Bonum Certa Men Certa

Links - New and Old Censorship, Anti-trust, Privacy Violations and Pollution.

Reader's Picks



  • Hardware



  • Health/Nutrition



  • Security



  • Defence/Police/Aggression



  • Environment/Energy/Wildlife





  • Finance





  • Anti-Trust

    • Pay TV piracy hits News
      The actions are documented in an archive of 14,400 emails held by former Metropolitan Police commander Ray Adams who was European chief for Operational Security between 1996 and 2002. The Financial Review is publishing thousands of the emails on its website at URL afr.com.

      The emails show that Murdoch used "piracy" as a competitive weapon, helping people to break the digital handcuffs of rival's pay TV boxes. The loss of face and revenue helped Murdoch to consolidate his media empire.



    • Microsoft all but buys Netscape with AOL patent acqusition

      This Microsoft friendly news source uses gloats over this superposed "end of the browser wars" and uses the term "intellectual property" while glorifying and validating software patents.



  • Censorship

    • The reason I'm helping Chris Hedges' lawsuit against the NDAA
      the Homeland Battlefield Bill has already a chilling effect upon my ability to investigate and document matters of national controversy that would ordinarily be subject to my professional inquiry. It has therefore prevented my readers from receiving the full spectrum of truthful reporting which, in a functioning democracy, they have a right to expect.


    • Iraq’s internet on the brink
      A year since the Arab Spring, the internet in the region is facing significant threats from governments trying to gain more control over it.


    • Media companies & ISPs outline plan to stop piracy

      Not so voluntary censorship is set to roll out on people in the US. Appealing accusations of sharing will cost people $35.



    • World Without Web
      ... we underestimate the alarming degree of contingency lurking behind ‘inevitable’ developments. ... The divergence point for this history is in 1983-1984, when the leadership of DARPA lied through its teeth to Congress about who was being allowed access to the Internet. ... what if DARPA had been caught in that lie, funding for its network research scaled back, and a serious effort made to kick randoms off the early net?


    • CISPA – The Sneaky Son Of SOPA

      A good collection of links about a nasty law against sharing.





  • Civil Rights



  • Privacy



  • Education Watch



  • DRM

    • How Adobe DRM Requires People to Pirate Library Books
      Open standards make sense. What makes no sense is that large companies in the field still do not understand this. ... It turns out that a majority of the 6,495 titles available at my local library were accessible only through a locked .acsm file format. ...you can think of a .acsm file as being very much like a .torrent file. If you use Windows or Mac, you can (theoretically) download and install Adobe Digital Editions (ADE). This software reads the .acsm file and then it will download the actual .epub book, complete with DRM. ... there is no legal way to access the content without breaking the law if you are using free (libre) software.

      Tell your local librarian to never use a system like this!





  • Intellectual Monopolies

    • Another Patent Attack on Google with More Wild $$ Predictions ~pj
      Nokia and Microsoft. Partners at law, so to speak. Is this another Microsoft/Nokia outsourced production? Remember when Barnes & Noble told us that it views Microsoft and Nokia's patent campaign as an antitrust violation, a deliberate campaign to destroy Android and maintain Microsoft's monopoly on the desktop and extend it to smartphones, with Nokia piggybacking with its patents for weapons and MOSAID being brought in to do some of the dirty work? So when you read the scare headlines, remember this: Google is awesome at patent litigation. It tends to prevail. I told you that when Oracle first sued Google


    • Oracle’s Position is Worse Than I Thought


    • USPTO Issues Interim Mayo Guidance ~pj
      "...the claimed product or process amounts to significantly more than a law of nature, a natural phenomenon, or an abstract idea with conventional steps specified at a high level of generality appended thereto." Why *wouldn't* that apply to software?


    • Mayo Decision Impacts Myriad Genetics - Judgment Vacated, Remanded ~pj
      Things are looking up in PatentLand


    • Prometheus bound: An important precedent for the next software patent case
      Plainly, this was not a dispute about software patents, but the Court’s unanimous opinion will guide it and lower courts as they analyze future software patent cases.


