04.12.11
Posted in Site News at 3:23 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Truths about Techrights and how to get involved (preferably IRC)
A longtime reader has repeatedly suggested that we introduce Techtrights properly, at the very least to those who do not know it or have heard about it from people who defame us/incite against us and sometimes retaliate against those who mention us. Yes, we are being defamed by those whom we criticise, usually those whose interests are directly and squarely against those of Free software. Groklaw was subjected to the same type of treatment for almost 8 years (especially when touching controversial subjects like Mono), but those who spent time around the site would know that its detractors simply lie. So, here are a bunch of myths we wish to address:
Myth: Techrights hasn’t many people participating.
Reality: In Techrights, communication used to rely on blog comments and E-mail, but ever since the middle of 2008, Freenode-hosted IRC has been the favoured means of communication (real-time, groupthink in the positive sense, etc.), which also goes public in the form of daily logs (conversations in IRC are less formal, so they get separated). In addition we use a wiki component, many of those who are involved use identi.ca for coordination, and in 2009 we decided to restrict blog comments to registered readers only. This lowered the amount of comments by almost 90%.
Myth: Techrights is a rebrand of Boycott Novell
Reality: A long time ago the site expanded in terms of scope (like SCO in the case of Groklaw) and we needed to organise the site in a way which divides the causes a little more effectively. So Boycott Novell became just part of a bigger domain, called Techrights. The transition was long overdue and it took years due to technical reasons which we resolved only to an extent (using the wiki, URL redirects, and so on).
Myth: Techrights is edited by some crazy person
Reality: People who know my qualifications and know me in person would beg to differ. I never hid my identity, either. I am working as a post-doctoral researcher specialising in image analysis and statistical modeling and I won some awards for my technical achievements, in addition to many trophies for achievements in physical, competitive sports. I also have an affinity for UNIX/Linux servers administration, with particular interest in the use of clusters to improve performance (necessary for the aforementioned job as I work with many gigabytes of 3-D datasets). People who defame the messenger’s character based on personal as opposed to technical arguments (cheap smears) are only stooping as low as one can get. The ruder defamatory comments doubt my doctorate degree or claim that I went to some obscure college when in fact I earned my degree at a 5*-rated department (highest in the UK), having been supervised by its Head of Department who received an OBE from the Queen of England. My software engineering credentials are ranked First Class with Honours. I still code on a daily basis and my software is free/libre. I do not interject my personality into this Web site because the site is not about me, it is about issues that more and more people care about. I’ve sacrificed a lot to grow its community and scale of content (body of diverse work) despite the many threats and attacks against me, so those with vengeance must remember that I too am a person with feelings and being lied about can be unpleasant, not just unethical. I am very approachable, I am not angry or dangerous, and those who still believe the stereotypes are encouraged to contact me as I always respond.
Myth: Techrights breeds hatred
Reality: The site could be interpreted in this way when it comes to a push called “Boycott Novell”, but the person who chose the name “Boycott Novell” no longer writes here, due to lack of time and other personal reasons. The reality is, the history of people who write here shows a track record of GNU/Linux advocacy (yes, mostly the GPL camp), not criticism of companies. Many of us are developers who actively contribute to the community. As the daily links in this site ought to show, this is still a focus of ours. Good news need not generate responses, whereas bad news tends to require discussion centered around rebuttals. This is why the subjects we cover in standalone posts are typically of negative nature. Many site are like that and it’s called “progressive”.
Myth: Techrights is editorially dependent on other sites
Reality: With the exception of the many external links we provide (some opponents of ours rant that these are not enough because we also cross-reference extensively), we are editorially independent. I used to write for news sites, but owing to my dependence on an editor’s judgment and de facto censorship I decided to concentrate my efforts on Techrights. People who contribute to Techrights do not have their sentences minced or their views discouraged to the point of self-censorship.
Myth: Techrights censors
Reality: In almost 5 years of running this site, we have never deleted any blog comments, not even vulgar ones which bear X-rated words and maybe threats. Over time this led us to requiring that users at the very least register, which leads to some certain liability/responsibility for what is said. “Anonymous cowards” tend to be reckless and IP addresses from Novell headquarters used to comment here anonymously as well (they are reportedly doing so from outside this site now, sometimes anonymously).
Myth: Techrights got cracked
Reality: Techrights was never cracked. This is part of the mythology spread by Internet trolls and stalkers, who try to defame the site by all means available, even libel which they themselves ‘plant’ on the Web and then cite as ‘proof’. When we came under DDOS attacks which downed us for days some clowns dared to suggest that we had DDOSed ourselves. Right, because that’s the most logical explanation…
Myth: Techrights gets paid to ‘shill’ for freedom
Reality: Neither I nor anyone else who is associated with this site ever received any incentive — money of otherwise — to run this site. This Web site is a form of grassroots activism and it is a hobby.
With all that in mind, please consider making us stronger by rebutting the lies which get repeated around the Web and also by making first contact in the IRC channels. That’s where a lot of our activity takes place and it is very amicable. █
Today’s Groklaw News
-
“Groklaw,” the website created and maintained by paralegal Pamela Jones to fight on behalf of Linux in court battles filed by software firm SCO, is shutting down.
Jones, also known as PJ, waged a fierce battle against SCO, a company that threatened the Linux world with its suits against IBM and Novell [for Unix]. SCO ended up losing in court, and Jones wrote on at Groklaw on Saturday that she was shutting it down.
“I know a lot of you will be unhappy to hear it, so let me briefly explain, because my decision is made and it’s firm. In a simple sentence, the reason is this: the crisis SCO initiated over Linux is over, and Linux won. SCO as we knew it is no more,” she said.
-
-
Pamela declares victory, resists the temptation to diversify and announces Groklaw will no longer publish original articles. Personally I think this is a great loss for the wider software freedom community; an investigative community venue is definitely needed to counter the mesh of conspiracies I know are the daily work of industry lobbyists and standards professionals.
Permalink
Send this to a friend
Posted in News Roundup at 12:56 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Contents
-
When laptop sales overtook desktops, “Microsoft didn’t care,” Hudson pointed out. “Either one meant the sale of a Windows OS, and often other software.”
