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03.07.16

Links 7/3/2016: New Linux RC, Firefox in Devices

Posted in News Roundup at 8:22 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME bluefish

Contents

GNU/Linux

Free Software/Open Source

Leftovers

  • Maybe we could tone down the JavaScript

    I’m having a really weird browser issue, where scripts on some pages just won’t run until about 20 seconds have passed.

    Whatever you’re about to suggest, yes, I’ve thought of it, and no, it’s not the problem. I mention this not in the hope that someone will help me debug it, but because it’s made me acutely aware of a few… quirks… of frontend Web development.

    (No, really, do not try to diagnose this problem from one sentence, I have heard and tried almost everything you could imagine.)

  • Science

    • Remains of Anglo-Saxon island discovered in Lincolnshire village

      The remains of an Anglo-Saxon island have been uncovered in Lincolnshire in a significant find that has yielded an unusually wide array of artefacts.

      The island, once home to a Middle Saxon settlement, was found at Little Carlton near Louth, Lincolnshire, by archaeologists from the University of Sheffield after a discovery by a metal detectorist.

    • E-mail inventor Ray Tomlinson, who popularized @ symbol, dies at 74

      If you’ve ever sent an e-mail, you can thank Raymond Samuel Tomlinson for putting the @ symbol there.

      On Friday, Tomlinson died of suspected heart failure. He was 74.

      Tomlinson was born in Amsterdam, New York in 1941, and he earned a master’s degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1967, he joined Bolt Beranek and Newman (BBN), a company that played a key role in the development of the ARPANET, a precursor to the modern Internet.

      In 1971, according to the Internet Hall of Fame, he wrote the first ARPANET mail client, combining the existing SNDMSG and CPYNET programs. Tomlinson himself came up with the idea of using the @ symbol as a way to separate local e-mails from those that could be sent to external networks through the user@host syntax.

    • The Founder of Email, Ray Tomlinson, Dies

      Ray Tomlinson, the man credited with founding email, has passed away at the age of 74, according to a report from the Sydney Morning Herald. According to the report, Tomlinson died of a heart attack.

    • Email inventor Ray Tomlinson dies at 74

      Internet pioneer Ray Tomlinson, who is credited with the invention of email, has died at the age of 74.

      The US computer programmer came up with the idea of electronic messages that could be sent from one network to another in 1971.

      His invention included the ground-breaking use of the @ symbol in email addresses, which is now standard.

  • Hardware

    • An AMD ARM 64-bit Dev Board Is Launching For $299 USD

      Since last year we have been waiting for AMD to launch their “HuskyBoard” ARM development board built around their Opteron A1100 ARM 64-bit SoC. That board was originally supposed to ship in Q4’15 while now available for pre-order is a new A1100 development board that looks like it may be taking its place.

      AMD had been teasing their ARM development board for nearly one year and talked of it being a low-cost ARM development board that would be in compliance with the 96Boards’ Enterprise Edition specification.

  • Health/Nutrition

    • Post-Flint, Half Of Americans Are Worried About Their Tap Water Too

      Ahead of the Democratic debate in lead-poisoned Flint, Michigan on Sunday, a new poll shows that many Americans don’t trust the public water system.

      Only half the country is “very confident” that tap water is safe to drink. A third of respondents said they were “moderately confident,” while nearly one in five said they aren’t confident at all.

      More than half the respondents said that the water crisis in Flint — in which city water was contaminated with lead for 18 months, potentially causing longterm damage to thousands of children — was a sign of a widespread infrastructure problem in America.

    • ‘Raise The Wage, Clean Our Water’: Flint Residents Demand $15 Minimum Wage

      Tyrone Stitt has worked as a maintenance technician at Taco Bell for 18 years. He started at $3.25 an hour when he was 25 years old and today, despite the skyrocketing cost of living in Flint, he makes just $8.50 an hour. He says that amount is not enough to support himself and his family, let alone afford bottled water.

      “I’m breaking out in rashes and paying for water,” he told ThinkProgress as he marched across the University of Michigan campus in Flint among a group of protesters. “Increasing the minimum wage would help tremendously. It would make a tremendous difference in my life because I’d be able to pay my bills and provide for my family.”

    • Five Years After Fukushima, ‘No End in Sight’ to Ecological Fallout

      And U.S. nuclear regulatory agency comes under fire for ‘half-baked’ reforms that fail to improve public safety

  • Security

  • Defence/Police/Secrecy/Aggression

    • Killing Someone Else’s Beloved

      Yet Trump’s pledge to murder the civilian relatives of terrorists could be considered quite modest — and, in its bluntness, refreshingly candid — when compared to President Obama’s ongoing policy of loosing drones and U.S. Special Operations forces in the Greater Middle East. Those policies, the assassinations that go with them, and the “collateral damage” they regularly cause are based on one premise when it comes to the American public: that we will permanently suspend our capacity for grief and empathy when it comes to the dead (and the living) in distant countries.

    • ‘Obama could have stopped Syria’s suffering. And he didn’t do it’

      Michael Hayden, a former head of both the CIA and the NSA, tells Toby Harnden about righteous violence in the war on terror and the deep moral scar left by the president’s inaction over Assad

    • Bill Clinton neglect left NSA ‘brain dead’ as al Qaeda plotted 9/11 attacks

      Retired Air Force Gen. Michael V. Hayden, the NSA director at the time, describes the decline in a memoir, writing an insider’s view of an agency that the government at one time refused to acknowledge even existed.

    • You Will Obey Me — Trump to Military

      General Michael Hayden, former Central Intelligence Agency director, NSA director, and other experts have said that when you asked the US military to carry out some of your campaign promises, specifically targeting terrorists’ families, and also the use of interrogation methods more extreme than waterboarding, the military will refuse, because they’ve been trained to turn down and refuse illegal orders.

    • High-tech ‘bazooka’ fires a net to take down drones

      Could this bazooka-style device become a crucial weapon in law enforcement’s battle with drones?

      The brainchild of U.K.-based OpenWorks Engineering, SkyWall 100 uses a compressed air launcher to fire smart projectiles at targeted drones.

    • Syria: Phantom “Rebels” Return from the Dead

      The French colonial green, white, and black banner of Syria adapted by the West’s proxy “Free Syrian Army” (FSA) had long been forgotten in the sea of black banners held aloft by Washington and Riyadh’s more extreme ploy to gain leverage upon and more direct access to the battlefield.

      However, as Syrian forces backed by its regional allies and Russian airpower overwhelm these forces while building alliances with other factions, including the Kurds, the West’s entire regime change enterprise faces ignominious collapse.

