04.03.15

The EPO’s Dutch Appeal Court Judgment Controversy: List of Political Interventions

Posted in Europe, Patents at 6:18 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Epicenter of EPO controversy, not just windmills

A windmill

Summary: Dutch Socialist Party and Labour Party (among others) denounce the EPO’s actions after newspaper articles in the Netherlands

SEVERAL sources contacted Techrights last month, sharing with the site a lot of documents that relate to the Dutch scandals. One source said s/he would send “press releases and questions raised by Dutch parliamentary members of the PvdA (Labour Party) and SP (Socialist Party) in the Dutch Parliament (Tweede Kamer) and the European Parliament.”

Now that we finally have it all organised chronologically and logically we can present it in the interest of retention and future reference. We shall start with the Socialist Party, then proceed to other parties and some bodies outside of Netherlands. A lot of interventions could be found all over the place.

The European Federation of Public Service Unions was probably the latest to intervene. There was also the Dutch Labour Party, among others. Then there is the response from SP (Socialist Party). SP stated the following: (English translation [PDF])

SP: GOVERNMENT MUST NOT PERMIT HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES

26 Feb 2015 • The Court of Justice in The Hague last week ruled that the European Patents Organisation (EPO) is in conflict with important European fundamental rights, such as the right to strike. Security and Justice Minister Ivo Opstelten is, however, refusing to give effect to the judgment, on the grounds that the EPO – not an EU institution, but one with thirty-eight member states, including all EU countries – is an independent organisation and therefore enjoys immunity. SP Member of Parliament Michiel van Nispen finds this reasoning absurd, he says. ‘The minister is thus approving the silencing of trade unions and the fact that workers can’t in the end enforce their rights,’ he points out. ‘Independent organisations should not be hampered in their functioning, but that doesn’t mean that they have carte blanche to transgress human rights and ignore judicial rulings.’

The EPO has for a number of years been the site of conflict between management and workers. The organisation’s director refuses to recognise trade unions and even seeks to ensure that there is no contact between unions and EPO employees. The Court of Justice has ruled that this represents a limitation on the right to strike and in doing so transgresses fundamental principles of an open democracy and the democratic rule of law. SP Member of Parliament and labour specialist Paul Ulenbelt agrees, complaining that ‘this problem isn’t new. In the past, I’ve worked with the main Dutch trade union federation, the FNV, to hold the EPO liable for an occupational disease. The action failed because of their immunity. Social Affairs and Employment Minister Lodewijk Asscher should be persuading the European Union to limit the immunity of independent organisations to what this exception was intended for.’

Van Nispen and Ulenbelt both insist that the immunity and inviolability enjoyed by independent organisations must not lead to human rights abuses. They have asked the two government ministers responsible respectively for Justice and Employment, Opstelten and Asscher, to explain how to ensure that the workforce can access their rights and unions are not outlawed.

Here is the English translation (with original) [PDF] of additional questions put forth by the Socialist Party (see English-only version [PDF]):

Questions by the members Van Nispen and Ulenbelt (both SP) to the Ministers of Security and Justice and Social Affairs and Employment on the failure to respect the rights of staff unions (submitted March 2, 2015).

Question 1
Is it true that a conflict has been taking places for years between the management and a large part of the workforce at the European Patent Office (EPO) in Rijswijk? Is it true that the Director of the EPO does not recognize the staff unions and refuses to engage in dialogue with them, that e-mail traffic is blocked between the unions and members, that the right to strike has been restricted and that employees who express their disagreement are threatened with dismissal? 1 What is your reaction to this?

Question 2
What is your reaction to the ruling of the Appeal Court in The Hague that the EPO is violating the fundamental principles of an open and democratic state based on the rule of law and that its failure to respect the rights of trade unions to engage in collective action and collective bargaining is contrary to the European Convention on Human Rights? 2 How can this judgment, in which the Court ordered the contested measures to be revoked, be implemented?

Question 3
Why have you ordered that bailiffs cannot execute the judgment because of the immunity that this international organization is purported to have in the contracting states? 3 On what grounds exactly? Can you explain your decision in detail?

