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05.03.16

Links 3/5/2016: International Day Against DRM, 25th Anniversary of Linux (Kernel) Near

Posted in News Roundup at 4:33 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME bluefish

Contents

GNU/Linux

Free Software/Open Source

  • Why not use open source code examples? A Case Study of Prejudice in a Community of Practice

    We analyzed the perceptions of professional software developers as manifested in the LinkedIn online community, and used the theoretical lens of prejudice theory to interpret their answers in a broader context.

  • Critical Infrastructure Goes Open Source

    The electrical grid, water, roads and bridges—the infrastructure we take for granted—is seldom noticed until it’s unavailable. The burgeoning open source software movement is taking steps to help rebuild crumbling U.S. civil infrastructure while capitalizing on expansion in emerging markets by providing software building blocks to help develop interoperable and secure transportation, electric power, oil and gas as well as the healthcare infrastructure.

    Under a program launched in April called the Civil Infrastructure Platform, the Linux Foundation said the initiative would provide “an open source base layer of industrial grade software to enable the use and implementation of software building blocks for civil infrastructure.”

  • EMC prioritizes open-source integration

    Josh Bernstein, EMC’s new VP of technical strategy, sat down with Stu Miniman and Brian Gracely, cohosts of theCUBE, from the SiliconANGLE Media team, during EMC World to talk about the value open source brings to EMC.

  • 10 Tips for Coding with Open Source Software

    Bootstrap is a framework to help you design websites faster and easier. It includes HTML and CSS based design templates for typography, forms, buttons, tables, navigation, modals, image carousels, etc. It also gives you support for JavaScript plugins.

  • Cisco Pushes Forward with Open-Source Strategy [VIDEO]

    For the last year, Lauren Cooney has been running open source strategy for the Chief Technology and Architecture Office at Cisco. Cooney’s career includes time spent at some of the biggest IT vendors in the world, including Microsoft as well as rival networking vendor Juniper, but the Cisco experience for her is a bit different, especially in terms of open source.

    In a video interview, Cooney discusses why Cisco is investing in open source and how it determines whether a project can work on Github alone, or if it needs a broad foundation to support it.

  • NPV Considerations for Open Source Big Data Technologies

    Mention the words “open source” and all kinds ideas probably come to mind such as “free”, “agility”, and “speed”. However, with any IT project, it is important to look at business benefits vs. costs in a manner that goes beyond generalizations. One method for benefit-cost analysis for open source big data projects is Net Present Value (NPV).

    It’s not unusual to find the IT community excited about the possibilities of open source. And with good reason as adoption of open source big data technologies may provide companies flexibility in charting their own path, ability to innovate faster and move at the speed of business. And yet, it is sage advice to temper some of the frenzy in adopting open source with a financial analysis.

  • Demystifying Containers for a Better DevOps Experience
  • Break scalability barriers in OpenFlow SDN

    Over the past couple of years, software-defined networking (SDN) has emerged as a strong alternative to traditional networking approaches in the areas of WAN, data center networks, and network overlay solutions. The primary benefit realized from SDN, besides open networking, is the ability to accelerate service deployments. SDN solutions using OpenFlow tackle complex problems, including dynamic provisioning, interconnection, and fault management. Although the functionality of SDN has evolved and matured, the scalability of SDNs based on OpenFlow has been limited by OpenFlow’s ties to ternary content-addressable memory (TCAM). OpenFlow by design was implemented in the TCAM.

  • Open-source project lets players experience Fallout 4 in VR

    This week, Fallout 4 players will finally be able to experience post-apocalyptic Boston firsthand, thanks to the VR capabilities of the Oculus Rift. However, this isn’t an official patch released by Bethesda; instead, the functionality is being offered up by a third-party, open-source project called Vireio Perception.

  • Blockchain

  • SaaS/Back End

  • BSD

  • Openness/Sharing/Collaboration

    • UPSat, an open-source Greek satellite

      As part of this mission UPsat is equipped with a specialized scientific instrument (mNLP) designed for its mission needs. Every other component of the satellite is designed from scratch, built, tested and integrated by engineers, scientists and developers of the University of Patras and Libre Space Foundation. That includes the structural framework, the on board mission control computer, the telecommunications system, the power management system and the software that runs across all different subsystems.

  • Programming/Development

    • Distributed tracing — the most wanted and missed tool in the micro-service world.

      We, as engineers, always wanted to simplify and automate things. This is something in our nature. That’s how our brains work. That’s how procedural programming was born. After some time, the next level of evolution was object oriented programming.

      The idea was always the same. Take something big and try to split it into isolated abstractions with hidden implementations. It is much easier to think about complex system using abstractions. It is way more efficient to develop isolated blocks.

Leftovers

  • Why Do Colleges Still Give Preference To Kids Whose Parents Went There?

    But other students have a very different story. Some high schoolers — who are on average whiter and wealthier than their peers — are provided with a unique privilege in the college admissions process simply because they were born to the right family. This privilege is known as the legacy preference.

  • Riders stuck left dangling on Alton Towers roller coaster

    Nearly 30 people were this afternoon stuck dangling from a roller coaster that broke down at Alton Towers.

    The passengers were heard screaming and shouting for help when they got stuck on the first hill.

    Air Galactica came to a halt at 2pm this afternoon before the ride was eventually re-started. It is believed to have been affected by flooding.

    A member of staff was seen climbing up to reassure the people on the ride which only re-opened in March after being refurbished.

  • From Paintbox to PC: How London became the home of Hollywood VFX

    In a darkened room on the backstreets of London’s red light district, Mike McGee stared at a screen. Surrounded by a thick wall of cigarette smoke and impatient chain-smoking clients, he swiped a pen across the table, his movement replicated with surprising accuracy as a pixel-perfect line on the screen above. The clients—TV producers from the BBC—were impressed. In just a few short minutes, McGee had transformed a single frame of video into the beginnings of a title sequence. In a world where labour-intensive optical effects and manual rotoscoping were the norm, this was a revelation.

  • Hardware

    • Intel Decides To Let Go Of Broxton

      Broxton was to be Intel’s 2016 Atom SoC platform for phones and tablets. Broxton was to be using 14nm Goldmont CPU cores and Skylake graphics, but now it’s no more.

      For those that didn’t hear yet, it’s been confirmed that Intel is cancelling the Broxton platform and also letting go of their SoFIA platforms. With Intel failing to make inroads with high-end smartphones and tablets while ARM continues to dominate, Intel is letting go of these platforms and instead focusing upon other more profitable areas where they have greater success.

  • Health/Nutrition

    • ACLU Sues Over Indiana Law Creating a Protected Class of Fetuses

      The new law may also require pregnant women who have miscarriages to bury or cremate their fetal remains.

    • Is the GMO Labeling Movement About to Score a Major Victory?

      So close to the July 1 deadline for complying with Vermont’s GMO labeling law, and still no court ruling to overturn Vermont’s law. Still no federal legislation to preempt Vermont’s law.

    • Hanford, Not Fukushima, is the Big Radiological Threat to the West Coast

      There is a dangerous radiological threat to the West Coast of the United States that puts the health of millions of Americans at risk. It includes dangers to public health, dangers to the food supply, and dangers to future generations from long-lived radionuclides, including some of the most toxic material in the world. It is not Fukushima, it is Hanford. While radiation from the Fukushima nuclear meltdowns is reaching the West Coast, carried across the ocean from Japan, the radiation from Hanford is already there, has been there for 70 years, and is in serious risk of catastrophe that could dwarf the effects of Fukushima even on Japan.

    • Families Sue ‘Sadistic’ Facility For Allegedly Abusing Developmentally Disabled Residents

      Part of the issue, the plaintiffs argue, stems from poor training at the managerial level. In the prior state investigation, officials found that staff members were not trained on how to document a resident’s physical injuries or health abnormalities — or on how to handle any behavioral issues. Without proper training, staff turned to abuse when faced with a challenge. Many often gave residents the wrong medication, falsified their medical documents, and failed to schedule necessary doctors’ appointments.

    • God’s Red Pencil? CRISPR and The Three Myths of Precise Genome Editing

      The second key error of CRISPR boosters is to assume that, even if we had complete precision, this would allow control over the consequences for the resulting organism.

      Suppose, as a non-Chinese speaker, I were to precisely remove from a Chinese text one character, one line, or one page. I would have one hundred percent precision, but zero control over the change in meaning. Precision, therefore, is only as useful as the understanding that underlies it, and surely no DNA biologist would propose we understand DNA–or else why are we studying it?

    • Flint Residents Outraged After Discovering The City Is In Talks With Private Water Companies

      Once again, decisions are being made about Flint’s tainted water system with no public announcement or conversation.

      Flint residents, whose longstanding complaints about water quality fell on deaf ears to disastrous effect, are experiencing some déjà vu over the next steps out of the city’s water crisis.

      The city has quietly started seeking bids from private water companies. City residents say they only discovered the move when a researcher at the consumer watchdog group Food & Water Watch unearthed a request for proposal (RFP) in a Global Water Intelligence report.

      The RFP is for an analysis of the city’s water system, which, thanks to officials who neglected to add corrosion control chemicals to the water coming in from the Flint River, has been leaching dangerously high levels of lead into residents’ drinking water. The analysis would give recommendations for how the system needs to be upgraded to bring it into line with best practices and address the Environmental Protection Agency’s order to take corrective measures. This particular contract wouldn’t make Flint’s public water system private on its own.

  • Security

  • Defence/Aggression

    • The (Former) Riyadh Station Chief Defends His Saudi Friends from Charges of Terrorism

      On Sunday, former CIA Riyadh Station Chief John Brennan had a remarkable appearance on Meet the Press. A big part of it — the second to last thing he and Chuck Todd discussed — was Brennan’s argument against the release of the 28 pages (“so-called,” Brennan calls them) showing that 9/11 was facilitated by at least one Saudi operative.

      Brennan opposes their release in three ways. First, he falsely suggested that the 9/11 Commission investigated all the leads implicating the Saudis (and also pretends the “so-called 28 pages” got withheld for sources and methods and not to protect our buddies).

    • On the Frontlines of Peace: the Life of Daniel Berrigan
    • America, unrepentant still

      Yes, the Vietnam War is remembered as a debacle and a defeat, but not as the moral sin it was and that Berrigan bravely protested. The war is described as misguided and by the right wing as poorly led and even prematurely ended. But it was profoundly immoral, an act of prolonged violence stoked by unconscionable arrogance, ignorance, lies and manipulation by political leaders. Phony theories of “falling dominoes” and of a unified and insatiable world communist movement were kept alive mainly because of electoral politics, especially the fears held by Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon of hardliners who could not countenance losing a war, despite the fact that the war was without merit and should never have been fought.

