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02.03.16

Links 3/2/2016: Dell GNU/Linux Laptop, Wine 1.8.1

Posted in News Roundup at 12:37 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME bluefish

Contents

GNU/Linux

  • 14 Linux-based gifts ideas for your geeky valentine

    For Linux lovers, there is nothing better than getting a Linux running device. And if you’re the Linux fan, what better opportunity to plant the seed of Linux in your valentine’s heart? Here are 14 cool Linux-based devices that I would want to receive — and I bet you will too.

  • Giving Silos Their Due

    One was Linux on the Desktop (LOTD). Around the turn of the Millennium, I predicted big successes for LOTD and Linux on the Laptop (LOTL)—and continued to do the same, annually, until I gave up.

  • Desktop

    • Here is why Linux is much better than Windows 10

      The Windows vs Linux fight has been going on ever since Linus Torvalds build the first version in collaboration with the University of Helsinki in October 1991. And every time, Microsoft launches a Windows version this question gets shriller. The same has happened now when Microsoft released the latest Windows 10 operating system.

    • Dell to ship XPS 13 Developer Edition Linux laptop with Skylake

      Linux enthusiasts rejoice: Super-thin “Project Sputnik” XPS 13 laptops from Dell with Ubuntu and Intel Skylake chips should be just around the corner.

      Dell’s Project Sputnik laptops have attained something of a cult status with a segment of Linux users since their introduction in 2012. The XPS 13 Developer Edition will be the only dedicated, thin-and-light Linux laptop with Skylake from the top-five PC makers.

    • Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition Sold with $100 Discount to Make Way for New Model

      The Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition is a very successful laptop that tends to sell really well. Only a limited number of units are made each year, and they also ship with Ubuntu.

    • Dell will ship XPS 13 Developer Edition “Project Sputnik” Linux laptops with Skylake chips
    • This Wrong Command Could Brick Your Linux Laptop [Ed: avoid UEFI]
    • Little warning: Deleting the wrong files may brick your Linux PC

      Here’s a friendly warning from El Reg: don’t wipe the wrong directory from your Linux system, or you may end up bricking the computer. This has happened to people, we’re told.

      The directory in question is /sys/firmware/efi/efivars which is a special filesystem that presents the configuration settings for the computer’s underlying UEFI firmware to the user. These configuration variables are used to control the way the motherboard firmware starts up the system and boots your operating system. Changing the files in this directory therefore changes these respective variables in the firmware.

    • Kids can refurbish computers for others at Kramden

      I’ve learned a lot from my time at Kramden, but what I love most is that the computers we refurbish go to underprivileged kids who would not otherwise be able to afford a computer of their own. I’ve realized that not all children have the resources they need to learn about technology, which will limit their future potential, but with Kramden’s refurbished computers, more kids will get access to computers in their homes.

  • Server

    • Most Reliable Hosting Company Sites in January 2016

      As it did through the entirety of 2015, Linux has once again dominated as the most commonly used operating system amongst the top ten hosting company websites. The only two companies in January’s table not using Linux to host their websites are Swishmail (FreeBSD) and EveryCity (SmartOS).

  • Kernel Space

  • Applications

    • Fotoxx 16.02 Open Source Image Editor Released with Cartoon Effect, More

      Michael Cornelison informs us about the general availability of the February maintenance release of his open source image editor software Fotoxx for all GNU/Linux operating systems.

    • BitTorrent Talks Encryption, Improved Linux Support For Sync 2.3

      BitTorrent continues to support its file sharing and syncing application with the recent release of Sync 2.3.1. The 2.3.x update contains a number of bug fixes for stability, but the important news is the added support for encrypted folders and finally allowing selective file syncing on Linux systems. Additionally, the company put out a short brief on the information they collect and how they are securing your files synced by Sync which is available as a PDF.

    • Understanding digital signage with Screenly

      It was around New Year’s 2012, I stumbled into a position where we basically had to create a digital signage solution for a company that was acquired. Between just before Christmas, when the deal closed, and the first of January, roughly, we ended up having a digital signage network and no software. So that’s really how the very first version of Screenly came to be, the POC [proof of concept] – that ended up being a very rough-around-the-edges kind of solution where it just wrapped around a lot of tools like rsync, bash and a lot of baked-in Linux tools.

    • Proprietary

      • Arcserve Releases Latest Version Of UDP

        UDP introduces advancements such as data protection for Linux environments, instant VM recovery and instant Bare Metal recovery, unified installation and enhancements for third party integration.

      • New Vivaldi Web Browser Snapshot Has Changes to Tab Opening/Closing Behavior

        The Vivaldi team, through Ruarí Ødegaard, announced on February 2 the release and immediate availability for download and testing of a new snapshot build of the upcoming proprietary and cross-platform web browser.

      • Opera 35 Arrives with Better Downloads Interface, Improved Mute Tabs, More

        A new Opera stable release is now out, and the developers have introduced a number of new features that are going to be enjoyed by the community.

        The Opera project continues to improve the browser, and they have released quite a few versions since in 2016, covering all the available branches. Today’s release is in the stable branch, and that means that it’s time to see what’s new in the latest Opera 35.

    • Instructionals/Technical

    • Wine or Emulation

    • Games

      • Steam Linux Usage Regressed To 0.95% In January

        Sadly, there were no post-holiday gains for Linux with the survey results for January pulling back by 0.01%. Valve’s reported Steam Linux gaming market-share for the past month is reported at a mere 0.95%.

      • Steam for Linux Still Below 1% with 40% of Users on Ubuntu

        The number of Linux users on Steam continues to hover just below 1%, but we now know that about 40% of these people are using Ubuntu for gaming.

        Since nothing of worthy of attention is happening with the Steam for Linux use, we might as well look at other interesting statistics provided by Valve, but before we do that, we need to explain why it is difficult to trust them.

      • Gaming: The Talos Principle – Road to Gehenna

        After finishing the Talos Principle I immediately started to play the extension Road to Gehenna, but was derailed near completion by the incredible Portal Stories: Mel. Now that I finally managed to escape from the test chambers my attention returned to the Road to Gehenna. As with the pair Portal 2 and Portal Stories: Mel, the challenges are going up considerably from the original Talos Principle to the Road to Gehenna. Checking the hours of game play it took me about 24h through all the riddles in Road to Gehenna, but I have to admit, I had some riddles where I needed to cheat.

      • Crusader Kings II: Conclave expansion now available

        Over the years, the highly successful Crusader Kings II has gotten a plethora of expansions which is a testament to its enduring popularity. With the last release in July of last year we were overdue for another expansion that adds more to the ambitious sandbox. In this case, Conclave seems to provide some of what fans have hoped for for years, namely more in-depth education options for your children and more intrigue with a more fleshed-out council and favors system. If a more dynamic mercenary system and combat mechanic changes don’t sound appealing to you, then you obviously haven’t spent hundreds of hours with the game like the average player does.

      • American Truck Simulator has an early release, day one for Linux

        American Truck Simulator is the latest driving and management simulator from SCS Software, and it’s great to see it have not only an early release, but a same day release for Linux.

      • Tomb Raider Reboot from 2013 Might Arrive on Steam for Linux

        Tomb Raider is the reboot of the franchise that was released back in 2013. It was developed by Crystal Dynamics and published by Square Enix, and from the looks of it, a Linux version might be in the works.

