02.23.12
Links – TPP evil, Time Zones in the Clear, Corporate Spying and other Fun
Reader’s Picks
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John Sullivan, FOSDEM 2012, Is copyleft being framed?
If one could show a decline in the percentage share of the GPL license family, what would that show? More free software overall! Even data on the other side shows absolute numbers in both GPL and non-GPL category increasing. More corporations doing free software and encouraging licenses that let them make proprietary software New software distribution structures – Apple’s App Store for example prohibits distribution of copyleft software. The first is a clear win. The second can still be a win, because the companies are making free software possibly instead of proprietary. The third is a problem.
John also shows us that GPL use is growing in Debian. Between 2005 and 2011, the proportion of GPL’d software went from 71% to 93%. If GPL3 drove developers away, it does not show in projects that matter.
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Why FLOSS Should Use The GPL
“pro-business” parasites would have us believe that working for free for M$ and the like is just great for the world of IT. … The GPL is great for business, competition, startups, individuals and end-users. There is no downside to using the GPL in FLOSS.
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Study: Windows Web Browsing Market Share Drops 10% Over Past 6 Months [to 71% of 120,000 Chitika sites]
due to the increase in browsing from mobile devices … earlier this month, analysts at Canalys reported two major shifts in computing trends: one, that smartphone shipments outpaced PCs for the first time ever, and two, that Apple has become the world’s largest PC maker, assuming iPads are counted as PCs.
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Microsoft’s Biggest Miss
the iPhone came. There was no Office. People got things done. Then the iPad came. There was no Office. People got things done. Android came. People got things done. All of those things that they, just a couple of years ago, were convinced they needed Office to do. They got them done without it. And thus, the truth was revealed. … Microsoft’s biggest miss was allowing the world to finally see the truth behind the big lie — they were not needed to get real work done. Or anything done, really.
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KDE PIM Sprint 10: ACCOMPLISHED!
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Matthias Ettrich: Creator Of KDE
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Ubuntu For Android: The Complete Story
With Ubuntu for Android, Ubuntu and Android share the same Linux Kernel on an Android phone. When you carry the phone with you, it acts just like a normal Android phone. Nothing special about that. However, when you connect the phone to an external monitor with keyboard and mouse Ubuntu OS boots and runs concurrently with Android. This allows for both mobile and desktop apps to run at the same time.
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Science
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NASA Powers Down Final Mainframe in Open Modernization Move
NASA announced it has shut down its last mainframe to complete its move to smaller, distributed systems running Linux and other systems.
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Health/Nutrition
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Tell the US FDA to Label GMOs in food.
Polls show that more than 90% of Americans support mandatory labeling. Such near-unanimity in public opinion is rare. Please listen to the American public and mandate labeling of genetically engineered foods.
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Episode 213: Young Farmers
They are highly educated, interested in health and environment, and see not only the need – and the opportunity – for small-scale farming, but feel the pull to get personally involved and heed that call. … Part of what makes small-scale farming possible is CSA’s. CSA stands for Community-Supported Agriculture, and it is just that: community members purchase a share of the upcoming season’s crops, sort of like purchasing a subscription for fresh herbs and vegetables. Their advance money aids the small farm in purchasing the seed, supplies and labor they need for the season
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Defence/Police/Aggression
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Me, APD [Austin Police Department], and ‘Babysitting While White,’ Part Deux
two departments with overlapping jurisdictions responded to this complaint: One came at us based on a community policing approach where she walked up calmly, asked a few questions, and according to her report was satisfied and had begun to return to her shift until she heard on the radio APD was coming. By contrast, APD handcuffed first and asked questions later.
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Environment/Energy/Wildlife
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The Great Carbon Bubble: Why the Fossil Fuel Industry Fights So Hard
the giant energy companies are making so much money right now that they can’t stop gorging themselves. … As it happens, though, they’ve got a deeper problem, one that’s become clear only in the last few years. Put briefly: their value is largely based on fossil-fuel reserves that won’t be burned if we ever take global warming seriously. … a giant carbon bubble, whose bursting someday will make the housing bubble of 2007 look like a lark.