The switch to “mobile-everything,” on the other hand, “is already having a huge impact, because in most cases it marks the loss of another customer to Apple or Linux.
“Maybe it’s not the year of linux on the desktop, but it’s also not the year of Windows on mobile devices, and it never will be,” Hudson concluded. “Mobile is where the growth is, for both business and the consumer, and that market is being divvied up between Apple and Linux, with Linux dominating.”
-
Server
-
Kernel Space
-
The Linux Foundation this week officially released the Carrier Grade Linux 5.0 specification (CGL).
CGL provides a set of specifications which helps to define the requirements of carrier and network equipment vendors. The CGL 5 specification is the first major revision since CGL 4.0 was released in February of 2007.
The new CGL 5.0 specifications have been available in draft form for months, and vendors including MontaVisa and Wind River have already released products that will support the new specification.
-
-
-
Applications
-
VLC is beyond doubts the most popular open source, cross-platform media player and multi-media framework written by VideoLAN projects. VLC player is small in size,vlc-logo
just about 17 Mb and immensely powerful! In this post we will explore the player and list 20+ things you can do with VLC player.
-
With each passing day, I find myself more amazed at the level of innovation shown from within the browser community. Both open source and closed source browsers on the Linux desktop manage to extend browser functionality far beyond the usual. This has proven both exciting and problematic. Exciting in the sense that we can now do more than ever thought previously with our browsers, yet problematic in that we have more moving parts that malfunction us.
In this article, I’ll highlight the best browsers for the Linux platform and offer some additional thoughts on how they have made an impact on our lives.
-
Most of us know about portable apps for Windows, and how useful they can be sometimes. It’s great to simply have your favorite programs and add-ons with you, especially in the case of browsers. However, portable Linux apps have been nonexistent, at least until now. Lately a decent collection of Linux portable apps have showed up, and are now worth mentioning for those who want to try them out.
[...]
Whenever you’re on the go, it’s very important that you can take notes and keep track of them. Gnote is a great choice because it’s lightweight and doesn’t have Mono as a dependency. It’s easy to use, has lots of formatting and organizational features, and doesn’t take up much space. It’s your best bet to jot down those sudden ideas.
-
Mixbus (Figure 1) is a version of Ardour2 for Linux and OSX that replaces Ardour’s native mixer with one designed by the Harrison company, a manufacturer of professional audio mixing boards. Harrison consoles have been used to mix the soundtracks for many popular movies – see the advertisements on the site – and their products can be found in major broadcast, film, and audio post-production studios, as well as in live performance venues. Mixbus has been designed to emulate the best features of an analog mixer with the added value of Ardour’s audio capabilities and Harrison’s unique DSP core. Indeed, current Ardour users will find familiar territory in the Mixbus recorder/editor and a whole new world in the mixer section.
-
There’s no shortage of quality free media players to entertain your eyes and ears, regardless of your computer or operating system. With cracking cost-free solutions like VLC (often considered the king of media players) and iTunes alternative JetAudio, you really shouldn’t be paying for this sort of software.
Universal Media Player, or UMPlayer for short, is yet another addition to the media player category which uses the MPlayer backend to chew through any media you give it. The app promises to play everything and integrates various web services into one desktop solution.
-
Proprietary
-
The bugs are dying at an incredible pace in Norway today, as the Opera Desktop Team has put forth another release candidate, these last few coming with point numbers! The latest, and 2nd for this very long spring day, is RC 4.1, which brings lots of presentation bugs to an end.
-
Instructionals/Technical
-
Games
-
For a comprehensive tutorial on sed, check out the Introduction and Tutorial of sed by Bruce Barnett.
-
Desktop Environments
-
K Desktop Environment/KDE SC)
-
The Plasma Quick initiative aims to take libplasma, which is the underlying infrastructure for Plasma based applications, and make it an even better solution for devices that it already is.
-
Key KDE developers have been blogging about new projects aimed towards portable devices. As Aaron Seigo says, “In a nutshell, Plasma Active is about getting the KDE Platform with Plasma providing a compelling user interface ready for and available on hardware devices outside the usual laptop and desktop form factors.” For us mortals, that means an interface for smartphones, tablets, and handhelds.
-
GNOME Desktop
-
-
With all the buzz around GNOME 3, I really wanted to try it out for real on my main laptop. It usually runs Debian Unstable but that’s not enough in this case, GNOME 3 is not fully packaged yet and it’s only in experimental for now.
-
For those that prefer a “dock” approach to launching apps, the GNOME Shell has that option covered as well, just add your favorites to the dock and click to launch. The dock is also an easy way to switch between open apps.
-
GNOME 3 Shell seems a lot more mature and usable than it did two months ago, while GNOME 3 fallback mode presents a compelling traditional alternative to GNOME 3 Shell.
-
-
CTKArch is a distribution, or perhaps more a spin, based on Arch Linux that is using Openbox as default window manager. It’s minimal in size, if you believe that anything under CD size is minimal these days, and seems to be designed first and foremost to run from CD or USB as a live system, so it has a lot in common with ArchBang. Only a few days ago, 7th April, v. 0.7 was released into the wilderness of the Linux distribution jungle. I had toyed with 0.6 on and off for a few weeks and thus am in the position to make a few observations.
-
Reviews
-
Red Hat Family
-
That will be changing in 2012 with the reintroduction of a Simple Protocol for Independent Computing Environments (SPICE)-based virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI).
-
Last summer, in fact, it was named the most popular Linux distribution in that area, with almost 30 percent of the Linux server market.
-
LINUX DISTRIBUTION CentOS has released a major update following in the footsteps of Red Hat’s Enterprise Linux, which has been updated to version 5.6.
CentOS is a community version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and follows the same versioning scheme as RHEL, with both distributions now on version 5.6. CentOS is essentially a free version of RHEL built with the same packages as Red Hat’s commercially supported version but without the Red Hat branding.
While Red Hat released RHEL 5.6 in January, it has taken a few months for the CentOS lads to get around to removing all the necessary branding to avoid infringing Red Hat’s licences. However the delay has been made worse by having to split effort between CentOS 5.6 and CentOS 6.
