We know where Rick (from Rick and Morty) stands on Intel vs AMD debate

For one, it appears Rick is running a version of Debian with a very old Linux kernel (3.2.0) — one dating back to 2012. He badly needs to install some frickin’ updates. “Also his partitions are real weird. It’s all Microsoft based partitions,” a Redditor says. “A Linux user would never do [this] unless they were insane since NTFS/Exfat drivers on Linux are not great.”

Desktop

• Slimbook Tease New Linux Laptop in Apple-Bashing Video

  The video, which should be embedded above, is relatively short and relatively bizarre. It follows a Slimbook engineer in a penguin mask carefully measuring an apple before getting up and smashing it with a baseball bat bearing the Slimbook brand name.

  Accompanying the clip are the hashtags #NoMoreFruit and #ForgetTheFruit — a playful dig at a certain fruit-branded company whose laptops are fairly popular? I think so.

  The video also reveals that Slimbook will announce its new device on November 21, 2019 via the Slimbook website.

• Growing the fwupd ecosystem

  Yesterday I wrote a blog about what hardware vendors need to provide so I can write them a fwupd plugin. A few people contacted me telling me that I should make it more generic, as I shouldn’t be the central point of failure in this whole ecosystem. The sensible thing, of course, is growing the “community” instead, and building up a set of (paid) consultants that can help the OEMs and ODMs, only getting me involved to review pull requests or for general advice. This would certainly reduce my current feeling of working at 100% and trying to avoid burnout.

  As a first step, I’ve created an official page that will list any consulting companies that I feel are suitable to recommend for help with fwupd and the LVFS. The hardware vendors would love to throw money at this stuff, so they don’t have to care about upstream project release schedules and dealing with a gumpy maintainer like me. I’ve pinged the usual awesome people like Igalia, and hopefully more companies will be added to this list during the next few days.

Server

• World’s Top 500 Supercomputers Run On Linux

  Top500 has released its 54th edition of the list comprising of the top 500 supercomputers in the world, and all the supercomputers in the list have one thing in common – Linux.

  The average speed of the supercomputers featured in the list is now 1.65 exaflops, and the entry-level supercomputer now performs at 1.14 petaflops as compared to 1.02 petaflops when the list was released back in June 2019.

• HPE Launches Kubernetes-Based Container Platform

  Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) has launched an enterprise-grade Kubernetes-based container platform. Called HPE Container Platform, it is designed for both cloud-native applications and monolithic applications with persistent storage.

  According to the company, HPE Container Platform is built on innovations from HPE’s acquisitions of BlueData and MapR, together with 100 percent open source Kubernetes. The new platform addresses the requirements for large-scale enterprise Kubernetes deployments across a range of use cases, from machine learning and edge analytics to CI/CD pipelines and application modernization, the company said.

• IBM

  • Command Line Heroes takes Bash from script to screen

    Creating visuals for stories about programming language isn’t always straightforward. The artwork for the first few episodes of this season was inspired by origins and functions. But for Episode 6, Heroes in a Bash Shell, we decided to take a more abstract approach.

    Shells, particularly the Bash shell, are widely used large-scale IT environments. Shell scripting allows us to automate repetitive tasks and do much more with standalone utilities. Our graphic designer, Karen Crowson, and animator, Drew Carrow, share how that reality, mixed in with some pun-related imagery, provided the frame for the Heroes in a Bash Shell artwork.

  • OpenShift Hive: Cluster-as-a-Service

    Red Hat OpenShift has enabled enterprise developers to utilize a fast feedback loop during the development phase of platforms and applications. The idea of ‘as-a-service’ has arisen from the ability of cloud providers to offer an on demand capability to consume services and products. This increased flexibility for organisations can further ease the development path to production.

    Kubernetes and Red Hat OpenShift unlocks organisations to achieve freedom with platforms of choice on a number of cloud providers without lock-in as workloads are abstracted from vendor specific constructs. Kubernetes, and Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform, provide the ability to run operators, where operators can act as an organisation’s very own consumable on demand service whilst providing a unique user experience to its intended audience.

    As a developer having a personal on demand environment was once one of the reasons for the rise of “shadow IT”. Organisations have since moved from the days of having to build servers for additional workloads through the use of new models of IT services thanks to virtualisation, PaaS and public/private cloud in an effort to adopt the on-demand/as-a-service utopia and enable their consumers to have the freedom to develop and produce strong value proposition products in today’s competitive market.

    OpenShift has become the platform of choice for many organisations. However, this can mean developers are somewhat restricted in consuming PaaS environment, due to greater process and management surrounding the environment, in accordance with internal IT regulations. OpenShift Hive is an operator which enables operations teams to easily provision new PaaS environments for developers improving productivity and reducing process burden due to internal IT regulations. Hive can do this in a true DevOps fashion while still adhering to an organization’s regulations and security standards.

  • Red Hat Software Collections 3.4 and Red Hat Developer Toolset 9 Beta now available

    The latest versions of Red Hat Software Collections and Red Hat Developer Toolset are available now in beta. Red Hat Software Collections 3.4 delivers the latest stable versions of many popular open source runtime languages and databases natively to the world’s leading enterprise Linux platform. These components are supported for up to five years, helping to enable a more consistent, efficient, and reliable developer experience.

  • What is a community of practice in an open organization?

    In other words, people in open organizations often define their roles, responsibilities, and affiliations through shared interests and passions—not title, role, or position on an organizational chart.

    That means organizational leaders will find themselves invested in building communities inside their organizations, connecting like-minded people with one another to accelerate business objectives.

    For this reason, communities of practice can be a useful component of open organizations. In this three-part series, I’ll explain what communities of practice are, why they are beneficial to an organization, and how you can start a community of practice.

