Contents

• GNU/Linux
  • Distributions
  • Devices/Embedded
• Free Software/Open Source
• Leftovers
• Clip of the Day

GNU/Linux

• 2010 Readers’ Choice Awards Survey

  Linux Journal’s Readers’ Choice Awards offer the opportunity for readers to vote for their Linux and Open Source favorites. We compiled nominations and came up with the following list. If your favorite is not listed in any category, we encourage you to write in your vote (it’s also okay to skip voting in categories not applicable to you).

• When Linux Isn’t Called Linux

  As Steven Vaughan-Nichols notes, Hewlett-Packard, the number one PC seller on the planet is trending toward becoming a significant Linux distributor. In acquiring Palm, HP also acquires the Linux-based WebOS, and if HP is smart, it will pursue a very open strategy with WebOS, possibly on mobile phones, and possible on iPad-like tablet devices. HP also has acquired rights to Phoenix Technologies’ HyperSpace, a lean Linux distro that provides instant-on capabilities.

• Desktop

  • HP Treating Gnu/Linux Users Unfairly?

    It is unfortunate that HP doesn’t offer Gnu/Linux on these machines. The way HP offers ‘options’ to choose the desired processors and other hardware, it would be a fair business practice to offer choice of operating system as well for those enterprise customers who want to run their own OS but don’t want to pay Microsoft tax.

  • Back When Linux Was Fun

    Minitube is just one example but I could name hundreds off the top of my head. I love these little projects and while most of the attention is on the grown up side of Linux and open source software, I have a special fondness for those projects that are a little less ‘mature’. I love what companies like Canonical have done to polish their Ubuntu Linux distributions into an operating system worthy of powering the computers that make business tick. In fact, I love the fact Ubuntu is a respected and grown up product. We’ve made it. This is the big time.

  • Putting Technology into the Hands of Tomorrow….Today

    Skip Guenter is a Director for The HeliOS Project so one would expect him to put in a little extra effort but Skip passed “a little extra” sometime in early May. Skip worked dozens of his own hours to get equipment running, computers operational and things organized for the technical side of the room. I also want to thank Ron West for his dedication to what we do and the sweat equity he put into Linux Against Poverty. What many people did not see was the pre-activities prior to LAP.

• Audiocasts

  • Episode 0x2A: Waiting for Bilski

    Karen and Bradley briefly talk about waiting for the Bilski case to be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court.

    This show was released on Tuesday 22 June 2010; its running time is 08:39.

• Kernel Space

  • Kernel Log: Linus resolves to apply a strict policy over merging changes

    It would appear that Linus Torvalds has resolved to apply a strict policy of accepting only bug fix changes to the kernel after the merge window has closed. Torvalds has also stuck his oar into the debate over the Android suspend block API and made the situation even more complicated.

    For years, major changes for each new Linux kernel version have been merged into the main development tree during the merge window, which usually lasts about two weeks and concludes with the release of the first pre-release version of the next kernel (2.6.x-rc1). Thereafter, changes are theoretically restricted to patches which fix existing bugs without giving rise to new ones. In practice, RC2 and RC3 have included the odd major change and some clean up work, such as resolving compiler warnings, has found its way in at an even later stage.

  • User Space File Systems

    Examples of FUSE File Systems

    There are many examples of file systems that use FUSE. Sometimes FUSE is used for prototyping or testing file systems or it is used as the file system itself. It is beyond the scope of this article to list all of them or even a good chunk of them, but some that you might recognize (or might not) include:

    * SSHFS This is a file system client that can mount and interact with directories and files on a remote system using sftp. Very handy file system for mounting remote file systems.
    * GmailFS This FUSE based file system was written to use Google’s email storage as a file system. Originally it used the gmail web interface but this kept changing. The previous link takes you to a new version of GmailFS that uses IMAP to use the gmail email space as a file system. One of the interesting aspects of this file system is that it’s written in Python.
    * EncFS This FUSE based file system provides an encrypted file system for Linux. For a discussion about encrypted file systems and Linux please read this.

    [...]