-
Debian Family
-
. My conclusion is CrunchBang appears to be a good tool, I just haven’t found any task for it.
-
Canonical/Ubuntu
-
For the last few months, on nearly every site I blog for, I have been saying that Ubuntu 11.04 was going to be a big setback for Ubuntu. This “setback” was mostly due to Canonical’s decision to use Unity as the default desktop. This decision sidestepped GNOME and GNOME 3 all together. Well, after using Ubuntu 11.04 beta 1 for a few weeks now, I have to say I was wrong. Although there are a few weak spots in the release, this beta release has gone a long way to showing me that Ubuntu hasn’t fallen off the tracks, jumped the shark, or is about to lose it’s way. In fact, Ubuntu 11.04 will remain king of Linux for new users as far as I can see.
-
In the short time since the release of Ubuntu 11.04 beta, the OS has received mixed reviews. Some testers say it is the worst Ubuntu beta release ever, while others say they are impressed by its new features.
-
The new Unity interface is surprisingly usable. Of course, it does have some rough edges and power users may find it limiting in many ways. Still, we think that the new interface has great potential and is already good enough for day-to-day computing. Naturally, Ubuntu 11.04 is more than just a fresh interface, and the new version brings a slew of other updates and improvements that make it a solid release indeed.
-
Not to say i hate everything about it. I like the speed, and it looks great. The new app launcher is excellent so far despite one or two crashes. The idea of a dock isn’t horrible, but i’d like more control over it, not some hidden options in the Compiz settings.
And a final note for anyone who’s going to troll… get used to articles like this as Linux becomes more popular… it’s called constructive criticism, and i noticed the Linux community often doesn’t take it very well. This is just an opinion, you’re free to po
-
Ubuntu announced its 8.04 Desktop release almost 36 months ago, on April 24, 2008. For the LTS Desktop releases, Ubuntu committed to ongoing security and critical fixes for a period of 36 months. The support period is now nearing its end and Ubuntu 8.04 Desktop will reach end of life on Thursday, May 12, 2011. At that time, Ubuntu Security Notices will no longer include information or updated packages for Ubuntu 8.04 Desktop.
-
As I read the reviews of Unity that have started to appear around the web, I see there is a concern regarding the graphics hardware support for Unity. Some users are concerned that Unity will not run on their hardware, and so they will have to use Unity 2D instead. Let me tell you about the choices we made.
As time goes, hardware becomes old and obsolete. This is very much true for GPUs. The rate of graphics advance over the last 10 years has been impressive. What was great 5 years ago isn’t enough to run all types of real-time 3D graphics programs anymore. For Unity we looked at the visual effects we wanted to do and the level of performance we wanted to achieve. To minimize the number of draw calls per frame in Unity, we needed GPUs to have support for frame buffer objects. With frame buffer objects support, we render only the parts of the interface that need to be updated and leave the rest untouched. For rendering, we wanted to have flexibility and the best visual results possible. So we decided to require ARB vertex and fragment support.
-
-
-
-
The Linux Foundation announced the availability of the Yocto Project Release 1.0, which includes a version of OpenEmbedded’s bitbake build system, major improvements to its developer interface, and Linaro technology for improved ARM support. The Linux Foundation also announced new Yocto Steering Group members Dell and Mentor Graphics to help oversee the embedded Linux standardization project.
-
Phones
-
Nokia/MeeGo/Maemo
-
But what strikes me is that these do not address what is, for me, the central question: why does Nokia need Qt in the long term – that is, beyond the short-term requirement to “harvest additional value” from the platform, as Nokia put it so charmingly? Until that question is answered, I remain pessimistic about the long-term effects of Nokia’s moves on Qt and open source in general – however many refutations the company issues on other points.
-
And if Qt has no future, why on earth would Nokia continue to invest money and people in producing the open source version that would be commercialised by someone else? Surely it is bound to pass the open source side across to Digia at some point, or maybe to some other party, although it’s hard to see who would want to pick up the non-commercial part of Qt when the money-making aspect resides elsewhere.
-
-
Android
-
Google is baking specifications for a tablet based on its Chrome OS into its open source Linux code, the company confirmed. Meanwhile Google flattened its executive structure, promoting Android creator Andy Rubin and others to senior vice president roles, and has also acquired Pushlife, makers of an iTunes-like music app for Android.
-
-
LinkedIn released the final LinkedIn for Android 1.0 app to help professionals view and manage LinkedIn connections. In other enterprise-related Android news, Google upgraded its security and device management programs for Android with three Google Apps updates, including a Device Policy update, a Google Apps Lookup app, and a Honeycomb tablet encryption feature.
-
A report today from Taiwanese Digitimes shows some explosive estimates for $150 and cheaper, contract free Android phones. Specifically, the paper says it expects to see 20-25 million entry level Android devices ship in 2011, up from 2.5-3 million in 2010.
-
OLPC
-
Alan Garcia, the President of Peru, just announced that the country will be handing out their one millionth XO laptop by the end of this year and will soon be building manufacturing facilities to build the laptops locally. The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) program created the XO laptop as an inexpensive tool for children around the world to learn with. The OLPC program in Peru has a goal to have laptops in 100% of the country’s public primary schools by the end of 2011.
-
Tablets
-
Housed in aluminum, the Iconia Tab A500 includes Wi-Fi, GPS, and Bluetooth connectivity, but for now foregoes either 3G access or the need for a wireless carrier contract. The tablet is said to offer 10 hours of battery life, but measures 10.24 x 6.97 x 0.52 inches and weighs 1.69 pounds, making it heftier than the iPad 2′s 1.33 pounds and 9.5 x 7.31 x 0.34-inch frame.
-
-
A Google engineer has released an open source Java client for Bitcoin, the peer-to-peer currency that may eventually revolutionize online transactions.
-
Gene sequencing has gotten incredibly fast and cheap, and researchers around the world are pouring huge volumes of genomic data onto their private servers, in the hope they will sift through it all to make groundbreaking discoveries. Should so much genomic data be so closely guarded, or should it be poured into a free and open database that all scientists share?
