Links 15/11/2023: Social Control Media Facing More Lawsuits, GAFAM Has Another Round of Layoffs
Contents
- Leftovers
- Education
- Licensing / Legal
- Hardware
- Health/Nutrition/Agriculture
- Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)
- Security
- Defence/Aggression
- Transparency/Investigative Reporting
- Environment
- Finance
- AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics
- Censorship/Free Speech
- Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press
- Civil Rights/Policing
- Internet Policy/Net Neutrality
- Digital Restrictions (DRM)
- Monopolies
- Gemini* and Gopher
-
Leftovers
-
Omicron Limited ☛ Why the future might not be where you think it is: How different cultures perceive time
Culture doesn't just influence where we see the position of the future. It also influences how we see ourselves getting there.
-
India Times ☛ 30% IT revenues may be from non-Europe, non-US markets by 2030
A hitherto dominant Anglo-American voice in India’s $245-billion technology outsourcing industry is soon expected to acquire a more cosmopolitan accent as the rest of the world’s business share climbs to 30% by the end of this decade, up from 20-25% now.
-
Education
-
Omicron Limited ☛ How teachers would handle student violence against educators
Teachers rated suspending or expelling students as the least effective way of addressing violence, despite the popularity of "zero tolerance" policies in many school districts. Instead, teachers rated prevention policies, such as counseling for troubled students and improving school climate, as the best strategy for dealing with violence.
-
CS Monitor ☛ No loss in translation: Telehealth for Ukraine and night school in Japan
Progress roundup: Volunteers in the U.S. and Europe are caring for Ukrainians by phone. In Japan, night schools educate many foreigners and Japanese.
-
-
Licensing / Legal
-
India Times ☛ UK tells Uber Eats, Deliveroo and Just Eat to tighten rider account controls
Food delivery companies make initial checks on those who want to work for them, ensuring their age and their legal right to work in Britain. But once approved, the rider can sub-contract their accounts to others, who have not been checked.
-
-
Hardware
-
[Old] USENIX ☛ SMASH: Synchronized Many-sided Rowhammer Attacks from JavaScript
Using a number of novel insights, we overcome these challenges to build SMASH (Synchronized MAny-Sided Hammering), a technique to succesfully trigger Rowhammer bit flips from JavaScript on modern DDR4 systems. To mount effective attacks, SMASH exploits high-level knowledge of cache replacement policies to generate optimal access patterns for eviction-based many-sided Rowhammer. To lift the requirement for large physically-contiguous memory regions, SMASH decomposes n-sided Rowhammer into multiple double-sided pairs, which we can identify using slice coloring. Finally, to bypass the in-DRAM TRR mitigations, SMASH carefully schedules cache hits and misses to successfully trigger synchronized many-sided Rowhammer bit flips. We showcase SMASH with an end-to-end JavaScript exploit which can fully compromise the Firefox browser in 15 minutes on average.
-
[Old] arXiv ☛ Rowhammer.js: A Remote Software-Induced Fault Attack in JavaScript
All studies and attacks related to Rowhammer so far rely on the availability of a cache flush instruction in order to cause accesses to DRAM modules at a sufficiently high frequency. We overcome this limitation by defeating complex cache replacement policies. We show that caches can be forced into fast cache eviction to trigger the Rowhammer bug with only regular memory accesses. This allows to trigger the Rowhammer bug in highly restricted and even scripting environments.
We demonstrate a fully automated attack that requires nothing but a website with JavaScript to trigger faults on remote hardware. Thereby we can gain unrestricted access to systems of website visitors. We show that the attack works on off-the-shelf systems. Existing countermeasures fail to protect against this new Rowhammer attack.
-
-
Health/Nutrition/Agriculture
-
Silicon Angle ☛ US federal judge says social media giants must face child safety lawsuits
School districts all over the U.S. have launched what is reported to be hundreds of such lawsuits against Google LLC-owned YouTube, Meta Platforms Inc.-owned Facebook and Instagram, ByteDance Ltd.-owned TikTok, and Snap Inc.-owned Snapchat.
District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland, California, ruled that the First Amendment and Section 230 do not protect the companies from all liabilities in the cases. These cases state that social media companies manipulate children to use the platforms while exposing them to harmful content. The lawsuits decry a lack of parental controls, weak age verification systems, and no easy process to have content removed.
Combined, say the plaintiffs, this has caused all manner of mental health harms, including anxiety and depression. They are seeking damages and have asked that the companies make changes to how they currently run their platforms.
-
Vice Media Group ☛ More People Are Watching Videos on Their Phones While Driving. Often, It’s Perfectly Legal.
Kentucky may be an extreme case of weak distracted driving laws, but it is hardly alone. Many states have laws that were written at a time when panic regarding texting while driving was at its peak. Every state except Montana enacted some kind of texting while driving ban, and 27 states ban hand-held phone conversations. But at the time these laws were written, streaming video on phones was not nearly as common as it is now, nor were wireless network speeds fast enough to make it worth doing while driving. Therefore, many of the laws are vague at best about whether watching video while driving is illegal.
-
NPR ☛ Taller cars and trucks are more dangerous for pedestrians, according to crash data
Vehicles with higher front ends and blunt profiles are 45% more likely to cause fatalities in crashes with pedestrians than smaller cars and trucks, according to new research published Tuesday by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
-
Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, Highway Loss Data Institute ☛ Vehicles with higher, more vertical front ends pose greater risk to pedestrians
Pedestrian crash deaths have risen 80 percent since hitting their low in 2009. Nearly 7,400 walkers — more than 20 people a day — lost their lives in 2021 after being struck by a vehicle. While speeding and poorly designed infrastructure have helped fuel the increase, many safety advocates have also drawn a connection to the growing portion of the U.S. vehicle fleet made up of pickups and SUVs.
Over the past 30 years, the average U.S. passenger vehicle has gotten about 4 inches wider, 10 inches longer, 8 inches taller and 1,000 pounds heavier. Many vehicles are more than 40 inches tall at the leading edge of the hood. On some large pickups, the hoods are almost at eye level for many adults.
-
New York Times ☛ Health Risks Linked to Climate Change Are Getting Worse, Experts Warn
The report, published in the medical journal The Lancet, also tracked estimated lost income and food insecurity. Globally, exposure to extreme heat, and resulting losses in productivity or inability to work, may have led to income losses as high as $863 billion in 2022. And, in 2021, an estimated 127 million more people experienced moderate or severe food insecurity linked to heat waves and droughts, compared with 1981-2010.
-
YLE ☛ Finnish pharmacies offer "triple tests" for Covid, influenza and RSV
"Some suppliers have temporarily run out," a pharmacist in Helsinki explained.
-
Latvia ☛ Doctors raise alarm over Covid spreading in hospitals
Medical workers raise the alarm that the number of Covid-19 cases is increasing again in Latvian hospitals. Almost none of those found to have the infection have got a booster jab this year. Although in Latvia the annual vaccine is available to everyone and free of charge, residents have little interest in it, Latvian Television reported on November 14.