    • Know Where You Stand: Decades Ago, the Ever-Prescient Daniel Berrigan Lamented That the Dream of Israel Had Become A Nightmare

      In so many ways we mourn the indomitable poet, priest and activist Daniel Berrigan, who died at age 94 on the 41st anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War he decried and defied for years, starting with his famous 1968 burning – with homemade napalm – of Catonsville draft files with his brother Philip and other pacifists. “Our apologies, good friends,” he wrote in his play The Trial of the Catonsville Nine, “for the fracture of good order, the burning of paper instead of children, the angering of the orderlies in the front of the charnel house. We could not, so help us God, do otherwise.” Father Berrigan got three years in federal prison for the action; when the appeals ran out, he refused to show up, spent four years opposing the war from underground, and went on to assemble an impressive rap sheet of arrests and convictions for protesting war, weaponry, nuclear power and the world’s other unholy ills. Thus did Kurt Vonnegut crown him, “Jesus as a poet.”

      Known for his fearless insights, Berrigan’s mantra was to, “Know where you stand, and stand there.” He remained true to it in a much-criticized 1973 speech to the Association of Arab University Graduates, where he denounced an Israel that had become “a criminal Jewish community” and, alongside a South Africa under apartheid and a U.S. embroiled in Vietnam, “a settler state (seeking) a Biblical justification for crimes against humanity.” He lamented the tragedy of Jews who after enduring the Holocaust “arose like warriors, armed to the teeth, (who) entered the imperial adventure and spread abroad the imperial deceptions,” going from slaves to masters who created slaves of “the people it has crushed”- Palestinians. Finally, he cites the “savage triumph” of a “model (that) is not the kingdom of peace; it is an Orwellian transplant, taken bodily from Big Brother’s bloody heart.” After the speech raised a furor, he defended it as “an act of outraged love.” At his passing, Berrigan’s family quotes his belief that, “Peacemaking is tough, unfinished, blood-ridden. We walk our hope and that’s the only way of keeping it going.” Today, they add, no one person can pick up his burden, but there is enough work for us all: “His spirit is free, it is alive in the world, and it is waiting for you.”

    • RIP Father Daniel Berrigan: Remembering the Life and Legacy of the Antiwar Priest & Poet
    • PART 2: Family and Friends Remember Father Daniel Berrigan, Legendary Antiwar Priest & Poet

      We continue our interview with close friends and the niece of the legendary antiwar priest, Father Daniel Berrigan, as we remember his life and legacy. He died on Saturday, just short of his 95th birthday. Berrigan was a poet, pacifist, educator, social activist, playwright and lifelong resister to what he called “American military imperialism.” Along with his late brother Phil, Dan Berrigan played an instrumental role in inspiring the antiwar and antidraft movement during the late 1960s, as well as the movement against nuclear weapons. He was the first Catholic priest to land on the FBI’s most wanted list. In early 1968, Father Daniel Berrigan made international headlines when he traveled to North Vietnam with historian Howard Zinn to bring home three U.S. prisoners of war. Later that year, Father Dan Berrigan, his brother Phil and seven others took 378 draft files from the draft board in Catonsville, Maryland. Then, in the parking lot of the draft board office, the activists set the draft records on fire, using homemade napalm, to protest the Vietnam War. They became known as the Catonsville Nine and invigorated the antiwar movement by inspiring over 100 similar acts of protest. It also shook the foundation of the tradition-bound Catholic Church. Then, in 1980, the Berrigan brothers and six others began the Plowshares Movement when they broke into the General Electric nuclear missile facility in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, hammered nuclear warhead nose cones and poured blood onto documents and files. They were arrested and charged with over 10 different felony and misdemeanor counts, and became known as the Plowshares Eight.

    • CIA Wants Its Narrative Back, Live-Tweets bin Laden Raid Five Years Later
    • ‘Rewriting History’ in 140 Characters as CIA Live Tweets Bin Laden Assassination

      The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was pilloried on Sunday for its decision to mark the 5th anniversary of the 2011 raid and killing of Osama bin Laden by “live-tweeting” the operation “as if it were happening today.”

      Beginning at 1:25 EDT, using the hashtag #UBLRaid (referring to the alternate spelling, “Usama”), the CIA reiterated its account of the May 2 raid on bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad in Pakistan.

    • Syria: As fierce Fighting reignites, Aleppo on brink of ‘Humanitarian Disaster’

      Syria’s largest city, Aleppo has seen a worrying outbreak of violence in the past week that could fatally undermine the cessation of hostilities that had held between most Free Syrian Army units and the Syrian Arab Army.

      The ceasefire did not extend to al-Qaeda or Daesh (ISIS, ISIL), however, and it appears to be al-Qaeda that led the renewed fighting south of the city and mortar strikes from the rebel-held east on the Government-held west.

    • Trump’s Foreign Policy is just GOP Boilerplate, only more Confused

      He also showed himself in love with authoritarians abroad, perhaps seeing people like Vladimir Putin as soul mates.

    • Washington Brings Regime Change To Venezuela

      This manufactured “extraordinary threat” serves as the Obama regime’s excuse for overthrowing President Maduro in Venezuela. It is a Washington tradition to overthrow elected Latin American governments that try to represent the interest of the people, and not the interest of US corporations and banks.

    • Departing NATO Commander Hypes Nonexistent Russian Threat

      Thousands more US-led NATO forces are being provocatively deployed near Russia’s borders.

      Interviewed by Sweden’s Dagens Nyheter broadsheet, Sergey Lavrov accused NATO of “inching closer and closer to Russia’s borders. But when Russia takes action to ensure its security, we are told that Russia is engaging in dangerous maneuvers near NATO borders. In fact, NATO borders are getting closer to Russia, not the opposite.”

    • Republicans Don’t Want to Know Costs of U.S. Nuclear Arsenal

      Republican lawmakers in the House of Representatives have lined up to quietly kill a cost estimate of the Pentagon’s three-decade nuclear modernization program, which experts predict will exceed $1 trillion. The vote was mentioned briefly in Politico’s morning briefing list last week but otherwise received no media coverage.

    • Escalating U.S. Air Strikes Kill Hundreds of Civilians in Mosul, Iraq

      USA Today revealed on April 19th that U.S. air forces have been operating under looser rules of engagement in Iraq and Syria since last fall. The war commander, Lt Gen McFarland, now orders air strikes that are expected to kill up to 10 civilians without prior approval from U.S. Central Command, and U.S. officials acknowledge that air strikes are killing more civilians under the new rules.

    • Why Russia Resents Us

      Friday, Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert Work announced that 4,000 NATO troops, including two U.S. battalions, will be moved into Poland and the Baltic States, right on Russia’s border.

      “The Russians have been doing a lot of snap exercises right up against the border with a lot of troops,” says Work, who calls this “extraordinarily provocative behavior.”

      But how are Russian troops deploying inside Russia “provocative,” while U.S. troops on Russia’s front porch are not? And before we ride this escalator up to a clash, we had best check our hole card.

    • Larry Wilmore Holds Nothing Back in Roast of Obama, Politicians and Media

      Comedian Larry Wilmore took real shots at President Obama, the media, various politicians and almost all the attendees at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday.

      Often getting booed, or a response of silence, Wilmore used the comedic opportunity to address real issues in a manner resembling Stephen Colbert back in 2006. He started fiercely within the first three minutes and had this to say (among much else):

      “It’s great, it looks like you’re really enjoying the last year of your presidency. Saw you hanging out with NBA players like Steph Curry, Golden State Warriors. That was cool, that was cool. Yeah. You know it kinda makes sense too because both of you like raining down bombs on people from long distances, right? Yeah. It’s true. What? Am I wrong? What? Speaking of drones, how is Wolf Blitzer still on television? Ask a follow-up question. Hey Wolf, I’m ready to project tonight’s winner: anyone that isn’t watching ‘The Situation Room.’ ”

    • Who is the Man Leading Iraq’s Green Zone Revolution?

      And Why Does Washington Hate Him So Much?

  • Environment/Energy/Wildlife/Nature

    • Political Violence in Honduras

      On March 3, assassins entered the home of Berta Caceres, leader of Honduras’ environmental and indigenous movement. They shot her friend Gustavo Castro Soto, the director of Friends of the Earth Mexico. He pretended to be dead, and so is the only witness of what came next. The assassins found Berta Caceres in another room and shot her in the chest, the stomach and the arms. When the assassins left the house, Castro went to Berta Caceres, who died in his arms.

      Investigation into the death of Berta Caceres is unlikely to be conducted with seriousness. The Honduran government suggested swiftly that it was likely that Castro had killed Berta Caceres and made false statements about assassins. That he had no motive to kill his friend and political ally seemed irrelevant. Castro has taken refuge in the Mexican embassy in Honduras’ capital, Tegucigalpa. He continues to fear for his life.

    • Military and Energy Company Officials Arrested for Murder of Berta Cáceres

      Authorities have arrested four suspects in the assassination of environmental and indigenous rights activist Berta Cáceres, the Honduran attorney general announced on Monday.

      Adding credence to suspicions that Cáceres’ killing was politically-motivated, among those arrested were Honduran military officials as well as an employee of Desarrollos Energéticos (or DESA), the private energy company behind the Agua Zarca dam, which Cáceres fiercely opposed.

      Central American-based freelance journalist Sandra Cuffe reported Monday that the arrests included Mariano Díaz Chávez and Edilson Atilio Duarte Meza. Cuffe wrote, “Honduran Armed Forces spokesperson identified Díaz as a major and Duarte as a former member of the military.”

    • Texas Floods Sending Toxic Fossil Fuel Runoff into Public Waters

      Recent flooding in Houston has sent crude oil and toxic chemicals into Texas waterways, and residents and experts say regulators are not doing enough to address the threat to public health and the environment.

      Photographs taken by emergency management officials show oil slicks and other evidence of toxins spreading through the Sabine River on the Texas-Louisiana border from flooding in March, and new evidence is mounting that spills from oil wells and fracking sites increase when water levels rise.

    • ‘Slap in the Face’: Top Court Overrules Local Fracking Bans in Colorado

      The Colorado Supreme Court ruled on Monday that state law trumps two cities’ attempts to stem the domestic fracking boom, issuing “a severe slap in the face” to Coloradans and local democracy alike.

      The court heard cases from Longmont, where voters banned the oil and gas drilling practice in 2012, and Fort Collins, where voters approved a 5-year moratorium in 2013. The Colorado Oil and Gas Association, an industry trade group that brought the suits against both cities, argued that the fossil fuel-friendly state clearly regulates fracking, and the cities can’t forbid a practice that the state allows.

    • Why Bill Gates’ Math Error About Climate Change Matters [Ed: for profit]

      Bill Gates keeps saying confused and confusing things about climate policy and clean energy.

      Gates has positioned himself as a major player and spokesman in this arena with his “Breakthrough Energy Coalition,” a $2 billion effort he is spearheading to research and develop breakthrough “energy miracles.” That means his confused — and often simply wrong — pronouncements could have serious consequences in the public debate and are worth exploring in detail.

      Gates’ latest bizarre position, as as one media headline explained, is to dismiss a carbon tax — “Bill Gates: Carbon tax not right for the US.”