-
Web Browsers
-
Mozilla
-
Mozilla has committed to a more aggressive release schedule for the Firefox Web browser. There were nearly three years between the launch of Firefox 3 and Firefox 4, but Firefox 5 is expected to be introduced in a matter of months at the end of June. There are some benefits to the rapid release schedule, but also some potential pitfalls.
-
Mozilla has announced that it will release the first update for Firefox 4 on April 26, about a month after the original release, back in March 22.
New with this release is that Mozilla will start using code names (somehow related to the main branch codename, in this case Tumucumaque) for udpates as well, as a way to help developers that follow Firefox development closely, more clearly understand what is coming when.
-
Oracle/Java/LibreOffice
-
Healthcare
-
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is seeking to establish a Custodial Agent (CA) that will facilitate the establishment and operations of an Electronic Health Records (EHR) Open Source software development ecosystem and define the relationship between and interactions among developers, users, vendors and service providers.
-
Last week I wrote about the UK government’s “new” IT strategy, which is designed in part to avoid some of the costly mistakes of the past. And as far as the latter go, there aren’t many bigger or costlier than the NHS National Programme for Information Technology (NpfIT).
Now, some of us might say that one of the reasons this was such a disaster was that it did just about everything wrong: it was imposed unilaterally from the top, and built around huge slabs of proprietary code – but you’d expect me to say that. So here’s someone else opining much the same, slightly more politely:
-
Business
-
Since free software was originally created by hackers for hackers, it’s no wonder that the first programs they created were tools – things like Emacs – and something to run them on – GNU/Linux. The second generation applications were key infrastructural elements – Web servers, databases etc., while more recently, we’ve seen the rise of applications like enterprise content management and CRM, as open source moves closer to the end users.
But one class of software that seemed totally absent was that for managing human resources – HRM apps. I thought this was something of a lack, but that would be filled in due course. It turns out that it was filled quite some time ago – 2006, to be precise – and that I somehow overlooked the open source OrangeHRM product completely since then. To remedy this, I met up with Sujee Saparamadu, the CEO and cofounder of the company, to catch up on the subject.
-
Programming
-
I have a kind of a fetish – the idea that source code, even old or extremely specific for a single use, may be useful for a long time. Not only for porting to some other, strange platform, but for issues like prior art in software patents, for getting inspiration for techniques or simply because you don’t know when it may be of use. For this reason, I try to create public access archives of source code I manage to get my hands on, especially when such codes may require a written license to acquire, but may then later be redistributed.
-
Standards/Consortia
-
There are two undeniable facts in the information technology industry today, which often end up being forgotten in our day by day activities:
Corporations are monopolistic by nature and technological dependence is at the base of the information technology industry economic model.
-
Network engineers and hard-core Web architects know that HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol), the data transfer method used by the Web, isn’t the most efficient data transfer protocol around. So, back in November 2009, Google started working on a faster replacement: SPDY, pronounced “speedy.” And, now, if you’re using the Chrome Web browser, and visiting Google Web sites, you can see SPDY in action according to Conceivably Tech.
-
I would be falsely modest if I said that I am not proud that our pleadings have been entirely endorsed by a panel of three highly authoritative judges. The facts are simple and very well described in the order. Basically, typing in the Google search field “Name Surname” of my client, the autocompletion and the “suggested searches” (now “related searches”) offered to complete it with “con man” (“truffatore”) and “fraud” (“truffa”), which caused a lot of trouble to the client, who has a pulic image both as an entrepeneur and provider of educational services in the field of personal finance. Google argued that it could not be held liable because it is a hosting provider, but we showed that this is content produced by them (and by the way, they do filter out certain content, including terms that are know to be used to distribute copyright infringing material), although through automated means. Therefore in this case the search engine cannot avail itself of the safe harbour provision of the Ecommerce Directive.
-
-
Cablegate
-
JULIAN ASSANGE: We have increased our publishing since late last year when my present difficulties began to include over 63 media organisations from around the world. We have now published over 7,000 US Embassy cables relating to Cablegate, so, yes, we’re continuing on. Even when I was in prison for 10 days we continued publishing.
-
Finance
-
By mid-March, as the government tells it, Matthew H. Kluger knew the FBI was closing in.
As a lawyer for three of the nation’s premier corporate law firms, most recently in the Washington office of Wilson Sonsini, he had allegedly stolen secrets that yielded tens of millions of dollars of insider trading profits. Now he was trying to eliminate the evidence.
-
Privacy
-
A federal grand jury has opened an investigation into mobile apps and what kind of personal data they might transmit about users, Pandora has revealed. The streaming music company recently amended its S-1 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to note that it had been subpoenaed to produce documents about its user data collection on Android and iOS devices, which the company believes is related to an industry-wide probe into how mobile apps capitalize on user information.
-
Google and Facebook are among a group of net heavyweights taking the French government to court this week.
The legal challenge has been brought by The French Association of Internet Community Services (ASIC) and relates to government plans to keep web users’ personal data for a year.
-
Internet/Net Neutrality/UBB
-
A federal appeals court on Monday rejected as “premature” a lawsuit by Verizon and MetroPCS challenging the Federal Communications Commission’s pending rules aimed at keeping Internet service providers from blocking access to certain websites or applications. The decision, by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia circuit, is a first-round victory for the FCC and its chairman, Julius Genachowski. But the real battle over the agency’s attempt to regulate broadband providers has barely begun. Several broadband companies, and some consumer advocacy and public interest groups, are likely to return to court this year to challenge aspects of the rules. Edward McFadden, a Verizon spokesman, said Monday that the company intended to refile its lawsuit this year. The House will take up a joint resolution condemning the new Internet access rules this week.
-
DRM
-
Here’s the joint statement. There is a permanent injunction, but no admission of wrongdoing by Hotz, who, as he said from day one, was never trying to enable piracy. I commend SCEA for taking this step, and I mean that sincerely.
-
Intellectual Monopolies
-
-
WASHINGTON—A U.S. federal appeals panel, hearing a case over Myriad Genetics Inc. patents for identifying breast- and ovarian-cancer risk, Monday probed whether it makes sense to continue allowing the patenting of human gene sequencing.
