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06.19.11

Gartner Group Partly Owned by Bill Gates and Other Business People That Gartner Covers

Posted in Bill Gates, Deception, Marketing, Microsoft at 11:47 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

As dependent as the money on their table

Wealth

Summary: An old exposé about Gartner and new observations about IDC

THE THING about ‘analyst’ group Gartner is that it is not independent at all. In fact, as we showed time after time, Gartner is corruptible. Based on this article from 2003, this so-called ‘analyst’ which claims to be independent was tied to VCs to the extent of a 38% stake. As someone said in response to one who brought it up in USENET:

Market “analysts” are not impartial reporters, they’re paid advertisers.

“Gee, no wonder SCO’s Linux extortion lawsuit had “merit” according to these bozos,” added another poster yesterday. “Why would anyone take their word on anything?”

Gartner is also funded by a major investor called Bill Gates (indirectly), as we pointed out over 3 years ago. Well, here is an explanation from Information Week:

But it’s the individuals who invest in Silver Lake, called limited partners, who might be of most interest to Gartner clients. According to Silver Lake, they include more than 150 “leading technology executives from the top technology firms.” Some of the names you might recognize: Michael Dell, Larry Ellison, and Bill Gates.

About a week ago we also wrote about a Gartner competitor (see our wiki on IDC), which may have been gently bribed recently in order to produce this nonesense which even the ‘Microsoft press’ is not buying. As even a Microsoft booster points out, “With WP7′s market share actually falling since Microsoft replaced the old Windows Mobile with Windows Phone, where on earth is such rapid growth — at the expense of iOS, which is currently battling Android tooth and nail for top spot — going to come from?”

In his article he points out:

But if there’s one thing industry analysts undoubtedly are, it’s conflicted (and we’re not the first to notice this by any stretch). The very companies they comment on in the press and whose performances they routinely predict are the same companies that give them boatloads of money for advice and, well, analysis and predictions, we suppose. So, there’s a conflict of interest built into every statement an industry analyst makes…

Remember that analysts are spending PR money, pretending to be unbiased when in fact their business model is that they are selling their bias to change perceptions. As an internal document from Microsoft [PDF] put it, “Analysts sell out – that’s their business model… But they are very concerned that they never look like they are selling out, so that makes them very prickly to work with.” Bill Gates has been ‘buying’ a lot of media companies in recent years. How does that relate to the money he provides to analysts such as Gartner (who feed the media)? █

MyDoom Misdirection and Disinformation About GNU/Linux Desktops

Posted in Deception, FUD, GNU/Linux, SCO at 11:31 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Workers

Summary: PR campaigns against GNU/Linux and where these are coming from; a quick rebuttal to them is presented here

Disinformation is being disseminated and it must also be countered before it spreads further. Why is it that Sophos (which we recently mentioned as it had hired a manager from Novell) says MyDoom “became widespread in no time, which was particularly concerning for software firm SCO – whose website it targeted with a distributed denial-of-service attack from infected computers as part of a civil war between different factions of the Linux community”?

SCO was a faction of the “Linux community”? Hardly. And in any event, this is a case of disinformation as well.

This was posted quietly in a blog a couple of days ago and Groklaw rebutted by writing: “First, MyDoom doesn’t affect Linux computers, only Windows. Both Hyponnen and Symantec reported in August of 2004 that it was not Linux folks behind MyDoom. It was professional spammers in Eastern Europe.”

We happened to have cited a profane post the other day — a post from someone who now says that the “Linux desktop is at the edge of a cliff now. It’s up to us to decide whether we would save it or push it over the edge.”

Actually, GNU/Linux on the desktop grew in the sense that it is ‘integrated’ into motherboards and Google preinstalls it on Chromebooks. The quote the introduction of this post which we do not agree with and also a rebuttal:

  • The Linux desktop experience is killing Linux on the desktop, Part II

    A few days back I wrote a somewhat controversial article called, “The Linux desktop experience is killing Linux on the desktop”. While many readers seem to have grasped the true purpose of the article, a lot of people claimed that it was nothing but FUD (a favorite term of many people in the Linux community, who would rather ignore existing problems than face/acknowledge them).

    If you’ve read my last post and generally agree with it – don’t bother reading this one. It’s basically more of the same – in greater detail and with less profanities.

  • Oh, Lookie! It’s Anti-Linux FUD Season!

    People in the Linux community… the real Linux community… go on as always and life does too.

That latter post from Pete does not say exactly what he responds to, but it is probably a combination of things, including the trolls who insinuated that proprietary software from Adobe getting a lukewarm response from GNU/Linux users is somehow indicative or something. The whole “AIR” news was initially somewhat of a PR move for Adobe to join the Linux Foundation. The whole “AIR” experiment has been failing on all platforms, not just GNU/Linux. Wait until all platforms are dropped.

When it comes to GNU/Linux on the desktop, not much has changed. When it comes to the desktop, a lot is changing. People move to smartphones and mobile devices, sometimes at the expense of the desktop. Linux and Android do very well in those new form factors, where they are ubiquitous and unstoppable (Apple and Microsoft now resort to using software patents against these). █

Links 19/6/2011: GNOME 3.1.2 and Apache Traffic Server 3.0.0 Released

Posted in News Roundup at 10:56 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME bluefish

Contents

GNU/Linux

  • Audiocasts/Shows

    • Going Linux: Jun 20
    • Linux Outlaws 213 – Mister Spliffy

      The UN says three strikes laws violate Human Rights, Fedora wants a Code of Conduct, IBM and Oracle screw LibreOffice, Skype is reverse-engineered, Microsoft screws with their developers and Apple invents cloud computing.

