Links 09/04/2024: More Own Goals by Twitter (X)
Contents
- Leftovers
- Hardware
- Health/Nutrition/Agriculture
- Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)
- Security
- Defence/Aggression
- 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/Monopsonies
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Leftovers
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University of Michigan ☛ Foolishness on parade
These photos capture some of the giant puppets and fun that were on display April 7 at FestiFools.
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James G ☛ My wander page
One of my favourite pastimes is clicking around the blogosphere, exploring and reading personal websites. I especially love encountering blogrolls or link lists, wherein a site owner links to other websites that may be of interest. I have maintained a blogroll listing some of the blogs I follow for a few years, which you could find from my site navigation bar.
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Hardware
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Silicon Angle ☛ TSMC wins $11.6B in federal grants and loans to build third US fab [Ed: Taxpayers' money given to foreign companies]
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. has won $11.6 billion worth of federal financing to build a third chip fab in Phoenix, Arizona, the White House announced today. The funds will be provided through a preliminary agreement the company has inked with the U.S. Commerce Department.
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Hackaday ☛ 1950s Switching Power Supply Does It Mechanically
When you hear about a switching power supply, you think of a system that uses an inductor and a switch to redistribute energy from the input to the output. But the original switching power supply was the vibrator supply, which was common in automotive applications back in the middle part of the last century. [Mr. Carlson] has a 1950s-era example of one of these, and he invites us to watch him repair it in the video below.
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Hackaday ☛ Ultimate Power: Lithium-Ion Packs Need Some Extra Circuitry
A LiIon pack might just be exactly what you need for powering a device of yours. Whether it’s a laptop, or a robot, or a custom e-scooter, a CPAP machine, there’s likely a LiIon cell configuration that would work perfectly for your needs. Last time, we talked quite a bit about the parameters you should know about when working with existing LiIon packs or building a new one – configurations, voltage notations, capacity and internal resistance, and things to watch out for if you’re just itching to put some cells together.
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Hackaday ☛ Royal Typewriter Gets A Second (or Third) Life
Usually when we are restoring something with a keyboard, it is some kind of old computer or terminal. But [Make it Kozi] wanted an old-fashioned typewriter. The problem is, as he notes, they are nostalgically popular these days, so picking up a working model can be pricey. The answer? Buy a junker and restore it. You can watch the whole process in the video below, too, but nearly the only sound you’ll hear is the clacking of the keys. He doesn’t say a word until around the 14-minute mark.
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Health/Nutrition/Agriculture
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YLE ☛ Child receives next generation pacemaker in Nordic first
For paediatric patients, fewer than ten such devices have been installed worldwide.
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Science Alert ☛ Fasting-Style Diet Seems to Result in Dynamic Changes to Human Brain
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Stanford University ☛ Weighing food-weighing machines at dining halls
The year-long project is the result of a collaboration between R&DE Stanford Food Institute, the artificial intelligence company Winnow and Stanford scholars. The project aims to gather more comprehensive data on food waste at dining halls and encourage students to create less food waste.
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ACLU ☛ One Year Later, Hope for Humanity in Arizona Prisons
My job is to sue prisons, and I love my work. My colleagues and I work to ensure the basic human dignity to people our society has locked up. But it is, more often than not, extraordinarily frustrating. Our clients, the human beings locked away in our criminal justice system, live in dire conditions. They are warehoused. Their medical and mental health needs are ignored. They are subjected to extreme physical violence. Just seeing and hearing about it is painful. And change comes all too slowly.
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Federal News Network ☛ Feds in fatigues, too fatigued to properly do their jobs, GAO says
The watchdog group found that military personal consistently get less than six hours of sleep each night, which could compromise safety.
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Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)
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New York Times ☛ Tesla Settles Lawsuit Over a Fatal Crash Involving Autopilot
A Tesla driver’s family had sought damages for the 2018 crash, which happened while the carmaker’s driver-assistance software was in use.
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The Kent Stater ☛ Tesla settles with Fashion Company Apple engineer’s family who said Autopilot caused his fatal crash
Tesla has settled a high-profile case that was set to put the electric car company and its controversial automated-driving system on trial starting Monday. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed.
