The judge found that Meta's attempt to blame the pirating of thousands of Vixen.com and Tushy.com porn videos on rogue employees "strains credulity."

Strike 3 Holding first filed its lawsuit almost a year ago after internal Meta emails revealed in a different lawsuit showed that the company downloaded over 81 terabytes of data by scraping Anna's Archive, a massive open search search engine for torrenting copyrighted material including books, movies, TV shows, and porn. [...]

"For example, IP Ranges A and F torrented the following files on December 15, 2022: 'Teen Sex Sessions 2 (2012),' 'Teen Titans Go to the Movies (2018),' 'Teens Love Tats XXX,' 'TeensLoveAnal.16.09.30.Amara,' 'Teenfidelity Pics,' 'TeensLoveAnal.16.06.10.Casey,' 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987-1996),' 'Teen Mom Girls Night In S02E08,' 'TeenyTaboo.22.12.07.Kiana,' and 'TeenageDelinquents.Maryjane,'" the decision says. "On the same day, a Corporate IP Address was used to torrent 'TeenCurves.22.12.09.Willow.' The connection between these files is plain: The word 'teen' appears in every file name."

The judge said that Meta suggesting that its IP addresses downloading all these files at the same time was the work of different individual Meta employees acting independently "strains credulity."

The judge also explained that whether Meta actually used Strike 3 Holdings' videos to train its AI models is irrelevant because Meta violated Strike 3 Holdings's copyright when it torrented its videos. It illegally downloaded the files and also "seeded" them, meaning they distributed the pirated to other users.

"In sum, Plaintiffs [Strike 3 Holdings] have plausibly alleged that Defendant [Meta] is liable for direct, vicarious, and contributory copyright infringement based on the torrenting of their films," the decision said. "Defendant's motion to dismiss is therefore DENIED."

Some headlines are a gift.

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It's Only a $13 Billion Aircraft Carrier, Why Would We Expect the Toilets to Work?

The 600 toilets aboard the USS Gerald Ford, the "most advanced" and most recent aircraft carrier in the U.S. fleet, have represented a near incalculable headache for the Navy during its just finished, nearly unprecedented 11-month deployment, and their constant breakdowns have already become the stuff of military legend. [...]

The previous Nimitz-class supercarrier USS George H.W. Bush had been built with a similar "high tech" vacuum suction system, and it too had a reputation for disastrous breakdowns, rendering every toilet on the entire ship inoperable on several occasions. The system on the Ford likewise has the added bonus of being a new design untested at this scale in the field: The Vacuum Collection, Holding and Transfer (VCHT) system is unique to the new Ford class of aircraft carriers, with this ship being the first of its kind. [...]

It suffered a devastating laundry fire on March 12, 2026 that burned for 30 hours and injured more than 200 sailors, and eventually limped to Crete in disgrace to undergo emergency repairs. Now, it returns to Virginia for more in-depth repairs related to the laundry room fire, and to address the persistent bugaboo that generated headlines during its entire deployment: The fact that hundreds of its toilets were routinely inoperable at any given time.

And when I say "inoperable," I mean "incredibly easy to fuck up." Really, it's difficult to overstate just how fragile the toilet system aboard the USS Gerald Ford has ultimately proven to be, as detailed in a few pieces in NPR that published emails and communications from the ship itself, sourced via the Freedom of Information Act.

"Our sewage system is being mistreated and destroyed by Sailors on a daily basis," complained one hull maintenance technician (HTs), the class of engineering department worker tasked with responding to an endless series of trouble calls. "My HT's are currently working 19 hours a day right now trying to keep up with the demand."

According to NPR, the single most common problem is "a valve at the back of the toilets that can be knocked loose, and cause all of the toilets in one of 10 zones to lose suction." Yes, you're reading that right -- if a sailor happens to sit on the toilet wrong, or bumps into it, it can result in dozens or hundreds of other toilets throughout the ship immediately becoming inoperable. [...]

The hull maintenance techs essentially live in ceaseless toilet repair mode. At one point in March, 2025, the engineering department noted to its chiefs in an email that there had been 205 breakdowns over the course of FOUR DAYS. Has anyone actually successfully relieved themselves on this ship, or do they all just get used to holding it?

Many of the problems, as you might expect, end up being the sort of foolishness you would expect from a crew of thousands who might otherwise be shotgunning beers in a dorm, if they weren't here. Technicians report finding all manner of wrongfully flushed objects blocking the especially narrow vacuum pipes, including T-shirts and "a 4-foot piece of rope," according to an August 2025 complaint.