  • Graphics Stack

    • Whoops, X.Org Server 1.9 Gets Another RC Today

      The second X.Org Server 1.9 release candidate was released earlier today after the first RC making it out just last week, but already the third release candidate is available to interested parties.

• Applications

  • Multimedia

    • Xnoise: A New Lightweight Linux Music Player (Can Play Videos Too!)

      Xnoise is basically an music player but it can also play videos too and unlike other Linux music players, it uses a tracklist centric design:

      The tracklist is a list of video or music tracks that are played one by one without being removed (right side of window). This gives you the possibility to enqueue any track in any order, regardless if they are on the same album or not.

    • VLC 1.1.0 Final is released! Install via PPA in Ubuntu 10.04

      VLC 1.1.0 Final is released, this release comes with a lot of improvements, it is faster than the previous version, has Better streaming capabilities, better audio experience, improved web plugins and comes with support for WebM decoding and encoding.

  • Instructionals

    • Install the Banshee MeeGo Interface in Ubuntu

    • FTP and SFTP Beginners Guide with 10 Examples

    • Increase download speed with Aria2 utility

    • How to Find the Most Memory taking process in Ubuntu Linux

    • Old school Linux tips

    • C++ pretty functions

    • How To Install VLC 1.1.0 (Final) In Ubuntu From A PPA (deb)

    • Tweak Photo Metadata with FotoTagger

    • How to access / mount Windows shares from Linux

    • Create a Mail Icon with the GIMP

    • How to Tether Using Your Android Phone

    • HOWTO: Use Ubuntu Software Center in Mint 9

      There are a few reasons why I use Linux Mint instead of Ubuntu on my systems. That being said one of the reasons I do not list for using Mint over Ubuntu is their “Software Manager”. The software manager in Mint 8 was flat out sad compared to the Ubuntu Software Center that Ubuntu 9.10 included. Now even though the software manager in Mint 9 has many improvements, it still has issues, and I don’t think it is quiet on-par with the updated Software Center Ubuntu 10.04 includes.

    • How to Hide Porn in Linux?

    • Installing PowerDNS (With MySQL Backend) And Poweradmin On Fedora 12

    • Access Google from your Terminal

    • Install Latest Empathy in Ubuntu From PPA [Lucid, Karmic]

    • How to Build Chrome OS For Your Netbook or VM

    • Setting up ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid) server with squid 3 as a Transparent Proxy

    • Android Phone-Top Programming: Part 1

    • Installing Apache2 With PHP5 And MySQL Support On Fedora 13 (LAMP)

    • Listening to Shoutcast internet radio in Ubuntu 10.04

  • Games

    • E3 Rage Footage

      I’m so far out of the loop these days that I didn’t even realize E3 was this past week until after the initial conferences, but out of the annual conference comes this new footage from G4 of long-time Linux pal id Software’s latest title, Rage.

    • DigitalMan Open Source Game Competition

      There’s not a whole lot of info on WorldKi, it seems a very ambitious project that combines game distribution with game development, with monetization all along the way (eg. Middleware devs can sell their libraries, Artists their art, and finally devs their games). If FOSS game devs can pay the bills from foss games alone, we might see some real growth..

    • Amnesia: The Dark Descent Release Date Revealed !

      My hands tremble as I write this and my mind is left weakened by the things I have witnessed. The contents of this message might be too terrible and unspeakable to believe, but I assure you that it is all very real. For the sake of us all, I urge you, dear Reader, to keep an open mind, and very seriously consider the matters which I am about to disclose.

• GNOME Desktop

  • Top 30 Dark Gnome Themes GTK 2.x

• Distributions

  • The Reg guide to Linux, part 2: Preparing to dual-boot

    On Monday, we suggested Ubuntu as a good starting point for experimenting with desktop Linux. If you have the option, dedicate a machine to it – by 2010 standards, even a modest-spec PC will run it fine. You’ll be very pleasantly surprised by the transformation from a lumbering old XP box burdened with years of cruft to one with a fresh install of an OS that doesn’t need multiple layers of security software.

