Techrights http://techrights.org Free Software Sentry – watching and reporting maneuvers of those threatened by software freedom Mon, 20 May 2013 16:26:28 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 Links 20/5/2013: First Salifish Smartphone, Mageia 3 Released http://techrights.org/2013/05/20/first-salifish-smartphone/ http://techrights.org/2013/05/20/first-salifish-smartphone/#comments Mon, 20 May 2013 16:26:28 +0000 Dr. Roy Schestowitz http://techrights.org/?p=68730

GNOME bluefish

Contents

GNU/Linux

  • Audiocasts/Shows

  • Kernel Space

    • Logitech Adds ‘Linux Compatible’ Option to Product Site; Sign of Good Things to Come?

      As rich as the Linux OS is, one of its sticking-points is that a lot of companies don’t properly support their products for it. Your Logitech mouse might work just fine under the OS, of course, but it wouldn’t be the company to thank; rather, the support comes from the efforts of developers who share the same passion for the OS as you do. My ASUS Xonar audio card works brilliantly under Linux, but ASUS had nothing to do with it.

  • Applications

  • Distributions

    • New Releases

    • PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandrake/Mandriva Family

      • Mageia 3 Released with Steamy Goodness

        he third official release of, the popular Mandriva fork, Mageia is now available. After months of delays and a mountain of challenges, Patricia Fraser said, “We still can’t believe how much fun it is to make Mageia together, and we’ve been doing it for two and a half years.”

        Like every new release, Mageia 3 comes chocked full ‘o upgrades. Some of these include Linux 3.8.13, Xorg X Server 1.13.4, GCC 4.7.2, KDE 4.10.2, GNOME 3.6, LibreOffice 4.0.2, GIMP 2.8.2, and Firefox 17.05. But a few new surprises await as well.

    • Debian Family

      • Review of Debian GNU/Linux 7.0

        Debian GNU/Linux is one of the oldest surviving Linux distributions and will be celebrating its 20th anniversary later this year. The venerable project is home to hundreds of volunteers who maintain over 35,000 software packages. Debian has expanded over the years and currently supports nine hardware architectures, displaying an unusual level of flexibility for a Linux distribution. Debian isn’t just a long lived Linux distro, the project also maintains ports which allow developers and users to experiment with running GNU software on top of alternative kernels, including Hurd and the FreeBSD kernel. This amazing diversity, along with Debian’s reputation for stability, has caused many developers to base their own projects on Debian.

        Dozens of the world’s most popular and widely used open-source projects (including Ubuntu, Linux Mint and KNOPPIX) can trace their ancestry back to Debian. Apart from being one of the largest existing open-source projects Debian is also a social experiment. The project is run as a democracy, a rarity in the open-source world, where developers vote on important changes and are guided by a constitution. For the reasons given above, more so than the anticipated features, the release of a new version of Debian sends ripples through the open-source community. Debian may be a famously conservative project, but everything its developers do affect large portions of the open-source population. I was quite eager to see what Debian 7.0, code name Wheezy, would offer.

      • How to transform a Debian based system to a Debian Edu installation

        Debian Edu / Skolelinux is an operating system based on Debian intended for use in schools. It contain a turn-key solution for the computer network provided to pupils in the primary schools. It provide both the central server, network boot servers and desktop environments with heaps of educational software. The project was founded almost 12 years ago, 2001-07-02. If you want to support the project, which is in need for cash to fund developer gatherings and other project related activity, please donate some money.

      • Derivatives

        • Canonical/Ubuntu

          • Development plans for Ubuntu 13.10

            Among the topics discussed by the developers at Ubuntu Developer Summit 13.05 were the planned new features for Ubuntu 13.10. The next version of the distribution, code-named “Saucy Salamander”, could include early versions of Ubuntu’s Mir display server and have the Qt-based Unity Next desktop environment for testing. However, the default configuration will continue to include the graphics stack of Ubuntu 12.10 with X11, Compiz and Unity 7. By 2014, Canonical plans to unify the code base for Ubuntu’s smartphone, tablet and PC desktops, based on Mir and Unity Next.

          • Ubuntu Touch: the (natural) next step in personal computing?

            I don’t think many people have realised that we are on the verge of a technological revolution. The computing world is changing, and this is the first time GNU/Linux is catching the revolution as it begins. Computers are getting smaller and smaller, while phones are getting bigger and bigger. Everybody can see that they about to converge — but in what form? Well, the answer is: GNU/Linux — before anybody else. The ingredients? A great GNU/Linux distribution, a leader with the right vision, and a few very bold, ground-breaking choices. Mix it well: the result is Ubuntu Touch. Let me go through these ingredients.

          • Flavours and Variants

            • Linux Mint 15 “Olivia” gets release candidate

              The Linux Mint developers have announced a release candidate for the upcoming version of their distribution, Linux Mint 15. The release, which is code-named “Olivia”, is being built on Ubuntu 13.04 and is billed by Linux Mint founder Clement Lefebvre as “the most ambitious release since the start of the project.”

  • Devices/Embedded

    • OpenPandora review, part two

      Welcome, Willkommen, Bienvenue! To the second article in my Pandora series. As you recall, several weeks back, I received a test unit from Michael Mrozek, of the world’s smallest, most-powerful gaming micro-computer. In the first installment, we talked most about initial impressions, the look & feel, specifications, and a brief taste of the variety of its capabilities, technologies and interfaces.

      Now, we will dig deeper. In this article, I will focus on firmware refresh of the test unit, trying to bring the system to a newer edition, as well as dabble in the ins and outs of the Xfce desktop environment. I will leave the gaming-oriented MiniMenu and the Android mod for the third and last part in this would-be trilogy. Follow me.

    • Arduino launches Yún for WiFi connectivity under Linux

      THE SINGLE BOARD MICROCONTROLLER Arduino has been revamped to offer WiFi connectivity under Linux, in order to make connecting to complex web services much easier directly from the device.

      Named the Arduino Yún, which apparently is Chinese for “cloud”, the microcontroller claims to be the first of a family of WiFi products combined with a customised version of the Linux operating system (OS) distribution OpenWRT called Linino.

      Designed in collaboration with chip firm Dog Hunter, Linino provides signed packages to ensure the authenticity of the software installed on the device and, according to Arduino, Linino is the most used Linux distribution for embedded devices.

    • Phones

      • Jolla announces first Sailfish-based smartphone

        Finnish startup Jolla has announced its first smartphone, which shows off its Sailfish OS on a 4.5-inch screen.

      • Jolla announces its first Salifish OS smartphone
      • Here Comes Jolla, Yet Another Deviant Linux Smartphone
      • Sailfish OS phone “Jolla” debuts, available for preorders

      • Ballnux

        • Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 review – A surprise

          Holy shit! What you, Dedoimedo, you sellout, you hypocrite! Wait, calm down. All is well. There’s a reason why I decided to buy a tablet. One, I can afford it. Two, I really wanted to see what makes the retards get so excited. Three, I had an actual business need for this, but more about that later. Anyhow, this is my very first experience with a tablet. Honestly. I’ve never used one before. So it should be definitely most interesting. I’ve dabbled in Android a bit now and then, and overall, I was not really impressed. The x86 version for netbooks was ok but not magnificent, however, on the other hand, my smartphone experience was, overall, quite frustrating.

          Let’s how a pretentious old git like me managed to cope with this new modern technology. Better yet, why a pretentious old git like me would ever want to buy a device that is operated by touch only. Finally, this is a proper, thorough review of the Samsung tablet, probably of a higher quality, relevance and greater depth than anything else out there, because after all, it’s Dedoimedo writing this stellar review. Avanti.

    • Sub-notebooks/Tablets

Free Software/Open Source

  • Why We Need Open Source: Three Cautionary Tales

    Open Enterprise mostly writes about “obvious” applications of open source – situations where money can be saved, or control regained, by shifting from proprietary to open code. That battle is more or less won: free software is widely recognised as inherently superior in practically all situations, as its rapid uptake across many markets demonstrates. But there are also some circumstances where it may not be so obvious that open source is the solution, because it’s not always clear what the problem is.

    For example, in the field of economics, there is a well-known paper by Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff entitled, “Growth in a Time of Debt.” The main result is that “median growth rates for countries with public debt over 90 percent of GDP are roughly one percent lower than otherwise; average (mean) growth rates are several percent lower.” Needless to say, this has been seized upon and widely cited by those in favour of austerity.

  • Open source browser based code editors

    The humble browser. Its main purpose, for many years, was to serve up simple HTML documents and provide information on just about any subject you could think of. In the last decade, with broadband taking over from dial-up, and net connections getting ever quicker, websites have increasingly provided applications usually restricted to the desktop.

  • CMS

    • Open Source WordPress Grows on Yahoo Tumblr Buyout

      The big news in the tech world that emerged over the weekend is that Yahoo is set to repeat its decade old mistake and acquire Tumblr (Geocities redux) for $1 Billion.

      I’m not a fan of Tumblr, but I am a fan of freedom and WordPress, both of which are apparently now ‘winning’ as a side effect of this deal. While it’s still unclear precisely how Yahoo’s ownership may/may not affect Tumblr, users are already voting with their blogs.

  • Public Services/Government

    • Five Star Movement urges Italian city of Bari to move to open source

      The administration of the Italian city of Bari must increase its use of free and open source software solutions, say local representatives of the Five Star Movement. Switching to open source will be part of the movement’s election programme for the municipal elections in 2014.

  • Openness/Sharing

    • Open Hardware

      • An Interview With Dr. Joshua Pearce Of Printers For Peace

        Joshua Pearce, PhD, is a researcher at Michigan Tech who rearches open source and low-impact solutions to engineering problems. He is also the founder of the Printers For Peace contest, an effort to bring together clever 3D-printed ideas that have loftier aims. You can win one of two 3D printers if you submit a winning project.

Leftovers

  • Defence/Police/Secrecy/Aggression

  • Cablegate

  • Finance

    • Bitcoin developer chats about regulation, open source, and the elusive Satoshi Nakamoto

      With Bitcoin all the rage and startups popping up left and right, it’s hard to know who’s an expert in the virtual currency and who just has an opinion. Most people would put Jeff Garzik in the former camp.

    • The world is rich – the rich are the problem

      There’s no shortage of food, no shortage of wealth to solve social crises. The problem is a system that enriches a few and starves the many. We hear day in day out about the massive poverty and hunger that exists in the world. NGO’s and various non-profits have been around for decades appealing for assistance in feeding the world’s poor. Some experts think it is simply an overpopulation problem and it is the poor that are to blame; if only they’d have fewer children, they advise. It is not too many people that are the problem. It is not the lack of medical knowledge or technical expertise that leads to staggering infant and adult death rates in some parts of the world. It is the lack of social infrastructure and the political will needed to provide it.

    • TV presenters, bankers and government advisers among 1,000 Britons linked to tax havens

      - Broadcaster and former footballer John Fashanu on list

      - Trade adviser Alpesh Patel also named on leaked database

      - It also includes Goldman Sachs and Coutts, The Queen’s bank

      - Data has been leaked in tranches by a whistleblower since 2009

      - HMRC keen to clamp down on wealth sheltered in tax havens

    • The IRS Scandal: It’s Not a Bug, It’s a Feature

  • PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying

    • Dissent or Terror: New Report Details How Counter Terrorism Apparatus Was Used to Monitor Occupy Movement Nationwide

      DBA Press and the Center for Media and Democracy today released the results of a year-long investigation: “Dissent or Terror: How the Nation’s Counter Terrorism Apparatus, In Partnership With Corporate America, Turned on Occupy Wall Street.”

      The report, a distillation of thousands of pages of records obtained from counter terrorism/law enforcement agencies, details how state/regional “fusion center” personnel monitored the Occupy Wall Street movement over the course of 2011 and 2012. Personnel engaged in this activity at fusion centers include employees of municipal, county and federal counter terrorism/homeland security entities. Such entities include local police departments, the FBI and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (including U.S. DHS components such as the Transportation Security Administration).

    • Dissent or Terror: How Arizona’s Counter Terrorism Apparatus, in Partnership with Corporate Interests, Turned on Occupy Phoenix

      Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, a nationwide “counter terrorism” apparatus emerged. Components of this apparatus include the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (U.S. DHS), the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), ODNI’s “National Counterterrorism Center” (NCTC), and state/regional “fusion centers.”

      “Fusion centers,” by and large, are staffed with personnel working in “counter terrorism”/ “homeland security” units of municipal, county, state, tribal and federal law enforcement/”public safety”/”counter terrorism” agencies. To a large degree, the “counter terrorism” operations of municipal, county, state and tribal agencies engaged in “fusion centers” are financed through a number of U.S. DHS grant programs.

  • Privacy

    • Lawmakers eye regulating domestic surveillance drones

      Amid growing concern over the use of drones by police and government officials for surveillance, a bipartisan group of lawmakers is pushing to limit the use of unmanned surveillance “eyes in the sky” aircraft.

    • Council debates banning drones from Evanston’s skies
    • Weaponized Drones used for Law Enforcement across America: How Your Town Can Stop Drones

      When Charlottesville passed a resolution against drones in February of this year, I heard from people all over the country again. Since that time, to my knowledge, one little town in Minnesota called St. Bonifacius has passed something, while dozens and dozens have tried and failed. The problem seems to be that drones can have good uses as well as bad. Of course, that’s grounds for halting the lawless and reckless spread of drones until we can figure out any ways in which their good use can be compatible with our Constitutional rights. But that would make too much sense. When there’s money to be made, technology to be played with, and terrorists to destroy our freedoms if we don’t hurry up and destroy them first, the American way is full steam ahead. But I actually think I might have at least a partial answer this time.

      [...]

      …drones armed with rubber bullets and tear gas.

  • Intellectual Monopolies

    • The Goodman Affair: Monsanto Targets the Heart of Science

      Richard Smith, former editor of the British Medical Journal, has jested that instead of scientific peer review, its rival The Lancet had a system of throwing a pile of papers down the stairs and publishing those that reached the bottom. On another occasion, Smith was challenged to publish an issue of the BMJ exclusively comprising papers that had failed peer review and see if anybody noticed. He replied, “How do you know I haven’t already done it?”

]]> http://techrights.org/2013/05/20/first-salifish-smartphone/feed/ 0 Microsoft Corruption (Illegal Tenders) Stopped by European Court http://techrights.org/2013/05/20/europe-on-illegal-tenders/ http://techrights.org/2013/05/20/europe-on-illegal-tenders/#comments Mon, 20 May 2013 14:41:19 +0000 Dr. Roy Schestowitz http://techrights.org/?p=68721 Europe stops illegal Microsoft-leaning ‘tenders’, US should follow suit (SCOTUS hallway imaged below)

SCOTUS hallway

Summary: Microsoft cannot bypass public tenders, based on a ruling from a court of law in Europe

Microsoft’s many offences are diverse in their nature. Just about any imaginable offence Microsoft has committed or is still committing. Right now Microsoft is offering lock-in in exchange for some gifts/cash, in liaison with Forbes. This, however, does not qualify as a bribe like this one which bypasses the public and uses politicians. As the Gates Foundation certainly knows, the best way to assure annual profit (or bailout) is to lobby politicians to hand over taxpayers’ money to corporations you have investments in (the Gates Foundation is a tax-exempt investment instrument). This has rendered many corporations political in nature and heavily reliant on lobbying. Microsoft is no exception.

“To Microsoft, anything that’s non-Microsoft is unfair.”On the one hand, what Microsoft does when it comes to government contracts is not so unique. On the other hand, notes ESOP, Microsoft has been engaging in several other illegal activities in Portugal. And the latest ESOP press release is titled “Court Annuls Public Tender for MS Software in Municipality of Almada” (there are usually incentives for officials who play along, i.e. bribes). The press release says: “Following a legal action brought by ESOP to the Administrative and Fiscal Court of Almada, public tender no. 31A2012 regarding licensing and maintenance of Microsoft software costing up to 550.000,00 EUR was annulled. The tender, now deemed illegal, was launched by the City of Almada and prevented all the competing solutions from being supplied.

“It is the first court decision of this type in Portugal. The court confirms that, according to the Portuguese Law, public tenders must include functional requirement and must NOT include specific brands.”

Moreover, says the text: “Compliance with public procurement rules will enable the City of Almada to receive more and better proposals for the supply of software, including solutions based on Open Source.”

Fair competition is not a term that Microsoft understand. To Microsoft, anything that's non-Microsoft is unfair.

If only more countries, including the UK, had the guts and the activist spirit to do what ESOP did in Portugal… █

]]> http://techrights.org/2013/05/20/europe-on-illegal-tenders/feed/ 0 Not Satire: Microsoft Wants to Show the World How Security is Done http://techrights.org/2013/05/20/microsoft-security-standard/ http://techrights.org/2013/05/20/microsoft-security-standard/#comments Mon, 20 May 2013 14:13:46 +0000 Dr. Roy Schestowitz http://techrights.org/?p=68716 Microsoft tries to paint itself as “fighting the bad guys”

Musketeers

Summary: Software security ‘standard’ to be led by the company which made insecurity an acceptable engineering practice?

According to this new report (criticised heavily in this LXer thread), Microsoft is trying to lead security standards as if Microsoft is the master of security. Oh! The vanity!

