Bonum Certa Men Certa

Links 1/6/2017: KDE Plasma 5.10, Qt 5.9 Released





GNOME bluefish

Contents





GNU/Linux



Free Software/Open Source



  • Genode OS 17.05 Released, Switches To GCC 6.3, Kernel/Platform Improvements
    Version 17.05 of the Genode OS research/experimental operating system project is now available.

    Genode OS 17.05 features upgrades to the GCC 6.3 code compiler, the Qt 5.8 tool-kit is now used, its VirtualBox port has been upgraded, and there are a number of architecture and API changes happening this summer for the OS.


  • Seminal game 'Colossal Cave Adventure' released onto GitLab
    The classics never die – or so we hope. One classic, Colossal Cave Adventure, is getting a new lease of life on GitLab.

    Regarded the first text adventure game, Colossal Cave Adventure was first given life in the 1970s on a Digital PDP-10, by ARPANET pioneer William Crowther, and expanded on by Don Woods, then a Stanford student.


  • Long chat today about retirement, activism, the choice not to have kids, etc. We expect to be doing much of the same for decades to come.
    But blockchain-based platforms are wielding a growing influence in the media and advertising markets as well. In this space, open-source projects are leveraging blockchain technology to build new solutions for displaying ads and engaging with customers.

    Here's a look at four media projects that are building innovative platforms or concepts based on blockchain and open source.


  • SDxCentral Survey: 26% of Users Will Not Consider Open Source MANO
    Although open source groups doing network functions virtualization (NFV) management and network orchestration (MANO) have proliferated, 26 percent of end-user respondents to an SDxCentral survey said they will not consider open-source MANO. Rather, they will “only use commercial solutions,” according to survey results in the “2017 NFV Report Series Part 2: Orchestrating NFV – MANO and Service Assurance.”


  • Open source network software matures, but needs incentives for use -
    Open source network software is maturing, but the networking industry needs to create compelling economic incentives for large suppliers and buyers to contribute, as well.


  • Google engineer demonstrates & releases open source fuzzing tool


  • The enterprise’s appetite for open-source software continues to grow


  • Events



  • Web Browsers



    • Chrome



      • Goodbye PNaCl, Hello WebAssembly!
        Historically, running native code on the web required a browser plugin. In 2013, we introduced the PNaCl sandbox to provide a means of building safe, portable, high-performance apps without plugins. Although this worked well in Chrome, it did not provide a solution that worked seamlessly across all browsers.


      • Google Plans End To PNaCl Support In Favor Of WebAssembly
        The Portable Native Client (PNaCl) ecosystem hasn't been too vibrant for executing native code in web-browsers given its lack of adoption outside of Google/Chrome and other factors. With WebAssembly seeing much broader adoption and inroads, Google is planning to end PNaCl.




    • Mozilla



      • Mozilla’s Giant, Distributed, Open-Source Hackathon
        Mozilla’s annual Global Sprint is scheduled for June 1 and 2. It’s an international public event: an opportunity for anyone, anywhere to energize their open-source projects with fresh insight and input from around the world.

        Participants include biostatisticians from Brazil, research scientists from Canada, engineers from Nepal, gamers from the U.S., and fellows from Princeton University. In years past, hundreds of individuals in more than 35 cities have participated in the Global Sprint.






  • Databases



    • MariaDB Offers a Bigger Box of Transactional Tools
      MariaDB TX offers a comprehensive package of technology and services, including feature-rich new releases of MariaDB Server and MariaDB MaxScale, which close the functional gap between open source and proprietary offerings. It is part of a MariaDB's larger effort to offer complete solutions to support specific workload needs, whether transactional, analytical or developer-focused.

      The TX 2.0 release meets business technology needs for increased agility, scalability and security. It provides developers with an open and extensible database solution that lets them develop many different types of applications easily.


    • IBM's new platform readies open source databases for private cloud




  • Oracle/Java/LibreOffice



    • Presentations in a browser
      If you've ever given a slide presentation at a conference, you know the drill. Tell the audio-visual people what session your talk is in, then hand them a USB stick with your PowerPoint on it. The presentation has to be in Microsoft PowerPoint because the one and only laptop plugged into the data projector runs Windows and PowerPoint. No LibreOffice Impress, no other presentation software, sorry.




  • Pseudo-Open Source (Openwashing)



  • BSD



  • FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC



    • Recording for "Limux the loss of a lighthouse"
      On 26 May I had the honour to give the keynote at the openSUSE conference. They asked me to talk about the Limux project in Munich. This talk was special talk for me, as in 1999 SUSE 6.0 was my first GNU/Linux distribution and therefore also my start into the Free Software movement. Below you will find the abstract and the recordings of the talk.




  • Licensing/Legal



    • European Commission updates EUPL open source licence
      The European Commission has updated the European Union Public Licence (EUPL). Version 1.2 has a wider coverage, making it easier to use the licence to publish data, documents, technical specifications and standards, as well as software source code. In addition, the new licence is compatible with a wider range of other free and open source software licences, including the GNU Public Licence v3.


    • 100 Million Reasons For Open Source Compliance
      CoKinetic Systems Corporation filed suit against Panasonic Avionics Corporation, seeking damages in excess of $100 million, in part, for violation of the GPL v2 open source license. CoKinetic alleged that Panasonic blocked competitors from having the ability to develop software for Panasonic’s In-flight Entertainment (IFE) hardware by refusing to distribute the source code for its open-source Linux based operating system. CoKinetic alleged that this software controls the basic functions of Panasonic IFE hardware systems. According to CoKinetic, this is a willful violation of the GPL License, exposing Panasonic as a willful infringer of the copyrights of thousands of software developers that have contributed to Linux. The suit includes other very interesting legal claims, detailed below.


    • Artifex v. Hancom: Open Source is Now an Enforceable Contract
      Today, as much as 50 percent of the code used in all software (including Internet of Things devices) is comprised of open source software. While open source provides a convenient short cut for software developers to be more agile and efficient – there’s also a hidden risk: The law. While open source components are by definition free and available for anyone to use – there are limitations and most open source components have licensing obligations that developers must comply with.




  • Openness/Sharing/Collaboration



    • Open Hardware/Modding



      • Triggertrap Open Sources Its Mobile Dongle Hardware
        As Triggertrap continues winding down its business, their Triggertrap Mobile Dongles are becoming increasingly difficult to find. But there’s some good news now: the company has decided to open source the hardware, making it is possible to build your own dongle.






  • Programming/Development



    • Red Hat’s Jim Tyrell: Java’s Popularity Continues in Federal IT
      Jim Tyrell, a principal JBoss solutions architect for the public sector business of Red Hat (NYSE: RHT), has noted that many government agencies have adopted or continue to use the Java programming language in efforts to drive flexibility, speed and efficiency, ExecutiveBiz reported Thursday.