  • Reviews

    • [Reviews]: TinyMe 2010 Acorn RC 1 Review

      One of the mini distribution based on Unity Linux, it a great choice for old machines cause it does not take a big amount of RAM and CPU usage, using OpenBox 3.4.11 lightweight window manager, simple LXPanel, and many installed application will mention it later on the review.

  • PCLinuxOS/Mandrake/Mandriva Family

    • Moving to mandriva?!

      Never thought I would be writing this, but I am actually considering moving my Linux boxes (based mainly in OpenSuSE and Fedoras) to Mandriva! During my hey days we always considered Mandrake (it’s name then) something of a play distribution or a distribution for Linux beginners and should not be used for ‘serious’ work.

      Fast forward about 10 years, after a name change I don’t know why suddenly I felt an urge to pick up the latest version of Mandriva 2010 to give it the proverbial spin. After playing around with the bought version of Mandriva (yes I actually bought a copy!). I really started liking it. Let me just list down a few of the reasons why.

    • Mandriva saved by CEO

      The Linux company, which is based in France and Brazil, had been operating in recent months under the threat of potential bankruptcy, as its finances were reportedly precarious.

      According to the French press Laprévote rallied investors “to return the group to balance and find a good business model.” He said that the community does not need to be concerned about the outfit’s future any longer.

      Laprévote took the CEO job in April. In May a posting in one of the Mandriva forums revealed major cash flow problems and the existence of plans to perhaps sell or merge the company.

      One of the possible buyers named was Lightapp, but that deal apparently fell through, and then Linagora was rumoured to be in talks with Mandriva.

  • Fedora

    • Fedora 14 Theme: concepts feedback

      Design team has kicked off concepts for Laughling release theme quoted: Something that can illustrate the emergence concept, like multiple objects combined to create a new one (more complex).

    • Helping others get Fedora

      When I find an outstanding distro, such as Fedora, I prefer to buy the media from an on-line vendor as a way of showing my support. Most of the time the money goes directly to the vendor, however, I happened upon the Sponsored Media Program today and found a vendor who participates in this program.

    • IT Infrastructure: Red Hat’s Fedora Linux: 13 Releases of Cutting-Edge Open Source

    • Fedora 13 – Xfce spin vs. LXDE spin

      The Fedora 13 Xfce spin has more applications than the LXDE spin. So far the machine crashed on the screensaver (in Xfce, not in LXDE, and the same thing has been happening with Ubuntu Lucid if I don’t choose blanking the screen instead of a random screensaver).

  • Canonical/Ubuntu

    • Why did I choose to use Ubuntu

      Currently I prefer to use Ubuntu, after I felt the ability to provide Ubuntu Graphical on my laptop, especially Ubuntu 10.04. There are a few that made me feel at home using and choosing Ubuntu Linux operating system, which are as follows:

      1. No Virus – because Linux does not recognize the files of his Win32 executables, so the possibility of taxable virus is 0%, it is also felt by fellow users of the Linux operating system in general.
      2. Open Source – Linux distributions are open source and the source code can be edited and modified according to our needs. We can learn how to work the Ubuntu (Linux) Operating System

    • Ubuntu’s vmbuilder Script

    • BTRFS Ready For Testing In Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat

      Colin Watson (Ubuntu Development Manager) just announced on the Ubuntu-Devel mailing list that you can now perform installations with a BTRFS root filesystem using the latest Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat daily ISO. Note: I’ve downloaded the latest ISO and I do not see an option to format a partition as BTRFS when choosing to specify partitions manuallt so probably this will be available starting tomorrow’s daily ISO.

• Devices/Embedded

  • GUI toolkit adds OpenGL support

    Wind River has rev’d its GUI development suite for embedded devices, adding support for OpenGL 3D graphics. Wind River Tilcon Graphics Suite 5.8 also broadens its embedded target operating system support from Linux and VxWorks to Windows CE and Windows XP, and adds support for more hardware platforms, including the Intel Atom, says the company.

