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02.26.16

Links 26/2/2016: Open-O Partnership, GPL Violations in ZFS/Linux

Posted in News Roundup at 4:15 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME bluefish

Contents

GNU/Linux

  • Desktop

    • Does Linux Still Need Windows Support?

      As an alternative operating system, Linux has always found ways to co-exist with Windows. However, I realized recently that I had gone four years without any installation of Windows in the house. I had to wonder: is Windows support even necessary in 2016?

    • Hands-On: Using Bluetooth on Linux

      I haven’t written about using my Bluetooth devices on Linux in quite some time. That is good, because it means that they are all just working so there is not a lot to write about. But there have been some interesting and useful developments in Bluetooth support for various Linux distributions recently, so I think it will be useful to run through a survey of Bluetooth devices and Linux distributions.

    • Review: System 76 Wild Dog Pro

      I got an order confirmation almost immediately with an estimate of 2 to 6 days to ship. Soon after that I got a note stating that the Wild Dog was running toward the latter end of that range. I figured I could just use my laptop until the new machine arrived if necessary, and I waited.

      While I was waiting, I still continued to use my old desktop. I noticed the rebooting issue happened toward the end of the day. It finally dawned on me (I’m a little thick) that it might be heat related. I crawled under the desk to find that the power supply fan wasn’t working. I ordered a new one of those to see if it would help.

  • Server

    • New platform offers endpoint protection for Linux servers

      Most of the internet is powered by Linux servers, so it’s not surprising that they’re increasingly a target for attack. In particular recent attacks have focussed on using compromised systems to distribute malware to other systems.

      Many Linux systems rely on traditional signature-based threat detection which leaves them vulnerable to zero-day attacks. Endpoint security company SentinelOne is announcing a new solution aimed at protecting enterprise data centers and cloud providers from emerging threats that target Linux servers.

    • Docker Datacenter: A New Enterprise Product for Open Source Containers

      If there was ever a question about how Docker, the open source container virtualization company, planned to generate revenue from the enterprise market, it was answered this week. The company has rolled out a new platform, Docker Datacenter, as a commercial product for on-premise or private cloud container deployment.

  • Kernel Space

  • Applications

  • Desktop Environments/WMs

    • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

    • GNOME Desktop/GTK

      • GTK+ 3.18.8 & 3.19.10 Out with RandR 1.5 Fixes, Wayland Startup Notifications

        The GTK+ development team has been quite busy this week, and they have recently published two new releases of the cross-platform and open-source GUI (Graphical User Interface) toolkit.

      • Nautilus 3.20 to Have a New Small Zoom Level

        Nautilus developers have pushed a final major update for the 3.20 branch of the application, and they are preparing for the launch of the stable version.

      • Nautilus 3.20 Beta 1 Removes the Bookmark Manager, Adds a More Robust Search

        The popular Nautilus file manager has just received its first Beta build towards the major 3.20 milestone that will be unveiled this Spring as part of the GNOME 3.20 desktop environment.

      • GNOME 3.19.91 beta tarballs due (and more)

        Hello all,

        We would like to inform you about the following:
        * GNOME 3.19.91 beta tarballs due
        * String Freeze

        Tarballs are due on 2016-02-29 before 23:59 UTC for the GNOME 3.19.91
        beta release, which will be delivered on Wednesday. Modules which were
        proposed for inclusion should try to follow the unstable schedule so
        everyone can test them. Please make sure that your tarballs will be
        uploaded before Monday 23:59 UTC: tarballs uploaded later than that
        will probably be too late to get in 3.19.91. If you are not able to
        make a tarball before this deadline or if you think you’ll be late,
        please send a mail to the release team and we’ll find someone to roll
        the tarball for you!

  • Distributions

  • Devices/Embedded

    • Miniscule i.MX7 module is also offered in SBC format

      Phytec has spun a Linux-supported, 50 x 41mm PhyCore-i.MX7 COM with -40 to 85°C support, also available as part of a sandwich-style PhyBoard-i.MX7 Zeta SBC.

      NXP’s low-power, Cortex-A7 based i.MX7 system-on-chip, which includes a Cortex-M4 MCU for real-time processing and motor control, appears to be heading for the same popularity as the i.MX6. Size matters with an IoT-focused chip like the i.MX, and Phytec has announced the smallest i.MX7 computer-on-module yet.

    • ARM Linux IoT gateway offers cloud services support

      Eurotech’s rugged “ReliaGate 10-11” IoT gateway runs Linux on a TI AM3352, offers numerous options, and is supported with an updated ESF 3.3 framework.

      Eurotech, which is known here mostly for its Intel Atom-based Catalyst computer-on modules, has announced a new version of its ReliaGate Internet of Things gateway. The ReliaGate 10-11 runs on a Linux stack based on Yocto Project 1.6 and Linux Kernel 3.14, and is supported by a newly updated, Java-based Everyware Software Framework (ESF) 3.3 for remote IoT device management.

    • OpenWRT router SBC mixes Cortex-A5 and FPGA

      DAB-Embedded’s wireless enabled “DAB-OWRT-SAMA5” router SBC runs OpenWrt Linux on an Atmel SAMA5D36 SoC linked to an Altera MAX 10 FPGA.

    • Phones

      • Tizen

        • Samsung’s three most innovative Tizen products gets some artistic recognition

          With an established R&D, there is no stopping from innovations from happening at firms like Samsung. The fact that three of these recent innovations from Samsung had been built on the slowly growing Tizen platform however, gives it a special amount of attention in the Tech community. The three products from Samsung we are talking about here are the Gear S2 smartwatch, SUHD TVs and the unconventional new Family Hub Smart Refrigerator. Samsung have decided to rejoice this moment by working closely with an Artist, Kim Seung-Bae in showing the world what the company means by its innovations and Samsung’s design language in its most recent Tizen based innovations.

      • Android

        • Acecard: One Of The Most Advanced Android Trojans Of Our Time
        • Turing Robotics Drops Android And Sets Up Shop In Finland Amid Global Security Concerns

          Accompanying the announcement, TRI is switching its OS from Android to Jolla’s Sailfish.

          “We can now confirm that TRI has chosen to drop Android and use Jolla’s Sailfish OS. Sailfish is now running perfectly on the Turing Phone and we have started the final OS software testing phase,” the company announced on its Facebook page.

          Surveillance and privacy concerns have become central themes among mobile users around the world, highlighted by the ongoing spat between Apple and FBI.

          Indeed, TRI’s decision to both use Jolla OS and manufacture in Finland is about the primacy of privacy. Considering Android’s intimate relationship with Google growing security concerns around mobile security, the move speaks volumes.

        • Moto 360 Sport review: The best Android Wear fitness solution so far [Video]

          Still, I would say that — from what we’ve seen so far — the Moto 360 Sport is the best fitness option so far to run Google’s watch operating system. And that brings us to the price. Amazon is currently offering the device at around $280, which is $20 less than its retail $300. That’s too much, in my opinion, for any Android Wear watch. But it’s not terrible. It’s the same price as the 2nd generation Moto 360, and right around the same price as the Huawei Watch and other 2015 offerings. At this price I would probably just hold off for a while, but even if you don’t the Moto 360 Sport is a solid watch. At the very least, it’s not worse than the regular Moto 360.

Free Software/Open Source

  • NASA Takes Open Source to Mars

    NASA software engineer Parker Abercrombie is using open source to create a virtual workspace. The benefit of this open source project is that scientists and engineers can visit Mars in a virtual reality environment. While NASA hasn’t yet sent a manned mission to Mars, the virtual environment Abercrombie has made possible using open source is the next best thing.

    The project, called OnSight, enables scientists and engineers to work on Mars using what is known as “mixed reality.” Special headsets equipped with the OnSight software download the latest 3D maps of Mars’ terrain, giving the user a first-person view of the planet, much as if they had landed in a spaceship and were exploring on the ground.

    Read more

  • Top 5 sources for open source fonts

    When selecting a font, the decision process involves more than choosing between serif and sans serif: understanding how the font is licensed matters too. Though typographers need to be concerned with their rights to modify and extend a given font, even you as an end user should be asking yourself some questions. Do you have permission to use a font in commercial work, or in a public work at all? Can you even share that font with another person?

    If you’re creating a work you wish to share, then licensing matters to you, and you should understand how open source applies to the world of fonts.

  • How to add open source experience to your resume

    In this article, I’ll share my technique for leveraging open source contributions to stand out as a great candidate for a job in the technology field.

    No goal can be accomplished without first being set. Before jumping into a new commitment or spending the evening overhauling your resume, it pays to clearly define the traits of the job you’re seeking. Your resume is a piece of persuasive writing, so you have to know your audience for it to reach its full potential. Your resume’s audience is anyone with the need for your skills and the budget to hire you. When editing, read your resume while imagining what it’s like to be in their position. Do you look like a candidate that you would hire?

  • 50 Open Source Tools Tech Companies Love

    Over the last decade or so, many technology companies have begun embracing open source. Many use open source tools to run their own IT infrastructure and websites, some offers products and services related to or built on open source tools, and some are contributing to or supporting open source projects.

  • The U.S. Copyright Office requiring proprietary software in DMCA anti-circumvention study

    In Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) anti-circumvention study, the U.S. Copyright Office extends comment period and asserts that proprietary software is required for comment submission.

  • Web Browsers

    • Mozilla

      • Mozilla Introduces Surveillance Principles for a Secure, Trusted Internet

        Security is paramount to a trusted Internet. Encryption is a critical part of how that trust is made real. The recent events around Apple and the FBI set a dangerous precedent. Our position on these issues is simple: the FBI should not be able to require a technology company to create code that “undoes” years of security enhancements by creating additional vulnerabilities.

  • SaaS/Big Data

    • Hadoop, Spark, Deep Learning Mesh on Single GPU Cluster

      When it comes to leveraging existing Hadoop infrastructure to extend what is possible with large volumes of data and various applications, Yahoo is in a unique position–it has the data and just as important, it has the long history with Hadoop, MapReduce and other key tools in the open source big data stack close at hand and manned with seasoned experts.

    • Yahoo brings deep learning framework to Spark

      Yahoo has released CaffeOnSpark, which brings the fruits of two University of California, Berkeley projects together: vision-focused deep learning framework Caffe, and Big Data processing engine Apache Spark.

