Bonum Certa Men Certa

Links 10/7/2021: GNOME Closing Bugzilla, ExTiX Has New Release



  • GNU/Linux

    • Kernel Space

      • Intel Posts Newest Advanced Matrix Extensions Patches For Linux (AMX Patches v7)

        For over one year now since Advanced Matrix Extensions (AMX) was first disclosed as a future feature with Xeon "Sapphire Rapids", Intel engineers have been posting AMX patches for enabling the new support for changes needed from the kernel to code compiler stacks. The Linux kernel support for AMX hasn't yet landed but has now been revised its seventh time for public review.

        Sent out on Saturday by Intel was their latest set of 26 patches for supporting Advanced Matrix Extensions in the kernel. Kernel changes for AMX are needed around the software stack management with on-demand expansion of per-task context switch buffers using XSAVE, ensuring AMX isn't running simultaneously on SMT siblings, and a new system call is introduced so applications can request access to AMX usage. The system call (an arch_prctl flag) for requesting AMX access is done to signal the application is responsible for using an alternative signal stack and that the stack is large enough, which can be easily accomplished using the modern Glibc ABI. Trying to make use of AMX on Linux without proper permissions from the system call will result in the process exiting.

      • Experimental Rust Support Patches Submitted to Linux Kernel Mailing List [Ed: Linus Torvalds is no longer in charge of Linux; monopolies now dictate him.]
      • T-shirt design contest celebrates 30 years of Linux [Ed: GNU/Linux is turning 38.]

        The Linux Foundation has launched a T-shirt design contest to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Linux. The LF also announced an Open 3D Foundation for creating an Open 3D Engine plus an Open Voice Network for open, AI-enabled voice assistance.

        Linux is turning 30 on Aug. 25 and the Linux Foundation is celebrating with a T-shirt contest (no, not that kind). Designers are invited to submit a design for a T-shirt by Aug. 6 that will commemorate the event. The winning design will be used for the official T-shirt at the Open Source Summit + Embedded Linux Conference, which returns to a live format this year. The LF also announced two new initiatives designed to advance open source 3D gaming and open voice AI technology (see farther below).

    • Applications

      • Best Torrent Clients You Can Use on Linux Desktop

        Are you looking for a reliable torrent client to download files online? To help make things easier for you, we’ve put together a list of some of the best free torrent clients that you can use on your Linux system.

        Large files are difficult to download from the Internet, especially while capturing them from a host server directly. It is hard to imagine a proper way of downloading giant files from the Internet without a torrent client. It is a software for downloading files that utilize a P2P (peer to peer) system.

        Before we get started, we’d like to tell you a few important things. Having a torrent client on your PC or laptop is completely legal. No one can accuse you of pirating just because you have installed a torrent client. However, if you’re using it to download or upload copyrighted content, you can get in trouble with the authorities or your Internet provider.

    • Instructionals/Technical

      • offlineimap - unicode decode errors

        My main system is currently running Ubuntu 21.04. For e-mail I'm relying on neomutt together with offlineimap, which both are amazing tools. Recently offlineimap was updated/moved to offlineimap3. Looking on my system, offlineimap reports itself as OfflineIMAP 7.3.0 and dpkg tells me it is version 0.0~git20210218.76c7a72+dfsg-1.

      • Solved: You Don’t Have Permission to Access on This Server

        Many web server configurations face issues related to file permissions. It often renders the server inaccessible to visitors and manifests in the form of a 403 error. Usually, the error message is something like "Forbidden: you don't have permission to access / on this server". This error can also restrict access to other routes on the server such as /directory.

        Similar issues can also occur due to problems in the Apache configuration file or even because of a corrupt .htaccess file. This guide provides step-by-step solutions to all of these problems. Try them one at a time, starting from the first solution.

      • Active Line in Text Editor Unreadable in Ubuntu 20.04 Dark Mode [Workaround]

        For dark mode fans, you may found the color scheme in Gedit Text Editor is not so good! Focused line is not even readable due to the light text on light line background.

        There’s already an upstream fix, though it’s not made into current Ubuntu releases. There are however workarounds and I’m going to show you how!

      • How To Install ISPConfig on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS - idroot

        In this tutorial, we will show you how to install ISPConfig on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. For those of you who didn’t know, ISPConfig is a well-known open-source web hosting control panel that allows us to manage services through a web browser. We can easily add Apache virtual host or Nginx server blocks, create/edit/delete databases, configure cron jobs, create email accounts, and many more.

        This article assumes you have at least basic knowledge of Linux, know how to use the shell, and most importantly, you host your site on your own VPS. The installation is quite simple and assumes you are running in the root account, if not you may need to add ‘sudo‘ to the commands to get root privileges. I will show you the step-by-step installation of the ISPConfig 3 open-source web hosting control panel on Ubuntu 20.04 (Focal Fossa). You can follow the same instructions for Ubuntu 18.04, 16.04, and any other Debian-based distribution like Linux Mint.

