Leftovers

• CS Monitor ☛ His hands are famous. So are his printing skills.

  Much is made of the creative possibilities that artificial intelligence will unlock. But in Maine, one man uses centuries-old technology to satisfy modern sensibilities.

• James G ☛ The James' Coffee Blog scavenger hunt

  I started to delve into the world of Club Penguin again as I searched for a background for this site. I remembered various different "rooms" in which one played in the game. In my mind, I started to think "my site has rooms, in a way." Indeed, my homepage is a room, my articles are rooms. What could I do with this idea? I decided to change the background of my site depending on the type of page that you were on. Now, there are four unique backgrounds you can find.

• Hackaday ☛ When Is An Engineer Not An Engineer? When He’s A Canadian Engineer

  In medieval Europe, many professions were under the control of guilds. These had a monopoly over that profession in their particular city or state, backed up with all the legal power of the monarch. If you weren’t in the guild you couldn’t practice your craft. Except in a few ossified forms they are a thing of the past, but we have to wonder whether that particular message ever reached Western Canada.

• Science

  • The Register UK ☛ Halley's Comet has begun its long trek back toward Earth

    Halley's Comet, officially 1P/Halley, has begun its long journey back towards Earth after making it to aphelion – the point in its orbit farthest from the Sun – on December 9.

  • France24 ☛ Volcano erupts south of Iceland's Reykjavik after weeks of seismic activity

    "At 22:17 this evening, a volcanic eruption began north of Grindavik on the Reykjanes peninsula," the IMO said, adding that it could be seen from nearby webcams.

    The live-streamed footage of the eruption showed large jets of glowing orange lava spewing into the night sky, surrounded by billowing red smoke.

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ Icelandic volcano erupts after weeks of buildup

    "The magma flow seems to be at least a hundred cubic meters per second, maybe more. So this would be considered a big eruption in this area at least," Vidir Reynisson, head of Iceland's Civil Protection and Emergency Management told the Icelandic public broadcaster, RUV.

  • New York Times ☛ After Weeks of Warnings, Iceland Volcano Erupts in Plumes of Fire

    The location of the fissure, which is some 2.5 miles long and growing quickly, is not far from the Svartsengi Power Plant and the town of Grindavík, which was evacuated last month because of heightened seismic activity, leading to concerns than an eruption was likely.

  • Futurism ☛ Massive Icelandic Volcano Erupts, Spews Lava Hundreds of Feet Into the Air

    Footage shot from a coast guard helicopter shows an almost apocalyptic scene, with a massive wall of lava lighting up the nighttime scene. According to the NYT, some of these lava fountains are reaching up to 330 feet and are visible from the center of Reykjavík.

  • Science Alert ☛ Bizarre Fast Radio Burst Exhibits a Unique Signal Never Seen Before

    A phenomenon that continues to defy explanation.

  • Science Alert ☛ Ancient Mesopotamian Bricks Captured a Mysterious Blip in Earth's Magnetic Field

    Where sky meets the earth.

  • New York Times ☛ China Earthquake Kills More Than 100 in Gansu and Qinghai Provinces

    The 5.9-magnitude earthquake struck Gansu Province around midnight. People who had fled their homes huddled in the cold, setting fires to keep warm.

  • France24 ☛ Earthquake kills more than 100 in northwestern China

    At least 111 people were killed when an earthquake collapsed buildings in northwest China, state media reported Tuesday, as rescue workers raced to start digging through rubble.

  • NYPost ☛ Earthquake in northwestern China kills at least 111 people, injures over 300 in Gansu and Qinghai provinces

    At least 111 people were killed in a magnitude 6.2 earthquake in a cold and mountainous region in northwestern China.

  • The Straits Times ☛ At least 116 dead in north-west China earthquake

    The quake struck in Gansu province near the border with Qinghai province.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Setting aside tensions, Taiwan president offers aid to China after deadly quake

    Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen expressed condolences to China on Tuesday and offered her government's help after an earthquake killed more than 100 people on the northern edge of the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau.

  • Hackaday ☛ Simulate A Better Termination

    If you are making certain precision measurements, you know you need to terminate the connections with the right impedance, normally 50 ohms. Proper termination minimizes reflections on the line which can disturb measurements. Some instruments already have 50 ohm terminations, at least optionally. If not, you usually use little connector shells with the right resistor inside. [Joe Smith] decided to see if he could improve on the normal terminations using circuit simulation techniques. You can see a video of the work below.

• Hardware

  • Jeff Geerling ☛ My SimpliSafe doorbell lit its own fire this winter

    Looking more closely at the bottom wires—where it looks like the battery wires come off and go around a small PCB to a soldered connection—the plastic insulation was completely burnt off for a few mm, and they were obviously shorting to each other: [...]

  • The Hindu ☛ Smart card supply issues cause delays in DL and RC issuance

    Transport Department officials said that the primary cause for the vendor’s failure to supply RC and DL smart cards is the unavailability of chips essential for these cards.

  • The Conversation ☛ A new supercomputer aims to closely mimic the human brain — it could help unlock the secrets of the mind and advance AI

    A supercomputer scheduled to go online in April 2024 will rival the estimated rate of operations in the human brain, according to researchers in Australia. The machine, called DeepSouth, is capable of performing 228 trillion operations per second.

    It’s the world’s first supercomputer capable of simulating networks of neurons and synapses (key biological structures that make up our nervous system) at the scale of the human brain.

  • Hackaday ☛ Ask Hackaday: What Do You Do When You Can’t Solder?

    Ah, soldering. It’s great for sticking surface mount parts to a PCB, and it’s really great for holding component legs in a plated through-hole. It also does a pretty great job of holding two spliced wires together.

  • Hackaday ☛ Old Prius Gets Upgraded Batteries

    So many of the batteries made today are lithium batteries of some sort, from mobile phones, laptops, and drones to electric cars and grid storage solutions. But this technology is relatively new; even as late as the 90s and early 00s the only widely-available batteries for things like power tools or the new hybrid vehicles coming on the market were nickel-metal hydride (NiMH). While it was good for the time, they don’t hold up to all of the advantages lithium has. There’s still plenty of hybrid vehicles on the road using these batteries, so if you’re driving an older Prius and want to give it a modern refresh, there’s a quick option to swap your old batteries.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • Science Alert ☛ Daydreaming Could Serve a Vital Purpose We Never Knew About

    Let your mind wander.

  • New York Times ☛ New Hope — and an Old Hurdle — for a Terrible Disease With Terrible Treatments

    Researchers in developing countries are trying to find treatments for conditions that affect the poorest people. But the system is stacked against their therapies.

  • Science Alert ☛ Brain Autopsies Suggest a New Culprit Behind Alzheimer's Disease

  • Latvia ☛ Daugavpils hospital struggles to scrape by

    Daugavpils Regional Hospital has repeatedly reported its financial troubles, and now it owes not only suppliers but also employees. Doctors whose salaries exceed €2,000 will get some of their pay next year, Latvian Television reported December 18.