    • As Climate Disruption Advances, UN Warns: “The Future Is Happening Now”

      Each month as I write these dispatches, I shake my head in disbelief at the rapidity at which anthropogenic climate disruption (ACD) is occurring. It’s as though each month I think, “It can’t possibly keep happening at this incredible pace.”

      But it does.

      By late April, the Mauna Loa Observatory, which monitors atmospheric carbon dioxide, recorded an incredible daily reading: 409.3 parts per million. That is a range of atmospheric carbon dioxide content that this planet has not seen for the last 15 million years, and 2016 is poised to see these levels only continue to increase.

    • Judge Sides With Kids Suing The Government Over Climate Inaction: ‘These Kids Can’t Wait’

      In the case of kids concerned about climate change versus the federal government, the kids keep racking up historic wins.

      On Friday, a group of children suing the government for inaction on climate change scored a major victory, as a judge ruled that the Washington State Department of Ecology must deliver an emissions reduction rule by the end of this year. That decision follows another major win in mid-April, when an Oregon judge ruled that a similar lawsuit could go forward despite opposition from the fossil fuel industry.

    • Scientists see the future in natural resources

      From creating transparent wood for solar panels or windows to turning carbon dioxide and plant waste into plastic bottles, scientists are finding ingenious ways to sidestep fossil fuels.

  • Finance

    • Bank of North Dakota Soars Despite Oil Bust: A Blueprint for California?

      In November 2014, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Bank of North Dakota (BND), the nation’s only state-owned depository bank, was more profitable even than J.P. Morgan Chase and Goldman Sachs. The author attributed this remarkable performance to the state’s oil boom; but the boom has now become an oil bust, yet the BND’s profits continue to climb. Its 2015 Annual Report, published on April 20th, boasted its most profitable year ever.

      The BND has had record profits for the last 12 years, each year outperforming the last. In 2015 it reported $130.7 million in earnings, total assets of $7.4 billion, capital of $749 million, and a return on investment of a whopping 18.1 percent. Its lending portfolio grew by $486 million, a 12.7 percent increase, with growth in all four of its areas of concentration: agriculture, business, residential, and student loans.

    • The Third Way: Share-the-Gains Capitalism

      Marissa Mayer tells us a lot about why Americans are so angry, and why anti-establishment fury has become the biggest single force in American politics today.

      Mayer is CEO of Yahoo. Yahoo’s stock lost about a third of its value last year, as the company went from making $7.5 billion in 2014 to losing $4.4 billion in 2015. Yet Mayer raked in $36 million in compensation.

    • Just Say No to Corporate Rule

      In May 2014, Senator Elizabeth Warren talked about the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement. “From what I hear, Wall Street, pharmaceuticals, telecom, big polluters and outsourcers are all salivating at the chance to rig the deal in the upcoming trade talks. So the question is: Why are the trade talks secret? You’ll love this answer. Boy, the things you learn on Capitol Hill. I actually have had supporters of the deal say to me, ‘They have to be secret, because if the American people knew what was actually in them, they would be opposed.’”

      [...]

      If you aren’t already concerned about a deal being negotiated on behalf of giant corporations at the public’s expense, consider the following. One chapter in the deal, the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) system, threatens democracy and the sovereignty of governments.

    • The Donor Class That Buys Chicago’s Elections Is Overwhelmingly Rich and White—Unlike the City

      The windy city’s political donor class is disproportionately and overwhelmingly made up of rich white men with a penchant for austerity and budget cuts, according to the first-ever municipal-level study of race, class and gender disparities in buying elections.

    • The Devil Capitalism
    • Puerto Rico’s Debt Crisis Poses A Special Problem For Zika Fighting Efforts
    • Puerto Rico Defaults on Debt to Pay Public Services
    • As Vulture Funds Circle, Puerto Rico Set to Default on Debt
    • The Super-Rich Tech Elite Is Just Fine With Big Government

      There’s something to this, but I suspect culture has a lot more to do with it. Most of these folks have spent their lives marinating in social liberalism, and being situated in the Bay Area just adds to that. So they start out with a visceral loathing of conservative social policies that pushes them in the direction of the Democratic Party. From there, tribalism does most of the additional work: once you’ve chosen a team, you tend to adopt all of the team’s views.

      Beyond that, yes, I imagine that tech zillionaires are more than normally aware of how much they rely on government: for basic research, for standards setting, for regulation that protects them from getting crushed by old-school dinosaurs, and so forth. And let’s be honest: most of the really rich ones have their wealth tied up almost entirely in capital gains, which doesn’t get taxed much anyway. So endorsing candidates who happen to favor higher tax rates on ordinary income (which they probably won’t get anyway) doesn’t really cost them much.

    • CETA: ISDS and data protection

      This is the fourth in a series of blogs on the EU-Canada trade agreement (CETA) and data protection.

      In earlier blogs we saw that under the CETA text Canada can give our personal data related to financial services, transfered to Canada, a lower protection than under the standard set by the Court of Justice of the EU in the Safe Harbour ruling. This is relevant as Canada is a member of the “Five Eyes”, a group of countries committed to (suspicionless) mass surveillance. We also saw that CETA does not allow data protection measures based on a higher data protection standard than agreed in CETA.

    • Why Releasing Text Isn’t Enough: Behind the Scenes of TTIP

      oday the draft text of the U.S.-Europe free trade agreement, the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), was leaked by Greenpeace Netherlands. The leak reveals for the first time the current state of the text of 15 chapters and annexes, along with a confidential commentary from the European Union.

      There’s not much concerning digital rights issues in the current text, because text on most of those issues has not been tabled yet. The closest that we have is the Electronic communications/Telecommunications chapter, which despite its broader-seeming title, is almost entirely about the liberalization of the telecommunications sector, and raises few obvious concerns.

    • Leaked Documents On U.S.-E.U. Trade Deal Paint Worrisome Environmental Picture, Greenpeace Says

      By now, most in the environmental community know that there are major environmental and climate change concerns surrounding the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) — that it could empower corporations to sue governments over environmental decisions and policies, for instance. But another trade deal, one being forged between the United States and European Union, has gotten less attention — until now.

      On Monday, Greenpeace Netherlands leaked documents from negotiations surrounding the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). The 248 pages of documents — which account for about a third of the total text — illustrate four major environmental concerns, Greenpeace says.

    • TTIP trade talks: Greenpeace leak ‘shows risks of EU-US deal’

      EU standards on the environment and public health risk being undermined by compromises with the US, Greenpeace has warned, citing leaked documents.

      The environmental group obtained 248 pages of classified documents from the TTIP trade talks, aimed at clinching a far-reaching EU-US free trade deal.

      Secrecy surrounding the talks has fuelled fears that US corporations may erode Europe’s consumer protections.

    • Greenpeace Netherlands Releases Explosive Documents on Just Concluded U.S.-Europe Trade Talks
    • Leaked TTIP Documents: Threats to Regulatory Protections
    • International trade agreements attempt to undermine EU environment and health protection
    • Comment on Leaked TTIP Text

      “It’s disgraceful that despite the fact TTIP would have such a profound impact on the lives of people across Europe, the only way that people get to know about these disturbing details is through leaks like these. TTIP is being cooked up behind closed doors because when ordinary people find out about the threat it poses to democracy and consumer protections, they are of course opposed to it.

    • Greenpeace Netherlands Releases TTIP Documents
    • ‘Today Marks the End of TTIP’: Greenpeace Leak Exposes Corporate Takeover

      The documents represent roughly two-thirds of the latest negotiating text, according to Greenpeace, and on some topics offer for the first time the position of the United States.

    • WHY IS THE RACIAL WEALTH GAP WIDENING? AND WHAT SHOULD BE DONE TO REVERSE IT?

      Wealth inequality is even more of a problem than income inequality. That’s because you have to have enough savings from income to begin to accumulate wealth – buying a house or investing in stocks and bonds, or saving up to send a child to college.

    • Watch: Billionaire Former Mayor Bloomberg Rails Against Demagoguery—Is Booed for Criticizing Safe Spaces
    • The Bernie Fade Begins

      “The 2016 presidential election,” Diana Johnstone recently wrote, “is shaping up as a contest between the two most hated people in America.” Bernie Sanders has called it quits. That’s what it means when your campaign says, as Bernie’s did two nights ago, that it looks forward to going to the Democratic National Convention to fight over the party’s platform, not over its presidential nomination. There’ll be no contested convention on the Democratic side. So what if Hillary Clinton is a “right wing fanatic” (Arun Gupta), a close friend of Wall Street, a backer of so-called free trade deals, and a spine-chilling war monger?

    • ‘This can’t happen by accident.’

      For generations, African Americans have faced unique barriers to owning a home — and enjoying the wealth it brings. In Atlanta, where predominantly black neighborhoods are still waiting for the recovery, the link between race and real estate fortune is stark.

    • Detroit Teachers Hold Sickout to Protest Broken Funding Promises

      Nearly every public school in Detroit was shut down on Monday as teachers city-wide held a “sickout” over news that the embattled district would not be able to pay them past June 30.

      The protest kept 94 out of 97 schools closed after the Detroit Federation of Teachers (DFT) announced the action on Sunday. Detroit Public Schools (DPS) emergency manager Judge Steven Rhodes told the union over the weekend that without additional funding from the legislature, the district would not have enough money to pay its 2,600 teachers’ already-earned salaries.

    • Detroit Teachers Launch Massive Protest After Learning They Won’t Be Paid This Summer

      Teachers across Detroit called in sick to work on Monday — a “sick-out” protest that ultimately shut down all but three public schools in the city because there weren’t enough teachers in class.

      The coordinated protest, which was organized by the Detroit Federation of Teachers, came soon after the school district’s emergency manager, Judge Steven Rhodes, announced that there won’t be enough money to pay teachers after June 30.

      “Detroit teachers deserve to be paid fairly for their work like every other working person… But Detroit Public Schools has just informed us that it cannot guarantee to pay these dedicated men and women for their work. This isn’t right. It isn’t fair,” the president of the teachers union, Ivy Bailey, told the Detroit News.

    • Big Business Charter School Chains Seek Millions in Taxpayer Dollars With No Accountability

      KIPP also asked the Office of Innovation and Improvement to redact the amounts of funding provided to KIPP by foundations that wrote letters of support for KIPP to receive federal taxpayer money under the grant.

    • The United States, Britain and the European Union

      On his farewell tour, President Barack Obama has stirred the pot ahead of the June referendum in Britain on whether the United Kingdom should stay in the European Union or leave. His warning to leavers that Britain cannot expect a trade agreement with the United States any time soon if it withdraws from the EU has infuriated leaders of the Brexit campaign, and delighted those who want to remain, including Prime Minister David Cameron. Obama’s message to Britain was that it should remain in the EU, and that it was in America’s interest, too.

      Some of the comments made by leading Brexit figures in the governing Conservative Party in retaliation to Obama’s intervention have been described as borderline racist.

