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12.21.15

The Forgotten History of IAM ‘Magazine’ as EPO Management’s Megaphone and EPO Union Basher

Posted in Europe, Patents at 8:21 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Joff Wild of IAM

Summary: In an old letter from the Staff Union of the European Patent Office (SUEPO), conflicts of interest in the Council, the decreasing quality of patents, the attacks on workers’ rights as well as many other issues were already openly discussed

On Saturday we showed that IAM 'magazine' was indirectly paid by the EPO to organise a pro-UPC event. We have received some private feedback about that article, neither from EPO staff nor from unions. There are many people in Europe and abroad who are seriously concerned about what’s happening inside the EPO these days. The whole world is impacted by patents, albeit their impact is mostly invisible to people (market prices are commonly what’s visible to common men and women).

“There are many people in Europe and abroad who are seriously concerned about what’s happening inside the EPO these days.”Regarding the Saturday article, one person drew our attention to something from more than 7 years ago. “From the archives,” said this person, there is a 2008 letter where “SUEPO replies to Joff Wild.” Wild is the main person behind IAM ‘magazine’, which we wrote more and more about in recent weeks because we suspect it is climbing into bed with the EPO more often than before. Articles on this subject include:

Having retrieved the letter from SUEPO, we would like to show what IAM did at the time (emphasis in larger fonts), together with Brimelow, the EPO’s President at the time:

Zentraler Vorstand . Central Executive Committee . Bureau Central

15.12.2008
su08163cl – 2.04.6b/6.

Re.: IAM blog – Comments on SUEPO

Dear Mr. Wild,

In your blog you have repeatedly challenged SUEPO (Staff Union of the European Patent Office) to provide evidence in support of its claims that:

• there is a drive towards decentralisation,
• the quality of the patents granted by the European Patent Office is threatened by the policies of its administration,
• the system is distorted away from the interests of the users (in our opinion mainly towards those of the national patent offices), and
• European Patent Office staff is genuinely frustrated.

“In fact, officials have recently been threatened with disciplinary actions for their alleged involvement in SUEPO publications.”You claim that SUEPO is dishonest in the sense that the criticism raised is predominantly motivated by a degradation of the working conditions at the European Patent Office. We would of course like to reply to this challenge, however, our ability to do so is severely limited by the restrictive interpretation of the EPO administration that staff may not publish internal information that is not already public. In fact, officials have recently been threatened with disciplinary actions for their alleged involvement in SUEPO publications. In the following we therefore limit ourselves to summarising material which has already been published

Much of the material we cite is also available on the SUEPO website (www.suepo.org).

1. Frustration of EPO staff

“It was reported that in a survey conducted by the staff union in April 2004 among some 1,300 patent examiners, more than three-quarters agreed with the statement that productivity demands from the EPO’s managers did not allow them to enforce the quality standards set by the European Patent Convention.”The frustration of the EPO staff about the way their Organisation is governed is not new and is very well documented. One of the earliest publicly available reports on staff discontent as expressed in staff surveys comes from none other than the highly reputed scientific journal Nature (“Pressured staff lose faith in patent quality”, Alison Abbott, 3 June 2004, Nature vol. 493). It was reported that in a survey conducted by the staff union in April 2004 among some 1,300 patent examiners, more than three-quarters agreed with the statement that productivity demands from the EPO’s managers did not allow them to enforce the quality standards set by the European Patent Convention. And 90% said that they did not have time to keep up to date with advances in their scientific fields.

In a staff survey of 730 examiners, undertaken by the EPO in 2004, only 9% said they believed that the management was “actively involved in improving quality”. The staff surveys subsequently conducted by the EPO in 2006 and 2008 produced similar results. The cause of staff discontent is clearly not the benefit package since the vast majority staff reported their satisfaction with pay and rewards in the staff survey cited in

the above-mentioned Nature article, and have continued to do so in subsequent surveys. It should furthermore be noted that the earliest warning signals were issued under President Kober, at a time when the staff benefit package was not under discussion (see, for example, the New Scientist article “Go-slow at patent office puts inventions on hold” of 19 February 2000).

“”Regarding the 2008 Staff Survey, the German magazine “Spiegel” reported that staff trust in the Administrative Council was at an exceptionally low level of just 4% (“Tausende Patentamt-Mitarbeiter sind genervt von Chefetage” link Spiegel Online to doc on our website 07.06.2008).The 2004 Staff Survey documented strong dissatisfaction at the difficulties in delivering quality work, and a lack of trust in the Office management in general and the Administrative Council in particular. Regarding the 2008 Staff Survey, the German magazine “Spiegel” reported that staff trust in the Administrative Council was at an exceptionally low level of just 4% (“Tausende Patentamt-Mitarbeiter sind genervt von Chefetage” link Spiegel Online to doc on our website 07.06.2008). This information is
correct. We refer you to CA/93/07 for our interpretation of the similar lack of trust in the Council recorded in the 2006 Staff Survey.

One factor behind the lack of trust towards Office management, at least amongst examiners, is continuous changes in the reporting system resulting in an ever-increasing focus on quantity at the cost of quality, and this in the face of an obvious increase in the size and complexity of the incoming applications (see CA/73/05 “The increased voluminosity of patent applications received by the EPO and its impact on the European Patent System”), a constant increase in the volume of prior art, and what we experience as a decline in willingness to cooperate from many applicants.

“One factor behind the lack of trust towards Office management, at least amongst examiners, is continuous changes in the reporting system resulting in an ever-increasing focus on quantity at the cost of quality…”Research International, the consultants commissioned to undertake the last three staff surveys, already identified in 2004 a huge divide between staff and senior management. They referred to this divide as a culture conflict: on the staff side a culture of quality and on the management side a culture of quantity.

2. Quality of the patents granted by the EPO

SUEPO has consistently and continuously claimed the need for high quality search and examination work, based on first rate classification and documentation, and followed by a comprehensive and high-quality patent information service, in the interest of applicants and the public. Already in 1997 SUEPO issued a first position paper on patent quality, followed in 2002 by the SUEPO working paper “A Quality Strategy for the EPO” and in 2004 by the SUEPO position paper “Quality of Examination at the EPO”. The consistency of approach is evident when consulting subsequent SUEPO papers and interventions on the topic of quality, most recently in 2006 in SUEPO’s position on the questionnaire of the European Commission on the patent system in Europe.

“Already in 1997 SUEPO issued a first position paper on patent quality, followed in 2002 by the SUEPO working paper “A Quality Strategy for the EPO” and in 2004 by the SUEPO position paper “Quality of Examination at the EPO”.”It remains SUEPO’s conviction that the strength of the EPO, and the continued justification for a centralised European Patent Office, resides in the critical mass of staff with the specialised technical, legal, procedural and linguistic knowledge necessary to search and examine patent applications accurately and completely. This is a prerequisite to issue patents with a very high presumption of validity. A presumption of validity is an indication of a confidence in the fairness of the patent system, and fairness is a requirement to ensure that the patent system serves the collective interests of society as a whole rather than those of specific groups.

This is undeniably linked to working conditions at the EPO and therefore of central interest to staff. First, the meaning and purpose of the contribution staff can make to society is undermined if the rights granted are not proportionate to the contribution made by that applicant. Secondly, to achieve the standard of quality required the Office must be able to attract and retain highly qualified scientists, engineers, lawyers and formalities staff, with the necessary language skills. Thirdly, in order to maintain high

public confidence in the impartiality of the EPO all nationals must be fairly represented, requiring conditions of employment which are sufficiently attractive to persuade staff to expatriate themselves and their families.

“It is, however, rather silent on what measures have been taken to safeguard or increase the quality, and entirely silent on e.g. recent developments in the error rates in granted patents.”In statements directed to the outside world the administration stresses its commitment to quality. It is, however, rather silent on what measures have been taken to safeguard or increase the quality, and entirely silent on e.g. recent developments in the error rates in granted patents. One potentially quality-enhancing measure which has been implemented recently is to increase the “points” allocated to examiners for refusing an application. This partially compensates the higher work input involved in a refusal. However, this change is not reflected at an organisational level, leaving the office with conflicting priorities. Initial feedback also suggests that this measure has resulted in an increase in the proportion of applications which are refused. If true such results support the long held view of staff that the management systems in the EPO have created a bias towards granting. While SUEPO nonetheless appreciates this measure, it should not be forgotten that it was a compromise reluctantly accepted by management following fierce opposition against the latest round of changes to the productivity reporting system, at a cost of 18.000 strike days. In general, the focus of the Office (and Council) remains on productivity and production rather than on quality. This is a source of extreme frustration for staff – at the end of the day, it is the quality of the “end product” which counts. The staff of the EPO are not the only ones who are concerned about the quality of their work. As an example, we refer to a recent report by the British industry association TMPDF.

3. Drive towards decentralisation

A drive towards decentralisation has been recognised very early in the history of the EPO, see e.g. Bossung (2001) on the (lack of) political leadership. However, this tendency has increased in recent years. SUEPO is not alone in noticing this and in opposing it. For a very recent contribution to the debate see the latest entry on Axel Horn’s IP::JUR blog. The decentralisation process received renewed impetus with the Administrative Council’s approval of the proposals contained in CA/120/06, CA/121/06, CA/122/06, CA/123/06 and CA/124/06 detailing the European Patent Network (EPN). While some aspects of these initiatives are potentially beneficial to the users of the European patent system, those same users have stated that they do not want a decentralised patent system and have already “voted with their feet”.

“It is instructive to consider the reaction of applicants to the decision of the Council to stop the EPO performing “special searches” and to force applicants to choose between various national offices for this service (“Special searches handed over to national patent offices”).”The “Utilisation Pilot Project” referred to in CA/121/06 above was initiated to test potential gains in efficiency through the utilisation by EPO examiners of the results of searches carried out in certain national offices (Denmark, UK, Austria, Germany). However, interest was so low that the voluntary nature of participation was abandoned. More than 1000 files have now been processed and the results compared. We have seen the raw results, which do not support the claimed efficiency gains. Information on the pilot outcome pilot is available in the documents CA/147/08 and CA/147/08 Add. 1. Nevertheless, we know that the Project Board, which includes representatives of the participating national offices, claims such gains, seemingly regardless of the results.

It is instructive to consider the reaction of applicants to the decision of the Council to stop the EPO performing “special searches” and to force applicants to choose between various national offices for this service (“Special searches handed over to national patent offices”). This was part of the proposals of CA/123/06. The EPO was flooded with requests for special searches before the deadline expired, often accompanied by letters insisting that the search be performed by the EPO. No information is available about the subsequent handling of special searches by the national offices, for example, numbers requested before and after the change, feedback from applicants, etc. We

fear that this lack of respect for the legitimate interests of applicants risks becoming the hallmark of the EPO.

“We fear that this lack of respect for the legitimate interests of applicants risks becoming the hallmark of the EPO.”Although the original concept of the European Patent Network was firmly based on the principle of voluntary participation by applicants, we believe that it is no longer intended to adhere to this principle. In view of the lack of interest from applicants for both the “utilisation pilot project” and “special searches” initiatives, and the resulting reactions of many Administrative Council delegations, the impression is that user participation in
such EPN projects will de facto become compulsory (or “office-led” as the EPO management puts it).

4. Conflicts of interest in the Council

The heads of the national delegations in the Administrative Council are almost without exception heads of their respective national patent offices. For many of the national offices their 50% share of the renewal fees constitutes a very substantial proportion of their annual budget (in several cases well over 50%). In their function as heads of national offices these heads of delegation thus have an interest in having many patents granted, and having them granted quickly.

“The heads of the national delegations in the Administrative Council are almost without exception heads of their respective national patent offices.”Again SUEPO is not alone in identifying and publicizing this problem. In the “Interviews for the Future” collected in 2006 by the EPO as part of the Future Scenarios project, Thierry Sueur (Vice-President of Air Liquide, responsible for Intellectual Property, and Chairman of BusinessEurope’s Working Group “Patents”) and Jacques Combeau (Intellectual Property, Air Liquide, and delegate for Business Europe at the
Administrative Council) famously said: “I am convinced that the way the EPO is managed today (by its Administrative Council) is such that it will mean either the death of the EPO or its transformation into a cash machine.” The interview with Dr. Ingrid Schneider also makes highly interesting reading in this respect.

