For several years now, we’ve had a running series of posts discussing how, when it comes to digital goods, you often don’t own what you’ve bought. This ugliness shows up with all kinds of content, including purchased movies, books, and shows on digital platforms. But it has reared its head acutely as of late in […]
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 […]
Well, this ought to prompt another round of police-protecting legislation in Florida. Governor Ron DeSantis recently signed two bills into law — one that creates a 25-foot “no go” zone around police officers and one that strips police oversight boards of their independence. And that’s on top of the immediate effort made by the legislature […]
Over the last few years, there have been a ton of lawsuits, pretty much all of them dubious, arguing that social media is inherently harmful to children (something the research does not show) and that therefore there is some sort of magic product liability claim that will hold social media companies responsible. A bunch of […]
The FCC on Thursday once again voted along party lines to restore popular net neutrality rules stripped away during the Trump administration in a flurry of protest and sleazy industry behavior. You might recall the 2017 repeal was so unpopular that telecom giants were caught using fake and dead people to create the illusion of […]
Envy those picture-perfect vlogs and YouTube channels? You can easily re-create them Aduro’s U-STREAM Home Streaming Studio. The 10″ ring light offers 3 distinct lighting options — white, warm yellow, and warm white. The brightness feature on the remote offers 10 different levels of brightness so you can choose what’s best for you. Not only […]
Apparently TikTok is so evil and pernicious that it must be banned from the United States… and so useful that the man who signed the ban, President Joe Biden, made sure to post a few new videos to the platform. It feels like maybe his concerns are a bit overblown? It seems that TikTok users […]
Last month the New York Times’ Kashmir Hill published a major story on how GM collects driver behavior data then sells access (through LexisNexis) to insurance companies, which will then jack up your rates. The absolute bare minimum you could could expect from the auto industry here is that they’re doing this in a way that’s clear to car […]
MAGA SLAPP suits apparently aren’t going out of style, but yet another one has been tossed out of court. Remember lawyer Steven Biss? He was the grand filer of tons of SLAPP suits for the MAGA crowd against media outlets. He had quite a losing streak, with nearly all of those cases failing. Last fall, […]
The capricious nature of Nintendo’s IP enforcement practices are, if you’re a regular reader here, quite legendary. In this case, however, it seems like Nintendo’s reputation is what played a part in some copyright fuckery, rather than the company engaging in said fuckery itself. If you’re not familiar with Garry’s Mod, then you obviously weren’t […]
Back in October last year, Walled Culture wrote about a proposed law in France that would see a tax imposed on AI companies, with the proceeds being paid to a collecting society. Now that the EU’s AI Act has been adopted, it is being invoked as another reason why just such a system should be set […]
As case law continues to be developed, it continues to look as though the best way to hold onto your Fifth Amendment rights is to secure your devices with a passcode. There’s no solid consensus at this point, and the Supreme Court has yet to set precedent, but unless law enforcement really screws up while […]
The failures of the NCMEC CyberTipline to combat child sexual abuse material (CSAM) as well as it could are extremely frustrating. But as you look at the details, you realize there just aren’t any particularly easy fixes. While there are a few areas that could improve things at the margin, the deeper you look, the […]
This Little Wonder Solo Bluetooth Speaker may look small, but it produces as clear and powerful a sound as any other speaker. It comes in a solid and metallic look that is great for any setting and decor at your home, office, pool, picnic spot, and more! Connect this speaker to your smartphone or tablet […]
The system meant to stop online child exploitation is failing — and misaligned incentives are to blame. Unfortunately, today’s political solutions, like KOSA and STOP CSAM, don’t even begin to grapple with any of this. Instead, they prefer to put in place solutions that could make the incentives even worse. The Stanford Internet Observatory has […]
When the Apple Vision Pro launched back in February, the press had a sustained, two-month straight orgasm over the product’s potential to transform VR and the world of spatial computing. Downplayed were little sticking points like the lack of app support; the short battery life (despite a bulky external battery pack Steve Jobs would have […]
There seems to be something rather specific when it comes to the current Italian government when it comes to strong-arming commerce over a protective stance on Italian cultural touchstones. This has traditionally expressed itself mostly in the food and drinks categories of commerce. Wines are particularly of note here, with several recent examples of Italy […]
Welp, sometimes you gotta read Techdirt fast, or you just might miss something. And sometimes it’s because Universal Music is acting to silence creativity yet again. Yesterday, we posted about how Dustin Ballard, the creative genius behind There I Ruined It, who makes very funny parody songs, had posted a lengthy disclaimer on his latest […]
This week, we’ve got another cross-post episode for you. Mike recently appeared on the Sidebar podcast from Courthouse News as part of an episode taking an in-depth look at why copyright is actually the biggest free speech restriction in the US, and the various questions, implications, and problems that arise from this. You can listen […]
Get your dance moves on now, as TikTok may be going away. Okay, it’s not going away that quickly and quite possibly isn’t going away at all, but President Biden signed the bill this morning that requires ByteDance to divest itself from TikTok, or have the app banned from the Apple and Google app stores. […]
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