Bonum Certa Men Certa

Links 26/9/2021: Mozilla Spends on PR, OpenMandriva Outsourcing to Microsoft



  • GNU/Linux

    • Audiocasts/Shows

      • This Week in Linux 169: GNOME 41, Ubuntu 21.10, Easy Anti-Cheat for Linux, Android - TuxDigital

        On this episode of This Week in Linux, GNOME 41, Epic Games Announce Easy Anti-Cheat Support For Linux, BattlEye Confirms Linux Support for Steam Deck, Ubuntu 21.10 “Impish Indri” Beta, Canonical Extends Support For Ubuntu 14.04 & 16.04, Ubuntu Touch OTA-19, Fedora Linux Recognized As Digital Public Good, Google’s Android Finally Shifting To “Upstream First”, Valve Publishes New Steam Deck FAQ. All that and much more on Your Weekly Source for Linux GNews!

      • GNU World Order 427

        **Mercurial** version control, and assembly with **nasm**.

    • Benchmarks

      • The Speed of Time

        How long does it take to read the time? How would you time time? These strange questions came to the fore back in 2014 when Netflix was switching services from CentOS Linux to Ubuntu, and I helped debug several weird performance issues including one I'll describe here. While you're unlikely to run into this specific issue anymore, what is interesting is this type of issue and the simple method of debugging it: a pragmatic mix of observability and experimentation tools. I've shared many posts about superpower observability tools, but often humble hacking is just as effective.

        A Cassandra database cluster had switched to Ubuntu and noticed write latency increased by over 30%. A quick check of basic performance statistics showed over 30% higher CPU consumption. What on Earth is Ubuntu doing that results in 30% higher CPU time!?

    • Applications

      • Making Linux Offline Voice Recognition Easier

        For just about any task you care to name, a Linux-based desktop computer can get the job done using applications that rival or exceed those found on other platforms. However, that doesn’t mean it’s always easy to get it working, and speech recognition is just one of those difficult setups.

        A project called Voice2JSON is trying to simplify the use of voice workflows. While it doesn’t provide the actual voice recognition, it does make it easier to get things going and then use speech in a natural way.

        The software can integrate with several backends to do offline speech recognition including CMU’s pocketsphinx, Dan Povey’s Kaldi, Mozilla’s DeepSpeech 0.9, and Kyoto University’s Julius. However, the code is more than just a thin wrapper around these tools. The fast training process produces both a speech recognizer and an intent recognizer. So not only do you know there is a garage door, but you gain an understanding of the opening and closing of the garage door.

    • Instructionals/Technical

      • How To Install Ansible on Debian 11 - idroot

        In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Ansible on Debian 11. For those of you who didn’t know, Ansible is the simplest way to automate apps and IT infrastructure. Ansible uses port 22 (SSH) to connect to a remote machine and make the necessary changes. It is a cross-platform tool designed to handle system configurations while working with Linux, macOS, and Windows operating systems.

        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 through the step-by-step installation of the Ansible on a Debian 11 (Bullseye).

      • Getting Kubernetes up and running is one thing. Managing it successfully is quite another [Ed: Sponsored push by SUSE, but with howtos]
      • How to Create SFTP Only User in Debian 11 – TecAdmin

        SFTP (SSH File Transfer Protocol) is a secure file protocol used to access, manage, and transfer files over an encrypted SSH transport session. Security first is a thumb rule for the system administrators. In some cases, we need to allow remote users to access the filesystem on our system, but you don’t want to allow them to get a shell. This will allow you a secure channel to provide limited access to specific files and directories.

        This tutorial will help you to setup SFTP only access (without shell access) on Debian 11 system. It will create a chroot environment on your system to limit the SFTP user to a specific directory only. Also, it will allow SFTP only access without SSH access to the user.