Since 2006 the Administrative Council has taken a decision that is clearly not in the interest of the Organisation, by transferring a total of 720 million EUR in liabilities from the Contracting States (in several cases from the national patent offices directly), to the European Patent Organisation despite the Organisation allegedly being in serious financial difficulty.

5. Motivation of SUEPO

SUEPO is a staff union. It is the very purpose of a union to defend the interests of the staff that it represents, including their financial interests, therefore, we confirm that SUEPO will continue to defend the conditions of staff. However, when conflicts started in the mid 1990s (under President Kober) the staff’s benefit package was not under discussion, the issue was productivity, and staff considered that the measures taken would jeopardise quality. Under President Pompidou staff trust in its governing bodies decreased further, albeit not with regard to attacks on the benefit package.

“Under President Pompidou staff trust in its governing bodies decreased further, albeit not with regard to attacks on the benefit package.”Presently, under President Brimelow, staff benefits are being put into question. The thinking behind this appears to be that financial measures (e.g. performance related pay, loss of career rights) are needed to coerce staff to produce more. This reflects a commonly expressed view of our management that the quality issues raised by staff are a proxy for workload disputes. This view misunderstands completely staffs’ concerns with quality.

In an interview with you, Ms. Brimelow referred to “the “escalator” model of pay that currently exists” in the EPO. This is the sort of statement that would make any union

jump. However, the new pension scheme being introduced in 2009 will primarily affect future staff. The administration has repeatedly stated that staff in place will not be affected. Future staff, however, will be confronted with a pension system that SUEPO considers both unattractive and socially unjust (at least by European standards) and that – according to statements of the administration – could lower their pensions by 22%. Our fear is that this will provide a disincentive to prospective, highly-qualified staff which the EPO needs to recruit in the future in order to safeguard quality standards.

6. Conclusion

To summarize: although SUEPO will of course resist attacks on the working conditions of staff , it has been calling for actions in order to defend the quality of the work of the Office, which it considers to be of paramount importance to the European public and industry, and to defend the interests of future staff. SUEPO will continue to fight against the trend towards a high volume low quality patent system, since this seeks to reduce the work of staff to that of automatons serving the limited financial interests of some groups rather than the interests of society as a whole.

“SUEPO will continue to fight against the trend towards a high volume low quality patent system, since this seeks to reduce the work of staff to that of automatons serving the limited financial interests of some groups rather than the interests of society as a whole.”Current staff have paid a high price, not only in the form of pay deductions due to
strikes, but also the social unrest and associated stress that this conflict causes. Considering the importance of these issues SUEPO continues to be astonished by the apathy of important decision makers with regard to the erosion of values within the patent system, and continued lack of real public debate on the matter.

In the circumstances, we consider that your suggestion that SUEPO is acting out of self-interest is disingenuous, and puts in doubt the independence and impartiality of your reports.

For your information, we intend to make this letter available to all EPO staff.

Yours sincerely,

Mr. A. Wansing
SUEPO central executive committee

Mr. E. Daintith
SUEPO Munich

Mr. P. Bocking
SUEPO Berlin

Mr. J. Areso
SUEPO The Hague

Ms. C. Schuhmann
SUEPO Vienna

.cc A. Brimelow

Explaining this to non-technical patent lawyers may mean it will just fall on deaf ears. Either way, recently we saw more evidence of pressure on examiners to speed up or lose their vacation. There is also accelerated examination for large businesses. A lot of what SUEPO wrote almost a decade ago is still applicable and it’s probably getting worse under Battistelli. He is trying to crush SUEPO itself (the messenger). As noted in the letter above, a culture of secrecy inside the EPO (limiting access to information by the media, using threats) was part of the problem. █

Upcoming Series: The EPO as ‘Public’ Service for Private Profits

Posted in Europe, Patents at 6:35 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

‘Public’ Office or European Private Office?

Sepp Blatterstelli

Summary: Our next multi-part series will touch a very sensitive subject at the EPO, focusing on (but not exclusive to) Jacques Michel

WE previously alluded to the fact that even prior to the recent EPO scandals the EPO was operating a bit like a private office, often at the expense of public money. Now that we are finished with the “Battistelli’s Furious Love Affair With French Power” series we intend to look back at the earlier days of the EPO and show a tradition of gross abuse. It’s not about Blatterstelli as Florian Müller calls him (he is already compared to famous criminals on television) but about Jacques Michel, whom we mentioned in passing during the weekend. Stay tuned as what we are going to show is supported by hard-to-find documents (we got them nonetheless) and this is likely to embarrass some very powerful people at the EPO. █

Battistelli’s Furious Love Affair With French Power: Part V

Posted in Europe, Patents, Rumour at 6:10 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Wine

Summary: Allegations that Mr. Battistelli “traveled from Paris to Bordeaux to meet the party (Rothschild) to whom he granted this decision in order to help them to defend their case”

Benoît Battistelli’s EPO scandals are not necessarily his first. In the first, second, third and fourth part of this series (together with the teaser) we delved into Battistelli’s history in France, including his days in INPI and Ecole nationale d’administration. The early parts focused on Christine Lagarde and her close ties to Baroness Philippine de Rothschild, a large player in the French wine industry. The case of “Mouton Rothschild vs. Mouton” is therefore worth (re)visiting today. It’s not some obscure case as a lot has been written about it.

As background, we suggest the following readings.

Press reports – English

Press reports – French

There is of course a lot more, but that’s just a sample and a form of background.

“The comment on the French blog site was by a pseudonymous poster called “Mouton Noir” and it relates to an alleged intervention by Battistelli in a trademark dispute being conducted by the Rothschild Group.”We now return to the case of “Mouton Rothschild vs. Mouton” and its relevance to us. For the moment all we have is an allegation that Battistelli in his then role of Director-General of the French National Intellectual Property Office (INPI) made an inappropriate intervention on behalf of Baroness Philippine de Rothschild and Chateau Mouton Rothschild in order to advise them on how best to defend their business interests in the trademark dispute with “Domaine Mouton” (Laurent Mouton).

So far we don’t have any hard evidence to back this up. However, based on the available evidence of connections between Lagarde and Baroness Philippine de Rothschild (covered in previous parts) and the fact that Largarde was Battistelli’s political boss at the time, the allegation seems plausible. In other words, the hypothesis that Largarde could have instructed Battistelli to give advice to Mouton Rothschild to help them out in a trademark dispute doesn’t appear to be completely off-the-wall. But we would like to emphasise that so far we don’t have any ‘smoking gun’ to prove that this actually happened. What we do have are the following comments and some contact/connection details. For readers’ information we will leave some leads to facilitate further investigation, overlapping our own work/investigation.

“It would appear from this that, in his capacity as Director-General of the INPI, Battistelli may have improperly intervened to assist the Rothschild Group in defending its claims to certain disputed trademarks.”We are currently investigating an allegation that Mr. Battistelli may have committed serious misconduct in his capacity as Director-General of the French National Intellectual Property Office (INPI) in a matter concerning the above dispute about trademarks in the French wine industry.

The investigation was triggered by a comment that was posted on the IP Kat site back in October. The IP Kat comment refers back to a comment posted on a French blog site in 2010 in response to a blog entry where a patent applicant was complaining about his treatment by the INPI. The comment on the French blog site was by a pseudonymous poster called “Mouton Noir” and it relates to an alleged intervention by Battistelli in a trademark dispute being conducted by the Rothschild Group.

The original comment in French reads as follows:

Bonjour,

je voulais apporter de l’eau à votre moulin.

Savez-vous que monsieur Benoît Battistelli est un élu UMP à St germain en laye ? Et qu’il est très apprécié de Christine Lagarde ?

Savez-vous aussi qu’étant impartial, quand il y a un recours contre sa décision, il fait le déplacement de Paris jusqu’à Bordeaux pour rencontrer la partie (les Rothschild) à qui il a donné raison et ce afin de l’aider à se défendre…

Toujours étant impartial, il renouvelle sans problème la marque Mouton Noir (des Rothschild) en 2000 et 2010 alors qu’il transmet parallèlement à la Cour la preuve que cette marque est annulée depuis… 1996. (confirmé en 2007 par la Cour de Cassation).

La Cour qui a confirmé en 1998 l’annulation de cette marque arrive pourtant aujourd’hui a reconnaître que cette marque est notoire et elle rejette l’argument selon lequel cette prétendue notoriété est illégale donc inopposable… Conclusion ????

Etonnant non ?

Si ça peut vous aider, vous pouvez toujours me contacter

Écrit par : MOUTON NOIR | 06/12/2010

Rough translation into English (with emphasis):

Hello,

I wanted to add some grist to your mill.

Do you know that Mr. Benoît Battistelli is an elected member of the UMP political party in St Germain en Laye?

And he is very much appreciated by Christine Lagarde?

Do you also know that being impartial, when there was an appeal against his decision, he traveled from Paris to Bordeaux to meet the party (Rothschild) to whom he granted this decision in order to help them to defend their case …

Always being impartial, he renewed the trademark “Mouton Noir” (Rothschild) in 2000 and 2010 without any problem while at the same time passing to the Court evidence that that trademark had been revoked since … 1996 (confirmed by the Court of Cassation in 2007).

The Court which confirmed the revocation of that trademark in 1998 now however decides to recognise that this mark is notorious and it rejects the argument that the claimed notoriety is unlawful and therefore unenforceable. … Conclusion … ????

It’s amazing isn’t it?

If it helps you, you can contact me any time.

Written by: MOUTON NOIR | 06/12/2010

It would appear from this that, in his capacity as Director-General of the INPI, Battistelli may have improperly intervened to assist the Rothschild Group in defending its claims to certain disputed trademarks.

“They submitted a demand for €410,000 in damages plus interest and also requested him to desist from using the family name “Mouton” on his wines.”We researched a bit further and it is reasonable to think that this allegation may indeed relate to the famous “Mouton vs. Mouton” case which got a lot of press coverage in France and was also covered in the UK. (Note: List of press articles in English and French have been prepended above)

The Domain[e] Mouton is a family-run vineyard located in Burgundy and is currently managed by Laurent Mouton who took over from his father Gérard in 2002. In 2013, Laurent Mouton found himself confronted with legal action from the Philipe de Rothschild Group and Rothschild SA. They submitted a demand for €410,000 in damages plus interest and also requested him to desist from using the family name “Mouton” on his wines. According to press reports from 2014, Laurent was defiant and intended to fight his corner.

“Along our efforts to corroborate we did find additional comments about the alleged connection.”We don’t have any more information at the moment, but our investigations are continuing. We ask readers for help in the form of any leads or other information of interest. None of the press reports below mention the alleged Battistelli intervention on behalf of the Rothschild Group, but we are trying to find out if there is any substance to these allegations. We have attempted to find out if Benoît Battistelli ever publicly commented on this, but came out empty-handed. We could not show direct connections between the Philipe de Rothschild Group and Battistelli, either, but maybe other people out there can produce some evidence we’re not aware of.

Along our efforts to corroborate we did find additional comments about the alleged connection. To quote one of them:

“The Dutch judgment was against the European Patent ORGANISATION, not against the Office. As such, Battistelli has no authority to decide what to do about the judgment – the Administrative Council must do that.

Has he once more overstepped the mark, as he did with the DG 3 house ban?”

Well spotted!

And once again someone – this time a Dutch Minister – has moved quickly to cover for him.

The man has friends in high places.

To find out more, if you can read French, Google “INPI et les Faux et usage de Faux”.

Scroll down the page and study the comments by “MOUTON NOIR” to see how well-connected BB is.

Thursday, 26 February 2015 at 10:17:00 GMT

It would be useful to get more than Internet gossip about it. This sounds a lot like the case of Rikard Frgačić and Željko Topić [1, 2, 3, 4], with Lufthansa trademarks being reassigned under highly controversial circumstances (it was still not a closed case the last time we checked and spoke to Frgačić over the phone).