      In a particularly outspoken jibe, London mayor and a member of the British cabinet, Boris Johnson, accused the American president of interfering in British politics. Johnson went on to say that after entering the House House Obama had ordered the removal a bust of the British wartime leader, Winston Churchill, from the Oval Office. Furthermore, he suggested that this might be because of Obama’s “part Kenyan ancestral dislike of the British empire.”

    • The Fed’s Urge to Raise Interest Rates

      Voters should know the president’s priorities in filling these positions. It will hugely affect their ability to carry through their economic agenda. Pretending the Fed does not exist is not serious economic policy. The public has a right to expect better.

    • Sam Brownback Gutted Kansas: How America’s Worst Governor and an Ultra-Conservative Ideology Wrecked an Entire State

      KCEG’s report partially demonstrates from one economic perspective why such a view of the world, when actualized into public policy, doesn’t work, except for those at the top of the financial food chain. KCEG rightly points out that the tax revenues devoted to state-provided services, such as transportation infrastructure, public education and healthcare, to name a few, are in actuality investments in some very “powerful economic development tools” available to Kansas (and other states).

    • Verizon Sticks it to its Workers Because $45 Billion isn’t Enough

      Class warfare is on display in stark terms at Verizon Communications, and although such direct terms are avoided by the corporate media, there is much talk of the strike against Verizon by the Communications Workers of America and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers as “labor’s last stand.” That might be a little hyperbolic, or it might be wishful thinking, as such talk of last stands is often intertwined with juxtaposing unionized older sectors with non-unionized sectors that are promoted as “new” and “vibrant.”

    • Billionaire Nike Co-Founder Confuses His Net Worth with U.S. Economic Growth

      IN A RECENT INTERVIEW with USA Today, Phil Knight, the co-founder and chair of Nike, expressed puzzlement over Americans’ anger about trade agreements like NAFTA, and concern that this anger is having an effect on the presidential race.

  • AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

    • State Party Officials Reportedly Displeased with Clinton-DNC ‘Laundering’ Scheme

      Sanders campaign lambastes Clinton for ‘looting funds meant for the state parties to skirt fundraising limits on her presidential campaign.’

    • Facebook Has Lost The War It Declared On Fake News

      Fake news stories are a scourge. Something different from parody news folks such as The Onion, there are outfits out there that produce false news stories simply to get clickthroughs and generate advertising revenue. And it isn’t just a couple of your Facebook friends and that weird uncle of yours that gets fooled by these things, even incredibly handsome and massively-intelligent writers such as myself are capable of getting completely misled into believing that a bullshit news story is real.

      Facebook is generally seen as a key multiplier in this false force of non-news, which is probably what led the social media giant to declare war on fake news sites a year or so back. So how’d that go? Well, the results as analyzed over at Buzzfeed seems to suggest that Facebook has either lost this war it declared or is losing it badly enough that it might as well give it up.

    • Exclusive: Aleppo Doctor Attacks Western Media for Bias, Censorship and Lies

      When the US and NATO war of aggression was launched against Syria, Dr Nabil Antaki could have abandoned Aleppo to ensure his own safety. Instead he decided to remain and to serve the besieged people of his City, working with various local charities. Above all, he wanted to bear witness to the destruction caused by Western support for the foreign armed groups who have been systematically destroying Syria and terrorising its people for the last 5 years.

    • Syria: The Real US-NATO Creators of Hell in Aleppo

      As US and NATO propaganda reaches another crescendo in Aleppo, it is important to remind ourselves of a few salient facts. First and foremost we need to understand that the prevailing force occupying Aleppo and terrorising civilians is US and NATO backed Al Nusra in the city itself and ISIS in Northern and Eastern outlying areas.

    • Could This Be Donald Trump’s Vice Presidential Pick?

      Meet Joni Ernst. Could she be Donald Trump’s choice for Vice President?

      The main attributes of a vice president are to balance the ticket, help raise money and then step back for four/eight years until it is her turn to run. You want someone good, but not too good, especially if you have an ego the size of Trump’s.

    • Ted Cruz’s Terrible Parenting Advice
    • Ted Cruz Tells Young Protester That He Deserves a Spanking

      On Sunday, Sen. Ted Cruz suggested that the best response to a young protester who yelled “you suck” during a campaign rally in Indiana would be a good spanking. It’s the second time the Republican presidential candidate has brought up the controversial form of physical punishment on the campaign trail.

    • Trump is the Presidential Candidate the Republicans Deserve

      After decisively losing in 2012 because of their inability to build bridges with people of color, Republicans were at an impasse. The question was: would they reach out to people of color and attempt to bring them into the fold . . . or would they continue their free-market assault and ignore that their voting bloc was shrinking? They choose door number three.

    • Bernie, the Little Bird, and What May Be Our Last Best Chance to Get It Right

      Take heart, Sanders supporters. We’re down, but we’re not out.

      Bernie’s difficult path to the nomination just got a little rockier, but it’s still three months to the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. If there’s anything I’ve learned from my years in presidential politics, it is to expect the unexpected, and that three months is an eternity in a political campaign. Anything can happen.

    • The Long-Distance Rebound of Bernie Sanders

      Now, however, Bernie Sanders is facing the verdict of closed primaries in many states which bar independent voters from voting for any of the Democratic or Republican candidates. Pointedly, Senator Sanders won only one of the five states with primaries on April 26, 2016: Rhode Island. Why? Because that state has an open primary allowing independent voters, heavily pro-Sanders, to carry him to victory.

    • When NYT Real Estate Stories Read Like 19th Century Colonial Dispatches

      The New York Times Real Estate section is written for the rich by writers who are either themselves rich or very good at faking it. The tone is one of “oh, what inequality?” matter-of-factness, where $2 million loft purchases are thrown around like Seamless thai food orders. It’s a style of journalism where the writer uncritically adopts the class and corporate tone and verbiage of those they cover: the affluent and the cottage industries that emerge to suit their whims.

      [...]

      The author went on to refer to one of the wealthy brownstone-seekers, Matthew Trebek (son of Jeopardy host Alex Trebek, naturally), as engaging in “explorations” of Harlem, as if it were an undiscovered wilderness.

      It may seem like PC parsing, but this type of language helps normalize a racist mindset in an already racist industry. A 2012 report by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development found that discrimination and redlining, while more subtle than in decades past, is still rampant in the real estate business. Racially loaded terms like “pioneer” and “exploration” help reinforce the notion that long-existing communities of color are untamed frontiers needing to be settled.

    • Despicable Trump Ally Roger Stone Called for Bernie Sanders to Be Shot for Treason

      Too bad for Roger Stone that the internet remembers. This time it’s his sleazy red-baiting. These days, the notorious, nefarious Stone—opposition researcher, all-around dirty trickster, organizer of the “Brooks Brothers riot” of the 2000 Florida recount, rumor-monger of the Michelle Obama “whitey” tape, and general political hitman for the GOP—remains an ally of Donald Trump (even though he quit last year as Trump’s campaign manager). He is also chief of a Trump SuperPac, the Committee to Restore America’s Greatness. What specific consultations consultant Stone may be whispering into the billionaire’s ear can only be deduced by listening to what crawls out of Trump’s mouth.

    • Bernie Sanders Vows to Take His Fight All the Way to Democratic Convention

      Speaking at the National Press Club Sunday, Sen. Bernie Sanders told reporters his campaign would take the fight for the candidacy all the way to the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.

    • US Presidential Election: Beyond Lesser Evilism

      The ongoing presidential race in the United States has revealed a number of phenomena that seem to have been brewing under the surface of neoliberal austerity economics for years. For one thing, it has shown a widespread popular discontent with the status quo. For another, it has revealed that the American public is no longer averse to socialistic ideas.

    • Chinese ‘invaders’ send cash registers ringing in Russia

      But it took more than just humour for Russia to gain the confidence of Chinese travellers.

      There are two key reasons why Chinese tourists have edged out those from Germany and the UK from the list of top visitors: a relaxed visa regime and the growing success of the China Friendly International Project by Russia’s tourism industry stakeholders last year that was engineered to create and facilitate initiatives for healthy and comfortable hospitality for tourists from China.

  • Censorship/Free Speech

    • Yale Students Fight College Censorship The Right Way

      Screaming matches with whiny social-justice warriors may go viral on social media, but hosting forums for genuine dialogue is a better way to fight campus censorship.

    • Nine years of censorship

      Canadian scientists are now allowed to speak out about their work — and the government policy that had restricted communications.

    • Hinds should have spoken out against censorship from the inception

      Editor, I was a soldier of the struggle for a free press during the 1970s to 1992 and the restoration of democratic rule. I became a columnist at the Chronicle in 1993 after the free press was restored. After a few columns, then editor Sharief Khan informed me that he received heat from the government about my columns, and asked me to soften my position on certain issues. I opted to resign from the columns rather than compromise my values; unlike other columnists I didn’t compromise my integrity and independence and I don’t grovel for supper. Newspapers should not censor views, especially when supported by facts.

    • Victory! Court Rules Against Louisiana’s Online Censorship Law

      Before Friday, a Louisiana bookstore might have feared prosecution for allowing a teenager to browse a book like “The Catcher in the Rye” on its website.

  • Privacy/Surveillance

  • Civil Rights/Policing

    • Los Angeles Law Enforcement Official Resigns After Newspaper Publishes His Racist Emails

      A top law enforcement official in Los Angeles County resigned Sunday after reporters discovered a cache of racist emails he circulated.

      Tom Angel stepped down as Chief of Staff to L.A. County Sheriff Jim McDonnell just days after a series of racist and anti-Muslim emails he’d sent and forwarded in 2012 and 2013 were published by the Los Angeles Times.

      “I took my Biology exam last Friday. I was asked to name two things commonly found in cells. Apparently, ‘Blacks’ and ‘Mexicans’ were NOT the correct answers,” one of the emails Angel forwarded reads.

      Angel sent the emails while serving as Chief of Police in nearby Burbank, a community that is nearly one-quarter Latino and less than 3 percent black.

      In another message, Angel passed along a list of reasons “why Muslim Terrorists are so quick to commit suicide” that includes bullet points for “Constant wailing from some idiot in a tower,” “You can’t wash off the smell of donkey,” and “More than one mother in law.”

    • 3 Next Steps in the Political Revolution

      Bernie Sanders will campaign all the way up to the Democratic convention in Philadelphia to seek the nomination—and to continue building the “political revolution.”

      What is that political revolution, beyond his call to get the billionaires and corporations out and the people in?

    • FBI Chooses Secrecy Over Locking Up Criminals

      The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s refusal to discuss even the broad strokes of some of its secret investigative methods, such as implanting malware and tracking cellphones with Stingrays, is backfiring – if the goal is to actually enforce the law.

      In the most recent example, the FBI may be forced to drop its case against a Washington State school administrator charged with possessing child porn because it doesn’t want to tell the court or the defense how it got its evidence – even in the judge’s chambers.

