According to some people (you know the people I mean…), our biggest “crisis” is border security. This one guy — a supposed billionaire with multiple bankruptcies under his belt — claimed he could solve the problem if he ever got elected. He would “build the wall” and make Mexico pay for it. This is stuff […]
Sometimes I love a good “mashup” story hitting on two of the different themes we cover here at Techdirt. This one is especially good: Alaska legislators relying on fake stats generated by an AI system to justify banning phones in schools, courtesy of the Alaska Beacon. It’s a mashup of the various stories about mobile […]
This is something that should have happened years ago, but I guess we can be grateful it’s happening now. And part of the reason it’s finally happening is because of the warrant requirement for obtaining historical cell site location info created by the Supreme Court’s Carpenter decision. One of the many ways the government obtains […]
We’ve noted repeatedly that in the wake of the Sprint T-Mobile merger, wireless carriers immediately stopped trying to compete on price (exactly what deal critics had warned the Trump administration would happen when you reduce sector competition). Recently, T-Mobile imposed another $3-$5 per month price hike on most of its plans — including customers who believed they were under […]
Another lobbyist win over common sense, it seems. Earlier this year, we discussed a group of video game preservationists, led by the Video Game History Foundation, seeking DMCA exemptions that would allow groups to curate, preserve, and make available for streaming antiquated video games for purposes of study. The chief opposition to the request came […]
When the government shuts down a protest because both protesters and counter-protesters are physically attacking each other, it’s not a “heckler’s veto.” It’s just common sense, even though there was very little of that on display during the protest, nor during law enforcement’s belated response to the violent confrontation. But Warren Balogh thinks only his […]
The open access movement has been trying for over 20 years to promote the widest access to knowledge. Sadly, as numerous Walled Culture posts have chronicled, what should be a matter of social justice has been subverted by clever and cynical moves from the academic publishing industry in order to retain their fabulous profit margins. As a […]
What are the odds. Evolv, a gun detection tech firm contracted by the city of New York to handle fare jumping by scanning for guns, told everyone — including its investors — that deploying its tech in NYC subways wasn’t exactly a great idea. It made this statement even as Mayor Adams was telling people […]
The Speed Reading Mastery Bundle has 6 courses to help you learn to absorb new information faster by learning speed reading methods used by top universities and Guinness World Record holders. These skills will not only help you with your everyday tasks, but open doors to take on any new interest or career. Within minutes, […]
You may recall last December when we wrote about the somewhat shocking news that an Indian court had ordered Reuters to take down an entire article investigating a company, Appin and its founder Rajat Khare, that were accused of running a giant “hacking for hire” operation. Ten months later, that article is back online with […]
To be very clear: SpaceX’s Starlink service can be a game changer for those completely out of range of broadband access. Getting several hundred megabits per second in the middle of nowhere is a decidedly good thing, assuming you can afford the $120 a month subscription and up front hardware costs. But contrary to what […]
It’s that time of the year in the Midwest, when the skies darken early and the temperature drops. And that means it’s pho season. As a lover of pho, allow me to educate anyone that hasn’t heard of it. It’s a soup of sorts, with rice noodles, spices, and meat. And it’s considered the national […]
Well, a wrong has been righted. Kind of. And for how long, no one really knows. Texas is on the leading edge of book censorship in the United States — you know, the land most famous for its freedoms, one of which is the famous/infamous (depending on who you ask) First Amendment. It’s only second […]
The release of a bipartisan draft of the American Privacy Rights Act (APRA) reinvigorated the effort to pass a federal consumer privacy law, only to sputter and stall amid concerns raised from across the political spectrum. All that is gone, however, is not forgotten: it is only a matter of time before Congress returns its […]
Last week, Bluesky, where I am on the board (so feel free to consider this as biased as can be), announced that it had raised a $15 million seed round, and with it announced some plans for building out subscription plans and helping to make the site sustainable (some of which may be very cool […]
Donald Trump and the politicians that either think like him, or think saying things like this might make him like them, continue to pretend major US cities are besieged by violent criminals. While there have been a few spikes in certain cities, for the most part, crime rates are returning to their normal, historic lows […]
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Hey Jeff, Since I know you’ll never actually read this, I figured the best way to set this up as an open letter. One that you should read, but never will. It appears that your stupendously cowardly decision to block the Washington Post from publishing its planned endorsement of Kamala Harris just days before the […]
Earlier this month the FTC announced it was modifying some existing rules to crack down on companies that make it extremely difficult to cancel services. The agency’s revamp of its 1973 “Negative Option Rule” requires companies be completely transparent about the limitations of deals and promotions, requires consumers actively consent to having read terms and deal […]
There must be something about the alcohol business that creates silly trademark disputes over geographic terms. We’ve seen this several times in the past, such as in the whole Ravinia Festival dispute, or the time two breweries fought over a trademark for the neighborhood one of them operated out of. While these don’t always turn […]
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