      • How to List Dependencies of a Package in Ubuntu

        Unlike Windows, macOS, and Android, software on Ubuntu—and Linux in general—is not distributed as a single package. Instead, when you install an application, your system's package manager downloads multiple packages, including the main app package and its dependencies. However, this only stands true for traditional package installation on Linux i.e. using package managers.

        Knowing what additional dependencies are downloaded during an installation can be beneficial for beginner and advanced users alike. This way, one has complete control over the packages installed on their system.

        Let's take a look at how you can check the dependencies of a package on Ubuntu.

      • How to Actually Install Ubuntu on USB

        his tutorial shows the steps for actually installing Ubuntu Linux on an external US drive with the bootloader installed on the USB. It is NOT live USB set up. This USB will work as portable operating system and can be used on any computer system.

        Let me recall a few things.

        A live USB is used for testing the distribution. It is also used for installing Linux on computer hard disk. Normally, any changes you made to your live distribution is lost and this limits the usage of the live USB.

        Several of It’s FOSS readers requested a tutorial on installing Linux on a USB. Not the regular live USB with persistence but the actual Ubuntu installed on a USB disk.

        This means having a portable Ubuntu Linux on a USB that you can plug it in to any computer, use it, save your work on the USB like it was an actual hard disk.

        The procedure does not seem very different from installing Ubuntu on actual hard disk. And this is where people make mistakes.

        The available tutorials on the internet miss the most crucial part: the bootloader.

    • Distributions

      • BSD

      • PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandriva/OpenMandriva Family

        • OpenMandriva switching to Github Issues [Ed: OpenMandriva cannot be taken seriously anymore and it is not "Open". It outsources to Microsoft's proprietary software monopoly]

          To make things easier and simpler for users to file issue reports we are switching to Github Issues.

      • IBM/Red Hat/Fedora

        • IBM Careers in India: New Job Openings, Salary, Eligibility, Locations, How to Apply
        • Big Iron Will Always Drive Big Spending [Ed: IBM-sponsored 'publishers' (like this one, Timothy Prickett Morgan) constantly push IBM stuff that's massively overpriced as if it is truly necessary]

          Here we are, more than three decades later, and IBM represents around half of the revenues outside of the x86 server market. That relatively big piece of the non-x86 server market is despite the rise of single-socket machines based on Arm servers at selected hyperscalers and cloud builders, which is eating into x86 server growth but which also making the non-x86 piece of the pie rise more than it has in about a decade. Sun and HP have left the RISC/Unix server battlefield long since — about a half decade ago if you want to be generous — and AMD has no interest whatsoever in building four-socket, eight-socket, or larger machines based on its Epyc architecture. Quite the opposite. AMD is the poster child for the single-socket server, and has made that a centerpiece of its strategy since the “Naples” Epyc 7001 CPUs — the company’s re-entry into the server market — launched four years ago. Google has caught the religion with its Tau instances on its eponymous public cloud, but that is mainly to combat the single-socket Graviton2 instances at Amazon Web Services.

        • IBM i Open Source Gets Better With Fall 2021 TRs - IT Jungle

          IBM has also upgraded its support for GNU Compiler Collection (GCC), which is a free and open source compiler that was originally developed by Richard Stallman for the GNU operating system (which is the foundation for Linux). Over the years, GCC has grown to include a host of handy functions, including compilers for languages like Python and Perl, a version of Bash, and more.

    • Devices/Embedded

    • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

      • Web Browsers

        • Mozilla

          • Mozilla selects BerlinRosen as US AOR [Ed: Mozilla fires engineers and pays PR firms instead]

            Mozilla Corporation has selected BerlinRosen as its U.S. agency of record.

            The agency was brought on following a competitive selection process. The contract, effective July 15, is for one year.

            BerlinRosen is responsible for Mozilla’s comprehensive PR and communications strategy planning and development. The firm will work on earned media, advise on digital and creative projects and support the strengthening of the nonprofit’s brand.

