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01.11.16

Abogados de Patentes Continua to Circular Tenebrosas Noticias Acerca de Patentes, UPC, Demandas a Granel, Ataques de Patentes Como Buenas Noticias

Posted in Europe, Patents at 7:28 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

English/Original

Publicado in Decepción, Europe, Patents at 9:03 am por el Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Bueno para los abogados y sus super afluentes clientes MALO para el resto…

The trickle-down
Efecto de goteo de patentes: grandes corporaciones arriba, debajo sus abogados de patentes, y el público jodido (con juicios, embargos, bloqeos y saqueos).

Sumario: Recojo de información de abogados de patentes, para quienes cualquier clase de apropiación corporativa o monopolio (a traves de patentes) es considerado GANANCIA.

Los portavoces de la OEP y de los trolls de patentes, no pueden detenerse (NI LO HARÁN). Y cuando se mueven (hablan) MIENTEN. Nuestras mándibulas colectivas (no sólo la mía) están por los suelos cuando vemos a IAM decir: ¨El títular es que los jucios de patentes en los Estados Unidos baten records. La realidad es que nunca ha sido duro ser demandante.¨

Las reynas del drama, ¨Demandante¨ simplemente significa AGRESOR DE PATENTES, y en muchos casos estos agresores son patent trolls, como aquellos que págan a ´iam´ (nos cuesta decire esto). Cifras de Patentes Unidas y Lex Machine son cítadas por iam (cuyas fuentes y descubrientos fueron mencionados antes) y iam NO ESTA NEGANDO EL INCREMENTO DE LITIGIOS, sólo encontrado algunos medidas para revolver esas cifras en FAVOR DE LOS ABOGADOS DE PATENTES, quienes reciben dinero de los trolls de patentes. Recuerdén que iam is financiado (a través de eventos) para los más agrésivos trolls de patentes (está explícitamente en su lista de promotores). Hemos cubierto esto antes. Los propagandistas de patentes de ´IAM´ van tán lejos para revolver noticias acerca de las guerras de patentes como si fuesen buenas noticias (en largos artículos).

La gente puede pensar que somos crueles e inmisercordiosos con ´IAM´, pero esta gente es PELIGROSA, ellos están hablando a Manny Schechter, quien promueve patentes de software para IBM [1, 2] así como pare gente de influencia como Wouter Pors (quien en ocasiones crítica a la OEP) usan a ´IAM´ para promover para promover a la Corte Unitaria de Patentes. Hace unos días escribió: ¨la retificación del acuerdo de la Corte Unitaria de Patentes (UPC) por parte de Alemania probablemente será pospuesta hasta Setiembre del 2016 y será decisiva para que el systema de Patente Unitaria (UP) salga en vivo. Woter Pors, socio de la firma de abogados Bird & Bird, ha dicho en una entrevista con Kluwer IP Law. Trece retificaciones son necesarias para que el nuevo systema europeo de patentes comienze a funcionar, incluyendo aquellas de Francia, Reino Unido, y Alemania. Hasta ahora sólo ocho países incluyendo Francia, han retificado.¨

Entonces estaba citando al portavoz de la OEP ´iam´ revista, como sigue: ¨En un reciente reporte de ´iam´, se seńaló que hasta ahora no han habido signos de cuando Alemania retificará el acuerdo de Corte Unitaria de Patentes.

El llamado ´iam’simplemente empuja a Alemania a hacerlo (por lo menos tres veces hemos notado). Al fondo dice: ¨Wouter Pors is uno de los expositores en la Conferencia del Paquete Unidad de Patentes, el 4 y 5 de Febrero 2016 en Amsterdan.¨

Esta es una pro-Corte Unitaria de Patentes promovida por abogados de patentes, notablemente NLO, ¨una de las más grandes firmas europeas proveyendo consejo especializado en el campo de propiedad intelectual en todos sus aspectors por más de 125 años,¨ de acuerdo con la página de sus partidarios.

Se dice que costará unas €1000 para atender, asegurándose que todos los participantes harán eco de esas nefastas propuestas con no divergencia. Es un evento de abogados para abogados, y SUS MULTIBILLINARIOS CLIENTES (compañías como IBM y Microsoft).

Recuerden que es evento pro-UPC promovido por la OEP a través de FTI Consulting, ´iam’está organizando esto. Todos ellos están TRABAJANDO JUNTOS PARA CONSEGUIR MÁS DINERO PARA ELLOS Y SUS RICOS CLIENTES (largas corporaciones multinacionales) al costo de todos los demás. El systema de patentes tiene un moño ribbon rojo, asegurándose que todo quien interactue con el esta presionado a pagar a un abogado (como compartimos en una historia de una PYME).

Dicho ayer por un sitio de un abogado de patentes (linked a una ínvestigación), la barra de patentes se ha convertido en una necesida para muchos. El abstracto dice que la ¨mayoría de abogados no pueden representar clientes en la Oficina de Patentes. La posibiidad de un crítico debate acerca de su tamaño y estructura de la barra de patentes es sorprendentemente dado que innovadores gastan billones de dolares cada año en servicios legales en la oficina de patentes.

Para citar a un periódico (unas semanas atrás): ¨muchas compañías sólo contratan abogados de patentes con experiencia relevante en la área tecnólogica, y no simplemente confían en status de ¨abogado de patentes¨ como calificación.¨

Todo este enredo de patentes y altercados en corte (o con examinadores) es negocio grande para los llamados ¨non-producing¨ actors (aquellos que acumulan patentes) y no los mismos inventores. Los inventores son simplemente los que pierden dinero. PARA QIÉN ES ESTE SYSTEMA REALMENTE? Seriamente, hablen a las PYMEs acerca de sus experiencias negativas con la OEP.

Miren que pasó esta semana en el CES Tech Show de Las Vegas, basado en éste nuevo reporte de la BBC. Para citar al reportero: ¨Los oficiales confiscaron todos los vehículos de una rueda de la compañía y sacaron los letreros y avisos de una compañía rival de Silicon Valley por una supuesta infracción de patentes.¨

Yay, innovación!

Es como la situación de la mafia Sisvel de patentes [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13] sólo en los Estados Unidos. Ellos trabajan grandes compañías. Miren al trístemente célebre ´IAM´ defendiendo esto! Ellos DISFRAZAN ESTO COMO AYUDAR AL PEQUEÑO O A LOS INVENTORES, cuando obviamente es exactamente lo CONTRARIO (sólo lo que estan en el mismo negocio son los que están de acuerdo con ´iam´, ejemplo Jeremy Phillips).

No es falta de consideración o rudo señalar quien y donde están. Florian Muller, por instancia parece haber cambiado de opinión para verdaderamente oponerse a software patentes y aquellos que la usan contra Linux. Sin considerar su pasado (INCLUYENDO PAGOS DE MICROSOFT), deberíamos darle la bienvenida de regreso a la lucha contra las patentes de software en Europa y todo el mundo. █
________
* Despues de bloquear mucha gente que no estaba de acuerdo con ellos, ´IAM´ decidió que era futil (no puedes magicamente evitar el criticismo público) y ahora est desbloqueando todos aquellos que fueron bloqueados, supuestamente por ¨año nuevo¨ [1, 2, 3].

01.10.16

How the EPO Imposes Secrecy Around Mock ‘Trials’ and What the EPO Calls ‘Violence’

Posted in Europe, Patents at 7:45 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: Threatening letters sent to people inside the EPO to coerce them into silence, or impose a total lack of involvement in unjust show trials (union-busting moves)

R

epresentatives of EPO staff are under extreme pressure because management of the EPO is squeezing them really hard whilst attempting to maintain the appearance of calm (like the bogus ‘social’ dialogue initiated at the middle of last year). People mustn’t be misled by the appearance of calm. It leads to dangerous passivity and can only ever prevent justice.

“People mustn’t be misled by the appearance of calm.”We have decided to disclose the following letter sent by Team Battistelli a few months ago. One can clearly see the level of threats (to one’s job) for merely discussing an ongoing bogus ‘investigation’ (in practice union-busting). Notice the severity of the threats in page 1:

Letter for secrecy

In page 2 we finally see what the EPO laughably deems “violence” (the PR strategy which paints EPO management as the victim). It’s some private posting which was already removed anyway.

Letter for secrecy

Here again are demands for secrecy. What kind of human rights standards are these? How can the EPO pretend to be a public institution? It abuses people (to whom ILO is too slow to help) and those who dare to speak about this abuse are themselves being accused of abuse (for merely communicating these matters). It is a cyclic thing.

The EPO is an exceptionally abusive enterprise. Thankfully, actions are being taken against the EPO at several levels right now, as we shall show in the coming weeks.

EPO staff needs to start communicating these matters and properly organise against this abusive management. █

“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”

–Benjamin Franklin

Not Just Three (or Even Six) EPO Staff Representatives Under Attack

Posted in Europe, Patents at 7:04 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Eliminating/purging the messengers, banning disclosure of this purge

Phone silence

Summary: Attempts to silence staff of the EPO are more widespread than is generally known to EPO staff

THE EPO — surprise surprise! — is not an ordinary institution. It’s secretive, it lies (a lot, at the highest level), and it breaks the rules as if none exist.

One important point which is worth making/stressing right now is that EPO staff has been kept in the dark and a lot of staff doesn’t quite realise how bad things really are. There is a reality distortion field, so to speak. Several people whom we spoke to make this ever more evident. “On another subject,” told us one source, “the details [about suspensions] began to reach me with urgency as soon as it happened. I was told the names of the parties involved, and the shocking treatment of the colleagues at The Hague, with whom I was acquainted, but I didn’t quite know what to do with the information because I couldn’t reveal the names of the parties [Jesús Areso, Laurent Prunier, Malika Weaver, Brumme, Michels].” Then there’s the case against Elizabeth Hardon.

Techrights is aware of other affected parties. The EPO does not want anyone to know about this. We predict that later this month a new scandal will be revealed and surface in the press, as the EPO’s gagging efforts non-disclosure agreement equivalent) will become increasingly ineffective. There’s explosive stuff waiting to break out. █

“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.”