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It has become more frequent for someone to contact me saying "I can't access your sites from my phone / cable modem", and on the few occasions when they tell me what their IP is, it turns out that, yup, that IP did some extremely obvious AI scraper bullshit and got shitcanned for a month.

I have no way of knowing how often collateral damage like this happens, since by definition they aren't connecting to my site afterward. But anecdotally, telcos and cable companies seem to have short leases and I seem to be banning a lot of them.

If I don't block these scrapers but merely serve them nonsense, my web site falls over.

I have no idea what to do about this, and it sucks.

(And neither do you.)

(Do not suggest Anubis, because proof of work is fundamentally inflationary, wasteful bullshit that will never work because the attacker can always outspend you.)

(Do not suggest Clownflare because they are Nazis.)

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Joseph Mallozzi: Stargate cancelled, for the fourth and likely final time.

Creator Martin Gero developed a new Stargate series over two years, ultimately crafting a show that offered a fresh jumping-on point for new viewers while deeply respecting existing canon. It was a series that avoided the pitfalls of several modern remakes and reboots by fully embracing the core of its predecessors: action, adventure, exploration, wonder, heart, humor, and found family. And based on that creative vision, the new Stargate series was greenlit in November of 2025.

As of today, officially, that original vision is no more. We'll never get the opportunity to introduce you to that world and those characters -- or reintroduce you to, and check in with, some familiar faces from the past.

My heart breaks. For the incredibly talented writers who worked tirelessly to bring this show to life. For Martin who maintained an unwavering positive outlook throughout despite the challenges, and who always strove to make a show that would honor the fans while welcoming a new audiences. And for the long-suffering Stargate fandom who waited so long and came so close to getting a show they truly would have loved.

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Facebook whistleblower Sarah Wynn-Williams was forced to sit in silence on stage at an event at Hay festival, after lawyers advised her not to speak because of ongoing legal action brought by Meta.

Wynn-Williams, whose bestselling memoir, Careless People, details her years working at Facebook, was due to appear in conversation with the investigative journalist Carole Cadwalladr and academic Tim Wu.

Instead, Wynn-Williams sat on stage for the duration of the hour-long discussion between Cadwalladr and Wu, without speaking or responding. She was unable even to nod or shake her head.

Introducing the panel, Cadwalladr said: "I think this might be a Hay first, in which we have an author in a hostage situation. Blink once if you can hear us, Sarah, twice if Zuckerberg is an asshole." [...]

During the event, Cadwalladr read a letter from Wynn-Williams' lawyers outlining the company's latest legal claims. The letter stated that, in March 2026, Meta filed a sanctions motion alleging that Wynn-Williams violates the emergency arbitration order "any time she appears in public in a place where she should know that her book is available for sale and her presence might draw attention to it".

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This wooden influencer set brings roleplay fun to children who love creating content.

It includes 6 pieces a tripod stand, adjustable aperture lens, camera, smartphone model, tablet and microphone. The set encourages storytelling and imaginative play as children act out being content creators. The tripod adjusts to different heights and the ring light adds realistic detail. The smartphone and tablet models look like the real thing. The microphone completes the streaming setup.

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Pull images and text from are.na to make a strangely familiar documentary critique of late capitalism:

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Flock is quietly training police to sway city leaders to buy surveillance tech:

As East Bay communities raise concerns about civil liberties and immigration enforcement, the license plate camera company is seeking support from its customers -- law enforcement officers. [...]

Brian Hofer, executive director of Secure Justice, a privacy and civil liberties group, said Flock's training reminds him of public relations strategies used by other surveillance technology vendors. [...]

"You wine and dine them, take them on golf trips, teach them how to write grants, and then you give them a job after they retire," he said. "Then, they go and sell contracts to other police departments, and who are they going to listen to? Other police who have used this technology." [...]

Hofer said he thinks Flock, like ShotSpotter, is seeking support from law enforcement officers in reaction to the dozens of jurisdictions that have canceled their contracts with the company. Since August 2021, 88 of Flock's contracts have been terminated, according to Secure Justice's most recent tally. As of publication time, that includes 45 since the beginning of the year. (Terminations also include non-renewals and non-awards, if there was a competitive bidding process.)

"At the rate that they're losing contracts, this is a big piece of evidence that they're panicking," Hofer said.

To date, Flock has contracts with more than 5,000 law enforcement agencies nationwide.

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