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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss version="2.0" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/" xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/" > <channel> <title>Techdirt</title> <atom:link href="https://www.techdirt.com/feed/" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" /> <link>https://www.techdirt.com</link> <description></description> <lastBuildDate>Thu, 06 Nov 2025 02:12:18 +0000</lastBuildDate> <language>en-US</language> <sy:updatePeriod> hourly </sy:updatePeriod> <sy:updateFrequency> 1 </sy:updateFrequency> <image> <url>https://i0.wp.com/www.techdirt.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/cropped-techdirt-square-512x512-1.png?fit=32%2C32&ssl=1</url> <title>Techdirt</title> <link>https://www.techdirt.com</link> <width>32</width> <height>32</height></image> <site xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">169489720</site> <item> <title>USPTO To Re-Examine Recently Approved Nintendo Patent</title> <link>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/11/05/uspto-to-re-examine-recently-approved-nintendo-patent/</link> <comments>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/11/05/uspto-to-re-examine-recently-approved-nintendo-patent/#comments</comments> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Timothy Geigner]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Thu, 06 Nov 2025 04:12:18 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[1]]></category> <category><![CDATA[nintendo]]></category> <category><![CDATA[pocketpair]]></category> <category><![CDATA[pokemon company]]></category> <category><![CDATA[japan]]></category> <category><![CDATA[john squires]]></category> <category><![CDATA[patents]]></category> <category><![CDATA[pokemon]]></category> <category><![CDATA[us]]></category> <category><![CDATA[uspto]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.techdirt.com/?p=521369&preview=true&preview_id=521369</guid> <description><![CDATA[Well, this is actually pretty fascinating. We’ve been discussing the somewhat bizzare patent lawsuit Nintendo is waging against PocketPair in Japan for some time now. PocketPair is the company behind the hit game Palworld, which has obviously drawn inspiration from the Pokémon franchise, without doing any direct copying. Powering this attack were several held or […]]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Well, this is actually pretty fascinating. We’ve been discussing the somewhat bizzare <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2024/09/19/nintendo-pokemon-co-sue-pocketpair-over-palworld-for-patent-infringement/">patent lawsuit</a> Nintendo is waging against PocketPair in Japan for some time now. PocketPair is the company behind the hit game <em><a href="https://www.techdirt.com/tag/palworld/">Palworld</a></em>, which has obviously drawn inspiration from the <em>Pokémon</em> franchise, without doing any direct copying. Powering this attack were several held or applied-for patents in Japan that cover some pretty general gameplay elements, most, if not all, of which have plenty of <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2024/11/27/nintendo-palworld-a-gta-5-mod-and-an-injunction-for-the-japanese-market/">prior art</a> in <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/10/17/pokemon-co-flails-responding-to-pocketpairs-examples-of-prior-art-in-patent-lawsuit/">previous games</a> and/or game mods. Most recently, two things happened on opposite sides of the ocean. In September, the USPTO approved a couple of new, but related patents in a manner that had at least one patent attorney calling it an “<a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/09/12/newly-granted-nintendo-patents-an-embarrassing-failure-by-the-uspto-says-patent-attorney/">embarrassing failure</a>.” Separately, in Japan, a patent that Nintendo applied for, which sits in between two approved patents that are being wielded in the <em>Palworld</em> lawsuit, was <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/11/03/japan-patent-office-rejects-key-patent-application-in-nintendos-palworld-lawsuit/">rejected</a> for being unoriginal and for which prior art exists. Given how interrelated that patent is with the other approved patents, the same logic would apply to the approved patents, bringing into question whether all of these patents should just be invalidated.</p><p>Back on the USPTO side, one of the patents that was approved without proper due diligence <a href="https://patents.google.com/patent/US12403397B2/en?oq=12%2c403%2c397">was patent #12,403,397</a> and covers the summoning a “sub character” that will either fight at your command or fight autonomously based on input from the player. Again, prior art abounds in this sort of thing, which is the “embarrassing failure” mentioned earlier.</p><p>Well, in what is apparently the first time in a decade, USPTO Director John Squires <a href="https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/us-patent-office-director-orders-re-examination-of-nintendos-patent-on-summoning-characters-to-make-them-battle/"><em>personally</em> ordered a re-examination of this patent</a>.</p><blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow"><p><em>John A Squires has personally ordered a re-examination of the patent, citing previous patents which might make it invalid. Specifically, Squires has focused on the patent’s claim to having a sub-character fight alongside you with the option to make them fight either automatically or via manual control. In his order, Squires said he had “determined that substantial new questions of patentability have arisen” based on the publications of two previous patents, named as Yabe and Taura.</em></p><p><em>The Yabe patent was granted in 2002 to <a href="https://www.videogameschronicle.com/companies/konami/">Konami</a>, and refers to a sub-character fighting alongside the player either automatically or manually, while the Taura patent was granted in 2020 to Nintendo itself, and also refers to a sub-character who battles alongside the player.</em></p></blockquote><p>Yes, one of the previous patents that might invalidate this one is <em>held by Nintendo itself</em>. And I would argue that these gameplay mechanic patents are still far too generic and obvious to those in the industry to be patentable at all. That isn’t Squires’ argument, however. Instead, the original examiner did some true tilting at windmills to pretend like prior art didn’t exist because of minute specifics in this new patent and so never considered the Yabe and Taura patents.</p><p>While this doesn’t directly relate to the patent suit in Japan, it’s hard not to see this in the context of the patent rejection in Japan, never mind how the rest of this weird lawsuit is going, and not see that this is a house of cards that is collapsing in on Nintendo.</p><p>And, most importantly, I <em>still</em> can’t see how any of this is worth it for Nintendo. Bad publicity, legal costs, time, energy, effort, and for what? <em>Palworld</em> is still a hit and the <em>Pokémon</em> franchise is still strong. What are we doing here?</p>]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/11/05/uspto-to-re-examine-recently-approved-nintendo-patent/comments/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>2</slash:comments> <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">521369</post-id> </item> <item> <title>Whoops: Your ‘Smart’ Vacuum May Be Broadcasting A 3D Map Of Your Home</title> <link>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/11/05/whoops-your-smart-vacuum-may-be-broadcasting-a-3d-map-of-your-home/</link> <comments>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/11/05/whoops-your-smart-vacuum-may-be-broadcasting-a-3d-map-of-your-home/#comments</comments> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Karl Bode]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Wed, 05 Nov 2025 23:29:42 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[1]]></category> <category><![CDATA[3d mapping]]></category> <category><![CDATA[privacy]]></category> <category><![CDATA[security]]></category> <category><![CDATA[smart home]]></category> <category><![CDATA[smart vacuum]]></category> <category><![CDATA[surveillance]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.techdirt.com/?p=520897&preview=true&preview_id=520897</guid> <description><![CDATA[We’ve long established that modern “smart” devices aren’t always all that smart. Whether it’s “smart” door locks that are easily hacked to gain entry, “smart” refrigerators that leak your Gmail credentials, or “smart” vehicles that sell data to insurance companies without your permission, the act of modernizing something with internet access and a CPU isn’t […]]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>We’ve long established that modern “smart” devices aren’t always all that smart.</p><p>Whether it’s “smart” <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2020/04/10/ftc-latest-to-discover-smart-locks-are-dumb-easily-compromised/">door locks that are easily hacked to gain entry</a>, “smart” refrigerators that <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/samsung-smart-fridge-exposes-gmail-logins-2015-8">leak your Gmail credentials</a>, or “smart” vehicles that <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2024/04/26/people-are-slowly-realizing-their-auto-insurance-rates-are-skyrocketing-because-their-car-is-covertly-spying-on-them/">sell data to insurance companies without your permission</a>, the act of modernizing something with internet access and a CPU isn’t always a <strong>step forward</strong>. </p><p>The latest case in point: one owner of the $300 iLife A11 smart vacuum realized that the device wasn’t just cleaning his home, it was creating a map of his entire living space, and then <a href="https://futurism.com/robots-and-machines/robot-vacuum-broadcasting">openly broadcasting it to its parent company via the internet</a>:</p><blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow"><p><em>“I’m a bit paranoid — the good kind of paranoid,” he wrote. “So, I decided to monitor its network traffic, as I would with any so-called smart device.” Within minutes, he discovered a “steady stream” of data being sent to servers “halfway across the world.”