  • Kernel Space

    • A Plethora Of Linux Power Tests Are On The Way

      Nailing down the Linux kernel power regressions (see Linux Has Major Power Regression and Another Major Linux Power Regression Spotted) has made a big step forward this weekend. Not only to fix up these major kernel power regressions that are hitting many mobile Linux users, but to look further into the state of Linux power management is now possible and to closely analyze other areas of the Linux stack to find other areas for improvement.

  • Applications

  • Desktop Environments

    • GNOME Desktop

      • GNOME 3.1.2 Released

        Many GNOME packages have been updated for this 3.1.2 milestone. Some of the notable updates for this GNOME 3.2 development snapshot include a new Clutter release where COGL has been moved out-of-tree, Empathy has a new log viewer and supports CSS variants in Adium themes, a new experimental call channel handler for Empathy, improved SVG decoding with Eye of GNOME, GDM improvements, GNOME Shell enhancements, and much more. There’s also GTK+3 tool-kit improvements.

      • It’s all in the small things
      • Top 5 Gnome Shell Themes For You To Install [Linux]

        Even since before Gnome Shell‘s official release, people have been hard at work creating some interesting themes for the new desktop environment. Changing themes in Gnome Shell isn’t hard thanks to some nice configuration tools you can install. With plenty of people sporting the new desktop environment in Linux thanks to releases such as Fedora 15, which has Gnome Shell by default, applying themes is quickly becoming a more desired action.

  • Distributions

    • What is your favorite Linux distribution for use on the desktop?
    • Live CDs—My Wonder Wall

      A Live CD is a convenient and easy approach for users to try out an operating system and run pre-configured software, or do virtually everything that you can with an installed system. It’s a bootable CD-ROM disk that loads an operating system without the need to permanently install it on a storage device like a hard drive.

      The origin of the Live CD was not a CD at all, but a bootable floppy disk. Usually, hardware manufacturers and anti-virus developers produced bootable floppy disks for various operating systems, to perform certain administrative tasks that were not possible with the OS already running. For example, anti-virus software needed users to boot their system in a known safe condition, so that any virus infections on the machine would not interfere with virus-testing activity. Hardware manufacturers distributed bootable floppy disks to allow the system user to test the hardware products without OS intervention, and to be sure that the firmware was working correctly.

    • How to Remaster Ubuntu to Get a Customised Distribution

      We selected Ubuntu as our base system, for its manageability, and also because most of our users are new to GNU/Linux. To re-build the distribution we used Remastersys, a useful software that packs your existing system into a ‘live’ disk image. Let’s look at how we did this.

      To create a custom GNU/Linux distro, you need to install and customise the base distro first; so we installed a fresh copy of Ubuntu onto a system that was going to be our ‘build’ machine. Next, we applied all our customisation to the system, installed the software we needed, and applied customisations to the desktop.

    • PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandrake/Mandriva Family

      • Mageia 1.0 review

        Mageia is a Linux distribution forked from Mandriva Linux by former contributors and members of Mandriva, As expected, there was a flurry of activities between the announcement of the fork of the distribution (on September 18, 2010) and the first official (stable) release (June 1, 2011). Teams had to be put together, servers and hosting and the required development environments set up, etc.

        In the end, what we have is a community-driven and community-sponsored distribution in contrast to its parent distribution, which is controlled by a commercial entity. This article is a review of this new distribution and also marks its listing in the Desktop/Server Category on this website.

        [...]

        Out of the gate, Mageia packs all the features one would expect from an excellent distribution, and that is due, of course, to its being a fork of Mandriva.

    • Red Hat Family

    • Debian Family

  • Devices/Embedded

    • Phones

      • Rumours of MeeGo’s Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated

        Hmmm… the official Maemo/MeeGo Twitter account just tweeted, “Rumours of my Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated.” Their previous tweet was from last December! Something is definitely up. This looks like another hint of a MeeGo announcement at the upcoming June 21st Nokia Connection event in Singapore.

      • Android

        • Google’s YouTube policy for Android users is copyright extremism

          The news that Android users who have jailbroken their phones will be denied access to the new commercial YouTube pay-per-view service is as neat an example of copyright extremism as you could hope for.

          Android, of course, is Google’s wildly popular alternative to Apple’s iOS (the operating system found on iPhones and iPads). Android is free and open – it costs nothing to copy, it can be legally modified and those modifications can be legally distributed. Android products come in varying degrees of lockdown; flagship devices such as the Samsung Nexus S are easy to set up to run competing, unofficial flavours of Android (such as CyanogenMod, which adds lots of useful features and controls to your phone that are missing from the stock Android version). Other phones use various kinds of hardware and software locks that try to get in the way of installing your own OS, and while Google doesn’t prohibit this behaviour from its vendors, it also doesn’t encourage it – until now.

        • 15 Best Android Apps for Travelers Among You

          Google is activating some 400,000 new Android devices every single day now(source) and Android is already the fastest growing and most popular smartphone OS in many parts of the world. In tune with its rising popularity, Android’s applications base is also showing stupendous growth. We have already featured a bunch of must have open source Android applications and now here is a collection of Android apps dedicated to travelers among you.

    • Sub-notebooks/Tablets

      • The Nook Nails It

        By now, most everyone in your circle of friends has played with a Kindle and an iPad. Fewer have picked up a Nook. But I’d urge you to give this dark horse a shot.

        I’ve been testing the newest black and white version of Barnes & Noble’s e-reader, and, well, you can color me impressed.

