Links 18/01/2025: Microsofters Upset at Microsoft's Ridiculous Rebrands (Excuse for Massive Price Hikes), Chaffbot Company ('Open'AI) Faces More Lawsuits
Contents
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Leftovers
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MWL ☛ 73: Brick Itself
I would really love to finish the first draft of the new Networking for Systems Administrators by the end of February. On a traditional network, the first address in a subnet is the network address and the subnet’s last IP is the broadcast address. These addresses were designed to be unusable.
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New Yorker ☛ How to Style Thrifted Clothes
Take those designer jeans and lay them on a baking sheet. Sprinkle lightly with sea salt.
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Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)
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Bryan Lunduke ☛ Apple Begs Shareholders to Let Them Continue Illegal DEl Policies
On February 25th, Fashion Company Apple Shareholders will vote on ending the company's illegal DEl policies.
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Windows Central ☛ Microsoft's dumbest rebrand in its near 50 year history just got even dumber | Windows Central
Microsoft Office is one of the world's most recognizable brands, used by billions. The first rebrand to "Microsoft 365" was dumb by itself, but yesterday, the firm made it even dumber.
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Pseudo-Open Source
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Openwashing
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Venture Beat ☛ Apache Hudi creator Onehouse debuts specialized runtime promising 30X faster data lakehouse queries
Onehouse tackles efficiency with new compute runtime that can accelerate queries across open table formats running across multiple vendors.
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Security
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Integrity/Availability/Authenticity
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France24 ☛ How an Hey Hi (AI) Brad Pitt conned a woman out of €850k, triggering online mockery
Hollywood A-lister Brad Pitt has put out a statement, after a French woman was swindled into sending her life savings - €850k - after being scammed by his Hey Hi (AI) likeness. The woman appeared on primetime television on French channel TF1, claiming the fraudster sent daily photos, videos and even IDs as Brad Pitt, claiming the money was needed for secret cancer treatment. Her story has unleashed a torrent of widespread cyberbullying, memes and mockery online. Vedika Bahl explains in Truth or Fake.
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Privacy/Surveillance
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AccessNow ☛ Two years on, Balgh remains a tool of repression in Iraq
Access Now, along with partner organizations, condemn the Iraqi authorities’ continued use of the Balgh platform to monitor online speech and curtail freedom of expression.
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Defence/Aggression
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JURIST ☛ UN Libya Support Mission alarmed by footage of brutal torture at Garnada detention facility
The UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) expressed alarm on Tuesday regarding disturbing footage that demonstrates Libya’s serious human rights violations in the Garnada detention facility. These violations include torture and ill-treatment of detainees.
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The Straits Times ☛ India achieves ‘historic’ space docking mission
It is the fourth country – after Russia, the US and China – to achieve the feat.
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Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine
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Meduza ☛ Trump’s Treasury pick says he would fully back tougher sanctions on Russia to end the war — Meduza
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Meduza ☛ Exiled Russian opposition politician Ilya Yashin says authorities raided his parents’ home in Moscow — Meduza
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LRT ☛ Belarusian opposition’s ‘passport’ sparks controversy over ‘Lithuanian symbol’
Asta Skaisgirytė, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda’s chief foreign policy adviser, says she sees no problem with the image of a knight on a horse featured on the Belarusian opposition’s “passports”. Her comment came after some conservative politicians criticised the document mock-up for featuring “Lithuanian symbols”.
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RFERL ☛ Belarusian State TV Airs Third Propaganda Film Targeting RFE/RL Journalists
Belarusian state broadcaster ONT has aired the third part of its propaganda series, Svaboda Slova (Freedom of Speech), about journalists with RFE/RL whom the regime of authoritarian ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka accuses of trying to "set Belarus on fire."
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Latvia ☛ What has changed on Latvian-Belarusian border with the fence?
Last summer, the fence on the border between Latvia and Belarus was completed. Platforms and paths have been built to ensure rapid movement of border guards in the marshy area of the border. What has changed with the new infrastructure? Latvian Radio went to find out on January 17.
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Latvia ☛ Baltic schools asked to contribute to Ukraine's victory
Students of Āgenskalns State Gymnasium in Rīga are launching the campaign "Schools for Victory" for the third time, calling for donations to be collected for the soldiers of the Ukrainian army.
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Is a video of a North Korean soldier captured by Ukraine digitally altered?
Verdict: No
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RFERL ☛ Britain To Initiate Talks With Poland On Pact To Protect Against ‘Russian Aggression’
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer was due in Warsaw on January 17 for talks with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk after making his first visit to Ukraine since becoming prime minister and signing a 100-year partnership agreement.
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New York Times ☛ Keir Starmer Vows Long-Term U.K. Partnership With Ukraine on Kyiv Visit
Prime Minister Keir Starmer signaled continued solidarity, with further U.S. support in question under a second Trump administration.