Audiocasts/Shows

• Brunch with Brent: Emma Marshall | Jupiter Extras 33

  Brent sits down with Emma Marshall, Customer Happiness Manager at System76 for a fun chat touching on her love of pinball and puppies, spreading happiness, women in tech, and more.

  Note: This episode was recorded before the Superfans 3 event, which occurred between Novermber 15-17, 2019.

• Podcast.__init__: From Simple Script To Beautiful Web Application With Streamlit

  Building well designed and easy to use web applications requires a significant amount of knowledge and experience across a range of domains. This can act as an impediment to engineers who primarily work in so-called back-end technologies such as machine learning and systems administration. In this episode Adrien Treuille describes how the Streamlit framework empowers anyone who is comfortable writing Python scripts to create beautiful applications to share their work and make it accessible to their colleagues and customers. If you have ever struggled with hacking together a simple web application to make a useful script self-service then give this episode a listen and then go experiment with how Streamlit can level up your work.

Kernel Space

• Schedutil Frequency Invariance Revised For Better Intel Performance + Power Efficiency

  SUSE developer Giovanni Gherdovich has sent out the latest patches on supporting frequency invariance within the kernel’s scheduler code and ultimately making use of it for select Intel CPUs to yield not only better raw performance but also power efficiency.

• Linux’s Crypto API Is Adopting Some Aspects Of Zinc, Opening Door To Mainline WireGuard

  Mainlining of the WireGuard secure VPN tunnel was being held up by its use of the new “Zinc” crypto API developed in conjunction with this network tech. But with obstacles in getting Zinc merged, WireGuard was going to be resorting to targeting the existing kernel crypto interfaces. Instead, however, it turns out the upstream Linux crypto developers were interested and willing to incorporate some elements of Zinc into the existing kernel crypto implementation.

  Back in September is when Jason Donenfeld decided porting WireGuard to the existing Linux crypto API was the best path forward for getting this secure networking functionality into the mainline kernel in a timely manner. But since then other upstream kernel developers working on the crypto subsystem ended up with patches incorporating some elements of Zinc’s design.

• zswap: use B-tree for search

  The current zswap implementation uses red-black trees to store
  entries and to perform lookups. Although this algorithm obviously
  has complexity of O(log N) it still takes a while to complete
  lookup (or, even more for replacement) of an entry, when the amount
  of entries is huge (100K+).
  
  B-trees are known to handle such cases more efficiently (i. e. also
  with O(log N) complexity but with way lower coefficient) so trying
  zswap with B-trees was worth a shot.
  
  The implementation of B-trees that is currently present in Linux
  kernel isn't really doing things in the best possible way (i. e. it
  has recursion) but the testing I've run still shows a very
  significant performance increase.
  
  The usage pattern of B-tree here is not exactly following the
  guidelines but it is due to the fact that pgoff_t may be both 32
  and 64 bits long.
  
  

• Zswap Could See Better Performance Thanks To A B-Tree Search Implementation

  For those using Zswap as a compressed RAM cache for swapping on Linux systems, the performance could soon see a measurable improvement.

  Developer Vitaly Wool has posted a patch that switches the Zswap code from using red-black trees to a B-tree for searching. Particularly for when having to search a large number of entries, the B-trees implementation should do so much more efficiently.

• Graphics Stack

  • AMD Announces Radeon Pro W5700 RDNA Workstation Graphics Card

    In addition to AMD’s SC19 announcements yesterday, their embargo just lifted on the Radeon Pro W5700 as their first 7nm workstation graphics card build on their new RDNA architecture.

    The Radeon Pro W5700 is built on their RDNA architecture, supports GDDR6 video memory, and is said to deliver up to 18% better efficiency than NVIDIA’s competition. The Radeon Pro W5700 is also AMD’s first graphics card featuring a USB-C connector for monitors and VR HMDs.

  • AMD Lands EXT_direct_state_access For OpenGL Compatibility Contexts In Mesa

    In recent weeks AMD driver developers have been working on EXT_direct_state_access improvements within Mesa and following their latest code push today now support the D.S.A. extension for OpenGL compatibility profile contexts.

    OpenGL Direct State Access allows for various efficiency improvements in allowing the modification of objects without needing to bind them to the context. More background information on the direct state access semantics can be found via the OpenGL Wiki.

  • Intel Linux Graphics Driver Patches For Fast Soft-RC6 Yield Big Energy Use Improvement

    Longtime open-source Intel Linux graphics driver developer Chris Wilson has sent out a set of 19 patches for what he calls fast soft-RC6 support and is a “substantial” improvement over the current driver code for Intel graphics power-savings.

    Chris simply wrote at the start of the patch series, “In my very simple testing of scrolling through firefox, this brings up back into line with HW rc6 energy usage, a substantial improvement over current -tip.”

  • NEMO-UX Vanishes As What Was A Wayland Shell Designed For Large, Multi-User Surfaces

    Over the years there have been many interesting Wayland projects to take flight focused on new and interesting use-cases. One of these interesting (and experimental) Wayland compositors was NEMO-UX focused on providing a shell for computing environments that span large surfaces like virtual chalkboards or tabletops.

    Five years ago this week we covered this futuristic, multi-user Wayland experience. While the concept is still interesting and large format, multi-user computing remains a niche area, NEMO-UX appears to sadly no longer exist.

Applications

• Proprietary

  • Louisiana Target of Attempted Ransomware Hack, Governor Says [iophk: Windows TCO]

    The state was attacked as election officials canvass the results of a tightly contested Nov. 16 gubernatorial election won by Edwards by about 40,000 votes. The tally is unlikely to be affected as the state did not suffer any data loss, nor has it paid a ransom, Edwards said. A spokesman for the Louisiana Secretary of State’s Office couldn’t be reached for comment.

