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04.12.15

Microsoft Continues to Attack (and Tax) Linux Using Software Patents

Posted in Apple, GNU/Linux, Microsoft, Patents at 4:12 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Knife

Summary: Microsoft stabs Linux in the back while it continues to insist that it ‘loves’ Linux

SOME PEOPLE (usually Microsoft boosters) would have us believe that Microsoft is not only “Open Source” but also a friend of Linux (they mean GNU/Linux). This couldn’t be further from the truth, as we explained a couple of weekends ago in this 6-part series:

Half a year or so ago the President of the Open Source Initiative (OSI) published the article “Microsoft ‘loves’ Linux? Then stop attacking open source”. It’s worth recalling his arguments. He wrote that “evidence suggests Microsoft “loves” Linux the same way abusive partners “love” their spouses.”

Microsoft is bleeding. It’s laying off staff. Android, or by extension Google, is probably causing Microsoft the most damage right now, eroding Windows’ status as the dominant platform. Android market share is now estimated at around 2 billion or more. It’s based on Linux.

The other say Ahonen wrote that “iHS iSupply promised us Windows Phone would zoom up to 15% market share (reality? stayed at 3%. 5-fold error).”

It’s not working out for Microsoft, is it? Android dominance cannot be stopped. Microsoft and Apple are now in cahoots against Android/Linux (using patents), as noted by a Microsoft booster, Todd Bishop, the other day. iophk wrote: “Trying to allow RAND in ‘essential’ patents?”

Yes, Microsoft and Apple long ago joined forces to fight Android using patents. An alliance of convenience — that’s what it is. This is just a continuation of a destructive strategy.

“It is a multi-faceted attack on Android, hacking at the very core (Google/Motorola).”Going deeper into Microsoft’s and Apple’s joint patent assault on Android, the Microsoft booster says that “[l]awyers for Microsoft and Google will appear Wednesday morning at the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco in a long-running dispute over patents that were originally owned by cell phone maker Motorola Mobility.”

Remember that Motorola’s Android-centric unit was also recently sued by (and lost to) Intellectual Ventures. This massive patent troll funded by Apple too, not just Microsoft, as we noted years ago. It is a multi-faceted attack on Android, hacking at the very core (Google/Motorola).

Last month we saw reports about so-called ‘consumers’ (in the cited article), who are basically just a couple of lawyers whining for Microsoft about Android, deciding to “withdraw U.S. lawsuit against Google over Android app limits”. That’s misleading on many levels. As Reuters put it: “The lawsuit argued that Google requires Android handset manufacturers such as Samsung Electronics Co Ltd (005930.KS) favor Google’s apps such as YouTube and restrict competing apps like Microsoft Corp’s (MSFT.O) Bing search.”

So it’s really about Microsoft. After patent extortion against Samsung Microsoft managed to coerce Samsung into preinstalling Microsoft spyware and lock-in, hence the lawsuit becomes irrelevant.

The media has covered this very poorly if it covered this at all.

Todd Bishop, who wrote the above article, also spoke to Microsoft’s Brad Smith, the chief patent bully who had been attacking Linux using patents for nearly a decade. Rather than challenge him over patent and extortion (taxing Linux) he focused on the angle of Microsoft’s infamous tax evasion. Here is how Slashdot summarised it this morning:

After stressing how important the funding of Washington State education — particularly CS Ed — is to Microsoft, company general counsel Brad Smith encountered one of those awkward interview moments (audio at 28:25). GeekWire Radio: “So, would you ever consider ending that practice [ducking WA taxes by routing software licensing royalties through Nevada-based Microsoft Licensing, GP] in Nevada [to help improve WA education]?” Smith: “I think there are better ways for us to address the state’s needs than that kind of step.” Back in 2010, Smith, Steve Ballmer, and Microsoft Corporation joined forces to defeat Proposition I-1098, apparently deciding there were better ways to address the state’s needs than a progressive income tax.

It’s about time more people asked questions about Microsoft’s extortion of Linux, not just its other crimes. There are laws against extortion (e.g. the RICO Act), but they are not being upheld/enforced. To say “Microsoft loves Linux” [companies, developers or users i.e. most people] (whom it’s attacking) is just adding insult to injury and perjury. █

European Unitary Patent Decision Due 5th of May

Posted in Europe, Patents at 3:25 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Serving the top of the top 1%

Council hall

Summary: The meta-industry of patent protectionism is debating and pushing forth the Unitary Patent Court, with or without endorsement from the European public

The UPC, or “Unipat”, or Unitary Patent Court (it has former names), is the culmination of systemic corruption inside the EPO and around it. It is almost as bad as TPP, whereby corporate power is increased, especially the power of those who are already super-wealthy. Call it class war, or land grab, or passage of wealth, that’s what it’s really all about. Europe is historically viewed as not so corruptible, at least not as much as various other countries. It’s this false perception that guards the EPO and lets is get away with many abuses. European citizens should be extremely concerned about what the EPO is doing right now, even if they don’t quiet grasp the impact. EPO staff is dying and the EPO’s management does not (or no longer) exists to serve Europe and its citizens, despite them subsidising it through tax. The EPO is rogue. It’s working for multinationals, or the richest 1% of the world’s population. This isn’t what the patent system should be about.

“If ECJ does not get rid of the discriminatory language of the Unipat,” writes the FFII’s President, “we have to look at enforcing ECHR prot12, [in] only some countries.”

“ECJ [is] to publish its decision on the Unitary Patent next 5th May,” he adds, repeating what IP Magazine stated: “Spanish challenge to UPC handed down by CJEU on 5 May” (Spain has historically resisted the UPC more than other member states).

James Love attended the Fordham IP Conference (#fordhamip) the other day and he wrote that “Rt. Hon. Prof. Sir Robin Jacob (lots of titles) giving very aggressive attack on patent critics at #fordhamip ”

Robin Jacob was mentioned here very recently in relation to EPO scandals. “Not surprisingly,” Love added, “the speakers at the #fordhamip panel on China represent IP right holders.”

“Mark Cohen [was] at #fordhamip,” Love wrote. “Senior Counsel for USPTO’s China team. Formerly the director of IP policy at Microsoft.”

Yes, Microsoft.

“John Temple Lang expresses concern that in UPC injunction cases, public interest not specifically relevant,” Love wrote, continuing with: “#fordhamip panel on the European Unitary Patent and the Unified Patent Court expressing a lot of concern over competence of Judges.”

“Paul England now explaining areas where Unitary Patent Court will have to resolve thorny issues regarding jurisdiction of laws,” he wrote.

It sure looks like without any explicit consent (or referendum) from scientists and the wider European population, patent lawyers and other profiteers in this system of artificial protectionism are driving policy, at least not in secret (Love is an opponent of such people, so he came there to observe and report). █

Microsoft is Still Googlebombing ‘Open Source’

Posted in Deception, Free/Libre Software, Microsoft at 2:58 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Cade Metz started it all

Cade Metz

Summary: Microsoft’s massive campaign of deception, obfuscation and misuse of the “Open Source” brand is still on, even a week after it was cleverly started by Condé Nast

THE PAST week continued to be quite a spectacle in “Open Source” news. An unaware and incautious reader may easily be lured into believing that Microsoft is an "Open Source" company and that Windows is "Open Source".

IDG’s Chris Hoffman wrote a good rebuttal to Microsoft’s PR efforts; having seen a lot of misinformation in the media he published “Don’t hold your breath: Why Windows won’t be open-source any time soon”. Claiming that Windows will be “Open Source” has been just openwashing propaganda. It doesn’t matter if it ever does become “Open Source”; what matters is what people think or feel. Windows will be open source say the sorts of people who told us over a decade ago that Microsoft Windows would be ported to GNU/Linux and those who insisted that Microsoft was changing.

Even a Microsoft-connected site published a piece titled “An Open-Source Microsoft Windows? I Don’t Think So.” “In my opinion,” said the author, “Microsoft’s recent strategies are about expanding its control over the PC market, not a true concession toward open-source operating systems. A top Microsoft exec might have suggested that it would be “possible,” but investors should take that claim with a grain of salt.”

Either way, it’s a façade. Microsoft just says “Open Source” because it tries to misuse labels, exploiting what they’re worth for distinguishing a piece of software, nothing more.

We have waited patiently until this whole deception campaign stopped. The last example we found was dated April 8th (titled “Microsoft Open Source? Rumors Emerge of Surprising Development”), showing that even a whole week later openwashing of Windows is not over. It lasted until April 8th and the day before (April 7th).

“I believe one of the goals is to googlebomb the searches so that Windows turns up at the top of the list when searching the phrase “open source”,” iophk explained to us, concurring with what we too suspected and said the other day. Even FOSS people got bamboozled by this PR charade and at times repeated it, with stuff titled “Open Source Windows” acting as misleading PR in Matt Mullenweg’s Twitter stream (widely followed) and his blog. It’s one thing when Microsoft boosters promote the myth and another when FOSS people end up joining the ‘useful idiots’. Mac Asay was among those openwashing Windows (of course!).

This gross propaganda campaign for Windows was not the only of its kind; for instance, Scott M. Fulton III not only wrote more of his Microsoft promotion (decades old) but added tags to headlines for Windows PR (an IDG ad for the same item from Microsoft took an ‘article’ form, composed by the chief editor).

“Microsoft just says “Open Source” because it tries to misuse labels, exploiting what they’re worth for distinguishing a piece of software, nothing more.”Then there’s the openwashing of .NET which is based on false assumptions, yet Microsoft propaganda sites are happy to revive and perpetuate it. Recently, a Microsoft subsidiary (sort of) released a new Trojan horse (version of Mono, see Wiki for background), contributing to the false perception that developing in .NET is something “open”.

Darryl K. Taft’s openwashing of .NET has been a disgrace, including in this article titled “.NET Foundation Names New Executive Director” (.NET Foundation is a Microsoft proxy, like many others of its kind, which take misleading names such as “Microsoft Open” something, “Microsoft Licensing”, “Microsoft Payments” and so on).

“The .NET Foundation,” wrote Taft, “which is tasked with overseeing the open-sourcing of .NET, has named a new executive director.”

There is no sincere “open-sourcing of .NET”, there are still software patents and some components are proprietary. Microsoft only pretends that it’s Open Source and googlebombs to change perceptions. “The .NET Foundation,” wrote Taft, “has named Martin Woodward executive director of the organization overseeing the open-sourcing of the .NET Framework.”

Who is Martin Woodward? A Microsoft employee (for many years), of course.

Microsoft it taking us for fools. █

04.11.15

Links 11/4/2015: elementary OS Freya, Mageia 5 on the Way

Posted in News Roundup at 5:42 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME bluefish

Contents

GNU/Linux

Free Software/Open Source

  • Coreboot Ported To A ~$30 AMD AM1 Motherboard

    For those searching for a low-cost system/motherboard for experimenting with Coreboot, there’s another new AMD motherboard that now works with Coreboot’s upstream Git code. The board costs only about $30 USD and works with all modern AMD AM1 processors.

  • New Google Boards Added To Coreboot

    The newest additions to Coreboot are the Veyron_Mighty and Veyron_Jerry. The Veyron series has been part of the Chromium OS repository since last year. These codenames are for devices powered by a Rockchip ARM SoC.

  • 5 Things To Know About The Rise Of Open Source

    The definition of open source can get complicated (especially when you start talking about licensing). Essentially open source software makes the source code freely available for use and/or modification, free of charge.

    This could give the impression that open source is for hobbyists and amateurs, but you will probably recognize the names of some major open source users: The Emmys, The Grammy Foundation, NBC, CBS and Sony, all use ​Metal Toad Media to develop their websites with open source tools.

  • New Open-source Encryption Software is Practically Uncrackable

    With the rise of mass surveillance efforts being carried out by intelligence agencies, researchers and industry professionals are currently working together to look for solutions that will enable them to protect sensitive information from being breached.

  • Web Browsers

    • Mozilla

      • Mozilla disables new Firefox features to address critical security flaw

        On March 31, Mozilla released the latest version of Firefox, 37.0 — but the foundation has already issued a significant patch for that update, after discovering a critical security bug that broke HTTPS encryption in a way that was invisible to the end user. Ironically, one of the original points of the Firefox 37 update was to add security through the use of a feature known as opportunistic encryption.

  • Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

    • The Document Liberation, one year after

      The Document Liberation is a project of The Document Foundation, announced in early April 2014 to host the different libraries handling proprietary and legacy document formats within LibreOffice. The idea was to provide a single repository for other software projects willing to deploy the same libraries, in order to simplify the integration. The project is led by Fridrich Strba and David Tardon, two long time LibreOffice contributors.

    • Happy birthday, Document Liberation Project!

      The Document Liberation Project was officially announced at LGM in Leipzig on April 2 2014, a year ago. We (the founding members) gave a talk about the project later on the same day.

  • Openness/Sharing

Leftovers

  • Obama and Castro shake hands, begin new chapter in US-Cuba relations

    With a cordial evening handshake, President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro moved Friday toward a groundbreaking meeting on the sidelines of the Summit of the Americas in what would be a remarkable display of reconciliation between two nations.

    The powerful symbolism of a substantial exchange Saturday between the leaders with the leadership of the Western Hemisphere gathered around them could signal progress. Both sides are still working through nettlesome issues that would lead to the opening of embassies in Washington and Havana, the first stage in a new diplomatic relationship.

  • The growing childishness of American adults: Mallick

    A new daycare for adults in Brooklyn, N.Y. is just the latest symbol of the infantilism of American grown-ups.

  • Science

    • Smartphone data to give early warning of earthquakes

      One day last August, in the early hours of the morning, a 6.0-magnitude earthquake rocked Napa Valley, waking people all around California’s famed wine region. Many were wearing fitness trackers. Once the quake was over, tracker company Jawbone gathered the data in a public graphic, using it to detail the differences in disturbance for lifeloggers in Berkeley, Oakland and San Jose.

  • Security

    • Friday’s security updates
    • Deterring Cyberattacks With Sanctions?

      But deterrence is useless if you can’t figure out who attacked you. Malware isn’t like an ICBM that leaves a clear trail going from point-A to point-B. Thanks to Ed Snowden it’s public knowledge Five-Eyes Intelligence agencies have invested heavily in developing anonymity technology and conducting deception operations that aim to conceal the origins of their clandestine attacks. It would be naïve to believe that other countries aren’t doing the same.

  • Defence/Police/Secrecy/Aggression

    • Fight Imperialism with Unity, Says Morales

      U.S. imperialism is being challenged by regional organizations like CELAC, according to Bolivia’s president.

    • Hecklers Try To Veto University Screening Of ‘American Sniper;’ May Find Themselves Watching ‘Paddington Bear’ Instead

      “Harmed” how? By offering a movie no one on campus was obligated to watch? It wasn’t a mandatory event and those offended by the movie had several options available, most of which didn’t involve ensuring no one on campus could see the movie.

      In what would appear to be a dig at the “victims” infantilization-by-proxy of the entire student body, but is more likely due to a limited selection of last-minute offerings (guaranteed not to result in a swift petitioning), the CCI decided to screen “Paddington Bear” instead. For a student body composed of 18-23 year olds.

    • Graphic New Veteran-Sponsored Ads Are Asking Drone Pilots Not to Fly

      A group of anti-drone US military veterans want to put an end to American’s campaign of drone strikes in foreign countries, and they’re now taking the fight to prime time by directly calling on Air Force pilots to stop the destruction through a series of graphic television spots.

    • Commercials urge drone pilots to refuse to fly missions

      Anti-drone groups are airing cable television commercials near Beale Air Force Base, California, urging remotely piloted aircraft pilots to refuse to carry out missions.

      “The reason that we felt we had to start running these ads is the president and the Congress have been irresponsible and – we believe – operating illegally and immorally to let these drone attacks continue,” said Nick Mottern, of the group KnowDrones, the lead group behind the effort. “We felt that we had to speak directly to the people who were being ordered to do the killing because, at this point, it seems they’re the only ones who can put a stop to this.”

    • Campaign against killer drones launched in USA

      The goal of the campaign is to appeal to those who receive orders to kill. Those people should listen to the call of their conscience before they launch another drone, campaign organizers believe.

    • These Human Rights Activists Want To Ban ‘Killer Robots’

      If a human soldier commits a war crime, he has to face the consequences (at least in theory). The same goes for human operators of drones (again, in theory). But if a fully autonomous war machine with no human operator goes rogue and kills a whole bunch of innocent people, who would be responsible? Its programmers? The manufacturers? Finding someone to blame would be hard enough, and proving it in a court of law would be nearly impossible.

    • US-backed airstrikes on Yemen kill civilians – and hopes for peace

      You can’t bomb a country into existence, however much America seems determined to try.

      In the last week, 164 Yemeni civilians have lost their lives in the Saudi bombardment of my country. In media reports – full of geopolitical talk of “proxy wars” and “regional interests” – the names of the dead are absent. As always, it is ordinary Yemeni families who are left grieving, and forgotten.

    • The Yemen choice

      The Middle East imbroglio demonstrates the complexity of the post-9/11 world in which Obama’s foreign policy has managed to upset America’s traditional Arab allies while strengthening the position of its adversary, Iran.

      President Obama’s preferred approach to US foreign policy largely flows from the strategies of retrenchment, ie reducing but not completely avoiding American military and financial commitments abroad, and offshore balancing, that is: using regional allies to check the rise of potential hostile powers.

      Retrenchment has so far backfired in Iraq and a positive outcome in Afghanistan is yet to emerge. Offshore balancing is useful in regions where great powers have minimal engagements. In places like the Middle East the strategy is bound to spawn contradictions and Obama’s foreign policy therefore rests on inherent– and deliberate– ambiguity.

    • Manhunters Inc.: How the Predator Became Washington’s Calling Card
    • Hunting Humans by Remote Control

      Drones seemed to come out of nowhere, sexy as the latest iPhones and armed to kill. They were all-seeing eyes in the sky (“a constant stare,” as drone promoters liked to say) and surgically precise in their ability to deliver death to evildoers. Above all, without pilots in their cockpits, they were, in terms of the human price of war (at least when it came to the lives that mattered to us), cost free. They transformed battle into a video-game experience, leaving the “warriors” – from pilots to generals – staring at screens. What could possibly go wrong?

    • How Drones Turned American Wars Into Manhunts and Humans Into Prey

      In the immediate aftermath of September 11th, George W. Bush had predicted that the United States would embark upon a new kind of warfare, “a war that requires us to be on an international manhunt.” Something that initially sounded like nothing more than a catchy Texas cowboy slogan has since been converted into state doctrine, complete with experts, plans, and weapons. A single decade has seen the establishment of an unconventional form of state violence that combines the disparate characteristics of warfare and policing without really corresponding to either, finding conceptual and practical unity in the notion of a militarized manhunt.

    • Yemen: We did it again.

      The US has unleashed a great deal of blood upon the world, with its willingness to use “bombs” as our first reaction to any situation. We killed over one million in Iraq, and we have lost the ability to solve problems diplomatically; rather, we resort to the only tool in our tool bag, bombs. Such a policy has caused incredible death and destruction in Iraq, but also in Libya, Syria, and now Yemen, and much of current Yemeni blood is on our hands.

    • Somalia issues bounties for top Shebab leaders

      Somalia’s government has issued bounties for 11 top leaders of the Al-Qaeda-linked Shebab militants, with $250,000 offered for the extremist’s chief, Ahmad Umar.

    • Obama’s excessive drone strikes in Somalia intensifies hate against Christians and the U.S.

      President Obama and White House officials are defending the United States’ “low-investment, light-footprint approach to counterterrorism.” As war and death plague places like Somalia and Yemen every day, President Obama continues to issue airstrikes with drones.

    • Why Al-Shabaab Kills

      The whole world knows of the horrors inflicted on Kenyan civilians by Somalia’s Al-Shabaab. But, the “corporate media tells Americans little if anything about Somalia’s road to ruin,” paved by the United States and its Ethiopian and Kenyan allies. “If there were true justice in this world the United States and its puppets would not only have to leave that country but make restitution as well.”

    • Controversy Swirls Around NYU Law Professor Involved in Obama’s Drone Program

      Harold Koh, the former legal adviser to the U.S. Department of State, is getting a chilly reception from some law students and alumni of New York University Law School, where he is currently a visiting scholar.

