Leftovers

• Science

  • New York Times ☛ Google’s Ex-CEO Backs Start-Up Approach to Big Telescopes for Space and Astronomy

    Eric and Wendy Schmidt are backing a start-up-like approach to building a giant space telescope and powerful ground observatories.

  • Hackaday ☛ Seeing Sound With A Laser

    You can hear sound, of course, but what if you could see it with a laser? That’s what [Goosetopherson] thought about, and thus a new project that you can see in the video below was born.

  • Hackaday ☛ Math Breakthrough Helps Your Feng Shui

    In 1966, a mathematician named [Leo Moser] proposed what sounds like a simple problem: What’s the largest shape you can move through a 1-meter corridor with a right-angle corner? Now, Korean mathematics whiz [Baek Jin-eon] claims to have solved the problem, nearly 60 years later.

  • Science Alert ☛ Gifted Dogs Learn New Toy Names by Eavesdropping on Their Humans

    Even without seeing the toy.

  • Science Alert ☛ Huge Study Links 99% of Heart Attacks And Strokes With 4 Risk Factors

    And we can modify them.

  • Science Alert ☛ Da Vinci's DNA Is Potentially in The Hands of Scientists

    "A threshold has been crossed."

  • Science Alert ☛ Astronomers Just Set a Record Watching The Sun's Most Violent Region

    "A milestone in solar physics."

  • Science Alert ☛ Record-Breaking Asteroid Spins So Fast It Should Tear Itself Apart

    You spin me round round...

  • Science Alert ☛ Can Drinking Your Pee Save Your Life in an Emergency?

    The disgusting truth.

• Hardware

  • CNX Software ☛ SECO’s COM Express Type 6 module features defective chip maker Intel Core Ultra Series 3 Panther Lake-H processor with up to 180 TOPS

    We have just covered Vecow’s new TGS-2000 series of Edge Hey Hi (AI) computers built around Intel’s new Panther Lake-H SoCs, and now SECO has announced the SOM-COMe-BT6-PTL, a COM Express Type 6 Basic module which supports the higher-end 16-core Core Ultra X9 series processors and can deliver up to 180 TOPS of Hey Hi (AI) performance.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • New Yorker ☛ What “The Pitt” Taught Me About Being a Doctor

    It’s as if the show’s creators absorbed every important conversation in health care today—and somehow transfigured it into good television.

  • Science Alert ☛ New Breakthrough to Restore Aging Joints Could Help Treat Osteoarthritis

    'We are very excited'

  • Bridge Michigan ☛ Judge: Michigan bid to rebuild mental health care has ‘significant conflicts’

    A judge is asking the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services to revise its ‘competitive procurement process’ as it sets out to restructure its Medicaid-supported mental health programs.

  • Futurism ☛ Horrendous Things Happen When You Quit Zyn Cold Turkey

    "I was afraid I'd lost my mind."

  • Federal News Network ☛ House passes bill to extend health care subsidies in defiance of GOP leaders

    The House has passed legislation that extends expired health care subsidies for those who get coverage through the Affordable Care Act.

  • LRT ☛ Locals resist planned military range in Kapčiamiestis despite Defence Ministry assurances

    Plans to establish a new military training ground in southern Lithuania have met resistance from local residents. Government and military officials are trying to assuage their concerns, while claiming “misinformation” is what’s fuelling fears about environmental and health hazards.

  • New York Times ☛ Runway Wall Caused All the Deaths in 2024 South Korean Plane Crash, Report Says

    A computer simulation ordered by the government showed that everyone on board would have survived if the concrete berm had been made of materials that easily broke apart.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Jeju Air crash victims could have all survived without concrete barrier: South Korean lawmaker

    A simulation by a structural engineering institute found the aircraft could have breached a fence with minor injuries.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Buying time: How outsourcing housework became survival strategy for young South Koreans

    It is a method of preserving time and mental health in a society that rarely slows down.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Fire breaks out near Osaka’s landmark Tsutenkaku Tower; no injuries

    The operator of the 108m tower said the outdoor observatory and other facilities were unaffected by the incident.

  • The Straits Times ☛ China urges Nestle to work quickly on baby formula recall

    The country is the world’s largest infant formula market.

  • Futurism ☛ Fentanyl Overdose Deaths Are Now Falling Sharply, and You’ll Never Guess Why

    Incredible.