  • 160,000 Android Phones Sold Per Day

    Android cofounder and Google vice president Andy Rubin just announced at the Droid X event that 160,000 Android devices are being sold per day. That’s up sharply from last month when Google announced that 100,000 Android devices were being activated each day.

Free Software/Open Source

• Events

  • CFP Closes 6/30 — Submit Your Talk Proposal NOW!

  • The Linux Foundation Announces More LinuxCon 2010 Keynotes

    The Linux Foundation today announced the addition of new sessions and keynotes for LinuxCon 2010. The announcement finalizes the list of speakers and professional session planned for the conference, which will take place in Boston August 10-12.

• Mozilla

  • Firefox 3.6.4 with Crash Protection Now Available

    Today, Mozilla is happy to release Firefox 3.6.4, the latest security and stability release for Firefox, used by nearly 400 million people around the world to browse the Web. This release provides crash protection for Windows and Linux users by isolating third-party plugins when they crash.

    Results from our beta testing show Firefox 3.6.4 will significantly reduce the number of Firefox crashes experienced by users who are watching online videos or playing games. When a plugin crashes or freezes while using Firefox, users can enjoy uninterrupted browsing by simply refreshing the page.

  • Mozilla designer says Google Chrome uses speed tricks

    An interface designer interning at Mozilla has suggested that the company mimic gimmicks in Google’s Chrome to make users think Firefox starts up faster. In an entry on his personal blog that was reposted to Mozilla’s uber-blog, Planet Mozilla, John Wayne Hill, an Indiana University masters student interning this summer at the open source company, spelled out changes that would give users the feeling that Firefox starts quicker.

  • 3 Amazing Firefox Hacks

  • Top 6 Google Chrome Extensions for a Much Secure Browsing Experience

• SaaS/Eucalyptus

  • Eucalyptus Partner Day: Can VARs and Open-Source Cloud Connect?

    Back in March 2010, Marten Mickos, best known as the man who built MySQL into an estimated $100 million enterprise, made headlines when he stepped in at Eucalyptus in the role of CEO. But even before that, a partnership with Canonical to provide the platform at the heart of the Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud beginning with 2009’s Ubuntu Server Edition 9.10 garnered Eucalyptus a lot of notice.

  • Marten Mickos says open source doesn’t have to be fully open

    The term “open core” essentially means that the heart of a software project is built on, and remains, open source but added features may not be (particularly a commercial version intended for enterprise use).VC-funded software startups love this model.

• Mixing

  • Open Source vs Proprietary Code: seeking a balanced standard

    This proprietary to open source to public domain source code release Standard will bring to an end the present conflict between proprietary and open code development models. Some companies and individuals will choose to develop their software as open source, to take advantage of the extra and free resources that the open source developing model provides, while others will prefer to develop it as proprietary code, to gain a competitive advantage once it is release. One way or another, within a set number of years the code will become public domain, free for all to use, share and modify.

• Server

  • ZAAAM DATING Free Debian Project. Geeks also like to date

    The idea behind this project is to test the architecture of a heavy duty web server.

    Although it’s a really nice and graphically appealing PHP website, the major interest is to test hardware and resource usage / op.sys. (ubuntu server 10.04) and basic server modules.

• FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

  • Why Do Open Source Advocates Attack Each Other?

    One interesting explanation offered when I asked on Twitter came from Ars Technica’s Ryan Paul – himself a key Free software developer as author of the great micro-blogging client Gwibber.

    He suggests the situation is precipitated by the influx of new technology strategies such as Software as a Service, mobile, tablet, virtualisation and web services. Since the applicability of software freedom philosophies to these technologies is often unclear, there’s no positive rallying-point for activists and the only remaining alternative is to demonise anyone engaging with them. That happens even if the engagement is aimed at subverting or liberating them.

    The articulation of software freedom arose before today’s massively-connected society, and today requires thinking and experimentation to make it fit the new reality – hence my work at OSI.

