Bonum Certa Men Certa

Links - Copyright Maximalists turn on Libraries, Other Horrors. Will Yang Return to Yahoo?

Reader's Picks



  • Security



    • Another Nugget from M$
      Days ahead of the patch folks all around the world have been able to take over almost any PC on a LAN running that other OS just by placing a malicious .dll on some networked storage device. The mind boggles. I can see SANs intended to share files among the group to be used to own the whole LAN.


    • Google sheds some light on Iran's involvement with the Diginotar cert incident.
      It means that somebody in Iran had gone to great lengths to intercept supposedly secure Internet traffic, including Gmail messages. ... [Iran] remains one of the few nations that would have a need to defraud Western companies in order to conduct such surveillance. Many governments, including countries with a poor reputation for defending freedom of expression or privacy, are able to generate any number of fake digital certificates on their own authority. The current dependence of secure Internet traffic on a few, potentially insecure commercial companies is a profound flaw.

      Richard Stallman notes, "I am sad to report that the Chrome browser that this was done with is nonfree software."



  • Defence/Police/Aggression





  • Finance



  • Anti-Trust



    • Yahoo co-founder urged to help oust chairman
      A major Yahoo Inc. shareholder is recruiting company co-founder Jerry Yang to join a crusade to oust Chairman Roy Bostock amid the upheaval triggered by the recent firing of CEO Carol Bartz. The shareholder, hedge fund manager Daniel Loeb, sought Yang's help in a letter sent Wednesday.


    • MICROSOFT DONATES $8 MILLION GRANT TO THURGOOD MARSHALL COLLEGE FUND[sic]
      Microsoft Corporation has recently announced that it will be renewing its partnership with the Thurgood Marshall College Fund through an additional $8 million software grant. This recent grant brings the total donation amount given by the Microsoft Corporation to $29 million, and will provide software for TMCF’s 47-member network of Historically Black Colleges and Universities. ...

      There may be a hardware component to this dumping/indoctrination, but the value is a tax avoidance fiction and the hardware will be a liability using the software that comes with it.





  • Censorship



    • Child Pornography Bill Makes Privacy Experts Skittish
      The bill requires all Internet service providers to save their customers' IP addresses — or online identity numbers — for a year. The bill's stated purpose is to help police find child pornographers, but critics say that's just an excuse for another step toward Big Brother.




  • Privacy

    • Massachusetts track car location by automatically scanning license plates from police cars.
      Civil libertarians are raising the alarm over the state’s plans to create a Big Brother database that could map drivers’ whereabouts with police cruiser-mounted scanners that capture thousands of license plates per hour.

      I'm not sure why the system would have to be in police cars and could not be operated from other cameras like the red light cameras at every major intersection. People should be concerned about those too.





  • Civil Rights



  • Intellectual Monopolies

    • WIPO Broadcasting Treaty Returns From The Grave
      The current draft Treaty would grant exclusive, 50-year intellectual property rights to distributors of information that apply in parallel with copyright protections, even when transmitters have had no role in creating the content being transmitted.

      The treaty and article use the propaganda term Intellectual Property, and the treaty is more than an extension of copyright.



    • Copyrights



      • PJ Notes a lawsuit to prevent universities from making digital libraries, which objects even to digitization of orphaned works.
        Well, the more they try to assert their Most Holy rights, and the rights of people no one can find, the more certain I am that copyright law will end up reformed. It's like Righthaven. Or patent trolls. When people get disgusted by excessive use of the law, they decide to do something about it. Maybe it's time to go back to the prior copyright system, where you had to register your copyright to have one?

        Guardian source article intentionally not linked.