        The freshly-updated Nook is smaller and lighter than Amazon’s Kindle, and on those qualities alone it stands a excellent chance of capturing some more market share in the e-ink device game. But the new Nook also embraces social media sharing (and does it well enough), eliminates all buttons save a “Home” key (where’d they get that idea?) and ambidextrous page-turners, and introduces a responsive e-ink touchscreen that controls an intuitive interface.

      • The OLPC Australia program in action

Free Software/Open Source

  • Wireless networking without paying The Man, man

    To drive that hardware Qi will provide a 6LoWPAN driver for the Nanonote or Linux box, but has also managed to connect it to a Linux Zigbee stack. Zigbee is free for non-commercial use, but that makes it incompatible with the GPL so the hardware isn’t named as being Zigbee compatible.

  • Web Browsers

    • Chrome

      • PVS-Studio vs Chromium

        From the programming viewpoint, Chromium is a solution consisting of 473 projects. The general size of the source C/C++ code is about 460 Mbytes and the number of lines is difficult to count.

        [...]

        Chromium had become the most quality and large project I have studied during testing of PVS-Studio. While handling the Chromium project it was not actually clear to us what was checking what: we have found and fixed several errors in PVS-Studio related to C++ file analysis and support of a specific project’s structure.

    • Mozilla

      • 9 Possible Features of Firefox 5 that may Kill your Chrome Cravings

        Firefox 4 was another milestone for the Mozilla team. Of course, with the growing popularity of Chrome, Firefox’s admiration seems to have taken a downward trend. However, the record-holding browser isn’t going to back down. In its next version, that is Firefox 5, the veteran browser promises to bring along features that will put Firefox at par with Google Chrome.

        Here are 9 such features that will make you reconsider if you’re planning to switch to Chrome. Or, if you’re a Chrome user already, who knows, you might as well go turn back to the fox.

      • JavaScript decoder lets MP3s play in Firefox without Flash

        The introduction of HTML5 and super-fast JavaScript engines to the latest web browsers has brought with it a wealth of new functionality. The focus seems to have been put on the ability to play video in a browser without Flash, or making games. But a project born out of a Music Hackday in Berlin is just as exciting.

  • SaaS

    • Getting your ownCloud

      To get the latest from git, set up a LAMP server (sqlite works just as well as mysql). There are 2 options for getting the latest git: In the root of your web directory run: git clone git://anongit.kde.org/owncloud.git. If you use this method and want to help out we have instructions on our wiki on how to modify that slightly for a development setup (keeping your own files out of git and under your user while letting git update the system files). The other option for getting owncloud itself is to download the latest, automatically created snapshot from git: Snapshots are here. These snapshots are created on the fly so whenever you download it you’ll get the most up-to-date version possible at that moment.

  • Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

    • First TDF Advisory Board members demonstrate wide corporate support for LibreOffice

      The Document Foundation today announced the first members of its Advisory Board: Google, SUSE, Red Hat, Freies Office Deutschland e.V., Software in the Public Interest, and the Free Software Foundation. The new appointees will serve for an initial term of one year.

      The body represents The Document Foundation’s sponsors, with each sponsor having the right to one representative. They will provide the future Board of Directors with advice, guidance and proposals, and will consult regularly on the further development of the Foundation and its associated projects.

    • LibreOffice and OpenOffice.org: Missing the Big Picture

      In the Calligra Suite, we have a good separation between the so called Office Engine and the user interface. This engine has the responsibility to load, store, and save the contents of the document. It also renders the document on a canvas that can then be shown in an application for viewing or editing. The separation between the load/store/save parts and the rendering parts are not very strong, but it can nevertheless be seen.

  • Project Releases

    • The Apache Software Foundation Announces Apache Traffic Server v3.0.0

      The Apache Software Foundation (ASF), the all-volunteer developers, stewards, and incubators of nearly 150 Open Source projects and initiatives, today announced Apache Traffic Server v3.0.0.
      Apache Traffic Server is a Cloud Computing “edge” service, able to handle requests in and out of the Cloud, both by serving static content (images, JavaScript, CSS, and HTML files), and routing requests for dynamic content to a Web server (such as the Apache HTTP Server).

  • Public Services/Government

Leftovers

  • Excited About the Cloud? Get Ready for Capped Data Plans

    The tech world seems to move in spurts and spasms, and right now we’re in the middle of the “cloud” wave.

    Personally, I find the term “in the cloud” pretentious and annoying. Don’t they just mean “online?” Yes, I realize that computer professionals are referring to something much more specific — “data and application software stored on remote servers,” for example — but the world’s marketers and P.R. people seem to think that “the cloud” just means “online.” (“Now you can buy your toiletries in the cloud!!”)

  • Facebook juror jailed for eight months

    The first juror to be prosecuted for contempt of court for using the internet has been sentenced to eight months in jail.

    Joanne Fraill, 40, admitted at London’s high court using Facebook to exchange messages with Jamie Sewart, 34, a defendant already acquitted in a multimillion-pound drug trial in Manchester last year.

    Fraill, from Blackley, Manchester, also admitted conducting an internet search into Sewart’s boyfriend, Gary Knox, a co-defendant, while the jury was still deliberating.

  • Appeals judges berate spammer for “ridiculous,” “incompetent” litigation

    Oral arguments in US appellate courts tend to be staid affairs, with judges asking probing questions and attorneys politely sparring over the finer points of legal doctrine. So Joseph Kish, attorney for alleged serial spamming firm e360, must have known he was in trouble when Judge Richard A. Posner interrupted him seconds into his opening statement to berate both Kish and his client.

    “I have never seen such an incompetent presentation of a damages case,” Posner said. “It’s not only incompetent, it’s grotesque. You’ve got damages jumping around from $11 million to $130 million to $122 million to $33 million. In fact, the damages are probably zero.”