  • Leftovers

    • Science

      • My Math Confession

        This was it. This is what I feared would render me destitute. It doesn't matter what any of this code means. What matters is that the math was a single insight. It was the realization that if a single column of a matrix was subtracted before recalculating sums, we could ask the computer to crunch a lot fewer hard numbers. It meant maybe some day a researcher in a lab could mash a button and have a chemical candidate for a novel chemotherapy enter their brain for the first time. It meant they could do that every couple seconds instead of every couple weeks. The math was the thought process, not the numbers, functions, rules or other tools of the trade taught in your average Hard Numbers for Computers course.

    • Education

      • Opinion | No, The Teachers Are Not Okay

        At the staff meeting the other day, one of my fellow teachers turned to me and said he was having trouble seeing.

      • Are universities finally waking up to academic integrity?

        Equally, the university is also emphatic that it does not assess the originality of papers solely based on the percentage of likeness found using automated systems. Instead, evaluators – recognised experts in their fields – are asked to use their knowledge of the literature to identify paraphrases and translational plagiarism and as well as plagiarism based on electronically inaccessible documents missed by the automated checks. Anti-plagiarism software focused mainly on work in the Slovak language has been mandatory in all Slovak higher education institutions since 2010, but this university is using two other systems to provide an additional check for works in foreign languages.

    • Health/Nutrition

    • Integrity/Availability

    • Defence/Aggression

    • Environment

      • Thunberg spearheads German climate protests to pressure candidates before polls

        Tens of thousands of environmental activists staged a rally outside Germany’s parliament Friday, two days before the country holds a national election, to demand that politicians take stronger action to curb climate change.

      • China's Distant Waters Fleet Raises Overfishing Concerns

        The vigilante patrol was prompted by an international outcry last summer when hundreds of Chinese vessels were discovered fishing for squid near the long-isolated Galapagos Islands, a UNESCO world heritage site that inspired 19th-century naturalist Charles Darwin and is home to some of the world's most endangered species, from giant tortoises to hammerhead sharks.

        China's deployment to this remote expanse is no accident. Decades of overfishing have pushed its overseas fleet, the world's largest, ever farther from home. Officially capped at 3,000 vessels, the fleet might actually consist of thousands more. Keeping such a sizable flotilla at sea, sometimes for years at a time, is at once a technical feat made possible through billions in state subsidies and a source of national pride akin to what the U.S. space program was for generations of Americans.

      • Barbados PM Slams Rich Nations for Failing on Climate, COVID and Inequality
      • Unions and Climate Activists Find Common Cause in Opposing Airport Expansion
      • 'How Many More Deaths Must It Take?' Barbados Leader Rips Rich Nations in Fierce UN Speech

        Barbadian Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley delivered a scathing indictment of the rich and powerful during her address at the 76th session of the U.N. General Assembly on Friday, condemning the leaders of wealthy countries for refusing to take basic steps to end the coronavirus pandemic, tackle the climate emergency, and usher in a more just society.

        "How much more global temperature rise must there be before we end the burning of fossil fuels?"

      • Energy

        • Ministry toughening rules for issuance of virtual currency authorizations

          A bill toughening rules for providers of virtual currency services has exited the Estonian Ministry of Finance that would, in order to mitigate the risks of financial crime, allow granting an Estonian virtual currency service authorization only to applicants who intend to operate in Estonia.

          The bill also seeks to set out in greater detail the grounds for refusal of authorization and to put an end to anonymous transactions in virtual currencies, spokespeople for the finance ministry said.

        • Tracking stolen [cryptocurrency] is a booming business: How blockchain sleuths recover digital loot

          The seizure pokes a hole in the long-held belief that cryptocurrency is impossible to trace. Cryptocurrency is computer code that allows people to send and receive funds, recording the transactions on a public ledger known as a blockchain, rather than retaining account holder info. Because of the lack of user data, cryptocurrencies like bitcoin have been hailed as a safe haven for criminal activity. Fueled by anonymity, the shadowy industry allows hackers, tax evaders and other bad actors to launder money secretively, outside of the traditional banking system.