    • Copyrights

      • Judge rules file sharing is not a "conspiracy"
        The litigators are trying to get around the fact that judges aren't happy with allowing mass lawsuits, so what they are doing is taking one internet user to court but using that lawsuit as a pretext to subpoena other defendants who had participated in the same BitTorrent swarm. ... James Holderman of the Northern District of Illinois raised his eyebrow in disgust at this trick, saying that it was trying to get around the "stiffening judicial headwind."


      • 5000+ Artists Line Up For a Pirate Bay Promotion
        “We’re one of the worlds top 60 sites in the Internet. This brings us a responsibility to use the site to do something good. When I think about it, it’s insane that all the other top 100 sites only blast ads and self-centered stuff on their front pages. We do this for fun and for the love of culture, so we’re everything the major labels are not.”


      • 3 Major Publishers Sue Open-Education Textbook Start-Up

        See also this excllent summary

        To gain access to the digital alternatives, students select the traditional books assigned in their classes, and Boundless pulls content from an array of open-education sources to knit together a text that the company claims is as good as the designated book. The company calls this mapping of printed book to open material “alignment”—a tactic the complaint said creates a finished product that violates the publishers’ copyrights.


      • DRM is crushing indie booksellers online


      • MPAA Lines Up With Porn Studio in Steamy Copyright Dispute

        A video site that published movies as urls is surprised that people would download those movies. They also found a judge that agrees enough to shut down a website where users share the urls, sometimes as embedded movies.







  • Recent Techrights' Posts

    Andy Burnham as National Leader Would be Excellent for Techrights
    Burnham has envisioned a British "centre of power" (or gravity) that moves northwards, isn't concentrated in the southeast anymore
    In Defence of Courts' Privacy Policies
    If you want friends, go offline. Meet real people and share real experiences.
    Why I Quit Academic Career (or Academia) Nearly 15 Years Ago
    I am told by people who stayed that it has only gotten worse
    EPO "Cocaine Communication Manager" - Part XV - Nazi-Like Thinking at the European Patent Office (EPO) Not a Thing of the Past
    antisemitism inside the EPO
    Daniel Pocock Running for Office Again, Clacton-on-Sea By-election
    By-election - code name "Pocock-on-Sea"
    Links 17/07/2026: Microsoft is Cutting OneDrive Coverage, Larry Ellison Sued by Paramount Investor
    Links for the day
     