</em></p><p><em>“My robot vacuum was constantly communicating with its manufacturer, transmitting logs and telemetry that I had never consented to share,” Narayanan wrote. “That’s when I made my first mistake: I decided to stop it.”</em></p></blockquote><p>When he prevented the device from sending data back to the corporate mothership, the device refused to boot up. After several efforts to get it “repaired,” the device fell out of warranty and he was left with a $300 paperweight. At that point, he dug a bit more deeply into the device, and found it was using Google Cartographer to create 3D maps of his home that were being transmitted back to its parent company.</p><p>Like most data collection of this type (in a country with <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2024/08/21/84-of-americans-want-tougher-online-privacy-laws-but-congress-is-too-corrupt-to-follow-through/">no modern privacy laws</a> or <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/04/23/5th-circuit-obediently-lets-att-off-the-hook-for-major-location-data-privacy-violations/">functioning privacy regulators</a>), the vacuum maker wasn’t informing customers of this data collection and transmission. Digging through the vacuum’s code, he says he found specific instructions to stop the vacuum from working if the data collection ceased:</p><blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow"><p><em>“In addition, Narayanan says he uncovered a suspicious line of code broadcasted from the company to the vacuum, timestamped to the exact moment it stopped working. “Someone — or something — had remotely issued a kill command,” he wrote.</em></p><p><em>“I reversed the script change and rebooted the device,” he wrote. “It came back to life instantly. They hadn’t merely incorporated a remote control feature. They had used it to permanently disable my device.”</em></p></blockquote><p>This is just a vacuum. The same thing is happening with far more important devices, like your phone and vehicle. And again, we live in a country with a President (and corrupt court system) who is making it impossible to hold companies accountable for any of it. </p><p>Either by blocking regulatory oversight “legally” (see attempts to <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/04/23/5th-circuit-obediently-lets-att-off-the-hook-for-major-location-data-privacy-violations/">fine AT&T for location data collection</a>), or by basically <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/09/25/supreme-court-uses-shadow-docket-to-let-trump-fire-ftc-commissioner-while-pretending-they-havent-already-decided-the-case/">lobotomizing agencies like the FTC and FCC</a>. U.S. privacy enforcement was already a sad joke; now it’s basically nonexistent. Surely that won’t be a problem longer term, right?</p>]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/11/05/whoops-your-smart-vacuum-may-be-broadcasting-a-3d-map-of-your-home/comments/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>13</slash:comments> <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">520897</post-id> </item> <item> <title>Student Gets Handcuffed, Searched At Gunpoint Because AI Thought A Bag Of Chips Was A Handgun</title> <link>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/11/05/student-gets-handcuffed-searched-at-gunpoint-because-ai-thought-a-bag-of-chips-was-a-handgun/</link> <comments>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/11/05/student-gets-handcuffed-searched-at-gunpoint-because-ai-thought-a-bag-of-chips-was-a-handgun/#comments</comments> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Tim Cushing]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Wed, 05 Nov 2025 21:31:46 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[1]]></category> <category><![CDATA[evolv]]></category> <category><![CDATA[omnilert]]></category> <category><![CDATA[ai]]></category> <category><![CDATA[baltimore]]></category> <category><![CDATA[baltimore county]]></category> <category><![CDATA[baltimore county pd]]></category> <category><![CDATA[gun detection]]></category> <category><![CDATA[gun detection ai]]></category> <category><![CDATA[maryland]]></category> <category><![CDATA[schools]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.techdirt.com/?p=520969&preview=true&preview_id=520969</guid> <description><![CDATA[We’ve always been wary of putting cops in schools. Putting cops in schools just means administrative issues (i.e., student discipline) get the law enforcement treatment, which turns misbehavior into criminal acts and generates exactly the sort of school cop overreactions you’d expect. Adding AI-assisted tech was never going to improve anything. Administrators were certainly told […]]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>We’ve always been wary of <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2013/07/26/zero-tolerance-policies-put-students-hands-bad-cops/" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.techdirt.com/2013/07/26/zero-tolerance-policies-put-students-hands-bad-cops/">putting cops in schools</a>. Putting cops in schools just means administrative issues (i.e., student discipline) get the <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2020/06/15/more-schools-are-ending-contracts-with-cops-following-protests-over-killing-george-floyd/" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.techdirt.com/2020/06/15/more-schools-are-ending-contracts-with-cops-following-protests-over-killing-george-floyd/">law enforcement treatment</a>, which turns misbehavior into criminal acts and generates exactly the sort of school cop overreactions you’d expect.</p><p>Adding AI-assisted tech was never going <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2022/09/02/gun-detection-ai-the-latest-tech-to-make-schools-less-safe/" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.techdirt.com/2022/09/02/gun-detection-ai-the-latest-tech-to-make-schools-less-safe/">to improve anything</a>. Administrators were certainly told by salespeople that things like “gun detection AI” would not only <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2014/11/14/selling-fear-first-us-school-installs-shooting-detection-system/" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.techdirt.com/2014/11/14/selling-fear-first-us-school-installs-shooting-detection-system/">increase safety</a>, but reduce the number of personnel needed to keep guns out of schools. </p><p><a href="https://www.techdirt.com/company/evolv/" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.techdirt.com/company/evolv/">Evolv</a> has taken most of the heat in recent years for providing under-performing gun detection tech to schools and, with the outgoing NYC mayor’s blessing, city subways. In the first case, public records showed Evolv’s tech tended to flag a lot of harmless, normal things that students take to school (3-ring binders, laptops) as guns, suggesting the tech was really just an <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2024/12/30/ftc-orders-gun-detection-tech-maker-evolv-to-stop-overstating-effectiveness-of-its-glorified-metal-detectors/" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.techdirt.com/2024/12/30/ftc-orders-gun-detection-tech-maker-evolv-to-stop-overstating-effectiveness-of-its-glorified-metal-detectors/">over-engineered metal detector</a>. </p><p>In the latter case, Evolv explicitly told the city of New York that its tech <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2024/05/15/gun-detection-tech-co-this-wont-work-in-subways-nyc-mayor-were-putting-it-in-the-subways/" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.techdirt.com/2024/05/15/gun-detection-tech-co-this-wont-work-in-subways-nyc-mayor-were-putting-it-in-the-subways/">would under-perform</a> if installed in subways. After all, it had already under-performed in a Bronx hospital, where it had <a href="https://archive.ph/o/aAkxy/https://hellgatenyc.com/nyc-ai-weapons-scanners-pilot-false-positives" data-type="link" data-id="https://archive.ph/o/aAkxy/https://hellgatenyc.com/nyc-ai-weapons-scanners-pilot-false-positives">racked up an 85% false positive rate</a>. Any place with a lot of electricity, electronics, and lots of people moving around constantly apparently overwhelmed the tech. But since Mayor Eric Adams was spending other people’s money, Evolv’s tech <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2024/08/05/nyc-proudly-announces-rollout-of-gun-detecting-tech-even-tech-producer-says-wont-reliably-detect-guns/" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.techdirt.com/2024/08/05/nyc-proudly-announces-rollout-of-gun-detecting-tech-even-tech-producer-says-wont-reliably-detect-guns/">was placed in subways</a>… where it immediately engaged in <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2024/10/30/gun-detection-tech-the-gun-detection-tech-firm-said-wouldnt-work-in-nyc-subways-doesnt-work-in-nyc-subways/" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.techdirt.com/2024/10/30/gun-detection-tech-the-gun-detection-tech-firm-said-wouldnt-work-in-nyc-subways-doesnt-work-in-nyc-subways/">the expected under-performance</a>.