  • European Commission ☛ Rwanda and the European Union strengthen partnership

    European Commission Press release Brussels, 18 Dec 2023 With more than €900 million being invested in Rwanda under Global Gateway, President von der Leyen and President Kagame discussed investments in areas such as health, critical raw materials, the agro-food industry, climate resilience and education.

  • RFA ☛ North Korea goes ga ga for potato snacks

    A bumper crop has led to cheaper potato-based foods pumped out by local factories.

  • Techdirt ☛ Yet Another Massive Study Says There’s No Evidence That Social Media Is Inherently Harmful To Teens

    At this point, I really have to question the seriousness of anyone who claims that the evidence shows that social media is bad for kids. We’re now reaching a point where the research is increasingly overwhelmingly pointing in the other direction. I’ve posted it before, but I’ll post this list again:

  • YLE ☛ Influenza, RSV and Covid spread ahead of Christmas

    "If you're clearly wheezing, coughing and feverish, you shouldn't go to family gatherings," THL's chief physician says.

  • Federal News Network ☛ State Dept processing passports at pre-pandemic levels, despite ‘unprecedented’ demand

    The State Department processed over 24 million passport books and cards in fiscal 2023 — a new record. And it's back to processing passport applications within 6-8 weeks for routine service.

• Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)

  • Locus Magazine ☛ Cory Doctorow: What Kind of Bubble is AI?

    Tech bubbles come in two varieties: The ones that leave something behind, and the ones that leave nothing behind. Sometimes, it can be hard to guess what kind of bubble you’re living through until it pops and you find out the hard way.

  • India Times ☛ Use of Indian languages in AI will bring down bias in technology: Meity secretary

    At present, the government is working on AI technology to enable citizens across the country to communicate with each other seamlessly using digital translation tools developed under the Bhashini program.

  • International Business Times ☛ China's ByteDance Accused Of Using UK News Sites To Train Its ChatGPT Rival

    Chinese internet technology company ByteDance, which is known for developing TikTok, has reportedly been using UK news sites to train its ChatGPT competitor called ByteSpider without paying these websites or acquiring proper permission from them.

    ByteDance has been accused of operating a bot that has been targeting renowned publishers such as The Guardian, Daily Mail and The Telegraph.

  • [Repeat] RFERL ☛ Jailed Former Pakistani PM Khan Uses AI-Generated Speech To Call For Votes

    [...] The audio clip was played over an AI-generated image that appears to be speaking, during an Internet rally of Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party. [...]

  • Qumulo makes another round of layoffs

    The scale-out and parallel file system supplier produces the Core software to run on premises, on its own and third-party hardware, and also in the cloud with a scale anywhere theme. It recently signed a reselling deal with Fujitsu.

    The biz was started in 2012 by ex-Isilon execs who wanted to build a better scale-out file system supplier than EMC-acquired Isilon, and then the Dell-acquired EMC. The ongoing Isilon product is now branded PowerScale. Qumulo has raised a total of $351 million in funding with the lastest E-round bringing in $125 million in 2020. It has been led since late 2016 by CEO Bill Richter.

• Security

  • Integrity/Availability/Authenticity

    • Security Week ☛ CISA Urges Manufacturers to Eliminate Default Passwords After Recent ICS Attacks

      The cybersecurity agency CISA is urging device manufacturers to stop relying on customers to change default passwords following a series of attacks targeting industrial control systems (ICS) in the water sector.

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • The Register UK ☛ Internet's deep-level architects slam US, UK, Europe for pushing device-side scanning

      As the name suggests, client-side scanning involves software on a phone or some other device automatically analyzing files for unlawful photos and other content, and then performing some action – such as flagging or removing the documents or reporting them to the authorities. At issue, primarily, is the loss of privacy from the identification process – how will that work with strong encryption, and do the files need to be shared with an outside service? Then there's the reporting process – how accurate is it, is there any human intervention, and what happens if your gadget wrongly fingers you to the cops?

    • Fast Company ☛ E-books are fast becoming tools of corporate surveillance

      This investigation is an essential first step to revive the right to read without fear of having your interests used against you. Because unfortunately, that right is on life support when it comes to digital books.

    • Bruce Schneier ☛ Police Get Medical Records without a Warrant

      More unconstrained surveillance: [...]

    • EFF ☛ Victory: Utah Supreme Court Upholds Right to Refuse to Tell Cops Your Passcode

      The Utah court’s opinion is the latest in a thicket of state supreme court opinions dealing with whether law enforcement agents can compel suspects to disclose or enter their passwords. Last month, EFF supported a petition asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review People v. Sneed, an Illinois Supreme Court opinion that reached a contrary conclusion. As we explained in that brief, courts around the country are struggling to apply Fifth Amendment case law to the context of compelled disclosure and entry of passcodes.

      The Fifth Amendment privilege protects suspects from being forced to provide “testimonial” answers to incriminating lines of questioning. So it would seem straightforward that asking “what is your passcode?” should be off limits. Indeed, the Utah Supreme Court had no trouble finding that verbally disclosing a passcode was protected as a “traditionally testimonial communication.” Notably there has been dissent from even this straightforward rule by the New Jersey Supreme Court. However, many cases—like the Sneed case from Illinois—involve a less clear demand by law enforcement: “tell us your passcode or just enter it.”

      Unfortunately, many courts, including Utah, have applied a different standard to entering rather than disclosing a passcode. Under this reasoning, verbally telling police a passcode is explicitly testimonial, whereas entering a passcode is only implicitly testimonial as an “act of production,” comparable to turning over incriminating documents in response to a subpoena. But as we’ve argued, entering a passcode should be treated as purely testimonial in the same way that nodding or shaking your head in response to a question is. More fundamentally, the U.S. Supreme Court has held that even testimonial “acts of production,” like assembling documents in response to a subpoena, are privileged and cannot be compelled without expansive grants of immunity.

    • EFF ☛ Does Less Consumer Tracking Lead to Less Fraud?

      Authors Bo Bian, Michaela Pagel and Huan Tang investigated the relationship between the rollout of Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) and reports of consumer financial fraud. Many apps can track users across apps or websites owned by other companies. By default, Apple's ATT opted all iPhone users out of tracking, which meant that apps and websites no longer received user identifiers unless they obtained user permission. 

      The highlight of the research is that Apple users were less likely to be victims of financial fraud after Apple implemented the App Tracking Transparency policy. The results showed a 10% increase in the share of Apple users in a particular ZIP code leads to roughly 3% reduction in financial fraud complaints. 

      The authors designed a complicated methodology for this study, but here are the basics for those who don’t have time to tackle the actual paper. 

    • The Straits Times ☛ South Korea's Yoon picks new foreign minister, spy agency chief

      December 19, 2023 2:29 PM
      
      

      South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol picked on Tuesday former vice foreign minister Cho Tae-yul as the country's new foreign minister and national security advisor Cho Tae-yong as the new spy chief, Yoon's office said.

