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04.01.16

La UPC Traería Patentes de Software a Europa y Abriría las Compuertas a Litigación

Posted in Europe, Patents, RAND at 2:08 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

English/Original

Publicado en Europe, Patents, RAND at 7:29 am por el Dr. Roy Schestowitz

No es difícil imaginar quién se beneficiaría de hacer lo abstracto patentable

Trojan horse

Sumario: La UPC también tiene un ángulo/elemento FRAND en ella y así, en muchos casos, patentes de software en Europa (impuesto sobre patentes y/o juicios por software, que es copiado y distribuído en vez de fabricado o producido)

LA gerencia de la EPO, parece esta trabajando para las grandes corporaciónes (que no son incluso Europeas)*, tratándo de manera no democrática impulsar a la hóstil contra las PYMEs UPC, por extensión esparciéndo las patentes de software en el continente/Comunidad/naciones Europeas y más allá de ellas (la EPO es más amplia que ello) – una herramienta de colonización/dominación viniendo del otro lado del charco -. Los exáminadores de la EPO no toleran esto ya que pone en peligro la calidad de patentes y daña la credibilidad de la EPO, conjuntamente con el valor percibido de las patentes Europeas (EPs). Ya hemos presentado esto en muchos artículos, citando expertos en el campo, diciéndo que la UPC traería las patentes de software a Europa.

“Los exáminadores de la EPO no toleran esto ya que pone en peligro la calidad de patentes y daña la credibilidad de la EPO, conjuntamente con el valor percibido de las patentes Europeas (EPs).”Una materia sobre la que hemos estado escribiéndo por más de 9 años es RAND (algunas veces conocido como FRAND por un mucho más ¨justo¨ extra eúfemismo). Este nuevo artículo de la prensa India (donde el debate acerca de las patentes de software ha estado caliente reciéntemente) habla acerca de ¨FRAND¨ como sigue: “La semana pasada tuvimos un artículo en estandar patentes esenciales (“SEPs”) por Divya Rajput, y como us licensiamento en Justo, Razonable, y No-Discriminatorio (“FRAND”) términos ayuda a varias industrias para operar y server clientes. Ms. Rajput hace varios puntos intersantes, pero estos no estan basados en la realidad y reflejan inconsistencias lógicas.

“Ya hemos presentado muchos artículos, citando a expertos en el campo, diciéndo que la UPC traería patentes de software a Europa.”“Hubo un tiempo en el que servidumbre por contrato (en LatinoAmerica la tuvimos hasta mediados del siglo pasado con la venia de los Estados Unidos, y en Mexico todavía algunos reductos que sirven grandes campos de cultivo que alimentan a los vecinos del norte) fue considerada una cosa buena. Gracias a Dios no estamos viviéndo aquellos días. Hoy, es una ofensa criminal. Lo mismo es verda del licensiamiento de SEPs. Lo que fué una excelente práctica de negocios en los 90s, no es viable estrategia de negocios hoy. De los cinco originales (Motorola, Ericsson, Nokia, Alcatel-Lucent, and Nortel), ninguno permanece proveyendo y fabricándo teléfonos mobiles. En vez, todos están envueltos en licensiamiento de patentes de una forma u otra. Los grados de cross-licensing en estos dias no pueden ser usados como puntos de referencias hoy.”

Bueno, basados en este nuevo reporte de MIP, la UPC permanece siendo un Caballo de Troya para FRAND y así las patentes de software en Europa (escribimos muchos artículos acerca de esto cerca del 2008). Para citar MIP (detrás de un muro de pago): “Nuesto últmo escenario de la UPC envuelve un caso de patente esencial/estandar. Michael Carter, Nick Cunningham y David Barron consideran las opciónes de un acusado en el nuevo sistema de corte” (vean este reciénte ejemplo).

“…Es imperativo refutar esas pretensiones que vienen primariamente de los abogados de patentes, la EPO, y periodistas crédulos que imprimen cualqier cosa que les dicen esos dos grupos anteriores.”Lectores deben ser conscientes de en círculos cabilderos anti-FOSS (e.g. la Business Software Alliance o la Association for Competitive Technology) FRAND se convirtió en un refrán para patentes de software e incompatibilidad con FOSS. Ellos trltan de reducir progresivamente FOSS fuera de existencia, o simplemente hacerlo arbitráriamente sujeto a pagos (veán lo que Microsoft esta haciéndo a Linux y Android por instancia), he aqui oneroso y díficil/imposible/prohibido de redistribuir. La UPC es una cosa peligrosísima. Hay un artículo en Alemán acerca de ello] (reciéntemente publicado, traducciones serían muy apreciadas) y dados los altos (y creciéntes) niveles de desinformacion en los medios acerca de la UPC, es imperativo refutar esas pretensiones que vienen primariamente de los abogados de patentes, la EPO, y periodistas crédulos que imprimen cualqier cosa que les dicen esos dos grupos anteriores.

_____
* Es suficiente decir, que la EPO no es Europea pero un cuerpo internacional (exempto incluso de las leyes Europeas). Lo único “Europeo” acerca de ella son sus empleados. A pesar de trabajar paara un cuerpo internacional, estos empleados son también Europeos (ciudadanos de la UE), por lo tanteo deberían tener intereses Europeos que defender, a diferencia de la gerencia (DIRIGIDA POR O HECHA PARA COMPLACER INTERESES EXTRANJEROS).

Con ‘Amor’ Como el de Microsoft ¿Quién Puede Definir Odio de ahora en Adelante?

Posted in Deception, GNU/Linux, Microsoft, Ubuntu at 1:54 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

English/Original

Publicado en Deception, GNU/Linux, Microsoft, Ubuntu at 8:00 am por el Dr. Roy Schestowitz

O como ´amigos´ como estos, ¿Quién necesita enemigos?

BP loves puppies
BP ama a puppies

Sumario: Creciente percepción de que Microsoft esta simplemente mintiéndo a todo el mundo mientras activamente ataca a GNU/Linux a puertas cerradas (arreglos secretos, sobornos, extorsión de patentes y lo demás)

Esta mañana hubieron muchas diátribas online acerca de lo que Canonical ha hecho con Microsfot para ayudarle a vender Vista 10 y poner Ubunto dentro de un hypervisor proprietario, completo con keyloger, puertas traseras, y lo deás. No deseamos pasar más tiempo hablando de las ramificaciones (hay algo de ellon en nuestras links diarias), pero mucha gente lo ha etiquetado/llamado E.E.E (y muy corréctamente). Escribimos acerca de ello anoche, también notando lo que Microsoft ha estado haciéndo en China y Romania (esto esta siendo discutido en Soylent News profundamente hoy).

“Está enamorado de Linux, así que esta tratándo de aplastar a Linux.”Un artículo particular, nos fue enviado esta mañana por un lector, dice: “Relaciones con el Estado Rojo han recorrido un largo camino desde los planes a ‘Dewindowsify’ fueron anunciadas en 2014, sugiriéndo que Microsoft sería echado de lado en favor de un sistema proprietario basado en Linux. Esto todavía continúa, and NeoKylin ya está siendo usado en algunos sistemas claves del gobierno.”

Correcto, pero Microsoft ama a Linux. Lo dice. Está enamorado de Linux, así que esta tratándo de aplastar a Linux. Basado en reportajes, Microsoft todavía trabaja activamente para socavar esta masiva migración. Si la clase gobernante se traga el cuento debido a la corrupción de algunos burócratas vendidos a Microsoft caerán de nuevo en manos de la CIA. Recuerden como fue saboteado el programa atómico de Iran, simplemente usaban Windows en sus centrales nucleáres. Rusos no sean cojudos! Si esta es la compañía que ¨ama a Linux¨, entonces ya perdimos vista de lo que es un enemigo. Incidentálmente, como fué señalado por este mismo lector, IDG, de nuevo esta difundiéndo propaganda para Microsoft, poco tiempo despues de haber atacado a GNU/Linux con informaciones falsas (mismo autor). Este ayayerismo se resume a, Microsoft ha perdido y no tiene oportunidad de recuperárse. He aquí ganó. ¿Es este periódismo? Ni siquiera comprueban los hechos. ¿Qué es lo próximo? ¿Otro artículo de Microsoft ¨ama a Linux¨? Ellos emiten esto cada dos días (aquí hay un ejemplo de la semana pasada). Es más una campaña de relaciónes públicas que periodismo.

“Una estrategia que Microsoft ha empleado en el pasado es pagar por el silencio de personas y compañías. Charles Pancerzewski, antiguo jefe auditor de Microsoft, se enteró de esta práctica de Microsoft de pasar ganancias de un periódo contable al siguiente, conocida como ¨manejo de ganancias¨. Esta práctica alisa reportados fuentes de ingresos, aumenta el valor compartido y engaña a los empleados y accionistas. Además de ser no ético, es también ilegal bajo la Ley de Seguridades de los US y viola Prácticas Contables Aceptadas Generalmente (Fink).

2002 Historia acerca de Charles Pancerzewski, Microsoft

Links 1/4/2016: Free RHEL, 2000 Games for GNU/Linux on Steam

Posted in News Roundup at 9:17 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME bluefish

Contents

GNU/Linux

Free Software/Open Source

  • Abot — How To Make Your Own Digital Assistant With This Free And Open Source Tool

    Ever wished to create your own digital assistant that talks back to you and completes your day-to-day tasks? Now it’s easier than ever with an open source tool Abot that’s written in Go programming language. Know more about it here and start coding one for you.

  • An open source microprocessor for wearables
  • Swiss open-source processor core ready for IoT
  • Every part of this microprocessor is open source

    Software source codes and hardware designs tend to be closely guarded trade secrets. But researchers recently made the full design of one of their microprocessors available as an open-source system.

  • Open source web development for better customization
  • Open source software opens door to web design career

    Before I discovered open source software in 2005, I had never touched a digital design package and probably couldn’t have named one. In fact, I never believed myself to be creative in any way, let alone thought about teaching myself an entirely new discipline.

  • Michael DeHaan on Achieving Project Adoption

    Starting a successful open source project requires a lot more than technical skills. You need to have wise strategies, which Michael DeHaan, founder of the IT automation company Ansible, clearly explains in this valuable video. In this talk, recorded March 22 on the Centennial Campus of North Carolina State University, he explains that for users to adopt your open source creations, the documentation needs to be outstanding. Your web site needs to be very well done. Learn these and other tips in this video.

  • Google Open Sources 360-Degree VR and Photo Tool
  • Membership Drive Results 2016

    This year, we are delighted to say hello to 335 new and returning members. This means that our membership numbers are up 172% over last year, which is wonderful to see!

  • Industrial city hackerspace teaches something more valuable than code

    James Wallbank is a founder of one of the longest-running hackerspaces in the U.K. Access Space opened in the center of the northern industrial city of Sheffield in 2000 with the goal of being open to all.

    Beyond being a place for coding and programming, Access Space refurbishes donated laptops for charitable use. It was also the subject of a recent academic study on barriers to womens’ participation in hackerspaces and makerspaces. In this interview, Ikem Nzeribe of Moss Code and I ask Wallbank about his experience running the hackerspace, revealing lessons that all projects looking to support diversity can use for themselves. The hackerspace model of economic self-empowerment could lead to a more diverse tech sector, but Wallbank makes it clear that there are no short cuts. The challenge may be finding enough champions of genuine diversity with the right balance of vision, critical evaluation, and persistence to enable under-represented communities.

  • Web Browsers

    • Mozilla

      • FLOSS Weekly 381: Mozilla Encryption Campaign

        Brett Gaylor is a Director at the Mozilla Foundation, where he helps helm the current encryption education campaign. He also oversees Mozilla’s Open Web Fellows program, which places open source technologists and activists at leading nonprofits like Amnesty International and ACLU.

  • SaaS/Back End

    • AtScale Advances its BI and Hadoop Strategy

      As it began to develop, the Big Data trend–sorting and sifting large data sets with new tools in pursuit of surfacing meaningful angles on stored information–remained an enterprise-only story, but now businesses of all sizes are evaluating tools that can help them glean meaningful insights from the data they store. As we’ve noted, the open source Hadoop project has been one of the big drivers of this trend, and has given rise to commercial companies that offer custom Hadoop distributions, support, training and more.

  • Databases

    • The PostgreSQL Global Development Group’s PostgreSQL

      Other specific features are performance boosters for today’s more powerful big iron servers, analytics and productivity enhancements to speed complex query capabilities on extreme data volumes, and a foundation for horizontal scalability across multiple servers for importing entire tables from external databases.

  • Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

  • FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

    • The Licensing and Compliance Lab interviews Matt Lee of GNU Social

      GNU social was created as a companion to my earlier project, GNU FM, which we created to build the social music platform, Libre.fm. After only a few short months, Libre.fm had over 20,000 users and I realized I didn’t want to be another social media silo like MySpace or Facebook, so I came up with this vague idea called GNU social. A few prototypes were built, and eventually we started making GNU social as a series of plugins for Evan Prodromou’s StatusNet project, with some help from Ian Denhardt, Craig Andrews and Steven DuBois. Later, StatusNet, GNU social and Free&Social (a fork of StatusNet) would merge into a single project called GNU social. If that sounds confusing and convoluted, it is.

    • March 2016: photos from Bhopal and Utrecht and through to Quebec City and Montreal

      RMS was in India, the Netherlands, and Canada this past month. He started his trip in February in Pilani, in Delhi, and in Roorkee, where he spoke, at APOGEE 2016, the annual Birla Institute of Technology & Science–Pilani technical festival, at Tryst, the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi’s annual science and technology festival, and at Cognizance,1 IIT–Delhi’s annual technical festival. He then moved on…

  • Programming/Development

Leftovers

  • Why are so many people using ad blockers?

    Prominent mobile device companies like Apple and Samsung have recently added the ability to run ad blockers on their phones and tablets. And many users have been installing them, making ad blockers some of the most popular apps in app stores.

    Ad blockers are a hot topic of debate though, with revenue-starved sites being pitted against users who are concerned about malware as well as their overall reading experience. Users are defending their right to run ad blockers, while sites are requesting that they turn them off.