</p><p><a href="https://www.techdirt.com/company/omnilert/" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.techdirt.com/company/omnilert/">Omnilert</a> is the other big player in the school gun detection AI market. Its track record isn’t a whole lot better. Earlier this year, its tech failed to detect the gun <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/01/31/gun-detection-tech-fails-to-detect-gun-prevent-school-shooting/" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/01/31/gun-detection-tech-fails-to-detect-gun-prevent-school-shooting/">carried by the student</a> who killed one student and injured another before turning the undetected gun on himself. </p><p>Omnilert is back in the news, and <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/25/us/baltimore-student-chips-ai-gun-detection-hnk" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/25/us/baltimore-student-chips-ai-gun-detection-hnk">it’s brought a cops along for the ride</a>.</p><blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow"><p><em>Armed police handcuffed and searched a student at a high school in Baltimore County, Maryland, this week after an <strong>AI-driven security system flagged the teen’s empty bag of chips as a possible firearm</strong>.</em></p><p><em>[…]</em></p><p><em>“They made me get on my knees, put my hands behind my back, and cuffed me,” Kenwood student Taki Allen told <a href="https://www.wbaltv.com/article/student-handcuffed-ai-system-mistook-bag-chips-weapon/69114601" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CNN affiliate WBAL,</a> describing what happened Monday evening when police arrived at the school while he was waiting with friends for a ride home after football practice.</em></p></blockquote><p>Yep, that’s what they’re paying for in Baltimore County, Maryland: the sort of incident that not only makes readers desperate to search out the perfect “<a href="https://takis.us/" data-type="link" data-id="https://takis.us/">Takis</a>” take on the AI blunder, but prompts dozens more to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ClZ_YBa9OoU" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ClZ_YBa9OoU">simply ask</a>: </p><div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-full"><img data-recalc-dims="1" fetchpriority="high" decoding="async" width="837" height="506" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.techdirt.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Screenshot-2025-10-28-5.45.23-PM.png?resize=837%2C506&ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-521023" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.techdirt.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Screenshot-2025-10-28-5.45.23-PM.png?w=837&ssl=1 837w, https://i0.wp.com/www.techdirt.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Screenshot-2025-10-28-5.45.23-PM.png?resize=300%2C181&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/www.techdirt.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Screenshot-2025-10-28-5.45.23-PM.png?resize=768%2C464&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.techdirt.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Screenshot-2025-10-28-5.45.23-PM.png?resize=600%2C363&ssl=1 600w" sizes="(max-width: 837px) 100vw, 837px" /></figure></div><p>The absurdity and inadvertent hilarity can really only be appreciated by those who <em>weren’t</em> held at gunpoint by a whole bunch of police officers. </p><blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow"><p><em>“The first thing I was wondering was, was I about to die? Because they had a gun pointed at me,” Allen told WBAL, saying about “eight cop cars” pulled up to the school.</em></p></blockquote><p>Here’s how the Baltimore County PD phrased its response to the incident, which leaves out all the stuff about a swarm of cops and guns being pointed at someone who was holding nothing more dangerous than a handful of saturated fat. </p><blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow"><p><em>The department told WBAL officers responded to “a report of a suspicious person with a weapon” but determined the person was unarmed after a search.</em></p></blockquote><p>I know it’s unreasonable to expect a detailed play-by-play from police spokespeople, but this makes it sound like a couple of officers calmly approached someone, did a quick frisk, and went back to calmly patrolling the neighborhood. And while I understand the alternative to a swift, potentially violent response to a suspected threat near a school is pretty much just asking <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2024/01/23/doj-report-calls-botched-uvalde-school-shooting-response-a-series-of-cascading-failures/" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.techdirt.com/2024/01/23/doj-report-calls-botched-uvalde-school-shooting-response-a-series-of-cascading-failures/">for another Uvalde</a>, there needs to be some sort of backstop between AI <em>thinking</em> it saw a gun and cops showing up and waving around the only actual guns on the premises.</p><p>Omnilert has apologized, but its apology contains a statement that drastically redefines a commonly used term:</p><blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow"><p><em>Omnilert, the company that operates <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/01/us/ai-gun-detection-software-antioch-school">the AI gun detection system</a>, expressed regret over the incident and emphasized that its system is designed to identify a possible threat <strong>and elevate it to human review</strong>.</em></p><p><em>[…]</em></p><p><em>“While the object was later determined not to be a firearm, <strong>the process functioned as intended</strong>: to prioritize safety and awareness through rapid human verification,” the company added.</em></p></blockquote><p>Calling the cops is not the same thing as “human review.” “Human review” is the missing step. And it’s a crucial one. It’s the thing that could possibly prevent someone from being killed by police officers who’ve been told the person they’re looking for is armed when they clearly are not. </p><p>Now that the thing directly adjacent to the “Worst Possible Outcome” (the killing of an unarmed minor by police officers) has happened, the district is promising to do a bit more of the “human verification” Omnilert claims is already happening. It will also apparently be asking Omnilert why this happened. And I imagine Omnilert will simply tap the canned statement it made — the corporate version of thoughts and prayers — and suggest it’s the school’s fault that it trusted the AI’s alert, even though “you can trust the robot” is likely makes up a significant portion of Ominlert’s sales pitch.</p><p>Oh. Wait. That’s <em>exactly</em> what the <a href="https://www.omnilert.com/solutions/ai-gun-detection" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.omnilert.com/solutions/ai-gun-detection">Omnilert sales pitch says</a>:</p><blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow"><p><em>Our expertise in AI has roots in the U.S. Department of Defense and DARPA related to real-time target recognition and threat classification. That military focus on high reliability and precision carried through to the development of our AI threat detection that goes beyond identifying guns to finding <a href="https://www.omnilert.com/solutions/gun-detection-system">active shooter threats</a>.</em></p><p><em>We employ a data-centric AI methodology that prioritizes high-quality training data. While traditional methods focus on data volume, sourcing millions of gun images, we take a quality-over-quantity approach. Our training data is hand-curated with rich annotations that improve accuracy and increase reliability.</em></p></blockquote><p>Until the school either kicks this tech to the curb or forces Omnilert to do better, students would be wise to follow the announcements posted on the bulletin board and only purchase Doritoguns from vending machines during their lunch period or other pre-approved break period. </p>]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/11/05/student-gets-handcuffed-searched-at-gunpoint-because-ai-thought-a-bag-of-chips-was-a-handgun/comments/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>15</slash:comments> <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">520969</post-id> </item> <item> <title>NC GOP Threatens ProPublica: Drop This Story Or We’ll Call Trump To Punish You</title> <link>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/11/05/nc-gop-threatens-propublica-drop-this-story-or-well-call-trump-to-punish-you/</link> <comments>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/11/05/nc-gop-threatens-propublica-drop-this-story-or-well-call-trump-to-punish-you/#comments</comments> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Mike Masnick]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Wed, 05 Nov 2025 19:08:22 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[propublica]]></category> <category><![CDATA[donald trump]]></category> <category><![CDATA[journalism]]></category> <category><![CDATA[matt mercer]]></category> <category><![CDATA[north carolina]]></category> <category><![CDATA[paul newby]]></category> <category><![CDATA[threats]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.techdirt.com/?p=521379</guid> <description><![CDATA[The faux “party of free speech” strikes again. For years, the MAGA GOP has insisted that it is the true “party of free” speech even as all evidence suggests this administration is the most censorial and the most dismissive of the First Amendment in modern history. Over and over and over and over and over […]]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>The faux “party of free speech” strikes again. For years, <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/03/05/trump-brings-back-free-speech-by-checks-notes-threatening-to-imprison-protestors-and-expose-journalist-sources/">the MAGA GOP has insisted</a> that it is the true “party of free” speech even as <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/search/?q=donald+trump%2C+free+speech">all evidence</a> suggests this administration is the most censorial and the most dismissive of the First Amendment in modern history. <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/10/09/trump-admits-we-took-the-freedom-of-speech-away/">Over</a> and <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/08/26/trump-wants-to-criminalize-free-speech-in-the-form-of-flag-burning/">over</a> and <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/05/06/trumps-aggressive-actions-against-free-speech-speak-a-lot-louder-than-his-words-defending-it/">over</a> and <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/07/18/trump-threatens-murdoch-over-epstein-story-using-tactics-his-supporters-used-to-call-a-massive-attack-on-free-speech/">over</a> and <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/04/28/government-actually-threatens-wikipedias-editorial-freedom-self-proclaimed-free-speech-warriors-suddenly-have-other-plans/">over</a> and <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/10/01/reagan-appointed-judge-torches-trump-admins-bullshit-chilling-effects-campaign-against-pro-palestinian-speech/">over</a> and <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/09/24/donald-trump-immediately-returns-to-threatening-disney-over-jimmy-kimmels-speech/">over</a> again we see the Trump administration engaging in blatant and obvious speech suppression.