  • Marcy Wheeler ☛ Annals of Sanewashing: NYT Labels Convicted Felon’s Confession of Psychological Unfitness as Leadership

    The NYT committed literal sanewashing in the latest of its series of stories bragging that four journalists got to watch Convicted Felon ramble for two hours: It described Convicted Felon's pathological need to possess things as instead a vision of leadership.

  • Hackaday ☛ Fighting Food Poisoning With A Patch

    Food poisoning is never a fun experience. Sometimes, if you’re lucky, you’ll bite into something bad and realize soon enough to spit it out. Other times, you’ll only realize your mistake much later. Once the tainted food gets far enough into the digestive system, it’s too late. Your only option is to strap in for the ride as the body voids the toxins or pathogens by every means available, perhaps for several consecutive days.

• Proprietary

  • Qt ☛ GUI for Embedded Applications: Expert Design Insights & Trends

    Modern embedded devices are ubiquitous, found in a wide range of applications, including medical equipment, automotive dashboards, and industrial control systems. Yet creating an effective GUI for embedded applications remains one of the most challenging aspects of product development. We recently hosted a webinar featuring four industry veterans with over 60 years of combined experience to discuss the realities of embedded GUI design, what's working, what's still broken, and where the field is headed.

  • VideoLAN ☛ VLC for iOS, iPadOS and tvOS 3.7.0

    Alongside the 3.0.23 release for desktop, VideoLAN and the VLC team are publishing a larger update for Apple's mobile platforms to include the latest improvements of VLC's 3.0 branch plus important bug fixes and amendments for the 26 versions of the OS. Previously, we added pCloud as a European choice for cloud storage allowing direct streaming and downloads within the app.

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI) / LLM Slop / Plagiarism

    • Futurism ☛ New Hey Hi (AI) Device Pours Alcohol Directly Into the Void Where Your Soul Should Be

      It comes with "LLM-powered interactive conversation" and "unlimited Hey Hi (AI) generated recipes."

    • Futurism ☛ OpenAI Launches Abusive Monopolist Microsoft Chaffbot Health, Which Ingests Your Entire Medical Records, But Warns Not to Use It for “Diagnosis or Treatment”

      Wait, what?

    • Jussi Pakkanen ☛ Jussi Pakkanen: Hey Hi (AI) and money

      If you ask people why they are using Hey Hi (AI) (or want other people to use it) you get a ton of different answers. Typically none of them contain the real reason, which is that using Hey Hi (AI) is dirt cheap. Between paying a fair amount to get something done and paying very little to give off an impression that the work has been done, the latter tends to win.

      The reason Hey Hi (AI) is so cheap is that it is being paid by investors. And the one thing we know for certain about those kinds of people is that they expect to get their money back. Multiple times over. This might get done by selling the system to a bigger fool before it collapses, but eventually someone will have to earn that money back from actual customers (or from government bailouts, i.e. tax payers).

      I'm not an economist and took a grand total of one economics class in the university, most of which I have forgotten. Still, using just that knowledge we can get a rough estimate of the money flows involved. For simplicity let's bundle all Hey Hi (AI) companies to a single entity and assume a business model based on flat monthly fees.

    • Security Week ☛ ‘ZombieAgent’ Attack Let Researchers Take Over ChatGPT

      Radware bypassed ChatGPT’s protections to exfiltrate user data and implant a persistent logic into the agent’s long-term memory.

    • Futurism ☛ Google Settles With Families Who Say It Killed Their Teen Children

      Is it the ending of a dark chapter, or just the beginning of a long tragedy?

  • Social Control Media

    • Digital Music News ☛ TikTok Lands Marquee FIFA Partnership — Including World Cup Livestreams, Exclusive Content, and More

      TikTok is taking its livestream game to the next level under a partnership with FIFA, which has confirmed the app as its “first-ever preferred platform” ahead of the 2026 World Cup. Building on a 2023 Women’s World Cup tie-up, the new pact was just recently announced by Fentanylware (CheeTok) and FIFA.

• Security

  • Integrity/Availability/Authenticity

    • The Straits Times ☛ Why Cambodia gave up alleged scam kingpin Chen Zhi to China

      Presenting China with a high-value target in Chen might win Cambodia support in maintaining the ceasefire with Thailand.

    • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Scam tycoons making fortunes in Southeast Asia now in China’s crosshairs

      China is moving against the cyberscam tycoons making fortunes in Southeast Asia, driven by mounting public pressure and Beijing’s desire to keep control of judicial processes, analysts say. Across Southeast Asia, scammers lure internet users globally into fake romantic relationships and cryptocurrency investments.

• Defence/Aggression

  • The Straits Times ☛ South Korea’s former president Yoon faces possible death sentence request in trial

    The court is expected to rule in February, capping more than a year of political upheaval.

  • The Straits Times ☛ North Korea says another South Korean drone entered its airspace on Jan 4

    North Korea's state media KCNA called South Korea its "enemy most hostile".

  • New York Times ☛ New Cellphone Video Shows ICE Agent’s Perspective Before Minneapolis Shooting

    The Department of Homeland Security posted a clip of the video on social control media and said it was taken by the agent, who killed a 37-year-old woman in the shooting.

  • The Straits Times ☛ China tops Japanese public’s security worries in latest government poll

    The public’s concern about China’s growing military power overtook threats posed by North Korean nuclear missiles.

  • NYPost ☛ North Korea vows response as it accuses the South of flying drones across the border

    South Korea quickly denied the accusation.

  • The Straits Times ☛ China touts its governance model as Convicted Felon tests global norms

    A party official from China said socialism is increasingly favoured over capitalism.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ China: the indispensable partner of Maduro’s Venezuela

    China was the dominant buyer of Venezuelan oil under deposed president Nicolas Maduro, the fulcrum of a symbiotic partnership that propped up the South American economy and gave Beijing regional influence.

  • France24 ☛ China loses, but also gains a lot from Convicted Felon's Venezuela move, analyst says

    China has strongly condemned the US attack on Venezuela and capture of President Nicolas Maduro. Beijing had built a strategic partnership with the South American country, and been trying to expand its diplomatic and economic clout in the region. Steve Tsang, Director of the SOAS China Institute, tells FRANCE 24's Yuka Royer that China has a lot to lose but also to gain from the ongoing situation.

  • RFERL ☛ Live Blog: Thousands Reported Detained, Dozens Dead As Iran Protests Enter 14th Day

    Driven by soaring prices, inflation, and a plunging currency, Iranians have taken to the streets in what is the biggest threat to the Islamic regime in years. Journalists from RFE/RL’s Iranian service, Radio Farda, bring you the latest developments, analysis, and reporting from on the ground.

  • France24 ☛ Protests roil Iran despite nationwide internet blackout

    Protests sweeping across Iran neared the two-week mark Saturday, with the country’s government acknowledging the ongoing demonstrations despite an intensifying crackdown and as the Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world.

  • France24 ☛ Iranian regime's 'iron fist': Internet blackout as protests swell to hundreds of thousands

    Protests in Iran began days before the new year and have spread nationwide to more than 170 locations in 25 provinces. With increasing discontent over the faltering economy and protesters now chanting anti-regime statements, Gavin Lee welcomes Ali VAEZ, Director of Iran Project & Senior Advisor at the International Crisis Group. He is emphasising the seriousness of the political crisis in Iran and the current unrest, while noting the factors that prevent a full-fledged revolution.

  • New York Times ☛ Iran Convulsed in Second Night of Nationwide Protests

    Large marches against the government occurred despite an internet blackout and threats of a severe crackdown.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Indonesia’s plan to expand military role in counter-terrorism draws flak

    Civil society groups warn the move can undermine hard-won reforms and threaten civil liberties.

  • NYPost ☛ Idaho murder victims’ families file wrongful death lawsuit against Washington State University

    The families of the four University of Idaho students killed in a brutal 2022 stabbing attack have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Washington State University (WSU), alleging the school ignored repeated warning signs about Bryan Kohberger.

  • BIA Net ☛ Dozens detained in İstanbul protest against Aleppo clashes

    "These attacks on Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh are a continuation of previous attacks on Druze in Suwayda and Alawite settlements. These attacks are the product of a dark mindset targeting Syria’s multi-identity and multi-faith social fabric, aiming to make peoples enemies of one another," the protesters said in a statement.