    But there’s another reason why so many people are using ad blockers on their mobile devices: mobile data allotments. It turns out that advertising can eat up a user’s fixed data allotment very, very quickly and that could result in expensive overage charges.

  • Code talker Gilbert Horn laid to rest

    To the broader outside world, Horn was best known as a Native American code talker who fought with the storied WWII deep penetration unit known as Merrill’s Marauders. But to those who knew him best, he was simply “Uncle Gil,” chief of the Fort Belknap Assiniboine Tribe.

    “My dad touched a lot of people’s lives in a good way,” said Willowa “Sis” Horn, Gilbert Horn’s oldest daughter. “But to me he was just daddy – just my dad.”

    Horn was born May 12, 1923, during an era when much of white society viewed Native culture as a quaint anachronism – something that would be gradually extinguished as Indian people were assimilated into the dominant western culture.

  • Health/Nutrition

    • Review Of WHO Pandemic Flu Preparedness: Data Sequencing And Other Issues

      A representative of Sequirus, one of the largest vaccine manufacturers, on behalf of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers & Associations (IFPMA), the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), and another industry group, said industry supports the PIP Framework.

      Genetic sequence data of influenza viruses with pandemic potential are not WHO PIP biological materials per the definition of PIP biological materials, the representative said. It is critical that GSD remain in the public domain for continued influenza R&D efforts, she said. In the context of the PIP Framework review, “industry is willing to consider an appropriate revision to the PIP biological definition to reflect anticipated technological advances.”

      However, “not all influenza IVPP and IVPP GSD should be included in the definition and subject to the WHO PIP Framework obligations,” the industry representative said, rather only GSD which is used directly to develop and manufacture commercial IVPP products. “Attaching obligations to the general use and the sharing of publicly available GSD could potentially inhibit influenza R&D.”

    • Global E-Waste Epidemic: Out of Sight, Not Out of Mind

      Many of us identify with the growing movement to better understand our collective and individual impact on the environment and one another. We can look to our own communities for working examples of regulations, initiatives, and programs that have been developed to tackle the growing problem of electronic waste. Curbside donation programs have sprung up in many communities around the U.S., but most of us stop thinking about the disposal process once it leaves our hands. There has been a lack of media coverage regarding the global community’s outsourcing of electronic waste.

      Steps have been taken on an international level to promote responsible disposal, for example with the creation of the Basel Convention. However, loopholes exist. In her report, Madeleine Somerville points to the fact that externalizing the costs of disposal contributes to the exploitation of marginalized communities as well as the environment. The fundamental problem is not that we don’t care about the effects of e-waste, but that we are relatively unaware of the complete life cycle of the electronics we use. We are not yet tuned in to how our everyday lifestyles contribute to the amount of production and subsequent waste.

    • If Addiction is a Disease, Why is It Criminal? Maia Szalavitz Envisions a Compassionate Drug Policy

      President Obama has unveiled a series of steps aimed at addressing the epidemic of opioid addiction in the United States. We speak with journalist Maia Szalavitz about her new book, “Unbroken Brain: A Revolutionary New Way of Understanding Addiction,” and about her own experience of overcoming addiction. “We need to create a more compassionate and loving drug policy,” Szalavitz says. “Nobody is going to believe that addiction is a disease as long as the behavior is criminal.”

    • POTUS advisors vote for Superbug Czar but go soft on farm antibiotic use

      The rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria that trek between farms and clinics and across international boarders is unquestionably one of the most serious public health threats of our time. They currently sicken around two million people in the US each year, killing at least 23,000. To tackle the issue, the Obama Administration last year released a National Action Plan and established a panel of diverse experts to research and guide the government’s efforts to squash those deadly superbugs.

      That 15-person panel, called the Presidential Advisory Council on Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria or PACCARB, convened this week in Washington, DC to discuss and vote on its first progress report and key recommendations, which now head to the president’s desk. Thursday, the council unanimously voted for six recommendations, which spanned calls for funding and collaboration. But chief among them is the call for the president to establish a White House-level leader that could coordinate all of the government agencies’ efforts to fight drug resistance.

  • Security

    • Thursday’s security updates
    • Your router could succumb to a new Telnet worm

      Building botnets made up of routers, modems, wireless access points and other networking devices doesn’t require sophisticated exploits. Remaiten, a new worm that infects embedded systems, spreads by taking advantage of weak Telnet passwords.

      Remaiten is the latest incarnation of distributed denial-of-service Linux bots designed for embedded architectures. Its authors actually call it KTN-Remastered, where KTN most likely stands for a known Linux bot called Kaiten.

    • Remaiten Is a New DDoS Bot Targeting Linux-Based Home Routers

      Malware coders have created a new DDoS bot called Remaiten that targets home routers running on common Linux architectures, which also shares a lot of similarities with other DDoS bots like Tsunami and Gafgyt.

    • Oh, Look: Yet Another Security Flaw In Government Websites

      Or worse. The open direct could lead to spyware and malware, rather than just advertising masquerading as content or bottom-feeder clickbait. Fortunately, you can keep an eye on what URLs are being reached using these open redirects via this link. Unfortunately, it may be only citizens keeping an eye on that page, and they’re in no position to prevent further abuse.

    • CNBC Asks Readers To Submit Their Password To Check Its Strength Into Exploitable Widget

      People’s passwords and their relative strength and weakness is a subject I know quite well. As part of my business, we regularly battle users who think very simple passwords, often times relating to their birthdays and whatnot, are sufficient. Sometimes they simply make “password” or a similiar variant their go-to option. So, when CNBC put together a widget for readers to input the passwords they use to get feedback on their strength or weakness, I completely understand what they were attempting to accomplish. Password security is a real issue, after all — which is what makes it all the more face-palming that the widget CNBC used was found to be exploitable.

    • Reviewing Important Healthcare Cybersecurity Frameworks [Ed: Microsoft Windows]

      Just recently, a ransomware attack affected Hollywood Presbyterian in California, causing the hospital to pay $17,000 to regain access to its databases.

    • U.S., Canada issue joint alert on ‘ransomware’ after hospital attacks [iophk: The governments need to track down those spreading Windows in the hospitals.]

      The United States and Canada on Thursday issued a rare joint cyber alert, warning against a recent surge in extortion attacks that infect computers with viruses known as “ransomware,” which encrypt data and demand payments for it to be unlocked.

      The warning follows reports from several private security firms that they expect the crisis to worsen, because hackers are getting more sophisticated and few businesses have adopted proper security measures to thwart such attacks.

    • NIST Publishes New Security Standard For Encrypting Credit Card, Medical Info

      The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has developed new encryption methods for securing financial data and other sensitive information.

      The NIST publication SP 800-38G authored by Morris Dworkin specifies cryptography standards for both binary and non-binary data, preserving the look and feel of the unencrypted digits. Earlier encryption methods designed by NIST worked for binary data. But for strings of decimal numbers, there was no feasible technique to produce coded data that preserves the original format.

  • Defence/Aggression

    • Freedom in North Korea (I Hate Travel Stories About North Korea)

      Every travel story about North Korea reads the same:

      We went to North Korea voluntarily, and were shocked to find that we couldn’t like hang out at clubs with everyday Koreans, and the dudes there, like, spied on us.

      And we couldn’t use WhatsApp or take selfies anywhere we wanted, or like mock the hell out of the fat guy who dictates the place LOL. It’s like so oppressive and I’m so glad to be back in the U.S. where sh*t is totally free, I mean literally, bro.

      Wash, rinse, repeat.

    • No Thank You for Your Service: The Fallacy of Troop Worship

      There is a pervasive idea in today’s American society that regardless of political philosophy or party affiliation, one must never criticize the members of the United States military. Conventional wisdom holds that we must appreciate the sacrifice soldiers have made to “fight for our freedom,” and even if one is against the war, they must always “support the troops.” This line of thinking is not coming solely from the pro-war crowd; many of those who consider themselves antiwar (or at least oppose a specific war or conflict) have the utmost regard for those who fight in them. But is this canonization of those who take up arms in the name of the United States government truly just? Or is it a falsehood based on propaganda, emotion, and a lack of critical thinking?

    • NATO: Worse Than ‘Obsolete’

      That promise was not kept. Instead, the lobbyists, both foreign and domestic, went into overdrive in a campaign to extend NATO to the very gates of Moscow. It was a lucrative business for the Washington set, as the Wall Street Journal documented: cushy fees for lobbyists, influence-buying by US corporations, as well as political tradeoffs for the administration of George W. Bush, which garnered support for the Iraq war from Eastern Europe’s former Warsaw Pact states in exchange for favorable treatment of their NATO applications.

  • Transparency/Investigative Reporting

    • Italy should work on its OGP commitments and their implementation

      The Progress Report covers the second Italian OGP Action Plan (for the period 2014-2015), which was adopted in December 2014. The plan was developed by the new government that was installed at the beginning of that year and that “planned to set up structural reforms in many sectors of public administration, stressing the relevance of transparency, accountability, and open data.”

  • Finance

    • New Analysis Shows ‘Frivolous’ Corporate Sovereignty Suits Increasingly Used To Deter Regulation Rather Than Win Compensation

      The rise in public awareness of the dangers of corporate sovereignty provisions in agreements like TPP and TAFTA/TTIP has brought with it a collateral benefit: academics are starting to explore its effects in greater depth. An example is a new paper from Krzysztof J. Pelc, who is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science, at McGill University in Canada. Called “Does the Investment Regime Induce Frivolous Litigation?” (pdf), it looks at how the investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanism has evolved in recent years, and in a very troubling direction.

    • Open-Source P2P Currency Exchange CurrencyFair Secures €8 Million

      CurrencyFair, an open-source, peer-to-peer, international currency exchange with offices in the U.K., Ireland and Australia, has raised an additional €8 million and announced a new chief marketing officer.

    • Vox and the False Consensus of ‘Most Economists Agree’

      Sometimes Vox does actually link to something at least attempting consensus, as they have done here and here. But more often, even when an attempt at consensus is reached, it’s plagued with blinders that render the “most economists” distinction suspect.

      For example, the University of Chicago “poll” that sampled economists about the value of Uber, showing uniform consensus about how great it was, did not contain a single African-American or Hispanic economist. Does the class and racial composition —let alone the University of Chicago’s notorious association with free-market ideology—affect what this cohort of “most economists” thinks? Probably. Does anyone at Vox care? Evidently not.

      Sometimes the “most economists” device is just a lazy placeholder, and it’s entirely possible that “most economists,” if subjected to anything approaching a scientific poll, would actually agree with the author’s assertion. Sometimes vague intuitions about what others think are true!

      But like Fox News‘ use of “some say,” “most economists” or “most experts” is often a weasel phase that permits the writer to smuggle in their own opinion and ideology where it ought not be, and couches their own subjective, ad hoc analysis as something reflecting scientific consensus. Certainly, if “most experts” on a subject agree, what they agree on must therefore be objectively and undoubtedly true.

      Ultimately, the “most expert/economists” cliche is a lazy appeal to authority that shortcuts actually showing one’s homework—how one got from premise to conclusion. If the news is going to be “explained” rather than just asserted, most media critics agree that Vox should drop this tic altogether.

  • AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

    • Corporate Media Circles Wagons Around Tories

      There is a huge amount of polling evidence over decades that shows that the perception that a party is divided causes much damage to that party’s popularity rating. Indeed the perception of division or unity is almost as important as what the actual policies are. The spectacular tumbling of popular Tory support in the UK is therefore entirely expected when the Tories are kicking pieces out of each other over Europe and Osbornomics.

      The corporate media, including the BBC, of course know this very well. That is why ever since those opinion polls the bitter Tory internal battles have simply stopped being reported. I have no doubt their political correspondents are having conversations like the one I had with an MP this morning, several times every day. Yet when did you last see one reported? Compare this to the regular reporting of every tittle tattle of anonymous Blairite briefing against Corbyn.

    • Moyers & Co. Cites FAIR on Media Consolidation
    • Anonymity in the New York Times: By the Numbers

      A new report from FAIR looks at a year’s worth of anonymity in the New York Times, with media critic Reed Richardson taking an in-depth look at how unnamed sources were used in the paper in 2015. His research substantiates that the observation Times public editor Margaret Sullivan made in 2014 (12/29/14) is still true: “Anonymity continues to be granted to sources far more often than a last-resort basis would suggest.”

    • Twenty Years of Media Consolidation Has Not Been Good For Our Democracy

      Wall Street’s sinister influence on the political process has, rightly, been a major topic during this presidential campaign. But history has taught us that the role that the media industry plays in Washington poses a comparable threat to our democracy. Yet this is a topic rarely discussed by the dominant media, or on the campaign trail.

    • Error Keeps Sanders off D.C. Ballot [iophk: The establishment, in pushing Clinton, is really pulling some dirty tricks.]

      Bernie Sanders is not on the ballot for Washington, D.C.’s Democratic primary on June 14, thanks to a clerical error.

      Both Sanders, a senator from Vermont, and front-runner Hillary Clinton submitted their paperwork and the $2,500 fee in advance of the March 16 deadline. But due to a clerical error, the D.C. Democrats did not notify the Board of Elections until March 17, according to WRC-TV in Washington.

    • Bernie Sanders Has an Interesting Theory About Why the Republican Party Exists

      Rachel Maddow posed an interesting question to Sen. Bernie Sanders during their interview on Wednesday: Would he like to see the Republican Party just disappear? Sanders’ answer was also an interesting one. He didn’t take the bait; instead, he offered an alternative theory—the GOP would disappear if corporate media simply told the truth about the party’s agenda.

      [...]

      “The Republican Party today now is a joke,” he continued, “maintained by a media which really does not force them to discuss their issues.”