</p><p>So it’s no surprise that Republicans all across the country are now responding to any criticism or any reporting on their illegal activities as something they can threaten to suppress. ProPublica recently had <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/paul-newby-north-carolina-supreme-court?utm_source=bluesky&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=propublica-bsky">an eye-opening deep dive</a> into North Carolina’s Supreme Court chief justice, Paul Newby, who seems to view his job not as ensuring justice is served, but in bending every aspect of the North Carolina judicial system to favor and help Republicans.</p><p>It’s a long article, but you get the gist of it here:</p><blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow"><p><em>Few beyond North Carolina’s borders grasp the outsize role Newby, 70, has played in transforming the state’s top court from a relatively harmonious judicial backwater to a front-line partisan battleground since his election in 2004.</em></p><p><em>Under North Carolina’s constitution, Supreme Court justices are charged with upholding the independence and impartiality of the courts, applying laws fairly and ensuring all citizens get treated equally.</em></p><p><em>Yet for years, his critics charge, Newby has worked to erode barriers to politicization.</em></p><p><em>He pushed to make judicial elections in North Carolina — once a national leader in minimizing political influence on judges — explicitly partisan and to get rid of public financing, leaving candidates more dependent on dark money. Since Newby’s allies in the legislature shepherded through laws enacting those changes, judicial campaigns have become vicious, high-dollar gunfights that have produced an increasingly polarized court dominated by hard-right conservatives.</em> </p><p><em>As chief justice, he and courts under him have consistently backed initiatives by Republican lawmakers to strip power away from North Carolina’s governor, thwarting the will of voters who have chosen Democrats to lead the state since 2016. He’s also used his extensive executive authority to transform the court system according to his political views, such as by</em> <a href="https://www.law360.com/articles/1687516/north-carolina-justice-anita-earls-opens-up-about-diversity"><em><u>doing away with diversity initiatives</u></em></a><em>. Under his leadership, some liberal and LGBTQ+ employees have been replaced with conservatives. A devout Christian and church leader, he speaks openly about how his faith has</em> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_MC4ezsfTk"><em><u>shaped his jurisprudence</u></em></a> <em>and</em> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tX0MrCJLfzk"><em><u>administration of the courts</u></em></a><em>.</em></p></blockquote><p>As is happening all too often in American politics, what we’re seeing is the politicization of just about everything. That’s a shame for many reasons—namely that politics is supposed to be just about making the case for getting elected, but after that you should govern (and handle judicial matters) in an unbiased manner.</p><p>But the really striking thing in the piece is how the Republican Party tried to threaten ProPublica to drop the story by pulling a “if you don’t, we’ll tell Daddy Trump to punish you.”</p><blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow"><p><em>When ProPublica emailed questions to Newby’s daughter, the North Carolina Republican Party’s communications director, Matt Mercer, responded, writing that ProPublica was waging a “jihad” against “NC Republicans,” which would “not be met with dignifying any comments whatsoever.”</em> </p><p><strong><em>“I’m sure you’re aware of our connections with the Trump Administration and I’m sure they would be interested in this matter,”</em></strong> <em>Mercer said in his email. “I would</em> <strong><em><u>strongly</u></em></strong> <em>suggest dropping this story.”</em> </p></blockquote><p>It’s <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/09/17/cowardly-disney-caves-to-brendan-carrs-bogus-censorial-threats-pulling-jimmy-kimmel/">the Brendan Carr shakedown</a> all over again. Just non-stop, thuggish, mafioso-style bullying. “If you don’t shut up, we’ll find a way to punish you.”</p><p>It remains truly astounding that Trump and the MAGA folks spent years claiming to be the party of free speech, when basically every few days yet another one of these stories pops up. Directly calling out that if ProPublica continues to report on a very powerful, extremely politically-motivated judge, they’re going to call up Daddy Trump and have him punish you?</p><p>Pure censorial thuggishness.</p><p>But it also reveals something crucial: the MAGA GOP knows that this kind of journalism works. When ProPublica exposes how North Carolina’s chief justice has systematically corrupted the state’s courts to favor Republicans, that exposure is genuinely dangerous to their project. The threat itself is the tell—they wouldn’t bother threatening reporters if this kind of reporting didn’t matter.</p><p>And that’s the real story here. Not that they’re hypocrites about free speech (we knew that), but that their entire governance model now depends on preventing the public from learning what they’re actually doing. They <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/10/30/trumps-government-of-spite-political-performance-art-for-assholes/">have no actual policy positions</a> that can survive scrutiny, and what they’re doing is <a href="https://www.economist.com/interactive/trump-approval-tracker">so ridiculously unpopular</a> that their only remaining move is threatening anyone who documents it.</p><p>Which means: keep documenting it.</p>]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/11/05/nc-gop-threatens-propublica-drop-this-story-or-well-call-trump-to-punish-you/comments/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>23</slash:comments> <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">521379</post-id> </item> <item> <title>Daily Deal: The Ultimate AWS Data Master Class Bundle</title> <link>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/11/05/daily-deal-the-ultimate-aws-data-master-class-bundle-4/</link> <comments>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/11/05/daily-deal-the-ultimate-aws-data-master-class-bundle-4/#respond</comments> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Daily Deal]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Wed, 05 Nov 2025 19:03:22 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[1]]></category> <category><![CDATA[daily deal]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.techdirt.com/?p=521434&preview=true&preview_id=521434</guid> <description><![CDATA[The Ultimate AWS Data Master Class Bundle has 9 courses to get you up to speed on Amazon Web Services. The courses cover AWS, DevOPs, Kubernetes Mesosphere DC/OS, AWS Redshift, and more. It’s on sale for $40. Note: The Techdirt Deals Store is powered and curated by StackCommerce. A portion of all sales from Techdirt […]]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>The <a href="https://deals.techdirt.com/sales/the-ultimate-aws-data-master-class-bundle?utm_campaign=affiliaterundown">Ultimate AWS Data Master Class Bundle</a> has 9 courses to get you up to speed on Amazon Web Services. The courses cover AWS, DevOPs, Kubernetes Mesosphere DC/OS, AWS Redshift, and more. It’s on sale for $40.</p><div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large"><a href="https://deals.techdirt.com/sales/the-ultimate-aws-data-master-class-bundle?utm_campaign=affiliaterundown"><img decoding="async" src="https://i0.wp.com/cdnp0.stackassets.com/590d62fb2e1c85b9d85841e1dd6c4b53875a1c5e/store/9267845c5a7fbaa872d0a78a8c2e0d5f6a39e2a9b3d1be16e7a4ddfc9413/sale_20046_primary_image.jpg?ssl=1" alt=""/></a></figure></div><p><em>Note: The Techdirt Deals Store is powered and curated by StackCommerce. A portion of all sales from Techdirt Deals helps support Techdirt. The products featured do not reflect endorsements by our editorial team.