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03.04.16

Why the Letter in Support of Battistelli is Worse Than a Lie and Should be Thrown to the Wastebasket by the Organisation’s Administrative Council

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

A replacement to Battistelli should be chosen before the damage becomes irreparable

Christoph Ernst, EPOSummary: The letter in ‘support’ of Battistelli is not a genuine letter of support, the imminent strike is under attack (more so after the FFPE-EPO MoU), and new rumours about Battistelli’s successor are beginning to circulate (Christoph Ernst, on the left)

THERE is no denying that the EPO (both the Office and the Organisation) are in a state of crisis, but a lot of it can be resolved if the Organisation removes Team Battistelli from the Office. The folly has gone way too far and it’s time to undo the coup. The EPO (Organisation) needs to start afresh and acknowledge this past failure to the world, including to stakeholders whose money keeps the EPO alive.

Christina Schulze wrote yet another strongly-worded article about Benoît Battistelli over at Juve (translations would be more than welcome) while other German (or Austrian) media did something similar this week, with few exceptions*. Thankfully, despite all the propaganda (notably unions and results), the press stays focused on the real stories, not the distractions from FTI Consulting (peripheral PR reinforcement) and the EPO's in-house PR team that habitually resorts to lying.

“The folly has gone way too far and it’s time to undo the coup.”Some talking points, other than the unions and results, say that Battistelli magically won back the support of the Council. This is a lie.

“What PD Roberta Romano G is up to,” according to our source, is no good. According to information that we privately received, “PD Roberta Romano-Götsch abuses her position as principal director to “volunteer” subordinates to sign the letter in support of Battistelli. Dozens have been intimidated into signing the letter. Collecting signatures under duress is a scandal in an international organization that should lead by example. My prayer to the AC: deliver us from Battistelli!”

“Thankfully, despite all the propaganda (notably unions and results), the press stays focused on the real stories, not the distractions from FTI Consulting (peripheral PR reinforcement) and the EPO’s in-house PR team that habitually resorts to lying.”Reading between the lines and looking deeper inside documents, we have learned that Battistelli gets Minnoye’s help in this crisis. This isn’t too shocking given Minnoye's epic television appearance. “These event triggered several reactions from the Office management,” we heard. “First, between Thursday 18.02 to 23.02, the President and in first instance the VP of DG1, Mr. Minnoye started a call to all managers to stand behind them as one man by signing a petition at the attention of the AC. As far as we are informed the signature reaction is, at best, sluggish. In the majority of the Office, the managers seem to be unwilling to sign the call. Secondly on Friday 19, the head of HR (PD 4.3) invited all elected Staff Committee members (central and local) to a meeting on Wednesday 25.”

This is very much indicative of a disaster.

“Some talking points, other than the unions and results, say that Battistelli magically won back the support of the Council. This is a lie.”There is a strike coming (Battistelli keeps spinning this in the media by saying there were no strikes last year) and Team Battistelli is trying quite aggressively to prevent the strike from happening (see these documents which we published last night — mentioned before, now available as text). It may seem expected, but such moves mostly serve to alienate the staff and motivate stronger action against the management which strives to prevent basis rights, such as the right to strike.

Someone has leaked to us a CSC (Central Staff Committee) document which we present below without comment:

Information on the call for strike “Lawfulness at the EPO”

As a reaction to the recent disciplinary procedures and resulting decisions of the President to dismiss two elected Staff Representatives and to severely downgrade a third, a call for strike was formally initiated mid-January across the Office. The petitioners mandated an external lawyer to act on their behalf as their interlocutor, but the Office refused to accept this nomination, although they did not provide any legal basis for this. The lawyer therefore proposed to delegate his mandate to the CSC for all further action with regard to any upcoming procedural steps foreseen by the EPO administration. The CSC has informed the Administration that we agreed to act as interlocutor for the strike petitioners.

In a meeting on 24 February, the Staff Representation met the Administration, headed by PD 4.3, to discuss the claims raised in the call for strike. Coincidentally and in parallel to this channel, similar requests to the ones raised by the strike petitioners have been made by the Board 28.

Results of the exchange of views

a. Immediate suspension of the disciplinary measures

The administration merely referred to the option for the disciplined colleagues to file requests for review of the decisions and, if necessary, ultimately address their cases to the ILOAT. They showed no intention to quickly deescalate the current, tense situation by suspending these measures straightaway.

b. Independent review of the disciplinary cases

The Administration asserted to be in full compliance with Office rules and therefore saw no need to comply with this request.

c. Revocation of recent changes to Service Regulations

The Administration – without any substantial discussion on any of the listed reforms – claimed that a social study was underway which would identify defects and deficiencies which could then be worked in collaboration with all stakeholders. Apparently, revocation of any of the reforms is not an option.

d. Use of a Mediator to facilitate negotiations between the management and staff representatives

The Administration commented that “Mediation is a waste of time” and saw no need to engage any external support to resolve the current deadlock.

Conclusion

No meaningful progress has been made during this meeting with regards to the requests as set out in the call for strike. Therefore, a strike ballot will take place on 8 March 2016.

“For the strike ballot” we learned, “the CSC nominated two staff members to overview the process. On the background of key-loggers and other recent past events, the confidentiality of the vote cannot be guaranteed at this stage. The Administration declared that if the turn out was low, this was simply a “sign of lack of support” for the claims.”

“It may seem expected, but such moves mostly serve to alienate the staff and motivate stronger action against the management which strives to prevent basis rights, such as the right to strike. “So there is pressure to vote, not boycott the vote and go on strike in spite of it. This is union-busting again.

