Techdirt Gear In Action

from the live-and-up-close dept

It's been nearly a year since we started offering Techdirt t-shirts, hoodies and more on Teespring, and in that time we've seen quite a few tweets showing off some great photos (and one video!) of the gear upon arrival or out in the wild. Since we've just put most of last year's designs back in the store — and since we're gearing up to launch a new design next week — I figured it might be time to show off some of those photos and encourage those of you who already have Techdirt gear, or are getting it soon, to share new ones!

Most recently, a few folks have been tweeting photos of our I Invented Email gear, including one of our favourite parody accounts...

...and a data-loving Techdirt fan...

...and FIRE's Sarah McLaughlin:

But the best is when we get to see Techdirt gear truly in action, like when Keith Lee rocked a Takedown t-shirt for an interview on a law show:

(You can watch the episode here, though you won't see much of the t-shirt.)

And here's a video of Brett Haddock in a Nerd Harder t-shirt (the only classic design that hasn't returned yet, but stay tuned!) asking his congressman about his stance on encryption:

It's also nice to know that our gear might occasionally break the ice between strangers, such as this completely random encounter on the streets of Dublin, Ireland:

Of course, what I really want to see is an encounter between two strangers who are both wearing Copying Is Not Theft gear. But the only candidate we've spotted so far lives in North Dakota:

If you feel a little left out after all of that, then it might be time to head to the Techdirt Gear store on Teespring and treat yourself! And if you do, or you already have, tweet a photo or video and tag @Techdirt so we see it — especially if you're doing something fitting like grilling a politician, or for that matter grilling a nice steak.

Filed Under: copying is not theft, gear, nerd harder, t-shirt

They're Back: Copying Is Not Theft And Home Cooking Is Killing Restaurants

from the more-gear dept

Copying Is Not Theft and Home Cooking Is Killing Restaurants are back »

Last week we brought back two of our 2016 T-shirt designs, and today we've got another two favorites returning to the Techdirt Gear store on Teespring: Copying Is Not Theft (a conversation starter, to say the least...) and Home Cooking Is Killing Restaurants.

In addition to our usual offerings (tees, hoodies, mugs and stickers) we've added a bunch of additional options for Copying Is Not Theft gear, at the expense of color choices (necessitated by the design). There are tank tops, long-sleeve tees, crew neck sweaters and a second option for women's tees. Also, in addition to our usual $23 premium men's tees, you have the option of a cheaper Hanes tagless tee for only $20. We don't know if this is something people prefer, and we're not sure how big the quality difference is (the premium tees are very nice) -- but if lots of people opt for the cheaper t-shirt and are satisfied with the quality, we'll consider making this available for more shirts in the future. Vote with your wallet and by letting us know in the comments or on Twitter!

Check out the Techdirt Gear store for these returning designs, and more »

Filed Under: copying, gear, t-shirt

Takedown Gear Is Back Up! (Plus Another Returning Design)

from the old-favorites dept

Takedown and Math Is Not A Crime are back in the Techdirt Gear store »

As promised, over the next few weeks we're going to be bringing back most of last year's designs in the Techdirt Gear store on Teespring, and today we've got our first returning champions: the long-time favorite Takedown tee and the surprisingly controversial Math Is Not A Crime gear.

We've also got some brand new designs coming soon, but for now this is your chance to get one of these designs if you missed them last year! You can also help us out by sharing the store with friends — and we love seeing photos of Techdirt gear in the wild when you tag us in them on Twitter.

Check out the Techdirt Gear store for these returning designs, and more »

Filed Under: dmca, gear, math is not a crime, t-shirts, takedown

What Should We Add Next To The Techdirt Gear Store?

from the feedback dept

Get I Invented Email, Copymouse and more in the Techdirt Gear store »

Right now, there are four different designs in available in the Techdirt Gear store on Teespring: our new Copymouse gear, our limited-time I Invented Email gear, and two different styles of Techdirt logo gear. But, under Teespring's new ongoing-order system, over time we're going to start bringing back some of our designs from last year as permanent fixtures in the store — in some cases with tweaked or updated designs.