-
A relatively quiet but intense struggle in the federal courts will decide under what conditions a company can patent the building blocks of life — or in some cases the building blocks of death — for profit.
The struggle almost certainly will reach the U.S. Supreme Court.
For now, those fighting the case are waiting for a decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, which decides intellectual property issues.
-
On behalf of 60 family farmers, seed businesses and organic agricultural organizations, the Public Patent Foundation (PUBPAT) filed suit today against Monsanto Company to challenge the chemical giant’s patents on genetically modified seed. The organic plaintiffs were forced to sue preemptively to protect themselves from being accused of patent infringement should they ever become contaminated by Monsanto’s genetically modified seed, something Monsanto has done to others in the past.
-
And Sheen is also getting into the intellectual-property game. According to a variety of news reports, Sheen has filed trademark applications on 22 of his catchphrases, including the expressions “Duh, Winning,” “Vatican Assassin,” and “Tiger Blood.” Click here for the NY Post story.
-
Newspapers
-
Last week I got in a bit of an argument with Adam Thierer, Randy Picker, and others about the New York Times paywall. I think a paywall is a bad business strategy, but my opposition to paywalls is mostly a matter of (as I tweeted to Adam) “personal principle rather than business advice.” Adam seemed confused by that statement, so let me see if I can elaborate.
-
I thought I had plumbed the depths of the UK newspaper industry’s stupidity when it came to digital. The idea that putting up paywalls in any way strengthens the readership, reputation and brand of a publication was so far off the mark that I thought it was not possible to go beyond it in sheer wrong-headedness.
-
Copyrights
-
So, how can we little people – the ones that are actually paying for all this work, but that are never allowed to provide any input – head off this danger of a biased, misleading report emerging from RAND Corporation?
I think the only way is to starting making noises about the fact that it *might* be biased and misleading, so that those preparing it at RAND Corporation know that we are watching them like proverbial hawks, and that we will assuredly tear their methodology to pieces when it comes out, and will thus be certain to find – and brandish – the slightest lack of rigour or bias therein.
Got that, RAND Corporation people? Excellent.
-
As the Report from the European Commission to the European Parliament rightly says: “this initial evaluation of the effectiveness of the Directive comes at the right time.” The world of digital content is evolving so quickly that the current form of IPRED is sadly out of date, and urgently needs to be re-thought in the light of new evidence in this field.
The Report goes on to make the following comment: “Several studies carried out by international organisations and industry have shown that infringements of intellectual property rights have reached a significant level, with certain of these goods posing a danger to consumers’ health and safety.” This statement requires closer analysis.
-
One of the striking features of reports purporting to estimate the “damage” caused by piracy – both of software and content – is that without exception, as far as I can tell, their numbers and methodology simply do not withstand close scrutiny.
The trouble is, when it’s a question of lone voices like mine or even that of Techdirt’s Mike Masnick, probably the most dogged debunker of piracy FUD, the content industries can ignore such posts, presumably in the belief that our quick analyses somehow don’t count.
-
Ars Technica freelancer Eriq Gardner was recently sued over a photo that appeared in a piece he wrote for us last year. The flimsy lawsuit was quickly dismissed, but the company behind it lives on—and has sued 50+ people in Colorado for their use of the same photo. Now, the federal judge overseeing all these cases has made it clear that he sees through the company’s “lawsuit as revenue generation” strategy, and that he’s not interested in enabling it. Righthaven is already backing down.
-
Last year, Viacom (NYSE: VIA) appealed its loss in its copyright lawsuit against YouTube (NSDQ: GOOG), and the video-sharing site has now filed a reply (embedded below) to Viacom’s arguments. Many of the arguments in the 107-page brief repeat what was argued in the courts below, but it’s interesting to observe the tone set in the opening pages of the brief. YouTube takes its time before getting to the legal points, showing that it’s really a good corporate citizen of the internet.
-
San Francisco – The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and a coalition of advocacy groups have asked a federal appeals court to reject attempts to thwart federal copyright law and saddle online communities with new litigation fears in the appeal of Viacom v. YouTube.
Sintel Lite – Tour 1
Credit: TinyOgg
Permalink
Send this to a friend
Posted in Bill Gates, Law, Microsoft, Patents at 8:13 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Intellectual Ventures, the patent-hoarding and patent-trolling operation which was set up by Bill Gates and his friend Nathan Myhrvold, is still causing a lot of trouble
THE world’s largest parent troll, Intellectual Ventures, has just created/’manufactured’ another patent deal rather than create/manufacture a product. The Seattle press (source favourable to Microsoft) quotes: ‘”Dashwire deal is kind of a unique one,” said Joe Chernesky, VP and general manager of global licensing sales at Intellectual Ventures. “They’re a smaller company and a component of the deal is access to our portfolio. A separate component to that deal is that they’ve acquired some patents from us to help them build out their patent portfolio and more aggressively defend themselves from companies with certain patents against them.”‘
“To Microsoft, “bad” patents are those which cause trouble to Microsoft and “good” ones basically remove Microsoft’s competition from the market or make that competition a Microsoft cash cow.”Actually, to say that they’re “a smaller company” is deceiving because these are not companies (no more than the mafia is), these are just legal firms that comprise extortion, litigation, and generally market distortion. Microsoft would like people to think that its backing of Intellectual Ventures is a case of “respecting IP” or something along those lines, but as the i4i case helps demonstrate, that’s just total nonsense. Microsoft knowingly ignores patents that stand in its way until it gets pulled into the courtroom, in which case it wants those patents removed. To Microsoft, “bad” patents are those which cause trouble to Microsoft and “good” ones basically remove Microsoft’s competition from the market or make that competition a Microsoft cash cow.
As we showed earlier this month, Intellectual Ventures and Microsoft both lobby to make the patent system worse (regarding this bill which they derail or distort by funding lobbyists). They help create a pyramid scheme or a bubble which they know will burst sooner or later, leaving those at the bottom broke and allowing those at the top to sweep up all those who are way down at the bottom. Here is a new article titled “Welcome to the age of sub-prime patents – or mutually assured litigation”:
US Outlook: Remember the chaos that ensued when mortgages stopped being a contract between you and your bank, and instead became financial chips bought and sold by gamblers on the world’s markets?