  • Comments

    Recent Techrights' Posts

    It's Friday Again and Many People Leave IBM for Good (IBM Should be Reported for Illegal NDAs That Hide Layoffs)
    we very seldom see anyone deviating a lot from the "template-like" narrative, let alone mentioning "layoffs" or "RA" or some other term that implies non-consensual departure
    What Do People Ever Buy From Microsoft Anyway (Not PCs)?
    Microsoft sells two things these days: 1) vapourware/promises. 2) its stock.
    Gemini Links 20/02/2026: "Mainstream Unix, Underground Unix", Slop Staging DDoS Attacks Against Small Sites
    Links for the day
    IBM Inclusivity: Red Hat Summit is for Rich Sponsors Like Microsoft and Rich Guests Who Pay $500 a Day
    Nothing signals societal tolerance more than paying a large military contractor
     
    Our Uptimes Are Always Better Than Any Site That Uses Clownflare
    Clownflare as a company operates like a cult
    GNU/Linux Apparently Rose to 6% in Uzbekistan
    If accurate, this represents a new problem for Microsoft and a big win for Software Freedom
    Sponsored Videos and 'Articles' in The Register MS, Stenography as a Service/Product
    They should more accurately label these actors
    The Little Clique of Sloppers/Spammers About "Linux" Got Even Smaller
    Thankfully there are still genuine and legit GNU/Linux sites out there
    Links 20/02/2026: Microsoft Intentionally Kills Older Hardware, "The Story of XBox" Shows How Defective Microsoft Hardware Really Was
    Links for the day
    Turkmenistan One of Many Countries Where Microsoft Fell to Distant Third in Search
    We expect many layoffs in Bing some time soon
    Don't Wait for "Red Hat Layoffs" Because After Bluewashing They're IBM RAs and Don't Wait for "IBM Layoffs" Because They're Perpetual
    IBM layoffs are silent and "forever" (small trickle that never ends and is widespread - after all IBM is a very global and ubiquitous firm)
    Links 20/02/2026: Standards, Science, and Politics
    Links for the day
    GNU/Linux Adoption is Higher in Richer Countries
    Is it because freedom is actually expensive - something that only privileged people can pursue?
    Links 20/02/2026: Windows TCO Versus Deutsche Bahn, Europe Seeks More Independent Digital Future
    Links for the day
    IBM, Red Hat and Fedora: Don't Say "Master", It Offends People. Also IBM, Red Hat and Fedora: "Master Podman".
    The hypocrisy at Red Hat and Fedora shows no boundaries
    IBM Layoffs Aren't Just in IBM 'Proper'
    Who is still using Lotus after the HCL move?
    The Register MS Gets Paid by Gartner to Promote a Ponzi Scheme for Gartner, Microsoft, and Others
    The credibility of that site will suffer because it tries to sell a major scam to its audience
    Over at Tux Machines...
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    IRC Proceedings: Thursday, February 19, 2026
    IRC logs for Thursday, February 19, 2026
    Gemini Links 19/02/2026: "Towards a Gemini Famicom Resource" and Dumping Microsoft
    Links for the day
    IBM Behaves Like a Company Looking for Loose Change Between Sofa Cushions
    Chasing laid-off workers for dollars and even pennies, making excuses and devising loopholes (such as PIPs) to flout severance obligations
    Microsoft Found Another Bailout Opportunity: Killing People
    Good thing that Nadella is not racist!
    No "Smart Mobs" (Social Control Media) in BRIC?
    It looks like the "Social" "Media" sites tracked by statCounter see little from (or of) BRIC, and moreover it is declining fast
    The Few Slopfarms We Saw Today
    The sentiment has changed a lot
    Links 19/02/2026: Protecting Framework Laptop 13, Hardware Drive Shortages
    Links for the day
    In Africa's Second-Largest Nation, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Opera 10 Times Bigger Than Firefox (and GNU/Linux Now at 5%)
    This will become an accessibility problem
    Links 19/02/2026: "A.I.pocalypse" Inevitable and "Butlers to LLMs"
    Links for the day
    An Inherently Royal (Monarchs') Legal System Where Size Matters (Big Capital Eats the Small)
    This reinforces the notion that justice is only for those who can afford it
    These Statistics Should Keep Microsoft Shareholders Awake at Night
    Windows is, in general (all versions collectively), declining over time