Question 4
Does this mean that a clear judgment such as that issued by the court last week is to have no consequences? Do you not find this to be an undesirable situation?

Question 5
What procedures exist for the staff and unions to enforce their rights? Are these effective?

Question 6
How far precisely, in your opinion, should the inviolability and immunity of an international organization extend?

Question 7
Do you believe that this immunity may ever extend to the point that an organization such as the EPO can violate fundamental rights which are generally recognized in Europe, without parties such as staff unions having access to an effective means of legal recourse against it?

Question 8
Do you agree that the rules regarding inviolability and immunity were never intended to be used to violate rights with impunity and to muzzle staff unions?

Question 9
Are you willing to do something as quickly as possible, but in any case to make use of the Dutch Presidency of the European Union to impel the EU to limit the immunity to serve the purpose for which it was intended? If not, why not?

Question 10
How can we prevent an international organization that enjoys immunity from doing whatever it wants? How is it ensured that the staff and the unions are not treated as “outlaws”?

Explanation:

These questions are in addition to previous questions from the members Kerstens and Maij (both PvdA), submitted February 27, 2015 (question number 2015Z03533 ).

1: Volkskrant, 26 februari 2015: «Opstelten negeert vonnis gerechtshof». http://www.volkskrant.nl/politiek/opstelten-bureau-mag-vakbond-weren~a3873491/
2: Gerechtshof Den Haag, 17 februari 2015, C/09/453749/KG ZA 13-1239
3: Aanzegging ex artikel 3a, tweede lid, van de Gerechtsdeurwaarderswet, 23 februari 2015

Also see these original questions in Dutch [PDF].

PvdA’s Kerstens and Maij asked the following questions [PDF], as mentioned the other day:

Questions by the members Kerstens and Maij (both PvdA) to the Minister of Security and Justice in the matter of the Judgment issued by the Appeal Court of the Hague against the European Patent Organisation (submitted 27 February 2015).

Question 1. Are you aware of the article “Opstelten: Appeal Court Judgment does not apply to European institution” published in the Volkskrant on 26 February 2015?

http://www.volkskrant.nl/binnenland/opstelten-bureau-mag-vakbondweren~a3873491/

Question 2. Do you remember the earlier questions regarding working conditions at the EPO? Is it true that the tense situation continues to exist, including the restriction of the right to strike?

Question 3. Is it true that the EPO refuses to revoke the controversial measures in accordance with the judgment of the Appeal Court? If yes, what are the reasons for this?

Question 4. Is it true that you are not willing to facilitate the execution of the judgment as is usual in The Netherlands? If yes, can you explain your position? What is the legal basis of your power to prevent the judgment’s execution? How often have you made use of this power in the last five years?

Question 5. On which legislation and international treaties does your decision to block the judgment’s execution rely? Have you considered a more dynamic application of the existing legislation?

Question 6. Can you give an overview of recent European and Dutch jurisprudence relating to conflicts between the immunity of international organisations and the judgments of domestic courts?

Question 7. What is your reaction to the opinion of experts that your position is at odds with the rule of law and that you prioritise immunity over human rights? What is your reaction to the statement that this erodes the authority of the courts? What is your reaction to the statement that this leads to a further worsening of the existing problem of international organisations that place themselves above the law?

Question 8. What exactly do you mean when you say that the matter has “our attention” and “that of other member states”? What does this attention consist of and what is it aimed at?

Question 9. Is it possible that one of the parties appeals to the Hoge Raad (Dutch Supreme Court) or that “cassation in the interest of the law” is requested? Do you intend to request cassation in the interest of the law?

Question 10. Have you taken note of the recent ILO agreement between employers and employees regarding the right to strike and ILO Convention 87?
Can you explain how the situation at the EPO relates to ILO Convention 87?

The Dutch Labour Party has also responded and here is the English translation of the press release [PDF]:

Conflict about social rights at the European Patent Office Is Europe applying double standards?

Why do employees of the European Patent Office in Rijswijk not have the same social rights as other workers in the Netherlands?