    • Reassessing American ‘Heroes’

      There are plenty of other U.S. heroes of political renown and aggressive poor judgment, such as Teddy Roosevelt, the 26th president of the U.S., who, while founding U.S. national parks and wildlife preserves, managed to find time to help engineer the Spanish-American War and the imperial seizure of Cuba and the Philippines.

    • 9 Arrested in Seattle After May Day Protesters Clash With Police

      The Seattle Police Department said violence rose out of a peaceful march for workers’ rights and immigration that took place earlier in the day. At least five officers were injured, including one who was hit with a Molotov cocktail, another who was struck in the face with a rock, and a third who was bitten by a protestor.

    • Bernie Sanders ‘Movement’ Sees Progressives Planning Next Step

      When asked about his post-primary plans, if Hillary Clinton clinches the Democratic nomination for president, Bernie Sanders was quick to tell ABC News in Rome last week that he would go back to his day job as a U.S. senator from Vermont.

      But several of the advocacy groups backing his campaign have begun strategizing about the next phase of what many of them view as Sanders’ “political revolution.”

      “Many are wondering, ‘What’s next?’ We want to get together and talk about it,” said Charles Lenchner, co-founder of People for Bernie, a grassroots organization that has been unofficially working alongside the senator’s presidential campaign from the beginning.

    • Nevada Lawmaker: It’s Okay To Aim Guns At Cops If They Aim At You First

      Nevada Assemblywoman Michele Fiore (R), who is currently seeking her party’s nomination for an open U.S. House seat, said last week that she believes the right to self defense includes the right to aim your gun anyone who aims a gun at you, even if they are a law enforcement officer.

    • White Teen Girl Sends Nude Photos to Black Male. Police Arrest Him for Child Porn.

      Another male teenager’s future is in jeopardy after police charged him with possession of child pornography and contributing to the delinquency of a minor—all because he swapped sexy photos and videos with a girl.

      Levar Allen, a 17-year-old athlete at his Louisiana public school, is black. The girl, a 16-year-old, is white. Local news stories note that she initiated the sexting, and he reciprocated.

      His mother—a single mother of three—has spent thousands of dollars getting her son out of jail and fighting the charges. She thinks her son’s race may have played a role in the police department’s decision to vigorously punish him.

    • Refugee Woman Sets Herself On Fire To Protest Controversial Detention Center

      A 21-year-old woman named Hadon (who is also referred to as Hadan in media reports) suffered critical injuries from the self-immolation. She is currently being treated at a Nauruan hospital by four emergency doctors, including two anesthetists, the Nauruan government said in a statement released on Monday.

    • The Theory of Business Enterprise Part 3: Business Principles

      In the US the rise of the anti-Enlightenment right wing and its sponsors forces us to question whether the scientific mind continues to be a form of self-governance and of shared cultural values. And, of course, Natural Law lives on in the jurisprudence of Clarence Thomas, at least according to an astonishing article in the Regent University Law Review which I couldn’t make myself read because the sections I did read were appalling, google it if you have to know.

      Locke’s ideas generally are associated with the Founding Fathers. No doubt his positions on slavery and expropriating the lands of Native Americans, and his idea that ownership of private property free of governmental interference is a crucial element of freedom, were congenial to their personal desires and philosophical positions. We may need to think about property more closely, as we have done with the other two.
      Tweet about this on Twitter

    • Paper That Couldn’t Be Bothered To Report On Local Police Misconduct Fires Off Editorial Insulting Writer Who Actually Did

      As we recently covered here, a few Aiken, South Carolina, police officers engaged in a steady procession of Constitutional violations during a traffic stop predicated on nothing more than a (fully legal) temporary plate. Shirts were lifted and breasts exposed. At least one cop spent a considerable amount of time probing the passenger’s anus. For all intents and purposes, it was a roadside raping, performed under the color of law.

      The horrific traffic stop is the focus of a federal lawsuit… and a whole lot of belated scrambling by law enforcement and city officials. Radley Balko of the Washington Post, who broke the story, found himself on the receiving end of a sneering, condescending editorial by the Aiken Standard — the local paper which had no interest in covering the lawsuit until after national internet hellfire began raining down on the town it serves.

      The editorial is worth reading all the way through, if only to experience the surreality of being talked down to by an editor who wouldn’t know unbiased journalism if it showed up at his desk wearing a blue uniform and told him to kill an unflattering story.

    • Media Convicts Scores of ‘Gang Members’ on NYPD’s Say-So–No Trials Necessary

      On the morning of April 27, in concert with the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI and the BATF, the NYPD conducted what authorities described as a “gang raid” on the Eastchester Gardens and Edenwald House housing projects in the Bronx, arresting roughly 100 people on a series of charges. The New York media, apparently tipped off ahead of time and present with cameras ready for the wholly-pointless-except-for-police-PR perp walk, jumped into action—trying and convicting the suspects as gang members solely on the say-so of the NYPD and federal officials.

    • Solitary Confinement is ‘No Touch’ Torture, and It Must Be Abolished

      Shortly after arriving at a makeshift military jail, at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, in May 2010, I was placed into the black hole of solitary confinement for the first time. Within two weeks, I was contemplating suicide.

      After a month on suicide watch, I was transferred back to US, to a tiny 6 x 8ft (roughly 2 x 2.5 meter) cell in a place that will haunt me for the rest of my life: the US Marine Corps Brig in Quantico, Virginia. I was held there for roughly nine months as a “prevention of injury” prisoner, a designation the Marine Corps and the Navy used to place me in highly restrictive solitary conditions without a psychiatrist’s approval.

      For 17 hours a day, I sat directly in front of at least two Marine Corps guards seated behind a one-way mirror. I was not allowed to lay down. I was not allowed to lean my back against the cell wall. I was not allowed to exercise. Sometimes, to keep from going crazy, I would stand up, walk around, or dance, as “dancing” was not considered exercise by the Marine Corps.

    • Class, Football, and Blame: the Hillsborough Disaster Inquest

      Rupert Murdoch’s The Sun was, as was to be expected, the most colourful. The editor at the time, Kelvin MacKenzie, made it his personal mission to smear and condemn the supporters, claiming that hooligan Liverpudlians had urinated in glee on brave police, pilfered from the dead and obstructed those keen to resuscitate the dying.

      With the bodies still warm, he juggled two options of headline: “You Scum” or “The Truth.” Eventually, he went for the latter, despite warnings within the paper about the potential inaccuracy of the message. “Drunken Liverpool fans,” went the story, “viciously attacked rescue workers as they tried to revive victims of the Hillsborough soccer disaster, it was revealed last night.” To this day, some shops boycott that intemperate rag.

  • Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • DRM

    • Allies join Defective by Design for the tenth anniversary of the International Day Against DRM

      Today community groups, activist organizations, and businesses are taking part in the International Day Against DRM, celebrating ten years since the first global day of action in 2006. The groups are united in envisioning a world without Digital Restrictions Management (DRM), technology that polices what people can do with digital media by spying on them and compromising their computer security. As the largest anti-DRM event in the world, the International Day Against DRM is intended as a counterpoint to the pro-DRM message broadcast by powerful media and software companies. The Day is coordinated by Defective by Design, a campaign of the Free Software Foundation.

  • Intellectual Monopolies

    • MSF Issues In-Depth Report On R&D And Drug Prices

      The substantive discussion of policy options include greater transparency on R&D costs; changing the incentives; setting priorities, coordinating efforts and ensuring sustainable financing; and government action. The report includes an analysis of how much it really costs to develop a drug, looking into recently asserted claims of massive expenditure to come up with a single product.

    • The Battle For Biosimilars In India
    • Australian Gov’t Commission Also Wants To Fix Patent Laws Down Under

      To fix this, they have a few suggestions — all of which seem worthwhile. First, they say the bar is way too low for granting patents, so Australia should raise the bar for what’s considered “inventive.” They suggest the standard should be changed to if the invention or solution “would have been obvious for a person skilled in the art to try with a reasonable expectation of success.” They even consider going beyond that, but recognize that some patent holders outside of Australia may freak out at such a suggestion and avoid the Australian market.

      The second suggestion is giving an “overarching objective” to patent law, which examiners can use as a sort of guiding light or touchstone. Basically, allow Australia to reject patents by arguing that granting such patents would go against the public interest.

    • Trademarks

      • University Educates Student On How Everyone Will Abuse Trademark Law

        Institutions for higher education are no strangers to abusing trademark law, I suppose, what with Harvard one time looking to lock up all kinds of language, or the University of North Dakota bullying artists over a parody version of its defunct and abandoned sports team logo. But it sure seems to feel more egregious for a learning institution to blatantly bullshit one of its own students through trademark threats, which is exactly what Dixie State University did when it claimed a student’s parody of its sports logo was trademark infringement.

    • Copyrights

      • “Everyone” Downloads Research Papers Illegally

        Science magazine just published a great piece on the utility of Sci-Hub. Unfortunately, its defense of its own business model is flawed.

        [...]

        First, a bit of background. The Sci-Hub archives contain nearly 50 million documents, with more being added every day; these archives have been built primarily without the explicit permission of the publishers that hold the copyright to this material. By maintaining tight control over those copyrights, academic publishers can charge often-exorbitant fees for annual subscriptions and one-time access to articles; yearly subscriptions to some specialized science, technology, engineering, and math journals can cost upward of $10,000. In 2015, the academic publisher Elsevier earned about $1.58 billion in profit on about $9.36 billion in revenue. Knowledge is power!

      • Australian Productivity Commission (APC) Recommends Adoption of Fair Use to Restore Balance in Copyright Law

        A draft report by the Australian Productivity Commission (APC) concludes that the current copyright law fails to properly balance the interests of copyright holders and users. It warns that “Australia’s copyright arrangements are weighed too heavily in favour of copyright owners, to the detriment of the long-term interests of both consumers and intermediate users.” The APC makes recommends changes to the law to address the imbalance, including “the introduction of a broad, principles-based fair use exception.” This follows the 2013 Australian Law Reform Commission report on Copyright in the Digital Economy, which also recommended that Australia amend its copyright law to include fair use.

      • Infojustice.org – Australian Commission Recommends Fair Use To Restore Balance In Copyright Law
      • Australian Gov’t Commission: Copyright Is Copywrong; Hurting The Public And Needs To Be Fixed

        Three years ago, down in Australia, the Australian Law Reform Commission started examining various copyright reform proposals, and eventually made a rather mild suggestion: bring fair use to Australia. Frankly, we felt that the Commission could have gone much further, but it basically said to copy the American approach to fair use. Not surprisingly, Hollywood flipped out, claiming that it would “lead to an increase in piracy.” And, soon after that, the new government, led by Attorney General George Brandis flat out ignored the report and pushed for expanding copyright against the public interest, and very much towards exactly what Hollywood wanted. This wasn’t all that surprising, given that it was revealed that Hollywood representatives spent a lot of time with Brandis, while he deliberately avoided meeting with representatives of the public.