      It appears that – having exhausted all other options – the West has decided to change as many of those black banners back to the “rebel” green, white, and black as possible, before the conflict draws to a close, giving the West the most favorable position achievable ahead of “peace talks.”

    • State Dept Staffs Syria Ceasefire Violations Hotline — With Non-Arabic Speakers

      telephone

      Is there a better way to ensure no troublesome violations of John Kerry’s signature ceasefire in Syria get reported than by staffing the hotline where violations are to be reported by Syrians with non-Arabic speakers?

      Gotta love those clever gals and guys over at the State Department. The Department is all a twitter, high-fiving each other and sending congratulatory emails to Secretary of State John Kerry over his negotiating a ceasefire in Syria. And, in order to monitor compliance with the terms of the ceasefire, State set up a hotline. Ordinary Syrians, out there on the ground, could call in to report violations.

  • Transparency Reporting

  • Environment/Energy/Wildlife

    • Meet Lucy Gavaghan, The Teen Who’s Trying To Make Tesco Stop Selling Eggs From Caged Hens

      A 14-year-old who is campaigning to stop Tesco from selling eggs from caged hens has rallied more than 88,000 people to support the cause, yet the supermarket giant has failed to change their policy.

      Lucy Gavaghan, from Sheffield, started a Change.org petition after writing letters to stores was not successful.

      “I thought that a petition may be able to create the impact needed to make a company like Tesco change their ways,” she told HuffPost UK. “I think that animal welfare and commercial treatment is a really important issue and I know that many others share this view.”

  • Finance

    • Another Phony Jobs Report

      The monthly payroll jobs reports have become a bad joke.
      No growth in real retail sales, but 55,000 retail trade new jobs in February.
      No growth in real consumer income, but 40,000 more waitresses and bartenders.
      86,000 new jobs in Education, health services, and social assistance. February is a strange month to be hiring new teachers. If February brought a quarter million new jobs, how come a big hike in social assistance jobs? Manufacturing lost 16,000 jobs.

    • The seven sins of the EU investment court

      European trade commissioner Cecilia Malmstroem and Canadian minister for trade Chrystia Freeland have confirmed that the EU-Canada CETA agreement will include far-reaching investor privileges.

      The investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) clause in the deal is set to be based on EU proposals for an Investment Court System (ICS) that were announced last autumn following unprecedented public outcry. However, ICS is no new departure. Indeed, it is the same special rights for foreign investors come back from the dead.

      Plans for ISDS were among the most contentious parts of the proposed TTIP deal between the EU and US. Debate has been focused on the rights that corporations will acquire to challenge democratic decisions when they consider them a threat to their profits.

    • How Hillary Turned Her Support for Welfare for Banks into an Auto Bailout Attack

      For a campaign that has spent days insisting Bernie Sanders should not launch attacks against her, the Hillary Clinton campaign sure engaged in some dishonest hackery last night.

      During the debate in Flint, Hillary attacked Bernie for “vot[ing] against the money that ended up saving the auto industry.” She was talking about a January 15, 2009 attempt to withhold the second $350 billion of TARP funding that failed (here’s the resolution); Bernie voted not to release those funds. But the vote was not directly about auto bailout funding. It was about bailing out the banks and funding what turned out to be completely ineffective efforts to forestall foreclosures.

  • PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying

    • Explaining Donald Trump’s Dick

      Why did Donald Trump inexplicably defend the size of his penis in Thursday’s debate? Because he’s unnaturally sensitive about it? Because, as Jeet Heer suggests, it’s part of a venerable history of monarchs and presidents? Because Hillary Clinton would be the first penis-free president, so it’s a good way of contrasting himself?

    • Michael Bloomberg Will Not Enter Presidential Race

      Michael R. Bloomberg, who for months quietly laid the groundwork to run for president as an independent, will not enter the 2016 campaign, he said Monday, citing his fear that a three-way race could lead to the election of a candidate he thinks would endanger the country: Donald J. Trump.

      In a forceful condemnation of his fellow New Yorker, Mr. Bloomberg said Mr. Trump has run “the most divisive and demagogic presidential campaign I can remember, preying on people’s prejudices and fears.” He said he was alarmed by Mr. Trump’s threats to bar Muslim immigrants from entering the country and to initiate trade wars against China and Japan, and he was disturbed by Mr. Trump’s “feigning ignorance of white supremacists,” alluding to Mr. Trump’s initial refusal to disavow an endorsement from David Duke.

  • Censorship

  • Privacy

    • EFF Urges Sixth Circuit to Revisit Case Finding No Warrant Needed for Ten Weeks of Covert 24/7 Video Surveillance

      EFF joined NYU Law School’s Brennan Center for Justice, ACLU, National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, the Libertarian National Committee, and former Congressman Bob Barr in urging the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals to revisit a recent opinion finding no reasonable expectation of privacy in 10 weeks of continuous, surreptitious video surveillance. The opinion sets a dangerous precedent that law enforcement officers in Kentucky, Ohio, Michigan, and Tennessee don’t need a warrant to film your every move in front of your house.

    • They Are Watching. Are You?

      Encouraged by millions of dollars in federal grants, local law enforcement agencies across the country are acquiring surveillance technologies at an alarmingly rapid rate. As more and more invasive technologies are created for the military and intelligence agencies, they trickle down to our increasingly militarized police forces. Often, local lawmakers and the public are not familiar with these systems and their dangers to civil liberties, and so public policy in response to surveillance lags behind.

    • French Parents Face Fines, Lawsuits And Prison For Posting Pictures Of Their Own Children Online

      As Techdirt reported recently, the controversial “right to be forgotten” — actually more of a right to be de-linked in search engines — is starting to spread around the world. But its spiritual home is definitely in Europe, where privacy concerns tend to outweigh other considerations, like freedom of speech, that are regarded as paramount elsewhere — in the US, for example. Leading the charge in the EU is France, which has been pushing Google to de-link items even more widely.

    • Verizon Strikes $1.35 Million Settlement With FCC Over Its Use Of Stealth ‘Zombie Cookies’

      Last year you’ll recall Verizon Wireless found itself in hot water after being caught modifying user packets to insert stealth tracking technology. By embedding each packet with a unique identifier traffic header, or X-UIDH. Verizon and its marketing partners were not only able to ignore user browser preferences and track their behavior around the Internet, they were then able to use this technology to build detailed user profiles. Verizon Wireless launched and operated the technology for two years before security researchers even noticed the program, and it required another six months of public pressure for Verizon to even offer an opt-out option.

