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06.09.16

Links 9/6/2016: Qt 5.6.1, NetOS

Posted in News Roundup at 6:52 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME bluefish

Contents

GNU/Linux

Free Software/Open Source

  • 7 Open Source DevOps Products and Their Channel Impact

    We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: the DevOps mode of software development is fast becoming one of the new big forces in the channel. Here’s a look at some of the key projects and products in the open source DevOps space, and an explanation of how each one will change the way organizations create and VARs integrate software.

  • 3 open source alternatives to MATLAB

    Fortunately, there are many great open source alternatives. Depending on exactly what your objective is, you may find one or another to more aptly fit your specific needs. Here are three to consider:

  • Open source tools enable professional photography

    I find it sad that most people don’t realize how many options there are for photography software on Linux. While most Linux users are aware of GIMP, their knowledge beyond that is sorely limited. Surprising to many is the fact that professional photography on Linux is such a serious business that there are even closed source proprietary programs that are developed and sold to run on Linux.

    The ability to work with RAW files from a camera is a must for professional and amateur photographers alike. While this initially may seem like a very specific niche where the options would be limited, the open source philosophy has helped create many options. Darktable, Lightzone, Shotwell, RawTherapee, digiKam, Photivo, UFRaw, and Fotoxx are all open source options that a Linux user can choose from.

  • Fiorano ESB Goes Open Source

    The Fiorano Open Source ESB is available at:

    http://www.fiorano.com/products/open-source-esb/fiorano-esb/

    https://github.com/FioranoSoftware/FioranoESB

  • Events

    • Tokyo – Automotive Linux Summit

      AGL.automotiveITThe Linux Foundation, which promotes the general adoption of the open-source operating system, will host the Automotive Linux Summit in Tokyo July 13-14.

      The conference will bring together a range of automotive engineers, Linux experts, business executives and open-source licensing and compliance specialists.

  • Web Browsers

  • SaaS/Back End

    • ODPi: Test Less, Build More Applications With Hadoop

      According to Alan Gates, co-founder of Hortonworks and ODPi member, that’s the issue the Open Data Platform initiative (ODPi) is here to solve: create a single test specification that works across all Hadoop distributions so developers can get back to creating innovative applications and end users can get back to making money, or curing cancer, or sending people into space.

    • Databricks Community Edition Out for Everyone Now, Includes Spark Training

      Earlier this year, Databricks came out with the beta release of Databricks Community Edition, a free version of its cloud-based Spark platform. Since then, Spark has been commanding everyone’s attention, and now Databricks, which is the company founded by the team that created Apache Spark, has announced the General Availability of Databricks Community Edition (DCE), a free version of the just-in-time data platform built on top of Apache Spark, at Spark Summit 2016.

    • IBM and Other Tech Titans Raise Commitments to Apache Spark

  • Pseudo-Open Source (Openwashing)

  • Funding

    • Midokura raises $20M Series B round for its network virtualization platform

      Network virtualization specialist Midokura today announced it has raised a $20 million Series B round with participation from Japanese fintech company Simplex and existing investors like Allen Miner and the Innovation Network Corporation of Japan. With this round, Midokura’s total funding has now hit $44 million.

  • Openness/Sharing/Collaboration

    • Open Access/Content

      • Professor, publisher clash over stance on open-source education

        In a growing climate of “publish or perish” for university faculty members, forfeiting a publishing opportunity is a unique and strong stance in any discipline. Add that to the recent news of shrinking opportunities for faculty positions in liberal arts disciplines, and Jhangiani’s position seems even bolder.

    • Open Hardware/Modding

      • FarmBot Open Source CNC Farming Robot (video)

        If like me you are lacking green fingers but would like to be able to grow your own vegetables you may be interested in a new open source CNC farming robot that has been created using Arduino hardware and awesome programming, called FarmBot.

Leftovers

  • Hardware

    • AMD Zen Reportedly Delayed Until Early Next Year

      According to reports, AMD’s Zen processors have been delayed until the start of the next year and it’s also affecting Intel’s Kabylake launch.

      While we were looking for AMD’s much anticipated Zen processors were expected to launch by the end of Q3 according to information from AMD just recently, now it’s believed that Zen might not be shipping until January 2017.

  • Security

    • University gives in to $20,000 ransomware demand

      Calgary officials agreed to pay the ransom but it will take some time for the encryption keys to be used on all of the university’s infected machines, of which there are over 100. The process is time-consuming and it is not yet known if the keys will even work.

    • University of Calgary pays hackers $20,000 after ransomware attack

      A chain of hospitals in Washington, D.C., was hit in March, while a Los Angeles medical centre shelled out $17,000 earlier this year to hackers following a ransomware attack.

    • Unintended Consequences Of Slavery In IT

      Obviously many use That Other OS for valid purposes but few would do so if this incident was on their radar. There are hundreds of such malwares. How many times will the university pay up for permission to use the hardware they own? They’ve already likely paid Intel double the value for their chips, M$, even more for permission to use Intel’s chips and now a steady stream of cyber-criminals.

    • Mikko Hypponen: Real Hackers Don’t Wear Hoodies (Cybercrime is Big Business)

      I’ll be discussing these topics, and how they apply to open source systems and to service providers further in my keynote (“Complexity: The enemy of Security”) at the OPNFV Summit in Berlin on June 22-23. See you in Berlin!

    • Your mobile phone account could be hijacked by an identity thief

      A few weeks ago an unknown person walked into a mobile phone store, claimed to be me, asked to upgrade my mobile phones, and walked out with two brand new iPhones assigned to my telephone numbers. My phones immediately stopped receiving calls, and I was left with a large bill and the anxiety and fear of financial injury that spring from identity theft. This post describes my experiences as a victim of ID theft, explains the growing problem of phone account hijacking, and suggests ways consumers and mobile phone carriers can help combat these scams.

    • Password Re-user? Get Ready to Get Busy

      In the wake of megabreaches at some of the Internet’s most-recognized destinations, don’t be surprised if you receive password reset requests from numerous companies that didn’t experience a breach: Some big name companies — including Facebook and Netflix — are in the habit of combing through huge data leak troves for credentials that match those of their customers and then forcing a password reset for those users.

    • Belgium tops list of nations most vulnerable to hacking

      A new “heat map of the internet” has revealed the countries most vulnerable to hacking attacks, by scanning the entire internet for servers with their front doors wide open.

    • Australia fourth most vulnerable nation to hacking: study

      Australia ranks fourth among the countries most vulnerable to hacking attacks, according to a study by penetration testing and information security form Rapid7.

      Belgium tops the list, followed by Tajikistan and Samoa.

      The company compiled what it calls a “heat map” of the Internet, looking for servers that had exposed ports that could be compromised.

    • University pays almost $16,000 to recover crucial data held hostage

      Canada’s University of Calgary paid almost $16,000 ($20,000 Canadian, ~£10,800) to recover crucial data that has been held hostage for more than a week by crypto ransomware attackers.

      The ransom was disclosed on Wednesday morning in a statement issued by University of Calgary officials. It said university IT personnel had made progress in isolating the unnamed ransomware infection and restoring affected parts of the university network. It went on to warn that there’s no guarantee paying the controversial ransom will lead to the lost data being recovered.

  • Defence/Aggression

    • Assange: Rasmussen Became NATO Chief After Secret Deal With Turkey, US

      Ex-Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen became NATO secretary general in 2009 in exchange for a secret deal with Turkey and the United States to close the Kurdish Roj TV satellite broadcaster operating in Denmark, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said Tuesday.

    • It’s Still Remarkably Easy For Criminals To Buy Guns On Facebook

      The ban, implemented in January, prohibits the private, person-to-person sales of guns, but allows gun clubs and licensed dealers to continue to operate Facebook and Instagram accounts. As Vocativ reported in February, the ban didn’t stop the online sale of guns, it just moved several online firearm marketplaces to other social media websites. Now, it appears private marketplaces on Facebook are still flourishing and in many cases do not appear to be adhering to the social network’s gun policy.

    • Netanyahu vows ‘decisive’ response to Tel Aviv attack

      Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday vowed a “decisive” response to Wednesday’s deadly terror attack in Tel Aviv, and said Israel’s security services would track down any who may have aided the shooters.

      Netanyahu, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman and Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan visited the Sarona Market in central Tel Aviv, site of Wednesday night’s shooting attack, following an emergency briefing at IDF headquarters, according to a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office.

    • UK Illegally Harasses Russian Submarine Engaged in Lawful Passage of English Channel

      Contrary to Article 44 of the UN Convention of the Law of the Sea, to which the UK and Russia are both party, the UK has engaged in extensive illegal harassment of a Russian naval submarine engaged in fully lawful transit of the Dover Strait.

      A Russian naval vessel en route between the Baltic and Black Seas is fully and specifically entitled under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea Articles 37 and 38 to the right of passage through the strait. This is in addition to the general right of passage through the territorial sea at Article 17. The Russian navy was in full compliance with the provision at Article 20 that, while in territorial waters, the submarine must be on the surface and displaying its flag, and in compliance with Articles 29 to 32 on warships.

      Not only does the Russian Navy have every right to sail through the Dover strait on passage, it has been exercising that right – along with many other navies – for over a hundred years. The decision of the British government now to employ military harassment and threat is not only illegal, it is a gross and entirely deliberate act of provocation designed to sour international relations and disturb the atmosphere of world peace.

    • Newly released records cast doubt on FBI claims about its actions in Cambridge days after marathon bombings

      Newly released Cambridge Police Department records cast doubt on FBI claims about its agents’ activities in Cambridge in the critical hours before the Tsarnaev brothers allegedly shot and killed MIT police officer Sean Collier, carjacked another man, and engaged in a spectacular firefight with police officers in a quiet suburban residential neighborhood in Watertown. The new records provide additional backdrop to rumors among local law enforcement that the FBI has greatly misrepresented the truth about its knowledge of and relationship to the elder brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev.

    • After a Deadly Attack in Tel Aviv, Police Are Urged to Execute a Captive Suspect

      The civilian’s demand for the immediate, extrajudicial killing of the suspected gunman by officers echoes a similar call heard on another Tel Aviv street in March, when a police volunteer shot a Palestinian suspected of killing an American tourist, after he had already been wounded and immobilized.

    • Calling Out Drone War as a War Crime

      Night and day, U.S. “pilots” sit in cushioned chairs near Las Vegas, commanding drones on the other side of the planet, tracking and killing people, what retired Col. Ann Wright and other activists call a war crime, writes Dennis J Bernstein.

    • Democrats Are Now the Aggressive War Party

      For nearly a half century – since late in the Vietnam War – the Democrats have been the less warlike of the two parties, but that has flipped with the choice of war hawk Hillary Clinton, writes Robert Parry.

    • FBI is “Cooking Up” Cases Against Muslims

      “A 2014 study, “Inventing Terrorists: the Lawfare of Preventive Prosecution” by Project Salam and the National Coalition to Protect Civil Freedoms, found that almost every domestic terrorist plot from 2001 to 2010 was in some way cooked up or assisted (and eventually ‘busted’) by the FBI. The report analyzed about 400 domestic terror cases and found only that only four cases were initiated or driven without the encouragement of the bureau.

  • Environment/Energy/Wildlife/Nature

    • Anti-Fracking Momentum Grows with Another People’s Victory in California

      Notching another victory for the growing national anti-fracking movement, voters in Butte County, California on Tuesday overwhelmingly passed a measure that bans the controversial oil and gas drilling process in their communities.

      Measure E won with 71 percent of the vote, making Butte the fourth California county to pass such a measure, following Mendocino, San Benito, and Santa Cruz counties, and adding to the growing list of states and municipalities across the nation that have come out against fracking.

      Agriculture is the top industry in Butte County, which sits just north of Sacramento. Proponents of the measure argued that threatening the aquifers with toxic fracking chemicals would destroy the “lifeblood” of the local economy.

  • Finance

    • Coalition may add clause to Japan trade deal that lets foreign companies sue Australia

      The Turnbull government is considering adding a controversial provision to the Japan-Australia free-trade agreement that would allow foreign corporations to sue the Australian government.

      It has been negotiating with Japan’s government about the plan but no conclusion has been reached.

      The provision is called an “investor state dispute settlement” (ISDS).

      ISDS provisions allow foreign corporations to sue the Australian government in an international tribunal if they think the government has introduced or changed laws that significantly hurt their interests.

  • AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

    • How California is being stolen from Sanders right now

      There are a mind-blowing 4.2 million voters in California registered NPP – and they share a love for sunshine and Bernie Sanders. According to the reliable Golden State poll, among NPP voters, Sen. Sanders whoops Sec. Hillary Clinton by a stunning 40 percentage points.

      [...]

      On the other team, registered Democrats prefer Clinton by a YUGE 30 points. NPP’s can vote in the Democratic primary, so, the California primary comes down to a fight between D’s and NPP’s.

      And there’s the rub. In some counties like Los Angeles, it’s not easy for an NPP to claim their right vote in the Democratic primary – and in other counties, nearly impossible.

      Example: In Santa Rosa, Sonoma County, if you don’t say the magic words, “I want a Democratic crossover ballot,” you are automatically given a ballot without the presidential race. And ready for this, if an NPP voter asks the poll worker, “How do I get to vote in the Democratic party primary, they are instructed to say that, “NPP voters can’t get Democratic ballots.” They are ordered not to breathe a word that the voter can get a “crossover” ballot that includes the presidential race.

      I’m not kidding. This is from the official Election Officer Training Manual page 49:

      “A No Party Preference voter will need to request a crossover ballot from the Roster Index Officer. (Do not offer them a crossover ballot if they do not ask).”

    • Sanders Campaign Prepares For Run As An Independent

      A quiet burst of activity from the Sanders campaign seems to all but guarantee that Sanders will run as an independent this election cycle. All across the country Sanders’ core infrastructure of volunteers and paid staff are mobilizing to collect signatures and perform necessary paperwork to get him on the general election ballots in the states.

      Officials highly placed within the Sanders campaign remain evasive and deny that the senator plans, at this time, to run as an independent. Bernie’s campaign manager, Jeff Weaver, has stated time and time again that they intend to go all the way to the convention and make the case that Sanders should be the Democratic nominee for the 2016 general election. But the Sanders campaign is actively engaging in activities, within the states, that have no other purpose besides putting Sanders in the position of being able to run as an independent candidate against Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.

    • J’Accuse! WikiLeaks Founder Assange Claims Google Has Deal With Clinton

      Moreover, the Internet giant Google is heavily integrated with the US establishment and is allying with the US exceptionalism campaign, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said Tuesday.

      “Google is heavily integrated with Washington power, at personal level and at business level… Google which has increasing control over the distribution channels… is intensely allying itself US exceptionalism,” Assange added.

      Speaking about about Hillary Clinton as presumptive presidential nominee from the US Democrat party Assange said that she “seemingly” wants to start wars, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said Tuesday.

    • Clinton tech aide asks court to keep immunity deal secret

      A former technology adviser to Hillary Clinton is seeking to keep under wraps an immunity deal the aide reached with the Justice Department in its investigation into Clinton’s use of a private email server as secretary of state.

      A lawyer for Bryan Pagliano submitted a sealed motion and exhibits to U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan Tuesday afternoon, less than two hours before the 5 p.m. deadline Sullivan set for the filing of Pagliano’s immunity agreement.

      A legal memorandum filed publicly Tuesday confirms for the first time that Pagliano reached such an immunity agreement, and lays out arguments for why he should still be able to assert his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination in a Freedom of Information Act suit a conservative group, Judicial Watch, is pursuing over Clinton’s email set-up.

    • Depoliticizing Anti-Trump Protests Plays Into Right-Wing Narrative

      Like all movements in the fascism family, Donald Trump’s presidential campaign is based on an ethnonationalist fear that impure elements within our borders (Muslims, Mexicans, “welfare thugs” and other powerless people) will fatally corrode this great nation if they’re not purged. A roundup by the Southern Poverty Law Center indicates that white nationalists are celebrating Trump as the savior for whom they’ve waited so long. Their hopes are captured in a popular neo-Nazi edit of the movie 300, which shows Trump rambling about globalism before kicking President Obama down a well shaft. The message: Emperor Trump will save white America (the one true America) from the hordes.

    • Thank You Bernie

      Sharing the bittersweet aftermath of Clinton’s likely victory, Bernie supporters have flooded the hashtag #ThankYouBernie with heartfelt thanks for a remarkable campaign by a man who’s already spent 50 years fighting to give a voice to the voiceless. They’ve thanked him for ignoring the experts, taking on the Democratic establishment, and fighting like hell; for recognizing black and poor and Palestinian lives; for newly inspiring the young and not-so-young who’d years back gave up on being inspired, but who now vow to keep on fighting; for being humble, gracious, tireless despite the denial and condescension of most mainstream media; for “accepting misfits, radicals, rabble-rousers and rappers into the inner circle of your campaign”; for speaking the truth, doing what’s right, staying on track, giving a damn. One meme circulating: “Do no harm, but take no shit.” May he, and we, prevail.f

    • Hillary Clinton’s State Department Gave South Sudan’s Military a Pass for Its Child Soldiers

      I met a few of them in the town of Pibor last year. These battle-tested veterans had just completed two or three years of military service. They told me about the rigors of a soldier’s life, about toting AK-47s, about the circumstances that led them to take up arms. In the United States, not one of these soldiers would have met the age requirements to enlist in the Army. None were older than 16.

    • Mainstream Media Didn’t Hold Back in Headlines About Clinton and Sanders

      If you were one of millions of Americans who went to the polls Tuesday night in the hope of putting Bernie Sanders in the White House, you were probably disappointed with the outcome of the most recent round of primaries. But supporters of Hillary Clinton were likely thrilled, and it seems that much of the mainstream media joined in on the revelry.

      Amid the onslaught of news coverage surrounding Clinton’s victories, perhaps the media was simply trying to engage readers with gripping headlines. But in an election season that has already seen complaints of media bias against Sanders, several of Tuesday night’s top headlines seemed to bask in Sanders’ defeat.

    • Jill Stein to Bernie Sanders: Join the Green Party Ticket (Video)

      Stein also pushed back on the notion that introducing a viable third-party element into the presidential contest at this stage would represent another “spoiler” situation that would boost presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump’s chances of taking over the White House. In other words, although a ballot featuring Trump’s and Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton’s names may induce déjà vu for many voters, this isn’t a repeat of the 2000 election, when Green Party candidate Ralph Nader was branded a fatal distraction by Democratic contender Al Gore’s supporters.

      “Let me just say that ‘spoiler’ presumes that democracy is bad and that choices are bad,” Stein said. “And actually what’s really different from 2000 is that voters are saying, ‘Screw the system. Throw it under the bus!’ And not only the system but the candidates … and people are clamoring for independent parties and independent candidates and more voices and more choices.”

    • Why Clinton Has Already Lost Wisconsin

      The desultory, divided, and demoralized state Democratic party held its annual convention over the past weekend in Green Bay, home of the Packers. Bernie Sanders had won the state handily, and the Superdelegates went right along with the Clinton team anyway. Why would they concern themselves with the popular vote, the mass rallies, and the contrast to Hillary’s appearance in small venues or (in Madison) by-invitation-only events?

  • Censorship/Free Speech

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • NSA’s Curious Goal-Post Moving on Snowden’s Complaints

      In our piece on NSA’s response to requests for records of Edward Snowden’s complaints, Jason Leopold and I reported that a senior NSA official apologized to Admiral Mike Rogers for providing insufficient context about Snowden’s contacts with oversight entities before Snowden’s email to OGC got released on May 29, 2014. (See PDF 6 for the email and response as they got publicly released.) More importantly, we reported that the apology — written after several days of fact-checking — included at least one clear error. After we pointed that out to the intelligence community and asked questions for clarification, the NSA significantly moved the goalposts on its claims about whether Snowden had raised concerns, denying that Snowden had talked to the top three NSA officials rather than lower level ones. Here’s why I think that’s significant.

    • Former CIA, NSA Director Michael Hayden to Speak at AAPEX 2016 [Ed: Automotives event to be brought you by the guy who brags about killing people based on metadata]
    • U.K. Commons Passes Controversial ‘Snooper’s Charter’ Bill

      The U.K. House of Commons on Tuesday passed a controversial bill giving spy agencies the power to engage in bulk surveillance and computer hacking.

    • UK Parliament Ignores Concerns; Moves Snooper’s Charter Forward

      This isn’t necessarily a huge surprise, but the UK’s House of Commons overwhelmingly voted in support of the Snooper’s Charter, officially known as the Investigatory Powers Bill. As we’ve discussed, this is a dangerous bill that will give the UK government significantly more surveillance powers (or, in many cases, will “authorize” things that the UK government has already been doing on dubious legal authority), with little to no real oversight. And despite people being upset about it, it still was approved by a vote of 444 to 69. And, yes, the current version of the bill still asks for backdoors to encryption, but leaves a vague exemption if a company claims that it would not be feasible or would be too expensive. That’s better than the alternative, but it’s still a step in the wrong direction. The bill still needs to be considered by the House of Lords, but it’s disappointing that the House of Commons seemed so willing to cave to demands for more surveillance powers.

    • This is how the National Crime Agency thinks your internet connection records will look if the Snooper’s Charter passes into law

      The National Crime Agency gave a briefing to press yesterday about how it believed investigatory powers are necessary for the organisation to perform its role, and how it would like internet communication information to be displayed.

      Speaking to the press at a briefing yesterday, the same day the controversial Investigatory Powers Bill – or Snooper’s Charter – continued its journey into UK law, the National Crime Agency (NCA) laid out how it wants the internet connection records (ICR) of suspects it’s investigating to look, should the bill pass.

      The NCA is responsible for investigating organised crime like human, weapon and drug trafficking; cyber crime; economic crime and plays an increasingly important role in investigating terrorism.