    Economic Failure and Other Harsh Realities Have Nothing to Do With Slop 'Innovation'
    Advanced propaganda, not advanced 'AI' [...] They attack workers while insulting their intelligence
    Spaniards Shutting Down MElon's Digital Weapon of "Smart Mobs"
    Are the Spanish people already acting based on gut feeling and shunning/shutting out the provocation vector?
    Bitcoin: government engagement contradictions
    Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
    Richard Stallman in the United States - Part II - "Haters Gonna Hate"
    we shall carry on with this series at the right pace
    Typical! Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Tells Victims of Fraud to Wait 10 Weeks
    justice delayed is justice denied
    EPO Union Leaders in Rijswijk Explain Where EPO Strikes Stand and How to Prepare for Next Week's
    We have some revelations to share in a few days
    statCounter: Only One in 350 Iranians Would Use Microsoft for Web Search
    Microsoft is trying to fake "demand"
    Slides Shown a Week Ago by the EPO's Staff Committee Ahead of the Second Very Large Strike
    This coming weekend we'll drop a 'bombshell' of sorts
    EPO "Cocaine Communication Manager" - Part II - Illegal Drug Addicts Mobbing the Wrong People, This Will Definitely Backfire
    This year may well be the last year of Team Campinos. Nobody will hire them after that.
    Mass Layoffs (But Silent Layoffs) Still Happening in IBM, You Need Only Look Closely (There Are NDAs, PIPs, 'Early Retirement' Sweeteners and IBM - Like Microsoft - Skirts the WARN Act)
    the layoffs are definitely happening
    Microsoft's "AI CEO" (Slop Propagandist) is Projecting, Many Microsoft "Jobs to be Replaced With All-Indian Low-Paid Staff in 12 Months"
    Windows is perishing
    Very Little Slop
    We are not finding much slop anymore
    Links 19/02/2026: Illegal Kangaroo Court for Patents Attracts Aggressive Firms, Public Domain Review Grows
    Links for the day
    Gemini Links 19/02/2026: Taxing the Rich, Raspberry Pi 4 Tinkering
    Links for the day
    Over at Tux Machines...
    GNU/Linux news for the past day
    IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, February 18, 2026
    IRC logs for Wednesday, February 18, 2026
    Links 18/02/2026: DMCA Weakened, Anna’s Archive Still Thriving
    Links for the day
    Links 18/02/2026: Gig 'Economy' Condemned, Microsoft Insulting/Stressing People With False Slop Predictions
    Links for the day
    Twitter Falling to 1% in Africa's Largest Nation (Algeria)
    About 15 years ago the regime in Egypt got toppled (and others had been too) partly because of social control media such as Twitter
    "How Many Friends Do You Have?"
    "Do bots count?" "Friends in Facebook?" "Does a girlfriend chatbot count as a friend?"
    Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Responds to Crises Only After It's Way Too Late
    The SRA does not do its job. The new chief's job is face-saving PR in the media.
    The Techrights Team Makes the Platform Faster
    The infrastructure is already fast
    Mozilla Firefox Died in Afghanistan
    Mozilla has been a complete disaster
    Gemini Links 18/02/2026: Astronomy and Texinfo
    Links for the day
    Are IBM CEO and IBM CFO Ready for Financial Audit That Topples the Shares by 50% in One Day?
    The same "chefs" that cooked up Kyndryl Holdings Inc are still in charge of the IBM kitchen
    France Does Not Need Digital Weapons Disguised as Social and as Media
    French people lost interest in Social Control 'Media' (or Networks)
    "Senior AI Reporter" at Slop Technica/Ars Sloppica Has Written Nothing in Nearly a Week, Did Conde Nast Suspend Him for Fake Articles With Fake Quotes?
    Slop Technica/Ars Sloppica is having a serious credibility issue right now
    Linux Foundation Puts Slop Images, Not Just Slop Text, in Linux.com
    More of the same then
    The Register MS Paid-for 'Articles' (Ads) Seem to be LLM Slop Again
    If it's true that The Register MS is resorting to these marketing tactics, will they later delete the evidence (as they did months ago)?
    Over at Tux Machines...
    GNU/Linux news for the past day
    IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, February 17, 2026
    IRC logs for Tuesday, February 17, 2026