12.11.15
Photos From EPO Protest in Munich
Summary: Some photos from the latest EPO protest (with faces blurred)
Summary: Some photos from the latest EPO protest (with faces blurred)
A fair trial… fair enough for the king.
Summary: Justice at the European Patent Office (EPO) remains elusive because a so-called ‘investigation’ seems more like a retroactive (going years into the past) exercise in dirt-digging, character assassination (of the accused), and insistence on overwhelming secrecy (in this public institution enjoying a state-granted monopoly)
IT IS important for Techrights to show the low standards for dismissal of perceived threats at the EPO, even staff representatives. Team Battistelli wants to keep everything secret (except perhaps the character assassination against defendants), so wouldn’t that be just? The EPO wants a “trial by media” with gross omissions and neglect of context, defense, etc.
Last night we responded to the EPO management‘s preparatory notes of the so-called ‘investigation’ which is really just union busting disguised as something else. Here are some of “The Charges” on which we wish to comment based on our limited understanding of the situation:
11. Statement of Facts: The first charge arises from investigations C-62, 62a and 62b/2014 conducted by the IU.
Any investigation conducted by the goons of Team Battistelli cannot be treated as objective or independent. We already know, based on another investigation, that the I.U.'s work is highly deficient. It’s political and it’s controlled from above, by Team Battistelli.
2) failed to cooperate with the investigative procedure, inter alia refusing to appear at an interview to which she had been invited by the IU.
This was acceptable, based on these lawyers' take, which we put in text the other day. The I.U. is somewhat of a sham because it obviously disregards basic human rights. Rejecting it isn’t just an act of civil disobedience and investigation of the Investigative Unit is probably well overdue because it does not seem to comply with international standards [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]. No wonder people at the EPO call it the "gestapo".
20. Pursuant to Article 14 (1) ServRegs, a permanent employee shall carry out his duties and conduct himself solely with the interests of the European Patent Organisation in mind.
First of all, it’s not known if the accused was actually disseminated anything as alleged. Moreover, there are higher priorities sometimes.
The EPO insists that people who work for the EPO should conduct “solely with the interests of the European Patent Organisation in mind.” When one becomes aware of apparent misconduct, however, one should be allowed to blow the whistle, even inside an international body. People who work at the EPO don’t deserve to be reduced to slaves without speech or consciousness. To suggest otherwise would evoke all sorts of famous novel names/titles.
It is worth noting that whenever the accuser says stuff like “repeated dissemination of information” there’s basically a reference to an entirely another person, another case, and another dubious set of allegations. So it’s all an effort to bring forth guilt by association, where association is established by something quite loose like mere communication.
The accuser talks about “causing a corresponding risk of damage to the public image of the European Patent Organisation” as if the EPO has got some sort of God-given right to a good public image, irrespective of the management’s actions. There is later a claim about “safeguarding of the integrity and reputation of her employer.” This basically is a demand for blind loyalty.
Having failed to actually make much headway with a case against the defendant, a secret accuser is then brought into the text to attack the defendant’s character from a vacuum, with repetition of the word "sniper" (plentiful). This comes across like a cheap personal attack, or ad hominem tactics. It goes on for many pages (endless repetition) in an effort to paint the accused as a sort of harasser, which is so hypocritical a claim coming from the EPO’s management. These personal attacks are so cheap that they’re not even worth broadcasting and responding to. They serve to show just how desperate Team Battistelli is to destroy the character of the defendant. It’s a common technique in high-profile national security cases.
Skipping a lot of the ad hominem we get to:
77. On 18.09.2015 the Office received a reply sent by Ms Zegveld on behalf of the defendant denying any liability for breach of confidentiality and claiming inter alia that it was the defendant’s right as staff representative to inform all staff about the investigation being conducted against her (Annex 19).
Seems reasonable enough. We wrote about this before.
Then again the EPO reverts back to the notion that it can bust unions in secret:
87. By the further e-mail sent by the defendant on 17.11.2015 to all the other members of the Munich including those who had not been involved in any capacity whatsoever with the said investigation, and to she has demonstrated again the intentional disregard of the confidentiality requirements which form a necessary part of her employment with the EPO.
Well, union-busting isn’t exactly an ordinary situation and informing others that it is happening may be essential and justifiable. It’s evident that Team Battistelli wants a monopoly on power and it wants to acquire and secure this power by mass surveillance and censorship.
Team Battistelli seems to have received a sobering reminder of this whole situation’s true nature:
95. In her defence, the defendant has brought forward, through her legal advisor, the following arguments:
a) That marking a communication as “confidential” does not necessarily mean that it is so.
b) That the defendant was entitled as a staff representative to disclose to staff that she is being investigated by the Office.
c) That in any case the Office has provided no evidence that the defendant disclosed the e-mail concerning the investigation.
Then the EPO returns to some character assassination attempts, trying to even blame depressions and suicides on SUEPO itself.
The following point is hypocritical beyond belief, as Team Battistelli claims to be — wait for it! — “safeguarding the welfare of employees”. In context:
110. The defendant’s acts strike at the core of her employer’s reputation and functioning, notably the preservation of an office culture safeguarding the welfare of employees, as well as at the heart of the relationship of trust and confidence between the defendant and her employer.
Put simply, Team Battistelli no longer feels like she is loyal to Team Battistelli. Should anyone at all be loyal to it given its abusive practices? This whole witch-hunt should only serve to reinforce the perception of Team Battistelli having vendettas and megalomania.
The accuser says that the defendant wanted to “maximise the harm to the procedure” (meaning the attack on unions, referred to as “procedure”). The use of the word “harm” makes a suppressive action sound like some kind of vulnerable human.
The following shows the hidden motive all along — it’s to sack the defendant. But Battistelli’s folks try to frame themselves as gracious and apologetic with the beginning of the following point:
114. The Office earnestly sought to remediate the situation but has now exhausted all means and must accept that the employment relationship with the defendant is no longer sustainable.
Wow, “earnestly”? Yeah, right…
Since Battistelli’s people don’t actually have a solid case here (just some allegations and character assassination) they welcome more opportunities for more allegations and character assassination, maybe in order to deter the defendant:
116. The Office reserves all its rights under inter alia Article 101 (2) ServRegs to call witnesses to the hearing before the Disciplinary Committee and/or submit further evidence as well as to bring forward any other procedural or substantive requests including any further relevant incidents that may occur in the meantime and were not known to the Office by the time of signature of the present report.
Get this:
117. The present report is also submitted without prejudice to any claims against the defendant under inter alia Art. 25 and 28 ServRegs.
It’s “submitted without prejudice”. Funny that one…
To summarise, the main cause for this case (character assassination aside) is communication with a person, a judge who the EPO alleges is some kind of armed Nazi (seems like another ongoing character assassination). They’re building a castle of sand on top of another castle of sand.
Team Battistelli is very much hurt by the fact that there was no cooperation with its precious I.U., which is only a sham or a prelude to show/mock trial.