    • The New York Times Is Preparing to Step Up Its War on Ad Blockers [iophk: "somehow the article(s) omit addressing properly the malware and trackers they were serving up via the "ads""]

      Like most online publishers, the New York Times is fighting an ongoing guerrilla war against ad blocking, a phenomenon that a recent study said could lead to more than $35 billion in losses for media companies by 2020. NYT chief executive Mark Thompson now says he is even considering what amounts to a nuclear option: Banning users with ad blockers completely.

    • Google To Deprecate SSLv3, RC4 in Gmail IMAP/POP Clients

      Google said that it will initiate on June 16 a gradual deprecation of SSLv3 and RC4 for Gmail IMAP/POP mail clients.

      Both the crypto protocols cipher are notoriously unsafe and are being phased out in big chunks of the Internet. Google, for its part, had already announced in May that it would no longer support SSLv3 and RC4 connections for Gmail SMTP.

    • The Troubling Metadata Sharing Program That Was Just Revealed in the UK

      For years, and in secret, UK law enforcement agencies have had access to metadata collected by the country’s powerful signals intelligence agency GCHQ.

      The fact this power has only been revealed now raises serious questions around government transparency, especially while Home Secretary Theresa May and others are pushing a controversial surveillance law on the premise that law enforcement need greater visibility into criminals using the internet.

      Through a program called MILKWHITE, revealed on Tuesday in Snowden documents published by The Intercept, the Metropolitan Police, Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and more have been able to dig through GCHQ’s intercepts for things such as IP addresses.

      According to The Intercept, MILKWHITE stretches all the way back to September 2009, and may include information on British calls, emails and browsing data. (It’s not totally clear what amount or exact type of data has been provided to law enforcement—The Intercept suggests it was collected by GCHQ’s tapping of undersea cables).

    • Snowden and the NSA Gets Curiouser and Curiouser

      However, the NSA maintained then and still maintains that it could find only one email message from Snowden that touched on the subject.

      Snowden did much more than send a single email warning, Vice found.

      He had an in-person interaction with one of the people who responded to his email, for example. The NSA, the administration and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., all made efforts to discredit him, the FOIA documents revealed.

      After releasing the documents to Vice, the NSA posted them to its website, along with a reaffirmation of its original position.

    • VICE’s Vice: Snowden Scoop Promises Fire, Doesn’t Even Muster Smoke

      Over the weekend, VICE published a story entitled “Exclusive: Snowden Tried to Tell NSA About Surveillance Concerns, Documents Reveal.” If you haven’t read it, don’t bother. By its incendiary headline, the story—the product of documents released as part of a FOIA lawsuit—would purport to be an outright validation of Edward Snowden’s claims that he repeatedly tried to raise surveillance concerns with NSA officials but was ignored. But as journalist Mike Sacks put it, the story is “thousands of words promising fire and there’s not even any smoke.”

    • Watch the Full Episode: ‘State of Surveillance’ with Edward Snowden and Shane Smith

      The full episode of VICE on HBO’s ‘State of Surveillance’ is available to stream for free on VICE News.

      When NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden leaked details of massive government surveillance programs in 2013, he ignited a raging debate over digital privacy and security. That debate came to a head this year, when Apple refused an FBI court order to access the iPhone of alleged San Bernardino Terrorist Syed Farook. Meanwhile, journalists and activists are under increasing attack from foreign agents. To find out the government’s real capabilities, and whether any of us can truly protect our sensitive information, VICE founder Shane Smith heads to Moscow to meet the man who started the conversation, Edward Snowden.

    • Muhammad Ali Was a Victim of Illegal NSA Surveillance

      With the recent passing of the boxer considered by many to be “the greatest of all time,” the world has stopped to reflect upon his legacy outside of the ring. It was no secret that Ali was just as outspoken about his political and religious beliefs as he was about his opinions of his boxing opponents. At the height of his career, the man formerly known as Cassius Clay spoke out against U.S. War in Vietnam and became a conscientious objector to the draft.

      Because of his actions that he took because of his commitment to his Islamic faith, the U.S. government jailed him for draft evasion. In response to requests for explanation of his actions, the world heavyweight champ said, “Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go 10,000 miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on Brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights?”

    • Forty-One Secret Service Employees Punished For Illegally Accessing Congressman’s Private Data In Hopes Of Discrediting Him

      When Rep. Jason Chaffetz began asking the Secret Service about its string of high-profile failures, agents were quick to respond… with attempts to undermine the Congressman’s credibility. Eighteen minutes after the hearings started, Secret Service agents — dozens of them — began poring through his 2003 Secret Service application in hopes of finding a few skeletons in his previously-vetted closet.

      Even Secret Service Assistant Director Ed Lowery got in on the illegal fun, suggesting via email that “some information [Chaffetz] finds embarrassing needs to get out.” Information did get out, but it had no effect on Chaffetz’s reputation. The only people embarassed were the Secret Service and DHS head Jeh Johnson, who was forced to apologize on its behalf.

      Johnson’s press release, detailing the results of the DHS’s investigation of the incident, shows dozens were questioned about this violation of the Privacy Act. Better yet, it shows dozens were punished for their misconduct.

    • Almost three quarters don’t know powers of Bill which will ‘end online privacy and put our personal security at risk’
    • Snoopers’ Charter: ‘Independent’ reviewer worked at GCHQ

      A SUPPOSED independent reviewer for the Snoopers’ Charter worked at UK spy agency GCHQ for five years.

      MPs have already voted in favour of a third reading of the Investigatory Powers Bill, by a margin of 444 to 69, despite a huge backlash from people and pressure groups who want to see the bill shredded and never spoken of again.

      David Anderson QC, an independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, has condemned the bill and has now started a new review.

      “I will be asking whether the government has established a robust operational case for the bulk powers it says it needs, and examining whether similar results could have been reached by other, less intrusive, means,” he said.

    • FBI claimed Petraeus shared ‘top secret’ info with reporters

      The investigation that led CIA Director David Petraeus to resign and ultimately plead guilty to a criminal charge of mishandling classified information also uncovered evidence that he discussed highly classified information with journalists, according to a court document obtained Tuesday by POLITICO.

      Requesting a search warrant for Petraeus’ Arlington, Virginia home in 2013, an FBI agent told a federal magistrate the agency had two audio recordings in which the retired four-star Army general spoke with reporters about matters that authorities believed were “top secret.”

    • Snowden Docs Show GCHQ, MI5 To Be All Haystack, No Needle

      “Collect it all,” they said. “You can’t find needles without haystacks,” they proclaimed. “The more you know,” they rainbowed. All well and good, except the NSA, GCHQ, et al. appear to have far more in common with the protagonists of “Hoarding: Buried Alive” than with effective, finely-tuned terrorism-fighting machines.

      [...]

      This isn’t just an MI5 problem. And it’s not just a bulk surveillance problem. GCHQ uses the same “data broker” — a program called PRESTON, run by the National Technical Assistance Center, which is supposed to act as a go-between for intelligence agencies in order to prevent the siloing of data. But it doesn’t work. It has prevented agencies from walling each other off, but the info firehose is still too much for agencies to handle — even with more-targeted surveillance.

      Targeted collections fare little better than the bulk collections, in terms of needle location. The following chart shows how much data goes unutilized in cases where suspects are known and targeted with individualized warrants.

    • ZeroNet: An Open Source, Decentralized, And Anonymous Internet-like Network

      We have already discussed BitTorrent’s new Project Maelstrom which has the potential to change the way we interact with the Internet. When BitTorrent first announced Project Maelstrom, somewhere back in December 2014, a bunch of open source developers started a project called ZeroNet — an open alternative of Project Maelstrom.

  • Civil Rights/Policing

    • Senator Jeff Sessions Looks To Blast A Giant Hole In The 4th Amendment For ‘Emergency’ Response

      Yesterday we wrote about an already troubling attempt by Senator John Cornyn to attach a dangerous amendment to the Senate’s ECPA reform bill that would massively expand what kinds of electronic communications the FBI has access to (as we noted, the FBI already pretends it has access to this very info, so really this law would be papering over the FBI’s illegal collection of this info). But there’s another amendment, put forth by Senator Jeff Sessions, that is just as, if not more, troubling. It’s basically creating a massive loophole in the 4th Amendment, saying that any and all basic oversight can be tossed out the second the FBI declares the situation to be an “emergency.”

    • Russia Imprisoning Dozens Of Social Media Critics For ‘Hate Speech’

      We just wrote about the big social media companies agreeing to quickly take down content for “hate speech” in the EU, and warned about how problematic this was. The definition of “hate speech” matters quite a bit, and we’ve pointed out in the past how “hate speech” laws frequently morph into a tool for government censorship. So perhaps it should be no surprise at all that just around the same time that Google, Facebook, Twitter and Microsoft agreed to start censoring “hate speech” in the EU, we get another story from the Associated Press about how Russia is using its own hate speech laws to imprison dozens of critics who mocked the government on social media.

    • The death of due process

      Suppose someone is accused of rape, or some other horrifying crime. If the accusation is true then the perpetrator should go to jail. If the accusation is false then the source of this false accusation should pay for this slander. Clearly someone has broken the law.

      A lynch mob forms to punish the alleged rapist by whatever means possible. A second lynch mob forms to punish the accuser, the alleged slanderer, again by whatever means possible. These mobs are full of angry people who want to be judges and juries and executioners. The members of the first lynch mob dismiss the possibility that the accusation is false. The members of the second lynch mob dismiss the possibility that the accusation is true.

      Evidently many of these people are wrong: accidentally or maliciously deceived. At the same time all of these people are convinced that they know who deserves punishment.

    • Jacob Appelbaum statement

      In the past few days, a calculated and targeted attack has been launched to spread vicious and spurious allegations against me. Given the way these accusations have been handled, I had little choice but to resign from my position as an advocate at the Tor Project and devote my full attention to completing my doctoral work on cryptography at the Technical University of Eindhoven.

      Vague rumors and smear campaigns against me are nothing new. As a longtime public advocate for free speech and a secure internet, there have been plenty of attempts to undermine my work over the years.

      Now, however, these unsubstantiated and unfounded attacks have become so aggressive that I feel it’s necessary to set the record straight. Not only have I been the target of a fake website in my name that has falsely accused me of serious crimes, but I have also received death threats (including a Twitter handle entitled ‘TimeToDieJake’).

      I think it’s extremely damaging to the community that these character-assassination tactics are being deployed, especially given their ugly history of being used against fellow members of the LGBT community. It pains me to watch the community to which I’ve dedicated so much of my life engage in such self-destructive behavior. Nonetheless, I am prepared to use legal channels, if necessary, to defend my reputation from these libelous accusations.

    • Statement on Jacob Appelbaum

      In light of the allegations that have been made, Jacob Appelbaum is no longer a member of our outside volunteer technical advisory board. We hope that the serious accusations made against him, and his denial of them, are resolved as fairly and as expeditiously as possible.

    • Community 2.0

      The accused, Jacob Appelbaum, is a friend of mine, and I was quite surprised of the accusations.

      [...]

      As for the people being accused, we also need to understand that they could end up being innocent. We need to understand that they could also end up being guilty – but that they still have rights even if so. To a fair trial for instance. It’s important that we keep our heads cool and don’t fuel fires just because we want revenge. We should use that energy to support victims and to do what the tech community does best in other circumstances: rip up the old code and reimplement new code with the new experience you have. Let’s make a community version 2.0 – now for everyone and with exception handlers for the things we miss.

    • British police accused of helping to train Saudi ‘torturers’

      British police are teaching Saudi Arabian officers skills that could lead to the torture and execution of pro-democracy activists, a charity has warned.

      Personnel from the Arab kingdom’s interior ministry have been trained in detective work and high-tech forensics as a money-maker for the College of Policing, according to Reprieve, which has branded the programme “scandalous”.

      The anti-death penalty campaigning charity said an internal document showed the long-running partnership had continued despite a brutal crackdown by the regime following the 2011 Arab Spring that led to the torture of dozens of young protesters who were sentenced to death.

    • OHP Uses New Device To Seize Money Used During The Commission Of A Crime

      You may have heard of civil asset forfeiture.

      That’s where police can seize your property and cash without first proving you committed a crime; without a warrant and without arresting you, as long as they suspect that your property is somehow tied to a crime.

      Now, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol has a device that also allows them to seize money in your bank account or on prepaid cards.

    • Pakistani mother burns daughter to death in latest shocking ‘honour killing’ case

      A Pakistani mother has been arrested on suspicion of burning her 16-year-old daughter alive for marrying without family consent in the latest so-called “honour killing” to shock the country.

      Perveen Bibi, tied her daughter, Zeenat, to a bed, doused her with fuel and then set fire to her in Lahore, police said.

    • How Corrupt America Is

      The best reporting on the depth of America’s dictatorship is probably that being done by Atlanta Georgia’s NBC-affiliated, Gannett-owned, TV Channel “11 Alive”, WXIA television, “The Investigators” series of local investigative news reports, which show, up close and at a cellularly detailed level, the way things actually work in today’s America. Although it’s only local, it displays what meets the legal standards of the US federal government in actually any state in the union; so, it exposes the character of the US government, such that what’s shown to be true here, meets America’s standard for ‘democracy’, or else the federal government isn’t enforcing federal laws against it (which is the same thing as its meeting the federal government’s standards).

      The links to three of these local TV news reports will be provided, along with a summary of each of the videos; and then the broader context will be provided, which ties the local picture in with the national, and then the resulting international, picture. So, this will be like a zoom-lens view, starting with three selected close-ups, and then broadening the view to wide-angle, showing the context in terms of which what’s happening in that fine detail (those close-up views) makes sense.

      The central video will be the second of the three, which deals with the impact that the national organization called ALEC plays in creating the entire situation in the US, and which ties the Georgia-state reality in with the reality of the US federal government.

    • FBI Comes After the 4th Amendment

      While Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are battling in their final round in the Democratic primaries and Donald Trump is arguing that Clinton should be in prison for failing to safeguard state secrets while she was secretary of state, the same FBI that is diligently investigating her is quietly and perniciously seeking to cut more holes in the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution.

    • Pushing for Humane Immigration Reform

      The treatment of America’s 11 million undocumented immigrants has been a political football…

    • Newseum Honors Slain Journalists, Then Hosts Israeli Official Who Justified Killing Some

      The Newseum — a private Washington, D.C.-based museum dedicated to exhibits and events about the free press — began the week on Monday by rededicating its Journalists Memorial, which honors reporters who died in the line of fire.

      The next day, it hosted a discussion on the use of social media in war featuring a retired Israeli military official, Lt. Col. Avital Leibovich, who in 2012 justified the targeted killing of Palestinian journalists whose names appear on that memorial.

      Leibovich, who now works as the director of the American Jewish Committee’s Israel office, used her time on stage to essentially reprise her role as a spokesperson for the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), using slides and videos to show how the IDF is trying to rebut what she called a biased image of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from the Western media and Palestinians.

    • BuzzFeed Terminates Ad Deal With Republican Party Over Trump

      BuzzFeed has terminated a deal with the Republican National Committee to run political advertisements in the fall, the company’s CEO, Jonah Peretti, informed employees Monday morning.

      In an email, Peretti cited Donald Trump’s rhetoric and campaign promises as the reason for the decision to terminate the buy, worth $1.3 million according to a source who spoke with Politico.

      “Earlier today, BuzzFeed informed the RNC that we would not accept Trump for President ads and that we would be terminating our agreement with them,” Peretti said. “The Trump campaign is directly opposed to the freedoms of our employees in the United States and around the world and in some cases, such as his proposed ban on international travel for Muslims, would make it impossible for our employees to do their jobs.”

    • BuzzFeed Dumps Ad Deal With Republican National Committee Over Donald Trump
    • Native American Tribe Fights To Stop Texas From Auctioning Off Its Sacred Objects

      An upcoming auction in Texas intends to sell over 100 Native American items — including ceremonial pipes that are deeply sacred to the Oglala Sioux and guns that were used in the Massacre at Wounded Knee — over the objections of tribes who say it’s disrespectful.

      Attorneys for the Dallas-based Heritage Auctions say they can legally proceed with the sale. But the Oglala Sioux tribe intends to file an affidavit to prevent the sale of the ceremonial pipes.

      “These are our items, these are our laws,” Trina Lone Hill, the historic preservation officer for the Oglala Sioux Tribe, told ThinkProgress.

  • Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

    • Jesse Jackson Likens FCC Cable Box Reform Plan To ‘Snarling Dogs, Water Hoses And Church Bombings’

      Back in February the FCC voted to open up the captive cable set top box market to competition, potentially opening the door to better, cheaper hardware, but also putting an end to the $21 billion the cable industry makes annually in set top box rental fees. Shortly thereafter the cable industry responded by pushing an absolute torrent of misleading editorials in newspapers and in websites nationwide. Some of these editorials claim set top box competition will result in privacy, security, or piracy Armageddon. Most try to claim set top box competition is some kind of nefarious plan by Google to freeload on cable’s “amazing history of innovation.”

    • World Wide Web Creator Tim Berners-Lee Wants To Reinvent The Web

      Disappointed by the current state of the web, the World Wide Web creator Sir Tim Berners-Lee wishes to reinvent the web and make some amends. He feels that due to increased surveillance and barricades, the internet has deviated from its true purpose. “We don’t have a technology problem, we have a social problem,” Berners-Lee say pointing out the problem.

  • Brexit

    • Brexit: Gov’t UK voter registration site dies at worst possible moment [Updated]

      A government website used by British citizens to register to vote spectacularly failed at a key moment on Tuesday night—50,000 potential voters scrambled to log in at the same time during a major debate on the upcoming EU referendum.

      Brits had until midnight on June 7 to register to vote in the referendum. The government said that more than half a million people had added themselves to the electoral register on Tuesday. However, the number of people who attempted to access the site during the debate led to it falling over roughly an hour before the deadline for votes kicked in.

    • Nigel Farage spokesperson admits claim ’5,000 jihadi fighters have come to the EU’ isn’t true

      During last night’s EU referendum debate on ITV, Farage said: “[The boss of Europol] said that the migrant policy – and by the way these are not refugees, they are mostly economic – over the last year, sparked by Angela Merkel last year, led to up to 5,000 jihadis coming to the European Union in the space of the last 15 months.”

    • Nigel Farage destroyed by audience member in EU debate after telling woman to ‘calm down a little bit’

      Nigel Farage was blasted by a TV audience member after he told a woman to ‘calm down a little bit’ during an intense debate on the EU referendum .

      A woman grilled the UKIP leader about his views on the German sex attacks earlier this year.

      She questioned him about his comments that remaining in the EU could lead to similar attacks in the UK.

  • Intellectual Monopolies

    • Trademarks

      • Can a foreign trade mark really trump a local one in Uganda?

        A High Court trade mark judgment suggests that a foreign trade mark registration entitles the owner to registration of that trade mark in Uganda, despite conflicting Ugandan registrations. The decision shines a spotlight on the Paris Convention, some unusual provisions of the Ugandan Trademarks Act, and the East African Community, as Chris Walters explains

    • Copyrights

      • Growing Coalition Opposes California Exerting Copyright Over Public Records

        California’s A.B. 2880 will give government agencies the power to put copyright restrictions on their work. That means state bureaucrats will be able to wrap their reports, research, e-mails, and even videos of public meetings in onerous legal restrictions, backed by federal lawsuits and six-figure penalties. The bill would change California from one of the most open state governments to one of the least open. EFF opposed the bill and explained its dangers to the State Assembly.

06.08.16

Caricature of the Day: Presidential Brakes

Posted in Europe, Humour, Patents at 8:55 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

President without brakes

Summary: The latest widely-circulated cartoon about the so-called 'Bike Affair'

Leaks Required: EPO’s Plan to Crush the Appeal Boards and Media Contracts for Puff Pieces

Posted in Europe, Patents at 8:36 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

They just keep repeating the “SME” line…

EPO SME

Summary: A call for transparency in this age of bought press coverage and an attempt to crush quality control at the EPO, i.e. expand the number of patents without any regard to public interests

EARLIER today we covered this year’s effort to subvert the media, or the EPO‘s paid puff pieces. We can expect more of that tomorrow and perhaps well into the weekend if not beyond. Will any attention be paid to staff protests in multiple sites tomorrow? SUEPO does not buy media organisations.

EPO management buying the media is not exactly news. Literally millions of Euros were spent buying the media last year. This is where EPO budget goes; even celebrity endorsements more or less. There’s a bunch of hashtags being used to carry such paid coverage and if somebody knows how much the EPO paid the Financial Times for this publicity stunt, please get in touch. We want the facts. Tweets like this one are a disgrace not just to the EPO but also to the media. “FT Special Reports” perhaps means purchased ‘reports’. Their Twitter account says: “Our customer service team is @FTcare.”

“EPO management buying the media is not exactly news. Literally millions of Euros were spent buying the media last year.”Right now, judging by the output so far, the EPO spreads “SME” propaganda (see the image the top, taken from this tweet) while giving a priority to large corporations, in effect attacking SMEs’ interests. The UPC, which the EPO promotes, harms SME and they say so themselves while complaining about those who misrepresent them.

Earlier today we showed how IAM was again pushing the "SME" angle for UPC. It was soon thereafter that IAM started pushing for software patents with sponsored ‘articles’ (marketing). Bought ‘articles’ go a long way. In addition to this, the EPO apparently got someone from the Guardian to do the whitewashing exercise. It’s the same ‘news’ paper which also took lots of money (effectively bribes) from Bill Gates to create entire sections for him and promote his for-profit ventures/investments for years (purchased pseudo-journalism). What on Earth is going on and who exactly is being paid? The invoicing is pretty secretive and we can only make an appeal for information. This kind of information needs to be out there for Europeans to see. This in itself is an EPO scandal.