“It was declared that the administration saw no necessity,” we learned, “and had no me to run a paper ballot. And again, the SR took note that the simple administrative request made by the CSC to make sure the exercise was meaningful was turned down by the administration. As a general conclusion, the SR assembled expressed their disappointment that the attempt to find common ground had failed and that the organisation of the strike ballot should proceed.”

“This is union-busting again.”Any outsider can see what Battistelli thinks not only of unions but also of democracy. No wonder he's with Sarkozy. Although it may be too early to say anything about Battistelli’s expected departure (whether by resignation of by sacking), one reader pointed to this article and said that “the last passage of the article is the most interesting: ‘Tatsächlich kursiert bereits der Name eines möglichen Nachfolgers an der Amtsspitze, der des deutschen Verwaltungsratsmitglieds Christoph Ernst aus dem Bundesjustizministerium. Battistelli selbst, so ist zu hören, soll das für ausgeschlossen halten. Er sei allerbester Laune, heißt es.’”

“It says that there are already rumours about the next president who’s supposed to be the German representative Christoph Ernst from the federal ministry of justice,” we were told. “This is new rumour and if we add this article to the BR programme one can imagine that there are some forces behind. It is rumoured that there are already 22 delegations in favour of ousting Battistelli. All will be decided probably soon.

“Any outsider can see what Battistelli thinks not only of unions but also of democracy.”“One could say: The sooner the better (for everybody). The longer the thing drags on, the angrier the delegations will be and Battistelli’s conditions will get worse.”

Based on the EPO’s own site, Christoph Ernst was “elected chairman of the Budget and Finance Committee” less than a year ago (epo.org link), so presumably he knows Battistelli’s real salary. Mr. Kongstad knows it too. █
______
* At least one English language paper is writing about Austria and repeats the EPO's latest propaganda (ignoring the real story), plus the German-speaking Austrian press, in addition to few other publications that we cited here before, the latest being the Financial Times (London).

“FFPE-EPO Was Set up About 9 Years Ago With Management Encouragement”

Posted in Europe, Patents at 9:25 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Yellow unions
Article: The New Face of Unionbusting

Summary: FFPE-EPO as discussed in an anonymous forum over at IP Kat right now

THE comments at IP Kat, including comments about EPO rumours, have resumed (being an anti-censorship activist, I eventually wrote several E-mails to IP Kat, only after people had told me that IP Kat wasn’t publishing their comments, in effect deleting them). There is a lot of telling/revealing stuff inside some of these comments and we highlight in yellow (see below) what people probably deserve to know about FFPE-EPO (while bearing in mind it’s unverified). We also add some comments about FFPE-EPO, which looks to us like a yellow EPO union, based on a growing mass of evidence.

Oh oh, Sam, now you have signed your pact with the devil. And there is no getting out before the end of Old Nick’s term. Ik heb medelijden met je.

The following article about being a democratic union combining with the President’s desire for transparency and openness should of course mean that they will reveal how many members they have and how many actually voted in favour of signing the MoU. My sources suggest less than 30 for the second one.

Of course, BB does like to dismiss staff opposition to his reforms as being a small minority (which appears to ignore previous overwhelming strike ballots and numerous demonstrations, but never mind…) rather than dealing with the issues. Interesting to see how he portrays the numbers here when he has an agreement with, ahem, a small minority of staff.

And yes there does seem to be a problem via-a-via the open “to all members of staff ” bit. But never mind – his game, his rules. There’s only one person to appeal to and that’s… Doh! Well I didn’t want to join their union anyway.

FFPE does not qualify as a recognisable union under the MoU also because they do not have elected staff representatives. According to Art. 9.2 they should not even be eligible to sign the MoU.

S hould the final days of this regime?
T erminate in chaos for Battistelli’s team

H is support is slipping,and I don’t mean the truss
E ven his top managers are jumping off the bus
L ovely,delictable Josephine has even taken fright
E lizabeth II followed his quote ‘not to knight’
N ext stop the job centre in St Germain-en-Laye
A nd long suffering Eponians live to fight another day

I do not understand how the FFPE-EPO could sign the MoU because they do not have a single elected staff representative, as is clearly required by Article 9.2 of the MoU as a prerequisite for signing.

Also it should be noted that they were set up in order to defend the interests of dutch staff members in The Hague – nothing wrong about that, but not in line with the spirit of Article 7 of the MoU.

A MoU with a “local” union, having only members in The Hague (exactly how many?) might be a pretext for the President to claim that he has reached the goal set by the AC and its Board 28. It is nothing more than a fig leaf, and it also reminds me of Lenin’s words: useful idiots.

Only if the president comes to terms with a Union having about half the staff as members, that he will be able to say mission accomplished. We are very far from this.
Board 28 did also ask for an external enquiry on the charges against SUEPO officials and suspension of the sanctions. Where are we there?

What about the standstill with respect to staffing of DG3? Those are crucial questions which need a quick reply and not some self-laudatory message.

From the statements given in writing by the EPO to Bavarian television it was made clear that the “Investigation Unit” is merely an administrative fact finding unit, hence there is no need to be assisted by a lawyer. May be this could be right, but does certainly not excuse the massive misuse of this unit against staff especially staff representatives.

That family members did not want an enquiry which possibly showed a link between the suicide of their relative and the atmosphere at the EPO, has a very simple explanation. Any subsistence, education allowances, medical coverage would have been severed immediately. Can a wife afford this, especially when there are children?

In the story on Bavarian television excerpts of the interview of VP1 were shown. What is to hold from a “manager” when he says without any hesitation that the Dutch High Court may decide what it wants, it will simply disregard it. He also claims that actions against the head of SUEPO are pure coincidence.

That things had to change at the EPO is not at stake here. But it did not warrant what happened.