        • China Bans Bitcoin, Again

          In addition to stating that transacting with cryptocurrencies is illegal, the PBOC statement describes the need to coordinate the activities of agencies including the bank, the Cyberspace Administration of China, and the Ministry of Public Security, as well as local governments, to ban and crack down on cryptocurrency-related activities.

        • Bitcoin miners align with fossil fuel firms, alarming environmentalists

          Today, through a holding company based in Kennerdell, Pennsylvania, called Stronghold Digital Mining that bought the plant, Scrubgrass burns enough coal waste to power about 1,800 cryptocurrency mining computers. These computers, known as miners, are packed into shipping containers next to the power plant, the company stated in documents filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ahead of its initial public offering. Coal waste is a byproduct from decades of mining in the region, left behind in enormous black piles. Stronghold estimated that it’s currently burning about 600,000 tons of it per year at Scrubgrass.

          According to the SEC filings, Stronghold plans to operate 57,000 miners by the end of 2022 — an expansion that requires buying up two additional coal waste power plants in the region.

        • [Cryptocurrency] Exchange Giants Stop Taking China Users as Ban Widens

          In June, Huobi banned existing Chinese users from trading riskier products such as derivatives, after China’s cabinet called for a renewed clampdown on [cryptocurrency] trading and mining. There is no indication that Chinese users are barred from Huobi and Binance altogether, which are widely regarded as two of the big three [cryptocurrency] exchanges that originated in China, along with OKEx.

        • China bans [cryptocurrencies], Marvel film 'Shang-Chi' and 'effeminate men.' This is what they share.

          Though bans on effeminate men and cryptocurrency might appear to have little in common, they are both emblematic of the way Xi and his party want to keep China free of foreign and individualistic influences, with these crackdowns furthering his goal of greater control over all aspects of Chinese economy, culture and education. While the displays of power are deeply damaging for the individuals harmed by these moves, the fact that the isolationist measures are becoming more drastic has a silver lining: They’re a sign of how increasingly difficult and elusive such government control is in a globalized economy and social media age.

        • China’s Supposed ‘Bitcoin Ban’ Fails To Crash Market As Twitter Adds Crypto Payments In Historic First

          A move by China’s central bank to criminalize all forms of cryptocurrency trading – effectively making bitcoin illegal in the country – has failed to meaningfully impact the price of the world’s leading digital asset.

          The clampdown came one day after Twitter announced that its 330m active users will soon be able to send bitcoin to each other instantly and for virtually zero cost – harnessing the Lightning network that’s been built on top of bitcoin’s primary layer and, many believe, will propel the cryptocurrency into the mainstream.

      • Wildlife/Nature

        • Monarch butterflies are being wiped out. These combat veterans are trying to save them.

          He added that he intends to eventually expand the butterfly preserve, based on how the monarchs respond this winter and whether he can secure funding to keep up with the project. Schell said he also plans to continue working with Guardian Grange by hosting nature walks and hikes through the property and educational sessions about the plants and native herbs that grow there.

        • Why Do Scorpions Glow Under UV Light? One Scientist Has Some Theories

          Next time you go hunting for scorpions under cover of darkness, here’s a handy hack: Bring a black light. Most scorpion species are fluorescent, meaning they glow—in this case, a dazzling bluish green—when exposed to ultraviolet (UV) light.

      • Overpopulation

        • Pakistan's water sharing woes continue as provinces remain at odds

          The government has already initiated the construction of several dams across the country, including Diamer-Bhasha Dam to cope with the growing needs of water and energy in the country.

        • Jordan's water crisis deepens as climate changes, population grows

          Meanwhile, demand had risen sharply. Jordan's population has doubled in the past 20 years, with waves of refugees, including more than 1 million Syrians, taken in.

          The share of water per person per year has plummeted to 80 cubic metres from 3,400 at the turn of the century, official figures show, and Salameh says available supplies are only enough for three million of Jordan's 10 million inhabitants.