    • ‘Schizophrenia’ Of US Drone Programme Gets Cinema Treatment

      ”We’ve never asked a soldier to go and fight the Taliban for 12 hours and then go and pick up the kids from school,” he says.

    • Pakistani judge wants CIA official tried for murder
    • Pakistan judge orders charges against ex–CIA officials over drone deaths
    • Pakistan judge orders charges against ex–CIA officials over drone deaths
    • Ex-CIA Officials Face Police Inquiry Over Pakistan Drone Deaths

      A court in Pakistan has ordered police to investigate two former CIA officials over the deaths of two people in a drone strike.

    • Pakistani Court Orders Charges Against CIA Officials for 2009 Drone Strike

      A high court in Pakistan has ordered criminal charges against two CIA officials for a deadly drone strike in 2009. John Rizzo, the CIA’s former acting counsel, and Jonathan Bank, the agency’s ex-station chief, would face charges including murder, terrorism and conspiracy.

    • IHC orders registration of FIR against former CIA station chief
    • Pakistan Issues Murder Warrant for CIA Station Chief and Lawyer who Oversaw Drone Program
    • Do You Have to be a Muslim to be a Terrorist?

      Would a Muslim receive tougher terrorism sentencing than anybody else?

      The question might seem outlandish but the differing court verdicts of terrorism cases, between a Muslim and those of other beliefs, emphasize the inconsistencies in legal judgements.

      This kind of double standard has angered the British Muslim community. It’s now holding credible weight. The Lufthansa’s Germanwings airliner tragedy being a case in point. The investigation’s prosecutor, Brice Robin, dismissed the notion of terrorism, quoting: ‘There is no indication of any kind of terrorist background’. In other words, when a person’s background ticks all the boxes is it terrorism.

      This logic is deeply flawed. The co-pilot Andreas Lubitz’s suicide mission that killed him and the rest of the 150 passengers shared the same intent as the 9/11 killings, yet the media stopped short of reporting terrorism. No doubt, a Muslim name would have swung it.

    • NY Times Covers Up Washington’s Monstrous Evil

      The NY Times on Monday ran a lengthy piece (“One Woman’s Mission to Free Laos from Millions of Unexploded Bombs”) on Channapha Khamvongas, a 42-year-old Laotian-American woman on a mission to get the US to help Laos clean up the countless unexploded anti-personnel “bombis” that it dropped, which are still killing peasants — especially children — half a century after the so-called “Secret War” by the US against Laos ended.

      The article explained that Khamvongas, as a young adult in Virginia, had read a book by anti-war activist Fred Branfman, Voices from the Plain of Jars: Life Under an Air War (originally published in 1972 and reissued in 2013), which featured accounts and hand drawings by refugees from that war of the deadly US aerial attacks and bombings of their farms and villages. It was a book that sparked revulsion in the US over the saturation bombing of Southeast Asia’s smallest and least developed country — a nation of under six million people.

    • Congress of War

      It is very bewildering, albeit horrifyingly fascinating, to watch American politicians jockey and posture for war with Iran. With the announcement last week that years of negotiations have yielded a framework agreement that will arrest any Iranian nuclear weapons program, not that one actually exists, while starting the much needed process of bringing Iran back into the world community, many members of Congress seem not just reluctant, but hostile, to the prospects of averting a war with Iran.

    • US-Created Violence and Chaos in Yemen

      Yemen is one of many examples of what happens following lawless US intervention.

    • Russia and Red Cross appeal for “humanitarian pause” in Yemen
    • Failure of Obama doctrine

      To suggest that the US policies in Yemen were a “failure” is an understatement. It implies that the US had at least attempted to succeed. But “succeed” at what? The US drone war had no other objective aside from celebration the elimination of whomever the US hit list designates as terrorist.

    • The Life and Death of Vietnam War Veteran Jack Wheeler: A Good Man in an Evil World

      As an Army officer, Jack wrote the US Department of Defense manual urging abstinence toward all use of chemical and biological warfare banned under the 1925 post-World War I Geneva Protocol and again reinforced in 1972 and 1993. Yet that’s rarely stopped hypocritical rogue states in their arrogance of exceptionalism like the US and Israel as the world’s most notorious violators from breaking international law at will, most recently using flesh burning white phosphorus in Fallujah, Iraq and tear gas on our own citizens exercising their First Amendment rights to peaceful assembly and free speech during the Occupy Wall Street movement and frequent public demonstrations right up to the present. Of course Israel has used poison nerve gas on Palestinians on numerous occasions with impunity. Recall that it was during the 1980’s Reagan administration that sent US made chemical weapons to then ally Saddam Hussein while he waged war against neighboring Iran, knowing Hussein would use it on his own people the Kurds as well as on Iran’s military that US intelligence provided Hussein with enemy troop movement.

    • Yemen crisis reignites fear of al-Qaeda global threat

      But the drone strikes have also killed many Yemeni civilians and they have been hugely resented by local tribes.

    • Saudi actions backfire

      Saudi Arabia bears the greatest responsibility for the triumphant advance of the Houthi militia in Yemen, says Birgit Svensson: the leading Sunni power in the Gulf simply stood by while a Shia counterbalance emerged virtually on its doorstep, thereby creating an opportunity for Tehran

    • Hiding under the cloak of ‘collateral’ damage is unacceptable

      War is ravaging Yemen and civilians, including infants, are getting killed. The situation is catastrophic.

      As we have seen before with the US-led invasion of Iraq, no matter how much the missile-shooter, bomb-droppers and drone-attackers would have you believe about perfection of their war machines, gadgets and equipment, they simply have not perfected their deadly science. They are never precise, which leads to unintended consequences, what are conveniently dumped as the ‘collateral damages’. Thus, we witnessed the cold-blooded murder of nearly a million Iraqis, old and young, and another quarter million or so in Afghanistan who had nothing to do with the WMD and 9/11.

    • Lucknow Police To Use Pepper-Spraying Drones For Crowd Control; A First for India

      Capital of Uttar Pradesh and India’s 8th most populous city: Lucknow has become the first city in India to use to drones for crowd control. Police chief of Lucknow, Yashasvi Yadav has announced that they have purchased 5 high powered drones, costing Rs 6,00,000 each, which will be used for monitoring and controlling unruly mob.

    • Police Drones against Protesters: the “Machine Imperative”

      Innovation, Edmund Burke reminds us in “A Letter to a Noble Lord,” does not necessarily imply reform. While the peaceful uses of drones are often treated as the benign effects of the security industrial complex, the spill over into more violent deployments has proven unavoidable. What is done in Waziristan against Taliban militants will eventually be done to US citizens on a smaller yet significant scale – the civilian cloaking there becomes as irrelevant in tribal foothills as it does on the streets of Chicago.

      The drone monitors have gotten excited by an announcement that Indian police forces will be making use of drones to deploy pepper spray against protesters. Trials were conducted on Tuesday in Lucknow, with the city’s police force anticipating using five such vehicles later this month. “The results,” claimed the jubilant police chief Yashasvi Yadav, “were brilliant. We have managed to work out how to use it to precisely target the mob in winds and congested areas.”[1]

      The language used by Yadav serves an important purpose. Drones are weapons of use against that dark, primordial “mob,” difficult to control, unruly of purpose. From the perspective of many state authorities, any protesting group constitutes an unruly “mob”. The idea of a peaceful protest is nowhere to be seen, the greatest of unnatural phenomena. But Yadav insists that, “Pepper is non-lethal but very effective in mob control. We can spray from different heights to have maximum results.”

    • Sunday Extra: Obama has brought little hope, almost no change to war policy

      Many Americans are unaware that President Obama is:

      — Making war in eight countries around the world — Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Pakistan, Somalia, Syria, Yemen and the Philippines — in violation of the U.N. Charter, which forbids “the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state” without the authorization of the U.N. Security Council.

    • No justice for drone attack victims

      A single bench comprising Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui will hear the case. The IHC had ordered for the registration of murder case in respect of two persons killed in drone attack at South Waziristan in 2010.

      The petitioner sought contempt of court proceedings against the SHO Secretariat police for not registering a murder case of two persons killed in drone attack.

    • DOJ chief: Nothing illegal with US role in Exodus

      There was nothing illegal about the participation of the US in Operation Plan Exodus in Mamasapano last Jan. 25 that resulted in the killing of international wanted terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir, alias Marwan, as well as the death of 44 police commandos, at least 17 Moro fighters and five civilians, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said yesterday.

      De Lima said the involvement of US forces in the planning and execution of the operation did not violate the Constitution or any law.

    • Americans have yet to grasp the horrific magnitude of the ‘war on terror’

      The report estimates that at least 1.3 million people have been killed in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan from direct and indirect consequences of the U.S. “war on terrorism.” One million people perished in Iraq alone, a shocking 5 percent of the country’s population. The staggering civilian toll and the hostility it has engendered erodes the myth that the sprawling “war on terrorism” made the U.S. safer and upheld human rights, all at an acceptable cost.

    • Face Off: The Coming War between Armenia and Azerbaijan

      Diplomacy is barely keeping the lid on a conventional war in Ukraine; from Nigeria to the Fertile Crescent war is about as common as peace.

    • The National Interest: strategic advantage on Karabakh’s side
    • The National Interest: Strategic advantage and favorable defensible terrain in Nagorno Karabakh are under Armenian control

      The author highlights that the Azerbaijani side has significantly increased its military spending over the recent years, and this trend has not abated, despite the global decline of oil prices. Israel has been one of Azerbaijan’s strongest defense partners for several years now, and as a result of this relationship, the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan have acquired Israeli drones.

    • Iran claims to have killed ‘terrorist team’ run by foreign intel agencies

      Iran has accused Israel and its allies in the West of assassinating its nuclear scientists and attacking its nuclear sites with computer viruses.

      Israel has always declined comment on such accusations, saying that it does not comment on foreign reports.

    • U.S. Army May Investigate Colombia Child Rape Claims

      The U.S. Army may investigate accusations of sexual assault against its soldiers and contractors in Colombia, a spokesman said Friday, the military’s first response to claims published by a joint project of Colombia’s government and the guerrillas of the FARC.

      Army investigators are working with Colombia’s government to decide whether to launch a formal investigation into any of the claims that at least 54 Colombian girls and women were assaulted by U.S. troops and contractors between 2004 and 2007. A probe into a previous assault claim was inconclusive, although the alleged victim declined to cooperate with investigators, the spokesman told USA Today.

      The claims originated from a joint project of the ongoing peace talks between Colombia’s government and the leftist guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. Historical researchers said in a report that they found evidence that 53 girls were raped by U.S. contractors operating out of Colombia’s Tolemaida military base near the village of Melgar in the central state of Tolima. Their independent report was aimed at addressing the rights of more than 7 million victims of Colombia’s 50-year internal conflict.

    • Red Tory, Blue Tory

      I should however like to see clarification from the SNP. Labour and Tory can of course combine to vote Trident replacement through. If that happens with Labour in office, the SNP should make plain that would mean the withdrawal of support for that government. For the SNP to allow Labour to push Trident through with Tory support, and then the SNP revert to supporting the Labour government in office, would be a betrayal of the Scottish people. To me, there has not been absolute clarity in our response on this issue. It must be given.

  • Transparency Reporting

  • Environment/Energy/Wildlife

    • 47% Of Spain’s Electricity Made By Renewables In March

      Almost half of Spain’s electricity in March was generated by renewable sources — mostly wind and hydroelectric. About 22.5% was from wind and 17.5% from hydro, with the rest produced by solar PV, solar thermal, and thermal renewables.

  • Finance

    • Chaos and Hegemony

      The irony of history: Albeit the U.S. has lost the ability to steer the oil price – one of its central political leverages –, it has in another way been able to drastically strengthen its hegemony via the new prices set by the global market. For the high oil prices have multiplied the percentage share of oil trade within global trade, which caused massively higher demand for dollars and U.S. government bonds. As a result, for the foreseeable future the U.S. dollar will thereby remain the indisputable reserve currency.

      It is precisely here that we can identify the actual basis for U.S. dominance: By way of an unlimited creation of the dollar as the globe’s reserve currency, the U.S. constitutes the only economy in the world that can finance several mega-projects at once – such as the bailing-out of banks and gigantic defense spending – through public debt and the issuing of government bonds.

    • How Wall Street captured Washington’s effort to rein in banks

      Intense lobbying of regulators, many of them veterans of the industry themselves, helped ensure that practices the Dodd-Frank law was meant to stop would remain in place.

    • With Looming Financial War, Bitcoin Ushers in Peaceful Insurrection

      Britain, France, Germany and Italy recently announced that they would be joining the new Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), just as the BRICS nations are shifting away from US dollar world reserve hegemony. This is another blow to the US led financial order, deepening a loss of confidence in its leadership among its European allies. In a recent interview on the Keiser report, former Goldman Sachs director and author of All the President’s Bankers, Nomi Prins pointed out how the recent US conflict with Russia is a manufactured aggression all about trying to maintain its financial supremacy in the face of inevitable decline. Prins described this as a crisis of the world order established after World War II and pointed to how a new cold war is brewing.

    • The ‘Netflix tax’ – Honest Joe and the big tax lie

      With corporate tax minimisation in the news, the Government is considering ways to claw back at least some money from easy targets. And it is taking us for fools in the process.

      The Government is considering a range of measures in next month’s budget which it says will restore integrity to the tax system and ensure billions of dollars in extra revenue. A key measure will be to ensure that the 10% GST is charged on video downloads and streaming – a so-called ‘Netflix tax’.

      Treasurer Joe Hockey has been meeting with state treasurers in Canberra in an unsuccessful attempt to come to new arrangements on how the GST – which goes to the states – should be shared. Everyone, unsurprisingly, wants a bigger share of the pie, so it seems like the only answer is to increase the size of that pie.

      [...]

      Don’t hold your breath on that one. It’s all bullshit. Google and Apple and Microsoft – and local companies like News Limited and BHP – have been ripping us all off for years with clever international tax minimisation schemes that take advantage of different taxation rates in different companies.

  • Censorship

    • Toronto church says it won’t allow Ukrainian-born pianist to perform

      A Ukrainian-born pianist who has been barred from performing with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra says she’ll be giving a free concert in Toronto Friday night – but now that show appears to be in doubt.

    • Russia’s Missing Article: Censorship, Prudence, Or A Win For Moscow’s Troll Army?

      MOSCOW — For three straight days last weekend, the employees of the Novaya Buryatia newspaper in southern Siberia used scissors to remove an article from 50,000 copies of the weekly before it could be distributed.

    • EDITORIAL: School-sponsored censorship isn’t free speech

      If you believe certain kinds of expression must be regulated or prohibited, you don’t support free speech.

      Unfortunately, we live in an era of hypersensitivity, where intolerance reigns under the guise of tolerance, and where the exercise of truly free speech has become an increasingly risky proposition. And you’d be hard pressed to find worse free-speech hypocrisy than what passes for discourse on college campuses.

    • Pakistani University Students Protest Against State Censorship Over Balochistan

      The hashtags were used to share images of students holding up placards and posters, protesting the state’s decision to have the “Unsilencing Balochistan” session cancelled. The posters were emblazoned with slogans such as “talking about a province is not anti-state” and “you don’t believe in freedom of speech if you don’t believe in it for those who disagree with you.”

    • Deafening silence
    • The fastest way to spread extremism is with the censor’s boot

      The Charlie Hebdo killings have prompted a clampdown. But history teaches that openness and debate are the most effective weapons in the battle of ideas

    • Ronnie Screwvala: Censorship Should Not be One Person’s View

      Ronnie Screwvala, former filmmaker and the founder of UTV group, believes an interactive dialogue between the industry and the censor board can solve a lot of problems.

    • Are the World’s Biggest Internet Companies Under the Turkish President’s Thumb?

      Twitter and YouTube were blocked in Turkey once again April 6, sparking plenty of fanfare across social networks.

      This time around, the block was imposed after the mass circulation of photos from a hostage crisis that ended with the death of government prosecutor Mehmet Selim Kiraz and two leftist militants on March 31.

    • Turkey’s Online Censorship

      The Turkish government’s unrelenting crackdown on free speech continues unabated. On Tuesday, Google narrowly avoided being banned in the country after it complied with a court order to remove links to a photograph showing militants holding a gun to the head of a prosecutor.

    • Poland marks 25 years since lifting of censorship

      With the closure of the office came the end of censorship in Poland. Up until then, all forms of public communication were controlled, including press announcements such as obituaries, as well as posters.

    • China Threatens Sina Corp. Over Insufficient Censorship

      China’s top Internet regulator threatened to shut down the news services of one of China’s most popular social media and online news companies if it doesn’t fix problems with inadequate censorship and the spreading of false information.

    • Sina faces suspension over lack of censorship

      Chinese web giant Sina will face suspension of its Internet news services if it fails to improve censorship of illegal content, authorities have warned.

      The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) summoned Sina leaders to a meeting late on Friday over “massive numbers of public complaints about its law violations”.

    • Turkey Twitter ban to be lifted after site complies with court ruling

      Twitter has complied with Turkey’s request to remove photographs of an Istanbul prosecutor held at gunpoint by far-left militants and a ban on the micro-blogging site will be lifted very shortly, a senior Turkish official has said.

      “Twitter has agreed to shut down accounts and remove images relating to last week’s hostage-taking. The web site will reopen to access very shortly,” the official told Reuters.

    • ‘Great Cannon’ Is China’s New Weapon That Shoots Down Internet Sites

      That’s according to a report from Citizen Lab — an ICT, security and human rights lab based within the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto. Citizen Lab looked into these recent attacks and identified ‘Great Cannon’, a tool built to intercept data and redirect it to specific sites, as the attack system responsible for them.

    • The NSA Uses A Tool Similar To The One That China Used To Take Down GitHub

      The Chinese government’s massive attack on GitHub at the end of March, which directed massive amounts of traffic at its servers in an attempt to overwhelm them, was thought to have been accomplished by simply diverting traffic from what is known as China’s Great Firewall. Now researchers from the academic think tank Citizen Lab have found that China actually intercepted foreign traffic flowing into Chinese tech titan Baidu to attack targeted sites—a weaponized process that the researchers have dramatically termed “the Great Cannon.” And it turns out the tech used in this interception technique is startlingly similar to tech already developed by the NSA and its British equivalent, GCHQ.

    • China weaponizes its Great Firewall into the GREAT FIRE CANNON, menaces entire globe

      China has upgraded the website-blocking systems on its borders, dubbed The Great Firewall, so it can blast foreign businesses and orgs off the internet.

      Researchers hailing from the University of Toronto, the International Computer Science Institute, the University of California Berkeley, and Princeton University, have confirmed what we’ve all suspected: China is hijacking web traffic entering the Middle Kingdom to overpower sites critical of the authoritarian state.

    • Parliament cancels Mohammed cartoonist visit

      The Finnish parliament has cancelled a discussion event where the Swedish artist Lars Vilks, known for his depictions of the prophet Mohammed. The Secretary General of the Finnish parliament said that the cancellation was made on Security Intelligence Police advice.

  • Privacy

    • Congress must end mass NSA surveillance with next Patriot Act vote

      In less than 60 days, Congress – whether they like it or not – will be forced to decide if the NSA’s most notorious mass surveillance program lives or dies. And today, over 30 civil liberties organizations launched a nationwide call-in campaign urging them to kill it.

    • Patriot Act: Civil liberties groups seize chance to end notorious NSA surveillance program

      A campaign has been set up by more than 30 civil liberties organisations in an attempt to bring an end to a controversial section of the Patriot Act that allows the NSA and FBI to conduct suspicionless mass surveillance.

      Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which was first passed through Congress following the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001, is set to expire on 1 June unless the US Congress votes for it to be reauthorised.

    • New Coalition Site Fight215.org Launches to Amplify Opposition to the NSA’s Mass Surveillance

      A coalition of 34 organizations from across the political spectrum is launching Fight215.org today to help concerned individuals contact lawmakers and demand an end to NSA’s unconstitutional mass surveillance under the Patriot Act.

