Denuvo Returns To Block Some Nintedo Switch Games From PC Emulation

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Denuvo is back! While the company only got a single mention in 8 months thus far in 2022, the once-vaunted antipiracy DRM company made quite the splash in the years prior. If you don’t want to go through tens and tens of posts about Denuvo, I can give you a quick breakdown. Denuvo DRM was […]

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Arizona's New 'No Recording Cops Within 8 Feet' Law Challenged In Court

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Police accountability has been a hot topic for years now. Recent events have increased demands for accountability. And, as demands have increased, so have legislative efforts to shield cops from accountability. Arizona lawmakers have been doing what they can for cops for a few years now. With plenty of court precedent upholding a First Amendment […]

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Texas Activist Weaponizes Law Requiring Religious Posters In Schools Against Its Fans

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Secularists teaching the state of Texas a lesson in unintended consequences appears to be becoming something of a theme. To be fair, this is a problem of Texas’ own making, as the state continues to churn out laws that aren’t just conservative, which would be fine, but at least questionable from a constitutionality standpoint. The […]

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Free Speech Absolutist Elon Musk Demands Take Down Of (Likely Misleading) Videos Of Teslas Running Over Child-Sized Mannequins

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It appears that free speech absolutist Elon Musk is, once again, not such a fan of free speech when it criticizes him or his companies. Perhaps he’s too busy penning columns for China’s official internet censor to know this, but given other reports about how much he micromanages things happening at Tesla, you have to […]

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This Week In Techdirt History: August 21st - 27th

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Five Years Ago As you probably know, this week was Techdirt’s 25th anniversary! And this week in 2017, of course, we were marking the 20th anniversary (and also published a podcast reflecting on the history of the site). As for other events this week in 2017: we saw yet another example of the problems with […]

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LAPD Adopts Some (Weak) Surveillance Tech Reforms That Will Finally Allow Public Input

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The Los Angeles Police Department is one of the largest in the United States. To say it’s resistant to change would be an understatement. It — like the NYPD — is also resistant to oversight, transparency, and accountability. It may not be as openly antagonistic as the NYPD but it has a multitude of problems […]

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MoviePass Returns After Its Disastrous, Comical Implosion

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After imploding in a spectacular fireball several years ago, MoviePass is giving things another try. The service has announced that it’s preparing to relaunch on Labor Day, nearly three years after the company was effectively shamed out of existence in spectacular fashion. While the remnants of MoviePass were sold to a private equity firm in […]

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Sixth Circuit: Equal Access To Court Proceedings Only Applies To Those More Equal Than Others

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There’s presumptive access to court records under the First Amendment. But that presumption presumes a lot of other things, as this recent Sixth Circuit Appeals Court ruling demonstrates. Just because something is open doesn’t necessarily mean it’s accessible. But the Sixth Circuit has decided access (no matter how limited) is still access, and that’s all […]

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Xbox Chief: Exclusives Aren't the Future, Pay No Attention To All These Exclusives

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Xbox’s management team’s inability to put out a clear public message regarding exclusive titles is becoming a real thing. When the season of acquisitions kicked off last year and Microsoft bought up Zenimax/Bethesda studios, the muddled messaging began. First were conflicting statements over the exclusivity of those studios’ titles, then came Microsoft saying those titles […]

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Fucking TTAB Says FUCT Owner Can't Trademark 'Fuck' Because That Word Fucking Belongs To All Of Us

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I love this story so much I want it to find other similar vulgar stories so that those stories can have little baby vulgar stories for me to read. You may recall the saga of Erik Brunetti, founder of FUCT, a fashion brand with a name supposedly standing for Friends U Can’t Trust. We wrote […]

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Former UK Supreme Court Judge Calls Out Online Safety Bill As Harmful By Itself

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We have discussed at great lengths the many problems of the UK’s Online Safety Bill, in particular how it will be a disaster for the open internet. Unfortunately, it appears that important politicians seem to think that the Online Safety Bill will be a sort of magic wand that will make the “bad stuff” online […]

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U.S. Appeals Court Affirms Disney Win Against Evel Knievel Estate Over Toy Story Character

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I guess I shouldn’t be shocked, but the trademark and publicity rights dispute between Disney and K&K Promotions, the company that manages the rights for the late stuntman Evel Knievel, was still ongoing until recently. If you’re not aware of what I’m talking about, the movie Toy Story 4 included a character named Duke Caboom, […]

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'Free Speech Absolutist' Elon Musk Pens Column For Chinese Censorship Agency