      • Free-to-Play Winter Game SNOW Now Works on Linux

        SNOW is a new free-to-play open world winter game that’s developed and published by Poppermost Productions. The developers have also added Linux support in their latest patch.

      • Review of casual puzzle adventure Panmorphia, available DRM free on Itch.io

        If you forget what you’re supposed to do to solve one of the more complex puzzles, there’s an in-game journal which helps you keep track of the hints. There’s also a map, which marks your location and acts as the interface for the aforementioned hints. I kept wishing that I could use this map to fast-travel between locations, but unfortunately you’re stuck with having to walk back and forth quite a bit while playing. This is likely in part due to the complexity that comes from being able to morph between forms which can only travel to parts of the map, and because you have to visit each animal’s shrine to be able to switch forms.

      • Rememoried, a surrealist explorative first-person adventure game now on SteamOS & Linux
      • Want to play XCOM 2? The system requirements for Linux & SteamOS have been sent out

        The cogs are rolling, and XCOM 2 is extremely close to release. So close in fact that we finally have the XCOM 2 system requirements for Linux players. This is confirmed by 2K directly, but Feral have yet to confirm it directly.

      • Earth 2160, the RTS game looks like it’s getting a Linux version on Steam

        Earth 2160 is a game from quite a few years ago now, but it’s a classic strategy game. Looks like someone has begun bringing it over to Linux too.

      • Time-Based Shooter Game ‘Superhot” Coming on Feb. 25 for Linux, Mac & Windows PC [Gameplay & Details]
      • SUPERHOT will hit the PC, Mac and Linux on February 25

        In a recent announcement, the developers of “Superhot” first-person shooter video game have revealed that the game – which has received support and funds from Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign – will be launched this month. While the “time only moves when you do” mechanic gives SUPERHOT the complexion of a puzzle game, it’s the frenzied, John Woo-inspired combat that’s center stage in the new trailer.

      • Valve Makes Steam Controller a First-Class Citizen in Latest Steam Client Update

        Today, February 2, Valve has posted news on a new stable update for its Steam Client software, which users should receive right now on their PCs via the built-in update utility.

        From the looks of it, the Steam Client February 2 update is a big one, bringing all the features and fixes that Valve bragged about for a couple of months during the Beta phase of the software, with the exception of the Steam Client January 2 tiny release that updated the Steam Subscriber Agreement for 2016.

      • Vendetta Online MMORPG Game’s Capabilities Are Evolving, Devs Say

        Guild Software, the developers of the popular and cross-platform Vendetta Online MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game), have recently announced the release of the Vendetta Online 1.8.368 update.

  • Desktop Environments/WMs

    • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

      • Luca Toma KDE Interview

        Google Code In is our annual project to give tasks to school pupils to contribute to KDE projects. One task this year is to write a Dot article and top Code In student Stanford L has interviewed WikiToLearn contributor and Sysadmin Luca Toma.

      • KDE Neon offers the latest and greatest KDE software on a stable Ubuntu base

        After a lengthy public spat with Canonical and the Ubuntu Community Council, Kubuntu founder Jonathan Riddell stepped down as release manager for that “flavor” of Ubuntu. He’s now back with a new project named KDE Neon, which provides stable Ubuntu systems with the latest KDE software.

  • Distributions

    • The top 10 Linux security distros

      Linux distros can be used for a lot of things, from games to education, but when it comes to security, there’s a whole mini-universe available.

      Not only can you find distros made to protect your privacy, making sure you leave no trace as you move around the web, but also those that help you test your network and system security.

    • Reviews

    • New Releases

    • Screenshots/Screencasts

    • PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandriva Family

      • The February 2016 Issue of the PCLinuxOS Magazine

        The PCLinuxOS Magazine staff is pleased to announce the release of the February 2016 issue. With the exception of a brief period in 2009, The PCLinuxOS Magazine has been published on a monthly basis since September, 2006. The PCLinuxOS Magazine is a product of the PCLinuxOS community, published by volunteers from the community. The magazine is lead by Paul Arnote, Chief Editor, and Assistant Editor Meemaw. The PCLinuxOS Magazine is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share-Alike 3.0 Unported license, and some rights are reserved.

    • Arch Family

      • Manjaro Update 2016-02-02 (stable)

        I’m happy to announce our sixth update of Manjaro 15.12 (Capella)!

        Firefox 44.0 is out now. Also Pale-Moon 26.0 Plasma 5.5.4 and VirtualBox 5.0.14 hit our repositories. Additionally we updated python, haskell, spl/zfs, lightdm, deepin and fixed an issue with our new notification improvement for pamac.

      • Manjaro Devs Patch Zero-Day Linux Kernel Vulnerability with the Latest Update

        Today, Manjaro project leader Philip Müller has announced the general availability of the sixth update for the stable Manjaro Linux 15.12 (Capella) series of operating systems.

        The February 2 update for Manjaro Linux 15.12 is here to mainly patch a zero-day vulnerability in the Linux kernel packages that the distro currently supports. Among them are Linux 3.10.96, Linux 3.12.53 LTS, Linux 3.13.11.33, Linux 3.14.60 LTS, Linux 3.16.7.23, Linux 3.18.26 LTS, Linux 3.19.8.13, Linux 4.1.16 LTS, Linux 4.2.8.2, Linux 4.3.4, Linux 4.4.0, and Linux 4.5 RC1.

      • Arch Linux 2016.02.01 Available for Download, Still Powered by Linux Kernel 4.3

        It’s the first day of February, so guess what? A new ISO image for the powerful and highly customizable Arch Linux operating system is now available for download via the official channels.

        Arch Linux 2016.02.01 was released just a couple of hours ago for those of you who would like to deploy the independent Linux kernel-based operating system on new machines.

    • Ballnux/SUSE

      • SUSE and Others Find That Public Clouds Aren’t Getting Smacked By Private Ones

        A wave of new survey results is coming in, and the numbers make a clear case that the open cloud is going to remain one of the biggest tech stories of 2016. Not all of the results are totally rosy, though. There is brand new evidence that a lack of workers with OpenStack skills may be holding the cloud platform back, especially at enterprises. SUSE LLC’s survey on OpenStack adoption trends reports that over eighty percent of enterprises are either planning to, or have already, implemented OpenStack as a cloud computing solution within their organizations. That means the need and desire is there. However, more than half of all organizations that have tried to deploy OpenStack say they’ve failed to do so due to a lack of skills.

      • YaST Team: Highlights of development sprint 14

        Another three weeks period and another report from the YaST Team (if you don’t know what we are talking about, see highlights of sprint 13 and the presentation post). This was actually a very productive sprint although, as usual, not all changes have such an obvious impact on final users, at least in the short term.

      • openSUSE News: New openSUSE Board Elected

        The campaign is over; the votes are counted and three members of the openSUSE community will lead the overall project on the openSUSE Board.

        Tomáš Chvátal, Gertjan Lettink, and Bryan Lunduke take the helm with the existing board members of Michal Hrušecký, Kostas Koudaras and chairman Richard Brown.

