The website was founded in 1997 by Mike Masnick. It was originally based on the weblog softwareSlash. Techdirt's content is based on reader submissions as well as the editorial staff's picks. The website makes use of MySQL, Apache, and PHP, and is hosted at ActionWeb. Techdirt is managed by Floor 64, a company located in Redwood City, California, 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 for the Netherlands, Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon or author Glyn Moody.
Reception and impact
On Techdirt in January 2005 the "Streisand effect" was coined by founder Mike Masnick. In 2003 Forbes named Techdirt as one of the "Best Tech Blogs". In 2006 Techdirt has been praised for its "sharp, pithy analysis of current tech issues" by Bloomberg Businessweek. 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. In 2009, English singer Lily Allen created a blog critical of music piracy where she plagiarized an entire post from Techdirt. Following an exchange with Techdirt, debating hypocrisy in the musician's handling of copyright infringement, Allen shut down her blog. Marvin Ammori, a lawyer who advocates on network neutrality and Internet freedom issues, praised Techdirt in the 2011s Stop Online Piracy Act controversy with: "I’m not sure anyone did more to educate the public about SOPA than Techdirt."
In 2017, Shiva Ayyadurai filed suit against Techdirt for defamation in response to a series of articles critical of Ayyadurai's claims to have invented email 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 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.