      According to the FCC’s full press announcement (pdf), the fairly measly $1.35 million settlement doesn’t stop the program, which likely won’t please many privacy advocates. Verizon Wireless will however need to transparently notify users of the system and get their explicit opt-in (a rare dinosaur in online tracking rules) consent before sharing any of this data with third parties. The FCC is quick to highlight how Verizon previously proclaimed the technology couldn’t be abused by third parties to build detailed profiles of users — right before it was.

    • French Parliament Votes For Law That Would Put Tech Execs In Jail If They Don’t Decrypt Data

      Of course, this comes at the same time that basically the entire tech industry is rallying in support of Apple’s stance of refusing to hack into its own systems to remove security features and make it easier to decrypt data. And it’s coming right as the world was ridiculing Brazil for arresting (and then releasing) a Facebook exec for refusing to hand over data from subsidiary Whatsapp.

      This kind of move is so stupid on so many levels that it defies any kind of logic. It’s bad for security, because weak encryption puts us all at much greater risk than the threat of terrorists or criminals using encryption (in part, because this kind of thing won’t stop them from using secure encryption, and in part because those threats are very low probability risks). It’s also bad for the economy, because you’ve just given a ton of important tech companies every reason in the world to no longer operate in France due to such a ridiculous law that may put execs in jail. It’s bad for the public in that it will mean less secure services and devices that put them at risk, while also potentially cutting off more innovative and useful products and services.

      This is the kind of kneejerk reaction from people who are too ignorant and too scared to understand the actual technology and the actual issues at stake. Why do citizens in these countries continue to allow ignorant scared people to make such blatantly bad rules?

    • Book ‘Dark Territory’ chronicles how NSA hacked DoD command-control systems in four days

      In what was the first-ever high-level exercise testing the U.S. military’s ability to defend itself against a cyberattack, the NSA in 1997 hacked into the DoD’s entire network in just four days, using nothing but commercially available equipment and soft­ware, according to a new book by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Fred Kaplan.

    • GHCQ head calls for cooler heads amid Apple and FBI encryption feud
    • GCHQ boss calls for new relationship with tech firms over encryption
    • GCHQ boss: Tech firms should co-operate over encryption
    • GCHQ chief offers olive branch to technology firms in online privacy row
    • GCHQ losing cyberwar despite £860mn extra funding – spy chief

      Despite being handed hundreds of millions in taxpayers’ cash, British spooks are losing the cyberwar, a top GCHQ director has acknowledged.

      Alex Dewdney, who is head of the Communications Electronics Security Group (CESG) branch of GCHQ, told an audience in the US that UK intelligence is lagging behind.

    • GCHQ admits £1bn spend on cyber security ‘hasn’t worked’

      GCHQ is losing the cyber security war, according to director of cyber security at CESG (Communications-Electronics Security Group) Alex Dewedney, who admitted that, despite a £1bn spend over the past five years, “the bottom line is it hasn’t worked”.

      Speaking at the RSA security conference in San Francisco late last week, Dewedney also suggested a “more interventionist policy” may now be needed.

    • The Privacy Shield is Riddled with Surveillance Holes

      The European Commission and the U.S. Department of Commerce have finally announced the details of the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield, an agreement designed to ensure that personal data can flow between Europe and the U.S. for commercial purposes while maintaining the privacy rights Europeans have come to love and expect. Lawmakers in the U.S. and abroad were under intense pressure to produce some sort of agreement after the European Court of Justice (CJEU) dissolved the safe harbor agreement related to transatlantic data flows last October, leaving countless international tech firms in a lurch about how to handle data. The court decision and subsequent negotiation could have been a powerful motivator for the U.S. to clean up its surveillance policies. Instead, the patchwork of concessions in the Privacy Shield leaves the door open for the digital surveillance of hundreds of millions of Europeans.

      It’s unclear what, if anything, the new Privacy Shield is supposed to be shielding people from— except perhaps shielding U.S. companies from the inevitable consequences of their country’s mass surveillance program.

    • EFF and 46 Technology Experts Ask Court To Throw Out Unconstitutional Apple Order

      The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and 46 technology industry experts, including inventors of modern cryptography, told a federal court today that forcing Apple to write and sign computer code disabling crucial iPhone security features that protect millions of users violates the company’s free speech rights.

      The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) should not be allowed to, in effect, stand over the shoulders of Apple programmers and force them to create and sign off on code that would decimate the iPhone’s security, EFF said. The signed code would send a clear message that it’s OK to undermine encryption that users rely on—a view the government endorses but Apple fiercely opposes. EFF made its arguments in a friend-of-the-court brief filed today in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. The brief was signed by 46 technologists, security researchers, and cryptographers, including digital signature pioneers Martin Hellman and Ronald Rivest.

    • Inside “Eligible Receiver” [Ed: previous headline was "The NSA Hacked Into the U.S. Military by Digging Through Its Trash"]

      The task turned out to be appallingly easy. Many defense computers, it turned out, weren’t protected by passwords. Others were protected by the lamest passwords, like “password” or “ABCDE” or “12345.” In some cases, the Red Team snipped all of an office’s links except for a fax line, then flooded that line with call after call after call, shutting it down. In a few instances, NSA attachés—one inside the Pentagon, the other at a Pacific Com­mand facility in Hawaii—went dumpster diving, riffling through trash cans and dumpsters, looking for passwords. This trick, too, bore fruit.

    • IoT subscriber growth surpasses smartphone users’ in January

      The number of users subscribing to Internet-of-Things (IoT) services grew at a faster pace than those subscribing to smartphones in Korea on-month in January, data showed Sunday, on the back of the rising sales of wearable smart devices.

      According to data compiled by the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning, the number of Koreans subscribing to IoT-related services shot up 83,577 in January from a month earlier, compared to the 70,097 new smartphone subscribers over the cited period.

    • Amazon Flip-Flop Lands Fire OS Back in Encryption Camp
    • After Backlash, Amazon Promises To Bring Back Encryption On Fire OS

      Just to close the loop on this one: just after the firestorm last week when Amazon was called out for removing device encryption from Fire OS 5 (at the very same time as its CTO was saying encryption is “mandatory” and the company signed on to a brief supporting Apple in the encryption fight, the company has admitted that it will restore encryption to Fire OS 5 “sometime in the spring.”

    • Amazon douses flames, vows to restore Fire OS fondleslab encryption

      Amazon has U-turned on its decision to remove filesystem encryption from Fire OS, which powers its Fire and Kindle slabs.