Is this really something which merits dismissing a staff representative? Readers can decide for themselves. █
More and more people are starting to grasp the absurdity of the EPO’s stance…
Summary: Intimidating letters from Team Battistelli are being responded to by the Holtz law firm and reported to Heiko Maas, the Federal Minister of Justice and Consumer Protection (letter in German)
IN order for true justice to be done at the EPO, the process needs to be transparent and constantly subjected to public scrutiny. That’s the cornerstone of a modern society. For some people, however, the very idea of public scrutiny may seem unacceptable.
Well, inevitably, the harder the EPO tries to keep its union-busting secret, the more people become aware of it. Streisand Effect again! Some in the EPO management have consequently become laughing stocks all around the organisation (from top to bottom). The demands of secrecy seriously backfired and people (not staff representatives) keep writing us with information, ranging from rude/foul-mouthed (directed at the more aggressive figures inside the management) to polite and informative.
“In the “harassment” case,” told us one person, “the rumor is that the allegedly aggrieved party may be none other than Mrs. Bergot herself…”
Ms Bergot is said to have been “delaying the 25 years celebration of colleagues who took unpaid leave or full-time parental leave” and also “accusing a staff representative of breaching confidentiality for merely informing staff that she has been invited by the Investigative Unit.”
Battistelli, in the mean time, shows how hypocritical Bergot has been on behalf of Team Battistelli (Bergot is a core team member, as we showed in (part one, part two, part three, and part four of “EPO: It’s Like a Family Business”), as he had been “breaching confidentiality and publicly making strong and partially bizarre accusations in a pending disciplinary case” (we covered this back in October).
In Politico, “Kantilever” has just put it like this: (enable JavaScript to see comments)
This case recently concluded with a finding by the Enlarged Board of Appeal that the accusations were inadmissible. Therefore the individual has not been found to have committed any wrongdoing, by the only body capable of taking such a decision. Clearly the President nevertheless regards the individual as guilty…
The leaking of information about the ongoing disciplinary procedure, by the President, goes against his own rules about confidentiality during such procedures. A union leader was recently suspended in Munich for allegedly leaking about a disciplinary procedure. Anyone see a double-standard here?
The allegations about weapons and Nazi materials = defamation. What were these weapons and materials? Or was it sports equipment and a history book?
Spyware (keylogging) = illegal in Germany due to strict data protection laws (Datenschutz). The President uses his cloak of immunity to get away with behaving illegally on German soil, but in truth the immunity only applies for purposes “necessary for performing [patent office staff] duties” i.e. granting patents, not spying on staff (and the public, since it was a public computer). Would love to see this go to court, but no doubt the President would cite immunity and ignore the ruling (as he recently did with a labour court ruling from The Hague).
I could go on…
Well, the allegations are basically unfounded or very weakly substantiated. Isn’t it funny that such an abusive management revels in projecting so much, calling others all sorts of names? We’ve seen mafia, Nazis, and snipers. What’s next?
“Isn’t it funny that such an abusive management revels in projecting so much, calling others all sorts of names?”The lawyer who responded to the threats to staff representatives (over relatively benign activities) reminded Team Battistelli that union activities are in general absolutely fine based on what’s allowed in Munich and are strictly protected by fundamental laws. Heiko Maas received a copy of the letter, so it’s all within view of the political system in Germany right now. Justice in secret is no justice but a staged assessment of sides with assured punishment.
In our next post we would like to show just how ludicrous a case the EPO is building against staff representatives. There is more repetition therein (than substance). It’s a sign of desperation. █
Summary: The national delegations to whom the serious abuses by the European Patent Office (EPO) can — and probably should — be reported
THE EPO‘s management is apparently (if word on the street is to be believed) shielded by fear. The continued abuse is facilitated mostly by the Administrative Council, where nobody ‘dares’ to take the first move and challenge Team Battistelli, having already seen how Battistelli can bully delegates. We have decided to make a concise summary of the situation along with the following easy-to-follow list of contacts for anyone wishing to express an opinion and/or ask national delegations to tackle the abuses.
Starting with smaller member states (or groups) and moving towards larger ones, here we go. Some E-mails may no longer be up to date or active, so contacting several people (multiple recipients) is the safest way to ensure the messages land on the right ears. For one to contact one’s officials is not political activism but an exercise in functioning democracy.
Delegates/Representatives:
elvin.lako@dppm.gov.al
elvanda.mece@dppm.gov.al
mailinf@dppm.gov.al
Delegates/Representatives:
vbabaleva@bpo.bg
tnaydenova@bpo.bg
bpo@bpo.bg
Delegates/Representatives:
ljiljana.kuterovac@dziv.hr
Delegates/Representatives:
skokkinos@drcor.mcit.gov.cy
eeleftheriou@drcor.mcit.gov.cy
Delegates/Representatives:
jkratochvil@upv.cz
skopecka@upv.cz
posta@upv.cz
Delegates/Representatives:
Matti.Paets@epa.ee
Margus.Viher@epa.ee
Delegates/Representatives:
ssta@obi.gr
kmar@obi.gr
info@obi.gr
Delegates/Representatives:
guntis.ramans@lrpv.gov.lv
sandris.laganovskis@lrpv.gov.lv
valde@lrpv.lv
Delegates/Representatives:
rimvydas.naujokas@vpb.gov.lt
zilvinas.danys@vpb.gov.lt
Delegates/Representatives:
safet.emruli@ippo.gov.mk
irenaj@ippo.gov.mk
Delegates/Representatives:
godwin.warr@gov.mt
michelle.bonello@gov.mt
Delegates/Representatives:
ekheng@gouv.mc
expansion@gouv.mc
mcpi@gouv.mc
Delegates/Representatives:
aadamczak@uprp.pl
ematysiak@uprp.pl
glachowicz@uprp.pl
Delegates/Representatives:
leonor.trindade@inpi.pt
marco.dinis@inpi.pt
Delegates/Representatives:
ionel.muscalu@osim.ro
alexandru.strenc@osim.ro
office@osim.ro
Delegates/Representatives:
silvia.rossi.ubm@pa.sm
b.cinquantini@ngpatent.it
Delegates/Representatives:
btotic@zis.gov.rs
bbilenkati@zis.gov.rs
zis@zis.gov.rs
Delegates/Representatives:
lubos.knoth@indprop.gov.sk