        • Editorial: Yes, Southern California, we have a water shortage emergency too

          We can, and we should. In fact, laws that encourage construction of multifamily housing provide living quarters, without thirsty yards, for a workforce that otherwise might be seeking traditional housing and putting in new lawns instead of ripping out old ones. We call it “drinking water,” but in fact the greatest single use of household water in California is for landscaping. Apartments, fourplexes and other multifamily units, in which numerous people share landscaping, are quite water thrifty.

        • Infographic: Lebanon is about to run out of water

          At least 70 percent of Lebanon’s population faces critical water shortages with many people at risk of running out of water in the coming days, according to UNICEF.

    • Finance

      • Opinion | Please Teach Your Children About Corporate Criminals

        If you think elementary, middle, and high school students know too little history, geography, and government, try asking them about the corporations that command so many hours of their day, their attention, what they consume, and their personal horizons.

      • To Avert Debt Ceiling Calamity, Democrats Urged to Finally Kill the Filibuster

        Democrats in Congress are scrambling to avert a debt ceiling crisis that could have devastating consequences for the U.S. economy—and Republicans are vowing to stonewall them every step of the way.

        The GOP's principal tool of obstruction—the Senate's notorious 60-vote filibuster rule—is one the minority party has used repeatedly in recent months to tank popular Democratic legislation, most prominently a bill aimed at safeguarding and strengthening voting rights nationwide.

      • Opinion | $3.5 Trillion Is Too Expensive, But $10 Trillion for War Is Business as Usual

        In the end, a government budget is both a moral document and a reflection of the society that produced it. That should fill us all with shame.

      • Opinion | These GOP Grifters Will Be the Death of This Republic

        Trump just unleashed an unhinged, barely coherent rant about the possibility President Biden might reveal what was going on in the White House on January 6th, the day Trump tried to finally end, once and for all, any possibility of governmental oversight of his ongoing criminal career.€  He believed he could follow in the footsteps of grifters before him who've taken control of and then drained dry countries from Hungary to Russia, Brazil to Turkey and The Philippines.

      • A [Cryptocurrency]-Trading Hamster Performs Better Than Warren Buffett And The S&P 500

        It's designed so that when Mr. Goxx runs on the hamster wheel, he can select among dozens of cryptocurrencies. Then, deciding between two tunnels, he chooses whether to buy or sell. According to the Twitch account for the hamster, his decision is sent over to a real trading platform — and yes, real money is involved.

      • Uncertainty Swirls Around Evergrande as a Deadline Passes

        The deadline passed without a word, with no sign that the closely watched-for payment had been made, so investors did what they have done for months to the troubled Chinese property giant with loads of debt and few solutions: They sold.

        Shares of China Evergrande Group fell nearly 12 percent on Friday, as a Thursday deadline to make an $83 million interest payment passed without any word from the company about whether it had met its commitments.

      • Morning Coffee: Goldman Sachs' working hours criticized by son of massive client. Credit Suisse gets harsh in Asia

        At least one of the 13 bankers who made the presentation about the poor working conditions at Goldman Sachs in February is still at the firm

    • AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

      • The Christian case for Biden's plan to raise taxes on America's rich

        In his recent encyclical, Pope Francis wrote that, post-pandemic, "Our worst response would be to plunge even more deeply into feverish consumerism and new forms of egotistic self-preservation." He also warned against "this dogma of neoliberal faith" that "resort[s] to the magic theories of 'spillover' or 'trickle.'” Trickle-down economics — the theory that giving more money to people who are already wealthy will somehow benefit the rest of us — inspired tax cuts for rich people under former Presidents Ronald Reagan, George Bush and Donald Trump. Trickle-down economics is the opposite of Christian teaching. Jesus teaches us in Matthew 25 that nations will be judged by how they care about the most vulnerable people first and foremost.