    • John Oliver presses Edward Snowden on whether he read all leaked NSA material

      Edward Snowden avoided saying whether he had read every NSA document he handed over to journalists in an interview with comedian John Oliver on Sunday, as the HBO host posed uncomfortable questions to the NSA whistleblower in Moscow.

    • NSA holds info over US citizens like loaded gun, but says ‘trust me’ – Snowden

      The National Security Agency has a gun aimed at the head of each and every American, Edward Snowden says in a new interview, and they’re being asked to accept the NSA’s vast surveillance operations in the name of counterterrorism.

    • Phone Surveillance Revelation Should Prompt Reassessment Of NSA Spying

      Does evidence of a decades-old surveillance program throw out the case many public officials have made for the modern surveillance state?

      Since Edward Snowden first leaked documents about secret National Security Agency (NSA) programs, government officials have defended them in the name of September 11 and national security. Again and again, we heard that these programs were built in the wake of that tragic day to “connect the dots” so no event like that would ever occur again. They addressed issues of national security, not day-to-day policing.

    • The DEA collected call metadata way before the NSA did

      Apparently, the NSA’s massive surveillance program wasn’t a first: it was modeled after a precursor that ran from 1992 until 2013. According to USA Today, that program was called USTO, because it monitored almost every American’s calls from the US to other countries. It was a joint initiative by the Justice Department and the Drug Enforcement Administration, which began as a way to keep tabs on Colombian drug cartels and their supply routes. Since then, it grew in scope (thanks in part to a powerful computer provided by the Pentagon) to cover all international calls made to around 116 countries worldwide, including Canada, Mexico, parts of Asia and Europe, and most of Central and Southern America. The group was only dissolved after Edward Snowden went public with the NSA’s secrets in 2013.

    • New anti-NSA coalition pledges to ‘Fight 215’
    • Website Launched to Fight NSA Data Surveillance
    • The Rand Paul campaign is selling an “NSA Spy Cam Blocker” for your laptop

      Most laptops today have a built-in camera above the display. And most of those have a small light next to them that is supposed to turn on to alert the user when the camera is active. But a couple of years ago, researchers discovered that this doesn’t always work; hackers can activate the camera on certain MacBook models (and probably some other laptops) without enabling the light and tipping off the user.

    • Rand Paul sells “NSA spy cam blocker” as presidential bid fundraiser

      Bid announcement video taken off YouTube due to copyright claim over a song.

    • Rand Paul sells ‘NSA spy cam blocker’
    • Would You Care If Your Private Parts Were Seen by the Government?

      Turns out, many Americans don’t really know who former NSA contractor Edward Snowden is, and they seem to know even less about the shadowy government surveillance programs he went to lengths to reveal.

    • CanTheySeeMyDick.com offers impressive insight into NSA spying tactics

      CanTheySeeMyDick.com uses Oliver’s interview and revelation that private photos of American genitalia are now available to the government as the nexus around which to inform people about the varying laws, practices, and extralegal maneuvers that would grant access to citizens’ information. It’s a great tongue-in-cheek approach that runs with Oliver’s elaborate dick joke and makes it much easier to understand the prevalence and reach that has been afforded to the intelligence community and its surveillance capabilities.

    • NSA Has Set Aside A Special Room For Watching Porn

      Even though the National Security Agency has taken a lot of flak for its electronic spying programs the agency does play a vital role in the maintenance of national security. It sifts through vast swathes of data of all kinds to find clues about potential terrorist plots. Sometimes those plots could be hidden inside porn and that’s why the National Security Agency has set aside a whole room just for watching porn.

    • NSA analysts are being paid to watch a LOT of porn

      There’s been a lot of concern about how intelligence agencies around the world have been covertly snooping on private emails, instant message communications and phone calls, but here’s something you may not have realised.

    • As Hillary Announces For President, Four Questions She Should Answer

      But she has also said she would support reforms to ensure that surveillance doesn’t go too far and that the National Security Agency should be “more transparent” about its practices. She has also called for a “full, comprehensive discussion” about the NSA’s spying program. “That’s the discussion that has to happen in a calm atmosphere without people defending everything we’ve done and people absolutely opposing everything we’ve done,” she said in a 2013 appearance. “And we’re not having that conversation yet.”

    • Former NSA Chief Keith Alexander Is Speaking in Seattle Tonight

      1. Keith, why is the NSA collecting our dick pics? Are you collecting our tit pics too?

      2. I would like to collect it all, Keith: all of your personal and family photos! Okay, Keith?

      3. Cool if the government listens in next time you call your wife, Keith?

      4. Still convinced Snowden is a secret Russian spy, not a whistleblower, Keith?

      5. Why should we trust you, Keith, or your successor?

      6. Who was the person, Keith, who you called the most times last year? Who did you call on your birthday, Keith, and at what time of day? How long did each of you speak, Keith? In fact, would you mind sharing with me, Keith, your personal cell phone number, all the numbers you dialed, and the duration of all incoming and outgoing calls?*

    • 72% of Brits concerned about online privacy since Snowden leaks

      New research suggests nearly three quarters of British adults are worried about the distribution of their personal information online, with concerns including hackers and unauthorized access to data.

      The figures, compiled by pollster YouGov, found that 32 percent of respondents would be happy to pay for extra online security to ensure their date was protected. A further 29 percent felt it came down to the individual to take responsibility for protecting their data.

      There has been a huge rise in the level of consumer mistrust in tech firms since NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed in 2013 the UK and US governments were accessing consumer data without permission.

    • A wrong turn at the NSA can bring trouble

      It could have been worse. Authorities believe the two people who were shot by NSA police last week outside the agency’s headquarters on Fort Meade got there by mistake.

      The driver, identified by the FBI as 27-year-old Ricky Shawatza Hall of Baltimore, was pronounced dead at the scene. A passenger was shot in the chest and taken to the Maryland Shock Trauma Center; the passenger’s identity and condition have not been available.

      Authorities have released few details of the incident, but the FBI was quick to rule out terrorism. Police say Hall and the passenger were traveling in an SUV that was reported stolen from a man at a motel in nearby Elkridge shortly before they arrived at the NSA gate off the Baltimore-Washington Parkway Monday morning.

    • Strengthen privacy rights

      A major piece of business that Congress failed to complete last year was to strengthen the privacy rights of Americans by curtailing government spying on them. It should be at the top of the agenda this year.

      A key argument for the wide latitude allowed the government under current law to seize private records without a court order is that such power is necessary to protect against terrorist activities.

    • Snowden journalist visits U., says goal of the NSA is to ‘eliminate all private communications’

      Why else would someone lock the bedroom or bathroom door? Use passwords to protect their social media accounts? Or why would they tell their spouses or psychiatrists things they wouldn’t tell others?

    • Greenwald talks Secrecy and Snowden
    • Glenn Greenwald speaks on government surveillance in a digital age
    • Soapbox: Don’t let government monitoring cripple freedom

      When the topic of the disclosures of programs of mass surveillance comes up in conversation, people often proclaim since they are doing nothing wrong, they have nothing to hide. Glenn Greenwald, the journalist who broke the NSA document leak story involving Edward Snowden, declares that people who take this position are “Engaged in an act of self-depreciation.” He notes that what they are effectively saying is, “I have agreed to make myself such a harmless, unthreatening and uninteresting person, that I don’t fear to have the government know what I’m doing.”

      [...]

      Michel Foucault, a 20th Century French philosopher, realized that the Panopticon could be used in any institution as a means of control: schools, hospitals, factories, work places, etc. Foucault posited that the means of control previously used by societies — punishment, imprisonment, killing dissidents, forced obedience to a particular party — were no longer needed, that mass-surveillance is a much more subtle and effective means of control than brute force. Eventually, Foucault surmised that surveillance is longer even needed, because people begin to police their own behavior.

    • Secrecy, surveillance threaten democracy, says Greenwald

      The university invited the lawyer-turned-journalist, known for his work on an award-winning series in British newspaper The Guardian that detailed global surveillance programs, to speak during a week devoted to exploring surveillance by the U.S. government.

    • Utah data centre critical to help the NSA ‘eliminate all private communications’, says Snowden journalist

      The journalist and ex-lawyer who came to prominence by helping Edward Snowden to disclose the secrets of the National Security Agency has spoken of ‘government inside the government’ and the critical role of the NSA’s ‘Intelligence Community Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative Data Center’ at a gathering in Utah, describing the plant as having an “ominous role in the surveillance state”.

    • Glenn Greenwald Talks about Government Surveillance in Utah
    • Glenn Greenwald to speak at University of Utah
    • Privacy Board Will Do ‘Deep Dive’ on NSA, CIA Practices

      In a brisk 30-minute meeting on Wednesday in Washington, members of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board read prepared statements about a “work plan” to perform two “deep dives” on agency practices that lean on the order.

    • PCLOB Takes on Executive Order 12333 Surveillance
    • The Investigation into 12333 Begins

      The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) voted 4–1 yesterday to conduct reviews of how Executive Order 12333 is used in counterterrorism investigations by the CIA and NSA. The PCLOB’s plan to investigate two surveillance programs conducted under the wide-ranging executive order will result in three reports — two classified, one public — that it hopes to complete by the end of this year.

    • Usual Suspects Oppose Maine Bill to Take on NSA: Attorney General, Law Enforcement Lobbyists

      The usual suspects came out in opposition of a Maine bill that would turn off support and resources to the NSA in the Pine Tree State during a committee hearing last week.

      Maine Attorney General Janet Mills and law enforcement lobbyists expressed reservations about LD531 during a Senate Committee on Judiciary hearing, saying it could hinder police from catching child pornographers and other dangerous criminals. Their arguments echoed those of law enforcement interests in Montana and Alaska.

    • Our intelligence apparatus, operating in the dark

      At the time, President Obama resisted calls to investigate lawless intelligence practices, insisting that “we need to look forward as opposed to looking backwards.” Unfortunately, we know where the road forward led. The NSA spied on citizens. The CIA spied on Congress. And the American people, as Hayes warned, became further desensitized to the idea of an intelligence apparatus that operates in secret and plays by its own set of rules — or perhaps none at all.

    • Asked How He Would Handle Being Blamed for Terrorist Attacks After Limiting NSA Power, Here’s What Rand Paul Said

      Paul said eliminating the mass collection of data on American citizens doesn’t mean putting an end to our intelligence agencies.

    • Spying on the U.S. Submarine That Spies For the NSA and CIA

      From March to September 2014, the U.S. submarine’s 152-man crew cruised the deeps of the Mediterranean, Red Sea and Arabian Gulf, earning a earning a coveted Battle “E” for their efficiency in doing all the fleet had asked of them. Which involved … what, exactly? They covered 34,000 nautical miles, participated in one multinational exercise, and made port calls in Portugal, Spain, Bahrain, and Gibraltar, according to official Navy reports.

    • Glenn Greenwald in North Texas: NSA Surveillance Program is ‘Antithesis’ of Fourth Amendment

      Glenn Greenwald, the lawyer and journalist who became a left-wing celebrity for his articles helping whistle-blower Edward Snowden expose the NSA’s mass-surveillance program, admits enjoying the reaction when critics discovered he would be in North Texas to appear on Glenn Beck’s right-wing radio show—and then to address the conservative National Center for Policy Analysis.

      Talking Friday to about 250 people at a luncheon meeting of the NCPA, a Dallas think tank that’s headed now by tea party hero Allen West, Greenwald said of the kerfuffle that was particularly created by his Beck appearance: “I love it.” He recalled trading barbs with “people on Twitter who thought it was a terrible thing to do.” But, he added, “I’ve made it a point to find common ground. I find that’s a healthy thing to do.”

    • Talking About Section 215: A Readers’ Guide

      Media coverage of John Oliver’s critique about the lack of discussion surrounding government surveillance programs seems to prove his point. Much, if not most, of the attention given to Sunday night’s episode of Last Week Tonight has focused on Oliver’s interview with Edward Snowden instead of focusing on the fact that the law governing one of the most heavily-criticized surveillance programs is up for potential reauthorization in less than two months. We’re talking about Section 215 of the Patriot Act, the provision allowing the NSA to collect vast quantities of Americans’ phone records.

    • Snapchat releases report showing how many times the government asked for user data

      The report covers requests from Nov. 1, 2014 to Feb. 28, 2015. Over that time, it is said authorities asked for information on Snapchat users 403 times. Of that total, 375 requests were from the U.S. government and 28 were from foreign governments. The United Kingdom requested data the second most.

    • Surveillance Envy Drives France to Intrusive Law of Its Own

      Never a people to let Americans one-up them on anything, French lawmakers are considering a Patriot Act-ish bill that one civil liberties group describes as “a naked expansion of surveillance powers.” The measure, which already has preliminary approval, would justify snooping on a variety of grounds far beyond the anti-terrorism concerns driving much of the country’s political activity in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo massacre. Besides security, the proposed Projet de Loi Relatif au Renseignement allows for deep government intrusions into online life to achieve economic, scientific, and international relations goals.

    • Allison: Red herrings and Clinton’s emails

      Sunday on Face the Nation, someone made the absurd comparison of Hillary Clinton to Richard Nixon, as if her deleted emails had any similarity to Nixon in cahoots with Kissinger in that secret war of carpet bombing Cambodia.

    • Powerful Prose Examines Powerful Surveillance

      Oklahoma City University’s Powerful Prose series will continue with a presentation on the book “No Place to Hide,” a book written by Glenn Greenwald about accused classified intelligence leaker Edward Snowden. OCU law professor Art LeFrancois will discuss the book at 6:30 p.m., Thursday, April 30.

      The presentation is free to the public and will be held at Full Circle Bookstore, the series co-sponsor, in the 50 Penn Place shopping center at 1900 Northwest Expressway.

    • Original U.S. Phone Record Dragnet Finally Faces Lawsuit

      The Drug Enforcement Administration’s pioneering and purportedly discontinued dragnet pulled records from pliable phone companies for two decades without court review using administrative subpoenas.

    • Human Rights Watch Sues DEA Over Bulk Collection of Americans’ Telephone Records

      Human Rights Watch, a nonpartisan organization that fights human rights abuses across the globe, filed suit against the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration late Tuesday for illegally collecting records of its telephone calls to certain foreign countries as part of yet another government bulk surveillance program. The group is represented by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), which has launched a series of legal challenges against unconstitutional government surveillance.

    • CISA: New “Cybersecurity” Bill Is About Surveillance, Not Security

      Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) is trumpeting a major Senate cyber bill that he claims is better at protecting privacy. Burr, who is chairman the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, hails this bipartisan measure which was recently approved by his panel, as taking the first step in cracking down on the theft of personal data and intellectual property. Elaborating, he goes on to insist that the bill would create “a cybersecurity information-sharing environment that works much like a neighborhood watch program–allowing all participants to get a better understanding of the current cybersecurity threats that may be used against them.”

    • UK spied on CFK gov’t over Malvinas

      President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner’s government has vowed to respond to documents that allegedly show how the British government was engaged in surveillance and cyber operations against the Argentine authorities and military officials and attempted to shape public opinion against the country’s sovereignty claims over the Malvinas Islands.

    • Scioli: UK spying is ‘violation of our rights’

      Following Defence Minister Agustín Rossi’s brief comments on Friday, Buenos Aires Governor Daniel Scioli yesterday was the highest-ranking Victory Front (FpV) official to respond to recently released documents that suggest British espionage against Argentine and military officials over the Malvinas Islands, considering them serious and “a violation against the privacy and the rights of our country within the framework of freedom and democracy.”

    • WATCH: John Oliver Employs Brilliant Tactic to Get Edward Snowden to Explain Why NSA Surveillance Matters

      Yeupp, the government can and does collect dick pics.

      This is not a trivial matter. Sunday night, Oliver devoted the entire half hour of his HBO show “Last Week Tonight” to the matter of domestic surveillance, and the upcoming vote in Congress about whether to reauthorize the Patriot Act, including its provision allowing the government to collect our private information.

      The trouble is that Americans seem really ill-informed about the whole matter of domestic surveillance, as Oliver illustrates with on-the-street interviews. They also seem not to know exactly who whistleblower Edward Snowden is.

    • Paul G. Buchanan: Hager and co’s bombshells fizzle – not fire

      The slow drip feed of classified NSA material taken by Edward Snowden and published by journalists Glen Greenwald, Nicky Hager, David Fisher and others in outlets such as The Intercept and the New Zealand Herald caused a stir when first published.

      Revelations of mass surveillance and bulk collection of telephone and email data of ordinary citizens in the Five Eyes democracies and detailed accounts of how the NSA and its companion agencies in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the UK spy on friend and foe alike, including trade partners and the personal telephones of the German prime minister and Indonesian president, caused both popular and diplomatic uproars.

    • US Sheriff’s Office Abuses Stingray Cellphone Spy Technology – Rights Group

      The American Civil Liberties Union said that the Erie County Sheriff’s Office in the US state of New York used invasive cellphone tracking devices called Stingrays to spy on local residents without a search warrant.

    • Baltimore police secretly tracked (at least) 4,300 cellphones
    • New York police caught lying over Stingray use, spying without court oversight

      In the wake of the Edward Snowden leaks of nearly two years ago, the NSA, FBI, and even local police have hammered a consistent drumbeat of trust. Time and time again, at every level of government, local to national, elected officials and appointed commissioners have promised that the cutting-edge tools of mass surveillance used to hoover your personal information are actually tightly controlled and used only under appropriate conditions. Unfortunately, available evidence continues to blow holes in this narrative, most recently in New York State.

    • The Government Has Been Tracking Our Calls Since the Early 1990s

      The bulk collection of phone data goes back to 1992, with a DEA program that inspired the NSA

    • DEA sniffed MASSIVE AMOUNTS of phone records before Snowden’s intervention
    • Opinion: The unnoticed expansion of domestic surveillance

      Programs such as PRISM for foreign surveillance and domestic wiretapping drew huge outcry. At the time, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff accused the U.S. on the floor of the United Nations of “a breach of international law and an affront” to national sovereignty. Similar claims were made about domestic programs, especially since the their capabilities, let alone their use, were unknown to the vast majority of Americans.

    • When it Comes Ending Spying, Congress is a Waste of Time

      More and more it appears that focusing on Congress to stop federal spying is a complete waste of time.

      Even if Congress were to pass substantive reforms or allow provisions of the Patriot Act authorizing bulk phone surveillance to expire – and this seems highly unlikely – a recently declassified court order indicates spying would likely continue.

    • Edward Snowden Explains Why You Should Use Passphrases, Not Passwords

      It can’t be overstated how important it is to use strong passwords, given that we still haven’t figured this mess out. And until we do, PSAs like this one stay important. And it could hardly come from a more relevant source. Edward Snowden famously leaked key details about the NSA’s mass surveillance, so he knows a thing or two about what makes a system secure or not.

    • First Step Against the Federal Surveillance State – Texas Bill Would Require Warrant for Location Tracking

      A Texas bill that would prohibit law enforcement from obtaining location data from electronic devices without a warrant in most cases, representing an important first step in addressing the growing federal surveillance state will receive an important House committee hearing this week.

    • Fact: Facebook tracks non-users – says ‘fix already underway’

      Facebook says it’s begun fixing a bug that tracks web users even when they’re not registered on the social network. However, it rejected other accusations presented in a report by Belgian scholars questioning the legality of the revised privacy policy.

    • The Feds Want a Back Door Into Your Computer. Again.

      One fine day in 1991, an ambitious senator named Joe Biden introduced legislation declaring that telecommunications companies “shall ensure” that their hardware includes backdoors for government eavesdropping. Biden’s proposal was followed by the introduction of the Clipper Chip by the National Security Agency (NSA) and a remarkable bill, approved by a House of Representatives committee in 1997, that would have outlawed encryption without back doors for the feds.

    • New Zealand: Sham inquiry established into spying revelations

      The government’s Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security Cheryl Gwyn announced on March 26 that she would investigate complaints made by the Green Party and others “over alleged interception of communications of New Zealanders working or travelling in the South Pacific by the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB).”

      The aim of the inquiry is to contain the damage to the government and the political establishment more broadly from revelations of the GCSB’s illegal and anti-democratic activities.