That is the question put by Dutch Labour Party MEP Agnes Jongerius to the European Commission in reaction to the long-running conflict between management and staff at the European Patent Office.

The employees of the patent office have no say, never mind co-determination, in relation to their working conditions at the Office. Their right to strike is severely curtailed. According to
the management, the EPO is an international organization, which may determine its own staff regulations completely independently.

“Obviously that is crazy,” says Agnes Jongerius. “In Europe we recognise the European Charter and the European Convention on Human Rights. In those legal instruments matters such as the right to strike are well-defined. And these norms are not supposed to apply to employees of what is – nota bene – a European agency. Is Europe applying double standards?”

The workers received some support in their fight this week from the Appeal Court in the Hague. The Court agreed with the staff that the EPO was violating fundamental principles of the rule of law. But VVD Minister Ivo Opstelten decided to consign this verdict to the wastepaper-basket. He is of the opinion that the EPO as an international organization is immune to the judgments of a national court.

Agnes Jongerius now wants the European Commission to intervene in the matter. And, also in the interests of all other European offices and agencies, to establish that European workers cannot and should not be deprived of their social rights. 2700 employees work at [the Hague sub-office of] the European Patent Office which processes patent applications for the entire European Union.

For further information:
Paul Sneijder, Press Officer, Dutch Labour Party, Euro-Delegation, +32 475 386675

Agnes Jongerius was later mentioned by the following statement [PDF] (see original in Dutch [PDF]):

From: SD.Delegation NL Press
Sent: Friday, February 27, 2015 15:35
To:
Subject: Agnes Jongerius on the conflict at the EPO

Conflict about social rights at the European Patent Office Is Europe applying double standards?

Why do employees of the European Patent Office in Rijswijk not have the same social rights as other workers in the Netherlands?

That is the question put by Dutch Labour Party MEP Agnes Jongerius to the European Commission as a reaction to the long-running conflict between management and staff at the European Patent Office.

The employees of the patent office have no say, never mind co-determination, in relation to their working conditions at the Office. Their right to strike is severely curtailed. According to the management, the EPO is an international organization, which may determine its own staff regulations completely independently.

“That is of course crazy,” says Agnes Jongerius, “In Europe we recognise the European Charter and the European Convention on Human Rights. In those instruments matters such as the right to strike are well-defined. And that is not supposed to apply to employees of what is – nota bene – a European agency. Is this a case where Europe is applying double standards?”

The workers received some support in their fight this week from the Court in the Hague. The court agreed with the staff that the Office was violating fundamental principles of the rule of law. But VVD Minister Ivo Opstelten decided to consign this verdict to the wastepaperbasket. He is of the opinion that the EPO as an international organization is immune to the judgments of a national court.

Agnes Jongerius now wants the European Commission to intervene in the matter. And, also in the interests of all other European offices and agencies, to establish that European workers cannot and should not be deprived of their social rights.

2700 employees work at [the Hague sub-office of] the European Patent Office which processes patent applications for the entire European Union.

For further information:
Paul Sneijder, Press Officer, Dutch Labour Party, Euro-Delegation, +32 475 386675

Lastly, here is a letter sent by Agnes Jongerius [PDF]:

EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

FORM FOR THE SUBMISSION OF A QUESTION WITH A REQUEST FOR A WRITTEN ANSWER (Article 130)

SUBMITTED BY: Agnes JONGERIUS

SUBJECT: Injustices at the European Patent Office (EPO) in The Hague

TEXT:
Following a case brought by the staff of the European Patent Office in The Hague complaining inter alia that they were not involved or had any say in (labour) matters of the Office, and that their right to strike had been restricted by the management, the Court held that as a European body the EPO can not fall outside the legal order created by the standards of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and those to which the EU is bound to adhere. The EPO set this judgment aside on 17 February.

1. In view of the fact that the Commission has delegated certain powers to the EPO, does the Commission agree that the EPO must adhere to the European Charter and the ECHR as a minimum requirement in all its activities, including its cooperation with the EU and its relations with the staff and unions?