“Previously, roughly half a decade ago, Microsoft fonts also enabled remote hijacking of one’s Windows-running PC.”Microsoft is not just bad at security but also at patching security flaws; many people, especially in businesses, won’t install updates from Microsoft without qualms because these tend to break the software every now and then, even weeks ago. As IDG put it: “The saga of botched patch MS13-036 takes new twists and turns — including a problem with Multiple Master fonts” (familiar story, not the first of this kind).

Go on and wonder how poor modularity must be if a security patch can impact fonts. Previously, roughly half a decade ago, Microsoft fonts also enabled remote hijacking of one’s Windows-running PC. █

“Our products just aren’t engineered for security.”

–Brian Valentine, Microsoft executive

]]> http://techrights.org/2013/05/20/microsoft-security-standard/feed/ 0 Microsoft is Struggling to Maintain Industry ‘Standards’ http://techrights.org/2013/05/20/industry-standards/ http://techrights.org/2013/05/20/industry-standards/#comments Mon, 20 May 2013 14:03:28 +0000 Dr. Roy Schestowitz http://techrights.org/?p=68707 The world has moved on and beyond the “desktop”

Scapshot

Summary: With Microsoft’s common carrier and browser share down considerably Microsoft finds itself increasingly irrelevant and it tries subversive means of making another comeback

According to this new article from IDG, Forrester has no faith in Vista 8, despite Forrester ‘research’ (for a fee, for agenda) being Microsoft-funded for years. To quote: “Windows 8, the most significant upgrade to Microsoft’s operating system since Windows 95 and one of the most important products in the company’s history, will not achieve enough adoption in enterprises to be considered a standard, according to Forrester Research.”

“Even the Microsoft boosters have ceased trying to lie about Vista 8 sales.”Britain’s leading Microsoft booster can offer damage control no more. He wrote: “Those who upgraded to Windows 8 aren’t the only ones unhappy with the new touch-driven operating system – Wall Street is too. Just don’t expect any of the criticism hurled at Steve “Teflon” Ballmer, Microsoft’s shy and retiring boss, to stick.

“The chief executive is under fire from money men who responded to tech reporters trolling the markets for blistering opinions on Microsoft’s leadership, given that: PC sales are crashing; Windows Phone 8 smartmobes are in fourth place in the US mobile OS market; and Windows 8 Surface gadgets are barely on the worldwide tablet sales charts. The new touchscreen-friendly Windows has not been that well received, resulting the software giant undoing decisions made at the highest levels.”

Here are his closing words: “Arguably, Ballmer’s pain has been postponed. Microsoft’s Windows growth isn’t coming from new Windows 8 PCs sold to consumers, rather sales of Windows 8 licences to distribution channel partners and volume customers. Actual Windows 8 machines haven’t moved in any significant numbers. The PCs that are selling run Windows 7.”

Even the Microsoft boosters have ceased trying to lie about Vista 8 sales. Android already became far more of an industry standard than Vista 7 and 8 combined. Android will soon celebrate one billion activations. It sometimes seems like Google has helped harm many Microsoft de facto standards, including multimedia ones, not just operating systems. The hardest part to knock down is Microsoft’s most profitable monopoly, Office, which relies solely on format-induced lock-in.

According to this piece from the pro-Microsoft 'news' site ReadWrite, “Google is Prepping a Sneak Attack on Microsoft Office” and the author says: “Google sources also say they’re confident that Microsoft won’t be able to block QuickOffice with licensing issues or other legal threats. Eventually, these individuals say, QuickOffice will become the foundation of Google Apps, although that’s still a ways off.”

“The hardest part to knock down is Microsoft’s most profitable monopoly, Office, which relies solely on format-induced lock-in.”Pamela Jones responded as follows: “I hope Google doesn’t make the mistake of thinking that building your business on a Microsoft “standard” format that includes a right for Microsoft to add proprietary doodads is going to work out for them. And if they don’t include ODF, Microsoft will be correct that then Microsoft will be more open than Google in that one area. On the other hand, if the lawyers are in this decision because Microsoft is a litigation bully and competes in courtrooms instead of in the marketplace, who knows what has gone into the decision? Dealing with Microsoft is a headache, and it causes others endless troubles for absolutely no good reason with folks ending up doing things to protect themselves from attack that they’d otherwise never have done.

“And speaking of openness, what’s with ReadWrite’s new policy of making their articles impossible to copy and paste? This is the Internet, and there are principles and a culture, and they are violating them.”

Recall how Microsoft resorted to corruption for OOXML, which Google, for some reason, no longer opposes as fiercely as it used to, partly due to Microsoft's pollution in formats space.

“Google has made good progress on weaning Microsoft lock-in, but the job is not done yet.”According to a post about OGC, Microsoft is now trying to ‘pull an OOXML’ again, this time not against video chats through Web standards, namely WebRTC (a threat to Skype) but against another common standard. As one person put it: “Most (all?) current OGC web service standards to date have an Open Source reference implementation, which was often (always?) part funded by OGC testbeds, and open source implementations were tested against proprietary implementations during OGC testbeds. As far as I’m aware, there has been very little up-take from the Open Source community of the “GeoServices REST API”, and I’m unaware of any testing of non-ESRI applications during OGC testbeds. (Someone may be able to correct me here).”

Here is the source. Pamela Jones, who fought against OOXML, calls this “Another OOXML,” noting that it is “a “standard” proposed when there is already a FOSS overlapping standard in use. ESRI lists Microsoft, Oracle, Novell and SAP as partners.”

In order to starve Microsoft, a longtime abusive monopolist and patent racketeer (Microsoft tries to extract money from devices using FAT patents in exFAT), one needs to erode its lock-in. Google has made good progress on weaning Microsoft lock-in, but the job is not done yet. █

]]> http://techrights.org/2013/05/20/industry-standards/feed/ 0 Microsoft Entryism and Bribery Get the Microsoft Way Implemented http://techrights.org/2013/05/20/dirty-tactics-from-microsoft/ http://techrights.org/2013/05/20/dirty-tactics-from-microsoft/#comments Mon, 20 May 2013 13:28:54 +0000 Dr. Roy Schestowitz http://techrights.org/?p=68702 Violent revolution by Microsoft, CIA style

Canon

Summary: A recollection of very dirty tactics from Microsoft, which uses money to oppress, overthrow, and even hijack its opposition

Paul E. Singer (aka “Elliott“, a misnomer for a bunch predatory investors) can be accused of letting Microsoft grab Novell’s patent portfolio through CPTN. More recently we saw this vulture preying on another company and now we see it destroying BMC for personal gain. The Microsoft booster (only occasional) at the Financial Times says: ‘The deal marks a success for Elliott Management, the activist investor that accumulated 9.6 per cent of BMC shares and won two seats on the company’s board.”

That’s entryism. Pamela Jones wrote about it that “Elliott Management forced the Novell deal too. Since Microsoft was involved in all that, what is the real purpose of all this?”

Novell is no longer a focus of ours. We mostly ignore articles about SUSE, taking a passive approach. But Novell’s patents and the tactics of entryism cannot be ignored. Microsoft is now doing to Nokia what it did to Novell and at the end of the day we are left dealing with just another SCO. Here is some more coverage about Novell and SCO, courtesy of Jones:

What we have learned from those two cases is that Microsoft can turn opponents (like Nokia) into allies using entryism, essentially an infiltration and/or bribe. Microsoft funnelled hundreds of millions of dollars for Novell to change teams after Novell had become a fierce antitrust opponent of Microsoft and Microsoft paid tens of millions of dollars to SCO when it attacked Linux with empty copyright claims. More recently Microsoft also bribed Barnes & Noble to defect from legal action against Microsoft to a Microsoft alliance or even a sale to Microsoft (see [1, 2, 3] for background). Not too long ago Barnes & Noble complained about the patent system and shortly thereafter Microsoft tried to abduct and silence the company for good. Regarding the news that “Microsoft Mulling Nook Media LLC Purchase For $1 Billion” Pamela Jones wrote: “And so Microsoft kills off another Linux-based offering in the market, just as its deal with Nokia killed off another. Anti-trust regulators, are you noticing the subtle strategy?” Regarding the news that Microsoft claims to be making billions from Android ‘licensing’ (extortion), Pamela Jones wrote: “To regulators: please notice that it is Microsoft and Apple who are claiming that Motorola is asking for unconscionable amounts of money. But Microsoft is making much, much more per device. Remember that they claim if they had to pay Motorola less than this per device, somewhere between $3.50 and $4.00 per unit, they couldn’t stay in business. So, the question before you has to be, is Microsoft using patents to destroy its chief competition? And NO ONE has tested these patents to determine if they are even valid. It’s all done by bullying. Barnes & Noble revealed that the patents shown to them by Microsoft were junk, that they didn’t want them, use them or need them. Please look into this. Thank you.”

What Microsoft does is almost certainly illegal, but since it takes a lot of lawyers and lobbyists to enforce the law against criminal corporations, it is unlikely that anything other than a large corporations can successful press charges against Microsoft executives, leading to a jail term (e.g. for racketeering, bribery, and so on). We see this quite frequently in the energy and banking sectors. The law is not being practised (or practised only in one direction), hence it’s just relish. █

]]> http://techrights.org/2013/05/20/dirty-tactics-from-microsoft/feed/ 0 Patent Policy Laundering in the European Union and New Zealand http://techrights.org/2013/05/20/patent-policy-globalisation/ http://techrights.org/2013/05/20/patent-policy-globalisation/#comments Mon, 20 May 2013 09:17:14 +0000 Dr. Roy Schestowitz http://techrights.org/?p=68691 Policy globalisation

Laundry in Paris
Doing laundry in Paris, by LWY

Summary: How the so-called ‘free’ trade agreements help spread patent policy which favours software patents

The subject of software patents in Europe returned to the headlines in light of the Unitary patent, which this new paper calls a matter of playing with fire. Basically, the EPO’s overreach may prove counter-productive, not just contradictory to law (the EPO already disregards the law). Here is the EPO promoting the Unitary patent and Unified Patent Court, which are basically mechanisms for overriding the legal mechanisms of over a dozen nations (the UK already prepares for this policy laundering). It’s micro-globalisation, or the first stage of a broader assimilation all around the globe.

“It’s micro-globalisation, or the first stage of a broader assimilation all around the globe.”Ante from the FFII writes about cross-Atlantic treaties that have a similar effect of policy laundering. He writes: “With the software patents directive the Commission told us it was only about computer implemented inventions, not about software patents. Looking at the text, we knew that was not true.”

It seems like patent system globalisation is taking place (as we covered here many times before), jeopardising laws that ban software patents quite explicitly. In NZ (c/f software patents in New Zealand), for instance, the TPPA is believed to have impact on software parents policy. From the introduction of this very detailed post: “But how come the TPPA is connected with intellectual property (IP) and copyright law? The fact is that free trade and investment agreements have almost nothing to do with trade as we understand it. Their rules are designed for, and indirectly by, the most influential corporations in the countries involved. And guess who dominates? Major American corporations ranging from the world’s biggest drug companies and banks to Hollywood comprise almost 600 cleared advisors that get to see the secret text and lobby for their interests. Getting their demands into trade agreements is part of a general move towards “forum shifting” and “policy laundering” which refer to moving debate away from places where there is at least some requirement for public input and transparency, such as elected parliaments. Librarians, artists, writers, Internet businesses, schools, universities, museums, scientists and Internet users in general are all concerned about what the IP provisions of the TPPA will do to New Zealand’s copyright law.”

Scroll down to the following part: “Extending Patents To Software

“Ante from the FFII writes about cross-Atlantic treaties that have a similar effect of policy laundering.”“Another major issue is software patents. In New Zealand software is currently patentable merely because the Patents Act 1953 predated the widespread existence of software, and therefore does not specifically exclude it. In 2010, following submissions from a large number of software developers during the review of the Patents Act, the Commerce Commission Select Committee, recommended unanimously to the then Minister of Commerce, Simon Power, that software be specifically excluded from patentability in the resulting updated Patents Act. He and his successors have publicly supported this recommendation. New Zealand software developers saw this as a huge victory for common sense and for the future of innovation in New Zealand. But despite multi-partisan government support, the Patent Bill with its software patent exclusion has not yet been passed into law. Although the Government has made assurances to the contrary, many in the software industry wonder if the delay in passing the Patents Bill into law is due to the IP chapter in the TPPA being incompatible with a software patent exclusion.

“It is worth noting that IP claims are infecting other “non-IP” chapters of the TPPA. In fact a lot of the public health concerns relate to pharmaceutical patents blocking access by generic companies to their products, thereby delaying their availability on the market.15 This is part of the plan for undermining Pharmac. It was interesting to hear intellectual property being invoked as the basis of the case for Phillip Morris’ challenge to the New Zealand and Australian governments about their proposals for plain packaging of cigarettes.16In a completely Orwellian turn of events/phrase it seems that even the most corrupt of businesses – in this case Big Tobacco – are able to claim some weird moral ground through claims of IP and copyright.”"

So now we know that those ‘free’ trade agreements may actually be cross-continental bridges for patent policy. █

]]> http://techrights.org/2013/05/20/patent-policy-globalisation/feed/ 0 Ongoing Focus on Patent Litigation and Patent Trolls Reduces Focus on Software Patents http://techrights.org/2013/05/20/focus-in-reform/ http://techrights.org/2013/05/20/focus-in-reform/#comments Mon, 20 May 2013 08:50:42 +0000 Dr. Roy Schestowitz http://techrights.org/?p=68685 Out-of-focus reform

Text focus

Summary: The problem with increased focus on the players that use software patents litigiously and the litigation itself

The United States harbours almost every large patent troll. Not too long ago Masnick’s site said that for “some background. Spangenberg has built up quite a business for himself by buying up awful patents and suing tons of companies” (we wrote about this troll in [1, 2). His site also highlights this new tool for analysing the history of any given patent in the courtroom. Identifying trolls and weaponised patents won’t do enough to address the core problem though. One of the more outrageous stories as of late speaks of patent lawyers (non-producing) who demand £700 or so for the use of a scanner. That’s the per employee fee, as covered by Joe Mullin and Mike Masnick not so long ago. Another patent troll goes after large companies with Microsoft cash in its pocket. As another manager says “Don’t Turn My Company Into A Patent Troll!” it is becoming clear that patent trolling is an issue, but it is also the symptom of a bigger issue. At Yale they are focusing on trolls rather
than software patents and several companies are doing the same, losing sight of the patents themselves and instead focusing on the users. The trolls expert Joe Mullin previously showed that in the overwhelming majority of cases patent trolls use software patents, which may help explain why this problem is almost unique to the US. He recently said that “Apple’s intervention can’t stop the lawsuits [of smaller trolls]—five more were just filed.”

The problem is the patents themselves, not the smaller player that use them (Apple is a large entity which uses patents like a troll). Several propositions are put forth, but any solution which frames litigation or trolls as the problem (not questioning patents themselves) is not a long-term solution and probably not an solution at all. It’s inherently a scope issue. █

]]> http://techrights.org/2013/05/20/focus-in-reform/feed/ 0 Andrew Y. Schroeder Shows That Patent Lawyers Are Sociopaths http://techrights.org/2013/05/20/andrew-schroeder-intimidation/ http://techrights.org/2013/05/20/andrew-schroeder-intimidation/#comments Mon, 20 May 2013 08:35:33 +0000 Dr. Roy Schestowitz http://techrights.org/?p=68679 Andrew Schroeder

Summary: Bully and law misuser is trying to get his way with foul language, intimidation, and sheer lack of professionalism

The USPTO is not totally detached from the subculture of patent lawyers. One article from patent lawyer Quinn shows everyone (no link, on purpose), quite revealingly, that applicants worked closely with an examiner for several decades, passing a lot of software patents through him. If this is professionalism, then the term professionalism is now meaningless.

“Mr, Schroeder thinks he is above the law, making a temper attack of his even worse than before and making him look like the type of arrogant lawyer you should never ever hire.”The USPTO also claims to be open for comments, but its roundtables [1, 2] exclude people with views it does not agree with. This is censorship. It’s an echo chamber.

More importantly, helping to show lack of professionalism at the USPTO, applicants are given communication channels with examiners (they make themselves available for contact). And watch what this leads to. It’s bullying and intimidation, as covered by Masnick’s site. “There’s a lot of anger directed at the US Patent Office,” it says, “but it mainly originates with people frustrated by the office’s “rubber stamp” approval process that has littered the road to success with hundreds of trolling speedbumps, each one waving a stack of overly broad patents and demanding that actual innovators hand over enough cash to cover the rent on their empty East Texas offices.

“Patently O has uncovered some anger directed at the USPTO, this time coming from the opposite direction. After a client’s application for a telescoping sprinkler was rejected for not being anything the patent office hadn’t seen before, patent attorney Andrew Schroeder fired off an apoplectic set of “remarks” to the patent examiner. It starts by suggesting the examiner has a drinking problem and then sinks even lower. Way lower.”

“Many in his field are rude, arrogant, and self-serving to the point that there have zero tolerance to people who actually produce the work they leech off.”There is also this followup: “Our friends over at Above The Law have alerted us to the fact that Schroeder is back… and is he ever pissed off about people knowing just how pissed off he is. In what may be one of the worst-designed blogs ever made (and, warning, it’s so badly designed that it doesn’t even work at all if you have javascript turned off) Schroeder has announced that first, Dennis Crouch is the “Dickhead of the Year” for 2013 (I’m wondering who the past winners are) and (even better) that he believes Crouch violated the CFAA in finding and publishing his rant.

