Maryland Cops Can't Seem To Understand Why Marijuana Legalization Means They Can't Search Cars Just Because They Smell Marijuana

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Everyone likes an easy day at the office. Cops are no exception. They like easy excuses to disregard the Fourth Amendment. Pretextual stops are how cop business has been done for years. Any missing tail light or (subjectively) too dark window tint is enough to initiate a traffic stop and apply pressure on drivers to […]

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Google Nixes 'Downloader' App From Store After DMCA Says Its Browser Can Get To Piracy Sites

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As anyone who reads this site regularly will know, DMCA abuse happens all the time. Typically you see this sort of thing resulting from clear attempts to hobble a competitor, or to silence content someone doesn’t want to see, or pure trolling for the purposes of producing mayhem. But we also see this kind of […]

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Studies Suggest That Rather Than Killing Jobs, AI Could Revive The Middle Class

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We've certainly been talking a lot about the AI Doomers who insist that AI is all too likely to destroy humanity. However, even people who aren't fully on board with the existential threat of AI do often say that, at the very least, it's going to destroy jobs for most people, potentially creating huge problems. […]

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Monster Energy Opposes A Fitness Trainer's Trademark Because Of Course It Did

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Ah, Monster Energy. For regular readers of Techdirt, the name of the company alone is enough to get your eyes rolling harder than a teenager at a rave. Posts on the company’s trademark bullying ways are so legion that I dare not even begin listing them; if you’re unfamiliar with them, click the link and […]

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Minnesota Passes Helpful But Lobbyist Limited 'Right To Repair' Law

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Despite industry best efforts to prevent it, the “right to repair” movement shows no sign of slowing down. This week, Minnesota was the latest state to pass a new right to repair law. State lawmakers added right to repair provisions to an omnibus bill (SF 2774) after obtaining bipartisan support across both chambers. The language requires electronics […]

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Activision Shutters 'CoD' Fan Servers, Which Were Better, More Secure Than The Official Servers

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Here we go again. We’ve talked several times in the past about game publishers and studios going out of their way to shut down fan-run servers for online play. The excuses for doing so mostly amount to either claims that intellectual property laws require this sort of policing action (it doesn’t), that the publisher needs […]

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The Stupidity Of Making Porn Filters Mandatory On Mobile Devices (And Other Musings On Reality)

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Lawmakers in the Alabama state legislature have voted for a bill that would require parental controls and NSFW content filters to be enabled on every phone and tablet sold in the state. House Bill (HB) 298, or the Protection of Minors from Unfiltered Devices Act, cleared the state House with an overwhelming 70-8 vote, with […]

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Court Allows Gamers' Amended Suit To Block Microsoft, Activision Deal To Go Forward

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While we’ve talked a great deal now about Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard, most of the focus has been on how three major regulatory bodies are handling approving, or not, the purchase. But those regulatory bodies are not the only ones challenging the purchase. A small group of gamers filed their own private suit […]

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Public Housing Contractors Are Using Federal Money To Inflict Biometric Surveillance Misery On Their Tenants

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Most of us wouldn’t argue that private companies can’t run their businesses the way they prefer. The gold standard has been the right to refuse service to anyone — something that covers everything from refusing paper checks from certain customers to booting people off social media services for refusing to stop behaving like inveterate assholes. […]

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Taco Bell Teams Up With LeBron James To Bring 'Taco Tuesday' Fight To The Masses

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Well, well, the “Taco Tuesday” battle appears to be heating up quickly. After years of holding and policing its trademark for “Taco Tuesday,” chain Taco John’s has found itself in a battle with Taco Bell, which is petitioning the trademark office to rescind its rival’s mark due to it becoming generic. I noted in that […]

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LA Sheriff's Department Watchdog Orders Dozens Of Deputies To Answer Questions About Gang Affiliation

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For years, the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department has had a gang problem. And for just as many years, sheriff after elected sheriff have refused to address this problem. It’s not simply a matter of taking a hands-off approach to discipline. It’s been a matter of flat-out denial from sheriffs that deputies are forming gangs seemingly […]

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Lobbyists Descend On California To Scuttle Right To Repair Efforts