  • Databases

  • Pseudo-/Semi-Open Source (Openwashing)

    • Facebook Pushes Open Source Wireless with Telecom Infra Project

      A new initiative by Facebook aims to speed the development of wireless networks by promoting more open source network components. The social network announced the launch of the Telecom Infra Project (TIP) at Mobile World Congress taking place in Barcelona this week. Several hardware companies such as Nokia and Intel, as well as wireless providers like Deutsche Telekom and SK Telecom have signed on to the project.

  • BSD

    • Speaking on BSD: The Waiting Is the Hardest Part

      After answering various calls for presentations to a few upcoming shows, it stands to reason that Tom Petty is right: The waiting is the hardest part.

      Because I now use PC-BSD on a daily basis, the idea going forward is to pitch talks about the conversion from one side of the Free/Open Source Software street to the other; the uplifting situations and occasional hurdle such a conversion brings, and to outline the similiarities (lots) and differences (few, but relatively significant) between Linux distros and BSD variants.

  • FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

  • Licensing

    • GPL Violations Related to Combining ZFS and Linux

      This post discusses an atypical GPL violation. Unlike most GPL violations Conservancy faces, in this case, a third-party entity holds a magic wand that can instantly resolve the situation. Oracle is the primary copyright holder of ZFS, and, despite nearly eight years (going back to the days of Sun’s control of the code) of the anti-license-proliferation community’s urging, Oracle continues to license their code under their own, GPL-incompatible license. While this violation has many facets, and Oracle did not themselves violate GPL in this specific case, they hold the keys to this particular kingdom and they forbid the Linux community to enter. While there are complexities that we must address, in this context, Oracle could make everyone’s life easier by waving their magic relicensing wand. Nevertheless, until they do, since GPL-incompatible licenses are the root of all GPL violations, combinations of GPL’d code with Oracle’s GPL-incompatible code yield GPL violations, such as the ongoing violation by Canonical, Ltd.

    • Canonical accused of violating GPL with ZFS-in-Ubuntu 16.04 plan

      The Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC) thinks Canonical, the curator of Ubuntu, has breached the Gnu Public Licence (GPL).

      As the Conservancy explains, Canonical recently announced that Ubuntu 16.04 will “make OpenZFS available on every Ubuntu system. Canonical reckons that adding OpenZFS represents “one of the most exciting new features Linux has seen in a very long time.”

    • Software Freedom Conservancy Says ZFS Ubuntu Implementation Is Not Legal

      Software Freedom Conservancy group has issued a statement saying that the recent implementation of ZFS in Ubuntu is actually a GPS violation. The truth seems to be a matter of perspective.

  • Openness/Sharing

    • Open Access/Content

      • Why Sci-Hub is the true solution for Open Access: reply to criticism

        This article is to reply to some points made by publishers as well as some librarians who don’t like what Sci-Hub is doing to their job now.

        I will start with an article published last wekk by Ernesto Priego Signal, Not Solution: Notes on Why Sci-Hub Is Not Opening Access

        The title is misleading by itself, if not funny. Sci-Hub is not a signal: for many researchers out there in the world, Sci-Hub is the only solution available to access articles. I can support my words by providing letters I received as well as some statistics, but I will do this in future posts. The problem are paywalls, and Sci-Hub is a tool that solves this problem. A signal is when someone talks about the problem of paywalls, like many OA advocates do. What differentiates Sci-Hub from this talk, is that Sci-Hub not talking, but actually solving this problem, providing access to those researchers who need it, including myself.

    • Open Hardware

      • Matt Adereth’s open source 3D printed ergonomic Dactyl Keyboard is truly amazing

        Without being noticed, keyboards have actually become one of the most important tools in our society and economy. There’s at least one in very home, office, store and school: a keyboard is truly universal. That reliance on this clever tool has already led to the development of various forms of ergonomic keyboards: keyboards that decrease the likelihood of developing wrist or hand related injuries, such as RSI. You’ve probably seen them or even worked on one: they tend to have a curve in the middle to more naturally accommodate the wrists. However, Matt Adereth has been working on a far more original model with the help of 3D printing: the Dactyl keyboard, that actually consists of two completely separate, curved keyboard segments.

      • A Slew of Open-Source Synthesizers

        To install on an Arduino UNO, fetch the zip file from this GitHub repository, and move each subfolder to your Arduino sketch directory. You’re ready to play along.

Leftovers

  • Windows 10 lock screen ads begin with Rise of the Tomb Raider push

    With more than 200 million systems running Windows 10—many of them having upgraded from an earlier version for free—Microsoft has decided it’s time to monetize the lock screen.

    Over the past few days, Windows 10 users have reported having their lock screens taken over by advertisements for Rise of the Tomb Raider. Microsoft started selling the game through the Windows Store last month, in what might be the start of a much bigger push into PC gaming.

    Microsoft hasn’t hid its intentions to use the Windows 10 lock screen as a commercial billboard, having first discussed its plans during last year’s Build developers conference. Now, Microsoft appears to be making good on those promises, with How-To Geek’s Chris Stobing and at least one Reddit user having seen the Rise of the Tomb Raider ads themselves.

  • It’s Official: ‘Idiocracy’ Writer Says His Satire of a Brain-Dead America Has Become Reality

    Idiocracy has been a long-cherished sci-fi satire in cult circles, telling the tale of two people who wake up from a cryogenic sleep to find that the country has become a wasteland of anti-intellectualism.

    Now, ten years later, the co-writer of the cult comedy classic, Etan Cohen, thinks that the movie is satire no longer, marveling that his movie has gone from fiction to non-fiction. On Twitter today, Cohen used his movie to perfectly sum up our current political climate.

  • The demise of FIFA’s empire

    The FIFA empire has been slowly crumbling since last May following a string of allegations, investigations and scandals.

    The governing body’s former president Sepp Baltter was handed an eight year ban- reduced to six this week – from all football activities in December, just over a year after Michael Garcia’s initial investigation.

  • Science

    • Online Tool Serves Up Ocean Science Studies

      Updates to BOEM’s Environmental Studies Program Information System (ESPIS) tool, hosted by NOAA Digital Coast, now enable users to search, filter, map, discover, and download more than 40 years of studies and related data that can provide critical information for ocean plans and decisions.

  • Hardware

    • EU Projects Unite on Heterogeneous ARM-based Exascale Prototype

      A trio of partner projects based in Europe – Exanest, Exanode and Ecoscale – are working in close collaboration to develop the building blocks for an exascale architecture prototype that will, as they describe, put the power of ten million computers into a single supercomputer. The effort is unique in seeking to advance the ARM64 + FPGA architecture as a foundational “general-purpose” exascale platform.

    • ARM, Open Source Feed Buzz Around HPC File System

      There is but a small cadre of scalable parallel file systems and while the list might be small, weighing the relative benefits of each option against the available resources can be a challenge, as Sven Breuner and his HPC admin colleagues at the Fraunhofer Institute realized in 2004.

      They were certainly not the first or last organization to labor over the inevitable question of which of these scalable parallel file systems to choose, but they did take an interesting route. Notably, the limited choices have not changed over those years, either—nor have the list complaints about each.

  • Health/Nutrition

    • GUEST POST: The #FlintWaterCrisis didn’t just happen

      The Flint water crisis didn’t just happen. It’s been a story decades in the making.

      Cities in America have been on the downswing for many years — deliberate policy on the federal and state level has favored suburbs, and also the preferences of the Boomer generation was to go in that direction too. So, people and money has slowly (or quickly in some cases) filtered out of the cities into suburbia. Also the shift of manufacturing out of America has hit the Midwest very hard (aka the “Rust Belt”). When your city is built for a certain amount of people and then you lose big chunks of your population, it’s hard to make the math work to maintain that infrastructure.

      Anyway, that’s the story on the national level. In Michigan, too, cities and schools have been starved by a “Tea Party” mentality — before the Tea Party even existed. The state has balanced its budget every year, for decades, based on mathematical trickery and from taking funds away from local governments and schools. Proposal A shifted funding from a local level to a pool managed by the state, and that was just too much temptation not to raid. Proposal A also capped the amount of property taxes charged, which puts established cities at an advantage, and helps locations that are not yet built out — because the cap cuts deeper the longer that a house or condo stays within the same ownership.

      So, federal policies and state policies have made it harder and harder for cities to function in Michigan. Flint, especially, after having lost much of its manufacturing base and then many of its people, was struggling.

      Enter the Emergency Manager idea. These problems are systemic and have been building up for many years, and raising taxes is anathema to Republicans, so what do they do? It’s so much easier to fault local government, and come up with an end-around solution to put somebody else in charge who can “make the hard decisions”. Also you want an easy answer and term limits limit who will even be around to see the effects.

    • Google’s DeepMind AI group working with NHS to develop patient care software

      DeepMind, a London-based “neuroscience-inspired AI company” bought by Google in January 2014, has launched DeepMind Health. Its first project is a collaboration with the NHS. The company says: “We want to see the NHS thrive, and to ensure that its talented clinicians get the tools and support they need to continue providing world-class care.”

      Working with leading kidney experts at the Royal Free Hospital in London, DeepMind Health has produced a mobile phone app called “Streams.” It is designed to present “timely information that helps nurses and doctors detect cases of acute kidney injury” (AKI). DeepMind says that “AKI is a contributing factor in up to 20% of emergency hospital admissions as well as 40,000 deaths in the UK every year. Yet NHS England estimate that around 25% of cases are preventable.”

  • Security

    • The Downside of Linux Popularity

      Popularity is becoming a two-edged sword for Linux.

      The open source operating system has become a key component of the Internet’s infrastructure, and it’s also the foundation for the world’s largest mobile OS, Google’s Android.

      Widespread use of the OS, though, has attracted the attention of hackers looking to transfer the dirty tricks previously aimed at Windows to Linux.

      Last year, for example, ransomware purveyors targeted Linux. Granted, it wasn’t a very virulent strain of ransomware, but more potent versions likely will be on the way.

    • Baidu is badforu – web browser and thousands of apps transmit personal data home

      Researchers have found that the Chinese Baidu browser and apps based on its SDK transmit user’s search terms, GPS coordinates, the addresses of websites visited and device’s MAC or IMEI address to Baidu’s servers without using SSL/TLS encryption or gaining the users permission.

    • Baidu Browser Acts like a Mildly Tempered Infostealer Virus

      The Baidu Web browser for Windows and Android exhibits behavior that could easily allow a security researcher to categorize it as an infostealer virus because it collects information on its users and then sends it to Baidu’s home servers.