-
4+ Years After COVID-19 Started England and Wales Mortality Up From 9,674 (5-Year Average) to 10,445 in Week 43 This Year
We’re talking about 7% or so more deaths.
-
TruthOut ☛ Many BIPOC Students Are Lactose Intolerant. Why Is Milk Still Their Only Option?
-
-
Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)
-
Silicon Angle ☛ YouTube to require disclosures for realistic-looking AI-generated videos
After the policy is implemented, users will have access to a set of new options in YouTube’s video upload tool. Those options will make it possible to specify if a clip contains synthetic content. According to Google, failing to indicate that a video contains such content could lead creators to face penalties.
-
The Register UK ☛ YouTubers kindly asked to mark their deepfake vids as Fake Fakey McFake Fakes
Specifically, the Google-owned vid-sharing giant will require content creators to disclose if their videos contain believable synthetic footage of made-up events, including AI-made depictions, or deepfakes that put words in people's mouths. In those cases, a label will be added to a video's description declaring the content was altered or digitally generated, and a more prominent note will be added to the video player itself if the content is particularly sensitive. Breaking the rules will lead to content being torn down and accounts punished.
Here's YouTube's wording: [...]
-
The Verge ☛ YouTube is going to start cracking down on AI clones of musicians
YouTube will have two sets of content guidelines for AI-generated deepfakes: a very strict set of rules to protect the platform’s music industry partners, and another, looser set for everyone else.
-
Digital Music News ☛ YouTube Cracking Down on AI Voice Cloning and ‘Synthetic’ Videos
YouTube says it is in everyone’s best interest to maintain a healthy ecosystem of information on the platform. “AI’s powerful new forms of storytelling can also be used to generate content that has the potential to mislead viewers—particularly if they’re unaware the video has been altered or is synthetically created,” the platform notes. That’s why it is introducing labels for AI-generated content.
Creators will be required to disclose whether or not AI was used when creating content. Creators who choose not to disclose their use of AI may be subject to content removal or suspension from the YouTube Partner Program. YouTube says it will work with creators before this change rolls out. So creators must opt-in to AI self-reporting in the near future so YouTube can inform viewers if content is ‘synthetic’ or not.
-
-
Security
-
Privacy/Surveillance
-
Wired ☛ US Privacy Groups Urge Senate Not to Ram Through NSA Spying Powers | WIRED
An effort to reauthorize a controversial US surveillance program by attaching it to a must-pass spending bill has civil liberties advocates calling foul.
-
La Quadature Du Net ☛ French National Police Use of AI-Powered Video-Surveillance Subject to Criminal Law
Investigative media Disclose has just revealed that for years, knowing that it was totally illegal, the French National Police force has been using the automated video-surveillance solutions from the Israeli company Briefcam. This technology includes a “facial recognition” option which, according to Disclose, is “actively used” by the police.
-
Vice Media Group ☛ Cops Are Giving People Free Car Tracking Devices to Combat Thefts
The Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, D.C., gave out free AirTags and Tile Trackers last week to some residents in an attempt to combat rising rates of carjacking in certain areas across the city.
To date, the city has seen 866 instances of carjacking, of which 637 involved a firearm, according to MPD data. The thefts have largely been concentrated in the east half of Washington, D.C. So far, 144 arrests have been made, and 65 percent of those arrestees were under the age of 18.
-
APNIC ☛ Security control changes due to TLS Encrypted Client Hello
How we defend our systems is about to shift in the coming weeks with a major change to the Transport Layer Protocol (TLS) taking place between the browser and a new device called the client-facing server, which is mostly positioned at content delivery networks (CDNs). Encrypted Client Hello (ECH) has now been enabled in the Chrome browser, and it will soon be enabled in the Mozilla browser and at servers hosted by Cloudflare. It is possible other CDNs will follow suit. Cloudflare supports about 70% of websites and will add support back for beta client sites in early 2024 after running into some issues with the initial testing in October 2023.
-
EFF ☛ To Address Online Harms, We Must Consider Privacy First
In this report, we outline how many of the internet's ills have one thing in common: they're based on the business model of widespread corporate surveillance online. Dismantling this system would not only be a huge step forward to our digital privacy, it would raise the floor for serious discussions about the internet's future.
What would this comprehensive privacy law look like? We believe it must include these components:
A strong comprehensive data privacy law promotes privacy, free expression, and security. It can also help protect children, support journalism, protect access to health care, foster digital justice, limit private data collection to train generative AI, limit foreign government surveillance, and strengthen competition. These are all issues on which lawmakers are actively pushing legislation—both good and bad.
-
EFF ☛ EFF Urges FTC to Address American Resellers of Malware on Android TV Set-Top Boxes
“We believe that the sale of these devices presents a clear instance of deceptive conduct: the devices are advertised without disclosure of the harms they present. They also expose the buyers to an unfair risk which starts after simply powering the device on and connecting it to the internet,” EFF’s letter says. “Here, where products are sold containing real malware at the point of sale, issuing sanctions to the resellers will provide a powerful incentive for them to pull these products from the market and protect their customers.”
-
-
-
Defence/Aggression
-
Vox ☛ When Trump tells you he’s an authoritarian, believe him
Donald Trump is currently testing the limits of that unwritten rule by all but openly campaigning on a platform of tearing democracy down.
Perhaps the clearest sign came in a speech on Veterans Day where he vowed to “root out the communists, Marxists, fascists, and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country that lie and steal and cheat on elections.” Calling one’s opponents subhuman and vowing aggressive action against them is a hallmark of classical fascist rhetoric, so much so that the Washington Post’s headline — on a news article, not an opinion piece — described it as “echoing dictators Hitler [and] Mussolini.”
-
The Nation ☛ The “Is Donald Trump a Fascist?” Debate Has Been Ended—by Donald Trump
Of course, the immediate aftermath of Trump’s fascist broadside demonstrated just why that’s been the case for these eight long years and counting. Covering the New Hampshire speech, The New York Times initially graced it with this online headline: “Trump Takes Veterans Day Speech in Very Different Direction,” an exercise in counter-empirical euphemism right up akin to “Hindenburg Charts Abrupt Course Earthward.” The headline was later modified to “In Veterans Day Speech, Trump Vows to ‘Root Out’ the Left,” which was an incremental improvement (as would have been, say, “Political Story Number Seven”), but still did not name the newsworthy thing that was actually occurring. It instead encouraged readers to view Trump’s declaration as an unseemly personal lapse, as opposed to the centerpiece of a wide-ranging plan to govern that has been reported exhaustively throughout the political press, including in the Times’ own pages. The basic work of informing Americans what the leader of the Republican Party has in mind for anyone not scheduling a MAGA chest tattoo fell to other news outlets. “Trump Calls Political Enemies ‘Vermin,’ Echoing Dictators Hitler, Mussolini,” was The Washington Post’s display text. Even Forbes, the bible of investment-class consensus that has long advertised itself as a “capitalist tool,” managed to rise to the moment, with “Trump Compares Political Foes to ‘Vermin’ on Veterans Day—Echoing Nazi Propaganda.”