    • U.S. Began Bulk Collection of Phone Call Data in 1992

      An explosive new report reveals the federal government secretly tracked billions of U.S. phone calls years before the 9/11 attacks. According to USA Today, the Justice Department and Drug Enforcement Administration collected bulk data for phone calls in as many as 116 countries deemed to have a connection with drug trafficking. The program began in 1992 under President George H.W. Bush, nine years before his son, George W. Bush, authorized the National Security Agency to gather logs of Americans’ phone calls in 2001. This program served as a blueprint for NSA mass surveillance. We speak with Brad Heath, the USA Today investigative reporter who broke the story.

    • Apple and the Self-Surveillance State

      So, here’s my pathetic version of a grand insight: wearables like the Apple watch actually serve a very different function — indeed, almost the opposite function — from that served by previous mobile devices. A smartphone is useful mainly because it lets you keep track of things; wearables will be useful mainly because they let things keep track of you.

    • Apple preparing for ‘major, major’ datacenter expansion in Oregon – report

      Apple is set to follow through on expansion plans for its $250 million datacenter in Prineville, Oregon, a Wednesday report suggests, after the Oregon legislature resolved a tax issue that could have tacked millions of dollars onto Apple’s bills in the future.

    • Encryption Becomes a Part of Journalists’ Toolkit

      When whistleblower Edward Snowden used an email encryption program called PGP to contact documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras, only a tiny fraction of journalists used it. The precaution, designed to scramble messages so only the sender and receiver can read them, was essential for Snowden to leak the information.

    • U.S. government monitored phone calls to Canadians in sweeping 1990s surveillance program

      The U.S. government started keeping secret records of Americans’ international telephone calls nearly a decade before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, harvesting billions of calls in a program that provided a blueprint for the far broader National Security Agency surveillance that followed, USA Today newspaper reported today.

    • Baltimore’s transgender community mourns one of their own, slain by police
    • Our say: Hush-hush installation needs better signs

      There’s a lot we may never know about the odd incident last week in which two men were shot, one fatally, while allegedly trying to ram the gate at the employees-only entrance to the National Security Agency at Fort George G. Meade. But there does seem to be one contributing factor you’d think authorities could fix quickly – a poorly marked entrance ramp from Baltimore-Washington Parkway.

    • Lobbyists for Spies Appointed To Oversee Spying

      Who’s keeping watch of the National Security Agency? In Congress, the answer in more and more cases is that the job is going to former lobbyists for NSA contractors and other intelligence community insiders.

      A wave of recent appointments has placed intelligence industry insiders into key Congressional roles overseeing intelligence gathering. The influx of insiders is particularly alarming because lawmakers in Washington are set to take up a series of sensitive surveillance and intelligence issues this year, from reform of the Patriot Act to far-reaching “information sharing” legislation.

      After the first revelations of domestic surveillance by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, President Obama defended the spying programs by claiming they were “subject to congressional oversight and congressional reauthorization and congressional debate.” But as Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Fla., and other members of Congress have pointed out, there is essentially a “two-tiered” system for oversight, with lawmakers and staff on specialized committees, such as the House and Senate committees on Intelligence and Homeland Security, controlling the flow of information and routinely excluding other Congress members, even those who have asked for specific information relating to pending legislation.

    • Data privacy: the tide is turning in Europe – but is it too little, too late?

      Amazon Dash – the company’s single purpose internet-connected ordering button – may soon be blackening our skies with drones delivering loo rolls and detergent. And so, the relentless march of technology – not to mention cheap labour, unthinking consumerism and scandalous environmental devastation – goes on.

    • ‘Citizenfour’ keeps government spying right where it should be: In the public spotlight

      Though “Citizenfour” (2014) is not a horror film – rather, it’s a documentary – it ranks among the most frightening films I have ever seen because of its unyielding revelations of the U.S. government’s spying programs and the implications of those reports.

    • Class action privacy lawsuit filed against Facebook in Austria

      Case lead by privacy campaigner Max Schrems sees 25,000 users sue social network for alleged illegal tracking of their data and its involvement in the NSA’s surveillance programme

    • Facebook Sued By 25,000 Users Over Privacy

      Facebook is being sued in Austria over alleged privacy violations and claimed participation in the US National Security Agency’s (NSA) PRISM programme.

      An Austrian law graduate called Max Schrems is leading the class action lawsuit on behalf of around 25,000 Facebook users based in Europe and beyond.

    • Facebook preps for class action lawsuit as angry EU mob lawyer up

      A class action against Facebook over alleged breaches of European privacy laws is being heard in a Vienna district court today.

      Austrian law graduate Max Schrems and 25,000 other Facebook users are suing the social network. They allege that Facebook violated European citizens’ “fundamental rights” (defined in the European Convention on Human Rights) by transferring their personal data to the US National Security Agency (NSA).

    • Fees After Victory in Cybersecurity FOIA Case

      A nonprofit group is entitled to attorney fees from the government for its efforts to obtain a presidential order on cybersecurity, a federal judge ruled.

    • Congress Returns Next Week With A Tech-Heavy Agenda

      These are all issues Congress has tried and failed to address before. Patent reform died in the Senate last spring, controversial cybersecurity legislation never saw a floor vote last year and a NSA reform bill could not pass a Senate procedural vote last December.

    • US govt bans Intel from selling chips to China’s supercomputer boffins

      The US government has blocked Intel from shipping high-end Xeon processors to China’s supercomputer builders – and other American chip giants are banned, too.

      Intel confirmed to The Register last night it was refused permission to sell the chips to the Middle Kingdom’s defense labs and other parts of its supercomputing industry.

    • Want to See Domestic Spying’s Future? Follow the Drug War

      The DEA’s newly revealed bulk collection of billions of American phone records on calls to 116 countries preceded the NSA’s similar program by years and may have even helped to inspire it, as reported in USA Today’s story Wednesday. And the program serves as a reminder that most of the legal battles between government surveillance efforts and the Fourth Amendment’s privacy protections over the last decades have played out first on the front lines of America’s War on Drugs. Every surveillance test case in recent history, from beepers to cell phones to GPS tracking to drones—and now the feds’ attempts to puncture the bubble of cryptographic anonymity around Dark Web sites like the Silk Road—began with a narcotics investigation.

    • Report reveals US has carried out domestic electronic espionage on Mexico

      For more than two decades, the U.S. government has carried out domestic electronic espionage that has impacted hundreds of countries including Mexico, the USA Today reported Wednesday.

    • Why it’s so hard to create norms in cyberspace

      There are two plausible reasons. First, as Admiral Michael Rogers, the head of the NSA and Cyber Command has argued, norms create a basic structure for international political relations. If, for example, the U.S. is to deter cyberattack from other countries, and vice versa, all the countries involved need to reach a common agreement on basic questions such as what cyberattacks are, when they are acceptable and when not acceptable, and so on. Creating this kind of common understanding takes a lot of hard work building common norms of acceptable and unacceptable behavior, as Emanuel Adler’s research on arms control during the Cold War demonstrates.

    • To Promote an Open Internet, NSA Should Limit Data Collection

      The benefits of data collection “must be more clearly weighed against the potential damage to the normative commitments to an open and secure Internet,” writes Farrell, who urges intelligence-gathering agencies to “adopt a fundamental change of mind-set.”

  • Civil Rights

    • Australian government spends $4 million on ‘stop-the-boats’ telemovie

      The federal government has commissioned a $4.1m telemovie designed to dissuade asylum seekers from coming to Australia by boat.

      The telemovie, set to be broadcast in refugee hotspots including Syria, Afghanistan and Iran, would include storylines about asylum seekers drowning at sea and feature the Australian navy, the ABC has reported.

    • Arrest Warrant Issued for Justin Bieber in Argentina

      An Argentine judge issued an arrest warrant for Justin Bieber on Friday (April 10), saying the singer failed to respond to summons related to allegations he ordered bodyguards to attack a photographer in 2013

      Judge Alberto Julio Banos ordered the “immediate detention” of Bieber and bodyguards Hugo Alcides Hesny and Terrence Reche Smalls.

    • Danish report: No need for whistleblower law

      Denmark does not need a special whistleblower law for public authorities, an expert committee has concluded.

    • This start-up promised 10,000 people eternal digital life—then it died

      Intellitar was selling its “immortality” service for $25 a month to people who wanted to create a digital doppelgänger that would live on even after their death. Customers uploaded a photo of themselves to Intellitar’s “Virtual Eternity” website, took a personality test, provided a voice sample and then trained their avatars’ “brains”—an artificial-intelligence engine—by feeding it stories, memories and photos. The result, the company said, was an animated avatar that your family, friends, and great-great-grandchildren could talk to, even after you went to the big database in the sky.

    • Spying on Muslims fosters distrust amongst community

      This past January, the U.S. Court of Appeals heard the oral argument for the Hassan v. City of New York case. What makes this case so special is that it has been the first case to ever challenge the New York City Police Department Muslim Surveillance Program. The United States National Security Agency controversy left America reeling — in June 2013, allegations arose that the NSA had been spying on millions of Americans every day through tapping of telecommunications networks (computer networks, telephones, the Internet, etc.) with the help of major companies like Google, Facebook, Apple, Yahoo and Microsoft. Though this came to light through journalist Glenn Greenwald’s exposé revealing a partnership between Verizon and the NSA, it has been going on for years. It is a common suspicion that the revelation barely scratches the surface of all the surveillance that is likely going on, but Muslims have been sounding off on their loss of constitutional rights — and thereby the loss of every American’s constitutional rights — for years.

    • Philly PD Declares All Drivers To Be ‘Under Investigation’ While Denying Request For License Plate Reader Data

      More bad news has just arrived on the “We’re all not that terrible” PR front: according to Philly’s police department, each and every car owner whose vehicle’s license plate has had the misfortune of being scanned by the PD’s license plate readers is some sort of criminal. Charges TBD.

    • Wanted: Ten million Chinese students to “civilize” the Internet

      China wants to recruit 10 million young people, mostly university students belonging to the Communist Party’s youth wing, to “spread positive energy” on the Internet — in other words, to use social media to praise and defend the government.

    • Man who filmed cop killing fleeing suspect says an officer “told me to stop”

      The 23-year-old South Carolina man who used his phone to videotape a police officer fatally shooting a suspect in the back multiple times said Thursday that another officer who arrived on the scene ordered him to stop recording.

    • 8th Grader Faces Felony Charges For Changing Teacher’s Computer Background

      Eight-grader Domanik Green was arrested on felony charges in Holiday, Fla. Wednesday after breaking into his teacher’s computer to change the background picture to two men kissing.

    • 2009 DHS Document Says Border Patrol Can Search/Copy The Contents Of Your Device Just Because It Wants To

      FOIA clearinghouse MuckRock has scored another revealing document, this time from Customs and Border Protection. As we’re well aware, the US border isn’t technically considered to be part of the United States, at least not as far as the Constitution is concerned. All bets are off, 4th (and others) Amendment-wise. If you’re traveling with anything — whether its a vehicle, suitcase or laptop — expect it to be searched.

    • Southern California Deputies Caught on Video Beating Surrendering Man for More Than Two Minutes

      Knowing they were being video recorded by a news helicopter hovering above, Southern California deputies did not let that stop them from repeatedly punching and kicking a man who had already surrendered by lying flat on his stomach after he was tased earlier this afternoon.

      Up to nine San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies can be seen running up to the suspect to kick and punch him, angry at having been forced to chase him through the desert.

  • Internet/Net Neutrality

    • Protect Net Neutrality in India

      Internet is a global network, with total freedom. Well, that is soon going to change, unless you act now. While you are reading this, someone is trying to control what you see, read, download, listen or write on the internet by taking control over the sites you can access! Don’t wait for that moment to happen. Act now, and protect Net Neutrality by signing in for the petition.

  • Intellectual Monopolies

    • Copyrights

      • Judge: IP-Address Doesn’t Identify a Movie Pirate

        The filmmakers behind the action movie “Manny” have filed hundreds of lawsuits against BitTorrent pirates this year, but not all have been successful. In a prominent ruling Florida District Court Judge Ursula Ungaro refused to issue a subpoena, arguing that IP-address evidence is not enough to show who has downloaded a pirated movie.

      • 70% Of Fans Still Can’t Watch LA Dodgers Games On TV Thanks To Time Warner Cable

        Last year Time Warner Cable and the Los Angeles Dodgers struck a twenty-five year, $8.35 billion deal giving Time Warner Cable the exclusive broadcast rights to all Dodgers games in Los Angeles via its creatively-named regional sports network, Time Warner Cable SportsNet LA. Time Warner Cable then immediately turned around and demanded massive price hikes (rumored to be around $5 per subscriber) for any other pay TV provider that wanted to offer the channel. All of the regional cable operators (including AT&T, Cox, Dish and DirecTV) balked at the hike, resulting about 70% of fans in Dodgers territory being unable to watch the final six games of last season.

      • EFF Seeks DMCA Exemption to Preserve Abandoned Games

        The EFF and the Entertainment Software Alliance are going head-to-head over the need to preserve functionality in abandoned games. The EFF wants an exemption to the DMCA to keep games alive after its servers are closed down, but the ESA and its allies the MPAA and RIAA are vigorously opposing the digital rights group.

Links 10/4/2015: Linux 4.0 Imminent, ZFS On Linux Improved

Posted in News Roundup at 12:13 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME bluefish

Contents

GNU/Linux

Free Software/Open Source

  • Opportunities and challenges of Open Source in Enterprise

    Today, open source is pervasive in enterprise IT, forming the foundation of many cloud services and applications.

    The open source community represents a vast pool of collaborative intellectual property, and it has become a fundamental part of businesses around the world and in Australia and New Zealand.

    “Open source is a great fit for any organisation that is looking to innovate more rapidly and effectively, and to save costs and increase the bottom line,” says Colin McCabe, senior manager, Services and Training, Red Hat.

  • Coders: 5G networks and open source code

    This week on Coders, RCR CEO and Editorial Director Jeff Mucci digs into evolving 5G cellular standards, software and proof of concept deployments with co-host Victor Agreda.

  • Couchbase CEO: the real rationale for enterprise open source

    Open source allows for a more natural adoption approach within the enterprise. It is free and generally easy to download, install, and get started with. This allows easy exploration of and experimentation with new technologies and allows enterprises to get comfortable with the software on smaller, non-mission-critical projects before any financial commitment is required.

  • Sirius: an Open Source Competitor to Siri, Cortana, Google Now

    Sirius is an open source, customizable system that can be commanded through vocal input. It has been built by University of Michigan researchers and is similar to Apple Siri, Microsoft Cortana, and Google Now. According to University of Michigan, Sirius “is designed to spark a new generation of intelligent personal assistants” for wearables and other devices.”

  • How the Syria Airlift Project is Using Open Source Dronecode for Humanitarian Aid

    In March of 2014 I found myself on the Turkish-Syrian border, doing research among Syrian refugees. The stories I heard were horrific. Mass sieges were in effect; the Syrian government and brutal militias were starving out entire neighborhoods, and the government appeared to be deliberately targeting hospitals and doctors. Smuggling medical supplies into opposition-held areas was punishable by torture and death. Syrians were besides themselves, trying to find some way to get food and medicine into these besieged areas. They asked me why the US did nothing.

  • Web Browsers

    • Chrome

      • Chrome Web Store Gives Bad Extensions the Boot

        Google has given its Chrome Store a spring cleaning, ridding it of more than 200 browser add-ons and extensions that may have been delivering spyware and malware to users. “Obviously, they need to put more work into screening of uploads to the Chrome Store if it should be considered a trusted source,” noted Martin Zetterlund, founder of ScrapeSentry.

      • Google Chrome Will Soon Work Better For Linux HiDPI Systems

        A few months back I wrote about the poor state of Chrome/Chromium HiDPI support on Linux but fortunately with the latest unstable web browser code these issues appear to have been resolved.

    • Mozilla

  • SaaS/Big Data

    • A community distribution of OpenStack

      In this interview with Red Hat’s Alvaro Lopez Ortega, we learn a little bit about RDO, a community distribution of OpenStack which is designed to make it easy to install on operating systems like Fedora and CentOS. Alvaro is presenting at OpenStack Live next week, where he’ll share both some technical details on RDO as well as a little bit about the community that makes it happen.

    • Connectors to Hadoop Promise to Simplify Big Data Tasks

      Over time, it only had to become easier to leverage the open source Hadoop project, which has been the driving technology behind much of the Big Data trend. At one point, the Big Data trend–sorting and sifting large data sets with new tools in pursuit of surfacing meaningful angles on stored information–remained an enterprise-only story, but now businesses of all sizes are evaluating tools that can help them glean meaningful insights from the data they store.

    • First OpenStack Kilo RCs Debut

      The first Release Candidate (RCs) for the upcoming OpenStack Kilo release are now out. I’ve seen the RC for Nova (https://github.com/openstack/nova/tree/proposed/kilo), and the RC for Trove at: https://github.com/openstack/trove/tree/proposed/kilo with more set to follow.

    • PLUMgrid Launches Cloud Networking for OpenStack Kilo

      The OpenStack Kilo milestone release is several weeks away, but networking vendor PLUMgrid is already prepared for it. This week, PLUMgrid announced the release of its ONS (OpenStack Networking Suite) 3.0, compatible with OpenStack Kilo. The new ONS 3.0 platform also provides new tools for enabling networking in OpenStack clouds.

    • Piston Pivots Beyond OpenStack with CloudOS

      One size rarely fits all. That’s a lesson OpenStack vendor Piston Cloud Computing is showing it understands quite well with its CloudOS 4.0 release. Prior to CloudOS 4.0, Piston’s primary cloud server platform was called Piston OpenStack, with the most recent update being the 3.5 release, which debuted in September 2014.

    • 55.555 downloads of ownCloud in a box

      Recently I passed a magic number with my ownCloud in a box appliance. It hit the five fives, 55.555 total downloads, on SUSE Studio. It is the most popular download there. I would never have imagined that so many people would be interested in it and use it when I started with this. Amazing.

  • Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

    • ODF in the age of Big Data

      One may notice that the points listed above loosely match the main points usually mentioned when discussing the benefits of ODF in the more standard settings of the desktop. This is not surprising, but it was not necessarily intended; if anything this is a testimony to the value of a standard like ODF and its importance. The key point here is that when it comes to the cloud and big data, ODF is both a factor of transparency and innovation. This is something worth promoting and is a potential path to renewed success of ODF in the future.

    • One year old: Document Liberation Project

      The Document Liberation Project only was founded last year officially and now can see at least it’s first birthday. Not yet picked up much steam from new contributors so far, but then already serving e.g. users of Calligra, with libraries like LibRevenge, LibOdfGen, LibWpd, LibWpg, LibWps, LibVisio, LibEtonyek etc., to read in data from files in WordPerfect, MS Works, MS Visio, and Keynote formats.

  • CMS

  • BSD

  • Openness/Sharing

  • Programming

    • JavaScript All the Way Down

      JavaScript originally was developed at Netscape in 1995, first under the name Mocha, and then as LiveScript. Soon (after Netscape and Sun got together; nowadays, it’s the Mozilla Foundation that manages the language) it was renamed JavaScript to ride the popularity wave, despite having nothing to do with Java. In 1997, it became an industry standard under a fourth name, ECMAScript. The most common current version of JavaScript is 5.1, dated June 2011, and version 6 is on its way. (However, if you want to use the more modern features, but your browser won’t support them, take a look at the Traceur compiler, which will back-compile version 6 code to version 5 level.)

Leftovers

  • The Trouble With SEO

    Here’s an example. Let’s say I’m writing an 800 word article about Microsoft — which I’ve been known to do on occasion. Well, to make sure that search engines understand that the article is about Microsoft, I have to name the company, and frequently, within the article. According to SEO experts, I would need to use the word “Microsoft” at least eight times within the article to obtain a keyword density of one percent — just to make sure the search engines understand that this article is indeed about our buddies in Redmond. I’d also need to make sure that the title also contains the word “Microsoft,” as search engines give extra weight to keywords included in the title.

  • No, Rand Paul didn’t ‘storm out’ of an interview

    You’ll notice that both Paul and Lewis agreed to one more question, and Paul left when Lewis asked a second “last question.” But that Paul walked off quickly and that the lights were turned off made it look that he left in the middle of it. Optics!