      We’ve been told that a version due out within the next month or two will return support for encrypting documents stored on the devices. This decision to restore the feature comes just days after it emerged that Amazon had axed the encryption from the latest build of its tablet operating system: Fire OS 5.

      Removing the crypto sparked outcry from furious Fire and Kindle owners as well as the wider tech world. Amazon appears to have taken notice.

    • How the FBI will lose its iPhone fight, thanks to ‘West Coast Law’

      The vast majority of it has centered on the rights and the wrongs, about the loss of privacy, and of the precedent that breaking one iPhone would create.

    • US to renegotiate rules on exporting “intrusion software”

      After nearly a year of protests from the information security industry, security researchers, and others, US officials have announced that they plan to re-negotiate regulations on the trade of tools related to “intrusion software.” While it’s potentially good news for information security, just how good the news is will depend largely on how much the Obama administration is willing to push back on the other 41 countries that are part of the agreement—especially after the US was key in getting regulations on intrusion software onto the table in the first place.

      The rules were negotiated through the Wassenaar Arrangement on Export Controls for Conventional Arms and Dual-Use Goods and Technologies, an agreement governing the trade of weapons and technology that could be used for military purposes. Originally intended to prevent proliferation and build-up of weapons, the US and other Western nations pushed for operating system, software, and network exploits to be included in the Wassenaar protocol to prevent the use of commercial malware and hacking tools by repressive regimes against their own people for surveillance.

    • GCHQ: Spy chief admits UK agency losing cyberwar despite £860m funding boost

      A top director at UK spy agency, the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) has admitted he was fighting a losing battle when it comes to cybersecurity – despite an £860m boost in government funding over the past five years.

      Alex Dewdney, director of cybersecurity at CESG which is the information security arm of GCHQ, was speaking during the recent RSA conference in San Francisco where he outlined some major problems encountered by cyber-experts tasked with protecting the UK from attack.

    • Eric Schmidt gets a job at the Pentagon

      Secretary of Defense Ashton Carton on Wednesday appointed Schmidt the head of a new Defense Innovation Advisory Board, which will help the Pentagon keep up with the latest Silicon Valley ideas and apply them at the Department of Defense.

    • Military hits snag in Silicon Valley recruitment

      The fight between the FBI and Apple over a locked iPhone is threatening to undermine the Pentagon’s attempt to recruit talent from Silicon Valley.

      Defense Secretary Ash Carter spent this week out West, meeting with tech executives and launching new cybersecurity initiatives that will rely on help from the Bay Area.

      But under the looming shadow of the FBI’s request that Apple help bypass the iPhone’s security measures, Carter also made a noticeable effort to send a signal to techies: We get you.

    • Ronald Reagan’s Viewing of 80’s Movie Classic ‘Wargames’ Set Basis for NSA Spying

      When Ronald Reagan saw it in a Joint Chiefs meeting, he asked chairman John Vessey to investigate whether it was Hollywood magic, or if American military systems could really be compromised by an industrious kid or a Soviet initiative. Vessey relayed his findings to President Reagan a week later: Not only was it possible, it was, in fact, becoming increasingly probable.

    • Please Write To MPs To Call For More Time To Debate Investigatory Powers Bill

      Last week, the UK government published a revised Investigatory Powers Bill, aka the Snooper’s Charter. Surprisingly, it took no notice of the the serious criticisms made by no less than three Parliamentary committees; indeed, in some respects, it has made the Bill even worse.

  • Civil Rights

    • Stop the global crackdown on academic freedom! Act now!

      A call for the global community of teachers and students to protest against this most dangerous trend by signing, translating and circulating this statement, and organising protest meetings in all universities.

    • The Fight to Keep Abortion Safe & Legal: A Special Report from Outside the U.S. Supreme Court

      The Supreme Court heard oral arguments Wednesday in the most significant abortion case in a generation. Abortion providers in Texas, led by Whole Woman’s Health, have challenged provisions of a sweeping anti-choice law passed by the Texas state Legislature in 2013 despite a people’s filibuster and an 11-hour stand by Texas state Senator Wendy Davis. The provisions at stake force abortion clinics to meet the standards of hospital-style surgery centers and require providers to obtain admitting privileges at a nearby hospital—a task many can’t achieve, in part due to anti-choice sentiment. Similar restrictions have been passed in multiple states. As the case was being argued inside the court, a few thousand people rallied outside in support of Whole Woman’s Health, including fellow abortion providers and women who have had abortions. Democracy Now!’s Amy Littlefield was at the rally and also spoke with the anti-choice protesters, who held a competing demonstration.

    • Don’t Say ‘Opposing Gay Rights’ When You Mean Discriminating Against Gays

      What you aren’t allowed to do—in some situations—is discriminate against LGBT people, and these bills are an effort to make it OK to do so. Discrimination has not generally been seen as a First Amendment–protected activity; if it had been, the civil rights movement would have been effectively stymied. But the organized homophobia movement is trying to rebrand discrimination as a kind of speech—hence the marketing of these pro-discrimination bills as “First Amendment Defense Acts.”

    • The Genesis of #HateHurts

      It is seemingly everywhere nowadays. It’s at the center of the conversation during this perpetual election season. It’s a focal point of the anti-refugee sentiment that is stretching across the Western world. It hangs over the interactions of everyday people, those Muslim and those perceived to be Muslim.

    • Louis C.K. Compares Donald Trump to Hitler: ‘He’s an Insane Bigot’

      Louis C.K. is the latest public figure to criticize Donald Trump, calling him an “insane bigot” and comparing him to Adolf Hitler.

      In a Saturday morning email blast announcing the sixth episode of his web series “Horace and Pete,” C.K. included a lengthy postscript urging readers not to vote for Trump.

      “Please stop it with voting for Trump,” C.K. writes. “It was funny for a little while. But the guy is Hitler. And by that I mean that we are being Germany in the ’30s. Do you think they saw the sh-t coming? Hitler was just some hilarious and refreshing dude with a weird comb over who would say anything at all.”

    • Abuse Of Power: Laws Should Be Designed As If The People We Distrust The Most Are In Power

      There have been a few stories lately that have all combined to make a few key points crystallize in my mind, concerning various legal powers and the way that some people view them. It starts with an excellent article from Trevor Timm in which the title lays out the issue: Imagine Obama’s national security policies in Trump’s hands. After all, this is the guy who hasn’t been shy in promising to settle scores if he’s elected.

