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

    In Memory of Mike Magee (1949-2024) and Our Best Wishes to The Register, Which He Founded in the 1990s
    Months have passed since Magee died
    'Remote' (From Home) Tech Workers Are More Productive for a Lot of Reasons
    The Bezos-owned media should disclose its conflict of interest here
    Microsoft Ends Support for Vista 10, So Relative Share of Vista 10 Goes Up, Vista 11 is Down
    For 2 months in a row already
    Microsoft's Latest 'Novel' Approach, Trying to Prevent People Moving Away From Microsoft and From Windows
    ads say a lot about their business strategy
    Microsoft-sponsored "The New Stack" Publishing Microsoft Windows Articles in "Linux" Clothing
    Just sayin'...
     
    Microsoft: Target the Young (Get 'Em While They're Young)
    Then they say Free software advocates are "extremists" and "rude"...
    As of December 8th (23 Days Remaining), the FSF (Free Software Foundation, Inc.) Already a Third of the Way Toward Ambitious Funding Goal
    FSF's memberships (or donations) drive is going a lot better than we anticipated
    Why Mike Magee Created and Was Involved in So Many News Sites About Technology
    British legend
    Tunisia is Android, Windows is Waning There
    Windows was measured below 20% in Tunisia
    [Meme] Jeff Bezos Working From Home
    "B**** please, publish articles in Washington Post about how working from home sucks"
    Over at Tux Machines...
    GNU/Linux news for the past day
    IRC Proceedings: Sunday, December 08, 2024
    IRC logs for Sunday, December 08, 2024
    [Meme] Write Code, Not Social Control Media
    don't forget to 'like'
    No Wonder Microsoft's LinkedIn and Github Have So Many Layoffs, Permanent Office Closures
    Traffic down, losses, probably never going to profit
    When Python is Basically Run by a 'Microsoft-Friendly' Mole Who Ousts People That Actually Contributed a Lot to Python for Many Years
    Removing some of the best people
    Syria: Microsoft Windows Down to 8% "Market Share" (It Was 99% Just 15 Years Ago)
    it was even measured at less than 5% earlier this year
    Links 08/12/2024: Boeing Leaks and Bluesky’s Business Model Dilemma
    Links for the day
    Gemini Links 08/12/2024: UK Winds and Ultraviolet Grasslands (UVG)
    Links for the day
    Links 08/12/2024: Conflicts, Misinformation, and Gutting of the Media
    Links for the day
    Over at Tux Machines...
    GNU/Linux news for the past day
    IRC Proceedings: Saturday, December 07, 2024
    IRC logs for Saturday, December 07, 2024
    Czech Republic: GNU/Linux Jumps Above 4%
    data from the Czech Republic for 2024
    IBM Engagement Surveys "Are Usually Useful for the Executives So They Know Which Things to Ignore"
    This impacts Red Hat as well
    Did Microsoft 'Write' (by Chatbots) This 'Article' About WINE?
    The Web is drowning in garbage
    Dictatorship Formalised: Python Software Foundation Violates Its Very Own Code Of Conduct (COC) or Code Of Censorship
    Incoming Python Software Foundation Executive Director, Deb Nicholson, allegedly uses COCs to get ahead while violating COCs
    [Meme] 'Self-Checkout' (and Banking 'Apps'): Passing All Accountability to the Customers
    Stealing
    Gemini Links 07/12/2024: Leasehold and NNTP
    Links for the day
    Fun Statistics About Techrights (Almost a Quarter Million Files)
    Here are some raw numbers
    PIP (Performance Improvement Plan) as an Instrumental But Largely Hidden (From the Public) Extra Layer of IBM's Workforce Reductions
    The morale at IBM is really bad
    Microsoft Money: From Bribing Bloggers to SLAPPing Bloggers
    Microsoft money, different strategy?
    Belgium: Windows Falls to Quarter of the Market, Mobile Devices Outsell or Overtake Desktops/Laptops on the Web
    Microsoft has no operating system for 'smartphones'
    Links 07/12/2024: CALEA Back Doors Backfiring, Fentanylware's (TikTok) U.S. Ban a Step Closer
    Links for the day
    statCounter: GNU/Linux Rises Sharply to All-Time High in Republic of South Korea
    Notice how sharp the rise is!
    It's FOSS? No, It's SPAM.
    Another sellout
    Another Massive Blow to the Web
    This is awful news and it neatly relates to topics that we covered this morning
    All the Latest Five Blog Posts at OSI's Blog Are Written by a Microsoft Operative Salaried by Microsoft
    "Open Source" no longer means anything
    Legacy of a Dying World Wide Web
    Many people truly believe they're "stars" in social control media
    Google Does Not Have a Search Engine Anymore
    Google wants to "retain" users for more "screen time" and influence over their minds; it does not save you time, it's manipulating you
    [Meme] Automattic: Host With Automattic, We'll Handle Our Own Complexity for You
    The RHEL modus operandi (more so with systemd)
    Finding Peace With Less
    There seems to be a growing consensus (speaking to other editors helps confirm this) that the Web is going in a very bad direction
    Links 07/12/2024: DEI Chopped by University of Michigan, French and South Korean Governments in Turmoil
    Links for the day
    Over at Tux Machines...
    GNU/Linux news for the past day
    IRC Proceedings: Friday, December 06, 2024
    IRC logs for Friday, December 06, 2024