05.02.16

Interesting Supreme Court Cases About Patents in the United States

Posted in America, Courtroom, Patents at 1:45 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Another ‘Alice’ on the way?

The bronze doors of the US Supreme Court
The bronze doors of the US Supreme Court

Summary: A quick review of some of the latest developments regarding SCOTUS (the US Supreme Court) as far as patents go

There will soon be an interesting design patent case at the Supreme Court of the United States, alongside other cases that are not about patents and some that are (some are about copyrights too). A new article by Dennis Crouch, covering a “patent-copyright parallel” (not exactly the same as in Oracle v. Google), says about one such case: “In both patent and copyright cases the issue of laches arises more often than you might think because of the legal treatment of “ongoing” infringement. Each infringing act is seen as a new act of infringement. Thus, the six-year limits period starts anew each time a new copy of the infringing product is made, sold, or used. If someone has been making an infringing product for the past 10 years, the statute would let the patentee them reach back 6 years for damages. Courts often see that result as as problematic when the patentee sits on its rights for so long (and since most civil claims have a shorter period of limitations) and thus apply the laches doctrine to limit collection of back damages even when within the six-year period.”

“Müller essentially changed sides and he is against Apple’s unreasonable patent demands these days.”“This is, incidentally,” said this one person, “the second time this term that SCOTUS has granted one copyright and one patent case in a day” (SCOTUS typically rules in favour of reformists these days, so whichever such case the Justices take under their wing would likely end well).

As Florian Müller put it in this morning’s article about design patents: “In about five weeks from now, we’ll see how successful Samsung’s mobilization efforts have been, and two months after that we’ll see the fruits of Apple’s campaigning.” The focus of Müller, however, is stated upfront in his title: “Where will the ‘friends of the Supreme Court’ come down on design patent damages in Apple v. Samsung?” Müller and I do not agree on the Oracle v. Google case (we had a long exchange about it today), but we do agree on the Samsung case. Müller essentially changed sides and he is against Apple’s unreasonable patent demands these days. If SCOTUS rules against Apple (in any of the ongoing cases), it will be good news for Google, for Android, for Free software, and for Linux. Apple has placed itself on the wrong side of history. █

Governments in Europe Still Active Against EPO Management

Posted in Europe, Patents at 1:15 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Philip Cordery

Summary: There is still political work being done — albeit rather discreetly — against Battistelli and his goons at the European Patent Office’s top-level management

WE sometimes get the impression of defeatism among EPO staff. Some find it hard to believe that Battistelli will step down and dismissed staff representatives reintegrated into the workforce, even though work is still being done (usually more discreetly than before) towards that.

“As for the EPO situation,” one person told us about an insider, “s/he doesn’t expect much to change for the better, given the Administrative Council’s unwillingness to do anything other than, more or less, backing the president. S/He, too, appears to be very frustrated with the lack of action on the part of national governments, including our minister of (in)justice in Germany, who’s a sad joke in my opinion.”

“The Netherlands is increasingly concerned and so is France.”Germany, for reasons we have explained here several times before, feels comfortable turning a blind eye because it benefits financially from the EPO. But that doesn’t mean other countries too choose inaction. The Netherlands is increasingly concerned and so is France. The predominantly French management around Battistelli (his cronies and their family members) are becoming a national embarrassment that promotes perception of systemic corruption.

“The French MP Philip Cordery,” SUEPO wrote earlier today, “reported in a blog post dated 25 April 2016 about a joint letter (written with other French MPs: Pierre-Yves Le Borgn’, Richard Yung, Claudine Lepage, Jean-Yves Leconte and Hélène Conway-Mouret), dated 21 April 2016, to the French Minister of Economic Affairs Emmanuel Macron. The letter was sent “in order to demand once again that France take action towards a reform of the management of this international organization”.”

The PDF link/original in French [PDF] suggests ongoing work ‘behind the scenes’, so to speak, not for the first time from Mr. Cordery [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]. Cordery et al ought to know that Battistelli has become a source of great shame to France.

A translation of the blog post [PDF] (original) and a translation of the letter [PDF] in English was posted by SUEPO and here it is in English:

EPO: Keep up the pressure for management reform

Following the last meeting of the Administrative Council of the European Patent Office, I, together with a number of my colleagues representing French citizens established outside France, called upon the Minister of the Economy, Emmanuel Macron, in order to demand once again that France take action towards a reform of the management of this international organization.

And the accompanying letter:

Paris, 21 April 2016

Ref.: PC/AF/169

Minister,

We wish to draw your attention to the importance of the decisions taken at the last meeting of the Administrative Council of the European Patent Office.

We are pleased to note that a resolution was voted through, resulting from a compromise in order to obtain a majority. It has therefore been possible to focus on the social conflict and the imposition of sanctions and disciplinary procedures against EPO staff members. We welcome the role played by France, which, by your mediation, has accepted its responsibilities and mobilised its partners with regard to these issues.

We are now calling for the greatest vigilance on your part with regard to the effective implementation of the measures arising from this resolution. In our view it is essential that the persons concerned are given the opportunity to make recourse rapidly to an outside authority to re-examine the issues and act in arbitration with regard to the sanctions which may have been imposed on them, and that this be put into effect without any further delay.

The present immunity of the management of the EPO with regard to management of the staff and the choice of strategic attitudes adopted by the Office is a matter of great concern. It is arousing concern with regard to the future of this organization, and the development of innovation in Europe. The nationality and the status as a French executive of the President impose a particular responsibility on our country in the present situation. It is for this reason that in our view it is imperative that France, by way of its official representative on the Administrative Council, takes action such that a major change in the management of the Office can come into effect rapidly.

At the present time, the two staff union representatives who were dismissed in Munich have not been reinstated, and the degrading abuses of the statutes of the Office continue. Some
staff members at the Hague are still under investigation. One of them in particular has been deprived of any treatment as a result of failure to take account of his stopping work due to illness, giving rise to fear of possible dismissal. We therefore believe it to be essential that our own citizens, who are victims equally with the other staff members of the repressive managerial policy adopted by the President of the Office, be fully and continuously supported during this ordeal.

We are at your disposal to discuss these matters with you. More than ever, we are convinced that a major reform of the management of the EPO is essential, and we are eager that our
country should commit itself to this end, without any shortcomings.

We remain, Minister, yours faithfully

Philip Cordery

Pierre-Yves Le Borgn’

Richard Yung

Claudine Lepage

Jean-Yves Leconte

Hélène Conway-Mouret

Emmanuel MACRON
Minister of the Economy, Industry, and the Digital Sector
139, rue de Bercy
75572 Paris Cedex 12

Copy to Yves LAPIERRE
Director General
National Institute of Industrial Property

Assemblée Nationale – 126 rue de l’Université 75007 PARIS
pcordery@assemblee-nationale.fr – 01 40 63 06 58

There is action in additional EU member states against the EPO, but revealing details at this stage would potentially compromise actions. The EPO saga is far from over, in spite of the relative calm. Don’t be misled. Battistelli was advised to keep a low profile for a reason. It’s a massive reputation laundering operation. █

The European Spam Office (EPO)

Posted in Europe, Marketing, Patents at 9:58 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

This is all from the past hour, in succession (EPO’s Twitter feed in a period of just 15 minutes, 3pm-3:15pm GMT)

EPO spam

Summary: EPO budget at ‘work’, days after doing copy-paste jobs and also working overtime in the weekend for an extravagant and needless/purposeless event (except for Battistelli's own pride)

Not Just Benoît Battistelli and Willy Minnoye (EPO): Željko Topić Too Thinks He is Above the Law, Avoids the Judges and Courts

Posted in Europe, Law, Patents at 8:29 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Arrogance apparently runs deep inside EPO veins

Željko Topić article

Summary: The latest developments regarding some of the criminal complaints and civil lawsuits against Topić (above), who is now a Vice-President at the European Patent Office (EPO)

EPO management vainly disregards judges, it doesn’t just attack them (e.g. dismisses or suspends them if it does not think that they're loyal enough to Battistelli, in spite of complete independence).

More news from Croatia have landed on our lap and it’s quite revealing. It says a lot about Željko Topić as an individual, not just as a ‘professional’. Much like Willy Minnoye proudly proclaiming that he would ignore rulings from the highest Dutch judges, Topić apparently believes that he is above the law. He is not showing up in court (cases which he is losing) and based on additional information we have been given, this unacceptable behaviour continues to date. How can EPO stakeholders take seriously people who don’t believe in the rule of law (except when it suddenly suits them and they can distort the law to silence critics) if they’re trying to be granted patents which presumably would be enforced in a court of law?

“How can EPO stakeholders take seriously people who don’t believe in the rule of law (except when it suddenly suits them and they can distort the law to silence critics) if they’re trying to be granted patents which presumably would be enforced in a court of law?”“The origins of this story go back quite a long way,” told us a source, “as far back as 2007 in fact. This is a symptom of the Croatian legal system which is notoriously slow and where cases take many years to process (especially if there is some kind of political interference). It’s not that different from the EPO which may explain why Topić fitted in so well. He was probably able to give his boss some good tips on how to exploit a dysfunctional legal system to the detriment of EPO staff.

“The story begins back in November 2007 when the Croatian public sector union SDLSN (“Trade Union of State and Local Officials and Employees of the Republic of Croatia) reported on the “Bullying of ‘unwanted’ civil servants” at the State Intellectual Property Office.”

This was mentioned in an older article (with this translated 2007 report and suicide 'collateral damage' therein).

Our source continues: “The affair resurfaced in the Croatian press on 5 March 2012 when the newspaper “Jutarnji List” [shown above] published a short report which explained that SIPO employees who had been targeted by the “bullying” action in 2007 had filed a number of criminal complaints and a civil lawsuit against Topić.”

Here is an English translation of this article:

JUTARNJI LIST

5 March 2012

Team selected for culling: Željko Topić, head of the SIPO for years, pursued in court

He established a special unit with 10 officials selected for dismissal

Željko Topić, Director of the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO), who has been linked to numerous scandals like buying a luxury Mercedes at the expense of the Institute, is under suspicion of having abused his employees.

An invented and displaced department

The findings of the administrative labour inspectorate from 25 January 2008 confirm that that on 15 October 2007 Topić deliberately selected a group of ten employees at the SIPO for transfer to a professional unit which he had established and called “The extraction and storage of non-administrative mail“. It didn’t bother the Director that none of his ten officials were qualified for the task of archiving as they included among their ranks IT experts, a professor of French, a Master of Engineering, senior economists and administrative lawyers.

Due to the “urgency of the work” ten officials were moved from Vukovara Street [SIPO headquarters] into offices in Sava Street 118 where, confused and outraged, they languished for twenty days without work. It was not until November 13th that the first document arrived but even then they could not do their job because the computer was not connected to the database at the SIPO headquarters.

Realizing that their transfer was actually a downgrading and a prelude to dismissal, in October 2007 the employees reported Topić to the labour inspectorate.