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So, look, I’ve been pretty clear that for as much as Elon Musk refers to himself as a “free speech absolutist,” his actions suggest otherwise. He has regularly punished people for their speech, he recently embraced the EU’s highly censorial plans for social media regulation, and his filings in the Twitter case suggest that he […]

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Miami PD Shoots The Messenger, Says It Will Punish Cop For Complaining About Other Cops' Unsafe Driving

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Why do bad cops stay employed for years while good cops find themselves out of their jobs? The answer will not surprise you. The answer is not so complicated as it is filled with infuriating details. Cops drive fast because they have tacit permission to do so. Almost any reason will do. A deputy who […]

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Magistrate Judge To Tesla Buyer Suckered Into Paying Extra For 'Full Self-Driving' That Isn't Full Self-Driving: Next Time Read The Fine Print

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For many years now, Tesla has referred to its various driver assistance tools as “full self-driving” and then acted shocked and surprised when people point out that it’s nowhere near what any normal human being would consider “full self-driving.” That, of course, hasn’t stopped Tesla boss Elon Musk from repeatedly promoting Full Self-Driving and insisting […]

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This Week In Techdirt History: August 14th - 20th

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Five Years Ago This week in 2017, the FCC unveiled its new broadband “advisory panel” that was stocked with telecom consultants, allies, and cronies, and got to work weakening the definition of quality broadband, while a former Commissioner was trying to claim that net neutrality aided the rise of white supremacy. A Florida city was […]

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FTC Right To Repair Push Continues With Weber Grill Settlement

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Following through on a request by the Biden administration to defend right to repair, the FTC recently demanded that Harley Davidson and Westinghouse stop voiding customer warranties over repairs. An FTC announcement noted how both companies told consumers that using cheaper, third-party parts or repair shops to repair equipment violated warranty in a bid to […]

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NSO Wins Phone Exploit Of The Year Award, No-Shows Award Ceremony

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There’s no better way to admit you’re a pariah than skipping out on a celebration of your specific talents. Roman Polanski has passed on attending awards ceremonies out of fear of being extradited to face criminal charges related to the drugging and raping of a 13-year-old girl. Polanski remains a (cautiously) celebrated film director and […]

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Oracle Now Reviewing TikTok Algorithms And Content Moderation Practices

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As you may recall, back during the Trump administration, after a bunch of kids on TikTok trolled Trump into believing one of his campaign rallies would be massively attended (which it was not), Trump decided to take out his anger on TikTok by issuing an almost certainly unconstitutional executive order demanding that TikTok’s owner, the […]

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Mariah Carey Sets Off Firestorm Trying To Trademark 'Queen Of Christmas'

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We haven’t found ourselves talking about Mariah Carey much at Techdirt in the past, but the few times we have, have been for positive reasons. This time, not so much. If you’re not a fan of Mariah Carey, like me, you are probably still familiar with her hit holiday single, All I Want For Christmas […]

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Texas School District Decides To Just Ban All Books Flagged For Review Including The Bible

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If you’re not familiar with the story and history behind the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, then go read up on it, because it’s a great story. For you lazy bums out there, I’ll summarize it thusly. A 24-year old in Oregon got sick of religious types in Kansas trying to inject the teaching […]

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Judge Makes It Official: Retweets Are Not Endorsements But In A Strange Case

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Back in the spring of 2021, we wrote briefly about yet another Steven Biss SLAPP lawsuit. This one was filed by the brother of disgraced former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, Jack Flynn, arguing that CNN defamed him by showing a video of both Flynns and other family members, repeating the QAnon slogan “where we […]

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DOJ Charges Officers For No Knock Warrant Lies That Led To The Killing Of Breonna Taylor

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There are very few things that are more dangerous for citizens and cops than no-knock warrants. These warrants allow cops to raid houses without announcing themselves, leading those on the receiving end to assume they’re being invaded by armed criminals. People who don’t know they’re dealing with cops defend themselves. Cops, who believe everyone should […]

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Oprah Sues Podcast About Oprah For Branding That Includes Oprah Trademarks

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Being the “Queen of Talk,” perhaps it’s no surprise that Oprah Winfrey has made it onto Techdirt’s pages plenty of times in the past. To be fair to her, most of the posts we’ve done concern her being on the receiving end of typically silly intellectual property disputes. That being said, Oprah and her company, […]

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Illinois Department Of Corrections Benchslapped For Spending Years Failing To Improve Medical Care For Prisoners

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In the space of less than a week, two federal courts have come down hard on prison systems for treating prisoners like meat suitable for nothing more than processing by the so-called justice system. In Mississippi, a federal judge yanked control of a prison away from local officials, placing the Raymond Detention Center into receivership […]