–Thomas Jefferson

Technology Companies at CES Lash Out at the USPTO for Enabling ‘Extortion Rackets’

Posted in America, Patents at 6:35 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Not only the EPO equips patent racketeers

Capone

Summary: The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is finally being accused by companies and people who are suffering from patents (those which it so habitually grants, including software patents) of enabling “extortion rackets”, to quote a respected journalist who attended or covered a session with Michelle Lee, the Director of the USPTO

THE just-ended expo in the United States, CES, revealed the first CES raids [1, 2] that we’re aware of. In fact, only in Europe have we heard of/seen such scenes before [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13]. Companies that were at CES reportedly complained to the USPTO about the state of affairs. A highly-reputed journalist was there and wrote that “tech industry still hates patent trolls, but it’s starting to have good things to say about the government agency that issues the patents those trolls later wield in what amounts to a legalized extortion racket.”

“When we accused the EPO of doing something similar the EPO threatened to sue.”Well, companies like Microsoft do this as well, not just patent trolls. Racket is what it is, or an “extortion racket.” We have been saying this for years. When we accused the EPO of doing something similar the EPO threatened to sue. The report continues with: “That was the somewhat surprising conclusion of a panel discussion at CES Friday morning that featured some of the leading critics of the current patent system — and was introduced by Michelle Lee, director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.”

The USPTO still issues software patents (and issued even more of them before); these are the sorts of patents that almost all patent trolls are using, so the USPTO ought to be held at least partly accountable. Ever since the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) gave the green light to software patents the USPTO has issued hundreds of thousands of software patents. CAFC, as we have shown before, is corrupt at several levels (see past articles) and hence highly biased. Patents lawyers’ fronts such as Post-Grant Practice Group (profiting from patent maximalism) have just latched onto CAFC, as expected, saying that “efficacy of objective evidence of non-obviousness (i.e., secondary indicia) hinges on the ability to demonstrate a “nexus” between the evidence and the subject patent claims. This is because such evidence cannot be accorded substantial weight absent a nexus to the claimed invention. As pointed out in a previous post a compelling showing of nexus is more likely in the unpredictable arts where specific formulations, dosages and the like are more readily correlated to such secondary indicia as commercial success and long-felt but unsolved needs.”

“It is evident that producing technology companies (excepting monopolies that use their brands and their patents, not production) are dissatisfied with the status quo.”The wording/words in the above article/blog are designed to mislead (they’re hard to read/follow because clarity isn’t the goal). What they are trying to allude to, in simpler terms, is that “non-obviousness” (i.e. difficulty of coming up with an idea) can be demonstrated with claims (in the patent application) and evidence. A lot of these foreign language (or cryptic) terms are the way patent lawyers make their business. They make the language (legalese) hard for many people to follow (even to examiners who are purely technical) and this way they can trick people into granting what’s not grantable (patent-ineligible).

There still needs to emerge a movement strong enough and broad enough to antagonise the likes of CAFC, the USPTO, and patent lawyers because they are all patent maximalists. Maximalism benefits them directly. It is evident that producing technology companies (excepting monopolies that use their brands and their patents, not production) are dissatisfied with the status quo. █

A Busy Week Ahead for the EPO’s Management as Union-busting Efforts Culminate

Posted in Europe, Patents at 5:57 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Going after the scapegoats at the top would only backfire, patently so…

SUEPO reps

Summary: A look ahead at what basically constitutes another phase in the EPO’s effort to fire high-profile critics and scare the rest of them

THERE HAS not been much public output regarding the EPO as of late. EPO accounts (Web site, Twitter etc.) are barely active, SUEPO administrators are away, and “EPO President, Mr. Battistelli,” told me one person today, “will be in South America-Colombia on January 29, talking about Unitary Patents.” Here we have evidence that UPC lobbying carries on. Thou shalt not interfere with Battistelli’s Grand Plan.

“The EPO’s management made a grave mistake when it attempted to silence dissent rather than quell is by mutual understanding, concessions, recognition, etc.”A staff protest is just a week and a half away (support for the EPO staff unions is seemingly at an all-time high), coinciding with some decisions regarding the fate of staff representatives.

The EPO’s management made a grave mistake when it attempted to silence dissent rather than quell is by mutual understanding, concessions, recognition, etc. Various members of staff now pass around fliers, the SUEPO’s bulletin, links to news sites, links to the Web site of SUEPO and so on. The more people read, the most they support the unions and resent their management. The staff is now overwhelmingly in support of SUEPO and it follows what SUEPO is saying, be it in the SUEPO Web site or even the occasional bulletins. “It used to be called “SUEPO inform”,” one reader told us, “and was essentially a local affair of The Hague. There was more or less four incarnations of SUEPO, one for each main sites [DH, BE, MN, VI], in addition to the staff representations, with different, sometimes non-converging, agendas and personalities. Battistelli seems to manage the unthinkable: unite the sites in one force.”

“Battistelli seems to manage the unthinkable: unite the sites in one force.”
      –AnonymousThe accusations against SUEPO figureheads are shocking not because they’re severe but because they’re indicative of a desperate effect by EPO management to crush all unions (starting with the biggest one, SUEPO). If all goes as planned, within just a few days staff of the EPO will be notified of these ludicrous allegations. There is no legal process, as there is no separation between the accuser, the judge, the executioner etc. It’s quite a circus! It’s theatre rather. It’s designed to only give the impression of due process, but it’s done in secret because it follows North Korean standards. It would embarrass any European country, even those formerly part of the Soviet Union. █

Links 10/1/2016: New Tails, GNOME Airplane/WiFi Hot Key

Posted in News Roundup at 5:18 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME bluefish

Contents

GNU/Linux

Free Software/Open Source

  • Open source makes Big Data analytics software appealing to SMEs

    Big Data Analytics software revenues will experience strong growth, doubling its current global 2015 revenue of $36.20 billion (US Dollars) to $73.77 billion by 2021 and reaching $81 billion by 2022, a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12% in the next seven years, according to Strategy Analytics IoT Strategies report “Big Data Analytics: The Internet of Things (IoT) Differentiator.”

    Strategy Analytics says that much of Big Data Analytics software will be open source which is less expensive than proprietary software. It will also have the ability to run on commodity hardware, which OEM vendors are betting will help broaden its appeal to small and midsize (SMBs) and midsize enterprises (SMEs).

  • Events

    • Li-f-e at BITA Show 2016

      BITA IT Show, the biggest IT exhibition in western India is coming to town on 24-26 January, We will be there promoting Li-f-e. If you are in this part of the world, drop in to check it out.

  • CMS

  • FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

    • GCC 6 Will Warn You About Misleading Code Indentations

      As reminded this weekend by Red Hat developer Mark Wielaard, GCC 6 will warn you about misleading code indentations.

      Among the numerous GCC 6 features to have been built up over the past year was the new -Wmisleading-indentation warning. This warning will notify you when it appears there is code that wasn’t indented properly and so may not match the intended logic of the developer.

  • Openness/Sharing

  • Programming

Leftovers

  • Yahoo planning 10% layoffs as early as this month, report says [Ed: Microsoft killed Yahoo]

    Yahoo plans to lay off 10 percent of its workforce as early as this month.

    The reorganization would eliminate 1,000 positions at the troubled company, according to Business Insider, citing sources close to the situation. Cuts are expected across the board, but will hit Yahoo’s media business, European operations and platforms-technology group harder than the rest of the company.

    “A team is working on it and they want to do it this quarter,” a source told Business Insider. The company has not commented on the report.

  • Super Thursday: what do the polls say about Britain’s bumper election day in May?

    Although we don’t yet know the date of the EU referendum, it is likely to be in 2016, and we already have had a great amount of polling for it. An average of EU referendum polls in December 2015 put the ‘Remain’ camp on 45.1%, the ‘Leave’ camp on 39.1% and ‘Don’t Knows’ on 15.4%. Excluding don’t knows, that’s a Remain-Leave split of 54%-46%. This lead is smaller than it was at other points in 2015, however; in June, the Remain campaign’s lead was 14 points. It’s now 6. In June, YouGov showed Remain leading by a 54-46 margin; they now show Leave leading by 51-49.

  • Twitter goes beyond 140 characters and I still hate it

    There have been a ton of reports in the media that Twitter developers are working on the ability of users to tweet longer messages that go far beyond the current 140 character limit. The company may even go as far as allowing a 10,000 character limit for tweets.

  • Health/Nutrition

    • 8 Signs Americans Are Moving Towards a Healthier, Saner Diet

      One of 2015’s food trends, in fact, was a craze for healthy maize. Organic, GMO-free corn products like Kiddylicious Sweetcorn Rice Rounds, Off the Cob Sweet Corn Tortilla Chips, Pipsnacks Popcorn and Pop Art Snacks Tandoori Yogurt Popcorn tantalized health-conscious taste buds at the 61st Annual Summer Fancy Food Show last summer in New York City.

    • Boozing is unsafe at ‘any level’, thunders chief UK.gov quack

      The government’s chief advisor on health ignored more than 80 studies to produce her new Puritanical guidelines on booze – which asks Britons to forego their Friday drink.

      Civil servant Dame Sally Davies has drawn up the lowest recommendations in the West: there is no “safe drinking level”, her team declared.

      The question is what justification was used to get there. The answer isn’t pretty for “evidence based” policy.

      Repeated studies have shown that alcohol in moderation prolongs life: it reduces the risk of heart disease and strokes. In fact the benefits of alcohol in preventing strokes and heart disease are far clearer than the negatives of drinking.

    • It’s Not Just Shkreli: Another Pharma Giant Hikes Drug Prices

      Former pharma CEO Martin Shkreli, widely reviled for dramatically hiking the price of a life-saving drug used by HIV and cancer patients, is in good company.

      Starting at the beginning of 2016, the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. quietly jacked up the U.S. prices of over 100 of its drugs, some by nearly a fifth.

      Reuters reported the findings on Friday, citing statistics from the information services company Wolters Kluwer that were included in a research note from by UBS Securities.

      “UBS said Pfizer increased prices by 20 percent for anticonvulsant Dilantin, hormone therapy Menest, angina drug Nitrostat, Tykosyn for irregular heartbeat, and antibiotic Tygacil,” Reuters noted.

      “The analyst report said U.S. prices were raised on a total of 105 Pfizer drugs,” the outlet continued. “No price reductions were reported.”

      Pfizer’s drug hike is consistent with broad industry trends.

    • Could Getting Rid Of Helmets Actually Make Football Safer?

      These days — thanks to mounting scientific research and the Hollywood movie Concussion — the public is much more aware of the fact that playing football can damage your brain. So now the question is: What, if anything, can be done to make the most popular sport in America safer?