      • Afghan Resistance Mulls Formation of Government in Exile

        A former senior Afghan security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the resistance comprises three broad categories: supporters of Saleh and Massoud’s National Resistance Front; former officers, including generals of the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces, as well as senior officials of the former defense and interior ministries; and former ministers and deputy ministers. Discussions are in the early stages, and the groups are yet to unite ideologically.

    • Censorship/Free Speech

      • Sex Workers Sick of OnlyFans Are Building Their Own Websites

        Platforms are also cracking down on adult content because of the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA) and the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (SESTA), a law passed in 2018 that made platforms liable for hosting sex trafficking—and created a chilling effect on all sexual speech online. As with anything that creates risk, this made banks and payment platforms more hesitant to do business with platforms that host adult content.

        “While the purported target of the law [FOSTA/SESTA] was trafficking in the sex trades, it has proven incredibly ineffective but is instead invoked regularly by tech companies when censoring and removing content shared by sex workers, or even just users sharing content of a sexual nature,” Mariah Grant, Director of Research and Advocacy at The Sex Workers Project of the Urban Justice Center, told Motherboard.

      • That Comment Someone Left on Facebook? It Can Get You Sued.

        The ruling extends liability for user comments to anyone with a public Facebook page, not just news outlets. For example, the administrator of a Facebook community could be sued for comments left under a post, even if the administrator was unaware of them.

      • Don't use these Chinese smartphones, European government warns

        Xiaomi seems to do the bidding of the Chinese government in ways that could threaten users in the West, the report argues, including putting a censorship module in its phones and secretly communicating with Chinese-run servers worldwide. Meanwhile, Huawei's lax app-installation process can get your phone infected by Android malware.

      • Lithuania Looks to Ban 'Untrustworthy' Phones After Chinese Censorship Concerns

        The Defence Ministry is now drafting the legislation to ban public institutions from procuring "untrustworthy" equipment, including smartphones, with a view to presenting it to the parliament for debate by the end of this year, Abukevicius told Reuters.

      • Lithuania looks to ban ‘untrustworthy’ phones after Chinese censorship concerns

        The censoring capability in Xiaomi’s Mi 10T 5G phone software has been turned off for the “European Union region” but can be turned on remotely at any time, the country’s National Cyber Security Centre said in a report on Tuesday.

    • Civil Rights/Policing

    • Monopolies

      • Patents

        • US Patent Forum 2021: PTAB chief speaks out on review processes [Ed: Why did a PTAB chief decide to speak to a front group and lobbyist of litigation fanatics? Bad optics.]

          Scott Boalick, the chief administrative patent judge, weighed in on director review at the board while speaking at Managing IP’s US Patent Forum

        • FDA fixes for generic delays may not work, say patent counsel [Ed: These patents kill when generics makers are denied access to #medicines (which in turns denies the public access to these). Will FDA and USPTO actually do something for sick (ill) people rather than sick-minded (greedy) oligarchs?]

          Counsel that represent generic pharma companies say a letter from the FDA to the USPTO highlights important patent issues but may not fix them

        • UK Court of Appeal opinion diverges on Dabus and patenting AI [Ed: Misleading headline from JUVEntoon (EPO and Team UPC propaganda operative) Amy Sandys. The actual news and the headline should be, UK rejects "Hey Hi" excuse for patents (no divergence on that). The patent maximalists, even when they lose, always look hard for some positive slant and then start pushing that slant to mislead people in headlines. Why would you wish to get legal advice from such pathological liars?]

          Stephen Thaler has experienced another defeat in his effort for the UK patent courts to recognise artificial intelligence system, Dabus, as a named inventor. This time, the UK Court of Appeal rejected Thaler’s appeal against a previous first-instance verdict, at a ratio of two judges to one.

        • Plasseraud is next French patent attorney firm to adopt mixed approach [Ed: These JUVEntoons are once again posting marketing spam as 'news' and pushing UPC lies along the way. JUVE used to do actual journalism, honest analysis, but then reinvented itself as a liar for extremists and people looking to undermine the rule of law, constitutions, integrity in journalism etc. Habitual lying in articles about patents seems to have become a modus operandi of team UPC.]