      Sanders was returning to one of his driving issues over the years—a fervent belief that corporate-owned media was steering democracy off a cliff. In 1979, he wrote an essay arguing that TV networks were “using the well-tested Hitlerian principle that people should be treated as morons and bombarded over and over again with the same simple phrases and ideas” to prevent them from thinking critically about the world around them. He hit those same themes (albeit more diplomatically) in his book, Outsider in the House, arguing that TV news coverage was dumbing down America by inundating viewers with superficial coverage of O.J. Simpson instead of “corporate disinvestment in the United States.” Not surprisingly, when Maddow asked Sanders in an interview last fall what his dream job might be, he quickly blurted out, “president of CNN.”

  • Censorship/Free Speech

    • Opinion: Censorship leads to many harmful, scary precedents

      Last week, “Trump 2016” was chalked in many places across Emory University’s campus. The backlash was swift. Students called for an immediate investigation. Emory administrators responded quickly, saying they would review security footage in order to find the “perpetrators” to then execute disciplinary protocol.

      In consistency with the free speech editorial we wrote in the fall, we write this in the hopes of criticizing this kind of censorship and policing culture often taken by college administration in response to speech that could be construed as hate speech.

      We certainly are not condoning the type of rhetoric that Donald Trump espouses or the type of politics that he inspires, but rather are calling for a more long-term strategy for protecting the rights of the marginalized. As many legal experts have noted, the type of precedent this Orwellian approach to censoring and stifling speech — however advantageous in the short term it may be — will come to disproportionately affect students’ ability to voice opinions later. If the chalkings were anti-University administration, students have now inadvertently created a protocol under which that too can be stifled by Emory officials.

    • Nintendo FIRES feminist Alison Rapp following furious paedophile porn censorship storm
    • Nintendo denies Alison Rapp firing is linked to harassment campaign
    • Nintendo fires woman who became online target
    • When Chinese state censorship reached the L.E.S.

      Manhattan-based artist Joyce Yu-Jean Lee never guessed she was in for a bit of international intrigue and even global headlines when she launched a show and accompanying discussion panels in February at a couple of alternative venues on the Lower East Side.

      The installation, which lasted a month, was a pop-up Internet cafe dubbed “Firewall.” This is a reference to the “Great Firewall of China” (officially the “Golden Shield”) that filters the Internet in the People’s Republic.

    • Apple patents on-the-fly censorship technology

      Apple recently patented a software system that can automatically detect and remove swear words from streamed audio tracks. The patent, dubbed “Management, Replacement and Removal of Explicit Lyrics during Audio Playback” scans a piece of music, compares the lyrics against a database of banned words, marks any explicit bits it finds and then removes the offending content, replacing it with either a beep or silence. The technology can also, according to its patent filing, detect the background music and boost that to cover what’s being censored. The system isn’t limited to music, mind you, it can just as easily be applied to audio books. As with many of Apple’s patents, there is no word on when — or even if — the technology will ever make it into an actual product.

    • Apple has patented technology to automatically scan songs and remove swear words

      Apple has been granted a patent for technology that can automatically scan songs being streamed online and edit out any swear words in the lyrics.

    • The Latest In Reputation Management: Bogus Defamation Suits From Bogus Companies Against Bogus Defendants

      Pissed Consumer has uncovered an apparent abuse of the court system by reputation management firms. Getting allegedly defamatory links delisted by Google requires a court order, which is something very few people can actually obtain. But the plaintiffs featured in this Pissed Consumer post seem to have no trouble acquiring these — often within a few days of filing their lawsuits.

    • Onlinecensorship.org Launches Inaugural Report

      We’re proud to announce today’s release of Onlinecensorship.org’s first report looking at how content is regulated by social media companies. Onlinecensorship.org—a joint project of EFF and Visualizing Impact (VI) that won the 2014 Knight News Challenge—seeks to encourage social media companies to operate with greater transparency and accountability toward their users as they make decisions that regulate speech.

      Onlinecensorship.org was founded to fill a gap in public knowledge about how social media companies moderate content. As platforms like Facebook and Twitter play an increasingly large role in our lives, it’s important to track how these companies are regulating the speech of their users, both in tandem with governments and independent of them. As self-ordained content moderators, these companies face thorny issues; deciding what constitutes hate speech, harassment, and terrorism is challenging, particularly across many different cultures, languages, and social circumstances. These U.S.-based companies by and large do not consider their policies to constitute censorship. We challenge this assertion, and examine how their policies (and their enforcement) may have a chilling effect on freedom of expression.

    • Texas Cops’ Complaint Censorship Attack YouTube Videos of Public Officials in Public

      Texas police launched a “complaint censorship” attack on David Warden’s YouTube channel News Now Houston, claiming his videos violate their privacy.

      Which is a lie, because in public, nobody has a right or expectation of privacy.

      Least of all public officials like police.

      You can see a new video below, Warden talking about the agony of having been first assaulted and then attacked with complaint censorship on his news channel and three false complaints aimed at censoring his citizen journalism.

      It’s his only way to monetize important public interest news-gathering activities.

      It’s where he tells the world about official abuse.

      Complaint censorship happens with false or improper complaints submitted with intent to damage a citizen journalist or news outlet’s online publishing access or tools.

    • Vietnamese Bloggers Sentenced to Prison in a Renewed Crackdown on Free Expression

      A prominent Vietnamese blogger and his assistant were sentenced to prison last week in Hanoi for their work on a popular web site, read by millions of Vietnamese, that reported on human rights and government corruption. The case raises alarms of a new wave of repression against independent media and free expression online in Vietnam.

      On March 23 a Hanoi court sentenced Nguyen Huu Vinh, a former police officer and the son of Vietnam’s ambassador to the former Soviet Union, to five years in prison for “abusing democratic freedoms to harm the interests of the state.” Nguyen Thi Minh Thuy, Vinh’s assistant, was sentenced to three years. Vinh, better known as Anh Ba Sam, set up a popular blog in 2007 and later launched two others. The sites provided news and comments about democracy, social and economic issues from state media and activists, and articles critical of Vietnamese government policies. One site, AhnBasam, was repeatedly attacked by hackers in 2013 and 2014; Vinh and Thuy were arrested in May 2014 in Hanoi and indicted on charges that articles posted on the sites had “untruthful” content and “distort the lines and policies” of the ruling Community Party.

    • Onlinecensorship.org launches first report (PDF)
    • ‘Barney’s Wall’ Needs Money to Complete Film

      The producers of the film “Barney’s Wall,” about the creative vision and legacy of Barney Rosset, need money to cover post-production costs.

      The film focuses on the man and the mural he made in his later years on the main wall of his apartment and office space in the East Village. He worked on the mural until the last days of his life in 2012. In the years following his death, the apartment was sold to developers, and it was clear that the mural would not survive there.

    • Barney’s Wall: New Film Celebrates How One Man Brought Down Censorship in the US
    • Some prominent Chinese are chafing against censorship. Then their complaints are censored
    • Play Pamphlet Sparks Censorship Debate in Hong Kong
    • Pakistan Islamist protesters end four-day blasphemy protest
    • Turkey Wants Ban on Mocking Its Leader Enforced Abroad Too
  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • FCC advances privacy proposal for U.S. internet users

      The U.S. Federal Communications Commission on Thursday advanced a proposal to ensure the privacy of broadband Internet users by barring providers from collecting user data without consent.

      The proposed regulation from FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler won initial approval with a 3-2 vote to require broadband providers to obtain consumer consent, disclose data collection, protect personal information and report breaches — but would not bar any data collection practices.

      “It’s the consumers’ information and the consumer should have the right to determine how it’s used,” Wheeler said.

    • Exclusive: Egypt blocked Facebook Internet service over surveillance – sources

      Egypt blocked Facebook Inc’s (FB.O) Free Basics Internet service at the end of last year after the U.S. company refused to give the Egyptian government the ability to spy on users, two people familiar with the matter said.

      Free Basics, launched in Egypt in October, is aimed at low-income customers, allowing anyone with a cheap computer or smartphone to create a Facebook account and access a limited set of Internet services at no charge.

      The Egyptian government suspended the service on Dec. 30 and said at the time that the mobile carrier Etisalat had only been granted a temporary permit to offer the service for two months.

      Two sources with direct knowledge of discussions between Facebook and the Egyptian government said Free Basics was blocked because the company would not allow the government to circumvent the service’s security to conduct surveillance. They declined to say exactly what type of access the government had demanded or what practices it wanted Facebook to change.

    • Reddit deletes surveillance ‘warrant canary’ in transparency report

      Social networking forum reddit on Thursday removed a section from its site used to tacitly inform users it had never received a certain type of U.S. government surveillance request, suggesting the platform is now being asked to hand over customer data under a secretive law enforcement authority.

    • Reddit removes “warrant canary” from its latest transparency report

      Reddit has removed the warrant canary posted on its website, suggesting that the company may have been served with some sort of secret court order or document for user information.

      At the bottom of its 2014 transparency report, the company wrote: “As of January 29, 2015, reddit has never received a National Security Letter, an order under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or any other classified request for user information. If we ever receive such a request, we would seek to let the public know it existed.”

      That language was conspicuously missing from the 2015 transparency report that was published Thursday morning. (Disclaimer: Ars and Reddit are owned by the same parent company, Advance Publications.)

    • Signal

      Signal is a pretty amazing app; it manages to combine great security with great simplicity.

    • Amnesty International: Encryption is a Human Rights Issue

      New Report Analyzes How Crypto Backdoors, Interference with Crypto, and Compelled Disclosure of Encryption Keys All Impact Free Expression and Privacy

      Defending encryption is a human rights issue, according to a new Amnesty International report. The report calls on nation-states to promote the use of encryption tools as part of their international human rights obligations to protect the privacy of their populations.

    • NSA Chief Refuses ‘To Get Into’ Whether Hillary’s Email Server Was Hacked [VIDEO]

      National Security Agency (NSA) director Michael S. Rogers adamantly refused on Thursday to say whether Hillary Clinton’s private email server was ever hacked.

      “It’s something I’m just not going to get into,” Rogers told Yahoo! News’ Michael Isikoff when asked in an interview if Clinton’s server was ever compromised.

    • Did a Self-Identified Spy Hunter Leak an NSA Secret on LinkedIn?

      The American government built underwater drones in the 1990s to tap into fiber-optics cables, he claims.

      [...]

      He later called it a “new series of fiber optic [remotely operated vehicles].”

      Edward Snowden, who knows some things about secrets, called the disclosure “probably the most incredible leak of compartmented [top secret] material I’ve ever seen on LinkedIn.”

    • Using the NSA Intrusion Lifecycle to bolster security

      IT systems in both the public and private sectors are woefully unprepared for an environment in which cyberthreats are becoming more constant and complex, according to Curtis Dukes, director of the National Security Agency’s Information Assurance Directorate.

    • Would it be any easier for the FBI to crack Android?
    • This Map Shows How the Apple-FBI Fight Was About Much More Than One Phone

      The FBI’s request was part of a sustained government effort to exercise novel law enforcement power.

      The government insisted that its effort to force Apple to help break into an iPhone as part of the investigation into the 2015 San Bernardino shootings was just about that one case. Even though the FBI no longer needs Apple’s help in that case, the FBI’s request was part of a sustained government effort to exercise novel law enforcement power.

    • Google Was Also Ordered To Unlock A Phone, But Did Not Put Up A Fight
    • The TOR Project: “Our Developers Will Quit If Ordered To Backdoor TOR Browser”

      The TOR Project has expressed its commitment to researching and developing new ways to mitigate the threats of security failure. Meanwhile, if TOR developers are asked to deploy some backdoor in the software, they would rather resign than honor the request.

    • Spy Agency Says NSA Data Will Be Shared Within Government
    • Spies close in on plan to share NSA data despite privacy worries

      The intelligence community is close to completing a plan to let the National Security Agency share more of the raw data it collects with other U.S. spy agencies, a system that would put an end to more than a decade of wrangling among the different organizations.

    • Jay Evensen: While we talk about security vs. freedom, government keeps expanding data-gathering

      This would allow the FBI, for instance, to use NSA-gathered information to investigate crimes that have nothing to do with terrorism.

    • Spy office denies allegations that NSA data will be used for policing

      A top lawyer for the nation’s intelligence agencies is pushing back on mounting criticism about new plans to widely share intercepted data throughout the federal government.

      Robert Litt, the general counsel for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, confirmed that the change in policy is “in the final stages of development and approval” in a post on national security legal blog Just Security on Wednesday.

      But Litt denied allegations that the change would allow the FBI and other agencies to use the sensitive data for domestic law enforcement matters, which members of Congress had speculated could be unconstitutional.

      “There will be no greater access to signals intelligence information for law enforcement purposes than there is today,” Litt claimed in his blog post. “These procedures will only ensure that other elements of the intelligence community will be able to make use of this signals intelligence if it is relevant to their intelligence mission.”

    • UVU hopes to increase student retention with opening of money management center
    • UVU working with NSA to get employees for data collection center
    • Senator Wyden Lays Out New ‘Compact For Privacy & Security In The Digital Age’ In Response To Surveillance/Encryption Fights

      Yesterday, at the excellent RightsCon event in San Francisco, Senator Ron Wyden gave a barn burnder of a speech, in which he detailed why it was so important to protect our privacy and security in a digital age, at a time when law enforcement and the intelligence communities are digging deeper and deeper into all of our personal information.

  • Civil Rights/Policing

    • A Look At Our Future: 5 Nations Who Elected Their Trump

      America makes a lot of questionable decisions, and when we do, the world is quick to call us out on it. For example, remember that time we impeached our president over an extramarital affair and countries lined up to express their amusement over the fact that we’d take such drastic steps over a relatively minor thing?

    • Startup Offers Citizens More Opportunities To Get Shot By/Have Their Smartphones Seized By Law Enforcement

      I’m not sure people are going to be more comforted that people are carrying guns they can’t see, especially not US law enforcement, which has already demonstrated it fears cell phones as much as it fears guns.

    • No Charges To Be Filed in Minneapolis Police Shooting of Jamar Clark

      Black Lives Matter activists are planning a protest in Minneapolis tonight after Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman announced no charges will be filed against the two Minneapolis police officers involved in the shooting death last fall of Jamar Clark, an unarmed 24-year-old African American. Clark was shot in the head after a scuffle with officers who responded to a report of an assault. In announcing the decision, Freeman rejected claims by multiple witnesses that Clark was shot while handcuffed. Freeman also claimed Clark placed his hand on an officer’s gun during the scuffle. Clark’s death sparked a series of protests in Minneapolis.