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Meduza ☛ ‘We need eyes and ears’ How the Russian military uses pro-war Telegram channels to recruit people in Europe to spy on NATO and Ukraine — Meduza
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Meduza ☛ ‘Different generations fighting fascism’ Kremlin officials want this year’s Victory Day spectacle to frame the Ukraine invasion as ‘the new Great Patriotic War’ — and they hope Western leaders will attend — Meduza
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Meduza ☛ The League of the Mighty Ukraine holds first soccer championship for amputees wounded in Russia’s war — Meduza
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Scoop News Group ☛ Microsoft catches Russian state-sponsored hackers shifting tactics to WhatsApp [Ed: Microsoft is not the security expert but the culprit; this is PR noise.]
Star Blizzard, known to be part of Russia’s FSB, moved schemes to the messaging platform last November.
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North Koreans show ‘superior combat readiness’ to Russian contractors: official
Captured Russians said North Korean equipment was far better than that of Russian contract soldiers.
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Meduza ☛ Moscow Victory Day parade reportedly to include North Korean soldiers — Meduza
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Meduza ☛ David Lynch, 1946 – 2025: The late filmmaker posted a message to Putin the day after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began — Meduza
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New York Times ☛ Azerbaijan’s Leader, Emboldened, Picks a Rare Fight With Putin
Russia’s president is said to have blamed birds or a Ukrainian drone for a Dec. 25 crash of an Azerbaijani plane. Azerbaijan says Russian air defenses were at fault.
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AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics
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New Yorker ☛ Joe Biden’s Farewell Speech: “An Oligarchy Is Taking Shape”
In his farewell address, a weary President Biden issues an essential warning.
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Censorship/Free Speech
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JURIST ☛ US Supreme Court weighs challenge to Texas adult website restriction
The Supreme Court of the United States heard oral arguments on Wednesday in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton, a case concerning a Texas law restricting access to websites with “sexual material harmful to minors.”
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Civil Rights/Policing
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AccessNow ☛ Tackling the “black snakes” undermining digital rights worldwide
As 2025 gets underway, Access Now’s new Executive Director, Alejandro Mayoral Baños, PhD, shares his reflections on the “black snakes” threatening the digital rights movement.
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AccessNow ☛ Human rights and justice must be at the heart of the upcoming Commission guidelines on the Hey Hi (AI) Act implementation
This statement was written by the Hey Hi (AI) Act civil society and the #ProtectNotSurveil coalitions following the EU Commission consultation on the Hey Hi (AI) Act.
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Licensing / Legal
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Rolling Stone ☛ Eight Figures for ‘The Big Bang Theory’? Inside TV Theme Songs
While “Whip It” is Devo’s best-known song, it’s far from lead singer and primary songwriter Mark Mothersbaugh’s most lucrative track over the past decade. That would be “Uncontrollable Urge,” which never appeared on the Billboard Hot 100, has no gold or platinum certifications, and only has about 5 million YouTube views and 30 million all-time streams on Spotify. (“Whip It” has four times as many YouTube views and nearly six times as many Spotify streams.)
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Kyle E Mitchell ☛ Provisional Guidance for Users of LLM-Based Code Generators
Mitchell is right that a comprehensive decision like that doesn’t exist yet. There are lawsuits in the courts that might give us something close, eventually. But experience suggests it will take some time, and also that clarity will likely come piecemeal, in decisions that feel incomplete and come laden with practical asterisks. That’s little consolation to devs like Mitchell, who just want to know what the rules are, so they can play their best honorable game.
I can’t usurp public authority, or pretend to perfectly foresee what those in robes will say. But here is what I would personally tell developers overall, right now, based on my own judgment and reading.
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Internet Policy/Net Neutrality
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Citizen Lab ☛ Cynthia Khoo joins Online Harms and Cyberbullying Town Hall Panel on CPAC
On December 14, 2024, Cynthia Khoo, senior fellow at The Citizen Lab, participated in a CPAC Town Hall in Ottawa on Online Harms and Cyberbullying. Khoo emphasized that regulating online abuse is essential to protecting freedom of expression, particularly for marginalized communities.
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APNIC ☛ Mobile Internet prices stable in Papua New Guinea
Guest Post: An analysis of PNG mobile Internet prices throughout 2024.
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Trademarks
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TTAB Blog ☛ Res Judicata Thwarts Applicant Seeking to End Run Prior Opposition by Limiting Services in Second Applications
Applying the age-old doctrine of res judicata (a/k/a claim preclusion), the Board sustained oppositions to registration of the marks MYSTIC PARKS and MYSTIC CITY for amusement park services, based on a final judgment in a prior proceeding that involved the same parties or their privy, and likelihood of confusion claims based on the same set of transactional facts as the claims in the this consolidated proceeding. Although the opposer did not plead res judicata, the Board decided that the issue had been tried by implied consent. Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community v. Adrenalin Technologies, LLC, Oppositions Nos. 91285546 and 91285548 (January 7, 2025) [not precedential] (Opinion by Judge Robert Lavache).
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Copyrights
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JURIST ☛ News organizations sue Proprietary Chaffbot Company over copyright infringement claims
Oral arguments began in federal court on Wednesday in a case between a coalition of news organizations led by The New York Times and OpenAI, the creator of the artificial intelligence tool ChatGPT, which alleges copyright infringement by OpenAI’s use of copyrighted material for machine learning.
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Monopolies/Monopsonies
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