    • Red Hat Family

      • Becoming a master of organizational jujutsu

        The first is something I attempted with my team at Delta Air Lines. We wanted to increase engagement—to more tightly connect associates to the organization’s mission so they felt like they were playing an active and important role in furthering it (a crucial component of open organizations). So we initiated an ongoing survey of everyone in the company. It asked people to respond to the following statement: “I know the company’s strategy, and I know what my department can do to make it successful.” And by tracking the results by area, we made managers—and their managers’ managers—responsible for their teams’ responses. Hierarchies excel at driving specific metrics to further their own interests, so we leveraged Delta’s hierarchy to point attention to the critical issue of engagement, and we utilized our bureaucracy’s strengths to really measure how effective everyone had become at generating that engagement around the company’s mission. While we didn’t take it quite this far at Delta, imagine what would happen if your response to that prompt determined the size of your manager’s bonus?

      • Google Announced to Launch Containers on Cloud with Red Hat
      • Traders Alert: Red Hat Inc (RHT), Skyworks Solutions Inc (SWKS)
      • Top Stocks of the day: Red Hat, Inc. (NYSE:RHT)
      • Red Hat Inc (RHT) Stake Increased by 1ST Source Bank
      • EPS Forecast Of Red Hat, Inc. (NYSE:RHT)

      • Fedora

        • I hate benchmarking

          Among development tasks, one of my least favorite is benchmarking and I tend to procrastinate on it (by writing blog posts, for example). Allow me to enumerate some reasons why I hate doing benchmarking.

    • Debian Family

      • Derivatives

        • Tails 2.0 Linux Distro Improves Installation, Gets New Look

          Tails—an acronym for The Amnesic Incognito Live System—first rose to notoriety in 2013 as the Linux distribution used by U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower Edward Snowden. Since the debut of Tails 1.0 on April 29, 2014, there haven’t been any major new releases of the Linux distribution—until Jan. 26, when Tails 2.0 debuted. Tails is a desktop Linux distribution whose goal is to help users stay private on the Internet, by way of multiple tools, including the use of Tor, The Onion Router network. With Tails 2.0, the big change comes by way of rebasing the distribution on the Debian 8.0 (code-named Jessie) Linux operating system, which provides new software packages. Users also will immediately notice that Tails 2.0 now makes use of the GNOME Shell desktop user interface, providing both a top-down menu and an activities window for desktop navigation. While Tails 2.0 boasts a new look, it is also now losing one of its past capabilities, which is the ability to look like a Windows desktop in what is known as Windows Camouflage mode. In this slide show, eWEEK examines key features of the Tails 2.0 release.

        • Canonical/Ubuntu

  • Devices/Embedded

Free Software/Open Source

  • Top Open Source Firewalls for Small Business

    The Internet is a big, scary place, and so we must protect our small business networks with strong, reliable firewalls. Firewalls can range from a simple gadget that keeps bad data packets out of networks to sophisticated multi-function gateways.

    Open source operating systems like Linux, FreeBSD, and OpenBSD include tons of built-in networking and security features. That makes them natural platforms for building security products, and most commercial firewalls are built on one of them. You have a multitude of choice: from tiny embedded systems for broadband wireless routers, to giant enterprise firewalls with all the bells-and-whistles—from free community support to paid commercial support.

  • Now Seeking Nominations for the Open Source Initiative’s 2016 Board Elections

    The time is once more upon us to elect board members for the Open Source Initiative. This organisation is led by its members, and as such your participation both as a voter, or as a candidate, is essential to our continued success in protecting and promoting open source software, development and communities, and championing software freedom in society through education, collaboration, and infrastructure. If you are not already a member, consider changing that now so you can participate in our upcoming elections!

  • 7 Things to Consider Before Fuzzing a Large Open Source Project

    One of the best practices for secure development is dynamic analysis. Among the various dynamic analysis techniques, fuzzing has been highly popular since its invention and a multitude of fuzzing tools of varying sophistication have been developed. It can be enormously fun to take the latest fuzzing tool and see just how many ways you can crash your favorite application. But what if you are a developer of a large project which does not lend itself to being fuzzed easily? How should you approach dynamic analysis in this case?

  • The Apache® Software Foundation Announces Strong Momentum; Enters 2016 More Influential, Innovative, Efficient, and with a New Look
  • The Apache Software Foundation Reaches Some Remarkable Milestones

    The Apache Software Foundation is out with some news and metrics on its size and reach, and it’s clear that the organization has advanced open source in enormous ways. In fact, this site runs on Apache tools.

    While not everyone realizes it, The Apache Software Foundation (ASF) is an all-volunteer effort, and it incubates more than 350 open source projects and initiatives, including Cordova, Flex, Lucene/Solr, Maven, OpenOffice, Tomcat, and the flagship Apache HTTP Server. Here are more details.

  • Google Open Sources Seesaw for Network Load Balancing

    Google has open-sourced another internal software project. This one, called Seesaw, is a load-balancing platform that is based on Linux. It’s now available under an Apache 2.0 license.

  • What’s the real reason Microsoft and Google are releasing open source?

    Although the general perception of open source has definitely advanced since Microsoft’s “un-American” comments, the best companies are not open sourcing things for the altruism. There are real, strategic reasons hidden behind the warm and fuzzy glow of open source.

    [...]

    To counter all that, Microsoft has to provide a better open source option so that people pick the product because it has the best features. They may or may not decide to run it on Azure, but it reduces the chances that Google’s platform will become the default choice.

  • Events

    • DevConf.cz, Brno, Czech Republic

      DevConf.cz (Developer Conference) is a free annual conference for all Linux and JBoss Community Developers, Admins and Linux users organized by Red Hat Czech Republic in cooperation with the Fedora and JBoss communities.

    • Highlights of SCaLE 14x

      2016 started off with a bang. Linux dominated CES, where many Linux-based products were showcased. The first month of the year also brought us one of the largest community-driven open source events of North America — the Southern California Linux Expo, aka SCaLE.

    • I love Free Software Day 2016

      In the Free Software society we exchange a lot of criticism. We write bug reports, tell others how they can improve the software, ask them for new features, and generally are not shy about criticising others. There is nothing wrong about that. It helps us to constantly improve. But sometimes we forget to show the hardworking people behind the software our appreciation. We should not underestimate the power of a simple “thank you” to motivate Free Software contributors in their important work for society. The 14th of February (a Sunday this year) is the ideal day to do that.

    • Linux Conference brings 560 delegates to Geelong, prompting calls for convention centre

      TECH experts from big guns including Google, IBM, ­Hewlett-Packard and Intel are among almost 600 delegates from 22 countries in Geelong for a major conference.

      But organisers say the event could be even bigger if the city had a purpose-built convention centre.

      The Linux Conference, which began on Monday and winds up on Friday, focuses on free and open source technologies and is the biggest of its kind in the Asia-Pacific region.

      Conference second-in-command Kathy Reid said the event would provide “technically in-depth” talks from world experts.

    • Open Networking Summit Will Highlight Enterprise Open Source SDN

      Making software-defined networking (SDN) scalable, deploying SDN-friendly containers, SDN’s role in IoT and lots more are on the list of topics that speakers will explore at next month’s Open Networking Summit, which promotes open source SDN technologies.

      The summit, sponsored by the Linux Foundation, will take place in Santa Clara from March 14-17. The Linux Foundation on Tuesday released the first list of speakers and topics. The complete program will be available next week.