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NSO Group Finally Figures Out How Many European Countries It Does Business With

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European lawmakers wanted answers after months of investigations and reporting made it clear exploit developer NSO Group was involved with some seriously shady customers. Facing lawsuits, sanctions, and the Israeli government’s belated attempt to ensure NSO didn’t continue to generate bad press in perpetuity, the EU began asking questions. For some reason, NSO didn’t have […]

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Funniest/Most Inisghtful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt

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This week, our first place winner on the insightful side is Thad with a simple comment about the “bad apple” theory of policing: Someone should really tell them what the other half of that expression is. That comment came in response to a police official complaining about police as a group being unfairly hated because […]

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This Week In Techdirt History: August 7th - 13th

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Five Years Ago This week in 2017, a lawyer renounced his participation in copyright-trolling activities and sued his former partner and clients, the creator of Kickass Torrents was trying and failing to get the criminal case against him tossed out, and Canadian telcos were losing their minds over TVAddons. Bob Murray was trying to stop […]

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Leaked NSO Group Presentation Details Malware's Ability To Turn On Cameras, Mics To Surveil Targets

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Israel’s foremost purveyor of malware, NSO Group, has undergone nearly a yearlong reckoning. A leak last summer appeared to show NSO customers were routinely targeting journalists, activists, members of opposition parties, and, in one case, the ex-wife of a Dubai ruler. That NSO Group was shady wasn’t a new fact. Its decision to sell malware […]

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Twitch Flags Let's Play Of 'Project Zomboid' Over Copyright Of Police Siren

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We have long lamented how the current method for many streaming platforms to enforce copyright laws, be they via automated systems like ContentID at YouTube or DMCA reporting platforms, is wide open for fraud, abuse, and mistakes. There are a huge swath of posts just on ContentID you can go check out if you’re not […]

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Activision Wins Rule 11 Sanctions Over Frivolous 'COD: Infinite Warfare' Trial

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It’s always frustrating when you come across an intellectual property lawsuit that is so laughably frivolous. On the other hand, it’s then quite fun when a court gets things so right that the frivolous filer gets a good wrist-slapping for their trouble. In late 2021, Activision Blizzard was sued by a company called Brooks Entertainment, […]

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Cop Official Complains Cops Are Unfairly Hated, Refuses To Recognize Law Enforcement's Lack Of Accountability

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This op-ed for Police1, written by longtime law enforcement officer/official Booker Hodges (currently the chief of the Bloomington, MN police department), may have its heart partially in the right place but it’s wrong in all the wrong places. Entitled “Why we need to talk about the blueprint for hate,” the op-ed belatedly calls for more […]

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Trump Campaign Releases Everyone Who Signed An NDA About 2016 Campaign, Saying It Will Not Try To Enforce Them

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Two years ago we wrote about how a former Trump campaign staffer, Jessica Denson had sued the Trump campaign, claiming that the non-disclosure agreement she was pressured into signing by the campaign was not enforceable. As we know, Trump loves his non-disclosure agreements. He seems to use them frequently. When you’re a private citizen, or […]

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House Of Zana Defeats Zara's Trademark Opposition

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A couple of months back, we discussed a bit of a David v. Goliath trademark situation occurring in the UK. Zara is a massive fashion brand, well known throughout Europe. House of Zana is a small boutique clothier that attempted to trademark the full name of the company, “House of Zana”, only to have Zara […]

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Appeals Court: 'Frisking' A Vehicle Is Completely Normal And Not Any Sort Of Rights Violation

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Welcome to America, where not only are people subject to frisks by cops when things seem reasonably suspicious, but their vehicles are as well. A “Terry stop” is generally understood to apply to a person. When cops have enough reasonable suspicion, they can stop a person, ask questions, and pat them down to search for […]

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Netflix's Gaming Offering Is Being Largely Ignored By Customer Base

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You might recall that almost exactly a year ago, Netflix announced that it would be getting into the “gaming” business. While the announcement led many to believe that Netflix was going to jump into competing with Google’s Stadia platform and offer streaming AAA video games, in actuality, it turns out to be… not so much. […]

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Enjoy This Fan Made Take On 'Mario 64' While You Can

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This post will serve as the start of what will be a familiar cycle for fans of Nintendo. I’m going to show you something cool that Nintendo fans did, you’re going to get moderately excited, and then you’ll immediately become depressed when you realize that Nintendo will absolutely shut this cool project down in the […]