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While U.S. consumer protection is generally a hot mess, one promising bright spot continues to be the bipartisan traction seen on right to repair issues. For decades, tech giants across numerous sectors have attempted to monopolize repair, making it harder and more expensive to repair things you own due to repair center consolidation, annoying DRM, […]

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Twenty Years Ago Today: Barbra Streisand Sued A Photographer And The Streisand Effect Was Born

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Normally on Saturday we have our this week in history posts, highlighting Techdirt stories from many years ago. But this week I wanted to highlight a story that didn’t happen on Techdirt, but turned into a Techdirt thing. Twenty years ago today, actress/singer Barbra Streisand sued photographer Kenneth Adelman for daring to photograph her coastal […]

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Cop Actually Admits He Was Wrong To Brutalize A Man Who Thought He Was Being Assaulted By Criminals

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I don’t often highlight the things that cops do right. That’s for several reasons. First, I don’t think it’s worth applauding officers for managing to do their jobs without violating anyone’s rights. Second, I don’t think it’s cute when cops pull over people to give them Thanksgiving turkeys or aid and abet marriage proposals. That’s […]

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The Verge Rightly Calls Out Online Age Verification Laws As A Threat To Your Privacy & The Open Internet

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It's frustrating how few news organizations these days are willing to call out nonsense for being nonsense. Too many feel they need to do one of those view from nowhere things where they pro/con everything. That's why I appreciate The Verge, a news site that has spent years actually taking a stand. Its latest is […]

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Finally: Danish Supreme Court Overrules Lower Courts On Newspaper's Little Mermaid Cartoons

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Last year, we discussed two insane rulings coming out of Denmark stating that a newspaper’s depiction of a statue of The Little Mermaid in cartoon form was somehow copyright infringement. If you’re not familiar with the case, you may be surprised to learn that this is not Disney being Disney. Instead, it is the estate […]

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Supreme Court Leaves 230 Alone For Now, But Justice Thomas Gives A Pretty Good Explanation For Why It Exists In The First Place

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Our long national wait for how the Supreme Court would rule regarding Section 230 is over, and the answer is we need to keep waiting. The headlines note, correctly, that the court punted the matter. But there are other elements of the actual rulings that are kind of interesting and could bode well for the […]

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EU Approves Microsoft, Activision Acquisition With Some Minor Stipulations

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One hurdle defeated, two more to go. For months now, we have been discussing Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of Activision for $69 billion. What would be the largest video game studio acquisition in history has faced several hurdles along the way, primarily from the EU, the UK, and the United States. While the UK’s CMA has […]

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As Trial Over Illegal Traffic Stops Begins, Highway Patrol Admits It Doesn't Track Rights Violations By Troopers

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The ACLU has been helping victims of the Kansas Highway Patrol hold the agency (and its troopers) accountable for their actions. Multiple lawsuits have been filed targeting the “Kansas two-step” performed by troopers. After delivering citations or otherwise making it clear drivers are free to go, the troopers take a step back to the car […]

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Taco Bell Seeks To Liberate 'Taco Tuesday' For Itself, The Masses

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There is a long history of trademark silliness concerning the phrase “Taco Tuesday.” As with many trademark stories, the original sin in all of this was committed by the USPTO , which in the ’80s somehow managed to grant the Taco John’s chain a trademark on the term, despite it being both very descriptive and, […]

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Federal Court Rejects FBI's Attempt To Glomar Its Way Out Of A Trump-Related FOIA Lawsuit

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After Donald Trump was forced to vacate the Oval Office to make way for its newest tenant, he apparently decided to cement his legacy by walking off with boxes full of classified documents. When the National Archive and Records Administration began filing away the records Trump actually deigned to turn over to it, it found […]

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Court Suppresses Breathalyzer Results In 27,000 DUI Cases After Years Of Being Jerked Around By The State Crime Lab

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For more than a decade, the Massachusetts State Police crime lab hid information from judges, prosecutors, and criminal defendants. This is nothing unusual for this state and its crime labs. The words “Massachusetts,” “crime lab,” and “scandal” have gone hand-in-hand for years. [Heads up, I will be using “state” to refer to the Massachusetts government […]