    • Games

    • Desktop Environments/WMs

      • GNOME Desktop/GTK

        • No more open tickets left in GNOME Bugzilla

          In May 2021, Bart proposed to wrap up the Bugzilla migration (very appreciated). In addition, in November 2020 and May 2021 I (had) sent emails to maintainers (listed in the DOAP files in each Git repository) of all remaining code bases with open tickets left, with instructions to file a migration request for importing tickets from Bugzilla to GitLab if wanted.

          Since this week there are finally no open tickets in GNOME Bugzilla left. All were either migrated to GNOME GitLab or mass-closed over the last weeks by Bart or me. When mass-closing, an explanatory comment was added (example) to allow contributors to understand why we closed their ticket.

          [...]

          This brings GNOME closer to making its Bugzilla instance read-only, converting to static content, shutting down legacy systems that create maintenance costs.

    • Distributions

      • New Releases

        • ExTiX LXQt Mini Build 210710 non-uefi especially made for older computers and VirtualBox/VMware with LXQt, Refracta Snapshot and kernel 5.13.1-exton

          I’ve made a new updated “mini” version of ExTiX – The Ultimate Linux System. It is based on Ubuntu 20.04.2 LTS Focal Fossa. The ISO file is of only 1000 MB, which is good if you want to run the system super fast from RAM. It should be enough with 2GB RAM. When the boot process is ready you can eject the DVD or USB stick. Use Boot alternative 2. The best thing with ExTiX 21.7 is that while running the system live (from DVD/USB) or from hard drive you can use Refracta Snapshot (pre-installed) to create your own live installable Ubuntu 20.04.2 system. So easy that a ten year child can do it! ExTiX 21.7 uses kernel 5.13.1-exton. Ubuntu 20.04 LTS will be supported until April 2025.

          Study all pre-installed packages in ExTiX 21.7.

      • Debian Family

        • Proxmox VE 7 Has Been Released, Based on the Latest Debian 11

          Proxmox VE 7 is based on upcoming Debian 11 “Bullseye” but using a Linux kernel 5.11, and includes QEMU 6.0, LXC 4.0, and OpenZFS 2.0.4.

          Proxmox VE (Virtual Environment) is a complete open-source platform for all-inclusive enterprise virtualization. It tightly integrates KVM hypervisor and LXC containers, software-defined storage and networking functionality on a single platform. Proxmox VE easily manages high availability clusters and disaster recovery tools with the built-in web management interface.

          The Proxmox VE has a monolithic system that provides three major functionalities of computing, network, and storage in a single package. It offers both command line and graphical user interface to control, deploy, monitor, and manage containers and virtual machines.

        • Shortwave

          Shortwave is an internet radio player that provides access to a station database with over 25,000 stations.

      • Canonical/Ubuntu Family

        • Linux Mint 20.2 has been released and is now available for free download

          after it was in the form ofTrial version“For some time , Linux Mint 20.2.2 Update It has been officially made available and is now available for download. However, compared to version 20.1, this is a very small update, so the probability of updating the current version to the new one is very small.

          But, as always, before starting the update, you should start Timeshift from the application menu and follow the instructions to create a system backup that you can use to restore your system to its previous state if something goes wrong. You may also need to disable the screensaver and update any Cinnamon spices you have installed in your system settings.

    • Devices/Embedded

    • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

      • Programming/Development

        • Joey Hess: a bitter pill for Microsoft Copilot

          I've long wished for an AI to put me out of work programming. Or better, that I could collaborate with. Haskell's type checker is the closest I've seen to that but it doesn't understand what I want. I always imagined I'd support citizenship a full, general AI capable of that. I did not imagine that the first real attempt would be the product of a rent optimisation corporate AI, that throws all our hard work in a hopper, and deploys enough lawyers to muddy the question of whether that violates our copyrights.

        • Announcing GitLab Commit 2021: Innovate Together

          Today GitLab Inc., a company that offers a complete DevOps Platform, announced initial programming and speakers for GitLab Commit 2021: Innovate Together. This two-day virtual conference will showcase how software development, operations, and security professionals work together to drive innovation for their organizations. Attendees will experience virtual programming on four stages, ensuring that everyone can participate and get inspired to innovate together, no matter their location or time zone.

        • Programming Evolution: How Coding Has Grown Easier In the Past Decade | IT Pro

          Programming evolution milestones include ubiquitous open source, low-code programming and API-based everything.

  • Leftovers

    • Science

      • Kennesaw State Professor Awarded NSF Grant To Research Solutions For Internet Of Things

        Suo, an assistant professor of computer science in Kennesaw State's College of Computing and Software Engineering, said the $173,000 grant will allow him to continue his research involving Internet of Things (IoT), or the interconnected network of computing devices embedded in everyday objects. One of KSU's Summer Research Fellows, he said the NSF grant builds on seed funding he received through the Office of Research. "Through the NSF grant, I will have the opportunity to explore the implications of edge computing and IoT, and develop approaches that can improve the performance of

      • ARL Welcomes Researcher-First Policies in Bills to Reauthorize US National Science Foundation

        We strongly support public access to publications resulting from NSF-funded research with zero embargo, and we are heartened to see language in the Senate-passed US Innovation and Competition Act (S. 1260) requiring the publication of federally funded research data within 12 months, “preferably sooner.” Making research outputs publicly available to the widest possible audience in the timeliest manner possible, and machine-accessible for computation, is critical for developing scientific insights and solutions for public health, climate, technological advancement, and more.