    • Feature Branching vs. Feature Flags: What’s the Right Tool for the Job?
      A dev team’s branch management strategy can have a significant impact on the rate at which it can release high-quality software. In this article we’ll explore the pros and cons of several different approaches for enabling multiple concurrent streams of dev work in the same codebase. We’ll see that two major factors—the cost of merge conflicts and the ability to release streams of work independently—are often in tension, but that Feature Flags provide a way to resolve that tension.


    • What do Ubuntu and NE-YO have in common? A Coding Summer Camp!
      As the Tech industry is suffering from a huge lack of talent, and, according to US CTO Megan Smith, heading toward 1 million unfilled IT jobs in the next decade. We need to inspire more youth toward a career in Software Engineering. That’s why we at Holberton decided to launch a 3-week Summer Coding Camp for 15 to 18 years old. Students will not attend class but will be building their first website, following our progressive education methodology focusing on learning by doing.


    • A year at Bitnami


      I’m a stone’s throw away from reaching my 1 year anniversary at Bitnami, so it feels like a good time to pause a bit and look back. ot After 8 years working at Canonical on a wide range of projects and roles, it was a very difficult step to take and was riddled with uncertainty and anxiety about leaving behind so many things I had poured my heart and soul into for so many years behind, and more than anything else a once-in-a-life-time epic team of people to work with.

      A year in, I’m overwhelmingly happy I made that decision.

      A lot of people expressed surprise I was joining Bitnami as either they hadn’t heard about them at all or they had but thought of them as a company that “made some installers or something”. However, Bitnami had been quietly but consistently growing in size, scope and revenue, all fueled by being organically profitable which is very rare nowadays in the tech world.
    • GitHub CEO Wanstrath: 'Our goal is no outages'
      GitHub has tried to reassure users that it is targeting zero downtime with the help of new data centres and infrastructure software – some being open-sourced.

      “The fundamentals of GitHub is it’s there when you need it. GitHub needs to be as reliable as a light switch or a dial tone,” chief executive Chris Wanstrath told The Reg.


    • Using Node.js with ScyllaDB
      Web applications typically feed information back and forth from a database to process information for the user. Organizations need to build applications that can scale with their business. While it is easy to scale web applications with containers and cloud platforms, the last thing that an IT administrator would want is a bottleneck at the database because it would affect application performance and availability at scale. One way to address these concerns is by using a clustered database solution such as ScyllaDB. This blog post will demonstrate how to use Node.js and ScyllaDB running in Docker.


    • Gollvm: Google Working On LLVM-Based Go Compiler
      It seems Google is working on a new Go language compiler that's making use of the LLVM compiler infrastructure.


    • TickSmith releases open source Python API


    • Language Server Protocol (lsp), rust and Emacs


    • Gee, optimization sure is hard




  • Standards/Consortia



    • One Standard to Rule Them All: A Common Language for the Cloud’s Identity Management Crisis
      The movements of containerization, APIs and open source are more than just the hottest IT buzzwords — they speak to a shift in the way today’s savviest tech minds are getting ahead in the digital economy. Today’s companies are realizing that rather than reinvent the wheel with every new technology, they can innovate faster and better by tapping into the power of collaboration, integration and openness rather than DIY. Yet, despite the increasing pervasiveness of collaboration across the tech industry, one industry is still struggling with divides: the identity and access management (IAM) industry.


    • The story of SEMIC: Bringing Europe together through semantic interoperability
      The first edition of SEMIC took place in 2011 in Brussels. Back then, the event attracted 97 people from 22 countries, mainly representatives of European public administrations and private companies. Its success ensured the continuation of SEMIC for the years to come.






Leftovers



  • These are the online communities we will never forget

    Today the Ars staff is celebrating some of the Internet communities we've loved.



  • [Older] The Adventure begins again

    With the approval of its authors, I bring you Open Adventure. And with it some thoughts about what it means to be respectful of an important historical artifact when it happens to be software.



  • Manuel Noriega, Panama ex-strongman, dies at 83
    General Manuel Antonio Noriega, former military leader of Panama, has died aged 83, officials have announced.

    Noriega recently underwent an operation after suffering a haemorrhage following brain surgery.

    Noriega had been a key US ally but was forcibly removed when American troops invaded in 1989 and was later jailed in the US on drugs and laundering charges.

    He spent the rest of his life in custody, latterly in Panama for murder, corruption and embezzlement.


  • Microsoft Outlook users left locked out of their accounts amid global outage – with Australia the worst affected
    Australian Microsoft users have been left the hardest hit amid a global outrage crisis for the company that has seen thousands of users unable to access their accounts.

    More than half of Australian customers have reported trouble logging in to their respective accounts for services such as Office, Outlook, Lync and OneDrive.

    The outages have prevented many students from completing assignments and employees from accessing emails.



  • Health/Nutrition



  • Security



    • Stealing from customers
      Now let's think about insurance. Just like loss prevention insurance, cybersecurity insurance isn't there to protect customers. It exists to help protect the company from the losses of an attack. If customer data is stolen the customers are not really covered, in many instances there's nothing a customer can do. It could be impossible to prove your information was stolen, even if it gets used somewhere else can you prove it came from the business in question?

      After spending some time on the question of what if insurance covered the customers, I realize how hard this problem is to deal with. While real world customer theft isn't very common and it's basically not covered, there's probably no hope for information. It's so hard to prove things beyond a reasonable doubt and many of our laws require actual harm to happen before any action can be taken. Proving this harm is very very difficult. We're almost certainly going to need new laws to deal with these situations.


    • Microsoft patched more Malware Protection Engine bugs last week
      Project Zero's Mateusz Jurczyk didn't turn up just one “crazy bad” bug: while the new bugs are all named either “Microsoft Malware Protection Engine Denial of Service Vulnerability” or “Microsoft Malware Protection Engine Remote Code Execution Vulnerability”, there are eight individual bugs covered in Microsoft's announcement.


    • Security is hard ..
      The most recent print I had made was a collection of display cases, for holding an OLED display, as well as an ESP8266 device.

      Unfortunately at the same time as I was falling in love with the service I discovered a glaring XSS attack against the site itself.


    • WhiteEgret: New Linux Security Module For Execution Whitelisting
      WhiteEgret is the name of a new Linux Security Module (LSM) in-development by Toshiba for being able to limit what your system can execute via a whitelist.


    • Reproducible Builds: week 109 in Stretch cycle
    • 82% of Databases Left Unencrypted in Public Cloud


    • Episode 49 - Testing software is impossible


    • New Shadow Brokers 0-day subscription forces high-risk gamble on whitehats
      The mysterious group that over the past nine months has leaked millions of dollars' worth of advanced hacking tools developed by the National Security Agency said Tuesday it will release a new batch of tools to individuals who pay a $21,000 subscription fee. The plans, announced in a cryptographically signed post published Tuesday morning, are generating an intense moral dilemma for security professionals around the world.