-
The Atlantic ☛ Trump Isn’t Merely Unhinged
They are the sorts of ideas that would have been shocking to hear from any mainstream politician just a decade ago. And yet, today, Trump—arguably the single most influential figure in the United States—says these things, and they hardly register. Consider the following examples, all from just the past few months: [...]
-
The Atlantic ☛ The Cases Against Trump: A Guide
In all, Trump faces 91 felony counts across two state courts and two different federal districts, any of which could potentially produce a prison sentence. He’s also dealing with a civil suit in New York that could force drastic changes to his business empire, including closing down its operations in his home state. Meanwhile, he is the leading Republican candidate in the race to become the next president—though lawsuits in several states seek to have him disqualified from the presidency. If the criminal and civil cases unfold with any reasonable timeliness, he could be in the heat of the campaign trail at the same time that his legal fate is being decided.
Here’s a summary of the major legal cases against Trump, including key dates, an assessment of the gravity of the charges, and expectations about how they could turn out. This guide will be updated regularly as the cases proceed.
-
NPR ☛ Climate change affects your life in 3 big ways, a new report warns
Climate change is expensive, deadly and preventable, according to the new National Climate Assessment, the most sweeping, sophisticated federal analysis of climate change compiled to date.
Released every five years, the National Climate Assessment is a congressionally mandated evaluation of the effects of climate change on American life. This new fifth edition paints a picture of a nation simultaneously beset by climate-driven disasters and capable of dramatically reducing emissions of planet-warming gasses in the near future.
-
The Kent Stater ☛ Biden preparing to discuss Israel and Ukraine wars with Pooh-tin – and make case to Beijing for containment
CNN — When President Joe Biden meets Chinese President Pooh-tin Jinping on Wednesday for a rare, high-stakes summit, two major wars – the Ukraine-Russia conflict, now deep into its second year, and the Israel-Hamas war that has entered its second deadly month – will serve as the backdrop amid extraordinary global tumult.
-
Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine
-
Latvia ☛ Latvia allocates 50,000 towards helping Ukraine grain supplies
On 14 November 2023, the Latvian Cabinet of Ministers adopted a decision to allocate EUR 50 000 from the state budget contingency funds for a contribution to the humanitarian aid program Grain from Ukraine. This program was established by Ukraine in 2022 and has so far delivered 170 000 tonnes of grain to four countries (Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya and Yemen).
-
AntiWar ☛ The Zelensky Paradox
Volodymyr Zelensky was willing to end the war.
-
Meduza ☛ State Duma deputy speaker proposes banning migrants whose home countries don’t recognize Russian as state language from service industry jobs — Meduza
-
YLE ☛ FM Valtonen: Russia using migrant arrivals in "similar tactics" against neighbours
Monday was another busier-than-usual night on Finland's southeastern border.
-
YLE ☛ Finland not intervening in Russian consulate on Åland
Finnish authorities will monitor the consular office's activities within the framework of its powers, according to the ministerial foreign and security policy committee.
-
New York Times ☛ Ukraine Indicts Officials Linked to Efforts to Investigate the Bidens
Three officials were accused of operating at the behest of Russian intelligence when they aligned with efforts by Rudolph W. Giuliani to tie the Biden family to corruption in Ukraine.
-
JURIST ☛ Ukraine court orders 60-day detention for politician suspected of treason
A Kyiv court ordered a 60-day detention for Ukrainian lawmaker Oleksandr Dubinsky on Tuesday. Dubinsky will be held on suspicion of treason. The politician is known for being on the US sanctions list, his connections to former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani and his vocal criticism of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
-
RFERL ☛ Ukrainian Lawmaker Detained For 60 Days On Suspicion Of Treason
The Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) announced on November 14 that lawmaker Oleksandr Dubinskiy has been officially informed that he is under suspicion of treason and has been ordered to be placed in detention for 60 days by a Kyiv court.
-
Marcy Wheeler ☛ The Two Impeachment Treason Trip: Ukraine Charges Rudy Giuliani’s Sources
The reason Rudy Giuliani was not charged for soliciting election disinformation from a known Russian agent is that the Attorney General of the United States set up a system that separated the investigation of that Russian agent from the investigation of Rudy, all while channeling whatever disinformation Rudy obtained from Derkach (or Zlochevsky) into the investigation of Joe Biden's son.
-
CS Monitor ☛ Recovery in Ukraine: When horses do the whispering
Hippotherapy, using horses to help heal traumatized soldiers, is a new treatment in Ukraine, but the mental relaxation it offers is bringing relief.
-
JURIST ☛ Finland considering restrictions on border with Russia
Finland’s Ministry of the Interior announced Tuesday that it is considering closing certain crossing points on its eastern border with Russia to stop illegal entries into the country.
-
LRT ☛ Man who took his child to Russia stripped of Lithuanian citizenship
Algirdas Švanys, who abducted his daughter and fled to Russia’s exclave of Kaliningrad in August, has been stripped of his Lithuanian citizenship.
-
RFA ☛ US, allies confront global threats; blast Russia, N Korea, Hamas
Expanded cooperation allows the allies scope to tackle crises in Europe and the Middle East.
-
RFERL ☛ Russian Sentenced To Six Years In Jail For Damaging Army Posters
A court in the Russian city of Tolyatti has sentenced a man to six years in prison for damaging posters depicting soldiers in the latest attempt by the authorities to muffle dissent.
-
RFERL ☛ Late Moscow Mayor's Brother-In-Law Sentenced To Six Years In Prison
A Moscow court on November 14 sentenced Viktor Baturin, the brother of the widow of former Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov, to six years in prison on charges of attempted fraud and forgery.
-
Atlantic Council ☛ Why Ukraine refuses to negotiate with “habitual liar” Vladimir Putin
Kuleba has now elaborated further, listing a series of broken Russian promises to illustrate why Kyiv has no faith whatsoever in negotiations with Moscow. The Ukrainian Foreign Minister referenced a number of international agreements that were subsequently broken by Russia, beginning with the 1994 Budapest Memorandum and ending with the 2022 Black Sea Grain Initiative. On multiple occasions, he pointed out, Russia had committed to respecting Ukraine’s territorial integrity, but this did not prevent Putin from launching the largest European war of aggression since World War II. “Russia’s tactics have remained consistent in its many wars over the last three decades: Kill, grab, lie, and deny,” he wrote. “Why would anyone genuinely believe that Russia in 2023 is any different from Russia in 1994, 1997, 1999, 2008, 2014, 2015, and 2022?”
-
RFERL ☛ Russian Artist On Trial For Using Price Tags For Anti-War Protest Calls Her Case 'Funny'
Aleksandra Skochilenko, a 33-year-old Russian artist on trial for using price tags in a city store to distribute information about Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, has called the case against her "strange and funny" as her actions were an attempt to support peace.
-
RFERL ☛ In Another Apparent Snub Of Moscow, Armenian PM Won't Attend CSTO Summit In Minsk
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has informed Belarus that he will not participate in a summit of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) scheduled for November 23 in Minsk.
