Techdirt
techdirt.com · Group blog · on HN since 2007
Techdirt, founded by Mike Masnick, covers technology policy, free speech, copyright, and Section 230 law.
What HN saysCommenters cite it for in-depth coverage of legal cases like Prenda Law, for music industry revenue questions, and for debunking First Amendment myths.
2.5KHN people shared it
1.2Klinked it in comments
4.0Kstories submitted
79Kstory points
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Most-shared posts
- 1You've Been Referred Here Because You're Wrong About Section 230 of the CDA59 people · 457 points · first shared 2020 · 292 comments on HN
- 2Hey Elon: Let Me Help You Speed Run the Content Moderation Learning Curve34 people · 112 points · first shared 2022 · 12 comments on HN
- 3You've Been Referred Here Because You're Wrong About Section 230 (2020)25 people · 2 points · first shared 2022 · discussion on HN
- 4Parler Is Banning Users It Doesn't Like19 people · 57 points · first shared 2020 · 13 comments on HN
- 5This Week in Techdirt History: January 28th – February 3rd15 people · 1 points · first shared 2010 · discussion on HN
- 6Why Even Major Label Musicians Rarely Make Money From Album Sales14 people · 1 points · first shared 2010 · 1 comments on HN
- 7Paris Attackers Coordinated via Unencrypted SMS13 people · 30 points · first shared 2015 · 2 comments on HN
- 8Lenovo busted stealthily installing crapware via bios fresh windows installs.shtml13 people · first shared 2015
- 9Decades failed promises verizon it promises fiber to get tax breaks then never delivers.shtml10 people · first shared 2015
- 10Forbes Site, After Begging You Turn Off Adblocker, Serves Up Malware 'Ads'9 people · 606 points · first shared 2016 · 271 comments on HN
- 11US Govt Ups Felony Count In JSTOR/Aaron Swartz Case From Four To Thirteen (2012)9 people · 5 points · first shared 2013 · discussion on HN
- 12Why Are Y Combinator And Andreessen Horowitz Backing A Toolbar/Adware Installer?8 people · 1 points · first shared 2013 · discussion on HN
- 13Musk's free speech definition is utter nonsense7 people · 49 points · first shared 2022 · 4 comments on HN
- 14Lawsuit Filed To Prove Happy Birthday Is In The Public Domain6 people · 379 points · first shared 2013 · 30 comments on HN
- 15Nathan Myhrvold's Intellectual Ventures hides lawsuits via 1000+ shell companies6 people · 179 points · first shared 2010 · 47 comments on HN
What HN people wrote when they linked it
confounded · 2016-07-30
Interestingly (on reflection, not surprisingly) since going back to RSS, I've been reading a lot more from sites with expert content, but ugly typography.
- Math Babe (https://mathbabe.org)
+ Superb musings and coverage on the societal
impact of everything becoming a prediction
problem (occasional applied technical
discussion)
- Tech Dirt (https://www.techdirt.com/)
+ Lawyers Rule Everything Around Me
- Light Blue Touchpaper (https://www.lightbluetouchpaper.org)
+ Thoughts on infosec from Cambridge Computer
Laboratory (influential on policy, excellent
coverage of conferences)
- Muckrock (https://www.muckrock.com/)
+ News from the FOIA wars
megablast · 2013-03-12
http://www.techdirt.com/ has been following this extensively as well, and helped me get up to speed.
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130311/19422822287/deep-dive-analys…
If aren't a regular, techdirt is one of the more important websites to read on a weekly basis.
dazzawazza · 2010-01-23
Many musicians have complained that they don't see any revenue from the RIAA. The best place to investigate/learn about this IMHO is techdirt[1].
Unfortunately a lot of what happens within the RIAA is private to the RIAA so it's hard to know who is getting the money. Since many artist complain that they don't see any money from online sales it could be that the record label absorbs the money and that the RIAA is not at fault.
Given that the RIAA attend court with numerous lawyers I doubt they make that much money from the lawsuits they win (assuming the defendant doesn't have to pay legal fees of course).
1 - http://techdirt.com/
Alive-in-2025 · 2026-08-08
I appreciate your informed take. I follow the reasoning but I am amazed it works this way. I found some articles that supported what you said, and also said there's a follow-on industry that figured out how to alter and edit videos just enough for a revised video to have creative contribution and make it copyrightable.
https://www.techdirt.com/2020/02/24/can-you-license-video-you-dont-hol…
rpdillon · 2026-06-19
For what it's worth, yelling fire in a crowded theater is First Amendment protected speech.
https://www.techdirt.com/2023/03/14/setting-1st-amendment-myths-on-fir…
WarOnPrivacy · 2026-06-01
Although the raid and the subsequent criminal investigation were
carried out in Sweden, the US Government played a major role behind
the scenes.
As for why the US Gov was willing to act as MPAA's private enforcer...