      Recent research suggests the answer to that question might be counter-intuitive: getting players to take off their helmets.

      Researchers at the University of New Hampshire found that regular helmetless-tackling drills reduced the number of overall head impacts suffered by the participating players by 28 percent. This reduction was the result of removing helmets only for five minutes of drills after a few select practices — in this case, twice a week during the three-week preseason and once a week during the regular season.

      [...]

      “In football there are so many head impacts because their heads are protected,” Swartz told ThinkProgress. “The helmets, while they do serve a function, also introduce a false sense of security.”

  • Security

    • 602 Gbps DDoS Attack On BBC Proves That 2016 Isn’t Going To Be Any Different

      On New Year’s eve, the BBC website and iPlayer service went down due to a massive Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack. The attack peaked up to 602 Gbps, according to the claims made by the New World Hacking group, who took the responsibility of the attack. In another recent attack, the Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s main campaign website was also targeted by the same group.

    • Fatally weak MD5 function torpedoes crypto protections in HTTPS and IPSEC

      If you thought MD5 was banished from HTTPS encryption, you’d be wrong. It turns out the fatally weak cryptographic hash function, along with its only slightly stronger SHA1 cousin, are still widely used in the transport layer security protocol that underpins HTTPS. Now, researchers have devised a series of attacks that exploit the weaknesses to break or degrade key protections provided not only by HTTPS but also other encryption protocols, including Internet Protocol Security and secure shell.

  • Defence/Police/Secrecy/Aggression

    • North Korea: How Many Wake-Up Calls Will It Take?

      As the survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki have repeatedly warned, “We must abolish nuclear weapons before they abolish us.” This will require good faith negotiations to end the nuclear arms race and achieve nuclear zero. And these negotiations must be convened and led by the US and Russia, the two most powerful nuclear-armed countries in the world.

    • Defense Industry Revenue Forecast Gushes Over Global Turmoil

      The global aerospace and defense industry is out of its doldrums. According to a new report by the accounting firm Deloitte, “the resurgence of global security threats” promises a lucrative “rebound” in defense spending.

      The report alerts investors that “revenue growth” is “expected to take a positive turn” due to the terrorism and war in the Middle East and the tensions in Eastern Europe and the South China Sea.

    • ‘I went to join Isis in Syria, taking my four-year-old. It was a journey into hell’

      Sophie Kasiki stared at the photograph of a young English-speaking boy in a camouflage uniform and black bandana covered in Arabic calling for unbelievers to be killed in the latest Islamic State propaganda.

      Her eyes welled and she swallowed hard. “That could have been my son,” she said, her firm voice wavering. “That’s hard for me to say and makes me want to cry. I would have killed us both rather than let him become a killer, rather than let him fall into the claws of those monsters.”

    • U.S. Dropped 23,144 Bombs on Muslim-Majority Countries in 2015

      Council of Foreign Relations resident skeptic Micah Zenko recently tallied up how many bombs the United States has dropped on other countries and the results are as depressing as one would think. Zenko figured that since Jan. 1, 2015, the U.S. has dropped around 23,144 bombs on Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia, all countries that are majority Muslim.

    • Latin America Has to Fight and Win!

      Indigenous people of Bolivia are proudly in possession of their own land.

      Venezuela has been inspiring the entire Latin America and the world by its internationalism and determined struggle against Western imperialism.

      Chile, step by small step, has been dismantling the grotesque legacy of Pinochet’s dictatorship, moving firmly towards socialism.

    • Though GOP Blames Obama, North Korea Developed Its Nuclear Program Under Republicans

      Despite claims to the contrary, strong stances have not always worked in the past against North Korea. Ronald Reagan was in office in 1986 when plutonium was first produced in a North Korean reactor. They continued their program under President George H.W. Bush, producing enough plutonium to make 1-2 bombs.

      During Bill Clinton’s presidency, North Korea froze its nuclear production, though it continued testing missiles until deterred by American pressure.

      In 2002, President George W. Bush took a strong stance against North Korea by including them in the “Axis of Evil” with Iran and Iraq. A year later, Pyongyang restarted their reactor and by 2005 produced another 15 kg of weapons grade plutonium. In 2006, North Korea is believed to have had between 4 and 13 nuclear bombs and tested a nuclear weapon for the first time.

    • Escalating Cold War, US Flies B-52 Bomber Over South Korea

      The U.S. military flew a B-52 bomber over South Korea on Sunday, in a Cold War-style show of force that was met with concern by human rights campaigners.

      American forces made the gesture amid climbing tensions following North Korea’s widely-disputed claim that it detonated a hydrogen bomb test on Wednesday.

    • Deaths Reported as MSF-Linked Hospital Bombed in Yemen

      A Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)-supported hospital in northern Yemen was bombed Sunday morning, killing at least four people and wounding eleven—marking the third attack in as many months against a facility associated with the medical charity.

      MSF said in a statement that it “cannot confirm the origin of the attack” on the Shiara Hospital, which is located in the Razeh district. But the organization noted that “planes were seen flying over the facility at the time.”

    • Russian Strike on al-Qaeda Lair kills 51 at Prison, as US hypocritically slams Moscow

      The Russian air war against al-Qaeda in Syria (the Nusra Front or the Support Front) took a tragic turn on Saturday when a missile hit a downtown government building complex and prison in Maarat al-Numan. It left some 51 or more dead and 70 wounded. The Russians also bombed nearby towns of Saraqib and Khan Shikhun.

      Presumably the inmates in a prison run by al-Qaeda were a mixture of other radicals (perhaps Daesh [ISIL, ISIS] and liberals of the former Free Syrian Army. Whether what we would consider criminals were in the prison I don’t know. Al-Qaeda runs its territory in Syria in a Taliban-like way, with morals police and social regimentation. So some prisoners could just be people who didn’t go along with the al-Qaeda state practices. Alarabiya is reporting that some of those killed or wounded were in the downtown market adjacent to the government buildings. Russia needs to be more careful or it will end up simply alienating all the ordinary Sunnis in Syria with these blunt tactics. Locals are demanding that Russia be charged by the international community with war crimes.

    • The Exultation of Lethal Violence in American Culture

      Up to now Obama has shed no public tears for the victims of police violence, whether black, Hispanic, white, or any other. Moreover, when others have championed the right of the victims of police violence to justice, they have come under sustained attacked from the right wing media establishment and the powerful police unions. Consider how the filmmaker Quentin Tarantino was threatened with a nationwide boycott of his movies by police unions across the States after he attended a Black Lives Matter march and rally in New York towards the end of last year.

    • Neoliberalism Raises Its Ugly Head in South America: As Washington Targets Venezuela, Brazil and Argentina

      Politically, the neoliberal vision will mean an overturning and restructuring of the current Supreme Court, possible changes to the existing Constitution, and attempts to remove the duly-elected president from office before his term by various means. Apart from plans to stack the judiciary, as in Argentina, Venezuela’s new business controlled National Assembly will likely follow their reactionary class compatriots in Brazil, and move to impeach Venezuela president, Maduro, and dismantle his popular government – just as they are attempting the same in Brazil with that country’s also recently re-elected president, Rousseff.

  • Environment/Energy/Wildlife

    • ‘Huge Ovation’: Citing #ExxonKnew, Vermont Governor Calls for Fossil Fuel Divestment

      ‘Owning ExxonMobil stock is not a business Vermont should be in,’ declared Gov. Peter Shumlin during State of the State address

    • After At Least 2,300 Home Evacuations, Big Methane Leak Causes State Of Emergency

      The Porter Ranch neighborhood of Los Angeles is officially in a state of emergency, according to a declaration by California Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday. The area has been suffering from the effects of a methane gas leak at the Aliso Canyon Storage Facility since late October. At least 2,300 homes have been evacuated, with many more requests pending.

      Southern California Gas Company (SoCalGas), which owns and operates the storage facility, has been constructing a relief well to stop the leak, which the company was unable to plug in the days and weeks immediately following the breach. The escaping methane has been treated with an odorant and is allegedly causing headaches, nausea, rashes, and other health problems among local residents. The company anticipates completing the relief well by March 15.

    • Oil Price Super-Cycle Collapse: Party Like It’s 1998?
    • Weather extremes slash cereal yields

      Climate change may have already begun to take its toll of agriculture. New research suggests that drought and extreme heat in the last 50 years have reduced cereal production by up to 10%. And, for once, developed nations may have sustained greater losses than developing nations.

      Researchers have been warning for years that global warming as a consequence of rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere – in turn, a pay-off from increased fossil fuel combustion – will result in a greater frequency or intensity in extremes of weather.

    • Heat Waves And Drought Are Already Having A Devastating Impact On Important Crops

      For all the wrong reasons, the summer of 2012 was a historic one for the American Midwest. Plagued by the worst drought the region had seen in decades, as well as weeks of high temperatures, one of the country’s most productive agricultural regions faced massive shortages in its annual corn crop, driving corn prices to a record high.

    • In Age of Extreme Weather, Industrial Farming Threatens Us All

      The study is the latest evidence of the impacts of climate change, coming just a month after global leaders gathered in Paris to finalize an agreement aimed at curbing greenhouse gases.

      Meanwhile, the Obama administration continues to push for maligned deals like the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which critics have called a “giveaway to big agribusiness and food companies that want to use trade deals to attack sensible food safety rules, weaken the inspection of imported food and block efforts to strengthen U.S. food safety standards.”

      Over the past 50 years, 75 percent of the world’s biodiversity, soil, and water have been destroyed through the proliferation of mass food production and agrochemicals like pesticides and other synthetics, among other measures.

    • Environmental Damage Is Bad Enough To Create A New Geologic Period

      For over a decade, both climate activists and scientists have used one word to describe the mass-level changes humans are causing on Earth: Anthropocene. But whether or not this word actually describes a real, measurable geologic time period has been the source of major scientific debate.

      Now, a new study is adding fuel to that debate, finding that human influence on the environment changed the planet so dramatically that the world recently moved into a new geological epoch. In other words, there’s scientific proof that we’re living in the Anthropocene, the study’s researchers say.