@old man: The relevant request by B28 calls specifically for agreement with both unions, actually present in the EPO and names them as well. So one out of two may be a first step, but certainly not enough. The president will most probably say that he made the gesture, one union has signed and the others – the mafia as he called them – have not and it is not his fault. Impressive was, though that there were several reports in the press about this signing and in all of them the size of FFPE Compared to Suepo was commented upon. It looks like the PR gag did not really work as planned…

The agreement with FFPE was predictable from the start of the Union recognition talks. In fact, I predicted it in a comment on this blog at the time.

As sharp-eyed commenters have noticed, FFPE fails two criteria of the agreement, making the so-called “breakthrough” even more absurd. Normally there is also another criterion in Union-employer agreements, namely a minimum percentage of the employees that must be represented by the union (for obvious reasons). Of course it is vastly more than 1%.

The fact that the President is actually ignoring the text of his own MoU in order to enable FFPE to sign it is a laughable sign of his desperation.

FFPE-EPO was set up about 9 years ago with management encouragement, with the hope that it would provide a viable and more tractable alternative to SUEPO. It was accorded facilities, such as its own premises in the EPO, always denied to SUEPO. It never attracted much support, even in The Hague, where some of its policies were specifically targetted at Dutch employees. Since then it has been moribund, if not actually dead.

The management strategy of sponsoring ing a tame union failed then, as it will fail now.

FFPE-EPO did help the EPO in preparing their defense (with the success we know) in front of the Dutch court by submitting them documents which were popping up in the dossier …..

also an interesting post on Techrights on the matter : http://techrights.org/2016/03/03/ffpe-epo-vs-suepo/

FFPE finally a union that supports management

Then a lone voice of pro-Battistelli party line:

Dear all,
Great to read that everybody knows exactly what happened when the FFPE-EPO was founded. There was no support from management, but if you say otherwise of course you are right. The facilities which were granted were minimal, and taken away when those for SUEPO were taken away.

The statutes of the FFPE-EPO do allow staff members from other sites to become a member. Please continue reading the statutes (article 20).

The FFPE-EPO is allowed to sign the MoU, the criteria in article 9 mention “or”. Any examiner knows than that the three criteria are not all required.

A critical reader.

To be rebutted by the following (mostly sarcastically/tongue-in-cheek):

(thank you for your comment. psst, tell any member of FFPE that if they really want staff from other sites to join, the real secret is to have one or two of their officials fired by the President with bogus accusations in kangaroo trials – it works like magics … )

Thanks for enlightening since the Web site page about Membership failed to mention that and Article 3 does not refer to Article 20 (maybe it would be useful to clarify that Article 3 isn’t complete?).
Since you are knowledgeable, perhaps you know:
a) How many members are there in The Hague (working)?
b) How many elsewhere under Article 20?
c) How many retired members?
d) How many members voted to sign the MoU (aiming there was a vote)?

Thanks in advance

Great to see that FFPE has taken the time to inform its members or anybody else why signing a MoU which allows them to send two – 2 – emails per year to all staff it’s really an historical moment – for them, or anybody else.

We shall leave it for readers to decide what’s going on here. We see a lot of the hallmarks of union-busting action by yellow unions (controlled opposition).█

Unitary Patent (UPC) Propagandists Are Louder Than Ever as Its Architect in Chief (Battistelli) is Probably About to Get Sacked

Posted in Europe, Patents at 8:48 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

The ‘danger’ of democracy may become too much for the Unitary Patent Court to survive


Nothing new for Benoît Battistelli and Michel Barnier with their conspiracy to overcome democracy (imposed top-down) and shove UPC idealism down Europe’s throat

Summary: The Unitary Patent Court, a deeply flawed system that almost nobody in Europe even knows anything about, is being negotiated behind closed doors and its leader, the EPO President (for now), may be on borrowed time

JUST as we’re about to learn that Battistelli is history his biggest current ‘project’, the UPC, has patent lawyers panicking a bit, especially those who put all their bets (or eggs) in the UPC basket. Joff Wild of IAM (follow the money and the agenda [1, 2]) speaks for the EPO and the UPC (attributing mere claims of “success” to the UPC), making it two birds with just one stone. Cheerleading for the British government to fall into the UPC trap, i.e. running all over democracy by trying to make UPC happen without any public consultation on the matter, here is what came from the UPC propagandist (Ward) and a colleague [1, 2], only to be met with sceptical comments from those who aren’t patent maximalists, e.g. patent lawyers. “Strange comments indeed about the UK re-joining the UPC after a Brexit,” one person wrote. With context:

Strange comments indeed about the UK re-joining the UPC after a Brexit. I have yet to see an explanation (let alone a convincing one) of how that might work.

My main concerns, however, relate to the divergences in the laws of infringement for the four different categories of patents (national vs. opted out EPs vs. unitary EPs vs. not opted-out EPs). Given Spain’s arguments relating to Article 118 TFEU, judges of the UPC may be reluctant to fix the matter (at least for the latter two categories) by relying upon direct references to the UPCA. Thus, significant problems could be caused by those countries that have ratified the UPCA without amending their national laws. With respect to the laws of infringement, at least France currently falls into that category – and, unless I have missed something significant, Germany looks set to follow suit.

What a fine mess we could be getting into!

“But such salaries are clearly insufficient to attract applicants from the EPO,” wrote another person, “even taking into account the harshness of the working conditions.” They are trying to slowly extinguish national patent offices and courts. The matter of fact is, UPC is anything but a done deal because many barriers remain, including Spain (we wrote a lot about this).