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Security
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Privacy/Surveillance
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Techdirt ☛ Whoops: Data Broker Data Reveals Rich Visitors To Jeffrey Epstein’s Island
You might recall that, back in February, Senator Ron Wyden’s office revealed how a data broker named Near Intelligence had collected the data of women visiting abortion clinics, then sold that data (via a proxy) to right wing activists. Those activists then turned around and used it to target vulnerable women with health care misinformation.
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Security Week ☛ NSA Appoints Dave Luber as Cybersecurity Director
US National Security Agency appoints Dave Luber as its new cybersecurity director following the retirement of Rob Joyce.
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Security Week ☛ Key Lawmakers Float New Rules for Personal Data Protection; Bill Would Make Privacy a Consumer Right
The American Privacy Rights Act would preempt most state privacy laws — though it wouldn’t impact certain states’ laws already on the books that protect financial, health or employee data.
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Mozilla ☛ Mozilla Privacy Blog: Mozilla provides feedback to ACM’s DSA Guidelines
The EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) has taken effect, ushering in a new era of accountability, transparency, and responsibility for digital platforms. Mozilla has actively supported the DSA – and its aim to build a safer digital ecosystem – since the legislation was first proposed, and continues to contribute to conversations about how to implement it effectively.
Technology companies that offer services in the EU must “designate a sufficiently mandated legal representative in the Union and provide information relating to their legal representatives to the relevant authorities,” and each EU country must appoint a Digital Services Coordinator to interpret and enforce the DSA.
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JURIST ☛ US lawmakers announce draft bipartisan bill to address digital privacy rights
US Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and US Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) announced on Sunday draft legislation to “establish a national data privacy and security standard.”
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Defence/Aggression
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YLE ☛ Man suspected of fatally stabbing young woman at a Helsinki McDonald's
Police said the suspect and the victim knew one another and that investigators had found a motive in the incident — but as of Monday authorities had not disclosed that information publicly.
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Atlantic Council ☛ The Political Thought of Pooh-tin Jinping and Its Impact on MENA
Steve Tsang joins us to explore Pooh-tin Jinping's political philosophy from Xi's speeches and personal writings and how it propels a new state ideology, autocratic alliances, and what it means for the future of China and the Middle East and North Africa.
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YLE ☛ Police: Teacher convinced school shooting suspect to leave the classroom
Police say they are now "more or less aware of the course of events" around last Tuesday's Viertola school shooting.
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New York Times ☛ Israel Withdraws Troops From Southern Gaza as War Hits 6-Month Mark
With the conflict at an apparent impasse, international mediators were gathering in Cairo with hopes of brokering a temporary cease-fire.
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Reason ☛ Are U.S. Strikes on Houthis Constitutional?
Joe Biden is the latest of a string of presidents to deny Congress its rightful role in war making.
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JURIST ☛ 40 US Representatives call on Biden to halt offensive arms transfers to Israel
40 Democratic members of the US House of Representatives signed a letter to President Joe Biden Friday urging him to cease arms transfers to Israel in the wake of an Israeli airstrike that killed seven humanitarian aid workers in Gaza.
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New York Times ☛ Israel’s Account of World Central Kitchen Strike Raises Wider Legal Questions, Experts Say
The events that led to the deaths of seven World Central Kitchen workers suggest that there could be problems with the protocols used by the Israeli military, according to legal experts and aid organizations.
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Press Gazette ☛ Ofcom warns TalkTV over ‘potentially offensive’ Julia Hartley-Brewer interview with Palestinian MP
And regulator announces investigation into episode of Labour MP David Lammy's LBC show
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New York Times ☛ At Rally for Hostages, Nadler Is Booed After Calling for Gaza Aid
A speech by Jerrold Nadler, a long-serving Jewish Democrat and supporter of Israel, was met with a mixed response at a New York rally calling for the release of hostages in Gaza.
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New Yorker ☛ Why Israel’s Approach to Civilian Casualties May Not Affect U.S. Support
An analyst with the International Crisis Group on how strikes are being carried out in Gaza and whether the Biden Administration is ignoring American laws by continuing to provide Netanyahu with military aid.