  • Nokia WiFi Beacon 3 review: high-speed mesh networking

    The Beacon 3 units are considerably larger than either Eero or Nest Wifi routers; they are roughly the size of an Amazon Echo speaker. That makes them a bit less discreet than other routers, but the advantage is that each node includes four gigabit Ethernet ports, which is two more than either Google or Eero gives you. More Ethernet ports on the nodes give you more flexibility with what you can do with them, whether that’s running a wired backhaul between them with Ethernet that’s built into your home or plugging devices like a desktop computer, smart home hub, or gaming system directly into the Wi-Fi node to minimize wireless traffic.

Instructionals/Technical

• Manipulating text at the command line with grep

• How to use the PocketCasts web interface on Linux

• Install Dolibarr on Ubuntu 18.04

• How to Setup MariaDB Galera Multi-Master Synchronous Replication using Debian 10

• Managing dynamic inventory in private subnets using bastion jump box

• Avoiding dropped connections in nginx containers with “STOPSIGNAL SIGQUIT”

  nginx is a very popular web server.

  It may have just become the most popular web server – Netcraft’s October survey found nginx had 33% market share. This may be thanks to growth in Kubernetes adoption (most Kubernetes installations use nginx as the default ingress controller).

  Unsurprisingly, its use within Kubernetes configurations is just as popular. 33 thousand public projects on GitHub use the nginx image in configs, and at least as many run it in their own Docker images.

  We run nginx in the images for our 15 static websites running on our team’s Charmed Kubernetes cluster.

• How to install the App Outlet app store on Linux

• How to Install CopyQ Clipboard Manager 3.9.3 in Ubuntu 19.10

• Linux device mapper writecache

• Migrate WordPress Blog To New Hosting – Easy Ways

• Working with Docker Images, Containers, and the DockerHub

• Packet sniffer basics for network troubleshooting

• How to use pkgsrc on Linux

• How to comment out lines in configuration files on Linux

• How to Disable NetworkManager in CentOS/RHEL 8

• Decoupling microservices with Apache Camel and Debezium

• Install sFTP Client for Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, 19.04 & 19.10!

• Troubleshooting PCIe Bus Error severity Corrected on Ubuntu and Linux Mint

Games

• Path of Exile continues down the Vulkan path, with a possible port to Linux mentioned

  We’ve known for a while that the massive and popular RPG Path of Exile was going to get a Vulkan API implementation and they would have liked to do Linux support, seems like they’re continuing that line of thinking.

  In a new interview done by YouTuber Zizaran, they were testing out some upcoming content and changes coming with the recently announced Path of Exile 2. While doing this they were joined by Chris Wilson from Path of Exile developer Grinding Gear Games to answer some questions.

• Time to play some classic Command & Conquer as OpenRA has a huge fresh stable release out

  OpenRA, the free and open source game engine to bring classic Command & Conquer titles like Tiberian Dawn, Red Alert, Dune 2000 and eventually Tiberian Sun to modern systems has a big new release up.

  This is a massive update overall. Lots of big and small changes all over, for all three currently supported games. If you follow GamingOnLinux regularly, we’ve posted about this update a few times while it’s been in development. One of the biggest improvements is the ability to save your game during missions and skirmishes against the AI, you no longer have to blast through an entire game which is excellent and needed.

• Open-ended village life sim Village Monsters set in a forgotten game world enters Early Access

  Village Monsters, the open-ended village life game set in a forgotten video game world has entered Early Access with Linux support.

  Funded on Kickstarter in October last year, it’s a little bit like Stardew Valley with a weirder and slightly more comical setting. Very much a relaxing casual experience, with you running around befriending various NPCs, doing little task and exploring.

• Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s mission system in Operation Shattered Web is pretty good

  I will admit, after dropping an update last night with a big new Operation for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive I was a little sceptical with the Battle Pass system. However, it’s surprisingly good. This update shows what Valve can do when they experiment a little further.

  There’s not many of these missions in yet, but Operation Shattered Web goes on for at least 16 weeks so there will no doubt be more coming. Let’s talk about the new co-op Virus Outbreak mission for example, which uses the Danger Zone map Sirocco. Valve has actually expanded the map, with a big underground complex and some new voice-over from your leader and the enemy leader.

  They’ve taken all the additions to CS:GO over the last year or so and done something quite fun with it. Since this new mission requires co-op, this is also the first time I’ve made use of the Looking to Play system added in May this year and it works well. Within a few seconds of turning it on, I had invites ready to begin.

• The fantastic co-op space sandbox Avorion should now be easier to get going

  Avorion already had a lot of things truly nailed down, from the freedom to build and explore to the excellent presentation but one thing it lacked was a good experience for newer users. Now it should be much improved.

  It starts off as your typical space adventure, with you beginning with nothing but the most basic possible ship. Taking elements from games like the X series, Freelancer, Eve Online and others it blends things together giving you the chance to explore space and do whatever you want. The most interesting part of it though, is that you build you ships block by block and you can make some fun designs.

  Currently in Early Access, elements of it were a little rough for newcomers. However, they’ve been gradually improving that a lot recently. Last month they introduced several new tutorial missions, helping you get to grips with the basics and some long-terms quests to guide you through the galaxy a bit more.

• SamRewritten is an open source Steam Achievements Manager for Linux

  Want an easy way to view, lock and unlock Steam Achievements on Linux? SamRewritten seems like a very handy application to do all of that and more.

  The developer just announced a brand new release with a bunch of new features. Messing with achievements by manually unlocking them or locking them should be reliable, all your games should show up, it dynamically finds your Steam folders, a bunch of UI improvements and more.

• 7 Days To Die Is Another Game Seeing A Big Bump From Mesa OpenGL Threading

  For those that are fans of the 7 Days to Die open-world shooter / horror game, the performance on Linux is now as much as 30% higher as a result of Mesa GL threading.