</em></p>]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/11/05/daily-deal-the-ultimate-aws-data-master-class-bundle-4/comments/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>0</slash:comments> <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">521434</post-id> </item> <item> <title>What’s Left Of The FBI Gets Back To Turning Teens Into Terrorists</title> <link>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/11/05/whats-left-of-the-fbi-gets-back-to-turning-teens-into-terrorists/</link> <comments>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/11/05/whats-left-of-the-fbi-gets-back-to-turning-teens-into-terrorists/#comments</comments> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Tim Cushing]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Wed, 05 Nov 2025 17:25:23 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[1]]></category> <category><![CDATA[entrapment]]></category> <category><![CDATA[fbi]]></category> <category><![CDATA[kash patel]]></category> <category><![CDATA[own plot]]></category> <category><![CDATA[own terrorists]]></category> <category><![CDATA[terrorism]]></category> <category><![CDATA[war on terror]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.techdirt.com/?p=521314&preview=true&preview_id=521314</guid> <description><![CDATA[The FBI is currently flying at half-staff. A bunch of its field agents are now just immigration officers, thanks to this administration’s desire to eject as many brown people from countries south of our border from the US as possible. But there are enough people left in the FBI to go after the brown people […]]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>The FBI is currently <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/10/16/nearly-half-of-fbi-agents-in-large-field-offices-have-been-put-on-ice/" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/10/16/nearly-half-of-fbi-agents-in-large-field-offices-have-been-put-on-ice/">flying at half-staff</a>. A bunch of its field agents are now just immigration officers, thanks to this administration’s desire to eject as many brown people from countries south of our border from the US as possible. </p><p>But <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/03/25/fbi-shifts-resources-from-tracking-the-terrorists-trump-likes-to-pitching-in-with-anti-immigration-efforts/" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/03/25/fbi-shifts-resources-from-tracking-the-terrorists-trump-likes-to-pitching-in-with-anti-immigration-efforts/">there are enough people</a> left in the FBI to go after the brown people (from the east of us) that every president since the 9/11 attacks has felt comfortable treating as presumptively criminal. </p><p>The FBI’s legacy in these cases <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/tag/own-plots/" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.techdirt.com/tag/own-plots/">frankly sucks</a>. Far too many cases involve undercover agents or paid informants doing everything they can to radicalize misguided people into planning terrorist attacks. These efforts have included agents doing everything from purchasing everything needed to carry out an attack to planning the attacks themselves. It’s entrapment but so far no court has been willing to call it that. </p><p>This latest case involves a handful of Michigan teenagers. And while the criminal complaint filed against the person the DOJ thinks presents the best case for conviction does include disturbing details like target practice, the purchasing of weapons and ammo, and drone flights over the target, it also includes details that make you wonder what the fuck we’re even doing here. </p><p>The lead suspect apparently did nothing worth noting by law enforcement for several years. It was only after he left the Michigan National Guard and started talking about not particularly liking America (an unsurprising turn of events in early 2025). At that point, the suspect was just kind of leaning towards radical Islam. </p><p>Rather than approach the person and tell them what they were thinking of doing was not only a federal crime but would destroy the rest of their life, the FBI did what it did best: infiltrate chats and personal messages and provide all the encouragement they could for his unfocused plans for an act of terrorism. </p><p>All of that can be read in the lengthy <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/26212955-said-indictment/" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/26212955-said-indictment/">criminal complaint</a> [PDF] filed by the FBI. At almost all times, the only people the suspect was talking to were FBI agents and one of their informants. And, at any point, someone could have tried to steer his disillusionment with America into something more productive and less dangerous. But they didn’t. And the <em>only</em> reason they didn’t is because doing so would have meant one less terrorism-related arrest on the record.</p><p>Or, rather, <em>five</em> less arrests, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/31/us/michigan-potential-terrorist-attack-averted-fbi" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/31/us/michigan-potential-terrorist-attack-averted-fbi">as CNN breathlessly reported on October 31st</a>, utilizing nothing but stuff the feds said about people who are still presumed innocent.</p><blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow"><p><em>A group of people who allegedly chatted online about an ISIS-inspired attack went to a shooting range with AK-47s, practiced high-speed reloads and made a reference to “pumpkin day,” authorities said. That’s when investigators jumped into action.</em></p><p><em>Multiple people were arrested Friday when the FBI averted a possible terrorist attack planned for Halloween weekend, Director Kash Patel said.</em></p></blockquote><p>“Averting” means catching it before it happens and preventing it from happening. It definitively does <em>not</em> mean “spending weeks encouraging someone to do something and then arresting them when they try to do the thing you spent weeks encouraging them to do.” At no point was any terrorist attack in any danger of taking place. The suspect’s primary contacts all worked for the FBI. This is like paying your internet bill and claiming you “averted” a network outage. </p><p>But it’s even stupider than this. <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/fbi-potential-terrorist-attack-thwarted-michigan-multiple-people-arrested/" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/fbi-potential-terrorist-attack-thwarted-michigan-multiple-people-arrested/">Subsequent reporting made it clear NOT A GODDAMN THING</a> was on the verge of happening, much less in need of a last-minute All Hallow’s Eve avertment. (It’s a word <em>now.</em> Deal with it.)</p><p>Let’s lead off the way CBS News does, because it’s oh so damning. And that’s <em>before</em> it gets to the FBI admitting there’s really nothing to see here. (It also makes it clear the FBI rounded up a handful of teens, who will undoubtedly be tried as adults.)</p><blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow"><p><em><strong>Five people between the ages of 16 and 20 were arrested Friday</strong>, CBS News has learned. Authorities say they were inspired by a former member of the Michigan Army National Guard who was arrested in May for allegedly <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/detroit/news/melvindale-michigan-man-accused-attempted-attack-military-base-isis/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">planning an ISIS-inspired attack</a> against a U.S. Army site in suburban Detroit. Ammar Abdulmajid-Mohamed Said, 19, was accused of providing support for a planned attack on the U.S. Army’s Tank-Automotive and Armaments Command facility at the Detroit Arsenal. </em></p><p><em>One or more members of the group of five young people arrested Friday <strong>may have known Said</strong>, law enforcement sources told CBS News.</em></p></blockquote><p>You all see that, right? The charging document for Said contains a lot of conversations he held with people with names like UCE-1, UCE-2, and CHS. (For those not in the know, UCE = Undercover Employee and CHS = Confidential Human Source.) But it contains almost no discussion of his conversations with the other four people who were arrested and have been somewhat cleared of involvement with Said with the FBI’s use of the word “may.”</p><p>Here’s more:</p><blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow"><p><em><strong>The plot, however, was not well formed</strong>, and the FBI was monitoring an online discussion about the plot for a period of time. <strong>There was no concrete plan for an attack.</strong></em></p></blockquote><p>To translate FBI speak: “some dude talked a bunch of shit online and we got all heated up about it.” </p><blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow"><p><em>“Through swift action and close coordination with our local partners, a potential act of terror was stopped before it could unfold,” Patel said… </em></p></blockquote><p>Translated: we pushed someone into doing something we could actually use to bring federal charges against them. At no point was any attack actually going to take place, much less with the sort of alacrity that might require “swift action.” </p><p>Here’s another inadvertently damning statement from the cop shop: </p><blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow"><p><em>The law enforcement source said an FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force member had apparently uncovered two teenagers on an online ISIS chat room in some kind of discussion, but that<strong> no real plot materialized</strong>.</em></p></blockquote><p>All of this should <em>severely</em> undercut the FBI’s case against Said and the other teens arrested/detained/questioned during this debacle. It probably won’t, given the courts’ deference to anyone saying hysterical things about terrorism in court. BUT IT SHOULD.</p><p>As should absolutely be the fucking case, the zealous legal representation of one of teens arrested is <a href="https://apnews.com/article/detroit-michigan-halloween-terror-plot-fbi-patel-d4758edbde0b18c19ca7b38f9e836904" data-type="link" data-id="https://apnews.com/article/detroit-michigan-halloween-terror-plot-fbi-patel-d4758edbde0b18c19ca7b38f9e836904">stating that no crime was committed, much less planned</a> — at least not without a ton of law enforcement assistance. The lawyer obviously doesn’t represent Said (who has already been charged) but it definitely tracks with what the FBI and other law enforcement have already admitted about this case: that there was no definite plan of attack and no discernible effort to make sure it was carried out. </p><p>Finally, while there are apparently recordings of Said flying a drone over a military armory, the attack would have presumably relied on this hand-drawn map provided by the suspect:</p><div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-full"><img data-recalc-dims="1" decoding="async" width="434" height="297" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.techdirt.