    • Hardware

      • Prime Minister says national security advisor will probe Chinese acquisition of UK's top chip maker [Ed: Outsourcing all our manufacturing to sweatshops in China with awful wages is OK, but this is not? Do they see the double standards here?]

        UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has promised a national security investigation into a China-backed corporation’s takeover of Britain's largest producer of semiconductors.

        The sale of Newport Wafer Fab (NWF), which employs 450 people at its south Wales site in Tredegar Park, to Nexperia, a Dutch firm owned by China’s Wingtech, was revealed on July 2.

        At the start of this week, Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said the UK government did “not consider it appropriate to intervene at the current time” but was monitoring the acquisition.

        Although figures for the deal have not been released, CNBC reported it to be worth just €£63m ($87m).

    • Integrity/Availability

      • Proprietary

        • Pseudo-Open Source

        • Security

          • Bogus Kaseya VSA patches circulate, booby-trapped with remote-access tool

            This month's Kaseya VSA ransomware attack took a turn for the worse on Wednesday with word that miscreants have launched a phishing campaign to ensnare victims with a remote-control tool disguised as a VSA update.

            Since late last week, instances of VSA – Kaseya's monitoring and management software for fleets of PCs and other IT gear – have been exploited to distribute REvil ransomware, prompting the biz to shut down its Kaseya Cloud service and to tell customers to turn off their on-prem Kaseya VSA servers while it worked on a patch for whatever vulnerability is being abused.

            The malware outbreak, which has yet to be resolved, is said to have affected as many as 1,500 businesses through compromised VSA systems, and has been compounded by Kaseya's decision to delay patch deployment on Wednesday. The company is currently hoping to restore its Cloud Service on the evening of Thursday, July 8.

          • You've patched that critical Sage X3 ERP security hole, yeah? Not exposing the suite to the internet, either, yeah?

            Admins of on-premises Sage X3 ERP deployments should check they're not exposing the enterprise resource planning suite to the public internet in case they fall victim to an unauthenticated command execution vulnerability.

            And said administrators should have installed by now the latest patches for the software, which address a bunch of bugs earlier discovered and reported by Rapid7. The infosec outfit described in detail the flaws, calling them "protocol-related issues involving remote administration of Sage X3."

            The aforementioned command execution vulnerability (CVE-2020-7388) scores a perfect ten out of ten in CVSS severity. Hence, protect and patch: miscreants have everything they need now to exploit the bugs.

          • Report shines light on REvil's depressingly simple tactics: Phishing, credential-stuffing RDP servers... the usual

            Palo Alto Networks' global threat intelligence team, Unit 42, has detailed the tactics ransomware group REvil has employed to great impact so far this year – along with an estimation of the multimillion-dollar payouts it's receiving.

            REvil, also known as "Ransomware Evil" or "Sodinokibi," first hit the cybersecurity scene while working in partnership with a group called GandCrab. Initially it operated like many other ransomware outfits, distributing malicious code through faked adverts and trojan horse downloads – but it soon stepped up its game.

            The group, which provides what security wonks have come to term "Ransomware as a Service" or RAAS, has been fingered in some high-profile attacks: Travelex, an entertainment-focused law firm with an A-lister client base; Apple supplier Quanta Computer; a major meat producer; a nuclear weapons contractor; and fashion giant French Connection UK – among many others.

          • White hats reported key Kaseya VSA flaw months ago. Ransomware outran the patch

            One of the vulnerabilities in Kaseya's IT management software VSA that was exploited by miscreants to infect up to 1,500 businesses with ransomware was reported to the vendor in April – and the patch just wasn't ready in time.

            As we've covered this week, deployments of Kaseya's flagship Virtual System Administrator (VSA) product were hijacked at the start of the month to inject REvil extortionware into networks around the world. Kaspersky Lab said it saw evidence of 5,000 infection attempts in 22 countries in the three days since the first attack was spotted.

            Kaseya pulled the plug on its software-as-a-service offering of VSA, and urged all of its customers to switch off their VSA servers to avoid being hit by the ransomware. Kaseya's customers are primarily managed service providers looking after the IT estates of their own customers, and so by compromising VSA deployments, miscreants can hijack large numbers of downstream systems.

          • Cybersecurity Game Aims to Train 25K Specialists by 2025

            The National Cyber Scholarship Foundation (NCSF) is taking aim at the U.S.’s cybersecurity talent gap, with recently announced plans to turn out 25,000 high-level specialists by 2025 — and it’s relying on a free game to recruit.