• Defence/Aggression

  • India Times ☛ A group representing TikTok, Meta and X sues Utah over limits on app use for minors

    A trade group that represents TikTok and other major tech companies sued Utah on Monday over its first-in-the-nation laws requiring children and teens to obtain parental consent to use social media apps.

    Two laws signed in March by Republican Gov. Spencer Cox will prohibit minors from using social control media between the hours of 10:30 p.m. and 6:30 a.m. unless authorized by a parent - and require age verification to open and maintain a social media account in the state.

  • El País ☛ A danger called Donald Trump

    Teetering between prison and the White House, navigating his campaign and his trial, the former president is planning his return despite being accused of 91 criminal offenses. His first challenge is to win the Republican presidential primaries so that he can contest the 2024 general election. His victory would alter US democracy and its role in the world

  • Kansas Reflector ☛ Trump borrows from the language of Hitler for anti-immigration speech in New Hampshire

    “Tonight Donald Trump channeled his role models as he parroted Adolf Hitler, praised Kim Jong Un, and quoted Vladimir Putin while running for president on a promise to rule as a dictator and threaten American democracy,” campaign spokesperson Ammar Moussa said in a written statement.

  • France24 ☛ Iran fuel supplies cut by US, Israel 'cyber attack', oil minister says

    Iran, a major oil producer, has among the cheapest petrol prices in the world, with a card that allows Iranians to buy up to 60 litres per month at a subsidised rate of 15,000 rials (around 3 US cents) per litre.

    Following the system failure, petrol stations "disconnected the online system" and fuel was being supplied offline, Salari said.

  • The Register UK ☛ National Grid latest UK org to zap Chinese kit from critical infrastructure

    The organizations involved have remained largely tight-lipped over the revelation. The NCSC declined to comment, as did the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, NR Electric UK did not respond to a request for a statement.

  • Hindustan Times ☛ ‘No Place For Islam In Europe…’: Italy PM Giorgia Meloni’s Old Video Goes Viral | Watch

    [...] Meloni also criticised Saudi Arabia for the strict implementation of Sharia law, and accused the country of funding Islamic cultural centres in Italy. [...]

  • CBC ☛ It's not just a label for meat: halal investments target Islamic customers

    However, companies such Visa and MasterCard are considered halal by advisers like Assad, because while those companies process and facilitate debt and interest charges, they do not charge the interest directly.

  • Federal News Network ☛ How the Trump fake electors scheme became a ‘corrupt plan,’ according to the indictment

    The third criminal case into Trump details, among other charges, what prosecutors say was a massive and monthslong effort to “impair, obstruct, and defeat” the federal process for certifying the results of a presidential election, culminating in the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

    The 45-page indictment states that when Trump could not persuade state officials to illegally swing the election in his favor, he and his Republican allies began recruiting a slate of fake electors in seven battleground states — Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, New Mexico, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — to sign certificates falsely stating that he, not Democrat Joe Biden, had won their states.

  • Newsweek ☛ Putin Claims Russia Building a New World Order

    Putin has repeatedly pitched the war in Ukraine as a proxy battle between Moscow and the West and in the face of U.S.- led sanctions has positioned himself as leading a pivot away from the current world order towards Asia and the so-called "global south."

  • The Straits Times ☛ North Korea says Hwasong-18 ICBM drill was response to US hostility

    State news agency KCNA said the country's leader Kim Jong Un watched the launch of the ICBM at the site.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Troops on South Korean side rearm at border village amid tensions with North

    The move was aimed at protecting both civilian and military personnel in the border area.

  • RFA ☛ N Korea confirms ICBM launch, vows ‘assertive’ nuclear stance

    Following the launch, US and allies activated the trilateral missile warning data-sharing system.

  • RFA ☛ N Korea fires long-range ballistic missile

    The missile had the capability of reaching the United States, a Japanese official said.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Philippine President Marcos says diplomatic efforts with China heading ‘in poor direction’

    Mr Marcos said traditional diplomatic efforts were being disregarded by China in a recent interview with the Japanese media.

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • RFERL ☛ Former Wagner Mercenary Sentenced For Opening Fire At Russian Police

      A court in Russia's Rostov region sentenced a former fighter of the Wagner mercenary group, Pavel Nikolin, to six years and 11 months in prison on December 18 for opening fire with an automatic weapon on a group of police officers in December of last year, wounding one of them.

    • European Commission ☛ European Leaders decide to open accession negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova in a historic summit

      European Commission News Brussels, 18 Dec 2023 On 14-15 December, the European Council has decided to open accession negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova.

    • Atlantic Council ☛ #AtlanticDebrief – What did the EUCO summit mean for Ukraine? | A Debrief from Fran Burwell

      Jörn Fleck sits down with Fran Burwell to discuss the outcome of the EUCO summit and the decision to open accession negotiations with Ukraine.  

    • France24 ☛ No, Volodymyr Zelensky didn’t buy a villa in Florida

      Did Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky buy a house in Florida? And did he get American citizenship? Those are the rumors circulating on social control media along with a couple of photos. However, the villa that appears in the photos is still up for sale and the certificate of nationality is fake, making this the latest example of fake news stories implying that Ukrainian officials are using international aid money for personal purposes.

    • JURIST ☛ Poland truckers resume blockade of Ukraine border

      Polish truckers resumed their blockade Monday of one of the main crossings into Ukraine near Dorohusk, Poland in conjunction with nearby farmers according to Rafał Mekler, one of the leaders of the protest and member of the Polish far-right National Movement Party.

    • RFERL ☛ Ukraine Says Two Russian Drones Shot Down Overnight

      Ukraine's air defense said on December 19 that it shot down two Russian drones overnight in the Starokostyantyniv district of the western Khmelnytskiy region.

    • RFERL ☛ EBRD Board Approves 4 Billion-Euro Capital Increase To Boost Ukraine Funding

      The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) said on December 19 its board has approved a 4 billion-euro ($4.3 billion) capital increase that will enable the bank to double its Ukraine investments once reconstruction there begins.

    • RFERL ☛ White House Plans Additional Military Aid Package For Ukraine, Needs Congressional Action

      The White House said it plans to release one additional package of military aid for Ukraine before the end of the year but said it would then have to "replenish authority available to us" and that "we need Congress to act without delay" on further funding.

    • RFERL ☛ Finland To Hold Russian Ultranationalist On Suspicion Of War Crimes In Ukraine

      A court in Helsinki on December 18 ordered pretrial detention for a Russian ultranationalist and former commander of the Rusich saboteur group that fights alongside Russia's armed forces against Ukraine.

    • RFERL ☛ Zelenskiy Sets Year-End Press Conference As Ukrainian Leaders Bid To Bolster Morale, Western Support

      Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy will hold a year-end news conference on December 19 as he and his military leaders continue their efforts to bolster domestic morale and maintain Western support as the war with Russia heads toward its third bloody and destructive year.