    • New Film Delves Into FBI Arrests of Youths for Terrorism Crimes They Might Commit

      IN AN EARLY SCENE from the HBO documentary Homegrown, an FBI agent describes his angst while tracking a teenager’s engagement in the online jihadi world. “You almost want to pick up the phone and say, ‘Son, don’t do this,’” the agent reflects. The teenager in question was Shifa Sadequee, a 19-year-old who was arrested on terrorism charges in 2006. Following a 2009 trial in which Sadequee represented himself, he was sentenced to 17 years in prison plus an additional 30 years of supervision.

      The ethical issues involved in preventive counterterrorism cases like Sadequee’s are the theme behind much of Homegrown. Following 9/11, law enforcement agencies were given a mandate to halt terrorist acts before they occurred, rather than investigate crimes after the fact. This directive inevitably gave rise to some disturbing ethical questions. When is it acceptable to arrest someone for a crime they haven’t actually committed, but you think they might commit in the future? At what point do a teenager’s online postings turn into a terrorism offense?

    • Donald Trump, America’s Own Silvio Berlusconi

      AS A WRITER who has covered Silvio Berlusconi since he became Italy’s prime minister in 1994, it has been difficult not to be overcome with a powerful sense of déjà vu all over again watching the presidential campaign of Donald Trump.

    • Texas’ Annual Roundup of the Working Poor

      The Great Texas Warrant Roundup is an annual statewide collaboration of courts and law enforcement agencies. Their goal is to collect payment of overdue fines and fees from Texans who have outstanding warrants for unpaid traffic tickets and to arrest and jail those who can’t pay. What little press is dedicated to the Roundup focuses on praising cities for the so-called “amnesty” period that precedes it.

  • DRM

    • DRM Is Evil, Part 8,492: Nook Pulls Out Of UK, Exploring Options To Let People Retain Access To At Least Some Books

      Yet another story of how badly DRM screws over legitimate buyers, with no actual benefit for copyright holders. This time, it’s about the total failure of Barnes & Noble’s Nook ebook reader, which is struggling globally, and shutting down entirely in the UK. Nate Hoffelder has a great article explaining why the Nook has been such an abject failure, but a key point highlighted by the Register is that the company is still working to see if there are ways that legitimate buyers can keep access to at least some of the books they purchased.

    • Supreme Court Refuses To Hear Apple’s Appeal In eBook Price Fixing Case

      This isn’t a huge surprise, but this morning the Supreme Court refused to hear Apple’s appeal of its loss in the case brought by the Justice Department for engaging in price fixing on ebooks with the big book publishers. During the course of the case and appeals, Apple worked out a settlement, agreeing to pay $450 million — but only after the appeals process was exhausted. And, that’s now happened. As with basically all appeals rejected by the Supreme Court, the court gave no reason. It just denied cert.

  • Intellectual Monopolies

    • Findings of EU Project On Conservation Of Genetic Resources Due Out In June

      The findings, conclusions and preliminary recommendations of a European Commission initiative on the conservation and sustainable use of genetic diversity are to be presented in June, the Commission has announced.

      The “Preparatory action on EU [European Union] plant and animal genetic resources in agriculture” followed an initiative tabled by the European Parliament, and was launched in July 2014 for a period of two years, according to the commission.

      The EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2020 [pdf] includes an action to conserve Europe’s agricultural genetic diversity. The preparatory action is meant to support the EU “in recognizing the potentials for added value in the field of conservation and sustainable use of agricultural genetic resources,” according to the preparatory action webpage.

    • Copyrights

      • The Donald Sends Cease And Desist Threat To Band Over The Use Of His Name In Music And Video

        So, the political season is really starting to ramp up now, which means the insanity ramps up along with it. This particular go around in presidential politics has been particularly absurd, causing even those of us that try to view it all through the prism of entertainment to be more than a little frightened. Still, there can be no doubt that there has been an uptick in the engagement level of the American people, including from musical artists looking to provide commentary on American politics. Take this song and video released by music duo Fight Clvb, for instance. It’s called Donald Trump and it is massively NSFW.

      • Foreign Copyright Holders Could More Actively Protect IP In Russia

        Russia is continuing to strengthen its national legislation in the field of intellectual property, through the provision of means for foreign copyright holders to more actively protect their intellectual property in Russia and the elimination of bureaucratic hurdles, according to official sources.

        This is taking place as part of the ongoing reform of the national IP policy.

        On 15 February, the scope of the Russian anti-piracy law was significantly expanded, through the inclusion of all copyrighted works (music, books, inventions) and related rights in the subject of protection. This provided an opportunity to foreign rights holders to better protect their IP in Russia.

      • “Kanye Bay” — Kanye West Now Gets His Own Pirate Bay Proxy

        Responding to the latest screenshot that suggested that Kanye West was pirating some music software, the Pirate Bay offered him a dedicated “Kanye Bay” proxy.

      • Apple is Running BitTorrent Trackers in Cupertino

        Apple is not known for being friendly towards BitTorrent software in its App Store but it appears the technology giant isn’t averse to using the technology itself. In fact, according to data provided by “Internet of things” search engine Shodan, Apple is running BitTorrent trackers from dozens of IP addresses in Cupertino.

      • BitTorrent Hater Apple Is Running BitTorrent Trackers At Its Headquarters

        Shodan, the IoT Search engine, has come up with proof that Apple was running BitTorrent trackers in their Cupertino office.

Software Patents Are a Dying Breed in the United States and the EPO Should Take Notice

Posted in America, Europe, Patents at 9:49 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Software patents are rotting away internationally, but will the EPO adapt accordingly?

Fading away

Summary: A roundup of recent news about software patents in the United States and what this means to Europe, where the patent office is now in a state of transition and must quickly restore quality rather than quantity

TECHRIGHTS spent nearly a decade writing about software patents and my activism against software patents predates this Web site. It’s only now, or any time after the 2014 decision on Alice, that considerable headway can be celebrated. The Bilski case (at SCOTUS) just wasn’t enough.

Patently-O has this up-to-date list of “Pending Supreme Court Patent Cases 2016″ and its author recalls SCOTUS Justice Scalia. “Following Justice Scalia’s death,” he notes, “the Supreme Court simplified its docket by denying certiorari to a set of patent cases, including: Arthrex v. Smith and Nephew; STC v. Global Traffic Technologies; ePlus v. Lawson Software, Inc.; Media Rights Technologies v. Capitol One; Alexsam v. The Gap; ULT v. Lighting Ballast Control; and Achates v. Apple.”

“All in all, software patents everywhere have no room in the docket, as courts (even in Europe) deem them invalid and it is time to recognise this new reality.”Patent Docs, another patents-centric site, says that the “USPTO Issues Performance and Accountability Report for FY 2015″, not quite noting that the USPTO only cares about money, not quality (very much the Battistelli delusion/lunacy).