    • Why James Hansen Is Wrong About Nuclear Power

      Those interested in what new nuclear power can and cannot plausibly contribute to stopping global warming should start with the most objective, independent, and comprehensive analysis done in recent years — the 2015 “Technology Roadmap” from the IEA and NEA. Those agencies’ bottom is line is that, if the industry gets its act together — a big IF, given recent history — new nuclear power can play an important but limited role. This just happens to be what I’ve been arguing consistently on Climate Progress for a long, long time.

      [...]

      A key reason new reactors are inherently so expensive is that they must be designed to survive almost any imaginable risk, including major disasters and human error. Even the most unlikely threats must be planned for and eliminated when the possible result of a disaster is the poisoning of thousands of people, the long-term contamination of large areas of land, and $100 billion in damages.

  • Finance

    • Update to BLS December Payroll Jobs Report: It is even worse than I reported — Paul Craig Roberts

      Good middle class jobs are continuing to decline. The new jobs are jobs that pay considerably less and often are part-time jobs devoid of benefits. Moreover, the new jobs are going to people outside the prime working age. The unavoidable conclusion is that for the majority of Americans, economic prospects are declining.

    • The CARD Act Has Saved Us $12 Billion Per Year

      Who do credit card companies make the most money from? Answer: the poor, by far, because they rack up the highest fees and the highest interest expense. Card issuers also make some money on the rich, because they buy a lot of stuff. This generates interchange fees (usually 2-3 percent of the amount charged) that exceed the cost the reward points they dole out to attract these customers.

    • US stocks suffer their worst first week of the year since records began

      Standard & Poor’s 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by 6% and 6.2%, respectively, in the biggest ever fall for the first five days of January

    • Less Work, More Leisure

      The next Administration should make reducing work time a major focus. In addition to mandated paid sick days and paid family leave — proposals that have received some welcome attention thus far on the presidential campaign trail — policymakers should go much further and enact measures aimed at shortening workweeks and work years. Reducing our workweek and work years will lead to a whole host of benefits, including reduced stress and higher levels of employment.The United States has become an outlier among wealthy countries in having had little reduction in the length of the average work year since 1980. According to the OECD, between 1980 and 2013, the number of hours in an average work year fell by 7.6 percent in Belgium, by 19.1 percent in France, and by 6.5 percent in Canada. By comparison, it declined by just 1.4 percent in the United States. The average worker puts in 26 percent more hours a year in the United States than do workers in the Netherlands and 31 percent more hours than workers in Germany, a difference of more than 400 hours a year.

      [...]

      Reducing the workweek can also have another benefit: It will bring us to full employment faster.

    • Ben Carson Says He Wants To Help Working Families, Hands Massive Tax Break To The Wealthiest Instead

      On Monday, Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson released his tax plan, the center of which is a flat tax of 14.9 percent.

      Rather than different tax brackets for different income levels and categories, the flat tax levies the same rate on all personal and business income, although Carson’s 14.9 percent rate would only apply to people who have incomes above 150 percent of the poverty level, or $36,375 for a family of four. Those who make less would have to make a small tax payment: “Even those who earn little income will pay taxes, no matter how small their contribution might be,” Carson says in his plan. Currently, 46 percent of Americans don’t have to pay federal income taxes because their incomes are too low.

    • Why ‘Going Negative’ on Bernie Sanders is a Very Dangerous Move

      Going negative against Bernard Sanders is a bad career move. Every time a political opponent has attacked Sanders, it has served only to strengthen him. We have come to accept attack ads as standard fare in presidential politics. When threatened, Hillary Clinton sharpens her knives and airs ads to eviscerate opponents, while Donald Trump hurls noisy epithets daily. They might want to choose another way to weaken Sanders, because direct, personal attacks tend to backfire.

      In 1980, when Sanders ran for Burlington mayor the first time, he started out lower than a long shot, a newcomer running against an entrenched Democratic machine. How could a 39-year-old Jewish guy from Brooklyn attract voters in a small town dominated by native French Canadians and Irishmen?

  • PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying

    • CNN’s Van Jones Calls Out Donald Trump For Inspiring Support From White Supremacists

      Jones: “My Deep Concern Is That Donald Trump Is Beginning To Legitimate Some Of The Dark Things That Have Been In Our Country For A Long Time”

    • White Nationalist PAC Blankets Iowa With Robocalls For Trump

      Some registered voters in Iowa received robocalls Saturday from a white nationalist super PAC that urged them to support Donald Trump in the 2016 election.

      “I urge you to vote for Donald Trump because he is the one candidate who points out that we should accept immigrants who are good for America,” Jared Taylor said on the robocall, paid for by the American National Super PAC. “We don’t need Muslims. We need smart, well-educated white people who will assimilate to our culture. Vote Trump.”

    • 5 European Leaders Who Are Kindred Spirits With Donald Trump

      The Donald has already professed his admiration for Vladimir Putin. He’d get along famously with Marine Le Pen.

    • The Frontline of Hasbara is on PBS

      The film serves two purposes. Besides the aforementioned hasbara effect, it also tries to salvage what it can of the Obama legacy and create a post facto explanation for why this Presidency has been an almost complete disaster. In that regard, it shapes recent history into a bizarre narrative, failing to mention the words “Cast Lead” or “Protective Edge” while trying to float the preposterous idea that Obama tried to be ahead of history and support the Arab Spring. My own view, while perhaps incorrect, is that he instead succeeded in subverting the genuine democratic uprisings across the region to serve his own ends. When things in Egypt became far too complicated by having a Muslim Brotherhood government across the Sinai from besieged Gaza, a coup was initiated and al-Sisi installed.

    • Jim Hightower: The Corporate Media Is Basically Pretending Bernie Sanders Doesn’t Exist

      The Tyndall Report, a non-partisan media monitoring firm that has been tracking the nightly news broadcasts of ABC, CBS, and NBC, found that Trump is tromp, tromp, tromping over the airtime of everyone else.

      From last January through November, these dominant flagship news shows devoted 234 minutes of prime-time coverage to the incessant chirping of the yellow-crested birdbrain, with no other contender getting even a fourth of that.

    • Will Trump “Feel the Bern” at Campaign Stop in Sanders’ Hometown?

      Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is on Bernie Sanders’ turf of Burlington, Vermont—where the U.S. senator served as mayor for eight years—for a rally on Thursday night that has rankled police and the mayor while galvanizing the progressive spirit of the democratic socialist’s home base supporters.

    • How Corporate Political Spending Will Stay Secret in Wisconsin

      Wisconsin Republicans are insisting that they didn’t intend to allow corporate political donations to remain secret under the recent overhaul of the state’s campaign finance laws.

      But secrecy, in fact, has become the distinguishing characteristic of Wisconsin elections. And that is by design.

      Sweeping campaign finance changes signed into law by Governor Scott Walker last month allowed corporations, for the first time, to donate up to $12,000 directly to “segregated funds” created by political parties and legislative leaders.

  • Censorship

    • As Hollywood’s International Market Grows, Will Foreign Censors End Up Controlling U.S. Content?
    • Associated Press Self-Censors Anniversary Charlie Hebdo Cover

      Once you decide not to show an image for fear of offending people, the number of things people say they find offensive, and therefore worthy of silencing, may well multiply.

      So it goes today. On the cover of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo this week, the anniversary of the terrorist slaughter that killed much of its staff in Paris, you will not find any images of Mohammad. The image is a figure of God—the Judeo-Christian visualization of him—with an assault weapon strapped to his back. The text on it, translated from French, says “One year on: The killer is still at large.”

      Even though this image does not include Mohammad, the Associated Press, nevertheless, has decided not to pass along images of the cover of the issue to its many, many subscribing media outlets. There actually were some images available from AP content providers earlier, but they’ve been yanked.

    • ‘Cover-up’ over Cologne sex assaults blamed on migration sensitivities

      Public anger is growing in Germany over a series of sexual assaults against women in the centre of Cologne on New Year’s Eve, amid suggestions that authorities were slow to act due to political sensitivity surrounding the perpetrators’ ethnicities.

      Politicians and police were facing mounting questions on Wednesday over how a crowd of some 1,000 men “of North African or Arab appearance” was able to mass around the city’s main train station on New Year’s Eve, with roving gangs allegedly assaulting dozens of women with impunity.

    • German broadcaster sorry for slow reporting on mob assaults

      German public broadcaster ZDF has apologised for delays in reporting on a wave of sexual assaults blamed on men of Arab appearance amid accusations Wednesday of media self-censorship of the inflammatory issue.

      The rash of attacks and thefts in a New Year’s Eve crowd in the western city of Cologne was only widely covered by national media early this week, after police had initially reported no major incidents.

      News editors of ZDF’s flagship “heute” (today) evening news programme apologised on social media for not reporting on the incidents at least in its Monday evening bulletin, four days after the attacks.

    • The Long Silence—The Cologne Sex Attacks And The German Media.

      It took four days for the German Mainstream Media to report New Year’s Eve mass sex assaults on women by up to 1000 heavily intoxicated immigrants of “Arab or North African origin “, as the German police describe the still-unapprehended perpetrators—now. The internet and social media alone forced the MSM’s hand. And the German political class has plans for that.

    • COLOGNE: Google, Facebook and Twitter Yield to German Govt Demand to Censor Anti-Migrant ‘Hate Speech’
    • Germany cracks down on speech by citizens enraged over its immigration policy
    • Germany cracks down on free speech when it comes to Muslim immigrants
    • Germany springs to action over hate speech against migrants

      Donald Trump may be testing the boundaries of tolerance on the U.S. campaign trail. But here in Germany, the government is effectively enforcing civility, taking aim at a surge of hate speech against refugees and Muslims.

    • Jews and Arabs Kiss in Protest against Banning of Novel

      Dorit Rabinyan’s novel Borderlife treats a love affair in New York between an Israeli woman and a Palestinian man, which ends when they return to their respective homes. The novel began being assigned by those inveterate social radicals, the High School Teachers, in Israel. But then senior officials of the ministry of education banned the book. Later they said it wasn’t banned and could be taught, but would not form part of any examination. (In education systems with year-end examinations, elective material that cannot appear on the exam is usually not much taught).

    • What the Media Can Learn From Bill Maher: 1 Year After Hebdo Attack, Satirists Still Take Risks Media Won’t

      This week marks the one-year anniversary of the attacks on the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo that killed 12 people, including eight of the magazine’s staff. In typical Hebdo form, the magazine has chosen to mark the event with a provocative cover that features a bearded man representing God with a Kalashnikov slung over his shoulder, accompanied by the text: “One year later: the assassin is still out there.” Their point? Little has changed.