    • Malware déjà vu – why we’re still falling for the same old threats

      In second place was Conficker – first discovered in 2008 – which again allows remote control and malware downloads. Together, these two families were responsible for nearly 40% of all malware attacks detected in 2015.

    • Conficker, AndroRAT Continue Malware Reigns of Terror

      Conficker meanwhile continued in its position as King of the Worms, remaining the most prevalent malware type and accounting for 25% of all known attacks during the period. Conficker is popular with criminals thanks to its focus on disabling security services to create more vulnerabilities in the network, enabling them to be compromised further and used for launching DDoS and spam attacks.

    • Child-Monitoring Company Responds To Notification Of Security Breach By Publicly Disparaging Researcher Who Reported It

      “Thanks for letting us know about this! We’ll get it fixed immediately!” said almost no company ever.

      There’s a long, but definitely not proud, tradition of companies shooting the messenger when informed of security flaws or possible breaches. The tradition continues.

      uKnowKids is monitoring software parents can install on their children’s cell phones that allows them to track their child’s location, as well as social media activity, text messages and created media. As such, it collects quite a bit of info.

    • Nissan Forgets Security Exists, Opens Leaf Owners To Remote Attack

      You can add Nissan to the laundry list of companies that aren’t making security a priority in the Internet of Things era. A hacker this week revealed that vulnerabilities in the Nissan Leaf companion app allows an attacker to not only track a driver’s driving behavior, but to physically control the Leaf’s heating and cooling systems. Not quite as severe some other car vulnerabilities that open vehicles to total control, the vulnerability still allows a hacker to cause some notable trouble by running down the Leaf’s batteries, potentially leaving an owner stranded.

  • Defence/Police/Secrecy/Aggression

    • The U.S. Extends Its Drone War Deeper Into Africa With Secretive Base

      GAROUA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, proclaimed the sign on the concrete and glass terminal building. The designation was something of a misnomer, because only three or four planes land each week in this sleepy outpost in northern Cameroon, near the Nigerian border, all of them domestic flights. The schedule of the flights tends to be unpredictable. The aging jet that had just flown me to Garoua from Douala, for example, had made an unscheduled stop in N’Djamena, the capital of neighboring Chad, so that a government minister could attend a funeral nearby. As a result, the plane had touched down in Garoua five hours late.

    • Badass Attorney Shoots Down the Case for Drones

      Last Sunday, General Michael V. Hayden, former director of the NSA and the CIA, wrote an Op-Ed in the New York Times called “To Keep America Safe, Embrace Drone Warfare.” After an opening scene of a drone operator double-checking for nearby civilians before taking out two enemy targets, General Hayden makes the case that America’s program of remote targeted killings, while not perfect, is achieving results. It has disrupted terrorist plots and weakened Al Qaida, he wrote. Furthermore, according to intelligence that Hayden himself claims to have seen, public concerns of massive civilian casualties are overblown.

    • Michael Hayden’s Pro-Drone Propaganda

      I have long been disturbed by the New York Times’ coverage of the drone campaigns. I was particularly appalled by the ghastly President-as-Godfather feature published on May 29, 2012. Many conservative pundits have complained that the so-called “liberal” newspaper serves as a mouthpiece for the current administration, which is shameful in and of itself. But how and why did the New York Times become an organ of state-funded propaganda? Whatever happened to fact-based, interest-free, objective journalism?

    • The Absurd Timing of Michael Hayden’s Drone Campaign

      MICHAEL HAYDEN, the former director of the CIA and the NSA, has been making the media rounds over the last few days, discussing and defending some of the most emblematic policies of the post-9/11 era in an effort to promote his new book.

      According to its Amazon description, Playing to the Edge: American Intelligence in the Age of Terror delivers “an unprecedented high-level master narrative of America’s intelligence wars.” The title is a reference to Hayden’s philosophy of pushing national security policies to their limits — what he envisions as the edge.

    • People Die (from Drone Strikes) While Hayden Lies

      In a New York Times op-ed published on February 21, former CIA director, Air Force general, and “Playing to the Edge: American Intelligence in the Age of Terror” author Michael Hayden advocated for the continuing use of drone warfare. He urges the public and implicitly, the next U.S. president, to “embrace” this policy for the desired result of “keeping America safe.” After over a decade of the CIA’s and USAF’s unilateral use of this sinister weapons system, a well-documented record of their unintended consequences confronts us, if we have the courage to face it.

    • Do US Drones Really Make Us Safer?
    • European Parliament calls for Saudi arms embargo

      The European Parliament called on the European Union to impose an arms embargo against Saudi Arabia on Thursday, saying Britain, France and other EU governments should no longer sell weapons to a country accused of targeting civilians in Yemen.

      EU lawmakers voted 359 in favour, 212 against and with 31 abstentions for the formal call for an EU arms embargo.

      Although the vote is not legally binding, lawmakers hope it will pressure the European Union to act.

    • The rape of East Timor: “Sounds like fun”

      Secret documents found in the Australian National Archives provide a glimpse of how one of the greatest crimes of the 20th century was executed and covered up. They also help us understand how and for whom the world is run.

      The documents refer to East Timor, now known as Timor-Leste, and were written by diplomats in the Australian embassy in Jakarta. The date was November 1976, less than a year after the Indonesian dictator General Suharto seized the then Portuguese colony on the island of Timor.

    • A New Low for the International Criminal Court

      The ICC really has plumbed new depths in the current trial of ex-Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo. I do urge you to read the analysis I wrote at the time of his overthrow. Gbagbo certainly was guilty of crimes, but much more killing and violence was done by current Ivory Coast President, and former Deputy MD of the IMF, Alassane Ouattara. My article was written at the time to counter an extremely misleading one written by Thalia Griffiths, editor of African Energy, and published in the Guardian. I have since discovered more about the role of Trafigura in funding Ouattara’s forces, and the picture becomes ever clearer.

  • Environment/Energy/Wildlife

  • Finance

    • Canada may “scrub” CETA rule allowing corporations to sue governments but we’ll keep it in the TPP?

      The Government of Canada appears to be tiptoeing away from a controversial provision in a new trade deal with the European Union at the same time as they’re plowing ahead with the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which includes a similarly controversial provision.

    • Tesla Says GM Pushing Indiana Bill To Kill Direct-To-Consumer Tesla Sales

      As we’ve documented extensively, the auto industry has worked tirelessly to erect barriers to Tesla’s market entry. Legacy automakers have been engaged in sustained hysterics specifically regarding Tesla’s direct-to-consumer sales model, which lets customers buy vehicles directly from Tesla online, with limited showrooms to view, touch and test drive the Tesla vehicles. Annoyed by this pesky Californian upstart, the auto industry has frequently tied draft legislation to campaign contributions to ban Tesla’s successful model. Why compete when you can cheat?

    • The Kafkaesque Battle of Soulseek and PayPal, and Why Free Speech Defenders Should be Worried About Payment Networks

      Does your business follow copyright law to the best of its ability? Not good enough. At least that was the case for one long-standing peer-to-peer network, which had its payment processing shut down after more than 14 years of being a loyal PayPal customer.

      Soulseek, a peer-to-peer file-sharing network, faced a Kafkaesque battle with PayPal. When its donors were cut off from making payments to Soulseek, the network struggled to figure out what it had done wrong—or even get a response from PayPal to its questions. Thankfully, Soulseek reached out to EFF. We got in touch with Paypal and helped convince them to reinstate the network.

      PayPal did the right thing by restoring Soulseek’s account, and we commend them for that. But we’re also concerned: it’s not scalable for EFF to intervene whenever a law-abiding website is shut off from a payment provider (as we have done with an online bookseller and a short story archive). In addition, we think of Soulseek’s situation as indicative of a larger trend of Web censorship, as websites that haven’t violated any laws are choked of funds—a situation that was disastrous for WikiLeaks and is currently tightening a noose around the electronic neck of Backpage.com.

    • Western Peoples Are Being Re-Enserfed

      There is an alternative. Achieving it requires understanding the dynamics at work and distinguishing between earned and unearned income, between productive and unproductive means of gaining wealth. That is the antidote to the neo-rentier power grab.

    • New Zealand Says Laws To Implement TPP Will Be Passed Now, Despite US Uncertainties, And Won’t Be Rolled Back Even If TPP Fails

      As Techdirt has noted, there is evidence from multiple sources that TPP will produce negligible economic benefits for most of the nations involved. Some governments are clearly well aware of this, because they are desperate to avoid an objective cost-benefit evaluation that would show that claims about TPP’s value don’t stack up. Even given that pig-headed determination to push the deal through, basic prudence would surely dictate that before making all the complex legislative changes required by TPP, countries should at least wait to see whether it’s going to happen.

    • Small businesses paying more tax than Uber

      When Uber revealed this week it paid just over $403,000 in tax in Australia over a three-year period many small businesses were left scratching their heads.

      The Silicon Valley technology giant with a market valuation of over US$60 billion responded to questions taken on notice at the Senate inquiry into corporate tax avoidance to disclose the amount of corporate tax it paid in Australia has only slightly increased from $19,387 in 2013, to $134,387 in 2014, and then $249,280 in 2015.

  • PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying

    • Anthony Hilton: Stay or go – the lack of solid facts means it’s all a leap of faith

      I once asked Rupert Murdoch why he was so opposed to the European Union. “That’s easy,” he replied. “When I go into Downing Street they do what I say; when I go to Brussels they take no notice.”

    • With Donald Trump Looming, Should Dems Take a Huge Electability Gamble by Nominating Hillary Clinton?

      Many Democrats will tell you that there has rarely, if ever, been a more menacing or evil presidential candidate than Donald Trump. “Trump is the most dangerous major candidate for president in memory,” pronounced Vox’s Ezra Klein two weeks ago. With a consensus now emerging that the real estate mogul is the likely GOP nominee, it would stand to reason that the most important factor for many Democrats in choosing their own nominee is electability: meaning, who has the best chance of defeating the GOP Satan in the general election? In light of that, can Democrats really afford to take such a risky gamble by nominating Hillary Clinton?

    • Bernie Sanders Has Led Hillary Clinton in This Major National Poll Nearly All Month

      Bernie Sanders finds himself in a familiar place once again. Far away from home on the campaign trail in South Carolina and Missouri on Wednesday, Sanders is once again fighting off a rush of pundits and political talkers looking to write off his presidential campaign after an upset in Nevada last weekend — but according to one new national poll, Sanders has only been growing more popular all month.