  • Security

  • Cablegate

    • Oliver Stone – Legendary American Film Director and Screenwriter “Comments on Wikileaks, Julian Assange and Bradley Manning”

      Oliver Stone, the legendary and controversial American film director and screenwriter, recently shared his thoughts on Wikileaks, Julian Assange and Bradley Manning while speaking to students and faculty at Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.

      In a series of rarely viewed YouTube videos brought to our attention by Blogger Maria Technosux, viewers will hear Stone (JFK, Natural Born Killers, Platoon) comment on an array of topics including global politics, war and freedom of speech. However in this post Wikileaks-Movie.com brings your attention to Oliver Stone’s comments on Wikileaks, Julian Assange & Bradley Manning. And while we have transcribed only these comments in this post, we encourage you to view each of these videos in their entirety.

  • Finance

    • We Don’t Need “Too Big To Fail” Institutions

      I’ve been traveling a lot in recent weeks and had the pleasure of meeting policymakers in a number of countries. Perhaps the most interesting of those meetings occurred in a small workshop attended by a couple of policymakers who had worked with Timothy Geithner to bail-out Wall Street. Let me just say that these were intelligent guys with their hearts in the right places. While they probably did not think they were doing “God’s work” (as the Vampire Blood Sucking Squid put it), they certainly did think they were operating in the public interest.

    • Misdirection in Goldman Sachs’s Housing Short

      Goldman Sachs appears to be trying to clear its name.

      The compelling Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations report on the financial crisis is wrong, the bank says. Goldman Sachs didn’t have a Big Short against the housing market.

      But the size of Goldman’s short is irrelevant.

      No one disputes that, by 2007, the firm had pivoted to reduce its exposure from mortgages and mortgage securities and had begun shorting the market on some scale. There’s nothing wrong with that. Don’t we want banks to reduce their risk when they see trouble ahead, as Goldman did in the mortgage markets?

      Nor should shorting itself be seen as a bad thing. Putting money behind a bet that a stock (or bond or commodity or derivative) is overpriced is necessary for the efficient functioning of capital markets. Short-sellers can keep prices from getting out of whack and help deflate bubbles.

    • CFTC Delays Swaps Regulation By Another 6 Months To Comply With Wall Street Demands

      One year after the passage of Dodd-Frank’s provisions on swap regulation absolutely nothing has been implemented.

    • Officials predict prolonged high food prices

      High food prices are likely to rise even further over the next decade, putting the poor at an increasing risk of malnutrition and hunger, a world food report warned Friday.

      The joint report of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization and the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said the risk of price volatility that has hurt farmers across the globe remains high. The OECD leader came out to back France’s demand for increased transparency and more regulation and public information in the farm commodities markets as a key measure to stabilize prices.

    • Wonkbook: Dealmaking time on the deficit?

      The Biden group is readying itself for the final sprint towards a debt deal. “Now we’re getting down to the real hard stuff,” Biden told reporters. “I’ll trade you my bicycle for your golf clubs.” The hope is to get to $4 trillion in deficit reduction eventually, and at least $2 trillion in the deal to raise the debt ceiling. But perhaps the strongest sign that they’re likely to succeed isn’t coming from inside the room, but from outside of it.

  • Censorship

    • Suit Alleges Students’ Facebook Post Defamed Lawyer’s Daughter

      Houston lawyer Jason M. Medley, as next friend to his daughter, has filed a libel suit on her behalf against three middle-school students who allegedly posted a video on the social networking site Facebook.

      Medley says the intention in filing the June 14 suit was not for publicity or to “get on a pedestal and make some kind of an example” of cyber-bullying. “It is my goal to protect my daughter, not to make greater publicity over an event that was harmful to her,” Medley says.

    • U.S. Underwrites Internet Detour Around Censors

      The Obama administration is leading a global effort to deploy “shadow” Internet and mobile phone systems that dissidents can use to undermine repressive governments that seek to silence them by censoring or shutting down telecommunications networks.

    • U.S. Hopes “Internet in a Suitcase” Will Offset Internet Censorship

      The U.S. government has created what it is calling an “Internet in a suitcase” to cheat the switches on the filtering regimes of repressive countries. A kit of hardware, the suitcase creates a “shadow Internet” within a country that allows users to communicate with each other and the outside world despite electronic censorship.

      The suitcase was funded by a $2 million grant from the U.S. Department of State, according to the New York Times.

  • DRM

    • Told you so

      If you thought that I was being ridiculous in saying that big corporations might want to do something as ridiculous as restrict your ability to use a camera, I give you Exhibit A, which has made the news this week:

      Earlier this month, Apple applied to patent a system that could switch off a smartphone’s camera if it senses the user is trying to record a live event.

      It’s nice to see that even creators are speaking against this concept. Every now and then, the big media companies like to trot out one of the well-known artists to say that piracy is a huge problem and DRM is vitally important.

    • Google Says Yes, You Can Doodle In Our E-Books

      I realize its anathema to some, but one of the things I miss most about the transition from print to digital books is the ability to write on the pages. Oh sure, I can justify my notes and marginalia as being full of intelligent insights. But I think it all stems back from a love of coloring books and from adding my own creative and colorful commentary to printed pages. There’s also a lot of pleasure in that sort of mark-up: coloring in pictures, doodling in the margins, scribbling on pages.

  • Intellectual Monopolies

    • Copyrights

      • Nude Nuns Mass BitTorrent Lawsuit is Terminated

        A Utah investment company late Friday dropped its copyright-infringement lawsuit against 5,865 BitTorrent users who allegedly downloaded the movie Nude Nuns with Big Guns between January and March of this year.

