimed that […]
Back in 2019 we noted how the streaming sector risked driving consumers back to piracy if they didn’t heed the lessons of the past. We explored how the rush to raise rates, nickel-and-dime users, implement arbitrary restrictions, and force users toward hunting and pecking their way through a confusing platter of exclusives and availability windows […]
As all manner of content creators will tell us, copyright enforcement is both very important and is at least doable enough that it sure would be nice if platforms like YouTube could do even more to enforce those rights for content creators. This mantra will typically come from those that are the most aggressive and […]
Across the nation, bigoted politicians (of the Republican variety, almost exclusively) are trying to punish and silence content and expression they don’t like. It’s not like it’s even a close question about who’s doing this and why. A slew of bills targeting drag shows and LGBTQ+ writing have been tossed into legislatures all over the […]
We’re back from the holidays, and it’s time for a new episode of the Techdirt Podcast! This week, we’re joined by Ravi Iyer, Research Director for the USC Marshall School’s Neely Center and Managing Director of the Psychology of Technology Institute, to discuss a proposed “design code” that aims to make social media better serve […]
There’s plenty of hypocrisy and bad faith to go around in the ridiculous Claudine Gay plagiarism scandal. While Gay’s accusers are right that she technically violated Harvard’s plagiarism rules by copying phrases either without quotation marks or required attribution, they don’t actually care about plagiarism, only “scalping” Gay. What’s more, their own plagiarism accusations have […]
It was a busy December for the Copia Institute (and me), even just at the U.S. Supreme Court. In addition to filing (along with Bluesky and Mastodon admin Chris Riley) an amicus brief supporting NetChoice and CCIA in their combined cases, we also filed another one challenging the bizarre injunction imposed by the Fifth Circuit […]
Charge your device or illuminate your desk with this innovative 6-in-1 Wireless Charger. It’s easy to use with its touch buttons and Qi wireless charging for Qi-enabled devices. Beautifully made with a modern look, it can quickly charge your device and is touch-sensitive allowing you to show the digital clock. For your convenience, this charger […]
Go NetChoice go. The trade group has been going around the country and blocking all the bad state level social media laws. Early on (with CCIA) it sued to stop Texas and Florida’s problematic laws. Last year it sued successfully to stop laws in Arkansas and California. Just a few weeks ago it sued Utah […]
Early last year new journalism outlet named “The Messenger” launched to great fanfare. The brainchild of former The Hill owner Jimmy Finkelstein, the new news empire launched with $50 million in backing and a lot of chatter about how it was going to revolutionize U.S. journalism. Finkelstein claimed he wanted to build “an alternative to a national […]
Nearly four years ago, we discussed the online superhero game City of Heroes, which had been shut down officially by NCSoft, but which had survived in the shadows due to some fan-run servers. That story from 2019 was fairly interesting for a couple of reasons. First, it stood in contrast to some similar instances where […]
Between the holidays, and to minimal fanfare, the FCC released a decision in the 2018 Quadrennial Review of Media Ownership policy. The timing of the release was no surprise, as the agency had been ordered by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to conclude the proceeding by December 27th. The FCC’s decision, which made only […]
stLouIST