It was determined that Topić was not authorised to set up new departments and that the ten employees were not qualified for archiving. Topić tried to justify his actions in front of the labour inspectorate by claiming that these were employees who had performed their work badly but the inspectorate found that the last assessment of their work from 2003 was “very successful”.

One official committed suicide

The inspectorate ordered Topić to return the officials to their previous jobs which he did. But then one of the transferred officials committed suicide. Three criminal charges were filed against Topić and one civil lawsuit was initiated. The procedures are still ongoing.

“No information is available about the status of the criminal complaints,” we got told, “but the civil lawsuit which was filed some time around 2008 is still pending in 2016! Welcome to the Croatian legal system! EPO employees may have a feeling of dejà-vu…”

“EPO employees may have a feeling of dejà-vu…”
      –AnonymousWe covered one such story only a day ago (this morning we published a Spanish translation).

Our source continues: “One of the lead plaintiffs in the civil lawsuit against Topić is Jadranka Oklobdžija who was the Chairperson of the staff union at the SIPO at the time in question (2007). According to reliable reports from Zagreb, Topić has been summoned to appear before the court in the civil proceedings on four occasions but each time he has failed to turn up.

“The latest hearing in the civil action took place on 1st April 2016. Topić was in Zagreb on the day but despite having been summoned, he didn’t bother to turn up in court for the hearing.

“So it seems that a new summons will now be sent directly to Topić at the EPO in Munich.”
      –Anonymous“The judge seems to have got wind of the fact that Topić was in town and she questioned a representative of SIPO about his failure to appear. The SIPO representative said that Topić had arrived in Zagreb the previous day (31 March) and was due to return to Munich the following day (2 April). It seems that the judge was not amused at being treated like an “April fool”. She requested SIPO to provide details of Topić’s address at the EPO so that the court could send a summons to him in Munich. The SIPO representative objected to this but the judge overruled the objection and made an order that Topić’s address in Munich should be disclosed to the court. So it seems that a new summons will now be sent directly to Topić at the EPO in Munich.”

It sure looks like the EPO is unable to escape Topić’s past, no matter how hard it attempts to deny it, even punishing those who ‘dare’ or are brave enough to speak about it. █

Nefarious Forces for Patent Abuse and Software Patents in the United States, Australia, India, Korea, and Europe

Posted in America, Asia, Australia, Deception, Europe, Patents at 7:36 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

We need more leaks, e.g. UPC leaks, to shed light on who’s pulling whose strings

TPP
Patent pollution and “global patent warming,” as Benjamin Henrion occasionally calls it [1, 2]

Summary: A roundup of news from the weekend and today, with emphasis on the elements inside the system (or the media) which push for regressive policies that benefit them financially at the expense of everybody else

THERE is progress being made toward patent justice, albeit there are self-serving elements that are parasitic and non-producing. They battle to maintain the status quo, if not to make it even worse. Below are the latest examples.

United States

The other day we mentioned the latest disappointing move from CAFC, which in essence defended patent trolls in the US (where they sparingly use software patents for extortion, even when these patents would not withstand a court’s scrutiny). CAFC supporting patent trolls shouldn’t be surprising given CAFC’s history. Joe Mullin reacts as follows: “Patent reform advocates who were hoping to “shut down the Eastern District of Texas” face disappointment today, as the top US patent appeals court ruled (PDF) against a venue transfer in a dispute between two food companies.”

Don’t expect reform to come from CAFC, initiator of software patents. From SCOTUS? Maybe. Is an appeal next on the agenda? Will this reach SCOTUS?

Australia

There is a new motion to convince the Australian government to ban software patents (officially). It’s part of a broader motion which also suggests some of the following changes, as covered some days ago:

In its draft report released on Friday the commission recommends that action must be taken to “rebalance” the existing IP laws with a new system that balances the interests of rights holders and users.

The commission says that while a good system balances the interests of rights holders and users, Australia’s IP system has swung too far in favour of vocal rights holders and influential IP exporting nations.

Patent attorney Mark Summerfield, along with other patent maximalists (whom he flirts with online), already attacks/mocks the Commission for daring to make these suggestions. Perhaps it threatens his source of income, which is basically patent wars, confrontation, saber-rattling etc.

“Now that a Committee in Australia proposed ban of swpats,” Benjamin Henrion correctly noted, “IBM and other patent agents calls the move “flawed”…”

We mentioned IBM’s patent chief and his response yesterday (noted towards the end).

India

India is still under heavy attack by the software patents lobby (for almost a year now, as it intensified last summer). India’s media has just published this opinion that’s summarised as follows: “It’s to the credit of policymakers that they have steadfastly refused to kiss this pig called ‘software patents’, despite it being dressed up in the lipstick of ‘innovation’” (not just in software).

The article is titled “Lipstick on a pig” and “The pig in question is the regime of software patents being advocated by some multinational corporations (MNCs),” notes the author. Indians will hopefully get involved in this process and provide input with which to counter the lobbyists, who never grow tired (they’re paid for it).

Korea

IAM ‘magazine’, a patents maximalist, wants us to believe that “trolling” is now “monetisation drive” (asking for ‘protection money’ while barely, hardly or not at all developing anything). In relation to software and BM patents in Korea (it calls these “fintech patents”) it urges the country, which is traditionally not aggressive/assertive in the patents sense, to get more trollish. IAM itself is funded by patent trolls (in part). Not nice, IAM, not nice…

EU

In the continent where EPO officials regularly lobby EU officials, despite the EPO being a non-EU body, there is still an effort to bring software patents to European member states.

Here is MIP becoming platform of patent maximalists who do UPC advocacy (to sell their services). Well, according to this tweet, the article is “sponsored” (i.e. promotional) and it says:

The opt‐out possibility offered by Article 83 UPCA pays lots of attention to the choices patentees are facing with regards to their filing strategy. We focus here on defensive strategies in the new legislative framework, in particular on actions before national courts.

[...]

These uncertainties make it difficult for parties to implement a defensive strategy. Is it worth investing in an invalidity action in a national court, before entry into force of the UPC? Assuming such an action impacts patentees’ choices at all, will it completely prevent the use of the UPC or only preclude the use of the UPC for a nullity action?

With UPC “uncertainties make it difficult for parties to implement a defensive strategy,” so they turn to patent lawyers. The UPC is very good for aggressors and for lawyers; it’s bad for everybody else. █

[ES] El Sistema de Patentes de los EE.UU: Donde Uno Desperdicia Años en Corte y Gasta $8,000,000 en Honorarios de Abogados Peleándo una Patente Falsa

Posted in America, Patents at 6:45 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

English/Original

Article as ODF

Publicado en America, Patentes at 5:24 am por el Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Laoficina de patentes de los EE.UU. Ha esencialmenteexternalizado los costos al público

Alice road

Sumario: un sumario de noticias acerca de las patentes de software en los EE.UU. Y ha lo que han llevado, debido en gran manera al decline en calidad de las patentes por parte de la USPTO (dejando que otros se las arreglen limpiando el desórden)

Losridiculos bajos estándares de la USPTO vienen con un costo altísimo, aunque este costo es considerad una externalidad por esta codiciósa oficina de patentes. A menos que este desorden sea arreglado, de los EE.UU podrían quedar sólo largas corporaciónes multinacionales con miles de patentes cada una, opuestamente a ágiles startups sin ninguna.

Elliot Harmon dice que esta patente de software en particular, la que puede ser fácilmente demolida usando a Alice, ha estado en uso en el Districto Este de Texas y es la “Estupida Patente del Mes” (de las series de la EFF). Para citar:

Este mes, la compañía nnovaciones Voice2Text ha presentado demandas de violación de patentes contra dos de Voz sobre IP (VoIP), y Phone.com Vitelity. Voice2Text no tiene sitio web o cualquier otra información en línea; su único activo parece ser la Patente de Estados Unidos número 8.914.003, como era de esperar, una patente sobre el uso de reconocimiento de voz para convertir un mensaje de voz en un mensaje de texto. Igualmente como era de esperar, se presentó esos trajes en el Distrito Este de Texas, cuyas prácticas patente duende amigable hemos documentado a fondo en este blog. La patente Voice2Text es tan absurda que teníamos que cumplir con nombrarla la Patente Estúpida de mes.

“A menos que este desorden sea arreglado, de los EE.UU podrían quedar sólo largas corporaciónes multinacionales con miles de patentes cada una, opuestamente a ágiles startups sin ninguna.”

Con el fin de destruir dicha patente uno necesitaría gastar buen montón de dinero en lugar de asentarse. Considere esta nueva historia titulada “Por orden de la Corte demandante a pagar $ demandados 8 millones en honorarios de abogados en juici de patentes“. Eso es mucho dinero; abogados de patentes groseramente sobrecarga y el sistema juega a su favor mediante la inducción de los costes adicionales en muchos niveles (por ejemplo apelaciones), favoreciendo así los que tienen presupuestos más grandes o bolsillos más profundos, dejando pequeños jugadores mucho más vulnerables. Para citar las palabras finales: “Este caso ilustra que los tribunales tengan una acción fuerte cuando se enfrentan a demandas sin fundamento, la evidencia ocultada o alterada, y declaraciones engañosas hechas a la corte o adversarios. También sirve como un recordatorio fuerte como para considerar su consejo con cuidado, y el consejo que dar, o un demandante puede tener que pagar sus propios honorarios y los de la parte demandada, que en este caso asciende a otros $ 8 millones.”

Este caso puede ser la excepción de la norma, pero juzgando por la decisión acerca de NewEggde resistir a los trolles de patentes, frecuéntemente cuesta millones de dólares y no hay garantía para el acusador — después de perder — de cargar con el costo del los honorarios legales de el acusado (victima). NewEgg actualmente hizo histora al agenciárselas para obligar al troll de patentes que page el costo de los recibos legales de la victima (acusado) hace unos meses, debido a una inusual decisión de el juez.

“NewEgg actualmente hizo histora al agenciárselas para obligar al troll de patentes que page el costo de los recibos legales de la victima (acusado) hace unos meses, debido a una inusual decisión de el juez..”

