Back in June we wrote about a somewhat odd copyright lawsuit, involving a guy who has spent many years recording bird sounds. Some of those sounds appeared (without his permission) in an iPhone app called “iBird” and so the guy sued both the developer… Continue reading →

As you’ve probably heard by now, Interpol has issued a “red notice” for the arrest of Wikileaks’ Julian Assange, stemming from the sexual assault charges against him in Sweden. I’ll leave it to others to analyze the actual merits of the charges agains… Continue reading →

A Chromium 7-based Flock lands on the Mac as Windows users also receive the update to the social-networking browser. Originally posted at The Download Blog

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Normally, I avoid this sorta thing, but since we’ve received a few messages from supporters urging us to promote this more widely, the ABA Journal (that is, the publication from the American Bar Association) has highlighted Techdirt as one of the “top … Continue reading →

As the EU continues to use its Tim Wu-sian definition of monopoly where “being successful” equals “monopoly,” it is has taken the step that everyone expected and has begun investigating Google for supposedly anti-competitive practices with regards to “… Continue reading →

It’s been sort of amusing over the past few years to watch the entertainment and media worlds focus increasingly on the idea that they need to “protect” content in some way, as if (a) that’s possible or (b) desirable. It is neither. At this point, it… Continue reading →

You may remember, back in 2006, one of the DMCA “exemptions” granted by the Librarian of Congress was for jailbreaking or unlocking mobile phones, for the purpose of moving them to a different carrier. This move was most seriously fought by one compan… Continue reading →

Crucial yet complicated, password management can be tricky to safely and securely pull off. Cross-platform browser add-on LastPass simplifies it all in a must-use tool–as long as you don’t mind that it’s all in the cloud. Watch how to get started in t… Continue reading →

A little while ago, we pointed out that the ebook for the book Appetite for Self-Destruction — all about the recording industry’s clueless strategic moves — was amusingly priced higher than the physical copies of the book. It seemed rather ironic th… Continue reading →