        Incentive Capital, which is embroiled in litigation with another company called Camelot Distribution over who actually owns the B-rated flick, notified the Los Angeles federal judge presiding over the copyright action that it was dropping the case. (.pdf) An identical Nude Nuns lawsuit brought by Camelot Distribution, a California company, was voluntarily dismissed three weeks ago.

      • Head of UN copyright agency says fair use is a “negative agenda,” wants to get rid of discussions on rights for blind people and go back to giving privileges to giant companies

        In this (non-embeddable, natch) video interview from the World Copyright Summit on June 8, Francis Gurry, the Director General of WIPO, the UN agency that creates and oversees global copyright policy, laments the current state of WIPO, saying that the copyright agenda there:

        “… tends to be a negative one. It tends to be looking at the exceptions, the limitations, and the other ways of not having intellectual property. I’m very keen to see us coming back with a positive agenda for intellectual property.”

        Translation: our job isn’t to figure out how to balance out freedom of speech and access with exclusive rights for authors and investors; more copyright is always good. And the subtext is, “All those public interest groups that have got us looking at rights for blind and disabled people, exemptions for poor countries, rights for educators and archivists, and Creative Commons-style ‘some rights reserved’ issues are distracting us from the real business of WIPO: maximizing copyright’s benefit for a handful of corporate giants.”

      • US, NZ, Sweden, others condemn “three strikes” Internet laws

        Earlier this month we covered a UN report that argued that “three strikes” laws that deprive alleged copyright infringers of Internet access violate human rights. The report was delivered by an independent UN investigator, and so didn’t represent the view of any UN member governments.

        Michael Geist notes that on Friday, Sweden made remarks at the UN Human Rights Council that endorsed many of the report’s findings, including the criticism of “three strikes” rules. The statement was signed by 40 other nations, including the United States and Canada. The United Kingdom and France, two nations that have enacted “three strikes” regimes, did not sign the statement.

        “All users should have greatest possible access to Internet-based content, applications and services,” the statement said, adding that “cutting off users from access to the Internet is generally not a proportionate sanction.” It also called network neutrality and Internet openness “important objectives.”

      • Judge: Righthaven Has No Standing To File Lawsuits—Case Dismissed

        The saga of controversial copyright-enforcement company Righthaven may be slowly drawing to a close. A judge has dismissed its lawsuit against the Democratic Underground website, saying that the contract Righthaven struck with Stephens Media, owner of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, doesn’t give it the right to sue anyone. Righthaven has been “disingenuous, if not outright deceitful” in how it described its business dealings with Stephens Media, the judge wrote. It’s a loss that endangers many of the more than 200 copyright lawsuits the Righthaven has filed in the past year.

        In his order, U.S. District Judge Roger Hunt accepted in full the argument put forward by Democratic Underground’s lawyers that it’s simply not allowed under copyright law for Stephens Media to transfer only the right to sue, while keeping the many other rights that come with a copyright grant. Righthaven and its owner, Steve Gibson, tried to make the argument that Stephens Media really only had a license to use the material, and that Righthaven did indeed own the entire copyright. But that argument has now fallen apart with this order.

      • Nevada Judge Threatens Sanctions for Copyright Troll

        A Las Vegas federal judge threatened to sanction copyright troll Righthaven, calling its litigation efforts Tuesday “disingenuous, if not outright deceitful.”

        The blistering decision also places into doubt the litigation factory’s year-old business model, which is also under a Colorado federal judge’s microscope.

        U.S. District Judge Roger Hunt of Nevada ordered Righthaven to explain why Hunt should not sanction it for trying to “manufacture standing.” Standing is a legal concept that has enabled Righthaven to bring 200-plus lawsuits on behalf of the copyrights owned by news agency Stephens Media of Las Vegas.

      • Judge furious at “inexcusable” P2P lawyering, nukes subpoenas

        There are three quick steps to angering a federal judge: first, launch the country’s largest file-sharing lawsuit against 23,322 anonymous defendants, even though most of them don’t live where you filed the suit. Second, request “expedited discovery” in the case, allowing you to quickly secure the subpoenas necessary to go to Internet access providers and turn those 23,322 IP addresses into real names. Third, don’t even bother to serve the subpoenas you just told the court were so essential to your case.

        Federal Judge Robert Wilkins of Washington, DC this week blasted the conduct of Dunlap, Grubb, and Weaver, the attorneys behind the lawsuit, calling it “inexcusable.” Dunlap, Grubb, and Weaver helped kickstart the current frenzy of P2P lawsuits last year after filing cases under the name “US Copyright Group.” The 23,322-person case, their largest to date, involves the film The Expendables.

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Clip of the Day

Bas de Lange interviewing Steve Coast of OpenStreetMap


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ES: Nueva Zelanda Golpea la Legalidad de las Patentes de Software

Posted in Law, Microsoft, Open XML, Patents at 9:57 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Early morning

(ODF | PDF | English/original)

Resumen: “El ministro Simon Power confirma que el proyecto de ley de patente NZ se aprobó sin ninguna modificación. Los programas de ordenador son excluidos”, anuncia un principal lider del Free/Open Source Software en la isla.

Nuestra página dedicada sobre Nueva Zelanda (wiki para kiwi[http://techrights.org/wiki/index.php/Software_Patents_in_New_Zealand]) se acumula la mayor parte lo que escribió acerca de la lucha de Nueva Zelanda contra los extranjeros y sus ayudantes en el interior del país – los que querían los monopolios en las recetas de software. Hay buenas noticias esta semana.