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Small Cafe Changes Its Name Due To Having Spanish Word For 'Coffee' In Its Name

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There are lots of reasons why trademark disputes get really stupid, really fast. The mother of all those reasons is, of course, the USPTO’s inability to cast a critical eye towards the applications its receives. Far too many trademarks are granted for words and terms that are not unique source-identifiers of goods and services. But […]

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Iron Maiden Opposes Women's Lingerie Company For Using The Word 'Maiden'

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Iron Maiden, the band, is not a band I have thought about much in the last, oh, let’s call it 20 years. They have made it onto our pages before, specifically for behaving like trademark bullies, which is apropos. I say that as the band most recently is opposing the trademark application for a lingerie […]

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Biden Nominates Legacy Entertainment Industry Copyright Enforcer To Be New IP Czar

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I have to admit that I'd lost track of the whole White House IP Czar position. Officially, the Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator or IPEC, the job was created by the Pro-IP Act in 2008, and we warned that the whole thing was an attempt to turn the White House into Hollywood's private copyright police force. […]

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Fallout From Nintendo's 'Zelda' Freak-Out Continues, Including Nintendo Self-Harm

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There’s that old saying: the coverup is always worse than the crime. There appears to be something of a corollary to that: the freak-out over a leak is always worse than the leak itself. Let’s call that Geigner’s Law, because why the hell not? You should recall that Nintendo has been in full freak-out mode […]

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Audit Finds New Jersey Cops Aren't All That Enthusiastic About Public Accountability

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Guess who doesn’t want to police themselves. If you guessed “police,” you win nothing but more years of zero accountability. Everybody seems to know cops don’t want to be held responsible for their actions, but those capable of forcing cops to be accountable for their actions seem willing to let the status quo remain in […]

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India Continues Its Attacks On Free Speech By Banning Element

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The Indian government really is showing the world what government censorship is all about lately. The country used to be somewhat better about speech issues online, but for years now we've been following the country's descent towards censorship. Things really ramped up with the Modi government, where he seems ridiculously thin-skinned and unable to deal […]

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Stung By 'Zelda' Leak, Nintendo Decides To Go To War With Switch Emulation

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And here we go. Fresh after Nintendo got a pie in its face when, by intent or by confused retailers, Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom leaked early, you just knew that the company would completely wig out. At first the company took the sort of useless actions it always takes in the face of leaks: […]

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Starlink Ditches Caps, But Congestion, Price Hikes, And Slower Speeds Remain A Problem

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Analysts had been quietly noting for a while that Starlink satellite broadband service would consistently lack the capacity to be disruptive at any real scale. As it usually pertains to Musk products, that analysis was generally buried under product hype. A few years later, and Starlink users are facing obvious slowdowns and a steady parade of price […]

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Harpo Settles With 'Oprahdemics' Podcast, Gets Name Change That's Silly

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Last summer, we discussed a fairly silly trademark suit brought by Harpo Inc., Oprah Winfrey’s production company, against Roulette Productions, responsible for the “Oprahdemics” podcast. While the name of the podcast is obviously a nod to its main subject matter, Oprah, it’s also the case that the podcast is a journalistic endeavor covering the history […]

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Creative: Finnish Newspaper Has 'Counter-Strike: Global Offensive' Custom Map Made To Deliver News To Russians About The War

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When Putin decided to show the world that his government is so wildly incompetent that it turned what was supposed to be a weeks long takeover of Ukraine into a prolonged conflict in which Russian victory of any kind is very much an open question, he also attempted to keep the truth from reaching Russians. […]

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Sixth Circuit Reverses Conviction For Man Talked Into Criminal Acts By Undercover FBI Agents

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BE THE TERRORISM YOU WANT TO SEE IN THE WORLD. FBI motto (ca. 2001) The FBI’s penchant for self-ownership dates back to its reinvention as a counter-terrorism agency, a move that followed a bunch of power and budget expansions for any federal agencies that might help George W. Bush avenge his father’s loss in the […]