The Benoit Battistelli “Mouton” story, like the Frgačić-Topić-Lufthansa story, misses hard evidence of intervention between the head of the local IP office and the very affluent stakeholder. We look forward to hearing from readers or errant observers. █

12.20.15

An Atmosphere of Revolt Inside the European Patent Office

Posted in Europe, Patents at 9:09 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Courage Is Contagious

Staff demo

Summary: Cartoons from within the EPO demonstrate the level of mockery and the general working atmosphere at the Office these days

EARLIER today we showed that the level of ridicule at the EPO has become rather standard. We too decided to join the fun with some humour. A source has just told us that “anonymous staff groups start to organise protest actions,” having shared with us several items that are being circulated. The above and below are just two among several more. It certainly looks like things are getting out of hand as the staff rejects the authority of superiors, for these superiors have proven that they do not deserve respect.

“It certainly looks like things are getting out of hand as the staff rejects the authority of superiors, for these superiors have proven that they do not deserve respect.”“The unfair attacks of the EPO administration on several staff representatives,” we are told, “created an anarchy-style of staff protest. Staff started to build private communication networks, and anonymous staff groups organised first spontaneous demos.

“On 15 December, about 120 persons participated in an “ad-hoc gathering” in the Dutch EPO branch. They protested against the suspensions of three Munich staff representatives and the ongoing disciplinary proceedings. Satiric cartoons express the level of fairness EPO staff expect from Mr Battistelli’s attitude to justice.”

See the cartoon below.

Fair trial

No organisation can survive like this. What are patent applicants supposed to think? The Administrative Council has a lot of work left to do if it wishes to salvage what’s left of the European Patent Organisation. Benoît Battistelli’s Office is demonstrably in shambles. █

More Sunday Humour: Fictional Diary From the European Patent Office

Posted in Europe, Humour, Patents at 8:09 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Thursday (the 17th) was my birthday by the way…

Thursday the 17th

Summary: Some more jokes about the European Patent Office (EPO), whose management has become somewhat of a laughing stock, berated or scolded both from from within and from the outside

THIS afternoon we reverted back to humour (best medicine) regarding the EPO, even though we’re dealing with very serious matters here, such as people’s jobs/careers if not people’s lives and the fate of Europe’s economy/autonomy.

Over here we’re in a rather playful mood ahead of the long break. The other day we went to the German market in Town (very warm Christmas this year), bought a copy of the rather amusing Private Eye on the way (the EPO is mentioned in it), and today we received this funny E-mail which purports to be Battistelli’s diary. In a holiday kind of spirit we decided to share it here and aptly file it under “Humour”.

A day in the life … (a fictional diary)

Over the past years I have come to realize that, like all great statesmen, I shall one day have to write a full memoir of my life to satisfy my many admirers. Today, however, I have an office to be President of and no time for creating such a work, which would inevitably be a lengthy undertaking, so much have I to pass on to the younger generations. Let me offer solace, therefore, to my adoring followers in the form of this little taster, an amuse gueule so to speak, in which I describe a typical day “at the top”.

Today, for example, my chauffeur collected me at 9 o’clock from home. It’s very nice having a chauffeur, but you do have to be careful about who it is. The first guy they gave me, well, he simply didn’t understand his place. He seemed to think it was all right to ask me not to smoke in the car. “Je m’en fous,” I said, but that didn’t impress him and he whined all the way to the office about it being his place of work and his health that I was endangering. I soon got rid of him. The new chap knows when to keep his mouth shut.

It’s the same in the office. People really must understand when to accept that I am the President and that I do what I like. I had to get them to disable the smoke alarms on the tenth floor of the Isar building because they kept going off every time I needed to light up. If they had disabled the smoke alarms anywhere else, I’d have disciplined them, of course. It is quite fun, in fact, telling the whole staff that rules are there to be obeyed and that everyone has to respect them. Except me, but I don’t mention that. Je m’en fous.

So my first meeting of the day was with Lutz the Klutz. That’s a Jewish word, “Klutz”, it means a clumsy or stupid person. I learned it reading a book of Jewish jokes one time and thought to myself, “Isn’t that apt?” Don’t you just love the Jewish sense of humour? It’s so self­deprecating. Of course, I deprecate others, not myself. Anyhow, Klutzy came up to my office and we discussed a few finer points of appeals law over a cup of coffee and a cigarette. Klutzy explained to me that in an appeals procedure, two parties present their arguments, and then the board of appeal decides. I said I didn’t approve of that system and we needed to reform it. Surely, we don’t have to waste time listening to all those arguments. We can just decide which side we like and tell them they win. That would save a lot of time and bother, and we wouldn’t have to pay such high salaries for people to learn that complicated legal stuff.

Just before lunch, I had time for a quick meeting with Topic the Terrible. If we still lived in the middle ages, I’d appoint him my Chief Executioner. That sort of thing is not approved of these days. But hey, why not? Je m’en fous, I’m immune. I’ll get him to draft a document for the next Council meeting. They’ll love the idea.

Lunch was a quiet one today. I took it with those nice mothers and fathers in the Investigation Unit. I thought they’d be happy to spend time with someone who appreciated them instead of the criminals they normally have to deal with. Like I wrote to that scumbag Le Borgn’ the other day, they are mothers and fathers and we should have great respect for the sacrifices they make. We were discussing what to do about the Disciplinary Committee if they don’t agree with the Investigation Unit’s findings. I said that was easy – we just discipline them! Hahaha. Je m’en fous, we’ll have to introduce a Disciplinary Committee for the Disciplinary Committee. I shall accuse them of an inhuman attitude to mothers and fathers. In today’s society, with populations in Europe in decline (except the refugees), we should learn to show more deference to parents. And I intend to send a strong signal in that respect. What about the accused, people ask me, they are mothers and fathers too, aren’t they? I agree, but they are low creatures of no worth. How then can their offspring be of any concern to me? The “mothers and fathers” thing was a jolly good idea of mine in that letter to Le Borgn’, but you must understand that it only applies to mothers and fathers who are loyal servants to me.

But there’s me getting all philosophical again, just when I wanted to tell you about my day. In the afternoon, I asked to see the medical file of that malingerer Wimpy Wim. I mean, “van der Eijk” means “of the oak”, surely he must be as strong as an oak. I’m convinced he’s faking it. So I told the Office Medical Advisor to order him back to work. He said I didn’t have any medical justification for doing that. I said, “Je m’en fous” and he went off. Such an obedient chap.

In the afternoon, I had a chat with some guests from epi – now there we have a group of friendly helpful people. Occasionally, they think they’re entitled to an opinion, such as that Jim Boff guy from the UK who even put an opinion in writing and sent it to me. But I cleared that one up fast enough. I explained that opinions are my area of expertise, not theirs. I don’t think we’ll be hearing from Boffy Boy again.1

My final meeting today with with Meany Minnoye – I like him, he’s the only person I know who tries to out­nasty me. Elodie out­nasties me too, but not through trying. The poor girl, she doesn’t ever realize how nasty she’s being and how many people’s lives she’s destroying. It’s pitiful to watch, and quite fun really. There’s me digressing again. Meany and me decided that we need to cut the pensions for everyone below Vice­-President. It’s very important that we make sure there is enough money in the pension scheme to cover our every need in the years to come. When I say “our”, I mean Meany’s and my needs, not everyone’s. No, no, we have to cut everyone else’s pension. It’s the only option for us to be absolutely certain of a financially secure old age for us.

That was it for me for today. I quickly told my secretary to book some first class flights to South Africa for my wife and me. “Hide the price,” I said. One can overdo the “transparency” thing. Then it was back to limo, for the trip home and another cigarette.

C’est moi le Président. Je m’en fous …
_________
1 Note after a bad day in the Administrative Council: “Hmmm, looks like I was over-optimistic when I wrote my diary. Those pesky people at epi have started having opinions again – see http://ipkitten.blogspot.se/2015/12/rumours-from-ac-and-four-remarkable.html?showComment=1450377145556. I’ll have to work out what to do to stop such misbehaviour. I guess I will suspend the whole of epi! Je m’en fous.”

Tomorrow we shall publish “Battistelli’s Furious Love Affair With French Power: Part V” and there will be nothing funny about it. Later in the week we shall have some more exclusive stories with new material. █

Software Patents Are Being Defeated to the Detriment of Large Multinationals, Their Patent Lawyers, and Patent Trolls Who Piggyback Them

Posted in America, Asia, Patents at 7:47 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

SFLC India

Summary: Updates on the patent situation in India and in the United States, with special emphasis on software patents, or vague patents on abstract concepts which are, in effect, reducible to logic/mathematics

INDIA’S ‘branch’ of SFLC was recently given credit here for helping to crush software patents, which multinational software giants like IBM or Microsoft (monopolists in particular areas) are actively lobbying for. SFLC.in managed to halt or at least slow down some very incredible forces. According to this new article from them (accompanied by the #NoSoftwarePatents hashtag): “On 14th December 2015, the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trademarks, Mr. Om Prakash Gupta, ordered that the recently released 2015 “Guidelines for Examination of Computer Related Inventions (CRIs)” shall be kept in abeyance till discussions with stakeholders are completed and contentious issues with respect to the 2015 Guidelines are resolved (order available here). SFLC.in highly appreciates the efforts made by the Indian Patent Office in considering the feedback given by civil society organisations and the Indian software product industry. . This is a very welcome, albeit first, step taken by the Government towards ensuring that the Indian software industry continues to enjoy the freedom to innovate and is not shackled by irregular patents granted in the area of software.”

“SFLC.in managed to halt or at least slow down some very incredible forces.”We wish to congratulate SFLC.in for its excellent work. Well done!

In the United States, ‘home’ of software patents, things are rapidly changing right now, as both software patents and patent trolls get somewhat of a smackdown, even without involvement by Congress*.

Chuck Soder, the technology reporter at Crain’s Cleveland Business, has just published this new article that says: “Judges across the country are striking down software patents in the name of a U.S. Supreme Court decision that is changing how some tech companies protect their ideas.”

“In the United States, ‘home’ of software patents, things are rapidly changing right now, as both software patents and patent trolls get somewhat of a smackdown, even without involvement by Congress.”Soder adds that “[j]udges are invalidating patents [...] and that’s “kind of scary,” according to Christopher Comiskey, a patent attorney at Thompson Hine, which is representing MacroPoint.”

Well, of course it’s scary to patent lawyers. They make money from patent wars and stockpiling.

“Though he [Comiskey] wouldn’t comment on that case,” Soder writes, “he noted that judges are making decisions on patent validity without citing outside evidence and expert testimony. That’s “disturbing,” given how much time and money companies put into getting those patents, Comiskey said.”

“Well, of course it’s scary to patent lawyers. They make money from patent wars and stockpiling.”Well, Comiskey is basically in the same category as patent parasites, much like trolls. Comiskey does not create anything, he is just trying to make living from litigation and sometimes by tricking examiners or judges (because many of these patents are not really patent-eligible as per the examiners’ guidelines)

Empirically speaking, software patents lead to patent trolling, which is an activity mostly centered around Texas [1, 2, 3, 4]. “In a first,” writes an expert in the area of patent trolls, “East Texas judge hits patent troll with attorneys’ fees” (referring to eDekka LLC, which we covered here before, e.g. in this recent or that older post). He says that “The most litigious “patent troll” of 2014 has been effectively shut down, and will have to pay attorneys’ fees to several defendants.

“Empirically speaking, software patents lead to patent trolling, which is an activity mostly centered around Texas.”“US District Judge Rodney Gilstrap, who hears more patent cases that any other federal judge, issued an order (PDF) on Thursday saying that the behavior of eDekka LLC qualified as “exceptional,” and that the company should pay the legal fees of various companies it sued.

“Gilstrap’s courtroom is, arguably, the most surprising spot in the nation from which a patent troll slap-down might originate. The judge has been criticized by the Electronic Frontier Foundation for making life unnecessarily difficult for patent defendants. He’s also invalidated relatively few patents under Supreme Court precedent set in last year’s Alice Corp. case, even as other federal judges have been tossing out software patents at a steady clip.”

The legacy of Alice stands out again. Is Benoît Battistelli’s EPO taking note? Any note “as such”? █
________
* Talks about patent reform are nowhere in sight anymore, definitely not in those must-pass bills — those which CISA gets lumped into at the 90th minute; see our daily links for more details about that scandalous act by Congress (Friday’s news).