(2012) Chris Dodd [MPAA chief] went on Fox News to explicitly threaten
politicians who accept MPAA campaign donations that they’d better
pass Hollywood’s favorite legislation… or else:
Trading law for campaign donations is a place one might go after years of trading Gov power for campaign donations.
https://www.techdirt.com/2012/01/20/mpaa-directly-publicly-threatens-p…
dinakernel · 2026-03-30
Have you read mike masnicks ?
https://www.techdirt.com/2026/03/25/ai-might-be-our-best-shot-at-takin…
It actually points out the completely opposite and I liked that quite a bit
That AI allows us to get back the open web in in a way.
pushcx · 2026-03-15
There's a lobbying group called 5rights that has designed and promoted the UK OSA, AU OSA, California KOSA, Federal KOSA, and more. This isn't some conspiracy. They take proudly take credit for these bills on their website, and in news coverage you'll see their same couple media personalities over and over: https://5rightsfoundation.com/our-work/
As usual for online censorship, Techdirt has had excellent coverage for years: https://www.techdirt.com/tag/baroness-beeban-kidron/
defrost · 2026-02-05
Measles Has Now Begun To Infect Immigrant Detention Camps
It’s darkly funny, in a way, to recall a racist trope that gets trotted out about immigration all the time: immigrants bring disease into the country. That in itself isn’t funny, obviously. The funny part is that it seems like we’re proving the opposite to be true under the Trump administration. As the measles outbreak in America continues to rage, immigration detention camps are starting to feel the effects.
...
It’s also worth remembering that the spread of disease is a recurring feature in the concentration camp industry. Deaths from disease as well. And, unlike the trope mentioned above, these are infections immigrants are getting from America, not bringing to her soil.
~ https://www.techdirt.com/2026/02/04/measles-has-now-begun-to-infect-im…
OutOfHere · 2025-08-30
ICE is the one that is unhinged as it has also been kidnapping people with legal visas. ICE has also not been following court orders.
Moreover, the facilities in which ICE detains people are substandard and inhumane. There exists a major financial conflict of interest with the providers of those facilities.
When it comes to doxxing people, first see https://www.techdirt.com/2025/08/29/house-republicans-want-to-doxx-wik…
zfg · 2025-02-08
> Only on free speech platforms like X
Why is Musk suppressing free speech on X: https://www.techdirt.com/2025/02/03/musk-shows-us-what-actual-governme…
> so don't be so quick to judge Musk.
He's got over a decade's worth of lies behind him now. When someone is of such weak character that they feel the need to lie about being good at video games then there's not much more to say.
> He probably knows more about the wildfires than you do
He doesn't. He endorses conspiracy theories.
Carl Sagan was right. You're no longer able to distinguish between what feels good and what's true.
blactuary · 2025-01-21
He did not, and if you follow the actual facts and read the internal communications you find out he lied
https://www.techdirt.com/2025/01/16/rogan-misses-the-mark-how-zucks-mi…
mossTechnician · 2025-01-03
I'm reminded of when it was legal for cellphone companies to charge different fees to access different websites. Naturally, the bigger ones got the best monthly rates.
https://www.techdirt.com/2014/07/31/pay-different-prices-to-access-dif…
hn_acker · 2024-12-13
Starlink has about 4 million customers right now, but considering that Starlink is struggling with congestion in the US, there will be a gap of millions of rural US households who would be best served by fiber. And regardless, fiber is the best long-term internet access medium, because whatever latency problems fiber has now can be improved by changing the devices sending data through the fibers without replacing the fibers themselves.
[1] https://www.techdirt.com/2024/10/01/capacity-crunch-causes-musks-starl…
jauntywundrkind · 2024-11-28
Also coming to mind is some other recent Techdirt,
> Dear Senators Klobuchar & Lujan: Now Do You See Why Letting HHS Censor “Misinformation” Is A Terrible Idea?
https://www.techdirt.com/2024/11/20/dear-senators-klobuchar-lujan-now-…
Because facts are at best malleable and at worst disinformation, and what seems about to happen with HHS seems like some seriously dangerous alt-facts.
I'm making a leap in domain here, but also alas, Trump is already about facing on any pretense of things like journalistic shield laws. This government seems so intent on pursuing a very specific narrow interpretation of facts, and doing incredibly bad things to people who have ever said otherwise.
https://www.techdirt.com/2024/11/25/trump-orders-republicans-to-kill-j…
Terr_ · 2024-11-07
I saw a Techdirt comment related to this (specifically on Section 230) which I thought was rather insightful [0].
To summarize with my own Don Quixote analogy: The politicians are tilting at windmills to create the appearance of Doing Something. Their followers perceive them as successful because the illusory opposition (Dragons) seem to be gone, and they're merely confused when you tell them about the "unrelated" vandalism of local windmills.
[0] https://www.techdirt.com/2024/11/05/no-section-230-doesnt-circumvent-t…
suzzer99 · 2024-06-05
autoexec · 2024-04-02
> If pirates rendered it ineffective, companies would not be using it for their games but preventing piracy is worth the backlash as far as they're concerned.