  • Defence/Police/Secrecy/Aggression

    • Treating Jack Straw Differently

      A UKIP candidate has been obliged to report to the police for breaking the law on “treating” for providing sausage rolls at an event. Yet Jack Straw at elections in 2005 and 2010 held rallies for the Muslim community in Blackburn at which the Labour Party provided hundreds of voters with full sit down meals, free of charge, and Police refused to take any action – indeed they were protecting the event. This is yet another example of the political elite being above the law.

    • In FBI Terrorism Sting Against Mentally Ill Kansas Man, Informants Built Bomb & Provided List of Materials

      In a terrorism sting operation, the FBI arrested a twenty year-old man from Topeka, Kansas, who United States government officials claim attempted to “detonate a vehicle bomb at Fort Riley military base near Manhattan, Kansas.” He also apparently suffers from mental illness.

      John T. Booker Jr., who also goes by the name Mohammed Abdullah Hassan, was charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction, attempting to damage property by means of an explosive and attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State.

      “Thanks to the efforts of the law enforcement community, we were able to safely disrupt this threat to the brave men and women who serve our country,” Assistant Attorney General for National Security John P. Carlin declared. “Protecting American lives by identifying and bringing to justice those who wish to harm U.S. citizens remains the National Security Division’s number one priority.”

      But, according to an affidavit [PDF] by an FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force in Topeka, Booker had no direct interaction or communication with any terrorists or terrorist organizations prior to the FBI targeting him. He had obtained no explosives to carry out any sort of attack. He lacked the resources or capabilities act and told one of the informants in the case that he wanted to join the Islamic State but “didn’t know anyone who could help him do so.”

      An informant (CHS 1) introduced Booker to a second informant (CHS 2), who claimed to be a “high ranking sheik planning terrorist acts in the United States.” CHS 1 provided the list of materials that Booker needed to have in order to build a vehicle bomb. The two informants built the vehicle bomb, not Booker.

    • Army Recruit Charged With Helping ISIS Watched by FBI, Given Clearance by Army

      A Kansas man arrested and charged Friday morning for attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State was under surveillance by the FBI last year when he checked himself into a mental institution and was not regarded as an immediate threat, according to a document obtained by The Intercept.

      In fact, the U.S. Army had approved the new recruit for a Secret clearance.

      John T. Booker Jr., who also goes by the name Mohammed Abdullah Hassan, was arrested Friday and charged with attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State, plotting to use a weapon of mass destruction, and planning to destroy property with an explosive.

    • Exclusive: U.S. expands intelligence sharing with Saudis in Yemen operation

      The United States is expanding its intelligence-sharing with Saudi Arabia to provide more information about potential targets in the kingdom’s air campaign against Houthi militias in Yemen, U.S. officials told Reuters.

    • Secrecy Shrouds Unknown Role Of Top UK Government Official

      The British government is refusing to disclose the job title and taxpayer-funded salary of one of the most senior law enforcement officials in the United Kingdom, claiming the details have to be kept a secret for security reasons.

      Cressida Dick (pictured above) was formerly one of the highest ranking officers at London’s Metropolitan Police, the largest police force in the U.K., where she headed the Specialist Operations unit and oversaw a controversial criminal investigation into journalists who reported on Edward Snowden’s leaked documents.

    • Trapped in Yemen, Americans File Lawsuit Against US Government

      Despite the ongoing danger to their lives, Awnallah says that his family has received no assistance from the U.S. government. “[My family] has tried to get in touch, but no one is helping them,” he said. “They are asking me all the time if they are going to die here.”

      On April 9, Awnallah’s family and dozens of other Yemeni-Americans filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government on behalf of American citizens trapped in the country. Citing Executive Order 12656, which obligates “protection or evacuation of U.S. Citizens and nationals abroad” in times of danger, the lawsuit further alleges that the U.S. government’s refusal so far to conduct evacuation operations in Yemen represents the continuation of longstanding policies that effectively deny full citizenship rights to Yemeni-Americans.

    • If Chuck Schumer kills the Iran nuclear deal, he should not be Senate minority leader

      The framework for the Iranian nuclear deal is about as good as anyone could reasonably expect. If it were solely up to the negotiators, it would likely be finalized in June. But they are not the only players, and it’s become clear that the biggest danger to the deal are hawks in Iran and the U.S.

  • Finance

    • Greens throw support behind Tax Dodging Bill

      In the wake of the HSBC, Swiss Leaks and LuxLeaks tax avoidance scandals the Green Party has pledged to introduce a Tax Dodging Bill in the first 100 days after the election. The campaign for such a Bill is being widely supported by a network of NGOs, cooperatives, faith groups, MPs and Unions [1].

    • Big tech companies lack one thing – shame

      Like, do these adults — at least physically, the three are in that stage of life — have no shame? Tony King of Apple, Maile Carnegie of Google, and Bill Sample of Microsoft were not in any way fazed by the fact that the companies they head locally cheat on their taxes.

  • PR/AstroTurf/Media

    • CNN Wants to Believe: White House ‘Russian Hackers’ Go From Suspects to Perps

      Unnamed “investigators”–who may come from the “FBI, Secret Service [or] US intelligence agencies,” we learn earlier in the piece–“believe” there are “tell-tale codes and other markers” that “point to” Russian government employees–how much fuzzier does evidence get? Yet immediately CNN is talking about the “Russian hack” as though it’s proven fact,,,

    • WSJ Ignores Conservative Spending Behind WI’s New Judicial Amendment, Remembers To Blame Soros

      In its analysis of an unprecedented change to how the chief justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court is selected, The Wall Street Journal ignored the significant financial contributions a right-wing group made in support of the move, which would strengthen conservative control of the court before it examines possible illegal campaign coordination between that same group and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R). Instead, the editorial board focused on the fact that the current chief justice has a lawyer who is on the board of directors of a judicial election reform group founded by George Soros.

    • Hillary Clinton Team Holds Off-The-Record Journalist Dinner Ahead Of 2016 Announcement

      Hillary Clinton’s campaign team held an off-the-record dinner Thursday night in Washington, D.C., for roughly two dozen journalists and staff members at John Podesta’s house, according to sources familiar with the matter.

      The dinner signals that the Clinton team is trying to engage with top reporters in the days before the Democrat’s expected announcement of a 2016 presidential run. It also suggests the new campaign team is looking to change course from the toxic relationship with the press that plagued the 2008 race. The Clinton team is also holding a private event in New York on Friday night for journalists, according to sources.

    • Attorney Responds To Times Of Israel Genocide Post: ‘I Didn’t Write That S**t’

      Lawyer and writer Josh Bornstein demanded an explanation from The Times of Israel on Thursday after the site published an op-ed under his name that advocated genocide of Palestinians.

      The post, which sparked outrage across social media and was quickly taken down by the site, called Palestinians “cockroaches” and said that Israel should “exterminate them.”

      The Times of Israel tweeted that it was “looking into” the post and noted that it did not endorse its content. The article ran under Bornstein’s byline, although several people noted that it looked nothing like anything else he had ever published.

      At about 6 p.m.. EDT, Bornstein took to Twitter from his home in Australia to clarify that not only had he not written the “racist” pro-genocide post, but that he had never started an account at the Times in the first place.

      “I didn’t write that shit,” he said. He noted he was a “secular atheist,” contrary to the religious tone of the piece. He later added that he suspected the site was hacked.

      Bornstein said he wanted an explanation from the Times of Israel.

  • Censorship

    • China’s Great Cannon

      On March 16, GreatFire.org observed that servers they had rented to make blocked websites accessible in China were being targeted by a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack. On March 26, two GitHub pages run by GreatFire.org also came under the same type of attack. Both attacks appear targeted at services designed to circumvent Chinese censorship. A report released by GreatFire.org fingered malicious Javascript returned by Baidu servers as the source of the attack. Baidu denied that their servers were compromised.

  • Privacy

    • Git Success Stories and Tips from Tor Chief Architect Nick Mathewson

      Tor, the free and open source software for anonymous web communications, has been using the Git revision control system for more than six years. The tool is so ingrained in the project’s development that Director and Chief Architect Nick Mathewson’s daily work flow is built around Git, he says.

      “Git’s the eighth version control system I’ve had to use, and the first one I’ve seriously trusted,” Mathewson said. “Many thanks to the Git developers for all their hard work.”

    • Privacy International calls on Europe’s top human rights court to rule on British mass surveillance

      Privacy International and several other human rights organisations are taking the UK Government to the European Court of Human Rights over its mass surveillance practices, after a judgement last year found that collecting all internet traffic flowing in and out of the UK and bulk intelligence sharing with the United States was legal.

      The appeal, filed last week by Privacy International, Bytes for All, Amnesty International, Liberty, and other partners, comes in response to a ruling in December by the UK’s surveillance court, the Investigatory Powers Tribunal, dealing with the industrial-scale spying programmes TEMPORA and PRISM revealed by National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden.

    • Our SecureDrop System for Leaks Now Uses HTTPS

      We’re happy to announce that sources can now access our SecureDrop document-submission website using HTTPS. Although SecureDrop connections were already encrypted previously, our new setup provides leakers with additional assurance that they are connecting with the authentic Intercept SecureDrop and not an impostor.

    • A Guide to the 5+ Known Intelligence Community Telecommunications Metadata Dragnets

      I’ve been laying this explanation out since USA Today provided new details on DEA’s International Dragnet, but it’s clear it needs to be done in more systematic fashion, because really smart people continue to mistakenly treat the Section 215 database as the analogue to the DEA dragnet described by USAT, which it’s not. There are at least five known telecommunications dragnets (some of which appear to integrate other kinds of metadata, especially Internet metadata).

  • Civil Rights

    • Montreal professors stare down riot cops

      It’s been a tough week for the student movement in Quebec. A fractious congress that resulted in the resignation and firing of the entire executive of the Association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiante, the largest student federation in the province, led into a week where schools already on strike have struggled to win votes to maintain that strike, and few if any new schools have joined them. Facing a growing consensus that the strike should be postponed until the fall in order to join public sector unions in a common front, striking students are vulnerable.

    • Greenpeace bank accounts frozen by Indian government

      The Indian government has frozen bank accounts of Greenpeace after accusing the international environment campaign group of encouraging “anti-development” protests in the emerging economic power.

      The Union Home Ministry on Thursday suspended the official registration for foreign funding of Greenpeace India for six months and froze seven bank accounts connected with the organisation, The Hindu, a local newspaper, reported.

      Samit Aich, the executive director of Greenpeace, said the move was “an attack on democracy”.

    • Middle school student charged with cybercrime in Holiday

      The Pasco County Sheriff’s Office has charged Domanik Green, an eighth-grader at Paul R. Smith Middle School, with an offense against a computer system and unauthorized access, a felony. Sheriff Chris Nocco said Thursday that Green logged onto the school’s network on March 31 using an administrative-level password without permission. He then changed the background image on a teacher’s computer to one showing two men kissing.

    • New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez Signs Civil Forfeiture Abolition Bill

      A quick and happy update from New Mexico: Gov. Susana Martinez (R) has signed HB 560, which I detailed here, into law. New Mexico has thus effectively abolished civil asset forfeiture by requiring a criminal conviction before the government can seize property.

04.10.15

New Article Chronicles Suicides and Nervous Breakdowns at the EPO Due to the Management’s Abuses

Posted in Europe, Patents at 4:20 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Le Monde

Summary: Article from Le Monde translated into English

THE French article which was mentioned the other day is attempting to be balanced by speaking to the Frenchman Battistelli and French proponents of software patents, UPC etc. (Michel Barnier for example). While we can find some factual errors and glaring omissions in the article or the way certain things are framed, it does introduce some interesting observations, some of which are new.

Someone has provided us with an English translation of the article and we can now present it in full (translation making it fair use):

A ‘so good’ office

The European Patent Office (EPO) looks like a happy world, which like any happiness, is appreciated but until now was hidden. Who knows this international organisation? For nearly forty years it has recorded the patents filed by businesses in Europe and it employs 7,000 people, mostly based in the headquarters in Munich, Germany, and at Ryswick, a suburb of The Hague in
the Netherlands. Many employees of all nationalities, quietly being pampered, are receiving higher wages and more benefits than even the unionists of this modern Babel and feel favorable.

Yet behind its peaceful facade, another reality is now described from the inside. Poisoned atmosphere, staff at the edge of a nervous breakdown, monitored, marked, pressurised, subjected to productivity goals which are always higher. Recalcitrants are summoned by the security officers to take their goods in the hour and are accompanied under escort to the exit. And some come to extreme gestures. A 55-year-old man was tied up by some colleagues because he was banging his head against a wall. Another one was scarifying himself.

More dramatic late March, a German committed suicide in a public garden in the Bavarian capital. He was on sick leave for depression and had spoken with friends about his apprehension as to achieve productivity goals. July 8, 2013, a Belgian officer threw himself out of the window of his office in The Hague. Two other employees, one French and one German, committed suicide at their Munich home. Before ending his days in May 2012, the French had requested a transfer, because he felt harassed by his superior. The German, who had criticised the attitude of the management in managing the distress of this colleague was immediately suspended and expelled from the premises. He committed suicide Sept. 3, 2014, the day he received a convocation from the Disciplinary Committee.

In this context of extreme tension, slings and arrows started. The daily life of the Office is punctuated by strikes (22 days in 2014) and demonstrations. “Social relationships are very bad,” said one employee who, like all the others, requested anonymity. The main union of the house, SUEPO (an acronym which stands for Staff Union of the European Patent Office), to which almost half of employees are members, accuses Benoît Battistelli, the president appointed in 2010 and renewed in 2014. The French would abuse a principle inscribed since the beginning in the statutes of Office: legal immunity.

“Authoritarian drift”

The EPO was born in 1977 from an agreement signed by the States of the European Community, has been extended to the Union of Twenty-Eight and afterwards to other countries, from Switzerland to the Balkans, to count today [as many as] 38 members. Like most international organisations, the EPO has a status of extraterritoriality. It has its own rules on taxation, social security,
pension or labor law. It does not depend on national justice. The only legal recourse is the Arbitral Tribunal of the International Labour Organisation (ILO). “This immunity is a fundamental condition of functioning and independence, explains Benoît Battistelli. We are present in five countries and are counting many nationalities among our employees. What law should apply to them?”

Until then, the organisation knew how to cuddle highly qualified staff, mostly made up of PhDs and engineers from leading schools. Brain boxes [were] able to examine in German, English, French, the three official languages, and patent applications filed by the laboratories of Siemens, Philips, Samsung and others. Aces were able to detect flaws or “borrowings” from competitors in technical documents that can reach 200 pages. Starting Salary: 5000 euros per month, taxable at 6%, plus expatriation bonuses. The salaries can reach 15,000 euros in late career for 40 hours per week and three months of vacation. The Office pays the medical expenses and education of children, including enrolment fees in the best American universities.

The EPO has a considerable operating budget, 2 billion euros, up 20% in five years, making it the largest European organisation, just after the Brussels Commission. Companies around the world come to register their inventions: 274,000 applications in 2014, again rising steadily. The Office finances itself with the examination fee and the annual fees paid by the patents’ applicants.

Listening to SUEPO, this economic and legal independence has yet been perverted by the arrival of Benoît Battistelli, a technocrat of 64 years formed at the french “École nationale d’administration”. The new boss would succumb to an “authoritarian drift” and to “dictatorial tactics”. It would be surrounded by an inner circle at his sole devotion, formed almost entirely of French individuals coming like him from the National Intellectual Property Institute (INPI). Benoît Battistelli would have transformed the tenth floor of the Munich headquarters, by means of a stylish and expensive renovation, in a fortress from which he rules the institution.

To denounce the colleagues

Still, according to its detractors, the management uses and abuses an “investigation unit” which, for each site, is responsible for investigating breaches. In the German headquarters, this internal police has been called… the Stasi. A document gives obligation to the employees to collaborate with this investigation unit and to denounce the faults of others, under penalty of sanctions. “There were more disciplinary procedures in the past two years than in the previous thirty years,” complained a staff representative.

The counterweights for the presidency, provided by the statutes, were gradually eliminated, continues SUEPO. The union was expelled from the EPO premises in November 2014. “We had eight days to pack up”. The right to strike was limited: it is subject to a complex procedure and the president may oppose to it by requisition. Several staff representatives, unprotected, are under penalty of sanctions for having supported colleagues.

“We are aware that our salaries are more than decent. But from which income level the human rights do not apply anymore?” asks a Munich employee.

Recently, a judge of the Board of appeal – which handles appeals of rejected patent – was suspended and forcibly thrown out. He is suspected of having slandered anonymously a member of management, the Croat Zeljko Topic, referring to corruption cases that would affect him in his country. But the judge is in principle independent. His colleagues protested collectively to the President against what they consider an abuse of power.

“Fantasies”

“A wall of silence reigns now in this organization,” agrees Philip Cordery, socialist member of parliament of French abroad. “People who are working at the EPO inform me regularly of their malaise. There is a clear abuse of the extraterritorial status which does not mean impunity”.

Lengthily, methodically, Benoît Battistelli refutes attacks on him. He even agreed to entrust Le Monde his contract and discloses his salary, “around 250,000 euros per year.” He denounced the “fantasies” for caricaturing the Office into a Banana Republic. “The EPO is the victim of a two years campaign to undermine the integrity and honesty of its leaders.” He and
his entourage received anonymous letters, sometimes accompanied by swastikas. He declares himself as a victim of a cabal just because he wanted to clarify the roles of everybody, to introduce formal rules, when the organization used to be a de facto joint management. He denounced “racist attacks” against his Croatian deputy. To use suicides against him would fall under bad procedure: “I am deeply shocked by attempts to exploit these tragedies. This subject is too serious for lending itself to controversy”. He ensures that “the investigation unit acts independently”.

The President has the support of the Administrative Council, comprised of representatives from 38 states. He was reappointed unanimously in 2014. Benoît Battistelli was mandated to make the institution more productive and more competitive against the competition of other offices worldwide. EPO procedures are three times more expensive than its US counterpart, even though, because of the precision of the work, the patents it grants are twenty times less often attacked in the courts. “We have to adapt our way of working, our regulatory framework to allow the agency to ensure its future,” he says. And that future is called “Unitary European patent”, a simplified procedure whose objective is “to make innovation cheaper and easier for companies,” said Michel Barnier, former European Commissioner for Internal Market and Services. “We want to make these savings at the expense of staff of the office,” retorted a trade unionist.

SUEPO multiplied complaints before national courts. “But we meet with the principle of immunity,” says Amélie Lefebvre, which represents the union in France. The Hague Court of Appeal has however driven a wedge in a judgment delivered on 17 February. The judges ruled that the immunity was “disproportionate” and did not guarantee “the protection of fundamental rights”. They even estimated their decision applicable elsewhere in Europe.

The Government of the Netherlands, fearing that this decision makes ]changes to] some other similar organisations on its territory, immediately condemned this decision and refused to run it. The case takes a politic turn. Philip Cordery sent letters to the European Commission or to the Directorate General of the ILO, relaying concerns of the staff. Member of parliament Pierre-Yves Le BORGN’ and Senator Jean-Yves Leconte, other socialist representatives of French abroad, called out successive ministers of economy, to no avail so far. Elsewhere, some parliamentarians of Italy, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Poland and Cyprus have launched similar initiatives.

At the last board of the EPO, on 25 and 26 of March, discordant voices were heard and a Communiqué called for a “resumption of social dialogue”. Not sure that this attempt at conciliation will be enough to appease encysted hatreds. The violence of the mail exchanges between the president and SUEPO proves that between these two there is a death struggle.

Any corrections to this translation should be reported to us to ensure accuracy. █

04.09.15

Links 9/4/2015: SalentOS, Semplice Releases

Posted in News Roundup at 7:00 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME bluefish

Contents

GNU/Linux

  • NCR Launches Android-Based Thin Client ATMs

    A few years ago NCR took a fresh look at ATM operations. Cloud computing was becoming more powerful and NCR decided that banks could achieve significant efficiency by moving to a thin client ATM. It chose Android as its first operating operating system but may consider others in the future.