    • Sudo Vulnerability Patched in All Supported Ubuntu Linux Releases, Update Now


    • Tech pro cautions on attribution of cyber attacks


    • Cyber crime to cost business US$8 trillion: Juniper

      The report, by Juniper Research, also forecasts that the number of personal data records stolen by cyber criminals will reach 2.8 billion in 2017, and almost double to 5 billion in 2020.



    • Russian Hackers Are Using Google’s Own Infrastructure to Hack Gmail Users
      The “Change Password” button linked to a short URL from the Tiny.cc link shortener service, a Bitly competitor. But the hackers cleverly disguised it as a legitimate link by using Google’s Accelerated Mobile Pages, or AMP. This is a service hosted by the internet giant that was originally designed to speed up web pages on mobile, especially for publishers. In practice, it works by creating a copy of a website’s page on Google’s servers, but it also acts as an open redirect.


    • The sudo tty bug and procps


    • Improving Linux Security with DevSecOps
      Ask people who run IT departments these days what keeps them up at night, and they'll probably tell you it's security—or the lack of it. With the explosive growth of malicious attacks on everything from hospitals to Fortune 500s, security—not hardware, software and even staff—is what currently makes life miserable.

      That's why organizations of all sizes are looking to change fundamentally how they do security. It's no longer a single team's job to make sure systems are secure and internal auditing is good enough to identify and mitigate attacks. Today, everyone is responsible for security, which is the guiding principal of DevSecOps.

      Just as in DevOps, which aims to speed the development of software by improving collaboration and balancing the competing interests of operations teams and developers, DevSecOps seeks to get everyone thinking about security together and up front. Trying to bake in security after systems are built and code is deployed is simply too late.




  • Transparency/Investigative Reporting



    • Noam Chomsky in Conversation with Amy Goodman on Climate Change, Nukes, Syria, WikiLeaks & More
      In this Democracy Now! special, we spend the hour with the world-renowned linguist and political dissident Noam Chomsky. In a public conversation we had in April, we talked about climate change, nuclear weapons, North Korea, Iran, the war in Syria and the Trump administration’s threat to prosecute WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, and his new book, "Requiem for the American Dream: The 10 Principles of Concentration of Wealth & Power."




  • Environment/Energy/Wildlife/Nature



    • Theresa May accused of being ‘Donald Trump’s mole’ in Europe after UK tries to water down EU climate change policy


      Theresa May has been accused of being Donald Trump’s “mole” in Europe after leaked documents showed the UK attempted to water down EU policies designed to tackle climate change.

      While other European politicians have made clear to the Republican billionaire that his denial of climate science is a problem, the Prime Minister has remained resolutely silent on the issue.


    • Renewable energy generation in the US dramatically exceeds 2012 predictions
      The Energy Information Administration (EIA) has released numbers on US electricity generation for the first quarter of 2017, and renewable energy numbers are coming in big.

      According to the EIA, renewable energy sources like wind, solar, and geothermal power accounted for 10.68 percent of total electricity generation in the first quarter of 2017. If you include electricity from conventional hydroelectric plants, renewables made up nearly a fifth of total electricity generation—as much as 19.35 percent.

      The striking part about that number is that the EIA, a statistical department within the Department of Energy, couldn’t foresee how dramatically renewables’ share of the electricity mix would increase just five years ago. In 2012, the administration predicted (PDF, page 87) that electricity generation from renewable sources would increase “from 10 percent in 2010 to 15 percent in 2035.” Even by 2015, the administration predicted (PDF, page ES-6) that “The renewable share of total generation grows from 13 percent in 2013 to 18 percent in 2040.”


    • Donald Trump ready to withdraw from Paris climate agreement, reports say


      Donald Trump is poised to withdraw from the Paris climate accord, according to multiple reports on Wednesday, in a move that would profoundly undermine the landmark agreement by nearly 200 nations to curtail global warming.

      Trump tweeted on Wednesday that he would reach a final decision in a few days, shortly after a wave of reports said he was about to exit from the deal. The reports follow his refusal to express support for global efforts to combat climate change at a G7 summit with European leaders last week.


    • Exclusive: UN, EU Agencies Reject Ties to Conference Hijacked by Climate Science Deniers
      On the face of it, the climate science conference scheduled for the romantic Italian city of Rome looks like any other.

      The organizers, India-based ConferenceSeries, promise their “4th World Conference on Climate Change” will attract “world class experts” from across the planet.

      Anticipating “more than 500 participants,” the event claimed to have an organizing committee with representatives from the UN’s World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the European Space Agency, and the European Environment Agency (EEA).


    • Exxon shareholders approve climate impact report in win for activists
      Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N) shareholders on Wednesday approved a proposal calling for the company to disclose the impact of compliance with global climate change guidelines on its business, an issue central to probes by two state attorneys general.

      A preliminary tally showed the non-binding proposal passed with 62.3 percent of ballots cast, the world's largest publicly traded oil company said. The increase from last year's 38 percent support for a similar report signaled that the non-binding proposal was backed by at least some of Exxon's top institutional shareholders.






  • Finance

    • Aviation is hell because airline exec pay is solely based on quarterly profits

      There was a time when airline execs were paid based on a mix of on-time arrivals, accurate and timely baggage delivery, and profits. Now it's just profits.



    • Route to Air Travel Discomfort Starts on Wall Street

      Rich bonus packages for top executives are now largely tied to short-term income targets and fatter profit margins instead of customer service.



    • [Old] Attitudes towards the impact of digitisation and automation on daily life

      The European Commission has published a Eurobarometer survey presenting European citizens' opinions on the impact of digitisation and automation on daily life. European citizens see digitisation and automation primarily as an opportunity but call for investment for better and faster internet services as well as effective public policy to accompany changes, in particular in areas such as employment, privacy and personal health. The results also show that the more people are informed or use technologies the more they are likely to have a positive opinion on them and to trust them.

    • Theresa May losing the general election would be good for the pound, says JP Morgan
      Sterling looks set for a volatile run in to British elections next week but an argument can be made for markets reacting positively to a defeat for Prime Minister Theresa May's Conservatives, according to analysts from US bank JP Morgan.


    • Study reveals huge economic benefit refugees are having in Germany
      Earlier this year Starbucks made a pledge to hire 10,000 refugees globally over the next five years in a publicity-fuelled stunt that hit all the right notes following Donald Trump’s inauguration and amidst all the dark clouds hanging over the toxic geopolitical environment. The warm gesture provided a much-needed PR boost for the often beleaguered coffee house chain, but sentiment has little to do with it, the truth is that it makes good business sense.

      Over the next decade Starbucks is planning to have another 12,000 new stores open around the world as well as opening more dine-in restaurants, drive-thrus and even walk-thrus in busy metropolitan areas. Key to its ambitious growth plans is access to a bank of young, hard-working and often low-paid labour which has been afforded by the refugee crisis, and their business plans very much chime with the consensus in economic literature that refugees have a favourable economic impact on both demand and supply forces.