    • YLE ☛ Border situation, Ukraine war have changed military service in Finland, colonel says

      The incoming commander of the North Karelia Border Guard believes that current instability has already impacted the lives of conscripts.

    • New York Times ☛ Ukraine Aid Bill Delayed as Border Talks Drag On

      After a weekend of bipartisan negotiations, lawmakers were still short of a compromise and Republicans said they were reluctant to strike any agreement before the new year.

    • New York Times ☛ Chinese Traders and Moroccan Ports: How Russia Flouts Global Tech Bans

      Using specialized e-commerce sites, secretive shipping workarounds and a constellation of middlemen, Russia has obtained the tech components it needs to keep its economy and war in Ukraine going.

    • Meduza ☛ ‘Beast people,’ feminists, and aliens A new legal paper draws from an impressive array of conspiracy theories to explain Russia’s problems — Meduza

    • RFERL ☛ Polish Truckers Resume Blockade Of Main Crossing At Ukrainian Border, Kyiv Says

      Polish truckers on December 18 resumed their blockade of the main crossing at the Ukrainian border, a week after it was lifted, Ukraine's border service said.

    • RFERL ☛ Ukrainian Court Orders Arrest Of Councillor Who Detonated Grenades, Killing Colleague

      Ukraine's Prosecutor-General's Office said on December 17 that a court has ordered the arrest of local councillor Serhiy Batryn, who detonated three grenades during a council session in the village of Keretsky in the western region of Zakarpattya two days earlier, killing one person.

    • RFERL ☛ Ukraine Investigates Apparent Wiretapping Of Ukraine's Commander In Chief

      The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said on December 17 that it has launched a probe into the discovery of a listening device "at a place that could potentially be a working site" of Ukraine's commander in chief, General Valeriy Zaluzhniy.

    • Meduza ☛ The European Union is opening accession talks with Kyiv How far away is Ukraine from actually joining the E.U.? — Meduza

    • Atlantic Council ☛ Support Ukraine today or fight Russia tomorrow

      By now, it should be apparent to any objective observer that unless Putin’s invasion ends in defeat, Russian international aggression will not be limited to Ukraine. Since February 2022, the Kremlin dictator has placed the entire Russian economy on a war footing and begun actively preparing Russian society for a long war. He has created an anti-Western alliance of fellow autocrats, and routinely portrays his invasion as a fight against the collective West.

    • RFERL ☛ Putin Signs Decree On Simplified Naturalization Of Belarusians, Kazakhs, Moldovans

      Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on December 18 simplifying naturalization of Belarusian, Kazakh, and Moldovan citizens.

    • RFA ☛ The limits of a Russia-China partnership that claims to have none

      Xi, Putin have made common cause against the US, but their complex ties are rooted in self-interest.

    • RFERL ☛ Finland Signs Military Cooperation Agreement With U.S. After Putin Threat

      Finland on December 18 signed an agreement to enhance military cooperation with the United States, a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin warned the neighboring country over its entrance into NATO.

    • teleSUR ☛ Russia Has Not Any Interest in Fighting With Occidental Countries: President Putin

      The Russian president said that, everyone must remember that "Russia will be a sovereign and self-sufficient power or it will not be".

    • YLE ☛ Tuesday's papers: Economy woes, benefit cuts and Putin threats

      Finland is set for more budget cuts in the spring of 2024, and a political bunfight to go along with them.

    • RFERL ☛ EU Calls On Russia To 'Immediately Release' RFE/RL Journalist Alsu Kurmasheva

      The European Union's chief diplomat, Josep Borrell, has called on Russia to "immediately release" Alsu Kurmasheva, a veteran journalist of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's Tatar-Bashkir Service who has been held in Russia for two months.

    • RFERL ☛ EU Targets Diamond Trade, Weapon-Parts Production With New Sanctions Package

      The European Union Council on December 18 adopted a 12th package of sanctions against Russia, placing restrictions on trade in diamonds and the supply of parts that can be used in the production of weapons, as well as tightened requirements for compliance with the "price ceiling" for Russian oil.

    • RFERL ☛ Russia Adds Popular Writer Boris Akunin To Terrorists' List

      Russia's financial watchdog, Rosfinmonitoring, added popular detective writer Grigory Chkhartishvili, known under the pen name Boris Akunin, to its list of terrorists and extremists without any explanation on December 18.

    • RFERL ☛ Siberian Rights Activist Detained Amid Election Controversy

      Police in Siberia detained human rights activist Olga Suvorova on December 18 on her arrival in the city of Krasnoyarsk from Moscow.

    • YLE ☛ Helsinki court: Russian war crimes suspect must remain behind bars

      Finnish prosecutors must charge or release him by the end of May.

    • YLE ☛ Russians, dual nationals protest Finland's border closure

      Most of those taking part were Russian speakers living in Finland, demanding a re-opening of the border so that they could visit relatives in Russia.

• Environment

  • Science Alert ☛ Runaway Greenhouse Effect Fully Simulated on Earth For The First Time, And It's "Hell"

    The Earth would only have to heat up by a few dozen degrees to spur runaway warming, making it as inhospitable as Venus, a planet whose average surface temperature is around 464 degrees Celsius (867 degrees Fahrenheit), according to NASA.

  • Omicron Limited ☛ Ecosystem benefits to humanity expected to decline by 9% by 2100

    As climate change redistributes terrestrial ecosystems across the globe, the world's natural capital is expected to decrease, causing a 9% loss of ecosystem services by 2100. That's according to a study of natural capital published in the journal Nature led by scientists at the University of California, Davis, and Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego.

  • Futurism ☛ In Startling Reversal, Elon Musk Defends Use of Fossil Fuels

    Musk is no stranger to pandering to an audience. His latest appearance is an excellent showcase of his increasingly populist and right-wing views, which have crystallized ever since he took over Twitter last year.

    During the event, Musk claimed that despite his latest comments, he considers himself an environmentalist. However, he argued that environmental groups may have gone too far, undercutting their own cause — a common talking point in right-wing circles.

  • Reuters ☛ Elon Musk says oil and gas should not be demonized

    Musk, speaking at a right-wing political gathering organised by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's Brothers of Italy party said: "Climate change alarm is exaggerated in the short term," adding that the environmental movement may have gone too far, causing people to lose faith in the future.

  • Science Alert ☛ Christmas Is an Environmental Nightmare. Here's What Parents Can Do.

    Start this year.

  • Energy/Transportation

    • Ruben Schade ☛ Transit is about priorities, not just funding

      The video touches on a few key reasons for the system’s current problems, from its winding design built prior to modern engineering standards, old rolling stock, an over-reliance on commuters which collapsed when COVID hit, its radial topology without interconnections, its lack of representation among planners and politicians, and how wealthier Bostonians tend to use the commuter rail system out to the suburbs (that’s foreshadowing). It’s a similar story in other old transit systems.