There sure is a lot of very ineffective/broken non-Denuvo DRM out there, but companies continue to include that too. I doubt it's being done to stop piracy (even if only temporarily), but I wouldn't doubt that they think they're getting their money's worth. https://www.techdirt.com/2024/01/19/ubisoft-says-it-out-loud-we-want-p…
Spivak · 2024-03-13
This is honestly pretty great. It's the official scalable version of those browser add-ons that let you recursively block people, block twitter blue users, block anyone who's posted in x subreddit, masstagger. Big fan of making programmable blocklists a first-class feature.
I don't think it's going to save them from https://www.techdirt.com/2022/11/02/hey-elon-let-me-help-you-speed-run… this kind of drama but it's nonetheless welcome. It will be interesting to see how people react to ending up on a popular 3rd party blocklist.
al2o3cr · 2024-02-24
it would need to demonstrate a best effort to return at least 60% of royalties to users whose work was used LOL sure, I'm certain they'll get RIGHT on that. They definitely won't do a crappy job just so they can keep the money /s
If you’re not familiar with ASCAP and BMI, here’s broadly how they work If you're not familiar with how they ACTUALLY work, ASCAP & BMI are a massive shakedown operation:
https://www.techdirt.com/2010/08/09/a-day-in-the-life-of-legalized-ext…
CaptainFever · 2023-12-29
Related text from https://www.techdirt.com/2011/04/08/if-youre-arguing-that-someone-dese…
> Julian Sanchez, who has been doing excellent work on copyright issues of late, has a nice post about how such arguments are totally irrelevant to copyright policy. He notes that it’s no surprise that artistic and creative people want greater copyright privileges, and fewer exceptions such as fair use, but that’s meaningless:
> > These will often be wonderful, likeable, creative people, and the correct policy response to these objections as such is: Cry me a fucking river; now piss off.
> And the reasoning why is that copyright policy is not about what someone deserves or about rewarding people based on some moral grounding. Its purpose is and has always been clear: to provide incentive to promote progress.
leotravis10 · 2023-10-17
Here's some great detail into the game as well: https://www.techdirt.com/2023/10/17/trust-safety-tycoon-try-your-hand-…
drngdds · 2023-10-13
It's frustrating but unsurprising that this doesn't mention all the similar bills in other states that were found unconstitutional. I recommend Techdirt's article on it: https://www.techdirt.com/2023/10/12/new-york-pushing-yet-another-uncon…
scoopdewoop · 2023-07-05
There was dedicated regulation, it was just taken up by states instead of the FCC
https://www.techdirt.com/2023/06/12/telecom-industry-ass-kisser-ajit-p…
0xcde4c3db · 2023-07-02
Not sure that's in the FTC's wheelhouse, but at least the New York Attorney General's office said they're worth $615K in fines to the firms that actually generated the comments (and not a cent from the megacorps that almost certainly hired them...) [1].
[1] https://www.techdirt.com/2023/05/12/ny-ag-doles-out-wrist-slap-fine-to…
drodgers · 2023-06-12
Adversarial interoperability like this would be a great way to neutralise network lock-in effects and create a more level competetive playing field between social media companies. I think we should enshrine protections for this kind of thing.
There was a strong 2019 precedent in favour of allowing this kind of scraping of public content (from LinkedIn in that case): https://www.techdirt.com/2019/09/10/big-news-appeals-court-says-cfaa-c…
jmyeet · 2023-06-11
For some reason this is an unpopular opinion on HN but I'm going to say it again: federation solves a problem users don't care about and creates problems like this (as well as all the other predictable problems we've seen from decades of email such as spam).
For context, it seems like Elon Musk is toying with the idea of removing blocking from Twitter [1].
As another aside, I'm personally exhausted with the pet projects of annoying billionaires [2].
[1]: https://www.techdirt.com/2023/06/09/elon-musk-says-twitter-is-going-to…
[2]: https://www.nationalreview.com/news/twitter-founder-jack-dorsey-backs-…
mmahemoff · 2023-04-29
Yea, there’s a strong resistance because somehow the community thinks algorithms are only there for the benefit of investors and could actually be of benefit to users who don’t want to micromanage who they’re following.
As for search, it’s bizarre any community would be against such a basic feature.
From TechDirt: “I would talk about some of the cooler Mastodon algorithms I’d been finding, but after a few them then were yelled at by a bunch of Mastodon users, I’ve generally decided it’s not worth promoting those useful tools, for fear that people yell at them to shut them down.”
https://www.techdirt.com/2023/04/28/six-months-in-thoughts-on-the-curr…
dekhn · 2023-02-01
Remember the guy who wrote this? https://www.techdirt.com/2022/11/02/hey-elon-let-me-help-you-speed-run…
Basically what we're watching is Elon slow-running his education about Twitter infra publicly, while re-learning known obvious lessons (privacy in social media is NP-hard). And he's doing it in prod with one of if not the most popular account on Twitter.
That's so far beyond dumb it's amazing.
guiambros · 2023-01-15
Mandatory read [1] whenever someone recommends easy hot takes to reform 230.
Also [2] is a good one for those who think that current platforms "overmoderate" content.
[1] https://www.techdirt.com/2020/06/23/hello-youve-been-referred-here-bec…
[2] https://www.techdirt.com/2022/11/02/hey-elon-let-me-help-you-speed-run…