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Cops Issue Warning To Students Playing A Game With Fake Guns, Fail To Mention Cops Are Most Likely To Kill Them

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There have always been panics. And those panics are often the result of government entities deciding now is the time to be alarmed by things someone claimed they saw on social media. All panics are overblown. What government officials declare to be the next threat to public safety is often something most social media users […]

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Germany Wants To Include Copyright Infringement Under Its Planned 'Digital Violence' Law

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The hyperbolic rhetoric that is a feature of the copyright industry, which tries absurdly to characterize making an additional digital copy as theft, can lead to some serious legislative harm. For example, Germany is currently aiming to bring in a new law against digital violence - things like bullying and stalking, but also identity abuse […]

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A brief history of tech skepticism

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It's hard to make predictions--especially about futuristic technologies. James Clive-Matthews documents the long history of skeptical takes on new innovations that, in short order, became powerful and common products and platforms.

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Reddit Defeats Film Studios' Attempt To Reveal Identities Of Anonymous Users Over RCN Trial

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Back in March, we discussed a fairly silly request, made by several film producers who are suing RCN for not being their copyright police, that the court subpoena Reddit to unmask 9 users of that site. There were several aspects of the request that made it all very dumb: half the Reddit users never mentioned […]

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Fifth Circuit Tells Bad Cop That Being Placed On The 'Do Not Call' List For Witnesses Does Not Violate His Rights

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If cops screw up enough, they may get blacklisted by prosecutors. These lists known as “Brady” or “Giglio” lists (depending on jurisdiction) inform prosecutors that they may not want to ask these officers to testify due to their long histories of misconduct. Most lawsuits generated by cops appearing on these lists deal with […]

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Cooper Davis Act: Another Attempt By Congress To Regulate That Which They Don't Understand

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There are all sorts of anti-internet bills making the rounds lately, and one of the many on the docket and apparently set to move quickly is the Cooper Davis Act, which aims to create a mandatory reporting rule for websites where promotion of the sale of illegal drugs may occur. As with basically any law […]

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US Marshals' Secretive Surveillance Wing Still Trying To Recover After Being Hit By Ransomware More Than Two Months Ago

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Money can’t buy you everything. Not even the kind of money that’s apparently infinite, if our current federal deficit is any indication. The US Marshals Service was hit with ransomware in February. And, despite drastic measures being taken by the USMS, the breached system still has yet to return to service. And it wasn’t just […]

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New 'Zelda' Game Leaks Early, Possibly By Nintendo's Retail Partners

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Nintendo hates whenever it loses even a modest amount of control over its properties. Lately, Nintendo has been making a ton of noise bullying YouTubers over all kinds of uses of Zelda content, with Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom having been slated for release mid-May. The company even attempted to subpoena Discord to unmask a […]

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Bipartisan Panic: 26 Senators Support Terrible, Dangerous, Unconstitutional 'KOSA Act'

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Passing blatantly unconstitutional dangerous laws to protect the children based on totally unsubstantiated moral panics appears to be part of a bipartisan mass hysteria these days. The Kids Online Safety Act, or KOSA, is officially back. And, with it, the recognition that over a quarter of the Senate has bought into this dangerous, unconstitutional nonsense: […]

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How business leaders should think about the metaverse in 2023

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In this interview, author and advocate Matthew Ball explains why the metaverse, after two years of hype, should still be on the corporate agenda.

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Stupid Patent Of The Month: Trying To Get U.S. Patents On An AI Program

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Only people can get patents. There's a good reason for that, which is that the patent granta temporary monopoly granted by the governmentis supposed to be given out only to promote the progress of science and useful arts. Just like monkeys can't get a copyright on a photo,  because it doesn't incentivize the monkey to take more photos, […]

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Disappointing: Sweetgreen Changes Name Of Burrito Bowl, Bowing To Chipotle

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A few weeks back, we talked about a lawsuit Chipotle filed against Sweetgreen, a restaurant chain dedicated mostly to serving salads and grain bowls. The suit centered on Sweetgreen announcing a new menu item: a “Chipotle Burrito Bowl.” We found the entire suit quite odd, given that Sweetgreen’s menu item is named in a way […]

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