“El ministro Simon Power confirma el Proyecto de Ley de Patentes NZ se aprobó sin ninguna modificación. Programas de ordenador excluidos “, escribe Don Christie[http://twitter.com/normnz/status/80058819614474240], citando esta página[http://www.burgess.co.nz/law/patents-bill-2010-update]. También escribe que[http://twitter.com/normnz/status/80386202213158912]:

“Método y aparato para llevar a cabo una campaña de marketing en nombre de una publicidad” – patentes de métodos comerciales en Nueva Zelanda – la aplicación de Patentes # 591806

Tal vez puede invalidar esto sólo mientras Microsoft retiraba su OOXML patente[http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/news/xml-patent-saga-ends-with-microsoft-withdrawing-application] hace unos días. No fue invalidado pero se retiró de acuerdo con un comunicado de prensa[http://techrights.org/2011/06/16/nzoss-milestone/]. Sólo falta que los lagunas “integradas” (haciendo pasar software como hardware) deben ser eliminados o tratados explícitamente en las directrices de patentes. █

Translation produced by Eduardo Landaveri, the esteemed administrator of the Spanish portal of Techrights.

ES: Los Líderes del G8 y los Jefes de Microsoft No Están Interesados en una Real Reforma de Patentes

Posted in America, Europe, Intellectual Monopoly, Microsoft, Patents at 9:46 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

G8 summit members

(ODF | PDF | English/original)

Resumen: Los monopolios están protegidos por leyes controvertidas en su mayoría con el apoyo de super-ricos empresarios y los líderes que ellos ayudan a nombrar.

GRACIAS a Benjamin Henrion (FFII – Fundación para una Infraestructura de Información Libre) nos enteramos de que la “EPO (Oficina Europea de Patentes) concedió la patente sobre la barra de progreso a Apple, ahora dice que su concesión de patentes es de alta calidad” (que nos enlaza a esta página de la EPO, que dice: “Los líderes del G8 apoyan un sistema de “calidad” de patentes”)[http://blog.epo.org/uncategorized/g8-leaders-support-a-quality-patent-system/].

Como hemos explicado anteriormente esta semana, para referirnos al problema de las patentes como un problema de “calidad” en vez de alcance es desviar la atención del verdadero problema que la EPO también ha estado teniendo. Es por eso que no tienen en cuenta el movimiento Wilcox [1[http://techrights.org/2011/06/01/wilcox-should-learn-from-eu_es/], 2[http://techrights.org/2011/06/16/transporting-software-patents-to-eu_es/], 3[http://techrights.org/2011/06/01/nyls-idea-re-swpats-in-uk_es/], 4[http://techrights.org/2011/06/01/patent-mopolies-in-the-eu_es/], 5[http://techrights.org/2011/06/15/software-monopolies-in-fr-and-uk_es/]] que consideramos uno ingenuo. Sólo va a ayudar a validar algunas patentes de software, incluyendo algunos de Microsoft, tales como FAT[http://techrights.org/2011/06/15/software-monopolies-in-fr-and-uk_es/].

“Excepto por el escritorio de GNU/Linux compañías como Novell/SUSE/Attachmate y Xandros, aquellos que pagan a Microsoft por Linux son Turbolinux LG, Fuji Xerox, Brother, Melco, Samsung, Kyocera Mita, de IO Data, y HTC.”El uso de la extorsión con patentes de software, Microsoft ha sido más exitoso en Asia. A excepción del escritorio de GNU/Linux compañías como Novell / SUSE / Attachmate y Xandros, aquellos que pagan a Microsoft por Linux son Turbolinux LG, Fuji Xerox, Brother, Melco, Samsung, Kyocera Mita, de IO Data, y HTC. También lo hace Amazon (por el servidor y embebidos en Kindle), que decidió pagar su estado vecino de Microsoft después de que muchos de sus nuevos gerentes fueron nombrados por Microsoft Corp.

Lo que pasa en Washington (el estado y el Distrito Federal) tiene mucha importancia en este momento porque Bill Gates y su compadre Nathan van de la manito desde el estado de DC para cabildear mucho en favor de las patentes[http://techrights.org/2011/06/16/defenceless-lobbying/] (Gates, por su parte, se reune con los líderes del G8, dar dinero de los contribuyentes a los titulares de patentes el las que él mismo invierte[http://techrights.org/2010/06/30/instructions-to-stephen-harper/], como hemos explicado antes[http://techrights.org/wiki/index.php/Gates_Foundation_Critique]). No se distraiga por la Ley de los Estados Unidos Inventa. Todo esto es una falsa “reforma” que se asemeja a lo que vemos en Europa[http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0611/57029.html] – un enfoque que está todo mal:

La Ley América Inventa fomenta la innovación y fomenta la creación de empleos. Cambia el nivel de aprobación de la patente del “primer inventor” al “primero que registra”.

Suena como que es BUENO PARA LOS EMPRESARIOS,NO PARA LOS CIENTIFICOS. Así que, por supuesto, los políticos podrían apoyar eso. Ellos saben de donde las contribuciones vienen.

La patente de Nathan (el más grande troll de patentes del mundo y ex director de tecnología Microsoft) sigue ACOSANDO a los competidores Microsoft y Groklaw se esfuerza por derribar esta patente por la cooperación dentro de la comunidad[http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=2011061608115990]:

Como hemos señalado en el artículo de ayer, uno de los desarrolladores de formas más eficaces (y cualquier otra persona que cree Lodsys es desmesurado) se puede responder mediante la identificación de previas técnicas que sean relevante para las invenciones reivindicadas por Lodsys. Lodsys ha tomado la posición que sus reivindicaciones son muy amplias, y el problema con esa posición, ya que aprender, es que abre las anchas puertas de previas técnicas que va a derrumbar los reclamos generales. Y ahí es donde entras tú.