    • North Carolina: Flush Your Bathroom Bill Down the Toilet

      Opponents call it “the Bathroom Bill.” In a special session last week, the North Carolina state legislature passed HB2, officially called the Public Facilities Privacy and Security Act. Gov. Pat McCrory signed the law that night. The new law denies transgender people use of the bathroom, changing room or locker room that matches their gender identity. Resistance to the bill is fierce, and growing daily.

    • When a Headscarf Becomes a Target

      To make clear their rights, the ACLU has just released a Know Your Rights guide for women and girls who wear hijab.

      Libraries and schools are supposed to be inclusive spaces for learning, growing, and tolerance. But two women last week — one in California, one in D.C. — learned these safe spaces do not always live up to their reputation.

    • They Came A-Knockin’, and I Said “As-Salam Alaikum, Y’all!”

      The first year was hard. While my husband enjoyed his new position at the university, I was having a difficult time finding work in my field — civil rights. I took up cooking and working out, trying to keep up with these very elegant Southern moms who always looked well-manicured. I even joined the PTA. At my first meeting, I was approached by someone who appeared to be the head lady of the group.

      “What church do you go to?” she asked, smiling from ear to ear.

      “Church? Oh. Uh. I don’t. I’m Muslim.”

    • UK Law Enforcement Trying To Force Man They’ve Never Charged With A Crime To Decrypt His Computers

      British hacker Lauri Love stands accused of causing “millions of dollars” in damages to US government computers — charges he’s been facing for more than two years. These charges originate in the US, but it’s the UK that’s been trying to get Love to give up his encryption keys for the past couple of years.

      Under RIPA (Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act of 2000), the UK government can charge Love with “failure to cooperate” by refusing to comply with the order to decrypt files. To date it has not done so, despite Love blowing off its demands since the middle of February 2014.

    • UK cops tell suspect to hand over crypto keys in US hacking case

      At a court hearing earlier this month, the UK’s National Crime Authority (NCA) demanded that Lauri Love, a British computer scientist who allegedly broke into US government networks and caused “millions of dollars in damage,” decrypt his laptop and other devices impounded by the NCA in 2013, leading some experts to warn that a decision in the government’s favor could set a worrisome precedent for journalists and whistleblowers.

      Arrested in 2013 for the alleged intrusions but subsequently released, Love was re-arrested in 2015 and is currently fighting extradition to the United States. He has so far refused to comply with a Section 49 RIPA notice to decrypt the devices, a refusal that carries potential jail time. However, British authorities have not charged Love with any crime, leading him to counter-sue in civil court for the return of his devices.

    • Slain Activist Berta Cáceres’ Daughter: US Military Aid Has Fueled Repression & Violence in Honduras

      Another indigenous environmentalist has been murdered in Honduras, less than two weeks after the assassination of renowned activist Berta Cáceres. Nelson García was shot to death Tuesday after returning home from helping indigenous people who had been displaced in a mass eviction by Honduran security forces. García was a member of COPINH, the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras, co-founded by Berta Cáceres, who won the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize last year for her decade-long fight against the Agua Zarca Dam, a project planned along a river sacred to the indigenous Lenca people. She was shot to death at her home on March 3. On Thursday, thousands converged in Tegucigalpa for the start of a mobilization to demand justice for Berta Cáceres and an end to what they say is a culture of repression and impunity linked to the Honduran government’s support for corporate interests. At the same time, hundreds of people, most of them women, gathered outside the Honduran Mission to the United Nations chanting “Berta no se murió; se multiplicó – Berta didn’t die; she multiplied.” We speak with Cáceres’s daughter, Bertha Zúniga Cáceres, and with Lilian Esperanza López Benítez, the financial coordinator of COPINH.

    • Indigenous Hondurans Demand Investigation of Berta Caceres’ Assassination

      Describing a backdrop of long-term US “meddling” in Honduras, Caceres spoken out publicly in 2014 against Hillary Clinton’s role as US Secretary of State in the 2009 coup that ousted Honduran president Manuel Zelaya and opened what the Goldman Prize website described as the “explosive growth in environmentally destructive megaprojects that would displace indigenous communities.”

    • Turkish President Visits Washington, Clashes With Journalists

      Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is visiting Washington, D.C. this week — and his security team has brought along some of its tactics for shutting down dissent and free speech.

      Outside a planned speech at the Brookings Institution on Thursday, confrontations between protesters and Erdogan’s guards devolved into violence. Eyewitnesses reported that Turkish security forcibly removed one journalist from the scene, while another was kicked and a third was thrown to the sidewalk. Inside the event, journalists reported being forced to leave by Turkish security.

    • Breaking: Cherelle Baldwin Found Not Guilty in Death of Abusive Ex, Freed After 3 Years in Jail

      Cherelle Baldwin has been freed after a 12-member jury in Bridgeport, Connecticut found her not guilty of murder in the death of her abusive ex-boyfriend, Jeffrey Brown. According to the Huffington Post, Baldwin “collapsed to the floor in tears as the verdict was announced,” crying, “My baby will have his mommy back.”

    • EFF Pressure Results in Increased Disclosure of Abuse of California’s Law Enforcement Databases

      EFF’s efforts to fix holes in oversight of the California Law Enforcement Telecommunications System (CLETS) are paying off.

      New data and records released by California Department of Justice (CADOJ) show a steep increase in the number of agencies disclosing cases of abuse of the state’s network of law enforcement databases—a major victory for transparency and law enforcement accountability.

      Last year, EFF identified major failures in how a CADOJ committee charged with overseeing the system—the CLETS Advisory Committee (CAC)—reviews misuse investigations. The body, EFF found, had failed to follow established procedures for disciplining users who break access rules, leading to a 100% increase in reported misuse since 2010.

    • Ham-Handed Arrest at Pediatric Clinic Highlights Official War on the Powerless

      The cops raided my wife’s pediatric practice looking for a fugitive, last week.

      Actually, let’s put the word “fugitive” in quotes. The story is an eye-opening tale in itself. It’s also a glimpse at how business-as-usual in courts and cop shops around the country screws with people’s lives and alienates the public from those who are allegedly their protectors.

      My wife, Dr. Wendy Tuccille, was on her way to the office in Cottonwood, Arizona, when her phone rang. Frantic staff called to tell her that the clinic’s parking lot was full of cops, there to arrest one of her employees, C.H. (it’s a small town so we’ll stick with her initials), on an outstanding warrant.

      When my wife arrived she found a gaggle of cops—12 to 15 she told me, some in battle jammies—in plain view at the rear corner of the building. The parking lot was full of police vehicles, in sight of families and children arriving to be seen and treated.

  • Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

    • Stop the Obama administration from surrendering authority over the Internet

      We all know now that the Internet began as a US government project. Administration of parts of it was eventually outsourced, first to Network Solutions Inc and then to a non-profit corporation created just for the task: ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers). ICANN operates autonomously, but under a contract from the US government, specifically from the NTIA (National Telecommunications and Information Administration) in the US Department of Commerce.

  • Intellectual Monopolies

    • Practical tips for filing designs post-Trunki

      Following the UK Supreme Court’s judgment in the Trunki design dispute, Managing IP summarises practical tips from UK practitioners on filing designs and eight lessons from the judgment

    • Copyrights

      • Rightscorp Blames VPNs and ISPs For Drop in Revenue

        Anti-piracy cash settlement outfit Rightscorp has just announced a net loss of $3.5m for its operations during 2015. Interestingly the company cites a number of reasons, some of them cryptic, for decreasing revenues. Alongside the mysterious “shutting down” of unnamed file-sharing infrastructure, VPN use and ISP reluctance to assist trolling are major factors.

03.31.16

Microsoft Vows to Stop All Patent Lawsuits and Threats Against Linux, Drops Existing Secret Settlements, Annuls NDAs

Posted in GNU/Linux, Humour, Microsoft, Patents at 5:50 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Satya Nadella

Summary: Satya Nadella finally decides to do the right thing by attempting to undo the damage caused since the Novell/Microsoft deal

IN an unprecedented effort to appease the GNU/Linux community, having launched a campaign of intimidation and coercion in 2006 (continues to date), Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella issued a public apology, posted in Microsoft’s official blog on Wednesday night. The apology did not name specific companies, but it did address Red Hat, Canonical and various device makers, primarily east Asian ones.

“I have decided to cancel all existing patent licensing deals with companies that distribute Linux and over the coming 24 months we shall refund them all the money charged in the period of 2006-2016, except in cases where these charges have already rendered those companies defunct or bankrupt.”
      –Satya Nadella
Nadella stated in his latest blog: “Having come to this company and having witnessed its aggressive campaign of patent abuse against small companies, I have vetoed Bill Gates, decided to fire Horacio Gutierrez, and my colleagues shall reveal the secret deals that we have signed over the past decade, including Novell’s.”

Nadella, closing his controversial blog post, noted that Brad Smith, a key architect of the old strategy, has resigned in protest. Attempts to reach Smith for comments have so far been unsuccessful.

“In order to demonstrate Microsoft’s commitment to GNU/Linux and its continued growth,” Nadella told us, “I have decided to cancel all existing patent licensing deals with companies that distribute Linux and over the coming 24 months we shall refund them all the money charged in the period of 2006-2016, except in cases where these charges have already rendered those companies defunct or bankrupt.”

Nadella has not yet commented about the possibility of scuttling Microsoft-connected patent trolls such as Intellectual Ventures, which also attack Linux.

Postscript: sadly, this story is made up (April 1st) and will most probably remain fictional for good.

New EPO Marketing Campaign: Drive Your Audi Home

Posted in Europe, Humour, Marketing, Patents at 1:57 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Audi EPO

Summary: Audi forges a 5-year marketing relationship and mutually-exclusive contract with the European Patent Office, lending its name to the highly credible international body, where quality is unsayably exceptional

APR 1 2016 [for immediate release under embargo until the stated date] — MUNICH: Capitalising on the success of Volkswagen, FTI Consulting, the PR firm of the EPO, has proudly announced the unprecedented launch of a new 5-year advertising campaign in order to improve the already-perfect and eternally-immaculate image of the EPO. “Drive your Audi Home” is the title of this exciting campaign, which will target TV audiences in the Netherlands and Germany. With the memorable motto “you’re the boss” FTI Consulting expects customers to value rapid growth in both morale and confidence.

“Our relationships are excellent.”
      –EPO official
This marketing push is part of an ongoing campaign, which may extend to more countries across Europe in due course, depending on media demand and dependent on the market perception of the EPO’s fine products. It strives to take advantage of the poor demand for Volkswagen vehicles, which despite fantastic figures and low emissions (as confirmed by the International Automobile Magazine, IAM) has not managed to gain a foothold anywhere outside of Germany.

In a prepared statement, said an unnamed EPO official, “the new campaign fills a void and will further enhance the image of the EPO.” Commenting on the substance of the the motto, the official explained: “There has never been a better time to buy an Audi. Our relationships are excellent. Our performance is at an all-time high. You can drive your Audi like a boss to any place in Europe, as far as France to the West and Croatia to the East.”

Postscript: this is satire, in case it’s not obvious.

SUEPO Publica Traducciones de los Medios Alemanes Acerca de la EPO

Posted in Europe, Patents at 8:12 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

English/Original

Publicado en Europe, Patents at 9:40 am por el Dr. Roy Schestowitz

“La manera más segura de corromper a la juventud es instruirlos a tener en alta estima aquellos que piensan como ello en vez de aquellos que piensan diferente.”

Friedrich Nietzsche

Sumario: Para el record futuro y por causa de preservación, cinco artículos/cartas alemanas acerca de la EPO en un lugar

La SUEPO reciéntemente ha traducido o por lo menos publicado traducciones de algunos reciéntes artículos en Alemán. Es acerca de la EPO antes y despes de la reunión del Consejo Administrativo. Ya que virtualmente nada ha cambiado para mejoria, una huelga es en ciernes dentro de una semana.

Hemos leido algunas traducciones de artículos que Techrights no ha traducido hasta ahora (SUEPO hizo un esfuerzo duplicado al traducir cerca de una docena de artículos que habíamos traducido de antemano) y señalado sus interesantes bits para aquellos que se han cansado de ver las mismas historias varias veces (con variación en palabras en vez de substancia).

El siguiente artículo por Katja Riedel del Süddeutsche Zeitung fue publicado cuando la reunión del Consejo Administrativo comenzó, probablemente fue compuesti incluso antes de ello.

15. Marzo de 2016, 18:53 Close up

L’EPO, c’est moi

La Oficina Europea de Patentes se enfrenta a una crisis mayor, y Benoît Battistelli tiene la culpa. Criticos lo acusan de dictar y no discutir.

Por Katja Riedel

Los puntos de vista están profundamente divididos a la significancia de los próximos días tendran para Benoît Battistelli. Mientras aquellos a su alrededor están ansiosos de mantener al apariencia de normalidad, sus oponentes están insistiendo que el Presidente de la Oficina Europea de Patentes (EPO) esta atrapado en medio de un profunda crisis diplomática – de verdad la más profunda en su periódo de seis años en la oficina, a la cual no le han faltado conflictos.

Las patentes y su valor económico cesaron de ser un problema hace mucho tiempo. El escenario está en las divisiones entre el Frances y aquellos leales a él en un lado, y secciones de la fuerza de trabajo en el otro – un conflicto en el que ningún lado esta tirándo algun puñetazo. Los oponentes de Battistelli estan esperando ahora por una confrontación en la reunión del Consejo Administrativo, el que potencialmente puede sobrepasarlo, programado para el próximo Miércoles en Munich. El jefe de la EPO reciéntemente ha estado en enfrentamiento con el Consejo acerca de una investigación externa sobre un número de despidos espectáculares. La Oficina, sin embargo, esta tomando un aproximamiento bajo: “No estamos esperando que pase algo”, dice el jefe ejecutivo PR. No mayores cambios, no cortar el nudo Gordiano – y ciértamente no resignación.