            The U.S. would need to create 359,236 more cybersecurity professionals to have enough talent available for it to be possible to secure all organizations’ critical assets, according to (ISC)2’s April-June 2020 Cybersecurity Workforce Study.

          • Privacy/Surveillance

            • Tencent uses facial recognition to enforce China’s curfew on gaming kids ● The Register

              Chinese web giant Tencent has started using facial recognition tech to boot kids out of its games.

              As explained in a post to Chinese social media service qq.com, the new feature sees the company check accounts registered in adults’ names if they are playing games between 10:00PM and 8:00AM.

              The company will then run a facial recognition test and, if it identifies someone who is not the account holder, they’ll be booted offline.

              “Anyone who refuses or fails face verification will be treated as a minor,” according to a machine translation of Tencent’s QQ post.

            • Google herds FLoC back to the lab for undisclosed post-third-party-cookie ad tech modifications

              Google has decided to let the initial test of its FLoC ad technology conclude in a few days to work on improvements – though it isn't inclined to share feedback from test participants.

              Privacy advocates would prefer if the online ad giant provided more insight into the test results, since Google's ongoing ad infrastructure rewrite affects every internet business and internet user, not to mention the digital ad industry generating $350bn annually.

              FLoC stands for Federated Learning of Cohorts and promises a way to divide browser users into interest groups so they can be presented with interest-based ads without revealing personal information to advertisers. It's one proposal among many, collectively referred to as the Privacy Sandbox, intended to repackage targeted advertising technology so it can continue amid tighter privacy laws and technical limitations like the eventual discontinuation of third-party cookies.

            • Microsoft defends intrusive dialog in Visual Studio Code that asks if you really trust the code you've been working on [Ed: What Microsoft calls "open source" is usually just malware and the licence suggests that it is also proprietary software, but this publisher is still run by Microsoft operatives (worse than apologists) like Microsoft Tim]

              'All the subtlety of a GDPR cookie banner and the charm of Clippy'

    • Defence/Aggression

      • After 15 years and $500m, the US Navy decides it doesn't need shipboard railguns after all ● The Register

        After more than 15 years of R&D, and half a billion dollars of funding, the United States Navy has decided to give up on the prospect of mounting enormous railguns on its ships. For the moment, at least.

        The project was intended to produce a mighty weapon which could fire projectiles at Mach 7 at targets over 100 miles (161km) away, using electromagnets rather than chemical reactions to propel them. But fresh from deliberately creating a 3.9-magnitude earthquake 100 miles (161km) off the coast of Florida to rattle the windows on its latest aircraft carrier, the Navy has decided it can no longer spare the money for continued research.

        "Given fiscal constraints, combat system integration challenges and the prospective technology maturation of other weapon concepts, the Navy decided to pause research and development of the Electromagnetic Railgun [EMRG] at the end of 2021," it said.

      • Mobile carrier Telenor quits Myanmar, says coup makes doing business its way impossible

        Norwegian telco Telenor has quit Myanmar, selling its network there because the recent military coup has made it impossible to operate on its terms in the nation.

        A statement about the sale notes that Telenor had already written down the value of its Myanmar operation to $0.

        At the time of the write-down in May, Telenor valued the Myanmar assets at $780m and said it would ponder its future presence in Myanmar depending on “developments in the country and the ability to contribute positively to the people of Myanmar” by offering “affordable mobile services [that] support the country’s development and growth.”

        Company president and CEO Sigve Brekke now rates conditions in the nation as “increasingly challenging for Telenor for people security, regulatory and compliance reasons.”

    • Environment

    • Finance

      • Business Insider turns to fantasy document about “low income home owners” suffering if the rich must pay taxes.

        Business Insider’s latest knee-slapper is that if the corporate tax rate goes up a little bit, then low income home owners will suffer (More than the few who actually own a home do already, while watching it fall apart around them because they can barely afford to make the payments?).

        What’s really happening here is that rich white people who don’t want to pay taxes are panicking about the American Jobs Plan and aren’t pulling any punches to try to defeat it. They own the “presses” and they can shitpost all they want to about contrived theories about such policies “hurting the poor”.

        In the bigger picture, this is really no different than my uncle from Georgia explaining how if McDonalds has to pay enough to afford a one bedroom apartment in the area the worker lives in, it will hurt that worker more than having a job that would leave them without a place to live.

        It’s crazy that anyone could believe such a load of crap, although some do anyway. Home ownership is a debt prison, and once you sign the papers, you’re anchored to a real estate market in an area that may have no real hope at a successful future, like the majority of the land area of Illinois, where businesses failed during the COVID pandemic and are not returning, although the Democrats are raising property taxes.

    • Censorship/Free Speech

      • Florida Man sues Facebook, Twitter, YouTube for account ban [Ed: The best solution is to not use those disservices in the first place]

        A Florida man held a press conference at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, on Wednesday to announce the filing of lawsuits against Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, and corresponding executives Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Dorsey, and Sundar Pichai – who runs YouTube's parent company.