“The invoicing is pretty secretive and we can only make an appeal for information.”In the mean time, the IP Kat ban was removed (at what cost? Will IP Kat self-censor after this kind of warning shot?), making available again articles like that which SUEPO called: “Analysis of the increase in appeal fees on the number of appeals filed before the Boards of Appeal.”

Merpel has got access to a leaked document, but she almost certainly won’t publish it after the EPO banned the site for a day (maybe unrelated to this), so if anyone has a copy, please send it our way for publication. To quote Merpel:

Yes, Merpel has seen a copy, but it is not publicly available and Merpel is not in a position to post it. She hopes that there is enough information in this post (and in the precursor proposal CA/16/15 which is public and linked above) for you to raise concerns as appropriate.

We need more information out there as the EPO is far too secretive. Transparency is what would lead to justice at the EPO. █

[ES] Mirada Cercana a los Protagonistas de la Guerra Informativa de Battistellir: Parte IV (Wellkom)

Posted in Europe, Patents at 10:33 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

English/Original

Article as ODF

Publicado en Europa, Patentes at 4:16 am por el Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Sloeber

Fuente: TV Belga se Burla de Battistelli Por Todo Lo Que Se Ha Salido Con la Suya

Sumario: Otra mirada al contrato secreto con Wellkom, el cual ayuda a enterrar preocupaciónes acerca de deprimidos (y a veces suicidas) empleados de la EPO, revela que incluso un proceso curativo fue seguido

Escribimos previamente acerca de una empresa bastante siniéstra. Cuanto más cerca se mira, más astuta parece porque a diferencia de otros casos (por ejemplo BlueCoat), aquí también hay un elemento de secreto. En cuanto a BlueCoat, nos dijo un lector “, según algunas fuentes, el tráfico de Internet de todos los sitios de la EPO está pasando por La Haya (que tiene las pocas direcciones IP con la que está conectado el servidor proxy, estoy muy seguro). Por lo que esta puede ser la razón natural por qué los electrodomésticos Blue Coat (?) por necesidad (sólo) se encuentran allí”.

Estamos empezando a tener una idea más precisa de cómo funcionan realmente las cosas detrás de las escenas en el Reino de Eponia y cuanto más nos damos cuenta, peor se está consiguiendo. La prensa se sobornó, «estudios» falsos configurados,por lo Bluecoat es sólo el borde de un iceberg. Todavía estamos tratando difícil de conseguir de detalles acerca de Microsoft contrato de la EPO / s, ya que parece ser un tema que la EPO es extremadamente nerviosos acerca de (suficiente para enviar amenazas legales a los bloggers). Ayer la EPO promovió herramientas que normalmente requieren los solicitantes o los abogados que sean clientes de Microsoft, aunque la EPO no lo mencionó. Nunca lo hace. Lo mismo resulta ser el caso de la UPC, que el portavoz de la EPO, IAM, se sigue promoviendo para que (este “artículo” es más como una especie de pieza de hojaldre/publicidad), después de haber recibido dinero de firma de relaciones públicas de la EPO. Para citar el editor en jefe sesgada de esta boquilla de la EPO: “También les dejará en una buena posición para hacer la mayor parte de lo que podría pasar después en Europa, que el voto del Reino Unido para permanecer en la UE y la UPC despega.”

“Basados en la información que hemos estado recibiendo, los practicantes/asesores de salud están fanáticamente preocupados por la salud del personal de EPO, de haber visto cosas que les horrorizaban.”

En esta última frase, IAM promueve la ficción de que si el Reino Unido se mantiene en la UE, que sólo hará que la UPC sea una realidad (no importa otros obstáculos entre ellos España). ejemplos anteriores de la UPC presión por parte de la boquilla del OPE incluyeron la vergüenza de los políticos europeos (o naciones) que no hicieron lo suficiente para promover la UPC. Cuando va a empezar a pagar la EPO empresas de la UPC ‘estudios’, con el fin de reforzar los esfuerzos de presión de Battistelli IAM fue “apoyada” por la EPO para configurar un evento pro-UPC en los EE.UU. a principios de este año.

Hemos decidido echar un vistazo más de cerca a los contratos o por lo menos ofertas relativas a la EPO, en un esfuerzo para encontrar lo que sea referente a Wellkom y los gustos de ella (la propaganda/arreglada de cal disfrazados de ‘encuesta’/’estudio’). No hemos podido encontrar ningún anuncio de licitación en el último año en relación con la prestación de un estudio personal. Sin embargo, la EPO exige ofertas competitivas para todo tipo de servicios que incluyen encuestas a los clientes. Si el trabajo Wellkom había sido ofrecido formalmente, entonces no habría un rastro de ella en virtud de TED. Por extraño que deben utilizar un sitio de la UE, si son tan independientes. Las ofertas también se pueden encontrar en el sitio web de la EPO, pero aquí hay TED:

EPO tenders
Click for original-sized screenshot

No hay ada hay sobre el trabajo Wellkom. ¿La transparencia no espera?

El personal de la EPO debe pedir serias dudas acerca de esta firma que pretende ser la evaluación del estado de salud del personal, cuando en realidad el secuestro de voces del personal con el fin de ayudar a la propaganda de Battistelli y hacer a su vez su personal muertos en sus tumbas. Con base en la información que hemos estado recibiendo, asesores médicos/de salud están fanáticamente preocupados por la salud del personal de EPO, de haber visto cosas que les horrorizaban. El trabajo de Wellkom es básicamente para desacreditar esas observaciones y crear una realidad (falsa) alternativa.

[ES] Mirada Cercana a los Protagonistas en la Guerra Informativa de Battistelli: Parte III (Comprando a los Medios, Fabricando ´estudios´con Contratos Secrétos)

Posted in Deception, Europe, Patents at 10:25 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

English/Original

Article as ODF

Publicado en Europa, Patentes at 4:35 pm por el Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Cabildeándo al público y a sus representatntes al pagar firmas privadas para decir lo que el Presidente dese decir y pagar a reporteros a repetir lo mismo como loros

Exxon knew

El alto costo/peaje de un jefe republicano con visión empresarial no científica: Benoît Battistelli utiliza las mismas tácticas que los gigantes del petróleo con el fin de poner en duda la incertidumbre/elenco de hechos probados, por lo general mediante el pago de las personas a engañar a los funcionarios públicos y privados, con lo que se perpetúa el daño y la miseria causando daños severos en la reputación de la oficina tradicional-científica en el largo plazo

Sumario: El modelo de propaganda de Benoît Battistelli es ilustrado usando detalles acerca de diferéntes contratos que firma no sólo con firmas PR pero también con compañíás dueñas de los medios y firmas de ‘investigación’ (con ataduras fináncieras)

ESTE post se basa en los dos documentos adjuntos en la parte inferior. Ellos pueden parecer bastante banales (basado en plantillas), pero en una etapa posterior que se va a proporcionar un cierto contexto crucial. Estas son las ofertas para la propaganda, que la EPO es ahora reconocido internacionalmente por (si no es notorio por). La EPO incluso da contratos a compañías bien fuera de Europa para estos fines maliciosos y necesidades percibidas (desperdicios). En la primera parte hemos dado un ejemplo del Reino Unido y en la segunda parte de los EE.UU.. Detectar el patrón perturbador aquí. La EPO es internacional, no es Europea. Sólo tiene “Europeo” en su nombre y el personal es europeo.

“La EPO es internacional, no es Europea. Sólo tiene “Europeo” en su nombre y el personal es europeo.”

A la EPO le gusta esparcir divertidos infographics y videos acerca de sus llamados ‘resultados’ que no son un resultado exácto del exito de la EPO, a menos que uno adopte una yarda/aproximamiento neoliberal y arregle los libros [1, 2, 3].

El matrimonio por conveniéncia de la EPO y IAMahora pretenden queesta cosa dudosa que ellos llaman ‘encuesta’demuestra la cálida de la EPO y temprano hoy la EPO publicóuna pieza de lavandería acerca de ello (warning: epo.org link), citando a sus viejos socios (a los cuáles la firma PR de la EPO paga), aún citando el mentiroso en jefe: “” La calidad es nuestra prioridad estratégica “, dijo el presidente de la EPO Benoît Battistelli. “Hemos sido certificada ISO 9001 para nuestro proceso de concesión desde 2014 y se amplió para abarcar todo el proceso de patentes el año pasado. afirmación de nuestra alta calidad de los usuarios es un crédito para el personal de EPO que aumentó su producción en un 14% en 2015, en un momento cuando las aplicaciones se elevaron un 4,8% más, todo ello sin comprometer la calidad. Estos buenos resultados nos inspiran a seguir mejorando la calidad de nuestros servicios “” (repetición de afirmaciones dudosas si no de mentiras absolutas).

Recuérden que bajo el régimen de Benoît Battistelli la EPO literalmente paga a organizaciones de los medios como CNN grandes cantidades de dinero. La EPO no sólo miente al por mayor; también desperdicia cantidades extraordinarias de dinero que pagan los medios para repetir las mentiras y el pago de los ”estudios‘ fálsos, artículos de escritores fantasma, etc. Escandaloso, seguro que sí, pero ¿dónde está la responsabilidad en Eponia?

“La EPO no sólo miente al por mayor; también desperdicia cantidades extraordinarias de dinero que pagan los medios para repetir las mentiras y el pago de los ”estudios’ fálsos, artículos de escritores fantasma, etc. Escandaloso, seguro que sí, pero ¿dónde está la responsabilidad en Eponia?”

En los documentos a continuación vemos algunos detalles sobre los contratos secretos (que no hemos visto todavía, por lo que las más fugas son bienvenidas). Bueno, la primera dice “Objeto del contrato” es “Prestación de servicios de consultoría para el diseño y ejecución de los centros de evaluación para puestos de dirección de la Oficina Europea de Patentes”, mientras que el segundo dice “Prestación de servicios de consultoría para e-Business Research y barómetro los estudios del departamento de EPO servicios en línea, que consisten en el diseño mutuo de cuestionarios, entrevistas a clientes de EPO en varios países y seguido de análisis y la presentación de resultados “.

La mejor analogía es la Fundación Gates (veán nuestra Wiki acerca de ella). Desde hace varios años ha estado llevando a cabo los llamados «estudios» para su trabajo de lobby que ayudan a Bill (y su esposa) de beneficio mejor de sus inversiones corporativas y ahogan puntos de vistas opuestos en plataformas como paneles, la literatura, etc. Hemos escrito muchas artículos que proporcionan cientos de ejemplos de esto. La EPO se parece mucho a Bill Gates, en el sentido de que ambas compañías sobornan a los medios para “plantar” sus propios “artículos” que es nada menos que las piezas sean glamour. La gente no está acostumbrada a ver los artículos críticos de Bill Gates porque él paga por tantas piezas de hojaldre que ahogan todo lo contrario (periodismo de investigación). La última vez que nos registramos (que utiliza para seguir de cerca este), Bill Gates estaba gastando $ 300 millones por año sobornando esencialmente los medios de comunicación. Lo llaman “promoción” o “comunicaciones”, pero en la práctica se trata de pasar las cajas de dinero en efectivo para las organizaciones de medios de comunicación, con lo cual se convierten en portavoces como “socios de los medios” de Battistelli. Nuestros lectores son lo suficientemente inteligente para saber que muchas compañías de medios de comunicación son la estenografía o PR (piezas de hojaldre) para la venta. Que en realidad es su modelo de negocio (para sobrevivir). Las compañías de medios necesitan “amortiguador” todos los anuncios y puff/piezas disfrazadas de periodismo legítimo (costoso) para ocultar el modelo de agenda real/negocio, pero es cuando la gente como Battistelli tiran un millón de dólares a la CNN que realmente escuchan la marcha registro “ka-ching”.

Acerca de esta llamada ‘encuesta’ o dos de Battistelli (hay muchas en camino), poniéndo aparte el cubrimiénto de prensa corrupot este nuevo comentario dice: “Estas en lo correcto, los resultados de encuesta al personal son pésimos. Los indicadores de estress están fuera de la escala. Me pregunto ¿si el “estudio social” conducido por la gerencia de la EPO encontrará muchas causas similares de preoucupación?

“Nuestros lectores son lo sufici entemente sabios para darse cuenta que muchas compañíás de los medios son estenógrafos o PR (piezas de hojaldre) a la venta.”

“Sin el deseo de disminuir la importancia del estudio en poner de relieve la difícil situación actual de los empleados de EPO, no pude dejar de notar algunos números que (o al menos deberían) dar a los abogados de patentes un motivo de alarma.

“En particular, parece que sólo el 30% de los encuestados cree que se les proporcionó el tiempo necesario para realizar su trabajo correctamente. Esto significa que 7 de cada 10 encuestados (66% de los cuales eran de DG1) creen que – al menos no siempre – realizan su trabajo al nivel que les gustaría. En combinación con los múltiples indicadores que apunta a la preocupación por una disminución de la calidad (por ejemplo, más del 90% de los encuestados cree que la importancia de acuerdo con la calidad ha disminuido en los últimos 3 años), esto hace que sea bastante claro que los médicos están tratando con una EPO que está marchando con rapidez por el camino a un examen normal “rápido y sucio”.

“Todo muy bien, pero es que lo que los usuarios quieren? Lo dudo mucho – sobre todo porque los derechos de examen ciertamente no han disminuido en los últimos años “.

Esto fue dicho en relación con esta nueva encuesta, que va a ayudar a refutar la propaganda de Battistelli en la fabricación (ver los documentos abajo).

“Recuérden que el Presidente de la EPO actualmente está tratándo de deshacerce de las Salas de Recurso por completo, en esencia asegurándose incluso de que haya menos control de calidad.”

Calidad de la examinación en la EPO sin duda alguna ha declinado, basado en el apuro de procedimiéntos de lo que tenemos evidencia concreta (incluyendoalgo por lo cual la EPO me amenazo de sacarme de la Red). Ahora suena como si la EPO esta promoviéndo las patentes de software en los US o tratándo de ‘importarls’ bajo la bandera de la “ICT” (de nuevo), basado en tweets de hoy. Marks & Clerk (promotores de patentes de software) publicaronesta nueva pieza hoy lo que sugiere que otro tipo de controversia de las patentes, a saber, las patentes sobre la vida, todavía está en la agenda de la EPO. Para citar: “La Junta de Apelación de la EPO y el Reino Unido Tribunal Supremo han publicado recientemente decisiones contradictorias sobre la validez de la patente europea Regeneron Pharmaceuticals para el desarrollo de anticuerpos terapéuticos de plataforma VelocImmune.”

Recuérden que el Presidente de la EPO actualmente está tratándo de deshacerce de las Salas de Recurso por completo, en esencia asegurándose incluso de que haya menos control de calidad.

Servicios – 422718-2015

02/12/2015 S233 European Patent Office – Services – Contract notice – Open procedure
Germany-Munich: Provision of consultancy services for the design and execution of assessment centres for management positions in the European Patent Office

2015/S 233-422718

1. Entidad adjudicadora:

La Organización Europea de Patentes (EPO), actuando a través de la Oficina Europea de Patentes: la Sede, Bob-van-Benthem-Platz 1, 80469 Múnich, Alemania, dirección postal: EPO, 80298 Munich, Alemania.

La Organización Europea de Patentes es una organización intergubernamental creada de conformidad con la Convención Europea de Patentes, que entró en vigor en 1977. En la actualidad cuenta con 38 Estados miembros (Albania, Alemania, Austria, Bélgica, Bulgaria, Croacia, Chipre, República Checa, Dinamarca, Estonia , Finlandia, Antigua República Yugoslava de Macedonia, Francia, Alemania, Grecia, Hungría, Islandia, Irlanda, Italia, Letonia, Liechtenstein, Lituania, Luxemburgo, Malta, Mónaco, Países Bajos, Noruega, Polonia, Portugal, Rumania, San Marino, Serbia, Eslovaquia, Eslovenia, España, Suecia, Suiza, Turquía y Reino Unido). El órgano ejecutivo de la EPO es la Oficina Europea de Patentes que se encarga de la búsqueda y el examen de las solicitudes de patentes europeas y concesión de patentes europeas. Emplea a aproximadamente 6 700 personas en la sede de la EPO en Munich, una sucursal en La Haya / Rijswijk (Países Bajos) y sub-oficinas en Berlín y Viena (el número de Estados miembros y los miembros del personal indicado puede cambiar).

2. Procedimiento de adjudicación:

Concurso abierto con la concesión discrecional de contrato.

3. Descripción del contrato:

(A) Objeto del contrato:

Prestación de servicios de consultoría para el diseño y ejecución de la evaluación de los centros para puestos de dirección en la Oficina Europea de Patentes.

(B) División en lotes:

No aplica.

(C) Si procede, depósitos y garantías exigidos:

No aplica.

(D) Principales condiciones de pago:

Dentro de los 30 días después de la aceptación.

(e) Requisitos exigidos por la ley:

No aplica.

4. Lugar y plazo de ejecución:

(A) El lugar en el que el contrato se va a realizar:

Sede como en 1,

sucursal en Rijswijk,

Sub-oficina en Viena y

Sub-oficina en Berlín.

(B) Duración del contrato:

El contrato se ha establecido un periodo de 3 años con derecho a la EPO para ampliar esta duración dos veces por 1 año cada una.

5. Variantes:

No permitido.

6. Las solicitudes de los documentos de adquisición y recepción de las ofertas:

(A) Nombre y dirección del servicio en el que los documentos de adquisición y la aclaración de los documentos de adquisición

se podrá solicitar:

Oficina Europea de Patentes

Central de Contratación 482, Tender No.1982

Patentlaan 2, 2288 EE Rijswijk (ZH)

Países Bajos

E-Mail: mntenderclarifications@epo.org

Los documentos de adquisición serán remitidos previa solicitud por escrito o por correo electrónico.

(B) Fecha límite de recepción por la EPO de solicitudes de los documentos de adquisición:

- 17/12/2015 (12:00), hora de Europa

(C) la fecha límite de recepción por la EPO para las solicitudes de aclaración:

- 05/01/2016 (12:00), hora de Europa

- Las preguntas deben ser enviadas por correo electrónico.

(D) Fecha límite de recepción de las ofertas / número de copias que se enviará:

- 01/25/2016 (12:00), hora de Europa

- Las ofertas deben presentarse en el original.

(E) Dirección a la que las solicitudes de aclaraciones y las ofertas deben enviarse:

Al igual que en el punto 6 (a).

Por favor presentar ofertas por correo y no por fax o correo electrónico. serán excluidas las ofertas presentadas por fax o correo electrónico.

(F) Lengua o lenguas en las que las solicitudes de aclaración y las ofertas deberán redactarse:

Inglés.

Los documentos de adquisición estarán disponibles en Inglés.

7. Criterios para la evaluación de los oferentes ‘know-how, capacidad y fiabilidad para cumplir el contrato:

Las ofertas de los licitadores que no cumplan los criterios de selección establecidos en los documentos de adquisición y / o cuyas circunstancias son tales que ponen seriamente en duda su fiabilidad financiera y profesional (véase el artículo 2 de las condiciones generales de la oferta, disponible bajo www.epo. org) no será considerada para la adjudicación del contrato.

Licitadores conocimientos, capacidad y fiabilidad para cumplir el contrato se evaluará sobre la base de la información y las pruebas presentadas en respuesta al cuestionario en el Anexo 1 de las condiciones generales de licitación y su cuestionario adicional (s) incluido en la Adquisición Documentos.

8. Plazo durante el cual el licitador está obligado por su oferta:

6 meses siguientes a la fecha límite de recepción de las ofertas indicados en el punto 6 (d).

9. Criterios para la adjudicación del contrato:

El contrato se adjudicará al licitador cuya oferta se prefiere con respecto a la capacidad del ofertante para satisfacer las necesidades de la EPO y

requisitos que vayan a ser medidos por:

• Aspectos técnicos (60%)

• precio (40%)

10. Otras informaciones:

Se espera que la adjudicación del contrato que tendrá lugar en el primer trimestre de 2016.

Servicios – 106290-2016

30/03/2016 S62 European Patent Office – Services – Contract notice – Open procedure
Germany-Munich: Provision of Consultancy services for e-Business Research and Barometer Studies of the EPO Online Services department
2016/S 062-106290
PUBLISHED NOTICE
OPEN INVITATION TO TENDER 1978

1. Awarding Authority:

The European Patent Organisation (EPO), acting through the European Patent Office: Headquarters, Bob-van-Benthem-Platz 1, 80469 Munich, Germany, Postal address: EPO, 80298 Munich, Germany.

The European Patent Organisation is an intergovernmental organisation set up pursuant to the European Patent Convention which entered into force in 1977. At present it has 38 Member States (Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and United Kingdom). The executive body of the EPO is the European Patent Office which is charged with the search and examination of European patent applications and granting European patents. It employs approximately 6 700 staff at EPO headquarters in Munich, a branch at The Hague/Rijswijk (NL) and sub-offices in Berlin and Vienna (the number of Member States and staff members indicated may change).

2. Award procedure:

Open invitation to tender with discretionary award of contract (Framework Agreement).

3. Description of the contract:

(a) Purpose of the contract:

Provision of Consultancy services for e-Business Research and Barometer Studies of the EPO Online Services department,

consisting of mutual design of questionnaires, interviewing EPO clients in several countries and followed by analysis and

reporting of results.

(b) Division into lots:

Not applicable.

(c) Any deposits and guarantees required:

Not applicable.

(d) Main terms concerning payment:

Invoices are to be paid by the EPO within 30 days of acceptance of the report for individual tranches.

(e) Qualifications required by law:

Not applicable.

4. Place and period of performance:

(a) Place at which the contract is to be performed:

• Primarily off-site: further described in the procurement documents.