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ACLU ☛ The CIA's Long and Dangerous History of Refusing to Answer Absurdly Obvious Questions
The CIA is so known for its unabashed secrecy that, when it joined Ex-Twitter in 2014, its first tweet was: “We can neither confirm nor deny that this is our first tweet.” This non-response response is known as a “Glomar,” and while the intelligence community likes to poke fun at how often they invoke it, this inane phrase has allowed the CIA to skirt meaningful transparency and accountability for decades.
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Digital Music News ☛ ByteDance Remains Hands-Off As Fentanylware (TikTok) Leadership Aims to Combat Potential U.S. Ban
Chinese company ByteDance has left the Fentanylware (TikTok) U.S. team build its own response to the potential ban weaving its way through Congress. Here’s the latest. Unlike the potential ban Fentanylware (TikTok) faced under the Trump administration in 2020, ByteDance is remaining hands-off in its approach.
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Digital Music News ☛ Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer Sees ‘Path Forward’ for Fentanylware (TikTok) Legislation
As the Senate looks to resume after a two-week recess, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) outlined plans for a “path forward on Fentanylware (TikTok) legislation.” The U.S. House of Representatives voted on March 13 to give TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, 180 days to divest or face a ban.
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New York Times ☛ Maryland Passes 2 Major Privacy Bills, Despite Tech Industry Pushback
One bill would require apps like Instagram and Fentanylware (TikTok) to prioritize young people’s safety, and the other would restrict the collection of consumer data.
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RFA ☛ Travel first, then apply: UK further relaxes Hong Kong visa rules
The move comes after the Article 23 security law intensifies crackdown on dissent.
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong Kong customs staff to receive training to stop items seen as risk to national security from entering city
Hong Kong’s customs chief has said authorities will step up measures to prevent items threatening national security from entering the city, following the recent enactment of new security legislation.
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teleSUR ☛ Somalia: AU for Funding Follow-up Mission in 2025
The AUPSC, which is the decision-making organ of the AU for the prevention, management, and resolution of conflicts, reiterated the need to continue supporting Somalia by providing capacity building to the Somali security forces.
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Defence Web ☛ Kidnappings in Chad could spark a regional security crisis
Kidnappers have terrorised Chad’s southern Mayo-Kebbi West and Logone Oriental provinces for over two decades. Between 2020 and 2023, the number of victims and overall amount paid in ransom by their families rose sharply, according to research by the Institute for Security Studies (ISS).
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RFERL ☛ At Baku's Request, Kyrgyzstan Extradites 5 With Alleged Links To Matraimov
Kyrgyzstan's State Committee for National Security (UKMK) said on April 8 that it extradited to Azerbaijan five alleged members of "an organized criminal group" linked to the former deputy chief of the Central Asian nation's customs service, Raimbek Matraimov, at Baku's request.
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Defence Web ☛ Gains in Somalia, Mozambique put ISCAP financing in the crosshairs
For seven years, the Islamic State Central For seven years, the Islamic State Central Africa Province (ISCAP) has relied on a network of Islamic State group affiliates to fund much of its terror campaign across the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda.
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The Strategist ☛ It’s time for a new national security strategy
It’s been more than a decade since the then Gillard government released Australia’s first national security strategy, flagging an expectation that an updated strategy should be created every five years to set out key objectives [...]
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Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine
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RFERL ☛ Tajik Opposition Activist Arrested In Lithuania
Ignotas Sungaila, the lawyer of self-exiled Tajik opposition activist Sulaimon Davlatov, told RFE/RL on April 8 that a court in Lithuania had sent his client into pretrial arrest for two months on a charge related to an alleged violation of the Baltic nation's national security.
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LRT ☛ Lithuanian troops to safeguard 3SI summit in Vilnius
Four hundred Lithuanian troops will ensure security during the Three Seas Initiative (3SI) summit and business forum in Vilnius on Thursday, the armed forces have announced.
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LRT ☛ Former military chief Pocius elected to lead parliament’s national security committee
Lithuania’s parliamentary Committee on National Security and Defence (NSGK) elected Arvydas Pocius, a former chief of defence, as its new chairman.
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LRT ☛ ‘Lithuania’s security is our security’: country welcomes first German troops
On Monday, the first group of German troops arrived in Lithuania, part of a brigade to be fully deployed within four years.