        The former political office holder, known among other things for a cancelled reality TV series, a discontinued steak business, a failed casino, and a shuttered business training school, accused the social networks of violating the First Amendment of the US Constitution by closing his accounts and deplatforming him.

        Booted from the aforementioned internet services for statements deemed to have encouraged or incited the storming of the US Capitol by tooled-up tourists, the plaintiff is also seeking to have the courts declare Section 230 of America's Communications Decency Act unconstitutional.

    • Monopolies

      • Tencent to put AI to work exploring space – not ways to extend its monopolies

        Chinese tech giant Tencent has joined forces with the nation’s National Astronomical Observatories to journey into AI space exploration, CEO Pony Ma told the 2021 World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai on Thursday.

        The forward-looking announcement came during a tough week for Chinese tech companies, as Beijing tightened data security and antitrust regulations.

        Tencent is best known for its WeChat messaging service and very healthy gaming arm, but also operates a decent cloud and increasingly invests in AI through its in-house AI research division YouTu Lab.

      • Three-dozen US states plus DC sue Google over Play Store's revenue cut, payment system, and more

        As expected, Google is facing a fresh legal assault regarding its Play Store, the 30 per cent cut it took from developers' revenues via the software souk, and other rules and restrictions.

        In an antitrust lawsuit [PDF] filed in a federal district court in San Francisco on Wednesday, 36 US states and commonwealths, plus Washington DC, alleged Google ran roughshod over the Sherman Act, screwing over users and software makers by abusing its monopoly on Android and the distribution of apps.

      • Patents

        • Australia Introduction of a Patent Box [Ed: What are patents 'good' for? Tax evasion.]

          As announced in the Federal Budget 2021-22, the Government will encourage innovation in Australian medical and biotech technologies by introducing a "patent box" system.

          From 1 July 2022, the patent box will tax income derived from Australian medical and biotech patents at a 17% effective concessional corporate tax rate (as opposed to the current corporate tax rate of 30% for large businesses and 25% for small to medium companies). Income from manufacturing, branding and other attributes may be excluded from this concession and continue to be taxed at existing corporate tax rates.

          Only granted patents, which were applied for after 7.30pm on Tuesday 11 May 2021, will be eligible.

        • Lithium Australia’s (ASX:LIT) LieNA tech granted European patent [Ed: Quality of European Patents became appalling; no reason to do puff pieces about yet another one being granted]

          Lithium Australia's (LIT) first-generation LieNA lithium processing technology will be granted a patent from the European Patent Office.

          The patent will provide legal protection in nominated European countries for 20 years from the date of filing.

        • Nokia suing Oppo in multiplicity of jurisdictions over 5G and other patents (some but not all standard-essential)

          Nokia means business. Less than three months after getting Lenovo to pay up, and little more than a month after selling Daimler a patent license at Nokia's preferred level of the supply chain (the end product), IAM broke the news on Twitter this morning of Nokia having filed patent infringement complaints against Chinese Android device maker Oppo.

          I've since asked around to find out more. Patent enforcement is big business but a small world. While Nokia announced a patent license agreement with Oppo in November 2018 (which has apparently just expired), all that they say today is the following...

        • Nokia sues OPPO for patent infringement, OPPO calls it shocking | Nokiamob

          The Finnish telecommunications company, Nokia, has moved to court against OPPO, the Chinese consumer electronics company, in regards to patent infringement. Reported first by IAM, Nokia has filed complaints in multiple Asian and European countries, including, India, France, Germany, and the UK, for some of its standard-essential patents (SEPs) and non-SEPs including user interface and security features. FOSS Patents claims that eleven complaints in Mannheim, seven in Munich, and six in Dusseldorf regional courts of Germany have been registered in disagreement with OPPO.

        • [Older] Spate of patent litigation dismissals involving Tesla points to possible Avanci deal

          Over the last couple of years Tesla has been confronted by multiple patent infringement cases but with many of those now concluded it seems that the automaker has shifted its licensing posture

        • [Old] CNIPA on Amending the Patent Examination Guidelines No 391 [Ed: Lowest patent quality in the world, where the goal is to flood WIPO with tons of junk patents and render this whole system moot]
        • [Old] LG Electronics hooks up with IP Bridge as fund looks beyond Japan

          Following ownership change, Japanese NPE IP Bridge is back in action with its first known acquisition in quite some time

        • UPC dream gets closer after German court rejects constitutional complaints [Ed: JUVE became a shameless propaganda apparatus, referring to gross violations of the law and an attack on Europe's industry as a "dream". There was a time media strived to get audiences by exposing crimes rather than take money from criminals in order to cover up and enable the crimes.]]

          Stjerna says, “After the decision, also the main proceedings on the UPC Agreement are likely to be unsuccessful. The conclusion of the German UPCA ratification, which can now be expected shortly, will cause a binding effect under international law which cannot easily be removed. This also limits the possibilities of further legal action against the agreement itself.”