So, which Techdirt tees would our readers like to see first? There's our popular Takedown gear, the controversial Copying Is Not Theft, and some less-popular but beloved-by-some options like Home Cooking Is Killing Restaurants and Math Is Not A Crime. Of course, there's also the first t-shirt we offered and still the most popular: Nerd Harder.

We have some brand new designs in the works too and will be rolling those out in the near future, but first we want to get one or two of these classics back into rotation. In addition to letting us know which ones you're most interested in, feel free to include your thoughts on whether the design needs an update or you'd like to see different products/colors available!

Thanks for your feedback, and thanks for supporting Techdirt.

Two logo tee styles (plus hoodies, mugs & more) in the Techdirt Gear store »

Filed Under: copymouse, gear, i invented email, t-shirts

Only A Few Days Left To Get Your Techdirt Gear (And An Early Start On Christmas Shopping)

from the time-is-running-out dept

Last chance to get Nerd Harder, Takedown and more! Order by Monday! »

Wouldn't it be great if December rolled around and you realized "hey, I've already done half my holiday shopping"? Of course it would — and that's why we held our super-early holiday gear sale in September. But now it's almost at an end, and none of this gear will be coming back until next year!

Here's what I suggest: before Monday, think through all the people you'll need to buy gifts for this year, and separate them into groups. For the nerds and geeks, the coders and modders, and anyone whose job involves deadlines and a computer — well, they could surely use a Nerd Harder mug for their desk, or maybe a t-shirt or hoodie. For the musicians and artists and bloggers and most of all YouTube content creators, some Takedown gear ought to ring true and hit the spot. The creative and culturally conscious folks with no love for the big entertainment industries will enjoy declaring that Home Cooking Is Killing Restaurants (and anyone who's handy with a spatula might get a kick out of that one too). And apart from any friends you might have who are deeply aware of the legal situation surrounding encryption and/or DRM, our new Math Is Not A Crime gear should suit anyone who knows their way around numbers and is baffled by our math-anxious society.

And boom, just like that (assuming your circle of loved ones is sufficiently geeky) you've all but cleared your Christmas plate! Feels good, right? Plus you can always grab yourself a gift or two along the way.

The sale ends on Monday! Hurry up and order your gear today! »

Filed Under: gear

Hurry Up: We're Taking Down Our Takedown Gear In A Week

from the clock-is-ticking dept

Support Techdirt and get Takedown gear! Last chance this year! »

Of all the T-shirts and other gear available in our super-early holiday sale, the popular Takedown design has the longest history: it was one of the first T-shirts we produced years ago as part of an early "reason to buy" project, it was later revamped with an improved graphical design for our Insider Shop, and then this year it was revamped once again with a slightly modified look for our sales via Teespring.

And now it's your last chance to get one in 2016! The current run ends on Monday, October 3rd -- and after that we won't be taking reservations and can't promise when it will return, but it won't be until next year at the earliest.

So don't miss out and order yours today! Plus, consider picking it up now for the holidays and getting an early start on your gift-buying list -- the reason we're holding this sale so early is to give lots and lots of time before Christmas for Teespring's sometimes-slow fulfillment. And don't forget to check out the other gear in our super-early holiday sale.

Filed Under: gear, gear sale, t-shirt, takedown

Two Great Ways To Support Techdirt

from the cwf+rtb dept

Happy long weekend, Techdirters! We've got two big offers on the go — one that, like the summertime, is coming to an end, and one that just got started. As long-time readers know, we have a philosophy here called CwF+RtB: we connect with fans and then try to give them a reason to buy, and we owe a big thanks to all the fans who keep proving that it's a damn good philosophy indeed. We've actually been experimenting with some expansions to our traditional on-site advertising recently, but we've never much liked that world (thus our failure to follow most of the media's lead in getting angry about ad blockers, instead offering the ability to turn off ads on Techdirt if you so choose) and, unsurprisingly, we ran into plenty of problems right away: deceptive and clickbait-ish ads, technical problems that interfered with the site for some people, and the fact that both we and our readers have the well-trained ad-blindness of any internet native. So we quickly shut down those new programs, because we'd much rather focus on direct offers like these that give our readers a chance to support Techdirt and get something good in return.