lukrecia.marcokova@indprop.gov.sk
urad@indprop.gov.sk
Delegates/Representatives:
Vesna.StankovicJuricic@uil-sipo.si
Ales.orazem@uil-sipo.si
h.zalaznik@uil-sipo.si
sipo@uil-sipo.si
Delegates/Representatives:
habip.asan@turkpatent.gov.tr
akocer@turkpatent.gov.tr
info@turkpatent.gov.tr
L’Office belge de la Propriété intellectuelle (OPRI)
SPF Economie, P.M.E., Classes moyennes et Energie
City Atrium C
Rue du Progrès, 50
B-1210 Brussels, BELGIUM
Ms. Sabine Laruelle
http://www.laruelle.belgium.be/fr/equipe-et-contact
http://www.sabinelaruelle.be/homepage
info@laruelle.fgov.be
Delegates/Representatives:
jerome.debrulle@economie.fgov.be
geoffrey.bailleux@mineco.fgov.be
NL Octrooicentrum
Ministerie van Economische Zaken
Bezuidenhoutseweg 73
postbus 20401
NL- 2500 EK, Den Haag
NEDERLANDS
Mr. Henk Kamp
http://www.rijksoverheid.nl/regering/bewindspersonen/henk-kamp
Assistant:
b.becker@minez.nl
Spokespersons:
b.visser@minez.nl
P.vanStrien@minez.nl
t.d.vanes@minez.nl
Delegates/Representatives:
derk-jan.degroot@agentschapnl.nl
p.h.m.vanbeukering@minez.nl
Office de la propriété intellectuelle
Ministère de l’Economie et du Commerce extérieur
19-21, boulevard Royal
L-2914 Luxembourg
LUXEMBOURG
Mr. Etienne Schneider
http://www.eco.public.lu/ministere/ministre/index.html
etienne.schneider@eco.etat.lu
minister@eco.etat.lu
Secretary:
catherine.lammar@eco.etat.lu
Delegates/Representatives:
lex.kaufhold@eco.etat.lu
claude.sahl@eco.etat.lu
Intellectual Property Office
Department for
Business Innovation & Skills
1 Victoria Street
London SW1H 0ET
UNITED KINGDOM
Dr. Vince Cable
https://www.gov.uk/government/people/vince-cable
enquiries@bis.gsi.gov.uk
cablev@parliament.uk
Delegates/Representatives:
john.alty@ipo.gov.uk
sean.dennehey@ipo.gov.uk
Irish Patents Office
Department of
Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation,
23 Kildare Street, Dublin 2
IRELAND
Mr. Richard Bruton
http://www.djei.ie/corporate/ministersoffice/richardbruton.htm
minister@djei.ie
Delegates/Representatives:
gerard.barrett@patentsoffice.ie
Institut National de la Propriété Industrielle (INPI)
Ministère de l’Économie,
des Finances et
du Commerce extérieur
139, rue de Bercy
F-75572 Paris Cedex 12
FRANCE
Mr. Emmanuel Macron
http://www.economie.gouv.fr/le-ministere/emmanuel-macron
Delegates/Representatives:
ylapierre@inpi.fr
fclaireau@inpi.fr
contact@inpi.fr
Ufficio Italiano Brevetti e Marchi
(UIBM)
Ministero dello Sviluppo Economico
Uffici del Ministro
Via Veneto 33
IT-00187 Roma
ITALIA
Ms. Federica Guidi
http://www.sviluppoeconomico.gov.it/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&idmenu=3315
segreteria.ministro@mise.gov.it
Delegates/Representatives:
mauro.masi@consap.it
loredana.gulino@mise.gov.it
Oficina Española de Patentes y Marcas
(OEPM)
Ministerio de Industria,
Energía y Turismo
Pº de la Castellana 160.
ES-28046 Madrid
ESPAÑA
Dr. José Manuel Soria López
http://www.minetur.gob.es/es-ES/Ministro/Biografia/Paginas/CV_Ministro.aspx
secretaria.ministro@mityc.es
Delegates/Representatives:
patricia.garcia-escudero@oepm.es
pedro.cartagena@oepm.es
Deutsches Marken- und Patentamt (DPMA)
Bundesministerium der Justiz (BMJ)
Mohrenstraße 37
D-10117 Berlin
DEUTSCHLAND
Mr. Heiko Maas
http://www.bmjv.de/DE/Ministerium/Hausleitung/Minister/_node.html
mail@heiko-maas.de
poststelle@bmj.bund.de
Delegates/Representatives:
ernst-ch@bmj.bund.de
info@dpma.de
Eidgenössisches Institut für Geistiges Eigentum
Eidgenössischen Justiz- und Polizeidepartement (EJPD)
Bundeshaus West
CH-3003 Bern
SCHWEIZ
Ms. Simonetta Sommaruga
http://www.ejpd.admin.ch/ejpd/de/home/ueber-uns/dv.html
simonetta.sommaruga@gs-ejpd.admin.ch
simonetta.sommaruga@parl.ch
Delegates/Representatives:
roland.grossenbacher@ipi.ch
christian.bock@metas.ch
info@ipi.ch
Eidgenössisches Institut für Geistiges Eigentum
Ministerium für Inneres,
Justiz und Wirtschaft
Postfach 684
9490 Vaduz
LIECHTENSTEIN
Dr. Thomas Zwiefelhofer
http://www.regierung.li/ministerien/wirtschaft/mitarbeitende-kontakt/
thomas@zwiefelhofer.net
Assistant:
Simon.Biedermann@regierung.li
Delegates/Representatives:
Sabine.Monauni@llv.li
Esther.Schindler@llv.li
ute.hammermann@avw.llv.li
info@avw.llv.li
Österreichisches Patentamt
Bundesministerium für Verkehr, Innovation und Technologie (BMVIT)
Radetzkystraße 2
A-1030 Wien
ÖSTERREICH
Mr. Alois Stöger
http://www.bmvit.gv.at/
alois.stoeger@spoe.at
Delegates/Representatives:
friedrich.roedler@patentamt.at
andrea.scheichl@patentamt.at
info@patentamt.at
Hungarian Intellectual Property Office
Ministry of Public Administration
and Justice
Kossuth Lajos tér 2-4.
HU-1055 Budapest
HUNGARY
Dr. Tibor Navracsics
http://www.kormany.hu/en/ministry-of-public-administration-and-justice/the-minister
info@kim.gov.hu
intcomm@me.gov.hu
Delegates/Representatives:
miklos.bendzsel@hipo.gov.hu
mihaly.ficsor@hipo.gov.hu
elnokseg@hipo.gov.hu
Danish Patent and Trademark Office (DKPTO)
Ministry for Business and Growth
Slotsholmsgade 10-12
DK-1216 København K
DENMARK
Mr. Henrik Sass Larsen
http://www.evm.dk/english/the-minister
evm@evm.dk
Press Secretary
smn@evm.dk
Delegates/Representatives:
jko@dkpto.dk
arj@dkpto.dk
mlr@dkpto.dk
knj@dkpto.dk
pbp@dkpto.dk
pvs@dkpto.dk
Swedish Patent and Registration Office
Ministry of Justice
Rosenbad 4
SE-103 33 Stockholm
SWEDEN
Ms. Beatrice Ask
http://www.government.se/sb/d/7567
beatrice.ask@gov.se
Justitiedepartementet.registrator@regeringskansliet.se
Delegates/Representatives:
susanne.sivborg@prv.se
per.holmstrand@prv.se
Update: Beatrice Ask is no longer minister of justice, it’s Morgan Johansson. Best way of contacting is via registrator of department of justice: ju.registrator@regeringskansliet.se
National Board of Patents and Registration of Finland (NBPR)
Ministry of Employment
and the Economy
P.O. Box 32
FI-00023 GOVERNMENT
FINLAND
Mr. Jan Vapaavuori
Minister of Economic Affairs
http://www.tem.fi/index.phtml?l=en&s=2297
jan.vapaavuori@tem.fi
Secretary:
jonna.sjogren@tem.fi
Delegates/Representatives:
rauni.hagman@prh.fi
jorma.hanski@prh.fi
The Norwegian Industrial Property Office (NIPO)
Ministry of Trade and Industry
P.O.Box 8114 Dep.,
N-0030 Oslo
NORWAY
Monica Mæland, Minister of Trade and Industry
http://www.regjeringen.no/en/dep/nfd/about-the-ministry/minister-of-trade-and-industry-monica-ma.html?id=742948
postmottak@nfd.dep.no
Delegates/Representatives:
pfo@patentstyret.no
jsa@patentstyret.no
Icelandic Patent Office
Ministry of Industries and Innovation
Skulagotu 4
150 Reykjavík
Iceland
Ragnheiður Elín Árnadóttir
Minister of Industry and Commerce
http://eng.atvinnuvegaraduneyti.is/ministers/nr/6748
rea@althingi.is
postur@anr.is
Delegates/Representatives:
borghildur@els.is
elfa@els.is
If we have left something or someone out, or if an inclusion of an entry is out of date, please let us know in the comments below.