“Both posts are filled with poorly designed graphics, mostly mocking Crouch, which Schroeder proudly takes credit for late in that first post. These aren’t even “bad in an ironic way” graphics. They’re just bad. In the way that someone is when they first discover how Photoshop works and suddenly thinks they’re a master of design bad. But the rant is just as wacky. He never apologizes for the language he uses, beyond noting that it was “less than flattering.” No, his focus is on the claim that his insane rant — in which he accused a patent examiner of taking drugs, being drunk, not reading the patent application, of having to write with crayons and a variety of other euphemisms to suggest that the examiner has mental problems — was a “confidential” communication between himself and the examiner, and revealing it involved both (a) illegal hacking into the USPTO site and (b) being a “dickhead” for thinking it might be entertaining to highlight his ranting.”

The CFAA is used to criminalise just about anything done with a computer. Mr. Schroeder thinks he is above the law, making a temper attack of his even worse than before and making him look like the type of arrogant lawyer you should never ever hire. CBS did a piece about it, thankfully shaming this sociopath. Based on some experience with Techrights, Schroeder is not the only patent lawyer who is a sociopath. Many in his field are rude, arrogant, and self-serving to the point that there have zero tolerance to people who actually produce the work they leech off. There is more about this story here. Schroeder’s ridiculous-looking Web site is dressing everything up — including a map of the United States — as a US patent. Mental! █

]]> http://techrights.org/2013/05/20/andrew-schroeder-intimidation/feed/ 0 IBM-backed Book on ‘Open Innovation’ http://techrights.org/2013/05/20/ofe-book/ http://techrights.org/2013/05/20/ofe-book/#comments Mon, 20 May 2013 08:05:40 +0000 Dr. Roy Schestowitz http://techrights.org/?p=68675 Open Forum Europe

Summary: OpenForum Europe (OFE), which helps IBM’s turf wars in Europe, releases a new book filled with its talking point

OpenForum was named here many times before, and not always in purely positive context. Contrary to its name, OpenForum is not backed by many Open Source companies, but much of the time it does promote Open Source (and sometimes Free/libre software ) ideals. It should be treated not as grassroots but as corporations-controlled lobby,

“It should be treated not as grassroots but as corporations-controlled lobby,”IBM, a strong proponent of software patents, helped create OIN (led by its own staff originally), which is a case of using patents versus patents. IBM also helped form OpenForum, which helps its lobbying in Europe in particular.

Andy Updegrove at ConsortiumInfo.org writes about a book from an academy “affiliated with Openforum Europe” and here is the direct link. Updegrove is in it and it is called “open innovation”. I have not read the book, but it is worth noting that IBM believes open source relied on patents for innovation. The backer of this book probably helps weaken its impact. When it comes to patents, IBM is not on our side. Hopefully some new (future) leadership in IBM will help bring fresh change. █

]]> http://techrights.org/2013/05/20/ofe-book/feed/ 0 Joseph E. Stiglitz Criticises the Patent System http://techrights.org/2013/05/20/stiglitz-on-uspto-et-al/ http://techrights.org/2013/05/20/stiglitz-on-uspto-et-al/#comments Mon, 20 May 2013 07:56:37 +0000 Dr. Roy Schestowitz http://techrights.org/?p=68669 Correction: Stiglitz is not a Nobel Laureate, but he won the “Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel”

Joseph E. Stiglitz

Summary: More critical words about the patent system and the way it is harming lives

The USPTO is a laughing stock. Some people ask, “Does Innovation Require the Patent Office?“

It has been a long time since the USPTO truly filtered applications based on novelty. “More broadly,” says Prof. Stiglitz, “there is increasing recognition that the patent system, as currently designed, not only imposes untold social costs, but also fails to maximize innovation – as Myriad’s gene patents demonstrate.”

Here is the full article by Joseph Stiglitz. He previously criticised patents for being treated like property (“IP is often compared to physical property rights but knowledge is fundamentally different,” he allegedly argued) — a problem we are still seeing. Yes, patents are treated like assets and property rather than ideas. Even a divorce case involves ‘splitting’ patents now.

“Even a divorce case involves ‘splitting’ patents now.”To demonstrate that patents are not really valuable but are mostly hype, consider the new McAfee patent on user hostility. As Masnick’s site puts it, “there are a couple of big issues here. First, who determines whether content is illegal? As Techdirt has reported many times, the only people who can give a definitive answer are judges: anything else is likely to be plagued with errors and arbitrary decisions. Since an ad-hoc system would naturally err on the side of caution, this would inevitably lead to perfectly legitimate sites being miscategorized and thus starved of visitors.”

Not that McAfee would mind. It is not in the business is spreading information. Its patent, in other words, just helps reduce innovation by censorship. █

]]> http://techrights.org/2013/05/20/stiglitz-on-uspto-et-al/feed/ 0 Senator Schumer Should Focus on Software Patents, Leaving Patent Trolls (Side Effect) Aside http://techrights.org/2013/05/20/schumer-on-patents/ http://techrights.org/2013/05/20/schumer-on-patents/#comments Mon, 20 May 2013 07:43:50 +0000 Dr. Roy Schestowitz http://techrights.org/?p=68663 Charles Schumer

Summary: Reform in the USPTO and the US courts should focus on patent scope and not patent holders

We recently wrote about new efforts by Senator Schumer to fix the US patent system. He got a lot of positive coverage for it, but he is back to focusing on trolls (as before [1, 2]) rather than the core issue he recently spoke about. That would be patents scope. Masnick’s Web site says: “It’s now being reported that Schumer is set to introduce a new bill that will expand Section 18 to cover technology patents, rather than just limiting it to business method patents (the more cynical among you will note the rapid growth of New York’s tech sector as a reason for this expansion). This is definitely a big step in the right direction. If something like this was also combined with the SHIELD Act, which shifts fees to the trolls for bogus patent lawsuits, it would really help limit some of the most egregious activities of trolls. “

This would not, however, resolve the issue as a whole.

Dan O’Connor writes that “Senator Schumer announced he is introducing a bill next week to extend the Covered Business Methods program, which forestalls litigation on financial product patents while the PTO reviews their validity, to all patents. Given that trolls, particularly trolls that target startups, often use low quality patents, this would help limit outright extortion conditioned on the high cost of conducting successful patent defenses.”

Naming trolls is irrelevant to a large degree. Just eliminate the offending class of patents and see how trolls starve. Statistics suggest that they rely on such patents. That is why software patents should be the focus. Outside the US, suggests strong evidence, patent trolls are scarce and rare because they have no access to such patents in the first place. █

]]> http://techrights.org/2013/05/20/schumer-on-patents/feed/ 0 Links 20/5/2013: Plenty of Linux News, Google/Android Announcements http://techrights.org/2013/05/20/google-android-announcements/ http://techrights.org/2013/05/20/google-android-announcements/#comments Mon, 20 May 2013 07:03:09 +0000 Dr. Roy Schestowitz http://techrights.org/?p=68660

GNOME bluefish

Contents

GNU/Linux

  • Google Glass Runs Linux: Glasses Hacked On Stage To Support Ubuntu; Find Out How To Install It [PHOTOS]
  • Google shows developers how to hack Glass and run Ubuntu

    Google has shown attendees of its Google I/O event how one can go about running another operating system – namely Ubuntu – on their Google Glass. According to Engadget, the company showcased the process during a session named “Voiding your Warranty”.

  • Desktop

    • City of Munich – IT Capital of Germany

      Did Munich’s migration to GNU/Linux stimulate local IT businesses or did local businesses empower Munich to migrate?

    • Linux World Embraces Google Chromebooks

      The latest incarnation of the Linux Kernel was released this week, and for the first time, it includes code for running Linux on Google Chromebooks. Chromebooks come loaded with Chrome OS — a web-happy, Linux-based operating system designed by Google — but the new kernel code will make it easier to run other versions of the popular open source operating system on these machines.

  • Audiocasts/Shows

  • Kernel Space

    • Logitech Begins Supporting Linux Users

      While Linux game developers and publishers have grown more interested in the Linux market-share over the past year following Valve’s major Linux play, one of the sectors that is still lagging behind is gaming hardware and peripherals. Fortunately, Logitech is finally beginning to show their Linux cards.

    • Linux’s “Ondemand” Governor Is No Longer Fit

      By default the Linux kernel uses the “ondemand” CPU frequency governor for achieving maximum clock frequency when system load is high and a lower clock frequency when the system is idle. However, it turns out that for at least modern Intel CPUs, this is likely no longer the case. This default kernel choice may lead to poor battery life and performance for modern Linux systems.

    • Lots Of Crypto Optimizations For Linux 3.10 Kernel
    • XFS In Linux 3.10 To Put On Extra Protection

      The XFS file-system with the forthcoming Linux 3.10 kernel will have an experimental feature for CRC protection of meta-data.

    • Audio Drivers Updated For The Linux 3.10 Kernel
    • Intel Commits More Mesa Performance Optimizations

      Just days after landing some OpenGL performance tweaks, Intel’s Eric Anholt has committed some more performance optimizations for the Intel i965 Mesa driver.

    • CONFIG_NO_HZ_FULL Pulled Into Linux 3.10 Kernel

      Covered earlier today on Phoronix was the full request for providing full dynticks support for Linux, a.k.a. “CONFIG_NO_HZ_FULL” as the kernel configuration operation is known. As covered earlier, the experimental kernel option benefits workloads where there is just one task running (rather than dynamic ticks when no CPU task is active) and can benefit in the number of timer interrupts generated. For end-users this can benefit real-time latency, HPC computing, and even desktop/mobile workloads.

    • Overclockix Is Still Around For Linux Stress-Testing

      Overclockix, a Linux distribution with a long and bumpy history, has seen a new release. Overclockix .017 is now available as a Debian/Knoppix-based platform for hardware tweaking, stress-testing / burn-in software, and network security.

    • F2FS File-System Gets Major Changes In Linux 3.10

      F2FS, the promising “Flash Friendly” file-system developed at Samsung and has shown promising performance results on various flash devices, has seen more improvements with the Linux 3.10 kernel.

    • Fedora and Ubuntu Kernel Config Comparison

      Every once in a while, I crawl out from under the rock that is bugzilla and I try and look around at what others are doing in the distro kernel space. Today I was curious how Fedora and Ubuntu compare in how they configure the kernel. I’ve long thought that for all the focus the kernel gets, it should be the most boring package in an entire distro. It should work, work well, and that is about it. It isn’t there to differentiate your distro. It’s there to let your distro run. So, will my personal belief stand up, or would I find something in the configs that proves one “distro” is better than another? Let’s dive in.

    • Btrfs In Linux 3.10 Gets Skinny Extents, Quota Rebuilds

      The Btrfs file-system pull request by Chris Mason has been submitted for inclusion into the Linux 3.10 kernel.

      The two main features introduced to the Btrfs file-system in Linux 3.10 is skinny extends and support for rebuilding of quota indexes.

    • Linux 3.10: Improved eCryptfs AES-NI Performance

      The eCryptfs pull for the Linux 3.10 kernel has been merged. What’s noticeable about this feature pull is the improved encryption performance for modern AMD/Intel CPUs supporting AES-NI.

      Tyler Hicks wrote with the code, “Improve performance when AES-NI (and most likely other crypto accelerators) is available by moving to the ablkcipher crypto API. The improvement is more apparent on faster storage devices. There’s no noticeable change when hardware crypto is not available.”

    • Intel Releases Linux Thermal Daemon

    • Graphics Stack

      • Modern Intel Gallium3D Driver Still Being Toyed With

        While it’s not the default Linux graphics driver for Sandy Bridge or Ivy Bridge hardware, the “ilo” independently-developed Gallium3D driver for modern Intel graphics hardware continues to be developed.

        Since last December there’s been a Sandy/Ivy Bridge Gallium3D driver developed by Chia-I Wu. The work mostly comes as an experiment or toy, but last month it was merged to mainline Mesa.

      • Radeon Gallium3D Gets Important Cayman Fixes
      • AMD Radeon R600 GPU LLVM 3.3 Back-End Testing

        One of the exciting features of LLVM 3.3 that is due out next month is the final integration of the AMD R600 GPU LLVM back-end. This LLVM back-end is needed for supporting Gallium3D OpenCL on AMD Radeon graphics hardware, “RadeonSI” HD 7000/8000 series support, and can optionally be used as the Radeon Gallium3D driver’s shader compiler. In this article are some benchmarks of the AMD R600 GPU LLVM back-end from LLVM 3.3-rc1 when using several different AMD Radeon HD graphics cards and seeing how the LLVM compiler back-end affects the OpenGL graphics performance.

      • VA-API Gets New H.264/MPEG-2 Encoding API Support

        NVIDIA’s proprietary driver and the open-source Gallium3D Linux graphics drivers — namely now the open-source Radeon UVD support — are using VDPAU as their accelerated video playback API. Meanwhile, Intel still continues to invest heavily in VA-API as their preferred video acceleration API for Linux. An exciting set of 42 patches to improve VA-API was published on Monday.

      • Sub-Surfaces Support Merged Into Wayland

        Support for sub-surfaces has been merged into mainline Wayland after the protocol work and other changes for this exciting new feature has been in development for several months. Sub-surfaces by itself isn’t too exciting to end-users but will benefit application developers in enhancing the Wayland-powered Linux desktop.

      • NVIDIA Releases 310.51 Driver To Kill Off The Series

        NVIDIA has announced the release of their 310.51 “certified” proprietary graphics driver for Linux, Solaris, and BSD operating systems.

      • DRM Graphics Driver Comes For Dove/Cubox

        The SolidRun CuBox is advertised as the “world’s smallest desktop computer” with a size of just two-inches cubed (5cm). The CuBox is powered by an ARM PJ4 800MHz SoC and now it has available an open-source DRM Linux graphics driver.

      • Mesa 9.1.2 Fixes A Handful Of Graphics Driver Bugs

        Ian Romanick of Intel’s Open-Source Technology Center has announced the immediate release of Mesa 9.1.2 for open-source graphics drivers.

      • AMD R600 Gallium3D Optimizing Back-End Merged

        Vadim Girlin’s shader-optimizing back-end for the AMD R600 Gallium3D driver has been merged into mainline Mesa.

      • Unigine Adds In Support For Oculus Rift & WebGL

        Unigine Corp has made another round of noteworthy updates to their visually amazing cross-platform game and simulation engine.

        The main items to point out with the latest Unigine Engine revision is there’s now support for Occulus Rift. Occulus Rift is the promising low-cost virtual reality head-mounted display that was born as a Kickstarter project. Unigine is making the Occulus Rift VR HMD support available through an “AppOculus” engine plug-in and they’ll soon release new versions of Heaven and Valley that offer this feature.

      • GLSL 1.30 Support For AMD RadeonSI Driver With LLVM

        Michel Dänzer of AMD has provided a set of patches that should provide for the necessary patterns and intrinsics for AMD to round out GLSL 1.30 support within their RadeonSI open-source Gallium3D driver for Radeon HD 7000/8000 series graphics cards.

      • Previewing The Radeon Gallium3D Shader Optimizations

        With the AMD R600 Gallium3D shader optimizing back-end having been merged last week, new benchmarks were carried out at Phoronix to see the impact of the experimental shader optimizations on multiple AMD Radeon HD graphics cards.

      • Intel Releases OpenCL SDK XE 2013 For Linux

        Intel released yesterday the Intel SDK for OpenCL Applications XE 2013. This is an OpenCL SDK for Linux that supports OpenCL 1.2 and all of the latest and greatest Intel hardware.

        Intel’s already been shipping their OpenCL SDK for Linux in years prior, albeit sadly it’s closed-source and only runs on the CPU. This OpenCL XE 2013 for Linux continues to only work on the CPU side and doesn’t support GPU integration for Ivy Bridge and Haswell processors. (On Windows, however, there is the OpenCL GPU support.) With OpenCL SDK XE 2013, there’s new features and improvements.

      • Pixman 0.30 Release Has Major Back-End Work

        A major release of the Pixman rendering library happened on Wednesday. Pixman 0.30 now has some major back-end improvements and other changes to better the pixel manipulation software.

      • Color Management Code Merged Into Wayland/Weston

        The Wayland color management work done by Richard Hughes and talked about for the past month has finally landed in mainline Weston. The code allows for ICC color profiles to be specified within the Weston configuration file or a CMS implementation to be loaded from a pluggable module.

    • i915.ko authors, by the numbers

      total lines counted: 67417 (compare with git ls-files — ./drivers/gpu/drm/i915/ | xargs wc -l)
      [('Jesse Barnes', 16255),
      ('Chris Wilson', 13174),
      ('Daniel Vetter', 11066),
      ('Eugeni Dodonov', 3636),
      ('Paulo Zanoni', 3434),
      ('Ben Widawsky', 2935),
      ('Eric Anholt', 2176),
      ('Keith Packard', 1773),
      ('Zhenyu Wang', 1703),
      ('Ville Syrjälä', 1130)]

    • Open-Source AMD Driver Gets “Hainan” GPU Support

      The open-source AMD Linux graphics driver now boasts support for AMD’s next-generation “Hainan” GPU products, a.k.a. the Radeon HD 8800 series.