  • Web Browsers

  • SaaS/Big Data

    • Luxemo, Cloud Security Alliance and Others Ramp Up Secure Cloud Solutions

      As open source-centric cloud deployments have proliferated, so have concerns about the security of those deployments. Have you heard of the cloud access security broker (CASB) space? If not, we covered it here. Keeping cloud deployments and tasks secure is a big deal at many organizations, and CipherCloud, which focuses on data protection, and the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) have formed a Cloud Security Open API Working Group to jointly define protocols and best practices for implementing cloud data security.

    • Jos Poortvliet: Why use ZIP instead of TAR?

      In the beginning, we used tar.bz2. As ownCloud gained Windows Server support, we added zip. Once we dropped Windows support, we could have killed the zip files. But we had reasons not to: tar is, sadly, not perfect.

  • Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

  • CMS

    • WordPress 4.4.2 Security and Maintenance Release

      WordPress 4.4.2 is now available. This is a security release for all previous versions and we strongly encourage you to update your sites immediately.

      WordPress versions 4.4.1 and earlier are affected by two security issues: a possible XSS for certain local URIs, reported by Ronni Skansing; and an open redirection attack, reported by Shailesh Suthar.

  • Education

  • Healthcare

    • Open source app takes on Ebola and mental health in Liberia

      The Ministry of Health and Social Welfare in Liberia already had an understanding of its frontline health workers capacity and ability thanks to the implementation of IntraHealth’s iHRIS, a simple, easy-to-use, open source software system that supplies health-sector leaders with information to track, manage, and plan with the health workforce. And thanks to UNICEF’s RapidPro, an open source SMS platform that allows anyone to build interactive messaging systems using an easy visual interface, Liberia has been able to reach health workers using basic talk and text mobile phones. The Liberian MOHSW was now able to use a new product, mHero, created during an interoperability hackathon sponsored by Intrahealth and UNICEF. Other participants in mHero development include USAID, K4Health, ThoughtWorks, and Jembi Health Systems.

  • Pseudo-/Semi-Open Source (Openwashing)

  • FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

  • Public Services/Government

    • France Assembly encourages use of free software

      The French Parliament has last week approved a first draft law for a Digital Republic, which encourages the use of free software by the country’s public administrations. The Assembly (France’s lower house) rejected calls by proponents to make free software mandatory. However, the draft Digital Law does consider source code of software developed by or for public administrations to be public information, which should be made available on request.

    • European Parliament repeats call for open source

      For the second time in just three months, the European Parliament has called on the European Commission to to increase the share of free and open source software. On 19 January, in a so-called own-initiative report, the EP also urged the EC to use this type of software to promote reuse in and between public administrations as a solution to increase interoperability.

    • Open source at largest of German pension fund

      ‘Deutsche Rentenversicherung Bund’ (German Federal Pension Insurance) the largest of the country’s 16 pension insurers, is increasing its use of open source solutions. The fund uses Linux servers and Apache solutions on its x86 and mainframe computers. The pension insurer last week published a call for tender, seeking assistance for its Linux and Apache-based services and for other open source solutions it has in use.

    • FLOSS And European Governments

      While the idea of making FLOSS mandatory went down the drain in France, it’s huge progress that the idea was even conceived and considered. Likely the only reason that requirement was rejected was the fear that certain applications would not be available as FLOSS. It’s time the tail quit wagging the dog.

  • Licensing

    • Linux: Not for license dodgers [Ed: GPL FUD]

      I am sure that this will have raised the question: “Should I use Linux?”

      Linux is a mature operating system that is proven as a viable operating system and can be very reliable. This is also true for your embedded system. So the answer is a positive “maybe”.

  • Openness/Sharing

    • Future Thinking III: Make/Use and open source design

      Authorship has always been a divisive issue in design fields. In architecture the ownership, or at least attribution of the brilliant idea, has long been bound up in the personality cults of prolific marketers. Through the modern movement, architects like Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe and Frank Lloyd Wright epitomized the heroic, iconographic, and hetero-patriarchal, persona of the architect in charge. They were regarded, and still are by many, as singular geniuses to whom exclusive authorship is easily attributed.

  • Programming

    • What would you do if GitHub shut down tomorrow?

      GitHub has become a major resource for many developers, but is it a good idea for them to be so dependent on one site? A Linux redditor recently asked the question “what would you do if GitHub shut down tomorrow?” and got some interesting answers from his fellow redditors.

    • 11 Skills And Programming Languages To Become A Professional Web Developer

      Apart from learning the basic skills like HTML and CSS, the road to becoming a successful web developer needs some extra skills. These qualities set you apart from the others and make you a hot commodity among the big companies looking for ninja developers.

Leftovers

The Most Detailed Explanation (Yet) of What’s Wrong With the EPO

Posted in Europe, Patents at 6:45 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

…and Why the UPC Would Make Matters Even Worse

Immunita

Summary: The EPO’s insistence that it remains above the law is not only coming under fire by the media but is also being challenged based on people who are familiar with the applicability of law to international organisations

THE EPO is a greedy institution totally out of control. It’s not a public service but a corporate service for very large corporations that are not even European. It is an instrument of power for the rich, hence the staff is well compensated though pressured to always obey the real masters, who are these large corporations (or top applicants that take the lion’s share of patents). There is no choice, there is no democracy, there is no freedom. The golden rule is, you blindly do what you’re told and those who tell the EPO what to do (e.g. in angry letters to the EPO) are companies like Microsoft. It’s all about rigging the market and elbowing potential rivals out of the way, using patents. According to a patent lawyers’ site, European patents (in the EPO sense) will be priced further out of the reach of small European companies. As the lawyers put it (in a rather positive tone): “Note that renewal fees for European patent applications may be paid no more than 3 months in advance of the due date. Therefore, for any renewal fees falling due at the end of April, May or June 2016, the current (lower) amount can be paid early, before 1 April 2016, in order to avoid the fee increase.”

“It [EPO] is an instrument of power for the rich, hence the staff is well compensated though pressured to always obey the real masters, who are these large corporations (or top applicants that take the lion’s share of patents).”So the prices of patents are going up while the quality is going down (or patent scope being broadened). The EPO is truly out of control. It is greedy, it is apathetic (if not hostile) to public interests, and it clearly needs to be stopped. Those inside the EPO who are trying to reform it get punished severely, even sacked. Voices of rationality are treated like criminals, "Nazis", "snipers", or "Mafia", not like whistleblowers (which is what in effect they are).

We were gratified to see this article published yesterday. Many people told us about it. Glyn Moody spent months writing a long, detailed report about the EPO. He gave the EPO’s PR team an opportunity to respond prior to publication. To quote parts of it:

Imagine a country where the chief executive of an organisation can allegedly assault a member of staff, but when the latter goes to a labour tribunal to obtain compensation, the complainant is told that nothing can be done, because the chief executive enjoys legal immunity from prosecution. Possible in a distant banana republic, you might think, but out of the question here in Europe.

And yet the alleged assault and rejection of the complaint on the grounds of immunity did indeed take place in Europe a couple of decades ago. They occurred in EPOnia, a strange land that is both in Europe, and yet not a part of it.

[...]

But soon, with the arrival of the unitary patent, that might change, dramatically altering the patent landscape of Europe—and the role of the EPO. That makes some recent troubles in the land of EPOnia of interest not just to those who inhabit this strange world, but to everyone in Europe, since the future of patents there is likely to be greatly affected by how—or whether—things are resolved.

