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A Sincere, Non-Revisionist History of Techrights

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Summary: Looking back at the progress made, including GNU/Linux becoming more mainstream and 35 U.S.C. €§ 101/Alice (SCOTUS) obliterating many software patents, we're proud to say that there's a potentially bright future ahead; there will also be a number of milestones and announcements, so we look back at what happened here since 2006 (33,611 blog posts ago)

We are very excited by a number of things. As we noted moments ago, Techrights turns 16 later this year. We must recognise the fact that many people aren't familiar with the history and thus tradition of the site.



It would not be the first time we tell the story, but looking back at 16 years perspective varies a tad bit. In 2006 I was very active in Digg.com (I was in fact ranked 17th in the entire site, which was a very major hub on the Web back then).

Shane, like me, was very upset about what Novell had done with Microsoft. It was a patent collusion. Almost everyone in the GNU/Linux community was furious. Shane wanted me to join him in opposing the patent deal. So I did. That was way back in 2006. By that point I had already been very actively in USENET and in my own site. Social control media wasn't quite a thing yet.

It's perfectly sincere to say this site was always about patents. It was also about GNU/Linux and the way Microsoft misused of patent schemes to undermine GNU/Linux (in retrospect it failed because GNU/Linux is very much iniquitous these days).

Novell was sold or tentatively sold around 2010, so we refocused a bit on software patents and Microsoft's misdeed, which soon haunted Nokia (2011) and other companies. The E.E.E. tactics culminated around 2015 with "Microsoft loves Linux" (a lie) and "joining" the Linux Foundation not so long after that.

In 2014 we started focusing on EPO abuses and one year later the gangster Benoît Battistelli sent not one but several British law firms to intimidate me. This had the unpredictable effect of encouraging me to focus even more on the EPO -- something we do to this very date with António Campinos (a total phony, a friend of Battistelli) in charge.

In November we can proudly say that we've survived 16 years. Since we never relied on social control media we have been very stable and relatively robust to censorship. We've received more legal threats than I care to recall, but we never got sued because the facts and the law were on our side.

And the journey continues.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Legal Letters Are Not Postcards
It seems like intimidation, nothing more
European Patent Office (EPO) Strikes Persist, EPO Management Tries to Give False Impression of "Happy Staff"
EPO is trying to broadcast to the world a totally phony image of itself
 
The "Next Big" Bonus for IBM's CEO Apparently Comes From American Taxpayers While Veteran IBMers Are PIP'd and RA'd (Laid Off)
the next big thing will be the CEO's bonus
Links 23/05/2026: Starbucks Scraps Disastrous Slopfest, Colbert’s Final ‘Late Show’
Links for the day
Gemini Links 23/05/2026: Poetry, Hobbies, ROOPHLOCH, and More
Links for the day
Government Bailouts Won't be Enough to Save IBM
Bailouts from taxpayers in the US
Links 23/05/2026: Social Media Bans and Demise of Userbase of LLM Chatbots
Links for the day
SLAPP Censorship - Part 85 Out of 200: The United Kingdom's Rating for Press Freedom Has Improved, But We Can Do Even Better
we see the US at #64
Sites Realise That Becoming More Active by Using Bots (LLM Slop) is Self-Destructive
We'll soon (maybe next year) also show that some of the 85+ KG of legal papers sent our way are computer-generated garbage, which might run afoul of some rules
Gemini Links 23/05/2026: Patience, LLM Chatbts Being Bad, and Unexpected Computer Surgery
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, May 22, 2026
IRC logs for Friday, May 22, 2026
Links 22/05/2026: Ebola Crisis and Samsung Averts a Walkout With Big Bonuses
Links for the day
The End of FOSSPost (fosspost.org), It Has become an LLM Slopfarm Like FOSSLinux
These sites will never get lucky with slop. These experiments always end badly.
Links 22/05/2026: Inflation Fears and Thailand Tightens Visa Rules for Tourists From Dozens of Nations
Links for the day
EPO Staff Representation Speaks of This Week's Discussion With the EPO's Budget and Finance Committee (BFC) Amid Mass Strikes
The Central Staff Committee's outline (prepared in a rush) or the "flash report"
SLAPP Censorship - Part 84 Out of 200: New Legislation Against SLAPPs on the Way (After We Reached Out to Ministers)
They dealt with the matter individually too, but we won't share this in public, at least not at this time
The Corrupt Lecture the Non-Corrupt - Part XXX - Where Was "The Ethics and Compliance Team" When the Family of EPO President Campinos Was Caught Doing Cocaine?
It remains to be seen if national delegates will tolerate this in future meetings
Gemini Links 22/05/2026: Esperanto Music History, Suspicious Adoption of Signal, and Unauthorised LLM Slop in Code
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, May 21, 2026
IRC logs for Thursday, May 21, 2026
Links 21/05/2026: "Declining America" and Why Slop 'Code' is Made to Fail
Links for the day
Techrights and Tux Machines Subjected to Cyberattacks for Several Weeks
In the past I spoke to the cybercrime unit of British Police. Maybe it's time to do so again.
The Register MS Has Become a 'Content' Farm Promoting Slop for Hostile Corporations
Now they call it "PARTNER CONTENT" - not "SPONSORED" - as if semantics make the difference
Latest Example of Widespread Fake Assertions (False News) About "Hey Hi"
The false narrative of "Hey Hi layoffs"
Links 21/05/2026: Facebook Rewarded With Tax Breaks to Destroy the Environment and Cause Global Warming, Shortages, Pollution; SpaceX (SPCX) Continues Losing Billions of Dollars
Links for the day
Codecs and Software Patents - Part VIII - GNU Audio/Video Team Has Chosen the AV1 Video Codec and It Explains Why (They've Researched Their Options)
AV1 video codec will be used to encode and share GNU videos online
Dr. Stallman Helps Establish Free Software Advocacy Outside the Free Software Foundation (FSF) as Well
The ideals or principles of Free Software needn't be centralised or monopolised; they can be federated
22 Years of Tux Machines and a Community Stronger Than Ever Before
We've already received some feedback from the community and improved it accordingly
Microsoft Under Investigation for Breaches of Law in the UK
Just like the Microsofters
More Microsoft Layoffs on the Way (June and July 2026)
with or without PIPs
LWN Sponsored by the Linux Foundation (Monopolies)
We must be able to casually point this out
The Corrupt Lecture the Non-Corrupt - Part XXIX - European Patent Office (EPO) Tells Staff "Speaking up" is Good, But Not When the "Brother-in-law" of EPO's President Does Cocaine
Do we still have a functioning democracy and potent press?
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, May 20, 2026
IRC logs for Wednesday, May 20, 2026
Gemini Links 21/05/2026: Immigration, Slop, and Slop 'Code' Suggestions Infesting Code Repositories
Links for the dayGemini Links 21/05/2026: Immigration, Slop, and Slop 'Code' Suggestions Infesting Code Repositories