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Screenshot-2025-11-03-6.16.29-PM.png?resize=434%2C297&ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-521316" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.techdirt.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Screenshot-2025-11-03-6.16.29-PM.png?w=434&ssl=1 434w, https://i0.wp.com/www.techdirt.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Screenshot-2025-11-03-6.16.29-PM.png?resize=300%2C205&ssl=1 300w" sizes="(max-width: 434px) 100vw, 434px" /></figure></div><p>I’m no master criminal, but this visual aid would get me lost far faster than it would get me near my target. </p><p>But artistic skill aside, here’s the real problem with FBI “investigations” like these. It’s perhaps overly hopeful to think that FBI agents and employees might just want to have a voluntary, non-threatening conversation about the federal charge/mandatory sentence endpoint of these actions. I will admit that for some people, a law enforcement intervention might just drive them underground and make them more dangerous. </p><p>But I cannot see the purpose of FBI agents and informants doing what they can to aid and abet the planning of terrorist attacks. If you have access to these conversations, what’s wrong with simply doing as much lurking as possible and only moving in when they — and they <em>alone</em> — decide they’re done talking and ready to take action? </p><p>Sadly, the answer is contained in the news coverage above. If you handle things like adults and don’t engage in entrapment, you don’t make headlines and you can’t argue that you need billions of dollars a year to stay on top of terrorism. But it’s nothing more than blood money — sacrificing other people’s lives and liberty just so you can keep taking home a paycheck. </p>]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/11/05/whats-left-of-the-fbi-gets-back-to-turning-teens-into-terrorists/comments/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>14</slash:comments> <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">521314</post-id> </item> <item> <title>Comcast, Netflix, And CBS Will All Now Kiss Trump’s Ass To Try And Acquire Warner Brothers And CNN</title> <link>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/11/05/comcast-netflix-and-cbs-will-all-now-kiss-trumps-ass-to-try-and-acquire-warner-brothers-and-cnn/</link> <comments>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/11/05/comcast-netflix-and-cbs-will-all-now-kiss-trumps-ass-to-try-and-acquire-warner-brothers-and-cnn/#comments</comments> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Karl Bode]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Wed, 05 Nov 2025 13:23:39 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[1]]></category> <category><![CDATA[cnn]]></category> <category><![CDATA[comcast]]></category> <category><![CDATA[hbo]]></category> <category><![CDATA[nbc universal]]></category> <category><![CDATA[netflix]]></category> <category><![CDATA[skydance]]></category> <category><![CDATA[tiktok]]></category> <category><![CDATA[warner bros. discovery]]></category> <category><![CDATA[brendan carr]]></category> <category><![CDATA[consolidation]]></category> <category><![CDATA[david ellison]]></category> <category><![CDATA[donald trump]]></category> <category><![CDATA[journalism]]></category> <category><![CDATA[larry ellison]]></category> <category><![CDATA[layoffs]]></category> <category><![CDATA[media]]></category> <category><![CDATA[mergers]]></category> <category><![CDATA[propaganda]]></category> <category><![CDATA[video]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.techdirt.com/?p=521289&preview=true&preview_id=521289</guid> <description><![CDATA[As we’ve documented, Trump’s right wing billionaire friend Larry Ellison (and his nepobaby son, David) recently acquired CBS and likely co-ownership of TikTok. Like Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter, the goal isn’t really subtle: Rich right wingers want to own the entirety of U.S. new and old media, then convert it into a giant propaganda […]]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>As we’ve documented, Trump’s right wing billionaire friend Larry Ellison (and his nepobaby son, David) recently <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/09/09/with-looming-cbs-hire-of-bari-weiss-two-of-the-four-major-u-s-networks-will-now-be-right-wing-propaganda-mills/">acquired CBS</a> and likely <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/09/17/tiktok-to-be-sold-to-trumps-right-wing-billionaire-buddies-and-converted-into-a-propaganda-mill/">co-ownership of TikTok</a>. Like Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter, the goal isn’t really subtle: Rich right wingers want to own the entirety of U.S. new and old media, then convert it into a giant propaganda and lazy infotainment mill that <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/09/09/with-looming-cbs-hire-of-bari-weiss-two-of-the-four-major-u-s-networks-will-now-be-right-wing-propaganda-mills/">blows smoke up their asses</a>. </p><p>The Ellisons have since set their sights on Warner Brothers, CNN, and HBO. It won’t be cheap; it’s estimated that Larry and company will have to pay <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/10/28/king-trump-makes-it-clear-he-wants-his-bff-larry-ellison-to-own-warner-brothers/">upwards of <strong>$60 billion</strong> for the acquisition</a>. The Trump administration has <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/10/28/king-trump-makes-it-clear-he-wants-his-bff-larry-ellison-to-own-warner-brothers/">openly signaled that they’d very much like the Ellisons to succeed here</a>, in part to force a dying cable new channel (CNN) to be even friendlier to Trump than it already is. </p><p>There’s a wrinkle though: both <a href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2025-10-30/comcast-interest-nbc-warner-bros-studio-hbo-max">Comcast</a> (NBC Universal) and <a href="https://variety.com/2025/digital/news/netflix-actively-exploring-warner-bros-discovery-acquisition-hires-bank-1236566752/">Netflix</a> are also rumored to be interested in acquiring some or all of Warner Brothers (HBO being the prize). As we’ve noted repeatedly, as the streaming market saturated these executives have shown they’re all out of original ideas. The only way to goose quarterly earnings is <a href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2025-10-30/comcast-interest-nbc-warner-bros-studio-hbo-max">more pointless, generally harmful consolidation</a>:</p><blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow"><p><em>“This could be Comcast’s last shot at transforming NBCUniversal into a long-term structural winner in media,” LightShed Partners analyst Richard Greenfield wrote in a note to investors. “If Paramount or another buyer acquires Warner Bros., there would be no obvious merger partner for NBCU.”</em></p></blockquote><p>Contrary to what <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2024/07/18/just-a-reminder-authoritarians-dont-actually-support-antitrust-reform/">breathy pundits like Matt Stoller claimed last election season</a>, the Trump administration has been a complete mindless stamp for more harmful consolidation — provided you <em>kiss Donald’s ass with enough vigor</em>. Which is why Comcast, despite being repeatedly criticized by Trump for NBC’s occasional efforts at journalism, has been <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/10/29/comcast-happy-to-fund-trumps-ballroom-despite-years-of-being-shit-on/">throwing money at the president’s new ballroom</a>. </p><p>It’s pretty clear that Trump’s DOJ and FCC are likely to erect hurdles and obstacles making it difficult for anybody to outmaneuver Larry Ellison here. It should be interesting to watch Trump lackeys like Brendan Carr twist themselves into pretzels trying to pretend they’re conducting an equitable merger review. It should also prove interesting to see in what new ways Netflix and Comcast execs are willing to debase themselves. </p><p>Whoever wins the bid, we all lose. Warner Brothers is already the shredded husk of what was left after decades of similar, pointless consolidation, starting all the way back with the pointless AOL deal in 2001, then <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/10/23/warner-brothers-is-for-sale-again-prepare-for-more-pointless-disastrous-media-mergers/">later layoff and chaos inducing acquisitions by AT&T and Discovery</a>. </p><p>Skydance, Paramount, and CBS <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2025/oct/29/cbs-news-layoffs-paramount">haven’t even finished firing employees</a> due to their last series of pointless mergers. Now they’re already gearing up to generate massive new debt to acquire Warner Brothers and CNN. That’s going to result in all the usual <strong>additional</strong> layoffs and corner cutting, before you even get to the problem of letting Larry Ellison turn CBS and TikTok into right wing propaganda outlets. </p><p>Netflix and Comcast winning this bid is probably the best of a bunch of bad outcomes, but that’s going to require that both companies seriously level up their ass kissing of our mad, idiot king.