  With Mesa 20.0-devel (and presumably for back-porting too) is whitelisting mesa_glthread for the 7 Days to Die game on Linux.

  This is the few years old functionality around better CPU multi-threading within Mesa where some games are as much as 60~76% faster thanks to punting some of the OpenGL driver work off to a separate CPU thread.

Desktop Environments/WMs

• GNOME Desktop/GTK

  • Open Invention Network teams up with IBM, Linux Foundation, and Microsoft to protect open-source software from patent trolls

    Open-source software — heck, all software — has been plagued by patent trolls for decades. The Open Invention Network (OIN), the largest patent non-aggression community in history, is now expanding protection of open-source and Linux by partnering with IBM, the Linux Foundation, and Microsoft to further protect it from Patent Assertion Entities (PAEs), aka patent trolls. This new consortium is doing this by supporting Unified Patents’ Open Source Zone with a substantial annual subscription.

    Unified Patents is an international organization of over 200 businesses. Unified Patents takes an aggressive stance against trolls. The name of its game is deterring trolls from attacking its members by making it too expensive for the troll to win. The group does this by examining troll patents and their activities in various technology sectors (Zones). The Open Source Zone is the newest of these Zones.

    United Patents does this in a variety of ways. For example, it runs a public bounty program, where it seeks prior art for troll patents. According to Kevin Jakel, Unified Patents CEO, in a recent interview, “The prize money offered can be as much as $10,000 for anyone that is able to find prior patents on the one being questioned. For example, we recently announced a $10,000 bounty for any prior art relating to network monitoring and sequence integrity.”

    In practice, their method works. For instance, with Unified Patent’s aid, the ride-sharing company Lyft recently beat a patent troll. In the case, a troll claimed essentially he has created all ride-sharing software. US District Judge Jon S Tigar ruled against the troll, saying, “Given the lack of an algorithm for allocation, RideApp ‘has in effect claimed everything that [performs the task] under the sun.”

  • Georges Basile Stavracas Neto: Every shell has a story

    … a wise someone once muttered while walking on a beach, as they picked up a shell lying on the sand. Indeed, every shell began somewhere, crossed a unique path with different goals and driven by different motivations. Some shells were created to optimize for mobility; some, for lightness; some, for speed; some were created to just fit whoever is using it and do their jobs efficiently. It’s statistically close to impossible to not find a suitable shell, one could argue.

    So, is this a blog about muttered shell wisdom?

    In some way, it actually is. It is, indeed, about Shell, and about Mutter. And even though “wisdom” is perhaps a bit of an overstatement, it is expected that whoever reads this blog doesn’t leave it less wise, so the word applies to a certain degree. Evidently, the Shell in question is composed of bits and bytes; its protection is more about the complexities of a kernel and command lines than sea predators, and the Mutter is actually more about compositing the desktop than barely audible uttering.

Distributions

• SUSE/OpenSUSE

  • SUSE welcomes cooperation of Open Invention Network, Linux Foundation, IBM and Microsoft in co-funding Unified Patent’s new Open Source Zone

    An eternal truth is that everything has its opposite for good and evil. Patents are no exception. In fact, even the simple word ‘Patent’ evokes much positive and negative emotion in today’s software world – particularly as news continues to circulate around baseless patent lawsuits by non-practicing entities (NPEs).
    But in news this week there is a bit of positive for a change. The positive news is the announcement of the efforts by Unified Patents to reduce NPE assertion of invalid patents in the open source software zone.

  • SC19: Empowering SUSE HPC customers with expanded options
    

    SC19, the International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage and Analysis is just around the corner. For SUSE, it’s a great opportunity to reconnect with customers and partners working in one of the sectors of our industry driving significant innovation in all aspects of computing.

    If I tried to succinctly define SUSE’s message at SC19, it would be: “As with any journey, who you travel with is more important than the destination”. In SUSE’s instance, customers and partners make up our travel companions. In this journey, the customer is in the driver’s seat and elects the destination. Our role at SUSE is to empower HPC customers with choice across processor and GPU platforms as well as delivery options (on-premise, cloud, or hybrid).

  • SUSE and Iguazio Break the Mold by Providing an Open Source Solution for Enterprise Data Science Teams

    The notions of collaborative innovation, openness and portability are driving enterprises to embrace open source technologies. Anyone can download and install Kubernetes, Jupyter, Spark, TensorFlow and Pytorch to run machine learning applications, but making these applications enterprise grade is a whole different story. Delivering enterprise grade applications involves scalability, high-performance, tuning, monitoring, security and automation of infrastructure tasks. It can take months and typically requires a large team of developers, data scientists and data engineers.

• Fedora Family

  • Stories from the amazing world of release-monitoring.org #8

    The evening wind was cold, but I protected myself by the fire spell. It was nice to sit outside and look at the whole release-monitoring.org realm in the sunset. One could see the beauty behind all this hard work and it’s ignites a nice feeling inside one’s heart. Lately I didn’t have much time to appreciate this beauty. To be honest I didn’t have much time to work on this realm in the last few months. But still some work was done even here.

    I heard the footsteps behind me. “Traveler, it’s nice to see you again. Do you want to join me?” Footsteps stopped beside me and my companion was looking at the sunset with me. “I suppose you are here to hear about the news from this world. I assure you there are many things I want to share with you. Just listen…”

• Debian Family

  • extrepo followup

    My announcement the other day has resulted in a small amount of feedback already (through various channels), and a few extra repositories to be added. There was, however, enough feedback (and the manner of it unstructured enough) that I think it’s time for a bit of a follow-up…

  • Debian 10 gets second point release with important security fixes

    Debian just got a lot more secure, all thanks to the latest second point update to buster. No matter how much you’re into the Linux or open-source world, maybe you never got a chance to try out Debian, and there’s nothing to be ashamed about that. Let FOSSLinux give you a brief intro to this operating system.