Once upon a time someone spoke of the “Broken Governance of the European Patent Organisation”, noting that “several members of the Administration Board of the European Patent Organisation are the national patent offices themselves!”
At the time, things were different and not the same persons involved.
Nevertheless, back then the list of representatives at the Administrative Council of the EPO highlighted the fact that the Executive was also the Legislator:
BE: Office de la Propriété Intellectuelle
BG: Patent Office of the Republic of Bulgaria
CZ: Industrial Property Office of the Czech Republic
DK: Danish Patent and Trademark Office
EE: Estonian Patent Office
ES: Department, Spanish Patent and Trademark Office
FI: National Board of Patents and Registration of Finland
FR: Institut National de la Propriété Industrielle
UK: UK Intellectual Property Office
GR: Industrial Property Organisation (OBI)
HU: Hungarian Patent Office
HR: State Intellectual Property Office of the Republic of Croatia
IE: Irish Patents Office
IS: Icelandic Patent Office
IT: Office italien des brevets et des marques
LT: The State Patent Bureau of the Republic of Lithuania
LV: Latvian Patent Office
NL: Netherlands Patent Office
NO: Norwegian Industrial Property Office
PL: Patent Office of the Republic of Poland
PT: National Institute of Industrial Property
RO: State Office for Inventions and Trademarks
SE: Swedish Patent and Registration Office
SI: Slovenian Intellectual Property Office
SK: Industrial Property Office of the Slovak Republic
TR: Turkish Patent Institute
Three questions were raised at the time:
That was written a long time ago, but it was rather prophetic because we still see some overlap between the legislative and executive powers. This in its own right is a subject which merits open debate. █
Martial Law imminent in Eponia? It’s definitely getting there, gradually…
La Grève au pays de Charleroi by Robert Koehler
Summary: Attacks on the right of workers to assemble, to protest, and increasingly the freedom of association as well (more to come, in relation to staff representatives being crushed)
Željko Topić’s dark history and union-busting practices at the EPO are not really news. He seemingly likes to play the role of the bad cop. Attacks on the right to strike are a bad cop’s task, especially in the public sector (see some historical background). Here is a recent Circular, apparently resent with updates as means of deterrence ahead of many of the recent protests (now a weekly thing with high staff presence and growing recurrence in Munich):
ServRegs – Circular No. 347
Circular No. 347 (27 June 2013)
1. No. 347 Circular on Strikes
The President of the European Patent Office;
Having regard to the European Patent Convention, and in particular Article 10 thereof;
Having regard to the Service Regulations for permanent employees of the European Patent Office, and notably Articles 30, 30a, 63 and 65 thereof;
Having consulted the General Advisory Committee;
Recognising the right to strike, whilst having regard to the need for specific terms and conditions for its exercise in order to ensure a proper functioning of the Office;
Considering that a strike should be a proportionate action of last resort;
Has decided as follows:
Guidelines applicable in the event of strike
2. A. Definition
3. 1. Strike
4. A strike is defined in Article 30a(2) of the Service Regulations.
5. Industrial actions which are not a collective and concerted work stoppage, such as go-slow or work-to-rule actions, shall not be considered as a strike.
6. The protection granted by the right to strike does not apply to employees participating in industrial actions other than a strike.
7. B. Exercising the right to strike
8. 2. Call for a strike
9. A Staff Committee (Central Staff Committee or a local section), an association of employees, or a group of employees representing at least 10% of all EPO employees may decide to call for a strike.
10. 3. Decision to start a strike
11. The start of a strike shall be the result of a vote by the employees entitled to vote.
12. Entitled to vote are the active employees either office-wide or at sites concerned by the strike which has been called for.
13. The voting process shall be organised and completed by the Office within a maximum of one month following the decision to call for strike. The voters’ confidentiality shall be guaranteed. Employees not able to vote personally October 2015 180
1b
14. shall have the possibility to vote by proxy. An employee can be given only one proxy vote.
15. The voting process shall be supervised by a committee composed of two employees designated by the President and two employees designated by the Central Staff Committee on an ad hoc basis.
16. To be valid, at least 40% of the employees entitled to vote shall participate in the ballot. The decision to start the strike has to be approved by a majority of more than 50% of the voters.
17. 4. Prior notice
18. Pursuant to Article 30a(5) of the Service Regulations, prior notice of a strike shall be given to the President at least five working days before the commencement of the strike action.
19. As regards the scope of the strike, the notice shall indicate which sites of the Office are concerned.
20. The duration of the strike shall not exceed one month starting from the date indicated in the prior notice as the beginning of the strike. Beyond this maximum duration, any new strike shall be organised in compliance with Article 30a of the Service Regulations.
21. 5. Declaration of participation in a strike
22. Employees participating in a strike shall inform their immediate superior and shall register via an electronic self-registration tool made available by the Office. The immediate superior will have access to the self-registration tool.
23. The registration shall occur before or, at the latest, on the day of the strike.
24. Employees may be considered on unauthorised absence within the meaning of Article 63 of the Service Regulations if they were not at their workplace during a strike action, did not register and did not inform their immediate superior of their absence from work.
25. 6. Deduction of remuneration
26. For each working day during which an employee participated in a strike, the Office will apply a deduction of the monthly remuneration, in accordance with Article 65(1)(c) of the Service Regulations.
27. For participation in a strike for more than four hours in a single working day, the Office will apply a deduction of 1/20th of the monthly remuneration.
28. For participation in a strike for four hours or less in a single working day, the Office will apply a deduction of 1/40th of the monthly remuneration.
29. For staff working part-time, the deduction will be adjusted proportionally.
ServRegs – Circular No. 347 October 2015
30. The basis for calculating the deduction is the remuneration defined in Article 64(2) of the Service Regulations.
31. A strike participant remains covered by the social security scheme during strike and therefore continues to contribute in full to the scheme.
32. C. Entry into force
33. This decision shall enter into force on 1 July 2013.Željko Topić
Vice-President DG 4October 2015
This was sent around the same time the EPO was attacking bloggers, apparently defaming a judge in the media, and shortly thereafter preparing a simultaneous attack on at least three staff representatives. This is part of the ongoing escalation, echoing what we see governments do when there is a perpetual “war on terror”, taking its toll on law-abiding citizens, supposedly for the greater good. EPO management can feel the imminent “emergency” and is adjusting the rules accordingly, in order to protect the management, not the rights of workers. █
Summary: Alberto Casado Cerniño (Vice-President of DG2) uses managers’ incomprehensible language to insinuate that all is fine and dandy inside the EPO
THE European Patent Office (EPO) became infamous in Europe because of its insatiable appetite for (or endless pursuit of) mass surveillance with visitors to the Office as ‘collateral damage’, especially amid surveillance backlash in Europe and outside Europe, partly because of leaks from Edward Snowden and several people after him (including some inside Germany).
