Bonum Certa Men Certa

Defenders of Democracy and Free Speech Under Attack from Germany, AstroTurfers, and Maybe Microsoft

Camera sign



Summary: A summary of new reports that reveal a brutal, unethical system for information control and monopolies

THOSE GOOD folks from Wikileaks continue to show the world that juicy, truthful journactivism is far from dead. Having recently exposed the censorship plans from Australia, they also leaked ACTA drafts a few days ago and Glyn Moody, as usual, commends them.

Given that a draft is now available, and that others will doubtless follow, the best thing would be for for the ACTA nations to acknowledge that we live in different, more open times, and to embrace them. Let them release an official ACTA draft for everyone to comment on – and not just the chosen few that are permitted to walk the hallowed corridors of power.


Watch what is happening in Germany: Germany deletes WikiLeaks.de domain after raid

cording to claims of German registration authority DENIC, the Wikileaks.de domain has been sent to DENIC by the Internet domain registrar, "Beasts Associated" and therefore is "In Transit". The registrar claims this had happened as a consequence of "contract breach" by the domain owner. WikiLeaks has open questions that cannot be answered at this point in time. It also remains unclear whether the "breach of contract" is related to content on the website or administrative issues. An update will be posted as soon as we have all information required to assess the situation.


The raid was blunt enough, but there are no clear answers in this later case. What really was the cause?

Another detested process in the making is the patent deform bill, which puts to shame the need to change for the better. Watch this report from ACS which names the stakeholders.

A group representing Silicon Valley giants such as Microsoft, Google, Apple, and Cisco has also endorsed the measure. Similar patent reform legislation (H.R. 1260) is awaiting action in the House.


What about the small companies? Or consumers? Who are these laws for anyway? Shades of the ACTA, which similarly involves only giant companies and thus leaves all the rest completely in the dark and/or without ability to make substantial impact.

Mind another AstroTurf which is going for this reform (a Microsoft-esque AstroTurf).

Lobbyists Get Random Unsuspecting Groups To Rally Against Patent Reform



[...]

Well, it appears that the same thing is happening with patent reform. Wired has done a little digging, and was curious why an anti-communist Hungarian group, the Minutemen (vigilante border guards), and various religious groups have suddenly come out against patent reform. In pretty much all cases, the groups don't seem knowledgeable at all about the actual issues, and were basically told to "sign on" after being given a one-sided presentation that falsely claimed that patent reform was designed to harm American inventiveness and help foreign companies. The best explanation, however, goes to Laszlo Pasztor, the 87-year-old "honorary chairman" of the National Federation of American Hungarians, who is very much opposed to patent reform, though he seems rather confused why:

"It was in Chicago or Detroit, I can't remember. Somebody brought this up, I don't know for what reason... So I gave them permission to use my name."


Here is the seminal report from Wired. It gives another example.

When asked if we could talk to other members of the group to understand their perspective on patent reform, Pasztor replied that it will be the last year that the organization was going to be around. "I am a 87 and a half years old," he explained. "And our treasurer is 91 years old. Our chairman, who is a Roman Catholic priest, is so busy working on church issues in Ukraine and Slovakia, it is impossible to reach him."

Pasztor volunteered to get us more information once he reaches Washington. "I will try to reach the still living members of the board," he said.


While we're on this abominable subject of intellectual monopoly, watch this report about the Czech Presidency, which is sponsored by Microsoft, making another move to legalise software patents in Europe. It could be part of another mighty lobby.

Despite all odds, the present Czech EU Presidency has prepared another patent policy Document 8588/09 titled "Revised proposal for a Council Regulation on the Community patent". It conveys a revised Presidency proposal for a Council Regulation on the Community patent, based on recent discussions in the Working Party on Intellectual Property (Patents). Changes to the previous version of the proposal (Document 9465/08) are underlined. The Working Party will be invited to have a first exchange of views on this Working document at its meeting on 22 April 2009.


Don't let software patents pass without a democratic process.