-
LRT ☛ Belaruskali brings claim against Lithuania over fertiliser transit ban
Belarus’ state-owned potash fertiliser manufacturer Belaruskali has launched investment arbitration proceedings against Lithuania, seeking compensation for losses caused when Vilnius banned the company from transporting its products across the country.
-
Meduza ☛ Authorities in Russia’s Belgorod region publish then delete announcement about bot for informing on neighbors — Meduza
-
Meduza ☛ Russian authorities issue arrest warrant for alleged administrator of Telegram channel blamed for Dagestan riots — Meduza
-
RFERL ☛ Russia Adds Suspected Owner Of Telegram Channel Allegedly Behind Anti-Semitic Unrest In Daghestan To Wanted List
Russia's Interior Ministry has added to its wanted list on unspecified charges Abakar Abakarov, who is believed to be an owner and administrator of the Telegram channel allegedly behind violent anti-Semitic unrest last month in the mostly Muslim-populated North Caucasus region.
-
The Straits Times ☛ South Korea's Yoon to warn APEC about risks from North Korea-Russia ties
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol heads to the United States on Wednesday to attend an APEC summit where he plans to seek support from other leaders for a coordinated response to growing military ties between North Korea and Russia.
-
The Straits Times ☛ Russian resources minister visits North Korea amid new missile development
Russia and North Korea were conducting talks on the economy, science and technology.
-
Meduza ☛ ‘Vacation not far from ongoing tragedy’: Photographer Patrick Wack on his journey along the Azov Sea’s Russian coast, where he documented tourists during wartime — Meduza
-
France24 ☛ How Ukraine’s secret agents re-learned the art of shadow warfare
New revelations in the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipeline in September 2022 have strengthened the case for Kyiv’s involvement, with a controversial Ukrainian secret agent alleged to have been the brains behind the operation. Although Kyiv continues to deny responsibility, there is little doubt that the Ukrainian intelligence services are playing a very special role in the war against Russia.
-
Atlantic Council ☛ What’s next for Ukraine’s bid to join the European Union
Opening accession negotiations in December would be a boost to Ukraine going into what is shaping up to be a pivotal 2024.
-
Meduza ☛ Moscow money in the Mediterranean Leaked documents show Cyprus firms linked to Russian billionaires played key role in the Kremlin’s backdoor dealings — Meduza
-
RFERL ☛ Leaked Documents Indicate Abramovich Had Financial Ties To Putin
Two companies controlled by Russian tycoon Roman Abramovich sold shares in a lucrative advertising firm in 2010 to two men whom Western governments claim are nominal holders for President Vladimir Putin, the BillBC reported, citing leaked financial documents from Cyprus.
-
Atlantic Council ☛ Michta on bne IntelliNews discussing NATO membership for Ukraine
On November 14, an interview with Dr. Andrew Michta, director and senior fellow of the Scowcroft Strategy Initiative, was published by bne IntelliNews on his support for NATO membership for Ukraine and the future of US force structure in Europe.
-
JURIST ☛ Ally of Russia dissident Alexei Navalny jailed for ‘extremism’
Ksenia Fadeyeva, an ally of imprisoned opposition figure Alexei Navalny, was jailed Monday while on trial for extremism in the Russian city of Tomsk. According to Andrei Fateyev, an associate of Fadeyeva’s, she had been on house arrest but the state prosecutor demanded that she be sent into immediate custody.
-
RFERL ☛ At Least One Civilian Reported Dead In Russian Shelling In Eastern Ukraine
At least one person was killed when the Ukrainian city of Selydove in the eastern region of Donetsk was shelled by Russian forces overnight, Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said on November 15.
-
RFERL ☛ Nationwide Air-Raid Alert Declared In Ukraine
An air-raid alert was declared for the whole territory of Ukraine on November 14, with the authorities urging the public to seek shelter amid reports of Russian air activity.
-
RFERL ☛ Russia Seeks To Send 500 Residents Of Siberian Region To War Weekly
A Russian defense official has requested that Yakutia, an ethnic region in northeastern Siberia, send 500 men to the Ukrainian front on a weekly basis to improve its ranking.
-
RFERL ☛ Report Says Use Of Mines, Including In Ukraine, Disproportionately Harms Civilians, Children
The use of antipersonnel land mines continues to cause a large number of casualties despite the devices being banned by most countries, a new report by a group of organizations looking at the issue said, adding that civilians, many of them children, bear the brunt of the damage, sometimes long after a conflict has ended.
-
-
-
Transparency/Investigative Reporting
-
Reason ☛ Michigan Lawmakers Signed Nondisclosure Agreements, Can't Discuss Corporate Welfare Scheme
Multiple lawmakers "said they were required by the MEDC to sign an NDA to participate in the appropriations process," LeBlanc wrote, while others "said they signed NDAs in order to serve on task forces seeking to improve the SOAR program amid concerns over how it is administered."
-
Digital First Media ☛ 1 in 5 Michigan lawmakers have signed pact to keep taxpayer-subsidized projects secret
In total, at least 163 individuals or entities have signed non-disclosure agreements related to the Strategic Outreach and Attraction Reserve fund since it was created in November 2021, state records show. During the past two years, the state used the SOAR fund to pledge nearly $2 billion in taxpayer money to large corporations.
-
-
Environment
-
Futurism ☛ Corporations Whimper That They Won't Be Able to Make So Much Money If They Aren't Allowed to Pollute
So it's not terribly surprising to see the EPA — which, under the Clean Air Act, retains the right to reassess soot limits every five years — move to tighten its reigns on soot emissions where it can. But per the NYT, corporations are none too pleased. For months now, they've argued that the renewed limits will be untenable, perhaps even forcing them to lay off workers or worse, and disastrous for the economy at large.
-
New York Times ☛ Polluting Industries Say the Cost of Cleaner Air Is Too High
But technically there is no safe level of particulate matter, and ever-spreading wildfire smoke driven by a changing climate and decades of forest mismanagement has reversed recent progress. The Biden administration decided to short-circuit the review cycle after the E.P.A. in the Trump administration concluded that no change was needed. As the decision nears, business groups are ramping up resistance.
-
India Times ☛ Pollution levels saw alarming spike on Diwali night: Report
The city choked with a rise in PM 2.5 and PM 10 levels by 177.68% and 126% respectively on Diwali night as compared to pre-Diwali night, as per the ambient air quality during pre-Diwali, Diwali and post-Diwali festival report released by the Indian Institute of Toxicology Research (IITR) director Bhaskar Narayan on Tuesday.
-
Energy/Transportation
-
The Washington Post ☛ A lost bitcoin wallet passcode helped uncover a major security flaw - The Washington Post
A two-year effort to find the missing passcode for a crypto wallet containing $100,000 led to the discovery that millions of wallets may be vulnerable to attack.
-
Truthdig ☛ Is [Cryptocurrency] the Greatest Scam in History?