[...]

Matters didn’t improve in early 2014, when 90 percent of the 4,000 votes cast by EPO staff supported another round of strikes, which took place in March and April of that year. At the time, SUEPO released a summary of what it saw as the chief problems besetting EPO.

[...]

The “concerned staff” of the EPO feared the consequences of a drive towards greater numbers of lower-quality patents being issued would be serious: “Low quality patents will harm business, primarily SMEs, private inventors and Universities, since the legal costs for an infringement and/or litigation procedure are so high that they normally threaten their financial foundation.”

[...]

As the IPKat blog post points out, for the EPO President to suspend a Board of Appeal member is a gross infraction of the fundamental rules of the EPO, and turns what before was a disagreement between SUEPO and Battistelli into EPOnia’s very own constitutional crisis. Or as an anonymous commenter on the IPKat blog post quoted above put it succinctly: “The president of the executive suspending a judge? Wow. Sounds like Eponia is turning [into] Banania.”

[...]

In a blog post entitled “2014, another successful year for the EPO,” published a few days after the Administrative Council meeting mentioned above, Battistelli pointed out: “Our production, our productivity and our cost controls have all improved.” Perhaps it was Battistelli’s focus on productivity and cost-savings, and the increased payments he was able to make to the EPO’s member countries, that encouraged the Administrative Council to support him despite the growing chorus of complaints and warnings at the highest level.

In the same post, Battistelli concluded: “Thanks to the performance of our staff, the fruitful cooperation with our partners, some landmark decisions taken by our Council and the coming implementation of major projects, we have every reason to look forward to 2015 with confidence.” That confidence turned out to be misplaced: 2015 would prove to be even more tumultuous than 2014.

[...]

The information about the EPO management’s use of surveillance of public computers to investigate these issues not only explained what had happened back in December 2014, it also drew increased scrutiny from those outside EPOnia. This included a call in June 2015 from the Bavarian Data Protection Commissioner for an external data protection supervisor to be deployed at the European Patent Office.

[...]

A redacted copy of the EPO’s latest letter accusing Hardon of harassment was published by Roy Schestowitz on his Techrights blog, which has become one of the main resources for following the increasingly complicated saga of EPOnia, as this long listing of EPO-related posts makes plain.

[...]

Not content with this attempt to weaken SUEPO by suspending a number of its officers, EPO’s management started to attack the press, too. As noted above, Roy Schestowitz’s Techrights blog has become one of the prime sources for information about what is happening within the world of EPOnia. So much so that in July 2015 it emerged that the EPO was blocking access by staff to the Techrights site. In November, the EPO went even further, sending a legal threat to Schestowitz that accused him of defamation.

[...]

At the time of writing, it’s not yet clear how almost 1 million euros of what is effectively public money will be spent in this attempt “to address the media presence of the EPO.”

[...]

As a consequence, the EPO will once more have an incentive to issue as many patents as possible in order to boost its revenue from renewal fees—a problem that besets the current EPO system, as discussed above. The double danger here is that the introduction of the unitary patent, implemented with a more accommodating attitude to approving applications, could bring with it both US-style patent trolls, and US-style patenting.

Patent trolls are almost unknown in the EU because it is currently impossible to obtain an EU-wide patent. Without it, patent trolls would have to apply for patents in multiple jurisdictions before suing their victims in each of them separately, increasing the cost of carrying out this kind of bullying, and multiplying the risk that they would lose somewhere and see their bluff called. The new unitary patent is specifically designed to make it easy to obtain patents across the EU—something that patent trolls will relish.

[...]

The central problem is that, however much they are “surprised” or concerned by it, neither the European Parliament nor the European Commission has any way to compel the EPO to change its behaviour. The EPO is not an EU organisation; it is literally a law unto itself.

[...]

If the European Union truly wants the imminent unitary patent system to help innovation in Europe thrive, and not be throttled by it, it must begin by recognising that there is something rotten in the state of EPOnia, and then start to address it with bold and concrete actions. Rescinding the problematic extraterritoriality of the EPO, and making it an EU organisation ultimately subject to scrutiny by the Court of Justice of the European Union, would be a good place to start.

Not much more needs to be said about the article, although we are tempted to respond to the ‘damage control’ embedded there by the EPO’s PR team. “AMAZING article in UK” is what two people called it (one in our IRC channel and another in IP Kat, unless it’s the same person).

“Patent attorneys have been seeing this information coming out as rumours, informally from examiners and from blogs like IPKat, but it’s damning to see it all in one place.”
      –AnonymousAmong the earlier comments on the article above we have this: “Excellent article on the ludicrous internal governance of the EPO. Patent attorneys have been seeing this information coming out as rumours, informally from examiners and from blogs like IPKat, but it’s damning to see it all in one place.”

“It really does beggar belief,” wrote another commenter. “I thought I’d seen the worst of the public sector while working in the NHS (clerical staff – mostly work for patients’ benefit; medical staff – mostly work for patients’ benefit; managers – work for their own benefit) but this outstrips it by an order of magnitude. Great article, but very troubling!”

In the NHS the salaries are nowhere as high as in the EPO. “I am very curious to see a discussion of how people are recruited to the EPO,” one person wrote yesterday. “I have the feeling that the story of friends bringing other friends in has gone too far and none is commenting it!”

The EPO's recruitment standards (for management at least) mirror the standards of third world countries. But we have come to expect that from the EPO. Everything about its management is malicious and quite arrogantly so. These people know they’re immune and they show it. It’s quite shameless and blatant, as the interview Minnoye (VP1) recently did with Dutch TV served to show/reinforce.

“I thought I’d seen the worst of the public sector while working in the NHS (clerical staff – mostly work for patients’ benefit; medical staff – mostly work for patients’ benefit; managers – work for their own benefit) but this outstrips it by an order of magnitude. Great article, but very troubling!”
      –AnonymousThere was recently a long discussion in IP Kat about the EPO being supposedly immune. Someone anonymous left a bizarre comment which wrongly assumes that the EPO management can do anything it wants in spite of the EPC, relying on arguments which evade the reality of the EPC, as if it’s OK for EPO management to just disregard it and leave The Hague as means of political blackmail (the comment used Romania). As a result of this comment a long discussion ensued (though the comment doesn’t qualify as trolling, probably just a case of misunderstanding or mis-comprehension). In order to tackle or bury this argument we wish to quote some replies to it (not all).

One commenter wrote: “Article 4a [EPC] does not require a diplomatic conference (for the purpose of changing things), it requires a conference of ministers to discuss things.”

Another said: “The EPO is not a multinational corporate enterprise. It is – or is supposed to be – an intergovernmental authority established by an international diplomatic treaty.”

“Munich and The Hague are cast in stone in Article 6 EPC and this can only be changed by a full diplomatic conference of the contracting states.”
      –Anonymous“The “seats” of the organisation are defined by law. Munich and The Hague are cast in stone in Article 6 EPC and this can only be changed by a full diplomatic conference of the contracting states.”

