Techdirt is an American Internet

blog A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in Reverse ...

that reports on technology's legal challenges and related business and economic policy issues, in context of the digital revolution. It focuses on

intellectual property Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, co ...

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A ...

, information privacy and copyright reform in particular.

Description

The website was founded in 1997 by Mike Masnick. It was originally based on the weblog software

Slash Slash may refer to: * Slash (punctuation), the "/" character Arts and entertainment Fictional characters * Slash (Marvel Comics) * Slash (''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'') Music * Harry Slash & The Slashtones, an American rock band * Nash ...

. Techdirt's content is based on reader submissions as well as the editorial staff's picks. The website makes use of

MySQL MySQL () is an open-source relational database management system (RDBMS). Its name is a combination of "My", the name of co-founder Michael Widenius's daughter My, and "SQL", the acronym for Structured Query Language. A relational database ...

, Apache, and PHP, and is hosted at ActionWeb. Techdirt is managed by Floor 64, a company located in

Redwood City, California Redwood City is a city on the San Francisco Peninsula in Northern California's Bay Area, approximately south of San Francisco, and northwest of San Jose. Redwood City's history spans its earliest inhabitation by the Ohlone people to being a ...

, USA. There is a guest editor section in Techdirt, called "Favorite Techdirt Posts of the Week", where several high-profile personalities of politics and culture contributed articles over the years; for instance Marietje Schaake,

Member of the European Parliament A Member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the ECSC) first met in 1952, its ...

for the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

, Sen. Ron Wyden of

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

or author Glyn Moody.

Reception and impact

The popular term the " Streisand effect" was coined on Techdirt by founder Mike Masnick in January 2005. In 2003, '' Forbes Magazine'' selected Techdirt as one of the "Best Tech Blogs". In 2006 ''

Bloomberg Businessweek ''Bloomberg Businessweek'', previously known as ''BusinessWeek'', is an American weekly business magazine published fifty times a year. Since 2009, the magazine is owned by New York City-based Bloomberg L.P. The magazine debuted in New York City ...

'' praised Techdirt for its "sharp, pithy analysis of current tech issues". In 2007, techdirt was nominated for the Webby Award in the section "Web Blog - Business". Techdirt has been named among the favorite blogs of '' PC Magazine'' in 2008. In 2015, techdirt was positively mentioned for the bold step to allow readers to remove

web ads Online advertising, also known as online marketing, Internet advertising, digital advertising or web advertising, is a form of marketing and advertising which uses the Internet to promote products and services to audiences and platform users. ...

. In 2009, English singer Lily Allen created a blog critical of music piracy in which she plagiarized an entire post from Techdirt. Following an exchange with Techdirt, debating hypocrisy in the musician's handling of

copyright infringement Copyright infringement (at times referred to as piracy) is the use of works protected by copyright without permission for a usage where such permission is required, thereby infringing certain exclusive rights granted to the copyright holder, ...

, Allen shut down her blog.

Marvin Ammori Marvin Ammori is a lawyer, civil liberties advocate, and scholar best known for his work on network neutrality and Internet freedom issues. He currently serves as Chief Legal Officer of Uniswap. Education and career Ammori attended Brother R ...

, a lawyer who advocates on network neutrality and Internet freedom, praised Techdirt in the 2011 Stop Online Piracy Act controversy, saying: "I'm not sure anyone did more to educate the public about SOPA than Techdirt."

Shiva Ayyadurai lawsuit

In 2017, American entrepreneur Shiva Ayyadurai filed suit against Techdirt for defamation in response to a series of articles critical of Ayyadurai's claims to have invented

email Electronic mail (email or e-mail) is a method of exchanging messages ("mail") between people using electronic devices. Email was thus conceived as the electronic ( digital) version of, or counterpart to, mail, at a time when "mail" mean ...

as a teenager in 1978, an assertion which has been dismissed by several experts. Techdirt announced its intention to fight the suit, describing it as a "

First Amendment First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and reco ...

fight for its life". A federal judge dismissed the defamation claims on September 6, 2017. In June 2018, attorneys for Ayyadurai appealed the ruling to the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. The two parties settled out-of-court in May 2019 with no money changing hands, and Techdirt's articles remaining online with an added link to a rebuttal on Ayyadurai's website.

References

External links

* {{Official website, techdirt.com American technology news websites Internet properties established in 1997