          Now that the UPC is once again within reach [Ed: False], many French law firms are considering a mixed line-up or strengthening their teams. Furthermore, following Brexit, many French lawyers see their chance to play a major role in the UPC.

        • Software Patents

          • Several claims from Acacia sub, Targeted Radio, patent held unpatentable [Ed: Microsoft-connected patent troll continues to do lots of damage through its proxies with software patents]

            On September 22, 2021, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) issued a final written decision in Unified Patents, LLC v. Targeted Radio LLC holding claims 1 and 3-9 of U.S. Patent 8,948,684 invalid. Targeted Radio LLC is an affiliate of well-known NPE Acacia Research Corporation. The ’684 patent is generally directed to the insertion of advertising or other content into an Internet radio stream based on the user's location. This patent was asserted against Pandora Media, but the case was terminated in 2020.

      • Trademarks

        • Sony 'Vita' mark loses out in genuine use revocation proceedings before EU General Court

          Genuine use poses a unique quandary for trade mark owners when raised in revocation proceedings. Not only does the trade mark owner bear the burden of producing evidence to establish such use, but the trade mark owner should know that the ‘reputation’ of the mark does not mean that proving such use is guaranteed to succeed. In this sense, one may recall the fate of the BIG MAC mark in 2019 decision of the Cancellation Division (see IPKat here).

          Earlier this month, Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe Ltd faced the same problem in relation to their EU word mark ‘Vita’, when the General Court ultimately found that Sony had not provided sufficient evidence of genuine use of the mark within the relevant five-year period.

          Let’s see what happened.

        • The Battle over BLACK IRISH Liqueur

          Mariah Carey is in the middle of a brawl with Irish whiskey makers over her choice of brand name for her new cream liqueur products.

          On August 16, Ms. Carey posted a photo on Instagram with the caption “Introducing BLACK IRISH. Two years in the making.” The brand name was inspired by Ms. Carey’s heritage – her father, who was Black, and her mother, whose roots were Irish.

          [...]

          In the EU, the situation is different. There, the BLACK IRISH trademark is owned by Darker Still Spirits Co., which acquired the name in 2015 and has been selling a stout blended whiskey since June 2020. Ms. Carey filed for a trademark in the EU, but her mark was filed after the mark owned by Darker Still Spirits. That has not stopped Ms. Carey’s legal team from fighting for the mark in the EU, and the battles continue. The European trademark office is still evaluating the positions regarding the BLACK IRISH trademark.

      • Copyrights

        • Authorship of photographs and ownership of image rights in Nigeria: Banire v NTA-Star TV Network Ltd

          The Appellant was the plaintiff at the (Federal) High Court where she had sought a declaration that the Respondent/Defendant’s use of her photographs on its billboards without her express authorization amounts to an infringement of her “image/intellectual property rights”. The Appellant also sought the sum of 50 Million Naira (approximately $121,000) as “compensation for the infringement of her image rights”.

        • New UK ISP Piracy Blocks Target Sci-Hub, Streaming & Torrent Site Proxies

          Efforts to make pirate sites harder to access have resulted in two new waves of blocking in the UK. Action by Elsevier and Springer Nature now requires major ISPs to block several additional Sci-Hub-related domains while the efforts of the MPA require them to block domains that facilitate access to previously blocked sites including EZTV, SolarMovie, Icefilms, and more.



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Trying to meet quotas by making fake 'articles' that are - in effect - based on plagiarism?
Recognizing invalid legal judgments: rogue Debianists sought to deceive one of Europe's most neglected regions, Midlands-North-West
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Google-funded group distributed invalid Swiss judgment to deceive Midlands-North-West
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 20/11/2024: BeagleBone Black and Suicide Rates in Switzerland
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
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IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, November 19, 2024
IRC logs for Tuesday, November 19, 2024