We found it amusing that the EPO now brags about a surveillance audit. A “surveillance audit” is an ongoing periodic review of an organisation’s quality management system. It’s basically management nonsense, designed to keep managers occupied with self-serving things. An ISO 9001 Certification (in the British context) “is a Quality Management Standard. It suits all organisations large or small and covers all sectors, including charities and the voluntary sector. It aims to help organisations become structured and efficient.”
That’s because, as everyone probably knows by now, people are treated like machines inside the EPO these days. There is extreme disregard for human factors, as mass surveillance itself serves to show.
“On 12 October Mr Cassado,” we’ve learned (that’s just a few days before the EPO sent me the first threatening letter), “Vice-President of DG2 and Management Representative for Quality informed staff as below.”
ISO 9001 surveillance and certification audits show we are on the right track… Recently I informed you of upcoming surveillance audits in the patent granting process from 5 – 9 October. At the same time, the new procedures extending the scope of the Quality Management System (QMS) to PD 54, were audited for ISO 9001 certification… On all sites, colleagues at all levels were interviewed by external auditors. I am pleased to inform you that preliminary results are very positive for both the surveillance and certification exercise… A recommendation will be made to extend our current patent granting process to the full patent process… This confirms both the positive results of the work done this year in patent information to enhance our QMS and the continual improvement of the quality of our core processes.
What Cassado is basically saying here — or at least trying to insinuate using mumbo jumbo PHB speak — is that everything is alright, even when it clearly isn’t (recall the first part, second part and third part of an old scandal implicating Cassado). █
Original photo: Minister-president Rutte from Nederland
Summary: How the EPO continues to chill the media around Europe and even outside Europe, in addition to legally abusing staff representatives in an effort to scare the media
THE EPO is a lying organisation. But it gets worse. It now adopts Erdoğanian methods. It pretends to respect the freedom of the press when in practice, contrary to such jaw-dropping statements (shamelessly made to the media upon inquiry), it overzealous attacks the freedom of the press like no other institution in Europe.
I used to find important leaks in IP Kat (whose most prominent person has just retired) and sometimes I found interesting pointers in IP Kat comments. Increasingly, however, I find little more than jokes, speculations, and what sometimes looks like EPO AstroTurfing. Since the most recent attacks on free speech and a PR contract with FTI Consulting we’re just not seeing the same kind of journalistic atmosphere online. The EPO is now considered “scary”, or a dangerous territory to explore and write about.
“The EPO is now considered “scary”, or a dangerous territory to explore and write about.”The EPO’s threats against me clearly had the intended effect. A lot of EPO-hostile sites are now afraid or reluctant to criticise EPO (or do so very gently, almost tip-toeing). Some sites like these have known about the legal threats against me for nearly 2 months (because I informed them). Today one commenter at IP Kat wrote: “The AC [the EPO's potential Nemesis, the Administrative Council] can order the third party to come and resolve the problem.”
Well, whenever the EPO uses the term “investigation” it should be read as union busting and the term “productivity” or “efficiency” means lax granting of patents. People or businesses who apply for a patent at EPO should think long term. Given declining patent quality and ever-increasing fees, are they getting their money’s worth? The EPO is a lunatic institution whose eventual state of affairs will likely be horrible, unless the employees manage to rescue it from Team Battistelli (before it’s too late).
Florian Müller, who has also just found out about being targeted by the EPO (because I showed him), wrote this widely-cited article this morning and stated: “The EPO leadership is just paranoid about bloggers who criticize what’s wrong with the way that organization is run. But those EPO folks don’t appear to understand that they’re only making things worse by the day. They threatened legal action on at least four occasions against TechRights author Dr. Roy Schestowitz, who is still the most prolific writer on the EPO labor dispute. Now they blame a staff representative for my commentary without a factual basis.”
People in the media — including the BBC — ought to be aware of the EPO’s chilling of the media. Almost a million dollar for a 1-year media manipulation campaign sure goes a long way.
“Now they blame a staff representative for my commentary without a factual basis.”
–Florian MüllerWhat we deal with here is not an ordinary institution but an out-of-control nut house, run by a cabal of people drunk on power. Recall the threats to take away Christmas vacation (contrary to what EPO publicly states) and (nearly) threats to people who are ill, whose basic rights are stomped on, especially when they fall ill (depression weakens the immune system) and are thus incapable of working. In the future we’ll show how the EPO even takes advantage of cancer in the family. People’s jaws should drop to the floor; this isn’t even close to being compatible with European human rights standards. Even China is probably better.
SUEPO alludes to the Politico article “Labor relations turn toxic in the European Patent Office”, which says a lot about suicides and even calls for an investigation into the cause of such an irregular frequency of suicides. “The political journalism organization Politico,” SUEPO wrote today, “comments here (article of 08 December 2015) on the labor relations at the European Patent Office, in particular on the spike of suicides and staff unhappiness.”
The EPO’s management is trying to simply ignore all the bad publicity. The EPO’s Web site and Twitter feed say nothing about it (lies by omission). Well, just watch the EPO’s Twitter feed this week, it’s a never-ending PR campaign. WIPR too falls for the ‘green’-themed campaign from the EPO (just a senseless greenwashing campaign).
The EPO’s management started an information war. Unless writers are brave enough to challenge these thugs, it’s possible that the thugs will prevail, which means that the EPO will collapse (jeopardizing the jobs of all EPO employees, not just the thugs). █
I’m announcing the release of the 4.3.1 kernel.
All users of the 4.3 kernel series must upgrade.
The updated 4.3.y git tree can be found at:
git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux-stable.git linux-4.3.y
and can be browsed at the normal kernel.org git web browser:http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/stable/linux-st…
thanks,
greg k-h
Gender gap is one of the hottest topics in the tech industry. To address this, many organizations in the open source world, including the Gnome Foundation, Mozilla Foundation, and The Linux Foundation, organize programs to encourage female participation.
The Linux Foundation’s Linux Training Scholarship Program offers free training to individuals. Vaishali Thakkar was one of the recipients this year under the Kernel Guru category. She lives in India and recently completed an Outreachy internship on project Coccinelle.
I reached out to Vaishali to learn more about her experience with the Linux community, the atmosphere in India for Linux developers and much more.
While Mesa 11.1 is right around the corner, Emil Velikov today announced the release of Mesa 11.0.7 as the latest collection of stable fixes.
Intel is hooking their Beignet open-source OpenCL Linux implementation into the CMRT, the 01.org C for Media Runtime.
If looking for budget laptops right now, the Core i3 5010U and Core i5 5200U “Broadwell” processors tend to be very common, but how do they compare under Linux? Here are some benchmarks on Ubuntu 15.10 with the Linux 4.4 kernel to answer that question.