      The move also has obvious connotations with Angela Merkel’s approach in Germany.




  • AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

    • Anti-Trump protests planned nationwide on Saturday
      Protesters will gather in Washington, D.C., and 135 other cities on Saturday to call for an independent commission to investigate possible collusion between President Trump's campaign and Russia to influence the outcome of the 2016 presidential election.

      The "March for Truth" is the latest in a series of weekend protests opposing the Trump administration that has included the Women's March in January and the Tax March and March for Science in April.

      Organizers of the latest demonstration are also demanding that Trump release his personal income tax returns.
    • Comey to testify publicly about Trump confrontations
      Fired FBI director James Comey plans to testify publicly in the Senate as early as next week to confirm bombshell accusations that President Donald Trump pressured him to end his investigation into a top Trump aide's ties to Russia, a source close to the issue said Wednesday.


    • ‘Strong and stable’ May too strong and stable to debate ‘naked and alone’ Corbyn


      It’s worth remembering that we’ve been told for two years that Corbyn couldn’t politics his way out of a wet paper bag. And yet, in the last month, he’s made a Prime Minister whose key strength is her alleged ‘strength’ refuse to face him twice.

      A new Prime Minister approaches.


    • EXCL Brussels prepared to postpone start of Brexit talks if Jeremy Corbyn becomes Prime Minister
      Michel Barnier, the European Union's cheif negotiator in the crunch talks, said last week that he hoped they would begin on 19 June.

      His comments were pounced upon by Theresa May as further evidence that she and her experienced ministerial team should be re-elected.


    • Corbyn on leading a coalition: 'Ask me on June 9'


      Jeremy Corbyn stood on the stump in a Reading car park and talked without hesitation, though with a good deal of repetition, for 30 minutes.

      His largely white, young and middle class audience was in raptures, as he elaborated in meticulous detail all the spending on public services he would do to end seven years of austerity.

      It is the message which seems to have reduced the Tories lead over Labour by 15 or so percentage points, and made it plausible - according to YouGov - that May and the Tories could lose their majority in parliament.


    • Jeremy Corbyn Won't Be Perfect, But He Has The Qualities I Want In A Strong And Stable Leader
      You know I never actually said "don't vote"? I said "There's no point in voting when the main political parties are basically indistinguishable and the relationship between government, big business and factions of the media make it impossible for the democratic will of the people to be realised", which is a more nuanced point and plainly true. Anyway, that was then and this is now.

      Since then we have had a revolution, and not a pleasant one, a nostalgic backward lunge into an imaginary world where economic disparity and social fragmentation are concealed by a flag, draped across the truth like a patriotic tablecloth. The late Zygmunt Bauman had a phrase for this phenomenon - 'retroptopia.'

      Compared to the buffet of neo-liberal homogeneity that we chewed through in 2015, the possibility of voting for a politician that offers change seems oddly exotic. Jeremy Corbyn has somehow been in politics for decades with his integrity perfectly preserved, like his much derided beard has functioned as hairy formaldehyde for his principles.


    • WaPo’s Laziest Columnist Calls Protesters ‘Fascists,’ Equates Them to Manchester Bomber
      Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen (5/29/17) continues his impressive streak of downplaying racism and being wrong with his latest half-baked column, “Protesters at Middlebury College Demonstrate ‘Cultural Appropriation’—of Fascism.”

      After describing the chaotic events at Vermont’s Middlebury College three months ago—which left one professor with a concussion after activists sought to shut down a speech by white supremacist-with-a-PhD Charles Murray—Cohen goes full-Godwin, equating the students with 1920s Italian fascists, a comparison that’s both fresh and totally proportionate to accidentally hitting a person on the head...


    • Nordic leaders troll Trump orb photo

      The leaders, including the prime ministers of Denmark, Norway, Finland, Sweden and Iceland, stood around a soccer ball, each touching it.



    • Donald Trump Is Picking a Fight With Germany—and It Will Not End Well [iophk: "achieving old post-WWII USSR priority goal"]


    • Observer lays off four staffers, including reporter who wrote open letter to Kushner: report

      Culture writer Dana Schwartz was one of the employees let go. She wrote an open note to Kushner over the summer, titled "An Open Letter to Jared Kushner, From One of Your Jewish Employees," after President Trump, Kushner's employer and father in law, tweeted out a controversial anti-Hillary Clinton message that featured Clinton surrounded by $100 bills and wearing a six-point star that resembled the Star of David.



    • The Real Trouble With The GOP We're Too Distracted To Notice


    • Revealed: How Facebook chief, Sheryl Sandberg, lobbied Taoiseach Enda Kenny over data protection role and taxation

      Facebook chief, Sheryl Sandberg, personally lobbied the Taoiseach at one-to-one meetings and in correspondence, on who would be appointed as Ireland's next Data Protection Commissioner.

    • Tainted Leaks

      Last year, I wrote about the potential for doxers to alter documents before they leaked them. It was a theoretical threat when I wrote it, but now Citizen Lab has documented this technique in the wild



    • [Old] The Elements of Dictator Style


    • Why the nasty party is back in business under Theresa May
      Theresa May sits down to be interviewed by Jeremy Paxman tonight, she'll no doubt want to talk about her record.

      I'm happy to remind her.

      When she called the Tories the 'nasty party' all those years ago, she pointed out they only spoke for a privileged few.


    • Donald Trump’s War on Journalism Has Begun. But Journalists Are Not His Main Target.
      Wars are rarely announced in advance, but President Trump provided an abundance of warning about his intention to wage an assault on journalism. During the election campaign, he called journalists an “enemy of the people” and described media organizations he didn’t like as “fake news.” You can pretty much draw a direct line between his words and the actions we’ve seen lately — which include journalists physically prevented from asking questions of officials, arrested when trying to do so, and in a now-famous example from Montana, body-slammed to the ground by a Republican candidate who didn’t want to discuss his party’s position on healthcare.

      This is most likely a prelude. From virtually the moment Trump took the oath of office, a deluge of irritating leaks has poured forth about, for instance, his private complaints against senior aides and his late night habits when he is upstairs at the White House without a tweet-blocking retinue of aides. Matters of crucial substance have also been leaked, such as his own disclosure of highly classified information to Russia’s foreign minister, and his obstruction-of-justice-worthy request to James Comey that the FBI restrain its investigation of Michael Flynn. Just a few days ago, there was another leak that wasn’t even Trump-centric, disclosing information about the British investigation into the suicide bombing in Manchester.



    • A massive foreign policy blunder came back to bite Putin on his first meeting with Macron
      As soon as Emmanuel Macron swept home to an enormous victory in the French presidential election in early May, analysts predicted that Russia’s propaganda and alleged hacking interference in his campaign had backfired, turning a relatively moderate candidate into a president with a grudge.