      [...]

      And yet, one year after some of their cartoonists were murdered for daring to draw the Prophet, they are still under fire for being intolerant of religion. The obsessive critique reveals two key issues: First, despite being attacked by terrorists, the Hebdo artists are still criticized for their worldviews more than the terrorists themselves; and second, leftist politics is caught in a tough bind when it comes to openly debating religion and conflict.

    • Canadian Prof Yanked From Teaching Intro Psych Class For Insisting on Foul Language

      Via Inside Higher Ed comes one of the weirder stories about college I’ve read in a while.

      For years, Michael Persinger has taught an introductory psychology class at Canada’s Laurentian University. Before his first lecture, he has students sign a waiver that they won’t freak out over the ribald and offensive language he uses.

    • Our generation will take care of censorship and ensure there is no restriction on art: Anshuman Jha
    • Tweets About Israel Land New Jersey Student in Principal’s Office

      A New Jersey high school student found herself in a social media storm on Wednesday after she live-tweeted and apparently secretly recorded a trip to her principal’s office.

      She said administrators warned her that her comments about Israel and a fellow student on Twitter might have violated a state law against bullying.

      The student, Bethany Koval, a 16-year-old Israeli Jew, said she had been reprimanded by administrators at Fair Lawn High School in Bergen County for a tweet that contained a string of expletives directed at Israel and expressed happiness that a pro-Israel classmate had unfollowed her Twitter account.

      New Jersey has some of the toughest anti-bullying laws in the nation. After the suicide of a Rutgers University freshman, Tyler Clementi, in 2010, it passed the Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights, a far-reaching law with stiff penalties for educators who do not sufficiently respond to complaints of harassment or intimidation.

  • Privacy

    • Juniper Networks NSA Hack: Tech Company Stops Use Of Suspected Eavesdropping Code
    • Networking Giant Pulls NSA-Linked Code Exploited by Hackers
    • Juniper drops NSA-developed code following new backdoor revelations

      The networking company said in a blog post published Friday that it will ship product releases in the next six months that remove the Dual_EC_DRBG random number generator from NetScreen firewalls. Security researchers have known since 2007 that it contains a weakness that gives knowledgeable adversaries the ability to decrypt encrypted communications that rely on the function. Documents provided by former NSA subcontractor Edward Snowden showed the weakness could be exploited by the US spy agency, The New York Times reported in 2013.

    • You say advertising, I say block that malware

      The real reason online advertising is doomed and adblockers thrive? Its malware epidemic is unacknowledged, and out of control.

      The Forbes 30 Under 30 list came out this week and it featured a prominent security researcher. Other researchers were pleased to see one of their own getting positive attention, and visited the site in droves to view the list.

      On arrival, like a growing number of websites, Forbes asked readers to turn off ad blockers in order to view the article. After doing so, visitors were immediately served with pop-under malware, primed to infect their computers, and likely silently steal passwords, personal data and banking information. Or, as is popular worldwide with these malware “exploit kits,” lock up their hard drives in exchange for Bitcoin ransom.

      One researcher commented on Twitter that the situation was “ironic” — and while it’s certainly another variant of hackenfreude, ironic isn’t exactly the word I’d use to describe what happened.

    • Juniper Plans to Repatch its Firewall to Root out Source of Flaw
    • Juniper will repatch its Netscreen operating system
    • What South Carolinians Think About Ryan’s Poverty Forum

      Billed as an opportunity for conservatives to outline their major plans on tackling poverty, the forum comes after months of heightened rhetoric on poverty and inequality—including a poverty tour by then-Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan. These events are part of a concerted effort by conservative lawmakers and the media to paint the War on Poverty as a failure, even though the safety net reduced the poverty rate by more than half and lifted 48 million people above the poverty line in 2012.

    • Dismantling Nehru-Gandhi Film Censorship Regime

      The government had on January 1 constituted the panel to look into the revamp of the Censor Board functioning which has been mired in controversies in the recent past. The panel includes filmmaker Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, adman Piyush Pandey and film critic Bhawana Somaaya. National Film Development Council MD Nina Lath Gupta and Joint Secretary (Films) Sanjay Murthy are also part of the panel.

    • The risks — and benefits — of letting algorithms judge us

      China is considering a new “social credit” system, designed to rate everyone’s trustworthiness. Many fear that it will become a tool of social control — but in reality it has a lot in common with the algorithms and systems that score and classify us all every day.

      Human judgment is being replaced by automatic algorithms, and that brings with it both enormous benefits and risks. The technology is enabling a new form of social control, sometimes deliberately and sometimes as a side effect. And as the Internet of Things ushers in an era of more sensors and more data — and more algorithms — we need to ensure that we reap the benefits while avoiding the harms.

    • FBI changes animal cruelty data collection practices

      As of Friday, Jan. 1, 2016, the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) decision to begin collecting data on cases of animal cruelty as a Group A offense in the National Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS) went into effect.

    • Facebook accused of crashing Android app to test users’ loyalty

      Facebook deliberately crashed its Android app for weeks at a time in a bid to test its users’ dedication to the social network, it has been reported.

    • New Zealand rules police raid on journalist Nicky Hager was illegal

      In a huge victory for press freedom, New Zealand’s High Court has ruled decisively in favor of independent journalist Nicky Hager in his case against the New Zealand government for raiding his house and seizing his family’s possessions in 2014.

      The court’s decision, which was released on December 17, 2015 just before the holidays, is not only a vindication for Hager and his work, but an important win for all journalists and whistleblowers in New Zealand.

    • Oregon Law Curbing Warrantless Collection of Cellphone Data Now in Effect

      On Jan.1, a new law prohibiting police from obtaining information from electronic devices without a warrant in most cases went into effect. The new law will not only protect privacy in Oregon, but will also address a practical effect of federal spying.

      Sen. Chip Shields (D-Portland), Rep. Jennifer Williamson (D-Portland), Sen. Tim Knopp (R – Bend) and Rep. John Huffman (R-The Dalles) introduced Senate Bill 641 (SB641) last February. The bill prohibits state and local law enforcement officers from using “forensic imaging” to obtain information contained in a portable electronic device except with a warrant, or by consent. “Forensic imaging” means “using an electronic device to download or transfer raw data from a portable electronic device onto another medium of digital storage,” but does not include photographing or transcribing information “observable from the portable electronic device by normal unaided human senses.”

    • Parents are worried about the new WiFi-connected Barbie, but should they be?

      Before Mattel’s new WiFi-connected, artificially-intelligent toy, Hello Barbie, had even made it onto store shelves, she was already generating terrifying news stories.

      “Your child’s talking Barbie doll may be eavesdropping on all of your private conversations,” claimed the New York Daily News. “Creepy,” wrote the Washington Post. “She’s not just creepy. She threatens children’s security,” added the Daily Beast. The New York Times warned that “synthetic friendship could supplant [kids’] real ones.”

    • ​Attorney for Edward Snowden to lead University of Hawaii law seminar

      Ben Wizner, a national ACLU attorney and head lawyer for NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, will co-teach a seminar at the University of Hawaii Richardson School of Law this month.

      Wizner, director of the ACLU Speech, Privacy & Technology Project, will teach the week-long “Liberty and Security in the Age of Terrorism” seminar along with retired four-star Army Gen. David Bramlett.

    • ‘Secret expansion’: GCHQ may be employing ‘thousands more’ than it officially admits

      David Davis, a Conservative Party MP, told the Times that secrecy surrounding GCHQ’s numerical strength was “a bad opening chapter to this new era of transparency.”

      A spokesperson for GCHQ declined to give exact numbers of those employed in the agency and its partners.

      “The total number of people working for or with GCHQ constantly fluctuates due to the complex challenges we face and the threats we aim to counter,” the spokesperson told IBTimes UK, adding: “In a complex organization like GCHQ, as you would expect, our core mission is supported by a range of partners including industry and the military.”

      GCHQ employed 5,683 full-time staff in August 2014, according to official figures from the UK parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee. MI5 had 3,926 and MI6 2,430 employees.

    • Targeted data collection could have prevented Paris terrorist attacks

      A more targeted approach to data collection could have helped French authorities prevent the Paris attacks last year, according to former NSA technical director William Binney.

      Binney told a parliamentary committee evaluating the draft Investigatory Powers Bill, however, that bulk data collection could leave analysts with too much information to carry out effective assessments.

    • Will proposed surveillance powers weaken security for UK startups?

      Instead, much of the Investigatory Powers Bill’s focus is on facilitating the practice of mass surveillance.

    • Germany restarts joint intelligence surveillance with US
    • Germany resumes domestic surveillance in collaboration with the NSA
    • German spies revive internet snooping work with US: reports
    • NSA whistleblower: ‘UK mass surveillance may cost lives’
    • ‘Snooper’s charter’ will cost British lives, MPs are warned

      He told MPs that “Britain should not go further down this road and risk making the same mistakes as my country did, or they will end up perpetuating the loss of life”.

    • The UK’s new snooping law changes are all about money, says ex-NSA tech chief

      Asked why he thinks the UK government is pressing for this kind of approach, Binney’s answer is simple: money.

      [...]

      He points to the $3.8 billion Trailblazer program to capture internet communications as evidence of this and said that people were moving freely between working for the NSA and working for a contracted firm.

      “The contractors were lobbying for this… They were trading the security of the people of the United States and the people of the free world for money,” he said.

      When questioned on whether he thought £247 million over 10 years to deploy the powers in the bill would be sufficient, Binney said that this may be enough for retention and storage, but not processing, interrogation or software development.

    • Bill Binney: New UK spying law is going to kill people, ex-NSA technical director and whistleblower warns

      He described as “absolute horses**t” the claims by government lawyers that it wouldn’t be possible to sift through data before it was collected.

    • An NSA whistleblower just told government that mass surveillance doesn’t work

      William Binney, the former technical director of the NSA, today warned a UK parliamentary committee that proposed mass surveillance laws will damage the country’s national security.

    • Ex-NSA Official to Warn UK Lawmakers Against Online Surveillance Bill
    • Mass surveillance and bulk data collection won’t prevent terrorism, warns ex-NSA director William Binney

      “If we did everything through analysis and collection smartly, in a targeted way, we’d give privacy to everybody in the world because you don’t take in their data.”