    Daniel Pocock as Independent Candidate, Now in The London Standard
    "Daniel Pocock is an independent candidate."
    Links 17/07/2026: Protests Erupt Throughout Ukraine and Anthropic Caught Secretly Spying on Users
    Links for the day
    Gemini Links 17/07/2026: "Silence Doesn't Mean Abandoned", Revisiting PalmOS in 2026
    Links for the day
    Farage Out, Daniel Pocock in?
    Can Pocock beat his previous voting record?
    Layoffs at Microsoft Are Massive, Go Under the Radar for the Most Part
    Microsoft is in a really bad shape
    One Heck of a Week for IBM, the 'Grandpa' of 'High-Tech', International Business Machines Corporation (NYSE:IBM) Under Investigation by Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC
    If IBM gets busted or might be busted, will the CEO jump, get pushed, or be arrested?
    “Why Open Source Misses the Point of Free Software”
    As Dr. Richard Stallman once put it
    GNU/Linux Grows at the Expense of Microsoft Windows in Croatia, Now Close to 8%
    Croatia has been mentioned a lot lately in relation to EPO "lobbying" (vote-rigging)
    27-Year IBM Veteran on IBM: "Worse than the Titanic and Perhaps Just Like Madoff, Enron, etc."
    several comments we saw today envisioned the CEO of IBM in an orange suit (in US prison)
    ServiceNow/ServiceLine and Slop at the EPO is Becoming a Health Risk to Staff
    PD44 has historically been the oppressor at the EPO
    IBM Can Burn Pensioners to Appease Wall Street and Protect the Billionaire CEO With His Humongous Bonuses
    Its stock it set to open 2.82% in the red
    IBM SHAREHOLDER INVESTIGATION: Potential Securities Claims Involving International Business Machines (IBM)
    there's a risk of criminal action against executives
    Tux Machines Moving Onwards and Upwards
    "...tasks expand to fill the time available"
    The Register MS is Publishing Spam for Gartner Group to Spread Hype About "AI", Mentioned 30 Times in the Paid (Fake) Article
    One sure thing is, the so-called 'tech media' is profoundly compromised by American corporations
    "Market Share" of GNU/Linux Nearly Trebled in Cambodia This Month
    GNU/Linux is still measured at 8% by statCounter
    GitHub is Dying (Traffic Down Despite Bots and Slop), Microsoft Will Eventually Cull it - Just Like XBox - to Limit the Losses
    Do not stay on GitHub (Microsoft) under the false assumption that it is "free hosting" or will always be around
    Teaser: Daniel Pocock is About to Go Mainstream Again
    Stay tuned, Pocock has something in store
    Microsoft Has Just Been Sued Over Layoffs
    If the rumours are true, there is yet another wave of layoffs at Microsoft
    Richard Stallman Always Cautioned, Upfront, That His Political Views Were Wholly Separate From His Scientific Work or GNU
    Notice that he already spoke a lot about politics
    Nichirei and Asahi Beer Need to Take Cyberattacks as Hint of Opportunity to Move to Free Software
    Windows TCO
    Over at Tux Machines...
    GNU/Linux news for the past day
    IRC Proceedings: Thursday, July 16, 2026
    IRC logs for Thursday, July 16, 2026
    Gemini Links 17/07/2026: Sunlight in the Clouds, Techno-Therapy, and Sloppifying Original Text
    Links for the day
    Links 16/07/2026: Slop Recognised as a Waste of Energy, Hong Kong Cracking Down on Dissent/Opposition Some More
    Links for the day
    GNU/Linux Approaching 5% "Market Share" in Oceania, Almost Trebling in 12 Months
    It is difficult to ignore the gains made by GNU/Linux this month
    Microsoft Whistleblowers Explain How Brutal the Latest Cull is (Layoffs in Seconds-Long Calls, Mass Elimination of Whole Studios and High-Level Officials)
    we see anonymous leakers or whistleblowers in the media today
    Gemini Links 16/07/2026: esp32-gemserv, Slop-Contaminated Free Software, and Moving Systems
    Links for the day
    Last Summer Microsoft Mass Layoffs Came in Two Large Waves, Rumours Say Next Week Another Large Wave is Coming
    If many more Microsoft layoffs are formally admitted next week we will not be surprised
    Tomorrow is Another Strike Day at Europe's Second-Largest Institution, the Media is Still Deliberately Ignoring It
    Fridays are now recommended “anchor days" for EPO strikes
    Public Interest News Foundation Shows News Drought or News Deserts in the United Kingdom
    Public Interest News Foundation shows that we should be deeply concerned
    Illusions of Choice
    Choices can be differently bad or equally bad
    Windows Down to 10% in India
    Windows is a "burning platform"
    One Year Has Passed