• Liaison and reporting activities, if requested: The EPO Branch office in Rijswijk.

(b) Duration of contract or time limit for delivery or completion of services/work: The contract has a duration of 3 years with the possibility of 2 extensions of 1 year each. Individual tranches of work shall have expected completion dates defined in the associated commission form. The final report shall be delivered electronically.

5. Variants:

Proposals for variants, the effect of which would be to reduce significantly the rights and safeguards of the EPO, are not allowed.

6. Requests for the Procurement Documents and receipt of bids:

(a) Name and address of department from which the Procurement Documents and clarification of the Procurement Documents may be requested:

European Patent Office

Central Procurement the Hague 4.8 (Tender 1978)

Patentlaan 2, 2288 EE Rijswijk, the Netherlands

P.O. Box 5818, 2280 HV Rijswijk, the Netherlands

e-mail: dhtenderclarifications@epo.org

Procurement Documents will be forwarded upon written or E-Mail request.

(b) Final date for receipt by the EPO of requests for the Procurement Documents:

- 13.4.2016 (12:00), CET

(c) Final date for receipt by the EPO of requests for clarification:

- 13.5.2016 (12:00), CET

- Questions must be submitted by letter or E-Mail.

(d) Final date for receipt of bids/number of copies to be sent:

- 3.6.2016 (12:00), CET

- The bid must be submitted in 1 original, to be marked as such, including the Price Offer Form, 1 paper copy without the Price Offer Form, and 1 copy in electronic form (i.e. USB or CD-ROM) without the Price offer Form as searchable PDF.

(e) Address to which the requests for clarification and bids must be sent:

As in point 6(a).

Please submit bids by post only and not by fax or E-Mail. Bids submitted by fax or E-Mail will be excluded.

(f) Language or languages in which requests for clarification and bids must be drawn up:

English.

The Procurement Documents will be available in English only.

7. Legal form of the grouping in the event of a joint bid:

If several bidders submit a joint bid, they must be jointly and severally liable for the performance of the obligations under the contract. A declaration to this effect, duly signed by all members of the grouping and appointing a representative that is authorised to act on behalf of all members, must be submitted with the bid.

8. Criteria for assessing bidders’ know-how, capacity and reliability to fulfil the contract:

Bids from bidders who do not fulfil the selection criteria stated in the Procurement Documents and/or whose circumstances are

such as to seriously call into question their financial and professional reliability (see Article 2 of the General Conditions of

Tender, available under www.epo.org) will not be considered for contract award.

Bidders’ know-how, capacity and reliability to fulfil the contract will be assessed on the basis of the information and evidence

submitted in reply to the questionnaire in Annex 1 to the General Conditions of Tender and any additional questionnaire(s)

included in the Procurement Documents.

9. Plazo durante el cual el licitador está obligado por su oferta:

6 meses siguientes a la fecha límite de recepción de las ofertas indicados en el punto 6 (d).

10. Criterios para la adjudicación del contrato:

Los criterios de adjudicación y su ponderación relativa son los siguientes:

Aspectos técnicos: 60%

Aspectos financieros: 40%

La evaluación de los aspectos técnicos se basa en las respuestas de los oferentes a las condiciones técnicas a través de sus respuestas al cuestionario ‘Criterios de adjudicación ».

11. Otras informaciones:

Se espera que la adjudicación del contrato que tendrá lugar en el segundo trimestre de 2016.

[ES] Mirada Cercana a los Protagonistas en la Guerra Informativa de Battistelli: Parte II (BlueCoat)

Posted in Europe, Patents at 10:19 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

English/Original

Article as ODF

Publicado en Europa, Patentes at 4:35 pm por el Dr. Roy Schestowitz

BlueCoat gear

Sumario: En vez de invertir en una mejora en el proceso de examinación y de apelaciónes, Battistelli desperdicia un montón de dinero en censura y vigiláncia (para ser usado contra sus empleados como los examinadores) con Blue Coat Systems, el cuál es notorio por apoyar régimes abusivos y autoritarios

En la primera parte escribimos acerca de una astuta compañíá la que revisaremos en la cuarta parte. Hoy, por razones se seran aparentes (noticias de hoy), decidimos saltarnos a la segunda parte y escribir acerca de BlueCoat y su relación con la EPO. BlueCoat ayuda al tirano Battistelli y sus chacales con opresión, bloquendo access a ciertos puntos de vista particulares (censura) y usando vigilancia para generar temor que conlleva a autocensura. BlueCoat es popular dentro de régimes represivos alrededor del mundo. Pueda ser ilegal en naciónes civilizadas, pero Eponia es un caso especia y Battistelli se sale con la suya en lo que quiera.

Previamente escribimos acerca de BlueCoat en la EPO en los siguiéntes posts:

Advertencia: La Vigilancia en la EPO Pueda Haberse Convertido en Más Intrusiva

Rumor: El Consejo Administrativo Aconseja a Benoît Battistelli No Despedir a los Representantes de Empleados

Como la Gerencia de la Oficina Europea de Patentes Esta Espíando a Sus Propios Empleados

En la parte inferior se presenta un documento que puede ayudar a arrojar luz sobre la naturaleza del contrato secreto (la cantidad de dinero gastado es desconocido). Lo interesante es que la EPO da dinero a una empresa estadounidense (no es la primera vez a “Blue Coat Systems Inc., anteriormente CacheFlow, es un proveedor con sede en Sunnyvale, California,” según Wikipedia). A diferencia del contrato secreto, el documento más abajo no nos dice cuánto dinero va y dónde exactamente. Esto en cuanto a la “transparencia” … así se mostrará otro día, es sólo el pretexto de la transparencia.

Noten cómo ponen los nombres de marca en los requisitos, lo cual es una práctica notorio que fue atacado en la Comisión (como la especificación de “Oracle” o “Microsoft” como requisitos en las licitaciones abiertas ”).

Uno se pregunta, ¿de dónde sacaron esta recomendación? Tal vez algunos de los recientes viajes de Battistelli, a las naciones autoritarias abusivas -Cuba, Marruécos -(fecha de notificación de este documento y las fechas en el mismo), que hacen uso de la famosa “soluciones” que hacen un seguimiento y desacreditar a disidentes y periodistas tales derechos humanos incompatibles? “Entrega”, según el documento, es el de “sucursal en Rijswijk.” Es posible que exista un equipo similar en Munich y otros sitios de EPO.

Todo esto es digno de mención no sólo porque ayuda a demostrar o verificar los abusos de la EPO contra el personal, sino también porque muestra cómo Battistelli prosigue con su desperdicio de dinero, pretendiendo que no hay dinero para las actividades reales, que incluyen el examen, apelaciones, renovaciones (administración), etc.

Consideren este nuevo reporte de hoy que dice:

La EPO es acusado de reducir el poder de salas de recursos

reformas propuestas a las salas de recurso de la Oficina Europea de Patentes (EPO) se han cerrado de golpe en una carta filtrada enviado por algunos de los miembros de las juntas.

En la carta, enviada el mes pasado y visto por WIPR, las reformas propuestas por el presidente de EPO Benoît Battistelli fueron criticados como “disminuir el nivel de autonomía e independencia” de las juntas.

En su forma actual las salas de recurso se clasifican como una Dirección General de la EPO, que significa que son una rama específica de la oficina.

Las propuestas tienen como objetivo hacer que los foros de una entidad orgánica separada en la medida de lo posible sin reformar el Convenio sobre la Patente Europea (CPE), el marco que creó la Organización Europea de Patentes, con la que opera la EPO.

Lo anterior no dice mucho acerca de lo que se trata todo esto: el dinero (o por lo que ha reivindicado).

Tal vez si Battistelli no estuviera tan ocupado desperdiciándo millones estúpidos (probablemente políticos) en charadas políticas en los medios de comunicación que implican la compra de los medios de comunicación, habría más dinero para las actividades reales que la EPO se supone que debería a estar dedicada. Diremos más sobre esto en la tercera parte

Supplies – 362318-2015
15/10/2015 S200 European Patent Office – Supplies – Contract notice – Open procedure

Alemania-Múnich: Prestación de Blue Coat PacketShaper de hardware, software Escudo PolicyCenter azul, y la instalación, configuración y migración de las prestaciones que incluye soporte y mantenimiento

2015 / S 200-362318

Concurso abierto

1. Entidad adjudicadora:

La Organización Europea de Patentes (EPO), actuando a través de la Oficina Europea de Patentes: la Sede, Bob-van-Benthem-Platz 1, 80469 Múnich, Alemania, dirección postal: EPO, 80298 Munich, Alemania.

La Organización Europea de Patentes es una organización intergubernamental creada de conformidad con la Convención Europea de Patentes, que entró en vigor en 1977. En la actualidad cuenta con 38 Estados miembros (Albania, Alemania, Austria, Bélgica, Bulgaria, Croacia, Chipre, República Checa, Dinamarca, Estonia , Finlandia, Antigua República Yugoslava de Macedonia, Francia, Alemania, Grecia, Hungría, Islandia, Irlanda, Italia, Letonia, Liechtenstein, Lituania, Luxemburgo, Malta, Mónaco, Países Bajos, Noruega, Polonia, Portugal, Rumania, San Marino, Serbia, Eslovaquia, Eslovenia, España, Suecia, Suiza, Turquía y Reino Unido). El órgano ejecutivo de la EPO es la Oficina Europea de Patentes que se encarga de la búsqueda y el examen de las solicitudes de patentes europeas y concesión de patentes europeas. Emplea a aproximadamente 6 700 personas en la sede de la EPO en Munich, una sucursal en La Haya / Rijswijk (Países Bajos) y sub-oficinas en Berlín y Viena (el número de Estados miembros y los miembros del personal indicado puede cambiar).

2. Procedimiento de adjudicación:

Concurso abierto con la concesión discrecional de contrato.

3. Descripción del contrato:

(A) Objeto del contrato:

Este contrato tiene por objeto la provisión de hardware de Blue Coat PacketShaper, el software de Blue Coat PolicyCenter, y la instalación, configuración y migración de las prestaciones incluido el soporte y mantenimiento.

(B) División en lotes:

No aplica.

(C) Si procede, depósitos y garantías exigidos:

No aplica.

(D) Principales condiciones de pago:

Compra: dentro de los 30 días siguientes a la aceptación de los equipos.

Mantenimiento: los pagos se efectuarán por trimestres vencidos.

(e) Requisitos exigidos por la ley:

No aplica.

4. Lugar y plazo de ejecución:

(A) El lugar en el que el contrato se va a realizar:

Entregar a

sucursal en Rijswijk.

(B) Duración del contrato o fecha límite de entrega o de ejecución de los servicios / trabajo:

La duración del contrato es de 3 años con derecho a la EPO para ampliar esta duración dos veces por 1 año cada una.

5. Variantes:

Las propuestas de variantes, el efecto de los cuales serían para reducir significativamente los derechos y garantías de la EPO, no están permitidos.

6. Las solicitudes de los documentos de adquisición y recepción de las ofertas:

(A) Nombre y dirección del servicio al que pueden solicitarse los documentos de adquisición y la aclaración de los documentos de adquisición:

Oficina Europea de Patentes

4.8 Central de Contratación (1955),

Patentlaan 2,

2288 EE Rijswijk,

Países Bajos

E-mail: dhtenderclarifications@epo.org

Los documentos de adquisición pueden ser solicitadas por carta o correo electrónico.

(B) Fecha límite de recepción por la EPO de solicitudes de los documentos de adquisición:

- 27/10/2015 (12:00), hora de Europa

(C) la fecha límite de recepción por la EPO de solicitudes de aclaración:

- 06/11/2015 (12:00), hora de Europa

- Las preguntas deben ser enviadas por correo o correo electrónico.

(D) Fecha límite de recepción de las ofertas / número de copias que se enviará:

- 04/12/2015 (12:00), hora de Europa

- Las ofertas deben presentarse en 2 copias (incluyendo el original debe marcarse como tales). La oferta deberá presentarse además en una memoria USB / CD (con excepción de los formularios de la oferta sólo para ser proporcionados como parte de la copia original).

(E) Dirección a la que las solicitudes de aclaraciones y las ofertas deben enviarse:

Al igual que en el punto 6 (a).

Por favor presentar ofertas por correo y no por fax o correo electrónico. serán excluidas las ofertas presentadas por fax o correo electrónico.

(F) Lengua o lenguas en las que las solicitudes de aclaración y las ofertas deberán redactarse: Inglés.

Los documentos de adquisición estarán disponibles en Inglés.

7. Forma jurídica de la agrupación en el caso de una oferta conjunta:

Si varios licitadores presentan una oferta conjunta, deben ser solidariamente responsables para el cumplimiento de las obligaciones en virtud del

contrato. Una declaración a tal efecto, debidamente firmado por todos los miembros de la agrupación y la designación de un representante que es

autorizado para actuar en nombre de todos los miembros, debe ser presentada con la oferta.

8. Criterios para la evaluación de los oferentes ‘know-how, capacidad y fiabilidad para cumplir el contrato:

Las ofertas de los licitadores que no cumplan con los criterios que se mencionan en los documentos de adquisición y / o cuyas circunstancias son

como serio para poner en duda su fiabilidad financiera y profesional (véase el artículo 2 de las Condiciones Generales de

Tender, disponible en www.epo.org) no será considerada para la adjudicación del contrato.

Licitadores conocimientos, capacidad y fiabilidad para cumplir el contrato se evaluará sobre la base de la información y las pruebas

presentada en respuesta al cuestionario en el Anexo 1 a las Condiciones Generales de licitación y su cuestionario adicional (s)

incluido en los documentos de adquisición.

9. Plazo durante el cual el licitador está obligado por su oferta:

6 meses siguientes a la fecha límite de recepción de las ofertas indicados en el punto 6 (d)

10. Criteria for the award of contract:

The contract shall be awarded to the bidder whose bid is preferred regarding the bidder’s ability to meet the requirements of the EPO which will be measured by:

- In first instance, the technical quality of the support and of the maintenance, and the delivery time (70 %)

- The price and the operation cost (30 %)

11. Other information:

Contract award is expected to take place in the beginning of the 1st quarter of 2016.

[ES] Mirada Cercana a los Protagonistas en la Guerra Informativa de Battistelli: Parte 1

Posted in Deception, Europe, Patents at 10:14 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

English/Original

Article as ODF

Publicado en Decepción, Europa, Patentes at 7:04 am por el Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Los chacales de Battistelli juegan juegos morales y manipula (o paga) a los medios, todavía

Information warfare
Reference: Demoralization (warfare)

Sumario: Habiéndo acabado de pagar a largos medios de comunicación, Battistelli y sus contratántes privados producen más desinformación con la cuál indoctrinan al público y fabrican consentimiento para el régimen de Battistelli

Hay material acerca de la EPO en circulación ya que muchas personas están preocupadas acerca de la Oficina y quieren que salvar/redimir a la Organzación. Publicamos 6 artículos acerca de la EPO ayer y hay mucho más por venir. En los próximos dias nos enfocaremos en algo de la desinformación propagadad por Battistelli y sus chacales. No es acerca de las distracciónes (como la alegada bicicletay la próxima extravaganzaenLisboa) pero acerca de los llamados ‘estudios’ con los cuáles Battistelli intenta usar para cabildera a los medios, politícos, etc. Estos financiados (y comisionados) ‘estudios’ de Battistelli, comos son el modelo neoliberal donde incluso la ciencia es simplemente negocio, no más legitimos que los‘estudios’ financiados/fabricados por Mosantoaquellos que necesitan ser escrutinizados perpetuamente. Battistelli esta peleándo una guerra informativa. El también compara a sus críticos con Nazis y criminalescuando habla a los políticos.

“Battistelli está peleándo una guerra informativa.

Aludiéndo ala última encuesta tecnológica, esta persona escribió: “aquí estan los pésimos resultados de la encuesta Tecnológica a los empleados en riesgos psicosociales [...] ellos ilustran el mandato de Battistelli (2010 al 2016) y hablan por sí mismos” (mostrando el rol que Battistelli mismo ha jugado al comparar diferentes periódos de tiempo).

Battistelli esta tratando de comisionar una falsa encuésta de una compañíá astuta (Wellkom). Supuestamente para distraer atención de sus abusos y echar la culpa a otros.

“Battistelli esta tratando de comisionar una falsa encuésta de una compañíá astuta (Wellkom).

“En cuanto a Wellkom”, un lector nos escribió, “para lo que vale la pena Miré hacia arriba” Andrea Jutta Phillips “- que es una combinación poco común de dos nombres alemanes y un apellido Inglés – y se salió con lo siguiente. Es un sumario de un sitio de información legal español, proporcionando un extracto del Diario Oficial de la Región Española de Murcia. El nombre aparece en la parte difuminada de la página. La página completa está disponible con un registro de ensayos. El título del anuncio es: “Citación un Contribuyentes en Ignorado domicilio, o por no saber, o haberse NEGADO una cédula de sacrificar las exigencias notification, Para Ser notificados por comparecencia.” No se da ninguna fecha. Estos son convocatoria pública para los contribuyentes de absentismo, una medida de último recurso cuando no hay una dirección conocida por el servicio, o la parte que se niega a aceptar la notificación. Parece un consejo local tenía la intención de subastar alguna propiedad para la solución de los impuestos no pagados. A consecuencia de la gran burbuja inmobiliaria española? Ninguno de los cónyuges Phillips parece tener una gran huella en Internet, por decir lo menos“.

Sintónicenos para la parte 2 ya que vamos a mostrar la total falta de transparencia en este proceso.

Links 8/6/2016: Linux Mint 18 Beta, Spark Summit

Posted in News Roundup at 9:52 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME bluefish

Contents

GNU/Linux

  • Russian Helicopters holding plans to switch to Linux OS

    Aircraft holding Russian Helicopters intends to switch to Linux operating system, Kamil Gazizov, CEO of RT-Inform, told reporters.

  • Why I built my own homebrew Linux router

    To be fair, setting up your own router from a generic server distro isn’t a project for everyone. It certainly isn’t user-friendly, both during the build process and once it’s finished. While it’s not terribly complex, it’s definitely arcane, with absolutely no hand holding along the way. If you aren’t already very experienced with Linux, you’ll likely do a lot of puzzled head scratching (and maybe a little cursing). You won’t get a super feature-rich build once you’re done, either—unless you go on to do a lot more for your build than I have with mine, you won’t have fancy quality of service features, usage graphs, or much of anything else besides a bare-bones (although extremely high performance) router that hands out IP addresses, resolves DNS records, connects to the Internet, and makes packets go where they’re supposed to.

  • What’s Our Next Fight?

    We won the battle for Linux, but we’re losing the battle for freedom.

    Linux turns 25 in August 2016. Linux Journal turned 21 in April 2016. (Issue #1 was April 1994, the month Linux hit version 1.0.) We’re a generation into the history of our cause, but the fight isn’t there anymore, because we won. Our cause has achieved its effects.

    It helps to remember that Linux was a fight, and so were free software and open source. If they weren’t fights, they wouldn’t have won what they did. They also wouldn’t have been interesting, meaning there wouldn’t have been any Linux stories, or a Linux Journal.

  • Fights

    Doc Searle is a thinker and strategist. He makes a lot of good observations in a recent writing but he’s bypassing the desktop PC strongholds when he declares victory for Open Source and Linux. The world is still in the wrong place when a legacy PC cannot be bought with FLOSS on it everywhere any time.

  • Desktop

    • Modularity and the desktop

      There has been much talk about modularity recently. Fedora even has a working group on this topic. Modularity is such a generic term that it is a bit hard to figure out what this is all about, but the wiki page gives some hints: …base module… …docker image… …reduced dependencies… …tooling…

    • Chrome OS vs. Endless OS

      Over the years, I’ve seen a number of attempts to create the first truly use anywhere, idiot-proof Linux PC. And until recently, Chromebooks (anything with ChromeOS) was easily the winner.

      Then a PC company known as Endless did something that really surprised me – they released their highly customized version of Ubuntu GNOME into something everyone could try. Will it beat out ChromeOS in terms of access, simplicity and overall value? Let’s take a gander and find out.

    • Linux features that you can’t live without?
    • Have the EFF investigate Microsoft for malicious practices regarding Windows 10
    • Petition condemns Windows 10 upgrade practices, asks EFF to investigate

      A petition launched Friday asks the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) to investigate Microsoft’s aggressive moves to convince and cajole users into upgrading to Windows 10.

      The request was launched on Change.org, a popular online petition website, and by early Monday had garnered more than 470 signatures.

    • Is Windows 10 ignoring sysadmins’ network QoS settings?

      An Australian sysadmin frustrated with his business’ sudden loss of performance has sparked a conversation about whether Windows 10 is behaving badly on network connections.

      To jump well into the discussion thread that points the finger at Microsoft: “We have had reports now from several people, not all our clients, reporting that their Internet connection is brought to a standstill and the common thread is that they all have Windows 10 machines recently installed.”

    • M$ Enslaves Not Only Users But Also Their Networks

      Be Free. Use Debian GNU/Linux or other FLOSS operating system.

  • Server

    • 7 DBaaS Vendors You Should Conside

      Database-as-a-service (DBaaS) puts storage and management of structured data in the cloud, offering companies functionality similar to well-known relational database management systems like MySQL, SQL Server and Oracle, with the added flexibility and lower upfront costs of the cloud.

    • Webmin 1.801 Released – A Web Based System Administration Control Panel for Linux

      Webmin is an open source web based system configuration application for Linux system administration. With the help of this tool we can manage internal system configuration such as setting up user accounts, disk quotas, services configuration like Apache, DNS, PHP or MySQL, file sharing and much more. Webmin applications is based on Perl module and it uses TCP port 10000 with OpenSSL library for communicating via browser.