Patently-O acaba de recomendar relativamente un nuevo reportede Lynda J. Oswald que critica el término “responsabilidad objetiva” y cuyo resumen dice: “En 1995, el Circuito Federal sumariamente adjunta la etiqueta de” responsabilidad objetiva “a la infracción de patente directa, a pesar de que ese término no lo hace aparecer en cualquier Ley de Patentes de Estados Unidos de los últimos dos siglos. El catecismo de “estricta” responsabilidad directa violación de patentes es ahora tan bien arraigada en la doctrina de patentes que es fácil perder de vista lo reciente de la llegada de esta terminología se encuentra en la jurisprudencia, y la aplicación lo molesto de esta norma se ha demostrado, incluso para el Circuito Federal, que lo creó. El acto primera patente (1790) precedió a la aparición del derecho de daños como un campo distinto de la ley común de Estados Unidos (mediados de 1800) por un medio siglo o más, y la explosión de responsabilidad del fabricante de la segunda mitad del siglo XX alterado radicalmente nuestra comprensión de responsabilidad objetiva. Las implicaciones de esta línea de tiempo olvidado son profundas. “Responsabilidad objetiva,” particularmente en su formulación moderna, no es un término neutral y descriptivo. Más bien, el término evoca opciones de política social y las consideraciones de equilibrio que pueden ser apropiados en el contexto ley de responsabilidad de productos o actividades anormalmente peligrosas, pero que son incongruentes y fuera de lugar en el marco legal de la ley de patentes. Estimando que la infracción de patente directa sea una responsabilidad objetiva conduce a dos efectos imprevistos y no deseados. En primer lugar, la adopción de la etiqueta de “responsabilidad objetiva” para la responsabilidad directa violación de patentes inadecuadamente infla el papel de los tribunales en el establecimiento de estándares de infracción de patente directa de responsabilidad y sugiere – erróneamente – que la responsabilidad de patentes es una construcción de la jurisprudencia, cuando en realidad se trata de una ley construir. En segundo lugar, la etiqueta de “responsabilidad objetiva” cambia incorrectamente el foco de la investigación por violación de patente de protección de los intereses de propiedad exclusiva de la demandante en su patente a la derecha hacia un examen cargado de valor de la utilidad social de la conducta del acusado la Ley de Patente vis-à- vis el daño a la titular de la patente. Descartando la etiqueta de “responsabilidad objetiva” por infracción de patente directa sería replantear el análisis y el debate, moviendo la responsabilidad directa violación de patentes fuera de un marco de política y de vuelta hacia su entorno legal adecuado.”

“La PTAB es cada vez más usada para corregir los errores de la USPTO, pero ¿porqué no excavar más profúndo en la raíz del problema y simplemente enfrentar la insaciáble codicia de la USPTO’?”

Vale la pena notar aquí que un montón de los riésgos son pasados a los acusados, no a los acusadores, quienes frecuéntemente cuentan con la pobre calidad de las examinaciónes en la USPTO. La PTAB es cada vez más usada para corregir los errores de la USPTO, pero ¿porqué no excavar más profúndo en la raíz del problema y simplemente enfrentar la insaciáble codicia de la USPTO’?

La CAFCno vendrá al rescate de uno después de PTAB según un ejemplo dado por Patently-O. Para citarlo: “El Circuito Federal ha negado en banc revisión de las decisiones en cuatro procedimientos de revisión inter partes presentadas por Gnosis. Circuito Federal había confirmado previamente la prueba de Patentes y apelar la determinación de derechos de propiedad intelectual Junta que las reivindicaciones de la patente de Merck y SAMSF impugnados eran inválidos obviamente.”

La relevancia de esto fue más que nunca más aparente cuando Bass jugó el valor de las compañíás al inválidar patentes clave — un movimiénto el cual ahora IAM combina con los trolles de patentes al comparar Bass con trolles Spangenberg es un troll de patentes, Bass invalida las patentes. Tienen un modus operandi muy diferente, pero como IAM puso, la conexión se encuentra dentro de un equipo de seguimiento: “Dado que haciendo equipo con el ex CEO IPNav Erich Spangenberg para lanzar su primer examen contradictorio de Estados Unidos (IPR) en febrero del año pasado – desafiando una patente relacionada dosificación farmacéutica propiedad de Acorda Therapeutics – Kyle Bass se ha convertido en uno de los jugadores de más alto perfil del mundo empresarial IP. Ya sea que debe ser visto como antagonista, protagonista o el antihéroe en algún punto intermedio depende de su punto de vista. Lo que es seguro es que las acciones de validez perseguidos por él y Spangenberg a través de su Coalición por medicamentos asequibles – la orientación patentes pertenecientes a empresas farmacéuticas ‘originales’ – sacudió el paisaje post-América Inventa IP.”

“La pobre cálidad de la USPTO — una trampa en la que la EPO cae cada vez más — ayuda a los trolles, investores estrátegicos predatorios/hedge funds, y monopolistas los cuales hacen un diservicio a la innovación.”

Aquí vale la pena notar que si las patentes invalidadas por solicitud de Bass no hubieran sido otorgadas por la USPTO en primer lugar, nada de esto hubiera pasado. La pobre cálidad de la USPTO — una trampa en la que la EPO cae cada vez más — ayuda a los trolles, investores estrátegicos predatorios/hedge funds, y monopolistas los cuales hacen un diservicio a la innovación. Tengan cuidado con el jefe de patentes de la IBM teniendo la audacia de quejarse del sistema que David Kappos empeoró notablemente (en favor de IBM; IBM ahora le paga por cabildeo), más aún quejándose de un sistema fuera de su propio país (Australia) por que intenta mejorar la calidad de las patentes, como notamos ayer.

 

 

[ES] La Oficina Europea de Patentes Todavía Sigilósamente Abusiva, Pagará $15,000 en Compensasió a Trabajadora Tras un Tardío Fallo de la ILO

Posted in Europe, Law, Patents at 6:41 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

English/Original

Article as ODF

Publicado en Europa, Law, Patentes at 4:43 am por el Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Sumario: La Organización Internacional del Trabajo (ILO) emite un fallo en un caso de abuso de la EPO y nota “la excesiva duración de los procedimienteos internos de apelación.”

La ILO puede estar luchando contra la gran carga causada por las quejas contra la EPO (sugerencias han sido hechas al respecto), pero ocasiónalmente se pone al día con algunos casos de la EPO y emite fallos actuales, probablemente casí una década después de que la queja original se presentó. La gerencia de la EPO ha estado inundándose y ahogandose por la ILO por causa de sus propios abusos, que han causado un gran número de quejas sean llenadas allí.

Una reciente decisión llamó nuestra atención. “Parece que el largo texto sólo está en Francés pero es una lectura interesante,” una persona nos dijo acerca de este juicio de la ILO de hace un par de meses atrás “Es acerca de acoso en la EPO y como es tratado internamenet” (presuntamente por los parecidos a la “gestapo” como es llamada internamente [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]).

El sumario en Inglés dice: “El demandante impugna la decisión de exigirle que someterse a un examen médico durante la investigación de su queja de acoso y el despido por dicha reclamación.” Lo que es digno de mención aquí es la edad de este caso; la primera decisión después de 7 años:

1. Las decisiones del 16 de diciembre 2009 4 de febrero 2010 y 19 de junio de 2013 se dejan de lado.

2. La EPO pagará a los querellantes 10.000 euros en concepto de indemnización por daño moral que resulta de las decisiones que se han reservado.

3. Se deberá pagar sus 1.000 euros en concepto de daños morales por la excesiva duración de los procedimientos de recurso internas.

4. También deberá pagar 1.000 euros a su en los costos.

5. Todas las demás reclamaciones, en la medida en que no son discutibles, son desechadas.

Miren como dinero/presupuesto de la EPO “trabaja“. Hay un costo oculto para esta administración incompetente.

Lo anterior no debiera ser tan chocante para aquellos que han estado siguiendo los abusos de la OEP. Tenga en cuenta el tiempo que tomó la justicia por hacer; el demandante podría haber cambiado varias ofertas de empleo desde entonces o tal vez perdido el interés en el caso, después de haber pasado mucho tiempo y energía, presumiblemente sobre los recursos costosos. Dejando a un lado las posibles pruebas de violaciones de los derechos humanos, lo que tenemos aquí es un recordatorio de que los empleados de EPO simplemente no pueden confiar en la OIT por la justicia y si Battistelli el tirano rompe las reglas o mal uso sus propias reglas (que él mismo compone), habrá sin recurso efectivo a la justicia independiente y rápida.

Alguien nos ha enviado una opinión interna de la EPO, señalando que “una fuente de EPO que también nos señaló a su último mensaje el Siegfried Bross bemieves [sic] el siguiente:« en mi opinión, la estrategia del presidente es mantener un perfil bajo de este año, o al menos la mayoría de la misma (“un año de consolidación”) con la esperanza de que el Consejo se calmará y la oposición se extinguirá (contribuyendo activamente a matar a unos cuantos enemigos). Esto le da el tiempo para prepararse para el siguiente ataque. Se está haciendo un estudio financiero y un estudio social, y tratando de construir FFPE. Los bits son muy desagradables (reforma de pensiones y más) quedarán entonces el próximo año – para ser aprobado en el Consejo de diciembre. Todo el asunto sobre el proceso penal es en mi opinión un ruido de sables.”

Actualmente Battistelli está demoliendo la OEP haciendo todo lo posible para garantizar la fuga de cerebros [1, 2, 3, 4], las dificultades de contratación (debido a daños a la reputación), grandes huelgas, y los solicitantes insatisfechos. Leer este comentario publicado justo antes del fin de semana:

Nobbi dice: No se distraiga por la maniobra de “socialdemocracia/Ma/SocialStudy/SocialConference”.

1. Reducir el salay-masa y por consiguiente, las contribuciones al fondo de pensiones. Motivar al personal cerca de la jubilación (anticipada) para salir, la mejora de la demografía del personal y la creación de un fondo de pensiones problema que requiere más reformas. examinadores más de recluta en el extremo inferior de la escala salarial, si es posible en un contrato limitado. No ayuda el problema de fondo de pensiones creado. No se supone que es. Bonificaciones a la gerencia.

2. En la parte superior de los objetivos habituales cada vez mayores para la producción, añadir objetivos personales “-is-puntualidad de calidad” para las comunicaciones primera y / o más en el examen (certeza A principios de Examen avanzada antes de lo que esperaba (ECfAE)) y aplicar el Criterios de París. Más bonificaciones a la gerencia.

Resultado: Oh!?! Demasiados examinadores … muy pocos archivos … menos las tasas de renovación para el EPOrg … más por las oficinas nacionales.

3. Deshacerse de los examinadores en el contrato y de los más experimentados y aún así a los examinadores costosos izquierda. Empujarlos a la producción ridícula. Siempre se puede salir si dont’t como él! Los bonos …

Resultado: examinadores menos costosas, menos las contribuciones al fondo de pensiones. Oh! Un problema de fondos de pensiones.

4. Contenido de la PriceworthyConsultant y dice: Aumentar la edad de jubilación y la tasa de contribución al fondo de pensiones para los examinadores (mientras tanto el estampillado) que aún quedan. Bonificaciones para el consultor y …

5. Viene en otro PriceworthyConsultant y dice: Empresa de trabajo de búsqueda y examen para finalmente deshacerse de los examinadores de la casa. Disolver el fondo de pensiones y utilizar el dinero para bonos … …

6. La IA-Oracle genera totalmente automatizado de búsqueda de día cero y justo a tiempo de exploración bajo demanda as-you-deseo y dice: Deshacerse de todos los no-dirección y el personal de gestión inferior. No hay necesidad de un fondo de pensiones, ya que tiene bonificaciones para …

“Seguro que sí,” una persona respondió. “Para aquellos que todavía serán parte de “la oficina”. En tu escentario: el President y los Vice presidents.”

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