La lucha en la EPO no es solo acerca de las reformas, las cuales a peticion de los 38 Estados Miembros, Battistelli ha estado impulsando desde el 2010, pero en vez del jefe mismo, y el mundo del que el viene. Se dice que el hombre de 68 años es una persona que dicta, no discute, de acuerdo con las personas que lo conocen por mucho tiempo. El hombre que se irrita fácilmente si encuentra alguna resistencia. Es dicho que esta profundamente imbuído en el sistema Frances. Lo que esto significa es su seguridad en sí mismo que adquirió en la Ena, aquella universidad de élites de Strasburgo, que es vista como el punto de salida para posiciónes claves en la política y adminstración Francesas.Talvez por esto es porque Battistelli le ha sido permitido acumularse por tanto tiempo aparentemente sin ser molestado. No se encuentra con sus críticos cara a car, pero mira a ellos desde arriba, desde el piso de arriba de sus cuárteles generales de Munich, desde donde determina el destino de la officina.

Parece que Battistelli ha creído por mucho tiempo que todo puede ser apagado, como un grifo que gotea: Los carteles qeu demandan su retire como jefe de la EPO, carteles que lo caricaturizan como el ¨Rey Sol¨. Y los alegatorios documentos discriminatorios de su oficina, los rumores filtrados y esparcidos via forums del Internet. Uno no necesita ser un amigo del Francés para apreciar que Battistelli no estaría preparado para soportar esos ataques por mucho tiempo. Con una movida de lápiz quiso deshacerse de poderosos oponentes – pero esta vez parece haber ido muy lejos. En Enero Battistelli despidió a la dama jefa ejecutiva de la unión SUEPO, junto a dos de sus colegas, y cortó sus pensiones. Su alegación fue que ellos habíán amenazado a otros representantes de empleados, de acuerdo a él y a un reporte investigativo. Los abogados representando a los ejecutivos de la uniona rechazaron todas las acusaciones, y el despido arbitrario desató nuevas protestas. El Consejo Administrativo, entonces propuso que las controversiáles medidas disciplinarias sean investigadas por un organismo externo. Para el conciente por el poder Battistelli, esto fue una afronta. Supuestamente él salió de una reunión montado en cólera, tirándo la puerta detrás de él. Y el Consejo Administrativo ahora emitió un crudo ultimatúm, el cual circuló rápidamente en los forums del Internet y dió a sus oponentes al oportunidad de esperar una confrontación.

El circulo de Battistelli están insistiéndo que de ninguna manera este es el caso. La letra fue sólo un bosquejo, una pelea diplomática, y las demandas ya pasaron. Battistelli mismo es dicho que estaba del mejor de los estados de ánimo. Pero si es una cara de poker o confidencia real, los próximos dias lo dirán..

Dias después vino otro artículo de Katja Riedel del Süddeutsche Zeitung. Hubo una acción firme, que sirvió que sirvió para refutar la ¨cara de poker¨ deBattistelli. Aunque el artículo muestra sus bajas shortcomings. Fue publicado despues de la reunión cone el Consejo Administrativo y las masivas protestas.

A pesar de las protestas, Battistelli permanece a cargo en la Oficina Europea de Patentes

El Consejo Administrativo de la EPO ha adoptado una resolución el la que el mensaje subliminal es plenamente de condenación. El palabreo contiene ordenes para actuar por parte del asediado Presidente.

Por Katja Riedel

A pesar de las fuertes protestas y continuas demandas para que renuncie de parte de los trabajadores, el jefe de la Oficina Europea de Patentes Benoit Battistelli, continúa permaneciéndo en oficio. El Consejo Administrativo de la organización adopto una resolución en su reunión. El Consejo de Administración de la organización adoptó una resolución en su reunión con Battistelli, que estaba en curso desde el miércoles, que contiene órdenes para el Presidente para actuar – y también indica molestia por sus acciones. Sin embargo, el Consejo no cuestionó su posición a la cabeza de la OEP. Ellos, sin embargo, expresan serias preocupaciones por el hecho de que durante muchos meses una amarga lucha se ha desatado entre la dirección y el personal de la Oficina. Los rivales de Battistelli habían esperado que renunciaría, o que el Consejo Administrativo lo despediría. Los empleados estan en armas por sus estridentes ´reformas´, mientras Battistelli Battistelli es el objetivo de recortar la Oficina hacia una mayor eficiencia. Los miembros del personal también han repetidamente han quejado de ataques graves a sus derechos fundamentales, y también sobre una serie de procedimientos de investigación interna. El Consejo de Administración, en la que los representantes de los 38 Estados miembros se sientan, ya había ordenado Battistelli el año pasado para restablecer la paz social dentro de la oficina, pero desde entonces la situación de la organización internacional, con 7000 empleados, se ha intensificado aún más. Mientras tanto, varios de los principales miembros de la unión personal Suepo han sido despedidos por Battistelli, con acusaciones de graves faltas personales y hablar de campañas de difamación contra la gestión de la oficina. Los miembros del sindicato, por medio de sus abogados, niegan vehementemente las acusaciones.

Contrario a las demandas hechas hace unas pocas semanas por el Consejo Administrativo, estas controversiáles medidas disciplinarias van ahora ser investigadas por una agencia de afuere, lo que ha sido causa mayor de disputa entre Battistelli y el Presidente del Consejo. En su lugar, el acuerdo contiene ahora la condición de que Battistelli puede permitir futuros casos que deben examinarse externamente, y acordaron con el Consejo – una petición, no una instrucción. Lo mismo se aplica a la contratación de un mediador, que también tiene Battistelli hasta ahora rechazada. Parece poco probable que la resolución va a calmar las cosas.

También publicado en el mismo dia estuvo este artículo que es relativamente corto y no añade nada nuevo o único:

Movimiento del Consejo Administrativo apunta al ¨Diálogo Social¨ dentro de la Oficina Europea de Patentes

Jueves, 17.03.2016, 14:34

En el continue conflicto en la Oficina Europea de Patentes (EPO), la gerencia ejecutiva y el cuerpo de representantes SUEPO parecen permanecer bajo los deseos del Consejo Administrativo y comenzar a estar juntos de nuevo.

Este fue el objetivo de una resolución adoptada por el Consejo Administrativo en su reunión, en el cual el Presidente de la OEP, que Benoît Battistelli También se dice que ha aceptado, según un portavoz de la autoridad de patentes interestatal hablando el jueves a la Agencia Alemana de Prensa. La cuestión clave en la resolución es de seguir adelante con el diálogo social en la OEP rápidamente, así como la revisión y la reforma de los procedimientos disciplinarios. El jueves hubo inicialmente nadie disponible en Suepo para hacer un comentario.

Battistelli ha estado en la cima de la autoridad interestatal durante cinco años y medio, y está presionando por reformas. Estos incluyen el endurecimiento de las prácticas de trabajo y el control del rendimiento y tiempo libre, algo que ha llevado a una gran cantidad de críticas por parte de la organización de representación del personal. La OEP recientemente reconocida oficialmente la FFPE por la EPA, una unión en el sector de servicios públicos europeos, aunque esto se dice que representa un número mucho menor que los empleados de EPO Suepo, que hasta ahora no ha sido reconocida.

donaukurier.de, el cual ha publicado otros artículos en esta materia, escribió y publico los siguientes largos artículos (relativamente importantes o nueva información resaltada).

Miedo, Matoneo, Despidos

Múnich (DK) En la Oficina Europea de Patentes en Munich, el conflicto entre el Presidente y el personal es cada vez mayor. Se habla generalizada de violaciónes de derechos humanos, y de ser espiada, como la policía secreta Stasi. Sin embargo, la policía y la oficina del abogado del estado no son capaces de intervenir, porque la Oficina goza de inmunidad. Hoy podría ser el día del ajuste de cuentas de la gestión.

La cláusula es decisiva en el artículo 8 de la Convención Europea de Patentes. Esto rige la inmunidad de la Oficina Europea de Patentes (OEP). Lo que cae exactamente debajo se especifica este fallo en otro lugar: Está escrito allí, por ejemplo, que “Las autoridades de los Estados en los que la organización mantiene los locales que sólo pueden entrar en estos locales con el acuerdo del Presidente de la Oficina Europea de Patentes”. Para decirlo claramente, esto significa que, si bien la sede de la Oficina Europea de Patentes están situados en el centro de Múnich, junto al río Isar, no se aplican las leyes alemanas allí. La Convención, un acuerdo ratificado por 38 estados europeos y que forma parte del derecho internacional, estipula que ningún cuerpo policial, fiscal del estado, u otro nacional o estatal se permite el acceso. “Si la protección jurídica de una organización se establece en los convenios, a continuación, los tribunales alemanes no reciben una mirada en” enfatiza Sebastián Kolbe, un experto en derecho laboral de la Universidad Católica de Eichstätt. El ex juez de la Corte Constitucional Siegfried Bross incluso va tan lejos como para decir que, con construcciones intelectuales como estos, Guantánamo podría ser replicado en suelo alemán.

Para muchos de los empleados en la Oficina Europea de Patentes, en los últimos meses este fallo la inmunidad se ha convertido en una pesadilla. Dentro de la Oficina de un amargo conflicto se ha desatado entre la dirección durante el gobierno de Benoît Battistelli, un francés, y una gran parte de la fuerza de trabajo. Y la mano de obra no puede contar con hacer cualquier recurso a los tribunales nacionales. Hay un montón de empleados que hablan sobre el miedo que reina entre ellos, pero nadie se atreve a ser citado por su nombre por temor a represalias. La Oficina se rechaza rotundamente cualquier conexión entre cinco suicidios que se han producido entre los miembros del personal en los últimos cuatro años y las circunstancias que prevalecen en el trabajo. Según un portavoz de la EPO, la Oficina ha trabajado muy de cerca con las familias afectadas. “En ninguno de los casos se pudo establecer ninguna conexión causal entre el trabajo y la tragedia.” Luego pasó a hablar de los casos se utilizan con fines de explotación.

Es cierto que el personal de la EPO son en su mayor parte perceptores muy altas, así como disfrutar de una serie de privilegios fiscales. “Pero cualquiera que renuncia o es despedido, lo pierde todo”, dice una empleada, ya que la Oficina tiene su propio sistema de seguridad social y sus propias escuelas. Entrega de un preaviso de un significa que los niños tienen que salir de su escuela, y no hay ninguna prestación por desempleo – ni siquiera Hartz IV. las solicitudes de pensión se pueden restringir también.

El conflicto no está tomando rehenes. Entre otras cosas, en los últimos meses dos miembros del comité de empresa han sido despedidos, que también fueron destacados miembros de la unión personal de la casa Suepo, y una tercera ha sido degradada. La acusación contra ellos se alegaron contra la difamación de la Oficina, y después de haber acosado a un colega en el comité de empresa. “Una instancia individual y grave de mala conducta fue sacada a la luz”, según la oficina de prensa de EPO. Los saqueos se dice que es el resultado de un procedimiento disciplinario adecuado, y al parecer no tenía nada que ver con el hecho de que las personas afectadas eran miembros del comité de empresa.

Lo que según la legislación alemana sería prácticamente imposible, dado el alto grado de protección de los representantes de personal que ofrece la legislación del trabajo, es posible dentro de la EPO con relativamente ningún problema en absoluto – tirar un miembro del comité de empresa. Su estado es difícilmente comparable con la de los miembros del comité de empresa alemanes, sin embargo: El comité de empresa es, en efecto consultado sobre algunas cuestiones, y puede presentar recomendaciones, pero de acuerdo con el Código de EPO que no tiene derechos de discusión conjunta con efectos vinculantes.

El antecedente de la controversia radica en las reformas que Battistelli, armado con poderes muy amplio alcance, ha estado presionando a través desde su nombramiento a la oficina en 2010, y con el que pretende hacer el examen de patentes más eficiente. Muchos de sus medidas han incurrido en la resistencia de la fuerza de trabajo, y hay incluso han sido los reclamos de violación de los derechos humanos.

Una manzana de la discordia, por ejemplo, es un nuevo fallo en relación con el subsidio de enfermedad. De acuerdo con el Ministerio Federal de Justicia, que es responsable dentro del Gobierno Federal para el OPO, este fallo estipula que los empleados que reportan enfermos deben estar en su casa entre las 10.00 y las 12.00 horas y entre las 14.00 y las 16.00 horas, que la Oficina está facultada para comprobar en. Según un portavoz del Ministerio, sin embargo, la OEP ha restringido hasta ahora a estos casos absolutamente excepcionales. Suepo representa la situación tal como sustancialmente más grave. Los empleados enfermos sólo se les permite salir de sus casas para visitar a un médico que han sido notificados con anterioridad, aunque la enfermedad puede durar semanas o meses. Parece, también, que el médico designado por la Oficina se debe permitir el acceso a sus hogares. La respuesta de la portavoz de la Oficina es que la EPO es una organización internacional, y por lo tanto sería incapaz de cumplir exclusivamente por la práctica alemana. En otros Estados miembros, parece que tales resoluciones son completamente normales. Su objetivo parece en cualquier caso, para lograr una reforma: De acuerdo con la OEP, desde la introducción de los niveles dominantes de ausencia debido a la enfermedad han sido “bastante reducido sustancialmente”.

A esto se añade la “Unidad de Investigación”, que según Suepo es notorio en el OPO y considerado por los miembros del personal como “peor que la Stasi”. De acuerdo con una directriz interna, los acusados están obligados a proporcionar sin restricciones cooperación con la Unidad de Investigación, y el derecho de denegar el testimonio no existe. Los investigadores tienen el derecho, si se sospecha de una conducta impropia, para buscar oficinas y examinar los ordenadores. Suepo habla de “métodos de estado policial”, y critica el hecho de que el personal que investigan sólo responsables ante el Presidente, que, por tanto, es legislador, el fiscal, la policía y el juez, todo en uno. El Ministerio de Justicia, de acuerdo con sus propias afirmaciones, tiene varias veces llamados en Battistelli para cambiar estas pautas, pero hasta ahora sin éxito. El riesgo de autoincriminación, y la prohibición de la participación de un abogado en la investigación preliminar, se consideran particularmente inaceptable. Por el contrario, la Oficina de Patentes es enfático en que Battistelli está dispuesto a discutir estas directrices. 2016 se dice que es el año de consolidación y evaluación de las reformas.