Funny things started happening. People who shouldn’t have gotten loans got them, the housing market became twisted out of shape, and a host of financial intermediaries, from corrupt mortgage brokers to reckless Wall Street bankers, managed to get filthy rich without adding a penny of value to the real economy.
Now consider the US patent system. An explosion in the number of patents being filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office, up from 312,000 a decade ago to 509,000 last year – an increase of almost two-thirds – is, sad to say, only partly a result of the increasing innovation of American business.
It’s not about innovation, it’s about protectionism; Intellectual Ventures protects its bottom line and also protects the bank accounts of Microsoft and Bill Gates (for reasons we explained before). The whole operation is a racket which needs to be dismantled. Instead, this insane doctrine expands overseas, due in part to lobbying from Microsoft which now puts in New Zealand the trap and the same trick as in Europe. As Jan Wildeboer has just put it:
New plan for NZ: Software Patents NO, but when embedded OK. http://ur1.ca/3ttq3 #notgood #swpat
He links to this new article about patents in New Zealand:
New Zealand and Australian inventors and patent attorneys are being invited to respond to a proposal for a single body to regulate patent attorneys in both countries.
Calling for comments on a discussion paper, New Zealand Commerce Minister Simon Power and Australian Innovation Minister Senator Kim Carr say it is important that government regulations take into account the needs of the patent attorneys and innovators who use them.
In New Zealand, software patents are to be phased out, under amendments to the Patents Act, but devices that contain embedded software will be able to be patented.
This is not good enough and we explained Microsoft’s role it at the end of 2010. They still manage to spread the patent bubble to other continents. It’s obvious who benefits. █
Permalink
Send this to a friend
Posted in Microsoft, SCO, UNIX at 7:38 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: SCO sort of nym-shifts and already tells lies to the public, regarding Unix ownership
AS GROKLAW declares victory and ceases new activity (starting middle of May), SCO’s new lies will be harder to find and respond to. According to this new press release, UnXis [1, 2, 3, 4] is already lying, so it is not a great time for Groklaw to exit; it already disputes the following part, which is a lie: “UnXis is committed to investing $25 million over the next 18 months into product and technology developments, as well as building upon its world-class management, sales and customer support team. UnXis has retained all customer contracts, the UNIX and UNIXWARE trademarks and an installed base of 32,000 customer contracts maintained in 82 countries, including McDonald’s, Siemens, Sperbank, China Post, Thomson Reuters and the US Department of Defense.”
Actually, Novell owns Unix (likely to be passed to AttachMSFT soon).
Who would be left to rebut and counter disinformation from SCO^H^HUnXis? Speaking of disinformation, when Microsoft Florian is not busy making legal threats against those who expose him (we are still not not sure if Dana Blankenhorn got fired from ZDNet because of a post arising from Florian), he is lobbying hard and bragging. Such mobbyists only write about one strand of issues this week (except correspondence with Microsoft MVPs and boosters) and it’s Groklaw or Techrights; it’s his familiar intimidation and defamation tactics. Watch this Slashdot thread:
o on over to LWN and look at Florian’s continued meltdown about how PJ isn’t relevant and he is.
http://lwn.net/Articles/437650/ [lwn.net]
There’s a lot said there that exposes Florian’s true colors.
He heaps praise on the people who spread the most FUD about Linux. Robert Enderle, MOG, Dan “Lyin’” Lyons, and Ed Bott led the charge in the media against Linux. The only person he left out to praise was Rudy De Haas (“Paul Murphy” pseudonym). I’m sorry, but the list of above people have nothing worth listening to and his defense of them shows what side of the fence he’s on.
See other comments. Exposed pretty badly, eh? But looking ahead, the mobbyists will have more time to defame and distort the reality about Groklaw (revisionism), while Groklaw is no longer there to defend itself. We fear that Pamela Jones’ departure is a massive loss to everyone except SCO and Microsoft. █
Permalink
Send this to a friend
Posted in GNU/Linux, Google, Mono at 7:06 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Yanking Mono from android would be Google’s next logical step; Vista Phony 7 update tool yanked
GOOGLE uses Dalvik inside Android. It relies to a certain degree on the success of Java, even though SCOracle is suing Google for its use of Dalvik.
Neil Richards, a Mono critic whom we mentioned before, writes about what he calls “Mono’s Commercial Attack On Android” and explains it as follows:
Microsoft has been defeated by GNU/Linux avers The Linux Foundation Executive Director Jim Zemlin. But, there are Microsoft partners like Novell (and Mono) which will not give up so easily.
Mono team continues to bombard the free software world with Microsoft’s C# language and .Net implementation. Unfortunately, Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, has become an unaware puppet playing as proxy friend of Microsoft by making Banshee the default music player of Ubuntu. It means a hell lot of Mono will be pre-intsalled on your Ubuntu machine.
Every bit of Mono on my computer means hours of developer’s time wasted working on growing opium crops [Mono] of Microsoft. The dangers are more than we see at the surface. The more Ubuntu uses Banshee or Mono, the more stronghold Microsoft will find in the Linux world – a world Microsoft fantasizes of destroying.
I have no problem with Banshee as music player, I appreciate the hard work done by the developers. I have problems with its base – C# and .Net. I don’t want Microsoft to be in control of major applications that I use on the Linux devices. I can’t trust Microsoft — the repeated assaults on Linux companies — latest being Barns & Nobel — proves nothing has changed in Microsoft’s DNA. The company is and will always remain anti-competition.
Google ought to just yank MonoDroid [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15], which pollutes Android with Microsoft code, APIs, and patent traps. Here is how Microsoft handles dubious software on its platform which very few people actually use:
Developer yanks unauthorized Windows Phone 7 update tool
[...]
Just hours after launching a tool that let Windows Phone 7 owners grab smartphone updates directly from Microsoft, the developer yanked the utility from his Web site.
[...]
Last week, a Microsoft executive apologized for the fiasco and acknowledged that customers were right to be angry. “We didn’t set out to let you down. But it’s clear we did,” said Eric Hautala, the general manager of Windows Phone 7′s customer experience engineering team, in a March 30 blog entry.