  • “Gno” and “Gyes” campaigns – About positive Free Software campaigning

    But also the FSF already had positive campaigns. Here some recent examples from the FSFs:

    * Document Freedom Day: The Document Freedom Day is a day for Document Freedom and for Open Standards. FSFE did most of the work for the central organisation of the DFD in the past years to promote Open Standards. The FSF also has a campaign page for Open Standards.
    * rOgg On: For this years DFD FSFE promoted Ogg Vorbis. The German and the Austrian team encouraged two radio stations which already use Ogg vorbis, by giving them a prize and a tart with the “rOgg On” slogon. Deutschlandradio stated that they Feel more honoured than for the Grimme Prize”. The picutres clearly show how positive that campaign was. During that campaign we translated FSF’s PlayOgg website into German, which also is a positive campaign.
    * I love Free Software For this years Valentine’s Day we started the “I love Free Software” campaign. People can show their love to Free Software.
    * PDFreaders.org FSFE’s Fellows started a campaign for Free Software PDFreaders and also explaining Open Standards in this context.

• Government

  • D.C. launches test of open-source online voting

    According to Rob Pegoraro at the Faster Forward blog, the District “will let overseas voters cast ballots online using open-source, standards-based software, not the closed, proprietary mechanisms that have dominated electronic voting throughout its troubled history in the United States.”

    A Palo Alto, Calif., developer of election software, Open Source Digital Voting Foundation, will provide the new system. According to company representatives, starting with September’s primary election, D.C. residents serving overseas and others far out of town won’t have to choose between voting by mailed-in paper ballot or a faxed or e-mailed ballot.

• Openness/Sharing

  • Open Clip Art Library Launches Logo Design Contest!

    The “Free Culture” Movement, instantiated in a 2004 publication by Creative Commons founding member Lawrence Lessig, is a reaction to content ownership in a digital age. Because The Open Clip Art Library is, at it’s core, a platform to freely share and collaborate created content, it will be forever intertwined with the Movement.

• Open Data

  • Scientists for open data and authors of Panton Principles named SPARC Innovators

    Science is based on building on, reusing, and openly criticizing the published body of scientific knowledge. For science to effectively function, and for society to reap the full benefits from scientific endeavors, it is crucial that science data be made open.

    That’s the belief of four leaders who have put forth a groundbreaking set of recommendations for scientists to more easily share their data – The Panton Principles – and who have been named the latest SPARC Innovators for their work.

  • Announcing the Portability Policy

    We’re proud to announce the release of the Portability Policy, the latest creation from the DataPortability Project. We believe that this will help further the vision of digital freedom that was the founding ideal of our group two years ago.

    The software industry is still figuring out the right balance between open and closed, but we believe that communication is the first step. The DataPortability Project encourages standard, plain language policies describing how data and digital “stuff” can be moved from one product to another.

• Open Access/Content

  • Open Access to the Scientific Journal Literature: Situation 2009

    The Internet has recently made possible the free global availability of scientific journal articles. Open Access (OA) can occur either via OA scientific journals, or via authors posting manuscripts of articles published in subscription journals in open web repositories. So far there have been few systematic studies showing how big the extent of OA is, in particular studies covering all fields of science.

Leftovers

• Science

  • Space Weather Signal Buried in X-ray Noise

    Sometimes even noise can produce a gold mine of information. Back in 1964, scientists at Bell Laboratories, listening for faint radio signals they had bounced off of an early communications satellite, detected static that seemed to be emanating in space from all directions. That static turned out to be cosmic background radiation left over from the big bang. In the decades since, studies of that radiation have underpinned much of what we know about the universe.

  • Beyond the petaflop: DARPA wants quintillion-speed computers

• Environment

  • Judge who overturned drilling bans had shares in the oil industry

    The judge who overturned deepwater drilling bans allowing BP to resume oil extraction in the Gulf of Mexico, had shares in Transocean and other firms in the industry, it was revealed today.

    Yesterday, a Louisiana-based judge Martin Feldman ruled that Barack Obama’s six-month drilling moratorium in the Gulf was unjustified because it assumed that all deepwater drilling was as dangerous as BP’s.

  • EU sees solar power imported from Sahara in 5 years

    Europe will import its first solar-generated electricity from North Africa within the next five years, European Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger said in an interview on Sunday.