Battistelli’s Furious Love Affair With French Power: Part IV

Posted in Europe, Patents at 6:47 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

ÉNASummary: A closer look at École nationale d’administration (ÉNA) and its loathsome role in French politics, in addition to some remarks about ÉNA alumnus Battistelli with his poor performance in a zero-competition sector (he has got a monopoly) and made up figures, which give only an illusion of success

IN ORDER for the story of Benoît Battistelli’s EPO to be understood it helps to understand Battistelli himself. In order to understand where Battistelli comes from (other than INPI) we decided to go further back in time and explore where Battistelli and many other arrogant politicians or administrators had come from (ÉNA).

There is a French letter to Battistelli which we hope to have translated into English (someone said s/he would work on it two weeks ago, but never got around to it) and this recent long post that someone is already working on translating into English. It says a lot about Battistelli and Napoleon.

“In order to understand where Battistelli comes from (other than INPI) we decided to go further back in time and explore where Battistelli and many other arrogant politicians or administrators had come from (ÉNA).”Having already published a teaser, part one, part two, and part three of this series (the next part will be the most important), several readers wrote to us with further information and some offered translations from French. One reader wrote to us about Lagarde and Battistelli. “According to her bio,” the reader wrote, “Lagarde was between 18/3/2008 to 13/11/2010 minister for the approximate French equivalent of the DTI, from which depends the French patent office [INPI], so CL and Battistelli would have had at least official reasons to mingle.”

Another reader told us, “here is a great document about the ENA and the “governance” of France. Just read the introduction and chapter I. It is amazing, isn’t it? I’ll try to provide you with English translations of pages 4 to 7 (introduction + chapter 1).”

Earlier today we finally got a full translation. The reader said, “here is the translation of part of the book I referred to yesterday: “Livre noir de l’ENA”. Translation might not be perfect.”

The translation with parts of it emphasised (in bold font) can be found below:

Introduction

In 2007, for France to survive, we need to free us from the omnipotence of the ENA.

Since 1974, France is declining; since 1974, France is behind other nations and its international influence has continued to decrease.

“1974: this is the beginning of the rise in unemployment but also to the arrival at the pinnacle of power and to maturity of a postwar generation of ENA graduates (ENA, “Nation School of Administration”).”There are plenty of analyses and explanations, or rather excuses, abound, but the decline continues, inexorably.

Why? Because nobody dared to draw the obvious conclusion, and much less dared formulate what some will regard as sacrilege: if France is declining, it is because of its ruling class, one that we all used to put on a pedestal because it represents the power, because it takes most of the control levers, because it receives honours and decorations.

1974: this is the beginning of the rise in unemployment but also to the arrival at the pinnacle of power and to maturity of a postwar generation of ENA graduates (ENA, “Nation School of Administration”).

It is a class in which most members, if they were brilliant during exams, are incompetent once in the real world.

“Even worse, this is not even a class but a caste, i.e. a small group of men and women, who have seized power not to serve the Nation, which should be the first reason, but to serve themselves and increase their privileges.”When these little geniuses of this kind are confronted with the market, then they act without protection of the State that fed them, and then it ends in most of the cases in a disaster (see biographies for the “Titanic Promotion”).

Very few are those who survived inadequate training and mandarinism, system that destroyed medieval China and consisting in giving the leadership and the power for all their life to 25 years old young people, under the sole pretext that they have managed difficult exams.

Even worse, this is not even a class but a caste, i.e. a small group of men and women, who have seized power not to serve the Nation, which should be the first reason, but to serve themselves and increase their privileges.

While the vast majority of the énarques serve the State with skill and dedication, about hundred careerists who holds the key positions at the head of the State or companies are characterized by their incompetence, irresponsibility and serve their personal interests.

Within this caste, there are hardly statesmen, men for whom the interests of the country come before self-interest.

The most dramatic is that this caste, which paralyses France, is composed of a number very limited number of individuals. Former students of the ENA, because that’s essentially all it’s about, are just over 5000. But these are only a few hundred careerist énarques who have control over almost all key positions in the administration and high Executive, through which they actually control the legislature. Thus, almost 80% of the positions as Director of the Ministry of Finance, 75% of the positions as heads of departments in Ministries, as well as the Presidency of the Republic are in the hands of ENA graduates.

“Thus, almost 80% of the positions as Director of the Ministry of Finance, 75% of the positions as heads of departments in Ministries, as well as the Presidency of the Republic are in the hands of ENA graduates.”During the last 30 years, no minister can have any influence if it does not furnish his cabinet with énarques and especially finance inspectors.

The tragedy is that these inspectors of finance have not learned at the ENA how to create wealth and reduce unemployment. Creating wealth requires to take calculated risks into consideration, but it’s the opposite that it is taught at the ENA. A successful career in Public Service does not require a capacity of creation and inventiveness because, to produce visible effects, it would require to remain in the same position for a long time; on the contrary, it is imperative to avoid “waves” and one quickly learns that only those who do nothing will not deceive….

“In this depravity of power, ENA graduates find themselves having links with unions whose action range is so small that it only resides in defending the privileges accumulated by the civil servants in the public services.”The ENA has populated the top of the State with intellectually brilliant individuals selected by a succession of competitive exams, which proved difficult, but who are unable to take courageous decisions, unable to reform and unable to create.

What they know is to control, regulate, distribute.

In the last 30 years they have increased not only the taxes and levies, but also regulations that fragment our society and multiply obstacles to any development.

The “énarchia” monopolizes and sterilizes information, stifles Parliament, whose initiatives are blocked by the implementing decrees or delays at their release; she rules lonely in her technocratic ivory tower, surrounded by a bloated administration.

In this depravity of power, ENA graduates find themselves having links with unions whose action range is so small that it only resides in defending the privileges accumulated by the civil servants in the public services.

“There will be no French renaissance as long as this caste retain the monopoly of power.”This allows, in the name of a “social partnership” and of the protection of the French “social model”, to stop all evolution, avoiding in particular to apply solutions in France that have proven abroad and whose main philosophy is to build on individual initiatives and not on the choices made by some brilliant individuals. Acting differently would reduce the role of the “welfare” state, where this caste finds a justification for its existence.

The French “social model” remains one of mass unemployment.

There will be no French renaissance as long as this caste retain the monopoly of power.

FIRST PART

THE INCOMPETENCE OF THE ENARQUES: MAIN CAUSE OF FRENCH FAILURE.

Preamble: The French failure, failure of the énarchia

“We note an undeniable correlation between good corporate management and non-énarque management…”The list of failures of large companies managed by énarques is overwhelming.

In the banking system in particular, where from 1989 to 1999, the added value of the financial sector institutions fell by 27% in constant French francs while increasing in most other countries (+ 39% in Britain, + 50% in the US) and in the rest of French market services (+ 17%).

This is the case of the disaster of the Crédit Lyonnais, Crédit Foncier and of the French Agency for Development; the hole dug by the Bank of France, 900 billion Franch francs of losses, changes in the years 1997-1998 but remained unattended in the media. The French bank system collapses compared to its foreign competitors and many jewels are bought by more efficient European competitors.

“There is no reason that “these young men” as Pierre Mendes-France used to called them, are better in the management of public enterprises or administration but the lack of competition mask their inability.”In 2003, according to the ranking of the top 100 European banks conducted by the agency Ficht Rating, the first French bank in terms of profitability is only 22th.

In the sector of large non-financial companies, the disaster is exemplified by Michel Bon heading France Telecom, Jean-Marie Messier at Vivendi Universal, Pierre Bilger and Philippe Jaffré for Alstom, all of them énarques and finance inspectors.

Faced with these failures, the number of successes due to énarques is minimal: When citing Schweitzer for Renault, Spinetta at Air France, we have cited almost all international successes in businesses led by ENA graduates.

“The ENA graduates have indeed invaded all sectors not affected by competition…”We note an undeniable correlation between good corporate management and non-énarque management: in her book “The Untouchables” Ghislaine Ottenheimer quoting Antoine Bernheim and his lists of the greatest achievements and their qualifications: Bernard Arnault (Polytechnic), Vincent Bolloré (Law), Serge Kampf (Sciences-eco, flunked at ENA), Martin Bouygues (nothing). “There are not many inspectors of finance”.

There is no reason that “these young men” as Pierre Mendes-France used to called them, are better in the management of public enterprises or administration but the lack of competition mask their inability.

Therefore, it is not surprising that every time or almost every time one considers a public institution or a public company not subject to the competition, it is ill-managed.

The ENA graduates have indeed invaded all sectors not affected by competition, where losses are not visible because the government financially fills the holes or gives them the ability to levy forced contributions, actually quasi-taxes:

- SNCF (Louis Gallois Guillaume Pepy) [Franch railways]
- RATP (Anne-Marie Idrac, Jean-Marc Janaillac) [Parisian metro]
- EDF (François Roussely) [electricity utilities]
- Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations (Francis Mayer) [ French financial organization created in 1816, and part of the government institutions under the control of the Parliament to safeguard public funds]
- Part of the public television and radio
- Even in the healthcare sector where they have multiplied: Assistance Publique de Paris (puböic hospital) and the Regional Hospitalisation Agencies where they occupy more than half of leadership positions.

Why would they be better in these protected positions as they are in more exposed positions? And, generally, why would they best in governmental leadership positions?

Above all, as we shall see in the second part, there is no real control of the efficiency of public expenditure and the Ministry of Finance, where they occupy key position, crushes everything in its power.

The consequences are disasters as unemployment because they do not understand how to create jobs, waste of public money because they refuse that other than énarques go and stick their noses in their accounts, as the non-development of sponsorship because they fear that private sponsorship be a kind of competition and put in evidence the public inefficiency, especially in Culture, that has become an Enarques’ stronghold.

That part which we found interesting speaks of “sectors not affected by competition” because that’s just like EPO, which effectively enjoys a monopoly. Battistelli just needs to cook up some bogus numbers, e.g. by accelerating patent acceptance (hardly rejections). Earlier this month Battistelli used some truly misleading self-serving talking points and numbers, right after massive protests in Munich. This new comment makes a relevant point about Battistelli’s [BB] dubious yardsticks. To quote:

When reading the pathetic report of the 146th AC meeting prepared by the President’office, I ask you to observe the subtle strategy underlying the report:
In every point mentioned you’ll find a negative or threatening remark with a specific aim.
Here:
A) In relation to the unitary patent:
“landmark achievement” but “after decades of discussions and negotiations” (ie only BB, the greatest of all Presidents, could bring it to conclusion!);
B) In relation to the exceptional results:
“stakeholders were asked to reinforce their effort to improve the social dialogue” (ie message: trade union stop boycotting the enormous efforts by BB who’d love to recognise you!)
C) In relation to the injection of €200 million into the PRF,
“without any contribution from the staff” (ie yeah, just a generous cadeau! P.S. Mr BB please remember that the staff earned that money for the EPO with their hard work!)
D) In relation to the rejection of the absurd new scheme for national tax adjustments,
“with some delegations expressing their opposition against the principle of the reimbursement of national taxation” (implicit message: attention! the EPO might abolish it in the near future)
E) In relation to the comprehensive social study,
it “will be launched in 2016, in parallel with a financial study (implicit message: further reduction of alleged privileged and high salaries in sight!)

Do you see BB’s strategy? That’s how he fools the representatives in the AC and the press and remains on his post.

BB, please, get out of here. Go back home and leave the EPO in peace.

Tomorrow we are planning to release the final piece of this series. It’s by far the most important piece. █

Links 20/12/2015: OpenMandriva Server Version, Alpine 3.3.0

Posted in News Roundup at 5:50 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME bluefish

Contents

GNU/Linux

Free Software/Open Source

  • LEGO: The New Open Source Toy?

    Perhaps surprisingly, the majority of these open sourced projects involve LEGOs. When perusing through Github, developers will find a variety of projects based around LEGOs—for example, a project that allows you to create custom decals (or clothes) for LEGO minifigs (LEGO people). Or, a developer may stumble upon a project that enables him or her to create music, electronically, with a 32×32 inch LEGO plate and 2×2 inch LEGO bricks. The latter of the two involves a little more technology—a webcam, basic coding knowledge, and music software—but nonetheless, it is possible to achieve.