[...]
“Be careful when using unofficial hacker tools,” Prengel said, according to a translation of his original message in German. “They can put the phone in an undefined state [making] the installation of future updates impossible. Use at your own risk — neither Microsoft nor the device manufacturer or network operator assume liability for the consequences.”
It may be interesting to find out if Microsoft threatened the developer somehow. We may never know, but it got yanked, just as Microsoft had hoped. █
Permalink
Send this to a friend
Posted in Deception, Microsoft, Windows at 6:47 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: How Gartner and IDC predict a promising future for Vista Phony 7, even shortly after being paid by Microsoft
A Microsoft training document [PDF] shows how the company admits that “[a]nalysts sell out – that’s their business model…” We quote that a lot because it’s an admission from Microsoft itself that it is fooling the public using analysts. Glyn Moody shows that Microsoft has just paid IDC for some propaganda (yes, again) and he then explains why “Microsoft Costs the World $500 Billion a Year”:
Well, that’s certainly true, but probably not in the way this study was meant to prove. After all, if you accept its figures, what this IDC study shows is that Microsoft and its mates take out of the world economy well over half a trillion dollars.
Shortly afterwards (after being paid by Microsoft), IDC also gave rosy projections for Vista Phony 7, despite it being an utter failure in the marketplace (so far, so bad). The same came from Gartner, which Microsoft had been paying a lot of money over the years. Gartner gave ridiculous projections for 2015 — ones that were ridiculed in our IRC channels and elsewhere as well, even in pro-Microsoft sites. As even Microsoft boosters explain: “Can we please return to some common sense? It is impossible to predict tablet and smartphone shipment numbers on a platform foundation four years into the future. Anyone who buys those numbers and takes them for fact has a serious reality-recognition issue.” The furthest into the future the predictions go, the fewer people will remember them and be able to call the analysts liars.
Analysts sell biases, not truths. Change in perception is what clients pay for. █
Permalink
Send this to a friend
Posted in Site News at 4:25 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
(ODF | PDF | English/original)
Resumen: Verdades sobre Techrights y cómo envolverse en él o contribuir (preferiblemente IRC).
Un antiguo lector nuestro ha sugerido en varias ocasiones que introducimos Techtrights correctamente, por lo menos a los que no sepan o han oído hablar él por la gente que nos difama o incita animosidad contra nosotros y toman represalias a veces contra los que nos mencionen. Sí, los que criticamos, generalmente nos están difamando aquellos cuyos intereses estén directamente en ángulo recto contra los del Software Free/Libre. Groklaw fue sujetado al mismo tipo de tratamiento por casi 8 años (especialmente al tocar temas polémicos como mono[http://techrights.org/2009/10/01/discrediting-groklaw/]), sólamente aquellos que han pasado tiempo alrededor de nuestro sitio saben que sus detractores mienten simplemente. Así pues, aquí está un manojo de mitos que deseamos tratar:
Mito: Techrights no tiene mucha gente participando.
Realidad: En Techrights, la comunicación usada fué comentarios y email del blog, pero desde mediados del 2008, el IRC Freenode ha sido el medios de comunicación favorecido (tiempo real, pensamiento en grupo en el sentido positivo, etc.), que también privatiza bajo la forma de registros diarios (las conversaciones en el IRC son menos formales, así que son separadas). Además utilizamos un componente de wiki, muchos de los que sean el uso implicado identi.ca para la coordinación, y en 2009 decidíamos restringir comentarios del blog a los lectores registrados solamente. Esto bajó la cantidad de comentarios a casi el 90%.
Mito: Techrights es un cambio de nombre de Boycott Novell.
Realidad: Este sitio se amplió hace mucho tiempo en términos de alcance (como SCO en el caso de Groklaw) y necesitamos organizar el sitio de una manera que divide las causas un poco más con eficacia. El boicoteo de Novell se convirtió en tan apenas parte de un dominio más grande, llamado Techrights. La transición fué largamente atrasada y tardó años debido a razones técnicas que resolvimos solamente a un grado (usando el wiki, URL redirecciones, y así sucesivamente).
Mito: El editor de Techrights es alguna persona loca.
Realidad: Esto es el argumento favorito de nuestros oponentes que atacan al mensajero para distraer al público del mensaje de Techrights. La gente que sabe mis calificaciones y me conoce personalmente podría claramente diferenciar. Nunca oculté mi identidad, al contrario. Estoy trabajando como investigador postdoctoral especializandome en análisis de imagenes y el modelado estadístico y he ganado algunas concesiones por mis logros técnicos, además de muchos trofeos por mis logros en deportes físicos, competitivos. También tengo una afinidad para la administración de servidores de UNIX/Linux, con interés particular en el uso de racimos para mejorar su funcionamiento (necesario para mi trabajo ya mencionado, como trabajo con muchos gigabytes de grupos de datos tridimensionales). La gente que difama el carácter del mensajero basado en comparación personales en vez de discusiones técnicas (insultos baratos) se están inclinando sólamente tan bajo como uno puede hacerlo. Los comentarios difamatorios más groseros dudan mi grado del doctorado o cuestionan que haya ido a alguna universidad obscura cuando de hecho gané mi grado honorario en un departamento 5 estrellas (lo más arriba posible en el Reino Unido), siendo supervisado por su jefe del departamento que recibió un OBE de la Reina de Inglaterra. Mis credenciales en Ingeniería de Programas Informáticos son de primera clase alineada con honores. Todavía escribo código diariamente y mi Software es Free/Libre. No impongo mi personalidad en este sitio Web porque el sitio no es acerca de mí, él sitio es sobre asuntos que a la gente les interesa y afecta másy más. He sacrificado mucho para hacer crecer su comunidad y escalar su contenido (cuerpo de trabajo diverso) a pesar de las muchas amenazas y ataques personales en mí contra, así que ésas personas vengativas deben recordar que soy también una persona con sentimientos y haber sido calumniado es desagradable, no sólo inmoral. Soy muy accesible, no soy enojado o peligroso, y animan los que todavía creen los estereotipos a contactarme que yo respondo siempre.
Mito: Techrights cría o engendra el odio.