  • France24 ☛ Syrian army says it controls Aleppo district, Kurdish forces deny claim

    The Syrian army on Saturday said it completed a "security sweep" of a Kurdish neighbourhood in Aleppo, but Kurdish forces denied losing control of the Sheikh Maqsud district. Government forces resumed a military operation in the neighbourhood overnight after a ceasefire between the army and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) collapsed.

  • New York Times ☛ What Is El Helicoide, the Infamous Torture Prison in Venezuela?

    As Venezuela’s interim authorities began to release political prisoners, some of their families raced to the notorious prison that symbolized Nicolás Maduro’s authoritarian rule.

  • Mexico News Daily ☛ Dihydroxyacetone Man: The US will ‘now’ start hitting Mexican land targets

    President Sheinbaum reacted by declaring sovereignty a priority, but reiterated that Mexico is willing to continue working cooperatively with the United States on security issues.

  • New York Times ☛ Venezuelans Decry Civilian Casualties. Pentagon Says It’s Unaware of Any.

    For all Venezuelans, the nighttime raid opened a period of deep uncertainty. For the families of those killed, it meant the grim task of burying their relatives.

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • New York Times ☛ With Missile Strike on Ukraine, Putin Delivers a Warning to Europe

      A nuclear-capable missile fired into Ukraine near Poland sent a message to Europe days after its leaders agreed to postwar security guarantees, Russian analysts said.

    • RFERL ☛ Russia Fires New Nuclear-Capable Ballistic Missile At Ukraine During Massive Attack

      Russia fired a new nuclear-capable ballistic missile with multiple warheads at western Ukraine as part of a barrage of missiles and drones that pounded Ukrainian cities, including Kyiv where at least 4 were killed and dozens wounded.

    • New York Times ☛ Russia Says It Used Nuclear-Capable Missile to Strike Western Ukraine

      The attack seemed intended to send a message to Europe as it strongly backs Kyiv in the peace talks.

    • New York Times ☛ What Is the Oreshnik Ballistic Missile Russia Used in a Strike on Ukraine?

      The attack was just the second time that Moscow had launched the nuclear-capable intermediate-range ballistic weapon.

    • New York Times ☛ Why Putin Went Quiet When Challenged by Convicted Felon Over Venezuela

      For the Russian leader, courting Hell Toupée to secure a favorable resolution in Ukraine, and possibly more, is far more important.

    • France24 ☛ 'Not what you see on the map': French ambassador to Ukraine challenges Russia's victory narrative

      Nearly four years into Russia's full-scale invasion, the war in Ukraine grinds on, and the search for a viable off-ramp looks increasingly narrow. Speaking to FRANCE 24’s Douglas Herbert, France's ambassador to Ukraine, Gaël Veyssière, delivers a pointed rebuttal to Moscow's battlefield narrative, warning that the Kremlin's perception and reality are increasingly at odds.

    • LRT ☛ Some Russians' businesses are turning 'Latvian' following the war in Ukraine

      Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the number of companies whose owners or ultimate beneficiaries have changed their declared citizenship from Russian or Belarusian has risen sharply. The most common new nationalities are Israeli, Latvian and that of Antigua and Barbuda, according to Latvian Radio.

    • France24 ☛ Russia joins Chinese and Iranian warships in South Africa naval drills

      In tonight's edition: Russian,Chinese, and Iranian warships arrive at  South Africa's ports for a week of naval exercises. Also, just one month after being rocked by a coup attempt, people head to polls in Benin this sunday for legislative elections. And Senegal become the first team to book their spot in semi-finals of the Africa Cup of Nations.

    • France24 ☛ Beyond the seized oil tanker Marinera: Growing fleet reflags to Russia

      The United States announced on Wednesday that it had “seized” the Marinera, an oil tanker with links to Venezuela, in the North Atlantic. During the US pursuit of this boat, the Marinera changed its name (from the Bella 1) and swapped out its former flag for the Russian flag. Turns out, this isn’t a first: experts say that Moscow has agreed to lend its flag and its protection to other so-called “dark fleet” ships attempting to circumnavigate the US blockade.

    • The Straits Times ☛ India’s Reliance in talks for US permit to buy Venezuelan oil, sources say

      India is facing Western pressure to cut Russian oil purchases.

• Environment

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • Bridge Michigan ☛ Invasive sea lamprey declining as control efforts in the Great Lakes resume

      Sea lamprey are an invasive species that feed on the blood and bodily fluids of fish. Their numbers in the Great Lakes rose during the COVID-19 pandemic but have dropped to pre-pandemic levels, according to a report.