        • Fortress Investment once again urges district court to dismiss Intel's antitrust case over patent aggregation by non-practicing entities

          In mid-June, both Apple and Intel opposed Fortress Investment's motion to dismiss their second amended antitrust complaint in the Northern District of California. A week later, Apple withdrew from the case, allowing Apple to take a purely defensive perspective on antitrust law (case in point, Apple just lost an appeal to Epic Games in Australia).

        • The EU’s IP action plan: lessons for Africa? [Ed: There is no such thing as "IP" and in this particular context it's a colonialist plot to make it seems like Africa "owes" something to its plunderer]

          At the end of November 2020, the European Commission published a plan for getting the EU out of the mess that it’s in as a result of COVID-19. The report is entitled “.” Although the report is aimed at European authorities and businesses, there are aspects of the plan that have general application.

          According to the report, IPR-intensive industries account for 93% of total EU exports of goods to the rest of the world, as well as almost 45% of Europe’s GDP and directly contribute to the creation of almost 30% of all jobs. The report continues that only 9% of Europe’s SMEs hold registered IP rights such as patents, designs and trade marks (although this does not include copyright and trade secrets).

          The report records that the COVID-19 crisis illustrated Europe’s dependence on critical innovations and technologies. It would seem that this is true for the rest of the world, too. What the European Commission took from this learning though, was the “importance of effective IP rules and tools to secure a fast deployment of critical IP”.

        • Pharma fears ‘slippery slope’ of COVID IP waiver [Ed: Nihilists in patent propaganda sites of the litigation sector call it "slippery slope" when you save the lives of millions instead of giving monopolies to blood-thirty firms that grift off of taxpayers]

          Innovators are wary that the waiver could set a precedent for eroding IP rights for indications like diabetes and other communicable diseases

        • Unified Patent Court a lot closer after decision German FCC [Ed: The signal is in the comments, not the puff piece]

          After a delay of almost four years, the route to German ratification of the Unified Patent Court Agreement has been reopened by the decision of the Federal Constitutional Court of 23 June 2021, which was published yesterday. The FCC’s rejection of two applications for an interim injunction against the UPCA ratification bills means the German president can now sign them into law and Germany can complete all formalities. It brings a lot closer the start of the Unitary Patent system, although some hurdles must still be taken.

        • Software Patents

          • WSOU '213 patent challenged

            On July 1, 2021, Unified Patents filed an ex parte reexamination against U.S. Patent 8,103,213. Formerly owned by the Nokia Corporation, the ‘213 patent is currently owned by WSOU Investments, LLC and has been asserted against NEC in the Western District of Texas.

          • Flexiworld Technologies reexamination request granted

            On May 11, 2021, 4 weeks after Unified filed an ex parte reexamination, the USPTO granted Unified’s request, finding substantial new questions of patentability on the challenged claims of U.S. Patent 10,346,114, owned by Flexiworld Technologies, Inc. The ‘114 patent relates to transmitting or streaming protected digital content to client devices over the internet. It has been asserted against Roku.

      • Trademarks

        • Bliss Brands (Pty) Ltd v Advertising Regulatory Board NPC & others: Advertising regulatory code under constitutional scrutiny

          Both the applicant, Bliss Brands (Pty) Limited (Bliss) and the second and third respondents, Colgate-Palmolive (Pty) Limited and Colgate-Palmolive Company (collectively, “Colgate”) are competitors inter alia in the supply of detergents, fabric softeners and hygiene soap bars. The ARB is the first respondent and while the second and third respondents are members of the ARB, the applicant is not.

          The ARB is a non-profit company established and funded by the advertising industry for the purpose of regulating and enforcing standards for that industry. These standards are contained in a code of conduct (‘the Code’), which sets out inter alia a process for the ARB’s adjudication of complaints regarding advertisements that contravene the Code.

          By virtue of the ARB’s Memorandum of Incorporation (‘the MOI’), the Code is binding on ARB’s members. For non-members, the Code make provisions to the effect that where non-members refuse to comply with a decision of the ARB, the members of the ARB must decline to accept advertising from that non-member upon receiving an “ad-alert” from the ARB to that effect.

      • Copyrights

        • Oracle files $7m copyright claim against NEC's US limb over 'unreported royalties' from database distribution

          Oracle is seeking more than $7m in damages from long-time software partner NEC Corporation of America (NECAM) – a subsidiary of tech Japan-based tech giant NEC Corp – over a complaint about copyright and breach of contract.

          According to papers lodged yesterday with the US court in the Northern District of California, in December 2019 Oracle carried out an audit of NECAM's use and distribution of its database software.

          Although NECAM has been a member of the Oracle Partner Network (OPN) since 2004, the audit found issues related to "unreported royalties."

          A letter sent by Oracle in October 2020 called on NECAM to "resolve the compliance findings within 30 days."