      Referring to the 9/11 attacks, Binney suggested that targeted surveillance rather than bulk surveillance could have stopped the whole tragedy from happening.

      “All of these people were in knowledge bases already. If they’d taken a targeted approach from the beginning, keeping the data finite, the analysts would have found the threats,” he claimed.

    • Mass-surveillance ‘undermines security’ and failed to stop 9/11 attacks, says ex-NSA officer
    • French intelligence ‘could have prevented Paris attacks’

      The Paris attacks might have been prevented if French intelligence services had targeted their surveillance, he told the committee scrutinising the draft bill on 6 January 2016.

    • Snooper’s charter would be out of date in five years, says defence industry

      Vodafone, the UK telecoms company, said the government’s bill risked “significantly undermining trust” and rejected any move to require them to hand over data passing over their networks from outside the UK,.

      The criticism from the Silicon Valley internet giants is perhaps the most serious for Home Office ministers as it was their rejection of proposed British government requests to require them to hand over their customers’ confidential web data which lay behind the Liberal Democrats’ veto of the last snooper’s charter bill in 2012.

    • NSA Stalwart to Tell Parliament: ‘Bulk Collection Costs Lives’

      Binney is also set to argue that the UK government has misled parliament in claiming that MPs and other sensitive groups would be protected under the bill because there is so much data flowing along the pipe it “isn’t intelligible at the point of inception.”

      “These statements are false,” he will say. “They were made by someone who does not understand the technology.”

    • New UK spying law is going to kill people, ex-NSA technical director and whistleblower Bill Binney warns

      “It is 99 per cent useless,” Mr Binney said in a letter sent to MPs. “Who wants to know everyone who has ever looked at Google or the BBC? We have known for decades that that swamps analysts.”

      He said that strategy had led directly to mistakes that allowed the attacks on 9/11 to go ahead. The US had collected information from the terrorists involved in the attacks, but had not been able to check them because of resources, he claimed.

    • NSA whistleblower William Binney: Bulk data collection costs lives

      For example, Microsoft reported that 82 billion photos had been viewed…

      The revelations should be worrisome, according to Martin Brinkmann, founder of Ghacks.net: “While it is unclear what data is exactly collected, it is clear that the company is collecting information about the use of individual applications and programs on Windows at the very least.”

  • Civil Rights

    • Has principle of “innocent until proven guilty” fallen wayside?

      “Innocent until proven guilty” is a phrase that is often bandied about. From popular cop shows on TV to courtroom dramas on the silver screen, this phrase has been repeated over and over again. While we are all familiar with the words, have we become desensitised to the true significance of those four words?

      It is human nature to pre-judge. In the high-tension environment of a courtroom, it is easy to get emotionally swayed which could in turn, return a verdict that may not end up serving the course of justice. This is why such rigorous steps have been put in place as the judiciary evolved to ensure that this risk is mitigated. Indeed, this is one of the reasons cited for why jury trials were abolished in Singapore. It was thought that laypersons without a holistic knowledge of the law might be easily manipulated by the machinations of a wily lawyer.

      With the advent of the Internet and the rapid evolution of the social media and blogs, which has revolutionalised the spread of information, has the sacrosanct principle of “innocent until proven guilty” fallen to the wayside?

    • The Big Lie in the War Against Drugs

      Since the beginning, the War on Drugs has been about controlling political power–by breaking up Black communities and the dissident left.

    • Judge Mocks Inmate Who Soiled Himself Because Guard Wouldn’t Let Him Go To The Bathroom

      An Ohio judge has elicited chuckles for a poem he wrote to shoot down an inmate’s lawsuit this week. The inmate, Darek Lathan, sued after guards at the Correctional Reception Center in Orient refused to let him go to the bathroom, causing him to have diarrhea in his pants.

      Lathan is serving a 17-month sentence for a vandalism conviction. In his lawsuit seeking $2 million in damages, Lathan said the officer wouldn’t let him get out of line to go to the bathroom, even after he told the guard the prison’s cold showers were making him sick.

    • Muslim Woman Ejected from Trump Rally as Crowd Hurls Epithets

      A Muslim woman wearing a shirt which read “Salam, I come in peace” was forcibly ejected from a Donald Trump rally Friday night as some supporters of the 2016 presidential candidate reportedly hurled Islamophobic epithets at her.

      Rose Hamid, a 56-year-old flight attendant, had attended the rally at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, South Carolina with a small group of people who wore yellow stars with eight points, a reference to the markers Jews were forced to bear during the Holocaust. The symbols read “Muslim” and “Stop Islamophobia.”

    • WATCH: Trump Supporters Harass Muslim Woman as She Is Kicked out of Rally
    • 12 People Who Made a Difference (and You Can Too!)

      Take a sweeping look at history and you will discover that almost all movements that mattered started with just one or two people—from the fight to abolish slavery, to the creations of the environmental, trade union, consumer protection and civil rights movements. One voice becomes two, and then ten, and then thousands.

    • Everything is a culture war now – even sports. I just want to watch the game

      Everything is a culture war now. It’s everywhere. And it’s impossible to avoid, even in the movies and sports many of us go to in hopes of finding a brief respite from all the yelling we find online and off. Sometimes I just want to watch the game, you know? Maybe flip on the TV and forget for a few hours that Donald Trump could become president of the free world.

    • Unions brace for supreme court case that could be a heavy blow to liberals

      Justices prepare to hear arguments in of case of California teacher and co-plaintiffs who say ‘tyranny’ of unions violates their rights through forced dues

    • Right-Wing Network Puts Anti-Union Case in Samuel Alito’s Lap

      Justice Samuel Alito has been scouring the land looking for a case to make his mark on history.

      Could he find a way to hold a big bank accountable for ripping off millions of consumers? Could he interpret intellectual property law to give more desperately ill people access to essential medicines? Could he hold a chemical company to account for poisoning people and hiding it for decades?

      No. Alito apparently decided to make his mark by helping a massive right-wing funding machine crush wages for teachers, nurses, firefighters, cops and prison guards.

    • What It’s Like To Be Shia Inside The Ardently Sunni Saudi Kingdom

      That population has often been on the receiving end of Saudi Arabian posturing on geopolitical issues, especially as they relate to Iran. While the Kingdom might oppose extremist Sunni militant groups like ISIS, it continues to promote extremist views in favor of Sunni predominance in the Muslim world.

    • Oregon Sheriff Meets Ammon Bundy, Greets Him With Handshake Not Handcuffs

      On Thursday, Harney County, Oregon Sheriff Dave Ward met Ammon Bundy in a remote area near the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. Bundy has been leading an illegal armed occupation of a federal building for almost a week. But Ward greeted Bundy with a firm handshake instead of handcuffs.

    • The Proof Is In: The US Government Is The Most Complete Criminal Organization In Human History — Paul Craig Roberts

      Unique among the countries on earth, the US government insists that its laws and dictates take precedence over the sovereignty of nations. Washington asserts the power of US courts over foreign nationals and claims extra-territorial jurisdiction of US courts over foreign activities of which Washington or American interest groups disapprove. Perhaps the worst results of Washington’s disregard for the sovereignty of countries is the power Washington has exercised over foreign nationals solely on the basis of terrorism charges devoid of any evidence.

      Consider a few examples. Washington first forced the Swiss government to violate its own banking laws. Then Washington forced Switzerland to repeal its bank secrecy laws. Allegedly, Switzerland is a democracy, but the country’s laws are determined in Washington by people not elected by the Swiss to represent them.

      Consider the “soccer scandal” that Washington concocted, apparently for the purpose of embarrassing Russia. The soccer organization’s home is Switzerland, but this did not stop Washington from sending FBI agents into Switzerland to arrest Swiss citizens. Try to imagine Switzerland sending Swiss federal agents into the US to arrest Americans.

      Consider the $9 billion fine that Washington imposed on a French bank for failure to fully comply with Washington’s sanctions against Iran. This assertion of Washington’s control over a foreign financial institution is even more audaciously illegal in view of the fact that the sanctions Washington imposed on Iran and requires other sovereign countries to obey are themselves strictly illegal. Indeed, in this case we have a case of triple illegality as the sanctions were imposed on the basis of concocted and fabricated charges that were lies.

    • Atlanta Police Stop and Put Gun to Head of Rapper After He Withdraws $200,000 From His Bank

      According to Sam Benson — who goes by the stage name of “Blac Youngsta” — he had just exited a Wells Fargo branch in the upscale community of Buckhead after withdrawing $200,000 in order to buy a new car.

      “I come out the bank, I see the police, I’m walking to my car, I see one of them point to my bag like ‘him,’” explained the rapper. “They come bum-rushing me at the car, put me on the ground, putting guns to my head.”

    • When money matters more than lives: The poisonous cost of austerity in Flint, Michigan

      A few days ago my partner and I were sharing some of our less-pleasant encounters in the New York City subway system. Nothing too outrageous, just the kind of awkward run-ins with mentally unwell people that have long been part of living in this city (and have become harder to avoid as of late). If you live here long enough, you eventually become pretty inured to these moments; but they’re still always a little sad.

      Sometimes, though, they’re not so much sad as they are scary. Far more often than not, people suffering from severe mental health issues are harmless. But that’s not always the case. My partner, for example, recounted that once she accidentally — but very slightly — stepped on a woman’s foot. She apologized, but for the rest of the time my partner was on the train, this woman was screaming at her. My partner knew it wasn’t really about her, of course; but it was still a shitty experience.

    • Judge allowed to sit on sharia court set up by Hebdo protest cleric

      A crown court judge has been allowed to rule on sharia cases, in the first case of its kind.

      District Judge Shamim Qureshi, who sits at Bristol Crown Court, received permission from the Judicial Office to double as “presiding judge” at the Muslim Arbitration Tribunal (MAT).

      The MAT was established in 2007 by a hardline cleric, Sheikh Faiz-ul-Aqtab Siddiqi, who led an anti-Charlie Hebdo demonstration after 11 of the magazine’s staff were murdered by terrorists.

      Theresa May, the Home Secretary, is due to launch an independent review into sharia courts and councils amid concerns that a “parallel” justice system is developing in Britain. There are particular concerns that the courts are discriminatory towards women.

      Judge Qureshi has overseen MAT, which is based in Nuneaton, Warks, and has four other branches.