Patent lawyers, based on this new article from lawyers’ media, still try to figure out how to continue fighting the courts over software patents after Alice. It’s not easy for them to accept deflation in the number of patents. They think of it like a business, which is antithetical to the patent system (as it was originally conceived a long time ago). Does the US still have an open-handed approach when it comes to software patents, or is it becoming just a stretch of imagination prevalent among patent maximalists who give bad advice to potential or existing clients? As one patent attorney put it the other day, “ITC ruled that two Jawbone patents asserted against Fitbit are Ineligible under Alice/ 101: http://assets.law360news.com/0767000/767622/1078594-575628.pdf”

So even the overzealous and biased ITC, not just the typical courts, is not antagonising software patents? This may be unprecedented.

Patent maximalists over at IAM said this morning that “Chinese companies see US pendulum swinging back, while validity becomes more of an issue at home”. It’s about PTAB, which is increasingly being used to invalidate software patents even without them being used litigiously. To quote IAM: “Chinese companies may be using PTAB as a handy tool for now, but one defensive risk analyst I spoke to in Shenzhen expressed the views that the prevalence of invalidity challenges in the US is more a temporary opportunity than a ‘new normal’.”

Earlier this year we wrote about how a Chinese company had its products seized at a trade show, only to see the case against it dropped altogether. What is this? It sure made the US patent system blush a bit, as though its victims (not the so-called ‘pirates’ or ‘thieves’) are Chinese. This is not justice. It’s just a bunch of goons storming a trade show because of patents and confiscating actual products.

All in all, software patents everywhere have no room in the docket, as courts (even in Europe) deem them invalid and it is time to recognise this new reality. There should be no software patents in Europe, for instance, regardless of the spin/wording, e.g. if they’re “as such” or not (whatever that even means!). It puts the EPO‘s reputation at risk. In any patent system, rejection/acceptance rate does not in itself say anything, especially if it wrongly accepts and rejects applications (overworking the examiners means poorer identification of prior art, hence uncertainty, usually resulting in an erroneous grant). Based on sources of ours who are applicants at the EPO (several such people who already have patents in national patent offices), the EPO rejects legitimate patent applications whilst overpatenting e.g. granting patents on software. What message does that send out? What does this mean to the so-called ‘results’ that Battistelli brags about in him awkwardly scripted speech)? And if courts keep finding “EP” patents invalid, wouldn’t that devalue “EP” patents and lead to degradation of confidence? A lot of inventors in Europe are rightly upset at the EPO right now. Their already-granted patents lose value (or perceived value).

The EPO is not a cash cow for Europe if the money comes from Europeans. Ask European patent applicants (not massive corporations from abroad) who spent as much as the value of a whole house how they feel after failing to get even one patent because of EPO misconduct whilst others (massive corporations) receive a fast lane and get "EP" patents in bulk. It’s a sordid mess and a sham.

If Christoph Ernst becomes the EPO’s President some time this spring (or maybe later this month), then he can use his background in economics/law to amend policy so as to better comply with the EPC (i.e. no software patents). Moreover, for Ernst (or another potential president) the first step to take should be to restore/recognise the status of SUEPO and bring back dismissed representatives. They too expressed concerns about patent scope, even many years ago. SUEPO was right all along. █

Avoid IBM Until It Rescinds/Retracts/Reverses Its Weaponisation of Software Patents

Posted in IBM, Patents at 8:47 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Already missing Samuel Palmisano…

Samuel J. Palmisano
The “good guy”, before and after the patent aggression era at IBM. Photo credit: Gage Skidmore

Summary: IBM, which boasts the world’s largest patent portfolio, is transforming into a patent aggressor (with software patents to make matters even worse) and negative reaction from the market may be needed to put an end to this

IBM spent well over a decade telling the Free/Open Source software (FOSS) world that IBM is the “good cop”, or that its stockpile of software patents was somehow acceptable because of OIN (originally run by a guy from IBM) or something along those lines. Well, the mask is off now. IBM is becoming a patents company, a close partner of Apple (Android foe), and it is eager to make income from patents rather than products. As IAM put it the other day (IAM on IBM): “The assignments involving Globalfoundries entities probably reveal the company’s acquisition of IBM’s semiconductor unit – a deal for which Big Blue paid almost $1.5 billion to wash its hands of what had become, for it, an unsustainable business. IBM itself was the second most prolific assignor of assets (15,260) last year.”

A lot of these IBM patents can now be used offensively by other companies, not just Globalfoundries but many others too. This is bad news because IBM’s patents head honcho is pushing for software patents [1, 2] (expansion of them to more countries) and then suing with them (we covered patent aggression from IBM last week). This is what typically happens when patent holders get desperate for cash.

“IBM can now basically sue just about any Internet company, including tiny ones, or otherwise receive “protection money”.”“According to the most recent complaint,” WIPR wrote, “IBM has made repeated attempts to negotiate a licence with Groupon but the company has refused to take one.”

To “licence” is a euphemism for “get protection money” and it sure sounds like Microsoft’s modus operandi when it comes to Linux. Good journalists noted that “IBM is pushing big Internet companies to pay patent licensing fees in part because IBM invented the Prodigy service, a precursor to the modern Web.”

IBM can now basically sue just about any Internet company, including tiny ones, or otherwise receive “protection money”. This leads to a certain chilling effect and discourages startups.

“There are no “good” or tolerable software patents. When companies are in good (financial) mood their shareholders don’t encourage suing competitors, but watch what’s becoming of IBM.”There are companies out there, such as Google, which despite getting more and more patents (including software patents and other new examples) never sued other companies with patents, not even when provoked. This does not guarantee, however, that when Google suffers its demise (all companies will die one day), especially if that happens within the timeframe of the next two decades, it will actually refrain from resorting to patent aggression. The only real solution here is to abolish software patents, irrespective of whom they get assigned to (whether to Red Hat with GNU/Linux, IBM with OIN and layoffs, or Google which is thriving at least for now). There are no “good” or tolerable software patents. When companies are in good (financial) mood their shareholders don’t encourage suing competitors, but watch what’s becoming of IBM. █

No, Biggest Patent Troll of 2014 is Not eDekka But a Microsoft-Connected and Bill Gates-Funded Patent Troll (or Extensive Network Thereof)

Posted in Bill Gates, Microsoft, Patents at 8:17 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Bill and Nathan
Microsoft’s Bill Gates and Nathan Myhrvold. Credit: Reuters

Summary: A timely and imperative remark, reactionary in the sense that it responds to a new article, about the misconception that patent trolls are lone wolves and often small entities rather than conglomerates in disguise

A FEW days ago we stumbled upon an article by Joe Mullin, wherein he calls eDekka “Biggest patent troll of 2014,” even though Intellectual Ventures (a Microsoft proxy in some sense) is far bigger and still very active (it has a few thousands of satellites). “Biggest patent troll” by what criterion? Number of lawsuits by one single entity (not a proxy)?

