The city of Chicago’s Inspector General is back at it, pointing out things are very, very wrong with the Chicago Police Department. Not that anyone needed any reminders. A long history of disinterest in disciplining misbehaving officers has led to everything from an off-the-books black site operation to more than 100 misconduct charges being racked […]
It’s pretty rare to see a judge disqualify a law firm from taking on a case. But Judge William Alsup has done just that, disqualifying the litigation powerhouse law firm Quinn Emanuel from representing ExTwitter in a big data scraping case. We wrote about this case back in May, highlighting both the importance and complexities […]
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Back in 2022, a federal court responded to a challenge of a geofence warrant with some good questions. But its ultimate ruling was a shrug. A geofence warrant obtained by investigators searching for a bank robbery suspect covered a whole lot of ground, subjecting hundreds of innocent people to a search of their geolocation records. […]
A few years ago you might recall there was a three year news cycle about how the modern Trump GOP was somehow “serious about antitrust reform this time.” The party, which has never met a consolidated monopoly it didn’t adore (see: airlines, telecom, pharma, health, energy), was suddenly getting credited in the press for being […]
While the vast majority of what I get to read about when it comes to intellectual property law generally, and trademark law specifically, makes me roll my eyes, the concept of geographic indicator trademarks actually isn’t one of them. The application of GI marks certainly does get my fur up often times, but the concept […]
New York’s finest just don’t want to have to do the work that comes with being a cop. They’ve really never wanted to do it. A new law requires officers to collect more data during more encounters with New York residents, which has kicked off a new wave of bitching from those who think they […]
A few weeks ago, Mike was the moderator on a panel hosted by CCIA all about link taxes — the various problematic efforts around the world to force internet companies to pay media outlets for sending them traffic. The panel featured Public Knowledge Policy Director Lisa Macpherson, Lion Publishers Executive Director Chris Krewson, and lawyer […]
One of the most important transitions taking place today in technology is the shift to electric vehicles (EVs). Most attention is focused on electric cars. That’s in part because they are big glamorous items, and they have high-profile cheerleaders like Elon Musk. But there is another side to this transition to electric power, less glamorous […]
Meta has a long history of making sure no one but Meta, or Meta-approved apps, can operate on top of its services. And now, in a new court filing, it’s going to somewhat ridiculous lengths to try to stop one developer from making sure he won’t get sued for creating a tool that automates clicking […]
Back when Vladimir Putin first launched his aggressive war of choice on Ukraine, much of the Western world mobilized into action in a way that was fairly impressive. All kinds of companies and brands voluntarily began pulling out of the market, sometimes at the request of Ukraine itself. Much was made of tech firms pulling […]
It’s well-known that cops can lie to suspects to obtain confessions or further information from suspects. But not always. This Delaware case, brought to us by FourthAmendment.com, demonstrates that while lying in interrogation rooms is usually cool and fine, it isn’t when it moves someone to consent to a search they wouldn’t have agreed to […]
Elon Musk declaring the EU DSA regulation as “exactly aligned with my thinking” and agreeing with “everything” it mandates is looking pretty hilarious at this point. Elon Musk loves endorsing things he clearly doesn’t understand and then lashes out when they backfire. Last week, we had the story of how he was demanding criminal prosecution […]
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As has often been said about ICE and CBP, the cruelty is the point. Both agencies have seemingly gone out of their way to harm people, even though their directives don’t demand the often cruel actions they take. Both CBP and ICE have been separating immigrant families for years, even though Trump’s decision to badmouth […]
By now we’ve well established that the AT&T–>Time Warner–>Discovery series of media mergers were some of the dumbest, most pointless “business” exercises ever conceived. The utterly senseless saga burned through hundreds of billions in debt, saw more than 50,000 people lose their jobs, killed off numerous popular brands (like Mad Magazine and HBO), created oceans of animosity among […]
This week, our first place winner on the insightful side is an anonymous comment about Gina Carano’s lawsuit against Disney, in response to another commenter asserting that “all she’s asking for is consistency”: What makes you think she’s entitled to it? Disney is not bound by her subjective personal view of what she said. In […]
Five Years Ago This week in 2019, we wrote about how getting rid of Section 230 would just strengthen the internet giants, the dangers of forthcoming deep fake legislation, and why thinking of privacy as a property right would end badly. We looked at the backwards approach of the UK’s online harms legislation, while UK […]
Cops love a pretextual stop. A perceived traffic infraction is all that’s needed to cast out a fishing net in hopes of landing something bigger than a citation for an illegal lane change. That’s why cops have historically led most traffic stops with a leading question: do you know why I’ve pulled you over? It’s […]
Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a weekly podcast about the latest news in online speech, from Mike Masnick and Everything in Moderation‘s Ben Whitelaw. Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, Pocket Casts, YouTube, or your podcast app of choice — or go straight to the RSS feed. In this week’s round-up of the latest news in online […]
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