      Russian president Vladimir Putin’s first meeting with Macron, in Versailles palace today, showed they weren’t wrong. When asked at a joint press conference why he had banned Russian state media outlets RT and Sputnik from attending events towards the end of his campaign, Macron pulled no punches (link in French), saying, “I’ve always had exemplary relations with foreign journalists, for as long as they are journalists,” he said. “Let’s tell things like they are: Russia Today and Sputnik didn’t behave like organs of the press and journalists, they behaved like organs of influence and mendacious propaganda.”


    • General election 2017 live: Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn face live TV grilling on Battle for Number 10
      Jeremy Corbyn and Theresa May are facing a grilling on the Battle for Number 10, live on Sky News and Channel 4.

      Each leader will face questions from a live studio audience before being grilled by Jeremy Paxman.

      Mrs May refused to debate Mr Corbyn head to head on live TV so they will not share the stage at any point tonight.


    • Foursquare: US tourism is down sharply in the age of Trump
      Over the past couple of years, Foursquare has used their location data to accurately predict iPhone sales and Chipotle’s sales figures following an E. coli outbreak. Their latest report suggests that leisure tourism to the United States was way down year-over-year over the past 6 months (relative to tourism to other countries).


    • New posterboy for ‘more Europe’ — Donald Trump
      Angela Merkel’s beerfest call for Europe to wean itself from U.S. reliance may have looked like a salvo in Donald Trump’s direction. In fact, she was aiming closer to home.

      Merkel’s intent wasn’t so much to antagonize the U.S. president (though she may well have done so), but rather to convince Germans their destiny lies in Europe and prepare them for deeper integration.

      “We Europeans really need to take our fate into our own hands,” Merkel said on Sunday, offering a clear coda to her remarks about Trump.

      Though the underlying arguments for a more a tightly wound EU aren’t new, the debate has taken on new urgency since the election of Emmanuel Macron as French president. The victory of the passionately pro-EU Macron presents what many liberal European leaders view as a short window of opportunity for Berlin and Paris to turn the rhetoric of reforming the EU’s creaking infrastructure into reality.


    • Corbyn, Paxman, May and a TV studio audience: the verdict
      Corbyn had a much better 45 minutes than she did, but she was the one the audience would send in to Brussels to negotiate with our European partners.


    • Charities say 'gag law' stops them speaking out on Tory social care plans
      Charities have been silenced from speaking out about the Conservative social care plans despite believing they will be hugely damaging to elderly and disabled people across the country, it has been claimed.

      One chief executive of a major charity in the social care sector told the Guardian they felt “muzzled” by legislation, introduced in 2014, which heavily restricts organisations from intervening on policy during an election period.


    • The electable Mr Corbyn
      UK Theresa May called snap UK elections (after promising not to) in order to consolidate power in her own party, shutting up the MPs who didn't fall into line with her policies -- this was the same logic behind her predecessor David Cameron's decision to call a referendum on Brexit, and both banked on the idea that the UK electorate wasn't willing to vote for an "unthinkable" alternative in order to tell the establishment to go fuck itself.


    • The US Bernie Sanders campaigners lending Jeremy Corbyn a hand
      As rush-hour commuters hurried past to find shelter, dozens of people braved the pouring rain to queue outside the TSSA union building, next door to Euston station in London.

      Over the course of the evening, there would be hundreds of them. “Labour members queue to the right – and who has RSVP-ed on Facebook?” a woman shouted down the street.


    • UK election rivals May and Corbyn set out opposing EU 'no deal' stances
      British Prime Minister Theresa May said she would walk away from divorce talks with the European Union without a deal if she had to, but her rival in next week's election, Labour's Jeremy Corbyn, said he would make sure an agreement was reached if he won power.

      Britons will go to the polls in a vote that will decide whether May, from the centre-right Conservatives, or Corbyn of the leftist Labour Party, gets to sit down with Brussels and hammer out an exit deal that will define the country's trade and diplomatic ties with the EU.



    • David Davis & Brexit Negotiations
      Finally, and ironically, prior to this period he was instrumental in blocking one of the major initiatives that would have allowed the UK to manage FoM in the same way as our European partners, arguably one of the key drivers for Brexit.


    • Anti-Theresa May song ‘banned by radios’ makes its way up the charts
      A ska song accusing the Prime Minister of lying has raced up the music charts.

      With just over a week to go before the general election the song has been banned by radio stations over impartiality concerns.


    • 'Liar Liar' Song About Theresa May By Captain Ska Soars To Number 2 On iTunes Chart
      ster Theresa May has rocketed up the music charts less than two weeks before the General Election.

      ‘Liar Liar’ by Captain Ska was released on Friday and by Monday had risen to number two on the influential iTunes singles chart.

      The song features soundbites from May, alongside lyrics including: “She’s a liar liar, you can’t trust her, no, no, no.”


    • Theresa May 'liar' song now at number three in iTunes download charts
      A song accusing Theresa May of being a "liar" has reached number three in the iTunes charts and the top 10 radio charts.

      “Liar Liar Ge2017”, produced and performed by Captain Ska, skewers the Prime Minister on the NHS, education and poverty, and her party's several recent U-turns including calling the snap election.

      The chorus and easy-to-sing-along melody – “She’s a liar, liar, you can’t trust her, no no no no” – has helped the song to overtake Miley Cyrus, Niall Horan and Ed Sheeran.


    • Corbyn and May
      I do not believe that this economic argument has yet been won by the neo-liberals. A different response, though, is to think about the opportunities for the development of virtue that are lost when we introduce markets. I think that fear is one of the greatest barriers to the development of the virtues. It closes us down. Fundamentally, social justice is about the removal of fear, so that people are able to flourish. The neo-liberals would rather encourage and exploit fear, in all stratas of society (they want themselves to be afraid of being a bit less rich, and respond accordingly).


    • Trump clashes with German leaders as transatlantic tensions boil over


      Donald Trump has escalated a row between the US and Germany in an early morning tweet accusing Berlin of unfair trade relations and not paying its way in the Nato alliance.

      Trump’s tweet, declaring German policies “very bad” for the US and vowing to change the situation, came a few hours after the German foreign minister, Sigmar Gabriel, declared that the administration’s “short-sighted policies” were weakening the west.

      The discord between the Trump administration and Berlin is just the sorest point in increasingly troubled transatlantic relations, aggravated by the president’s European trip last week. Since then, simmering tensions have boiled over in a public spat.


    • Why Angela Merkel's Concerns Are So Concerning
      If it is politically harmful for America's allies to be seen supporting America's president, those alliances are not long for this world.


    • Ridiculed, reviled, resurgent … Is Corbyn's campaign beginning to #feeltheBern?
      Just as I was wondering if I had come to the right place, out of the drizzle stepped a familiar figure. “Sorry about the rain,” Jeremy Corbyn told the crowd waiting in a park in Southall, west London, before launching into an eerily familiar speech. For more than a year, I had followed an almost identical politician around the United States, where the climate was more extreme than the London suburbs. From baking-hot Iowa prairies, to the blizzards of New Hampshire, the rise of Bernard Sanders played out on a continental scale. In the made-for-America production, the ageing leftwinger known simply as Bernie rose from nowhere to electrify the 2016 race for the White House. Yet, despite the lower-budget feel of the British version, this movie is getting a remake. Here, too, a leader who was at first ignored, then ridiculed, and now reviled by the establishment, has seen a last-minute surge in the opinion polls that threatens to upset a complacent opponent.