      AMD Hainan is rumored to be the performance GPUs making up the Radeon HD 8800 series with the HD 8850 “Hainan Pro” and HD 8870 “Hainan XT” products initially.

    • Benchmarks

      • Benchmarking The Intel P-State, CPUfreq Changes

        On Friday there was the controversial news about the Linux “ondemand” cpufreq governor no longer being fit for best performance and power-savings on modern processors. Fortunately, for better handling the CPU frequency stage changes on modern Intel CPUs, Intel recently introduced the new P-State kernel driver.

        With this news, plus word that changing the cpufreq governor can really boost the Mesa performance, many Phoronix readers were excited with 3+ pages of comments.

      • Linux 3.10 Kernel Benchmarks On A Core i7 Laptop

        As our latest coverage of the Linux 3.10 kernel comes new comparison benchmarks of the latest development kernel compared to its predecessor from an Intel Core i7 laptop sporting NVIDIA graphics.

      • Btrfs vs. EXT4 vs. XFS vs. F2FS On Linux 3.10

        Building upon our F2FS file-system benchmarks from earlier in this week is a large comparison of four of the leading Linux file-systems at the moment: Btrfs, EXT4, XFS, and F2FS. With the four Linux kernel file-systems, each was benchmarked on the Linux 3.8, 3.9, and 3.10-rc1 kernels. The results from this large file-system comparison when backed by a solid-state drive are now published on Phoronix.

      • Linux 3.10 Kernel Benchmarks For Intel Ivy Bridge

        Earlier this month I delivered Radeon DRM driver benchmarks and Nouveau DRM driver benchmarks from the in-development Linux 3.10 kernel. Being published this Friday evening are now Intel Ivy Bridge graphics benchmarks from the Linux 3.10 kernel compared to the earlier releases going back to Linux 3.5.

      • F2FS File-System Shows Regressions On Linux 3.10

        With the merge window on the feature-rich Linux 3.10 kernel having been closed, the usual roundabout of Phoronix benchmarking of the Linux kernel has commenced. In our initial testing of the F2FS file-system on Linux 3.10, however, yields negative performance changes.

        The first F2FS benchmarks showed much hope for the Samsung-developed “Flash Friendly File-System” when compared to EXT4, Btrfs, and other competitors. It’s worked very well for not only SSDs but also SDHC storage, USB flash drives, and against the cruddy Microsoft exFAT Linux support.

      • Early Radeon OpenGL Benchmarks From Linux 3.10

        While the first release candidate of the Linux 3.10 kernel isn’t even out yet, there’s already been the DRM graphics pull, as a result here’s some early open-source Radeon Linux graphics benchmarks.

        Going up this afternoon are just some quick and dirty benchmarks of the Linux 3.10 kernel Git code as of this morning compared to the Linux 3.9 mainline vanilla kernel release. The test cards were the AMD Radeon HD 5830 and HD 6570 discrete products. When the Linux 3.10 kernel is mature and ready for release, more extensive Linux GPU benchmarking will commence. Today’s article is just to whet the appetite for those Linux enthusiasts curious about the open-source Radeon driver performance.

      • Greater Radeon Gallium3D Shader Optimization Tests

        After delivering preview benchmarks of the AMD Radeon Gallium3D driver’s new shader optimization benchmark, Vadim Girlin, the back-end’s author, has shared some complementary Linux OpenGL benchmark results.

      • The First Nouveau Benchmarks On Linux 3.10

        Similar to yesterday’s early Radeon DRM benchmarks from Linux 3.10, here’s some initial OpenGL performance results for NVIDIA GeForce hardware when using the Nouveau DRM that’s updated in the Linux 3.10 kernel.

      • A New Set Of OpenGL Benchmarks Come To OpenBenchmarking

        FurMark, TessMark, and other advanced OpenGL 2.1/3.2/4.0 benchmarks are now available via the Phoronix Test Suite and OpenBenchmarking.org.

        In cooperation with Jerome of Geeks3D.com, the GPUTest cross-platform benchmark/tech-demo is now available via our open-source benchmarking software. GPUTest is designed as a GPU stress test that is supported on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X operating systems.

      • Gallium3D Continues Improving OpenGL For Older Radeon GPUs

        Curious to see how the performance of the open-source ATI/AMD Linux graphics driver is evolving for aging hardware, a new round of OpenGL benchmarks were carried out on the once-popular ATI Radeon HD 4870 “RV770″ graphics card. The performance was compared between the Mesa 7.11, 8.0, 9.0, 9.1, and 9.2-devel Git releases from an Ubuntu Linux system to see how the performance has changed for this driver in the past two years.

  • Applications

  • Desktop Environments/WMs

    • 10 amazing Linux desktop environments you’ve probably never seen
    • Are Compositing Window Managers Lightweight?

      With the recent talk about developing a lightweight KDE desktop, the KWin maintainer, Martin Gräßlin, is talking out to try to clarify whether the compositing window manager is lightweight.

    • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

      • Features Being Developed For KDE 4.11 Desktop

        With one week to go until the soft feature freeze for KDE 4.11, there’s a better idea for the features that are likely to come to the next major release of the KDE Plasma desktop.

      • KDE’s Krita Ported To OpenGL 3.1, OpenGL ES 2.0

        KDE’s Krita painting application back in the day was one of the first to support an OpenGL-accelerated canvas. After their GL support fell behind, it’s now been brought up to speed by porting their graphics rendering code-paths to supporting an OpenGL 3.1 Core Profile and OpenGL ES 2.0.

      • The water we swim in

        Healthy relationships. I’ve been thinking about them not in my personal life, but in terms of teams in free software. When I first began contributing, it was within a team creating an application (Amarok), so rather small. Then I became active in Ubuntu-Women, which is larger, but still not huge. Then Kubuntu, then the larger Ubuntu community, and now KDE, which is truly enormous.

    • GNOME Desktop/GTK

      • Starting Development Of GNOME Shell, Mutter 3.10

        With the first GNOME 3.10 development release due this week, the first GNOME 3.10 development snapshots (v3.9.1) of the GNOME Shell desktop and Mutter compositing window manager were checked in.

        GNOME 3.10 is tentatively set to be released on 25 September while this is the first development release due this week (GNOME 3.9.1). With just a little more than one month since the GNOME 3.8.0 release, there isn’t too much to look at for the 3.9.1 packages.

  • Distributions

    • JULinuXP and JULinOX OS ETPE 2013

      First of all JULinuXP boots in about 20 seconds, uses less than 512 MB of RAM, and most importantly it protects your privacy from Google, Yahoo, and Bing, along with anyone else. Of course if you use Facebook and other such sites, that’s your problem, but at least your browser isn’t sending them any info either, and if there is any info, it’s deleted before or after you close your browser. Also each browser forces HTTPS, and uses DuckDuckGO’s search engine. Firefox still has Google search if you type something in the main address bar, but Firefox also has more security to remove stuff when you get done browsing.

    • New Releases

    • Gentoo Family

    • Red Hat Family

      • Red Hat CEO Whitehurst on innovation, OpenStack, Hadoop

        Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst argued that enterprise software vendors are at an inflection point where they’ll adapt or falter, noted OpenStack is keeper but needs enterprise support and Hadoop has become a strong open source project that’s becoming commercially fragmented.

      • Linux, Standards and the Enterprise: Why Red Hat Enterprise Linux Remains the Best Choice

        The free clones of Red Hat Enterprise Linux I mentioned earlier are not permitted to name their source, referring merely to “the upstream provider,” but pretty much everyone in the Linux community knows precisely what they mean. They represent a real advantage to Red Hat (the distribution if not the business) in that they allow businesses to try before they buy. They provide the opportunity to run a test bed or non-critical system at reduced cost. The clones also allow non-profits and cash strapped small businesses to forgo commercial support, at least for a time, and still use software that is entirely compatible with the leading enterprise Linux distribution. As organizations grow and their needs change converting a server or workstation running a clone to a genuine, supported Red Hat system is a simple process.

      • Fedora

        • Korora 18 Supports Experimental Steam Client

          Korora, the Fedora-based Linux distribution that focuses on desktop friendliness through a number of modifications and extra packages, has released their Fedora 18 incarnation.

        • Open-Source Radeon UVD Video Support On Fedora

          Are you itching to try out open-source AMD Radeon “UVD” video acceleration support over VDPAU on Fedora Linux?

        • fedoraproject.org Account System (FAS) security issue.

          A bug has been discovered in the Fedora Account system that could have exposed some sensitive information to logged in users.

        • DNF Still Advancing As Experimental Yum For Fedora

          DNF is the experimental fork of the Yum package manager that premiered in Fedora 18. While much hasn’t been heard of this experimental Yum replacement since its debut, work on it has still been progressing and is turning out to be in great shape, is slowly approaching feature-parity with Yum, and is faster.

          DNF hasn’t come to mind since last writing about it in 2012, but development has progressed and on Fedora 18/19 it still can be tested in parallel to Yum. Re-sparking interest in DNF is a new blog post on the Fedora-Next blog about DNF.

    • Debian Family

  • Devices/Embedded

    • Why I love Raspberry Pi

      I’ve always admired the concept, execution and possibilities of Raspberry Pi, the British designed and built world-conquering credit card-sized ARM GNU/Linux computer. But despite following the Raspberry Foundation’s every move closely, and frequently promising that I’d buy myself a Pi soon, for some reason I never did.

    • Watch and record live TV on your Raspberry Pi

    • Phones

      • China market: Several smartphone components in short supply

        A shortage in the supply of some key components, including high-end camera modules, touchscreen panels and multi-chip package (MCP) memory chips, is worsening in the smartphone industry supply chain in China, according to industry sources.

      • Qt5 Port For Tizen Is Underway

        There’s active work underway for bringing the Qt 5.x tool-kit to the Tizen Linux platform.

        A Phoronix reader, Jaroslaw Staniek, wrote in this morning to share the news about the community-driven Qt 5 port for Tizen. The goal of this work is to bring the Qt 5 frame-work to Tizen, allow Qt Creator to be used for Tizen application development, and use the default Tizen’s look and feel based on Qt Quick 2 for application development.

      • Smartphones outpace feature phones for first time ever

        In the first quarter of 2013, smartphones accounted for more than half of phone makers’ shipments worldwide. Samsung remained the top dog, but LG, Huawei, and ZTE all saw big gains.

      • Ballnux

      • Android

        • Android is just the beginning: How Bluetooth is preparing for the internet of things

          Last night at Google I/O, Bluetooth scored a major victory for connected consumers when Google said it would support the Bluetooth Smart Ready platform natively in Android. This was functionality that iOS devices already have, and it should mean that Android users will get more functional apps to go with their Bluetooth-enabled devices.

        • The Place of FLOSS in End-User Computing
        • Google I/O: Unifyied Ecosystem Across All Google Platforms

          We were eagerly waiting for hardware updates from Google I/O 2013, but this year’s I/O conference was strictly focused on development tools and Google Services. Chrome merging with Android was key point at the keynote speech.

        • Google I/O : Official Social Media App Announcements For Google Glass

          Google Glass is getting lot of attention at this year’s Google I/O. There are already few official third-party apps support for glass, especially from social media houses.

          Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, CNN, Elle and Evernote have promised to support Google glass by announcing their official Google glass apps or “glasswares”. In fact facebook has already released the app and is available for Glass Users. Other Google glass apps are still in development.

        • Android-on-Intel accelerates as Clover Trail+ devices debut

          Lenovo’s Android-based K900, the first phone to use Intel’s dual-core 2GHz “Clover Trail+” Atom Z2580 system-on-chip, began shipping in China, and ZTE announced a Z2580-based, 4.5-inch “Grand X2 In” aimed at Europe. Yet, Atom-based Android phones won’t truly shine until Intel’s “Merrifield” SOC arrives in early 2014 using Intel’s 28nm, Tri-Gate “Silvermont” architecture.

        • Sony Xperia UL pictures and specs leaked: 5-inch display and Snapdragon 600 CPU

          Back in March we reported that Sony was looking to add to their Xperia line, and today we have confirmation on one of the devices.

        • NVIDIA Shield pre-orders are now live

          So excited about selling the NVIDIA Shield are retailers that they have begun offering pre-orders early. Effective immediately, you can place an order for the gaming console/controller/Android device through places like Newegg, GameStop, and NVIDIA.

        • I/O 2013: Google Glass designers predict possibilities for wearable tech market

          There approximately 6,000 attendees at this year’s developer conference, and you can’t walk a few steps without bumping into someone sporting the Android-powered specs.

        • How Google updated Android without releasing version 4.3

          Google covered a lot of ground in its three-and-a-half-hour opening keynote at Google I/O yesterday, but one thing it didn’t announce was the oft-rumored next version of Android. However, persistent rumors insist that the elusive Android 4.3 is still coming next month—if that’s true, why not announce it at I/O in front of all of your most enthusiastic developers?

        • Sony Posts Android Open Source Project Code For The Xperia Tablet Z To GitHub

          There’s a lot to like about Sony’s latest generation of Android devices. One od the things that most people don’t like is the custom interface that Sony puts on pretty much everything. If you want to do away with it and get some sweet, clean Android Open Source Project code running on your shiny new Xperia Tablet Z, Sony is happy to oblige. They’ve posted an AOSP 4.2 build for the Tablet Z to GitHub, following their surprisingly open approach to other devices, most recently the Xperia Z flagship.

        • Those $200 notebooks Intel is promising will probably run Android

          Recently Intel CEO Paul Otellini said he sees a future where you can buy an ultrathin notebook featuring an Intel Atom Bay Trail processor for as little as $200. Now CNET has a few more details about Intel’s vision for the future of cheap notebooks, and that vision includes Google Android.

    • Sub-notebooks/Tablets

Free Software/Open Source

  • 7 open source projects to cut your teeth on (and the ones to avoid)

    The reasons for contributing to open source projects are as diverse as the projects themselves: To garner new skills, add experience, network with peers, or just for fun. Choosing a project that best suits your needs, and one that is friendly to newcomers, however, can be a daunting task. We polled well-known open source contributors for their recommendations, and the best way to start. They also offer advice on which projects to avoid. Here’s what they said:

  • 5 Reasons Infotainment is the First Target for Open Source Software in Cars

    The In-Vehicle-Infotainment (IVI) System is the most complex electronic system in the car. It collects data from all of the car’s sensors and integrates functions as diverse as navigation, climate control, media playback, cellphone connectivity and more.

    Yet automakers have focused on IVI as their first target for open source software collaboration. Both the Automotive Grade Linux working group and GENIVI alliance are pioneering collaborative efforts to develop a Linux-based open source platform for IVI software development.

  • Cool tool: One click installation of open source apps

    Downloading open source applications can sometimes be a pain in the neck. There can be multiple drivers, a variety of related components and a handful of little status bars that move from left to right at varying rates of speed.

    ComodIT wants to change that. The company, which specializes in automating infrastructure resources, has a new tool called the Direct Installer, which promises one-click installations.

  • Enterprise Networking Week in Review: VXLAN, SDN, and Open Source

    This week on Enterprise Networking Planet, the dust settled from last week’s coverage of Interop, allowing us to look forward to networking’s future.

    As always, our Sean Michael Kerner provided plenty of insider guidance. This week, he brought us two exclusive video interviews. Lew Tucker, Cisco’s Cloud CTO, talked about OpenStack, VLAN, and the Internet of Things, and Dan Pitt, executive director of the Open Networking Foundation, dismissed criticisms of OpenFlow and discussed OpenDaylight.

    Speaking of the future, Cisco, Aruba, and Brocade all had earnings calls this week, and Sean covered those, too. Cisco reported good news, particularly in data center, 10 GbE, and SDN adoption. Aruba expressed optimism about its recent acquisition of Meridian Apps, which will enable indoor GPS and other application and location awareness capabilities over WiFi. Brocade, meanwhile, plans to focus on future growth, particularly in the on-demand data center space.

  • Jedi Academy Thrives As Open-Source Software

    It was one month ago that Activison and Raven Software open-sourced two of their games. While Star Wars Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast and Jedi Academy are old titles, they are now thriving as open-source software.

  • Adobe Open-Sources CFF Rasterizer For FreeType

    Adobe has open-sourced their advanced CFF rasterizer for the FreeType project. This Adobe contribution, along with the support of Google, will improve FreeType font rendering on Linux and other platforms.

  • Web Browsers

    • Chrome

    • Mozilla

      • Firefox 22 Beta Enables WebRTC Support

        The big feature being flipped on for the Firefox 22 Beta is full WebRTC support. WebRTC is the Web Real-Time Communication API drafted by the W3C and Google for handling browser-based VoIP, video chat, file-sharing, and other services native to the browser. There was already some WebRTC support in Firefox while now the support is fully-on.

      • Mozilla Needs More Time Before Blocking Third-Party Cookies By Default

        After much public discussion of the issue, Mozilla has decided to postpone blocking of third-party cookies by default in the next version of Firefox. As noted in this post, the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) had raised a major stink over the issue, citing “the impact the ban would have on small Internet publishers, which depend on such cookie technology to sell advertising to niche audience segments.” According to Mozilla’s Brendan Eich, though, Mozilla just needs more time to implement the technology.