"Small Software companies cannot afford to go to court or pay damages. Who is this software patent system for?" —Marco Schulze, Nightlabs Gmbh

Comments

Recent Techrights' Posts

Greener Pastures for Free Software Users
This coming week we'll publish many articles about GNU/Linux and technical means of/for user empowerment
Google News, Which We Call Gulag Noise, is Following the New York Times Into the Digital Graveyard
It merely gives an illusion of volume and instead of giving readers more stuff to read it wastes people's time
Over at Tux Machines...
yesterday's posts
Software Freedom is the Future and Microsoft is the Biggest Obstacle
GNU/Linux, at its roots, was all about Software Freedom
 
"Modern" Computing Sucks and Harms Computer Users
Reprinted with permission from Ryan Farmer
Red Windows
Red Hat is not into Free software
Richard Stallman Giving Talks in the Czech Republic and Germany This Week (Tomorrow's Talk is "Artificial Intelligence vs Language Models")
This past weekend he gave two talks in the Czech Republic
Companies Faking the True Number of Layoffs With Return-to-Office Mandates and Forced Relocation
we estimate that Microsoft cut about 30,000 so far this year, having cut many more jobs last year
Links 03/10/2023: Cellphones (Mobile Phones) Banned in Classrooms in England
Links for the day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, October 02, 2023
IRC logs for Monday, October 02, 2023
Daily Bulletins Coming Soon (Hopefully as Early as Next Week)
Today we finish testing IRC logs and their upload to Gemini, not just to IPFS
Links 02/10/2023: NUC, GTK Themes, and More
Links for the day
New Union Syndicale Articles About the European Patent Office
We'll probably get back to regularly writing about the EPO in the near future
If WordPress Knows Well Enough to Self-Host Its Podcast, Why Can't GNU/Linux Shows Do the Same?
For those who want videos and podcasts, here are today's latest additions from other sites
Richard Stallman Can Outlive Many of His Prominent Haters
M.J.G. tried hard to take our Web site offline, based on lies and repeated threats
The GNU/Linux Revolution Ain't Here. Look at Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa (BRICS) Instead.
The revolution won't be televised
Chaffbot Effect: Microsoft Bing Falls to Lowest Share in Two Years (Amid Loads of Bing Layoffs This Year)
Press outlets mostly failed to report that Bing is collapsing
Forget VSCode (Microsoft's Proprietary Spyware), Use KATE Instead
KATE is great
Sometimes It's Time to Reboot
No, not Android. KDE.
GNU/Linux Distributions as "Appliances" and DRM Platforms (the Case of ChromeOS and SteamOS)
Is this what we envisioned in the 1980s and 90s?
Fulfilling the Site's Full Potential
We remain devoted to the aforementioned goal of posting more original material
Over at Tux Machines...
2 days' worth
Upcoming Talk by Dr. Richard Stallman: Large Language Models Are Not Artificial Intelligence
LLMs aren't truly intelligent and cannot quite grasp what they spew out
GulagTube is a Burning Platform (Exit YouTube, Invidious Won't Save Us From Google/Alphabet in the Long Run)
Alphabet Agency (Google) sees the future of video as a "skinnerbox" (running Android) that indoctrinates you like TikTok does
Microsoft's Demise in the Global News Cycle is Rather Telling
It should be noted that Microsoft is, in general, no longer prominent or dominant in news headlines
Gemini Migration and Backup Capsule (Archive)
At the end we'll end up with something a lot better than before and latency should be massively reduced
Links 01/10/2023: Science, Education, and pro-Russia Slovakia Leadership
Links for the day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, October 01, 2023
IRC logs for Sunday, October 01, 2023
Links 01/10/2023: Climate, Patents, Programming, and More
Links for the day
Apple and Microsoft Problems
half a dozen links
Malware in the Ubuntu Snap Store, Thanks to Canonical Bloatware Mindset
Reprinted with permission from Ryan Farmer
Gemini Rising
There are 3523 capsules
Richard Stallman Gave a Talk Yesterday, Will Give Another Talk Today, and Will Give Two More Talks in Germany Later This Week
Those cover at least 2 different topics
Beware the Microsoft Sharks
We won't forgive and forget
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, September 30, 2023
IRC logs for Saturday, September 30, 2023
Don't be Afraid of the Command Line, It Might Even be a Friend
There's a tendency to think that only graphical interfaces were made to simplify usage, and any declarative interface is by design raw, inherently unfit for usage
One Positive Note About GNU/Linux Coverage in 2023 (Less Microsoft)
GNU/Linux users do not want this, with very rare exceptions
Snaps Were Never Good at Security, But the Media Coverage is Just Appalling
The media should focus on culling Windows, not making a huge fuss over minor things wrongly attributed to "Linux"