      Without wanting to give the plot away, it is important to note that Sanders lost. A mounting wave of support peaked too late for him to overhaul Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination and never allowed him to test the polling data that suggested he could have beaten Donald Trump. But the last time an angry white-haired socialist called for political revolution, something nonetheless remarkable happened. Against all the odds, Sanders found millions more Americans were enthusiastic about radical social change than even he imagined was possible. Ideas that once seemed absurd by the old standards of Washington politics set the country alight.


    • Corbyn turns in one of his best media performances
      Jeremy Corbyn turned in one of his most assured media performances in the Sky / Channel 4 ‘Battle for Number 10’ programme. Answering questions from the audience, Corbyn was confident and kept his temper under some hostile questioning. He took every opportunity to return to his key messages. He framed them in a reasonable, rather than ideological manner.

      Now, this is not to say that Corbyn was telling the whole truth. On Northern Ireland, he suggested that all he had ever wanted was a peace process and a dialogue. But his activity at the time was far closer to sympathy for the IRA, then support for a peace process. It is worth remembering that he opposed the Anglo-Irish agreement and that Seamus Mallon, the deputy leader of the Nationalist SDLP, said of Corbyn that he ‘very clearly took the side of the IRA and that was incompatible, in my opinion with working for peace’. But a voter not versed in these details might have accepted Corbyn’s claim that he was just pushing for a Good Friday-style deal.


    • 'Covfefe' trends on social media after Trump shares unfinished tweet with typo
      "Covfefe" was the number one trend on Twitter across the U.S. early Wednesday morning after President Trump sent out what appeared to be an unfinished tweet with a typo.

      "Despite the constant negative press covfefe," Trump tweeted shortly after 12 a.m. E.T.


    • Portland MAX hero's last words: 'Tell everyone on this train I love them'
      Holding his neck, he said, "I'm going to die,'' according to Macy.

      "I looked at him and said, 'we can handle this. Lay down.' ''

      He lay on the floor of the train. Macy crouched beside him, pulled off her black tank top and gave it to Namkai-Meche. He pressed the shirt to his neck wound. She placed her hand over his.

      She noticed a deep, long gash along Namkai-Meche's neck.

      Another man who she described as a veteran also tried to comfort Namkai-Meche and keep him from panicking. He told Namkai-Mache that his heart was beating, and he was OK, pointing out the sound of sirens and help on its way.

      "I just kept telling him, 'You're not alone. We're here,'' Macy said. "What you did was total kindness. You're such a beautiful man. I'm sorry the world is so cruel.''

      And she prayed.

      "When I said 'pray with me,' he just closed his eyes and tried to keep breathing,'' she recalled.

      Fletcher stumbled off the train holding his neck, she said.

      Macy remained on the train until police and emergency medics arrived. Medical personnel tried to work on Best but he was pronounced dead at the scene.

      Medics put Namkai-Meche on a stretcher. Macy stayed by his side. Before he was carried away, he had a last message, she said: "Tell everyone on this train I love them. ''

      Macy, who is studying psychology at the Cascade campus of Portland Community College, left her leather school bag, purse and cell phone behind and then stepped back to where Best was lying. She prayed for him and his family.


    • Theresa May ‘Liar liar’ song tops UK charts


      A song that splices British Prime Minister Theresa May’s speeches with the lyrics “She’s a liar, liar” on Tuesday became the most downloaded song on iTunes in the U.K., despite being barred from many radio stations over its political content.

      Liar Liar GE2017, performed by Captain Ska and promoted by a group called the People’s Assembly Against Austerity, attacks May and her Conservative Party for cuts to education and the National Health Service.


    • Election 2017 debate: Jeremy Corbyn to take part in live TV show after Theresa May refuses to attend


      Jeremy Corbyn has revealed he will take part in tonight's TV election debate and has challenged Theresa May to come and face his questions.

      The Labour leader threw down the gauntlet to the Prime Minister, claiming it is "ridiculous" that he would not have a chance to debate her before election day and accusing her of "weakness".

      Labour's momentum has been reflected in a shrinking Tory poll lead and one projection pointing to a hung parliament, while Mr Corbyn has grown in confidence following his performances in previous TV events.


    • Jeremy Corbyn Will Take Part In Tonight's Leaders' Debate And He's Challenged Theresa May To Join Him
      “The Tories have been conducting a stage-managed arms-length campaign and have treated the public with contempt. Refusing to join me in Cambridge tonight would be another sign of Theresa May’s weakness, not strength.”


    • Election 2017: David Dimbleby says Jeremy Corbyn has not had ‘fair deal’ from British press
      “If the Conservative story is how Theresa May is the ‘brand leader’,” Mr Dimbleby said, “the interesting thing is that a lot of Labour supporters really like and believe in the messages that Jeremy Corbyn is bringing across,” adding that while this support may not come from his own MPs in the House of Commons, it does from many people across the country.

      “And I don’t think anyone could say that Mr Corbyn has had a fair deal at the hands of the press, in a way that the Labour Party did when it was more to the centre, but then we generally have a right-wing press,” he told the Radio Times.


    • Theresa May denies demeaning the office of Prime Minister after asking voters to imagine Jeremy Corbyn 'naked and alone'
      Flapping Theresa May fired off a volley of insults at Jeremy Corbyn today after Labour surged in general election polls.

      The desperate Prime Minister even conjured up an image of the Labour leader naked in Brussels as she urged voters to consider the impact of propelling Mr Corbyn to No 10.


    • Corbyn to join TV debate as gap with Conservatives narrows
      May's ratings have been slipping since she was forced to backtrack on one of her most striking election pledges, hours before the suicide bombing which halted campaigning for several days.

      A projection published by pollsters YouGov on Wednesday showed May could lose control of parliament.

      May called the snap election in a bid to strengthen her hand in negotiations on Britain's exit from the European Union, to win more time to deal with the impact of the divorce and to strengthen her grip on the Conservative Party.

      But if she does not soundly beat the 12-seat majority Cameron won in 2015, her authority could be undermined just as she tries to deliver what she has told voters will be a successful Brexit.


    • Here are all of Theresa May's ridiculous excuses for not debating Jeremy Corbyn live on television
      So it's confirmed - tonight's live TV debate won't feature chicken Prime Minister Theresa May.

      Since the day she called the election, Mrs May has refused to debate Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn head-to-head on television even though he has thrown down the gauntlet many times.