      • Firefox 22 beta delivers WebRTC and more

        Where the most recent Firefox release was somewhat light on features, the next release, Firefox 22, which has just gone into beta, will be offering some more substantial enhancement. Foremost of those is full WebRTC support, which will allow web developers to integrate real-time audio and video connections between browsers with all the required components – DataChannels, PeerConnection and GetUserMedia – included. WebRTC can be orchestrated with JavaScript-based applications and can potentially be used for anything from simple user-to-user chatting with video calls and file sharing to interactive multiplayer games on the web. The WebRTC features are now enabled by default.

      • Firefox beta gets WebRTC on by default, OdinMonkey JavaScript optimizations, Web Notifications API, and more
      • Firefox OS developer phones sold out

        Spanish manufacturer/seller Geeksphone already has run out of the two Firefox OS phones that went on sale for developers today.

      • Mozilla: Look ma, no plug-in for video, apps

        The makers of Firefox team up with the 3D graphics gurus at OTOY to show off a new codec that can run high-end video and desktop apps in the browser.

      • The Man Who Turned Off Cookies In Firefox Doesn’t Care If It Hurts Advertisers

        Jonathan Mayer is the man who turned off third-party cookies in upcoming versions of Firefox. (Cookies are the little bits of code that web sites drop onto your browser as you surf so that advertisers can target you with ads.)

        Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/jonathan-mayer-and-cookies-in-firefox-2013-5#ixzz2TgszO23H

      • Phones for Apps for Firefox OS

  • SaaS/Big Data

    • Open Source Zend Framework 2.2 Brings PHP to OpenStack Cloud

      Over the years, Zend Framework has grown and this week, Zend Framework 2.2 is being officially released. This latest Zend Framework has lots of goodness in it, but for me one thing stands out – OpenStack support.

    • OpenNebula 4.0 Improves The Open-Source Cloud

      OpenNebula 4.0 “Eagle” has been released as the latest major release of this popular, open-source cloud computing system.

      The OpenNebula 4.0 release offers up various new Virtual Machine features, scheduler improvements, a re-designed administration interface, and worthwhile enhancements to many of its other subsystems.

  • Databases

    • phpMyAdmin 4.0 Release Kills Off The Tables

      phpMyAdmin, the popular browser-based software for MySQL database administration, has hit a significant milestone with the release of phpMyAdmin 4.0.0.

    • PostgreSQL 9.3 Beta 1 Released

      The first beta release of PostgreSQL 9.3, the latest version of the world’s best open source database, is now available. This beta contains previews of all of the features which will be available in version 9.3, and is ready for testing by the worldwide PostgreSQL community. Please download, test, and report what you find.

    • Ubuntu Looks Towards MySQL Alternatives

      Discussed today during another session of this week’s virtual Ubuntu Developer Summit was what to do about MySQL. With Oracle MySQL, there’s growing frustration with the database software by the Linux and open-source communities over Oracle’s lack of disclosure with security bugs/fixes, non-public bug information, lack of much “outside code” from other parties going into MySQL, and various other complaints.

    • Migrate from MySQL to MariaDB in FreeBSD

      The usage of MySQL for development is free. As you are not giving away that product (MySQL), no GPL restrictions apply. If you want to distribute MySQL in some form, the licenses apply. See: MySQL commercial license

      MariaDB is a community-developed fork of the MySQL relational database management system, the impetus being the community maintenance of its free status under the GNU GPL. As a fork of a leading open source software system, it is notable for being led by its original developers and triggered by concerns over direction by an acquiring commercial company Oracle. Contributors are required to share their copyright with Monty Program AB.

  • CMS

    • Essential WordPress Security Plugins

      A few weeks ago I told you about some security precautions to take when using the open source web platform WordPress to protect your site against brute force attacks. However, those precautions are just the beginning. A website administrator has to be forever vigilant to keep the bad guys away.

  • Funding

    • LFCS: The value of FOSS fiscal sponsorship

      As open source becomes more popular and mature, questions of formalizing the governance and corporate structures of projects are becoming of increasing importance, as can been seen by the rising visibility of various FOSS foundations. At the Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit in San Francisco, Tony Sebro shared his insights about the value that fiscal sponsors bring as umbrella organizations for FOSS projects. Sebro is the General Counsel of Software Freedom Conservancy, which is the home of about 30 free and open source projects, including Samba, Git, and BusyBox.

  • BSD

  • FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

    • GNU Hackers Meeting 2013 in Paris, France

      Thanks to a kind offer from Sylvestre Ledru (http://sylvestre.ledru.info/) we have a venue for this year’s GNU Hackers Meeting: we will be at IRILL (http://www.irill.org) in Paris, France, for the second time after the very successful 2011 edition. Since I live near Paris and I also happen to work at IRILL once or twice a week I’ve decided to do something to help organize the event, along with Sylvestre and Dodji Seketeli (http://dodji.seketeli.com/) who graciously volunteered as well.

    • GCC 4.9 Diagnostics Will Begin Playing With Colors

      While GCC 4.8 was released less than two months ago and GCC 4.9 isn’t likely to surface until 2014, there’s already a new feature to the next major update of the GNU Compiler Collection. GCC 4.9 introduces support for colored outputs in debugging.

      With LLVM/Clang offering a great diagnostics experience, GCC developers have been challenged to improve the diagnostics and debugging abilities within their open-source compiler. Introduced with GCC 4.8 were improved diagnostics thanks to the Clang competition and it looks like GCC 4.9 will continue trying to enhance the support for the long-standing Free Software Foundation compiler.

    • Options to Control Diagnostic Messages Formatting

  • Project Releases

  • Openness/Sharing

    • Open Access/Content

      • Aaron Swartz prosecutors will unseal evidence, but won’t name names

        The federal judge who would have overseen the trial of Aaron Swartz on computer hacking charges has ordered the prosecution to reveal much of the evidence it had against him. However, the government and MIT will be allowed to keep most of the relevant names redacted.

        Swartz killed himself in January, not long before he was scheduled to defend himself in a trial that could have resulted in several years of prison time. Swartz famously used MIT’s computer network to download millions of academic papers published in the JSTOR archive, and prosecutors said those actions violated the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA).

      • Redacted Emails Ordered Released in Aaron Swartz Case

    • Open Hardware

      • Wikiweapons and Printing 3D Guns. It’s Just a Stalking Horse for What’s to Come

        When I wrote an article for FSM a few years ago about 3D printing it was a big topic in the open-source community but it had not yet gone fully mainstream. If there was one thing guaranteed to make 3D printing explode onto the mainstream news media it was an item about someone “printing” a gun. That got your attention, didn’t it? Mine too. It’s controversial of course but it might just be the beginning of a rerun of the Napster/Piratebay episodes in the 21st century – with the inevitable debate between patent-free, non-hierarchical open-source models and patent-encumbered proprietary software and hardware. Napster was a ripple. 3D printing will be a tsunami.

      • Now You Can Buy 3D Printers From Staples

        The office supply chain announced Friday that it is now selling 3D printers through its website and will start selling 3D printers in select stores by the end of next month. Staples is touting itself as the first “major U.S. retailer” to sell the product.

  • Programming

Leftovers

  • eHealth week – digital innovation isn’t just for the young!

    This week in Dublin it has been eHealth week. A chance to look at all the great things digital technology can do for health and care – especially as the average European gets older.

  • How humble USB turned engineer into tech ‘rock star’

    With computer technology advancing at an ever bewildering pace, it’s comforting to know that one little feature remains steadfastly future-proof and, more importantly, foolproof.

    The USB (Universal Serial Bus) is as relevant today as it was when the 12 millimeter by 4.5 millimeter ports and cables first started appearing back in the late 1990s, providing users with a discreet and straightforward way of transferring data between a range of digital devices.

  • Justice O’Connor Regrets
  • Stevens: Rationale for Bush v. Gore was “unacceptable”
  • O’Connor questions court’s decision to take Bush v. Gore

    In interview at Tribune, retired justice also calls for merit selection of judges

  • Alito and Roberts are the most pro-businesses justices since 1946, study finds

    Not every decision by the Roberts court has favored businesses. But the U.S. Supreme Court is more pro-business in its rulings than any other since 1946, according to a new study. And two of its justices are also the most pro-business among 36 who served on the court since World War II.

  • Feds Realize That Exploiting A Bug In Casino Video Poker Software Is Not Hacking And Not A CFAA Violation

    For years, we’ve talked about how casinos were able to get away with not paying people who won jackpots from electronic gambling machines, by claiming that their wins were really because of software glitches. That always seemed like a highly questionable practice, but even more questionable was filing criminal charges against winners who won because of those glitches. We talked about one such case back in 2007, and then another one in early 2011. That 2011 case involved two guys, John Kane and Andre Nestor, who had figured out a bug in some video poker software from International Game Technology, a gaming giant.

  • Science

    • Monsanto, Dow Chemical Crops Face Further Delays on Environmental Studies

      The U.S. Department of Agriculture will conduct environmental assessments of new corn, soybean and cotton seeds genetically engineered to withstand herbicides, further delaying the possible launch of products from Monsanto Co. (MON) and Dow Chemical Co. (DOW).

    • Bill Nye Boo’d In Texas For Saying The Moon Reflects The Sun

      Bill Nye, the harmless children’s edu-tainer known as “The Science Guy,” managed to offend a select group of adults in Waco, Texas at a presentation, when he suggested that the moon does not emit light, but instead reflects the light of the sun.

      As even most elementary-school graduates know, the moon reflects the light of the sun but produces no light of its own.

      But don’t tell that to the good people of Waco, who were “visibly angered by what some perceived as irreverence,” according to the Waco Tribune.

    • Obama pedals bike at 3rd White House science fair

      It was an offer President Barack Obama couldn’t refuse.

      “You’re welcome to try this out if you like,” the Oakland Park, Fla., high school student said.

      With that, a president who often laments a lifestyle that denies him the pleasure of driving eagerly hopped on the blue-and-silver bicycle in his dark blue suit and pedaled away, never mind that the machinery didn’t take him anywhere.

    • Western leaders study ‘gamechanging’ report on global drugs trade

      Review by Organisation of American States on illicit drugs ‘could mark beginning of the end’ of prohibition

    • Samsung claims 5G mobile data transmission breakthrough

      Samsung says it has developed the world’s first “adaptive array transceiver” technology, an innovation that allows part of the super-high-frequency Ka band of the radio spectrum – at 28GHz – to be used for cellular data transmission.

      The firm indicates its equipment, which features 64 antenna elements, overcomes a problem involved with using this frequency, which can cause the signal to weaken in rainy conditions.

      “Samsung’s recent success in developing the adaptive array transceiver technology has brought us one step closer to the commercialisation of 5G mobile communications in the millimetre-wave bands,” said Chang-Yeong Kim. head of the firm’s Digital Media & Communication Centre in Seoul.

    • Samsung to rollout commercial 5G by 2020

      Samsung Electronics has developed a technology aimed at allowing data transmission up to several hundred times faster than the current 4G networks, paving the way for introducing high-speed 5G wireless data connections to users by 2020.

      The company’s new adaptive array transceiver technology, claimed to be first-of-its-kind in the world, operates in the millimeter-wave Ka bands for cellular communications.

  • Security

  • Defence/Police/Secrecy/Aggression

    • Military spending and the EU crisis

      High levels of military spending played a key role in the unfolding economic crisis in Europe and continues to undermine efforts to resolve it.

    • US vows to continue its foreign ‘war on terror’ bid for at least 10-20 years

      A top US military official has emphasized that the American so-called “war on terror” on Muslim world will continue for ‘at least 10 to 20 years.’

    • Obama War Powers Under 2001 Law ‘Astoundingly Disturbing,’ Senators Say

      The war authorization that Congress passed after 9/11 will be needed for at least 10 to 20 more years, and can be used to put the United States military on the ground anywhere, from Syria to the Congo to Boston, military officials argued Thursday.

    • Hofstra student killed by police during break-in

      In this photo copied from the 2010 Sleepy Hollow High School yearbook, high school student Andrea Rubello is shown. Police said Rubello, a junior at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y., was shot and killed Friday, May 17, 2013, during a break-in near the college campus.

    • Judge tosses out manslaughter charges against NYPD officer who killed teen

      A judge has dismissed manslaughter charges against a New York City police officer who shot dead an unarmed teenage boy in his bathroom.

      Bronx supreme court justice Steven L Barrett said the Bronx district attorney’s office failed to properly instruct members of a grand jury in considering allegations against officer Richard Haste for his role in the death in 2012 of 18-year-old Ramarley Graham.

    • China Spends $125 Billion Per Year On Riot Gear And ‘Stability Maintenance’

      Mannequins in riot gear, armoured cars and drones line a police equipment and “anti-terrorism technology” trade fair in Beijing as vendors seek to profit from China’s huge internal security budget.

      The country is estimated to have more than 180,000 protests each year and the ruling Communist Party spends vast sums on ensuring order — more even than on its military, the largest in the world.

  • Cablegate

    • Obama Worse Than Nixon? Pentagon Papers Attorney Decries AP Phone Probe, Julian Assange Persecution

      The Justice Department’s disclosure that it had secretly subpoenaed phone records from the Associated Press has prompted a wave of comparisons between President Obama and Richard Nixon. Four decades ago, the Nixon administration attempted to block The New York Times from publishing a secret history of the Vietnam War leaked to the newspaper by whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg.

    • Globaleaks 0.2 Alpha

      Globaleaks is an open source project aimed at creating a worldwide, anonymous, censorship-resistant, distributed whistle-blowing platform. It enables organizations interested in running whistle-blowing initiatives to setup their own safe zone, where whistle-blowers and recipients can exchange data.

  • Environment/Energy/Wildlife

    • Plaintiffs’ Lawyers Jump Ship in Pollution Fight Against Chevron

      Faced with an enormous 2011 oil-pollution verdict in Ecuador, Chevron (CVX) turned the tables on its main legal foe, launching a fierce counter-attack against the lead plaintiffs’ lawyer in federal court in New York. That onslaught raised serious questions about the tactics that activist attorney, Steven Donziger, an American, employed to win the $19 billion judgment in Ecuador.

      Now it has cost Donziger some of his most important lawyer-allies in the U.S., who have quit the fight, saying they lack the resources and will to battle Chevron.

      ‘[...]

      Keker lashed out at Chevron and its law firm, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher: “Through scorched-earth litigation, executed by its army of hundreds of lawyers, Chevron is using its limitless resources to crush” Donziger “and win this case through might rather than merit.” Keker also condemned Kaplan. “Encouraged by this court’s implacable hostility to Donziger, Chevron will file any motion, however meritless, in the hope that this court will use it to hurt Donziger.”

  • Finance

    • NFL Player Instagrams Himself Peeing on IRS Building

      Tax-season gripes regarding the Internal Revenue Service are about as American as baseball and apple pie. But we bet you’ve never expressed your frustration quite like NFL player Evan Mathis did on Wednesday.

    • Where will we be without the bankers?

      We need banks that serve the economy – not the bankers.

    • Yahoo board OKs $1.1B purchase of Tumblr: report
    • Apple Said to Be Subject of Senate Offshore Tax Hearing

      Apple Inc. (AAPL) will be the subject of a May 21 Senate hearing on U.S. companies’ offshore tax practices, said two people familiar with the inquiry.

      Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook will testify at the hearing of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, one of the people said.

    • Goldman Sachs Wins Even When Muzzled by the Feds

      Almost three years ago, when Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) paid $550 million to settle fraud accusations by the Securities and Exchange Commission, one of the claims was that Goldman misled the bond-insurer ACA Financial Guaranty Corp. in a horribly complex deal named Abacus.

      Goldman settled without admitting to the accusations. The terms also prohibited Goldman from denying the SEC’s allegations in its public statements. Then, this week, a funny thing happened. A New York state appeals court, in a 3-2 ruling, dismissed ACA’s lawsuit against Goldman. ACA said Goldman misled it. The court said the insurer’s claims didn’t hold up.

    • Walmart destroys the cultural heritage of Mexico

      As an archaeologist, I welcome the news that “[t]rade unions in Canada, the United States and Mexico are preparing protests and legal action against the Mexican subsidiary of Walmart” . That $24 million in bribes was allegedly paid by Walmart representatives to built the store at Teotihuacán is sad, but, in hindsight, makes a lot of sense. It takes a lot of gall to wilfully risk a country’s most beloved heritage site and, as it seems, it takes a lot of money too. However, I am sure Walmart felt it was worth it: if only a fraction of the 2.5 million annual visitors to Teotihuacán walk through Walmart’s doors, they would have easily recouped their ‘investment’.

    • “The Other IRS Scandal”: David Cay Johnston on Dark Money Political Groups Seeking Tax Exemption
    • Fincen’s New Regulations Are Choking Bitcoin Entrepreneurs

      More than a decade ago, regulators nearly suffocated PayPal. Now it looks like they’re trying to squelch another disruptive, innovative payments system.

    • Who’s Getting Rich off the Prison-Industrial Complex?

      You likely already know how overcrowded and abusive the US prison system is, and you probably are also aware that the US has more people in prison than even China or Russia. In this age of privatization, of course, it’s also not surprising that many of the detention centers are not actually operated by the government, but by for-profit companies. So clearly, some people are making lots and lots of money off the booming business of keeping human beings in cages.

      But who are these people?

      Using NASDAQ data, I looked through the long list of investors in Corrections Corporation of America and GEO Group, the two biggest corporations that operate detention centers in the US, to find out who was cashing in the most on prisons. When we say “prison-industrial complex,” this is who we’re talking about.