  • License Plate Tracking Has Gone Open-Source

    Computer vision-assisted license plate reading seems to be a favorite spectre of a certain sort of privacy worrier, at least anecdotally speaking. Something to do with its potential for tracking and profiling an activity that seems to make Americans in particular feel their most, uh, liberated (driving cars).

    The technology has had a steady uptake among law enforcement agencies, who of course think it’s wondertool for busting crimes, but now an open-source implementation is starting to make some waves in the developer world and beyond. This is OpenALPR, and, as Mike James notes at I-Programmer, it’s not a new thing but is getting some new attention in the wake of a recent code release. LPR is here for the masses and it’s incredibly easy to use.

  • Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

  • Funding

    • FUUG grant for Obnam development: what happened then

      In September, The FUUG Foundation gave me a grant to buy some hardware for Obnam development. I used this money to buy a new desktop-ish machine, see below for details. It’s sat in a corner, and I use it as a server: it’s not normally connected to a monitor or keyboard. It runs Obnam benchmarks. Before this, I ran Obnam benchmarks and experiments on my laptop, or on BigV virtual servers donated by Bytemark.s

  • FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

  • Programming

    • Why Many Still Turn to Private Servers for Testing Environments

      With the evolution of the cloud, it may come as a surprise to some that there are so many businesses still using dedicated servers. In fact, according to Zephyr’s annual How The World Tests Report, nearly half of respondents host their test environments in their private servers, while 36 percent chose a mix of cloud and hardware solutions. The question, then, is what conditions do these organizations have and why are private servers so essential to their workflows?

Leftovers

  • New Zealand approves the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, and other reasons to fear for humanity

    This is on the BBC so must be true: New Zealand has given approval to the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster to carry out marriage ceremonies in the country. Members of the church call themselves Pastafarians and believe that the world was created by an airborne spaghetti and meatballs-based being, although its own website notes that some followers consider it to be a satirical organization. The N.Z. registrar-general said his decision was based solely on whether the organization upholds or promotes religious beliefs, or philosophical or solely convictions, not whether the beliefs are all a big joke or not.

  • Security

    • BadWinmail Microsoft Outlook Bug Can Give Attackers Control Over PCs [iophk: "These kinds of bugs have been in Outlook as long as Outlook has been around. This is nothing new. What's needed are fines for people hooking Windows up to the Internet."]

      Just by looking at an email message in Outlook, attackers can now take control over your PC. The good news is that Microsoft has patched the issue, but unless you updated Outlook after December 8, you’re still vulnerable to this issue.

      Security researcher Haifei Li discovered this peculiar Outlook bug, which he named BadWinmail. According to a technical report he put together after the vulnerability’s discovery, the attack is extremely easy to carry out and does not require any complex interaction from the end user.

    • MacKeeper Leaks 13 Million Mac Owners’ Data, Leaves Passwords Open To Easy Cracking

      Researcher Chris Vickery said he uncovered four IP addresses that took him straight to a MongoDB database, containing a range of personal information, including names, email addresses, usernames, password hashes, phone numbers, IP addresses, system information, as well as software licenses and activation codes. All Vickery had to do was look for openly accessible MongoDB databases on the Shodan search tool.

    • Penetration Testing

      Penetration testing, also called pentesting, is an attack method which scans for broad vulnerabilities in networked computers. It is primarily used in professional settings in order to ascertain the status of security in a machine.

    • Exploit Logs You Into Linux Systems After Hitting Backspace 28 Times
    • Insane bug makes it incredibly easy to hack many Linux systems

  • Defence/Police/Secrecy/Aggression

    • Spymasters: CIA documentary sheds little light on drones, 9/11 or torture

      There are a few ways to judge The Spymasters: CIA in the Crosshairs, a new documentary which interviews all 12 living former heads of the CIA (and several other key personnel) and premieres on Showtime at 9pm on Saturday. You can view it as a piece of filmmaking, as an apologia for the tactics the agency has to employ to get its very difficult job done, or as a rewriting of history from the CIA’s point of view. On two out of three of these criteria, it sadly comes up short.

      As a film, The Spymasters is a bit of a failure. In aesthetic, tone and pacing it seems directly based on The Gatekeepers, a 2012 film that interviewed all the former heads of Shin Bet, Israel’s secret police. However, the former spooks in Spymasters aren’t nearly as candid as the Israelis. This new film is slow-moving and, at a solid two hours, long-winded. The first 15 minutes consist of throat-clearing platitudes, it is often hard to tell who is speaking, and interruptions from directors Gedeon and Jules Naudet frequently take the viewer out of the experience entirely.

    • Oh, the suffering of the CIA: In Showtime’s “The Spymasters,” America’s chief spooks bare their souls on the pain of the terror war

      Whom to waterboard? Which village to drone? A bizarre documentary explores the spy elite’s secret suffering

    • Weapon Used in November 13 Paris Attacks Came From CIA-linked Arms Dealer

      At least one of the guns used in the November 13 terror attacks in Paris was purchased by Century International Arms and then re-exported to Europe. One of the largest arms dealers in the United States, Century Arms has close ties to the CIA and has faced charges in America and Europe of involvement in illegal arms deals.

      The weapon, an M92 semiautomatic pistol, was produced at the Zastava arms factory in Kragujevac, Serbia. Last week, factory manager Milojko Brzakovic told AP he had checked its records on seven weapons that it manufactured that were used in the Paris attacks. It delivered several of the weapons inside Yugoslavia before that country dissolved amid capitalist restoration and civil war in the 1990s, but it delivered the pistol in May 2013 to Century Arms, based in Delray Beach, Florida.

    • Anonymous war with Isis could lead to spread of internet censorship, group warns

      Social media campaigns will “legitimize the spread of internet censorship and will lead to the increased censorship for everyone, including Anonymous,” the message reads. “Dealing with government agents et al will not only result in many more informers in Anonymous but will also damage its reputation as it will lead to a view that Anonymous is too close to US intelligence interests.”

    • There Have Been Zero Terror Attacks in the U.S. by People Radicalized by ISIS Through Social Media

      The term “radicalized” is a problematic one, namely because virtually no one who carries out sub-state political violence (which we’ll broadly refer to as terrorism) follows the same pattern. Some are hyper-religious while others have but a passing knowledge of the Bible or Quran. Some are battle-hardened fighters, while others carry out their “jihad” in a typical workplace violence mode. But in the wake of a terrorist attack, authorities and the press alike scramble to ask the question: When exactly did the attacker begin to show signs of violent ideology? In the case of Islamic-tinted violence, the question more specifically is: When did they first show support for either al Qaeda or ISIS ideology?

    • Why wasn’t San Bernardino prevented? The hard truth that no one wants to admit.

      Americans want to treat San Bernardino and the risk of future such attacks — and that risk is real — as purely a terrorism problem, because that feels like a problem with difficult but achievable and politically palatable solutions. We want to ignore the ways in which this is also a mass shooting problem, because American political and social factors have made addressing the broader mass shooting problem seem just about impossible.

    • Stephen Zunes: No Candidates Are Looking at Root Cause of ISIL, “This Monster We Created.”

      Juan González: GOP to Puerto Rico–”Drop Dead”; GOP Debate: Trump Defends Muslim Ban, Other Candidates Debate How to Restrict Rights & Go to Wa; Democracy Is Being Dismantled Before Our Eyes: Bob Herbert on Sheldon Adelson-Backed GOP Debate; Ben Carson: I am OK with Killing “Thousands of Innocent Children and Civilians”; Trump Calls for Closing Parts of Internet as Cruz & Rubio Debate NSA Powers; Stephen Zunes: No Candidates Are Looking at Root Cause of ISIL, “This Monster We Created.”

    • Our say: Why did arrested man have guns in his trunk?

      How could a man barred from possessing guns because of a 2009 conviction for illegal possession of a firearm have a 30-30 lever-action rifle and a 12-gauge shotgun in the trunk of his car?

  • Transparency Reporting

    • A Victory for Privacy and Transparency: HRW v. DEA

      In a victory for millions of people in the U.S. who have placed telephone calls to locations overseas, EFF and Human Rights Watch have confirmed that the Drug Enforcement Administration’s practice of collecting those records in bulk has stopped and that the only bulk database of those records has been destroyed.

      From the 1990s to 2013, the DEA secretly and illegally collected billions of records of Americans’ international calls to hundreds of countries around the world. In April 2015, we filed a lawsuit on behalf of our client, Human Rights Watch, challenging the constitutionality of the program and seeking to have the records purged from the government’s possession.

      Today, HRW has agreed to voluntarily dismiss that suit after receiving assurances from the government, provided under penalty of perjury, that the bulk collection has ceased and that the only database containing the billions of Americans’ call records collected by the DEA has been purged from the government’s possession.

  • Environment/Energy/Wildlife

    • Carbon emissions from Indonesian peat fires vary considerably based on fire type, research shows

      Revised carbon loss estimates for recurrent fires on tropical peatlands have been revised by a research team. The study also found that peatlands closer to canals have a higher probability of high frequency fires, which release harmful carbon emissions into the atmosphere.

    • Experts say efforts to stop Indonesian fires may not work for 2016

      Those fires have contributed to the smoke crisis choking Southeast Asia almost annually.

      But many experts believe fires in Indonesia are likely to start up again when the rainy season ends in March. They say not enough has been done yet to head off the risks.

      Slash-and-burn clearance of land – much of it to plant oil palm, and trees to make pulp and paper – is the main culprit fuelling the fires that smoulder deep underground in peat. They have pushed up pollution levels, disrupting daily life from Indonesia to Singapore and Malaysia.

      Who is responsible for starting the fires is unclear, although the finger is often pointed at small-scale growers of the palm which produces cheap, edible oil.

      Mansuetus Alsy Hanu, national coordinator for Indonesia’s Palm Oil Smallholder Union, said his members are often unfairly blamed, and better mapping of the land would show some fires break out on larger holdings.

      Still he admitted that financial pressure on small growers pushes them towards slash-and-burn clearance.

    • Efforts to stop Indonesian haze fires may not work for 2016

      South Sumatra’s governor, Alex Noerdin, is adamant there will be a “significant reduction” next year in fires on deforested and peat land in his province.

      Those fires have contributed to the haze crisis choking South East Asia almost annually.

      But many experts believe fires in Indonesia are likely to start up again when the rainy season ends in March. They say not enough has been done yet to head off the risks.

    • MORTON MARCUS: Global warming, NSA among mounting problems up in Santa Land

      Often at this season, I visit Elvin Elfenhausen, my inside guy at the North Pole. “How’s the Jolly Old Man?” I ask.

      “Not very jolly,” he sighs. “Nor would you be jolly if everything around you was turning from reliable snow and ice to slush and water.”

      “I forgot,” I say. “Global Warming?

      “Yes, but not just Global Warming,” Elvin says. “That supposedly slow disaster is happening with disturbing quickness. And it seems everything else is going to pot. Santa’s thinking of moving.

      “Santa moving his workshop from the North Pole?” I exclaim. Immediately, I wonder which of my friends in the economic development business I should call with this startling opportunity.”

      “Where’s he thinking of going?” I prod. “How many jobs? What incentives? Cash? Tax abatement? A frozen TIF district? Labor training support? Does he want a new building or would an existing structure, zoned manufacturing, suffice? Does he demand a sleigh launching and landing site?”

  • Finance

  • PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying

  • Censorship

    • Geo-blocking | Digital Single Market

      Geo-blocking and other geographically-based restrictions undermine online shopping and cross-border sales. The Digital Single Market strategy includes a commitment for an initiative to end unjustified geo-blocking by way of legislative proposals to change the e-Commerce framework or the Services Directive framework

    • Facebook and Google combine to beat off online hate speech in Germany [iophk: "Who decides what is "offensive"? Between censorship and zero-rating, FB is going to fully destroy the net."]

      GERMANY HAS managed to get the large internet companies to come together and agree to smash hate speech off the internet.

      People say that the internet is mostly pornography, but actually a huge chunk of it is hate speech and nasty talk of some kind. Taking it offline would be a challenge, but it is a challenge that companies like Google are ready to accept, according to Germany’s justice ministry and a number of reports.