To quote this longer comment: “Ex-examiner-now-patent-attorney [an anonymous commenter] correctly mentions that the fact that the EPO is the first supranational tax-raising organ in Europe has largely escaped public attention so far. This is even more true for the Unitary Patent which will divert huge amounts of money for the benefit of the contracting states for no counterpart at all: Unitary Patents will be entirely managed by the EPO, and the litigation costs for such patents be born by the parties before the UPC. So why wonder that the members of such conspiracy-like association so fiercely cling to immunity? The echo in the media of Mr Battistelli´s behaviour and the raising public awareness of the situation might indeed trigger a cataclysm for all parties concerned.”

“Yes,” wrote another person, “a threat to move an office if they don’t get their way has been a mgt. tactic before. Unlikely ever to be implemented for various logistical reasons – if the office can have so much trouble getting a new president voted in, what chance the 38 states quickly agreeing which one of them can get an office of the EPO? And how long before a suitable building is available, given the time the new Rijswijk building is taking? Such an idea of a move is possible but not realistic.”

“Funnily enough,” another person added. “in last Thursday’s Daily Telegraph (26th Jan, page 14), there is a piece written by a French lady entitled “Authoritarianism is the norm in France”. Nothing to do with patents of course, but it could partly explain Mr. B’s attitude.”

Mr. B or BB means Battistelli in all of these comments.

“Funnily enough, in last Thursday’s Daily Telegraph (26th Jan, page 14), there is a piece written by a French lady entitled “Authoritarianism is the norm in France”.”
      –AnonymousHere is a complaint about the working conditions: “You should see the 1970s iconic EPO building in The Hague, still operational (800 staff+ VP1) half demolished and the façade claddings are crumbling away some of them are covered with white sheeting, the window washers are even not allowed to go up the facade. Somebody over there told me that the asbestos abatement of the old library was done underneath staffed upper floors with openable windows and air grids. Apparently the windows have not been maintained for the last 20 years and staff complain about horrendous droughts in their small offices, most of them only 10 sqm. The VP1 (site manager) even managed to get a user permit from the local authorities for the EPO site, the architectural style of that main building is called “New Brutalism” (some of the previous commenters used this expression before) this style seems to have rubbed off on the VP1 management style. Talking about third world country H&S standards in The Netherlands.. EPO should have been put right by the local authorities on H&S matters; they are not able to do it by themselves.”

In response to the ludicrous idea of the EPO threatening to move to Romania one person wrote:

Perhaps not Bukarest, but how about Riga? (or somewhere in Poland where the goverment is implementing similar law as BB did)

Anyway, any state (hello Germany) that says it cannot do anything since it has only one voice, be reminded that this reasoning was also widely applied by Germans living in the 1000 years between 1933 and 1945 … they were not really praised for this point of view; it is a no-excuse.

What could these states for example do: go for the EPOrg to sign the (European) Charte of Human Rights (or to declare them applicable) or (a bit radical but s.th. a single state can do) announce to leave the EPC … these are possible steps for a single state – they just WANT to have to go them (or in a small group, eg consider Germany, The Netherlands and France to leave the EPC).

And a third point: I am anyway wondering when the first case ends up before the Boards of Appeal invoking the lack of a diplomatic conference (but would you want to have such a thing while BB is reigning?)

Citing the EPC again, this one person explains why Art. 173 EPC makes the Romania fantasy difficult to substantiate:

Disputes between Contracting States
(1) Any dispute between Contracting States concerning the interpretation or application of the present Convention which is not settled by negotiation shall be submitted, at the request of one of the States concerned, to the Administrative
Council, which shall endeavour to bring about agreement between the States concerned.
(2) If such agreement is not reached within six months from the date when the dispute was referred to the Administrative Council, any one of the States concerned may submit the dispute to the International Court of Justice for a binding decision.

So if there is only one Contracting State which is not satisfied with the interpretation of the EPC, say for EPC Art. 4a, Art. 23, Art. 146, PPI Art.3(4) or the Protocol on Staff Complement, he might consider this approach.

Moreover, parliaments may change the law, even Grundgesetz Art. 24 could be changed, e.g. to explicitly take out some principles such as Menschenwürde or separation of powers from IO immunity.

Citing Art. 173 and Art. 4a, another commenter writes:

The NL government’s position is in fact rational.

As the government of a host state of the EPO, it must ensure that state organs respect the EPO’s immunity to the extent that the EPO is entitled to it and chooses not to waive it. If the possibility exists that a national court incorrectly lifted the EPO’s immunity, then the Dutch government is essentially obliged to aid the EPO in appealing against that court’s decision.

If it considers that international law obliges it, the Dutch state might even have to block execution of a final court decision, even of one by its Hoge Raad. (Suppose e.g. that the Hoge Raad rules in favour of SUEPO and that the Dutch government initially allows the execution. Now some other contracting state like Hungary considers that The Netherlands violates the Convention. Hungary can then submit the case to the International Court of Justice for a binding decision (Art. 173 EPC). If the ICJ rules in favour of Hungary, then certainly The Netherlands will just have to ignore, i.e. block execution of, the judgment of its highest national court. But the Dutch government could also itself decide that the Hoge Raad’s judgment, although by definition in conformity with national law, is contrary to the Dutch state’s international obligations.)

As a host state, the Dutch state is not completely sidelined. There is still Art. 20 PPI that requires the EPO to cooperate with the Dutch state’s authorities in order to facilitate the observance of inter alia regulations concerning public health and labour inspection. The EPO appears to be in blatant violation of this obligation. The Dutch state may therefore submit a dispute to an international arbitration tribunal under Art. 23 PPI. The EPO’s immunity does not protect against the enforcement of the decision (“award”) of the arbitration tribunal (Art. 3(1)(c) PPI).

The Dutch state is also a contracting state. As a contracting state it bears responsibility for the functioning of the EPO, but in this respect it cannot be distinguished from any of the other 37 contracting states.

So:
(1) as the government of a contracting state, the Dutch government tries to push BB towards a more social attitude and more dialogue
(2) as the government of a host state, the Dutch government insists that the EPO’s immunity when not waived must be respected (within its proper limits, obviously, but those have not been finally decided yet even at the national level)
(3) as the government of a host state, the Dutch government might eventually decide to submit a dispute to an international arbitration tribunal in order to force the EPO to respect its obligations under Art. 20 PPI.

There is no conflict between (1) and (2). At most one may wonder when the Dutch government will decide that the time has come to invoke option (3).

Art. 172 is cited as follows:

Art. 4a has nothing to do with a diplomatic conference of the contracting states, nor with amending the EPC.

Art. 172 lays down the procedure for amending the EPC. It requires a decision by the AC to hold a “conference of the contracting states”, i.e. a diplomatic conference.

Without amending the EPC, the EPO cannot empty the branch in The Hague (e.g. by transferring people to Munich), because the “Protocol on Staff Complement” forbids that. The only way to amend this protocol is, again, by means of a diplomatic conference.

It is quickly becoming a national (Dutch) and continental (Europe) embarrassment. The Dutch government must step in. It needs to intervene as soon as possible.

Here are some examples of interventions in international bodies despite immunity:

There are several examples of immunity lifted.