      Instead, Home Secretary Amber Rudd will represent the Tories in tonight's BBC Election Debate 2017 in Cambridge, alongside Mr Corbyn, SNP Westminster leader Angus Robertson, Lib Dem leader Tim Farron, UKIP leader Paul Nuttall, Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood and Green co-leader Caroline Lucas.


    • What does Jeremy Corbyn stand for?
      The 2017 UK Labour Manifesto has been hugely popular since it was leaked early last month, and young Britons registered to vote in droves after it got out. But what does it actually say?

      By all means, read it. But also read Max Shanly and Ronana Burtenshaw's analysis for Jacobin, which sums it up nicely: "end the era of austerity and shape a new economic terrain, one that shifts wealth and power from capital to workers."

      More importantly, read through to the end, where the authors point out that Prime Minister Corbyn couldn't make all this stuff -- renationalising key industries, providing free education, taxing the rich and multinational corporations, and instituting key protections for workers -- won't happen on their own. As anyone who watched Yes, Minister knows, the blob of powerful interests (represented by elite civil servants, party grandees, press barons and billionaires) have powerful tools for manipulating political outcomes.




  • Censorship/Free Speech



  • Privacy/Surveillance



    • Fifth Circuit Says No Warrants Needed To Obtain Near-Real Time Cell Site Location Info
      The Fifth Circuit Appeals Court has issued a ruling on cell site location data which basically gives the government permission to engage in real-time tracking without a warrant. The acquisition of historical cell site location data is still the source of much judicial dispute. But at the federal appellate level, courts that have handled these cases have decided no warrant is needed. Location records are just another thing law enforcement can have warrantless access to, thanks to the Third Party Doctrine.
    • Nest Cam IQ is a $300 indoor camera with a 6-core processor


    • Hackers publish private photos from cosmetic surgery clinic
      Hackers have published more than 25,000 private photos, including nude pictures, and other personal data from patients of a Lithuanian cosmetic surgery clinic, police say.

      The images were made public on Tuesday by a hacking group calling themselves “Tsar Team”, which broke into the servers of the Grozio Chirurgija clinic earlier this year and demanded ransoms from the clinic’s clients in more than 60 countries around the world, including the UK.

      Police say that following the ransom demand, a portion of the database was released in March, with the rest following on Tuesday. It’s unclear how many patients have been affected, but police say dozens have come forward to report being blackmailed. “It’s extortion. We’re talking about a serious crime,” the deputy chief of Lithuania’s criminal police bureau Andzejus Raginskis told reporters.


    • Congress Fast-Tracks Bill That Would Give DHS Agencies Access To NSA Collections


      The DHS is already on the list of agencies with access to NSA collections. This bill would allow it to give underling agencies access to the same info. Some notable three-letter agencies on that list include CBP, ICE, and TSA. While the NSA's collections are supposed to serve a national security purpose, the FBI uses its access for standard criminal investigations. There's no reason to believe these agencies won't do the same.

      But the bill has friends everywhere in the House. The bill was passed after 40 minutes of debate, thanks to a suspension of normal voting rules. The normal concerns for national security were voiced, but nothing was said of the NSA collection's routine use in routine, domestic criminal investigations. That Congress considers expanded information sharing with domestic security agencies "non-controversial" (hence the sped-up voting process) is an indication of the majority's view of the privacy/security balancing act.
    • UK government confirms plans to destroy the British software Industry
      Last week, the UK government confirmed plans to force Internet companies to undermine security by weakening or backdooring encryption. As Privacy News Online reported back in March, the UK’s Home Secretary (Interior Minister) Amber Rudd refused to rule out this move when she called for the “necessary hashtags” to be used. But what was just a vague threat then has moved much closer to reality now that the UK government has held a brief and semi-secret consultation on the so-called “Technical Capability Notices”, which will enable it to demand compliance from companies. Now the Conservatives are saying that they will bring in the new powers as soon as they can after the UK General Election, assuming they are returned to office, as currently seems likely.

      The fact that this story broke the day after the attack in Manchester is probably no coincidence. The UK government seems to have decided to exploit public outrage over the murder of so many young people to ensure that protests over the news that the long-threatened assault on encryption is happening would be muted. The implicit reasoning is that if the UK government had been able to read encrypted messages, the Manchester attack would somehow have been averted.

      But as more details of the terrorist emerged, it became clear that there were at least five opportunities to have the stopped him, and none of them involved breaking encrypted messages. [...]



    • Judge Orders Gov't To Stop Screwing Around And Hand Over Docs In Long-Running Surveillance Case
      One of the longest-running lawsuits over NSA surveillance is still no closer to a final decision, but at least we may get to take a look at a few more Section 702 documents. Jewel vs. NSA (filed in 2008) predates the Snowden leaks by five years and, judging by the speed of the government's responses, will probably hit the 10-year mark before everything is sorted out.


    • [Older] The Human Fabric of the Facebook Pyramid


    • How Facebook's tentacles reach further than you think

      Facebook's collection of data makes it one of the most influential organisations in the world. Share Lab wanted to look "under the bonnet" at the tech giant's algorithms and connections to better understand the social structure and power relations within the company.



    • This Open Source “Concrete Ball” Has Built-In TOR Protection And Internet Blackout Dial For Your Computer
      However, people mostly depend on software options like Tor and VPN for enabling their anonymity cover online. But in recent times, hardware-based privacy solutions are also finding their place in normal households, one of them being CUJO, which is a smart firewall.


    • How Telegram Took My Unique Username


    • Could the UK be about to break end-to-end encryption?

      Once again there are indications the UK government intends to use the law to lean on encryption. A report in The Sun this week quoted a Conservative minister saying that should the government be re-elected, which polls suggest it will, it will move quickly to compel social media firms to hand over decrypted data.



  • Civil Rights/Policing



    • US hasn't ruled out a full laptop ban of flights heading to its shores

      After confirming last week that US and EU authorities have agreed that there should be no ban between the EU and US, it still appears that the US may act unilaterally.



    • China to implement cyber security law from Thursday

      China, battling increased threats from cyber-terrorism and hacking, will adopt from Thursday a controversial law that mandates strict data surveillance and storage for firms working in the country, the official Xinhua news agency said.

      The law, passed in November by the country's largely rubber-stamp parliament, bans online service providers from collecting and selling users' personal information, and gives users the right to have their information deleted, in cases of abuse.



    • JetBlue Flight From JFK Makes Emergency Landing After Laptop Catches Fire [Ed: what if it was in the belly of the plane?]
      There were some terrifying moments for 158 passengers on a JetBlue flight from John F. Kennedy Airport to California after the lithium battery in a passenger’s laptop somehow caught fire, forcing an emergency landing halfway through the trip.

      JetBlue flight 915, which left JFK around 5:15 p.m. Tuesday heading for San Francisco, landed in Grand Rapids, Michigan after the laptop stowed away in backpack in an overhead bin caught on fire.
    • U.S. might ban laptops on all flights into and out of the country

      The United States might ban laptops from aircraft cabins on all flights into and out of the country as part of a ramped-up effort to protect against potential security threats, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly said on Sunday.