    • New York Times ☛ Tuesday Briefing: BP Paused Red Sea Oil Shipments

      Plus corporate succession in South Korea.

    • IT Wire ☛ Global sales of battery electrical vehicles up by 29% in 3Q 2023

      Global sales of battery electrical vehicles increased by 29% year-on-year in the third quarter of 2023, the technology analyst firm Counterpoint Research says.

      Though China remained the top-selling country, it struggled to maintain its position due to a weak economy and price competition, with sales only growing by 11%, well below the global average.

    • Hackaday ☛ Recycling Batteries With Bacteria

      Vehicle battery recycling is going to be a big deal with all the electric cars hitting the roads. What if you could do it more effectively with the power of microbes? (via Electrek)

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • Vox ☛ The ridiculously stupid reason the US is letting animals spiral toward oblivion

      Exactly five decades ago, Congress did what would be unimaginable today: It passed a powerful environmental law with almost unanimous support. In 1973, the House voted in favor of the Endangered Species Act, 390 to 12.

  • Overpopulation

    • RFERL ☛ Iran's Water Reserves Plunge Amid Drought, Mismanagement

      Water scarcity has also led to conflict. Iran and Afghanistan engaged in deadly cross-border clashes in May after Tehran demanded that its neighbor release more water from upstream to feed Iran's endangered southeastern wetlands.

    • Axios ☛ Climate migration may become "abandonment" as people flee flooding

      Threat level: The study constitutes the latest warning sign of the effects of climate change. Population shifts, and a larger reckoning for real estate, are only expected to worsen as global average surface temperatures rise.

• Finance

  • CS Monitor ☛ Pricey holiday sweets? Why sugar outpaces grocery inflation.

    Finally, food inflation is starting to slow. But sugar prices are still rising at a high rate. Now the push is on to reform the federal government program that subsidizes sugar farmers.

  • New York Times ☛ Why Some Economists Won’t Admit They Were Wrong

    This isn’t the recession they were looking for.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • Tech Central (South Africa) ☛ IBM to buy Software AG assets for $2.3-billion

    IBM on Monday said that it would buy Software AG’s enterprise technology platforms for €2.1-billion (R42.6-billion) to bolster its artificial intelligence and hybrid cloud offerings.

  • Tech Central (South Africa) ☛ Adobe’s $20-billion Figma deal called off

    The deal, which was announced in September last year, was the latest to draw tough scrutiny from regulators worried over Big Tech acquisitions that boost dominant companies’ market power or involve start-ups seen as nascent rivals.

  • Silicon Angle ☛ Adobe and Figma end $20B proposed merger amid regulatory issues

    Adobe Inc. has called off a planned $20 billion acquisition of the collaboration software developer Figma Inc. after the European regulators set sights on the deal and said the merger could reduce competition in local markets.

  • India Times ☛ Adobe, Figma shelve $20 billion deal after hitting regulatory roadblocks

    Adobe on Monday shelved its $20 billion deal for cloud-based designer platform Figma, pointing to "no clear path" for antitrust approvals in Europe and the UK for what would have been among the biggest buyouts of a software startup.

    The cash-and-stock deal, announced in September last year, was the latest to draw tough scrutiny from regulators worried about Big Tech acquisitions that boost the market power of dominant companies or involve startups seen as nascent rivals.

  • India Times ☛ EU investigates Elon Musk’s X in first probe under new law

    The European Union is investigating social media company X, formerly known as Twitter, over a suspected breach of obligations in its first probe under the Digital Services Act (DSA), it said on Monday.

    The DSA entered into force in November last year and requires very large online platforms and search engines to do more to tackle illegal content and risks to public security.

  • The Register UK ☛ EU launches investigation into X under Digital Services Act

    Elon Musk's X has earned the dubious honor of being the first online platform to have formal Digital Services Act (DSA) proceedings launched against it, with the European Commission accusing it of disseminating illegal content among other violations of the recently enacted rule.

  • The Hill ☛ EU opens ‘formal proceedings’ into X over potential violations of Digital Services Act

    The European Union opened “formal proceedings” into X, formerly known as Twitter, on Monday to determine whether the platform has violated the bloc’s new online regulations.

    The EU’s executive arm, the European Commission, is investigating whether X breached the Digital Services Act (DSA) in regard to its “risk management, content moderation, dark patterns, advertising transparency and data access for researchers.”

  • India Times ☛ Accenture opens genAI studio in Bengaluru

    “Accenture’s data and AI team and clients will co-create solutions with a modern data and AI foundation, LLM (large language model) architecture, ecosystems partnerships, talent, and responsible AI frameworks,” Accenture said.

  • India Times ☛ US lawmakers warn Joe Biden to probe EU targeting of tech firms

    In the letter, 21 members of the US House of Representatives warned the new rules, under which five major US tech companies were designated "gatekeeper" service providers, damage American economic and security interests.

  • CS Monitor ☛ A lively breakfast with Cornel West, presidential candidate

    Dr. West, a prominent intellectual, progressive activist, and now candidate for president, denied his campaign could hurt President Biden and addressed antisemitism on U.S. campuses.

  • Federal News Network ☛ Judge issues order keeping Confederate memorial at Arlington Cemetery for now

    A federal judge has issued a temporary restraining order barring removal of a memorial to Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery. A group called Defend Arlington, affiliated with a group called Save Southern Heritage Florida, filed a lawsuit Sunday in federal court in Alexandria seeking the restraining order. A hearing has been scheduled for Wednesday. Work to remove the memorial had begun Monday before the restraining order was issued, but the memorial remains in place on cemetery grounds. The Army had planned to remove the memorial this week. Cemetery officials say the removal complies with a congressional mandate. More than 40 House Republicans wrote a letter seeking to block the removal.

  • New York Times ☛ Israelis Abandon Political Left Over Security Concerns After Oct. 7

    Disenchanted by the prospect for peace after a devastating terrorist attack, Israelis are becoming more conservative in their politics.

  • New York Times ☛ U.S. Urges Israel to Protect Gaza Civilians

    The American defense secretary reiterated “unshakable” support for Israeli security, but said protecting Palestinians was a “moral duty and a strategic imperative.”

  • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

    • The Atlantic ☛ Nobody Knows What’s Happening Online Anymore

      The sprawl has become disorienting. Some of my peers in the media have written about how the [Internet] has started to feel “placeless” and more ephemeral, even like it is “evaporating.” Perhaps this is because, as my colleague Ian Bogost has argued, “the age of social media is ending,” and there is no clear replacement. Or maybe artificial intelligence is flooding the [Internet] with synthetic information and killing the old web. Behind these theories is the same general perception: Understanding what is actually happening online has become harder than ever.

    • Simon Willison ☛ Facebook Is Being Overrun With Stolen, AI-Generated Images That People Think Are Real.