  • The Great Gulf Enclosure

    BP is the top dog, arrogating to itself the lion’s share of the wealth from the deepwater oil reserves and displacing the risks onto the rest of us. The oil industry took pains to secure a statutory limit on its liability from offshore oil spills to a paltry $75 million, after which we taxpayers pick up the tab. Efforts to raise that liability cap to $10 billion or eliminate it altogether are in the works, but there is sure to be fierce opposition, and not just from Republicans.

  • Paper Industry is Waking Up to the Size of its Water Footprint

    Knock a glass of water over a page. The fibers will soften, the ink will run, the corners will curl. Wet paper is no good to anyone, but few people realize just how much water goes into producing the dry, white page.

    “You need water to grow the trees, clean the wood, separate out the cellulose from the lignin, turn the pulp into paper, and then steam dry it,” says Gilles L’Hermitte, Sustainability Development Manager at paper manufacturers Arjowiggins Graphic. Which all adds to the argument for recycled paper. “If you start with an ‘urban forest’,” as L’Hermitte calls it, “you’ll need much less water to turn old pulp into new paper than if you start with a tree.” Arjowiggins Graphic estimates that their mills use up to 47% less water for paper from de-inked pulp than from virgin sources. And, they claim, because the recycled pulp has to be cleaned so many times to rid it of all the ink, it comes out even whiter than the virgin page.

• Finance

  • Four Economic Benchmarks We Need Now

    New measures of national income. GDP is outdated; inaccurate, invalid, and unreliable. Better measures of national income that count real costs (like pollution) and benefits (like health) are what will shape better behavior from organizations and markets.

    Measures of well-being. GDP is a measure of income. What’s missing from that picture? Well-being, of course. More income doesn’t automatically make everyone better off all the time, in the same ways. Without measures of well being to live up to, no better behavior is likely to ever flow from organizations and markets.

    New currencies. A currency is an especially cruel a form of collective punishment, an implicit tax. In the aftermath of inevitable, regular-as-clockwork financial crisis, everyone holding a currency suffers, whether or not they had anything to do with said crisis. When currencies are created that are independent of countries and regions, people will the choice to escape the bone-headed organizations and markets within them. That, in turn, will set incentives for better behavior. Creating “product”? Stop. Create a currency instead.

    New measures of returns. What counts as a “return,” anyways? Increasingly, as we’ve recently discussed, bleeding edge investors are beginning to develop measures of returns to people, communities, and society. They provide a more nuanced, sophisticated picture of the value a firm has actually created — or a market allocated — than mere financial returns (“profit”). Better behavior from organizations and markets is ineluctably tied to better measurements of what is returned from them.

  • Senate cuts to recession relief bill favor special interests

    Leaders target funding for unemployment benefits, Medicare and Medicaid — but neither party has suggested trimming more than 60 tax breaks worth $32 billion to special interests.

  • Public Isn’t Buying Wall Street Reform: AP Poll

    Americans aren’t convinced new Wall Street rules will prevent a future financial crisis.

    An Associated Press-GfK Poll finds that 64 percent of those surveyed aren’t confident that a financial regulation overhaul before Congress will avert another meltdown.

  • Financial Reform Conference: Auto Dealers Beat Obama, Win Exemption From Consumer Protection Agency

    In the end, the political clout of 18,000 auto dealers scattered nationwide was too much even for President Barack Obama.

    House and Senate negotiators putting final shape to a sweeping overhaul of Wall Street regulations all but agreed Tuesday to exclude auto dealers from the oversight of a consumer financial protection bureau.

    “The political reality is that those of us who have fought against an auto dealer carve-out can’t prevail,” Representative Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill.

  • Scott Brown’s key vote gives Massachusetts firms clout in financial overhaul

    State Street isn’t one of the iconic firms of Wall Street. It doesn’t even make the top 10 largest bank holding companies in the country. But on Capitol Hill this week, as lawmakers finalize new rules regulating Wall Street, Boston-based State Street wields enormous influence.