But there was a problem. After years of tracking these projects and poring over every aspect of their social, economic, environmental and political impact, he found that rather than helping, they made everything worse. Far from promoting sustainability and democratic ideals, [cryptocurrency] was the “greatest scam in history.” Today, Howson sees blockchain technology as utterly lacking in any social benefit. It’s a technology, he says, that hinders progress on climate change and economic and social inequality, exacerbating our most urgent problems while beguiling us with idealistic illusions.
By the time the pandemic struck, Howson regretted ever advocating what amounts to high-tech snake oil, and now makes amends with “Let Them Eat [Cryptocurrency]: The Blockchain Scam That’s Ruining the World,” published this October by Pluto Press. To read the book is to plunge into a world of “industrial scale scumbaggery,” “vacuous buzzwords” and “the next hottest shitcoin” — a place where markets appear from thin air and suckers materialize every nanosecond.
-
David Rosenthal ☛ Alameda's On-Ramp
Tether has been one of the major mysteries of the cryptosphere for a long time. It has never been audited, and has been described as being "practically quilted out of red flags". Matt Levine says "I feel like eventually Tether is going to be an incredibly interesting story, but I still don’t know what it is." He was commenting on Emily Nicolle's Bankman-Fried Trial Renews Conjecture About Alameda’s $40 Billion Tether Stablecoin Pile by Emily Nicolle. It includes a lot of interesting information, starting with this:
"Alameda was Tether’s largest non-exchange customer between 2020 and 2022, with blockchain data showing it received almost $40 billion in transfers of its stablecoin USDT directly from the company — equal to roughly 20% of all USDT tokens ever issued."
Below the fold, I discuss the questions Nicolle raises, and go on to ask one she doesn't
-
New York Times ☛ U.S. and China Agree to Displace Fossil Fuels by Ramping Up Renewables
The statements of cooperation released separately by the United States and China do not include a promise by China to phase out its heavy use of coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel, or to stop permitting and building new coal plants. That has been a sticking point for the United States in months of discussions with Beijing on climate change.
-
-
-
Finance
-
India News ☛ Google, Microsoft, Amazon: Over 2.5 Lakh Employees Have Lost Jobs in Tech Firms In Massive Layoff
Nearly 1,106 tech companies have sacked 248,974 employees (till November 11), according to data compiled by the website Layoffs.fyi.
-
CNBC ☛ The U.S. has lost thousands of tech workers to Canada — here’s why
As of last month, the Canadian government says more than 6,000 U.S. H-1B visa holders had arrived in Canada so far this year. That’s after massive layoffs left high-skilled foreign H-1B holders in limbo.
“The highly educated foreign national is really at the mercy of the U.S. employers,” said Annie Beaudoin, a former Canadian immigration officer.
The H-1B program targets highly educated and specialized foreign workers in fields such as tech and health care. Big tech companies like Amazon , Google, Microsoft, Meta and Apple all sponsor thousands of applicants each year.
-
Amazon Cuts Gaming Staff as New Wave of Layoffs Hits Big Tech
As Amazon continues to quietly dismiss workers, this latest round brings its annual layoff count to 27,000.
-
Reuters ☛ Pfizer to cut 500 jobs at UK site as part of wider cost cuts
Pfizer (PFE.N) will cut 500 jobs at its Sandwich, Kent site in the U.K. as part of its $3.5 billion cost-cutting plan, the drugmaker said on Tuesday.
The U.S. drugmaker announced the cost-cutting program in October after slashing its full-year revenue forecast due to lower-than-expected sales of its COVID-19 vaccine and treatment.
The demand slump also pushed the company to post its first quarterly loss since 2019.
-
505 Games Parent Digital Bros Expects to Lay Off 30% of Workforce and Hints at Game Cancellations
Today Digital Bros has announced an organizational review that is expected to result in layoffs affecting 30% of its workforce.
If you're unfamiliar with the name, some of its subsidiaries may ring a bell, including 505 Games and Assetto Corsa developer Kunos Simulazioni.
The announcement, made via press release, mentions that the company is undergoing an organizational review across its development and publishing studios.
-
PlayStation announces the delay of six of its “games as services” including the multiplayer of The Last of Us and Horizon | Ruetir
Sony president Hiroki Totoki announced during the presentation of the company’s quarterly results that of the 12 video games as services that are currently in development, only six will be released before March 2026 as promised.
-
Overpopulation ☛ Declining population and GDP growth
There is a general idea among businesspeople and mainstream economists that a decreasing population is not good for the economy. Our empirical work on countries experiencing population decline suggests that a declining population can bring about changes that reduce unemployment, increase wages, and lead to a larger real GDP per capita.
-
-
AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics
-
Press Gazette ☛ Google and Meta could owe US news publishers $14bn a year under planned law, research estimates
However the tech companies strongly dispute the claims, with Google accusing the researchers of using flawed data to reach a “biased” conclusion.
The research used a “conservative” estimate to suggest that Google could owe US news publishers between $10bn and $12bn per year under the proposed Journalism and Competition Preservation Act (JCPA).
-
The Conversation ☛ AI: the world is finally starting to regulate artificial intelligence – what to expect from US, EU and China’s new laws
Most mainstream applications of artificial intelligence (AI) make use of its ability to crunch large volumes of data, detecting patterns and trends within. The results can help predict the future behaviour of financial markets and city traffic, and even assist doctors to diagnose disease before symptoms appear.
But AI can also be used to compromise the privacy of our online data, automate away people’s jobs and undermine democratic elections by flooding social media with disinformation. Algorithms may inherit biases from the real-world data used to improve them, which could cause, for example, discrimination during hiring.
AI regulation is a comprehensive set of rules prescribing how this technology should be developed and used to address its potential harms. Here are some of the main efforts to do this and how they differ.
-
Patrick Breyer ☛ Historic agreement on child sexual abuse proposal (CSAR): European Parliament wants to remove chat control and safeguard secure encryption
“Under the impression of massive protests against the looming indiscriminate chat control mass scanning of private messages, we managed to win a broad majority for a different, new approach to protecting young people from abuse and exploitation online. As a pirate and digital freedom fighter, I am proud of this breakthrough. The winners of this mandate are on the one hand our children, who will be protected much more effectively and in a court-proof manner, and on the other hand all citizens, whose digital privacy of correspondence and communication security will be guaranteed.
Even if this compromise, which is supported from the progressive to the conservative camp, is not perfect on all points, it is a historic success that removing chat control and rescuing secure encryption is the common aim of the entire Parliament. We are doing the exact opposite of most EU governments who want to destroy digital privacy of correspondence and secure encryption. Governments must finally accept that this highly dangerous bill can only be fundamentally changed or not be passed at all. The fight against authoritarian chat control must be pursued with all determination! [...]“
-
CoryDoctorow ☛ The conservative movement is cracking up
Political parties are weak institutions, liable to capture and hospitable to corruption. General elections aren't foolproof or impervious to fraud, but they're miles more robust than parties, whose own leadership selection processes and other key decisions can be made in the shadows, according to rules that can be changed on a whim: [...]