    • WTF is operations? #serverless
    • What is DevOps? Kris Buytaert Explains

      Kris Buytaert is known as one of the instigators of the current DevOps movement and organizer of several related conferences, including DevOpsDays and Config Management Camp. He is a long-time Linux and open source consultant who often claims that everything is a freaking DNS problem. You can find him speaking at events and consulting as the CTO (Chief Trolling Officer) at Inuits on everything from Infrastructure as Code to Continuous Delivery.

    • ​Puppet DevOps comes to the mainframe

      Without DevOps programs such as Puppet, Chef, and Ansible, the cloud wouldn’t be possible. Now Puppet Labs is trying to work in systems management magic on IBM’s z Systems and LinuxONE.

  • Kernel Space

    • Continental, Toshiba, Hyundai Mobis join open-source connected car project

      Automotive suppliers Continental and Hyundai Mobis, electronics group Toshiba and several other companies have joined Automotive Grade Linux (AGL), a project that aims to develop an open-source, Linux-based platform for connected cars.

      Earlier this year, AGL announced a new set of codes designed specifically for the automotive industry. The new Linux distribution addresses automotive-specific applications such as navigation, communications, safety, security and infotainment functionality. The Linux Foundation, which promotes the general adoption of the Linux open-source operating system, hopes it will become the de facto standard for the auto industry.

    • Automotive Grade Linux Membership Growth Expands to Europe and Globally

      Automotive Grade Linux (AGL), a collaborative open source project developing a Linux-based, open platform for the connected car, today announced that bright box, Continental, ForgeRock, Hyundai MOBIS, Toshiba and Ubiquitous have joined The Linux Foundation and Automotive Grade Linux.

      “Our goal is to bring companies from diverse backgrounds and regions together to build an open platform that will drive rapid innovation across the entire automotive industry,” said Dan Cauchy, General Manager of Automotive at The Linux Foundation. “These new members join us from across Europe, Asia and the United States, and will help us continue to develop a global ecosystem for the connected car. We are excited to welcome these members into the AGL community and look forward to our joint collaboration.”

    • Linux Makes Progress On Prepping NVMe-Over-Fabrics Support

      Initial patches were published this week for adding initial NVMe-over-Fabrics support for the Linux kernel as set out by the NVMe 1.2b specification. This target implementation is the basics of making this new specification a reality and one of the first public implementations.

    • Graphics Stack

  • Applications

  • Desktop Environments/WMs

    • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

      • KDE neon User Edition 5.6 Available now

        KDE neon User Edition 5.6 is based on the latest version of Plasma 5.6 and intends to showcase the latest KDE technology on a stable foundation. It is a continuously updated installable image that can be used not just for exploration and testing but as the main operating system for people enthusiastic about the latest desktop software.

      • KDE Neon User Edition 5.6 Released

        The KDE project has this morning announced the release of KDE Neon User Edition 5.6, the first major version of this OS spin showcasing the latest KDE components.

        KDE Neon has been making good progress since it (re)launched earlier this year as a OS stack based upon Ubuntu but with incorporating all of the bleeding-edge KDE Plasma / Frameworks 5 components. This first major KDE Neon User Edition release incorporates Plasma 5.6.

      • KDE Plasma 5.7 To Have New Task Manager Library Supporting Wayland

        KDE Plasma 5.7 continues to look more and more like it will be running reasonably well on Wayland with close parity to the KDE stack running on X11.

      • A task manager for the Plasma Wayland session

        Plasma 5.7 will ship with a new taskmanager library. One of the reasons to implement a new taskmanager library is the port to Wayland. Our old code base was heavily relying on X11 and didn’t support the concept of multiple windowing systems. You can read more on that in Eike’s blog post about the new task manager. In this blog post I want to focus a little bit on the Wayland side of a task manager.

    • GNOME Desktop/GTK

      • Clasen: Continuing To Push Modularity On The Linux Desktop

        Matthias Clasen, well known Fedora / GNOME contributor at Red Hat, has written a blog post about the ongoing modularity work in the Linux desktop realm.

        Clasen’s blog post covers the continuing modularity of the desktop and the goal to “make it easier to get desktop applications from application developers to users.”

  • Distributions

    • The Linux Rolling Release Model

      Regardless of the operating system being used, we’re used to the idea that our current OS will become obsolete every few years, and a newer version will be released to replace the current one.

      However, some Linux distributions have adopted a different release model. Instead of releasing a new version every year, they use a model called the “Rolling Release Model” to continuously update your operating system. This means that you only have to install your OS once and will always be running the latest version.

    • Reviews

      • Sabayon 16.05

        Sabayon Sabayon is a Linux distribution that is based on Gentoo. Sabayon takes on some of the characteristics of its parent, providing users with a rolling release distribution that can make use of both binary and source software packages. Recent snapshots of Sabayon offer support for computers running on 64-bit x86 processors along with Raspberry Pi 2 & 3 computers. Perhaps the biggest new feature of Sabayon though is the launch of Sabayon Community Repositories (SCR). These new repositories provide a way for community members to build and distribute software for Sabayon without the necessity of getting their software into Sabayon’s official repositories.

        There are seven editions of Sabayon, including the builds for Raspberry Pi computers. There are several desktop editions, a Server edition and a small Minimal edition. I decided to begin my trial with Sabayon’s KDE edition which is a 2.7GB download. Booting from the distribution’s media brings up a menu asking if we would like to run Sabayon’s live desktop, perform an installation, boot to a text console, check the installation media for defects or perform a memory check. Taking the live desktop option loads the KDE desktop. The wallpaper shows a gravel road passing through farmland while a moon rises with the Sabayon logo on it. Icons on the desktop invite us to donate to the distribution, get on-line help and launch the system installer. At the bottom of the display we find the application menu, a task switcher and the system tray.

    • PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandriva Family

      • PCLinuxOS 64 2016.06 Xfce Community Edition Arrives with Linux Kernel 4.4.11 LTS

        Thanks to one of our readers, we were able to report last week on the release of the PCLinuxOS 64 2016.06. MATE Edition operating system. However, today we would like to introduce our readers to the PCLinuxOS 64 2016.06 Xfce Edition OS.

        PCLinuxOS 64 2016.06 Xfce is a community edition, built around the lightweight Xfce 4.12 deskop environment and powered by a kernel package from the long-term supported (LTS) Linux 4.4 series. Linux kernel 4.4.11 LTS is used in the PCLinuxOS 64 2016.06 Xfce Live ISO images at the moment of the launch.

      • ROSA Desktop Fresh R7 KDE: nothing to complain… almost

        ROSA Desktop Fresh R7 KDE left a good impression on me.

        Even though the initial boot took about 500 Mb of memory, my laptop with 4Gb of RAM was capable of dealing with all the tasks I ran on it in the Live mode of this distribution in a quick and responsive manner. I felt no lags or glitches.

        The only minor things that were worth mentioning in this review were strange design of the panel and the ROSA Menu which isn’t to my taste.

        Well done, ROSA team, I hope to see your system even more improved in the future.

    • Arch Family

      • Manjaro Linux 16.06 Daniella Released

        Manjaro Linux is based onArch Linux and one of the easiest Linux distributions available. Manjaro Linux provides the distro in most major flavors including, XFCE, KDE, Gnome, LXDE, MATE, Cinnamon and more. The team has recently released its stable release Manjaro 16.06 with all the packages updated to their latest versions.

      • Manjaro Linux 16.06 ‘Daniella’ Released With New Features, Download Here

        The long-anticipated Manjaro Linux 16.06 ‘Daniella’ is now available for download. This release has arrived with the latest Linux kernel 4.4 (and 10 other kernel options) and other new features. The flagship Xfce edition of community driven Manjaro Linux comes with Xfce 4.12, bringing more polished desktop experience.

    • OpenSUSE/SUSE

      • ownCloud Summit at openSUSE Conference Cancelled

        The openSUSE project announces the immediate cancellation of the ownCloud Summit that was scheduled to take place during the openSUSE Conference in two weeks.

        The summit was scheduled for June 22 – 23.

        Given the ownCloud community has forked, openSUSE sought an amicable solution so that both communities could take part in the openSUSE conference. As this was found to not be possible, the openSUSE Board made the decision to cancel the summit.

      • Nextcloud hackweek and open BBQ!

        Yesterday we kicked off a meeting in Stuttgart to discuss Nextcloud and get work done. A first result is the establishment of the new Server repository on Github (and more repositories!) and we’ll share other things on the forums and in Github issues the coming days. The real important news however is that we decided to organize a BBQ!

      • Highlights of YaST development sprint 20

        The latest Scrum sprint of the YaST team was shorter than the average three weeks and also a little bit “under-powered” with more people on vacation or sick leave than usual. The bright side of shorter sprints is that you don’t have to wait three full weeks to get an update on the status. Here you have it!

    • Red Hat Family

    • Debian Family

  • Devices/Embedded

Free Software/Open Source

Leftovers

  • Nicola Sturgeon ranked second most powerful woman in UK

    Nicola Sturgeon has been ranked as the second most powerful woman in the UK, behind only the Queen.

    The first minister is one of six UK representatives in Forbes magazine’s annual list of the world’s most powerful and influential women.

    A Scottish government spokesman said the list underlined the importance both of the first minister’s office and the profile of Scotland as a nation.

    German Chancellor Angela Merkel topped the list for the sixth year running.

    Presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton was placed second, with Janet Yellen, chairwoman of the US Federal Reserve, third.

  • The Leave campaign can’t keep dodging the biggest question

    For four years, as Leader of the Opposition, my job was to interrogate Tony Blair every week at Prime Minister’s Questions; a close approximation to trying to nail jelly to a wall.

    I used all the techniques ever devised of presenting him with a question demanding a “yes” or “no” answer, where both “yes” and “no” were politically impossible to say. And he employed every means known to a seasoned politician of addressing a question without ever coming down on either side of it.

    Even one day when the First Minister of Wales resigned minutes before PMQs – news of which reached me but not him – and I immediately tried to trick him into expressing confidence in that Minister, Blair sniffed the air, smelt the rat, and talked about Wales in general. When it came to obfuscation, he was a class act.

  • How Not to Interview Mitch McConnell

    On this subject, Charlie Rose fed McConnell another softball in the form of a middle-school civics query: “Is it a conservative government that the founders established, because they wanted… to make sure that this country didn’t rush into anything?”

  • Health/Nutrition

    • Antibiotic Resistance “Already Here” And Pipeline Is Dry, UK Health Minister Tells UN

      An estimated one million people may already die each year because they are resistant to all known antibiotics, and the number could reach 10 million per year and devastate the world economy by 2050 unless key steps are taken, experts from the United Kingdom and South Africa told a press briefing on antimicrobial resistance at United Nations headquarters today.

      “It’s already here. This is not a problem for the future,” said Prof. Dame Sally Davies, chief medical officer for England. “This is a real worry.”

    • American Wasteland: the Most Urgent Challenge for America is Its Poorly Hidden Mental Health Crisis

      The relentless tragedy of narcotic addiction, especially of opiates, across America has overwhelmed already depleted public resources, leaving a trail of devastated communities, families and lives – threatening a new lost generation.

    • At Least 33 US Cities May Be Hiding Lead in Drinking Water

      A troubling new investigation by the Guardian has found that at least 33 large cities in the United States may be improperly testing tap water in order to pass FDA regulations on allowable levels of lead. Reporters from the paper looked at 41 cities across 17 different states, and compared local officials’ water testing methods to those suggested by the EPA.

      Of the 41 cities studied, 33 were using testing methods that could potentially underestimate the amount of lead present in water, and 21 of those were using the same water testing methods employed by the officials who have now been formally charged in Flint. Due to the age of the infrastructure involved, the paper only looked at large cities east of the Mississippi River, so it’s still completely unknown what standards are being used in the rest of the country.

  • Security

    • WordPress plugin with 10,000+ installations being exploited in the wild

      The attacks have been under way since last Friday and are mainly being used to install porn-related spamming scripts, according to a blog post published Thursday. The underlying vulnerability in WP Mobile Detector came to light on Tuesday in this post. The plugin has since been removed from the official WordPress plugin directory. As of Wednesday, the plugin reportedly had more than 10,000 active installations, and it appears many remained active at the time this post was being prepared.

    • Bad Intel And Zero Verification Leads To LifeLock Naming Wrong Company In Suspected Security Breach

      LifeLock has never been the brightest star in the identity fraud protection constellation. Its own CEO — with his mouth writing checks others would soon be cashing with his credentials — expressed his trust in LifeLock’s service by publishing his Social Security number, leading directly to 13 separate cases of (successful) identity theft.

      Beyond that, LifeLock was barely a lock. It didn’t encrypt stored credentials and had a bad habit of ambulance-chasing reported security breaches in hopes of pressuring corporate victims into picking up a year’s worth of coverage for affected customers. This culminated in the FTC ordering it to pay a $12 million fine for its deceptive advertising, scare tactics, and inability to keep its customers’ ID info safe.

    • Samba 4.4.4 Fixes a Memory Leak in Share Mode Locking, Adds systemd 230 Support

      Samba 4.4 major branch was launched on March 22, 2016, and it brought support for asynchronous flush requests, several Active Directory (AD) enhancements, a GnuTLS-based backupkey implementation, multiple CTDB (Cluster Trivial Database) improvements, a WINS nsswitch module, as well as experimental SMB3 Multi-Channel support.

    • Printer security: Is your company’s data really safe?

      On March 24th of this year, 59 printers at Northeastern University in Boston suddenly output white supremacist hate literature, part of a wave of spammed printer incidents reported at Northeastern and on at least a half dozen other campuses.

      This should be no surprise to anyone who understands today’s printer technology. Enterprise-class printers have evolved into powerful, networked devices with the same vulnerabilities as anything else on the network. But since, unlike with personal computers, no one sits in front of them all day, the risks they introduce are too often overlooked.

      “Many printers still have default passwords, or no passwords at all, or ten are using the same password,” says Michael Howard, HP’s chief security advisor, speaking of what he’s seen in the field. “A printer without password protection is a goldmine for a hacker. One of the breaches we often see is a man-in-the-middle attack, where they take over a printer and divert [incoming documents] to a laptop before they are printed. They can see everything the CEO is printing. So you must encrypt.”

    • We Asked An Etiquette Expert About Home Security Cameras

      Roughly the size of a soda can, sitting on a bookshelf, and whirring away some 24-hours a day, a relatively innocuous gadget may be turning friends and family away from your home. The elephant in your living room is your Internet-connected security camera, a device people are increasingly using for peace of mind in their homes. But few stop to think about the effect these devices may have on house guests. Should you tell your friends, for instance, that they’re being recorded while you all watch the big game together?

  • Defence/Aggression

    • Syrian Gov’t Troops enter ISIL-held al-Raqqa Province, racing against US Allies

      Syrian troops, aided by a Homs-based pro-government militia the ‘Falcons of the Desert’ and under the cover of Russian air support, entered al-Raqqa Province from Hama for the first time in two years on Saturday. The southern half of al-Raqqa province is one of two major strongholds left to Daesh (ISIS, ISIL), the other one being Mosul in northern Iraq. Mosul is much bigger and more important, but al-Raqqa has symbolic importance to Daesh, since it is where the terrorist organization first established itself as a ‘state’ ruling territory. The territory also figures in Daesh’s weird theories about the Judgment Day.

    • France: White Terrorist not investigated for Terrorism even when he Vows attacks

      So Gregoire Moutaux, 25, was arrested last month by Ukraine. The French national had a large cache of deadly weapons.

      Ukraine Intelligence chief Vasyl Hrytsak said, “The Frenchman spoke negatively of the activities of his government on mass migration of foreigners to France, the spread of Islam and globalisation. He also said he wished to stage a number of terrorist attacks in protest.”

    • Netanyahu Must Decide if He’s the Prime Minister of the Jewish Nation or Israel

      Netanyahu is betraying his job. This man has to go, and soon. We are all tasked with that sacred mission, and especially the Arab citizens.

    • On Presidential Powers to Destabilize Entire Regions

      It’s definitely true we know who to hold responsible for Obamacare. Getting into the Iraq War, too — though there’s far less certainty among the public about who is responsible for the failure to negotiate a SOFA, which led to the withdrawal timeline, and (arguably) to the resurgence of what would become ISIS. Both Obama and Bush get blamed.

      But it’s an interesting argument particularly in light of Wittes’ prior dismissal of Conor Friedersdorf and Jennifer Granick’s concerns about drones and surveillance, because on those issues and many more, the Executive is shielded from much political and all legal accountability. Presidents have authorized a vast range of covert action over the years that have led to a great deal of blowback that they by definition cannot be held accountable for. Hell, as recently as 2013, the Executive was stone-walling SSCI member Ron Wyden about what countries we were conducting lethal counterterrorism operations in, and it took years of requests, starting before the Anwar al-Awlaki killing and continuing for some time after it, before Wyden was permitted to see the authorization for that.

      No one may doubt who is responsible for Obamacare, but even select oversight committees, and especially voters, simply don’t know all the things they might want to hold a president accountable for.

      And on the issues that (I think) Wittes would lump under “national security,” such secrecy, such unilateral power, actually may lead to rash and often stupid decisions. Setting aside what you think about the need for the President to have authority to order preemptive nuclear strikes (the “Bomb Power” that Garry Wills argues created the necessity for such secrecy), with such authority also comes the ability to create significant harms to the US by a thousand cuts of stupid covert action. We helped to create modern Sunni terrorism via such secret authority, after all.

    • UN Removes Saudi Arabia From Human Rights Blacklist After Just One Week, Faces Intense Backlash

      United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon removed Saudi Arabia from a U.N.-blacklist of violators of children’s human rights, after initially placing their Yemen coalition on the list last Thursday. The decision resulted in a massive outcry from rights groups who lambasted Ki-moon’s “flip-flopping.”

    • U.N. Quickly Removes Saudi-Led Coalition From Its List of Child Killers

      Under intense pressure from the Saudi Arabian government, the U.N. Secretary General removed the U.S.-backed, Saudi-led coalition in Yemen from a blacklist of child-killers only 72 hours after the list was made public.

      The coalition had been listed in the appendix of the U.N’s annual report on children and armed conflict, under “parties that kill or maim children,” and “parties that engage in attacks on schools and/or hospitals.”

      According to the report, at least 785 children were killed and 1,168 injured in Yemen last year alone, 60 percent by coalition airstrikes. The report documents dozens of coalition attacks against Yemeni schools and hospitals.

    • Israel Covets Golan’s Water and Now Oil

      Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu is defiantly asserting permanent control over the occupied Golan Heights, a determination strengthened by Israel’s extraction of water and now possibly oil from the land, writes Jonathan Marshall.

    • Crimes of the War on Terror

      Should George Bush, Dick Cheney, and Others Be Jailed?

    • Report Details How US-Backed Coup Unleashed Wave of Abuses in Honduras

      The U.S.-backed Honduran coup ushered in a wave of neoliberal policies that have systematically violated the economic, cultural, and social rights of the nation’s Indigenous people, women, and farmers, while leaving activists and rights defenders—such as the late Berta Cáceres—vulnerable to criminalization and violence.

      Such were the findings of a new report, prepared by a coalition of 54 Honduran social movements and rights organizations and presented as an alternative to the official government report submitted to the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which began its 58th session in Geneva on Monday.

      “The coup d’etat in 2009 meant an imminent reversal of human rights and a serious blow to the country’s institutions,” states the report (pdf), which is available in Spanish.

      While the study does not single out international governments that supported the ouster of the country’s democratically elected President Manuel Zelaya, it comes as former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton prepares to assume the role of Democratic nominee for president. Clinton’s role in the coup has come under increased scrutiny since the assassination of Cáceres, a Honduran Indigenous rights and environmental activist, in March.

    • Syria: The U.S. Is Unwilling To Settle – Russia Returns For Another Round

      The Obama administration does not want peace in Syria. The Russians finally have to admit to themselves that the U.S. is no partner for a continuation of a cease fire, a coordinated attack against the Islamic State and al-Qaeda and for peace in Syria. Indeed, as Lavrov explains, the U.S. has again asked to spare al-Qaeda from Russian air strikes even as two UN Security Council resolutions demand its eradication. Huge supply convoys (vid) from Turkey are again going to the “rebels” who will, as always, share them with al-Qaeda and other terrorists.

      The current renewed Syrian Arab Army attack towards Raqqa is being obstructed not only by sandstorms but also by a timely attack of al-Qaeda, Ahrar al Sham and Turkestan Islamist Party forces against government positions in the south Aleppo countryside.

    • Rehearsing for World War III

      This is Operation “Anakonda 16.” Thirty-one thousand troops, 14,000 of them American, are conducting war games designed to secure an Allied victory in World War III. The exercises involve “100 aircraft, 12 vessels and 3,000 vehicles,” and precede the upcoming NATO summit, which is expected to approve the stationing of yet more troops – mostly Americans – in eastern Europe.

    • Israel Wants a Peace Process, But Only If It’s Doomed to Fail

      In a familiar muddying of the waters, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has spent the past week talking up peace while fiercely criticising Friday’s summit in France – the only diplomatic initiative on the horizon.

      As foreign ministers from 29 nations arrived for a one-day meeting in Paris, Netanyahu dusted off the tired argument that any sign of diplomatic support for Palestinians would encourage from them “extreme demands”.

      France hopes the meeting will serve as a prelude to launching a peace process later in the year. French president Francois Hollande said he hoped to achieve a “peace [that] will be solid, sustainable and under international supervision”.

    • HRC’s War-Driven Foreign Policy

      In the last days before the California primary, where Democratic primary polls showed her neck-and-neck with Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton delivered a campaign speech in San Diego. Though her campaign billed it as a “major foreign policy address,” it looked more like a last-ditch attempt to position herself as the Democratic nominee ahead of a potentially embarrassing loss or close finish with Sanders in the nation’s most populous state.