2. Can the Commission confirm that it has expressed its concerns about the conduct of the EPO Administration and has requested it to restore social dialogue in line with the norms and values of the EU?

3. What steps does the Commission intend to undertake if the EPO does not follow the court’s ruling and continues to place itself outside European legal norms.

“The European Federation of Public Service Unions (EPSU) has also [showed interest in] an intervention,” a source told us. “Details can be found here and the EPSU page refers to a further intervention by the Dutch MEP Agnes Jongerius.” (original Dutch press release and translation above). There are documents in this page (letters, questions, etc.) and the introductory text states:

European Patent Office Management places itself outside of European legal order

Management of the European Patent Office stated that they would not respect the verdict of a Dutch court arguing immunity from the European legal order. This is not acceptable and EPSU has written to management in support of the unions demands.

Relations between the unions in the European Patent Office (represented by SUEPO, an affiliate of EPSU affiliated union USF) have not been well for sometime as management of EPO is blocking access of the union to negotiations, does not allow access to the email system and blocks the union’s emails to members and workers and is threatening workers that want to engage in industrial action with repercussions. Staff representatives that speak out openly also fear disciplinary action. The branch of the union in The Hague brought its case to the attention of the Dutch Court. It ruled in favour of the union, referring to the European legal order of the European Court of Human Rights (and the Social Charter of the Council of Europe).

The Dutch Court ruled that the European Patent Office:
- Has to grant access to the email system to the union. Trade union representatives that use their work email address for trade union related activities can not be threatened with disciplinary action. The union should be allowed to send bulk mails to members and workers;

- Prohibits management of EPO to impose a maximum duration of possible strikes;

- Management of EPO should allow the union to participate in collective bargaining within 14 days after the ruling.

The Director Mr. Batistelli however issued an internal communication in which he argued that EPO has immunity being an international organisation of Member States, that the verdict of the Dutch court does not apply and that he therefore does not intend to grant the demands of the Court. A conservative minister in the Dutch government approved this vision. It is contested by experts in international law. EPSU has written to management of EPO to respect the verdict and questions have been raised in the European Parliament.

More EPO interventions or public objections may have taken place and we would love to know if we missed important ones. More questions in the Dutch Parliament are in official sites, with original and English translations shown above. █

English, French and German Translations of De Telegraaf Article About Ivo Opstelten’s Defence of Benoît Battistelli

Posted in Europe, Patents at 6:04 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

A newspaper

Summary: An article from “De Telegraaf” (with translations) helps provide insight into Battistelli and his disgraced allies

THE EPO has had a calm week. Easter offers no major news, except some minor bits about the boards, so we wish to finally share a lot of material which needs to be meticulously documented.

Articles from “De Volkskrant” (see press coverage) and “De Telegraaf”, along with multiple translations, were sent to us last month, contextually accompanying despite them preceding reports about the disgraced (over payment to drug traffickers) Ivo Opstelten. “Recent Dutch newspaper articles with translations,” as one source put it, had been made available (we don’t know who made the translations), with “publication date of the original articles [being] 26 Feb. 2015.”

Here is the article in English, French and German [PDF]. To quote the English version in full:

Thursday 26 February 2015

Opstelten ignores Court of Appeal ruling

THE HAGUE – Minister of Justice Ivo Opstelten has binned a ruling of the Court of Appeal in The Hague. According to the Court of Appeal, the European Patent Organisation (EPOrg) breaches the rule of law. However, Opstelten states that the European organisation enjoys immunity.

Photo: Serge LIGTENBERG
According to de Volkskrant.

For years there has been a conflict at the EPOrg between management and a large portion of the employees. In order to counter organised opposition, the management of the organisation has, amongst other things, blocked email communication between the unions and their members. The trade unions are also not welcome at the negotiation table.

According to the Court of Appeal, those measures are in conflict with the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The Court of Appeal acknowledges that the Patent Office can claim immunity but this autonomy does not stretch so far ‘that the EPOrg could breach generally recognised fundamental rights in Europe’.