-
Gizmodo ☛ So Far, Trump's Truth Social Has Set $73 Million on Fire
The embarrassing financial news was laid bare in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing made this week by Digital World Acquisition Corp (DWAC), the shell company behind a flailing attempt to take the social media business public. It states that Truth Social has only made $3.7 million in revenue since it launched in Q1 of 2022. By contrast, the company lost $50 million during that year and lost an additional $23 million in the first half of 2023.
-
Vox ☛ The Supreme Court’s new ethics code is a joke
The code, in other words, codifies the same rules that Justice Clarence Thomas followed when he spent nine days vacationing on Republican billionaire Harlan Crow’s superyacht — a trip which “could have exceeded $500,000” in value, according to ProPublica. The code also locks in place the same rules Thomas followed during his frequent summer trips to Crow’s private resort in the Adirondacks. The code “represents a codification of principles” that Thomas followed when he bought a $267,230 RV that was underwritten by Anthony Welters, another of the many wealthy individuals who have lavished gifts on Thomas since he joined the Court.
-
The Nation ☛ The Supreme Court’s New Ethics Code Won’t Stop the Corruption
The first and most obvious problem with the court’s self-imposed ethics code is that there is no enforcement mechanism. It’s still up to the individual justices to decide if they have violated their own ethics rules. There’s no third-party adjudication of an ethics violation, there isn’t even meaningful peer review among the other justices of a potential violation. Put simply, it’s up to Clarence Thomas to decide whether Clarence Thomas violated Clarence Thomas’s rules.
-
RFERL ☛ Influential German Journalist Received Money From Russia, Investigation Claims
German broadcaster and author Hubert Seipel, who interviewed Russian President Vladimir Putin and wrote two books about him, received 600,000 euros from companies associated with oligarch Aleksei Mordashov, who is close to Putin and is on the Western sanctions list, an investigation has found.
-
TruthOut ☛ Former Trump Lawyer’s Revelation Is “Devastating” for Trump, Legal Experts Say
-
TruthOut ☛ Special Counsel Argues Against “Spectacle” of Airing Trump Trial on Live TV
-
The Nation ☛ Leaders in Destruction
-
Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda
-
ADF ☛ Al-Shabaab Hopes to Recruit by Celebrating Hamas Attacks
Somali Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre said al-Shabaab uses social media to spread a barrage of propaganda.
“They are using advanced platforms of social media, namely Telegram and Tik Tok and other platforms,” he said in an interview with Al Jazeera on September 16. “We believe that many of al-Shabaab operatives are using aliases in order to spread their vicious and dangerous ideology across our country.
-
-
-
Censorship/Free Speech
-
RFERL ☛ Russian Sentenced To Six Years In Jail For Damaging Army Posters
A court in the Russian city of Tolyatti has sentenced a man to six years in prison for damaging posters depicting soldiers in the latest attempt by the authorities to muffle dissent. [...]
-
The Strategist ☛ Despite the pain of the Israel–Hamas war, freedom of speech must be protected
News outlets and social media continue to bring the world a front-row view of the unspeakable horrors of the Israeli–Hamas conflict. This imagery is often disseminated to evoke shock and emotion. Beyond Gaza and Israel, the war has brought to the forefront deeply divisive sentiment, which has included legal democratic expression but also racial vilification, hate speech and even violence.
-
RFERL ☛ Siberian Man Sentenced To 7 1/2 Years In Jail For Criticizing Stalin, Ukraine Invasion
Russia has sentenced a resident of the Siberian region of Krasnoyarsk to 7 1/2 years in prison for posts he made criticizing Soviet dictator Josef Stalin as well as the invasion of Ukraine.
-
-
Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press
-
New York Times ☛ Murdered Kremlin Critic Anna Politkovskaya Was Veteran Journalist
The Russian journalist gained international renown for her criticism of the Kremlin and its policies in Chechnya. Her murder in 2006 provoked vocal condemnation from inside Russia and abroad.
-
New York Times ☛ Russia Pardons Man Convicted in Journalist’s Murder in Return for Ukraine Service
The lawyer of Sergei G. Khadzhikurbanov, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison for helping to organize the killing of Anna Politkovskaya, said he had been pardoned by President Vladimir V. Putin.
-
RFERL ☛ Man Convicted In Murder Of Russian Journalist Politkovskaya Pardoned After Fighting In Ukraine
Former Russian police officer Sergei Khadzhikurbanov, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison for his role in organizing the 2006 assassination of journalist Anna Politkovskaya, has received a pardon from President Vladimir Putin after taking part in Moscow's ongoing full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
-
Meduza ☛ Putin pardons man involved in killing of journalist Anna Politkovskaya for fighting in Ukraine — Meduza
-
France24 ☛ Russia pardons ex-policeman convicted of killing journalist after he fought in Ukraine
Russian authorities have pardoned a former policeman jailed over the 2006 killing of investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya after he fought in Ukraine, his lawyer said on Tuesday.
-
Meduza ☛ Putin approves amendments restricting media coverage of presidential elections — Meduza
-
CPJ ☛ Ghanaian soldiers beat and arrest journalist Nicholas Morkah, wipe phone
The soldiers seized Morkah’s cell phone, forced him into their van, and then hit Morkah with his motorcycle helmet at least five times before driving the journalist to their local barracks, where they erased everything on his phone by resetting it. They also accused the journalist of offending them.
-
Press Gazette ☛ Data journalism: Why 200-year-old template still works
There’s still three stages of a data journalism story – find the data, interrogate the data, present the data in a format that audiences can understand.
-
RFERL ☛ Iranian Activist Tabarzadi Handed New Sentence After Closed-Door Trial
In the letter, Tabarzadi described enduring extensive pressure during his detention, which came shortly after nationwide protests broke out over the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini while she was in police custody for an alleged hijab offense. The unrest has led to renewed pressure on political activists.
Tabarzadi, a journalist who is also the head of the banned Democratic Front of Iran, said that the night before his trial, he was moved from Isfahan prison to solitary confinement in a detention center in Tehran under heavy security.
-
-
Civil Rights/Policing
-
Jacobin Magazine ☛ We’re All Burning Ourselves Out to Keep Money Flowing Up to the Rich
Increased productivity has failed to translate into fair compensation, and we’re all working ourselves to death. Not having time to rest or think is not just terrible for human beings — it’s terrible for democracy.
-
The San Fancisco Standard ☛ Pro-Tibet Protesters Hang Anti-China Banner at Moscone Center Ahead of APEC
Pro-Tibet protesters on Friday hung a sign from the roof of San Francisco’s Moscone Center denouncing Chinese President Xi Jinping as a “dictator” ahead of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.
The banner, which briefly appeared above the entrance to Moscone North, went up around noon Friday. The group Students for a Free Tibet claimed that three of its activists were behind the incident.
The banner read: “Dictator Xi Jinping, Your Time is Up! Free Tibet.”