    • Want To Know How Ridiculous The Omnibus Bill Is? It Has A Meaningless Porn Filter Clause Four Times

      Following Congress passing the Omnibus spending bill, it of course did not take long for President Obama to sign the bill, meaning that the fake cybersecurity bill/actual surveillance bill, is now law. Particularly ridiculous is that in his little speech about it, Obama talked about how he “wasn’t wild about everything in it” but that he was happy that it was a bill “without ideological provisions.” Except, you know, for the many ones that did get in there.

      But, what do you expect with a 2000+ page bill that Congress was only given a couple of days to look at before voting on. Zach Carter, over at Huffington Post has examples of a couple of ridiculous provisions in the omnibus, starting with a ban on giving any funding to ACORN, the organization that was the target of scorn from Republicans a few years back. So what’s so ridiculous about that? Following the pile on against ACORN years ago the organization shut down. It hasn’t existed in years. Preventing funding for it seems, you know, kinda pointless, as it doesn’t exist.

      [...]

      So Congress can’t seem to get much of anything done, but it does pass an omnibus bill that includes a weird meaningless porn filter requirement four times… and a damaging surveillance bill. And you wonder why people dislike and distrust Congress.

    • Indonesia’s Forgotten Genocide

      October marked 50 years since the Indonesian military launched one of the twentieth century’s worst mass murders. Yet the anniversary passed almost unnoticed. The massacre of some 500,000 members or sympathizers of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) during 1965-1966 is the least talked-about genocide of the last century.

    • It is 50 years since the Indonesian massacre of 1965 but we cannot look away

      As 250 million Indonesians face up to the 50th anniversary of one of the most crushing episodes of our nation’s history – the massacre of up to 500,000 or more alleged Communists between 1965 and 1968 by the Suharto regime – the business of confronting the past has reached a new urgency. And it is an urgency that has only a week ago was sharpened by new disappointments.

      That new disappointment is our president Joko Widodo’s stance on “1965” – as the tragedy is commonly referred to. In a statement in front of the leaders of the Muhammadiyah, the country’s second largest Muslim organisation, he has refused to apologise to the victims of 1965. And so ended the campaign promises he made –hollow ones to start with, of giving priority to the country’s unresolved cases of human rights violations, including 1965 – that earned him the people’s votes.

    • Vitriol from ‘offended’ individuals a concern

      Our biggest concern is not Amos’ posts, which the authorities are already addressing, but the vitriol coming from “offended” individuals.

      Such vitriol has seemingly got a free pass in spite of its obscene, threatening, abusive or insulting nature – the very offences that Amos was previously convicted for.

    • Singaporean blogger Amos Yee in new police investigation over alleged anti-Islamic comments

      According to a statement released by the Singapore Police Force, 17-year-old blogger Amos Yee is again under police investigation, after he allegedly made offensive anti-Islamic comments on his personal blog.

      In a November 27 blog post, Yee wrote about former Singapore Nominated Member of Parliament Calvin Cheng and allegedly made anti-Islamic comments. He expressed similar sentiments in a Facebook post the next day.

    • Amos Yee to be interviewed by police for offensive remarks

      The police have said officers will interview teenage blogger Amos Yee “upon his return to Singapore”, in connection with investigations into offensive remarks made online about religion.

      Yee, 17, was to have shown up at Jurong Police Division on Monday (Dec 14) to assist with investigations, but he failed to do so.

      In a blog post last month, Yee had responded to remarks supposedly made by former Nominated Member of Parliament Calvin Cheng and made references to Islam.

      The police said in response to media queries that Yee is not prohibited from travelling overseas.

    • Amos Yee is top trending person on Google in Singapore this year, after Lee Kuan Yew [Ed: watch the Streisand Effect below]

      Amos Yee, a teenaged blogger detained for a video he posted about Lee Kuan Yew in March, was the second highest-trending person on Google in Singapore this year – after the late former prime minister.

      The haze was the top trending news story of 2015, with ‘PSI Singapore’ the top news search of the year, followed by the Southeast Asia Games. MERS was the most popular international news search.

      Reality TV show Bigg Boss was the top trending TV show in a list featuring four Korean dramas. The iPhone 6s was the most searched for gadget.

    • ‘PSI Singapore’, ‘Lee Kuan Yew’ the top Google searches in S’pore this year

      Other top searches included “SEA Games”, which were held in Singapore in June; “WhatsApp Web”, the web version of the chat app released this year; “iPhone 6s”; “QZ8501″, the AirAsia flight which crashed on route from Surabaya to Singapore; and “Amos Yee”, the controversial teenage blogger.

    • The highest Google searches in S’pore this yr

      Blogger Amos Yee, who drew consideration for his criticisms of the previous prime minister, was looked for as individuals stored tabs on the controversy on-line.

    • ‘PSI Singapore’ tops Google’s search phrases
    • What’s hot in 2015… according to Google
    • “PSI Singapore” was Singapore’s top trending search on Google in 2015

      Rounding up the rest of the list is teenage blogger Amos Yee, the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (Mers) virus and the Indonesia AirAsia Flight QZ8501, which crashed in December 2014, killing 162.

    • ‘PSI Singapore’ tops Google’s search terms

      Blogger Amos Yee, who drew attention for his criticisms of the former Prime Minister, was looked up as people kept tabs on the controversy.

    • Haze was Singaporeans’ top Google search term for 2015

      While Mr Lee did not take top spot overall, he was the most trending person followed by controversial YouTuber and blogger Amos Yee and Mr Lee’s daughter, Dr Lee Wei Ling.

    • Art review: For Those Who Have Been Killed

      Somewhat different from this pair is the painting titled Wheelbarrow, which is oddly dated to “1990-2015”. It’s an incongruity that is revealed to be part of a tranche of old paintings of Leow’s, most of which lie rolled up in a custom-made coffin next to Wheelbarrow. The damage wrought by time seems to mirror the relentless march of the news cycle, which Leow tops off by painting an overlay of a quote from the nation’s current potty-mouth of the year, Amos Yee.

    • And on Saturday…

      Otherwise, we might have to call out – as surely as Amos Yee can’t stop himself trolling for attention – “Humbug!”

    • 8 free speech concerns the Community Action Network highlighted for the UPR

      In January 2016, Singapore’s human rights record will face international scrutiny at the United Nations (UN) for the second time.

    • Universities ‘are killing free speech’, says group of leading academics

      Universities are “killing free speech” by banning anything that causes offence, a group of leading academics have warned.

      Students are being denied the opportunity to debate opposing views due to political correctness and censorship, the group argued in a letter published in The Telegraph.

    • Politically correct universities ‘are killing free speech’
    • Universities must halt student censorship culture – academics

      Because universities increasingly see fee-paying students as customers, they do not dare to stand up to the “small but vocal minority” of student activists who want to ban everything from the Sun newspaper to the historian David Starkey.

      The letter says: “Few academics challenge censorship that emerges from students. It is important that more do, because a culture that restricts the free exchange of ideas encourages self-censorship and leaves people afraid to express their views in case they may be misinterpreted. This risks destroying the very fabric of democracy.

      “An open and democratic society requires people to have the courage to argue against ideas they disagree with or even find offensive. At the moment there is a real risk that students are not given opportunities to engage in such debate.

    • Academics Warn Politically Correct Universities ‘Are Killing Free Speech’ With Censorship
    • Will China’s Censorship Spread?

      On Monday, prominent human-rights lawyer Pu Zhiqiang went on trial for writing seven social-media posts criticizing Chinese policies and government officials. Supportive online messages posted during the trial were swiftly taken down.

      At the same time, China’s Internet began to fill with images of Wuzhen, a scenic southern river town that is playing host to China’s biggest annual Internet conference this week. And on Wednesday, Chinese President Xi Jinping, in the presence of leaders of several Central Asian countries and a who’s who list from China’s biggest and richest online companies, laid out his vision for an Internet where governments like Beijing’s could regulate the Web how they see fit.

    • China tells the world to respect its censorship

      Chinese president Xi Jinping opened the World Internet Conference by telling world leaders to respect other nation’s cyber sovereignty. The leader went on to say that every country has the right to govern the web in accordance with local laws, and that China stands against “internet hegemony.” The move reinforces China’s right to suppress information on a whim, like when it shuttered Instagram during the Hong Kong democracy protests. By making it an issue of sovereignty, the country is effectively shouting “back off” to rivals who would dare criticize its heavy-handed attitude toward censorship.

    • ‘Freedom requires strict order’: China preps for second World Internet Conference

      China on Wednesday will kick off its World Internet Conference, a three-day gathering in the eastern city of Wuzhen. With Chinese leaders stressing all things Internet as a major economic development strategy, and with foreign tech firms salivating over the massive but tightly managed market, many are looking to the conference for signposts to the future.

    • Xi Jinping defends China’s right to ‘sovereign’ internet
    • The chill behind China’s vision of a ‘beautiful’ internet

      Wuzhen, I can only imagine, has been chosen as the venue for China’s World Internet Conference because it is beautiful.

      That is one of the recurring themes of the event: that the internet is a thing of beauty which should be shared and cherished by all mankind.

      And Wuzhen is a water town, a village held together by interconnecting canals, criss-crossed by elegant stone bridges.

      So that kind of works for the internet metaphor too. But the town, as it happens, is also unbearably cold at this time of year.

    • China lays out its vision of the internet: more control, more censorship

      President Xi Jinping has defended his government’s broad censorship of the internet, in a high-profile speech underscoring China’s increasingly emphatic attempts to justify its strict online control.

      Mr Xi said cyberspace was not a “place beyond the rule of law” and that countries must not interfere in the internal affairs of others, in remarks made to an international audience of world and business leaders at a technology conference in Wuzhen on Wednesday.

    • Hong Kong Newspaper’s Sale to Alibaba Fans Censorship Fears

      Chinese Internet giant Alibaba’s announcement this week that it’s buying Hong Kong’s premier English-language newspaper has set off concerns that the move will stifle the city-state’s free press.

      The e-commerce site on Monday said it had agreed to buy media assets of the SCMP Group Ltd., whose holdings include the South China Morning Post. Alibaba executives said the purchase was aimed at improving China’s image and countering what it calls the bias of Western news outlets.

    • Tiatr doesn’t need censorship, says Wagh
    • Govt shouldn’t censor tiatrs, but, tiatrists should have self-censorship: Wagh

      “Tiatrists are not mere artists but defenders of society and have a right as well as do enjoy the freedom of expression to speak out and criticise the government and other personalities,” remarked Kala Academy chairman Vishnu Surya Wagh on Monday.

    • ‘Censorship problem is not unique to India’

      The c-word is just another one of India’s tales of paradoxes, the way William Ma-zzarella, professor of anthropology at the University of Chicago known for authoring Censorium: Cinema and the Open Edge of Mass Publicity sees it as he revisits the way the censorship story has been unfolding in the country the recent times.

    • Censorship is about the opportunity to exert power: William Mazzarella

      William Mazzarella, a professor of Anthropology at the University of Chicago, has authored Censorium: Cinema and the Open Edge of Mass Publicity (2013) and co-edited Censorship in South Asia: Cultural Regulation from Sedition to Seduction (2009). Currently in Mumbai to talk about film censorship in India, Mazzarella on how censorship is used as a tool for publicity. Excerpts from an interview:

    • The theatre of censorship

      This past year, censorship has made big and recurring news in India. The Censor Board for Film Certification (CBFC) under Pahlaj Nihalani’s chairmanship has proved to be simultaneously a bane for filmmakers and a god-given-muse for Twitter humorists. The CBFC has gone where few previous iterations of the board have gone before. Whether it’s a list of banned words —including ‘Bombay’ and ‘masturbation’ — or cutting short James Bond’s kisses on screen. There has been a heightening of the old desi variety of crowd-sourced censorship.

      Our society seems to take offense easier and insist more volubly on our right to silence each other. And yet, while traditional channels of censorship have increased their scope and heightened their intensity, India is seeing a wide open space of cultural production online, which is somewhat free of the claustrophobic pressures of moral policing.

      The Godrej Cultural Lab this Friday is hosting a talk titled ‘Censoring India’ by William Mazzarella from the University of Chicago.