  • Obama administration urges caution on deficit cuts

    President Barack Obama’s top economic advisers are urging America’s major economic allies not to sacrifice economic growth to efforts to trim budget deficits.

  • JPMorgan Sets Sights Overseas

    JPMorgan Chase emerged from the financial crisis as one of the strongest banks on American soil. Now it wants to make up lost ground overseas.

  • Stocks zigzag after Fed says Europe is a risk

    Stocks fluctuated Wednesday after the Federal Reserve indicated that problems in Europe pose a threat to the economy.

    The Dow Jones industrial average rose about 4 points in late afternoon trading while broader indexes fell. Treasury prices rose, pushing down interest rates. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note fell to its lowest level in more than a year.

  • House drops demand for bank-paid liquidation fund

    House negotiators on legislation providing an overhaul of the financial system have agreed to drop their demand for a $150 billion fund to cover costs of liquidating large, failing institutions.

  • Banks Have Repaid 75% of Bailout, Geithner Says

    The Treasury secretary, Timothy F. Geithner, said on Tuesday that taxpayers were recovering their investment from the financial bailouts as the program was wound down. But he acknowledged there would probably be a loss from the rescue of the insurer American International Group.

  • Wall St. vote’s a nail-biter in Senate

    The lead Senate Wall Street reform negotiator acknowledged Tuesday that Democrats are facing a nail-biting vote in the Senate, forcing congressional leaders to lean on Republicans to pass a bill unlikely to gain the support of two Democrats who have been holdouts for weeks.

  • Financial lobbyist irony alert

    The Consumer Federation of America is throwing its 40th annual awards dinner tonight honoring Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) for their public service. And the consumer advocacy group received interest in the dinner from an unlikely quarter: the financial services industry.

  • The Next Financial Crisis: Coming to Your Neighborhood Soon?

    One of the fiercest debates during the Wall Street Reform conference negotiations has been over Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME)’s amendment to improve the quality of capital used by America’s banks. The amendment would accomplish this by eliminating the designation of “trust-preferred securities” as Tier 1 capital.

• Censorship/Privacy/Civil Rights

  • Wikileaks makes contact with US government

    Whistleblower website Wikileaks has made contact with the US government over claims that an American serviceman is one of its sources.

    Soldier Bradley Manning has been held for three weeks without formal charge.

    The US is investigating claims that he passed confidential information to Wikileaks.

    Site editor Julian Assange told BBC News that, so far, the US authorities have not yet been in touch with him.

  • Hail to the whistleblowers

    James Madison (drafter of the US first amendment) once wrote that “government, without popular information or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy; or perhaps both”.

    This is certainly true of Afghanistan, where the US-led coalition has been able to avoid a true audit of the impact of its presence via tight control of the media combined with manipulated patriotism.

  • WikiLeaks founder told to avoid U.S.

  • WikiLeaks founder breaks cover in Brussels

    The founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, who is at the centre of a US security scare, has emerged from hiding to say that he is not afraid of the Pentagon but that he has been advised by his lawyers to avoid travelling to the United States.

  • New online games rules restrict content, children’s playing time

    China’s online games companies must take steps to protect children from unwholesome and corrupting content, according to new regulations issued Tuesday by the Ministry of Culture.

• Internet/Net Neutrality/DRM

  • Who is attending these “secret” FCC net neutrality meetings?

    Anger and confusion remains high over these private “back door” meetings that the Federal Communications Commission has been holding with various “stakeholders” regarding its proposed open Internet rules. Reform groups are still up in arms over the Tuesday gatherings, which appear to have focused on a legislative solution to the problem. Congress, it should be noted, is exploring rewriting the Communications Act in response to the current FCC logjam on the issue.

• Intellectual Monopolies

  • US regulator guns for HP printer cartridge clones

    THE US International Trade Commission (ITC) is investigating a complaint from the maker of very expensive printer ink, HP, that some of its rivals are making the stuff a lot cheaper.

