This Week In Techdirt History: January 12th – 18th
Five Years Ago This week in 2020, an excellent piece in the New York Times looked how years of copyright maximalism were killing pop music. AG William Barr was sparring…
Has Trump changed the retirement plans for the country’s largest coal plants?
This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, non-partisan news organization that covers climate, energy, and the environment. Sign up for their newsletter here. There is renewed talk…
U.S. Sanctions Chinese Cybersecurity Firm Over Treasury Hack Tied to Silk Typhoon
The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has imposed sanctions against a Chinese cybersecurity company and a Shanghai-based cyber actor for their alleged links to the Salt…
Justin Baldoni Sues Blake Lively & Ryan Reynolds, Streisanding All Of This Into A Mega-Story
I suppose this was probably inevitable, but boy do I wonder if it’s smart. We were just talking about the celebrity drama du jour between Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds, and…
In Upholding The TikTok Ban, SCOTUS Compromises, And With It The First Amendment
As the we wrote in our amicus brief (which it appears the justices did not read – guess they didn’t have time…), if the TikTok ban is blessed, it provides…
FTC Bans GM From Selling Driver Location Data For 5 Years
Last year, Kashmir Hill at the New York Times published a major story confirming that automakers collect all sorts of driver behavior data then sell it to a long list…
Camera owner asks Canon, skies: Why is it $5/month for webcam software?
Photography enthusiasts pay a lot for their very powerful cameras. How much more should they pay to put them to much, much easier work as a webcam? However many hundreds…
Under new law, cops bust famous cartoonist for AI-generated child sex abuse images
Late last year, California passed a law against the possession or distribution of child sex abuse material (CSAM) that has been generated by AI. The law went into effect on…
Italian Legislators Rekindle Decade-Long Grudge Match Against Tripadvisor And Its Reviewers
Italy remains pretty fucking weird when it comes to all things Italian. From top prosecutors taking aim at vendors who “debase” respected Italian art by, say, offering products featuring Michelangelo’s…
SCOTUS: TikTok’s China Connection Is So Scary & Urgent, We Can Ban An Entire App. Biden Admin: Just Kidding, We Won’t Enforce It
It seemed pretty obvious from the way the Supreme Court’s oral arguments went regarding the TikTok ban that this would be the outcome: a 9-0 per curiam decision saying “eh,…