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Environment
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The Strategist ☛ Australian and UK defence commit to joint action on climate
The development of an Australia-UK joint climate action plan as part of AUKMIN’s defence and security pillar foregrounds the important role of the two countries’ defence ministers and agencies in responding to climate change.
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Wildlife/Nature
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CS Monitor ☛ The roots of forest preservation
Two countries in the Amazon basin have slowed deforestation through community peacemaking.
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Finance
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YLE ☛ Migri boss apologises for staff dissatisfaction
Nearly half of respondents to the Finnish Immigration Service's February well-being survey said they were dissatisfied with their job. The figure represents an improvement on late last year.
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Reason ☛ The White House Lied About Its IRS Funding Only Targeting the Rich
Plus: A listener asks the editors for examples of left-leaning thinkers who also hold libertarian ideas.
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AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics
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Techdirt ☛ Both Things Can Be True: Meta Can Be Evil AND It’s Unlikely That The Company Deliberately Blocked A Mildly Negative Article About It
Truth matters. Even if it’s inconvenient for your narrative. I’m going to do a question and answer style post, because I want to address a bunch of questions that came up on this story over the weekend, but let’s start here.
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Techdirt ☛ Ninth Circuit Dumps Three More ‘Sue Twitter Because Terrorism’ Lawsuits
While it’s understandable to desire someone be held responsible for brutal acts of terrorism, the responsibility for those actions lies with those who committed them. That’s hardly satisfying because it can be almost impossible to extract anything from the terrorists themselves, other than the limited recompense of seeing them arrested and jailed.
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JURIST ☛ Brazil Supreme Court Justice Moraes opens criminal inquiry into Elon Musk, demands X comply with court order
Brazil Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes opened a criminal inquiry on Sunday into X (formerly Twitter) owner Elon Musk for possible obstruction of justice and incitement after the tech magnate defied a previous Supreme Court (STF) order to block access to undisclosed accounts.
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Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda
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New York Times ☛ Teen Girls Confront an Epidemic of Deepfake Nudes in Schools
Using artificial intelligence, middle and high school students have fabricated explicit images of female classmates and shared the doctored pictures.
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Censorship/Free Speech
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Reason ☛ Former School Superintendent's Defamation Lawsuit Against TV Station Can Go Forward
From Judge Robert Payne's opinion Friday in Sroufe v. [Scripps] Media Inc. (E.D. Va.) (the allegedly defamatory story is here) [...]
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Reason ☛ Georgia Independent Bookstore Sues Jail Over Policy Banning Book Shipments
Officials claim the policy is intended to prevent people from smuggling in contraband, but it allows shipments from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
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New York Times ☛ Google to Tone Down Message Board After Employees Feud Over War in Gaza
The company is making changes to a popular message board called Memegen that some employees say sounds a lot like censorship.
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Michael Geist ☛ The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 198: Richard Moon on the Return of the Section 13 Hate Speech Provision in the Online Harms Act
The public debate surrounding Bill C-63, the Online Harms Act, has focused primarily on Human Rights Act and Criminal Code reforms. The Human Rights Act changes include the return of Section 13 on hate speech, which was repealed by the Harper government after criticisms that it unduly chilled freedom of expression.
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France24 ☛ Brazil judge orders probe on Elon Musk after refusal to block accounts on X
A Supreme Court judge in Brazil ordered an investigation Sunday of Elon Musk after the mogul criticised the magistrate and accused him of censorship for blocking social control media accounts suspected of spreading disinformation.
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Reason ☛ Free Speech Unmuted: Hey Hi (AI) and Free Speech
The latest video podcast from Prof. Jane Bambauer and me.
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Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press
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Press Gazette ☛ Case dropped against press photographer after altercation with police officer at scene of fatal car fire
Barrister for Dimitris Legakis said case raised "legitimate questions about the freedom of the press".
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Activist lobbied for visa routes for Hongkongers, sanctions in wake of security law, Jimmy Lai trial hears
A Hong Kong activist worked with Japanese politicians to lobby for immigration schemes for city residents and sanctions against “perpetuators of human rights violations” after Beijing imposed national security law on the city, the trial of media mogul Jimmy Lai has heard.