      Indeed, most of the address was directed squarely at Donald Trump. It wasn’t a speech on Clinton’s own foreign policy so much as a takedown of the presumptive GOP nominee’s.

      Throughout, Clinton contrasted Trump’s often wild and crazy (and not to mention wildly inconsistent) positions with her own claims of having an experienced hand on the tiller (and not to mention on the button). Clinton’s overall point was that Trump is “temperamentally unfit to be president,” and that he’d be incompetent and dangerous as commander in chief.

      Much of the critique was a rehash of the GOP candidate’s bizarre and often contradictory statements on the subject. After all, Clinton found, it’s easy to critique Trump’s calls for providing nuclear weapons to Saudi Arabia, South Korea, and other countries. It’s a sure laugh-line to mention Trump’s claim that climate change is a hoax invented by the Chinese, and a guaranteed applause line (especially in a military town like the carefully chosen San Diego) to remind the audience that Trump said that POWs were not necessarily heroes.

    • Caving to Saudis, UN Takes Coalition Off Blacklist in ‘Shocking Flip-Flop’

      Just a few days after blacklisting the Saudi Arabia-led military coalition for killing children in Yemen, the United Nations on Monday removed the group from its tally of armed states that violate children’s rights during conflict.

      Amnesty International blasted the UN for “shamefully” caving to pressure to scrub the coalition from the so-called “list of shame” after an annual report found that the Saudi-led, U.S.-backed group was responsible for 60 percent of child deaths and injuries in Yemen in 2015.

      “It is unprecedented for the UN to bow to pressure to alter its own published report on children in armed conflict. It is unconscionable that this pressure was brought to bear by one of the very states listed in the report,” said Richard Bennett, representative and head of Amnesty International’s UN Office.

    • The Most Important Election Ever!

      However, even this belief in a “presidential difference” ignores that a President Gore would not have been the bearded, environmental “warrior” he has presented himself as since forfeiting the election. Gore (an opportunistic, protean, and militaristic politician flanked by a frothing hawk for his VP) would have been “commander in chief” and steward of the state and would have therefore wreaked havoc on the world as surely as Clinton did in Yugoslavia, Bush did in Iraq, and Obama did in Libya. As Obama’s drone program indicates, presidential differences here are matters of technique, but because liberals are frequently more concerned with presidential management’s form than content, they do not seem to notice that being a good manager is wholly compatible with being a mass murderer.

    • GOP Congress Plays Pentagon Budget Games

      Despite a nearly $600 billion military budget, congressional Republicans are demanding even more money for the Pentagon, while rejecting cuts in spending for military bands and resisting emergency funds to fight the Zika virus, notes Mike Lofgren.

    • 50,000 flee Boko Haram attacks in Niger: UN

      Tens of thousands of people have fled southeastern Niger following deadly attacks by Boko Haram insurgents on the town of Bosso in recent days, the United Nations said Tuesday.

    • Hindu priest murdered in Bangladesh in suspected militant attack

      The priest Anando Gopal Ganguly was attacked on Tuesday morning by three men, who came on a motorcycle, said Assistant Superintendent of Police Gopinath Kanjilal.

      Armed with sharp weapons, the assailants slit 69-year-old Ganguly’s throat around 9:30am while he was on his way to the temple he served.

      Kanjilal said that the Ganguly was on his bicycle, when the assailants first hit him on his head with a stick before slaughtering him.

      “It seems that militants might be responsible for the killing,” said Kanjilal.

      Monitoring group SITE Intelligence reported that Middle East-based Islamic State claimed the murder.

  • Transparency/Investigative Reporting

    • Voters: 50 Percent Say Clinton Should Keep Running Even If Indicted

      In a statement I never expected to see in print, half of voters said in a survey a presidential candidate should continue to run for America’s highest office even if she is indicted for national security crimes.

      For those who want historical markers to look back on, charting decline in civilization and deviations from reality, well, there’s a good one.

      The latest Rasmussen Reports survey, taken in late May, finds most voters (65%) believe Hillary Clinton is a lawbreaker, but half of all voters also say a felony indictment shouldn’t stop her campaign for the presidency.

  • Environment/Energy/Wildlife/Nature

    • Indonesia’s forest fires threaten Sumatra’s few remaining Orang Rimba

      Indonesian land policies have turned rainforest into monoculture plantations. All photographs by Angel L Martínez Cantera

      “Our main goal is to preserve the forest according to the customary traditions of our people. If there’s no forest, there’s no Orang Rimba and the other way round,” says Bepak Pengusai, head of customs in arombong, or group area, belonging to the Orang Rimba, an aboriginal people in Sumatra.

      Indonesia’s devastating forest fires pose a serious threat to the Orang Rimba habitat. From July to late last year, the fires killed a dozen people and caused respiratory tract infections in half a million more.

    • Energy independence won’t cure climate ills

      For many governments aiming to reduce their import bills and avoid being reliant for fuel on potentially hostile or unstable foreign powers, energy independence is the ultimate goal.

      But international economists have published a report warning that it is false to believe the policy will also help to stave off climate change.

    • In Powerful Action, Anti-Pipeline Activists Sow Sacred ‘Seeds of Resistance’

      In a powerful display of opposition to the fossil fuel economy, activists in Virginia this week are planting traditional “seeds of resistance” along Dominion’s proposed natural gas Atlantic Coast Pipeline route.

      The action began Monday in Stuarts Draft, when residents met with anti-pipeline activists and members of national environmental groups to sow the sacred blue corn seeds, which were brought by a member of the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska.

      “We stand on this common ground that we care about and love,” said Mekasi Horinek Camp, Ponca Nation member and coordinator with Bold Oklahoma, which is part of the anti-pipeline Bold Alliance campaign.

    • For-Profit Pipelines Are Growing And So Are Eminent Domain Battles

      When an oil pipeline now poised to cut through four Midwestern states was first proposed in 2014, the project quickly got pushback from environmentalists and some landowners on the pipeline’s route.

      For one group, this piece of fossil fuel infrastructure was a poor investment in a time of human-caused climate change and increasing pollution. For the other, it was a threat to their land and their property rights. Residents thought it was clear from the beginning that Dakota Access, the developer, intended to claim land by condemning it via eminent domain if allowed to, and build a line intended to transport oil from North Dakota’s Bakken Formation to a market hub near Patoka, Illinois.

    • I Wrote a Book the Fracking Industry Doesn’t Want You to Read

      In the meantime, frontline communities are becoming sacrifice zones where people are sick from toxic water and poisoned air from fracking. Life on Earth is threatened if we don’t take dramatic action to save our global climate from chaos. Yet, even though we must take action to keep fossil fuels in the ground, billions of dollars are being sunk into another 40 years of fossil fuel infrastructure.

    • A Renewable Revolution Challenges Destructive Energy Paradigm

      Wind and solar power are on an exciting ride. Last year, new renewables for the first time made up more than half of the power capacity that was added around the world. New wind and solar plants, in other words, outstripped all new fossil fuel, hydropower and nuclear power plants. “Renewables are now established around the world as mainstream sources of energy,” states the Renewables 2016 Global Status Report. This is great news for the climate and for the world’s rivers.

    • Fukushima: Worse Than a Disaster

      Naohiro Masuda, TEPCO Chief of Decommissioning at Fukushima Diiachi Nuclear Power Plant, finally publicly “officially” announced that 600 tons of hot molten core, or corium, is missing (Fukushima Nuclear Plant Operator Says 600 Tons of Melted Fuels is Missing, Epoch Times, May 24, 2016).

    • EU laws protecting climate, health, considered “barriers to trade” according to US Department report

      A report published by the US Trade Representative at the end of March has indicated that a series of EU regulations that protect people and the environment act as “barriers” to US trade, and questions the need for such provisions.

      US based NGO Sierra Club has distilled the “lowlights” from the 2016 report (below) showcasing how the US is targeting climate-friendly laws, as well as regulations banning pesticides, chemicals and GM crops.

  • Finance

    • With the Trans-Pacific Partnership, It’s Obama and the GOP vs. the Democrats

      As it stands right now, the TPP’s best chance of passing is in the slim window of time between Election Day and Inauguration Day — the so-called lame duck session of Congress. This is really the easiest time for President Obama to push through a massively unpopular trade deal like the TPP without anybody noticing.

    • CETA: Luxembourg parliament resolution demands legal clarification, not ready to vote on deal

      The Luxembourg parliament voted in support of a resolution on the EU-Canada deal CETA on Tuesday (June 8), that calls upon the government to seek legal clarification on the investor rights provisions in the agreement. It also demands that CETA is a “mixed deal” requiring ratification in Member State parliaments once these legal irregularities have been addressed.

      The vote was overwhelmingly supported by all political parties, with 58 votes in favour and only 2 abstentions from the far left. The resolution refers to the legal opinions of the European Judges Association and the German Association of Judges (Deutscher Richterbund DRB) who have both heavily criticised the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) and the EU Commission’s reform proposal or Investment Court System (ICS). The DRB said in a February statement that an Investment Court System, as proposed by the Commission, had “no legal basis” and was not needed as EU and US states guarantee access to justice and grant effective protection to foreign investors.

    • Austria’s crackdown on immigration is denting its economy

      Faced with a record-breaking refugee crisis over the past year, some European countries have resorted to strict measures to stem the flow of migrants and asylum seekers arriving at their borders.

      Austria, in particular, has made it difficult for refugees to enter the country. In February 2016, for example, the country imposed a daily cap on the number of asylum seekers that could enter from its southern border—limiting it to just 80 a day. (In 2015 the country received 90,000 asylum claims, equivalent to 1% of its population.)

    • The Guardian view on the EU referendum debate: register to vote now

      Opinion polls show the leave campaign is gaining, but remain can still win. First things first, however – make sure you are registered before midnight on Tuesday

    • India Seeks To Renegotiate 47 Investment Treaties Because Of Their Corporate Sovereignty Clauses

      Corporate sovereignty has become a big issue as a result of its inclusion in TPP and TAFTA/TTIP, but it’s present in hundreds of other trade and investment treaties.The heated discussion of investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) chapters in those negotiations has led some countries to realize that corporate sovereignty could prove very costly to them one day.

    • Uber and Deregulated Hypercapitalism Increasingly Leave Americans Unprotected

      Last week in San Diego, Calif., an Uber driver was charged with 20 counts of sexual assault-related charges stretching back several years, only months after he allegedly raped an intoxicated young woman who sought a ride home. (Uber immediately fired the driver after that incident last winter.) The attack, which was rare but not unprecedented, prompted Uber’s competition, the traditional taxi industry, to demand the Golden State require ride-share drivers undergo police-conducted fingerprinting and criminal background checks—which Uber has fervently opposed.

    • Three guys and a paper

      A new paper on “Neoliberalism: Oversold?” by Jonathan D. Ostry, Prakash Loungani, and Davide Furceri (pdf), is attracting a great deal of publicity these days.

      It’s not really because of the arguments in the paper, which are basically some pretty mild criticisms of some aspects of neoliberalism. It’s only because of where the paper appeared— in Finance and Development, a quarterly magazine published by the International Monetary Fund.

      But it’s a mistake to assume the IMF has rejected neoliberalism.

    • Accreditor of For-profit Colleges Agrees It Needs a Makeover

      A much-criticized group that accredits for-profit colleges announced Monday that it would temporarily stop taking new applications from campuses.

      The Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools described the move as an effort to restore “trust and confidence.”

      ProPublica and others have detailed serious problems at the organization. As ProPublica reported, students at ACICS-accredited schools graduate at particularly low rates and often can’t pay off their debt.

      “Every aspect of the agency must be re-evaluated, fortified and enhanced,” said ACICS’ top executive Anthony Bieda in a press release.

    • Paul Ryan’s Radical Anti-Poverty Plan Would Make Poverty Worse

      Three months after apologizing for calling poor people “takers,” House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) unveiled his plan to make life harder for them.

      Ryan delivered remarks about the plan, entitled A Better Way, at a drug rehab center in Anacostia, an impoverished and heavily black neighborhood of Washington, D.C., as part of a broader rollout of House Republican priorities this week.

      Ryan has become the leading voice in Republican lawmakers’ crusade against welfare programs. In the past, he’s blamed poverty on a “culture problem” in “inner cities,” where he says black men are “not even thinking about working or learning the value and the culture of work.” He has also argued that marriage is the cure for poverty, not government programs, and refused to allow any actual poor people testify at his hearings on poverty. He seemed to back away from some of the more racially loaded rhetoric in March, saying he was wrong to refer to people stuck in poverty as “takers.”

    • Ryan’s GOP Regurgitates “Anti-Poverty” Policies that Amount to War on Poor

      Continuing the GOP’s war on the poor, Speaker Paul Ryan and House Republicans unveiled an ostensibly new “anti-poverty” plan on Tuesday, marked by cuts to critical safety-net programs and further austerity.

      According to Politico, “much of this latest initiative is repackaged GOP proposals”—and the last time around, those ideas weren’t very popular.

    • Social Security’s Enemies Are Down – But They’re Not Out

      Not so long ago, Social Security was endangered by a “bipartisan” consensus that sought to cut its benefits – already lower than those of comparable countries – as part of a “grand bargain.” President Obama even put a slow-motion benefit cut into one of his proposed budgets, in the form of a reduction in cost-of-living increases.

      And nobody talked much about raising taxes on the rich. That, they said, was “politically impossible.”

    • Singapore weighs international court system in EU trade agreement
    • ‘Wet Kiss for Wall Street’: Warren Shreds GOP Attempt to Gut Dodd-Frank

      A Republican plan to dismantle key banking reforms passed in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis has been dubbed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) the “Wet Kiss for Wall Street Act.”

      Rep. Jeb Hensarling, a Republican from Texas, outlined his proposal—the Financial CHOICE (Creating Hope and Opportunity for Investors, Consumers and Entrepreneurs) Act—in a speech at the Economic Club of New York on Tuesday. The legislation contains “sweeping provisions that effectively constitute a wish list for Republicans,” according to American Banker.

    • Despite ‘Moral Angst’ About Inequality, World’s Richest Just Keep Getting Richer

      At a moment when the wealthiest one percent own more money than the rest of the world combined, a new report finds that in 2015 the world’s richest people were able to sit back and watch their assets grow by 5.2 percent to a stunning $168 trillion.

    • Abolish All Work Immediately

      Naturally, they fail to mention that not all ‘work’ pays, whereas jobs generally guarantee an income. The problem with jobs is that they sound a lot less glamorous than the more aspirational model of ‘work’, which supposedly makes you frei, and not just in the nazi sense of the word. Thus you’ll be hard pressed to meet anyone who isn’t a filmmaker, IT consultant, or “poet”. Tell people what you actually do for money and they’ll react as if you said “I kill surplus baby animals at a petting zoo with my own bare hands” or “I shoot ping pong balls out of my hoohoo in exchange for tequila shots” – as if that’s somehow worse than “leading a global team of market analysts for a European bank”. People who have jobs can fight for improved working conditions. People who ‘work’ at non-jobs as freelancers, interns or just aspirants in the field are unlikely to challenge the status quo. Thus ‘work’ is heralded as value producing, worthwhile and fulfilling, whereas jobs are for shmucks who can’t compete in the “real world”.

    • All about the money

      A commonly overlooked but very simple mechanism for promoting decent work in global supply chains is to improve the recovery of unpaid wages.

  • AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

    • How Hillary Clinton “Clinched “The Nomination On A Day Nobody Voted

      Yet the AP and other media continued to do so. Why? It’s just blatant bias from the ostensibly neutral mainstream media for the status quo candidate Hillary Clinton.

      That should be enough to turn the U.S. population away from these organizations forever. Yet there’s more. In calling the nomination for Hillary, the Associated Press had to get commitments from a few more super delegates. They achieved that feat yesterday evening (mind you, they still haven’t actually voted), and they kept the names anonymous. Yes, you read that right.

    • Quick: How Many Delegates Does Hillary Clinton Have?

      As of May 31, Hillary Clinton has 13,221,091 votes to Bernie Sanders’ 10,340,549. Those numbers include the raw vote counts from the caucus states with the exception of Wyoming and several territories which have not released raw vote counts. They do include Washington caucus numbers but not its primary vote counts. Washington’s delegate allocation process is druidic, with candidate preferences calculated to the third decimal point.

    • Glenn Greenwald Is Spot-On About AP’s Premature Declaration of Hillary Clinton as the Dem Nominee
    • Is This Evidence of Collusion Between Hillary Clinton and the AP Over Clinton’s ‘Secret Win’?
    • Big Money’s Conquest of Democratic Party

      As Hillary Clinton finally clinches the Democratic nomination, the big question facing Democrats is: are they now the party of big money and elite special interests or will the Sanders’ revolt live on and grow, write Bill Moyers and Michael Winship.

    • Los Angeles Election Chief Dismissive of Ballot Shortage Concerns for Hillary Clinton vs. Bernie Sanders California Election Contest

      Poll workers in Los Angeles County are reporting that they are short, in some cases well-short, of the number of Democratic and No Party Preference cross-over Democratic ballots required for their precincts tomorrow under California Elections Code Section 14102 (a)1, (a)2, and (b). Dean C. Logan, L.A. County’s Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, is dismissive of these claims, however, suggesting that precinct inspectors should be speaking to his office instead of the media and offering a definition of “registered voters” that flies in the face of Federal law and California’s Secretary of State guidance in accordance with Federal law.

    • Hillary Clinton vs. Bernie Sanders: Tom Hayden vs. Norman Solomon

      So we’re looking at a quandary here where Bernie’s the winner on a moral and even a political basis. He’s made history, and she’s the winner on the mathematical basis. And then you have Trump. So it could be the tightest, most hazardous race in political history and we can’t afford to allow Trump to slither through. So that’s where I’m at.

    • ‘The Struggle Continues’: Sanders Refuses to Bend the Knee to Establishment

      Bernie Sanders refused to concede the race for the Democratic Party presidential nomination on Tuesday night even as he congratulated his rival Hillary Clinton on her primary wins and thanked his supporters for their determined commitment to the ‘political revolution’ he has championed throughout the hotly contested primary season.

      “If this campaign has taught us anything,” he told an enthusiastic and cheering crowd in Santa Monica, California just after 10:30 pm local time, “it has proven that millions of Americans who love this country are prepared to stand up and fight to make this country a much better place.”

      When Sanders took the stage, and as of this writing, major news outlets had awarded three of the day’s six contests–New Jersey, New Mexico, and South Dakota–to Clinton, while Sanders was able to claim victories in both Montana and North Dakota.

    • Failure of America’s Two Parties

      The U.S. political process, which fancies itself the world’s “gold standard,” is ready to foist on the American people two disdained candidates, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, raising profound doubts about the two-party system, writes Nat Parry.

    • Trump Doubles Down On Racist Attack Against Federal Judge

      In a lengthy statement released on his website, Donald Trump defended his racist attacks on the federal district court judge overseeing the fraud case against Trump University. Trump has said the judge, Gonzalo P. Curiel, was not capable of fairly adjudicating the case because of his “Mexican heritage.” Paul Ryan today described Trump’s comments as “textbook racism.”

    • California Senate President: Trump’s Attack on Federal Judge is Racist, Anti-Immigrant

      Leading Republicans have continued to criticize presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump for attacking a Mexican-American judge. Trump has said the judge should recuse himself from a lawsuit against the defunct for-profit Trump University, because his Mexican heritage represents a conflict of interest, since Trump wants to build a wall on the Mexican border. We get a response from Kevin de León, president pro-tem of the California Senate, and Los Angeles city councilmember and former California state legislator Gil Cedillo.

    • Here’s Paul Ryan Calling Out Donald Trump for Racism But Urging People to Vote for Him Anyway

      House Speaker Paul Ryan refused to withdraw his endorsement of Donald Trump on Tuesday even as he acknowledged that Trump made “racist” and “indefensible” comments about the Mexican heritage of Gonzalo Curiel, the federal judge overseeing a suit against the defunct Trump University.

      In a remarkable 45 seconds captured on video by CNN, Ryan, who is currently the highest-ranking elected official in the Republican party first called Trump’s comments obviously racist and then immediately urged Americans to vote for him anyway.

    • Republicans Show Just How Much of Trump’s “Textbook Racism” They Will Tolerate

      Testing the endurance of the proverbial ‘camel’s back’ on Tuesday, many mainstream Republicans claimed to have reached their threshold of blatantly discriminatory remarks made by the anointed party nominee, Donald Trump.

      Throughout his campaign, the New York billionaire has insulted entire sectors of people, from Mexicans and Muslims to women and people with disabilities. Despite this, the party has widely gotten behind his candidacy.

      But the conservative world appears to be in free-fall after Trump defiantly stood by his assertion that the U.S. district court judge presiding over the Trump University case would not give a fair hearing because of his Mexican heritage.

      As evidenced by the mid-Tuesday press conference by House Speaker Paul Ryan, many in the party appeared conflicted. While Ryan acknowledged that the remarks were indeed “the textbook definition of racist comments,” he said that he will continue to support Trump for president.

    • California’s primary has oily fingers all over it

      In the months leading up the California primary, all eyes have been focused on the Hillary vs. Bernie cage match. That’s too bad, because there’s another Democrat-on-Democrat struggle going on in the race for the California Assembly that’s full of suspense. It’s another episode in Big Oil’s ongoing fight to roll back the state’s ambitious climate laws.

    • Bernie Sanders’s big crowds in California, by the numbers

      During the month leading up to Tuesday’s primary, Bernie Sanders essentially turned California into a second home. The senator from Vermont campaigned the same way in the Golden State that he has since the outset of his White House bid: by staging rallies that draw eye-popping crowds.