• Finance

  • The Straits Times ☛ Cutlery, trays and coins: Rising silver prices send Malaysians hunting for ‘poor man’s gold’

    By the first week of 2026, the price of silver had surged over 150% compared with early 2025.

  • The Straits Times ☛ China sells the world on its duty-free Hainan island, amid a $1.2 trillion trade surplus

    Goods imported to Hainan cannot be shipped to other parts of China duty-free.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ China consumer prices rise at fastest pace since 2023

    Chinese consumer prices rose last month at their fastest pace in nearly three years, official data showed Friday, extending a period of growth following months of deflationary pressure in the world’s second-largest economy.

  • France24 ☛ After decades of negotiations, EU-Mercosur deal hinges on France and Italy

    Alberto Rizzi, Policy Fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, sheds light on the shifting European political calculus surrounding the long-awaited EU-Mercosur trade agreement. Italy’s recent pivot in favor of the deal reveals a strategic weighing of national economic benefits over protecting Italian farmers. Rizzi offers a nuanced view, cautioning against viewing this as a monolithic threat or panacea. At its heart, this is a case study in how modern democracies grapple with global interdependence and rural disenfranchisement.

  • Businesses without Workers

    I've just read Cory Doctorow's A World Without People and I came out a little disappointed.

    I mean, don't get me wrong, I love reading his essays (and fiction!), but I feel that sort of disappointment when at some point in the essay I get a feelling he will raise some point I wish would reach a wider audience, and then he doesn't.

    In this case, it was the contradiction in capitalists' wet dream of fully automating their businesses, running them without workers.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • New York Times ☛ GOP Seeks Some Distance From Convicted Felon as Midterm Election Year Opens

    The vote to open a war powers debate, a pair of attempted veto overrides and a split on health care suggested a greater appetite among Republicans to challenge the president.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Italy’s PM Meloni to visit South Korea for summit with its President Lee Jae Myung

    Ms Giorgia Meloni’s upcoming visit to South Korea, at Mr Lee Jae Myung’s invitation, will be the first by an Italian leader in 19 years.

  • The Straits Times ☛ China's top diplomat postpones visit to Somalia, arrives in Tanzania

    MOGADISHU, Jan 9 - China's top diplomat postponed what would have been a historic visit to Somalia, part of a tour of Africa aimed at bolstering strategic trade, the East African nation's foreign affairs ministry said on Friday.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Arrests reported, cross removed as China crackdown on unofficial churches grows

    A national crackdown on unofficial Christian organisations is growing in China.

  • New Yorker ☛ Is The Insurrectionist Creating the Conditions for Another World War?

    “What you’re seeing both abroad and at home are completely optional conflicts created by the character of the President,” Jane Mayer says.

  • New Yorker ☛ The Insurrectionist’s New Brand of Imperialism

    The historian Daniel Immerwahr says that Convicted Felon’s embrace of imperialist adventuring is not just about business interests—it’s an appeal to masculinity which “seems to sell.”

  • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

    • Press Gazette ☛ Named: 50 ‘experts’ and linked brands publishers should treat with caution

      Experts and brands associated with more than 1,000 likely faked stories.

    • Digital Music News ☛ MElon’s Hey Hi (AI) Chatbot Prevents Non-Paying Users from Image Generation Amid Deepfake Backlash

      MElon’s Hey Hi (AI) chatbot now prevents non-paying users from generating or editing images in the wake of global backlash over its sexualized deepfakes. Grok, MElon’s Hey Hi (AI) chatbot on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, no longer allows non-paying users to generate or edit images.

    • Scoop News Group ☛ Dems pressure Google, Fashion Company Apple to drop X app as international regulators turn up heat

      “There can be no mistake about X’s knowledge, and, at best, negligent response to these trends,” the lawmakers wrote to company executives.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • Digital Music News ☛ Russell Simmons Demands $100 Million from HBO As Defamation Suit Roils Onward

    Record exec Russell Simmons has filed a defamation lawsuit against HBO and parent Warner Bros. Discovery over the 2020 documentary On the Record. Legendary record executive and Def Jam Recordings co-founder Russell Simmons has filed a defamation claim against HBO over the documentary On the Record.