First, I'm sure you've seen our latest line of t-shirts, hoodies and other gear: Copying Is Not Theft. It's the one that's been riling people up way more than we expected on Twitter and our Facebook page. Their ire over the message is matched only by the desire to buy the gear that said ire seems to inspire in others — which is a fancy way of saying that a lot of you snatched up a t-shirt after realizing just how controversial it was.

But, if you haven't gotten yours yet, time is running out! The Copying Is Not Theft campaign closes on Monday at 8:00pm PDT, and we won't be taking reservations after it ends (the shirt will come back some day, but we aren't setting a date and it might be a while). So hurry up and place your order before it's too late!

Next, we've got a brand new deal for Techdirt readers. I probably don't need to tell anyone reading this how important a VPN is if you're concerned about your privacy and security online, and that's why we've teamed up with Private Internet Access (one of the most popular and highest rated VPN providers out there) to offer a one-year subscription to the Techdirt Crystal Ball for free when you sign up for a VPN account.

The Techdirt Crystal Ball is a special members-only feature that lets you read, share and comment on upcoming Techdirt posts before they go public on the front page of the blog, giving you a glimpse into our internal editorial queue and letting you get the jump on the conversation:

Normally Crystal Ball access costs $15/year via our Insider Shop, but you can get a full year for free: just use our special affiliate link to sign up with Private Internet Access. We won't auto-renew the Crystal Ball subscription or force you to cancel to avoid being charged — after the year is up, it will expire automatically.

Once again, happy long weekend everyone! Thanks for checking out these offers and helping us grow our CwF+RtB philosophy instead of tangling with crappy ad networks. All the profit from these and everything we sell goes to supporting (and expanding!) our ongoing reporting — we couldn't do it without you.

Filed Under: copying is not theft, deals, gear, t-shirt, techdirt, vpn

DailyDirt: Nature Creates Some Cool Stuff

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Insect evolution is pretty amazing in general, but there are a few examples that are almost incredible. For example, people have discovered enormous ant colonies, wasps that can create zombies, and the ways that insects exhibit a collective intelligence that looks surprisingly smarter than any individual bug. Considering that insects, by weight and numbers, surpass humans by at least an order of magnitude, we might want to keep an eye on these invertebrates. Here are just a few more fascinating examples of awesome insect abilities.

• An insect known as Issus coleoptratus apparently beat humans to the invention of the mechanical gear. This bug uses its gear mechanism to lock its hind legs together so that it can jump straight forward, and this is the only known example of a naturally-occurring gear in nature. [url]
• The dung beetle, Scarabaeus satyrus, is an astronomer, using its vision of the entire Milky Way to help it navigate at night. Without a view of our galaxy in the sky, beetles would wander and seem lost in experiments that show that dung beetles use astronomy for navigation. [url]
• Goniurellia tridens is a fruit fly that evolved very detailed images of ants on its wings. When this fly flaps its wings, it confuses its predators -- but some observers say the images are of spiders (not ants) and trick spiders into thinking about mating (not eating). [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.

Filed Under: ants, astronomy, biology, evolution, fruit fly, gear, insects, nature

Help Us Expand The Insider Shop By Voting On Ideas For New Techdirt Gear

from the MOAR-EAGLES! dept

We want to keep our Insider Shop stocked with an always-expanding selection of fresh Techdirt gear, so we've set up a Step2 thread for you to vote on product ideas and submit your own.

Our Seized Tee and DMCA Tee have both been very popular, so we're definitely looking for your input on new t-shirt ideas—but we're also interested in whatever else you dream up! For now, we want to dedicate this thread to physical Techdirt gear—we'll be launching another thread in the future to discuss the new blog features and subscription packages. There are a few ideas already there, both for new products and for variations on our existing lineup. Head on over and help us decide what we should offer next.