    Although Debian is a Linux-based, open-source operating system, much like its other contemporaries, what makes it unique is the fact that it comes with a wide array of pre-installed software aimed at people belonging to different walks of life. It’s the mother of popular distros like Ubuntu, Kali Linux, Tails, Purism, and more.

    Apart from that, you will also find other popular operating systems like Ubuntu and Kali Linux to be based on Debian. For those who weren’t keeping up with the recent developments in the Debian project, you can read more about its latest major release, Debian 10, by clicking here.

  • Debian 10.1 Buster review

    Debian has a reputation, somewhat deserved but no longer so accurate, of being way out of date in terms of software versions. A few years ago it had a huge gap in its release cycle, but things are much better these days.

    No, you won’t get the latest versions in the stable version, but that’s not what it is about. The main Debian tree is called stable for a reason: it remains relatively static rather than always chasing the latest versions. That makes administering a Debian system so much easier as you don’t have a continual stream of changes to deal with – to the point of being the difference between manageable and unmanageable with a large number of computers. So what is the latest release like?

• Canonical/Ubuntu Family

  • Ubuntu 20.04 Daily Builds Are Now Available to Download

    Freshly spun ISOs of what will go on to become Ubuntu’s next long-term support release (aka 20.04 LTS) will be produced every day from now until shortly before the final, stable release makes an appearance in April 2020.

    Prior to today (November 19, 2019) only “pending” live images had been available on the Ubuntu CD image server. Now ‘Current’ images — these are images that have passed a series of automated tests — are available.

    This is an important milestone in the development cycle.

    Many testers — do pop up in the comments if this includes you! — will install a ‘current’ daily build and ride it like a rolling release distro, installing any and all updates released to the Focal Fossa development as and when they arrive.

  • Adieu, 32

    The tenth month of the year arrives and so does a new Ubuntu 19.10 (Eoan Ermine) update. Is it a portent that this is the 31st release of Ubuntu and with the 32nd release next year, 32-bit x86 Ubuntu builds will end?

Devices/Embedded

• Centaur Tech Announces Eight-Core x86 SoC With AI Coprocessor

  VIA-owned Centaur Technology has finally announced their newest project past the decade old VIA Nano… Centaur Tech is rolling out an eight-core x86 SoC that features an integrated AI coprocessor.

• Bangle.js is an Hackable, Open Source JavaScript and TensorFlow-driven Smartwatch (Crowdfunding)

  Espruino brought JavasScript to the Microcontroller, now Bangle.js is bringing Javascript plus TensorFlow Lite to your smartwatch.

• Orange Pi 4/4B SBC Comes with Rockchip RK3399 SoC, Gyrfalcon 2801S NPU

  Shenzhen Xunlong Software’s Orange Pi RK3399 single board computer launched in early 2018 with 2GB RAM for $109, and earlier this year, the company launched an updated version with 4GB RAM…

• Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

  • 146 security flaws found in pre-loaded Android apps around the globe

  • 10 best apps for storing and monitoring your data

  • Android flaw allowed apps to take and upload pictures, some devices still vulnerable

  • Android flaw could let hackers do some clandestine photography

  • LG G8 Android 10 update for US unlocked & Amazon models enters beta

  • When Will Asus Zenfone Max Pro M1/M2 get Android 10 Updates?

  • Samsung may update Galaxy S8 to Android 10 after all

  • Nokia 6.2 vs Nokia 4.2: Which should you buy?

  • OnePlus 7T vs Google Pixel 4 XL: Who does Android BETTER?!

  • Google Confirms Android Camera Security Threat: ‘Hundreds Of Millions’ Of Users Affected

  • Google & Samsung fix Android spying flaw. Other makers may still be vulnerable

  • Google’s RCS texting is like iMessage for Android. Here’s how you use it

  • Top iPhone & Android Smartphone Black Friday Deals (2019): List of Early Pixel 4, iPhone 11, Galaxy S10 & More Android Cell Phone Sales Compared by Spending Lab

  • Awesome phone photography: How to take great-looking pictures on iPhone or Android

  • How to connect a PS4 or Xbox One controller to your Android phone [Video]

  • Chrome for Android has just solved one of the web’s most irritating problems

  • Samsung pushes another Android 10 beta for the Galaxy S10 series

  • Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Pro will get Android 10 any moment now

  • PewDiePie’s Pixelings Can Now Be Downloaded On iPhone And Android

  • Android and iOS users warned they will soon lose access to this popular app

  • Android warning: 146 dangerous new vulnerabilities unmasked, is YOUR phone safe?

  • Nintendo releases fix for Mario Kart Tour Android crash issue

  • OnePlus 7T vs. OnePlus 7T Pro: Which should you buy?

  • Supreme Court to hear Oracle-Google suit over Android

  • Google’s Android version of iMessage is here — But there’s a catch

  • How to watch Apple TV+ on your Android phone

  • How to force Android TV’s new Google Play Store redesign on your device

  • Amazon Music launches free, ad-sponsored tier on iOS, Android, and Fire TV

  • [Update: Stable Android Pie update coming soon] Xiaomi is recruiting testers for the Mi TV 4A’s Android Pie update

  • Samsung confirms Galaxy Note 9 update to Android 10

  • Early Galaxy A11 details show that it will ship with Android 10

  • These Sony smartphones will receive Android 10 update: All you need to know

  • Step to fix an app that keeps crashing on Android

  • Best phones of 2019: iPhone, Samsung, Nokia, Android, Pixel…

  • Sailfish X for Sony Xperia 10 now available

    Today we are happy to announce the availability of Sailfish X for Sony Xperia 10. We also introduce a campaign giving all existing Sailfish customers a nice offer on the Sailfish X licence for Xperia 10, and for other devices.