    • Debbie Wasserman-Schultz Wants to Keep Arresting Pot Smokers

      Wasserman-Schultz doesn’t explain how giving people criminal records for smoking pot makes them “safer,” and she appears to still subscribe to the discredited gateway theory that if people start with marijuana, they’re going to end up as heroin addicts.

    • Obama’s Legacy is Executive Abuse

      When I got back from my winter vacation, America was still being run by a two-term president who believes it’s his job to impose his notions of morality, safety and decency on everyone, often trying to work around the limits the system places on him. This week, Barack Obama is going to institute new restrictions on Americans unilaterally—expanding background checks, closing supposed “loopholes” and tightening the process for law-abiding gun owners—because Congress “won’t act” and also because he believes it’s the right thing to do. Neither of those is a compelling reason to legislate from the White House.

    • One Day After Obama Announced New Gun Reforms, Scott Walker Threatens Lawsuit

      Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker waited just one day after President Obama announced a package of modest gun control reforms before directing his attorney general to explore challenging the new rule — becoming the first governor to threaten legal action over the regulations.

      Accusing President Obama of “disregarding the constitutional principles of separation of powers and exceeding his authority as chief executive,” Walker said in a statement that the executive order creates “uncertainty and fear of prosecution for law-abiding citizens who wish to exercise their right to sell firearms lawfully. Forthcoming federal rules could also deprive millions of Americans of their Second Amendment rights without any indication of imminent danger.”

    • Will the Canadian government shed light on the no-fly list?

      In 2007, when the Passenger Protection Program (PPP) — copied on the U.S. model — was established in Canada, the Canadian government at the time failed to produce any concrete evidence of the efficiency of such a program. Canada was under a lot of pressure from the U.S. government to have this program and prevent “unwanted” travellers from boarding planes. The problem with this list is that it is shrouded in secrecy. The number of persons listed is not public. It is estimated to be between 500-2,000 persons. The government refused to release the exact number, claiming that this might help the terrorists in their plans to attack or harm us.

    • After Cologne, we can’t let the bigots steal feminism

      In a perverse sort of way, it’s progress. After months of dog-whistle xenophobia, European authorities have finally started to treat migrants as they would treat any other citizen. They have achieved this by choosing not to make a fuss when migrants are accused of raping and assaulting women.

      On New Year’s Eve in Cologne, Germany, hundreds of men, almost all of reportedly ‘Arabic and North African’ appearance and including many asylum seekers, viciously attacked women who were celebrating in the central plaza, robbing and groping and tearing off clothes. At least one rape complaint has been filed. The police and the press were initially slow to react, and the Mayor of Cologne reacted to eventual protests by suggesting that women should adopt a code of conduct in public and keep an ‘arm’s length’ distance between themselves and strange men.

      This is not the first time a European city administration has responded to an outbreak of sexual violence by blaming the women. It is the first time in recent history that the right-wing press has not joined in the condemnation of these wanton strumpets who dare to think they might be able to have a good time without worrying what ‘invitation’ they’re sending to men. Instead, the right wing blames… liberals. Who apparently caused all this by daring to suggest that refugees should be able to come to Europe in safety.

    • Truthdigger of the Week: Fatema Mernissi, a Founder of Islamic Feminism

      In her book “Islam and Democracy,” published in 1992, the feminist thinker also analyzed the role that the first Gulf war had in turning the Arab world against the idea of democracy, a concept many have come to conflate with “violence and religion in the west, as perceived by Arab observers of American broadcasts.”

    • Clinton Renews Criticism Of Sanders Gun Record

      Sanders has indeed expressed a desire to modify the law rather than simply repeal it, in part because he says gun sellers should not be liable for crimes they could not have anticipated when they sold someone a weapon.”If you are a gun shop owner in Vermont and you sell somebody a gun and that person flips out and then kills somebody, I don’t think it’s really fair to hold that person responsible, the gun shop owner,” Sanders said in October.

    • Bundy Militia Standoff Escalates When Another Heavily-Armed Group Arrives to Provide ‘Security’

      The Oregonian reports that the Pacific Patriot Network has sent armed “security” — some of whom are carrying semi-automatic rifles — to the standoff on Saturday. But an attorney mediating the dispute between Ammon Bundy and federal officials said Bundy wants them to leave.

      “We don’t need that. We don’t want it and we’re asking you to leave,” Todd MacFarlane, an attorney mediating the dispute on behalf of the Bundys, told reporters Saturday.

      In a press conference Saturday morning, a representative from the Bundy group said they are looking to de-escalate the situation.

      Locals in the area of the standoff have, in turn, condemned the Bundy takeover. Residents have expressed fear at the presence of armed militia and asked the outsiders to leave.

Patent Lawyers and Judges Don’t Understand Software Development and It Harms Programmers, Practicing Software Companies

Posted in America, Europe, Patents at 7:27 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Metaswitch logoSummary: Europeans, including European companies such as Metaswitch (British), continue to suffer from software patents in the United States and from British patent lawyers to whom the whole notion of software development is elusive, grossly misunderstood (they profit from the misunderstanding)

HAVING written literally thousands of articles on this subject, it often feels like repetition even when it isn’t. It’s never repetitive because new cases and new observations come to light. The other day, Patent Buddy fished out this recent court’s decision [PDF] (originally OOXML) and said that “TX [Texas] Magistrate Report Rejecting Alice101 Ineligibility Argument Against a Firewall Patent” (used against Metaswitch Networks, a British company). We have looked at this 18-page decision and found Alice mentioned in page 3 as follows: “The Supreme Court has held that there are three specific exceptions to patent eligibility under § 101: laws of nature, natural phenomena, and abstract ideas. Bilski v. Kappos, 561 U.S. 593, 601 (2010). In Mayo, the Supreme Court set out a two-step test for “distinguishing patents that claim laws of nature, natural phenomena, and abstract ideas from those that claim patent-eligible applications of those concepts.” Alice Corp. Pty. Ltd. v. CLS Bank Int’l, 134 S. Ct. 2347, 355 (2014) (citing Mayo Collaborative Servs. v. Prometheus Labs., Inc., 132 S. Ct. 1289, 1296–97 (2012)).”

“So here we have a British company sued in the capital of patent trolls, by a company called Genband LLC, which is based in Frisco, Texas, the United States (where the lawsuit is also being poorly assessed, determined and ultimately ruled against a foreign company).”Alice is also mentioned many times in page 4, then 14-15 and in page 17 it says: “Metaswitch is likewise wrong to characterize “an application proxy” and “a packet filter” as inherently abstract components because they refer to “broad ‘types’ or ‘classes’ of firewall components and do not require or connote any specific structure.” (Dkt. No. 255 at 24). A hypothetical claim limitation directed to “a cup” might encompass an extensive class of objects of varying shapes, sizes, materials, and functions (a coffee mug, a champagne flute, a disposable paper cup), and thus the word “cup” is abstract in the sense that it spans many different structures. But a cup is not an “abstract idea” in the sense meant by Alice, and neither are the “application proxy” and “packet filter” components recited in the claims. These components are not “building blocks of human ingenuity,” “a method of organizing human activity,” a “fundamental truth,” an “idea of itself,” or the like. See Alice, 134 S. Ct. at 2354–56. The “application proxy” and “packet filter” terms refer to specific components that have been construed to perform specific functions within a network. See (Dkt. No. 310 at 7–13). The fact that these components can be implemented in the form of “hardware and/or software” does not change their concrete, network-specific nature.”

So here we have a British company sued in the capital of patent trolls, by a company called Genband LLC, which is based in Frisco, Texas, the United States (where the lawsuit is also being poorly assessed, determined and ultimately ruled against a foreign company). In page 18 it says: “For the foregoing reasons, Claim 12 of the ’561 Patent is patent-eligible under § 101. The Court agrees with Metaswitch that Claim 12 is representative for purposes of the § 101 analysis; the other asserted claims of the ’561 Patent are likewise patent-eligible.”

Here is the court’s conclusion: “For the reasons stated above, summary judgment of no willful infringement should be GRANTED. Partial summary judgment of no indirect infringement prior to April 14, 2014 should be GRANTED. Partial summary judgment of no indirect infringement after April 14, 2014 should be DENIED. Summary judgment of invalidity under 35 U.S.C. § 101 should be DENIED.”

“Why is a British company on the receiving end of software patents when British law clearly does not include but preclude such patents?”This is a classic case where software is being described as non-abstract by trying to tie it to “network” and the likes of that. There is a whole infamous class of “over the Internet” patents and this one too resembles that. The decision cites a case of the world’s largest patent troll, Intellectual Ventures v. Capital One Bank, in page 4 along with Alice and Bilski.

How clueless could the judge be? Did the judge ever write a computer program? Was a degree in some scientific discipline earned/acquired? Was the judge bamboozled by mumbo-jumbo from lawyers? Why is a British company on the receiving end of software patents when British law clearly does not include but preclude such patents? Does US law dominate globally? Well, rhetorical question actually. This is similar to the cases of Finjan, which is a patent aggressor in a similar field of technology.

As a British programmer myself, I cannot help but worry that the Texan courts now threaten the British industry as well. The UPC would make things even worse and there are already signs of that happening with patent trolls that come to Europe and attack from London (Unwired Planet). Apple too is attacking companies from inside Europe, with help from ridiculous software patents that are found invalid by European courts after EPO negligently issues them. Recall the case of Wi-Lan v. Apple, which pro-software patents sites are writing about these days. Why is the industry tolerating this? How can anyone wrongly deduce that this is good for innovation, or in other words, encourages the creation of better computer products, programmes, etc. available in the market?

“Developers of software don’t brainstorm or innovate, they typically take existing building blocks (either Free/Open Source software or proprietary with compartmentalised modules/layers/standards) and combine these to form bug-free and increasingly efficient algorithms.”When patent lawyers, who don’t actually create anything, speak of (or hijack the word) “innovation” we end up with clueless blog posts such as this new one from IP Kat. While EPO coverage from IP Kat has been rather good, much of the rest constitutes UPC promotion, patent maximalism, and clueless prose such as this: “Second is the recurring assertion that the patent system is intended to encourage innovation. There are various implications that flow from this, most notably that any patent that does not further the innovation interest is at odds with the patent system. Weak patents, patent trolls, patent thickets, patent hold-up and other patent undesirables all derive from the underlying assumption that patents are the hand-maiden of innovation. As such, at least in the US, a material driver of proposed patent legislation is to better align the patent system with the needs of innovation. The only problem with this view is that it is not correct. Patents are about encouraging invention and not impeding competition in a manner consistent with the patent grant, where the legal system has developed tools to define invention. Some forms of innovation (however defined) can be expected to flow from improving the manner by which we encourage and protect invention, but innovation is not a surrogate for invention. Introducing innovation as a construct within the patent system, parallel to invention, novelty and inventive step, is simply inappropriate.”