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Richard Stallman to Give Public Talk in 3 Hours, Then in the Technical University of Munich (Germany) Next Week
Richard Stallman at TUM on 21.10.2025 18:00, MW2001
Leaks and Whistleblowers: Our Plan for Today
Society simply cannot advance when too many people self-censor
The Same People Who Attacked Richard Stallman (RMS) Are Attacking Daniel Pocock to Discourage People From Listening to His Information
Pocock is being demonised for the same reasons and by the same people who attack RMS
We Are Safe in a Modern "Tech" Society, Right?
People are safer if they control their own computing
 
Dystopian Trends in Technology Make Richard Stallman More Relevant Than Ever
It's good to see him attracting vast audiences
IBM Layoffs Due to a Lack of Money and Company Debt Rising by Almost 10 Billion Dollars in 6 Months
IBM didn't buy Red Hat for any ideological reasons; it was a fast "cash grab" for revenue
Forbes Already Stopped Being a News Sites. Now It's a Spam and Propaganda Platform for "Paying Partners" (Companies).
news from Forbes became very scarce
Is the Second-Largest Institution in Europe (EPO) Gradually Becoming More Like a Sweatshop?
Underpaid, unqualified, inexperienced and incompatible people are already recruited to replace veteran examiners
The Register MS Has No FOSS Coverage Anymore
The Editor in Chief is like a Microsoft plant
Links 13/10/2025: "Toasty Subwoofer" and WiFi Speakers "Are About To Go Dumb"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 13/10/2025: iNaturalist and Tove Jansson’s Moominpappa at Sea
Links for the day
Microsoft Does Not Deny That Large Retailers Like Walmart, Costco and Target Are Giving Up on XBox (and Not Stocking It)
No doubt XBox is in trouble and rumours suggest that more mass layoffs are imminent
We'll Encourage Richard Stallman to Talk About Software Patents at the EPO Next Week When He Visits Munich (EPO Headquarters)
Go listen to Richard Stahlmann
Arnaud Parreaux lost case defending rogue employer
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Mathieu Elias Parreaux declared bankrupt in Switzerland
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Breakdown of the Rule of Law and Patent Law in the European Union (EU)
The EPO cannot recruit suitably qualified patent examiners this way, let alone retain them
Gemini Links 13/10/2025: Good Films, Wizard of Earthsea, Upgrading the Steam Controller's Stick
Links for the day
It's Not Justice When One Side Denies the Other Side the Ability to Even Speak
At this stage, Brett Wilson LLP is in my humble opinion acting in contempt of the Court
Links 13/10/2025: Australian Catholic University Uses Slop to Libel Students, Canada Threatens to Kill Beluga Whales
Links for the day
How Not to Silence Tux Machines (It'll Only Backfire, Badly)
defending Microsoft while attacking this site
Slopwatch: UbuntuPIT and Google News
It seems abundantly clear that Google News and Google in general participates in the slop epidemic
Vincent Danjean (not INTERPOL), Claire Bardel & Debian pregnancy cluster
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Christmas lynchings: Martin Krafft (madduck), Penny Leach (mjollnir) & Debian pregnancy cluster
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 13/10/2025: Birthdays and "Committee Unable to Contact Nobel Prize Winner"
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, October 12, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, October 12, 2025
Your Typical Anti-Richard Stallman (RMS) Cancellist
"About the RMS cancellation"
Richard Stallman (RMS) Has Announced His Talk in Rome Less Than 20 Hours in Advance (and on a Sunday)
Why did he wait until the night before?
GNU Tools Cauldron Event in Portugal: Videos Now Available via Invidious
Go have a look
The Way Things Are Going, They May Soon Stop Saying "Web Address" and Instead Say "Chrome Address"
The Web isn't built or based around open Web standards anymore. It's centered around user-agent.
Microsoft as a Golden Cage
"I was laid off by Microsoft and can't find a job. I'm weeks away from giving up my apartment and moving across the country to live with family."
Weekend Discussion About How IBM's Bluewashing of Red Hat Will Cause "Enshittification" for Users
"I worked at a software company that was acquired by IBM so I knew it was game over for RedHat the day they were acquired"
Brett Wilson LLP Getting Sued by Its Very Own Clients, a Legal Story That Has Made the Mainstream News (Law360)
Law360 or Law.com are about as mainstream as one can get in that "sector" (litigation 'industry')
Slopwatch: GNU/Linux Sites That Became Slopfarms and Spamfarms
The Web is a mess and "Linux" or "Ubuntu" sites became part of the problem
Richard Stallman's Talk 25 Hours Away, Aula Magna Palazzo del Rettorato (CU001), Sapienza Università di Roma (Piazzale Aldo Moro, 5)
The talk is 25 hours away and we see some QR code for it
Gemini Links 12/10/2025: Watches, the Depression of 2026, Gamboling with Odds
Links for the day
Links 12/10/2025: 'False' DMCA Claims and Slop Facing Perils Again (the Hype Wears Off)
Links for the day