“Things that inherently work against Europe’s interests shouldn’t leap their way into law in spite of democracy.”Some patent lawyers are evidently upset at my stance on this (see what I got last night from one [1, 2 3, 4, 5, 6]), but they only serve to reinforce my views on the UPC when they do this. UPC is good for large corporations (often from abroad), their patent lawyers (usually European), patent trolls, and of course software patents, based on a lot of internationally-renowned people who keep warning about this.

The UPC should go down into the ashtray of history, along with “Community patent” (another name for the same thing, promoted by Michel Barnier, who is close to Battistelli not just in the nationality sense, going back even half a decade ago) and Team Battistelli. Things that inherently work against Europe’s interests shouldn’t leap their way into law in spite of democracy. █

La UPC No Pasa Nada Con Battistelli de Salida, Pero los Abogados de Patentes Todavía lo Niegan

Posted in Europe, Patents at 8:03 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Original/English

Publicado en Europe, Patents at 6:30 am por el Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Y ¿ellos comparan los acuerdos secretos (cuarto oscuro) con la luz del sol?

UPC

Sumario: Una mirada acerca de la egoísta servil clase de patentes y como ha cubierto la Corte Unitaria de Patentes ultimamente

LA OEP sigue pretendiendo que todo es color de rosa en la OEP. Es una mentira. Entonces tenemos el lavado legislativo apoyado por la OEP, notablemente la UPC, la cual muchas figuras de alto calibre insisten que es una puerta trasera a las patentes de software en Europa. Annsley ¨AmeriKat¨ Ward, quien ha promovido las patentes de software y la UPC desde hace tiempo (varios años), esta dejando IP Kat por una promotora de la UPC (firma de leyes que incluso se cambió de nombre a UPC para ´negocios´). Otros sitios de abogados de patentes al presente promueven la UPC, la que complicaría las cosas en la economía Europea – para ganancia de los abogados por supuesto (ellos se llenarían de dinero por las disputas). ¿Cuándo los maximalistas de patentes -algunos de los cuales reciben salario de Battistelli – finalmente se darán cuenta que el rey está muerto (como dice el dicho) y paren este desfile con bombos y platillos de PR por la UPC? Toda su ´preparación’es un engaño que uno sólo podría esperar de un país del tercer mundo o una Republica Bananera. No hay comités propios con un amplio espectro de accionistas; usualmente ocurre detras de puertas cerradas y se resume a una conspiración de abogados maquinando hacerse ricos. Están robando la democracia. Esto debe terminar, pero primero – como fue el caso de ACTA, TPP, TTIP y lo demás – el público necesita saber que esto esta sucediéndo en sus narices (al presente esta en secreto, mientras nos arriman este caballo de Troya).

“Esto debe terminar, pero primero – como fue el caso de ACTA, TPP, TTIP y lo demás – el público necesita saber que esto esta sucediéndo en sus narices (al presente permanece en secreto, mientras nos arriman este caballo de Troya).”Todos fuimos una vez dichos que las oficinas de patentes estan en el trabajo/tarea (o negocio) de otorgar patentes, y sólo después de una completa examinación; ahora vemos dentro de la OEP cabildeo, tortura mental, y redes de NEPOTISMO que se extiénden a la UPC. Aquí esta el cabildeo por la UPC de nuevo (a pesar de la reacción), esencialmente promoviéndo un antidemocrático (´robo´ de demorcracia) proceso. La OEP debería avergonzárse de si misma. Ellos encadenan esta pieza promocional de la UPC tan optimísticamente – suficientemente para pretender que la UPC es inevitable (a pesar de la oposición Española, Brexit y lo demás). La ¨Patente Unitaria,¨ dice ¨un sistema unificado de patentes aplicable a traves de toda la Unión Europea – ha estado en desarrollo desde el 2012 y estará despegando pronto¨ (no, realmente no, especialmente ahora que Battistelli esta de salida, allanando el camino para otra clase de reforma). █

3/3 es Día Para Propaganda de la OEP: Techrights Responderá y Alertará Contra las Mentiras delos Medios

Posted in Europe, Patents at 7:52 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Original/English

Publicado en Europe, Patents at 7:49 am por el Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Un puñado de personas que trabajan para la OEP no son necesariamente ¨unión de trabajadores¨

The Register on EPO

Sumario: Un rápido repaso a la presente estrategia PR (relaciones públicas) de la OEP y algunos ejemplos de los engañosos reportajes que genera

GRAN parte de anoche la pasé escribiendo a los periodistas acerca de las últimas mentiras de la OEP, que sin duda tratará de engañarlos hoy. Ya conocemos su modo de operación.

Hoy vamos a escribir un montón acerca de respuestas sustantivas de la OEP. No es siempre suficiente señalar que la OEP esta ENGAÑANDO a los periodistas y por ende al público y advertirles acerca de sus representantes. La OEP, sin duda tratará de distraer a los medios del cubrimiento de la Televisión Alemana usando piezas de propaganda que ya refutamos en apuro ayer. [1, 2]. Bueno, ellos hablan acerca de ¨resultados¨ (link de la OEP) e incluso PAGAN por publicaciones de prensa acerca de ello. !Que tal Desperdicio! Sin mencionar el contrato secreto con FTI Consulting…

“Bueno, ellos hablan de” resultados “e incluso pagan por comunicados de prensa sobre él. ¡Qué desperdicio de dinero!”¨Solicitudes y aplicaciones en la @epo.org más altas que nunca el 2015¨, escribió en Twitter, pero no pregunten como los cuentan. Actualmente el equipo PR incluso no lo saben…

Bueno, eso es sólo uno de varios modelos de propaganda. Acerca de otro ya escribimos hace poco (difamar y eliminar a los mensajeros cuando se trata de sus críticos más tenaces) y el principal acerca de las ¨uniones¨.