    • An uncensored talk

      Of course the government has and continues to try to regulate access to various internet sites, not least pornographic ones. At the same time, we all know that people find ways to access what they want to see. I think the interesting question is why and how censorship persists despite the fact that it obviously is unable to exert tight control — even the authorities themselves admit that. So the only answer has to be that censorship is in fact not only, or not even mainly, about control. Instead, as I was saying earlier, it’s about what can be gained from harnessing the controversy around a particular set of words or images and using that controversy to bolster authority. Of course that’s always a delicate and volatile game.

    • Encryption And Censorship In A Globalized World

      For example, an Iranian man was recently jailed when images were shared online of him posing with several women dressed in miniskirts and crop tops. Photographs of women in provocative Western attire are deemed immoral and illegal in the nation, even while such images are relatively commonplace on Western social media accounts. In fact, in just the last eight months more than 700 people have been arrested in the country for “economic, moral and social” crimes.

    • Filmmakers’ investigation shows how Angola’s regime attacks critics
    • Angola: Nicki Minaj concert causes controversy

      Given the swathes of corruption and human rights abuses in Angola, the rapper’s performance should not lend credibility to the dos Santos regime

    • Latin American journalism and advocacy groups recognized by Index on Censorship’s Freedom of Expression Awards
    • How drug cartels impose censorship on Mexican newspapers

      In Monday’s Guardian, in reporting on the number of journalists around the world who have been killed so far this year, I noted that only four of the 55 victims came from Mexico.

      But that relatively low figure, plucked from the death toll compiled by the Committee to Protect Journalists, conceals a terrible truth because it follows years of murders of media workers in that country.

      To put the situation in context, I turned to a special report published on Friday by the Washington Post, Censor or die: The death of Mexican news in the age of drug cartels.

    • Media Comment: When the media engages in self-censorship

      Balancing journalism’s twin goals of telling the public what it wants to know and what it needs to know is not only an ethical matter for journalists but a very real concern for the media consumers.

      [...]

      It is fair to ask whether two major newspapers, Yediot Aharonot and Israel Hayom, are suffering from problems that may lead to self-censorship.

      Our well-researched assumption from years of review is that the former is very anti-Likud and almost pathologically anti- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu while the latter is at the other end of the spectrum, being consistently sympathetic to Netanyahu and his policies.

      The mainstream media has been lax, both the pro- and the anti-Netanyahu press, claims Yoav Yitzhak in a November 29 report at his News1 web site on whether Sara Netanyahu had “hidden away” gifts she and her husband received, as he has published, when visiting abroad rather than handing them over to the proper government clerks responsible for their storage.

    • How one Iranian TV show is breaking censorship boundaries

      In the 1980s, the main form of home entertainment in Iran consisted of two TV channels and two radio stations. For those who were tired of watching or hearing news about the ongoing war with Iraq and sanctions, there was only one source of entertainment: old movies from the time of former Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Despite the danger of being arrested and having to pay a fine or go to jail, people continued to watch videos by renting smuggled and banned VCRs. Media expert Dr. Fereydoun Ahmadvand told Al-Monitor, “One of the reasons videos became so popular among people and ultimately forced a retreat in the state’s position was the need for diversity and the desire to hear several voices and have cultural pluralism, which did not at all exist in Iran during the years of war.”

    • Iranian State-Run Newspaper Runs Unprecedented Anti-Censorship Editorial
    • Ian F. Svenonius’ ‘Censorship Now!!’ offers a smarter, more precise model of the D.C. punk hero’s shtick

      To remix an old saw for the Internet age: Familiarity breeds a particularly nasty, exhausted sort of apathy—the burnout of overexposure to a brand, whether it be Hulu’s fusillade of unchanging ads, Upworthy’s smug click bait, or an artist’s monomaniacal shtick. For a longtime devotee, the first few pages of Ian F. Svenonius’ “Censorship Now!!” carry plenty of that checked out disappointment. A longtime D.C. indie-punk fixture, Svenonius has spent two books (2006′s “The Psychic Soviet” and 2012′s “Supernatural Strategies for Making a Rock ‘n’ Roll Group”)—and 20 years as frontman for The Nation of Ulysses, the Make-Up, Weird War, and Chain and the Gang—mining a narrow melange of socio-musicological history, academic inquiry, and Marxist camp.

    • Censorship Now!! by Ian Svenonius Review

      Svenonius posits some rather radical steps concerning a remedy for censorship, takes a deep dive into the often unacknowledged cultural ramifications seeded during the earlier (and even earliest) days of the Internet and the corporate cooption of college rock that robbed it of its teeth, its vitality, its integrity. He also discusses the historical role of sugar in empire building, the potential corruptive powers (or misinterpretations) of backward-messages on vinyl records and, as we said, the 1988 film Heathers (concerning copycat crime sprees and the culpability of pop culture icons.) But there isn’t a shred of facetious snark or anecdotal wiseass-ery going on here. Each subject is thoroughly investigated and ruminated upon, scrutinizing some of the historical gunk that may have been disregarded from our more popular discourses and shrewdly polishing some ponderous interpretations to provide insight to the curious reader.

    • Lebanese Cartoonists Launch Indiegogo Campaign to Fight Censorship in Beirut

      The Lebanese nonprofit cartoon collective Samandal is in dire financial straits after the central government cracked down on them with censorship charges and fines.

    • Accused of Blasphemy, Lebanese Comic Book Combats Censorship
    • Argentines protest media law change, fear censorship

      Supporters of Argentina’s former president protest fearing new conservative leader Mauricio Macri will change media ownership laws. Natasha Howitt reports.

    • Argentina: Mass protest outside Buenos Aires congress over media censorship fears

      Hundreds of people have protested outside Argentinas congress amid fears of censorship and media monopoly. Protesters gathered in Buenos Aires on 17 December to demand the new president, Mauricio Macri, and his government reconsider proposed reforms that could lead to private organisations taking control of the countrys mass media.

      They say they are worried about censorship in Argentina if the anti-monopoly laws are loosened or repealed, and demanded that the president keeps the rules against market concentration.

      Martin Sabetella, director of the Federal Authority of Audiovisual Communication Services (AFSCA) watchdog – which is in charge of enforcing the legislation – said: We have come here to defend the audiovisual communications law, which is a tool to ensure freedom of expression, a plurality of voices, to guarantee a deep democracy that is enriched by all voices.

    • Republican hopefuls cut up on NSA surveillance, Trump needs to ‘shut down’ elements of web
    • Donald Trump doesn’t understand how the internet works

      The internet is a powerful tool for good as well as evil. So like almost every organization, ISIS has used it to organize and to spread its message. And Donald Trump wants to put a stop to that.

      “We’re losing a lot of people because of the internet, and we have to do something,” Trump said at a rally earlier this month. “We have to go see Bill Gates and a lot of different people that really understand what’s happening. We have to talk to them maybe in certain areas closing that internet up in some way.”

    • Stupidity and lies: Presidential candidates flunk the tech test

      When it comes to political theater these days, there’s no lack of boneheaded ideas backed by deliberately misleading statements (aka lying) and topped with a heaping helping of fearmongering.
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      Presidential candidates at this week’s debate were falling over each other in their rush to embrace bad policies, from dismantling the Internet to banning encryption and restarting NSA phone surveillance (not that it’s needed).

    • #Index100: Unveiling this year’s 100 global free speech heroes

      A graffiti artist who paints murals in war-torn Yemen, a jailed Bahraini academic and the Ethiopia’s Zone 9 bloggers are among those honoured in this year’s #Index100 list of global free expression heroes.

    • National Secular Society defends cinemas’ freedom not to screen religious adverts

      The NSS has defended cinema chains’ freedom to refuse religious or political advertising after the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) accused them of “failing to uphold Britain’s long tradition of freedom of expression.”

      The EHRC has offered its legal expertise to the Church of England, should the Church seek to use the law to force cinemas to screen its advert featuring the Lord’s Prayer. The EHRC also said it would examine issues raised by Digital Cinema Media’s (DCM) decision not to screen the advert as part of its ongoing examination of the laws protecting freedom of religion and belief.

    • Lord’s Prayer ad ban ‘slippery slope towards censorship’ – Equality Commission

      The ban on an advert featuring the Lord’s Prayer from being shown in cinemas could be part of a “slippery slope towards increasing censorship”, and will be investigated by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, it was announced on Friday.

    • The Music as Resistance playlist

      Music has long been used as a form of resistance, from civil rights movements to the fall of the Berlin Wall. The latest issue of Index on Censorship magazine, focusing on taboos and the breaking down of social barriers, features an exclusive new short story by Ariel Dorfman about a military trumpeter who plays a defiant, rebellious song on his instrument.

    • Egypt lawyer challenges censorship law

      The prosecution and imprisonment of journalists by the Egyptian government has garnered widespread criticism from governments and rights groups worldwide. In August Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi [BBC profile] approved [JURIST report] a 54-article counter-terrorism law that has been met with significant controversy, as many believe it infringes on the freedom of the press. Many have said that the law defines terrorism too broadly and imposes harsh sentences and fines on violators. Human Rights Watch [advocacy website] (HRW) criticized [JURIST report] Egypt’s new counterterrorism law saying it infringes on freedom of the press. HRW opposes the fact that the new law gives prosecutors the power to detain suspects without a court order. Also in August Egyptian police arrested [JURIST report] three people under the law for their role in spreading propaganda related to the Islamic State on Facebook.

      [...]

      The prosecution and imprisonment of journalists by the Egyptian government has garnered widespread criticism from governments and rights groups worldwide. In August Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi [BBC profile] approved [JURIST report] a 54-article counter-terrorism law that has been met with significant controversy, as many believe it infringes on the freedom of the press. Many have said that the law defines terrorism too broadly and imposes harsh sentences and fines on violators.

    • Cecil Rhodes was a racist, but you can’t readily expunge him from history

      Quintessential racist and British supremacist though he was, Cecil Rhodes cannot simply be written out of Oxford’s history

    • [Old] Dell responds to accusations of censorship

      Dell says it is not censoring IdeaStorm, merely responding to IdeaStorm community requests to “merge” ideas.

      Commenting in response to our post Dell censors IdeaStorm Linux dissent, Dell spokesperson John Pope said that the company isn’t censoring dissent on IdeaStorm.

      “If ideas are submitted and they turn out to be the same, we have been asked by the IdeaStorm community to merge them — as well as any votes cast and comments logged — for simplicity,” said Dell spokesperson John Pope.

    • Mark Zuckerberg’s plea for internet freedom means nothing if he keeps kissing up to China

      Mark Zuckerberg is an extremely competent CEO when it comes to building an enduring internet company. But he’s less skilled when it comes to navigating the politics of the internet, as evidenced by his statement during Brazil’s unexpected crackdown on WhatsApp.

    • WhatsApp-ening? Brazil briefly censors Facebook-owned app for 48 hours
    • The awkward irony in Brazil blocking WhatsApp

      It wasn’t long ago that Brazil was trumpeting its bona fides on electronic surveillance, slamming the National Security Agency’s spying programs as a “grave violation of human rights and of civil liberties” in a 2013 speech to the United Nations.

      Now, though, Brazil is finding itself in an awkward position as it moved to block an immensely popular messaging app within its own borders for 48 hours. Prosecutors demanded that the service, WhatsApp, be shut off for its 100 million Brazilian customers after the company did not comply with a secret order for user data. (That ban was soon reversed by a higher court, but the damage was done.)

    • WhatsApp service has been restored in Brazil, but more Internet trouble is still on the way
    • Dutch Gallery Accused Of Censorship After Removing ‘Offensive’ Names Of Artworks

      AN art gallery has been criticised after removing words such as ‘negro’ and ‘Mohammedan’ from the descriptions of its artworks in case they cause offence.

      ‘Indian’ and ‘dwarf are two other words that have been altered at the the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam – leading to accusations that it is pandering to political correctness.

      It has removed ‘offensive’ words from around 200 titles and descriptions of it works of art, replacing them with less racially charged terminology.

      Martine Gosselink, head of the history department at the Rijksmuseum and initiated the project, said: ‘The point is not to use names given by whites to others.