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New Jersey Cops Are Using DNA Drawn From Newborns In Criminal Investigations

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To be in law enforcement is to be almost criminally obtuse. (We haven’t criminalized that. YET! But when we do…) They can’t stay out of their own way. The public may be willing to cut them some slack but they constantly make moves that dis-endear them to the people they’re supposed to be serving. DNA […]

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This Week In Techdirt History: July 31st - August 6th

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Five Years Ago This week in 2017, Russia banned VPNs, Australian prosecutors were seeking to make it illegal to refuse to turn passwords over to law enforcement, the UK Home Secretary wanted companies to stop offering encryption altogether, and another US federal court said cops can get historic cell site location info without a warrant. […]

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Appeals Court Says No Evidence Suppression For Arrestee Who Tried To Eat Five SD Cards Found In His Possession

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There are a few questionable assumptions made by the Fourth Circuit Appeals Court in its denial [PDF] of a suppression request, but the opening suggests drug cartels might want to vet their employees a little better. David Sierra Orozco was paid to drive a car with over $100,000 in drug-tainted cash hidden in a secret […]

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Shaquille O'Neal's Brand Manager Opposes Trademark App From His Son For His Own Name

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We had a depressing number of Techdirt stories on this site that involve Shaquille O’Neal. I say that as a basketball fan who absolutely adores Shaq’s contributions to the TNT studio broadcasts for the NBA. On the other hand, the times Shaq has made it onto our pages hasn’t been for the best of reasons. […]

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Thanks To Automated Copyright Claims And A Troll, Infamous CounterStrike Clip Gets A DMCA Takedown

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At this point, every reader here should be aware that YouTube has a copyright/DMCA problem it has yet to solve. Going through the myriad of posts we’ve done about DMCA and ContentID takedowns on YouTube, the theme is abundantly clear: YouTube’s automated systems are wide open for mistakes, fraud, and abuse. If you don’t think […]

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Federal Judge Places County Jail Into Receivership After County Fails To Comply With Consent Decree

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In an extremely rare move, a federal court has ordered a jail into receivership, placing it under the direct control of a court-appointed third party that will (hopefully) carry out the needed changes Hinds County, Mississippi either can’t or won’t do. (h/t Scott Greenfield) Receivership is uncommon. As Hernandez Stroud of the Brennan Center points […]

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Why The Massive China Police Database Hack Is Bad News For Surveillance States Everywhere

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A couple of weeks ago, Techdirt wrote about how an anonymous user had put up for sale the data of an estimated one billion Chinese citizens, probably obtained from the Shanghai police.  Back then, what exactly had happened was a little unclear — not least because the Chinese authorities were shutting down any discussion of […]

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As Expected, Facebook Is No Longer Interested In Paying News Orgs To Post News On Facebook That No One Wants

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Just a few weeks we noted that this was inevitable, but Facebook has now made it official that it’s no longer interested in dumping money on news publishers. “A lot has changed since we signed deals three years ago to test bringing additional news links to Facebook News in the U.S. Most people do not […]

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Fifth Circuit: This Badge Wearing Serial Sexual Assaulter Is Beyond Even Our Expansive Definition Of Qualified Immunity

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Yikes. Deputy Boyd stayed for approximately two hours, during which time he made numerous inappropriate sexual statements and commands, which the district court found were neither invited nor consensual. For example, Deputy Boyd told Tyson that he and fellow officers had recently seen her at a restaurant, and he repeated sexual comments that the officers […]

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Without The Votes To Pass, Antitrust Bill Gets Delayed

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For the last few months we’ve been writing a lot about AICOA, the American Innovation and Choice Online Act, being pushed for by Senator Amy Klobuchar. It’s an antitrust bill, but not an antitrust bill designed to fix the whole host of problems we have today with industrial consolidation and anticompetitive practices. No, it’s just […]

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And Now EU Commissioners Are Reporting Their Phones Were Infected With NSO Group Malware

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NSO Group has gone from being an under-the-radar spyware darling selling powerful phone hackery to some of the absolutely worst governments in the world to being an extremely exposed malware pariah which has sold powerful phone hackery to some of the absolute worst governments in the world. A data dump last summer served as a […]

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Stock Photo Company Decides To Treat 'Pirates' Like Humans, Rather Than Demons

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Over these many years, we’ve talked about a myriad of ways in which people and companies can respond to copyright infringement. The common reaction, and probably the one most natural, is for those copyright holders to absolutely freak out, scream about lost sales and “teh pirates!!1!”, and then turn to their lawyers. Others take a […]

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