    Our aim is to repair an injured system wherein "abuse of process" can be turned into a weapon, leveraged even by foreigners who are funded by affluent third parties
    Techrights is Annoying People Who Work for (and Serve) People Who Annoy (and Abuse) Society
    Working against us (instead of with us) has historically been a bad strategy
    No Skinnerboxes, No Slop, No False Idols or Corporate Prophets
    Torvalds does not understand the everyday struggles of tech workers and tech users because he is a millionaire
    IBM's Next Stop: $199 (Market Cap Already Under 2.5 Times IBM's Debt)
    Don't rush to call us "sensationalist" over it
    Links 16/07/2026: Solar Greenwashing by Energy-Wasting GAFAM and Growing Concerns About Harm by Social Control Media
    Links for the day
    Gemini Links 16/07/2026: Photography, Agility, and "Today I have Truly Become a Linux User."
    Links for the day
    Rebellion Brewing at Microsoft
    As always, we welcome Microsoft whistleblowers
    Technology Against Human Nature
    Losing a sense of what it means to be alive
    Over at Tux Machines...
    GNU/Linux news for the past day
    IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, July 15, 2026
    IRC logs for Wednesday, July 15, 2026
    IBM Down to $211.20, the Market in General is Up
    No recovery for IBM today
    UEFI 'Secure Boot' Still Not Secure in 2026, New Holes (or Bypasses) Still Being Found
    In 2026 there are still many people who call it "secure" and pretend to themselves that it is about security. It's not. It never was.
    Gemini Links 15/07/2026: Lab 6, Retrospective 2, and "Getting Back Into Gemini"
    Links for the day
    Links 15/07/2026: "Gianni Infantino Under Fire" and "Todd Blanche's Record Raises Alarming Questions About the Future of the US DOJ"
    Links for the day
    Allegedly More IBM RAs (Mass Layoffs) Same Day the Stock Crashed
    No paper trail, so it never happened, right?
    Techrights Was Right: Microsoft's Layoffs Tally Was False, Far More People Are Being Sacked
    "The Xbox Bloodbath Is Actually Way Bigger Than It Seems"
    Get Ready for Increase in PIPs and RAs at IBM, Red Hat, and Other Companies Devoured by IBM
    IBM's "market cap" has just fallen to 199 billion dollars and it has about 70 billion dollars in debt
    IBM Sinking to Lowest Levels Since 2024, But Will Any Executives Be Arrested for Securities Fraud?
    52-week high of $332.46 and now down to $212.94
    Microsoft Whistleblowers Say "The Entire Thing is Going to Fall Apart" and There Are "No Benefits" to Being Part of Microsoft
    "Multiple sources, who chose to remain anonymous for fear of reprisal"
    IBM's Crash Continues Today
    Stocks go up and down, but they don't typically go down by over 25% in a single day
    Like Kyndryl, Multiple Securities Fraud Investigations Into IBM
    Remember what happened to Kyndryl
    How Long Before GNU/Linux is Measured at 20% in Chad?
    The main way to get people to adopt Vista 11 is to sell them a new PCs and in poor countries it happens a lot less
    Making Techrights Faster Down Under (Australia and New Zealand)
    there's more to life than speed
    Strikes at the EPO Approved for the Rest of the Year, "€1,3 Billion Taken From Staff Income"
    Intensity can be revised and increased over time
    Focusing on What We Really Ought to Focus on
    Today we'll focus mostly on EPO affairs
    Violence is Not a Joke
    "Police say Widdecombe killing was targeted but motive remains unclear"
    How to Properly Measure the Performance of a Patent Office
    A "contribution from staff [which] is published by SUEPO Munich."
    Who Next After IBM? (Bubbles Don't Last Forever)
    the demise of companies with "ai" in their name/domain
    EPO "Cocaine Communication Manager" - Part XIV - "Not One of Us" (How the Group Dubbed by EPO Insiders "Alicante Mafia" Pushes Out Talent, Replacing It With Friends)
    misuses the EPO's budget like it is a fountain of money for his friends
    LibreTech Collective Abandons Microsoft GitHub and All Other Proprietary Software
    Each time a project eliminates control by a hostile party it stands to gain
    GNU/Linux Estimated at 8% "Market Share" Today (in statCounter)
    Days ago it said 7.1%, then 7.3% or 7.4%
    Links 15/07/2026: US Regime "Cuts Two Utah National Monuments by More Than 90%", "Hormuz is Less Crucial Than It Was"
    Links for the day
    Gemini Links 15/07/2026: Old Computer Challenge, "Trial by Fire", LLM Slop Destroying Companies
    Links for the day
    Over at Tux Machines...
    GNU/Linux news for the past day
    IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, July 14, 2026
    IRC logs for Tuesday, July 14, 2026