</p>]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/11/05/comcast-netflix-and-cbs-will-all-now-kiss-trumps-ass-to-try-and-acquire-warner-brothers-and-cnn/comments/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>6</slash:comments> <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">521289</post-id> </item> <item> <title>Samsung Officially Rolls Out Update To Annoy You With Ads On Smart Fridges</title> <link>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/11/04/samsung-officially-rolls-out-update-to-annoy-you-with-ads-on-smart-fridges/</link> <comments>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/11/04/samsung-officially-rolls-out-update-to-annoy-you-with-ads-on-smart-fridges/#comments</comments> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Timothy Geigner]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Wed, 05 Nov 2025 03:59:33 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[1]]></category> <category><![CDATA[samsung]]></category> <category><![CDATA[ads]]></category> <category><![CDATA[family hub]]></category> <category><![CDATA[fridge]]></category> <category><![CDATA[ownership]]></category> <category><![CDATA[refrigerators]]></category> <category><![CDATA[smart refrigerators]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.techdirt.com/?p=521079&preview=true&preview_id=521079</guid> <description><![CDATA[If I had to pick one iconic line spoken by Darth Vader in the Star Wars franchise, it would be this one. The confident evil of a villain who calmly acknowledges that the deal struck with him is changing and there is nothing that can be done about it strikes a chord. What’s odd is […]]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>If I had to pick one iconic line spoken by Darth Vader in the <em>Star Wars</em> franchise, it would be this one.</p><figure class="wp-block-embed aligncenter is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"><iframe title=""I Am Altering the Deal, Pray I Don’t Alter It Any Further."" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3D8TEJtQRhw?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe></div></figure><p>The confident evil of a villain who calmly acknowledges that the deal struck with him is changing and there is nothing that can be done about it strikes a chord. What’s odd is that we don’t seem to want to acknowledge that this is precisely what is going on across the world of IoT devices that are updated and changed after the purchase of a device has been made.</p><p>Weeks ago, we discussed a <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/09/29/samsung-pilots-making-its-smart-fridges-billboards-after-people-bought-them/">pilot program</a> from Samsung to inject advertisements onto the screens of its smart fridges. Based on public feedback, the pilot program went over like a fart in church, with many people complaining that this was a material change to a purchased product with consumers having to jump through hoops to not have to suddenly suffer an advertisement barrage. This wasn’t the deal that customers made when they bought their fridge.</p><p>Samsung’s response has been Vader-esque: “I’m altering the deal. Pray I don’t alter it further.” What was a pilot program is now an official update from the company, with the <a href="https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/10/samsung-makes-ads-on-3499-smart-fridges-official-with-upcoming-software-update/">ad program going live this week</a>.</p><blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow"><p><em>The ads will be shown on Samsung’s 2024 Family Hub smart fridges. As of this writing, Samsung’s Family Hub fridges have MSRPs ranging from <a href="https://www.samsung.com/us/home-appliances/refrigerators/all-refrigerators/?shop=Buy+Online&key_category_features=Family+Hub%C3%A2%C2%84%C2%A2&CID=afl-ecomm-rkt-cha-040122-url_Skimlinks.com&utm_source=url_Skimlinks.com&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_campaign=1&utm_content=2116208&rktevent=Skimlinks.com_TnL5HPStwNw-XmUXqH629_Fatbxjry_5NQ&ranMID=47773&ranEAID=TnL5HPStwNw&ranSiteID=TnL5HPStwNw-XmUXqH629_Fatbxjry_5NQ">$1,899 to $3,499</a>. The ads will arrive through a software update that Samsung will start issuing this month and display on the fridge’s integrated 21.5- or 32-inch (depending on the model) screen. The ads will show when the fridges are idle and display what Samsung calls Cover Screens.</em></p><p><em>The software update will also introduce “a Daily Board theme that offers a new way to see useful information at a glance,” Samsung said. The Verge reported that this feature will also include ads, something that Samsung’s announcement neglected to state. The Daily Board theme will show five tiles with information such as appointments and the weather, and one with ads.</em></p></blockquote><p>It will be interesting to track sales of these fridges over time. I don’t believe that most people want ads showing up on their fridge. I believe that if people are informed that their fridge will advertise to them to generate revenue for Samsung, most will be less likely to buy the product. Sales numbers will demonstrate whether I’m right or wrong.</p><p>Which is entirely besides the central point here: if I exchange money for a product, the product ought to be mine. I shouldn’t have to jump through hoops and lose out on product features simply because I don’t want to be your product for advertisers.</p><blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow"><p><em>Samsung fridge owners can also opt to avoid the latest software update altogether. However, they would miss out on other features included in the software update, such as a UI refresh and the ability for the internal camera inside some fridges to identify more fruits and vegetables inside the fridge.</em></p><p><em>The changes are part of a frustrating trend among smart home products to <a href="https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/07/firmware-update-hinders-echelon-smart-home-gym-equipments-ability-to-work-offline/">change the user experience</a> in <a href="https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/10/bose-soundtouch-home-theater-systems-regress-into-dumb-speakers-feb-18/">unwanted ways</a> after people have already made their purchases. It also shows Samsung’s <a href="https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/10/people-regret-buying-amazon-smart-displays-after-being-bombarded-with-ads/">growing reliance on ads</a> with its smart home products, even after <a href="https://www.theverge.com/tech/654685/samsung-screens-everywhere-home-appliances-strategy-interview-exclusive">downplaying the idea</a> that that would happen.</em></p></blockquote><p>Is there any doubt that the ability to opt out of this will eventually be pared back as well? And is anyone going to do literally anything to protect the consumer from this sort of trespass into already-bought products.</p><p>Or are we just going to let Vader alter the deal and pray he doesn’t alter it further?</p>]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/11/04/samsung-officially-rolls-out-update-to-annoy-you-with-ads-on-smart-fridges/comments/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>19</slash:comments> <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">521079</post-id> </item> <item> <title>Science Must Decentralize</title> <link>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/11/04/science-must-decentralize/</link> <comments>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/11/04/science-must-decentralize/#comments</comments> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Rory Mir]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Tue, 04 Nov 2025 23:25:25 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[1]]></category> <category><![CDATA[decentralization]]></category> <category><![CDATA[diamond open access]]></category> <category><![CDATA[knowledge]]></category> <category><![CDATA[open access]]></category> <category><![CDATA[open science]]></category> <category><![CDATA[paywalls]]></category> <category><![CDATA[research]]></category> <category><![CDATA[science]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.techdirt.com/?p=521012</guid> <description><![CDATA[Knowledge production doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Every great scientific breakthrough is built on prior work, and an ongoing exchange with peers in the field. That’s why we need to address the threat of major publishers and platforms having an improper influence on how scientific knowledge is accessed—or outright suppressed. In the digital age, the […]]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Knowledge production doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Every great scientific breakthrough is built on prior work, and an ongoing exchange with peers in the field. That’s why we need to address the threat of major publishers and platforms having an improper influence on how scientific knowledge is accessed—or outright suppressed.</p><p>In the digital age, the collaborative and often community-governed effort of scholarly research has gone global and unlocked unprecedented potential to improve our understanding and quality of life. That is, if we let it. Publishers continue to monopolize access to life-saving research and increase the burden on researchers through <a href="https://editorscafe.org/details.php?id=63">article processing charges</a> and a <a href="https://publishingstate.com/the-unpaid-labor-of-academic-publishing/2025/">pyramid of volunteer labor</a>. <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2024/09/16/scientists-file-antitrust-lawsuit-against-journal-publishers">This exploitation</a> makes a mockery of open inquiry and the denial of access as a serious <a href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/10/open-access-human-rights-issue">human rights issue</a>.