“La gerencia de la OEP firma tratado de reconocimiento con sindicato de trabajadores,” IAM escribió anoche, “pero no la SUEPO – el sindicato principal de empleados.” – implica un completo desconocimiento de la SUEPO – haciéndolos aparecer como si no existiesen. Buena tactica estan de la manito con un ¨sindicato¨ de cuatro gatos cuando el verdadero ni se le menciona.

Eso es correcto. Según calculos, la SUEPO tiene el doble (sino el triple) de miembros. ¿A quién la OEP esta ENGAÑANDO?

Como WIPR recientemente lo ha puesto, despues de chequear lo que realmente la FFPE-EPO really es:

La FFPE-EPO es una mucho más pequeña unión comparada con la Staff Union of the European Patent Office (SUEPO), la cual todavía no ha sido reconocida.

De acuerdo con fuentes dentro de las unioness, la FFPE-EPO tiene alrededor de 70 members los cuales trabajan en la oficina de The Hague, mientras que la SUEPO esta estimada tener más de 3,000 miembros en todas las oficinas de la OEP.

Creemos que eso es menos de 70 y públicamente hemos pedido fuentes que nos provean con información para probarlo.

¿Porqué reconocer a un sindicato de 70 empleados y al mismo tiempo ignorar al verdadero de más de 3,000? La respuesta la tienen todos, el la misma tactica Himmleriana de mentir al público acerca de que todo es color de rosa en la OEP ya que los ¨representantes¨ de trabajadores estan en la camita con la gerencia.

¿Recuerden cuando Siemens creó falsas uniones después de un MASIVO escándalo de soborno? Vamos a informar a nuestros lectores de ello en nuestro próximo post.

“¿Recuerden cuando Siemens creó falsas uniones después de un MASIVO escándalo de soborno?”Estamos un poquito desilusionados ver al Register ser el primero en tragar el anzuelo y hacer un artículo acerca de ello (aunque la lengua en la mejilla), notando ¨Los asuntos llegaran a la cabeza en una reunión completa del Consejo Administrativo en Munich más adelente este mes, y los ejecutivos de la OEP claramente esperan utilizar la firma de un memorando de entendimiento con la FFPE-EPO para desviar las críticas.

¨La OEP firma acuerdo con sindicato que no esta atado a ella en una espiral de muerte,¨ escribió The Register en Twitter.

Como alguien lo puso en IP Kat:

The Register publicó una última historia con el memorable sub-título de la ¨rama de olivo pueda venir de una serpiente atontada¨, sugiriendo que la SUEPO no haya estado ansiosa a firmar como habían informado anteriormente. Hay ahora otra historia (como esta aquí) que la FFPE hubiera firmado.

Una foto de alta resolución de Bergot y otros tiranos de la OEP (como Pinocho Battistelli y su bulldog de mano derecha) fue incluida en este artículo.

La OEP esta soltando su última propaganda ya; incluso con este artículo que trata de uniones! Para citar al parrafo final del Register:

¨La OEP ha tomado pasos significativos en los años pasados para modernizar su estructura interna y aumentar su eficiencia, al mismo tiempo que incrementar su calidad de patentes,¨ sostiene. ¨Esto cubre diversas areas de cooperación con estados miembros, la infraestructura IT de la OEP y políticas de derechos humanos. El 2015 resultado anual muestra que esta dando resultados: El número de productos (como busquedas y examinaciones) entregadas por sus examinadores creció un 14% el 2015 a 365,000; y la OEP publicó más de 68,000 patentes otorgadas, un crecimiento del 6 por ciento más que el 20145 y el número más alto que nunca.¨

“Es sólo una distracción, cercana a los puntos tirados a la television Alemana cuando les preguntaron acerca de las violaciones de derechos humanos, abusos contra sus empleados, etc.”Esto son tonterías. No tiene nada que ver con los sindicatos. Es sólo una distracción, cercana a los puntos tirados a la television Alemana cuando les preguntaron acerca de las violaciones de derechos humanos, abusos contra sus empleados, etc.

Hay dos models de la propaganda de la OEP hoy: “resultados” y “uniones”. Los periodistas que hacen su trabajo bien revisarán los asuntos que la OEP les pide REPETIR. Más adelante hoy Techrigths publicará una refutación a todas esas clases de propaganda de la OEP -una acerca de ¨resulatados¨ (falsos) y otra acerca FFPE (no la mismo que se clama). Esta publicación no es una refutación total (la que requiere mostrar material nuevo). Sintonicenos por más… █

Links 4/3/2016: Linux 4.4.4, KDE Outreach Program

Posted in News Roundup at 7:36 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME bluefish

Contents

GNU/Linux

Free Software/Open Source

  • Open Source Accounting Software for Small Business

    You can choose from dozens of excellent open source accounting programs for everything from simple basic ledger bookkeeping to invoicing, inventory tracking, point of sale, payroll, taxes, and reporting and forecasting, and this roundup highlights five of the best.

    The main thing to remember about small business accounting software is that it’s not magic. It doesn’t turn you into an accountant any more than owning a hardware store turns you into a carpenter, electrician, or plumber. You still need to know the fundamental principles of accounting and bookkeeping.

  • Image processing at NASA with open source tools

    This past summer, I was an intern at the GVIS Lab at NASA Glenn, where I brought my passion for open source into the lab. My task was to improve our lab’s contributions to an open source fluid flow dynamics simulation developed by Dan Schroeder. The original simulation presents obstacles that users can draw in with their mouse to model computational fluid dynamics. My team contributed by adding image processing code that analyzes each frame of a live video feed to show how a physical object interacts with a fluid. But, there was more for us to do.