“Basically,” said our source for this, “the material consists of recent newspaper articles,” but as we shall show in the next post, these articles were only the beginning as they soon led to a major national debate in the Netherlands and shortly thereafter Opstelten resigned in shame. It is quite miraculous that Benoît Battistelli has not resigned in shame too (not yet anyway). █

FUD Alliance: VeraCode Co-founder Joins Black Duck

Posted in Free/Libre Software, FUD, Microsoft, Security at 5:56 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Rusted

Summary: Two sources of fear uncertainty and doubt (FUD) against Free/Open Source software (FOSS) find themselves fused together

THE firm known as Black Duck recently admitted its roots in GPL FUD, not just in Microsoft (the founder's employer for many years). Black Duck recently took advantage of perceptions of FOSS security issues (using bugs with “branding”) to market its proprietary software products. A press release now informs us that VeraCode’s co-founder is joining Black Duck. We wrote about Veracode at Techrights several times before. Black Duck and Veracode have much in common, with examples such as security FUD that has “branding” to act as a stigma against Free software, as we recently (earlier this year) saw (both Black Duck and Veracode have been doing this in recent months). We are sure they’ll have a lot of experiences to share and many strategies to sell based on fear, or even create this fear by appearing in the media with famous brands such as “GHOST”, “Shellshock”, and “Heartbleed”. █

Links 3/4/2015: ‘Atomic’ Distribution, System76′s Broadwell-Powered Lemur

Posted in News Roundup at 5:43 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME bluefish

Contents

GNU/Linux

  • Desktop

    • Can Linux learn anything from Windows 10?

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    • 10 Truly Amusing Easter Eggs in Linux

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      The programmer working on Adventure slipped a secret feature into the game which, when the user moved an “invisible square” to a particular wall, allowed entry into a “secret room”. That room contained a simple phrase: “Created by Warren Robinett”.

  • Server

    • RancherOS: A Minimal OS for Docker in Production

      RancherOS, the latest minimal Linux-based operating system for running Docker containers, was recently launched by Darren Shepherd, Rancher Lab’s CTO. In contrast with Boot2Docker (another lightweight Docker-centric distribution) which openly discourages production use, RancherOS’s announcement claims the new OS is production and scale-ready.

  • Kernel Space

    • Linux Brought to Canon DSLRs by Magic Lantern

      Members of the Magic Lantern community are saying that this development will open the door to a universe of possibilities. While Magic Lantern was previously a set of hacks running on top of Canon code, being able to run Linux on a Canon DSLR means the developers will be able to implement new features cleanly and access the camera’s hardware directly.

    • Linux Kernel Ported to Canon DSLRs, Thanks to the Magic Lantern Developers – Video

      It’s no longer April Fools Day, so what we are about to tell you is no joke, but the real deal. The awesome developers behind the well-known and acclaimed Magic Lantern third-party software add-on that brings a wide range of new features to Canon EOS cameras, have announced that they’ve managed to port the Linux kernel to Canon DSLRs.

    • Graphics Stack

  • Applications

  • Desktop Environments/WMs

    • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

      • Calligra 2.9.2 Released

        The Calligra team has released version 2.9.2, a the bugfix release of the Calligra Suite, Calligra Active and the Calligra Office Engine. Updating the software is recommended to everybody.

      • Calligra Office Suite 2.9.2 Out Now with Major Improvements for Krita Digital Painting Tool

        The Calligra Team, through Jarosław Staniek, was proud to announce today, April 2, that the second maintenance release of their Calligra office suite for KDE desktop environments has been released with a great number of improvements to the Krita digital painting software, for which we have a separate announcement.

    • GNOME Desktop/GTK

  • Distributions

    • Evolve OS Changes Names to Solus, an Old Community Favorite

      The Evolve OS project has just changed its name to Solus after a trademark spat over a name owned by UK’s Secretary of State office.

    • New Releases

    • Screenshots

    • Red Hat Family

      • PHP version 5.5.24RC1 and 5.6.8RC1

        NEW : Release Candidate versions are now available in remi-test repository for Fedora and Enterprise Linux (RHEL / CentOS) to allow more people to test them. They are only available as Software Collections, for a parallel installation, perfect solution for such tests.

      • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Atomic Host: Updates Made Easy

        Earlier in March we announced the general availability of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Atomic Host, a small footprint, container host based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7. It provides a stable host platform, optimized for running application containers, and brings a number of application software packaging and deployment benefits to customers. In my previous container blog I gave the top seven reasons to deploy Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Atomic Host. One reason was the ability to do atomic updates and rollbacks. In this blog I provide an in-depth look into atomic updating and how it differs from a yum update. And, speaking of atomic updates… it just so happens that our first atomic update was made available yesterday.

      • Fedora

        • FLOCK 2015 is in Rochester NY

          This is a short blog post to get over my writer’s block. For the last 2 years, Fedora has had a computer festival called FLOCK in either Europe or North America. The first FLOCK happened in beautiful Charleston SC in 2013. The second FLOCK was in the wonderful capital of the Czech Republic, Prague. This years FLOCK is to be held from August 12-15 in Rochester New York. The main website is having some issues (various links aren’t pointing to the correct places because WordPress is being obstinate) but these are being worked on as I write and hopefully will be fixed soon.

        • Fedora under construction?

          Fedora’s quality makes complacency easy. But in truth, we’re always under construction — or we should be. You could call that constant disruption by different names. Risk positive. Forward leaning. Embracing change. Since inception, Fedora was intended to avoid the status quo. So what’s next for shaking up said status?

        • Fedora May Move to Project Atomic Distribution

          Fedora 22 was different from other releases most significantly by the way it was distributed – namely in three purpose-designed editions. However, Paul Frields is floating another method for future Fedora releases. He suggest Fedora 23 or 24 may consist of “some combination of a strongly managed center, curated stacks, and an expanding nebula of containers.”

        • Fedora 22 Beta Is Now in Freeze, Will Be Released on April 14

          Dennis Gilmore has announced the other day that the upcoming Beta release of the Fedora 22 Linux operating system is now in freeze and no other packages than the ones who fix the accepted blocker or repair two bugs that have been declared exceptions to the freeze.

    • Debian Family

      • Derivatives

        • Canonical/Ubuntu

          • Canonical Refuses to Fix a 5-Year-Old Bug in Ubuntu, Related to Notification System

            Recent reports show us that a known Ubuntu bug, which was submitted to Canonical’s Launchpad bug-tracking website about half a decade ago, still exists in the current version of the Ubuntu Linux operating system and Canonical refuses to fix it for unknown reasons.

          • System76 unveils all-new Broadwell-powered Lemur — an affordable Ubuntu Linux laptop

            While many computer manufacturers are in a race to the bottom — both in price and quality — some makers continue to produce reliable high-quality machines. One of these manufacturers is System76. If you aren’t familiar, it manufactures and sells desktops and laptops running the Ubuntu operating system. In other words, Linux fans can buy one of these machines and have it running the Linux distro out of the box — no need to format the drive to remove Windows.

  • Devices/Embedded

Free Software/Open Source

  • The Building Blocks of Open Source Innovation

    Open source code creation opens the door for IT developers across varied industries to adopt, modify and customize technology to their organization’s specific needs. Companies are free to contribute to and adopt code so long as resources—such as intellectual property software audit services—are applied to ensure that the ground rules established by the code’s originator are acknowledged and followed.

  • What does the future hold for the Internet of Things?

    I started getting involved with open source as a Computer Science (CS) grad student. I was using a combination of open source and proprietary software in my research. Given the nature of research, being able to rapidly prototype a concept and customize the tools involved are both hugely important goals. I found that open source tools often gave our team this win-win scenario where we were able to quickly try a variety of tools at no cost while also being empowered to modify or even combine solutions. This was a big advantage over using closed proprietary software.

  • ON.Lab Releases ‘Blackbird’ Open Source SDN Operating System

    ONOS’ community today announced the availability of the second release of its open source SDN Open Network Operating System (ONOS), named Blackbird, that is focused on performance, scale and high availability. ONOS is the first open source platform to define a comprehensive set of metrics for effectively evaluating the “carrier-grade quotient” of SDN control plane platforms/controllers and to publicly publish the performance evaluation of its Blackbird release using these metrics.