“”Biggest patent troll” by what criterion?”The article from Mullin (otherwise a fantastic journalist by the way) says:

In 2014, no company filed more patent lawsuits than eDekka LLC, a Texas-based company with just one asset—US Patent No. 6,266,674. Fully 168 patent lawsuits came to a sudden halt in October, when US District Judge Rodney Gilstrap stopped the litigation campaign in its tracks.

eDekka’s patent, which had been used to sue a wide array of online retailers, described nothing more than “the abstract idea of storing and labeling information,” Gilstrap found. Those were “routine tasks that could be performed by a human” and didn’t meet the standard for getting a patent. Gilstrap ruled the patent invalid.

eDekka was covered here many times before, even as recently as 2.5 months ago.

“Look at the patent syndicates of billionaires who now even pay the media to paint themselves as “charitable” individuals — something that better known trolls cannot afford to do (to Gates, for instance, spendings on the media cost approximately $300,000,000 per year).”IAM, which is literally receiving money from patent trolls (we wrote about this before), recently — in fact as recently as last week — wrote about the world’s biggest patent troll (also Microsoft-connected troll) and said that: “Fifth-ranked Searete LLC – well-documented as an Intellectual Ventures affiliate – made most of its assignments to the patent firm’s Innovation Science Fund.”

Searete is a part of it. Searete (see our Wiki) and Intellectual Ventures are both are connected to Bill Gates (even financially). Bill Gates, a pseudo philanthropist who uses his foundation for tax-exempt investment in patents, has created an ever-growing large network of patent trolls whose activity increases his personal wealth (this network also attacks Microsoft’s rivals). Don’t get distracted by eDekka and other massively smaller patent trolls. Focus on the big issue. Look at the patent syndicates of billionaires who now even pay the media to paint themselves as “charitable” individuals — something that better known trolls cannot afford to do (to Gates, for instance, spendings on the media alone cost approximately $300,000,000 per year). █

“Intellectual property is the next software.”

–Nathan Myhrvold, Microsoft patent troll

Atrapado: Battistelli Presidente de la EPO Publicamente miente Acerca del Estado de su Organización, Así que Acerca de su Contrato Secreto, Salario y otros Ocultos Beneficios?

Posted in Deception, Europe, Patents at 7:32 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

English/Original

Publicado en Deception, Europa, Patentes at 11:32 am por el Dr. Roy Schestowitz

¿Y cómo un líder que está MINTIENDO a los medios puede ser tolearado por la Organización?

Benoît Battistelli: My relationships are excellent.
Benoît Battistelli: Mis relaciones son excelentes.

Sumario: La credibilidad de Benoît Battistelli esta rápidamente siendo disminuida por dudosas declaraciones, medias verdades, torcer la verdad, e incluso mentir abiertamente (¿que más esperan de Pinocho?)

RETORCIÉNDOSE para salir de la maraña que el mismo ha creado, el Presidente Battistelli, muy pronto simplemente Sr. Battistelli, hace declaraciones que encontrará difícil de defender (si es propiamente confrontado).

Lo que Battistelli dice de su supuesto ¨éxito¨ no es verdad. Lo hemos escuchado de muchas fuentes, ambas dentro y fuera de la EPO. La gente sabe que los datos que los publicistas de la organización se enorgullecen son en su mejor caso porpaganda. No es atípico mentir a los empleados de la EPO e incluso a los periodistas. Es una verdadera (o falsamente) equivocada estrategia porque tarde o temprano algun recipiente de las mentiras se dará cuenta, se sentirá traicionado, y enojado. Entonces simplemente dejan de creer al niño que sigue gritando ¨lobo!¨ En verdad es una estrategia a corto plazo.

“Es una verdadera (o falsamente) equivocada estrategia porque tarde o temprano algun recipiente de las mentiras se dará cuenta, se sentirá traicionado, y enojado.”¨Actualmente conozco mucho de datos internos,¨ nos dijo una persona, ¨pero desafortunadamente es muy sensitiva.¨ Mucha gente tiene mucho que decir pero estan con miedo de hacerlo. El emperador esta calato pero hay un esperado castigo para aquellos que lo digan a la multitud. Represalias, con efectos demostrables (como el despido de representates), evita que la verdad salga a la luz. Es entonces cuando la gente necesita confíar en habladurías, o como los medios lo llaman ¨rumores¨.

¿Cuándo los ¨ resultados¨ de la EPO serán escrudiñados por el público? ¿Hay allí afuera algún periodista decente? ¿Preparado a embarcarse en un proyecto más difícil que simplemente ¨parrotear¨ al equipo de PR or editar correos electrónicos para ellos (escritura fantasma)? Por instancia, este nuevo artículo de la prensa de abogados mencionó al equipo PR “Rainer Osterwalder, un vocero de la EPO” y atribuyó a él estos dudosos números. Estos individuos no son científicos, son vendedores y para que hagan esto son pagados.

Relacionado con algo que publicamos el Sábado (y que ya hemos traducido al Español), un lector dijo que nos perdimos la más interesante parte de los datos de IAM (de las capturas de pantalla que hablan de una encuesta en un sitio amigable con la EPO). El 2012 “68% de encuestados dijo que la calidad de la EPO es “excelente” o “muy buena”, eso es una alza del 62% desde 2011.” Sin embargo, el 2015 “la EPO calificó mucho mejor entre encuestados de practica privada, alcánzando un 62% en ambas excelente o muy buena.” No estamos exactamente seguros como eso esta de acuerdo con Pinocho Battistelli que dice: ¨Más usuarios han confirmado que están altamente satisfechos con la calidad de nuestros productos.¨

“El emperador está calato, pero hay un castigo esperado para aquellos que se lo digan a la multitud.”Eso es actualmente un punto justo. Sin embargo no creemos que Battistelli actualmente escribió aquel argumento. El simplemente puso sus posaderas en una silla de estudio, leyendo un guión en Inglés con una foto de Munich de fondo con algunos telones de fondo dinámicos (Cesar de Alemania en su propia mente). De cualquier manera, el hecho que él divulgue estas mentiras que viene de sus compadres de IAM (se rascan la espanda entre ellos) mientras llaman a esto ¨independiente¨ es algo divertido. Si no cómico, es VERGONZOSO. Daña la imcredibilidad de Pinocho Battistelli (o lo que quede de ella).