Realidad: El sitio podría ser interpretado así cuando viene de un empuje llamado Boycott Novell , pero la persona que eligió el nombre no escribe más aquí, debido a carencia del tiempo y otras razones personales. La realidad es, la historia de la gente que escribe aquí demuestra un historial de defensa de GNU/Linux (sí, sobre todo el campo del GPL Licencia Pública General), no críticas a ciertas compañías. Muchos de nosotros somos desarrolladores que contribuimos activamente a la comunidad. Como los acoplamientos diarios en este sitio debe demostrar, esto sigue siendo un foco de atención nuestro. Las buenas noticias no necesitan generar respuestas, mientras que las malas noticias tienden a requerir una discusión centrada alrededor de refutaciones. Esta es la razón por la cual los temas que cubrimos en post independientes son típicamente de naturaleza negativa. Muchos sitions son como éstos y ha llegado a ser llamados “progresistas”.
Mito: Techrights editorialmente depende de otros sitios.
Realidad: A excepción de los muchos acoplamientos externos que proporcionamos (algunos opositores nuestros diatriban que éstos no son suficiente porque también hacemos una remisión extensivamente), somos editorialmente independientes. Solía escribir para sitios de noticias, pero debido a mi independencia de juicio y depender de la censura de un redactor decidí concentrar mis esfuerzos en Techrights. Gente que contribuye a Techrights no tiene sus opiniones cambiadas/reescritas o sus puntos de vista desalentados al punto de la autocensura.
Mito: Censores de Techrights
Realidad: En casi 5 años de funcionar este sitio, nunca hemos suprimido cualquier comentario del blog, no incluso los vulgares que llevan palabrotas e incluso amenazas clasificadas “x”. Esto nos llevó en un cierto plazo a requerir a que los usuarios por lo menos se registren, lo que lleva a cierta ciertas responsabilidad de lo que se dice. Los “cobardes anónimos” tienden a ser imprudentes e IP address de las cuarteles de Novell fueron usadas para comentar aquí anónimamente también (están haciendolo según se informa afuera de este sitio ahora, a veces anónimamente).
Mito: Techrights fué crackeado (agrietado)
Realidad: Techrights nunca fué crackeado. Éste es parte de la mitología sembrada por trolls pagados y nuestros acosadores, que desde el Internet intentan difamar al sitio por todo medio disponible, incluso la difamación que ellos mismos plantan desdela Web y entonces citan como “prueba”. Cuando estuvimos bajo ataques de DDOS que nos tragaron por días algunos payasos se atrevieron a sugerir que nos DDOSed a nosotros mismos. Rídiculo, porque ésa es su explicación más lógica.
Mito: Techrights es contratado por alguien hacer análisis favorables a productos/servicios de aquellos que los contratan.
Realidad: Otro punto favorito de los trolls pagados y aquellos que ganan su subsistencia de esta manera precisamente. Nadie quién se asocia a este sitio recibió nunca cualquier incentivo – dinero de de otra manera – para hacer funcionar este sitio. Este sition web es una forma de activismo de los pueblos y es un pasatiempo.
Con todo esto en mente, por favor consideren hacernos más fuertes refutando las mentiras que se repiten alrededor del Web y también haciendo primer contacto en los canales del IRC[http://techrights.org/irc-channel/]. Es aquí donde ocurre mucha de nuestra actividad y es muy amistosa.
Noticias de hoy de Groklaw
* El Defensor de Linux Groklaw Cerró – En Victoria[http://wraltechwire.com/business/tech_wire/opinion/blogpost/9418199/]
Groklaw, el sitio web creado y mantenido por el paralegal Pamela Jones para luchar a nombre de Linux ante el tribunal lucha entablada por la empresa de software SCO, está cerrando.
Jones, también conocido como el PJ, emprendió una batalla feroz contra SCO, compañía que amenazó al mundo de Linux con sus juegos contra IBM y Novell [por Unix]. SCO terminó por perder ante el tribunal, y Jones escribió en Groklaw el sábado que ella lo cerraba.
Sé que mucho usted será infeliz oírlo, así que déjeme explican brevemente, porque se toma mi decisión y es firme. En una oración simple, la razón es ésta: la crisis SCO iniciada sobre linux ha terminado, y linux ganado. SCO como lo sabíamos no es no más, ella dijo.
* Groklaw Deja de Publicar Nuevos Artículos[http://www.h-online.com/open/news/item/Groklaw-to-cease-publishing-new-articles-1225022.html]
* Cambio de Dirección[http://webmink.com/2011/04/10/links-for-2011-04-10/]
Pamela declara la victoria, resiste la tentación de diversificar y anuncia que Groklaw no publicará más artículos originales. Personalmente pienso que esto es una gran pérdida para la comunidad del Software Free/Libre y del mundo en general; un lugar investigador de la comunidad es definitivamente necesario contradecir el acoplamiento de la conspiración que sabemos es el trabajo diario de los cabilderos de la industria y de los “profesionales” de los estándares.
Pamela lo qué has hecho no tiene precio. Usted no sólo se levantó por la libertad del software y contra patentes del software pero por la libertad de los pueblos de todo el mundo, contra el colonialismo digital. Estamos tristes con su decisión pero mantenga por favor todos sus archivos en linea, así que gente de todos los países puede conseguir una ojeada de qué sucedió realmente estos ocho años pasados e impidamos la reescritura de la historia por monopolistas que tienen como objetivo el esclavizar al resto del mundo con su supuestas “invenciones” y “estandares”. P.J. la extrañaremos.
“I added a little paragraph at the end regarding PJ,” added Eduardo Landaveri, who kindly provided the translation above.
“Pamela what have you done have no price. You stood up not only for software freedom and against software patents but for the freedom of peoples all over the world fro digital colonialism. We’re sad with your decision but please maintain all your archives so people from all countries can get a glimpse of what really happened these last eight years and defeat the rewriting of history for monopolist that only look to enslave the rest of the world with their supposed “inventions” and “standards” We’ll miss you P.J” █
Translation produced by Eduardo Landaveri, the esteemed administrator of the Spanish portal of Techrights.
Permalink
Send this to a friend
Content is available under CC-BY-SA