    • The Party of ‘No Way!’

      Perhaps the most important thing Washington will do this year is decide whether to approve President Obama’s nominee for the Supreme Court. But Republicans have already announced their decision: “No way!”

      It’s rich for Republicans to declare pre-emptively that they will not even hold hearings on an Obama nominee, considering that they used to denounce (while their party held the White House) the notion that judges’ nominations shouldn’t proceed in an election year.

      “That’s just plain bunk,” Senator Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican, said in 2008. “The reality is that the Senate has never stopped confirming judicial nominees during the last few months of a president’s term.” His sense of reality has since changed.

    • Annotating The Letter Disney’s CEO Sent To Disney Employees Asking Them To Fund Disney’s Sketchy Lobbying Activities

      Here’s quite a scoop from Joe Mullin over at Ars Technica. Apparently, Disney is getting a bit desperate on the whole TPP thing. The company, which has been having a rough go of things because of the next generation not giving a shit about ESPN, decided to take things up a notch. CEO Bob Iger apparently emailed Disney employees asking them to contribute to DisneyPAC, specifically to help Disney pay for lobbyists to push the TPP across the finish line.

  • Censorship

  • Privacy

    • Tor users are actively discriminated against by website operators

      Computer scientists have documented how a large and growing number of websites discriminate against people who browse them using Tor.

      Tor is an anonymity service that is maintained with assistance from the US State Department and designed in part to allows victims of censorship in countries like China and Iran to surf the web. New research show how corporations are discriminating against Tor users, in some cases partly because it’s harder to classify anonymous users for the purpose of pushing ads at them.

    • Rather Than Ending NSA’s Key Surveillance Tool, White House To Now Let Other Agencies Use It

      Late last night, the NY Times broke a very troubling story. Rather than finally putting an end to Executive Order 12333, it appears that President Obama is going to expand the power of it in dangerous ways. We’ve written about EO 12333 a bunch of times, but for those of you unfamiliar with it, it’s an executive order signed by President Reagan that basically gave the NSA pretty free rein to collect signals intelligence outside of the US. Because it’s not (technically) about domestic surveillance, what the NSA does under EO 12333 is not subject to Congressional oversight. That is, Congress is mostly as much in the dark as everyone else is on what the NSA is doing overseas. And, as former State Department official John Napier Tye revealed a couple of years ago, for all the talk of domestic surveillance programs revealed by Ed Snowden, the NSA’s real power comes almost entirely from 12333.

      And it has no limitations. Napier noted that the other programs — things like Section 215 (now morphed into whatever the USA FREEDOM Act allows) and Section 702 — were merely used to “fill in the gaps” not covered by 12333.

    • White House moves to expand ‘sharing intelligence between NSA, FBI and CIA’

      The Obama administration is reportedly moving to broaden the current scope of information sharing between the National Security Agency (NSA) and other US intelligence agencies by stripping away existing restrictions on who exactly has access to communications data scooped up by surveillance programmes.

      The change would impact the sharing of both phone calls and email content collected alongside data from satellite transmissions and messages acquired from overseas intelligence agencies, according to The New York Times.

    • NSA poised to share more intel; Comey not interested in Apple precedent; encryption bill on its way

      MORE INTEL SHARING: The Obama administration is poised to expand NSA intelligence sharing “without first applying any privacy protections” for it, the New York Times reports. “The change would relax longstanding restrictions on access to the contents of the phone calls and email the security agency vacuums up around the world, including bulk collection of satellite transmissions, communications between foreigners as they cross network switches in the United States, and messages acquired overseas or provided by allies,” the Times reports.

    • JOHN MCAFEE: The US may be violating the 13th amendment if it forces Apple to create a back door
    • JOHN MCAFEE: The NSA’s back door has given every US secret to our enemies [Ed: same as below]
    • JOHN MCAFEE: The NSA’s back door has given every US secret to our enemies

      Deng Xiaoping, in 1979 – his second year as supreme leader of China – perceived a fundamental truth that has yet to be fully grasped by most Western leaders: Software, if properly weaponized, could be far more destructive than any nuclear arsenal.

      Under Deng’s leadership, China began one of the most ambitious and sophisticated meta- software development programs ever undertaken.

      And what is meta-software? It’s the one science that the entire Western World has entirely overlooked. It is a high level set of principles for developing software that are imperative if a nation is to survive in a cyberwar.

    • Appeals Court Urged to Allow Wikimedia to Fight NSA Surveillance

      In the amicus brief filed Wednesday, EFF urges the Fourth Circuit to recognize standing for allegations of harm based on actual past and ongoing surveillance, like those alleged in both Wikimedia and Jewel.

    • EFF pushes forward with new amicus brief in case against NSA spying

      The foundation has had an ongoing case which has been termed Jewell v NSA, as well as Wikimedia v NSA. There are many irons in the fire in this battle and now the EFF has filed a new amicus brief in the Wikimedia case.

      On Wednesday the organization filed the brief, which urges the court to allow the various parties to continue their pursuit of the NSA for what the EFF terms “illegal surveillance”. This has been filed with the Fourth Circuit Court, which could prove favorable as it allowed Jewell v NSA to go forward after quite a bit of stalling by the government.

    • Apple Asks: Why Hasn’t The FBI Asked NSA To Break iPhone Encryption?

      The question Apple is asking the FBI: If you want to hack into our iPhone so bad, why don’t you just have the U.S. National Security Agency do it? That’s what a strongly worded legal brief filed Thursday amounts to. The brief asks a federal magistrate to throw out an order requiring Apple to build special software that would enable investigators to break into the iPhone 5c used by one the San Bernardino shooters.

    • Apple: The FBI Should Ask the NSA to Hack Shooter’s iPhone

      In a strongly-worded argument filed in court today, Apple pushed the US government on a question that many observers have been asking: If the FBI wants to hack an iPhone, why doesn’t it just ask the NSA?

      Last week, the company challenged a court order to build malicious software that would allow the FBI to crack the passcode of an iPhone used by Syed Farook, one of the deceased shooters responsible for the workplace rampage in San Bernardino last December. Apple is being compelled under the All Writs Act, a centuries-old law that allows courts to order anyone to do pretty much anything, as long as it’s meant to help execute a court order and isn’t “unreasonably burdensome.”

    • Judge Wants To Know More About FBI’s Secret Recordings Of Conversations Near Courthouse Steps

      Last November, lawyers defending five real estate investors against auction price-rigging allegations discovered the FBI had planted bugs to capture conversations during real estate auctions on the San Mateo (CA) Courthouse steps.

      The lawyers questioned whether these surreptitious recordings violated wiretap laws, despite them taking place in a public area. As they noted, investors often huddled away from the steps to discuss bidding strategies in “hushed tones” in order to prevent competitors from overhearing them. According to these lawyers, the “hushed tones” were not unlike the closing of a phone booth door — a key element in the Supreme Court’s 1967 Katz decision, which found an expectation of privacy could be found in public areas, provided the person being targeted by recording devices performed certain actions.

    • We Read Apple’s 65 Page Filing Calling Bullshit On The Justice Department, So You Don’t Have To
    • The Government Is Already Forcing Companies to Give It Access to Our Data
    • 7 Reasons a Government Backdoor to the iPhone Would Be Catastrophic

      You’ve likely caught wind of the fact that the government and Apple are in the midst of an intense legal showdown in what Edward Snowden has called “the most important tech case in a decade.” The battle is over the legality of a court order compelling Apple to write new software — which the company cleverly referred to as GovOS in a court filing today — that disables several security features that the FBI claims are preventing it from accessing the contents of the work phone of one of the shooters in the San Bernardino attack. Apple is resisting the order, and the company’s CEO, Tim Cook, has committed to going all the way up to the Supreme Court if necessary.

      Lest there be any doubt, the ACLU is with Apple on this one, as it was in a similar case several months back. The government’s request is not just about this one iPhone — it has far-reaching consequences for every device, for global cybersecurity, and for basic freedoms at home and around the world. Communications security is critical for the functioning of democracy, and the precedent the government is seeking could do terrible and lasting damage.

    • FBI Waited 50 Days before Asking for Syed Rezwan Farook’s iCloud Data

      Apple’s motion to vacate the All Writs Act order requiring it to help FBI brute force Syed Rezwan Farook’s iPhone is a stupendous document worthy of the legal superstars who wrote it. To my mind, however, the most damning piece comes not from the lawyers who wrote the brief, but in a declaration from another lawyer: Lisa Olle, Apple’s Manager of Global Privacy and Law, the last 3 pages of the filing.

      Olle provides an interesting timeline of FBI’s requests from Apple, some of which I’ll return to. The most damning details, however, are these.

    • Labor, Coalition vote against strong encryption in Senate

      Both of Australia’s major political parties have explicitly rejected a Senate motion calling on the Government to support public use of strong encryption technologies, in a move that comes in the wake of the US Government’s demand that Apple provide it with a backdoor for open access to its iPhone handset.

      Yesterday in the Senate, Greens Senator and Communications Spokesperson Scott Ludlam (pictured) moved a motion dealing with encryption technology.

      The motion called upon the Senate to note that strong digital encryption protects the personal and financial information of millions of people; that encryption is an important tool to prevent identity theft and other crime; that encryption ensures that public interest whistleblowers, journalists and other civil society actors can conduct their activities more securely; and that the Government, through services such as Medicare and Centrelink, and digital platforms such as myGov, depends on encryption to keep client information safe.

    • MWC 2016: Mastercard rolls out selfie ID checks [iophk: biometrics]

      Credit card firm Mastercard has confirmed it will accept selfie photos and fingerprints as an alternative to passwords when verifying IDs for online payments.

    • The FBI’s Not-So-Compelling Pitch For Sacrificing Security For Safety

      The FBI’s attempt to use an All Writs order to force Apple to help it break into a locked iPhone is seemingly built on a compelling case: a large-scale shooting involving people with ties to terrorist groups. This is exactly the sort of case Comey hoped would help push his anti-encryption agenda forward. Or so it seems.

      But is the case really that “compelling,” especially in the legal sense of the word, which requires the court to weigh the imposition on Apple against the public’s interest in seeing wrongdoers punished/future terrorist attacks prevented?