It may be a relatively niche market, but not all video editing is done in post production. There are use cases for live, on-the-fly video editing and basic compositing. You’ve seen it done yourself, whether you realize it or not—news broadcasts, live webcasts, and live TV events usually use multiple-camera setups controlled by one central software suite.
Open Broadcast Studio (formerly Open Broadcaster Software) is an open source central control room for live, realtime video editing. It features instant encoding using x264 (an open source h.264 encoder) and AAC and streams to services like YouTube, DailyMotion, Twitch, your own streaming server, or just to a file.
Excel Software simplified QuickLicense protection and licensing of 32-Bit or 64-Bit application software with the release of two companion products, QuickLicenseRT Linux 2.0 and PluginXojoQLRT 2.0. QuickLicenseRT Linux includes 32 and 64-Bit runtime files. PluginXojoQLRT provides a Xojo plugin for 32 and 64-Bit apps on Mac or Windows.
I’m going to be honest, I’ve never heard of Guy Lunardi until now. He went to New York Linux Users Group (NYLUG) to do a talk on SteamOS.
I’m going to be honest, I had never heard of InSomnia, but it was sent in by a reader and I’m certainly interested now. An RPG set on a massive space station, with good looking graphics that’s now planned for a same-day Linux release!
A viking with a gun you say? Okay, I’m interested. At the end of October Gunnheim released for Linux, and it looks quite fun.
I actually really like the colourful and simple graphics, as it reminds me of Albion Online which I’ve been slaving away at.
The Calligra developers have been happy to announce the release and immediate availability for download of the tenth maintenance version in the Calligra 2.9 series.
According to the release notes, which we’ve attached at the end of the article for reference, Calligra 2.9.10 is a yet another bugfix release that resolves several issues reported by users since the previous maintenance version, Calligra 2.9.9. Moreover, it addresses a single Kexi issue, and adds great improvements to the Krita 2.9.10 software, for which we already published a separate article the other day.
KDE – desktop environment written in C++/Qt/QML and better for users which need more and love the powerful instruments. KDE can help you in everyday tasks like work with web, multimedia (photo, video, music), text and specific tasks: programming, video editing, education, games and many others. Many peoples say that KDE is very good for users with Windows experience, but I’m not sure. I highly recommend to try KDE: this desktop environment can give you many positive emotions.
Tuesday, 8 December 2015. Today KDE releases a feature update to its desktop software, Plasma 5.5.
The Dell Edge Gateway will be available for purchase soon. When it goes on sale, firmware updates in Linux will work out-of-the-box. I’ve been told that Dell are considering expanding out the LVFS support to all new models supporting UEFI updates. In order to prioritize what models to work on first, I’ve been asked to share this anonymous survey on what Dell hardware people are using on Linux and to gauge if people actually care about being able to upgrade the firmware easily in Linux.
While the GNOME developers have already released the third development milestone towards the GNOME 3.20 desktop environment, it appears the some of its core components have not even gotten a release from the 3.19 devel branch.
Today in Linux news, Tecmint posted a look at the top 10 distributions of the year. Jim Zemlin said today that Linux Foundation and Microsoft’s partnership is off to a “great start.” KDE Plasma 5.5 was released yesterday “with beautiful new artwork” and The Linux Homefront Project gave it the once over. Elsewhere, Clement Lefebvre posted the 17.3 upgrade process and Chris Hoffman reviewed 17.3 for PCWorld.
As the end of 2015 approaches, it is not only a time to start drafting your new year’s resolutions but also to check out what were the most popular Linux distributions in 2015. A brief comparison with 2014 will also help us whether those distros are actually experiencing sustained growth or not. Ready to start? Let’s begin.
Ringo de Kroon, the maintainer of the Manjaro Linux Cinnamon and Manjaro Linux MATE computer operating systems, has had the great pleasure of announcing the immediate availability for download of the first RC (Release Candidate) build of the upcoming Manjaro Linux MATE 15.12 distribution.
Cox Automotive sees all kinds of customers pouring into its online portals — from dealers in the auction lanes to potential buyers considering a vehicle purchase.
Open source technology solutions provider Red Hat highlighted on Tuesday how Cox Automotive deployed three major tools — Red Hat CloudForms, Red Hat Gluster Storage and Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization — to scale its internal cloud infrastructure to meet the increasing requests from its customer base.
Jennison Associates cut its stake in Red Hat Inc (NYSE:RHT) by 2.4% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The hedge fund owned 15,549,632 shares of the open-source software company’s stock after selling 386,599 shares during the period. Red Hat makes up approximately 1.1% of Jennison Associates’ holdings, making the stock its 22nd largest position. Jennison Associates owned 8.47% of Red Hat worth $1,117,708,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.
RBC Capital reiterated their buy rating on shares of Red Hat Inc (NYSE:RHT) in a research report report published on Wednesday, ARN reports.
Channel partners need to become more innovative in their thinking and strive to improve the experience client’s get from as-a-service offerings, Red Hat director AppDev solutions APAC, Ben Henshall, said.
One-time server foes Microsoft and Red Hat have come a step closer on the emerging platform of cloud.
Red Hat has introduced CloudForms 4.0, and the cloud management platform can now manage cloud resources in Microsoft Azure and picks up container support.
Both features are indispensable for any cloud-management system. The former is necessary because of Azure’s status as a top-tier cloud offering, and the latter because containers are involved in nearly every aspect of software use, especially cloud deployment.
In many organizations the culture is not open; people know that if you want to get ahead you need to shut up and keep your head down. But, that’s a recipe for failure. And it’s more expensive, because (often) processes or products are much further developed before anyone detects problems with them.
RBC Capital Markets have a $90.00 price target on the stock. The price target would suggest a potential upside of 11.77 % from Red Hat Inc (NYSE:RHT)’s last stock close price. This rating was released in an analyst note on Tuesday, 8 December.
Saturday we arrived at Red Hat APAC office by around 9 AM. The MRT station locates just under AXA building so it did not take us much time there.
As we are productive Saturday, we decide to start a little late today. So we arrived at the office by around 10 AM. Then we start by each ambassador introduce the community in their country. There is a outstanding problem is, reimbursement usually takes a long time. And some area have problems in receiving money by paypal. So we talked about having another credit card in APAC. And then we talks about DVD distribution in APAC. As of strict import/export laws in China, we are not able to take DVDs into China directly. So we still need to ask Red Hat guys to send DVDs into Red Hat Beijing by company way. And Sirko mentioned that someone need to raise request for combined media so that the engineer team will take into consideration. Otherwise they will not make any combined ISO.
The recent transition of such mails from the PTS to Debian’s instance of Distro Tracker reminded me about this, and some info on how to transition current filtering may be useful for more than just me.
Ubuntu Touch will receive a new OTA update before the end of the year, but it’s a small hotfix. From the looks of it, developers still have one more thing to implement, but some regressions spotted during Q&A are delaying the release.
There are a lot of naive users and customers out there, and then there are companies and websites out there only to trick them. That’s why we can find an Ubuntu MATE 15.10 Flash Drive with just 8 GB of space selling for a huge price.