1. Dominique Strauss-Kahn (managing director of the International Monetary Fund). He was arrested by NY police over allegations of sexual assault. The judge rejected Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s claim of diplomatic immunity.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/02/nyregion/strauss-kahns-claim-of-diplomatic-immunity-is-rejected.html?_r=0

2. Devyani Khobragade (Deputy Consul General of the Consulate General of India in New York City) was charged by U.S. authorities with committing visa fraud and providing false statements in order to gain entry to the United States for a domestic worker. Khobragade was arrested the next day by U.S. federal law enforcement authorities.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-25458531

3. Edith Cresson (European Commissioner for Research, Science and Technology)
She appointed a friend as personal advisor. (She did nothing else wrong).
The European Commission lifted the diplomatic immunity of Ms Edith Cresson, to allow her to be questioned by the Belgian judicial authorities.

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/cresson-s-immunity-lifted-1.245668

An earlier comment took note of this paper [PDF], adding: “Very interesting for the relationship between human rights and the immunity of international organisations.”

In our private channels we learned of “Remedies against International Organisations von Karel Wellens”. It’s a book on the subject.

“It´s a slap in the face of the Dutch justice that Minnoye openly said he would refuse to follow any Supreme Court decision.”
      –Anonymous“Page 214 and forward,” we were told, may touch the subject. We were told that “the passage can be found by simply googling”. To quote a relevant part: “The human rights imperative may lead to or even require a limitation or rejection by domestic courts of jurisdictional immunity claimed by international organisations, and the actual exercise of the courts´ adjudicatory system. [...] the forum state will not only be entitled but will be obliged – in the case where the international organisation has not complied with its conventional obligation to provide adequate alternative setlement mechanisms – to deny jurisdictional immunity.” This is from page 214. “Even more interesting,” we were told, is page 215. It is about human rights violations by international organisations. The book is available for sale by Amazon, but there is no description or reviews. It costs $95. “It´s a slap in the face of the Dutch justice that Minnoye openly said he would refuse to follow any Supreme Court decision,” told us a source. “He´s despised by everybody (and I mean not only examiners). As far as I know he´s at his second prolongation of service, which should be illegal, since the provisions are that one can only prolong to 67 and he´s passed the mark.” █

Angry Trolls: Rovi (of Angry Birds Fame) Helps Microsoft’s Largest Anti-Linux Patent Troll, Intellectual Ventures (Corrected)

Posted in Microsoft, Patents at 5:32 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

[Correction: It turns out we got confused as Rovi and Rovio are not the same company. Rovi is actually a patent parasite. Rovio often gets sued by patent trolls. Therefore, some of the statements below are misplaced.]

The birds get even angrier and nastier

A bird

Summary: Once known as a game maker and later made notorious for mass surveillance on gamers, Rovi now liaises with the world’s largest patent troll

BASED on an EPO-funded (yes, the EPO pays the media now) Web site that’s also paid by patent trolls (e.g. sponsors of events it organises for trolls to change/improve their image), Rovi has just agreed to “join forces” with Microsoft’s patent troll which is also the world’s largest patent troll. To quote the EPO-funded ‘news’ site: “Digital entertainment company Rovi and Intellectual Ventures (IV) announced yesterday that they are combining their respective patent portfolios relevant to over-the-top content (OTT) technology and will offer them for licensing as a single package.”

“How is being connected to a patent troll going to be beneficial to a game developer?”It turns out investors have not been happy. As the EPO-funded ‘news’ site put it: “Although investors appear to have reacted badly to news of the link-up, the potential benefits look pretty clear for Rovi. The addition of complementary assets from IV’s wide-ranging patent portfolio could enhance its offering to prospective licensees and give it an even stronger hand in negotiations.”

Complete nonsense. How is being connected to a patent troll going to be beneficial to a game developer? This is hogwash from patent maximalists who refuse to even use the word “trolls”.

The EPO-funded ‘news’ site, incidentally, also puts lipstick on the latest pig (pun intended, reference to Angry Birds) which is the Microsoft-dominated Nokia (now acting more like a giant patent troll inside Europe). Yesterday we wrote about Nokia's patent attacks on Android, which are becoming public only years after Microsoft got involved.

The reason this site exists in the first place (for those who don’t know) is Microsoft’s patent war on Free/Open Source software. This includes Android, which is the platform that companies like Rovi target primarily. Intellectual Ventures has been attacking Android itself with software patents. It’s all part of Microsoft’s patent stacking (legal term) strategy against Linux and Free software. They try to make it less potent if not nonviable a competitor by artificially elevating costs associated with software, using software patents. █

“The genesis of this idea was when I was at Microsoft. We had a problem with patent liability. All these people were coming to sue us or demand payment. And Bill (Gates) asked me to think about if there was a solution.” —Nathan Myhrvold, WSJ: Transcript: Myhrvold of Intellectual Ventures

Patent Invalidation Statistics and Cost of Patent Litigation (Even If Bogus) Show That Patent Scope and Examination Standards a Problem in Europe, Not Just the US

Posted in America, Europe, Patents at 5:13 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

The huge cost (even to innocent parties) of patent maximalism motivated by self-importance and greed

Pig's bank

Summary: Far too many bogus patents (patents that should not be granted in the first place) and spurious patent lawsuits that end up in favour of the defendant serve to show the external cost (or externality) when it comes to low-quality patent systems that strive to grant a lot of patents irrespective of merit

LAST year we wrote quite a lot about software patents in Europe, including in Germany’s courts, where Apple had been trying to block Android/Linux (Germany is strategic for many such lawsuits). Well, according to this interesting new piece from IP Kat, “German Federal Patent Court (partially) invalidates 80% of litigated patents” and here are the numbers for software patents: “For software and telecommunications patents, the invalidation rate is even higher at 88% (58% totally invalid, 30% partially invalid, 12% maintained). Patentees fare slightly, but only slightly, better on appeal, as the win rate for appeals against decisions invalidating a patent is higher (60%) than the win rate for appeals against decisions maintaining a patent (40%).”

“It’s a very big deal when patents are ruled invalid in courts because it means that patent offices simply failed to do their job properly and as a result many companies may have to spend a lot of money that they’ll never redeem (even when acquitted).”Many people read this piece within hours and many comments there alluded to the EPO. People have strong feelings about this. It’s a very big deal when patents are ruled invalid in courts because it means that patent offices simply failed to do their job properly and as a result many companies may have to spend a lot of money that they’ll never redeem (even when acquitted). This is a serious injustice. It also serves to show the real cost of patent offices that associate the number of patents with “innovation” (and thus embark on a patents gold rush).

As revealed by a patent maximalists’ blog the other day, patents are now being found invalid in the courts only upon appeal (i.e. even more legal charges) because examiners granted too easily (or pressured to grant by management, if the example of the EPO’s Grant Philpott was to be generalised). The same blog also spoke about patent trolls with software patents. We wrote a great deal about NewEgg’s defense from such trolls in recent years (NewEgg deserves kudos for its policy on this matter). To quote the blog: “In the appeal, the Federal Circuit noted that – this time, NewEgg was the one with an unreasonable position — demanding a “de novo review of the district court’s findings” despite recent Supreme Court precedent to the contrary. However, the Federal Circuit followed its usual practice of requiring each party to bear its own costs of the appeal.”

“The patent offices need to come under an examination.”So once again it’s an appeal and no legal fees will be reimbursed. The cost of fraudulent patent lawsuits (invalid patents) is passed to the defendant, which even if proven innocent still loses (a lot of money). What kind of justice is this? The UPC can potentially bring a lot more of this to Europe and given the statistics above (from Germany) we shouldn’t have to tolerate it. The patent offices need to come under an examination. Currently they just don’t have any effective form of oversight; quality is hardly imposed from the outside, except perhaps the Supreme Court, the EPC (old), and so on. Why are so many bogus patents granted in the first place? Some of the evidence we had showed for that the EPO threatens to sue us over, some remains in tact.