Remember, you need an account to vote and comment on Step2, but your Techdirt account works there too.

Filed Under: gear, techdirt

Announcing The New Techdirt Insider Shop

from the rtb dept

A few years ago, in the pre-Kickstarter (but post-artists-crowdfunding) world, we decided that there was no reason why some of the basic experiments for funding that musicians were doing shouldn't apply to blogs as well. So we launched our own "tiered" "CwF+RtB" (Connect with Fans + Reasons to Buy) store entirely as an experiment. By the end of the year, we made over $50,000 with it, which exceeded any modest expectations we might have had. Since then, it's always been on the list of things to do to update the store in a big way, and a few months ago, we finally decided to focus in on it. While it took longer than we expected, we're proud to launch the new version:

The Techdirt Insider Shop

It has many of the same offerings that the original had, but a bunch of new and expanded offerings as well. It's designed more as a store than a "tiered" setup, so shop around a bit. We'll have a few more posts highlighting some key features and merchandise, but for those of you already familiar with the Techdirt Crystal Ball -- which allows you to get early access to some stories and preview the headlines of others -- that's still around, but it's now been expanded, so you get to see some stories up to two hours early, rather than just one. And, if you sign up for a premium package, you can even get the brand new Crystal Ball Plus, which gives you pretty detailed access to all sorts of posts we're working on, including false-start stories that never make it onto the site, and some works that are very much in progress. If you're already a Techdirt Crystal Ball subscriber, your account has been upgraded to the new version, meaning you get to see more stories earlier, and you get some other features.

We also have some brand new features on the site for Insiders, including the new First Word/Last Word offering, which I'll have another post discussing in more detail a little later today. There's also the brand new Insider Chat which all of you should be able to see to your right. Certain Insider membership packages allow you to join in the chat. Without one of those... you can still view the chat, but you can't participate. Also, for those who sign up for longer term packages, we have a number of offerings, including special Insider Hangouts (using Google+'s Hangouts feature), which should be a lot of fun. Check out the store for a detailed explanation of all the new blog features that are available.

You want more gear? We've got more gear, including new t-shirts, hoodies, mugs, bottles and other assorted paraphernalia. We've got a brand new Seized t-shirt in honor of various domain seizures (more on that later!) and an updated DMCA takedown t-shirt. The original was our most popular seller, so don't miss out on the new, revamped version. We've also got a very special, limited edition Techdirt staff bundle -- of which only five are available to buy. These are special staff-only hoodies and an assortment of other goodies. If you don't want to splurge to that level (or if they all sell out before you get a chance) we've got some other hoodies to choose from.

Downloads? We've got downloads. You can "pay what you want" for the ebook version of my book Approaching Infinity (built off a collection of Techdirt posts) or our famed Sky is Rising report. Name your price and help support more such works in the future! Hell, if you don't want anything specific in return, you can also just donate some money.

There's plenty more as well, including getting lunch with me -- which we offered only as a one week special last time, but it was quite popular (and a lot of fun) -- as well as the indisputably Awesome Day with Techdirt (which a few folks did last time around, and it really was quite awesome). There are also various business services that tie back into how we normally make a living.

And, last and most certainly least, we still have options for those of you who hate Techdirt. Last time around, we offered to take a year off for merely $100-million, and surprisingly none of you took us up on it. We did have some requests for pro-rated offerings, so we'll now shut down for 24 hours for just $1 million (pocket change!). As for the big one? Well, we always hear the haters insist that price is equal to value, and no one appeared to value that $100-million offering enough... so the price is going up. You can shut us up for an entire year for the new, more luxurious price of $100,000,001. Hurry up. We may raise the prices again before you know it.

Either way, the store platform we've put together is a lot more robust, and we're hopeful that we can do a bunch of other things with it over the next few months and years, so shop away...

Please note that while we've been testing the new store & features extensively, when things go live, problems always pop up. If you spot any errors or bugs, please let us know and we'll get to them as quickly as possible...

Filed Under: crystal ball, cwf+rtb, gear, insider, shop, store, t-shirts, techdirt