Oil should be used for composite materials, not burnt. It will continue to have value used that way, but perhaps not enough value to satisfy greedy oil companies.
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A brief guide to the scientific consensus on climate change
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Hungary Destroys All Monsanto GMO Corn Fields.
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PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying
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Urgent: EuroParliament to exclude Free Software with patents and FRAND
Somehow non free software vendors have pulled the FRAND whool over EU Parliment. Contact your representatives to change this if you can.
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Researchers attending one of the world’s major academic conferences ‘are scared to death of the anti-science lobby’
Researchers attending one of the world’s major academic conferences ‘are scared to death of the anti-science lobby’ … university and government researchers are hounded for arguing that rising carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are changing the climate. Their emails are hacked while Facebook campaigns call for their dismissal from their posts, calls that are often backed by rightwing politicians.
Those of you who still doubt global warming can catch up with every science organization in this wonderful collection.
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MPAA Hires Four Ex-Federal Government Employees, Including One From ICE & Another From The White House
Don’t call it a bribe.
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Censorship
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Brazil set to test Twitter’s selective blocking policy
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The Pirate Bay could be blocked in the UK, after a judge rules it infringes copyright
This mirrors a case from last year, when both Sky and BT were ordered to block access to … link-sharing website Newzbin 2. This followed lobbying from the Motion Picture Association (MPA) in the US, which argued that the site facilitated the sharing of pirated movies.[sharing]
I removed propaganda terms from the quote for the sake of clarity.
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Pirate Bay ISP Block Challenged For Censoring Lawful Content
The censorship of The Pirate Bay, which is slowly spreading to ISPs all around Europe, is designed to reduce the availability of unauthorized media, but the site also allows artists without a corporation-backed delivery mechanism to self publish to the world. However, since blockades are a blunt instrument, their work is being wiped out too. On this basis, the legality of a recent Pirate Bay blockade is now being questioned.
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Privacy
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How Target Figured Out A Teen Girl Was Pregnant Before Her Father Did
we found out that as long as a pregnant woman thinks she hasn’t been spied on, she’ll use the coupons. She just assumes that everyone else on her block got the same mailer for diapers and cribs. As long as we don’t spook her, it works
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Congress Left in Dark on DOJ Wiretaps
and they want to be that way.
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McCain: Cybersecurity Bill Ineffective Without NSA Monitoring the Net
Yet anther attempt to pass laws to justify current, illegal practice.
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Your address book is mine: Many iPhone apps take your data
Path was crucified for a practice that has become an unspoken industry standard. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Foursquare, Foodspotting, Yelp, and Gowalla are among a smattering of iOS applications that have been sending the actual names, email addresses and/or phone numbers from your device’s internal address book to their servers
Richard Stallman notes, “So much for the idea that Apple’s total censorship will protect users. The only defense for users is to have control over the software they use: that is, to insist on free software.”
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Civil Rights
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Copyrights
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Loosen up copyright law, says Dutch government
The Dutch government wants to change copyright law so new media users can continue to do “creative remixes” of protected content. The Hague will no longer wait for the European Commission to find a compromise.
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Trans-Pacific Partnership Proposes Copyright Suppression of Price Competition
Global inequality strips everyone of their rights.
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Astrolabe v. Olson
EFF is pleased to announce that the [copyright suit against David Olsen and Paul Eggert's time zone database] was dismissed in February of 2012. Astrolabe has also apologized and agreed to a ‘covenant not to sue’ going forward, which will help protect the database from future baseless legal actions and disruptions.
Good!
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ACTA going the SOPA way
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ACTA: Reding makes statement, EU now under immense pressure from within and without to find an exit strategy
“Copyright protection can never be a justification for eliminating freedom of expression or freedom of information. That is why for me, blocking the Internet is never an option” (and that’s her bold, not mine).
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