Las posibilidades de Suepo tienen ningún efecto en la Oficina son, sin embargo, limitada. La Unión no es reconocido por la OEP como interlocutor, aunque mantiene que representa casi la mitad de los 7.000 o menos empleados. En lugar de ello, a principios de marzo la Oficina de Patentes anunció un “acuerdo pioneras” con la unión FFPE-EPO. Presidente Battistelli habló de un “hito en la reanudación del diálogo social”. Parece que a partir de ahora en la unión será reconocido formalmente como un interlocutor social.

Sin embargo, los únicos números FFPE-EPO unos 75 miembros, y se dice que está restringido a la base de EPO en La Haya, según fuentes Suepo. En la página de inicio FFPE-EPO, entre su establecimiento en 2008 y el anuncio de la firma del contrato de hace unos días, no hay una sola entrada. La unión no respondió a una investigación. La oficina de patentes, sin embargo, hace hincapié en el hecho de que el pequeño sindicato es una rama “de uno de los sindicatos más grandes en el sector de servicios públicos europeos”, y saluda el acuerdo como el comienzo de una relación más estrecha con los sindicatos.

Al mismo tiempo, Benoît Battistelli dio a conocer en el comunicado de prensa que el “Memorando de entendimiento” firmado con el FFPE-EPO es aparentemente abierto a todos los otros sindicatos de la Oficina Europea de Patentes. Una invitación que Suepo ha disminuido con gracias, ya que ve el acuerdo como un “acuerdo para amordazar”.

Lo que sucede después es en la actualidad no está claro. Hoy y mañana se reúne el Consejo de Administración, integrado por representantes de los 38 Estados miembros. Hasta ahora, se han destacado por detrás del presidente, pero más recientemente no tener signos de que ya no estarán cubriendo su espalda. A modo de ejemplo, informes de prensa sugieren que la silla danesa del Consejo de Administración, Jesper Kongstad, se ha pedido a Battistelli para mejorar el ambiente en el trabajo, y para permitir una investigación externa de las medidas adoptadas contra las tres juntas directivas. Hasta entonces, las medidas disciplinarias deben ser levantadas. En una carta de Kongstad a los demás miembros del Consejo, que está haciendo las rondas en Internet, se queja de que un diálogo serio con Battistelli recientemente resultó imposible, porque él salió de la reunión antes de tiempo. En respuesta a la pregunta de si Battistelli sigue siendo el hombre adecuado para el trabajo, el portavoz del Ministerio de Justicia se mostró evasivo: “También es en interés de Presidente Battistelli para restaurar la paz social en el OPO. Con este fin, la parte alemana mantiene un diálogo regular con él”.

Si el Presidente no está de acuerdo con el despido siendo investigados, los ejecutivos Suepo todavía tienen la posibilidad de recurrir a la Organización Internacional del Trabajo (OIT) en Ginebra, pero podría tomar años para una decisión que se siga recibiendo desde allí. La fuerza de trabajo en la Oficina de Patentes parecen decididos a continuar la lucha. La semana pasada, el 91 por ciento de los más de 4.000 empleados participantes votaron por una huelga. Antes de eso, sin embargo, se esperaban las decisiones del Consejo de Administración.

Donaukurier

La intervención de políticos Bavaros fue también de notar en ese entonces [1, 2] y la SUEPO tradujo una declaración como sigue:

————————————————————————————————————————————

FREIE WÄHLER, Free Voters,desea que la Oficina Europea de Patentes para seguir la línea / Schmidt: El estatus de Baviera con respecto a la protección de los empleados debe ser asegurado – y eso significa que en el conjunto de Baviera

Por el Consejo Editorial
Martes, 15. March 2016 16:01

Gabi Schmidt – landtagsabgeordnete.eu

(BWP) “Baviera no puede permanecer de brazos cruzados cuando en la Oficina Europea de Patentes, con sede en Munich, violaciónes de los derechos humanos que se están cometiendo”, declara Gabi Schmidt, portavoz de política social para la fracción Freie Wähler libre de votantes en el parlamento regional, el parlamento regional de Baviera. Con motivo de la reunión de mañana del Consejo de Administración de la Oficina Europea de Patentes, la FREIEN Wähler están tomando la iniciativa en apoyo de los empleados mediante la presentación de una moción de emergencia. A la vista de las graves acusaciones que se hizo por el personal en contra de su empleador, la acción necesita ser tomada – y llevado rápidamente. “Aun cuando la Oficina Europea de Patentes es una institución que existe fuera de cualquier estado particular, debemos ni podemos eludimos nuestra responsabilidad de lo que sucede en suelo bávaro”, por lo que las demandas Schmidt.

Los empleados han informado de engaño y el subterfugio: Por ejemplo, se dice que la Oficina de Patentes de haber hecho llamadas telefónicas e incluso visitas sin previo aviso, en caso de que un miembro del personal ha reportado enfermo, simplemente para comprobar si realmente son en casa, que supuestamente significa que la persona en cuestión ni siquiera se le permitió ir a dar un paseo. “No hay concordancia identificada aquí con las normas de trabajo de Alemania y de Baviera”, dice Schmidt, que continúa: “Por lo tanto, un llamamiento al Gobierno del Estado de cometer, a nivel federal y europea, a elevar los niveles de los empleadores. Nos FREIEN demanda Wähler que nuestras normas alemanas y bávaras probado y fiable también se aplican a la Oficina Europea de Patentes – sin peros “.

Fuente: fw-landtag.de

Es muy probable que la próxima semana la prensa cubrirá a la EPO de nuevo por la huelga.

Escándalo: La Oficina Europea de Patentes Sirve Únicamente a los Clientes de Microsoft con Software para Llenar Aplicaciones

Posted in Europe, Microsoft, Patents at 7:51 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

English/Original

Publicado en Europe, Microsoft, Patents at 2:31 pm por el Dr. Roy Schestowitz

No mucho por servicio ‘público’

Become a Microsoft customer and then

Sumario: La EPO erróneamente asume que todos los aplicantes son clientes de Microsoft y estan usando Windows, lo cual sería muy beneficioso para sus amigos cercanos en Microsoft

MICROSOFT ES completamente un personaje muy importante dentro de la EPO, les guste o no a los examinadores. Poniendo de lado el hecho de que deben usar spyware como Vista y sus derivados/sucesores (con keyloggers), los examinandores necesitan apurarse con aplicaciones por patentes de Microsoft, quien es un malicioso agresor de patentes con varios trolles de patentes – incluso en su propia casa – a su disposición (e.g. para atacar a GNU/Linux). En numerosas ocasiones, hemos explicado el por que la R.I.C.O. Act debe ser invocada aquí y talvez eso haga que Microsoft también comienze a detenerse.

“Observen como software sólo para Windows es visto como ‘normal’ en la EPO incluso en el 2016.”Basados en el anuncio de hoy el cual links a esta página (precaución: epo.org link), entre otra docena de links para download, casit todas terminaron siendo ejecutables sólo para Windows (un par son ZIP files también para Windows). Lo que lo hace peor es que basado en sus páginas de proyectos ellos estan usando Java [1, 2, 3], para que en teoría puedan ayudar a otras plataformas (pero no).

Lectores veteranos pueda que ya sepan que esto es una materia sensitiva; diciendo que la EPO es cercana a Microsoft es un negocio riesgoso. La EPO es super sensitiva acerca de ello (uno debería ver los débiles y parciales rechazos de los abogados de la EPO para entender cuán pobre es su base). TODOS los artículos que siempre quisieron ver removidos fueron acerca de MICROSOFT Y LA EPO. Acerca de esos artículos considerándo la ´relación especial´ entre EPO-Microsoft (sobres los que la EPO me AMENAZÓ), ¿Cómo suponer que los ignoremos dado el trato especial que reciben.

Observen como software sólo para Windows es visto como ‘normal’ en la EPO incluso en el 2016. !VERGONZOSO! Ellos necesitan arreglar esto o simplemente perpetuarán la percepción de una ´relación especial´ (algo acerca de que otros reporteros nos han hablado).

Links 31/3/2016: Bodhi Linux 3.2.0, Kirigami UI

Posted in News Roundup at 7:42 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME bluefish

Contents

GNU/Linux

Free Software/Open Source

  • Open-source microprocessor

    Software source codes and hardware designs tend to be closely guarded trade secrets. Not so with open-source products. For instance, the code of open-source software is freely available to all: the best known example is the Linux operating system. Not only are interested developers able to use the software, they can also further develop it and adapt it to their own needs.

  • Open-Source Microprocessor
  • Engineers Develop Open-Source Microprocessor for Wearables and IoT
  • eBay first to open source a FIDO UAF authentication server
  • eBay becomes first ecommerce member of FIDO Alliance
  • eBay joins FIDO Alliance
  • Google Introduces Open Source VR View For Easy 360-Degree Photo And Video Embeds On The Web And In Apps
  • Glucosio helps diabetics track blood sugar
  • Apcera is Integrating Kubernetes into its Cloud Platform

    Apcera has remained among the more interesting companies differentiating themselves in the cloud computing space, as we explored in our recent interview with Apcera SVP of Product and Engineering Neeraj Gupta (shown here). Now, Apcera has announced it will extend its platform to support Kubernetes, which recently moved under the direction of the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF). The company also announced that Apcera founder and CEO, Derek Collison, has joined the governing board for CNCF.

  • 1btn is a powerful, open source, do-it-all button for the Internet

    What can a simple button do? Amazon’s Dash can re-order houeshold supplies. Domino’s will order you your favorite pizza. The open-source 1btn, on the other hand, is capable of doing a whole lot more.

    1btn won’t be limited to performing a single action. You’ll be able to make it do just about anything you want via an easy-to-use web-based interface. No companion app is required to do it, either. You simply connect a Wi-Fi device to the hotspot that 1btn creates the first time you turn it on, launch a web browser, and point it to the 1btn’s built-in web server.

    Several popular services will be supported out-of-the-box, including Twilio to send SMS messages or emails. You’ll be able to set up URL-based actions like turning connected lights on and off, summon a ride to your front door, or start a pot of tea without putting your entire network at risk.

  • Profitable licensing models could bring more open source solutions to the enterprise

    While companies like Red Hat have managed to make a fortune by offering an open source solution, other open source developers have struggled to monetize what is commonly viewed as “free.” A Fair Source license could be a solution to help developers make money, while still upholding the spirit behind open source code.

  • Two key challenges of using open source in the enterprise [Ed: misses the point. Proprietary software has exactly the same 'challenges' (if not worse)]

    The proliferation of open source technologies, libraries, and frameworks in recent years has greatly contributed to the advancement of software development, increased developer productivity, and to the flexibility and customization of the tools landscape to support different use cases and developers’ preferences.

    To increase productivity and encourage a culture of autonomy and shared ownership you want to enable teams to use their tool(s) of choice. That being said, since the advent of agile development, we see large enterprises wrestle with striking a balance to allow this choice while also retaining a level of management, visibility, and governance over all the technologies used in the software delivery lifecycle. And this problem gets harder over time, because with every passing day new tools are being created and adopted to solve increasingly fine-grained problems in a unique and valuable way.

  • Events

    • Event: OSDC 2016

      Open Source Data Center Conference (OSDC) is a conference on open source software in data centers and huge IT environments and will take place in Berlin/Germany in April 2016. I will give a talk titled “Continuous Integration in Data Centers – Further 3 Years Later” there.

  • Web Browsers

    • Mozilla

      • Everyday Internet Users Can Stand Up for Encryption — Here’s How

        At Mozilla, we believe encryption is critical to the health of the Web. It allows us to live, work and play on a more secure Internet. Encryption helps keep the Internet exceptional.

        Today, encryption is being threatened around the world. More and more governments are proposing policies that would harm user security by weakening encryption. From France to Australia to the UK, these suggested measures would thwart strong encryption for everyday Internet users. And in the U.S., the FBI was asking Apple to undermine the security of its own products.

  • SaaS/Back End

    • Rancher Rolls Out Docker Container Management Platform

      The open-source effort hits general availability, enabling developers to manage and deploy containers.

      Rancher Labs today announced the general availability of its namesake platform Rancher 1.0, which provides tools that enable organizations to easily manage and deploy Docker containers.

    • The OpenStack Schizophrenia

      When I started contributing to OpenStack, almost five years ago, it was a small ecosystem. There were no foundation, a handful of projects and you could understand the code base in a few days.

      Fast forward 2016, and it is a totally different beast. The project grew to no less than 54 teams, each team providing one or more deliverable. For example, the Nova and Swift team each one produces one service and its client, whereas the Telemetry team produces 3 services and 3 different clients.

  • Databases

    • How NoSQL graph databases still usurp relational dynasties

      Despite being assaulted from all sides, the relational model for databases is still the king of the hill and it looks like it will not only survive, but thrive as well.

      NoSQL databases have become increasingly popular and have been offering a number of data and deployment modes that have overcome the limitations – real or imagined – of their SQL cousins.

      NoSQL databases come in a number of guises, but essentially they are designed either to make the life of the programmer easier or to overcome the problem of distributing data at scale.

  • Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

    • Apache OpenOffice Notice on Extensions

      Since 2012 we at SourceForge have been proud partners of the Apache OpenOffice community. We’ve maintained both the Apache OpenOffice Extensions and Templates sites and made sure to spread the word about their latest news and developments.

      It’s been reported that extensions that haven’t been updated in a while are displaying this warning message:

      “This extension was not updated recently. It might not work with latest versions of OpenOffice.”

      For registered users, there’s an additional message that allows them to contact the original author and apply to be a co-maintainer. As co-maintainer they can edit the extension description and create releases.