    • The Way You Ask The Questions Matters: Reuters Poll Says People Support Apple Against FBI, But It’s All In The Questions

      And then, just days later, Reuters/Ipsos released a poll of its own, saying… basically the exact opposite, and it’s being spun to claim that there is “Solid support for Apple in iPhone encryption fight.”

      [...]

      And, once again, the poll is basically meaningless when it comes to the actual issues in this case. You can read the details of the questions in the linked document, which shows that, before asking the key question, the pollsters asked a bunch of questions about whether or not people were willing to “give up privacy” to help the US government on a variety of things. And lots of people said no. These questions more or less framed the issue as one about protecting your own privacy — as compared to the Pew poll that framed it more as being about investigating the San Bernardino attacks. Then after all those questions, the poll asks about the specifics of the Apple case, where they frame the question much more broadly than Pew’s.

    • Alternate Titles: Apple Now Looking To Close The Backdoor The FBI Discovered

      Yesterday the NY Times put out a story claiming that Apple Is Said to Be Working on an iPhone Even It Can’t Hack, with the underlying thrust being that this is a response to the big DOJ case against it, in which the court has ordered Apple to undermine key security features, which would then enable the FBI to brute force the (almost certainly weak) passcode used by Syed Farook on his work iPhone. But, here’s the thing: prior to that order and its details coming to light, many people were under the impression that the existing iPhones were ones that it “couldn’t hack.” After all, it was offering full disk encryption tied to the device where it didn’t hold the key.

    • Charlie Rose Talks to Michael Hayden
    • CIA Director: It’s the Media’s Fault That Terrorists Are So Good at Encryption
    • CIA Director Blames The Media For Terrorists’ Encryption Skills
    • It’s Dangerous and Foolish for CIA and NSA to Blame Press for Terrorist Encryption
    • Obama Administration Set to Expand Sharing of Data That N.S.A. Intercepts

      That also means more officials will be looking at private messages — not only foreigners’ phone calls and emails that have not yet had irrelevant personal information screened out, but also communications to, from, or about Americans that the N.S.A…

    • Apple: The FBI Should Ask the NSA to Hack Shooter’s iPhone

      In a strongly-worded argument filed in court today, Apple pushed the US government on a question that many observers have been asking: If the FBI wants to hack an iPhone, why doesn’t it just ask the NSA?

    • ‘Rethink U.S. presence in Italy’

      “I’m a friend of everyone, all it takes is that others respect our work”, he said. Daily La Repubblica and sister weekly l’Espresso carried the Wikileaks reports that the NSA listened in on three-time premier Berlusconi as Italy was on the brink of a Greece-style crisis, an economic emergency that eventually forced him from office. Berlusconi has often said he was the victim of an international plot.

    • Rome ‘Won’t Protest’ Against NSA Tapping as Italy is ‘Loyal US Servant’

      Even after finding out that the US National Security Agency (NSA) was wiretapping former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, the government in Rome, being Washington’s loyal servant, won’t protest against it, Italian journalist Mario Sommossa said.

    • Italian Media: Rome won’t protest NSA Spying…loyal servants

      Even after finding out that the US National Security Agency (NSA) was wiretapping former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, the government in Rome, being Washington’s loyal servant, won’t protest against it, Italian journalist Mario Sommossa said.

      On Tuesday, WikiLeaks released a batch of classified documents revealing how the NSA was tapping different world leaders, including former Italian leader Berlusconi. Later that day, the Italian Foreign Ministry called US Ambassador John Philips to clarify the uncomfortable findings.

    • Spy Court Called Insufficient to Rein in NSA

      Brought to light by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, the NSA program Upstream intercepts traffic from what has been called the “Internet’s backbone,” a phrase that refers to the major foreign and domestic Internet cables and switches.

    • Think the NSA is scary now? Wait till Donald Trump controls it.

      Donald Trump is pretty obviously an incipient tinpot dictator. He’s got the demagogue’s knack for both playing off and encouraging the worst instincts of his supporters, including violent reprisals against scapegoats. He’s got wide support among authoritarians. He’s even got the taste for garish prestige construction projects.

    • Will the NSA Finally Build Its Superconducting Spy Computer?

      Today, silicon microchips underlie every aspect of digital computing. But their dominance was never a foregone conclusion. Throughout the 1950s, electrical engineers and other researchers explored many alternatives to making digital computers.

    • The NSA spied on top-secret climate negotiations between world leaders

      Climate negotiations between the world’s powerhouses usually take place behind closed doors — unless, that is, the U.S. government is secretly listening in.

      A batch of documents released by WikiLeaks on Tuesday reveal that the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) spied on communications regarding international climate change agreements, including negotiations in 2008 between United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whom the NSA had reportedly been spying on for decades. The NSA listened in on a private meeting between the two leaders ahead of a 2009 conference in Copenhagen, and gleaned information about their hopes that the European Union play a major role in climate change mitigation, adding Merkel thought the “tough issue” would involve carbon trading.

    • Federal Judge Approves Gathering of Evidence on NSA Warrantless Surveillance Program

      For the first time, mass surveillance opponents can dig into evidence on the National Security Agency’s phone and Internet spying programs, a federal judge ruled Friday.

      Heeding the words of a December 2015 Ninth Circuit ruling, U.S. District Judge Jeffery White lifted a 12-month stay in two related class actions that accuse the government of illegally spying on citizens.

      An attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which represents the plaintiffs, said this is the first time the court has allowed a party to gather evidence on the NSA’s warrantless surveillance program.

    • Opera star Katherine Jenkins performs at GCHQ [Ed: which violates human rights and laws]
    • WATCH: Singing star Katherine Jenkins comes to GCHQ and sings to staff as thanks for their work
    • WATCH: Singing star Katherine Jenkins comes to GCHQ and sings to staff as thanks for their work
    • Katherine Jenkins gives spies singing treat

      The classical music star hailed workers at the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) in Cheltenham as “heroes”, before singing songs from her repertoire including Habanera from the opera Carmen.

    • Singer Katherine Jenkins performs at GCHQ
    • Spy agencies say Clinton emails closely matched top secret documents: sources

      U.S. spy agencies have told Congress that Hillary Clinton’s home computer server contained some emails that should have been treated as “top secret” because their wording matched sections of some of the government’s most highly classified documents, four sources familiar with the agency reports said.

      The two reports are the first formal declarations by U.S. spy agencies detailing how they believe Clinton violated government rules when highly classified information in at least 22 email messages passed through her unsecured home server.

    • Arizona Legislators Trying (Again) To Ban Traffic Cameras

      Well, sort of. The bill is still undergoing massive invasive surgery from entities unwilling to see this revenue stream dry up. Another proposal to scale back the state’s reliance on traffic cam income moved forward after being limited solely to state highways — basically killing off cameras in only two towns along those roads. This more expansive proposal is experiencing whatever the opposite of growing pains are. The exceptions to the proposed rule are turning the bill into a hollow shell of an idea, despite the ban having widespread support from the public.

    • Some websites turning law-abiding Tor users into second-class citizens

      About 1.3 million IP addresses—including those used by Google, Yahoo, Craigslist, and Yelp—are turning users of the Tor anonymity network into second-class Web citizens by blocking them outright or degrading the services offered to them, according to a recently published research paper.

      Titled “Do You See What I See? Differential Treatment of Anonymous Users,” the paper said 3.67 percent of websites in the Alexa 1,000 discriminated against computers visiting with known Tor exit-node IP addresses. In some cases, the visitors are completely locked out, while in others users are required to complete burdensome CAPTCHAs or are limited in what they can do. The authors said the singling out was an attempt by the sites to limit fraud and other online crime, which is carried out by a disproportionately high percentage of Tor users. In the process, law-abiding Tor users are being treated as second-class Web citizens.

      “While many websites block Tor to reduce abuse, doing so inadvertently impacts users from censored countries who do not have other ways to access censored Internet content,” the authors wrote.

    • Thoughts on Tor router hardware

      I recently came across a small travel-router that claimed to provide transparent access to the Tor-network. Just make a wifi connection to its Tor access point and all the TCP and DNS traffic is routed through the Tor-network. For a price of only $25 I could not resist and bought one. Over the last month I have been playing with the device and… it worked flawlessly, it was fun!

      So, running the Tor software on cheap router hardware works, but is it a good idea? I believe it is. In this article I will argue that having Tor on the router benefits both security and usability. It opens up new possibilities for expanding the Tor-network and can provide a much needed source of income for the Tor-project.

    • Judge confirms what many suspected: Feds hired CMU to break Tor

      A federal judge in Washington has now confirmed what has been strongly suspected: that Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) researchers at its Software Engineering Institute were hired by the federal government to do research into breaking Tor in 2014. The judge also made a notable statement in his court order that “Tor users clearly lack a reasonable expectation of privacy in their IP addresses while using the Tor network.”

    • US authorities used students to hack into Tor

      THE US COURTS have confirmed that the Department of Defence is not immune to employing students, and used a gaggle of them from Carnegie Mellon to find a way to crack into privacy alternative Tor.

      We would expect students to be against this kind of thing, but who knows these days? People like a challenge and there are plenty who would support efforts to crack Tor. The Russians are rather keen, for example.

    • Silk Road 2.0 Court Docs Show US Government Paid Carnegie Mellon Researchers To Unmask Tor Users

      Rumors that the US government used a university’s research institute to uncloak Tor users began floating around nearly two years ago. In July of 2014, the first hint that something weird was going on at Carnegie Mellon took the form of a hastily-cancelled Black Hat Conference talk on the subject of de-anonymizing Tor users. Carnegie Mellon’s lawyers stepped in and called the whole thing off at the last minute. The thought process at the time was that CMU’s legal team may have been concerned the researchers’ actions had broken wiretap laws.

    • Confirmed: Carnegie Mellon University Attacked Tor, Was Subpoenaed By Feds

      In November, Motherboard reported that a “university-based research institute” provided information to the Federal Bureau of Investigation that led to the identification of criminal suspects on the so-called dark web. Circumstantial evidence pointed to that body being the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) of Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). After a media-storm, CMU published a very carefully worded press release, implying that it had been subpoenaed for the IP addresses it obtained during its research.