-
Jacobin Magazine ☛ The UAW’s Next Fight: Organizing Nonunion Companies Like Tesla
Before Tesla purchased the plant in 2010, it was a UAW shop, an unusual joint venture between Chrysler and GM. The two companies operated the facility for twenty-five years; GM pulled out during its 2009 bankruptcy proceedings, and Toyota shut the factory down the following year. When Tesla took over, the union was not part of the agreement.
-
-
Internet Policy/Net Neutrality
-
404 Media ☛ The $2,000 Phones that Let Anyone Make Robocalls
Videos collected by 404 Media over months give a peep inside the world of spoofing numbers, automated call scripts, and a specific seller of the phones.
-
Techdirt ☛ FCC Commish Brendan Carr Takes A Break From Crying About TikTok To Lie About His Agency’s Plan To Combat Racism In Broadband Deployment
GOP FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr can routinely be found hyperventilating about TikTok, a company he doesn’t actually regulate. At the same time, Carr routinely turns a blind eye to the endless sleazy behavior in the sector he actually regulates: telecom. He doesn’t much care about predatory pricing, privacy violations, or the way companies like AT&T rip off federal subsidy programs.
-
-
Digital Restrictions (DRM)
-
Gizmodo ☛ Tesla Cybertruck Owners Will Face Absurd Resell Penalties
The clause states that resellers of the Cybertruck, Tesla’s long-awaited electric pickup truck slated to begin delivery on Nov. 30th, could be barred entirely from purchasing Tesla vehicles ever again. Tesla also threatens legal action against resellers, seeking injunctive relief of at least $50,000. Elon Musk’s electric vehicle maker asks anyone who wants to dump their Cybertruck to sell it back to Tesla or receive written consent from the company before selling it to a third party.
-
Interesting Engineering ☛ Tesla’s Cybertruck policy: No resale for 12 months
The policy which was highlighted by Teslarati, applies only to the Cybertruck, and is aimed at preventing speculation and flipping of the futuristic pickup truck, which has received over a million reservations since its unveiling in 2019. According to the policy, Cybertruck owners who wish to sell their vehicles within the first year of ownership must seek written permission from Tesla and may only sell it back to the company. If Tesla rejects the request, the owners may still be able to sell their Cybertrucks to third parties, but only with Tesla’s written consent.
-
-
Monopolies
-
India Times ☛ Adobe faces EU antitrust warning over Figma deal, sources say
Adobe's $20 billion bid for cloud-based designer platform Figma is set to face an EU antitrust warning in the coming days, three people familiar with the matter said, a move that would ratchet up pressure on the Photoshop maker to offer remedies.
-
BW Businessworld Media Pvt Ltd ☛ Adobe's Figma Acquisition Faces EU Antitrust Warning
The European Commission initiated a comprehensive investigation into Adobe's proposed acquisition in August, expressing concerns that the deal could diminish competition in the global markets for interactive product design tools, potentially shutting out competitors.
-
Techdirt ☛ But What Do We Do If Google Is Legitimately Just A Better Search Engine?
One bit came out in the case about a week ago, and I’ve been thinking about it a bunch since then, though not entirely sure what to make of it. Apparently, Mozilla agreed to switch to Yahoo as the default search in Firefox in 2014. Yahoo promised to pay more money to Mozilla than Google did, and promised to provide a better overall experience (including fewer ads). And apparently it was a disaster for Mozilla, because users hated it.
-
Gizmodo ☛ Google Witness Spills How Much Apple Gets From Safari Search Revenue
CEO Sundar Pichai testified in October that Google is not a monopoly in search, but is simply better than competitors. In contrast, Kevin Murphy, an economics professor at the University of Chicago, revealed Google coughs up more than a third of its advertising revenue on Safari as part of a deal to be Apple’s default search engine. The court learned in October that Google paid $26 billion to be the default search engine of multiple phones and browsers in 2021, and $18 billion of that reportedly goes to Apple.
-
India Times ☛ What Google argued to defend itself in landmark antitrust trial
Google's lawyers are set to wrap up their arguments in the case -- US et al. v. Google -- on Tuesday, which will be followed by a government rebuttal. Judge Amit Mehta of US District Court for the District of Columbia, who is presiding over the nonjury trial, is expected to deliver a verdict next year after both sides summarize their cases in writing and deliver closing arguments.
-
New York Times ☛ What Google Argued to Defend Itself in Landmark Antitrust Trial
The heart of the U.S. case against Google is that the company paid Apple and other tech platforms to make itself the default search engine on the iPhone and other devices, thereby keeping rivals from competing and stopping Apple from potentially developing its own search product.
-
Reuters ☛ Google's expert in US antitrust trial defends billions paid to device makers
The government, which has filed four major antitrust lawsuits against three Big Tech companies since 2020, has accused Google of paying billions - $26.3 billion in 2021 - to ensure that its search is the default on smartphones and browsers and to keep its market share in the stratosphere. It alleges the payments are an abuse of monopoly.
"The payments that Google makes reflect that competition," he said.
-
New York Times ☛ Google’s C.E.O. to Take Another Turn on the Antitrust Witness Stand
On Tuesday, Mr. Pichai is expected to testify again, this time in San Francisco, to confront claims brought by the video game company Epic Games that his company broke the law, wielding monopolistic power over app developers on Android’s Google Play Store.
Mr. Pichai over the last month has become the face of Google’s antitrust court fights on both sides of the country. And his visits to the witness stand underscore the growing importance for Big Tech leaders to be sharp witnesses for their companies, whether in an antitrust trial or in hearings on Capitol Hill.
-
Trademarks
-
Techdirt ☛ Ravinia Festival Assoc. Sues Ravinia Brewing Company Over Geographic ‘Ravinia’ Trademark
Way back in 2018, we discussed how the Ravinia Festival Association, which operates the Ravinia Festival venue north of Chicago, attempted to shut down or force a rename for the then new Ravinia Brewing Company brewery and restaurant in Highland Park. That might all look fairly appropriate at first glance if you’re not from the area, but we locals know that the name “Ravinia” comes from what was once the Village of Ravinia, which was then annexed into Highland Park in 1899. The area is still referred to by that name, however, making “Ravinia” a geographic marker, not unlike the word “Wrigleyville” in Chicago.
-
-
Copyrights
-
Torrent Freak ☛ Copyright & Piracy News Brief #1 | Extra News, Views & Updates From TF
Documenting copyright trends relevant to the global piracy and anti-piracy landscapes, and what happens when everything inevitably collides, is what TorrentFreak aims to do, week in and week out. However, interesting pieces of information often go unpublished, mostly due to time constraints. Starting today, we'll begin sharing recently spotted news that for one reason or another, didn't quite make it.
-
Press Gazette ☛ Photographer wins court copyright monopoly row with local radio website
V2 Radio was ordered to pay damages and costs for the use of the photo on its website.
-
Reason ☛ Cybertoonz explains the FTC's latest filing on copyright monopoly and AI
As covered in upcoming Cyberlaw Podcast episode 481
-
Reason ☛ The Brussels Defect: Too early turns out to be worse than too late.
