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As Walled Culture has often noted, the process of framing new copyright laws is tilted against the public in multiple ways. And on the rare occasions when a government makes some mild concession to anyone outside the copyright industry, the latter invariably rolls out its highly-effective lobbying machine to fight against such measures. It’s happening again in […]

To paraphrase Voltaire, I disagree with what you say but I will defend to the death the government’s right to prosecute you for what you say. That’s apparently the thought process in Olyphant Borough, Pennsylvania. Marine veteran Dave Bliler lives in this town. He’s also not thrilled with any level of government, at least according […]

Many of you might know Andrew “K’Tetch” Norton as a Techdirt commenter, or from his work at TorrentFreak or for the Pirate Party, and some of you might know that he also runs his own podcast, Tetch Talk. Recently, Andrew asked Mike and I to join him on the podcast for a discussion about our […]

Oh boy. We’ve already written a few times about Elon Musk’s “Grok” AI from his company xAI, which may or may not be a part of ExTwitter or possibly Tesla, but no one really knows because all of Elon’s companies blend together in a mishmash of hell for anyone who believes in good, normal corporate […]

The man who decided he was the real glue holding New York City together following the 9/11 attacks is now nothing more than a man whose stupid, obsequious mouth has written checks he can’t cash. And all to stroke the ego of a lame duck president who thought what the nation really needed was a […]

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This one is from a couple months ago, but I’m clearing out some older stories that I didn’t have the time to write up when they were new. For years, we’ve highlighted how the DMCA is regularly abused for a variety of purposes. Often it’s abused to try to take down content someone doesn’t like, […]

Back in 2017 the FCC tried to pass some very basic privacy protections for broadband access. The rules simply demanded transparency as to what kind of data your ISP collects and sells. They also mandated that the trafficking of sensitive financial data by telecoms require the opt in consent of consumers. Telecom giants like AT&T […]

Warrants that are short on things required by the Fourth Amendment — probable cause, specificity, the correct address, solid affidavits — are often given a free pass because law enforcement has plenty of options when it comes to sneaking around the edges of the Constitution. In some cases, the excuses are pretty much just this: […]

The folks behind the Grand Theft Auto franchise are certainly no strangers to lawsuits and complaints over publicity rights issues. GTA5 famously found the publishers of the game in court defending itself against the likes of Lindsay Lohan and Karen Gravano, ultimately winning both cases. Anyone familiar with the GTA franchise will have a sense […]

Back in May, Walled Culture wrote about an important case before the EU’s top court, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). It involved the “High Authority for the dissemination of works and the protection of rights on the Internet” (Haute Autorité pour la diffusion des œuvres et la protection des droits sur […]

A few weeks ago, publishing giant Penguin Random House (and, yes, I’m still confused why they didn’t call it Random Penguin House after the merger) announced that it was filing a lawsuit (along with many others) against the state of Iowa for its attempt to ban books in school libraries. In its announcement, Penguin Random […]

For years, Google has collected all the data it can about its users. And for years, it has utilized this data to… well, it depends on who you ask. For Google, it meant a whole lot of targeted advertising — something so valuable Google tended to collect the data even when it told users it […]

The Complete 2024 Microsoft Tech Certification Training Super Bundle has 11 courses focusing on Microsoft tech. It includes courses such as Microsoft 365 Identity & Services (MS-100), Designing Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Solutions (AZ-305), MD-100: Windows Client, AZ-500: Microsoft Azure Security Technologies, Microsoft Azure Administrator (AZ-104), and more. It’s on sale for $80. Note: The Techdirt […]

At this point, I really have to question the seriousness of anyone who claims that the evidence shows that social media is bad for kids. We’re now reaching a point where the research is increasingly overwhelmingly pointing in the other direction. I’ve posted it before, but I’ll post this list again: And we can go […]

Knoxville, Tennessee is making progress on an ambitious, $700 million plan to deliver $65 gigabit fiber connections to every last city resident. With no usage caps, weird fees, or long-term contracts. Once completed, the city-owned fiber network, run through the city’s existing city-owned electrical utility, will be the biggest community-owned broadband network in the U.S. […]

This week, our first place winner on the insightful side is Strawb with a response to someone claiming there’s no first amendment issue with Ken Paxton’s investigation into Media Matters: That’s because you don’t understand the first amendment, Koby. For those of us that do, there’s very much a violation going on here. In second […]

Five Years Ago This week in 2018, the Australian government passed a law forcing tech companies to break encryption, Hollywood and record labels were quietly asking congress to bring back SOPA, and the UK intelligence community said it was moving on from bulk data collection in favor of bulk equipment interference. The latest EU copyright […]

It’s that time… Get ready for the Gaming Like It’s 1928! public domain game jam! The game jam, like all our public domain game jams, runs from January 1st through January 31st, and we’re eager to see what kinds of games, both digital and analog, you’ll make by building on newly public domain works. As […]

While not super common, we have seen issues surrounding copyright claims or negative reactions to so-called “reaction videos.” These videos essentially take content that is out there, typically on the internet, and then react to them in a video providing either additional context for the content or a reaction to it. Sometimes those reaction videos […]