  • CMS

    • Drupal creator on saving the open web

      Can we save the open web? Dries Buytaert, creator of Drupal, talked to a group during SxSW Interactive about how he began the content management service (CMS) Drupal in his dorm room in 2001. Today, Drupal powers 1 out of 30 websites in the world. Technology has changed a lot from 2001 to 2016. Back in 2001, only 7% of the population had Internet access, there were only 20 million websites, and text messaging was just introduced. So, when we talk about the open web what we’re talking about is people having choice and transparency in their options.

  • Pseudo-Open Source (Openwashing)

  • FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

    • BMW complies with GPL by handing over i3 car code

      BMW has sent Terence Eden a DVD containing GPL-licenced code used in its electric i3 model .

      Why should you care? Because Oxford resident Eden last month inadvertently caused something of a global stir when he pondered the quality of the i3′s software and the security of BMW’s update mechanisms. Along the way he noticed that the i3′s on-board “About” screen mentioned it uses some GPL-licenced code and idly wondered if the auto-maker complies with the licence.

    • All’s Well That Ends Well With The GPL
    • Friday Free Software Directory IRC meetup: April 1st (not a joke)

      While the Free Software Directory has been and continues to be a great resource to the world over the past decade, it has the potential of being a resource of even greater value. But it needs your help!

  • Public Services/Government

    • Study: Organisation’s understanding impacts IT projects

      How much management and staff understand IT has a major influence on public administration’s large IT projects, writes Denmark’s ‘Government IT Project Council’ (Statens IT-projektråd). In its progress report on large IT projects, the Council recommends that public administrations improve project execution and project management competencies.

    • OMB Considering Greater Open Source Push

      OMB has published a draft policy to improve the way custom-developed government code is acquired and distributed by requiring that it be made available for reuse across federal agencies.

    • MIT Media Lab defaults to free & open source software

      MIT Media Lab, that 30-year-old tech innovation factory that has had a huge hand in churning out everything from LEGO MindStorms to the Guitar Hero video game, has now wowed the open source and free software crowd.

      Lab Director Joi Ito over the weekend revealed on the Medium blogging platform that MIT Media Lab has changed its approach to software releases to FLOSS (free/libre/open-source software) by default.

  • Licensing/Legal

  • Openness/Sharing/Collaboration

    • Study: ‘Smart cities need knowledge sharing platforms’

      Sustainable smart cities need to exchange best practices, focus on increasing citizen participation, and allow public and non-public delivery of innovative services. These are three of the policy recommendations in the ‘Smart Sustainable Cities – Reconnaissance Study’, published by the United Nations University in March.

    • Open Hardware/Modding

      • Opendesk, cracking the production code for open-source furniture

        Before the Industrial Revolution, if you wanted a new piece of furniture, you’d go to your local carpenter. Today, you’re more likely to buy a chair that’s made of Brazilian wood, designed by a Swede, and manufactured in China than one with even a single locally-produced nail. Enter Opendesk, a furniture company with a global network and local manufacturing model, which might just spark a new revolution in the industry.

  • Programming/Development

Leftovers

  • Health/Nutrition

    • Open source recycling initiative Precious Plastic launches to help users 3D print every type of plastic

      As the 3D printing community consumes vast amounts of plastic on a daily basis, it’s strange that recycling isn’t a more prominent theme in the community. To be sure, our failed prints are hardly responsible for filling the oceans and beaches of the world with non-degradable plastic, but as localized consumers of many different plastics, we could play a huge role in fighting plastic pollution. The only downside: not every plastic is easily 3D printable and recycling equipment is very costly. Fortunately, Dutch open source recycling initiative Precious Plastic has just launched an excellent alternative: they have provided all the blueprints and equipment necessary to set up your own recycling plant and allows you to reuse plastics, either as 3D printable filament or with DIY molding machines.

    • Two New Reports Released on the Current State of US Plastics Recycling
  • Security

  • Defence/Aggression

    • Falklands Nonsense

      Britain shows utter disregard to the right of self determination of the people of Diego Garcia, yet claims it as inalienable for the Falklanders. Evidently it is a vital universal right, except for rather dusky people.

      The corporate media have universally demonstrated their inability to understand any complex situation, in reporting the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf’s determination on Argentina. Here is a quick guide to what really was decided.

    • State Department: Let’s Fight ISIS With the #TeeVee

      No, no, just kidding about Taylor Swift, but the other stuff is sadly, pathetically true.

      To understand this, you need to understand the State Department. The Department is made up of a few old people in senior positions, and lots of young people (“millennials.”) Think of the old people as your sad, old dad after a divorce, bugging you to explain to him stuff like Tindr and Molly that wasn’t around when he was “dating” but now suddenly seems like something he needs to “get down with.”

      So that’s what happens inside State. Old people are told to stop ISIS somehow. They ask the young staffers about this social media gadget they read about in AARP magazine and the young people, none of whom have a rat’s butt worth of overseas knowledge but have lived their whole lives within a media bubble, tells the olds “Let’s do something social media, or make a TV thing we can show on YouTube. We’ll get, like, seriously, a zillion hits. Anti-ISIS will go, literally, viral, you know.”

    • Medea Benjamin and Arnie Gunderson

      Peter and Mickey open the program with a wide-ranging conversation with long-time social justice activist Medea Benjamin; the discussion covers topics from trade deals to drone warfare, as well as her latest project of trying to alert Americans about the human rights abuses committed by US ally Saudi Arabia.

    • Iraq Ranks In Ten Most Corrupt Countries In World, Again

      Iraq, the failed state that over 4,600 (and counting…) Americans died to free from some evil tyrant 13 years ago, is still ranking high internationally in something. Unfortunately, that something is corruption.

      A couple of other places where America has been intervening for freedom also made the list.

      Germany’s Transparency International released its newest corruption index for 2015, and as usual Iraq was on the list. The ten worst countries in its new study were Somalia, North Korea, Afghanistan, Sudan, South Sudan, Angola, Libya, Iraq, Venezuela, and Guinea-Bissau.

  • Transparency/Investigative Reporting

    • After Leading The Attack On Investigative Journalism, President Obama Whines About A Lack Of Investigative Journalism

      But he leaves out his own administration’s actions as a big part of why the job of reporting has “gotten tougher.” While he came into office promising “the most transparent administration in history” and one of his first official actions as President was to tell the entire federal government to default to revealing information in response to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, as we’ve detailed over and over again, the administration has actually been one of the most opaque, setting records for denying FOIA requests, and making it nearly impossible to get any information out of the government without a lawsuit.

      [...]

      And then, of course, there are the criminal lawsuits. The Obama administration has used the Espionage Act against more journalists and leakers than every other President in history combined… and doubled. And, as of two years ago, he had put media leakers in jail for nearly 50 times as long as all other administrations combined.

      That is not supporting investigative reporting. That is threatening and intimidating journalists and their sources. Creating true chilling effects and scaring people away from doing the very work that the President insists the media should be practicing.

      Way back in 2011, I saw Daniel Ellsberg speak, and he speculated that a key reason why President Obama was so incredibly hostile to a free and open press was because he was embarrassed by his own actions that they were investigating. Ellsberg pointed out that the previous president, George W. Bush was known for widely abusing the power of his position, but he seemed proud of doing so. President Obama, on the other hand, got elected with promises of moving away from such abuses and restoring civil liberties. But that didn’t happen. Things went in the other direction under his watch and his command. So you could understand why the President remains less than keen about leaks and the media digging into things like mass surveillance of Americans, or secret drone bombing campaigns.

    • BGA Sues CPD For Failing To Turn Over Video Footage

      Chicago Police Department stonewalls Better Government Association request for video of all fatal shootings by cops over past five years, so BGA takes agency to court.

    • Chicago’s New Era Of Transparency Looks Pretty Much Identical To Its Old Era Of Opacity

      Mayor Rahm Emanuel ushered in a new age of law enforcement/city transparency recently by opening his mouth and saying words to that effect. This followed the city/law enforcement sitting on the recordings of a highly-controversial shooting by police officers for more than a year.

  • Environment/Energy/Wildlife/Nature

    • Sea levels set to rise by more than a metre over next century, claims new research

      Sea levels are set to rise by more than a metre over the next century – more than twice the previous forecast, according to alarming new research.

      The threat posed by rising sea levels is much greater than had been thought because scientists have underestimated the effect of atmospheric global warming on Antarctic ice sheets – having tended to concentrate more on climate change’s role in warming the water than increasing the air temperature.

    • A new study predicts that parts of the ice sheet on western Antarctica may melt faster than scientists had previously figured

      Warmer air, less frigid water and gravity may combine to make parts of Antarctica’s western ice sheet melt far faster than scientists had thought, raising sea levels much more than expected by the end of the century, according to a new study.

      New physics-based computer simulations forecast dramatic increases in melting in the vulnerable western edge of the continent. In a worst case scenario, that could raise sea level in 2100 by 18 to 34 inches (46 to 86 centimeters) more than an international panel of climate scientists predicted just three years ago.

      And even if the countries of the world control heat-trapping gases at the moderate levels they pledged in Paris last year, it would still mean three to 12 inches (8 to 31 centimeters) higher seas than have been forecast thought, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature.

    • Adopting Sustainable Energy to Combat Climate Change

      The U.N. has reported that pollution caused by indoor stoves that use fire, coal, charcoal, or animal waste could account for as many as 4.3 million premature deaths annually. At the January 2016 summit, Ban noted that climate change disproportionately affects women and children, because they are the ones most directly exposed to these stoves and open flames. Furthermore, “It is women and girls who bear the brunt of collecting firewood and fuels,” argues Ban, activities that “limit their work and education opportunities.”

  • Finance

    • Sajid Javid Deliberately Collapsed British Steel

      The banks received state subsidies to the value of £35,000 from every man, woman and child in the UK. Yet it is unquestionable dogma that not even 0.1% of that can be given to aid manufacturing industry. I can think of no legitimate explanation of this duality.

    • Fight for the Future condemns Internet Association’s support for TPP

      Today the Internet Association, a trade group representing major web companies including Google, Twitter, and Facebook, endorsed the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement (TPP). Leading digital rights group Fight for the Future launched an online campaign in response, calling for the companies to drop their misguided support, and issued the following statement, which can be attributed to campaign director Evan Greer:

    • US Tech Industry Associations Endorse TPP

      A number of internet and software industry in the United States have come out in support of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiated by the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) last year.

      USTR sent a note to reporters today highlighting the trade associations that have supported TPP. The memo is reprinted below.

    • Ezra Klein and the Terrible, Horrible, No-Good Tax Calculator

      Actually, it does no such thing; it’s a gimmick that is entirely useless except as a deceptive advertisement for Hillary Clinton.

  • AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

    • How They Brainwash Us — Paul Craig Roberts

      Anyone who pays attention to American “news” can see how “news” is used to control our perceptions in order to ensure public acceptance of the Oligarchy’s agendas.

      For example, Bernie Sanders just won six of seven primaries, in some cases by as much as 70 and 82 percent of the vote, but Sanders’ victories went largely unreported. The reason is obvious. The Oligarchy doesn’t want any sign of Sanders gaining momentum that could threaten Hillary’s lead for the Democratic nomination. Here is FAIR’s take on the media’s ignoring of Sanders’ victories: http://fair.org/home/as-sanders-surges-cable-news-runs-prison-reality-show-jesus-documentary/

      We can observe the same media non-performance in the foreign affairs arena. The Syrian army adided by the Russian air force just liberated Palmyra from ISIS troops that Washington sent to overthrow the Syrian government. Although pretending to be fighting ISIS, Washington and London are silent about this victory on what is supposed to be a common front against the terror group.

  • Censorship/Free Speech

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • Google has also been asked to unlock stuff for the FBI

      APPLE IS NOT the only firm to be approached by the US authorities under the hoary All Writs Act, according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and the request has also gone the way of Google.

      Apple has been getting all the attention for defying demands under the All Writs Act in recent weeks, but an ACLU study found that 63 other requests had been directed at Google.

    • The Trouble with Tor

      The Tor Project makes a browser that allows anyone to surf the Internet anonymously. Tor stands for “the onion router” and that describes how the service works. Traffic is routed through a number of relays run across the Internet where each relay only knows the next hop (because each hop is enclosed in a cryptographic envelope), not the ultimate destination, until the traffic gets to the final exit node which connects to the website — like peeling the layers of an onion.

    • Global majority backs a ban on ‘dark net,’ poll says

      The findings, from a poll of at least 1,000 people in each of 24 countries, come as policymakers and technology companies argue over whether digital privacy should be curbed to help regulators and law enforcement more easily thwart hackers and other digital threats.

    • The state has lost control: tech firms now run western politics

      By now, the fact that transatlantic democratic capitalism, once the engine of postwar prosperity, has run into trouble can hardly be denied by anyone with the courage to browse a daily newspaper.

      Hunger, homelessness, toxic chemicals in the water supply, the lack of affordable housing: all these issues are back on the agenda, even in the most prosperous of countries. This appalling decline in living standards was some time in the making – 40 years of neoliberal policies are finally taking their toll – so it shouldn’t come as a shock.

      However, coupled with the spillover effects of wars in the Middle East – first the refugees, now the increasingly regular terrorist attacks in the heart of Europe – our economic and political malaise looks much more ominous. It’s hardly surprising that the insurgent populist forces, on both left and right, have such an easy time bashing the elites. From Flint, Michigan, to Paris, those in power have accomplished such feats of cluelessness and incompetence that they have made Donald Trump look like a superman capable of saving planet Earth.

    • Former NSA deputy director says Edward Snowden lacks courage

      In the first segment of an interview with Chris Inglis, former deputy director of NSA, the Irari Report talks with him about his perceptions of Edward Snowden’s motivations and intentions in committing his acts of espionage. In the video segment, Inglis discusses his impressions of Snowden, and theorizes as to why Snowden left for China, and to where he intended to defect.