Más de las últimas noticias al respecto se puede encontrar en los medios de comunicación corporativos, que a diferencia de la cobertura de las fuentes contraria TechEye[http://www.techeye.net/business/lodsys-patents-under-attack] y otros, no van lo suficientemente lejos. Pretende informar en lugar de promover, pero que termina la elección de la cobardía, no sólo el conformismo.

Lo que más alentador es que los reguladores han comenzado por lo menos un paso adelante para abordar los aspectos anticompetitivos de las patentes, a pesar de que no cumplen los objetivos reales[http://techrights.org/2011/04/27/bn-and-changing-the-patent-system/] y Microsofnt les empuja hacia falsos[http://techrights.org/2011/06/18/taxing-competitors-with-moles_es/]. Para citar recientemente noticias [1[http://www.itbusinessedge.com/cm/blogs/bentley/department-of-justice-keeping-close-watch-on-nortel-patent-auction/?cs=47283], 2[http://www.zdnetasia.com/report-us-doj-probing-bids-for-nortel-patents-62300594.htm]], donde se menciona CPTLN:

Las patentes se han convertido en una herramienta cada vez más potente en tecnología, como las pequeñas empresas demandan a los más grandes en caso de infracción, y las grandes empresas pagan caro para acumular patentes para protegerse de futuros litigios. En abril, el Departamento de Justicia obligó a un grupo de empresas que comprarían las patentes de Novell, incluyendo Apple y Microsoft, a licenciar en lugar de comprar algunas de las 882 patentes y solicitudes de patentes sobre las preocupaciones sobre el impacto en el software de código abierto.

Microsoft también ha estado aplastando empresas por las patentes como las que se puso en CPTLN. Hemos escrito sobre el uso de Microsoft de Nokia, el otro día[http://techrights.org/2011/06/18/taxing-competitors-with-moles_es/]. “Estas empresas se han convertido esencialmente en Novell”, escribe Sarah Lacy[http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/13/yawn-how-did-big-tech-companies-turned-into-big-boring-banks/] en relación con este tipo de barrido de las empresas más pequeñas (no necesariamente sus patentes). ¿Quién en la Tierra apoyaría este tipo de patentes que no sean las multinacionales y los políticos que sirven a sus intereses? La gente debe ponerse de pie y denunciarlas. █

Translation produced by Eduardo Landaveri, the esteemed administrator of the Spanish portal of Techrights.

FFII Warns About Latest Patent Threats in Europe

Posted in Europe, Patents at 3:58 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Sarko
Photo by the European People’s Party

Summary: Europe is subjected to abuse and is becoming more abusive with patents. Benjamin Henrion from the FFII highlights some of the latest developments.

EUROPE is under attack. This attack comes both from the inside and the outside. It’s a class war, not a geographic/demographic war. The battle for Europe is fought using lobbyists and corruptible politicians who act as proxies for the major benefactors, mostly the world’s top businesspeople (not technical people). According to this from Benjamin Henrion, France got greedy and it may let patent holders (or hoarders) more easily extort all the rest. “Think of it as Intellectual Ventures, but run by the French government,” writes Benjamin about it in relation to this. A lot of this was seeded by Benjamin’s research the other day. Good job there from the FFII. To quote one of the reports it helped generate:

It may seem like we’ve been particularly tough on the French government lately, but it keeps doing ridiculous things. The latest, as written up by Guillaume Champeau, is that it has built its own giant patent trolling operation, funded with €100 million (Google translation from the original French).

“Europe wants to follow France in creating a european patent troll,” notes Benjamin in relation to another article in French (being Belgian he can research further than most can).

In relation to what goes on in the UK-IPO (Peer to Patent Pilot), Benjamin boldly states:

Groklaw/Webbink wants us to read patent claims on Peer2Patent? No thank you, software is not patentable in the UK

And also:

You have to be mentally sick to participate in the Peer 2 Patent exercise

“UK Parliament wants to know if they can withdraw from the Council conclusions on unitary patent,” he adds, noting that there is “UK Parliament request for scrutiny about unitary patent” (pointing to this page and this one too). EPO propaganda for its own benefit (profit) is also shown amid a push for some euphemistic thing called “Innovation Union”. “We need to do much better at turning our research into new and better services and products if we are to remain competitive on the global marketplace and improve the quality of life in Europe,” the page says. At least it does not say patents or imply a causal correlation between patents and innovation. But wait, then Microsoft steps in.

Jan Muehlfeit (a former communist [1, 2]) from Microsoft [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]) is leaning on European politicians and lying about what Microsoft does in order to promote the agenda of his patent aggressor (he pushes and works for it as part of this “union”) while the Commission is collecting feedback as part of the whole “Digital Agenda” push. We need to watch out for patent maximalists in Europe, such as this Windows-based site which quotes Alexandr Vondra (Deputy Prime Minister for EU Affairs, 2007-2010) as saying that: “Too much IPR does not kill innovation; rather the opposite” (where it the evidence?). Separately, Benjamin berates Neelie Kroes, probably for this type of legacy. Those who believe that the Commission is still on Free software’s side have not been paying attention in recent years. █

Linux-Hostile Patent Lobbying Disguised as Analysis

Posted in Deception, GNU/Linux, Google, Microsoft, Patents at 3:36 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Carnival

Summary: Florian Müller is spinning and manipulating the news again, also by calling patent “trolls” those who are not (while supporting Microsoft’s stance)

SOME of the attacks on Linux are being magnified by those whose agenda is clearly Linux-hostile. Let’s put things in perspective.