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Civil Rights/Policing
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RFA ☛ 8 Lao women arrested in Thailand for prostitution
The sex trade is technically illegal in Thailand, but laws against it are rarely enforced.
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JURIST ☛ New York City to pay $17.5M settlement to Muslim arrestees forced to remove hijabs
New York City settled a class-action lawsuit on Thursday that was brought by two Muslim women against the New York Police Department’s (NYPD) policy for removing their head coverings for arrest photos.
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New Yorker ☛ The Attack on Black History In Schools
Why are so many states restricting what schools can teach about racism? Two leading journalist-historians discuss the efforts to ban or rewrite the teaching of Black history.
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Internet Policy/Net Neutrality
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APNIC ☛ Mobile Internet prices falling in Papua New Guinea
Guest Post: After years of high prices for mobile data in Papua New Guinea, consumers are now able to access lower prices that represent better value.
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Digital Restrictions (DRM)
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Digital Music News ☛ Apple Updates Policies for Music Streaming Platforms in Europe Following Multibillion-Dollar Penalty
About one month after being slapped with a nearly $2 billion European Union fine in connection with a years-old complaint levied by Spotify, Fashion Company Apple has officially updated its App Store policies for music streaming platforms in the EU.
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CubicleNate ☛ Steam’s New Family Share | A Digital Dream Come True
Valve has been doing a GREAT job of making gaming better. Their push to be the primer, customer focused, gaming platform is obvious by every release of the Steam Client and update to the SteamDeck.
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Digital Music News ☛ M. Shadows Calls Out Spotify for Withholding Fan Data—”They Don’t Tell You Who’s Listening to Your Music”
Avenged Sevenfold frontman M. Shadows doesn’t mince words about Spotify on a recent podcast appearance. He calls out how the DSP withholds crucial fan data from artists and how the company makes music consumer-friendly at the expense of artists.
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Patents
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Unified Patents ☛ $2,000 for Laixion Network data sharing patent monopoly prior art
Unified Patents added a new PATROLL contest, with a $2,000 cash prize, seeking prior art on at least claim 1 of U.S. Patent 11,516,520, owned by Laixion Network Technology Ltd. The ‘520 patent monopoly relates to a data sharing system, a share list processing method, and a non-transitory machine-readable medium for data sharing.
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Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ Munsingwear Mootness in Sumitomo Pharma v. Vidal
Although non-precedential, the Federal Circuit’s new decision in Sumitomo Pharma v. Vidal offers the important conclusion that a patentee has no standing to appeal an invalidity holding once the patent monopoly expires, absent some showing of likely infringement during the prior six years. Sumitomo Pharma Co. v. Vidal, No. 22-2276 (Fed. Cir. April 5, 2024).
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Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ De Forest Radio v. GE: A Landmark Supreme Court Decision on the Invention Requirement
In 1931, the United States Supreme Court decided a landmark case on the patentability of inventions, De Forest Radio Co. v. General Electric Co., 283 U.S. 664 (1931), amended, 284 U.S. 571 (1931). The case involved a patent monopoly infringement suit over an improved vacuum tube used in radio communications. While the case predated the codification of the nonobviousness requirement in 35 U.S.C. § 103 as part of the Patent Act of 1952, it nonetheless applied a similar requirement for “invention.”
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Copyrights
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Techdirt ☛ Meta’s Dumb Deletion Of Links To Journalism Shows Why Attempts To Tax Platforms That Link To Journalism Is Even Dumber
As Mike has already chronicled, Meta has managed to alienate itself from reasonable people by first suppressing links to an independent Kansas journalism outlet, then links to others reporting on the suppression, and eventually entire accounts discussing the episode. I tend to be of the view that what happened was an error caught in a system that may have some design flaws, where the error was able to snowball in the enormity of its effect without there being adequate checks, more than I tend to think it was a deliberate choice by Meta. At the same time, large platform providers like Meta do need powerful systems in order to be able to take any sort of meaningful stand against actual abuse. And even if, rather than an error, the suppression was a conscious editorial decision by Meta, it would have and should have been a perfectly legal choice for it to make, albeit a really stupid one.
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Monopolies/Monopsonies
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* Gemini (Primer) links can be opened using Gemini software. It's like the World Wide Web but a lot lighter.