Consider this new analysis from a patent lawyers’ site. It is titled “Monsanto Patent On Virus-Resistant Melon Revoked” and it says: “The patent application was filed with the EPO on 21 December 2006 and the grant of the patent became effective on 4 May 2011. The patent has since been opposed by, inter alia, numerous NGOs.”

Do NGOs and persistent political pressure need to act as oversight for greedy offices where there’s insatiable aspiration to increase the number of patents, even if by unethically broadening patent scope (e.g. to forms of life)? █

Es Oficial: Por Medio de Entrismo, Microsoft Ha Convertido a la Pro-Linux Nokia en un Parásito de Patentes Anti-Linux

Posted in GNU/Linux, Microsoft, Patents, Samsung at 4:29 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

English/Original

Publicado en GNU/Linux, Microsoft, Patents, Samsung at 8:14 am por el Dr. Roy Schestowitz

“Se cree que ls monopolios de patentes impulsan la innovación, pero que en realidad impiden el progreso de la ciencia e innovación, dijo Stiglitz. La “maraña de patentes,” actual en la que cualquier persona que escribe un programa de software con éxito es demandado por supuesta infracción de patentes, pone de relieve el fracaso del sistema de propiedad intelectual para fomentar la innovación, dijo.”

–IP Watch on Professor Joseph Stiglitz

Sumario: Microsoft ha convertido a Nokia en un troll de patentes que ahora ataca a Linux y Android.

Microsoft ha convertido Nokia en un anti-Adroid/Linux troll de patentes, como se esperaba. ¿Está alguién sorprendido? Preveímos esto desde el principio. Asi como otros (incluso aquellos que Microsoft pago por ´reportajes´).

Como Florian Muller lo puso esta mañana: ¨Como lo sospeché, el pacto de patentes de 2013 Nokia-Samsung esta lejos de ser comprehensivo: litigación todavía una posibilidad¨ (en aquel entonces él todavía era cercano a Microsoft).

Para citar el blog de Muller: ¨La realidad que muchas de las aserciones de patentes de Nokia contra HTC fallaron (aunque HTC fue forzado al final a pagar por licencias en cualquier términos) puede hacer que prospectivos licenciadores sientan que pueden probar suerte en la corte.

¨El próximo anuncio de Nokia-Samsung, cuando este sea dado, será probablemente un comunicado ¨pescado o carnada¨. No hablarán por siempre. En algún momento se pondrán de acuerdo o Nokia los enjuiciará. Por mi parte recomendaría a Samsung (si me lo preguntaran, obviamente no lo harán) que no sobrepaguen.¨

“Microsoft también pasó patentes de Nokia a trolles de patentes como MOSAID (ahora llamada Conversant).”¨Así que ¿Microsoft ama a Linux, si? Por ello destruyeron Nokia después que Nokia se ´atrevió´ a ser uno de los mayores contribuyentes de Linux (casi numero uno). Microsoft también pasó patentes de Nokia a trolles de patentes como MOSAID (ahora llamada Conversant).

El reporte que todos van a citar en los próximos dis es este. El Wall Street Journal escribió: ¨Nokia Corp espera ganar más de 1 billón de dollares en cash por su portafolio de propiedad intelectual en los próximos tres años, incluyendo las ganancias de su pacto con Samsung Electronics Co. firmado hace más de dos años.¨

Aparentemente, Nokia quiere mucho más dinero que esto. ¨NOKIA ES UN TROLL DE PATENTES ahora, extorsionó 1 Billon de dolares de Samsung,¨ escribió el presidente de la FFII (Fundación para una Infraestructura de Información Libre) esta mañana. Revisaremos esta materia más adelante (hay muchos más urgentes temas que cubrir ahora). █

“Microsoft está pidiendo a la gente a pagar por las patentes, pero no van a decir cuáles son. Si un tipo entra en su tienda y dice: “Es un barrio peligroso, ¿por qué no me pagas 20 dólares y me aseguraré de que estés bien,” eso es ilegal. eS CRIMEN ORGANIZADO.”

–Mark Shuttleworth

Richard Stallman: Patentes Europeas de Software Regresan con la Corte Unitaria de Patentes (UPC)

Posted in Europe, Patents at 4:12 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

English/Original

Publicado in Europe, Patents at 5:50 am por el Dr. Roy Schestowitz

RMS in FOSDEM
Image credit: Benjamin Henrion at FOSDEM

Sumarior: Debates acerca de la UPC estan siendo peleados por profesionales de software (entidades prácticantes) y elementos PARÁSITICOS como los abogados de patentes.

LLa OEP frecuentemente otorga patentes de software, a pesar de la prohibición de estas en Europa. De acuerdo a un tweet de Benjamin Herrion esta mañana, el Padre del Software Libre, Richard Stallman, dijo que las patentes de software regresan con la Corte Unitaria de Patentes. Hemos estado diciendo esto por largo tiempo, pero algunas personas rechazan aceptarlo, a pesar de mucha evidencia o profesionales de leyes quienes estan diciendo lo mismo. Esto NO ES una teoría o una mera hipótesis; es una realidad.

“De acuerdo a un tweet de Benjamin Herrion esta mañana, el Padre del Software Libre, Richard Stallman, dijo que las patentes de software regresan con la Corte Unitaria de Patentes.”Otra cosa que la UPC ayudará a traer a Europa es un ELEMENTO PARÁSITICO DEL EXTRANJERO, MAYORMENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, ya comenzo asuceder. La semana pasada, o hace algunos días, los abogados de patentes advirtieron que traería trolls de patentes a Europa (no los llaman trolls, sólo entidades ¨no-prácticantes y entidades de aserción de patentes¨). Otros abogados de patentes todavía promocional duro por la UPC y se remarcan de acuerdo a ello. Los medios de abogados públicamente se enorgullecen (e.g. en Twitter) secciones enteras acerca de ello. Tratan de capitalizar por cambio sin importarles el daño. Este sitio dijo: ¨Finlandia rectifica el Acuerdo por la UPC y su Protocolo, el Reino Unido se alista por la rectificación con un poquito de complejidad legal, las publicaciones de la UPC estan abiertas a todos y sus ´mejoras´ al IT sistem de ella (como si ya existiera y sólo detalles menores quedan por decidir).

Bueno, firmas de leyes en Londres y los medios de abogados del area pueden tratar de darnos la impresión que la UPC es inevitable e incluso que es buena, pero es un HORRIBLE ERROR y traería a la UE en linea con los Estados Unidos (el más notorio nefasto sistema de patentes), donde la gente es arrastrada a Texas por juicios acerca de patentes de sofware (en cortes que tradicionalmente son amigables a las patentes de sofware). █

“El personal de la Oficina Europea de Patentes se declararon en huelga acusando a la organización de la corrupción: en concreto, el maquillamiento de los estándares para las patentes con el fin de hacer más dinero.

“Una de las formas en que la OEP ha hecho esto es mediante la emisión de patentes de software en desafío al tratado que lo prohibió.”

–Richard Stallman

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