  • Borg, Omega, and Kubernetes

    Though widespread interest in software containers is a relatively recent phenomenon, at Google we have been managing Linux containers at scale for more than ten years and built three different container-management systems in that time. Each system was heavily influenced by its predecessors, even though they were developed for different reasons. This article describes the lessons we’ve learned from developing and operating them.

  • Events

  • Web Browsers

    • Mozilla

      • Mozilla unveils Firefox OS based IoT projects

        Mozilla announced four Firefox OS to Connected Devices projects, including a home automation system, an AI agent, a voice interface, and a “SensorWeb.”

        In December, when Mozilla announced a halt to development and sales of its open source, Linux-based Firefox OS mobile distribution, the company said it was already shifting the HTML5-focused open source Linux OS to Internet of Things projects. A month ago, Ari Jaaksi, Mozilla’s SVP of Connected Devices posted a blog entry noting progress on projects such as its Vaani voice interface. Jaaksi has now revealed more details on Vaani and three other projects, and invited open source developers to pitch in.

  • SaaS/Big Data

    • Hortonworks Launches New Stack Components, and Updates its Release Cycle

      On the heels of its introduction as a hot publlic company back in 2015, Hortonworks, which focuses on the open source Big Data platform Hadoop, has steadily expanded and adjusted the focus of its technology stack. Now it is serving up new adjustments. Hortonworks DataFlow (HDF), Hortonworks’ streaming data package, based on Apache NiFi, now includes Apache Storm and Apache Kafka.

      If you’re unfamiliar with Apache NiFi, it is built around Niagarafiles, which is software that the NSA created to aggregate sensor data on the right systems and generate analytics from the data. Onyara will give Hortonworks an important play as the Internet of Things shapes up.

  • Databases

    • Tune Up Your Databases!

      My last full-time job was manager of a university’s database department. Ironically, I know very, very little about databases themselves.

  • Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

    • Google, Oracle setting up jurors to fail in API copyright retrial, judge says

      One of the tech sector’s biggest upcoming trials—Oracle v. Google—careened Tuesday away from the hot-button topic of copyrighting application programming interfaces (APIs) and instead focused on the presiding judge’s concern that the tech giants are setting up jurors to fail. US District Judge William Alsup believes it’s all so the loser could challenge the verdict of the second upcoming trial set for May.

      Judge Alsup said Tuesday that the tech giants jointly submitted a proposed questionnaire (PDF) for prospective panelists containing “so many vague questions” that “the loser on our eventual verdict will seek, if history is any guide, to impeach the verdict by investigating the jury to find some ‘lie’ or omission during voir dire.”

    • Oracle’s JET JavaScript toolkit flies the open source skies

      When it comes to JavaScript, Oracle is not the first name that comes to mind. But the company this week is staking a bigger claim in Web development with the open source release of Oracle JET (JavaScript Extension Toolkit) 2.0.0.

      “The aim of Oracle JET is to provide a stable basis for intermediate to advanced JavaScript developers to efficiently visualize data in the cloud,” said Geertjan Wielenga, principal product manager in the Oracle tools group, in a blog post. Oracle has used JET to develop its own cloud applications during the past three years.

  • Pseudo-/Semi-Open Source (Openwashing)

  • Funding

  • BSD

    • FreeBSD 10.3: Third Beta Available

      That personal tidbit aside, another important part of March — especially this month — is that on the road to FreeBSD 11 sometime later this year, FreeBSD 10.3 is well along the way, with the third beta already available, according to a very detailed post by Marius Strobl on the FreeBSD Stable mailing list.

      To summarize, installations for FreeBSD 10.3 Beta3 are now available for amd64, i386, ia64, PowerPC, Sparc and a variety of ARM processors. Checksums, too numerous to list here, can be found in Strobl’s original post, linked in the paragraph above.

    • LLVM Clang’s OpenMP 4.x Support Continues Maturing

      With LLVM Clang 3.7 came full support for OpenMP 3.1 at long last but with OpenMP 4.5 being the latest spec, Intel and others involved with the Clang OpenMP initiative haven’t let up and continue working towards supporting the latest OpenMP 4.x interfaces.

    • OpenBSD 5.9 network improvements

      There are no doubt many eyes on OpenBSD’s continuing network SMP renovation.

  • FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

    • Foundation of Guix Europe

      I have a pleasant announcement to make! On February 11, 2016, we have started a non-profit around the GNU Guix project, „Guix Europe“, and celebrated comme il faut with a bottle of champagne. Precisely, it is an „Association loi 1901“, named after the venerable French law first passed in 1901 (but many times amended since then).

    • GnuTLS 3.4.10

      Released GnuTLS 3.4.10 a bug fix release of the current stable branch.

  • Openness/Sharing

  • Programming

    • IDE For Python Programming

      Programmers need some tools to writing application and scripts with them, one of the most important tool for programming is a good IDE (integrated development environment). there are different IDEs that you can use such as Pycharm, Spyder, vim, Emacs, Eclipse and ETC.

Leftovers

  • Reports Coming in of Big IBM Layoffs Underway in the U.S.

    Last week, IBM reported to investors that its workforce at the end of 2015 was almost as big as its workforce at the end of 2014 (within less than 1 percent), in spite of a year in which 70,000 employees left the company, to be replaced with new hires and acquisitions.

    By the end of this week, the picture may look quite different. Today reports are coming in that big layoffs across the United States are underway, likely one-third of the U.S. workforce, according to one soon-to-be-laid-off IBMer. (At the end of 2015, IBM had approximately 378,000 employees worldwide; it no longer breaks out numbers for individual countries.) Such reports used to be gathered by the Endicott Alliance, a union organizing effort that closed its doors last year. Now they are being collected by an informal Facebook group, “WatchingIBM,” that was started by former members of that organization.