      Edward Snowden’s defection occurred during Inglis’ tenure as Deputy Director of NSA, and as such, Inglis was extremely involved in overseeing the investigation incident and mitigation of the resulting damage. Inglis states that Snowden was indiscriminate in his release of information, and is full of rage. When asked to comment on why Snowden has not released any documents about Russian or Chinese domestic surveillance efforts, which are plentiful throughout NSA, and would have been readily available to Snowden while he was at NSA, Inglis stated that Snowden lacks any courage to speak up about any concerns while he might be held accountable.

    • Global majority backs a ban on ‘dark net,’ poll says

      Seven in 10 people say the “dark net” – an anonymous online home to both criminals and activists fearful of government surveillance – should be shut down, according to a global Ipsos poll released on Tuesday.

      The findings, from a poll of at least 1,000 people in each of 24 countries, come as policymakers and technology companies argue over whether digital privacy should be curbed to help regulators and law enforcement more easily thwart hackers and other digital threats.

    • European hearing may limit GCHQ’s powers

      An upcoming European hearing over UK surveillance laws may result in a severe limitation on GCHQ’s powers.

      The Guardian reported yesterday that a European emergency hearing over the legality of such laws would be held for the first time on April 12th.

      In dispute are laws like the incoming Investigatory Powers bills or the 2014 Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act (DRIPA), which makes telecommunications providers retain the data of customers for potential later use by security services.

      Both laws are widely condemned by privacy advocates for the violating powers that they grant the forces of national security.

      Tom Watson MP and David Davis MP, leading members of the Labour and Conservative parties respectively, brought a legal challenge against the Home Office last year, over the rushing through of DRIPA. The two MPs claimed that such a law directly conflicted with law which superseded the authority inherent in DRIPA, like the European Union Charter on Human Rights.

    • Protesters interrupt former NSA, CIA director’s lecture at Duquesne University

      Gen. Michael V. Hayden, former director of the National Security Agency and the CIA, said he was not surprised when four young protesters interrupted his remarks Tuesday afternoon at Duquesne University. He has had to make some difficult and controversial decisions in the war on terror.

    • Protesters interrupt former NSA, CIA head’s Duquesne lecture
  • Civil Rights/Policing

    • Congressman Wants To Make Attacking A Cop A Federal ‘Hate’ Crime

      The proposal is also accompanied by a heartfelt “Dear Colleague” letter that talks about cops “holding together the fabric of our nation” and how they’ve been “intimidated” by recent acts of violence. No statistics are cited to back up his insistence that this a real problem that needs to be addressed with legislation… because there aren’t any.

      The National Law Enforcement Memorial Fund’s stats show the number of officers killed in the line of duty has been decreasing over the last several years and appears to have hit a lower plateau of ~120/year for the past four years.

    • UNHRC investigator: Hebron killing has all the signs of an ‘extra judicial execution’

      The Hebron shooting last week was an extrajudicial execution, charged United Nations special rapporteur Christof Heyns on Wednesday, as he weighed in on the controversial incident in which an IDF soldier shot a Palestinian assailant as he lay apparently wounded and immobile on the ground.

    • Why do some Israeli soldiers use unauthorized force?

      An Israeli soldier was detained last week after allegations that he shot and killed a wounded Palestinian man lying incapacitated on the ground. Moments earlier the Palestinian, 21-year-old Abd al-Fatah a-Sharif, along with another man, had allegedly stabbed and injured a soldier in the West Bank city of Hebron. The stabbing is one of the latest in a wave of attacks against Israeli soldiers and civilians in the past six months.

    • Groups Call for France to Investigate IDF Shooter for ‘War Crime’ if Israel Absolves Him

      Human rights groups said Wednesday that France should investigate the French-Israeli soldier filmed shooting a Palestinian attacker in the head and killing him while he lay motionless, if the Israeli justice system fails to convict him.

    • Israeli military chief appeals to soldiers after shooting
    • Why Israel Is Warming Up to The World’s Largest Muslim Country

      Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for the establishment of official diplomatic relations with Indonesia on Monday, as the world’s largest Muslim country continues to look eastwards to boost diplomatic and economic ties.

    • Police Charge Trump Campaign Manager With Battering Reporter, Release Video Evidence

      Donald Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski has been charged with battering then-Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields.

      The incident occurred on March 8. Fields alleged Lewandowski forcibly yanked her after she asked Trump a question. Despite an eyewitness account from a Washington Post reporter corroborating her version of events, Lewandowski denied any involvement with the incident whatsoever and called Fields an “attention seeker.”

    • My daughter was offered a place at an academy – so I’m home-schooling until she can go somewhere I trust

      And I don’t trust academies. Not one bit. I don’t trust any organisation that removes their employees’ right to unionise, or one that no longer values the trained over the untrained. If you don’t respect teaching qualifications, after all, then why should my child respect your teachers?

    • Appeals Court Says Indiana’s Bad Anti-Texting Law Can’t Be Used To Justify Stops Or Searches

      The opinion dismantles the government’s arguments with aplomb, taking apart each assertion made to defend a drug bust predicated on something that doesn’t even approach “reasonable” suspicion. Extending the government’s logic to other possibly illegal acts, the court points out the government’s reliance on this terrible law is woefully misguided. Since the government can’t possibly know how many people looking at their phones while driving are performing illegal acts, it can’t base traffic stops on nothing more than the mere possibility something illegal may be happening.

    • Jean Charles de Menezes: Family of Tube shooting victim lose human rights case

      The family of Jean Charles de Menezes have lost a human rights challenge over the decision not to bring charges against British police marksmen over his death.

      Judges at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled British prosecutors were right not to charge police officers over Brazilian electrician’s fatal shooting in 2005.

      It comes more than a decade after he was mistaken for a suicide bomber and shot dead by police marksmen on a London Tube train.

    • Conductors to shut down rail network in wildcat strike

      Train conductors in Finland will walk off the job on Thursday in protest at the government’s transport policies, causing the cancellation of some 300 long-distance services. The move comes on the heels of the announcement that some 214 jobs could be lost as the state railways company VR looks to cut costs.

    • Passenger train monopoly nears the end of the line, several operators show interest

      Finland’s passenger train traffic is set to open up for competition in 2017, a move that will likely end years of market domination by the state-owned operator VR. The Ministry of Transport and Communications says over ten companies have expressed an interest in the prospect of a market share.

    • ‘We Have Never Ignored Cuba’

      FAIR contributor Adam Johnson noted recently how in this country discussion of US history, and that of its allies, is permitted a certain moral nuance, while official enemies are presented as essentially, unrelievedly evil. So it is with Cuba, where Barack Obama just paid the first visit by a sitting US President in 88 years. Any mention of, say, Cuba sending doctors overseas to help in crisis zones is nullified in elite US debate by the fact that—it’s Cuba! Where Castro lives! Few countries are drawn as cartoonishly, making a clear view of Cuba’s strengths and struggles, along with the meaning of any supposed thaw with the US, harder to come by.

  • Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

    • AT&T Follows Comcast’s Lead, Now Charging Users $30 More To Avoid Usage Caps

      Last fall, Comcast added a new wrinkle to its plan to impose arbitrary and unnecessary usage caps on the company’s broadband customers. It began charging users a $30-$35 premium if users wanted to avoid caps, effectively turning the idea of unlimited data into a luxury option many could no longer afford. Caps continue to be a great way to impose price hikes on uncompetitive broadband markets, charge more money for the same service, with the added bonus of both curtailing — and cashing in on — the growing use of Internet video.

    • FCC Commissioner: Gov’t Should Never Interfere In Private Markets…Unless ISPs Have A Chance To Mock Netflix

      As we just got done noting, Netflix recently admitted that it has been throttling the streams it sends to AT&T and Verizon wireless customers in order to lessen the impact of usage caps. While most everybody agrees that Netflix should have been transparent about the practice, most also agree that Netflix — an outspoken opponent of usage caps and supporter of net neutrality — was actually trying to improve the customer experience with the move. As such, no real harm was done, and nobody even noticed that Netflix had been doing it — for five years. Really not much of a story in and of itself.

      But the telecom industry and its allies, outraged by Netflix’s support of net neutrality, opposition to usage caps, and the threat it poses to legacy TV, have been desperately and hysterically trying to paint Netflix’s reveal as some kind of immense gotcha.

    • Romania opens broadband networks to competition

      The Romanian government has approved a draft law aiming to reduce the cost of broadband communication infrastructure. For example, the bill sets tariffs that give competitors access to physical telecommunications infrastructure. The law also defines a single point of information, to be managed by the Agency for Digital Agenda of Romania.

  • DRM

    • Why Won’t W3C Carve Security Research Out Of Its DRM-In-HTML 5 Proposal?

      A few years back, we wrote a few stories about the unfortunate move by the W3C to embrace DRM as a part of the official HTML5 standard. It was doubly disappointing to then see Tim Berners-Lee defending this decision as well. All along this was nothing more than a focus by the legacy content providers to try to hinder perfectly legal uses and competition on the web by baking in damaging DRM systems. Even Mozilla, which held out the longest, eventually admitted that it had no choice but to support DRM, even if it felt bad about doing so.

      There are, of course, many problems with DRM, and baking it directly into HTML5 raises a number of concerns. A major one: since the part of the DMCA (Section 1201) makes it infringing to merely get around any technological protection measure — even if for perfectly legal reasons — it creates massive chilling effects on security research. To try to deal with this, Cory Doctorow and the EFF offered up something of a compromise, asking the W3C to adopt a “non-aggression covenant,” such that the W3C still gets its lame DRM, but that W3C members agree not to go after security researchers.

  • Intellectual Monopolies

    • India, EU Leaders Touch On IPR, Innovation, ICTs, Pharmaceuticals

      The leaders of India and the European Union today in Brussels discussed a wide range of topics including intellectual property rights – including geographical indications – innovation, digital issues, and health and pharmaceuticals.

      But details on what was said were few.

      The 13th EU-India Summit was held on 30 March. The EU was represented by Donald Tusk, President of the European Council, and Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission. India was represented by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi.

    • Trademarks

      • Federal Circuit denies writ of mandamus in Slants case

        Tam, who fronts the Asian-American band The Slants, petitioned the Federal Circuit for a writ of mandamus to instruct the director of the USPTO to publish his application, which the director opposed.

      • CJEU on taser, ahm, tacit prorogation of jurisdiction

        The facts of the case are rather simple. In 2008, Taser International concluded an agreement with the Romanian company Gate 4 which obliged Gate 4 to assign to Taser International the Taser trade marks which Gate 4 had registered, or for which it had applied for registration, in Romania. The agreement contained a clause conferring exclusive jurisdiction on a court in the United States. Gate 4 refused to fulfil its obligations and Taser International sued it before the Tribunalul Bucureşti (District Court, Bucharest). Gate 4, despite the jurisdiction clause, entered an appearance before the Romanian court without challenging its jurisdiction. The Romanian court found for Taser and ordered Gate 4 to execute the formalities necessary to transfer the trade marks.

      • Court Rules Against Lionsgate In TD Ameritrade Suit For Dressing Up Copyright Claim As A Trademark Claim

        Last year, we wrote about a lawsuit Lionsgate Studios had initiated against TD Ameritrade over a throwaway line at the end of one of the latter’s advertising spots. That commercial included the line, “Nobody puts your old 401(k) in the corner,” an imperfect parody of a famous line from Dirty Dancing, the rights for which are owned by Lionsgate. The fact that the ad was no longer running at the time of the lawsuit, nor the fact that Lionsgate was in no way involved in the investment business, failed to keep the studio from claiming this was trademark infringement. The studio even went so far as to hilariously claim that consumers would be confused into thinking that TD Ameritrade either had rights to the movie or was in some way affiliated with Lionsgate Studios.

    • Copyrights

      • Creative Content UK Aims to Re-Educate Book Pirates

        The UK government’s multi-million pound campaign to deter Internet piracy is now hoping to reach out to book fans. A new and rather pleasant video published under the Creative Content UK banner extols the virtues of buying books from genuine sources, but whether it will resonate with the younger generation more used to digital acquisition remains to be seen.

      • Copyright Does Not Protect the Klingon Language, Court Hears

        Paramount Pictures and CBS Studios can’t claim copyright over the Klingon language, Vulcan’s pointy ears, or Phaser weapons, a court heard this week. This defense comes from the makers of crowdfunded Star Trek spin-off ‘Prelude to Axanar’, who were sued over their use of various well-known Star Trek elements.

      • DMCA’s Notice And Takedown Procedure Is A Total Mess, And It’s Mainly Because Of Bogus Automated Takedowns

        Both Congress and the Copyright Office continue to explore possible ways to reform copyright laws, and one area of interest to a lot of people is reforming the whole “notice and takedown” process in the DMCA. The legacy players have been pushing for a ridiculously stupid concept they’re calling “notice and staydown” in which they argue that once there’s a notice for a particular piece of content, a platform needs to proactively block any copies of that content from ever being uploaded again. This is dumb and dangerous for a variety of reasons, starting with the fact that it would place tremendous burdens on smaller players, while locking in the more dominant large platforms that can build or buy systems to handle this. But, even more importantly, copyright infringement is extremely context dependent. The same content may be infringing in one context, while protected fair use in another. But a notice and staydown process would completely wipe out the fair use possibilities, and potentially violate the First Amendment (remember, the Supreme Court itself has declared fair use to be the “safety valve” that allows copyright law to fit with the First Amendment).

      • Nigerian Government Says Country Needs More Jail Time For Pirates And Control Over Content Of Creative Works

        That should make people “respect” copyright more. Put ‘em in jail for violating ethereal rights. Or for contributing to terrorism. Or for making the government look bad. It’s all pretty much interchangeable as far as the government — and the backers of the government’s plan — are concerned. Stiffer penalties have done little to curb piracy elsewhere in the world and are frequently a PR nightmare when imposed. Piracy spread Nollywood’s influence throughout the world and allowed its films to be viewed by residents of other repressive nations whose governments have maintained local control of creative content.

        The minority represented here is hoping to control not only the distribution, but the content, of future creative works. Piracy may be the talking point, but government expansion and increased protectionism are the ultimate goals.

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