Now that the Linux Mint 17.3 “Rosa” Cinnamon and MATE flavors have been released, the users of the previous version have been given a green light for the upgrade.
One such Linux-based operating system that puts a priority on design and user experience is the fabulous elementary OS. Luckily, it is not form over function, as its stability and usefulness matches the beauty on the surface, thanks to its Ubuntu base. Today, a new version of the popular distro, Freya 0.3.2, becomes available for download. Will you download it?
The awesome guys from elementary announced a few minutes ago, December 10, 2015, the release and immediate availability for download of the elementary OS 0.3.2 “Freya” computer operating system.
Linux is one of the best operating systems around and there are many distro’s which are popular among developers but what about the normal people like you and me. Well, there is a Linux distro just made for home users and desktop environment. Called elementary OS Freya, the version 0.3.0 of this Linux distro is now available for download.
It is now possible to upgrade the Cinnamon and MATE editions of Linux Mint 17, 17.1 and 17.2 to version 17.3.
If you’ve been waiting for this I’d like to thank you for your patience.
We introduced you guys to the PINE64 single-board computer (SBC) a couple of days ago, when we’ve stated that it is the world’s first $15 open source gaming machine that runs Android and Linux.
As computers get smaller and more powerful, more options are starting to surface for palm sized computers which can be used for a number of DIY projects. The latest to be unveiled, the PINE64 and PINE64+, launches on Kickstarter today and promises a more simple, affordable, and expandable computing solution.
We have just been informed by Dylan MCallahan about the immediate availability for download of the second build of his Chromium OS operating system for the Raspberry Pi 2 single-board computer (SBC).
But perhaps these smaller companies like Jolla are content to keep their customer base little; after all, it’s hard to imagine any of their executives believing that their devices would soar into, say, the top 10 figures of sales around the world. Especially given how mammoth shipment figures are now for smartphones, and how mobile giants are lowering the costs of some of their devices to appeal to more markets. The intent for some of these open source companies has been more to provide alternative options for mobile users who can afford such products, while also steering customers away from juggernauts like Apple and Samsung. While Mozilla’s announcement is disheartening to some in the open source market, there are still several other entities who haven’t thrown in the towel.
Between August and October, the iPhone’s smartphone share in the US fell fell by 8.3 percentage points to 33.6 percent, compared with the same period in 2014, Kantar Worldpanel ComTech reported on Wednesday. Meanwhile, the US share for phones with Google’s Android operating system jumped by 9.5 percentage points to 62.8 percent from the same period a year ago, Kantar reported.
In this Ask A Dev, Android engineer Waylon Brown gives aspiring Android engineers a road map to getting their apps on the Google Play store.
“All you need is some knowledge of Java, $30 for the developer account, and an app idea,” Waylon says, before getting more specific. In two minutes, you’ll be equipped with all the training guides, emulators and accounts you’ll need to become a full-fledged Android developer. Waylon finishes up with some helpful suggestions about how to market your app.
You’re probably aware of most of these uses – checking social media, sending emails, even making phone calls and sending texts – but you might not have discovered all of the ways you can use your Android smartphone. Here are 10 superpowers your phone has that you can take advantage of.
For specifications, the Oukitel K10000 runs Android 5.1 Lollipop, and is a dual-SIM dual standby smartphone with 4G LTE functionality on both SIM card slots. The handset supports dual Micro-SIMs. The online retailer’s listing confirms that the handset supports Indian LTE bands as well.
Do you think music software is only the domain of expensive proprietary software? Think again. There are literally hundreds of applications out there designed by, and for, those with a musical bent. Music projects, including many projects specifically for the Linux operating system, flourish in the open source community as musicians take to coding to produce tools to make their lives easier.
The world’s fastest cracking tool Hashcat is now open source. The company has called it a very important step and listed out the reasons that inspired them to take this step.
Steube said that many of these researchers can’t reveal the exact changes they would need to make due to non-disclosure agreements (NDA) so making the software open source allows them to make the changes themselves.
Just over a year after being open sourced by creator eBay Inc., the Kylin project — a Big Data distributed analytics engine — has been advanced by the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) to top-level status.
Apache Kylin is designed to provide a SQL interface and multi-dimensional analysis (OLAP) on Apache Hadoop, with support for extremely large datasets.
AMID the ongoing fallout over the software in some Volkswagen cars that was able to cheat emissions tests, the public may well be pondering a wider question: can we trust the software in the gadgets we use every day? If a car’s software can deceive, what might our devices be programmed to do that is not in our interests?
Some TVs and fridges already stand accused of manipulating energy efficiency tests. But software can’t just be used to make beating such tests easier. It also makes it easier to lock consumers into proprietary systems and raises suspicions of planned obsolescence.
Whenever devices go online, manufacturers (and others) gain the ability to invade privacy: recall Samsung’s TVs with voice recognition that also happened to gather private conversations.
Everything is connected around us. This revolution has already started and it will be bigger than previous technology revolutions, including the mobile smartphone revolution. Internet of Things, as many call it today, will fundamentally affect all of us.
The Firefox OS smartphone has been discontinued by Mozilla. This comes as no real surprise, given the intense competition in the smartphone market and the domination of Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android phones.
The makers of ZeroDB, an end-to-end encrypted database, have open-sourced their application, making the code available on GitHub.
IBM has already put the Linux port of Apple’s Swift programming language to good use, releasing the IBM Swift Sandbox: A way to code in the cloud.
My November 11, 2015 mug.org talk about SSH is now on YouTube. This is one way to lose 90 minutes.
Question two. From a GNU/Linux PC, I want the capability to connect to a USA cell phone network and make a voice call to an old-school 9600 bps landline audio modem, and have serial comms with this landline audio modem.
The question is, is this an objection to copyleft, or is it an objection to code of conducts? I’ve seen objections raised to both that go along these lines. I think there’s little coincidence, since both of them are objections to added process which define (and provide enforcement mechanisms for) doing the right thing.
Being open source all the design files for the Witbox 2 3D Printer can be found over on GitHub via the link below, if you are interested. For more details and specifications on the Witbox 2 Jumbo to the official website via the link below where it is also now available to purchase priced at €1,690.
SECURITY FIRM Symantec has warned that the hacker threat to Apple users has reached unprecedented levels.
The firm reckons that Apple is a victim of its success, becoming a bigger target as its user base grows. To be fair to Apple most of the problem relates to jailbroken devices, which is not a thing that the firm recommends. We have seen incidents recently that make the most of this. The threat applies to mobile software and the desktop.
According to the Telegraph newspaper, universities across the country have been hit by DoS attacks. This means in some cases no internet access, and that means students will have to study like it’s 1980 something.
It was a summer morning, officer Paul Hastings recalls, when he arrived at a suspected hacker’s house in the northern English city of Hull. There, police had tracked one of the people who’d signed up online for a hacking service called Lizard Stresser that was used to attack companies including Microsoft, Amazon.com, and Sony at the end of 2014. This particularly fearsome cybervigilante was asleep when Hastings knocked, so his dad answered the door.
The visit was one of about 50 U.K. police made this year to people they say used the Lizard Stresser site, many of them children. The Hull suspect, a teenager, couldn’t have done anything wrong, his dad told Hastings. He spent all his time upstairs, on his computer.