  • Copyrights

    • US Copyright Group Willing To Reveal The Tech It Uses To Identify File Sharers… Sort Of

      US Copyright Group, which is really DC-based law firm Dunlap, Grubb and Weaver, has made a lot of news recently for unleashing thousands of lawsuits on people it accuses of infringing on copyrights, in an effort not to stop infringement, but to send out “pre-settlement letters” to get people to pay up to avoid the lawsuits. Dunlap keeps insisting, despite similar efforts accusing perfectly innocent people of infringement and demanding payment, that its technology is reliable and credible. CCS Labs, a company that does work in the computer crime field, was curious about this and asked US Copyright Group for the right to review its methodology and technology.

    • Canadian Heritage Minister declares war on copyright reformers

      Michael Geist sez, “There was considerable attention yesterday on a media report stating that Canadian Heritage Minister James Moore warned against ‘radical extremists’ opposing C-32. A video of part of his remarks has now been posted online. The comments, which come after the prepared speech, feature a no-holds-barred attack against those arguing for fair copyright. According to Moore, some proposed amendments to C-32 are not genuine but rather part of an attempt to oppose copyright and copyright reform, to drum up fear, and to mislead. Moore encourages confrontation, urging the audience to confront on Facebook, Twitter, talk shows and in the media until ‘they are defeated.’”

    • A Canadian author’s perspective on ‘radical extremism’ and copyright

      As the Canadian Heritage Minister James Moore has declared war on copyright reformers who object to his plan to bring US-style “digital locks” rules to Canada, I think it’s worth spelling out what my objections, as a Canadian author, are to his plan (my books are distributed across Canada by the excellent HB Fenn; last year I won the Ontario White Pine Award for best book; as I write this, my novel For the Win is on the Canadian bestseller lists).

      [...]

      Get that? People who create stuff should have the right to let their audiences move copyrighted works to other platforms.

      I challenge Minister Moore to climb down from his nasty smears about copyright reformers and address this and other legitimate concerns over digital locks rules. Thousands and thousands of Canadians spoke out against this kind of rule in the Canadian copyright proceedings. James Moore has tabled a bill that ignores the results of his own consultation, and then had the bad grace to smear the creators and audiences who, in good faith, came forward to participate in the debate over the future of Canadian copyright.

      He owes us an apology. And an explanation.

    • Will the BPI target Microsoft Bing?

      Will Microsoft soon be targetted by Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music’s BPI (British Phornographic Industry)

      Microsoft’s Bing search engine now offers playable search results”, says CNet News.

      “We have identified the following links that are available via Google’s search engine, and request the following links be removed as soon as possible as they directly link to sound recordings owned by our members”, p2pnet had the BPI saying, quoting Chilling Effects.

      And Gargle is only a facilitator.

    • Hollywood faces new piracy threat

      Movie fans downloading free pirated films are no longer Hollywood’s worst nightmare, but that’s only because of a newer menace: cheap, and equally illegal, subscription services.

    • Video Surfaces of Moore’s “Radical Extremists” Comment

      Canadian Heritage Minister James Moore’s “radical extremists” comment yesterday generated considerable attention, though he privately denied saying it in some correspondence (one DM: “Not what I said. Not even close”). New video has now been posted that confirms the comment and further attacks on those supporting fair copyright. The latest comments:

      With regard to the legislation, we really did try to strike a balance with this legislation. You’ll notice, I think, we’re now three weeks into the public consideration of the legislation that we tabled. There is a lot of commentary out there on this online and I think the response that we’re getting is that that generally is the case. The only people who are opposed to this legislation are really two groups of radical extremists. In the continuum of political ideaology, if you go really extreme to the right or really extreme to the left it actually swings back around. That is sort of where we are.

    • Huge Victory: Court Rules For YouTube Against Viacom

      Well this is a pleasant surprise. Like many others, I had assumed that the court reviewing the Viacom/YouTube lawsuit would not accept either side’s position for summary judgment and the case would go to a full trial. However, as Eric Goldman alerts us, the court has quickly ruled in favor of Google/YouTube, saying that it is, in fact, protected by the DMCA’s safe harbors.

  • ACTA

    • Urgent ACTA Communique