    As the latest additions to the Sailfish X product family, the Xperia 10 and Xperia 10 Plus have been reviewed as good value-for-money devices with eye-catching 6 and 6.5-inch 21:9 displays, and premium build quality. The devices are also the first Sailfish devices to come with user data encryption enabled by default. We think they’re great devices and we think you’ll love them too.

    The Xperia 10 and Xperia 10 Plus can fully utilise all the latest features and updates in the recently announced Sailfish OS 3.2.0 Torronsuo release, including the latest hardware adaptation support updates, the enhanced security features, the latest Android App Support and more.

Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

• Events

  • Linux Plumbers Conference: Linux Plumbers Conference 2019 videos are now available

    Following up on our previous post, and as many of you have already noticed, the LPC 2019 videos have now been uploaded to our YouTube channel.

    Over the coming days the LPC committee will be updating the 2019 site to incorporate links to the videos. At the same time, we will be getting ready to launch the 2020 site as well.

  • Audio Miniconf 2019 Report

    Daniel Baluta then started some discussion of topics related to Sound Open Firmware (slides). The first was issues with loading firmware before the filesystems are ready, we agreed that this can be resolved through the use of the _nowait() APIs. More difficult was resolving how to deal with card initialization. Currently the only complete in-tree users are x86 based so have to deal with the problems with the incomplete firmware descriptions provided by ACPI, there’s nothing standards based like we have for device tree systems, and assumptions about that have crept into how the code works. It’s going to take a bunch of work to implement but we came to a reasonable understanding of how this should work, with the DSP represented as a device in the device tree and bound to the card like any other component.

    Continuing on the DSP theme Patrick Lai then lead a discussion of gapless playback with format switches, we agreed that allowing set_params() to be called multiple times on a single stream when the driver could support it was the most sensible approach. The topic of associating controls with PCM streams was also discussed, there are some old APIs for this but so little hardware has implemented them that we agreed that a convention for control names based on the stream names was probably easier to support with current userspace software.

• Web Browsers

  • Mozilla

    • Updates to the Mozilla Web Security Bounty Program

      Mozilla was one of the first companies to establish a bug bounty program and we continually adjust it so that it stays as relevant now as it always has been. To celebrate the 15 years of the 1.0 release of Firefox, we are making significant enhancements to the web bug bounty program.

    • Creating UI Extensions for WebThings Gateway

      Version 0.10 of Mozilla’s WebThings Gateway brings support for extension-type add-ons. Released last week, this powerful new capability lets developers modify the user interface (UI) to their liking with JavaScript and CSS.

      Although the initial set of extension APIs is fairly minimal, we believe that they will already enable a large amount of functionality. To go along with the UI extensions, developers can also extend the gateway’s REST API with their own handlers, allowing for back-end analytics, for example.

      In this post, we’ll walk through a simple example to get you started with building your own extension.

    • GeckoView + Glean = Fenix performance metrics

      This week in Glean we tell a tale of components, design, performance and ponies (I promise!): how to bridge different telemetry worlds, with different semantics and principles? How can we get the data to answer the question “is Fenix loading pages faster or slower compared to Fennec”?

      [...]

      In Fennec a legacy telemetry system was in place: Telemetry was tightly coupled with both Gecko and the product. In Fenix, we had the opportunity to introduce Glean, a modern telemetry framework by Mozilla that encourages lean data practices. Glean comes with an SDK that provides a variety of tools for engineers to measure timespans, timing distributions, counts and so on in contrast with Telemetry which offered lower level facilities such as histograms and scalars. Moreover, the Glean SDK defines a few pings out of the box, with the ‘metrics’ ping containing the bulk of metrics being sent only once per day.

• Linux Foundation

  • AT&T Finally Opens Up dNOS “DANOS” Network Operating System Code

    One and a half years late, the “DANOS” (known formerly as “dNOS”) network operating system is now open-source under the Linux Foundation.

    AT&T and the Linux Foundation originally announced their plan in early 2018 wish pushing for this network operating system to be used on more mobile infrastructure. At the time they expected it to happen in H2’2018, but finally on 15 November 2019 the goal came to fruition.

• SaaS/Back End/Databases

  • Redis Labs eases database management with RedisInsight

    The robust market of tools to help users of the Redis database manage their systems just got a new entrant.

    Redis Labs disclosed the availability of its RedisInsight tool, a graphical user interface (GUI) for database management and operations.

    Redis is a popular open source NoSQL database that is also increasingly being used in cloud-native Kubernetes deployments as users move workloads to the cloud. Open source database use is growing quickly according to recent reports as the need for flexible, open systems to meet different needs has become a common requirement.

    Among the challenges often associated with databases of any type is ease of management, which Redis is trying to address with RedisInsight.

• CMS

  • WordPress 5.2.4 Update

    Late-breaking news on the 5.2.4 short-cycle security release that landed October 14. When we released the news post, I inadvertently missed giving props to Simon Scannell of RIPS Technologies for finding and disclosing an issue where path traversal can lead to remote code execution.

    Simon has done a great deal of work on the WordPress project, and failing to mention his contributions is a huge oversight on our end.

    Thank you to all of the reporters for privately disclosing vulnerabilities, which gave us time to fix them before WordPress sites could be attacked.

• Programming/Development

  • Lesson 101: Everything You Need To Learn About Programming Guidance

    This era has witnessed how far technology can go, and at present, it seems to be ruling all. Technology plays a significant role when it comes to innovations and a remarkable portion of such creations deal with software.
    Software development is mainly based on programming, and thus, it has become an exciting topic. Since a significant portion of technology revolves around programming, every student should at least have a basic concept regarding the same. However, many are willing to gain in-depth knowledge. Either way, there are some essential aspects everyone should be aware of before proceeding with the subject.