    • How Existing Wiretapping Laws Could Save Apple From FBI’s Broad Demands

      There are all sorts of interesting (and frustrating and challenging) legal questions raised by the FBI’s use of the All Writs Act to try to force Apple to build a system to allow the FBI to hack Apple’s customers. But there’s one interesting one raised by Albert Gidari that may cut through a lot of the “bigger” questions (especially the Constitutional ones that everyone leaps to) and just makes a pretty simple point: the DOJ is simply wrong that the All Writs Act applies here, rather than the existing wiretapping statute, the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, or 47 USC 1002, better known by basically everyone as CALEA. CALEA is the law that some (including the DOJ) have wanted “updated” in ways that might force internet companies and mobile phone companies to make their devices more wiretap-ready. But that hasn’t happened.

    • Facebook Is Making a Map of Everyone in the World

      Americans inhabit an intricately mapped world. Type “Burger King” into an online box, and Google will cough up a dozen nearby options, each keyed to a precise latitude and longitude.

      But throughout much of the world, local knowledge stays local. While countries might conduct censuses, the data doesn’t go much deeper than the county or province level.

      Take population data, for instance: More than 7.4 billion humans sprawl across this planet of ours. They live in dense urban centers, in small towns linked by farms, and alone on the outskirts of jungles. But no one’s sure where, exactly, many of them live.

  • Civil Rights

    • Refugee crisis: Concern over ‘unprecedented’ arrivals in Greece and Italy after 2016 total passes 100,000

      More than 100,000 refugees and migrants have arrived in Europe so far this year – more than eight times the rate seen during the same period in 2015.

      Humanitarian organisations have already raised concern about the “huge” numbers and their implications as border controls continue to tighten on the long route to western Europe and the political will to welcome asylum seekers wanes.

    • Plaintiffs had no First Amendment right to take cellphone video of police, federal judge rules

      A federal judge in Philadelphia has ruled that citizens don’t have a First Amendment right to take cellphone videos of police unless they are challenging or criticizing the police conduct.

      U.S. District Judge Mark Kearney ruled (PDF) on Feb. 19 in consolidated cases involving Richard Fields and Amanda Geraci, the Legal Intelligencer (sub. req.) reports. Fields, a Temple University student, took a cellphone photo of about 20 police officers standing outside a house party because he thought it would be an interesting picture. Geraci, a trained legal observer, tried to move closer to see and possibly record an arrest during a protest of hydraulic fracturing.

      An officer handcuffed Fields, searched his cellphone before returning it, and cited him for obstructing the highway and public passages, Fields says. Geraci says an officer physically restrained her to prevent her from recording the arrest. Both sued for alleged First and Fourth Amendment violations.

    • Victorian Government to begin talks with First Nations on Australia’s first Indigenous treaty

      The Victorian Government will begin talks to work out Australia’s first treaty with Indigenous people within weeks.

    • The Obama Guantánamo Plan — What You May Have Missed

      There were both good and bad developments buried in Obama’s speech and plan to close Guantanamo.

      I’m sure you’ve seen the headlines or read the news on President Obama’s speech this week about the plan he sent to Congress to close the Guantánamo prison. But what’s really going on? And what new developments — good or bad — were buried in the speech and the plan? Here’s our take.

    • America’s Killer Prisons

      If the people running prisons know there’s a problem and do nothing about it, is that not manslaughter? Is that not depraved indifference? A person who should be alive is not — all because of the incompetence or apathy of prison administrators. This isn’t an issue of who did what or who broke what law. Every American deserves decent health care. That includes our prisoners.

    • Albert Woodfox, the Last of the Angola Three, Is Finally Free

      Albert Woodfox turned 69 years old Friday. He also was released from prison that day after serving 43 years in solitary confinement, more time than anyone in U.S. history. “Quite a birthday gift,” Woodfox told us on the “Democracy Now!” news hour, in his first televised interview after gaining his freedom. Woodfox is a living testament to the resilience of the human spirit when subjected to the cruel and unusual punishment of solitary. His case also serves as a stark reminder of the injustice that pervades the American criminal-justice system.

    • Court Says Cops Can’t Testify In Case After Destroying Footage Of DUI Arrest

      They like automatic cameras that record license plate and location data. They like surveillance cameras aimed at citizens around the clock. They even like dashcams and body cams, provided the released footage is limited to exonerating officers of wrongdoing.

      What they don’t like are cameras that don’t show their side of the story. A camera is inherently trustworthy — much like a confidential informant — until it isn’t, at which point any footage captured is claimed to be devoid of “context” or unable to show “the whole picture.” In some cases, the cameras don’t show anything at all.

      Sure, the footage may have been available at some point. But it’s suddenly missing when the defense needs it.

  • Intellectual Monopolies

    • Whistleblowers Detail Accountability Problems At The Top Of WIPO; US Congressional Members Prepare Actions

      A set of senior former employees of the World Intellectual Property Organization and their representatives yesterday gave detailed sworn testimony to US lawmakers on what they termed extremely serious misconduct and retaliation at the United Nations agency. A congressional subcommittee chairman told Intellectual Property Watch afterward that based on all they have heard, they believe WIPO Director General Francis Gurry has “gone rogue” and that action against him will begin immediately. The US State Department will be pressed to demand a copy of a newly completed UN investigation of Gurry that apparently has been shared with the Colombian Ambassador in Geneva, Gabriel Duque, who is chair of the WIPO General Assembly this year.

    • Trademarks

      • Google Threatens 9to5Google Over Trademark, Rescinds Threat, Leaves Everyone Frightened

        If you correct for company size, Google is generally pretty decent on intellectual property matters. But, hey, I guess no corporation is perfect. The company whose motto is “don’t be evil” is, of course, very big. And they certainly have a very big legal team. I think it might be time for that legal team to get a quick primer on the wider culture at Google and do a quick review on the company motto, because those lawyers apparently suddenly decided that a news site, called 9to5Google, was suddenly violating Google’s trademark after a scant five full years in operation.

        The threat device Google decided to employ in this case was the news site’s use of Google’s Doubleclick/Ad Exchange network, which the site claims is a decent profit center for 9to5Google. There had apparently been occasional blips of the network not working in the past, all of which had been quickly resolved. Not the case this time, however.

    • Copyrights

      • HTTPS Renders UK Pirate Site Blocklist Useless

        By now most UK Internet users have gotten used to pirate sites being blocked by their ISPs. However, thanks to HTTPS many subscribers have been enjoying a glimpse of an open and unrestricted web, as several popular torrent sites including The Pirate Bay and Kickass Torrents are no longer being blocked by all providers.

      • UK’s Pirate Site Blocklist Even More Pointless Than Previously Thought: HTTPS Defeats It

        Apparently this has been known in certain circles for quite a while. Some pirate sites have even gone so far as to force users to connect using HTTPS to enable them to enjoy this further advantage of encryption. There’s an interesting discussion in the comments on the TorrentFreak post as to when and why HTTPS connections can get around the court-mandated blocks, and what ISPs might try to do to close this gaping loophole. Even if they do, the other circumvention methods will remain.

      • RIAA Wins $22 Million Piracy Lawsuit Against MP3Skull

        A group of prominent RIAA labels have won a default judgment against piracy site MP3Skull. A Florida court awarded the music companies more than $22 million in damages and issued a permanent injunction which allows the RIAA to take over the site’s domain names.

      • Japan Police Arrest 44 in Nationwide Internet Piracy Crackdown

        Police in Japan have arrested 44 people suspected of being involved in illegal Internet file-sharing. Raids in over 90 locations across the country targeted individuals suspected of downloading and distributing a wide range of content including movies, music, anime, manga and software. If convicted they face fines and up to ten years in jail.

02.25.16

Dutch Report: “External Investigation” Likely to be Launched Into “the Punitive Measures That Battistelli Imposed on Union Members.”

Posted in Europe, Patents at 11:06 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Dutch media report

Summary: The first among several translations of Dutch media reports about Benoît Battistelli’s demise

HAVING asked for translations of Dutch media reports about the EPO scandals, we finally got the first such translation and it’s worth highlighting the facts below (reasonably new):

Board of patent office wants to investigate the functioning of chief

Labour dispute. The management board of the European Patent Office wants an investigation of the manner it’s being governed.

The ongoing crisis at the European Patent Office (EPO) appears to turn against its criticized president, the Frenchman Benoît Battistelli. The highest body of the office, the management board representing the 38 member states, wants an external investigation in to the punitive measures that Battistelli (65) imposed on union members.

It is an unexpected twist in the battle between the office, that’s granting European patents and has one of its bases in the Dutch municipality of Rijswijk, and the unions. The ‘authoritarian’ style of governance and the work pressure induced tensions and even several suicides among employees, according to the unions. Battistelli however claims the unions are trying to sabotage his reforms. A number of leading union members have been suspended and will possibly be fired, one of them is the chairwoman of the Dutch branch, Elizabeth Hardon.

The chairman of the management board, the Dane Jesper Kongstad now writes in a letter that the disciplinary measures have led to “very serious concerns” about the “proper functioning” of the office. The regulators unfortunately weren’t able to have a “meaningful dialogue” about this with Battistelli. Despite of protest by the president, the board wants to have the punitive measures investigated as well as suspended. Next month the member states will vote on the proposal. The letter is noteworthy because only last year Battistelli was reappointed until 2018 by the management board.

Yesterday Battistelli has invited the unions for a talk on “any topic” concerning working conditions. Last month the Supreme Court also commended the office and the unions for mediation.

Towards the end one can see the propaganda which we have just written about. Will Elizabeth Hardon and others be back to work soon? █

“Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves.”

–Abraham Lincoln

Repurposed Misinformation Campaign: The EPO’s PR Team is Lying to The Register in Order to Help Battistelli Save Face

Posted in Deception, Europe, Patents at 10:30 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

“SUEPO Has No Standing in This Office. SUEPO Has No Role to Play in This Office.” -Vice-President Željko Topić, 19th of March 2015 (less than a year ago) in a meeting with the Munich Staff Committee

EPO olive branch

Summary: Misinformation spread by the EPO and its paid media (such as IAM ‘magazine’) tracked and rebutted in order to avoid further dissemination of lies

Several people notified us regarding this article, which is the EPO’s effort to recover after a “meltdown” was correctly claimed in a previous article. The article is basically a composition of lies — not by the author but by the respondents at the EPO (apparently the PR team). Among the lies: “Asked about the persistent rumors that Battistelli will resign or is negotiating a settlement to leave, the EPO assured us that the president intends to stay on until his term ends in 2018. The negotiation of the new MoUs has led to a “very positive atmosphere” in recent days, the organization said.”