  • Dell will sell a bigger version of its flagship Android tablet

    You might not think of Dell as a big name in tablets — not on the level of, say, Apple or Samsung. In fact, though, the once-stodgy PC maker sells one of our favorite Android tabs, the Venue 8 7000, which won a Best of CES award and earned a strong score of 84 in our review. Now, the company is back with a 10-inch edition (the Venue 10), and it’s basically a blown-up version of the original, just with some improved ergonomics.

  • Dell & Red Hat revamp open stack private cloud solution
  • Linux Users’ Group will hear about new software

    On Monday, April 20, the Linux Users’ Group of Davis will offer a presentation on KDE Connect, software that lets a phone and computer easily share files, control each other and more.

    For example, users can receive their phone notifications on their computer, use their phone as a remote control for their desktop, and easily share photos and other files between devices without using cables.

  • Snoop Dogg Using Linux While Being Chased by a Stormtrooper Is Real

    The Instagram account of Snoop Dogg is a mishmash of ideas and various aspects of the artist’s life, but it’s also a personal account. This is where he decided to post a screenshot from a game (GTA IV most probably) of him using a Linux-powered laptop.

  • Desktop

  • Server

  • Kernel Space

    • New Linux Kernel Vulnerabilities Patched in Ubuntu 14.04 LTS and Ubuntu 12.04 LTS

      Canonical, through John Johansen, announced today, April 8, that new kernel updates for the Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (Trusty Tahr) and Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin) are available to users via the default software repositories of the respective distributions.

    • Linux Foundation to Host Open Encryption Project

      The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit organization dedicated to accelerating the growth of Linux and collaborative development, today announced it will host the Internet Security Research Group (ISRG) and its Let’s Encrypt project, a free, automated and open security certificate authority for the public’s benefit. Let’s Encrypt allows website owners to obtain security certificates within minutes, enabling a safer web experience for all.

    • Linux Foundation Adopts Website Security and Encryption Platform

      The Linux Foundation will now host the Internet Security Research Group and its Let’s Encrypt platform, which provides secure, open SSL encryption for websites.

    • The Linux Foundation Starts Open Source Encryption Project

      As part of an effort to make encryption a standard component of every application, the Linux Foundation launched its open source Let’s Encrypt project along with its intention to provide access to a free certificate management service.

    • Linux Foundation to host open encryption project

      The Linux Foundation is to host an open encryption project aimed at providing a free and easy way to protect the huge amount of data passed over the internet every day.

      This data includes usernames and passwords, credit card data, cookies, and other types of sensitive or personal information.

    • Linux Foundation’s new mission: Cheap, easy Web encryption

      The Linux Foundation is lending support to the Let’s Encrypt project, to make it both free and simple for any Web server to encrypt connections

    • ‘Let’s Encrypt’ Will Try To Secure The Internet

      The Linux Foundation has lined up financial support for a group producing an easier way to encrypt Web site and mobile device traffic.

    • Linux Foundation Takes Web Security and Encryption Platform Under its Wing
    • Open Source Encryption For Everyone [Ed: but to make encryption work one must use it on top of a Free software stack]

      This version of the software is designed for Windows desktop computers, but further versions for other operating systems and mobile devices are in the pipeline. The research team is also working on various add-ons, including one that supports ad hoc encryption.

    • Graphics Stack

      • X.Org Foundation + SPI Merger Fails

        After almost two years of the X.Org Foundation’s Board of Directors pursuing a merger with SPI, the 2015 X.Org Elections have ended and the results were sent out to X.Org members last night.

      • Catalyst 15.3 Beta Backported To Ubuntu 14.04 LTS

        While AMD has yet to make the Catalyst 15.3 Beta Linux graphics driver available for download from their web-site, they released the driver to Canonical and as such this new AMD Linux driver has been available in Ubuntu 15.04 for a few weeks. Canonical is now back-porting this proprietary driver back into Ubuntu 14.04 LTS Trusty Tahr.

  • Applications

  • Desktop Environments/WMs

    • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

      • Calligra 3.0 Is Being Ported to Qt 5 and KDE Frameworks 5, Here’s What It Looks Like

        A Calligra developer wrote an interesting post on his blog informing users about the progress made on porting the KDE’s number one office suite to the next-generation KDE Frameworks 5 and Qt 5 technologies that are being used in the KDE Plasma 5 desktop environment.

      • First success in Calligra’s 2nd port to Qt5 & KF5

        Last month, in March, with the 2.9.0 release done, we Calligra developers followed our plans and started a branch named “frameworks”, to work on version 3.0, to be the first version based on Qt5 and KDE Frameworks 5. Calligra 3.0 should not see any new features, the focus is purely on getting the port to the new platform done without any regressions.

      • KDE Plasma 5.3 Beta to Be Released Next Week, Adds Powerful New Features

        The great team of developers behind the KDE Project met in February 2015 in the Blue Systems office in Barcelona, Spain, to discuss and plan the upcoming features that will be implemented in the highly anticipated KDE Plasma 5.3 release.

  • Distributions

    • New Releases

    • Screenshots

    • Arch Family

    • Red Hat Family

      • Red Hat Partner Conference 2015: Day 1 Roundup

        Open Source software developer Red Hat (RHT) is hosting its annual North American Partner Conference this week in Orlando, where more than 350 partners are gathered to hear company executives discuss the past fiscal year and to learn more about what is in store for resellers in 2015.

      • Red Hat reveals opens source challenges and opportunities

        Red Hat senior manager, Colin McCabe, has laid out the opportunities and possibilities businesses should consider when deciding on implementing and open source solutions.

        “Open source is a great fit for any organisation that is looking to innovate more rapidly and effectively, and to save costs and increase the bottom line,” he said.

        “At Red Hat, we’ve been working for over two decades to maintain the open source model. It’s in Red Hat’s DNA to unravel complex technology challenges ranging from Cloud applications to content management using open source solutions. Red Hat is part of different open source communities and works on a variety of projects.

      • Red Hat Announces Winners of Red Hat North American Partner Awards

        Red Hat, Inc. (NYSE: RHT), the world’s leading provider of open source solutions, today announced the winners of its annual Red Hat North American Partner Awards. The winners were announced last night at an event held during the Red Hat North American Partner Conference in Orlando, Fla.

      • Fedora

        • Fedora 22 Beta To Be Delayed By One Week

          While Fedora developers did a good job getting out the Fedora 22 Alpha on time, the beta release of Fedora 22 will come at least one week late.

          At today’s Go/No-Go meeting it was decided F22 Beta isn’t ready to ship next week but will have to be delayed by one week at least to take care of unresolved blocker bugs. This beta delay pushes back all future F22 milestones — including the release of F22 final expected to take place in May.

    • Debian Family

      • DPL elections for 2015 are going on

        The Debian Project Leader electsions are going on. This is the yearly election for the leader, where members of the project vote for a new leader for a year. The debate this year seemed to me to be quite quiet, and voting activity seems to not be very high, either. Pity. Many years ago, the election period used to be quite energetic, bringing up some quite good viewpoints.

      • Derivatives

        • Canonical/Ubuntu

          • DigiKam 4.9.0 Released With Bug Fixes, Install In Ubuntu/Linux Mint

            digiKam is an Open-Source project Photos management software, specially for KDE but you can use it on Ubuntu or others distros too. In digiKam photos are organized in albums which can be sorted chronologically, by folder layout or by custom collections. Developers recently released digiKam 4.9.0 with 33 bug fixes. Developers main focus is on digiKam 5.0 release, as it is supposed to be a major release of digiKam.

          • Linux AIO Ubuntu Updated to Ubuntu 14.04.2 LTS, Adds Ubuntu MATE

            We were recently informed by Željko Popivoda, the developer of the Linux AIO project that builds all sorts of Live DVDs with multiple editions of an operating system, that there’s an update for the Linux AIO Ubuntu Live DVD.

          • Canonical and Bq Set Up Automated Power Testing to Improve Battery Life for Ubuntu

            Canonical has a series of automated testing methods for Ubuntu Touch which helps them weed out most of the bugs and problems before publishing updates for the operating system, and now they have set up a new lab that should find apps that are draining the battery.

          • Interview with Elizabeth K. Joseph of the Ubuntu Community Council

            I work as a systems administrator and frequently write and speak about my work in that role. My current position is with HP on the OpenStack Project Infrastructure where we maintain dozens of static systems that developers interface with for their work on OpenStack and a fleet of hundreds of worker servers that run all of the tests that are done against the code before it’s merged. This infrastructure is fully open source, with all of our system configurations, Puppet tooling and projects we used available via git here. Since I have a passion for both systems administration and open source, it’s been quite the dream job for me as I work with colleagues from around the world, across several companies.

          • Ubuntu OSes Patched Against Libtasn1 Exploit

            Details about a Libtasn1 vulnerability that was affecting Ubuntu 14.10, Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, and Ubuntu 10.04 LTS have been published in a security notice by Canonical.

          • Ubuntu Web Browser Shows Just How Well Convergence Is Working – Video

            Canonical has been talking about convergence for a while now, but it’s still difficult to explain it to new users without some visual aid. A new video has been posted showing the Ubuntu web browser, an application developed initially for the phone OS, running in the desktop edition Ubuntu 15.04.

          • Dueling NUC mini-PCs run Ubuntu on Broadwell

            ZaReason and System76 have each launched Intel NUC style mini-PCs running Ubuntu on 5th Gen. Intel Core “Broadwell” processors, starting at about $500.

          • Meizu MX4 Ubuntu hands-on review

            The Ubuntu MX4 is yet to receive an official price or release date, but our opening impressions of it are very positive.

            Featuring a premium design, innovative operating system, and decent internal specifications the MX4 looks like a great smartphone.

            We also have to praise Canonical for the great work it’s done over the past year to improve Ubuntu mobile’s stability and performance, and can’t wait to test the OS more thoroughly.

          • Flavours and Variants

            • SalentOS 14.04.2 Is Based on Ubuntu 14.04.2 LTS and Offers a Modern Openbox Desktop

              Gabriele Martina announced on April 8 the immediate availability for download of the SalentOS 14.04.2 Linux distribution based on the upstream Ubuntu 14.04.2 LTS (Trusty Tahr) operating system from Canonical.

            • Linux Mint 17.2 Codenamed A Religious Name ‘Rafaela’

              After a successful release of Linux Mint 17 ‘Qiana’ and Linux Mint 17.1 ‘Rebecca’ here is a preparation for another successful release Linux Mint 17.2. On April, 8 Clem posted news on blog.linuxmint.com saying the next release Linux Mint 17.2 has been codenamed ‘Rafaela’. Here is what Rafaela means. Tell us Is it religious?

            • Linux Mint 17.2 Will Be Named “Rafaela”

              Recently, the developers have announced that Linux Mint 17.2 (based on Ubuntu Trusty) will be named “Rafaela”, the tradition being to use feminine names. The codenames of major releases use the next letter, from the alphabet, while the point releases’ names start all with the same letter.

  • Devices/Embedded

    • New Atom SoC will target IoT devices, says Intel

      At IDF Shenzhen, Intel announced plans for a rugged IoT version of the Intel Atom x3 SoC, with built in cellular radios, and both Linux and Android support.

      At the Intel Development Forum (IDF) in Shenzhen, China, Intel announced a future Internet of Things version of its new Atom x3 (Sofia) system-on-chips, some of which are built by China-based Rockchip. Intel announced the Atom x3 at Mobile World Congress in early March along with the more powerful, 14nm fabricated “Cherry Trail-T” Atoms, the Atom x5 and x7.

    • Phones

      • Tizen

        • NEW Native WhatsApp clients hits the Tizen Store, Goodbye ACL WhatsApp Messenger

          We were overjoyed to see a high profile messaging app like WhatsApp available on the Tizen Store at launch for the Samsung Z1. Now it seems the WhatsApp Android App, which used Open Mobile’s ACL technology to run on Tizen, has served its purpose and a Native App has launched today with WhatsApp Messenger being replaced.

        • Samsung 2015 Tizen TV range now available at Curry’s in the UK

          Currys electronics, a UK online and In-store retailer has now got the Tizen based Samsung 2015 TV range In stock and available to buy right now!!! It seems it is only the larger branches that currently have some stock of the UE65JS9000 65″ at £3,999 and UE55JS9000 55″ at £3,099.

        • [Application] Application SecretVault Samsung Z1 Tizen Smart Phone

          Have you ever passed your phone to someone for them to use, only to see them going through your private pictures? This is something that seems more common in the Indian sub-continent and it is VERY annoying. To the rescue we have the SecretVault App that allows you to easily hide your pictures, Videos, Audios, and any other files that you do not want others to see.

      • Android

        • Google, Intel vow to speed up delivery of Android updates

          It usually takes months for mobile devices to get Android updates, but Intel and Google want to slash the wait time.

          Tablets and smartphones made as part of a new Intel mobile-device development program will be able to receive new Android versions and features in two weeks via over-the-air upgrades.

        • AT&T’s Samsung Galaxy S5 gets Android 5.0 Lollipop
        • Exclusive: Google is close to making Android Wear work on the iPhone
        • Which smartwatch sucks least? Apple Watch, Android Wear, Pebble, Samsung Gear?

          Reviews of Tim’s Apple Watch are pouring in, mixing like oil and water. Most reviewers agree that Apple’s new shiny timepiece isn’t fully perfected. That being said, the chief contention among reviews relate to degree and magnitude of imperfection. In other words, many reviewers can’t agree on (if or by) how much the Apple Watch sucks.

        • Google Boasts Android Wear Watch Bands Available From Clockwork Synergy, E3 Supply Co., And Worn & Wound

          Apple has spared no opportunity to advertise how customizable its debut smartwatch is, thanks to the promised number of bands wearers will be able to swap in and out. Unsurprisingly Google wants to take some of the wind out of those sails. The company has taken this moment to highlight a set of straps available for various Android Wear devices from the likes of Clockwork Synergy, E3 Supply Co., and Worn & Wound.

        • Watch Wars: Apple Watch vs. Android Wear

          The Apple Watch hits stores in just two weeks, and based on the reviews, it’s both an impressive bit of modern technology and a beautiful piece of jewelry. But the Apple Watch isn’t the only smartwatch on the market.

          Apple’s nemesis, Google, already has its own watch operating system, Android Wear, and companies like Samsung, LG, and Motorola make smartwatches that run it. What’s more, these Google watches are less expensive than the Apple Watch and come in a host of different styles.

        • Android 5.1 Lollipop Update For Nexus 5 Rolls Out To More Users; Nexus 4, 7, 9 Confirmed Next By Google

          The Android 5.1 Lollipop update for the Nexus 5 is finally starting to roll out to additional owners of the smartphone almost a month after being initially announced by Google.

        • Sony Begins Xperia Z2 And Z2 Tablet Android Lollipop Global Rollout

          As previously announced, Sony has started pushing Android Lollipop out to Xperia Z2 and Z2 tablet devices all over the world. These updates are going out in phases and vary according to your region and carrier, so you still may have to exercise patience a bit longer.

        • Google is bringing back month view to its Calendar app for Android

          As it turns out, Google has been listening to your feedback and has decided to reintroduce month view to its Calendar app. Since Google updated the Calendar app alongside the jump to Android 5.0 Lollipop, many users have been begging the company to bring back the month overview so they can see more events at one time.

        • New Nexus 7 Android 5.1 Release Imminent

          A new Nexus 7 Android 5.1 update has been confirmed thanks to Google’s Android Open Source Project and it’s probably not the one that many Nexus 7 users were expecting.

        • Logitech Keys-To-Go now available for Android, Windows
        • Sony Xperia Z Ultra GPe now receiving OTA update for Android 5.1

          While Sony is gearing up to release its fourth Xperia Z phone, some phablet fans are still sitting pretty with the original’s larger-than-life cousin, the Xperia Z Ultra. For those who opted to keep things pure, the GPe variant was the way to go. Fortunately, Google hasn’t forgotten about the largest phone to have been offered with stock Android, as the just a few days after Android 5.1 hit LG’s G Pad 8.3 GPe, it’s now time for the Z Ultra GPe to receive the latest Lollipop build.

        • This brilliant free Android app will change the way you use your phone

          Multitasking is great, but smartphones will never offer a multitasking experience on par with desktop devices because they just don’t have enough screen real estate. That doesn’t mean switching back and forth from app to app is the only way to go on mobile phones, however, and a great Android app called Flynx has come up with a simple and elegant solution that you really have to check out.

        • Firefox for Android passes 100 million downloads four years after launch

          Mozilla announced Firefox for Android hit a big milestone today: 100 million downloads. The figure is confirmed on Google Play, where the app now shows the installs category is in the “100,000,000 – 500,000,000″ range.

        • Amazon Prime Instant Video finally comes to Android tablets

          For the longest time, Amazon enticed users to choose the Fire tablet with exclusive access to Prime Instant Video; despite the fact that Fire devices run a version of Android, purely Android tablets were denied the benefits of their modified brethren. Yesterday, though, that finally changed — Amazon unceremoniously made the Prime Instant Video app available to all Android tablets.

Free Software/Open Source

  • ScrollBack, a refreshing new community management tool

    ScrollBack is a new, open source community management tool that offers the extensive reach of social media, the engagement and archival abilities of forums, and the interactive and real time experience of chat.

  • Google open-sources Santa Claus

    For those of you who are more “bah humbug” than “pass the eggnog”, Santa Tracker offers an online method of tracking Santa’s fictional progress through the logistical chore of stuffing soon-to-be-ignored amusing plastic tat down the chimneys of the world’s best-fed and most-privileged children.

  • Open source won, so what’s next?

    Twenty years ago, open source was a cause. Ten years ago, it was the underdog. Today, it sits upon the Iron Throne ruling all it surveys. Software engineers now use open source frameworks, languages, and tools in almost all projects.

  • Does open source contribute to a more open society?

    Many companies say they love open source, but what does that actually mean? Does it mean they use a lot of software other people have written? Does it mean they like that they don’t have to pay for things? Or do they understand that loving open source also means contributing back to the community the code came from?

  • Web Browsers

  • Databases

  • CMS

    • Git Success Stories and Tips from Drupal Core Committer Angie Byron

      The Git revision control system is “at the center” of Drupal’s hyper-collaborative community says Drupal core committer Angie Byron. The open source content management platform has 37,802 developers with Git commit access, and about 1,300 actively committing each month, she says.

    • Open source is key to the future of CMS development

      Open source will remain the best way to achieve a better developer experience, and as it grows in popularity, engaging with neighbor technology will become easier. Reusing existing components and becoming more distributed will be less complex. Thanks to open source, developers are able to work faster and more efficiently, which is good for business. But this is just the beginning. Open source has taken the CMS development experience to a whole new level, and it doesn’t look like it’s slowing down anytime soon.

    • FBI Warns That WordPress Faces Terrorist Attack Risk

      The Federal Bureau of Investigation issued an alert on April 7 about the potential danger of Islamic State (ISIS) terrorists abusing vulnerabilities in the open-source WordPress blog and content management system software.

  • Funding

    • What’s so special about Google Summer of Code?

      Google has a program for their employees called 20% time that allows them to work on a side project one day a week. It’s how Carol Smith came to manage their Google Summer of Code (GSoC) program over 5 years ago. That, and learning about the job from the program manager at the time, Leslie Hawthorn, who later left Google in 2010, opening up the job for Smith.

  • BSD

    • DragonFlyBSD Updates Its ACPICA Implementation

      DragonFlyBSD developers have updated their ACPI power management implementation against Intel’s ACPICA code as of yesterday.

      With this commit pushed out today, it syncs the ACPICA code in the DragonFlyBSD kernel against Intel’s newest reference code. This contains the first part of upstream DragonFlyBSD support, the Windows 10 _OSI string was added, printf issue fixes, and other changes.

      Details on the ACPI Component Architecture can be found at ACPICA.org.

  • Openness/Sharing

    • Greece holds public consultation on re-opening of national TV network

      The Greek government has held a three-day public consultation on the re-opening of the public TV channel ERT. The consultation was opened on the national open government portal, opengov.gr, on March 9 and closed on March 12 at 10.00. In total, 583 comments were added by Greek citizens.

