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Nintendo and the Pokémon Company’s lawsuit in Japan against PocketPair, makers of the hit game Palworld, is still ongoing. As we’ve reported previously, this isn’t the copyright or trademark lawsuit that everyone expected when Palworld was first released. Instead, probably knowing that they couldn’t get around the idea/expression dichotomy in copyright, at least, Nintendo filed a patent suit...
Why do some people endorse claims that can easily be disproved? It’s one thing to believe false information, but another to actively stick with something that’s obviously wrong.
Our new research, published in the Journal of Social Psychology, suggests that some people consider it a “win” to lean in to known falsehoods.
We are social psychologists who study political psychology and how people...
We know there’s a concerted effort to punish anyone who dares to show anything but complete, unqualified reverence for Charlie Kirk’s corpse. The man who made millions by denigrating anyone who wasn’t as white, straight, and “Christian” as he was is apparently above reproach now that he’s been murdered.
That would be stupid enough on its own. But government officials — ranging from local level...
60 Minutes is under new management and things are getting stupid faster than you might expect. Last night’s episode featured President Trump, which is currently being described as “nuts.” There are all sorts of crazy moments to call out, but let’s start with the recursively meta nonsense.
60 Minutes edited out a segment where Donald Trump tells them to edit out a segment in which he brags about...
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To say the irony was lost on them would be to assume they ever thought some irony might exist. DC resident Sam O’Hara came across a bunch of out-of-state National Guard troops and put his own spin on their Trump-enabled interloping. As he followed the troops through the neighborhood, O’Hara engaged in protected expression — that being the recording of government employees… with a little musical...
Much of the federal government is shuttered, but that’s not preventing the Trump administration from finding new ways to screw over struggling Americans.
Last week, the Trump FCC under Brendan Carr voted to indefinitely suspend efforts to impose new, lower price caps on predatory U.S. prison monopolies that would have prevented them from over-billing inmate families to the tune of hundreds of...
This week, our first place winner on the insightful side is an anonymous comment on our post about how “neutrality” and “free speech” become excuses for bigotry:
You can’t be neutral about bigotry
“Neutrality” is for elements of policy, like “What should be the top tax rate” or “should we build a new interstate highway” or “Which candidate should be Mayor.”
You can’t be “neutral” about someone’s...
Five Years Ago
This week in 2020, the RIAA tossed out a bogus DMCA claim to get a YouTube downloading tool pulled from Github, and was still flooding Twitch with takedowns that the company was responding to by freaking out and courting a lot of outrage from the users it failed to defend. Meanwhile, YouTuber Lindsay Ellis released an in-depth video about the most entertaining DMCA dust-up of the...
Both Google and Apple are cramming new AI features into their phones and other devices, and neither company has offered clear ways to control which apps those AI systems can access. Recent issues around WhatsApp on both Android and iPhone demonstrate how these interactions can go sideways, risking revealing chat conversations beyond what you intend. Users deserve better controls and clearer...