Plus Mark MacCarthy's book on "Regulating Digital Industries" in Episode 481 of the Cyberlaw Podcast
-
Techdirt ☛ Copyright Leads To Internet Fragmentation
The EU Copyright Directive is arguably the most important recent legislation in the area of intellectual monopolies. It is also a failure, judged purely on its own terms as an initiative to modernize and unify copyright across the European Union. Instead, it includes many backward-looking features that go against the grain of the digital world, which are explored in Walled Culture the book (free digital versions available). It has also fragmented digital copyright law, as EU Member States struggle to implement a badly-drafted and self-contradictory text. For example, France’s national law went even further than the Directive in tilting the playing-field in favor of copyright companies. Germany, by contrast, attempted to produce a more balanced approach, recognizing the rights of ordinary Internet users. The result is a patchwork of different laws across the EU – exactly what the Directive was supposed to eliminate.
-
Press Gazette ☛ Photographer wins court copyright row with local radio website
“I Googled it the following day to see who had used it. I found it had been on V2 and I emailed them with an invoice.
“Normally, an apology is more than enough – accidents do happen.
“I sent three emails and phoned them. I heard nothing back.”
-
MWL ☛ Why My Short Fiction Is Exclusively In My Store
You might have noticed that I’ve stopped publishing my shorter fiction on third-party bookstores like Amazon and Kobo and whatnot. If it’s not credibly a novel by historical standards1, it’s in my store. If you’re unfortunate enough to be in the vicinity when someone asks me about my business model, I make a lot of noise about the importance of having your work available on every platform. Why would I break my own rule? Because I’m okay with exclusivity, so long as it’s mine.
-
The Guardian UK ☛ Lost Doctor Who episodes found – but owner is reluctant to hand them to BBC
Veteran film collector John Franklin believes the answer is for the BBC to announce an immediate general amnesty on missing film footage.
This would reassure British amateur collectors that their private archives will not be confiscated if they come forward and that they will be safe from prosecution for having stored stolen BBC property, something several fear.
[...]
Whether this will be enough to prompt nervous collectors to come forward is doubtful. While collectors are in no real danger, the infamous arrest of comedian Bob Monkhouse in 1978 has not been forgotten, Franklin suspects: “Monkhouse was a private collector and was accused of pirating videos. He even had some of his archive seized. Sadly people still believe they could have their films confiscated.”
-
Torrent Freak ☛ Google Sues Men Who Weaponized DMCA Notices to Crush Competition
Since the vast majority of culprits facing zero consequences, that may have acted as motivation to send more. Through a lawsuit filed at a California court on Monday, Google appears to be sending the message that enough is enough.
-
Walled Culture ☛ Internet Archive: new copyright laws for generative AI would “further entrench” market leaders
One of the most noteworthy submissions to the consultation comes from the Internet Archive, which was founded by Brewster Kahle, whose Kahle/Austin Foundation supports this blog. Its basic position is simple: “while Generative AI presents a host of policy challenges that may prompt different kinds of legislative reform, we do not see that new copyright laws are needed to respond to Generative AI today.” The document goes on to explain that its comments are guided by three core principles.
-
Digital Music News ☛ YouTube Shorts Now Has Top Music Charts
YouTube says its Shorts service is pulling in 70 billion views each day, prompting the service to launch YouTube Shorts music charts. YouTube says the new charts are a way for artists to gain recognition on the platform and celebrate their success across every music format.
-
-
-
-
Gemini* and Gopher
-
Personal/Opinions
-
🔤SpellBinding: CINORSY Wordo: NAKED
-
Midweek in a whole new ballgame
So much I want to write.
But then "Why am I doing this?".
Track record. Experience.
What verbiage really is.
You want to have friends.
You want to be known.
Oh, so many gemlog starts.
-
Vroom, vroom a new day standing erect
Cut the head top hair. Trimmed the facial hair. Showered.
See also: The kind of stuff seemingly in keeping with attending a house sale closing later in the day.
-
A Way to Take Part in the Humanity Around Me
My name is Shambal Brambel and I enjoy spiking peoples' urine samples with drops of vodka. You may ask why I would do such a seemingly cruel thing. Well, personally, I don't find it cruel at all. I consider it one of the most benevolent acts I've ever participated in. *Participate* may be the wrong word to use since I carry out the whole shebang myself, but I shan't edit the previous sentence because I can also consider the *job* (spiking peoples' urine samples with vodka is no longer simply a *thing* or an *act* - it is my profession) a way to take part in the humanity around me.
-
What? Lil ol' me?
But a couple decades later I came to believe that anti- social/civil/self/others behavior - including that which compromises biological environment - is driven by an unfortunate representation/modeling of "reality" whose grip I've felt loosen by seeing "the nature of reality" differently than I'd been advised to whilst allegedly becoming the me others told me I was. And that loosening has been sufficiently wonderful to want to share what seemed to lead me to it with others.
-
-
Politics and World Events
-
The “Well, actually”–nerd and world politics
I’ve always been bad at validating first, at stating the obvious, at being like “Yes! You’re completely right! But also, have you thought about…”, it’s instead so easy for me to come across as if I were saying “you’re absolutely wack if you think that…”
That would’ve been a skill that would have been kinda good to have when talking about important topics.
-
State the Obvious
It’s easy to get in trouble when we assume that the other person will understand (or be able to deduce) what we feel. Most people love hearing things explicitly and clearly.
-
-
Technology and Free Software
-
Re: copy and paste via keyboard in tmux
Some things to dabble with (I don't use them much) are the "capture-pane" and "save-buffer" commands. You might also find longer tutorials or books on tmux and work through those for other ideas, as tmux can be used in a lot of different ways and who knows what works for you.
-
Thinking about hashtags 🧠#️⃣
I'm wondering whether to continue. Hashtags do get some use, but they haven't taken off as they have in other spaces. My index includes other kinds of tagging, but they aren't widely used either. There are currently 10,743 tags, and the crawler has considered 731,941 URLs, which gives an idea of the scale of indifference.
The crawler is a few bash scripts, and its surprising that it works at all. There are issues with the crawler. It doesn't understand redirects (which I've known for ages, but they're no so widely used that I've had to fix it), nor does it understand rate limiting, beyond ignoring for ever any capsule that returns a 44. It never revisits a URL, so never notices updates, or pages and capsules disappearing.
-
Internet/Gemini
-
What a year
What a year it's been. I've barely been on gopher or gemini at all. So much going on!
What's eating up all my time? Well, at the start of the year it was work, and then getting sick, and then more work as we took on a whole extra client that we were pretty sure wasn't gonna stick around. That turned out to be correct, and by not staffing up to it we avoided having to fire a bunch of people, which I'm thankful for. But then I was spent as well.
-
Urney.xyz my interactive fiction capsule
I bring thee all great tidings. My Urney.xyz capsule is up and running and it'll be the host of my own interactive fiction games, gamebooks and that sort of stuff. It will be because I have only promises there, but I'm already working on them.
-
-
-
* Gemini (Primer) links can be opened using Gemini software. It's like the World Wide Web but a lot lighter.