    • Trade Talks? Only Business Insiders Invited

      As the future of the proposed Canada-European Union Trade Agreement becomes increasingly uncertain — the EU has been unwilling to compromise on the remaining contentious issues leaving the Canadian government with a deal that offers limited benefits and significant costs — the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) is likely to emerge as the government’s new top trade priority.

    • Accidentally Released – and Incredibly Embarrassing – Documents Show How Goldman et al Engaged in ‘Naked Short Selling’

      It doesn’t happen often, but sometimes God smiles on us. Last week, he smiled on investigative reporters everywhere, when the lawyers for Goldman, Sachs slipped on one whopper of a legal banana peel, inadvertently delivering some of the bank’s darker secrets into the hands of the public.

      The lawyers for Goldman and Bank of America/Merrill Lynch have been involved in a legal battle for some time – primarily with the retail giant Overstock.com, but also with Rolling Stone, the Economist, Bloomberg, and the New York Times. The banks have been fighting us to keep sealed certain documents that surfaced in the discovery process of an ultimately unsuccessful lawsuit filed by Overstock against the banks.

      Last week, in response to an Overstock.com motion to unseal certain documents, the banks’ lawyers, apparently accidentally, filed an unredacted version of Overstock’s motion as an exhibit in their declaration of opposition to that motion. In doing so, they inadvertently entered into the public record a sort of greatest-hits selection of the very material they’ve been fighting for years to keep sealed.

    • The Question that Launched the IRS Scandal: Planted?

      It struck me as odd that IRS official Lois Lerner would suddenly offer a mea culpa ex nihilo — on the sensitive subject of the agency’s targeting of political enemies — off the cuff while she was speaking at a tax conference organized by the American Bar Association. When she was asked about that during a telephone call on Friday, she said only that she was asked a question and answered it.

    • Homeland Security seizes funds at main Bitcoin exchange

      The U.S. government has reportedly shut down a prime source of liquidity for Bitcoin by seizing an account connecting a Japanese currency exchange, Mt. Gox, and payment services provider Dwolla.

    • Austerity Is Dead; Stop Pushing It, Drop the Chained CPI and Increase Social Security

      Deficit projections have already by $200 billion for this year alone, so why do Republicans keep lunging for ever-more radical spending cuts like they were corn dogs at a barbecue? That’s more in deficit reduction than President Obama’s proposed cut to Social Security would “save” in ten. So why hasn’t he withdrawn the proposal?

  • PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying

    • Is There Really a ‘Scandal Trifecta’?

      The White House is evidently in a tough spot thanks to what’s being called a “scandal trifecta”: Benghazi, the Justice Department seizing AP phone records, and the IRS targeting Tea Party groups. Much of the Beltway press corps–which has pushed the Benghazi story for months–is seeing the Obama presidency in a state of near free-fall.

    • Conservative Koch Brothers Turning Focus to Newspapers

      Three years ago, Charles and David Koch, the billionaire industrialists and supporters of libertarian causes, held a seminar of like-minded, wealthy political donors at the St. Regis Resort in Aspen, Colo. They laid out a three-pronged, 10-year strategy to shift the country toward a smaller government with less regulation and taxes.

    • The Remarkable Decline in the Wall Street Journal’s Long-Form Journalism

      I do not have any particular expertise in the inner workings of the Wall Street Journal newsroom, but this chart speaks for itself. It shows the number of stories the Journal published that were over 2,500 words from 2002 to 2011. Dean Starkman of Columbia Journalism Review created the chart and referenced it again today. (He used to work at the publication.)

    • The bizarre campaign against Apple’s Tim Cook

      Targeted criticism of Cook first scored a hit last November, when Dan Lyons wrote the scathing article “What’s it like to work for Tim Cook?” based on on comments by a man who’d never actually worked for Cook.

    • AP memo on Boston coverage: ‘We made mistakes because we didn’t follow our own very good guidelines’

      “There was much great work from AP staffers [reporting from Boston] and we celebrate that,” Associated Press executive editor Kathleen Carroll writes in a memo. “But we had some missteps, too. And that’s what we want to talk about here today.”

    • Two tech executives quit Mark Zuckerberg’s Fwd.us political group

      Two prominent Silicon Valley entrepreneurs have quit Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg’s political advocacy group Fwd.us after protests from environmentalists and liberal groups, a person familiar with the situation said late Friday.

  • Censorship

    • Government accused of sneaking in web filter

      The federal government has been accused of sneaking mandatory web filtering through the back door after one of its agencies inadvertently blocked 1200 websites using a little-known law.

      Read more: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/technology/technology-news/government-accused-of-sneaking-in-web-filter-20130517-2jq3p.html#ixzz2TjUYLpZ8

    • Floyd Abrams & the First Amendment: The Risks of Liberty

      “Our approach under the First Amendment has wisely, I think, generally been to risk suffering the harm that speech may do in order to avoid the greater harm that suppression of speech has often caused.” That line is vintage Floyd Abrams. So, too, is the following one: “The oldest reality about the First Amendment is this: Hardly anyone really believes that we should protect the speech of those with whom we differ.” In other words, protecting free speech can be risky and can mean protecting the expression of those who offend us.

    • Tor and the Censorship Arms Race: Lessons Learned

      On July 24th 2013 Roger Dingledine and Jacob Appelbaum will give a talk about Tor and Internet Censorship. The talk will be at the Garching campus of the TUM (U-Bahn stop: U6 Garching Forschungszentrum), in the FMI (Informatics/Mathematics) building, in room HS1 (the big lecture hall) starting at 18:00. Admission is of course free.

    • The Dark Side of the Digital Revolution

      How do you explain to people that they are a YouTube sensation, when they have never heard of YouTube or the Internet? That’s a question we faced during our January visit to North Korea, when we attempted to engage with the Pyongyang traffic police. You may have seen videos on the Web of the capital city’s “traffic cops,” whose ballerina-like street rituals, featured in government propaganda videos, have made them famous online. The men and women themselves, however—like most North Koreans—have never seen a Web page, used a desktop computer, or held a tablet or smartphone.

    • Censors increasingly take aim at Google content

      Google on Thursday released data showing that requests by governments to censor the Internet giant’s content have hit new heights, with Brazil and the United States leading the way.

      Google received 2,285 government requests to remove content from it properties, including YouTube and search pages, in the second half of last year as compared to 1,811 requests in the first six months, according to its latest Transparency Report.

      The requests related to 24,179 pieces of content, up from 18,070 items, the California-based Internet giant said.

    • US officials to Delhi court: Can’t summon Facebook, Google

      India had asked the US to help in serving papers to the executives of 11 Internet companies who are accused of hosting content designed to fuel communal hatred.

    • Bus Company Threatens Redditor With Lawsuit, Meets Ken White, Runs Away

      Another day, another case of a business attempting to stifle online criticism via threat of lawsuit, amirite? We’ve seen it again and again. Companies ignorant of the terrifying Streisand Effect go after critics and, normally, the only warm and fuzzy feeling we can take away from it is knowing that these abusers are more hated as a result of their threats than they were before. But not today, friends. Today’s story ends hilariously well.

      [...]

      So, we’re dealing with a company that enjoys suing its own customers after slapping their wallets around with insane fines that seem designed less to encourage good behavior than to simply extract more money out of people. Well, if Suburban Express is happy to sue its own customers, you can guess just how aggressive they like to behave with the internet upon which some of these customers express their displeasure. Unfortunately, when that displeasure is aimed at one of the company’s drivers who told an exchange student, “If you don’t understand English, you don’t belong at the University of Illinois or any ‘American’ University,” then you’re going to raise the ire of roughly everyone. It was a witness to that event, Jeremy Leval, who took to Facebook to describe the incident.

    • Trade Sanctions Cited in Hundreds of Syrian Domain Seizures

      In apparent observation of international trade sanctions against Syria, a U.S. firm that ranks as the world’s fourth-largest domain name registrar has seized hundreds of domains belonging to various Syrian entities, including a prominent Syrian hacker group and sites associated with the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

    • Germany asked to intervene with Dotcom

      Kim Dotcom’s lawyers intend to ask the German government to intervene with the United States and try to block his extradition on criminal copyright charges, German news agency DPA has reported.

      London-based Canadian human rights lawyer Robert Amsterdam, who co-wrote a “white paper” released last week criticising the case against Dotcom’s MegaUpload business, told the DPA that Germany had not done enough to assist Dotcom.

      He said he would ask the German government to intervene on the grounds that Dotcom’s human rights had been violated by the US.

      “We can take this to the office of the Chancellor, which we will, as well as to the German Foreign Ministry, to raise the issue with Washington,” he told the DPA.

  • Privacy

    • Leak Investigations Are an Assault on the Press, and on Democracy, Too

      This was supposed to be the administration of unprecedented transparency. President Obama promised that when he took office, and the White House’s Web site says so on this very day.

    • In AP surveillance case, the real scandal is what’s legal
    • White House pushing new federal shield law

      In damage control mode after revelations that the Department of Justice seized records from Associated Press reporters, the White House is pushing a federal media shield law that died in the Senate four years ago.

    • Hear Ye, Future Deep Throats: This Is How to Leak to the Press

      We now live in a world where public servants informing the public about government behavior or wrongdoing must practice the tradecraft of drug dealers and spies. Otherwise, these informants could get caught in the web of administrations that view George Orwell’s 1984 as an operations manual.

      With the recent revelation that the Department of Justice under the Obama administration secretly obtained phone records for Associated Press journalists — and previous subpoenas by the Bush administration targeting the Washington Post and New York Times — it is clear that whether Democrat or Republican, we now live in a surveillance dystopia beyond Orwell’s Big Brother vision. Even privately collected data isn’t immune, and some highly sensitive data is particularly vulnerable thanks to the Third Party Doctrine.

    • Media organizations call on Justice Department to mitigate damage from broad subpoena of journalists’ phone records

      The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and major news organizations are calling on the U.S. Justice Department to return secretly subpoenaed phone records of more than 100 Associated Press journalists, to explain how such an egregious overreach could happen and outline what will be done to mitigate the damage.

    • Obama Administration Secretly Obtains Phone Records of AP Journalists
    • Do-Not-Track Talks Could Be Running Off the Rails
    • What If We Thought More Often About Being Tracked Online? Man Stalks Himself To Find Out

      It’s no secret that data mining is big business–but what if Internet users could monetize their personal data on their own? New York University grad student Federico Zannier raised the question by unleashing an arsenal of digital espionage tools on his own computer: a Chrome extension that documents every web address visited; software that records GPS location; and a custom application that takes a screenshot, a webcam photo, and records the mouse position every time a new tab opens.

    • Taking the privacy message to MEPs

      This week ORG supporter Ryan Jendoubi visited MEPs in Brussels to ask them to support stronger privacy rights – as part of our ongoing Naked Citizens campaign. In this post he talks about why he was there and how the message was received.

    • U.S. gives big, secret push to Internet surveillance

      Justice Department agreed to issue “2511 letters” immunizing AT&T and other companies participating in a cybersecurity program from criminal prosecution under the Wiretap Act, according to new documents obtained by the Electronic Privacy Information Center.

    • Shady Companies With Ties to Israel Wiretap the U.S. for the NSA

      Army General Keith Alexander, the director of the NSA, is having a busy year — hopping around the country, cutting ribbons at secret bases and bringing to life the agency’s greatly expanded eavesdropping network.

      In January he dedicated the new $358 million CAPT Joseph J. Rochefort Building at NSA Hawaii, and in March he unveiled the 604,000-square-foot John Whitelaw Building at NSA Georgia.

    • Head of the NSA Warns of ‘Disruptive & Destructive’ Cyber Attacks – ISO 27014 Can Help
    • DISA/NSA move to address insider threats to enterprise networks
    • US under constant threat of cyber attack: NSA boss
    • India´s ´Big Brother´: The Central Monitoring System (CMS)

      Starting from this month, all telecommunications and Internet communications in India will be analysed by the government and its agencies. What does that mean? It means that everything we say or text over the phone, write, post or browse over the Internet will be centrally monitored by Indian authorities. This totalitarian type of surveillance will be incorporated in none other than the Central Monitoring System (CMS).

    • Law Requiring Warrants for E-Mail Wins Senate Committee Approval

      A Senate committee today backed sweeping privacy protections requiring the government, for the first time, to get a probable-cause warrant to obtain e-mail and other content stored in the cloud.

    • On Expectation of Privacy

      Privacy in pubic is now being destroyed to the point to include any activity you conduct over the Internet, whether it’s been technically designed to be private or not. The IRS has recently come under fire for spying on Americans’ email under the guise that using email surrenders one’s expectation of privacy. Anyone who understands how email works knows that its design intent, when working properly, keeps email private: it partitions off one’s email from any other users on the network, and on the server. It’s inherently private, unless of course a hacker breaks into the system and steals your privacy. Simply because email exists in a public environment doesn’t invalidate one’s expectation of privacy. Consider a single-room bathroom inside a public department store or restaurant. It is surrounded by the public, however our law still protects the inside of those four walls as a private place. Just because a criminal could potentially kick in the door and snap a photo of you on the toilet doesn’t
      suddenly remove your right to privacy inside this room, yet the same argument is being made against electronic mail and other forms of otherwise private communication.

    • Judge Holds Himself in Contempt for Cellphone Violation

      The judge said he had recently switched from the Blackberry model he has had for years to a Windows phone with a touchscreen, and believes the phone wasn’t locked when he came to the bench with the phone in his shirt pocket. Worse, this particular phone apparently comes with voice activation, which was news to the judge. He said something to trigger it, and the phone spoke up.

    • Apple, AT&T and Verizon receive lowest marks in EFF privacy report

      Apple has submitted plans to open a new retail store on Union Square, replacing its nine-year-old store at Stockton and Ellis streets a few blocks away.

      Supervisor David Chiu said he hoped the new silver box-shaped computer store and customer service center would “turbo-charge” the Union Square area, which has long been home to many of the city’s high-end retailers.

    • Apple’s Customer Data-Privacy Rules Struck Down by German Court
    • German Court Says Apple’s Privacy Policy Conflicts with National Data Protection Law
    • EFF Gives Twitter High Marks for Protecting Users’ Data

      How safe are your favorite websites? The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) evaluated 18 major Internet companies for privacy and transparency, and Twitter and West Coast ISP Sonic.net came out on top.

    • For Their Eyes Only: The Commercialization of Digital Spying

      The report features new findings, as well as consolidating a year of our research on the commercial market for offensive computer network intrusion capabilities developed by Western companies.

    • This EULA Will Make You Rethink Every App and Online Service You Use

      Similarly, without an open, unified network, the whole notion of business online would have been entirely feudal from the start. Instead, it only took a feudal turn around the turn of the century. These days, instead of websites on the open internet, people are more likely to create apps in proprietary stores or profiles on proprietary social media sites.

    • Do You Want the Government Buying Your Data From Corporations?

      Our government collects a lot of information about us. Tax records, legal records, license records, records of government services received– it’s all in databases that are increasingly linked and correlated. Still, there’s a lot of personal information the government can’t collect. Either they’re prohibited by law from asking without probable cause and a judicial order, or they simply have no cost-effective way to collect it. But the government has figured out how to get around the laws, and collect personal data that has been historically denied to them: ask corporate America for it.

    • Apple deluged by police demands to decrypt iPhones

      ATF says no law enforcement agency could unlock a defendant’s iPhone, but Apple can “bypass the security software” if it chooses. Apple has created a police waiting list because of high demand.

    • FBI Seeks Real-Time Facebook, Google Wiretaps

      Should Facebook, Google and similar sites be forced to adapt their infrastructure so that the FBI and other law enforcement agencies can easily tap suspects’ communications in real time?

  • Civil Rights

    • Student Defaulters – to be arrested on sight at all borders

      With National declaring that student defaulters who have not paid for their education are to be arrested on sight at our borders, I thought it my civic duty to assist Police and Border Guards to share a Wanted poster with readers.

    • Student loan defaulters to face border arrest
    • From Hooligan: How I Got Kicked Out of the Supreme Court

      In March 1995, I visited the sacred burial ground of Americans’ rights and liberties – the Supreme Court.

    • You’re to Blame for Factory Deaths. Well, You and Walmart

      The New Yorker’s James Surowiecki (5/20/13) has figured out who’s to blame for unsafe working conditions for garment workers: people who wear clothing.

    • The major sea change in media discussions of Obama and civil liberties

      Due to the controversies over the IRS and (especially) the DOJ’s attack on AP’s news gathering process, media outlets have suddenly decided that President Obama has a very poor record on civil liberties, transparency, press freedoms, and a whole variety of other issues on which he based his first campaign.

    • Marco Rubio Pushes For “Enhanced REAL ID” For ALL US Citizens—If They Want A Job!
    • New Federal Regulations Give Pentagon Sweeping Domestic Police Power

      The militarization of local and state law enforcement didn’t make its debut in the Watertown lockdown, however. For decades, police have received millions in grants from the federal government. Cash-strapped police departments and sheriffs’ offices have traded local control for new technology and martial materiel.

      The blurring of the lines between armed forces and police forces has accelerated quickly, resulting in a situation where “it would be difficult to discern fully outfitted police SWAT teams and the military.”