Apple has been suing Linux/Android companies since about a year ago and its latest target is Samsung, which already pays Microsoft for Linux (since 2007). Various reports indicate that Apple is increasing the volume of patent ammunition with more and more patents [1, 2]. This includes “Method of tethering a mobile phone to a PC to share a data connection”. It is said that “more products [are] included” now that the complaint is modified to apply increased pressure against Linux/Android. Suffice to say, Microsoft Florian is still distorting and lying, which is basically what lobbyists are hired to do. Well, the president of the FFII explains to him that “[c]ounter-suing for when you are attacked is not trolling.”

“This lobbyist is lobbying against Google and for Microsoft’s interests, so he has already lost credibility among those who know better.”For those who missed what we wrote last week, Microsoft Florian pushes for coverage of the Nokia-Apple agreement as something which vilifies Android rather than Microsoft and the company it abducted, Nokia. In the coverage of this case we occasionally see him injecting his presence in the usual way, probably by mass-mailing journalists again. This is how he (t)rolls.

Speaking of Nokia, Nokia’s Symbian patent proved that the company gradually becomes a troll in the UK, but fortunately this does not go as far as a 3G patent after a High Court ruling in the UK. Expect Florian to play ball for Nokia now that it serves Microsoft agenda.

While it is true that Nokia might go after Android next, it is premature to use this as ‘dirt’ and also daemonise Google — not Nokia/Microsoft — for it. But that is what Microsoft Florian has done over the past week, banging on about this and quoting Microsoft folks like Bott (also chatting with Sam Ramji and Microsoft Jack). Microsoft Florian pushes for coverage of whatever is bad for Linux. If something does not refer to Linux, then Mr. “FOSSpatents” will find some way to spin it against FOSS. He is apologising for Microsoft and also turning the Nokia deal with Apple into an amusing case against Linux, as always, which is really his agenda right from the start (when his lobbying started over a year ago, without naming the client/s but promoting TurboHercules, a partly Microsoft-owned company that sent him documents). This lobbyist is lobbying against Google and for Microsoft’s interests, so he has already lost credibility among those who know better. Tweets like this one leave little room for doubt, even though he softened following the ousting of anti-Google AstroTurfers (hired by the partly Microsoft-owned Facebook).

The funny thing is, even those who once collaborated with Florian have mostly turned against him as they clarify that “Skyhook seeks to enforce its soft patent, so they can be called a patent troll. Google is not trolling yet. Microsoft is.” This was said in reference to patent trolls attacking Google over Android, Skyhook in the case (previously covered here).

As we showed before, many of the patent trolls which attack Android have some Microsoft connections. Microsoft has also been lobbying against the Nortel patents going to Google for defensive purposes. Not only trolls are attacking (trolls cannot be counter-sued as they have no products). It’s also Microsoft and Oracle, which seeks damages as follows:

Some of the above is being pushed the lobbyist, who keeps predicting doom and gloom for Android even though it’s growing. █

06.18.11

Patent Policy Controlled by Giants Like GE and Apple, Not the Public

Posted in America, Law, Patents at 8:52 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Electric lobby

Great background

Summary: More new evidence that huge corporations with tens of thousands of patent monopolies are those which also control policy

IF THE USPTO proclaims to be there to serve the public, then it sure does a shoddy job. Being the granter of monopolies, it merely helps shut the public out and artificially elevate prices for the benefit of huge businesses (and the billionaires who run them). The sooner the citizens realise this, the greater the opposition to the USPTO will become (especially the “P” in USPTO).

Last week we showed that Intel was attacking public interests while pretending to do the opposite. It argued that software patents were good for the public. What a shameful, shameful lie. The “IP” crowd echoes Intel’s message by saying (in this case) that “Intel on necessity of software patents. It has 45K patents worldwide and invests $300-500M year in #smallbiz”

There is nothing like PR, is there? For a company which is worth (market cap) almost 1,000 times what it claims to invest (for profit) in small businesses this is purely propaganda. And that says nothing about the small businesses that Intel crushes all the time, even by breaking the law and then shredding the evidence. We have covered this before.

The president of the FFII responds with:

@ballard_ip Smallbiz cannot compete with Intel on patents. I should challenge Intel on their claim of hardware == software

Another company which is even larger than Intel would be GE, which also promotes software patents and other stuff which harms Free software. Well, according to this new article, “GE Joins Apple in Urging Congress to Let Patent Office Keep Fees”:

Apple Inc. (AAPL), the AFL-CIO and Yale University were among businesses, unions and universities urging House lawmakers to include a provision in pending legislation that would let the U.S. patent agency control its own funding.

More than 150 companies, schools and groups sent a letter today to House Speaker John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, expressing their support for letting the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office keep all the fees it collects from users.

Conspicuously missing from this debate are representatives of the public. It just shows that to the USPTO the public does not matter. It’s not justified. The truth is, patents as a whole hurt the public in many ways, except perhaps members of the public who are highly ranked in some corporation like GE. Patents are for them. To the rest it’s just an issue that oughtn’t really exist. It is not just issues like cost of medical treatments but also minor things that relate to society and not purely cost; consider Microsoft’s patent’s on cameras that refuse to work (as a patent). Apple too making phones turn against their ‘owners’ based on this new article which says or at least asks, “Apple to ban iPhone concert filming?” Well, Apple is always serving the copyright cartel, which is abominable in itself. Well, now they pursue a monopoly on this Hollywood suck-up. Ain’t Apple a dreamy company? █

Disclosure: My sister and her husband work in Intel and GE, but I reserve no judgment because principles come first.

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