    • Germany gains access to detained journalist in Turkey
      Martin Schäfer, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, said Monday that German officials had received a verbal confirmation of permission to visit to Mesale Tolu, a 33-year-old German-Turkish journalist under arrest in Turkey.

      "We have received this information by phone, but are still waiting for written approval," Schäfer said, adding that diplomats would likely visit Tolu on June 2.

      The German Foreign Ministry had been demanding consular access to Tolu since it learned of the arrest - only by way of media reports - last month. The German government called the arrest "regrettable."


    • Duterte: I will ignore Supreme Court, Congress on martial law =
      President Rodrigo Duterte will ignore the Supreme Court and Congress in his implementation of martial law in Mindanao, despite powers given by the Constitution to the two branches.

      In a speech to soldiers during his visit to Jolo, Sulu on Saturday, Duterte said, "Hanggang hindi sinabi ng pulis pati Armed Forces na safe na ang Philippines, this martial law will continue. Hindi ako makinig sa iba. Mga Supreme Court, ‘yung mga congressman, wala man sila dito."


    • Is “I forget” a valid defense when court orders demand a smartphone password?
      On May 30, two suspects accused of extorting the so-called "Queen of Snapchat" as part of a sex-tape scandal are scheduled to appear in a Florida court. But as wild as the premise sounds, primarily the accused need only to answer a simple question on this visit. Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Charles Johnson wants an explanation as to why Hencha Voigt and her then boyfriend, Wesley Victor, can't remember the passcodes to their mobile phones.

      [...]

      if he doesn't believe them or if they remain silent, the two suspects face possible contempt charges and indefinite jail time for refusing a court order to unlock their phones so prosecutors can examine text messages. Their defense to that order, however, rests on an unsettled area of law. Voigt and Victor maintain that a court order requiring them to unlock an encrypted device is a breach of the Fifth Amendment right to be free from compelled self-incrimination.



    • EU top lawyer argues for right of residency for non-EU citizens
      An advocate general for the European Court of Justice argued today that non-EU citizens ought to have the right to reside in an EU country if their partners are naturalized citizens in that country.

      The case revolves around Toufik Lounes, an Algerian citizen who overstayed his visa in the United Kingdom and in 2014 married a Spanish national who became a naturalized British citizen. Lounes was later denied a residence card and informed that because his wife had taken on British citizenship, she was no longer a “European Economic Area national,” meaning that she no longer enjoyed the rights of non-British EU citizens. These include claiming a residence card for a non-EU family member.
    • Men investigating Ivanka Trump brand in China arrested, missing: report
      The three men were investigating Ganzhou Huajian International Shoe City Co.’s factory in Jiangxi province. Heng had been working undercover at the factory since April, China Labor Watch Director Li Qiang said. The parent company is known as Huajian Group.


    • Ivanka Trump: Men Probing China Shoe Company Missing


    • Judge Smacks NYPD For Its 'Gotcha' Tactics In Forfeiture Public Records Lawsuit


      New York's court system is finally pushing back against the NYPD's refusal to provide better accounting of its forfeiture programs. Late last year, the NYPD informed people requesting information on seizures it had no way of compiling this data for them. Its $12 million software -- meant to provide "cradle-to-grave" tracking of seized property -- apparently couldn't handle routine inquiries about seizure totals.

      When the NYPD did decide to talk about its forfeiture operations, it used incomplete and misleading numbers. It claimed to have forfeited only around $12,000 in 2015, something miles away from the $69 million estimate of seized cash-on-hand others had cobbled together using info the NYPD had managed to turn over. According to numbers the NYPD said its software couldn't compile, the department had generated $6 million in revenue in 2015 alone.


    • DHS, TSA To Make Boarding A Plane Even More Of A Pain In The Ass


      More bag-sorting and intrusiveness awaits more flyers thanks to the DHS and TSA. The TSA has already banned electronic devices larger than a cellphone from being brought on board flights originating in 10 predominantly Muslim countries. Now, it wants to extend that ban to European nations. For now, the new inconvenience is in its test phase.

      Rather than make things safer, officials now want lithium ion batteries and other similar fire hazards to be stowed in areas where no one's likely to notice a developing fire and subject them to the sort of abuse airline employees save for items they haven't personally purchased. All in the name of safety, and all in the name of unspecified threats.




  • Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

    • A Bad Broadband Market Begs for Net Neutrality Protections
      Anyone who has spent hours on the phone with their cable company can tell you that in the broadband market, the customer is not always right.

      When it comes to Internet access wired into your home, the major ISPs like Comcast, Charter, and Verizon don’t have to play nice because they know that most customers aren’t able to switch to another provider.

      Thanks to policies at the federal, state, and local levels, as well as some careful planning by the major ISPs, there is no meaningful competition in the broadband market in most parts of the country. Instead, consumers are stuck with government-backed monopolistic ISPs that can get away with anti-consumer business practices.


    • Use the "Removal of Net Neutrality Simulator" to experience an Internet without net neutrality




  • Intellectual Monopolies



    • Uber engineer Levandowski, accused of massive theft from Google, has been fired
      The Uber engineer at the center of the company's litigation with Waymo, Anthony Levandowski, has been fired.


    • Copyrights



      • Anti-Piracy Group Shuts Down ‘Pirate’ Kodi Repos and Add-Ons


        The websites of several Israeli Kodi repositories and add-ons have been shut down this week, following legal action from a local anti-piracy group. The operators of the platforms reportedly agreed to pay a settlement of thousands of shekels and face a hefty fine if they relaunch their services.


      • Danish ISPs Stand Up Against 'Mafia-Like' Copyright Trolls

        Following a recent victory in Norway, Internet provider Telenor now hopes to put the brakes on copyright trolling efforts in Denmark as well. The company is backed by other ISPs and the local Telco Industry Organization, which notes that users must be protected from these "mafia-like" practices.



      • Open Letter on the EU copyright reform

        On 29 May 2017, over 60 civil society and trade associations – representing publishers, journalists, libraries, scientific and research institutions, consumers, digital rights groups, start-ups, technology businesses, educational institutions and creator representatives – sent this open letter [PDF] to the Ministers attending the Competitiveness Council and European Parliament Rapporteur MEP Therese Comodini Cachia and her colleagues, asking them to put the EU copyright reform back on track.



      • Danish ISPs stop providing copyright industry with subscriber identities

        Denmark's ISPs are collectively putting their foot down and will no longer surrender identifying subscriber information to the copyright industry's lawyer armies. This follows a ruling in neighboring Norway, where the Supreme Court ruled that ISP Telenor is under no obligation to surrender subscriber identities, observing that the infraction of the copyright distribution monopoly is not nearly a serious enough issue to breach telecommunications privacy. This has the potential to end a long time of copyright industry free reign in Denmark, and will likely create a long series of court cases.







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