  • Generate random passwords with this Bash script

  • Excellent Free Tutorials to Learn Java

  • Mike Hommey: Five years of git-cinnabar

    On this very day five years ago, I committed the initial code of what later became git-cinnabar. It is kind of an artificial anniversary, because I didn’t actually publish anything until 3 weeks later, and I also had some prototypes months earlier.

    The earlier prototypes of what I’ll call “pre-git-cinnabar” could handle doing git clone hg::https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central (that is, creating a git clone of a Mercurial repository), but they couldn’t git pull later. That pre-git-cinnabar initial commit, however, was the first version that did.

    The state of the art back then was similar git helpers, the most popular choice being Felipec’s git-remote-hg, or the opposite tool: hg-git, a mercurial plugin that allows to push to a git repository.

    They both had the same caveats: they were slow to handle a repository the size of mozilla-central back then, and both required a local mercurial repository (hidden in the .git directory in the case of Felipec’s git-remote-hg).

  • Top 10 Vim plugins for programming in multiple languages

    Recently, when I was redoing my setup (as I do every so often), I decided it was a good opportunity to identify the best Vim plugins for programming in multiple languages and a way to combine those plugins for each language I program in.

    I do use certain plugins for specific languages and profiles (e.g., I only install Rocannon in my Ansible profile), and I won’t go into those here—that would be a long list. But the 10 Vim plugins described below are my favorites, the ones I use in virtually every profile I have, no matter what programming language I’m using.

  • teach your kids to build their own game with Python – 1

    I used to be a coding trainer few months ago. Our students were former street kids coming from under-privileged societies. You can imagine the lack of education they had. As a teacher there, I had to make my lessons fun and easy for them to grasp, so I would often use games to do so. I was going through my old files and I found this lesson plan I wrote to teach the kids how to build the famous game Space Invaders. At the beginning it seemed an impossible mission, but they actually loved it and got to love coding because of it!

    Anywho, with no further details, I am going to share this lesson in three posts here. today is the first, hoping that any beginner or parent would find it helpful.

  • p2k19 Hackathon Report: Jeremy Evans on PostgreSQL and Ruby

    I started off by preparing an update to PostgreSQL 12. This involved updating a bunch of ports that depend on PostgreSQL. Thankfully, the PostgreSQL 12 update was a little easier than the PostgreSQL 11 update, and didn’t take as much time. Now that PostgreSQL 12.1 has been released, this update should hopefully be committed to the ports tree soon.

  • Book review – Supercharged Python, by Brian Overland and John Bennet

    If you have been following beginner or even intermediate guides on Python and are starting to feel the need for more advanced learning, this book may be the one you have been looking for.

    According to the authors, this book was written for those who already know the basics of Python, but want to deepen their knowledge and skills. While being targeted to people who already know the fundamentals of Python, it still includes a quick review in the first chapter. It goes briefly through the usual stuff, like variables, operators, data types, basic I/O, if/else, while, for, function definitions and arguments, lists, tuples, dictionaries, sets, and the distinction between global and local variables. This initial chapter is presented as being an optional reading, as its contents are pretty basic, but the authors recommend that the reader takes a minute or so on the last to pages, which cover the global statement.

  • New book: Retro Gaming with Raspberry Pi

    Raspberry Pi Press is delighted to announce the release of the latest addition to your bookshelf: Retro Gaming with Raspberry Pi!

  • 2019.46 Guidance

    Naoum Hankache has taken the famous perl6intro.com website, which currently provides the same introduction in 13 different languages, to the Raku era at https://raku.guide (/r/rakulang comments). So if your native language is Bulgarian, Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, Russian or Turkish, you can learn the basics about the Raku Programming Language in your native language!

Health/Nutrition

• ‘Just Not a Serious Opinion in 2019′: Critics Pan Joe Biden Claim That Marijuana Is a Gateway Drug

  “Perpetuating unsubstantiated theories like this hurts people.”

• What Could Happen if a $9.4 Billion Chemical Plant Comes to “Cancer Alley”

  One evening in early July, a stream of people filed into a nondescript building on a bend of the Mississippi River in St. James Parish to fight over the permits to build a new chemical plant.

  Four years earlier, the Taiwanese plastics company Formosa had applied to build a $9.4 billion petrochemical complex about 20 miles north. If approved, it would be one of the largest and most expensive industrial projects in the state’s history.

• US Isolated at ‘Failed’ Anti-Abortion Summit in Nairobi

  US representatives found themselves isolated at a “failed” counter-summit, organised by religious conservative groups, to protest against the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD25) in Nairobi this week.

Security (Confidentiality/Integrity/Availabilitiy)

• Russian programmer claims he hacked Wi-Fi on popular high-speed train in 20 minutes, gaining access to passenger data

  On the technology-oriented social site Habr, an individual writing under the username keklick1337 has claimed that he was able to hack into the public Wi-Fi network provided on a popular high-speed Russian rail route, gaining access to a database of passenger data. The user boarded a Sapsan train from St. Petersburg to Moscow and subsequently decided to try hacking its wireless network out of boredom, he wrote.

• White hat hackers in China hack Chrome, Edge and Safari for Tianfu Cup
  

  Over the weekend, a number of participating teams hacked into some of the world’s most popular web browsers, Wi-Fi routers and other software. The hackers tested vulnerabilities hidden in several popular apps, including Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Apple’s Safari. Participants also found vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office 365 and Adobe PDF Reader.