      In California, the feat has been particularly impressive because of the Democratic hopeful’s ability to attract supporters in such big numbers day after day, up and down the state.

    • 4 Reasons Bernie Sanders Could Fight On

      Why Clinton’s call for Sanders to fall in line misreads the 2016 race

    • Sanders Supporters Cry Foul over Clinton’s Suspicious “Secret Win” Email

      Twitter blew up on Tuesday after it was revealed that an email sent to Hillary Clinton supporters—one celebrating Monday’s premature and controversial nomination call—contained an image labeled “secret win” which gave many the impression that the campaign was ready to pounce even before the Associated Press and other outlets made their surprise announcements on the eve of Tuesday’s primaries.

    • Truthdig Sits Down With Green Party’s Jill Stein

      Watch the entire discussion below, although the first video is cut off early because of Facebook’s time limit. The second segment, while much shorter, is a sign-off from Stein and the Truthdig staff.

    • First GOP Rats Are Starting To Jump Sinking Toxic Trump Ship

      With the Drumpf reality show getting ever more deranged, moronic and in-your-face racist – moving from trashing a judge whose parents happen to be Mexican to a possibly Muslim or female one – the GOP is tap-dancing as fast as it can to simultaneously deplore and support their candidate, haplessly arguing that while their candidate may be a racist dick, he’s their racist dick. As Republicans realize their guy is going to stay the same thin-skinned, babbling, narcissistic, vindictive jerk with the impulse control of a four-year-old, it’s surreal to hear them trying to toe the impossible line between ditching their party and selling their soul. Hence, their blizzard of double-speak: His attacks on Judge Gonzalo Curiel are “textbook racism,” “offensive and wrong,” “un-American”; then again, “I don’t know all the facts,” “I think we’re all sort of used to remarks being made that we don’t expect,” it’s “a more dimensional issue,” “I’m not going to comment about everything he says and doesn’t say (or) we’d never get anything done,” and from Maine’s own Susan Collins, “I continue to hope that Mr. Trump will rethink his position…I continue to believe in redemption.” Yeah, good luck with that.

    • Kirk: ‘I cannot and will not support my party’s nominee’

      I have spent my life building bridges and tearing down barriers — not building walls. That’s why I find Donald Trump’s belief that an American-born judge of Mexican descent is incapable of fairly presiding over his case is not only dead wrong, it is un-American.

      As the Presidential campaign progressed, I was hoping the rhetoric would tone down and reflect a campaign that was inclusive, thoughtful and principled. While I oppose the Democratic nominee, Donald Trump’s latest statements, in context with past attacks on Hispanics, women and the disabled like me, make it certain that I cannot and will not support my party’s nominee for President regardless of the political impact on my candidacy or the Republican Party.

    • Supreme Court To Consider What Happens When Race Discrimination Hides In Plain Sight

      Racial gerrymandering cases are rarely easy for courts to decide. On the one hand, the Constitution requires courts to treat racial classifications in the law with extraordinary skepticism. On the other, laws such as the Voting Rights Act require states to pay attention to race when they draw legislative maps, and the Constitution gives them some leeway to do so. The Supreme Court’s opinions explaining how to walk the line between these two conflicting concerns are not a model of clarity.

    • Nina Turner: ‘We’re Going All the Way to the Convention’ (Video)

      “We are being tested in this moment because there will never another candidate like Bernie Sanders.”

    • Sanders and Clinton Vying for More than California on Final Big Tuesday

      It might be hard to believe, but California is not the only state voting in the presidential primaries on Tuesday.

      Contests will also take place in New Jersey, North and South Dakota, New Mexico, and Montana—and could have some impact as Bernie Sanders supporters hold their ground against corporate media claims that Hillary Clinton has already clinched the nomination.

      In New Jersey, which has 126 delegates available, polls open at 6am and close at 8pm. It is a closed primary, which means that voters must be registered for the political party holding the contest in order to cast a ballot. However, the state does allow same-day registration. Live results will be available here.

      Moving further west, North Dakota will hold an open caucus at 7pm local time, and voters are encouraged to arrive at least an hour early. Those in line by the deadline will still be allowed to caucus. As the NWI Times noted, 2016 marks the first year that both Democratic presidential candidates took the trouble of opening up offices in a state that has not voted blue since 1964, although there are only 23 delegates up for grabs. According to FiveThirtyEight, Sanders is expected to sweep the state by 38 percentage points. Track live results here.

    • Clinton may take the nomination, but Sanders has won the debate

      Clinton may take the nomination, but Sanders surely has won the political debate. He started at single digits in the polls and was widely dismissed as a “fringe” candidate. He has astounded even his supporters, winning more than 20 contests, 10 million votes and 1,500 pledged delegates, the most of any true insurgent in modern history. He has captured the support of young voters by record margins. And he did so less with personal charisma than with the power of his ideas and the force of the integrity demonstrated by spurning traditional deep-pocketed donors in favor of grass-roots fundraising. Harvard researchers found that Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 have actually become more progressive over the course of the campaign. Sanders hasn’t merely won a seat at the table, he’s started a sea change in Democratic politics that the party will have to adjust to.

    • Action Alert: AP’s Premature Call for Clinton Does Disservice to Democracy

      AP Count: Clinton Has Delegates to Win Democratic NominationThe Associated Press (6/6/16) has unilaterally declared Hillary Clinton to be “the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee for president,” based on the news agency’s own polling of unelected superdelegates.

      Superdelegates—who have a role in the Democratic nominating process based on their institutional positions rather than being chosen by voters—do not vote until the Democratic National Convention, to be held on July 25. They can declare their intention to vote for one candidate or another, just as voters can tell pollsters who they intend to vote for before Election Day, but like voters they can (and do) change their mind at any time before the actual voting. Media do not generally call elections weeks before the actual voting based on voters’ intentions.

      The timing of AP’s announcement–on the eve of primaries in California, New Jersey, New Mexico, Montana and South Dakota, and caucuses in North Dakota—raises concerns of voter suppression, intentional or not. The six states choose a total of 806 delegates on June 7, making it the second-biggest day in the Democratic primary calendar (after “Super Tuesday,” March 1, when 865 delegates were at stake).

      News outlets generally withhold the results of exit polling until voters have finished voting, regardless of how far ahead the leading candidate is, because they don’t want to confuse poll-based speculation with the actual electoral results. AP, it seems, has no such qualms.

    • Sanders camp blasts media for ‘suppressing voter turnout’

      Bernie Sanders’ campaign manager laid into the media on Tuesday for allegedly suppressing voter turnout, ripping into news outlets’ calls projecting Hillary Clinton as the Democratic nominee while reiterating that his candidate would pursue the nomination all the way until next month’s convention.

      “Let those people vote and decide before the media tells them that the race is over,” Jeff Weaver told CNN. “What’s the point of suppressing voter turnout in six states across the country to have a quick news hit that could easily have been done tonight?”

      Sanders has said that he would do well in California and five other states voting Tuesday if there is a large turnout. Discussing Sanders’ next moves, Weaver noted that the District of Columbia still has its primary next Tuesday.

    • North Carolina superdelegate endorses Sanders

      The Associated Press may have declared Hillary Clinton the Democratic nominee, but Bernie Sanders is still picking up superdelegates.

      Democratic National Committeewoman Pat Cotham, a North Carolina superdelegate, said Monday evening she would support Sanders. The endorsement came on the eve of contests in California, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Dakota and South Dakota.

    • Trump University Documents Reveal Trump’s Scary Approach To Schooling

      Newly released documents from Trump University have inspired another round of questions about the company’s dubious business practices. But the documents also shed light on how presumptive GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump views education — and what education policies he might roll out if he wins the election.

    • Perfect End to Democratic Primary: Anonymous Superdelegates Declare Winner Through Media

      Last night, Associated Press – on a day when nobody voted – surprised everyone by abruptly declaring the Democratic Party primary over and Hillary Clinton the victor. The decree, issued the night before the California primary in which polls show Clinton and Bernie Sanders in a very close race, was based on the media organization’s survey of “superdelegates”: the Democratic Party’s 720 insiders, corporate donors and officials whose votes for the presidential nominee count the same as the actually elected delegates. AP claims that superdelegates who had not previously announced their intentions privately told AP reporters that they intend to vote for Clinton, bringing her over the threshold. AP is concealing the identity of the decisive superdelegates who said this.

      Although the Sanders campaign rejected the validity of AP’s declaration – on the ground that the superdelegates do not vote until the convention and he intends to try to persuade them to vote for him – most major media outlets followed the projection and declared Clinton the winner.

    • Does Sanders Have a Plan B?

      The Democrats introduced the super delegate system back in 1982, in order to prevent another populist upsurge in the early 1970s with the grassroots George McGovern campaign; and as a response to another outsider, Jimmy Carter, who turned out to be a disaster for the party in the 1980 election.

    • Declaring Clinton’s Premature Victory

      The mainstream media has run out screaming headlines and saturation TV coverage on AP’s tally that Hillary Clinton has nailed down the Democratic nomination, but the claims are misleading, reports Joe Lauria.

    • Rome, Brexit, Trump and Greens – so many forms of establishment meltdown: revolution in the making?

      Rome, London, Washington, Wien: these are different and distant places. Yet it is rather obvious nowadays to connect the dots and read them as just nation-specific symptoms of a worldwide phenomenon. We are witnessing what is increasingly looking like the meltdown of an entire political and economic system which has governed the developed world for at least three decades.

      In Italy, the results of yesterday’s election of local city councils surpassed even the expectations of the anti-establishment Five Star Movement. In Rome, the city which has lived for decades almost exclusively off salaries paid by a heavily indebted and inefficient central administration, only one out of ten electors voted for the Democratic Party of the PM, Matteo Renzi.

    • In California and Beyond, Sanders Democrats and Independents Needed to Stop Trump

      Despite the acrimony and​ deep​ ideological debate raging within the Democratic Party, the vast majority of both Clinton and Sanders​ supporters​ know America must defeat Donald Trump. ​They​ ​just vehemently disagree about how to​ best​ ​ ensure his loss.

      Californi​a primary voters can ​force Democrats to engage​ productively​ across the divide​​ ​ if they mak​e​ the unconventional​ political​ move​ to register the big picture, not simply the dynamics within the Democratic National Committee confines.

    • The Racial Divide Between Sanders and Trump

      As I sat in the San Diego sunshine yesterday listening to Bernie Sanders outside of Qualcomm Stadium, I was struck by the stunning contrast between the senator and Donald Trump, particularly on the issue of race.

      Sanders emphasized racial justice, citing the courage of African Americans and their allies who fought against racism and bigotry during Jim Crow. He talked of the thousands of undocumented workers who are ruthlessly exploited, overworked and underpaid, vowing to end the current deportation policies. Sanders seeks to “unite, not divide families.” And he wants to “fundamentally change” the federal government’s oppressive relationship with the Native American community.

      There are more people in U.S. prisons than in any other country in the world, Sanders noted. Those imprisoned, he said, are disproportionately African Americans, Latinos and Native Americans. The senator wants to invest in “jobs and education, not jails and incarceration.”

    • Most Dems Want Open Primaries: Poll

      Amid new charges of an “undemocratic” presidential primary, over 60 percent of Democratic voters and Democratic-leaning voters assert that they want the party to hold open nominating contests, an NBC News/Survey Monkey poll released Tuesday found.

      A majority of Republicans and voters leaning toward the Republican Party also prefer open primaries and caucuses.

      As the number of independent voters has risen in recent years, many voters have argued that closed primaries are disenfranchising a large portion of the population.

    • If Sanders Has Lost, What Have the Democrats Won?

      In the midst of an intensifying primary, the mainstream media joined as one to announce Hillary Clinton as the presumptive Democratic nominee for President. While she lacks a clear majority of pledged delegates, the expected support of as yet to vote superdelegates has apparently handed her a hard won victory against an impassioned Bernie Sanders and the growing progressive movement propelling him forward.

      Indeed, this announced “triumph” comes on the eve of a California primary where Sanders is surging in popularity and attracting hundred of thousands of new registered voters with his calls for no less than a “political revolution.” Rather than racing confidently toward the finish, Clinton is limping with desperate vigor to hold on tightly to her once inevitable coronation as the nominee. Far from celebration, her success is tinged with establishment concerns over how much she has been damaged as a candidate and broader worries over whether this will be ultimately a pyrrhic victory.

    • Establishment Media Commit Massive Act of Malpractice And Claim Clinton ‘Clinched’

      The Associated Press and NBC News inappropriately reported Hillary Clinton made history and “clinched” the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination. It spurred other media organizations, such as CNN and the New York Times, to follow suit and splash their home pages with big headlines indicating Clinton was the nominee.

      In engaging in this act, establishment media improperly influenced five primaries scheduled for June 7, including the California primary, one of the biggest contests in the presidential race thus far. They collectively stooped to a new sycophantic low.

      The reports of “clinching” are entirely based on an unofficial survey of superdelegates, which the AP and NBC News has conducted throughout the 2016 election. They both determined Clinton reached the “magic number” needed to clinch, which is 2383 delegates.

      But if it is true that history happened, why didn’t Clinton’s own party congratulating her? How come there was no statement from the Democratic National Committee?

      As of 12 am ET on June 7, the DNC had released no statement. There was no status update on the DNC’s Facebook page. There was no message sent or retweeted about Clinton making history.

      Is that not a bit odd to journalists in the media or do journalists and pundits covering this election have their heads so deep in the Clinton campaign that they do not care to even fake objectivity and fairness anymore?

  • Censorship/Free Speech

    • Go Home, State Council Information Office Of The People’s Republic Of China, You’re Drunk

      Techdirt has written plenty of stories about the Chinese government’s attempts to stifle dissent online using a variety of heavy-handed approaches.

    • Ukraine struggles to balance censorship and security as war in east wears on

      But the message came at a time when Western journalists and human rights groups have been speaking out over mounting censorship in the country. Just two weeks ago, Poroshenko banned 17 Russian media executives and journalists from entering Ukraine as part of the fight against Kremlin propaganda or Russia’s “information war.”

      The ban issued on May 27 has been widely condemned by Western organizations, even though Ukraine lifted sanctions on 29 foreign journalists in a second decree issued on the same day.

    • State Department Tries to Send Embarrassing Press Video Down the Memory Hole

      Last week the State Department revealed that an unknown official within its public affairs office ordered the scrubbing of roughly eight minutes from a video of a State press briefing, which included a discussion about negotiations related to the Iran nuclear deal.

      In the deleted portion, then-spokesperson Jen Psaki (above) was asked whether her predecessor lied when she said secret bilateral talks with Iran had not yet begun, when later U.S. officials said they were already ongoing at that point.

      A few days later, after the news broke of the deletion, Secretary of State John Kerry said that whoever called for deleting the several minutes of video was being “stupid, clumsy and inappropriate.” Kerry emphasized that he intends to find out who was responsible, adding that he didn’t want someone like that working for him.

    • The War on Syria and the Refugee Crisis: Censorship and “Humanitarian Propaganda”, NGOs Support America’s “Moderate Terrorists”

      The genuine and positive forces seeking change in Syria disappeared long ago. James Foley documented the reality in Syria after his illusions were dispelled in Fall 2012. So did the native Aleppan known as Edward Dark. Initially he and his friends supported the uprising but then realized what it meant. While there is an array of jihadi factions, the conflict has crystallized into its essence: a brutal war of aggression with foreign funded mercenaries and international jihadis on one side, and a struggling multi-ethnic, multi-religious Syrian army and allies on the other.

    • Web Sheriff Accuses Us Of Breaking Basically Every Possible Law For Pointing Out That It’s Abusing DMCA Takedowns

      Remember Web Sheriff? That’s the wacky firm that claims it will send DMCA takedowns on your behalf or protect your online reputation by taking down stuff you don’t like. The company is somewhat infamous for being a joke and not doing its job particularly well. A couple of weeks ago we wrote about the company abusing the DMCA to try to get Google to delist stories relating to that “celebrity threesome” media injunction in the UK that has been making news for a few months. We highlighted just how ridiculous this was on many accounts, including using a copyright takedown notice on an issue that wasn’t about copyright at all. And they even tried to take down the company’s own Zendesk request to remove content from Reddit.

    • Japanese Media Subject to Self-, Not Gov’t Censorship – NHK Journalist

      Japanese journalists do not face political censorship problems, but are subjected to self-censorship, executive commentator of the Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK) Ichiyo Ishikawa told Sputnik on Tuesday.

    • Tanjug director: Internet censorship very present

      Internet censorship is possible, and it is very present, Tanjug Director Branka Djukic said in Moscow Tuesday at an international forum titled “The New Era of Journalism: A Farewell to the Mainstream.”

      The forum, organised by the Rossiya Segodnya agency, brought together media experts from over 30 countries of the world – the United States, the United Kingdom, France, India, China, Armenia, Egypt, Azerbaijan, the United Arab Emirates and others.

    • Kelly McParland: China’s microphone diplomacy flops in Ottawa

      In strict diplomatic terms, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s recent visit to Canada could not be termed a success.

      It was the first visit by a Chinese foreign minister in seven years. It was also the first opportunity for the new Liberal government to demonstrate its eagerness to patch up relationships it claims were strained under the Conservatives. Luo Zhaohui, China’s ambassador to Canada, says a lot of important work got done: the launch of a mechanism to improve dialogue; talks on trade and business relations; plans to increase student mobility, fight corruption and “hunt-down and surrender … fugitive offenders.” And, of course, the usual “candid and in-depth exchange of views on sensitive issues…of mutual concern.”

    • China should be pressed on human rights at every opportunity

      Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s scolding of a Canadian reporter for daring to ask a question about human rights in China has made headlines around the world. The unexpected rant reflects China’s attempt to export its own values, especially censorship, to the West.

    • China attempts to export censorship

      Minister Wang Yi’s scolding of a Canadian reporter for daring to ask a question about human rights in China has made headlines around the world. The unexpected rant reflects China’s attempt to export its own values, especially censorship, to the West.

      Instead of a spontaneous display of anger, the performance was clearly staged. Chinese officials are asked about human rights everywhere they go, and so the question itself should not have been surprising. What was odd was that while the question was directed at Canada’s foreign affairs minister, Stephane Dion, the Chinese minister stepped in to respond.

    • Gov. Cuomo’s Anti-BDS Bill is a First Amendment Nightmare

      On June 5 New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed into law an executive order aimed at the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) Movement. BDS is a non-violent economic and political protest against the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories.

    • The current aggressive campaign against anybody who speaks out for Palestine is gathering force

      The current aggressive campaign against anybody who speaks out for Palestine is gathering force. It’s most obvious manifestation lies in the ridiculous claims of “anti-semitism” against many left wing or radical campaigners who have worked against all racism their entire lives. As the establishment becomes more desperate to portray any thought or expression outside their neo-con orthodoxy as illegitimate, the related attack on supporters of Palestine becomes increasingly shrill.

    • Postal censorship is a cure worse than the disease

      Canadians who value free speech – and let’s hope that is all of us – should be deeply troubled by Ottawa’s decision to tell Canada Post to stop carrying a fringe Toronto newspaper. Public Services Minister Judy Foote ordered the postal service to cease delivering Your Ward News, which has been accused of being anti-Semitic and pro-Nazi. Her “interim prohibitory order” gives its editor 10 days to appeal.

      Those who have campaigned against the free paper are “ecstatic.” But consider the awful precedent this act of postal censorship sets.

    • Media Censorship Becomes Global Phenomenon – Press Agency Head

      Censorship of media has become a global phenomenon, Michalis Psilos, president and general director of the Athens-Macedonian Press Agency (ANA-MPA), said Tuesday.

    • DA: Parliament must call SABC to account over ‘rampant censorship’ after SAfm show axed
    • SABC calls silencing editors a ‘revamp’
    • Parliamentary briefing on SABC’s censorship needed – Phumzile Van Damme
    • Canning SAFM current affairs show ‘another form of censorship’
    • Cancelling of The Editors on SAfm is more SABC censorship, the DA says
    • B-Town stands united against censorship of ‘Udta Punjab’
    • ‘Udta Nowhere’: Why Udta Punjab kind of censorship will spell doom for Indian cinema
    • Anurag Kashyap on Udta Punjab censorship row: Anyone opposing the film is guilty of promoting drugs
    • With Udta Punjab, it’s Now Time for Censorship to be Re-Redefined
    • Politics of censorship
    • Why We Must Thank Censor Chief Pahlaj Nihalani

      Pahlaj Nihalani, the current chairman of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) deserves our collective thanks for exposing just how absurd, arbitrary and abused our film screening regulations are. After a string of decisions that imposed his own dogmatic view of decency, propriety and culture on an unsuspecting public, the CBFC’s decision on Balaji Motion Pictures’ Udta Punjab has shown everyone just how much the board constituted for film certification has operated as a vehicle for film censorship.

    • Bollywood filmmaker challenges censoring of drug-abuse film
    • Film censorship continues and spreads in India

      Reports that the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) has asked for many cuts in Abhishek Chaubey’s Udta Punjab as well as sought the removal of “Punjab” from its title give a complete lie to the government’s pronouncements that it would like to usher in an era of reduced control on films.

    • Chorus in Bollywood: ‘Fraternity has to stand by what’s right’
    • B-Town slams censorship on ‘Udta Punjab’

      Filmmakers including Karan Johar, Mahesh Bhatt, Ram Gopal Varma among others today criticised Censor Board of Film Certification (CBFC) for censoring the content of upcoming film “Udta Punjab”.