  • ONOS Project Unveils Second Release of Open SDN Platform
  • Instagram’s open-source library could make it easier for app makers to build for Apple Watch

    The library is known as IGInterfaceDataTable, and is intended to make “configuring tables with multi-dimensional data easier.” In other words, Instagram said, like its own app for Apple’s forthcoming smart watch.

  • Open Xchange teams with PowerDNS and Dovecot to create open source powerhouse

    OPEN-XCHANGE, the security conscious open source white label productivity provider from Germany, has announced a three-way merger to create one of the largest open source companies in Europe.

    The deal sees the company join up with Dutch DNS software vendor PowerDNS and Finnish IMAP server provider Dovecot to form a pan-European powerhouse.

    The new deal sees the combined Open-Xchange take a 90 percent market share in the secure DNS market and some 130 million user accounts.

    We caught up with Open-Xchange CEO Rafael Laguna to get his thoughts on the news, starting with the advantages that the combined company will bring to the open source market.

  • Web Browsers

  • SaaS/Big Data

  • Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

  • Project Releases

  • Openness/Sharing

    • How open source software builds strong roots for better governance

      Open data and going digital are subjects high on the international agenda for global development, particularly when it comes to financing improved services and infrastructure for the poorest people in the world. Young people from Laos to Lagos aspire to become software developers, and smartphones are set to put unprecedented computing power into every corner of the earth. But the paradox is that many governments still only have rudimentary information technology infrastructure and often can’t find trained and skilled staff to design and run it.

    • Open Data

      • Slovakia project to reduce administrative burden

        The Slovak Republic wants to reduce the administrative burden on citizens and companies, and to avoid the need to repeatedly request information. The Ministry of Finance in February signed a contract for a base registry to make it possible for public administrations to exchange data and information. The EUR 13 million project will also result in standards for data sharing between public administrations.

    • Open Hardware

  • Programming

Leftovers

  • Security

    • Thursday’s security updates
    • Why Unikernels Can Improve Internet Security

      The creator of MirageOS, Anil Madhavapeddy, says it’s “simply irresponsible to continue to knowingly provision code that is potentially unsafe, and especially so as we head into a year full of promise about smart cities and ubiquitous Internet of Things. We wouldn’t build a bridge on top of quicksand, and should treat our online infrastructure with the same level of respect and attention as we give our physical structures.”

      In the hopes of improving security, performance and scalability, there’s a flurry of interesting work taking place around blocking out functionality into containers and lighter-weight unikernel alternatives. Galois, which specializes in R&D for new technologies, says enterprises are increasingly interested in the ability to cleanly separate functionality to limit the effect of a breach to just the component affected, rather than infecting the whole system.

  • PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying

  • Privacy

    • Consent That Goes Both Ways

      In client-server, we’re calves and sites are cows. We go to sites to suckle “content” and get lots of little unwanted files, most of which are meant to train advertising crosshairs on us. Having Do Not Track in the world has done nothing to change the power asymmetry of client-server. But it’s not the only tool, nor is it finished. In fact, the client-side revolution in this space has barely started.

    • China’s CNNIC issues false certificates in serious breach of crypto trust

      In a major breach of public trust and confidence, the Chinese digital certificate authority China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) certified false credentials for numerous domains, including several owned by Google. The deliberate breach had the potential to seriously endanger vulnerable users, such as journalists communicating with sources. The breach was discovered by Google and published on its security blog on March 23. Despite this serious lapse, it appears CNNIC’s authority will not be revoked, and that its credentials will continue to be trusted by almost all computers around the world.

    • What’s the Cost of NSA Spying?

      By design, the research company’s numbers don’t reflect the amount of money spent by U.S. taxpayers funding the NSA’s operations. Nor do they indicate how much of this $47 billion is being born by the likes of Microsoft and Oracle, as far as I can tell. What I do know is that many foreign governments have been publicly investing in Linux and open source projects since Snowden’s revelations that back doors for the NSA have been built into many proprietary U.S. enterprise software products.