  • Science

  • Security

    • Security advisories for Thursday
    • State Department Backs Off Criminalizing Security Research Tools

      Some good news for security researchers: the US government’s adoption of the Wassenaar Arrangement will no longer treat the tools of security research like crates of machine guns. While exploits and penetration tools can be used by bad people for bad things, they’re also invaluable to security researchers who use these to make the computing world a safer place.

      Vague wording in the US government’s proposed adoption of the 2013 version of the Wassenaar Arrangement threatened to criminalize the development of security research tools and make any researcher traveling out of the country with a laptop full of exploits an exporter of forbidden weapons.

    • IRS Tool Designed To Protect Identity Theft Victims — Exposes Users To Identity Theft

      Last year, the personal records of 100,000 taxpayers wound up in the hands of criminals, thanks to a flimsy authentication process in the agency’s “Get Transcript” application. In short, the IRS used all-too-common static identifiers to verify taxpayer identity (information that could be found anywhere), allowing criminals to use the system to then obtain notably more sensitive taxpayer information and ultimately steal finances. At the time, the IRS breathlessly insisted it would be shoring up its security standards, though it failed to really detail how it would accomplish this.

    • 1Password sends your password across the loopback interface in clear text

      1Password sends your password in clear text across the loopback interface if you use the browser extensions.

    • Bruce Schneier: We’re sleepwalking towards digital disaster and are too dumb to stop

      Security guru Bruce Schneier has issued a stark warning to the RSA 2016 conference – get smart or face a whole world of trouble.

      The level of interconnectedness of the world’s technology is increasing daily, he said, and is becoming a world-sized web – which he acknowledged was a horrible term – made up of sensors, distributed computers, cloud systems, mobile, and autonomous data processing units. And no one is quite sure where it is all heading.

    • Latest attack against TLS shows the pitfalls of intentionally weakening encryption

  • Defence/Police/Secrecy/Aggression

    • Iran Joins The Using Video Game Footage To Pump Up Your Own Military’s Reputation Arms Race

      I suppose this was inevitable. As video games become more refined as an artform and as those games evince more realistic graphics, animations, and all the rest, I suppose it had to be that some folks out there would try to pass game footage off as real footage depicting their own power. I just never really thought it would be established nations that otherwise purport to be players on the world stage doing this. Yet, as we have seen done by Egypt, North Korea, and even Russia in the past, so too do we now find that Iran is trying to brag about its own military capability using game footage.

    • Debunked: The ace Hezbollah sniper…is from a video game

      Iran’s state television has been running impressive footage claiming to show ace Hezbollah fighters picking off fighters from the Islamic State group (IS) one-by-one with clear, cold precision. But here’s the thing: this video looks just like a scene from a video game. And it is…

    • Brave Afghan Forces Kill Inside Hospital, for Freedom

      Apparently a new feature of the modern war of terror is the shameless, blameless, overt targeting of hospitals, doctors and bed-ridden patients, all without the means of even modest self-defense.

    • ‘The Sense That Everybody Thought They Had WMDs Is a Total Fantasy’

      The Iraq invasion is a good example of Faulkner’s line about the past not even being past. Claims about the lead-up to the calamitous 2003 attack, who believed what and when, and even claims about the war’s impact on the course of Iraq and US history resurface repeatedly in US political discourse, including in the 2016 presidential election.

  • Environment/Energy/Wildlife

    • UK weather: Leeds Bradford Airport closes as snow hits parts of Britain

      Parts of Britain could see almost four inches of snow on Friday, with flights delayed and motorists warned of treacherous driving conditions, as March continues to feel more like winter than spring.

      Ploughs were used to clear the runway at Leeds Bradford Airport, in West Yorkshire, which was forced to close after northern England was hit with snow showers overnight.

      Met Office weather warnings are in place for Northern Ireland, north Wales, northern and western England as well as Scotland as a cold frontal system continues to make its way in from the Atlantic.

  • Finance

    • Bitcoin’s nightmare scenario has come to pass

      Over the last year and a half a number of prominent voices in the Bitcoin community have been warning that the system needed to make fundamental changes to its core software code to avoid being overwhelmed by the continued growth of Bitcoin transactions. There was strong disagreement within the community, however, about how to solve this problem, or if the problem would ever materialize.

    • Comcast Nabs Huge Oregon Tax Break Thanks To Loophole Intended For Google Fiber

      For a few years now, the city of Portland and the state of Oregon have been jumping through hoops to try and make Portland as attractive as possible for Google Fiber. That has involved rewriting city ordinances so that Google can place its utility cabinets along public rights of way, something previously banned in the city.

  • PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying

    • The New Mind Control

      The internet has spawned subtle forms of influence that can flip elections and manipulate everything we say, think and do.

    • Sandy Hook Puzzles

      Perhaps the most unusual feature of the Sandy Hook story is the large number of photographs that have been released in order to document the story. It is as if there is no event without the proof supplied by the photographs. This is unusual. When, for example, the FBI murdered approximately 100 men, women and children in the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, the reality of the victims did not have to be established with a large number of photos establishing that the victims were real people with real families. When workers “go postal” and shoot their coworkers, photos are not used to prove that those killed were real people with real families. When an airplane crashes, the event does not have to be verified with news coverage of grieving relatives.

    • Talking About Racism May Be Destructive to Cable Relationships–Unlike Domestic Violence Charges

      fter four years, MSNBC cancelled the talkshow of African-American writer and political scientist Melissa Harris-Perry. The cable news network had repeatedly pre-empted her weekend morning show, and in response to questions about her absence from MSNBC’s roster had scheduled Harris-Perry to appear in a weekend news-reading role.

      [...]