Microsoft Has Just Lost Privacy Case in Austria and Its Latest Moves Make a Complete Ban Seem Imperative
Microsoft is not a software company, it's a spying agency that uses software to collect data
The Register MS: Microsoft is the Security Expert, Not the Prime Culprit, So Buy More Microsoft
This front page feature is devoid of any actual substance, it's just Microsoft copypasta
Stefano Zacchiroli (Zack) & Debian pregnancy cluster
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Lucas Nussbaum & Debian pregnancy cluster
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 12/10/2025: "Palm Computering", Further Exploration of Slide Rules, and Key Takeaways from The Well-Grounded Rubyist
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, October 11, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, October 11, 2025
Tomorrow: Founder of the Free Software Foundation and of GNU/Linux, Richard Stallman, Speaks in Roma (Rome), Italy at 4PM
GNU/Linux is more important than ever in this dystopian world
Microsoft and Apple Are Rare Topics in Geminispace
in Geminispace it's rather safe to assume everyone is into BSD, GNU/Linux, and sometimes retro
Qualcomm and Manchester United Appear to Have Dumped Microsoft (Qualcomm Now Invests More in Linux, Apparently)
It's a relief to no longer see Microsoft logos and brands on a local football club's gear (I'm not a Manchester United fan, but not a foe either)
As Guest of Honour in Rome, Founder of the Free Software Foundation to Speak ("Distinguished Lecture") After Introduction by Leonardo Querzoni
Happy hacking...
All Things Open is Proprietary
The OSI has become a front group of proprietary software openwashers, led and sponsored by proprietary giants
When Microsoft Lays Off Lots of Workers They Say It "Invests in AI" (a Lie), Now It's "Reshuffles" or "Microsoft Tightens"
Microsoft "news" by bots
"I saw Richard Stallman give a talk in the mid 80s, which began my fear and loathing of software patents" and "Richard Stallman was always right."
"By betraying the legacy of our ancestors, we’ve set ourselves on a path toward self-destruction — moral, intellectual, economic, and ultimately biological."
There Were Several Waves of Microsoft Shanghai Layoffs in 2025, Western Media Continues to Turn a Blind Eye to Chinese Layoffs of an Epic Scale
Sometimes select Taiwanese news sites (published in English) or automated translations are all we have
Brett Wilson LLP Spreads Trumpism to the United Kingdom, Looking to Profit From 'Legal Colonialism' (Overriding Sovereignty)
There's growing recognition of this conundrum worldwide
The Demise of Shopping in Person
In a world like this, how valued is the customer?
This Past Friday, "Nearly 700 People Came to Listen to RMS!" (Richard Stallman)
"Nearly 700 people came to listen to RMS!"
Distinguished Lecture by Richard Stallman This Coming Monday in Rome
After "Free software, Crucial for Freedom in a Digital World"
Slopwatch: UbuntuPIT Churning Out Plagiarism and the Slopfarm LinuxSecurity Turns to Pseudonyms
Our hunch is, UbuntuPIT will sooner or later realise that this toxic approach is just harming UbuntuPIT and tainting the reputation of past articles
The Lawsuit by Clients of Brett Wilson LLP Against Brett Wilson LLP is Officially On, It is Progressing, The 'Experts' Pick Outside Law Firms (RPC and Mills & Reeve) to Spare Them From Litigants in Person
So it is probably quite potent
Gemini Links 11/10/2025: Nyctography, Gerrymandering, and Lurking
Links for the day
The 'Culture Wars' in Free Software Have Gone Out of Control
Social control media amplifies such utterly infantile discourse
Teaser: To Compensate for the Fact Our Clients Are Terrible Human Beings Who Strangle Women (While on Microsoft's Payroll) and We Get Paid by Mystery Parties We Bombard You and Your Wife With Almost 10 Kilograms of Legal Papers
If you can't win an argument, then drown the other side with papers?
Links 11/10/2025: World Mental Health Day 2025, Another European Legal Defeat for Microsoft 360
Links for the day
MIT Technology Review is Part-Time SPAMfarm of Billionaires and Mega-Corporations
Does MIT operate its own "b2b" SPAMfarm?
Open Source Initiative Executive Director Leaves, Replacement Sought by Monopolists, Not the Community or OSI Members
Serves to show who runs this show...
Links 11/10/2025: China-US Tensions Grow Again, "Hey Hi" More Widely Recognised as Bubble Made of Capital That Doesn't Exist
Links for the day
Now Confirmed in Western Media: Microsoft Azure Layoffs This Month
Affirmed by more sources moments ago
Peter O'Callaghan QC represented grandparents, Westernport Hotel, at Liquor Royal Commission
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Either The Register MS Divests From FOSS Coverage or Liam Proven is on Long Holiday
Publishers perish when their audience loses trust in them
Microsoft Cancelling Another Datacentre is a Sign of Financial Trouble and Lack of Growth
The debt continues to grow
Gemini Links 11/10/2025: An Evening at the Fair and Fast Fourier Friday
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, October 10, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, October 10, 2025