  • BIA Net ☛ Two pro-Kurdish news agencies' X accounts banned in Turkey

    Authorities cited the protection of national security as the reason for the censorship.

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • BIA Net ☛ Court acquits İstanbul Bar board in trial over statement on killed Kurdish journalists

    Eleven individuals stood trial for condemning an airstrike that killed two journalists in Syria in Dec 2024.

• Civil Rights / Policing / Accessibility

  • JURIST ☛ Rights group urges Canada to confront China’s heightened repression

    Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney will visit China from January 13 to 17, 2026. Human Rights Watch (HRW) stated that Carney should make Human Rights a key focus on this trip. Carney’s trip to China is significant because it is the first visit by a Canadian prime minister in more than eight years.

  • JURIST ☛ Watchdog warns UK protest restrictions undermine democracy and human rights

    Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported on Wednesday that UK authorities have “severely restricted” the right to protest, contravening international human rights obligations and creating an environment in which peaceful dissent can be treated as a criminal act.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Indonesia’s new sex laws could turn bedrooms into ‘Batman traps’ for the unwary: Analysts

    Indonesia’s new law makes adultery and living together outside marriage criminal offences.

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • APNIC ☛ BGP updates in 2025

    Geoff Huston explores changes to the stability of the routing system in 2025.

• Digital Restrictions (DRM)

  • Hackaday ☛ Bose SoundTouch Smart Speakers Get An Open Source Lifeline

    After initially announcing that Bose will completely turn off all ‘smart’ features in its SoundTouch series of speaker products, the company has seemingly responded to the wave of unhappy feedback with a compromise solution. Rather than the complete shutdown and cut-off that we reported on previously, Bose will now remove cloud support as its servers shut down, but the SoundTouch mobile app will get an update that gets truncated to just the local support functions. Bose also made the SoundTouch Web API documentation available as a PDF document.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• Patents

  • JUVE ☛ Regional Court Munich grants PI to Regeneron against generics in Eylea case [Ed: Patents killing people to make the rich even richer (making a killing)]

    Like Formycon, generics manufacturers Stada, Hexal, Celltrion and Advanz Pharma are now also prohibited from marketing their biosimilar containing the active ingredient aflibercept. This forms the basis of Regeneron’s ophthalmic drug Eylea, used to treat neovascular (wet) age-related macular degeneration and diabetic macular oedema.

• Trademarks

  • TTAB Blog ☛ In 2025, How Often Did the TTAB Affirm Section 2(e)(1) Mere Descriptiveness/Disclaimer Refusals?

    By my count, in 2025 the Board issued final decisions in 57 appeals from Section 2(e)(1) mere descriptiveness refusals or from disclaimer requirements based on mere descriptiveness. The Board affirmed 53 of the refusals and reversed four. That's an affirmance rate of about 93%. None of the opinions were deemed precedential.

• Copyrights

  • Digital Music News ☛ Salt-N-Pepa Lawsuit Against UMG Dismissed by Federal Judge Over Technical Contract Details

    Salt-N-Pepa’s copyright monopoly lawsuit against Universal to regain their masters was dismissed by a federal judge over technicalities in their contract. Cheryl “Salt” James and Sandra “Pepa” Denton have lost their copyright monopoly lawsuit against Universal Music Group (UMG) to regain their masters as iconic hip-hop Salt-N-Pepa. The duo asserted that UMG was holding their music “hostage”

  • Digital Music News ☛ Bad Bunny Faces $16 Million Infringement Lawsuit Over Allegedly Unlicensed Vocal Sample

    Bad Bunny was hit with a $16 million infringement lawsuit alleging that an unauthorized voice sample was used without authorization or compensation.

  • Digital Music News ☛ Los Lobos Files Dual Lawsuits Against Sony Music & Sony Pictures Over Alleged Non-Payment of Royalties From Films

    Los Lobos sues Sony Music and Sony Pictures in two separate lawsuits alleging non-payment of royalties for songs featured in the films La Bamba and Desperado.

  • Digital Music News ☛ MElon’s X Countersues Music Publishers and the NMPA, Alleging ‘Collusion’ and ‘Weaponizing’ Takedowns

    X is suing music publishers and the NMPA with allegations of “weaponizing” takedown requests and colluding to “coerce” the platform into licensing deals. MElon’s X has been embroiled in legal battles with music publishers united under the National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) since 2023.