“Software developers don’t “invent”. They write code, and some code may be better than other.”The above says “innovation is not a surrogate for invention”, but these are just clueless repetitions (regurgitations) or rather meaningless/vague terms, none of which actually alludes to or pertains to programming (these words predate computer programs). Developers of software don’t brainstorm or innovate, they typically take existing building blocks (either Free/Open Source software or proprietary with compartmentalised modules/layers/standards) and combine these to form bug-free and increasingly efficient algorithms. Everything is being reused and built on top of existing work. One should expect people who never saw or wrote a computer program to actually grasp this. The comments from readers, who are mostly patent lawyers, are equally clueless or weak. One says regarding “Innovation vs. Invention”: ”

If innovation = ‘new’
Then innovation is one prong of a three-prong test for invention.
The other two prongs are ‘useful’ and ‘non-obvious’

Software developers don’t “invent”. They write code, and some code may be better than other. Lawyers using terms like “innovation” are clueless. They’re reusing terms from centuries ago and another one says

One has to focus on the fact that the patent system is about disclosure of inventions. Although such disclosure may impact innovation, invention and innovation are not the same thing. One looks at various comments distinguishing the two.

What needs to be assessed is whether more (or less) code is generated which is solid and reliable in the presence of 100,000-1,000,000 software patents. Evidence suggests that patents have done virtually nothing to provide an incentive to write better (or more) algorithms; programmers don’t even bother reading patent applications (it’s infeasible). They just get sued, often by trolls that produce nothing at all.

“Evidence suggests that patents have done virtually nothing to provide an incentive to write better (or more) algorithms; programmers don’t even bother reading patent applications (it’s infeasible).”It should be noted that several people sent us links to the above article and several programmers expressed annoyance at this level of ignorance. Why is a system that presents itself as “protecting inventors” (or whatever) run by non-inventors? When will it be geeks and computer science professors running such courts* (if any courts “as such” are necessary at all)? The system, as is, became besieged by parasites preying on software developers, rather than people with the required skills and knowledge. It’s a form of takeover or coup. Programmers need to unite so as to fight to regain control. █
___
* I myself have been writing software since I was 14 and it’s what I currently do for a living in many languages and paradigms, as well as (peer) reviewing papers about software for international journals, so the opinions above don’t come from a position of cluelessness but from genuine concern for a scientific discipline which multinational conglomerates want to monopolise as a matter of law.

A La Oficina Europea de Patentes (OEP) no le gusta el Español, Así que PorQué los Espańoles la Toleran?

Posted in Europe, Patents at 5:26 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

English/Original

Publicado en Europe, Patents a las 8:18 am por el Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Contra EPO

Contra EPO

Sumario: Antiguas quejas contra la discriminación contra los Hispano hablentes, ha quedado demostrado actualmente al conversar con personal de la OEP.

El Español – es de acuerdo al algunos criterios y dependiendo las definiciones que uno escoge – el lenguaje más hablado en el mundo (basado en el número de países donde es lengua primaria). Techrights en Espańol es su segundo lenguage tiene árticulos públicados en Español

“El lenguaje Espańol raramente existe en la OEP. Definitivamente NO es tratado como debería y uno no necesita mirar muy atrás para ver como la OEP, basada en Munich máltrata a su personal Espańol.”La OEP díscrimina contra muchos lenguajes Europeos, pero sólo los Espańoles e Italianos tienen los huevos de hacerlo notar, en íncluso pelear acerca de esta materia tán importante (PERPETUAR POWER A TRAVES DE LA DOMINACION DEL IDIOMA, como los ingleses lo han hecho por siglos). La cuenta de Twitter de la OEP SOLO ESCRIBE EN INGLES, promoviendo traducciones automatizadas al día siguiente, pero éstas son inferiores. Aquí esta la herramiente ellos recomiendan (advertencia es una link de la OEP). ¨Tradusca Patentes,¨ dijeron en Twitter hace unos días, ¨viene con un corrector automático, que te permite proponer mejores traducciones¨ (bueno eso es ´crowdsourcing´ hacer a los Españoles ¨voluntarios¨ de las grandes CORPORACIONES – tóntos útiles- para sus propias ganancias).

El lenguaje Espańol raramente existe en la OEP. Definitivamente NO es tratado como debería y uno no necesita mirar muy atrás para ver como la OEP, basada en Munich máltrata a su personal Espańol. Uno de ellos tuvo una crisis nerviosa un par de meses atras después de haber sido maltratado por estos hijos de [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7].

“Al menos pueden demandar que la OEP, no trata al Español como inexistente”Reciéntemente nos enteramos de otras formas de DISCRIMINACION contra los Españoles en la OEP. ¨Estaba leyendo este artículo,¨ una persona nos escrbió acerca de un artículo que publicamos en Español hace unos días¨, esta persona nos dijo ¨Pedí por Espańol como lenguaje de oposición, cuando estuvimos oponiéndonos a la Regalo de Amazon patente¨, ¨Recibimos una ´amable´ llamda teléfonic así como un corre eléctronico de la OEP diciéndonos que si queríamos Español, teniamos que pagar por un traductor, mientras que alemanes o franceses no tendrían que pagar por traducciones simúltaneas durante los proceduras orales.¨

Esto es revelador? No es cierto?

Decidimos investigar más profundamente esto por que es una queja común (compartida entre miembros de la Unión Europea); sólo los Espańoles tienen suficientemente voz fuerte (más población) y un buen argumento para incluir su lenguaje por que es increíblemente popular, (segundo lugar después del Chino, Arabe, e Inglés depende de la definición de popularity). Se hizo notar este prblema cuando se debatía la viabilidad del Corte Unitaria de Patentes una vez. La gerencia de la OEP quiere aprobar la UPC a todo lugar (CABILDEA POR ELLO ABIERTAMENTE), pero el pueblo Espańol si se organiza apropiadamente puede y DEBE evitarlo. Al menos pueden demandar que la OEP, no trate el idioma Espańol como inexistente. Algunos grupos ya se han quejado pero nada resulto del esfuerzo.

¨Envíamos esta solicitud en Espańol,¨ nos escribió la misma persona (cuyo nombre puede encontrarse en las links si uno esta desesperado de saberlo), y la traducción al Inglés es suya. Pobrecito, termino bajado miles de páginas en la OEP register para ubica el PDF correcto” en este enredo. La carta original es la siguiente (de la FFII):

Bruselas, 07 de mayo 2012

Sujeto: EP927945: el lenguaje de la vista oral de 12 de junio 2012

Estimados Miembros de la Oficina Europea de Patentes,

FFII eV ha recibido su carta del 16 de abril 2012 en relación con la elección de las lenguas de los procedimientos orales con respecto a nuestra oposición a la patente de regalo de Amazon EP927945.

Tenemos la intención de usar el español tanto para los procedimentos por vía oral (habla) como para la interpretación simultánea (escucha).

Saludos cordiales,

Y en Inglés:

Brussels, the 7 may 2012

Concerns: Amazon gift patent EP927945: language of the oral
proceedings of 12 June 2012

Dear Members of the European Patent Office,

FFII eV has well received your letter of 16th of April 2012 regarding the choice of languages of the oral proceedings regarding our opposition to the Amazon gift patent EP927945.

We intend to use Spanish for the both the language of the oral proceedings (speaking) and the simultaneous interpretation (listening).

Best regards,

¨La link para la registración de la OEP está aquí, dijo desafortunadamente su website es inferior que tu no puedes bajar el PDF con wget. Aquí esta nuestra respuesta a su rechazo. Tratando de encontrar el original en texto pleno…¨

“Qué mierda está pasando, cómo devino a tan malo, y porqué los Españoles no vociferan acerca de esto?”Su respuesta oficial esta aquí.

¨Tratando de recuperar el correo electrónico de (la persona) quien es Español,¨ escribió, ¨cuando recibió una llamada telefónica de la OEP que resulta en la siguiente antigua carta…¨

Lo suiguiente no necesita explicación:

Querido jurado,

este correo es privado, no lo replique, etc.

Una seńora hablando alemán de la OEP, acaba de llamar a la oficina. Hablaba como si siguiera un libreto. Pregunta de parte mía, respuesta de ella. Muy bien entrenada. He resumido.

El señor [redactado] ha enviado un fax en Español :-), pero el ESPAÑOL NO ES UNO DE LOS TRES LENGUAJES ACEPTADOS POR LA OEP, Por supuesto dije esto NO ES BUENO para las personas de habla Española en la Unión Europea, bla, bla. La clásica respuesta las tres lenguas oficiales de la OEP, bla, bla, adicionalmente la OEP ofrece a no costo una lista de traductores bla, bla, que podemos contratar (Y PAGAR a diferencia de los demás). Pedi por esta respuesta en escrito, ella dijo que no puede responder a un fax en Español, deberíamos enviarle un fax en uno de los tres lenguajes oficiales de la OEP y luego ella respondería. Pidió que lo hagamos rápido, ya que no se puede enviar faxes en Español desde la OEP.

En conclusión, extrañamente el Español esta siendo relegado por la OEP, mientras que el Francés (con mucha menos naciones que puedn hablarlo) es un lenguaje ¨oficial¨. Lo mismo para el Alemán que no mucha gente lo habla (excepto en Alemania misma). SON LOS MIEMBROS ESTADOS TRATADOS FAVORABLEMENTE DE ACUERDO A SU PODER FINANCIERO opuesto a su audiencia internacional y local (Portuges es más popular que Frances y Alemán, incluso combinados por otro criterio)? Qué mierda está pasando, cómo devino a tan malo, y porqué los Españoles no vociferan acerca de esto?

¨La Oficina Europea de Patentes nos está JODIENDO! Ya es tiempo de hacer algo. O se corrije la situación o Espańa debe abandonar la Unión Europea y su jurisdicción¨

Un Hispano hablante! █

“La Oficina Europea de Patentes es una Corrupta, Maliciosa Organizacion Que NO debería Existir”

–Richard Stallman

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