Poppycock.

“Noteworthy from the article is the part which pretends that the EPO wants to finally engage with and recognise unions.”The Register, to its credit, wanted to keep things balanced, but letting the EPO sling mud (or lies) at the wall and hope something sticks isn’t the best approach. In the comments thread of his previous article (about EPO “meltdown”) at least one person accused the author of being biased and not balanced, as if letting the EPO utter some lies means “balance”. So The Register published a face-saving response from the EPO’s PR department. Isn’t that just great? Full of rubbish, misinforming people, creating more confusion…

“That The Register article is total bollocks,” wrote to us one EPO worker. Many others said the same thing, though not in these words. It’s total BS, bollocks, poppycock, or whatever… there are also non-English words which describe what the EPO management is doing here.

Battistelli won’t go without a fight, or without a lot of spin, propaganda disguised as "social study", and alleged blackmail (e.g. to sign letters of support). Noteworthy from the article is the part which pretends that the EPO wants to finally engage with and recognise unions. The PR department/team must be so desperate that it now reuses old lines, such as those which we covered in:

When reading about Battistelli “extending an olive branch” to unions need to think of poison, maybe disguised as grossly overpriced wine. Battistelli wishes to get closer to such people so that he can stab them at the back or entrap them. See the accusations they sort of made up against Elisabeth Hardon.

“Battistelli wishes to get closer to such people so that he can stab them at the back or entrap them.”For those who believe that the EPO spreads its nonsense only through the latest article from The Register, look a little further. Here we have EPO-funded bloggers (to promote UPC) promoting the UPC in the UK and we have just found other new puff pieces in the British media (also about the UPC). Part of the media campaign of EPO and FTI Consulting perhaps? Either way, it’s disgusting because it distorts or corrupts the media so as to promote antidemocratic treaties/deals. Also today there was this pair of puff pieces about the EPO in Lexology [1, 2], one of which was echoing the EPO’s official hogwash of a malicious, discriminatory programme.

Expect more EPO propaganda. Please report it to us. █

Dutch Media Reinforces Rumours That Battistelli is on His Way Out, Only a Matter of Money Now

Posted in Europe, Patents at 9:56 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Also: a call for translation by Dutch speakers

Dutch article

Summary: Details that trickle into Dutch media and the growing necessity for English translations, as these serve to reinforce rumours and turn some into facts

FOR reasons we explained or hypothesised here before [1, 2], the German media, which is a lot broader (more than ten times the population of the Netherlands) and more closely connected to the EPO, hardly covers (at least properly) the EPO scandals, unlike the Dutch media. It was the case last year and it’s still the case this year.

“Near the end it quotes Liesbeth Zegveld [SUEPO lawyer] that BB’s [the president's] departure essentially boils down to a question of money.”
      –AnonymousToday there were several articles in Dutch about the EPO. NRC has at least two articles about the latest developments/situation. A translation is coming for the first one soon (“Bestuur van octrooibureau wil functioneren topman onderzoeken”), but not the second, so we need volunteers for that (“Octrooibureau wil onderzoek naar bestuursstijl president”).

The above picture shows that other newspapers too are covering these matters and we need a translation of the text below (we have made a copy in case of self-censorship as seen before in British media and EPO-funded French media).

“If BB should decline to step down, then it is probable that he would lose much of his power anyway, as the AC would set up an “independent commission” to scrutinise his management.”
      –Anonymous“For your press book,” wrote to us a reader who can understand Dutch, the above “scan of today’s edition of Dutch newspaper “De Volkskrant” is doing the rounds. The title translates to: “The Member States Turn Against Patent Office Top Man”.

“The VK is one of the country’s better quality daily, and has a reputation of being left-leaning.

“The article is a concise summary of the present situation.

“It mentions the surprising change of attitude by AC president Jesper Kongstad, who used to be a loyal Battisbuddy.

“Near the end it quotes Liesbeth Zegveld [SUEPO lawyer] that BB’s [the president's] departure essentially boils down to a question of money.

“All of that is fine, but we should never forget that we could [be] looking at rumours snowballing into rumours which eventually become “facts”.”
      –Anonymous“If BB should decline to step down, then it is probable that he would lose much of his power anyway, as the AC would set up an “independent commission” to scrutinise his management.

“The president is reported to be doing much horse-trading backstage in order to shoot down the AC proposal. [Remember, there are 38 member states, and with the FIFA system of one country, one vote, anything is possible]

“All of that is fine, but we should never forget that we could [be] looking at rumours snowballing into rumours which eventually become “facts”.”

To summarise, we have a translation of this article on its way, but we still require translations of this and that article. There are often new, fact-checked claims in articles in all sorts of languages, based on various communications with the EPO's PR team, which occasionally makes flukes or faux pas (meaning, in their case, actually stating the truth for a change). More on that in our next post… █

The English Version of the Central Staff Committee’s Open Letter to the Praesidium of the Administrative Council Regarding Battistelli’s ‘Social Study’ EPO Propaganda

Posted in Europe, Patents at 9:16 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Flipping narratives to support an abusive regime

Korean War propaganda
The classic “killing babies” Korean War propaganda. Designer: Xu Ling (徐灵) ca. 1950

Summary: Many staff representatives at the EPO point out to the Praesidium of the Administrative Council that what Battistelli calls Social Study is actually self-serving propaganda which is not credible

At the end of last year the Praesidium got involved as EPO abuses were becoming un-ignorable, even to the Council. It wasn’t long thereafter that staff representatives wrote to the Praesidium (we published the original, i.e. German, version of it).

“For a strong, legitimate, widely-respected EPO the tyrants need to go away and leave the highly-educated patent examiners in good, well-meaning, caring hands.”The Battistelli-led and nearly North Korea-inspired management seems to believe it can convince the public that EPO staff is happy, or that only a "vocal minority" is upset (Ms Lefèvre is involved in this propaganda). Now, remember the so-called ‘Social Study’? They even call it a “study”, as though it’s academic. It’s safe to dismiss it as propaganda. This is what the Central Staff Committee at the EPO is trying to make clear to the Praesidium right now. The EPO union leaders’ open letter to the AC Praesidium is now available in English. We planned to have published it earlier on, but it fits more nicely with some recent articles of ours — articles some of which serve to confirm the evident and perhaps inevitable demise of the abusers. Thanks to the anonymous translators Techrights has access to (very talented polyglots) and some people who work as staff representatives, we occasionally get our hands on a lot of stuff. When staff representatives circulate material it often reaches us too, one way or another.

Now, to be clear, many of our sources don’t work for the EPO at all. The anger at Battistelli is everywhere both inside and outside Europe. This document wasn’t even sent to us from Europe. Based on the PDF with the English translation/version we have just produced the following HTML version, which may be handy for future reference. We strive to have a complete and detailed record of this long overdue “meltdown” — as British media called it this week — of Team Battistelli, not the EPO itself. For a strong, legitimate, widely-respected EPO the tyrants need to go away and leave the highly-educated patent examiners in good, well-meaning, caring hands. The CSC’s (Central Staff Committee) open letter is included below with our emphasis in yellow for those who prefer to just quickly ‘scan’ the letter.

Translation

To the Board
of the Administrative Council
of the European Patent Organisation

OPEN LETTER
17 February 2016

Social Study 2016 – Position of the Central Staff Committee (CSC)

Dear Board members,

The preparation and the progress of the Social Study 2016 was an agenda item on both the 69th and 70th meeting. Once again, the Social Study is back on the agenda for the next meeting. We regret that the CSC meeting scheduled for 16 to 18 February 2016 in Munich has not been not approved, since it was our intention to use the occasion to get in touch with you personally to explain our position. Therefore, we take the liberty to notify you in writing that due to current events, the CSC had to change its attitude towards the envisaged study.

At the meeting of the General Consultative Committee on 9 December 2015, the attending members of the CSC showed cautious optimism in their remarks on the document about the Social Study 2016, which was added to the agenda at short notice. In particular, the leadership by the Administrative Council and their apparent willingness to receive comments and suggestions from the CSC seemed to us to show promise as an apparent move away from the President’s very one-sided views on the social situation in the EPO. In the last meeting of the Administrative Council, we reiterated in our remarks that special attention should be paid to ensuring the independence of the external contractor, to guaranteeing the absolute anonymity of the participating staff members and to providing a genuinely unbiased assessment of staff’s view on the impact of the current working atmosphere on the quality of their work results.

However, events have proven otherwise. On 7 January 2016, we were informed that the President had decided to invite the CSC to nominate an observer to the Award Committee for the tender. On 15 January 2016, we complied with this invitation respecting the tight timeframe set. On 21 January 2016, we submitted further comments and suggestions for the Social Study 2016 in writing. Nevertheless, the President claimed on 4 February 2016 in his event “Meet the President” to the staff that despite an invitation, the CSC had never submitted comments on the planned social study.

Our observer was unfortunately never invited to any meeting or otherwise involved in the preparation of the study. His first active involvement was on the afternoon of 11 February 2016, when he received documents for the tender which was scheduled for publication the next day (12 February 2016). The material included several documents consisting of more than 100 pages. It was not even clear to what extent they could be forwarded for broader discussion in the CSC.

We consider this kind of consultation as deficient and not bona fide. Rather, we fear that it will be used in an attempt to present the participation of an observer for the CSC in the Award Committee as demonstrating the alleged independence of the Social Study 2016. Therefore, we make thoroughly clear at this point that the CSC has now withdrawn, at least for the time being, its initial support for the implementation of the study. Moreover, we are surprised that apparently no one from the Administrative Council – not even from its Board 28 – participates any longer in the preparation, tendering and implementation of the Social Study 2016, all the more so because Article 32 EPC foresees suitable means for the Administrative Council to do so.

As the lead has apparently been abandoned without any proposals or suggestions of the CSC being taken into account, our main reasons for continuing our support of the study are now rendered obsolete. With this perspective, we therefore cannot recommend the employees of the European Patent Office to participate in any interviews and surveys as part of the Social Study 2016.

What remains is for us to simply wish the President good luck in convincing everyone about the independence and credibility of his Social Study 2016.

Yours faithfully,
The Central Staff Committee
We confirm that the above letter was correctly decided by the Central Staff Committee.