El salario de Battistelli es probablemente la materia que mucha gente habla en estos días. ¿Qué si el presidente ha simplemente escondido/disfrazado/cancelado sus bonuses (talvez cambiando de nombre al paquete de beneficios), consiguió un nuevo contrato, y oró que nadie descubra el anterior? Muchas cosas son probables en teoría y sin evidencia dura la gente se queda preguntándose.

“En Abril del 2015 su salario fue reportado como 250k Euros,” notó un lector nuestro, recordando este artículo titulado "Tregua en el Refugio de Taxes de la Oficina Europea de Patentes".

“El salario de Battistelli es probablemente la materia que mucha gente habla en estos días.”¨Si la figura anterior fue correcta esto presumiblemente indicaría que la figura ¨nueva¨ de 300k se refiere a su salario después de la extensión de su contrato el verano del 2015,¨ este lector añadió. ¨Lo que permanece sin respuesta es que pagos adicionales él tiene encima de su salario básico. El niega cualquier extra ¨bono¨. Eso pueda ser formalmente correcto por que pagos adicionales puedan no ser designados como ¨bonos¨ en el contrato. EL PROBLEMA REAL AQUÍ ES LA FALTA DE TRANSPARENCIA ACERCA DE LOS TÉRMINOS DE SU CONTRATO. Incluso ni siquiera el Consejo administrativo que lo nombró ha sido permitido de investigar/revisar su contrato.

Bueno, el Sr. Kongstad sabe lo que hay en el contrato. Lo hemos señalado muchas veces anteriormente. ¨IAM,¨ nuestro lector añadió, ¨el que es mejor conocido por las piezas de hojaldre de la EPO, se enojó acerca de la falta de transparencia el 2010¨ y escribió: ¨La falta de transparencia alrededor de la elección del Sr. Battistelli como el próximo presidente de la EPO nunca fué una idea buena. Donde nombramiento de ejecutivos son hechos a oscuras y sin ninguna explicación abierta, es allí donde siempre emergen rumores. Y eso es exactamente lo que está pasando hoy.¨

“Kongstad es una de las pocas personas que conoce (y aparentemente firma) el salario de Battistelli.”Casi al final el Sr. Kongstad también fue mencionado: ¨Encima de todo esto, no hacer los términos públicos es totalmente destructor a sí-mismo. Como la hoja informativa de la SUEPO declara: ¨…parece claro que si el Sr. Kongstad siente que tiene que ocultar el contrato, entonces hay algo que quiere esconder¨. El simple hecho es que si tu no eres transparente en tu proceso de selección, dejas espacio para la duda. No sabemos porque Benoit Battistelli fue escojido para ser el próximo presidente de la EPO así como tampoco los términos en los que dirigiría el cargo. Mucha gente dentro de la burbuja Europea de patentes probablemente pensarán que esto no es un deseable estado de cosas, pero al final simplemente recogerán sus hombros y continuarán con ello. Sin embargo, la mayoría de Europeos no están dentro de la burbuja y muchos de ellos sospechan o estan dudosos acerca de las patentes y de aquellos que administran el sistema de patentes. Esta aparentemente ausencia total de transparencia (y escrúpulos) no los ayudarán a cambiar de actitud.¨

Kongstad es una de las pocas personas que conoce (y aparentemente firma) el salario de Battistelli. Talvez la ruptura es ahora parcialmente motivada por intereses egoístas, principalmente Kongstad tratando de asegurar/salvar su propio trabajo. Como IAM señalo hace 6 años, es simplente raro que el contrato sea mantenido en secreto; sugiere que están escondiéndo algo. Si Pinocho Battistelli voluntariamente hace declaraciones acerca de ello a los medios pero al mismo tiempo rechaza mostrar su contrato (incluso los pasados), entonces no está diciendo la verdad total (que esperaban de Pinocho). Su predecesor lo hizo, así que no sería algo sin precedentes. No sería defensible esconderlo debajo de una roca; no hay excusa válida aquí porque ninguna existe.

“La incertidumbre lleva a la gente a especular, y esto a veces va en contra de Battistelli. Pero es mejor para él no decir nada en absoluto que decir algo que más tarde podría lamentar (a menos que no le quede mucho tiempo de todos modos).”Podríamos usar confirmación (pistola humeante, no rumores) acerca del salario de Battistelli, pero la respuesta a la pregunta no sería tán simple, definitivamente no tán simple como Battistelli desee que aparesca. Tuvimos mucha gente diciendo los números, pero hay alguna variación en ellos, y parece variar de acuerdo a definiciones. Más gente aparte de Kongstad conoces su salario actual, ¨pero como puedes imaginar eso es muy confidencial,¨ como una fuente lo puso. La incertidumbre deja a la gente especulándo, y a veces va en contra de Battistelli. Pero es mejor para él no decir nada en absoluto que decir algo que más tarde podría lamentar (a menos que no le quede mucho tiempo de todos modos).

En el pasado cuando escribimos acerca de las demandas irracionales de compensación notamos (parafráseando un poco) que esto ha servido para probar un montón de lo que hemos escrito con anterioridad, pero la parte acerca del salario de Battistelli tenemos muchas dudas como si sirviera para sugerir que su salario ´real´ fue elevado a casi 2 millones de euros (anuales). Otra posibilidad es que el número no es correcto y que son actualmente 10 años de su salario, basados en una extrapolación de un salario más bajo. De cualquier manera, esto es donde la inaceptable ¨clandestinidad¨ de Battistelli acerca de su salario (su predecesora reveló la suya) lo ha perjudicado aún más.

“Nada que temer, nada que esconder,” dicen los medios de los billonarios a nosotros…

“Otra cosa,” nos dijo una fuente, relacionada a la falsa carta de apoyo.

¨Han habido tantas revelaciones que pienso que pronto pueda ser posible tener una lista conjunta de ellas acerca de quien firmó y quien rechazó haber firmado tan estúpida petición,¨ nuestra fuente nos dijo, y ¨eso será totalmente interesante. Muy clara las reacciones de los PDs¨

Bueno, aquellos que la firmaron (o permitieron que la firmen con su nomber) pueda ser que se lamenten de esto más tarde (días/semanas más tarde) por una no necesaria/evitable verguenza, especialmente despues de que Battistelli sea historia. █

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