    • Google Strikes Back Against Chinese Certificate Authority

      Both Google and Mozilla are taking aggressive measures against Chinese certificate authority CNNIC.

    • Invizbox (hands-on): Another flawed Tor “privacy” router debuts

      Invizbox aims to do exactly that. The project follows in the footsteps of Anonabox, the crowdsourced effort that raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to bring a router that anonymizes Internet traffic to market, but was later pulled by Kickstarter after its custom hardware claim came under scrutiny.

    • EFF General Counsel Takes On NSA Spying

      Kurt Opsahl talks to Dark Reading about government surveillance and privacy in anticipation of his Interop keynote.

    • Matt DeHart formally arraigned today

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    • A year after firestorm, DHS wants access to license-plate tracking system

      The Department of Homeland Security is seeking bids from companies able to provide law enforcement officials with access to a national license-plate tracking system — a year after canceling a similar solicitation over privacy issues.

      [...]

      In a privacy impact assessment issued Thursday, the DHS says that it is not seeking to build a national database or contribute data to an existing system.

  • Civil Rights

    • NarcoNews: CIA Veteran Sees Big Hole in Sterling Espionage Conviction

      A former CIA spy manager is raising a serious question about the way the intelligence agency handled the national-security risk raised in the case of Jeffrey Sterling, a former CIA officer who was recently convicted on espionage charges for leaking classified information to New York Times reporter James Risen.

    • The VICE News Interview: John Kiriakou

      In 2007, John Kiriakou became the first Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) official to publicly confirm that agency interrogators waterboarded a high-value detainee, terrorism suspect Abu Zubaydah — a revelation that had previously been a closely guarded secret.

      Five years after this unauthorized disclosure to ABC News, the veteran CIA officer pleaded guilty to leaking to journalists the identity of certain individuals who were involved with the CIA’s rendition, detention, and interrogation program. He was sentenced to two and a half years in federal prison.

    • Guantánamo Bay detainees’ release upon end of Afghanistan war ‘unlikely’

      Typically, when a war ends, so does the combatants’ authority to detain the other side’s fighters. But as the conclusion of the US war in Afghanistan approaches, the inmate population of Guantánamo Bay is likely to be an exception – and, for the Obama administration, the latest complication to its attempt to close the infamous wartime detention complex.

    • With combat over, lawyers for Afghan captives ask Obama to let them go

      With U.S. combat operations officially ended in Afghanistan, some U.S. lawyers for five Afghan detainees at Guantánamo wrote the Obama administration Monday asking that the captives be freed.

  • Internet/Net Neutrality

    • Proposals on European net neutrality open ‘two-speed’ internet

      European internet providers would be allowed to profit from “two-speed” data services under proposals being considered in Brussels, opening a transatlantic divide on telecoms regulation after the US banned similar tactics last week.

      In documents seen by the Financial Times, EU member states are proposing rules that would establish a principle of “net neutrality” but still allow telecoms groups to manage the flow of internet traffic to ensure the network worked efficiently.

    • Epic Awards One Of Three Unreal Dev Grants To Makers Of Net Neutrality Game

      It’s been a unique experience for me as a Techdirt writer, one who does not delve into the net neutrality debates and posts very often, to watch the effect the wider coverage about net neutrality has had on the general public. Without being scientific about it, there are certain markers for story penetration I notice and have noticed specifically when it comes to net neutrality. For instance, a couple of months ago, my father called me up with a simple question: “What should my position be on net neutrality?” The question itself isn’t generally useful, but the simple fact that a grandfather is even asking about it means something when it comes to the public consciousness of the topic itself. So too is the appearance of the topic and debates on the Sunday news programs. But maybe the most important indication that net neutrality has become, at the very least, a thing the public is discussing is the topic’s appearance in seemingly unrelated venues. Even if the take was wrong, coverage in political cartoons was something cool to see, for instance. But the topic coming up as the theme of a politically-motivated video game is even more exciting.

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