      So bringing up the status of people of color at the network is something that you can’t do at MSNBC without destroying your relationship there—despite the fact that, as CNN’s Dylan Byers (3/2/16) pointed out, MSNBC has cancelled or sidelined numerous non-white hosts in recent years, including Martin Bashir, Toure, Karen Finney, Al Sharpton, Joy Reid, Alex Wagner and José Díaz-Balart.

  • Censorship

  • Privacy

  • Civil Rights

    • Breaking: Honduran Indigenous Leader Berta Cáceres Assassinated, Won Goldman Environmental Prize

      Honduran indigenous and environmental organizer Berta Cáceres has been assassinated in her home. She was one of the leading organizers for indigenous land rights in Honduras.

      In 1993 she co-founded the National Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH). For years the group faced a series of threats and repression.

      According to Global Witness, Honduras has become the deadliest country in the world for environmentalists. Between 2010 and 2014, 101 environmental campaigners were killed in the country.

      In 2015 Berta Cáceres won the Goldman Environmental Prize, the world’s leading environmental award. In awarding the prize, the Goldman Prize committee said, “In a country with growing socioeconomic inequality and human rights violations, Berta Cáceres rallied the indigenous Lenca people of Honduras and waged a grassroots campaign that successfully pressured the world’s largest dam builder to pull out of the Agua Zarca Dam.”

    • Race and the Crime of Felony Disenfranchisement

      Now that Super Tuesday is behind us and the field of presidential candidates is narrowing with the suspension of Dr. Ben Carson’s campaign, a potentially paradigm-shattering general election looms ever closer. “The stakes in this election have never been higher,” Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton said in her speech after she had been declared the victor over Sen. Bernie Sanders in seven of 11 Super Tuesday states. As Donald Trump, piling victory upon victory on top of insult upon insult, edges closer to clinching the Republican nomination, the GOP is in chaos, with some predicting a historic split in the party. The presidential race to date has been well-characterized by a line of closed captioning text from a recent Republican debate: “unintelligible yelling.” The circuslike atmosphere masks deeply troubling statements made by several candidates that fan the flames of racism, white supremacy and xenophobia. It also deflects attention from a critical, and worsening, deficit in our democracy: the attack on the right to vote, and in particular, the wholesale disenfranchisement of close to 5 million Americans, mostly people of color.

  • Internet/Net Neutrality

    • Canadian Cablecos Dodge Government Demand For Cheaper TV Bundles — By Hiding Them From Consumers

      This week, the Canadian government will begin forcing Canadian cable operators to provide cheaper, more flexible cable TV packages. Under the new CRTC rules, companies must provide a so-called “skinny bundle” of discounted TV channels starting March 1, and the option to buy channels a la carte starting December 1. But while the CRTC’s attempt to force innovation on the cable industry may be well-intentioned, it’s already clear that Canadian cable operators plan to do everything in their power to tap dance around the requirements.

    • AT&T Buying Missouri State Law Ensuring Broadband There Continues To Suck

      For years incumbent ISPs like AT&T have spent millions lobbying for laws in roughly twenty states prohibiting towns and cities from building or expanding broadband networks — even in cases of obvious market failure. The laws are pure protectionism, taking the right to make local infrastructure choices out of the hands of local communities — all to protect companies like AT&T from the faintest specter of competition. And while some states have been waking up to the fact that letting AT&T write protectionist state law hurts consumers and state businesses longer term, Missouri apparently isn’t one of those states.

  • Intellectual Monopolies

    • Trademarks

      • No strict liability for infringement in online advertising, says the CJEU

        Having your own advertising spread all around the internet is every company’s dream. A dream that might become less pleasant, though, if that advertising starts infringing another company’s trade mark and you can’t manage to take it down, whilst the trade mark owner is breathing down your neck. In a nutshell, this is the factual scenario of the decision that the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) issued today in Daimler AG Együd Garage Gépjárműjavító és Értékesítő Kft (C-179/2015). The ruling addresses the notion of “trade mark use” in online advertising and explores possible remedies against trade mark infringements on the internet that may be very useful in the era of viral marketing.

    • Copyrights

      • Copyright History: The Strange Case Of A Book Authored By Mark Twain Via A Ouija Board

        Mark Twain can be the subject of fascinating discussion for any number of reasons, but around these parts we talk intellectual property. Some years back, Mike wrote about Twain’s support for copyright extensions, including when he even went so far as to advocate for infinite copyright. Well, it turns out that Twain’s concept of infinite copyright might have been particularly germane to his legacy, as EFF’s Parker Higgins takes us on a delightful stroll, over at Fusion, through the historical copyright case concerning the novel Twain might or might not have written…from beyond the grave.

        The year 1917 was apparently a time in some ways even stranger than our own, in which the public was wrapped up in its interest in the occult. It was during that time that an author by the name of Emily Grant Hutchings attempted to publish the latest work of Twain’s, entitled Jap Herron. Twain, the pen name of Samuel Clemens, had died in 1910, seven years earlier. So, how did Hutchings get Twain to write this book even as his body decomposed below ground? Why, through a Ouija board, of course!

      • OLG Munich: YouTube not liable for damages for hosting copyright infringing content

        In a decision of 28 January 2016, the Oberlandesgericht Munich, like the first instance court before it, held that YouTube is not liable for financial damages for hosting copyright infringing videos.

        Plaintiff was the German collecting Society GEMA, acting on behalf of composers. It sent YouTube a list of 1,000 videos with music viewable on YouTube.com that were uploaded without the consent of the copyright holders and demanded information on the revenue generated by the display of these videos in preparation of claiming damages. When YouTube refused to comply, GEMA sued before the Landgericht Munich, which dismissed the complaint.

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