[...]
Teen hackers have been pop culture figures since Matthew Broderick starred in WarGames, and the U.K. has a long history with juvenile black hats. In 1994, when U.S. Air Force researchers found an unauthorized user on their systems downloading data, they tracked the hacker to a North London suburb. Working with London police, they found their culprit: a 16-year-old boy in an attic bedroom, as journalist Gordon Corera recounts in Intercept: The Secret History of Computers and Spies.
Isis now has support from 42 different international groups in countries ranging from the Philippines to Egypt, it has been revealed.
The map, produced for The Independent by statistics agency Statista, shows the 30 groups to have pledged formal affiliation to the terrorist group and 12 more that have pledged their support, as identified in a Global Terrorism Index report.
LE BOURGET, France—Monday began what’s supposed to be the final week of the climate talks, the one where top-level negotiators hammer out an accord to stop the deadly march of global warming. To troll this momentous event, the climate change deniers at the Heartland Institute came all the way from Chicago to stage a “counter-conference” at a central Paris venue called, seriously, the Hotel California.
The recent fires in Indonesia were something of a lightbulb moment for Indonesia in the way it views its development model and the threats from climate change, a senior member of the country’s delegation to the Paris climate talks said on Tuesday.
It also triggered a rethink of how the country should represent itself at the talks, said Mr Sarwono Kusumaatmadja, chairman of Indonesia’s Advisory Council for Climate Change, and a former environment minister.
Indonesia has brought about 400 delegates to the talks, a large number by any measure.
About 80 are directly paid for by the government. The delegation comprises business and opinion leaders, non-governmental organisations, members of local communities and interfaith networks, he told a press conference on the sidelines of the talks.
As 190 nations grapple with the world’s future at the global climate summit in Paris, forest fires in Indonesia have been continuing to rage since July 2015.
Emissions from this year’s fires have reached 1.62 billion metric tons of CO2, bumping Indonesia up from sixth largest to fourth largest greenhouse gas (GHG) emitter in the world, surpassing Russia in a matter of six weeks and the entire US economy in just 38 days. [1]
Global Forest Watch Fires detected at least 127,000 fires across Indonesia this year, the worst since 1997. These fires were mostly caused by the clearing of forested peat lands to plant palms for oil.
While the eyes of the world are on Paris, where nations are hammering out an agreement to do something about the reality of climate change, the Senate Subcommittee on Space, Science, and Competitiveness once again held a hearing on Tuesday to debate whether climate change is for real. Subcommittee Chairman Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), who is running for his party’s presidential nomination, convened the hearing titled “Data or dogma? Promoting open inquiry in the debate over the magnitude of human impact on Earth’s climate.”
The love of money for money’s sake is the social disease of our time. We see it all around us: in the celebration of ill-gotten stock gains, public admiration for the heads of criminal banks, the words of Kanye West, in the commercialization of charity and even spirituality.
This adoration of wealth isn’t a new thing, of course. When I was in elementary school I was sent to a school counselor for being moody, introspective – in other words, for being either a proto-goth or a writer in the making. I was asked to draw a picture of myself as a happy adult, and the resulting portrait showed a rich man standing beside a Rolls-Royce with an ascot around his neck.
Poor people, right? Visit the “news of the weird” section of a major media site and you’ll find a gauntlet of undesirables engaging in such wacky antics as getting into drunk fistfights at McDonald’s and whatnot. And, in basically all of these cases, what you’re reading barely qualifies as news. It’s Internet rubbernecking and — as far as most news outlets are concerned — anyone below the poverty line is fair game as a source of national amusement (and it’s not unlike similar stunts the news pulls on Asian people and the youths).
Starting on January 1, the country of Kazakhstan has formally declared war on privacy, encryption, and a secure Internet. A new law takes effect in the new year that will require all citizens of the country to install a national, government-mandated security certificate allowing the interception of all encrypted citizen communications. In short, the country has decided that it would be a downright nifty idea to break HTTPS and SSL, essentially launching a “man in the middle” attack on every resident of the country.
After the recent attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, encryption has once again become a political target in Washington. Despite there still being no solid evidence the attackers benefited from or even used encryption (in at least one case, they coordinated via distinctly unencrypted text messages) law enforcement and national security hawks have used the tragedies to continue pressing tech companies to give the US government access to encrypted communications—even if that means rolling back security and changing the nature of their businesses.
At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday, FBI director James Comey went so far as to suggest that companies providing users with end-to-end encryption might need to simply, well, stop doing that.
“It’s not a technical issue, it’s a business model question,” said Comey, referring to companies like Apple and WhatsApp which encrypt data so that it can’t be read by any third party, including the companies themselves. “Lots of good people have designed their systems and their devices so that judges’ orders can not be complied with, for reasons that I understand, I’m not questioning their motivations.”
SNAP. You press the shutter icon on your phone and capture a photo of your baby daughter. With a couple of swipes, you attach it to an email in your Gmail app and fire it off to your mother-in-law.
As personal data goes, it doesn’t get much more innocuous. But the truth is that spraying around any private information is risky. You might think that’s overblown. As long as you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to worry about.
It’s not that simple. Just look at this summer’s hack that exposed the data from Ashley Madison, a site catering for people looking for an affair, and imagine if the same happened with all your emails stored by Google, or your photos on Facebook. Even if you’ve done nothing illegal or immoral, faced with a database of every photograph and comment you’ve ever shared privately, friendships and business deals could dissolve the world over.
Data-analysis company Palantir Technologies has raised $125 million in new funding, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The financing increased the size of the company’s current funding round to about $680 million.
Palantir, a secretive company co-founded by investor Peter Thiel in 2004, builds software for searching through and analyzing reams of data. Banks, police departments, and intelligence agencies are among the Palo Alto, Calif., company’s customers.
Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer and chairman Maynard Webb appeared on CNBC today to explain why the company’s board of directors decided not to spin off its stake Alibaba.
There is no liberty without privacy. As the culture of surveillance grows, liberty recedes. The New American has reported on many of the threats to privacy that are becoming more and more commonplace. Some Smart TVs are spying on users via their integrated cameras, microphones, and Internet connectivity and then reporting back to the manufacturers, who sell that data to advertisers. Other “Internet of Things” devices have surveillance capabilities that are marketed as features promising convenience to users. Facebook performs social/psychological experiments on its users and also harvests users’ data to sell to advertisers.
MSNBC host Chris Hayes called out Rep. Steve King (R-IA) for repeating a conspiracy theory that originated from an outrageous article out of Alex Jones’ far right Infowars site. The article claimed that an imam in Jerusalem encouraged followers to breed with Europeans in order to “conquer their countries.”
With less than a week to go before a trial, a class-action lawsuit over the copyright status of “Happy Birthday” has been resolved. Details of the settlement, including what kind of uses will be allowed going forward, are not clear.
The European Commission has officially presented its plan to abolish geo-blocking and filtering restrictions across EU member states. The new proposal requires online services to allow users to access their accounts all across Europe, even in countries where it’s officially not available yet.
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Ironically, the changes may not always be beneficial. In some cases people use a VPN to access a broader library of films and video in another EU country, which will no longer be possible under the new rules.
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