Even As Trump Relies On Section 230 For Truth Social, He's Claiming In Lawsuits That It's Unconstitutional

With the launch of Donald Trump's ridiculous Truth Social offering, we've already noted that he's so heavily relying on Section 230's protections to moderate that he's written Section 230 directly into his terms of service...

Medical, Home Alarm Industries Warn Of Major Outages As AT&T Shuts Down 3G Network

It was only 2009 that AT&T heralded its cutting edge 3G network as it unveiled the launch of the iPhone (which subsequently crashed AT&T's cutting edge 3G network). Fast forward a little more than a decade and AT&T is...

15 Years Late, The FCC Cracks Down On Broadband Apartment Monopolies

A major trick dominant broadband providers use to limit competition is exclusive broadband arrangements with landlords. Often an ISP will strike an exclusive deal with the owner of a building, apartment complex, or development that effectively...

Trump's Truth Social Bakes Section 230 Directly Into Its Terms, So Apparently Trump Now Likes Section 230

When Donald Trump first announced his plans to launch his own Twitter competitor, Truth Social, we noted that the terms of service on the site indicated that the company -- contrary to all the nonsense claims of being more "free speech&quot...

Massachusetts Court Says No Expectation Of Privacy In Social Media Posts Unwittingly Shared With An Undercover Cop

Can cops pretend to be real people on social media to catfish people into criminal charges? Social media services say no. Facebook in particular has stressed -- on more than one occasion -- that it's "real name" policy applies just as...

LA Sheriff Threatens To 'Subject' City Council To 'Defamation Law' If They Won't Stop Calling His Deputies 'Gang Members'

The man presiding over a law enforcement agency filled with gangs and cliques would prefer city officials stop referring to his employees as gang members. Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva has stated that there are no gangs within the...

Video Game History Foundation: Nintendo Actions 'Actively Destructive To Video Game History'

I've been banging on a bit lately about the importance of video game preservation as a matter of art preservation. It's not entirely clear to me how much buy in there is out there in general on this concept, but it's a challenge in this...

US Copyright Office Gets It Right (Again): AI-Generated Works Do Not Get A Copyright Monopoly

For years, throughout the entire monkey selfie lawsuit saga, we kept noting that the real reason a prestigious law firm like Irell & Manella filed such a patently bogus lawsuit was to position itself to be the go-to law firm to argue for...

Arizona Prosecutor Who Brought Bogus Gang Charges Against Protesters Files Ridiculous Defamation Suit Against Her Boss

Protests against police violence erupted around the country following the killing of an unarmed black man, George Floyd, by Minneapolis (MN) police officer Derek Chauvin. Chauvin ended Floyd's life by placing his knee on his neck for nearly nine...

FTC Promises To Play Hardball With Robocall-Enabling VOIP Providers

Every year or so, the FCC unveils a new plan to combat robocalls it claims will finally tackle the annoying menace. Granted, year after year, the problem either gets worse or stays relatively the same. We've already noted that this is generally...

Seattle Public Radio Station Manages To Partially Brick Area Mazdas Using Nothing More Than Some Image Files

Welp. This isn't going to help future fundraising drives. Not when a public radio station is negatively affecting, you know, driving. Drivers of certain vehicles in Seattle and other parts of Western Washington are shouting at their car...

How Our Convoluted Copyright Regime Explains Why Spotify Chose Joe Rogan Over Neil Young

Spotify’s decision to hitch its star to podcaster and font-of-COVID-misinformation Joe Rogan has sparked a wave of pushback from musicians, some of whom--among them Neil Young, India Arie, and Joni Mitchell--have pulled their music from...

Thankfully, Jay Inslee's Unconstitutional Bill To Criminalize Political Speech Dies In The Washington Senate

Over the last few years, it's been depressing to see politicians from both major political parties attacking free speech. As we noted last month, Washington state governor Jay Inslee last month started pushing a bill that would criminalize...

Letter From High-Ranking FBI Lawyer Tells Prosecutors How To Avoid Court Scrutiny Of Firearms Analysis Junk Science

Law enforcement -- including the FBI -- like to claim they're heavily invested in science. The use of forensic "science" has been with us for years, but nowhere is it more sketchy than in law enforcement labs, where zero accountability...

Nintendo Is Beginning To Look Like The Disney Of The Video Game Industry

Techdirt, and myself specifically, have had an awful lot to say about Nintendo. To be fair to me, not every post I write about the company is negative. But to be fair to anyone with a pair of eyeballs, much of it certainly has been negative. I...

The Josh Hawley Mug: It Makes Him An Asshole, But Shouldn't Make Him A Copyright Infringer

Josh Hawley, the waifish fascist Senator from Missouri, has made it onto our pages several times in the past. When he's not advocating breaking up Twitter because he doesn't like how a private company is run (fascist), or breaking up lots of...

Blackburn & Blumenthal Introduce Terrible, Dangerous Bill To Make Sure Children Are Constantly Surveilled Online

Senator Richard Blumenthal is apparently a bottomless well of terrible internet regulation ideas. His latest is yet another "for the children" bill that will put children in serious jeopardy. This time he's teamed up with the even worse...

California Sheriff, US DOJ Sued For Seizures Of Cash Generated By Legal Pot Businesses

A lawsuit filed against both California and federal law enforcement agencies claims the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department is exploiting the disagreement between state and federal marijuana laws to stop and seize cash being transported...

Senator Blumenthal: Dismissing All Critics Of EARN IT As 'Big Tech Lobbyists' Shows Your Unwillingness To Recognize The Massive Problems In Your Bill

In the past, whenever Senator Richard Blumenthal has been called out for his many terrible legislative ideas regarding regulating technology and the internet, he has a habit of dismissing all of the concerns by claiming the complaints are only...

Whatever Problem EARN IT Is Trying To Solve, It Doesn't

I've already talked about the potential 1st Amendment problems with the EARN IT Act and the potential 4th Amendment problems with it as well. But a recent post by Riana Pfefferkorn at Stanford raises an even bigger issue in all of this: what...