    • Worse Than The AP Phone Scandal

      Before Attorney General Eric Holder oversaw a Justice Department that secretly seized AP journalists’ phone records, he was guilty of something even worse, and closely related to the AP scandal. He argued a little-known case before the Supreme Court called Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project, which found that speech (and other forms of nonviolent advocacy) could be construed as material support for terrorist organizations. The case involved a U.S.-based non-profit organization, the Humanitarian Law Project, which, according to its website, is “dedicated to protecting human rights and promoting the peaceful resolution of conflict by using established international human rights laws and humanitarian law.” It also enjoys a consultive status at the UN; so, in other words, hardly a radical organization.

    • Letter: Stand together to preserve freedoms

      I wrote a letter for the newspaper in March (“NDAA is a wake-up call to America,” March 13); this is a follow-up. The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) of 2012 was passed into law and signed by (President) Obama on Dec. 31, 2012. As I told you this Act sounds good, but in reality abolishes the Bill of Rights. I also stated that the entire United States has been redefined as a “battlefield” wherein the military, the FBI or any other law enforcement under Obama’s thumb can arrest any U.S. citizen without cause. This is possible by using the familiar little “catch-all” word that has been used (and abused) since Sept. 11. The word is terrorism. The laws written in post-9/11 have made it possible to effectively destroy anybody the government doesn’t like or agree with. The government is able to shut down anything and anybody just be using the T-word even if it doesn’t apply at all.

    • Dutch police may get right to hack in cyber crime fight

      The Dutch government has announced plans to give police far greater powers to fight cybercrime.

      Under a new bill, investigators would be able to hack into computers, install spyware, read emails and destroy files.

    • FBI Documents Suggest Feds Read Emails Without a Warrant

      New documents from the FBI and U.S. Attorneys’ offices paint a troubling picture of the government’s email surveillance practices. Not only does the FBI claim it can read emails and other electronic communications without a warrant—even after a federal appeals court ruled that doing so violates the Fourth Amendment—but the documents strongly suggest that different U.S. Attorneys’ offices around the country are applying conflicting standards to access communications content (you can see the documents here).

    • Biometric Database of All Adult Americans Hidden in Immigration Reform

      The immigration reform measure the Senate began debating yesterday would create a national biometric database of virtually every adult in the U.S., in what privacy groups fear could be the first step to a ubiquitous national identification system.

      Buried in the more than 800 pages of the bipartisan legislation (.pdf) is language mandating the creation of the innocuously-named “photo tool,” a massive federal database administered by the Department of Homeland Security and containing names, ages, Social Security numbers and photographs of everyone in the country with a driver’s license or other state-issued photo ID.

  • DRM

  • Intellectual Monopolies

    • Lives versus Profits

      More broadly, there is increasing recognition that the patent system, as currently designed, not only imposes untold social costs, but also fails to maximize innovation – as Myriad’s gene patents demonstrate.

  • Breast cancer gene data beneficial, controversial
  • Angelina Jolie, breast cancer and the gene-patenting question
  • EU Targets Seeds and Gardeners; Critics Lash Out

    As part of the seemingly never-ending drive to expand and centralize its own coercive power, the controversial European Union in Brussels is now targeting seeds and gardeners with a proposed new “law” aimed at regulating all “plant reproductive material” within the bloc. Despite strong backing by mega-corporations and genetic-engineering giants, however, the proposal has sparked a furious grassroots outcry around the world that transcends traditional political divides.

    Critics are calling on the emerging EU super state to kill the scheme immediately. Over 200,000 people have already signed a petition against the plan. Another 35,000 signed a petition refusing to accept the scheme, and thousands more signed a separate statement vowing non-compliance. The growing coalition fighting back against the program brings together unlikely allies, too: environmentalists, leftists concerned about corporate power over government, libertarians, farmers, conservatives, liberals, gardeners, small-scale seed producers, advocates for national sovereignty, and more.

  • Jack Ohman: The four new bases of DNA
  • How Big Agribusiness Is Heading Off The Threat From Seed Generics — And Failing To Keep The Patent Bargain

    Recently we wrote about how pharmaceutical companies use “evergreening” to extend their control over drugs as the patents expire. But this is also an issue for the world of agribusiness: a number of key patents, particularly for traits of genetically-engineered (GE) organisms, will be entering the public domain soon, and leading companies like Bayer, BASF, Dow, DuPont, Monsanto and Syngenta are naturally coming up with their own “evergreening” methods.

  • Supreme Court Seems Skeptical As Myriad Claims Gene Patents Should Exist, Because It Put A Lot Of Work Into Finding Them

    As many people know, on Monday, the Supreme Court finally heard the Myriad Genetics case, to look at whether or not genes are patentable subject matter. For the past few decades, the USPTO has generally argued that you can patent genes, which just seems crazy to most folks who point out that it’s nuts to patent something that exists in your body. Supporters argue that they’re trying to patent the process of isolating the gene, but that’s just semantics. As you may recall, the appeals court, CAFC, had decided that genes are patentable because they’re separate from your DNA. After that, the Supreme Court disallowed patents on medical diagnostics, and asked CAFC to reconsider the Myriad case with that as a guide. In response, CAFC stuck by its guns, insisting that genes are patentable.

  • Don’t Let Patents Kill 3D Printing

    One of the reasons why 3D printing is suddenly on the cusp of going mainstream is the expiration of some key patents that have held the technology back for decades. And yet, of course, with any area of the market that is getting hot, there is suddenly a rush to get more patents. In fact, we’ve already seen a few patent fights begin concerning the new generation of 3D printing companies. Recently, the EFF has decided to try to try to put a stop to a series of patent applications that, if granted, would have the potential to again hold back the 3D printing market even further.

  • Sussex academy pays £100,000 to use ‘patented’ US school curriculum

    Aurora Academies Trust is challenged over use of patented ‘Paragon curriculum’ that has been criticised by Ofsted

  • India patents 1,300 yoga moves

    India has made available a list of 1,300 newly registered yoga poses, compiled to prevent the ancient moves from being exploited by patent pirates, the Times of India said.

    Hindu gurus and some 200 scientists compiled the list from 16 ancient texts to prevent yoga teachers in the United States and Europe from patenting established poses as their own.

  • Trademarks

    • Hackathon Trademarked in Germany? Now What? ~pj

      I am sure you saw that somebody in Germany, a company called nachtausgabe.de, has sneaked through a trademarking of the word HACKATHON in Germany. There was no opposition, because nobody knew about it. We know now, however, so what can anyone do about it? It turns out, plenty.

      It’s a word that OpenBSD and Sun each came up with independently at the same time back in the ’90s, for heavens sake, and it surely can’t belong to any one company now that it’s in the dictionary and everyone has freely used it for years now.

      Anyway, as soon as I read about it, I wrote to the German equivalent of the USPTO, DPMA, the German Patent and Trademark Office, and I’ve learned some things that can still be done. I’ll share them with you, so the community knows how to go forward if it proves necessary.

    • Apple wins trademark case over ‘iBooks’

      A small New York publisher that uses the label “ibooks” has struck out in its lawsuit against Apple, after a New York court on Wednesday held that the publisher’s mark was not distinct and that consumers would not confuse the two companies’ products.

  • Copyrights

    • Dotcom granted leave for Crown appeal

      Kim Dotcom has been granted leave to appeal his case against the Crown in the Supreme Court.

      The MegaUpload mogul’s legal team applied in March to be heard in the country’s highest court after a decision about disclosure made in the Court of Appeal went against him.

      Dotcom’s lawyers want to be able to view the documents that make up the basis of the US Government’s case against him.

    • Judge Denies Copyright Class Action Against YouTube
    • European Parliament to Vote Green Light to Next ACTA?

      On 22 May, the European Parliament will vote in plenary on a resolution on the proposed EU-US trade agreement, the “Trans-Atlantic Free Trade Agreement” (TAFTA), also know as “Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership” (TTIP). After the ACTA, SOPA and PIPA battles, once again the entertainment industry will try to use a trade agreement as an opportunity to impose online repression. With Wednesday’s vote, Members of the European Parliament may be about to vote in favor of the same kind of repressive copyright enforcement provisions that they rejected in ACTA a few months ago.

    • BitTorrent Accounts for 35% of All Upload Traffic, VPNs are Booming

      New data published by the Canadian broadband management company Sandvine reveals that BitTorrent can be credited for one third of all North American upload traffic during peak hours. BitTorrent usage also remains strong in Europe, Latin America and Asia Pacific. The report further confirms that SSL traffic has more than doubled in a year, partly due to an increase in VPN use.

    • Viacom Loses Again–Viacom v. YouTube

      How many things have to go wrong for Viacom before it wakes up and smells the hummus? It’s now lost twice in the district court, it’s created a bunch of precedent unfavorable to its interests, it’s proven that even it can’t figure out which clips it authorized to post on YouTube and which it didn’t, it gave up complaining about YouTube’s behavior after 2008 (making the case entirely backward-looking), it got caught repeatedly astroturfing, and in general it’s looked like a massive jackass. Perhaps its next appeal will finally kill this case as it deserves, though that will single-handedly cause a new downturn in the legal industry as hundreds of lawyers look to find new sugar daddy clients.

    • Hollywood Docket: Alicia Keys Settles Lawsuit Over ‘Girl on Fire’

      In his lawsuit, Schuman alleged that Keys’ “Girl on Fire” used copyrighted material from his composition. The complaint filed in California federal court didn’t spell out with great detail what was precisely objectionable, but in “Girl on Fire,” the singer appeared to quote the intonation of the prior hit in singing the words “lonely girl.” Compare the two songs (here and here).

      The complaint was filed late last year, and the litigation didn’t get very far for a judge to rule any which way.

    • Forget online drives, sync directly with BitTorrent Sync

      If you do not trust online storage drives for file syncing across your devices or are frustrated with storage limits, there is another player in town. BitTorrent has released a new alpha version of its Sync software, which supports syncing folders across the Internet without going through an intermediary like Dropbox, Cloud Drive, or iCloud.

    • Chairman Goodlatte Announces Comprehensive Review of Copyright Law

      Technology continues to rapidly advance. Contrast how American citizens kept up with the latest news in Boston last week to when Paul Revere rode nearby to warn the local communities of the British advance in 1775. Our Founding Fathers could never have imagined a day in which citizens would be able to immediately access the knowledge and news of the world on their smartphones as they walk down the street.

    • Second Circuit Victory for Richard Prince and Appropriation Art

      Today the Second Circuit Court of Appeals issued a long-awaited decision in favor of fair use in Cariou v. Prince. Reversing the district court’s finding of infringement, the Court held that Richard Prince’s use of Patrick Cariou’s photographs in 25 of his 30 Canal Series paintings was a fair use. The decision affirms an important tradition in modern art that relies on the appropriation of existing images to create highly expressive works with new meaning.

    • Authors, composers want 3.4% of every Belgian’s Internet bill

      Content owners in nearly every country have tried various strategies to get compensation for losses due to piracy. But copyright owners in Belgium have a bold new tactic: go after Internet service providers in court, demanding 3.4 percent of the fees their customers pay for Internet service.

    • Pirate Site Blocking Legislation Approved By Norwegian Parliament

      Norway has moved an important – some say unstoppable – step towards legislative change that will enable the aggressive tackling of online copyright infringement. Proposed amendments to the Copyright Act, which will make it easier for rightsholders to monitor file-sharers and have sites such as The Pirate Bay blocked at the ISP level, received broad support in parliament this week and look almost certain to be passed into law.

    • Prenda hammered: Judge sends porn-trolling lawyers to criminal investigators

      US District Judge Otis Wright has no love for the lawyers who set up the copyright-trolling operation that came to be known as Prenda Law. But Wright at least acknowledges their smarts in his long-awaited order, released today. Wright’s order is a scathing 11 page document, suggesting Prenda masterminds John Steele and Paul Hansmeier should be handed over for criminal investigation. In the first page, though, the judge expresses near admiration for the sheer dark intelligence of their scheme—it’s so complete, so mathematical in its perfection.

    • Why weren’t the Prenda porn trolls stopped years ago?

      Two years ago, in March 2011, I first saw Prenda Law’s John Steele in person—and he was getting bawled out by a federal judge in downtown Chicago.

      Impeccably dressed, Steele walked into Judge Milton Shadur’s wood-paneled courtroom to defend his approach to porn copyright trolling, then in one of its earlier iterations. Steele was representing CP Productions, the unfortunately named Arizona porn producer behind a film (well, a “film”) called Cowgirl Creampie. Steele found a long list of IP addresses sharing Cowgirl Creampie using the BitTorrent protocol, so he went to court. He sought subpoena power in order to turn that list of IP addresses into real names. Steele got it, partly by assuring the judge that the case was related to the state of Illinois.

    • http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/05/look-you-may-hate-me-90-minutes-with-john-steele-prenda-porn-troll/

      After years of fine-tuning a business model built around copyright lawsuits over pornographic movies, prolific anti-piracy lawyer John Steele is now on the receiving end of a devastating sanctions order by a federal judge in Los Angeles, who has recommended a criminal investigation of Steele and his colleagues. For “copyright trolling” critics ranging from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) to anonymous anti-troll blogs, this week’s order has been sweet vindication—and it elevated the Prenda Law situation to the attention of the national press. But all Steele sees is injustice.

    • Orphan Works – the new law in the UK

      My social media feeds have been full links to alarmist stories about a recent change to UK copyright law that allows for the licensing of orphan works. Photographers have been particularly concerned after one site (which I won’t dignify with a link) used the headline “ALL your pics belong to everyone now”. So much alarm has been created that the UK’s intellectual property office felt moved to publish a PDF debunking some of the myths that have arisen. I was waiting until the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013 was published on the government’s legislation website before making my own comment.

    • “Fair use” takes center stage at Google Books appeal

      Google and the Authors Guild resumed an eight-year battle on Tuesday morning before the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals, where judges pressed both sides to provide a straight-up answer as to whether Google’s decision to scan millions of books amounted to “fair use” under copyright law.

    • Google Framed As Book Stealer Bent On Data Domination In New Documentary

      “Google And The World Brain” is a new documentary about Google’s plan to scan all of the world’s books, which triggered an ongoing lawsuit being heard today. The hair-raising film sees Google import millions of copyrighted works, get sued, lose, but almost get a literature monopoly in the process. It’s scary, informative, and worth watching if you recognize its biased portrayal of Google as evil.

      The film is getting wider release as Google continues to fight the Author’s Guild in court today. The organization is demanding $3 billion in damages from Google for scanning and reproducing copyrighted books. Google is asking the court to prevent the group from filing a class-action suit.

    • Book Review — William Patry, How to Fix Copyright

      I review William Patry’s book How to Fix Copyright. The book is noteworthy for its ambitious yet measured effort to diagnose where copyright law has gone astray in recent years. It is less successful with respect to proposing possible changes to the law. Most interesting are parallels between How to Fix Copyright and an earlier comprehensive look at copyright law in the digital era: Paul Goldstein’s Copyright’s Highway: From Gutenberg to the Celestial Jukebox. William Patry and Paul Goldstein each have a lot of faith in the power of consumer choice in the cultural marketplace. That faith leads the two authors to very different views of copyright law.

    • 9th Circuit: No Relief for Copyright Troll Righthaven

      The Ninth Circuit appeals court today turned down copyright troll Righthaven’s last ditch effort to salvage its failed business model, upholding the federal district court’s decision to dismiss its bogus copyright case on the grounds that it never actually held the copyrights it was suing under.

      In one of the two cases decided together, EFF represents Tad DiBiase, a criminal justice blogger who provides resources for difficult-to-prosecute “no body” murder cases. Righthaven sued DiBiase in 2010 based on a news article that DiBiase posted to his blog. Instead of paying them off, DiBiase fought back with the help of EFF and its co-counsel at Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich and Rosati, and helped drive Righthaven out of business.

    • Copyright Trolls Threaten to Call Neighbors of Accused Porn Pirates

      It is no secret that copyright trolls tend to use rather threatening language as they try to convince defendants to pay settlement fees, but the recent actions of the Prenda law reincarnation “Anti-Piracy Law Group” have reached a new low. In a letter sent to people accused of pirating pornographic material, the lawyers threaten to inform neighbors about the illegal conduct, and inspect defendants’ work computers.

    • Apple Inc. (AAPL) Could Be Subject To ‘Culture Tax’ In France

      Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s iPhone and iPad could be taxed in the near future in France. Pierre Lescure, former chief executive officer for Canal Plus, was asked by the French government to come up with a new way to fund cultural projects in the country. The economic downturn has caused a lack of funds for the country’s cultural programs. Lescure suggested that since consumers spend more money on popular electronic devices than content, they should charge a one percent sales tax on all internet-compatible devices.

    • The Copyright Pentalogy: Technological Neutrality

      Last month, the University of Ottawa Press published The Copyright Pentalogy: How the Supreme Court of Canada Shook the Foundations of Canadian Copyright Law, an effort by many of Canada’s leading copyright scholars to begin the process of examining the long-term implications of the copyright pentalogy. As I’ve noted in previous posts, the book is available for purchase and is also available as a free download under a Creative Commons licence. The book can be downloaded in its entirety or each of the 14 chapters can be downloaded individually.

    • We Beat Them to Lima: Opening a New Front Against Secret IP Treaties

      I’m Danny O’Brien, EFF’s new International Director. Five years ago, I worked on the EFF team that identified the threat of ACTA, a secret global intellectual property treaty we discovered was being used to smuggle Internet control provisions into the laws of over thirty countries. Together with an amazing worldwide coalition of activists from Europe to South Korea, we beat back that threat.