      Excellent investigative piece by Jason Koebler digging into the concerning trend of Facebook engagement farming accounts who take popular aspirational images and use generative AI to recreate hundreds of variants of them, which then gather hundreds of comments from people who have no idea that the images are fake.

    • 404 Media ☛ Facebook Is Being Overrun With Stolen, AI-Generated Images That People Think Are Real

      In many ways, this is a tale as old as time: people lie and steal content online in exchange for likes, influence and money all the time. But the spread of this type of content on Facebook over the last several months has shown that the once-prophesized future where cheap, AI-generated trash content floods out the hard work of real humans is already here, and is already taking over Facebook. It also shows Facebook is doing essentially nothing to help its users decipher real content from AI-generated content masquerading as real content, and that huge masses of Facebook users are completely unprepared for our AI-generated future.

    • El País ☛ Elon Musk and his conspiracy-laden leap to the extreme-right

      It’s also valuable to understand how Musk has fallen into the most absurd and toxic conspiracies. “You can be the richest man in the world and have an entire social media network at your disposal… and yet be completely unable to distinguish fact from fiction. He chooses to live in a fantasy land of false beliefs,” explains Jay Van Bavel, a psychologist at NYU who specializes in social identity. Musk has questioned the Covid-19 pandemic and believes in the existence of a secret elite — he of all people, who has the greatest fortune and direct access to any ruler — with dark plans to replace white people. “Throughout 2022, he went from benign praise of [centrism] to furious musings about how [woke ideology] and the censorship imposed by media elites are an existential threat to humanity,” notes a biography of Musk, published in September 2023 by Walter Isaacson.

    • MIT Technology Review ☛ Get ready to fight misinformation in 2024. Eric Schmidt has advice.

      The role of Facebook and others has conditioned our understanding of social media as centralized, global “public town squares” with a never-ending stream of content and frictionless feedback. Yet the mayhem on X (a.k.a. Twitter) and declining use of Facebook among Gen Z—alongside the ascent of apps like TikTok and Discord—indicate that the future of social media may look very different. In pursuit of growth, platforms have embraced the amplification of emotions through attention-driven algorithms and recommendation-fueled feeds.

    • New York Times ☛ Illicit Content on Elon Musk’s X Draws E.U. Investigation

      The European Union announced a formal investigation Monday into X, the social media platform owned by Elon Musk, accusing it of failing to counter illicit content and disinformation, a lack of transparency about advertising and “deceptive” design practices.

      The inquiry is perhaps the most substantial regulatory move to date against X since it scaled back its content moderation policies after Mr. Musk bought the service, once known as Twitter, last year. The company’s new policies have led to a rise in incendiary content on the platform, according to researchers, causing brands to scale back advertising.

    • France24 ☛ EU launches 'illegal content' probe into Elon Musk's X over Israel-Hamas war disinformation

      "Today's opening of formal proceedings against X makes it clear that, with the DSA, the time of big online platforms behaving like they are 'too big to care' has come to an end," said the bloc's digital enforcer, EU commissioner Thierry Breton.

      "We will now start an in-depth investigation of X's compliance with the DSA obligations concerning countering the dissemination and amplification of illegal content and disinformation in the EU, transparency of the platforms and design of the user interface."

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ EU launches probe into Elon Musk's X platform

      The European Union has launched "formal infringement proceedings" against social media firm X, formerly known as Twitter, Commissioner Thierry Breton said on Monday.

      The EU suspects X of failing to counter illegal content and disinformation.

    • India Times ☛ EU targets Elon Musk's X in first illegal content probe under Digital Services Act

      Earlier this year X launched its "Community Notes" feature, which allows users to comment on posts to flag false or misleading content, in effect crowd-sourcing fact checking to users rather than a dedicated team of fact checkers.

      The probe will also examine different aspects of the company's business including the data access which X provides to researchers.

    • India Times ☛ Deepfakes a ticking bomb for video KYCs; Indian startups cut 28,000 jobs in brutal 2023

      Starting the debate: Nithin Kamath, the chief executive of Zerodha, one of India’s largest stockbrokers, took to social media to post a deepfake image of himself and pose questions about how it can impact the finserv industry.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • RFA ☛ Silence, inaction enable Hong Kong police bounties, says activist

    Wanted activist Frances Hui calls for multilateral cooperation to counter Beijing's overseas infiltration.

  • RFA ☛ Blasted by “little pinks,” Tokyo restaurant hits back with Winnie-the-Pooh

    Owner switches tactics after being inundated with complaints about banning Chinese and Korean customers.

  • Reason ☛ Legislators Don't Have First Amendment Right Not to Show Up to Legislature

    From Linthicum v. Wagner, decided Wednesday (correctly, I think) by Judge Ann Aiken (D. Ore.): The Oregon Constitution requires that each chamber of the Oregon legislature have a quorum of two-thirds of the members to conduct business. Or. Const. art IV, § 12.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Detained Hong Kong activist Chow Hang-tung allegedly in solitary confinement again after receiving ‘too many letters’

    Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Chow Hang-tung, who has been detained for over two years, has reportedly been placed in solitary confinement after receiving “too many letters.”

  • RFA ☛ Police clamp down on carrying cell phones in public

    But it isn’t clear if it's an effort to guard state secrets, as the government claims, or simply an excuse for police to shake down people for bribes. Or both.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Diplomatic pressure builds over Hong Kong democrat Jimmy Lai’s security trial

    The trial has become a diplomatic focal point.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Sedition charge against Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai ‘out of time,’ defence says as security trial starts

    The High Court case, which is expected to last 80 days, is being held at the West Kowloon Law Courts Building, a bigger facility to accommodate huge interest in the case. Large numbers of police officers were stationed inside and outside the court building, part of enhanced security arrangements that also saw a bomb disposal van parked across the street.

  • [Repeat] Hong Kong Free Press ☛ National security trial against Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai begins amid heavy police presence

    He faces up to life in prison if convicted.

    The charges have also been laid against three companies under Apple Daily’s parent company Next Digital – Apple Daily Limited, Apple Daily Printing Limited, and AD Internet Limited.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Chinese leader Pooh-tin Jinping praises Hong Kong’s John Lee for safeguarding nat. security, ‘patriots’ District Council race

    Chinese president Pooh-tin Jinping has praised Hong Kong leader John Lee for safeguarding national security and holding its newly overhauled District Council race, as the chief executive travelled to Beijing for a duty visit.

  • RFA ☛ Has HK security law improved the city’s business and legal environment?

    Verdict: Misleading

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • Tech Central (South Africa) ☛ 100 years of radio in South Africa – and still going strong

    Today – Monday, 18 December 2023 – marks 100 years since radio was introduced in South Africa, with the first experimental broadcast going out from Railway Headquarters in Johannesburg on 18 December 1923.

    Radio broadcasting began under the auspices of South African Railways, followed by the licensing of three more services: the Association of Scientific and Technical Societies in Johannesburg, the Cape Peninsular Publicity Association in Cape Town and the Durban Corporation, which began broadcasting in 1924.