    • Why Facebook Isn’t Censoring Trump’s Hate Speech

      Facebook has had a super-clear policy on hate speech spelled out on the service since March 2015. What’s off limits? “Content that directly attacks people based on their race, ethnicity, national origin, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, sex, gender, gender identity, serious disabilities, or diseases.”

    • Facebook Inc (FB) Supports Donald Trump Hate Speech

      Fast Company posted, simply, “I’m with Trump, it’s time for a ‘total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.’” The comment was flagged and removed for violating community guidelines.

    • Are Facebook’s censorship policies politically motivated?

      During a recent United Nations summit in New York, Mark Zuckerburg was put in the hot seat when German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, directly called him out about Facebook’s inaction over anti-immigration comments.

      Zuckerburg responded that his team “needed to do some work on the issue.”

      Censorship on Facebook is nothing new, but the social media site’s stance on global issues has been unpredictable and at times confusing. In this article we will take a more in depth look into Facebook’s reaction about censorship of anti-immigration content, and then investigate FB’s stance on a number of controversial topical issues in the past.

    • Wyoming ‘Data Censorship’ Law Under Fire In Federal Court

      Way back in March, I wrote about a freshly passed Wyoming law that criminalized “collecting resource data.” The law appeared designed to stop pesky journalists and activists from documenting abuses on ranches and poultry and dairy farms — a so-called ag-gag law. But the actual language of the law was exceptionally broad. In my earlier post, I wrote that “by my reading, you’ve technically violated this law and could be subject to a year’s imprisonment if you idly counted the dandelions in a Wyoming farmer’s front yard without asking the farmer first.” (I see now that your dandelion count would have to be reported to the government, or you’d have to intend to report it, to violate the law — but still.)

      And so I concluded my post with these (abridged) words: “Bad laws like this do accomplish one good thing: they keep public interest lawyers employed. Lawyers like those at the Center for Food Safety should be lining up already to see Wyoming’s law struck down.”

    • ‘NK girl band cancelled concert due to censorship’

      North Korea’s Moranbong Band abruptly cancelled its scheduled performances in Beijing in protest of China’s request not to sing propaganda songs praising its young leader, a lawmaker claimed Tuesday.

    • Turkey’s decades-old censorship law may be amended

      Article 298 of the Constitution, which stipulates heavy fines and bans on TV stations during every election period in a blatant display of censorship, may be amended, as President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan ordered changes to the article used to justify bans by the Supreme Election Board (YSK) that oversees elections.

      The possible amendment was reported after the president met İlhan Yerlikaya, head of Turkey’s television and radio watchdog, the Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK), earlier this week. Yerlikaya and Erdoğan discussed bans on private-run TV channels during the meeting.

    • Censors can try, but won’t stop digital speech

      If you were planning to hold a Internet conference for the world, where would you choose to hold it? Silicon Valley? Boston? London? Germany? Tokyo?

      Whatever locale you guessed, it is a pretty safe wager that China was not among the top 10 options.

      Yet, on Wednesday, no less a luminary that Chinese President Xi Jinping welcomed more than 2,000 guests to the coastal city of Wuzhen, China as they began participation in the something called the World Internet Conference.

      That’s right. China is hosting an Internet conference. Has the nation noted as one of world’s heaviest-handed cyber censors suddenly gone soft and decided to join the digital marketplace of ideas?

    • Facebook Content Police Censors Image from a German Museum

      The clash of cultures is inevitable once you move beyond your own borders. A lot of American companies had issues being present in China, for example – and that lead to bans of particular companies. Watching YouTube or being on Facebook (NYSE:FB) in China is impossible without a friendly VPN/Proxy server, because those companies refused to ‘play ball’ with the Chinese authorities. And yes, all the companies which were targeted would often criticize their policy and refused to abide to censorship. Yet, every once a while, a slight ‘what the he…’ happens when the censorship scissors of Facebook’s Political Correctness Police appears. This time, a victim was none other than Bundeskunsthalle – National Museum of Art in Germany.

    • Al-Jazeera blocks article slamming Saudi Arabian human rights record

      The Qatar-based news network, Al-Jazeera, has prevented an article slamming human rights in Saudi Arabia from being viewed outside the US.

      The article, titled “Saudi Arabia Uses Terrorism as an Excuse for Human Rights Abuses” and published on Al-Jazeera America’s website on 3 December, cites reports 50 people are intended to be executed for alleged terrorist crimes, injustices in the treatment of Saudi’s minority Shia population and criticises the country’s relationship with the US.

      The article is understood to still be available in the US, but when viewed in other countries is replaced with an error page.

      A tweet from Al-Jazeera America’s account with the article’s headline, pictured on a Bahraini website, appears to have been deleted, while the Saudi Arabian newspaper Okaz quotes Al-Jazeera’s director apologising for the article, The Intercept reports.

    • Al Jazeera Blocks Anti-Saudi Arabia Article

      THE CORPORATE HEADQUARTERS of Al Jazeera appears to have blocked an article critical of Saudi Arabia’s human rights record from viewers outside the United States. The news network, which is funded by the government of Qatar, told local press that it did not intend to offend Saudi Arabia or any other state ally, and would remove the piece.

      The op-ed, written by Georgetown University professor and lawyer Arjun Sethi and titled, “Saudi Arabia Uses Terrorism as an Excuse for Human Rights Abuses,” ran on the website of Al Jazeera America, the network’s U.S. outlet. It comments on reports of 50 people recently sentenced to death for alleged terrorist activity and criticizes the U.S. government’s silence on Saudi Arabia’s human rights record.

    • It’s time for the arts world to look hard at its own racism

      We are condoning our forefathers’ bigotry if we fail to modify or rename portraits with offensive titles

    • South Korea’s art community expresses concerns about new museum director

      Bartomeu Marí, the new director of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, attempted to ban a satirical sculpture from an exhibition during his previous role in Barcelona

    • Should we censor art and books to fit our times?

      The Tate’s director, Nicholas Serota, says he would never remove offensive words from the title of an artwork on display in his gallery. His views contrast with those of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, which has changed the titles of several of its paintings to take account of modern sensibilities. For example, Young Negro Girl, painted around 1900 by the Dutch artist Simon Maris, has been retitled Young Girl Holding a Fan. Serota says he would only do this if the artist gave permisison to do so – which means that for historic art he’d do nothing.

      We should tread with extreme caution before taking such a drastic step as renaming art, and there’s a clear danger of oversensitivity in making any decision. But for Serota to say “never” is wrong. There are many words and phrases which, while accepted in their day, are clearly insulting and derogatory in the modern context and distort or confuse our understanding of the art itself.

    • HRW: Drop dubious case against rights activist

      Malaysian authorities should immediately drop charges under the Film Censorship Act against rights activist Lena Hendry, Human Rights Watch and 11 Malaysian and international human rights organisations said on 11 December 2015 in letters to Malaysia’s prime minister and attorney general.

  • Privacy

  • Civil Rights

    • The Hit List

      The Islamist war on secular bloggers in Bangladesh.

    • Drastic New Security Measures Put in Place for CES

      Attendees at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas January 5-9 will be subject to metal detector screening, pat downs and bag checks. Even laptop bags are being discouraged.

    • Ethiopia: Lethal Force Against Protesters

      Police and military forces have fired on demonstrations, killing at least 75 protesters and wounding many others, according to activists. Government officials have acknowledged only five deaths and said that an undisclosed number of security force members have also been killed. On December 15, the government announced that protesters had a “direct connection with forces that have taken missions from foreign terrorist groups” and that Ethiopia’s Anti-Terrorism Task Force will lead the response.

    • CIA torturers could still face justice: UN envoy

      Those responsible for the torture of suspected terrorists in the wake of the 11 September attacks cannot dodge justice forever, a top UN human rights official, Juan Mendez, told Middle East Eye.

      Mendez criticised US officials for not prosecuting intelligence agents for the widespread use of torture that was detailed in the US government’s own report – a damning probe that was released a year ago this week.

      “I’m certainly disappointed that the official policy of the US is to consider that bygones be bygones and to let torturers off the hook, but I wouldn’t say that this will never happen,” Mendez, the UN special rapporteur on torture, told MEE on Sunday.

    • Luncheon for Miss World Canada, Anastasia Lin, Examines Censorship, Free Speech

      She should be in China competing to wear the Miss World crown on Dec. 19. But the Chinese regime denied Anastasia Lin, Miss World Canada, entry into the country and declared her “persona non grata” because she speaks out about human rights in China.

    • Western democracy’s new maxim: surveillance and soft despotism

      September 21, 2014, was a day of global climate action. To testify to the scale of the protest in cities around the world, people at the Sydney rally were asked to smile for the drones flying above us.

      It was the first time I had been asked to smile at a drone. I felt uncomfortable. I was being watched, becoming an object of my own protest – a pixel, not an agent.

      What kind of society do our so-called “Western and networked democracies” count as normal if humans are constantly objectified, monitored and profiled?

    • Millionaire found not guilty of rape after claiming he tripped and fell on woman

      The Saudi property developer said he had already had sex with the young woman’s 24-year-old friend and it was possible his penis may have been poking out of his underwear when he tripped.

    • Donald Trump stands firm on proposed US travel ban for Muslims

      Republican front-runner Donald Trump has stood firm over his provocative call for banning Muslims from the United States as his party’s presidential candidates pushed their own plans for fighting Islamic State (IS) militants.

    • EFF Publishes “Pwning Tomorrow,” a Speculative Fiction Anthology

      As part of EFF’s 25th Anniversary celebrations, we are releasing “Pwning Tomorrow: Stories from the Electronic Frontier,” an anthology of speculative fiction from more than 20 authors, including Bruce Sterling, Lauren Beukes, Cory Doctorow, and Charlie Jane Anders. To get the ebook, you can make an optional contribution to support EFF’s work, or you can download it at no cost. We’re releasing the ebook under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International license, which permits sharing among users.

    • EFF’s 2015 Holiday Wishlist

      For the last four years, EFF has greeted the holiday season by publishing a list of things we’d like to see happen in the coming year. Sometimes these are actions we’d like to see taken by companies, and sometimes our wishes are aimed at governments, but we also include actions everyday people can take to advance our digital civil liberties. This year has seen a few wishes come true. For example, our FOIA lawsuit against the NSA led them to disclose the (redacted) details of their Vulnerabilities Equities Process. We’ve also been pleased to see more journalists and news organizations using SecureDrop to securely accept documents from anonymous sources and the House Judiciary Committee is finally considering reform of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act.

  • Internet/Net Neutrality

    • Let’s shut down the internet: Republicans vacate their mind bowels

      The presidential debate did not score highly on accuracy or sense.

    • Please Don’t Shut Down the Internet, Donald Trump

      What, exactly, did Trump mean? If you look at his different statements on the subject, it seems that he wants to knock out the infrastructure that provides Internet access in areas of Syria and Iraq that are controlled by ISIS. That’s one way to disrupt their recruitment, and the plan is technically feasible, at least in part. In theory, the United States could sever fibre-optic cables, destroy satellite dishes, and knock out cellular towers. It could also put pressure on telecommunications companies in the region. The headquarters of ISIS’s media operations, according to a defector who was quoted in the Washington Post, uses a Turkish wireless provider. Turkey is a NATO ally, and its government hasn’t recently shown any particular affection for free speech online. President Trump could call up its leaders and make a deal.

    • F.C.C. Asks Comcast, AT&T and T-Mobile About ‘Zero-Rating’ Services

      The Federal Communications Commission said on Thursday it was exploring whether new services from Comcast, T-Mobile USA and and AT&T violate net neutrality rules.

  • Intellectual Monopolies

    • The fate of branding as we know it in a 3D-printing world

      We recall that the basic framework for 3D printing consists of a person who downloads a CAD file or the like, which digital file then instructs the 3D printing device to produce the desired product, using the proper materials. If there is a brand that is identified with the product, then the brand will appear on the product. The consumer may carry out the production process either within the confines of his home or business (think of a dental implant or airplane wing) or at a fulfillment center. In either situation, the ultimate manufacturer is the consumer (or the fulfillment center acting on the consumer’s instructions). The result is that 3D printing largely renders redundant the traditional product distribution function-—from manufacturer to distributor/importer to retailer to customer.

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