]]> http://techrights.org/2013/05/20/google-android-announcements/feed/ 0 IRC Proceedings: May 12th, 2013-May 18th, 2013 http://techrights.org/2013/05/19/irc-log-12052013/ http://techrights.org/2013/05/19/irc-log-12052013/#comments Sun, 19 May 2013 18:18:38 +0000 Dr. Roy Schestowitz http://techrights.org/?p=68623 IRC Proceedings: May 12th, 2013

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IRC Proceedings: May 13th, 2013

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IRC Proceedings: May 14th, 2013

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IRC Proceedings: May 15th, 2013

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IRC Proceedings: May 16th, 2013

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IRC Proceedings: May 17th, 2013

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IRC Proceedings: May 18th, 2013

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Enter the IRC channels now

]]> http://techrights.org/2013/05/19/irc-log-12052013/feed/ 0 Microsoft Spin Regarding Skype Spying Does Not Withstand Scrutiny http://techrights.org/2013/05/19/microsoft-spin-regarding-skype-spying-does-not-withstand-scrutiny/ http://techrights.org/2013/05/19/microsoft-spin-regarding-skype-spying-does-not-withstand-scrutiny/#comments Sun, 19 May 2013 17:23:49 +0000 Dr. Roy Schestowitz http://techrights.org/?p=68619 Skype is Stalin’s dream

Barbed wire

Summary: Microsoft’s response to allegations that Skype is spying on all users is full of holes

Sometimes, albeit not always, silence is better than anything else. For Microsoft, keeping quiet amid the latest controversy would probably have worked out better.

Jürgen Schmidt, writing for the German technology press, contributes to a London-based branch to defend allegations against Microsoft Skype — allegations we wrote about before. He writes: “The next question is: how does Microsoft intend to rate a page without knowing its content? Potential explanations referring to a reputation database are not valid if no reference data is available for the pages – as was the case with the URLs that were specially generated for our test. Neither are we convinced by the suggestion that the only purpose of the HEAD request is to discover potential redirections to known malicious pages. Firstly, such a redirection could also be triggered in the HTML code that has not been retrieved (meta http-equiv=”refresh”), and secondly, many web pages embed the actual malware code via iFrame tags – which is not included in the HEAD data either.

“Microsoft should at least document the use of these surveillance techniques…”
      –Jürgen Schmidt“Finally, the use of the SmartScreen Filter technique is documented, for example in Internet Explorer, and users can choose to disable it. Not so in Skype. There is no concrete information to suggest that SmartScreen filters are being used in Skype chats, and Skype users have no way of declining the use of this surveillance technique.

“Despite all this, it is likely that the observed access activity is connected to some form of security feature. However, if this is the case, the feature has been poorly implemented. It has very few potential benefits – especially in view of the rather substantial invasion of users’ privacy. After all, Microsoft purposefully accesses even personal information that is not intended for third parties – such as the URL to a private photo album of a family trip that is sent to mum – and then stores this information on its systems. Microsoft should at least document the use of these surveillance techniques and provide users with the option to decline the well-intended security measure.”

Do not believe for a moment that Skype facilitates security and privacy. This is not even software, it is malware and spyware. █

]]> http://techrights.org/2013/05/19/microsoft-spin-regarding-skype-spying-does-not-withstand-scrutiny/feed/ 0 MPEG-LA Ruined the Licence of WebM, Made it Less Freedom-Respecting http://techrights.org/2013/05/19/webm-vp9-licence/ http://techrights.org/2013/05/19/webm-vp9-licence/#comments Sun, 19 May 2013 17:11:34 +0000 Dr. Roy Schestowitz http://techrights.org/?p=68613 The only problem is the licence

Licence plates

Summary: The Microsoft-, Nokia-, and Apple-backed patent troll appears to have ruined the freedom assured by Google’s multimedia format, which was previously made free only after public pressure

Google is promoting VP9 and calling for fast adoption of VP9 as completion is imminent now, based on numerous Linux sites. As one put it: “Google has finally started talking publicly about the upcoming VP9 video codec that will be integrated into the FLOSS and patent unencumbered webm video container format. I’m a big webm fan and I have found the existing VP8 codec to be pretty darn good. webm with VP8 is way better than Ogg Theora (which is pretty good) but not quite as good as H.264. Google plans on changing that with VP9. Supposedly VP9 will be able to be 1/2 to 1/3 smaller than H.264 and provide as good or better quality. That is exciting.”

“This time too Google can hopefully listen and apply the necessary amendments to licence.”The problem is, the licence got worse. As one notable man, Simon Phipps, recently put it: “Google have released a draft agreement designed to help VP8 adoption by licensing a number of relevant patents on a royalty free basis. It sounds good, but the details of the license still need some work. Hopefully we’ll see some changes to this draft before the final license is released.”

So MPEG-LA, joined by Nokia‘s aggression, made things worse. Phipps says there is a per-user licence that Google should try to modify before finalisation,

Previously, the WebM licence was fixed due to (or contrariwise owing to) public pressure on Google. This time too Google can hopefully listen and apply the necessary amendments to licence. █

]]> http://techrights.org/2013/05/19/webm-vp9-licence/feed/ 0 Microsoft-controlled Nokia is Lobbying to Enable Bans on Android Imports (Linux Phones as a Whole in Danger) http://techrights.org/2013/05/19/embargoes-by-nokia/ http://techrights.org/2013/05/19/embargoes-by-nokia/#comments Sun, 19 May 2013 16:54:43 +0000 Dr. Roy Schestowitz http://techrights.org/?p=68609 Torvalds on Nokia
Source: MemeGenerator

Summary: Nokia is shown lobbying for embargoes while it is also suing — with limited success — Android handsets makers

The Microsoft mobile patents ‘subsidiary’ known as Nokia just can’t help attacking Linux. Not too long ago it attacked Android and free codecs [1, 2, 3, 4]. HTC tries to make deterrence and it “seems to have found a way to get over a courtroom loss to Nokia in Holland by scoring a legal victory against the Finns in Germany.

“Nokia wants bans on Android, so it is said to be lobbying right now.”“HTC said that on Tuesday the District Court of Mannheim, Germany dismissed a Nokia patent claim, ruling the complaint was “too poor.”"

Nokia was said to have gotten an injunction and Pamela Jones wrote: “Talk to the DOJ and FTC about it, and let them know you care about the attacks on Android from the non-Android vendors, using patents as the attack mechanism. The losers are you and me, the consumers.”

Here is a correction showing that Nokia did not get an injunction and a reminder that shareholders are getting tired of Elop, reminding him that Microsoft ideology does not come before profit.

Nokia wants bans on Android, so it is said to be lobbying right now. To quote: “They are lobbying on unspecified policy matters concerning intellectual property rights cases before the ITC. The federal agency can order U.S. Customs and Border Protection to block infringing products from entering the United States.”

Regarding the news that Microsoft signed patent deal with Chinese phone maker ZTE (Nokia was big in China) Pamela Jones wrote: “That’s what SCO Group said. Exactly. IP bullies must all attend the same prep schools. I have the same suggestion I offered SCO Group: Microsoft should reveal its allegedly wonderful patents and precisely how Android allegedly infringes, so we can all show proper respect. As I recall, when Barnes & Noble was targetted, they noticed the IP claimed was worthless and not something they wanted or needed. Unless Microsoft reveals such matters publicly, we’ll probably just continue to believe that the smartphone wars are designed to cow Android into submission, so Microsoft can make money inappropriately, which was, I believe, SCO’s dream too, to make money without earning it, off of someone’s else’s hard work.”

So Microsoft is working to tax while Nokia, the proxy, is working to ban. █

]]> http://techrights.org/2013/05/19/embargoes-by-nokia/feed/ 0 Courtroom and New Book Recognise That Software Patents Correspond to Mathematics and Mathematics Abused in Court http://techrights.org/2013/05/19/computer-implemented-inventions/ http://techrights.org/2013/05/19/computer-implemented-inventions/#comments Sun, 19 May 2013 16:37:45 +0000 Dr. Roy Schestowitz http://techrights.org/?p=68603

Summary: Important observations about the nature of computer-implemented ‘inventions’, or software patents

Thanks to a recent decision against the patent troll called Uniloc we now know that “Even An East Texas Court Has Told Uniloc That It Can’t Patent Math”. The significance of this lies in the fact that software patents are characterised correctly for a change, even in the most patents-friendly places. There is a new “Math on Trial” book. It is not about patents but it’s about cases in the courtroom that are built solely on mathematics, or specifically mathematical errors. Let us hope that more literature and even courts will reinforce the position that mathematics have no place in the courtroom and software patents essentially correspond to monopoly on higher-level mathematics. Unless the judges are prepared to handle a whiteboard/blackboard, pick up a marker/chalk, and then analyse legal case in terms of equations and such, mathematics have no place on trial. Richard Stallman made the suggestion that software patents should be made unenforceable in the courts. █

]]> http://techrights.org/2013/05/19/computer-implemented-inventions/feed/ 0 The Reality Distortion Field of Patent Lawyers Helps Impede Abolition of Software Patents http://techrights.org/2013/05/18/skewed-swpats-analysis/ http://techrights.org/2013/05/18/skewed-swpats-analysis/#comments Sat, 18 May 2013 12:33:42 +0000 Dr. Roy Schestowitz http://techrights.org/?p=68598 Warped perspective

Shopping street

Summary: How widespread coverage and talking points from the tiny minority which is patent lawyers have contributed to biased and at times utterly distorted reporting on the subject of software patents around the world

Skewed coverage is not so exceptional. Depending on one’s background and peers one shapes his or her views of the world. A programmer likes to develop software. A patent lawyer loves turning ideas into a formalised description of a process, sometimes acquiring a state-imposed monopoly on these ideas. In certain states (or continents) the patent lawyer may have to cheat a little in order to bypass limitations on the scope of monopoly. Not many places grant a monopoly on the process of computation for instance. It is about as concrete as one’s brain, where the brain is the equivalent of computation machine and the programming the equivalent of neural signals. In recent years patent lawyers have sought to solidify a loophole whereby all programming ‘recipes’ get accompanied by a computation device, even though a computer program can be run in one’s brain, perhaps with the aid of pen and paper. When the law on patenting excludes patents on software “as such” it generally means that patent lawyers just need to disguise software patents as something which they are not. This leaves plenty of room for battle over interpretation and therefore there is a multitude of views, where nobody quite agrees if software is patentable or not. It is the role of real journalists to distinguish between the views of patent lawyers (or their clients who are often managers of large corporations) and the views of software professionals. Since most judges are former solicitors it is expected that the former group will appeal to them, so where does it leave the press? Who is left to listen to the latter group? Certainly not the business press, whose interests are more closely aligned with those of large corporations. This post is a complete (not selective) summary of all the articles we saw generated by key events in 3 continents, showing that: 1) patent lawyers dominate the media on these matters and 2) the views of patent lawyers are very consistently in favour of software patent, as one ought to expect. This reduces certainty over the impact of rulings, bills, and parliamentary actions which clearly limit or altogether ban software patents.

“It is about as concrete as one’s brain, where the brain is the equivalent of computation machine and the programming the equivalent of neural signals.”The EU has much greater problems than patents at the moment, so not many people pay attention to software patents in Europe. These defy the law and they increasingly hurt software developers who are based in Europe. Interestingly, many of these patents are not even granted to European entities.

The government in Germany recently took steps against defiance of common patent law, so patent lawyers’ sites like IAM tried to portray those who reform/uphold the system as “pirates”. This type of characterisation continues, demonstrating to us just how venomous an element patent lawyers can be. They can be rude, not just deceitful for an agenda. Some of IAM’s stuff, as we covered it before, percolates onto other lawyers’ sites, helping to portray NZ’s exclusion [1, 2] of software patents in the relatively small island as some kind of illegitimate move. Other law-themed sites like Lexology asked about the NZ Patents Bill, “how will it effect software patents in NZ?”

The Bill is clear about it. It is not equivocal about it, the loophole that remains in the law set aside. Another article from the same site of patent lawyers helps shed doubt about the CAFC’s criticism of software patents in the US [1, 2, 3].

“The bottom line is, in the EU, NZ, and the US the patent lawyers continue to be instrumental in reality distortion field.”The headline says “Federal Circuit fails to clarify software patent eligibility” and this influences the business press which goes with headlines like “Patent Court Torn on Whether Software Deserve Patents”. Another pro-’IP’ site asks, “How CLS v Alice affects software patents” (the content deviates from the openness of the question).

Other lawyers who lobby for software patents say in their headline that “Federal Circuit deals blow to software patents, but fails to provide cohesive rationale” (criticism for expressing such a view).

A site that calls itself “Law Review” goes further than all the above by rushing ahead with the pretentious, poorly-thought out headline “Massive Growth in Software Usage the Real Reason for More Software Patents, Not Abuse” (very illogical statement of course, something along the lines of “many cockroaches give reason for breeding them,” as if quantity implies desirability).

The bottom line is, in the EU, NZ, and the US the patent lawyers continue to be instrumental in reality distortion field. We should take with a grain of salt what’s the result of seeding disinformation; think afresh based on the actual evidence. Software patents have been dealt a large blow and if this trend continues, patent lawyers’ spin aside, we might see them going away some time in the foreseeable future. Popular view is strongly against them, suggest polls even in the US. █

]]> http://techrights.org/2013/05/18/skewed-swpats-analysis/feed/ 0 Eugene Kaspersky Says Patents Harm Innovation http://techrights.org/2013/05/18/eugene-kaspersky-on-swpats/ http://techrights.org/2013/05/18/eugene-kaspersky-on-swpats/#comments Sat, 18 May 2013 12:07:39 +0000 Dr. Roy Schestowitz http://techrights.org/?p=68594 Eugene Kaspersky

Summary: Some more criticism of the patent system and software patents in particular, courtesy of Eugene Kaspersky

Several rather distinguished scholars have said that patents as a concept — not just software patents — are misguided. They provided evidence for this claim and the evidence was somewhat measurable. It is becoming increasingly accepted by many that the USPTO is a tool for helping large corporations hoard power and wealth at the expense of everyone else. “Innovation” is just a marketing technique, as in practice the USPTO does just about nothing to innovate, it just provides protectionism for those that can afford it (usually the wealthiest companies out there).

“Patent law is now just so far removed from common sense that it’s patently absurd; the whole system right down to its roots needs to be overhauled.”
      –Eugene KasperskyEugene Kaspersky [1, 2], possibly the most distinguished security researcher in the world (judging by reputation), cites Techrights in his new post which says patents work against innovation. To quote him on these issues: “Today’s patent law regarding software is…well, it’s a bit like one of those circus mirrors where reality is distorted. Patent law is now just so far removed from common sense that it’s patently absurd; the whole system right down to its roots needs to be overhauled. ASAP! Otherwise innovative patents meant to encourage and protect will simply fail to materialize. (Good job, patent system. Stellar work.)”

He complains more specifically about software patents. He is far from the only security professional who thinks that computer security is compromised by a bunch of monopolies on strategies and methods which correspond to simple mathematics. █

“I would much rather spend my time and money and energy finding ways to make the Internet safer and better than bickering over patents.”

–Dean Drako, Barracuda’s CEO

]]> http://techrights.org/2013/05/18/eugene-kaspersky-on-swpats/feed/ 0 UEFI Restricted Boot Good for Microsoft Agenda, Not for Security http://techrights.org/2013/05/17/uefi-restricted-boot/ http://techrights.org/2013/05/17/uefi-restricted-boot/#comments Fri, 17 May 2013 20:49:24 +0000 Dr. Roy Schestowitz http://techrights.org/?p=68583 Lock-in, not security

Lock

Summary: News and analysis of UEFI ‘secure boot’ (lockdown), including the new role played by the Microsoft-funded SUSE

The UEFI Forum contacted me yesterday, seeking to arrange an interview with UEFI executives. I clarified that my intent is to focus on the impact UEFI has on freedom and choice. It’s not just a Microsoft problem, but Microsoft uses a ‘feature’ in UEFI to impede adoption of GNU/Linux.

Novell, which is close to Microsoft not just due to CPTN (Novell was funded by Microsoft and so is SUSE), has had its former developers help spread UEFI [1, 2], much to Microsoft’s chagrin. They did this inside the Linux Foundation. OBS, another Novell project that got into the Linux Foundation, is helping UEFI restricted boot even further. To quote Mr. Larabel: “OBS, the Open Build Service developed largely by openSUSE, has reached version 2.4. With Open Build Service 2.4 comes support for a new package format, Secure Boot signing, and other features.”

“By refusing to bootstrap a compromised system UEFI would offer neither cure nor prevention.”Therein lies the issue with Microsoft influence. Even Torvalds appears to have complained about this influence.

Microsoft did not need restricted boot for security. It is nonsense. Days ago Microsoft announced 33 more security holes in its software (the real numbers are higher, but Microsoft keeps some holes hidden for vanity purposes). Well, that’s where the real security threat exists, not in boot time. Microsoft essentially calls for setting up an alarm system in premises that have neither walls nor fences. Microsoft is also spying on people in the name of 'security' (Skype), leading to this reminder that software freedom matters (“Skype is following your links – that’s proprietary for you”).

By refusing to bootstrap a compromised system UEFI would offer neither cure nor prevention. All it does is prevent people from having choices, █

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