  • BIA Net ☛ Impunity for threats against journalist reporting on ISIS women

    Gönültaş had received various threats following her report covering details from the lives of women on the periphery of the ISIS structure in İstanbul. She brought these threats to the attention of the public, and made a criminal complaint.

  • New York Times ☛ He Made a Magazine, 95 Issues, While Hiding From the Nazis in an Attic

    For more than two years, home for Curt Bloch was a tiny crawl space below the rafters of a modest brick home in Enschede, a Dutch city near the German border. The attic had a single small window. He shared it with two other adults.

    During that time, Bloch, a German Jew, survived in the Nazi-occupied Netherlands by relying on a network of people who gave him food and kept his secrets.

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • Techdirt ☛ Eighth Circuit: When Pretty Much Every Judge Thinks Your Warrant Is Bad, Good Faith Ain’t Gonna Save It

    Warrants that are short on things required by the Fourth Amendment — probable cause, specificity, the correct address, solid affidavits — are often given a free pass because law enforcement has plenty of options when it comes to sneaking around the edges of the Constitution.

  • Off Guardian ☛ Puzzling Out the Pattern of State Crimes

    In 2020, I gave a presentation that compared the unfolding events of Covid to the crimes of 9/11. In it I described eleven features and outcomes of the 9/11 crimes that were shared by the Covid events.

  • JURIST ☛ Uganda activists challenge anti-homosexuality law in Constitutional Court

    Ugandan LGBTQIA+ activists filed a lawsuit Monday in the country’s Constitutional Court to examine the constitutionality of the Anti-Homosecuality Act, signed by the country’s president earlier this year, that restricts the rights of LGBTIA+ individuals and imposes harsh penalties, including execution, for certain same-sex acts. 

  • International Business Times ☛ Taliban Sends Female Victims Of Gender-Based Violence To Prison

    The report also highlighted that the Taliban regime has shut down as many as 23 state-sponsored women's shelters because they feel that there is no need for such shelters in Afghanistan. These shelters were a ray of hope for women who had nowhere to go and no one to turn to before the Taliban took over the country.

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ Women attend Tehran derby but equality battle still rages

    But while women were welcomed into the stadium in Tehran, they were forced to enter through a separate entrance from the men and sit in a cordoned-off section.

  • Science Alert ☛ Bezos's Vision For 1,000 Einsteins Doesn't Take Into Account 37,000 Serial Killers

    The professors' research also showed a steady decline in the number of serial killers, likely due to an increase in sophisticated surveillance technology since active serial killers peaked in the late 1980s.

  • Vice Media Group ☛ Homelessness In U.S. at Highest Level Since 2008 Financial Crisis, Federal Report Reveals

    HUD’s annual homelessness count, which is called the “Point In Time,” or P.I.T., count, is not a count of all cases of homelessness throughout the year, but a snapshot of who was homeless on a single day in the last ten days of January.

  • EFF ☛ Digital Rights Updates with EFFector 35.16

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • India Times ☛ India to allot satellite [Internet] airwaves without auction in win for Musk

    The proposal was included in a new draft bill for the telecommunications sector, which seeks to replace the 138-year old Indian Telegraph Act that currently governs the sector. The bill was tabled for approval in parliament on Monday. While Starlink and its global peers like Amazon's Project Kuiper, and the British government-backed OneWeb would rejoice in the move, it is a setback to Mukesh Ambani, Asia's wealthiest, who runs Indian telecom giant Reliance Jio.

  • Zimbabwe ☛ Not just Starlink, it’s competitors knocking on Zim’s door. Govt says they are welcome

    It is a commemoration of the establishment of the African Telecommunications Union. The union, a special arm of the African Union, exists to promote the development of telecommunications and ICT in Africa.

  • Zimbabwe ☛ Not just Starlink, its competitors knocking on Zim’s door. Govt says they are welcome

    Yesterday, Zimbabwe celebrated the African Telecommunications/ICT Day. The rest of Africa celebrated it on the 7th of December but better late than never, I guess. It is a commemoration of the establishment of the African Telecommunications Union.

• Digital Restrictions (DRM)

  • Trail Of Bits ☛ A trail of flipping bits

    Trusted execution environments (TEE) such as secure enclaves are becoming more popular to secure assets in the cloud. Their promise is enticing because when enclaves are properly used, even the operator of the enclave or the cloud service should not be able to access those assets. However, this leads to a strong attacker model, where the entity interacting with the enclave can be the attacker. In this blog post, we will examine one way that cryptography involving AES-GCM, ECDSA, and Shamir’s secret sharing algorithm can fail in this setting—specifically, by using the Forbidden attack on AES-GCM to flip bits on a private key shard, we can iteratively recover the private key.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• CCIA ☛ 2023: Tech Research Roundup

  Wide-ranging public policy debates with the potential to massively impact tech companies made 2023 a critical year for industry research

• Patents

  • Software Patents

    • 9to5Mac ☛ Apple to halt Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 sales in the US this week

      The move comes following an ITC ruling as part of a long-running patent dispute between Apple and medical technology company Masimo around the Apple Watch’s blood oxygen sensor technology.

    • [Old] 9to5Mac ☛ ITC order could ban Apple Watch imports in the US, but Apple can still appeal

      Apple has been facing a long-running patent infringement battle with medical technology company Masimo over the Apple Watch. Apple has already suffered major defeats in court, as the US International Trade Commission (ITC) seems to agree that the Apple Watch infringes Masimo’s patents. Now the ITC has issued an order that could ban Apple from importing Apple Watch in the US.

    • The Register UK ☛ Apple pulls Watch Series 9, Ultra 2 from shelves in US after Masimo patent brawl

      Presidential vetoes of ITC decisions are incredibly rare; the last was in 2013 and also involved Apple. In that case, then-President Barack Obama vetoed an ITC decision to ban imports of iPhone and iPad models infringing on Samsung patents covering the handling of CDMA wireless signals.

    • New York Times ☛ Apple to Pause Selling New Versions of Its Watch After Losing Patent Dispute

      Mr. Kiani said that he was willing to sell Apple a chip that Masimo had designed to provide pulse oximeter readings on the Apple Watch. The chip is currently in a Masimo medical watch, called the W1, that is approved by the Food and Drug Administration. The device uses algorithms to process red and near-infrared light to determine how oxygen-rich is the blood in arteries.