Leftovers

  • Security

    • New South Wales Attacks Researchers Who Found Internet Voting Vulnerabilities

      A security flaw in New South Wales’ Internet voting system may have left as many as 66,000 votes vulnerable to interception and manipulation in a recent election, according to security researchers. Despite repeated assurances from the Electoral Commission that all Internet votes are “fully encrypted and safeguarded,” six days into online voting, Michigan Computer Science Professor J. Alex Halderman and University of Melbourne Research Fellow Vanessa Teague discovered a FREAK flaw that could allow an attacker to intercept votes and inject their own code to change those votes, all without leaving any trace of the manipulation. (FREAK stands for Factoring RSA Export Keys and refers to the exploitation of a weakness in the SSL/TLS protocol that allows attackers to force browsers to use weak encryption keys.) But instead of taking the researchers’ message to heart, officials instead attacked the messengers.

    • as always bundling fixes is bad

      I figure 24 hours is about the amount of time it takes from a security patch to be released until weaponized exploits show up. After that, if you’re not patched, you’re living dangerously, depending on the nature of the bug. Bundling new features with a high risk of regression with security fixes means users wait to upgrade.

      The iOS 8.3 update is 280MB. It can’t even be downloaded over the air, only via wifi. Security patches are important enough that they should always be made available separately. Then I could download them, even OTA, without fear of regression.

      What aggravates me most is that this is business as usual. As always. We’re training people not to patch. Users should be embarrassed to admit they’re running unpatched software; instead it’s regarded as the prudent choice.

    • Google Lets SMTP Certificate Expire

      The certificate was issued by Google Internet Certificate Authority G2, which issues digital certificates for Google web sites and properties.

    • Data security warning after conference breach

      Experts have repeated conference data security warnings after it was revealed the personal details of thousands of conference delegates may have been leaked in Australia after a data breach.

    • Linux Australia gets pwned, rooted, RATted and botted

      Linux Australia had a bit of a nightmare Easter Weekend.

      While the rest of us were loafing at the beach, the Penguinistas from Down Under were owning up to a pretty extensive cyberintrusion.

      The team has published a decent document setting out what happened, and it went something like this:

      Crooks broke into the organisation’s Conference Management server.
      Crooks got root on the server.
      Crooks installed a remote access Trojan (RAT) for later.
      Crooks rebooted the server and activated the RAT.
      Crooks “logged in” again and installed zombie malware, also known as a bot.
      While the crooks had access, a conference database backup took place to the server.

      Ironically, the backup that was intended to deliver one leg of the “security trinity” (availability) ended up hurting one of the other legs (confidentiality).

    • 2FA with (Free) IPA. The good, the bad and the ugly

      All your systems are Fedora 21, RHEL 7.1 or Ubuntu 14.02 all is working fine as the included SSSD is new enough to handle 2FA. All kerberized services can be used with 2FA w/o logging in again during the validity of your Kerberos ticket. Very convenient, very secure.

      [...]

      2FA works well, convenient and secure in a datacenter and office environment. Notebooks are fine as well as long as there is a network connection available. The mobile world (Smartphones and Tablets) is not yet ready for 2FA. Some issues can be worked around (with some drawbacks) while others render 2FA not usable at all (offline usage).

      Hopefully there will be some smart solutions available for mobile usage soon, as mobile usage causes the most of the security headaches.

    • Thursday’s security updates

  • Defence/Police/Secrecy/Aggression

    • The Real Nuclear Threat in the Middle East

      This is something out of Alice in Wonderland. The Islamic Republic of Iran, born in 1979, has not attacked another country. (With U.S. help, Iraq attacked Iran in 1980.) In contrast, Israel has attacked its Arab neighbors several times its founding, including two devastating invasions and a long occupation of Lebanon, not to mention repeated onslaughts in the Gaza Strip and the military occupation of the West Bank. Israel has also repeatedly threatened war against Iran and engaged in covert and proxy warfare, including the assassination of scientists. Even with Iran progressing toward a nuclear agreement, Israel (like the United States) continues to threaten Iran.

    • NRA Annual Meeting To Enmesh Gun Extremism With GOP Presidential Hopefuls
    • Pakistan court says former CIA station chief will face charges over drone strike

      The former head of the CIA in Pakistan should be tried for murder and waging war against the country, a high court judge ruled on Tuesday.

      Criminal charges against Jonathan Banks, the former CIA station chief in Islamabad, were ordered in relation to a December 2009 attack by a US drone which reportedly killed at least three people.

    • Pakistani Court Orders Ex-C.I.A. Officials Charged Over 2009 Drone Strike

      A Pakistani court on Tuesday ordered criminal charges to be filed against a former C.I.A. station chief and a former C.I.A. lawyer over a 2009 drone strike that killed two people.

    • 560 dead amid fears of humanitarian collapse in Yemen

      As tons of desperately needed medical supplies await clearance to be flown into Yemen, aid workers warned Tuesday of an unfolding humanitarian crisis, saying at least 560 people, including dozens of children, have been killed, mostly in a Saudi-led air campaign and battles between Shiite rebels and forces loyal to the embattled president.

      More than 1,700 people have been wounded and another 100,000 have fled their homes as fighting intensified over the past three weeks, the World Health Organization said.

    • Al-Qaeda franchise in Yemen exploits chaos to rebuild, officials say

      The CIA’s drone base in the rippled surface of the Saudi Arabian desert has undergone major renovations over the past few years. Satellite imagery shows dozens of additions that appear to include living quarters, a new clamshell hangar for hiding aircraft and neat rows of freshly planted palm trees.

    • The Unreal Secrecy About Drone Killings

      Last year, after concluding that many passages in the document “no longer merited secrecy,” the Second Circuit published a redacted version of the Justice Department’s July 2010 Office of Legal Council memo that approved the “targeted killing” of Anwar al-Aulaqi. The court’s view was that government officials had already disclosed much of the information they were trying to withhold. In speeches, media interviews, and congressional testimony, officials had acknowledged the government’s role in the strike that killed al-Aulaqi, explained the purported legal basis for the strike, and invoked still-secret OLC memos to reassure the public that the strike was lawful. Having done all of this, the court said, the government couldn’t plausibly claim that the entirety of the July 2010 memo was still secret, and it couldn’t lawfully withhold the entirety of the memo under the Freedom of Information Act.

      From one perspective, the Second Circuit’s ruling was a victory for transparency. Human rights groups and media organizations had been calling for the release of the legal memos underlying the targeted-killing program; thanks to the Second Circuit’s ruling, one of those memos — arguably the most important one — was made public. From another perspective, the court’s ruling wasn’t very significant at all. The ruling didn’t expose secrets. By its own terms, it exposed facts and legal analysis that had already been disclosed.

    • Government’s Assassination of Anwar al-Awlaki Used “Significantly Different” EO 12333 Analysis

      Jameel Jaffer has a post on the government’s latest crazy-talk in the ongoing ACLU and NYT effort to liberate more drone memos. He describes how — in the government’s response to their appeal of the latest decisions on the Anwar al-Awlaki FOIA — the government claims the Court’s release of an OLC memo does not constitute official release of that memo. (Note, I wouldn’t be surprised if the government is making this claim in anticipation of orders to release torture pictures in ACLU’s torture FOIA suit that’s about to head to the 2nd Circuit.)

      But there’s another interesting aspect of that brief. It provides heavily redacted discussion of the things Judge Colleen McMahon permitted the government to withhold. But it makes it clear that one of those things is a March 2002 OLC memo that offers different analysis about the assassination ban than the analysis used to kill Anwar al-Awlaki.

  • Transparency Reporting

    • Julian Assange on the NSA, Edward Snowden and the Fight Against Government Surveillance

      The AMA saw Assange fielding questions alongside Sarah Harrison, Renata Avila and Andy Müller-Maguhn, who were all representing the Courage Foundation, an organization which runs the official defense funds of whistleblowers. Assange spoke of how he believes the NSA leaks impacted society and its relationship with the government, along with outlining his thoughts on how the public can help protect whistleblowers, and offering his opinion on whether or not the average Joe’s and Jane’s can have any influence on how the government operates in regards to the privacy of its citizens.

  • Environment/Energy/Wildlife

    • Gatwick oil find ‘could produce billions of barrels’

      An oilfield near Gatwick airport could hold up to 100bn barrels of oil, according to a British exploration firm, in possibly the biggest onshore oil discovery in England since the 1980s.

      UK Oil and Gas Investments revealed it had found a “world-class potential resource” after drilling 3,000ft below ground in West Sussex. However, UKOG said only 3-15% of the total would be recovered, based on similar finds in the US.

    • As Colombian Oil Money Flowed To Clintons, State Department Took No Action To Prevent Labor Violations

      For union organizers in Colombia, the dangers of their trade were intensifying. When workers at the country’s largest independent oil company staged a strike in 2011, the Colombian military rounded them up at gunpoint and threatened violence if they failed to disband, according to human rights organizations. Similar intimidation tactics against the workers, say labor leaders, amounted to an everyday feature of life.

  • Finance

    • Hollywood Swinging Hard for Trans-Pacific Partnership

      Hollywood moguls and the vast majority of leftist entertainers have joined forces in a last-ditch effort to bully wavering Democratic lawmakers into backing President Obama’s fast-track authority for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) as the centerpiece of what he calls his “pro-trade agenda.”

    • WikiLeaks Disclosure Shows U.S. Airlines Received Billions in Subsidies

      WikiLeaks did more than expose governmental eavesdropping and foreign policy blunders: A 2009 data dump is shedding new light on the spat between Delta, United, and American and the three largest Gulf carriers over government subsidies and Open Skies agreements.

      The Business Travel Coalition, which backs retaining Open Skies agreements and is seeking to counter the U.S. carriers’ charges that Emirates, Qatar, and Etihad received $42 billion in unfair government subsidies, uncovered a U.S. congressional report, disclosed by WikiLeaks in 2009, that documents how U.S. aviation, including commercial airlines, the FAA, and airports, received $155 billion in federal direct spending from 1918 to 1998.

    • Op-Ed: What you don’t know about the Transpacific Partnership
    • What happens to democracy in a cashless society?

      Last month I was asked to speak at a conference in the City of London on the ethical issues surrounding new payment systems. The audience was packed with people working on innovative things like payment apps for smart phones and ‘contactless payments,’ where you can just wave a card or a phone over a terminal.

      Their new financial technologies are rapidly changing the way we pay for everything. This may be convenient, but as wand-waving and other high-tech alternatives to cash become the only ways to pay for anything, what happens if the wand loses its magic? What are the costs of becoming entirely dependent on technology in a cashless society?

      [...]

      This uncertainty is related to a second issue—that of anti-competitive practices. Visa and Mastercard already account for over 80 percent of the credit card market worldwide, and well over 90 per cent in many countries. The Financial Times refers to this situation as “a well-protected oligopoly” and so, for them, a good investment. Yet it also represents a hitherto unimaginable degree of control over the means of payment. Even if policies are adopted to diversify this market or—if that doesn’t work—to break up these oligopolies directly, such unprecedented levels of control raise a third area of concern in the form of peoples’ rights to privacy.

    • PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying

      • Three Fake Myths–and Two Actual Ones–About TPP Trade Pact

        The proponents of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) are doing everything they can to try to push their case as they prepare for the fast-track vote before Congress this month. Roger Altman, a Wall Street investment banker and former Clinton administration Treasury official, weighed with a New York Times column, co-authored by Richard Haass, the president of the Council on Foreign Relations.

        They begin by giving us three “myths”–all of which happen to be accurate depictions of reality. The first “myth” is that trade agreements have hurt US manufacturing workers and thereby the labor market more generally. Altman and Haas cite work by MIT economist David Autor showing that trade with China has reduced manufacturing employment by 21 percent, but then assert that the problem is trade not trade agreements.

      • Hillary Clinton hires a Google exec as the first woman to manage technology for a presidential campaign

        Hillary Clinton is betting that if Stephanie Hannon can handle natural disasters, she can certainly handle a controversial presidential campaign.

        Hannon, Google’s director or product management, has left the Internet giant to take over as the chief technology officer for Clinton’s still unannounced presidential campaign.

      • Clinton Hires Google Exec As Chief Tech Officer – WikiLeaks Shows Us Why

        Hillary Clinton has hired Stephanie Hannon, Google’s director of product management for civic innovation and social impact, as chief technology officer for her potential presidential campaign, fueling accusations from Julian Assange that Google is in bed with the US government.

  • Privacy

    • The FBI used to recommend encryption. Now they want to ban it

      The FBI wants to make us all less safe. At least that’s the implication from FBI director Jim Comey’s push to ban unbreakable encryption and deliberately weaken everyone’s security. And it’s past time that the White House makes its position clear once and for all.

      Comey was back before Congress this week – this time in front of the House Appropriations Committee – imploring Congressmen to pass a law that would force tech companies to create a backdoor in any phone or communications tool that uses encryption.

    • U.S. directs federal agents to cover up program used to investigate Americans

      A DEA official said, “Parallel construction is a law enforcement technique we use every day. It’s decades old, a bedrock concept.”

    • Facebook’s Deepface Software Has Gotten Them in Deep Trouble

      In a Chicago court, several Facebook users filed a class-action lawsuit against the social media giant for allegedly violating its users’ privacy rights to acquire the largest privately held stash of biometric face-recognition data in the world.

      The court documents reveal claims that “Facebook began violating the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (IBIPA) of 2008 in 2010, in a purported attempt to make the process of tagging friends easier.”

    • A chat client which protects you from NSA’s snooping

      Have you been trying to convince friends and family to use encryption in light on the NSA revelations and had little success? Otr.to is a newly released web based chat client that requires no installation and offers OTR encryption via JavaScript libraries. With no installs necessary, sending encrypted messages to your least technical friends should be a lot less challenging.

    • Ajusto app that watches your driving habits leads to privacy concerns

      Desjardins Insurance has launched a smartphone app that tracks driver behaviour in return for the promise of substantial savings on car insurance, the first of its type in Canada, the company says.

    • The Woman Who Hacked Hollywood

      It’s been almost ten years since Laura Poitras’ name has been on the NSA Watch List. Every time she returns to her home country, security agents wait for her, somewhere between the gate of the plane and the US Immigration booth. They take her away to a room, confiscate her gear, her notebooks, and her videos. They question her and copy her hard drives. This has happened to her at least forty times since 2006.

    • Aboard Flights, Conflicts Over Seat Assignments and Religion

      Francesca Hogi, 40, had settled into her aisle seat for the flight from New York to London when the man assigned to the adjoining window seat arrived and refused to sit down. He said his religion prevented him from sitting beside a woman who was not his wife. Irritated but eager to get underway, she eventually agreed to move.

    • John Oliver’s interview with Edward Snowden: Pseudo-satire in defense of NSA surveillance

      Comedy host John Oliver conducted an interview with National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden in Moscow recently that was broadcast Sunday on his HBO show “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.” In the process, Oliver exposed his solidarity with the American state and its vast, illegal spying operations. He took the opportunity of the conversation to come out harshly against Snowden’s decision to leak large quantities of NSA documents.

      Pushing for a confession that his actions were potentially “harmful,” the British-born Oliver demanded to know whether Snowden had personally read every single document contained in the files that the former NSA employee transferred to journalists beginning in the summer of 2013.

      “I have evaluated all of the documents that are in the archive. I do understand what I turned over,” Snowden replied.

      “There’s a difference between understanding what’s in the documents and reading what’s in the documents. Because when you’re handing over thousands of NSA documents, the last thing you’d want to do is read them,” Oliver retorted sarcastically. He went on, “You have to own that. You’re giving documents with information that could be harmful.”

      Oliver repeated the favored arguments of the Obama administration and intelligence establishment to the effect that the preservation of “national security” required the elimination of civil liberties, such as Fourth Amendment protections against arbitrary searches and seizures.

    • CISA Hack of the Day: White House Can Already Share Intelligence with the State Department

      In about 10 days, Congress will take up cyber information sharing bills. And unlike past attempts, these bills are likely to pass.

      That, in spite of the fact that no one has yet explained how they’ll make a significant difference in preventing hacks.

      So I’m going to try to examine roughly one hack a day that immunized swift information sharing between the government and the private sector wouldn’t prevent.

    • The US Gov Can Download the Entire Contents of Your Computer at Border Crossings

      Hundreds of thousands of travelers cross US borders every day. And none of them—save the precious few with diplomatic immunity—have any right to privacy, according to Department of Homeland Security documents recently obtained by MuckRock.

      The US Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Privacy Impact Assessment for the Border Searches of Electronic Devices outlines the finer points of border officials’ authority to search the electronic devices of citizens and non-citizens alike crossing the US border. What becomes clear is that this authority has been broadly interpreted to mean that any device brought into or out of the country is subject to the highest level of scrutiny, even when there is no explicit probable cause.

      Based upon little more than the opinion of a single US Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) officer, any device can be searched and its contents read. With approval from a supervisor, the device can be seized, its contents copied in full, or both.

    • Fixing the FISA Court by Fixing FISA: A Response to Carrie Cordero

      Finally, we must briefly push back on Carrie’s statement that “changing FISA’s standard to a ‘significant purpose’ . . . has been overwhelmingly understood as an important substantive correction.” We may be traveling in somewhat different circles, but that hasn’t been our experience. Rather, among colleagues in our field, this change is widely viewed as the moment in which FISA became an existential threat to the Fourth Amendment’s warrant requirement in ordinary criminal cases. The “correction” that’s needed is to restore the primary purpose test.

    • Stop making the NSA the bogeyman of privacy

      I mention this because a lot of people seem concerned that the “cyber threat sharing” bills in congress (CISA/CISPA) will divulge private information to the NSA. This is nonsense. The issue is private information exposed to the FBI and other domestic agencies. It’s the FBI, ATF, or DEA that will come break down your door and arrest you, not the NSA.

    • U.S.: Azano Is a Supervillain … Who We Let Deal Surveillance Equipment

      Federal prosecutors have portrayed wealthy Mexican businessman José Susumo Azano Matsura as a supervillain who was always one step ahead of the law. For two decades, prosecutors said, federal agents investigated Azano for drug trafficking, money laundering, extortion and tax fraud to no avail before he was popped last year on charges he illegally donated to San Diego politicians.

      But the relationship between Azano and the U.S. government is more complicated than the Justice Department has let on.

    • Senate creating secret encyclopedia of US spy programs following Merkel eavesdrop disclosure

      Trying to get a handle on hundreds of sensitive, closely held surveillance programs, a Senate committee is compiling a secret encyclopedia of American intelligence collection. It’s part of an effort to improve congressional oversight of the government’s sprawling global spying effort.

      Sen. Dianne Feinstein launched the review in October 2013, after a leak by former National Security Agency systems administrator Edward Snowden disclosed that the NSA had been eavesdropping on German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cellphone. Four months earlier, Snowden had revealed the existence of other programs that vacuumed up Americans’ and foreigners’ phone call records and electronic communications.

      “We’re trying right now to look at every intelligence program,” Feinstein told The Associated Press. “There are hundreds of programs we have found … sprinkled all over. Many people in the departments don’t even know (they) are going on.”

      Feinstein and other lawmakers say they were fully briefed about the most controversial programs leaked by Snowden, the NSA’s collection of American phone records and the agency’s access to U.S. tech company accounts in targeting foreigners through its PRISM program. Those programs are conducted under acts of Congress, supervised by a secret federal court.

    • Exclusive: U.S. directs agents to cover up program used to investigate Americans

      A secretive U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration unit is funneling information from intelligence intercepts, wiretaps, informants and a massive database of telephone records to authorities across the nation to help them launch criminal investigations of Americans.

      Although these cases rarely involve national security issues, documents reviewed by Reuters show that law enforcement agents have been directed to conceal how such investigations truly begin – not only from defense lawyers but also sometimes from prosecutors and judges.

    • Baltimore police often surveil cellphones amid US secrecy

      The Baltimore Police Department has used secretive cellphone surveillance equipment 4,300 times and believes it is under orders by the U.S. government to withhold evidence from criminal trials and ignore subpoenas in cases where the device is used, a police detective testified Wednesday.

      The unusual testimony in a criminal case marked a rare instance when details have been revealed about the surveillance devices, which the Obama administration has aggressively tried to keep secret. Citing security reasons, the government has intervened in routine state public-records cases and criminal trials, and has advised police not to disclose details.