</p><p>While alternatives like <a href="https://www.coalition-s.org/diamond-open-access/">Diamond Open Access</a> are promising, crashing through publishing gatekeepers isn’t enough. Large intermediary platforms are capturing other aspects of the research process—inserting themselves between researchers and between the researchers and these published works—through <a href="https://liberquarterly.eu/article/view/16693">platformization</a>. </p><p>Funneling scholars into a few major platforms isn’t just annoying, it’s corrosive to privacy and intellectual freedom. <a href="https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/21/potemkin-ai/#hey-guys">Enshittification</a> has come for research infrastructure, turning everyday tools into avenues for surveillance. Most <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty-issues/academic-freedom/2024/05/10/professors-worry-about-digital-surveillance-their">professors are now worried</a> their research is being scrutinized by academic bossware, forcing them to <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/blog/how-win-citation-game-without-becoming-cynic">worry about arbitrary metrics</a> which don’t always reflect research quality. While playing this numbers game, a growing threat of <a href="https://sparcopen.org/news/2023/sparc-report-urges-action-to-address-concerns-with-sciencedirect-data-privacy-practices/">surveillance in scholarly publishing</a> gives these measures a menacing tilt, chilling the publication and access of targeted research areas. These risks spike in the midst of governmental <a href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/02/ddosed-policy-website-takedowns-and-keeping-information-alive">campaigns to muzzle scientific knowledge</a>, buttressed by a scourge of <a href="https://www.eff.org/pages/platforms-have-failed-us-abortion-content-heres-how-they-can-fix-it">platform censorship</a> on corporate social media.</p><p>The only antidote to this ‘platformization’ is <a href="https://www.unesco.org/en/open-science/about">Open Science</a> and decentralization. Infrastructure we rely on must be built in the open and on interoperable standards, and hostile to corporate (or governmental) takeovers. Universities and the science community are well situated to lead this fight. As we’ve seen in EFF’s <a href="https://toruniversity.eff.org/">TOR University Challenge</a>, promoting access to knowledge and public interest infrastructure is aligned with the core values of higher education. </p><p>Using social media as an example, universities have a strong interest in promoting the work being done at their campuses far and wide. This is where traditional platforms fall short: algorithms typically <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/search/research-news/7542/">prioritizing paid content</a>, <a href="https://www.axios.com/2023/10/03/musk-x-links-long-form">downrank off-site links</a>, and <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/social-media-algorithms-warp-how-people-learn-from-each-other/">prioritize sensational claims</a> to drive engagement. When users are free from enshittification and can themselves control the platform’s algorithms, as they can on platforms like Bluesky, scientists get <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/sep/01/science-research-gets-more-engagement-on-bluesky-than-x-study-finds">more engagement</a> and find <a href="https://www.psypost.org/scientists-say-x-formerly-twitter-has-lost-its-professional-edge-and-bluesky-is-taking-its-place/">interactions are more useful</a>. </p><p>Institutions play a pivotal role in encouraging the adoption of these alternatives, ranging from leveraging existing IT support to assist with account use and verification, all the way to shouldering some of the hosting with Mastodon instances and/or Bluesky PDS for official accounts. This support is good for the research, good for the university, and makes our systems of science more resilient to <a href="https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025.09.09-PSI-Minority-Report-Trump-Administration-Attacks-on-Science.pdf">attacks on science</a> and <a href="https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/23/amazon_outage_postmortem/">the instability</a> of <a href="https://www.bing.com/ck/a?!&&p=b2d51d06320a2d385608864a0d6422fedf26e8ea94ca89aff11f7cf86532a110JmltdHM9MTc2MTI2NDAwMA&ptn=3&ver=2&hsh=4&fclid=2470ca39-9623-66ab-3c6a-dfdf97606778&psq=digital+monoculture+rory+mir&u=a1aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZWZmLm9yZy9kZWVwbGlua3MvMjAyNC8wNy9jcm93ZHN0cmlrZS1hbnRpdHJ1c3QtYW5kLWRpZ2l0YWwtbW9ub2N1bHR1cmU">digital monocultures</a>.</p><p>This subtle influence of intermediaries can also appear in other tools relied on by researchers, while there are <a href="https://infrafinder.investinopen.org/solutions">a number of open alternatives</a> and interoperable tools developed for everything from <a href="https://www.zotero.org/">citation management</a>, <a href="https://ipfs.tech/">data hosting</a> to <a href="https://matrix.org/">online chat</a> among collaborators. Individual scholars and research teams can implement these tools today, but real change depends on institutions investing in tech that puts community before shareholders.</p><p>When infrastructure is too centralized, gatekeepers gain new powers to capture, enshittify, and censor. The result is a system that becomes less useful, less stable, and with more costs put on access. Science thrives on sharing and access equity, and its future depends on a global and democratic revolt against predatory centralized platforms.</p><p><em>Republished from the <a href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/10/science-must-decentralize">EFF’s Deeplinks blog</a>.</em></p>]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/11/04/science-must-decentralize/comments/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>4</slash:comments> <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">521012</post-id> </item> <item> <title>Techdirt Podcast Episode 437: Social Media Is Always Changing</title> <link>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/11/04/techdirt-podcast-episode-437-social-media-is-always-changing/</link> <comments>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/11/04/techdirt-podcast-episode-437-social-media-is-always-changing/#comments</comments> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Leigh Beadon]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Tue, 04 Nov 2025 21:30:00 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[1]]></category> <category><![CDATA[corbin barthold]]></category> <category><![CDATA[free speech]]></category> <category><![CDATA[podcast]]></category> <category><![CDATA[social media]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.techdirt.com/?p=521373&preview=true&preview_id=521373</guid> <description><![CDATA[Support us on Patreon » For two decades, the landscape of social media has been constantly changing, and the discourse about “free speech” has been changing alongside it. This week, we’ve got a bit of an open-ended discussion with TechFreedom‘s Corbin Barthold, host of the Tech Policy Podcast, about social media’s history and future, and the […]]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<div style="float: right; margin-left: 12px; margin-bottom: 8px; line-height: 1; padding: 8px; border: 2px solid rgb(26, 81, 143);font-weight:bold;"><a href="https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=4450624&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.patreon.com%2Ftechdirt">Support us on Patreon »</a></div><p>For two decades, the landscape of social media has been constantly changing, and the discourse about “free speech” has been changing alongside it. This week, we’ve got a bit of an open-ended discussion with <a href="https://techfreedom.org/">TechFreedom</a>‘s <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/corbinkbarthold.bsky.social">Corbin Barthold</a>, host of the <em><a href="https://podcast.techfreedom.org/">Tech Policy Podcast</a></em>, about <a href="https://soundcloud.com/techdirt/social-media-is-always-changing">social media’s history and future, and the question of what people really want out of it</a>.</p><figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-soundcloud wp-block-embed-soundcloud"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"><iframe loading="lazy" title="Social Media Is Always Changing by Techdirt" width="500" height="400" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?visual=true&url=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F2206481387&show_artwork=true&maxheight=750&maxwidth=500"></iframe></div></figure><p>You can also <a href="https://feeds.soundcloud.com/stream/2206481387-techdirt-social-media-is-always-changing.mp3" download="">download this episode directly</a> in MP3 format.</p><p><em>Follow the Techdirt Podcast on <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://soundcloud.com/techdirt" target="_blank">Soundcloud</a>, subscribe via <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/techdirt/id940871872?mt=2" target="_blank">Apple Podcasts</a> or <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://open.spotify.com/show/6qXCFL3MjSpiD8O0pZgcsi" target="_blank">Spotify</a>, or grab the <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.techdirt.com/podcast.xml" target="_blank">RSS feed</a>. You can also keep up with all the latest episodes <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/blog/podcast/">right here on Techdirt</a>.</em></p>]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/11/04/techdirt-podcast-episode-437-social-media-is-always-changing/comments/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>1</slash:comments> <enclosure url="https://feeds.soundcloud.com/stream/2206481387-techdirt-social-media-is-always-changing.mp3" length="0" type="audio/mpeg" /> <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">521373</post-id> </item> </channel></rss>If you would like to create a banner that links to this page (i.e. this validation result), do the following:
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