[Signatures of the CSC members]

cc.: Mr B. Battistelli, President of the EPO
Mr Y. Grandjean, Director Council Secretariat

Any new remarks from the respondent, the Praesidium? If so, please let us know. █

Nearly a Thousand EPO Employees Prepared to Go on Strike in Just a Fortnight, Team Battistelli Getting Desperate to Stop That

Posted in Europe, Patents at 8:08 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Elodie Thatcher is the EPO’s new Iron Lady (recall the UK miners’ strike)

Mikhail Gorbachev meets Margaret Thatcher
Mikhail Gorbachev meets Margaret Thatcher. Photo credit: Yuryi Abramochkin / Юрий Абрамочкин, RIA Novosti

Summary: Classic union-crushing methods continue at the Team Battistelli-led EPO, cleverly disguised as a ballot, which misleadingly evokes thoughts of democracy

TECHRIGHTS has been receiving information about every organisation’s worst nightmare (to the management at least). There is a strike coming to the Battistelli-led Banana Republic. People are as mad as Hell as they’re not going to take this anymore. Why would they? Just look how Battistelli (mis)treats his own senior staff, their spouses, politicians, delegates, lawyers, and even bloggers. Battistelli is a massive embarrassment to the Organisation and even the Chairman of the Administrative Council finally recognises this (as does the media).

People who plan to go on strike are sympathetic towards their real leaders, the staff representatives who look after workers’ interests; they are not against the EPO itself (neither are we), they’re just against what became of the EPO with the current management that disregards the law and stomps on the EPC. We previously wrote about this imminent strike which Bergot and her buddies at the Team Battistelli-led EPO tried hard to prevent from happening.

Here is what Bergot wrote in the intranet today:

Notification of a strike ballot

25.02.2016
Electronic voting on 8 March 2016

By means of this notification (DE, FR), I wish to inform you of the data and procedure for the ballot which is to be held following receipt of a call for a strike.

Elodie Bergot
PD Human Resources

The following images (we don’t have the text yet, but if anyone can provide it, that would be helpful) reveal what’s happening at the moment.

Notice who was designated by Battistelli. Yes, it’s Nadja Merdaci-Lefèvre, who has just been officially promoted (as per today’s announcement]. Amazing coincidences perhaps. From military career to union, strike and protest crackdown?

“People are as mad as Hell as they’re not going to take this anymore.”The above smells like a trap that helps identify (or create a list of) who’s loyal to Battistelli (or still too afraid of Battistelli) and who’s not.

Here is another one, which provides background to this action. Pay attention to the numbers above (754 signatures) when reading the following text:

One source asked us: “Have you heard about the strike ballot? BEWARE THE IDES OF MARCH.”

The very existence of this ballot is means of intimidation and discouragement. Maybe some civil disobedience is needed here, such as a boycott of the ballot. If nobody bothers with it, no collective action such as collective punishment can be taken into account/consideration (like firing all EPO employees). Refusing to participate in a ballot is a lot less severe an action than actually going on strike. Wait for Pinky and the Brain (Bergot and Battistelli) to take advantage of refusal to participate as ‘proof’ that the staff does not wish to go on strike (the “vocal minority” narrative bolstered yet again). Watch how they blackmail managers to pretend to support Battistelli's regime. The Banana Republic of Pinky and the Brain makes even a Crimean referendum appear reasonably legitimate. Gorbachev et al would probably label “useful idiots” (Leninist term) those who tolerate this ‘ballot”. █

“Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to that arrogant oligarchy who merely happen to be walking around.”

–GK Chesterton

More Fire Power for Team Battistelli With New Promotion of French Lady

Posted in Europe, Patents at 7:11 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Nadja Merdaci-LefèvreSummary: Nadja Merdaci-Lefèvre, with military background (trendy skill at the EPO right now), officially becomes an EPO Director

THE trend at the Team Battistelli-led EPO never ceases to amaze. An appointment from military to top EPO rank was only mentioned here earlier today (there are also lower level examples and peripheral examples, but we deal only with public officials as their exposure to the press is subjected to other levels of ethics).

The Incredible Rise of Nadja

According to our sources, Nadja Merdaci-Lefèvre has been has promoted. This ex military person has just been promoted to EPO Director. That is a very high rand. For a little background on this amazing race to the top of Team Battistelli see:

  1. EPO’s Team Battistelli is Promoting Only the Oppressors
  2. EPO: It’s Like a Family Business – Part IV
  3. The EPO’s Investigative Unit Exposed: Part VII

“More people with a military background make rocket careers at the EPO,” told us one person. “Nadja Lefèvre (born Merdaci) was promoted to DIRECTOR at the EPO with effective date 01.01.2016. This appeared today on the EPO intranet site.”

“It’s rather interesting to see the predominantly French Team Battistelli bolstering/empowering itself.”We already knew this a while ago, but staff gets notified a little later, maybe to in order reduce backlash.

“She appeared on Techrights before,” our source noted, “as part of the Inner Circle 2.0.”

It’s rather interesting to see the predominantly French Team Battistelli bolstering/empowering itself. It’s a clique. Sometimes it’s literally a family. It’s not just Bergot anymore (we know some embarrassing stories about her that we cannot publish, at least not yet).

Surge of EPO Whistleblowers

It sure seems like a lot more EPO staff and also outsiders, including stakeholders, are fed up with Team Battistelli. They want immediate change. We received some encouraging words and wishes for quick recovery (my wife and I are still ill). “Keep up the good work,” one person told us, maybe one among a dozen today (thanks!). If it weren’t for our sources, however, none of this would be possible, so please keep us informed. The intranet page about Merdaci-Lefèvre’s would be nice to have here for the record if anyone could kindly leak it to us…

“The intranet page about Merdaci-Lefèvre’s would be nice to have here for the record if anyone could kindly leak it to us…”It is going to be a very long night as we have been receiving a lot of new material today. “Dear Mr. Roy Schestowitz,” wrote one person to me, “I have definitely found this article very interesting (thought in French): http://www.agoravox.fr/tribune-libre/article/de-quoi-le-conflit-social-a-l-175546

“It might explain indeed the current crisis at the EPO. I am not sure it is known in the IP world. I guess you might feel interested in having it appearing on Techrights.”

Someone already works on translating it for us. It’s work in progress as it’s a long article and one that is exceptionally difficult to translate. In the mean time, if anyone has the time, please keep an eye on the next few articles. We need some translations from Dutch, so native Dutch speakers are needed (for accuracy, automated translations are not sufficiently reliable). █

European Patent Office: Battistelli Gets Official Warning

Posted in Europe, Patents at 10:24 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

[Translation of this article about the EPO]

The member states of the European Patent Office (EPO) [sic – should be European Patent Organisation] are increasing the pressure on the President of the Office, Benoît Battistelli. This is evident from a letter from the Chairman of the Administrative Council, Jesper Kongstad, to the 38 member states’ representatives on the patent authority’s supervisory body. According to the letter, the member states are concerned about the enduring conflict between the Management and the unions, and about the sluggish process of reform for greater independence for the office’s internal judiciary. The meeting of the Executive Committee last week turned into an open skirmish between the member states and Battistelli, several sources report.

Benoît Battistelli

Benoît Battistelli

For around a year and a half, the Office has been rocked by an ongoing dispute between Battistelli and the two unions, over the President’s management style, his reform process for greater efficiency and for recognition of the unions. At the same time, a public debate has been ignited over the lack of independence of the Office’s internal judiciary, the Boards of Appeal. On top of this, Battistelli initiated controversial disciplinary proceedings against a judge and against three leading union members.

In reaction, the administrative Council issued a warning that the social conflict should be resolved and the reform of the Boards of Appeal should be set in motion. However, both of these processes have been delayed by several months.

According to Kongstad’s letter, the members of Board 28  expressed concern last week that Battistelli is not heeding the opinion of the Administrative Council sufficiently on these two points.

Kongstad writes that is had not been possible to hold a meaningful dialogue with the President. As a result, the Board 28 members addressed a formal written request to the President. However, Battistelli apparently rejected the request as legally inadmissible. From a formal point of view, the EPO President is not obliged to follow instructions of the supervisory body in his management of the office. The Administrative Council appoints the President and must approve the Office’s budget. Until recently, it could be counted on as the effective power base for the controversial Frenchman.

Battistelli’s Support Crumbles

However, this support is disintegrating remarkably, according to Konstad’s letter, and to information which JUVE has obtained from the inner circle of the Executive.  Board 28 intends to submit its formal demand to the entire Administrative Council so that it can be presented to the President on behalf of the whole Council. This is planned for the next meeting of the Administrative Council. Kongstad also mentioned in his letter that it had not been possible to set the agenda for the March meeting before Battistelli left the Board 28 meeting.

In the meantime, Kongstad’s letter, and a document with the formal request to Battistelli, are circulating on social media. Sources close to the Administrative Council have meanwhile confirmed the authenticity of both documents to JUVE. Battistelli is not responding to questions about the formal demand or its content.

JUVE has heard from several sources that there is grave concern in sectors of the Administrative Council over the current situation  in the Office. These concerns are focussed principally on the social unrest, the slow pace of reform of the Boards of Appeal and the fairness of the four disciplinary cases.

Observers suspect that the escalation has been triggered by Board 28′s demand that Battistelli accept an external review of the disciplinary measures and procedures taken against the three union leaders. The member states also want to appoint an external expert to work with the President on the preparation of a new proposal for the structural reform of the Boards of Appeal.

Open Conflict

These events are the first time that any dispute between Battistelli and a section of the member states has emerged into the open. However, it has not yet developed into a public rift. It appears that the Administrative Council is still seeking an amicable solution with Battistelli. However, it is now expecting more than ever that the EPO President fall into line

It was already apparent at the last meeting of the Administrative Council in December that Battistelli was losing support on the question of structural reform, when the member states rejected the reforms he proposed. Apparently it was mainly Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland who openly opposed the Battistelli proposals. As a result, the Administrative Council assumed responsibility for the reform process and agreed on five guiding principles, on the basis of which the President should prepare a new proposal for the June meeting of the Administrative Council.

The EPO issued the following comment regarding current developments: “The President and the Administrative Council work closely together in preparing the Council meetings. This applies also to the difficult social topics, on which the governments of the individual member states have rather varied opinions, and which therefore require a thorough debate.” The Office also announced that a proposal for structural reform would be made in June, and that a social study would be completed by September. In addition, the President would like to hold a conference in the second half of the year with all social partners.

(Christina Schulze, Mathieu Klos)

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