    • Why Don’t Surveillance State Defenders Seem To Care That The Programs They Love Don’t Work?

      He also details some of the over-inflated claims of other surveillance programs in the past — all of which were later shown to be false. But, the article doesn’t really attempt to answer the question — just raise it. In the past, we’ve noticed that the entire concept of a cost-benefit analysis seems antithetical to the way the surveillance state does business. But why is that?

    • Baltimore PD Has Deployed Stingray Devices Over 4,300 Times, Instructed By FBI To Withhold Info From Courts

      Say what you will about the Baltimore PD and its cell tower spoofers (like… “It would rather let accused criminals go than violate its [bogus] non-disclosure agreement with the FBI…” or “It hides usage of these devices behind pen register/trap and trace warrants and then argues the two collection methods are really the same thing…”), but at least it’s making sure the hundreds of thousands of dollars it’s spent on the technology isn’t going to waste.

  • Civil Rights

    • To Catch a Torturer: My 28-Year Pursuit of Racist Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge

      On February 13, 2015, former Chicago Police Commander Jon G. Burge was released from federal custody, having served a little less than four years of his four-and-a-half year sentence for lying under oath about whether he tortured scores of African-American men during his time as commander. Less than a week before, I sat across from him in a small room in Tampa, Florida, questioning him, pursuant to a court order, yet again about his role in a torture case—this time, the case of Alonzo Smith, who was repeatedly suffocated with a plastic bag and beaten with a rubber nightstick in the basement of the Area 2 police station by two of Burge’s most violent henchmen after Burge informed him that they “would get him to talk, one way or another.”

    • Media Were Already Running With Police Fantasy When Video Exploded It

      The New York Times (4/7/15) released a video of a black South Carolina man Walter Scott being shot, casually and without apparent mercy, eight times in the back by white police officer Michael T. Slager. The media’s outrage after the video’s publication was righteous and swift. The state of South Carolina followed suit, filing murder charges against Slager. Indeed, the video offers no ambiguity whatsoever:

    • South Carolina Officer Is Charged With Murder of Walter Scott

      A white police officer in North Charleston, S.C., was charged with murder on Tuesday after a video surfaced showing him shooting in the back and killing an apparently unarmed black man while the man ran away.

      The officer, Michael T. Slager, 33, said he had feared for his life because the man had taken his stun gun in a scuffle after a traffic stop on Saturday. A video, however, shows the officer firing eight times as the man, Walter L. Scott, 50, fled. The North Charleston mayor announced the state charges at a news conference Tuesday evening.

    • O’Reilly Cherry-Picks Debunked Statistics To Downplay Racial Disparities In Police Shootings

      Bill O’Reilly cited debunked statistics to claim that more white than black Americans are killed by police officers in the wake of the fatal South Carolina police shooting of an unarmed black man.

      A police officer was charged with murder in the shooting death of an unarmed black man in North Charleston, South Carolina on April 7, as reported by The New York Times. The Times noted that “the shooting came on the heels of high-profile instances of police officers’ using lethal force in New York, Cleveland, Ferguson, Mo., and elsewhere. The deaths have set off a national debate over whether the police are too quick to use force, particularly in cases involving black men.”

    • Time Peddles Old Stereotypes With Op-Ed on Iranian ‘Carpet Merchants’

      This series of ethnic stereotypes becomes Oren’s whole prism for interpreting the negotiations, which are “an ideal example of how not to buy a Middle Eastern carpet.” He argues: “The Security Council’s five permanent members plus Germany could have offered the lowest possible price as their final bid—take it or leave it. Iran would have had little choice but to sell the carpet.”

      When the US and its negotiating partners “recogniz[ed] the Islamic Republic’s right to enrich and to maintain its nuclear facilities,” Oren scolds: “The haggling had scarcely begun and already the merchant profited.” Actually, the right to a peaceful nuclear program was guaranteed to Iran when it signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (FAIR Blog, 4/8/13), but there isn’t really a stereotype that involves the customers of a “merchant” agreeing to respect international law.

    • Violated At The Airport By TSA Thug Sharonda Juana Walker (not sure on the spelling of “Sharonda”)

      There’s not an ounce of probable cause to search me at the airport — as I was today at LAX. To violate my body. To touch my breasts. To grope my hair. To have the blue latex-gloved hand of Sharonda Juana Walker, feel inside my turtleneck.

      And no, I don’t go through the scanners, and the metal detector line wasn’t an option at just before 7 a.m., when I got to the airport to leave for…no, not an ISIS meet-and-greet but an evolutionary psychology conference in Boston. Apparently, the sparse traffic at the airport at this hour leaves them plenty of time to feel up travelers.

    • Walter Scott shooting witness Feidin Santana reveals how he captured the video that saw police officer Michael Slager arrested

      The witness hailed as a hero for capturing the shooting of Walter Scott on camera has come forward to speak publicly about the incident for the first time.

      Identified by NBC News as Feidin Santana, the man whose video made headlines around the world described the “emotional” moment he handed his vital evidence over to the Scott family.

      Mr Santana’s video showed 33-year-old Officer Michael Slager shooting Mr Scott in the back as he runs away, and the witness said he only came forward when the police’s version of events – that Mr Scott had seized control of the officer’s Taser – appeared in the media.

    • Don’t ask why Walter Scott ran, ask why he was killed in cold blood: opinion

      Anyone with a sliver of vision and a shred of morality can see this.

      South Carolina Patrolman Michael Slager cowardly hid behind his badge when he claimed he felt threatened by Scott after pulling him over for a faulty brake light. Slager alleged that Scott reached for the officer’s stun gun and his life was in danger – Slager said he had no other option but to kill Scott.

      Slager lied. Video evidence does not.

      That video showed the world that the real victim was Scott, who was shot in the back as he attempted to run from Slager. And the real criminal is Slager, a man who resorted to lethal force after a mere traffic stop.

      The facts are clear-cut and the video evidence is undeniable. So why do I keep hearing this statement?

    • Video of Shooting Caught Police Propaganda Machine in Action

      A video supplied to The New York Times, showing the shooting death of 50-year-old Walter Scott at the hands of a South Carolina police officer, appears on first viewing to be the latest example of an unarmed black person killed unnecessarily by a white cop.

      But it’s so much more than that. Because three days elapsed between the shooting and the publication of the video of the shooting, the Scott incident became an illuminating case study in the routinized process through which police officers, departments and attorneys frame the use of deadly force by American cops in the most sympathetic possible terms, often claiming fear of the very people they killed. In the days after the shooting, the police version of events — an utterly typical example of the form — was trotted out, only to be sharply contradicted when the video surfaced. In most cases like this, there is no video, no definitive, undisputed record of much of what happened, and thus no way to rebut inaccurate statements by the police.

    • DEA Global Surveillance Dragnet Exposed; Access to Data Likely Continues

      Secret mass surveillance conducted by the Drug Enforcement Administration is falling under renewed scrutiny after fresh revelations about the broad scope of the agency’s electronic spying.

    • Former F.B.I. Agent Sues, Claiming Retaliation Over Misgivings in Anthrax Case

      When Bruce E. Ivins, an Army microbiologist, took a fatal overdose of Tylenol in 2008, the government declared that he had been responsible for the anthrax letter attacks of 2001, which killed five people and set off a nationwide panic, and closed the case.

      Now, a former senior F.B.I. agent who ran the anthrax investigation for four years says that the bureau gathered “a staggering amount of exculpatory evidence” regarding Dr. Ivins that remains secret. The former agent, Richard L. Lambert, who spent 24 years at the F.B.I., says he believes it is possible that Dr. Ivins was the anthrax mailer, but he does not think prosecutors could have convicted him had he lived to face criminal charges.

      In a lawsuit filed in federal court in Tennessee last Thursday, Mr. Lambert accused the bureau of trying “to railroad the prosecution of Ivins” and, after his suicide, creating “an elaborate perception management campaign” to bolster its claim that he was guilty. Mr. Lambert’s lawsuit accuses the bureau and the Justice Department of forcing his dismissal from a job as senior counterintelligence officer at the Energy Department’s lab in Oak Ridge, Tenn., in retaliation for his dissent on the anthrax case.

    • Times Of Israel Scrubs Another Pro-Genocide Post Against Palestinians

      It was a nasty kind of deja vu at the Times of Israel on Thursday after the website caused an uproar by publishing and then removing an op-ed calling for the mass murder of Palestinians.

    • How St. Louis Police Robbed My Family of $1000 (and How I’m Trying To Get It Back)

      On a late spring evening eight years ago, police pulled over my mother’s 1997 Oldsmobile Aurora, in the suburb of St. Ann, Missouri, as she raced to pick up a relative from St. Louis’s Lambert International Airport. “Do you know why I stopped you?” the officer asked. “No I don’t,” my mother answered. The police charged her with speeding, but she did not receive a mere ticket. Instead, an officer ran my mother’s name and told her that since she had failed to appear in court for driving without a license, there was a six-year-old warrant out for her arrest. “I just started crying. I couldn’t believe it,” my mother said. The police arrested her and hauled her off to St. Louis County Jail, where authorities eventually allowed her one phone call, which she placed to my stepfather. He said, shaking his head, “I was surprised because I knew she didn’t have no warrants.”

    • Sweden keeps ban on spontaneous dancing

      Spontaneous dancing remains outlawed in Sweden except in venues with special “dance licences” after a majority in parliament voted down a move to free the feet.

    • Dick Cheney Gets Judy Miller to Serve as His Cut-Out, Again

      Particularly given that the only question of those I posed for my book that Miller did not answer was whether she saw Cheney on the trip to Aspen that she used to explain Scooter Libby’s Aspen letter, I find her admission that she did and does speak to Cheney — though had not, about the war — telling. (Remember, too, that Cheney did not release journalists he had spoken to to reveal him as a source in the way everyone else in the Executive Branch did.)

      Miller goes on to present a nonsense story about how Fitzgerald misled her and caused her to testify incorrectly, falsely testifying to the grand jury that Libby had told her Plame was at the CIA back in June. It doesn’t make sense — and doesn’t do anything to undermine the other evidence that would have been sufficient to convict Libby, notably Libby’s own notes and David Addington’s testimony as well as a second, far more important, meeting between Libby and Miller just days before Novak outed Plame.

      Maybe Miller just has no fucking clue what got presented at the trial?

      But having presented a flimsy excuse to question the verdict against Libby, Miller has presented others with an opportunity to point to another detail she includes in her book: that Fitzgerald offered to drop the charges against Libby if he would testify against Cheney. Again, that’s not surprising. Libby’s lies served to cover up Cheney’s orders to leak stuff to Judy Miller (not in the meeting she newly focuses on, but in the meeting during the week of Novak’s article).

    • America’s glaring double standard on terror: Why the Tsarnaev conviction is another black eye for Gitmo

      “Did the use of pressure cooker bombs,” the jury in the Dzhokhar Tsarnaev trial was asked in several different ways on Wednesday afternoon, “cause the death of Martin Richard?”

      “Yes,” the jury declared Tsarnaev’s guilt in the murder of Richard, the 8-year old boy watching the race from the finish line killed in Tsarnaev’s attack on the Boston Marathon two years ago. “Yes,” the jury said, over and over. The jury gave the same response when asked about Tsarnaev’s responsibility for killing Lingzi Lu, a Boston University statistics student; Krystle Campbell, a 29-year old restaurant manager; and Sean Collier, an MIT cop, all of whom he and his brother killed. The jury found Tsarnaev guilty of all 30 counts against him.

    • Desmond Tutu Calls for Justice for Jeffrey Sterling, Citing Petraeus Deal

      Last month, Archbishop Desmond Tutu wrote a letter to Leonie Brinkema, the judge in the Jeffrey Sterling trial, calling on her to prove cynicism wrong in her sentencing of Sterling. The letter was docketed this week.

    • Whistleblower Watchdogs Ask President to Remove Zinsler

      We, the undersigned organizations, are writing to urge you to remove the Department of Commerce’s Inspector General, Todd Zinser. Through his actions both before his appointment as IG and since, Mr. Zinser has proven that he is not fit for the position.

      IGs are supposed to root out fraud, waste, and abuse—a job they would not be able to do without whistleblowers. If there is anyone in government who should understand the importance of utilizing and protecting whistleblowers, it is an IG.

      This is why it is particularly worrisome that there have been multiple allegations and investigations of Mr. Zinser’s own retaliation against whistleblowers. A 2013 report by the Office of Special Counsel found that Mr. Zinser had shielded two top deputies charged with threatening two employees with retaliation if they blew the whistle on mismanagement at the Commerce IG’s office.

  • Intellectual Monopolies

    • Copyrights

      • Big Media Companies Insist That VPN Services Violate Copyright Law

        Back during the SOPA fight, in a discussion with someone who was working with the politicians pushing SOPA, I pointed out that such a law would encourage much more encryption — and the response was “that’s no problem, because we’ll just ban encryption next.” As stupid and impossible as such a statement is, it shows the mindset of some copyright extremists. Thus, it should be no surprise that they’re actually starting down just such a path in New Zealand. As we noted last year, Kiwi ISPs, frustrated that their users kept running up against geoblocks, have started offering VPN services that get around geoblocks as a standard feature there. Basically, this is nothing more than a recognition that the internet really is global and attempts to pretend otherwise are pretty fruitless.

04.08.15

The EPO is Becoming More Like the USPTO Under Benoît Battistelli’s Greed-Driven Reign

Posted in Europe, Patents at 7:00 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Large corporations increasingly cast their shadow over European society

Building in birmingham

Summary: Recent articles about the EPO and the Unitary Patent are bundled together to highlight truly disturbing developments whereby those in power beget power through instruments of state-sanctioned power, such as the EPO (stateless entity within a continent-wide ‘island’)

OUR coverage of the EPO-targeting French article will hopefully lead to an English translation pretty soon (more suicides inside the EPO), but in the mean time we wish to take stock of recent European-centic patents-related developments which we have not found the time to properly cover (at least not yet). We will separate and partition this post, then set some headlines to help digestion of the important news.

Unitary Patent

Techrights has written about the Unitary Patent for quite a few years, even before it was called or referred to as “Unitary Patent”. In a series titled “UPC Mock Trial” [1, 2] (Unitary Patent Court is UPC) IP Kat provides some interesting information. Since a lot of this stuff is discussed behind closed doors (like TPP and other globalisation treaties) it has not been easy to keep track of what’s going on. In part it’s about serving huge corporations (multinational and often tax-exempt through loopholes) and it’s about software patents. The folks from the FFII (former and current presidents) are fighting back, calling the Unitary Patent unconstitutional. To quote their summary, which made some waves on the Web last week, “ESOMA and iMatix has filed an appeal against the Unitary Patent ratification by Belgium at the Constitutional Court. Equality of languages, separation of powers, and the irresponsibility of the EPO in front of courts are violating the Belgian Constitution. A central patent court will become the single point of failure to validate software patents Europe-wide. Small Software companies cannot afford to go to court or pay damages.”

There are similar actions elsewhere. They are fighting back.

European Free Software Foundation

The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE), OpenForum Europe and others (such as OIN from the US) were mentioned the other day in this post about the EU patent debate. We deem some of the text quite important (and unique). It states: “I already mentioned earlier the plans to present about the situation of the Open Source community as a consumer of the patent system at the conference on “Innovation in a European Digital Single Market – The Role of Patents” in Brussels on March 17. FSFE, OpenForum Europe, colleagues at OIN and fellow Open Source supporters provided great feedback for the presentation. Many thanks to everybody who contributed! In the end, the concept for the presentation (which was a short introduction to a following panel discussion) was to explain five concrete difficulties the patent system causes in a collaborative production environment.”

Towards the bottom it says that “Sage joined the Open Invention Network. OIN is the world’s largest patent non-aggression community with the mission to protect Linux and Open Source. It speaks for the credibility that patent non-aggression has achieved and for how OIN represents that idea in the Open Source space when a publicly listed company that grew to success long before Linux really took off subscribes to it. Thanks, Sage! More large and small companies are considering this step. Your company should do so, too. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me.”

As we have pointed out before, the problem with OIN is that it does not fight software patents; additionally, it is selective in who is protects and how. Still, for many purposes (not all), it is a lot better than nothing.

Want to Patent Nature? EPO Approves

The EPO is an utter, corrupt, greedy disgrace. On numerous occasions we have shown how the EPO’s management, including Benoît Battistelli himself, gloated and bragged about expanding the scope of patents, reducing the quality bar etc. just to increase profits. This is systemic corruption and this in its own right should suffice to oust Battistelli.

Techrights is especially focused on software patents, but it is deeply disturbed to learn just how low the EPO’s management can stoop. As it turns out, the EPO now permits patenting natural foods – not just GMO and algorithms. This surely can motivate more EPO staff to rebel against greedy-beyond-control managers. We sure hope to see people standing up and fighting against this abuse by EPO architects, whose priority has become to serve large corporations, not people. See articles such as “Unpatentable Vegetables Are Now Patentable In Europe”, “EPO Backs Patents On Conventional Plants: Broccoli, Tomato Cases Decided”, and “A Kat revisits Broccoli & Tomatoes, part deux – what does it all mean?” IPKat reported on it quote early on (to its credit).

Software Patents in Europe

Patent scope has gone out of control in Europe. Patents not only on natural things but also on abstract things are now permitted, if not by law then by de facto ‘law’ (see our wiki page about software patents in Europe). Glyn Moody warned some weeks ago that “Spain [Was] About To Bring In Software Patents — Just As US Starts Moving Away From Them”.

Quoting Moody: “Last year, Techdirt noted how the Supreme Court’s decision in Alice v. CLS Bank seemed to be having a positive effect on limiting the patentability of software. Against that background, it’s regrettable that Spain appears to be moving in the other direction with its new Patent Act (original in Spanish), which is being brought in without any public debate, it seems. The key section of the proposed law is Article 4, which spells out patentability. It specifically says (Section 4c) that “computer programs” are excluded from patentability — but then goes on to add (Section 5) that it is only software “as such” that is excluded.”

Greedy patent lawyers from the US (such as Gene Quinn in this case) are already licking their lips over this. “The European technical standard as a guide for drafting software patents” is the title of one recent article from Gene Quinn, one of the most vocal proponents of software patents (he makes money from it).

And guess who he interviews for this article? “Micky Minhas is Chief Patent Counsel for Microsoft Corporation. He is also someone that I have know for over 20 years, which is almost hard to believe.”

Yes, Microsoft!

Welcome to Europe, Microsoft. A truly European company!

Microsoft has been lobbying for software patents in Europe for so many years and we wrote many articles about it. Microsoft also paid several proxies to do this lobbying behind the scenes. Among these lobbyists we have had the BSA and ACT listed.

Microsoft’s Minhas says: “I’ve been here about two and a half years in my role as Chief Patent Counsel. The Patent Strategy team is roughly 110 people and we are responsible for all of our new patent filings and preparation. We also have a large analysis group that analyzes a lot of our issued patents and our pending patents and supports our licensing programs. As to the daily life, the job ranges anywhere from issues with the PTO, or any other patent office around the world, to issues supporting our licensing programs. Sometimes it’s acquisition related activities; sometimes it’s risk mitigation projects. I’m having a lot of fun. It’s interesting particularly because Microsoft is in so many different businesses, so the legal issues and the intellectual property issues are often pretty unique. Sometimes what is in the best interest of one division may not be in the best interest of another division. Intellectually, it leads to some pretty interesting strategy assessments and discussions.”

So, while Europeans are busy typing computer code, testing, improving, testing again (among other things) Microsoft is working with lawyers to undermine these Europeans and take them to court if they ever become successful and can thus be extorted (like TomTom in Holland). Welcome to Europe’s new patent regime?

Fight the System Before It’s Too Late

Patent examiners in Europe (scientists, not lawyers) should work hard to prevent the EPO from becoming another USPTO with lots of software patents, patent trolls, and reign by massive corporations such as IBM. Benoît Battistelli seems to be trying to emulate the notorious US patent system, not a saner system whose priority is service to local (European) citizens. Once corporations take over such systems (in a coup d’état fashion) it becomes incredibly difficult to regain control of them, as the US model serves to show. We will provide examples of this in the coming days. █

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