    • Axl Rose DMCAs Unflattering Photo For Which He Doesn’t Hold The Copyright

      Show of hands: who remembers Axl Rose? Last we here at Techdirt checked in on him, Rose was busy suing video games and hassling music bloggers over album leaks. The younger among you may chiefly be familiar with his Axl-ness via a somewhat popular string of internet memes centered on some rather unflattering pictures of the musician taken from a concert in 2010.

      [...]

      Now, TorrentFreak reached out to Minkevich, who had no idea this takedown blitz was underway. He confirmed that some concerts do indeed make photographers sign these types of agreements, but couldn’t recall if this concert included one or not. Web Sherrif, who certainly should be able to produce the agreement, having taken the lead on the copyright claims, isn’t doing so. When asked, Web Sherrif’s response was instead to insist that even if the photographer had not signed an agreement — leading me to believe he probably didn’t –, that Rose would still be able to claim ownership over the photo.

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • FBI Sends Computer Information Collected By Its Hacking Tools In Unencrypted Form Over The Open Internet

      The FBI doesn’t want to talk about its secret malware, but with over 100 child porn prosecutions tied to it, it’s had to discuss at least a few aspects of its Network Investigative Technique (NIT).

      In yet another prosecution — this one actually taking place in Virginia for a change — the FBI is once again struggling to withhold details of its NIT from the defense. Suppression of the evidence likely isn’t an option, as the warrant it obtained in Virginia was actually deployed in Virginia. I’m sure the FBI is as surprised as anybody by this fortuitous coincidence. But the defendant still wants access to more information, as he is looking to challenge the evidence the FBI collected with its Tor-defeating exploit.

      The defendant, Edward Matish, has questions about the chain of custody. FBI Special agent Daniel Alfin, who has testified in other Playpen/NIT cases inadvertently admits there could be problems here, considering the FBI does nothing to protect the information it collects from suspect’s computers from being intercepted or altered.

    • EFF Urges Senate Not to Expand FBI’s Controversial National Security Letter Authority

      The controversial National Security Letter (NSL) statute could be significantly expanded under two separate bills currently being debated by the Senate. Every year, the FBI issues thousands of NSLs to telephone and Internet companies, demanding records about their customers and gagging the companies from informing the public about these requests. NSLs are inherently dangerous to civil liberties because their use is rarely subject to judicial review. But NSLs are not magic, and they don’t require recipients to do whatever the FBI says. Above all, the type of information available to the FBI with an NSL is quite limited, reflecting the need to tightly control the extrajudicial nature of this controversial power.

    • New Intelligence Bill Gives FBI More Secret Surveillance Power

      A Senate bill published late Monday night includes a new provision that would give the FBI more power to issue secret demands, known as national security letters, to technology, internet, communications, and banking companies for their customers’ information.

      The provision, tucked into the Senate Intelligence Authorization Act, would explicitly authorize the FBI to obtain “electronic communication transactional records” for individuals or entities — though it doesn’t define what that means. The bill was passed by the Senate Intelligence Committee last week.

    • Why Is the Government Poison-Pilling ECPA Reform?

      At each stage of this gutting process, Feingold’s effort to end bulk collection got watered down until, with Sessons’ amendments, the Internet dragnet was permitted to operate as it had been. Almost the very same time this happened, NSA’s General Counsel finally admitted that every single record the agency had collected under the dragnet program had violated the category restrictions set back in 2004. Probably 20 days later, Reggie Walton would shut down the dragnet until at least July 2010.

      But before that happened, the Administration made what appears to be — now knowing all that we know now — an effort to legalize the illegal Internet dragnet that had replaced the prior illegal Internet dragnet.

    • The Danger of Corporate Facial Recognition Tech

      Supporters of unregulated corporate facial recognition systems are waging a sneak attack against our nation’s strongest protection of biometric privacy. On one side are business interests seeking to profit by using invasive facial recognition technologies to identify and track vast numbers of people without their consent. On the other side are EFF and many other digital privacy and consumer rights organizations. Our side won the latest round. But the future of biometric privacy will require all of our constant vigilance.

      The latest example of successfully working together: privacy advocates sprung into action last month and defeated a bill that would have repealed most of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act, a groundbreaking law protecting your biometric data. The bill would have deregulated scans of faces, irises, retinas, and hands, and left in place regulation only of fingerprints and voiceprints. In addition to gutting people’s privacy, it would also have undercut lawsuits pending against Facebook and other companies for violating the original strong law. The bill, filed just before the Memorial Day weekend, appeared set for quick passage before the end of the regular legislative session.

    • Vulnerabilities in Facebook Chat and Messenger exploitable with basic HTML knowledge

      Check Point’s security research team has discovered vulnerabilities in Facebook’s standard online Chat function, and its separately downloaded Messenger app.

      The vulnerabilities, if exploited, would allow anyone to essentially take control of any message sent by Chat or Messenger, modify its contents, distribute malware and even insert automation techniques to outsmart security defences.

    • Secret GCHQ spy programme ‘Milkwhite’ collected UK civilian social media data to share with MI5

      Since at least 2009, a number of law enforcement agencies in the UK have had access to troves of metadata collected by British signals intelligence outfit GCHQ with the use of a highly secretive spy programme called ‘Milkwhite’.

      The previously undisclosed programme was described in documents leaked by former NSA-contractor Edward Snowden and published by The Intercept. It reportedly involves the collection of records belonging to domestic UK citizens – including metadata from social media platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn and chat services such as WhatsApp.

    • Assange: 80 percent of NSA budget privatized

      WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said in a televised address to an international media forum that 80 percent of the US National Security Agency’s (NSA) budget has been privatized as part of the merger between power and big business.

      “There is a merger between the corporate organizations and state… 80 percent of the National Security Agency budget is privatized,” Assange said, stressing that the NSA “is the core of the US deep state… There has been a smoothing out between the government and the corporations,” the whistleblower said.

    • Nest May Be The First Major Casualty Of Hollow ‘Internet Of Things’ Hype

      When the Nest smart thermostat was launched back in 2011, you may recall that it was met with an absolute torrent of gushing media adoration, most of it heralding the real arrival of the smart home. That was in part thanks to the fact the company was founded by Tony Fadell and Matt Rogers, both ex-Apple engineers with some expertise in getting the media to fawn robotically over shiny kit. But a parade of high-profile PR failures have plagued the effort since, including several instances where botched firmware updates briefly bricked the device, leaving even the media’s resident internet of things evangelists annoyed.

      [...]

      There’s also the recent kerfuffle involving Nest acquiring smart home hub manufacturer Revolv in 2014, then effectively bricking a $300 device as of last month (again, without really providing anything to replace it with). Over the last year Nest also started leaking many top employees and there was a notably ugly and public feud with Dropcam co-founder and departing Nest employee Greg Duffy, who blamed Nest’s dysfunction on Fadell’s “tyrant bureaucrat” management style.

    • NSA, Trump and Clinton vs Snowden Facts
    • Snowden Claims ‘Deceptive’ NSA Still Has Proof He Tried to Raise Surveillance Concerns

      On June 4, VICE News published more than 800 pages of declassified NSA documents that shed new light on the contentious issue of whether Edward Snowden raised concerns about the agency’s surveillance programs while he still worked there. Since then, Snowden has alleged there’s additional evidence that has not yet been made public.

      The former NSA contractor has long maintained that his 2013 leak of a trove of highly classified documents was a last resort after his efforts to sound the alarm about the agency’s secret spy programs went largely ignored.

      The NSA, meanwhile, has rejected Snowden’s narrative, insisting that the closest he got to raising concerns was sending a single email asking a question about the interpretation of legal authorities.

    • After Snowden, there is clear evidence of a paradigmatic shift in journalist-source relations

      On the first day of this month (June 2016), The Guardian revealed a rift caused in the mid-2000s between MI5 and MI6, Britain’s foreign and domestic intelligence agencies, by MI6′s involvement in the rendition and torture of people suspected of Islamist terrorism. It was good journalism, but it still took ten years for the public to be told of this rift.

      I have been an investigative journalist for over three decades. In that time, just about every case of illegality, immorality or incompetence demonstrated by an intelligence agency I can think of has been revealed by investigative journalists working with their inside sources.

    • Work of GCHQ leads to the arrest of one of world’s most wanted people smugglers who faces multiple charges [Ed: GCHQ recently found to have done copyright policing (Harry Potter) and now this]
    • A peek behind the curtain at GCHQ [Ed: the latest puff pieces about our spies]

      Mind you, this was friendly territory – the Cheltenham Science Festival in GCHQ’s home town.

    • Record breaking number of schoolchildren attending Cheltenham Science Festival
    • 17 things we learned from GCHQ director at Cheltenham Science Festival
    • MI5 collecting “significantly more” data than it can use, new Snowden docs reveal
    • MI5 warning: we’re gathering more than we can analyse, and will miss terrorist attacks
    • New Snowden document reveals UK spy agency warned of ‘too much data’ risk in 2010
    • ‘Leaked report’ reveals mass data fears
    • Newspapers’ Complaint to Consumer Agency Shouldn’t Lead to Bans on Privacy Software

      In an attack on ad-blocking software, the Newspaper Association of America filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission last week, asking the agency to ban a variety of functions, including “evading metered subscription systems and paywalls,” and ad substitution. NAA also called into question new business models that aim to replace online advertising. Newspapers are concerned about the effects that ad-blockers may have on their revenues and their ability to understand and market to their readership. But some of what NAA is asking for would threaten important and widely used privacy software, like Tor and EFF’s own Privacy Badger, and chip away at Internet users’ ability to control their own browsing experience.

    • A Few Easy Steps Everyone Should Take to Protect Their Digital Privacy

      Much of the privacy protection we need in today’s world can’t happen without technological and legislative solutions, and the ACLU will continue leading the fight for digital security and privacy through our litigation and advocacy efforts. But there are simple steps that everyone can take to improve their digital privacy. While there are many advanced techniques that expert technologists can deploy for much greater security, below are some relatively basic and straightforward steps that will significantly increase your protection against privacy invasions and hacks.

    • Facing Data Deluge, Secret U.K. Spying Report Warned of Intelligence Failure

      A secret report warned that British spies may have put lives at risk because their surveillance systems were sweeping up more data than could be analyzed, leading them to miss clues to possible security threats.

      The concern was sent to top British government officials in an explosive classified document, which outlined methods being developed by the United Kingdom’s domestic intelligence agency to covertly monitor internet communications.

    • FBI Wants To Have An Unrestricted Look At Your Web Browser’s History And Email

      The FBI is expecting a new change in the law that would grant it powers to get a complete picture of a person’s online life. The new change will allow the FBI to access a person’s browsing history and other “electronic communications” data without a warrant in any spy cases or terrorism.

    • How the government tried to use Snowden’s own emails to discredit his claims that he raised his concerns with his NSA superiors before mass leak of documents

      Newly declassified documents show that Edward Snowden was a CIA asset and shine a light on the steps made by the government to discredit his claims that he had raised concerns with the NSA, prior to his leak.

      Documents obtained by VICE via an Freedom of Information Act request, although inconclusive, reveal that the extent of internal process that led to the eventual release of an April 2013 email that asked whether an Obama executive order allowing the snooping program could supersede federal statute.

      Before he leaked the documents, Snowden said he had repeatedly attempted to raise his concerns inside the NSA about its surveillance of US citizens but claimed the agency had done nothing.

    • Clinton and Obama are wrong about Snowden — he was ignored after sounding alarm directly to the NSA

      An explosive exposé shows that NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden repeatedly tried to raise concerns about illegal mass surveillance, but was ignored.

      Hundreds of internal NSA documents declassified and released by journalists prove that claims made by senior officials in the Obama administration and prominent politicians like Hillary Clinton, who accused Snowden of failing to use available whisteblower protections, are false.

      VICE News obtained more than 800 pages of documents, including emails, talking points and other records, in response to its long-running Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. These “call into question aspects of the U.S. government’s long-running narrative about Snowden’s time at the NSA.”

    • Three Years On, It Appears Snowden’s Leaks Have Damaged The NSA So Badly It’s Healthier Than Ever

      Every time the anniversary of the first Snowden leak rolls around, everyone reassesses the damage… or lack thereof. Did Snowden actually make a dent in the surveillance apparatus or did he do little more than hand out cheat sheets to terrorists?

      As more time passes, even Snowden’s harshest critics are warming up to the idea that his leaks did more good than harm. Former attorney general Eric Holder, to name one such critic, believes Snowden “performed a public service” by leaking surveillance documents. Of course, this is the sort of thing one can safely say when no longer in the position of having to choose between prosecuting Snowden or dropping the bogus espionage charges.

      Over at Lawfare — a site whose writers are almost universally critical of Snowden — one contributor (a former DoD lawyer) sees Snowden’s leaks as beneficial. Jack Goldsmith’s take on the NSA leak fallout finds that Snowden’s actions actually made the NSA a better agency — not just in terms of transparency but in terms of capabilities.

  • Civil Rights/Policing

    • Tased in the Chest for 23 Seconds, Dead for 8 Minutes, Now Facing a Lifetime of Recovery

      As the video opens we see a gray Pontiac enter the frame, and Bryce’s dad, Matt, put his hand on his son’s knee. His mom, Stacy, folded her arms, clutching a tissue. Tears began to form in both his parents’ eyes, anticipating what everyone else in the room was about to see. Unfazed, Bryce leaned his 6-foot-1-inch frame forward, his eyes focused on the makeshift projector. He knew this piece of evidence absolved him of any wrongdoing.

      In the video, Runnels pulls Bryce over and approaches the car. He tells Bryce to get out but doesn’t give a reason. Bryce repeatedly asks if he is under arrest. Runnels says, “You’re under arrest. Get your ass out of the car,” and attempts to pull him out by force. He then tases Bryce for 23 seconds, handcuffs him, drags the boy’s body behind the car, and deliberately drops him face first onto the asphalt road. Runnels may not have known it at the time, but Bryce was going into cardiac arrest. When the loud thud of the drop boomed throughout the courtroom, gasps echoed out. One woman looked down and covered her eyes with her hand. A man said, “Oh, my god.” A police officer with the Kansas City Police Department quickly brought his fist to his mouth, turned to the man next to him, and whispered, “Jesus.” Even those sitting behind the defendant — a few friends, his wife, his family — gasped, as if the recording revealed a truth about Runnels they had never considered.

    • FBI Pushing For Legislation That Will Legalize Its National Security Letter Abuses

      One of the more interesting things to sneak out around the edges of the FBI’s redaction bars in Yahoo’s document dump of National Security Letters was the sheer amount of information the agency was demanding. The FBI — using letters it writes and approves with no outside oversight — wants all of the following in exchange for a piece of paper backed by nothing but the FBI’s “national security” claims.

    • Anti-Politics and the Plague of Disorientation: Welcome to the Age of Trump
    • Baseball Without the Umpire: The Republicans’ War on Regulations
    • Fighting to Live Free of Police Violence While Black

      Black people are fighting for our right to live while Black.

      2010 marked the beginning of a historic period of Black resistance to police terrorism and state-sanctioned violence. Beginning with the murder of Oscar Grant in January 2010 by then-BART police officer Johannes Mehserle, and continuing with the high-profile cases of Trayvon Martin, Jordan Davis, Renisha McBride, Michael Brown, Rekia Boyd, Tamir Rice and too many others, police violence, particularly in poor and Black communities, has taken center stage nationwide.

    • Do South Africans really have the right to protest?

      At the end of 2015, university students across South Africa embarked upon protests, brought campuses to a standstill, interrupted exams, and marched to the seats of government in Cape Town and Pretoria. During these encounters, authorities repeatedly assaulted, tear-gassed and detained students. Throughout, these students appealed to the idea that the post-apartheid order is a rights-based order, and repeatedly insisted that they possessed a “right to protest”. In the face of repressive policing, they condemned the state and university administrators for not recognising this right.

      [...]

      Students are thus not wrong to state that the “right to protest” is refused recognition in practice—whether by the state, by university leaders, or other authorities. This right has been frustrated by the refusal to countenance disruptive dissent, and by the violent policing of public gatherings. These experiences are also not new or unique to students. Over many years, communities of the poor and dispossessed have taken to the streets in protest, facing increasingly violent practices of policing and political exclusion. They too have been assaulted and arrested, imprisoned and harassed. Some have been murdered, their voices permanently silenced—whether in groups by the state, as at Marikana, or assassinated by shadowy forces, as has happened in Durban and most recently in Bizana. The effect has been to suppress dissent by rendering it dangerous.

    • Welcome to the Party, America! 11 Muslim women who have been PM or President

      Hillary Clinton gave a victory speech Tuesday night positioning herself as the logical conclusion of first women’s rights meeting at Seneca Falls in 1848. Along the way, other milestones have included women gaining the right to vote, in 1919 and the first woman elected to the Senate, in 1932.

      But the US was late. Australia, Denmark and Iceland preceded us in granting the vote to women in national, parliamentary elections. The republic of Azerbaijan, a Muslim-majority country, granted the franchise to women in 1918.

    • Too Human (Not) to Fail

      Many consumer coffee grinders are another example of a design that physically prevents you from messing up. Even if you wanted to, you could NOT chop your fingers on the blade, because the “on” switch for the grinder is triggered by closing the lid (as opposed to a blender, which leaves its blades easily accessible to stray fingers).

    • Black Lives Matter Organizer Sentenced To 90 Days In Prison

      Jasmine Richards, the first black person to ever be convicted for “felony lynching,” will spend the next three months in a California prison, with 18 days already served. During a hearing on Wednesday, Judge Elaine Lu also sentenced Richards to three years of probation.

    • F.B.I. Steps Up Use of Stings in ISIS Cases

      The F.B.I. has significantly increased its use of stings in terrorism cases, employing agents and informants to pose as jihadists, bomb makers, gun dealers or online “friends” in hundreds of investigations into Americans suspected of supporting the Islamic State, records and interviews show.

      Undercover operations, once seen as a last resort, are now used in about two of every three prosecutions involving people suspected of supporting the Islamic State, a sharp rise in the span of just two years, according to a New York Times analysis. Charges have been brought against nearly 90 Americans believed to be linked to the group.

      The increase in the number of these secret operations, which put operatives in the middle of purported plots, has come with little public or congressional scrutiny, and the stings rely on F.B.I. guidelines that predate the rise of the Islamic State.

    • Dashcam footage of cop tasing, dragging, and dropping teen is unsealed

      A federal judge on Monday unsealed disturbing dashcam footage of a suburban Kansas City, Missouri, police officer tasering a 17-year-old motorist who became brain damaged after what was billed as a routine traffic stop. That stop subsequently turned into an event of excessive force—resulting in a four-year prison sentence for Officer Timothy Runnels of the Independence Police Department.

      The video shows Runnels tase and yank Bryce Masters out of the car and down on the street as Masters howls. The boy was filming the officer with his mobile phone, which the officer flings to the street. “Am I under arrest? Am I under arrest?” the teen is overheard saying before he is stunned and grabbed from the vehicle.

  • Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • Intellectual Monopolies

    • Patent scandal: US outmaneuvered on UN agency investigation

      In a bid to recover ground, U.S. diplomats, along with those from other nations that ostensibly oversee the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), an obscure but important U.N. agency in Geneva, were negotiating furiously to see if they will ever get to read a report on alleged wrongdoing by the agency’s autocratic director general, Francis Gurry, accused among other things of ordering illegal break-ins of his own staffers’ offices.

      Gurry himself already has a copy of the full and unredacted report on his own misdeeds– including the names of witnesses who testified against him—in violation not only of whistleblower protection rules but of standard U.N. investigative practices used to ensure witness cooperation.

      According to a State Department spokesman, U.S. diplomats in Geneva were still demanding “immediate release” of the report—which WIPO’s 188 member states had ordered up themselves from the U.N.’s Office of Internal Oversight Services, and which was delivered to the chair of WIPO’s General Assembly in February.

    • Trademarks

      • Digital Trademark and Design Patent Infringement

        Digital technology continues its collision with intellectual property law, this time in BMW’s lawsuit against the online virtual modeling company TurboSquid. TurboSquid sells digital 3D models of various items for use by game developers, architects, visual effects studios, etc.

        This case is paradigmatic of a project Mark McKenna and I are working on, which analyzes trademarks in the context of digital goods. BMW complains that TurboSquid’s “marketing of 3-D virtual models” of BMW vehicles infringes BMW’s trademarks, trade dress, and design patents. Specifically, it complains that TurboSquid “markets and tags BMW-trademarked 3-D virtual models of BMW vehicles as suitable for games.”

    • Copyrights

      • RIAA Fails to Take Down Pirate Bay Domain, For Now

        The RIAA has sent a formal letter to the Public Interest Registry, asking it to suspend Pirate Bay’s .ORG domain. The registry hasn’t complied with the request but has forwarded it to Pirate Bay’s registrar EasyDNS who insist the domain will stay up. So the question now is will the RIAA take the matter to court?

      • Google’s fair use defence succeeds against Oracle’s copyright infringement claim

        After a 6 year legal battle, Google has emerged victorious against a claim of copyright infringement. Oracle argued that Google had infringed copyright in 37 of their Java application programming interfaces (APIs), by using them in their Android platform. Java is a type of computing language, used to create code. Everyone is free to use the language itself, but the combination of code can be subject to copyright.

        Google successfully relied on the fair use defence to refute the claim.

      • KickassTorrents Enters The Dark Web, Adds Official Tor Address

        KickassTorrents, the world’s most popular torrent index, is pushing back against the increasing number of ISP blockades. To make it easier for its users to bypass local censorship efforts, KAT’s operators have added a dark web address, hiding the site in the Tor network.

      • KickassTorrents Enters The Dark Web, Gets TOR’s Official .Onion URL

        The operators of popular torrent index KickassTorrents have announced the launch of website’s .onion URL. Now, apart from the main service, KAT can also be accessed on the dark web via this address: lsuzvpko6w6hzpnn.onion

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