• Trademarks

  • TTAB Blog ☛ TTAB Dismisses Opposition: Applicant Proved Priority Through Assignment of Common Law Mark After Proceeding Commenced

    Game Plan, Inc. opposed six applications to register the marks I AM MORE THAN AN ATHLETE and MORE THAN AN ATHLETE for clothing and entertainment services, claiming likely confusion with its registered mark I AM MORE THAN AN ATHELETE & Design (shown below) for "Charitable fundraising services by means of selling t-shirts to raise funds for educational and entertainment programs" and with its common law mark MORE THAN AN ATHLETE for t-shirts. Applicant UNIP (apparently owned in part by LeBron James) counterclaimed for cancellation of that registration on the ground of likelihood of confusion. The sole issue for the Board was priority, and UNIP came in first. Game Plan, Inc. v. Uninterrupted IP, LLC, Opposition No. 91244990 (December 14, 2023) [not precedential] (Opinion by Judge Mark A. Thurmon).

  • Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ The Battle Over Domicile Disclosure by Trademark Applicants

    In the pending appeal of In re Chestek, PLLC, No. 22-1843, a trademark applicant is opposing the USPTO requirement that all applicants must disclose their domicile address. This requirement, referred to as the “domicile address rule,” has been controversial since the USPTO adopted it in a 2019 rulemaking. For individuals, this rule requires an actual residential address.  See Requirement of U.S. Licensed Attorney for Foreign Trademark Applicants and Registrants, Final Rule, 84 Fed. Reg. 31498 (July 2, 2019).

• Copyrights

  • Michael Geist ☛ The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 189: The Year in Canadian Digital Law and Policy and What Lies Ahead in 2024

    Canadian digital law and policy in 2023 was marked by so many legislative battles that you needed a scorecard to keep track: Bill C-11 on online streaming, Bill C-18 on online news, and Bill C-27 on privacy and Hey Hi (AI) were the headliners, but there were notable developments on content regulation, competition, and a digital services tax.

  • Techdirt ☛ How Copyright Exceptionalism In France Risks Undermining The EU Legal System

    What’s particularly shocking is that one of the EU’s top legal advisors should acquiesce in this copyright exceptionalism that seeks to place the protection of a government-backed intellectual monopoly above the fundamental human right to privacy. Our only hope is that the CJEU itself recognizes how monstrous this would be, and refuses to do the same.

  • Digital Music News ☛ Spotify Criticizes France’s ‘Streaming Tax’ As ‘A Monumental Strategic Error,’ Warns of Possible Price Increase

    Antoine Monin, Spotify’s managing director for France and Benelux, recently criticized the music-specific tax at length when speaking with France Info. A number of other streaming-platform execs (from YouTube, TikTok, Apple, Deezer, and more) have also aired their grievances with the change, which is expected to go into effect in 2024.

  • Atlantic Council ☛ Can AI be creative? Global copyright laws need an answer.

    As generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools such as DALL-E, MidJourney, and Stable Diffusion accumulate millions of registered users, the tools’ image-creation abilities have sparked waves of criticism. Some critics point to the use of AI to generate illegal and nonconsensual images. Others speak about theft of intellectual [sic] property [sic], suggesting a kind of “automated plagiarism.” Image generators are trained on hundreds of thousands of images made by human creators. The Biden administration and the Group of Seven (G7) both affirm copyright protection as a fundamental requirement for trustworthy AI, but what this would mean for an artist whose work has been “stolen” to train these models remains murky at best.

    The evolving landscape of generative AI reveals shortcomings in current copyright regulations, including outdated notions of intellectual property and compensation as well as undue burdens on creators. The solution needs to be rooted in collective negotiation and international consensus.

  • Gizmodo ☛ Tolkien Estate and Amazon Win Court Case for Lord of the Rings Rights

    What’s hilarious is that the writer decided to write a whole new series inspired by Tolkien’s work, which was a planned seven-part series, without the authorization of the Tolkien estate. With the release of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, Polychron sued both Amazon and the Tolkien estate. In this original filing he claimed that the Prime Video show had lifted from his sequel and infringed on the copyright of his work. Yeah, really.

  • Variety ☛ ‘Lord of the Rings’: Amazon and Tolkien Estate Win Copyright Lawsuit Over TV Show, Copycat Book

    Amazon and the Tolkien estate have emerged victorious in a multi-pronged legal battle over “The Lord of the Rings” franchise.

    In April author Demetrious Polychron published a book called “The Fellowship of the King” which he claimed was a sequel to “The Lord of the Rings.” He planned for the book to be the first in a seven-part series.

    The author then filed suit against both Amazon and the Tolkien estate, claiming the streaming series “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” had borrowed from his sequel and infringed his copyright.

    It can now be reported for the first time that a California judge summarily dismissed Polychron’s lawsuit with prejudice in August.

  • Copyright, Piracy, and the bleak future of The Internet Archive

    Lunduke's Big Tech Show - Dec 19, 2023

  • Torrent Freak ☛ Internet Archive: Digital Lending is Fair Use, Not Copyright Infringement

    Internet Archive has filed its opening brief in its appeal of a court ruling which found its digital lending program copyright-infringing. The Archive believes the decision should be reversed on the grounds that its lending activities amount to fair use. Founder Brewster Kahle believes the legal battle is vital for the future of all libraries in the United States and around the world.

  • Techdirt ☛ Internet Archive Files Opening Brief In Its Appeal Of Book Publishers’ Win

    A few weeks ago, publishing giant Penguin Random House (and, yes, I’m still confused why they didn’t call it Random Penguin House after the merger) announced that it was filing a lawsuit (along with many others) against the state of Iowa for its attempt to ban books in school libraries. In its announcement, Penguin Random House talked up the horrors of trying to limit access to books in schools and libraries:

  • Atlantic Council ☛ Can Hey Hi (AI) be creative? Global copyright monopoly laws need an answer.

    Advances in generative artificial intelligence have revealed serious shortcomings in global copyright monopoly laws.

  • Digital Music News ☛ Universal Music Group Says Hey Hi (AI) Fraudsters Are Selling Fake ‘Pre-Release’ Tracks for As Much As $30,000

    Fraudsters are utilizing Hey Hi (AI) to sell unauthorized soundalike tracks, billed as genuine pre-releases from commercially prominent acts, for as much as a staggering $30,000 a pop, according to Universal Music Group (UMG).

• Gemini* and Gopher

  • Personal/Opinions

    • 🔤SpellBinding — BCEGNIH Wordo: PIETY

    • LIFO vs FIFO

      When you’re in a little room and you’re working on something good, you might find something else that you also want to do.

      Now, there are two ways to go about that.

      One, which I’ll call “fifo”, is to note the new thing and then finish the original thing to the best of your ability.

      The second, “lifo” is a good pet name for it, is to just immediately go up and start working on the new thing.

    • Christmas boxes 🎅

    • Some Recent Thoughts

      Been seeing a lot of your boys lately as we celebrate the Yule. Of course, my kids, Maggie, and I are thinking of you so much these days because it is hard to celebrate without you. Also, this is the time of year when you ended up in the hospital. I retrace what I was doing each of these days two years ago as I sat by your side while you tried to get better. I think about the times when you made no sense. I think about the times when you did and how we never quite touched on your regret and sadness. I always wish we would have. I only imagine it was there because it went unsaid.