  The event concluded with the team 360Vulcan emerging as the leader. The team won a total bounty of $382,500 (Approx. Rs. 2,74,80,000) by exploiting vulnerabilities in Microsoft Edge, Adobe PDF Reader, MS Office 365, qemu+Ubuntu, and VMWare Workstation.

• Major browsers Chrome, Safari, and Edge are easily hacked on day 1 of hacking contest

  Some of the world’s leading browsers made by some of the world’s biggest tech companies have been hacked in record time by computer security experts competing China’s Tianfu Cup.

  The hackfest, established as an alternative to its Western counterpart, Pwn2Own, puts software and devices to the test as researchers look for Zero-day bugs – unfixed vulnerabilities that can be exploited by bad actors.

• Security updates for Tuesday

  Security updates have been issued by Debian (python-psutil, slurm-llnl, symfony, and thunderbird), Fedora (gd and ghostscript), and SUSE (ceph, haproxy, java-11-openjdk, and ncurses).

• NextCry Ransomware Goes After Linux Servers [Ed: This exploits already-compromised (unpatched) servers]

• NextCry Ransomware Encrypts Files On NextCloud Linux Servers

  The ransomware gets its name from the extension it uses to append the file names of encrypted files. There is no free decryption tool available for NextCry victims at the moment and it remains undetected by the majority of antivirus engines on public scanning platforms.

• Coin Stealer Found in Monero Linux Binaries From Official Site [Ed: The news isn't about Linux but about a compromised site]

Defence/Aggression

• America’s Arms Sales Addiction

  It’s no secret that Donald Trump is one of the most aggressive arms salesmen in history. How do we know? Because he tells us so at every conceivable opportunity. It started with his much exaggerated “$110 billion arms deal” with Saudi Arabia, announced on his first foreign trip as president.

• Campus Under Siege as Hong Kong Police Battle Protesters

  As night fell on Hong Kong, police tightened their siege of a university campus where hundreds of protesters were trapped in the latest dramatic episode in months of protests against growing Chinese control over the semi-autonomous city.

• Iran: Economic Blockade and Crowd Protests Were Also How the US Made the 1953 Coup

  The crowd protests that grew to affect 100 cities over the weekend in Iran were sparked by the government increasing the price of gasoline by as much as 3 times overnight.But the underlying discontents with the government have been caused by a sinking economy, expected to shrink by 9% this year.

• North Korea Says It Won’t Give Trump a Summit for Free

  North Korea on Monday responded to a tweet by U.S. President Donald Trump that hinted at another summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, saying it has no interest in giving Trump further meetings to brag about unless it gets something substantial in return.

• New Effort to Curb Explosive Weapons

  Governments should make a commitment to protect civilians from the harmful impacts of explosive weapons used in towns and cities during conflicts, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today at a diplomatic conference in Geneva.

• Incendiary Weapons Draw Widespread Condemnation

  Incendiary weapons drew widespread condemnation at last week’s annual meeting of the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW), but interventions by Russia and the United States will keep the issue off the agenda next year.

• Ending Endless War From the Right

  They sure didn’t look the part. These weren’t a bunch of stereotypical hippie peaceniks. As I surveyed the room in the beautiful DC brownstone which hosted the BringOurTroopsHome.us opening night reception, I saw well-built, well-dressed men and women, many still sporting military-style haircuts (though often with a well-groomed beard). Instead of tie-dye shirts, I spied some flag-lapel pins, a few Trump 2020 ball caps, and even a big old cowboy hat. Yet all these relatively young combat veterans were gathered in the nation’s capital last week with a common cause: ending America’s endless wars! The very wars, of course, that they had fought, the wars they could still smell, the wars that killed their friends.

• UN watchdog report says Iran exceeds heavy-water limit under nuclear pact

  Iran has breached another limit in its nuclear deal with major powers by accumulating slightly more than 130 tonnes of heavy water, a substance used in a type of reactor it is developing, a UN nuclear watchdog report showed on Monday.

• Secret US Intelligence Files Provide History’s Verdict on Argentina’s Dirty War

  This past spring, nearly 42 years after Hidalgo Solá’s disappearance, the Trump administration declassified some 47,000 pages of secret US intelligence files on the “Dirty War” that Argentina’s military government waged against its own people. More than 7,000 CIA, FBI, Pentagon, and National Security Council (NSC) records—now posted on a specially created US government website at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence—shed considerable light on the state of terror that existed in Argentina from 1976 to 1983, when the military held power. The detailed documents provide extensive new evidence on the infrastructure of repression, Argentina’s role in the international terrorism campaign known as Operation Condor, and most important, the fate of hundreds of desaparecidos who were kidnapped, tortured, and murdered—among them Hidalgo Solá.

• Saudi-led coalition says Yemen’s Houthis seize ship in Red Sea

  South Korea said two of its vessels were captured, a tug boat and a sand dredger, each of which had one South Korean national was on board.

  Four other crew members of unknown nationalities were also on board, the South Korean foreign ministry said in a statement.

  Both vessels were owned by South Korean builder Woongjin Development, a company official told Reuters.

Transparency/Investigative Reporting

• Sweden Pushes On With Assange ‘Investigation,’ Won’t Address UN Torture Rapporteur’s Concerns

  United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture Nils Melzer, who raised specific concerns related to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s case, has grown increasingly frustrated as the government of Sweden refuses to answer his questions.

  Melzer wrote letters in May and in September. In response to his most recent letter, which alleged violations of due process and human rights, Swedish officials wrote, “The government has no further observations to make.”

• The Roger Stone – Wikileaks – Russia Hoax

  As ever, the Guardian wins the prize for the most tendentious reporting of Roger Stone’s conviction. This is not quite on the scale of its massive front page lie that Paul Manafort visited Julian Assange in the Ecuadorean Embassy. But it is a lie with precisely the same intent, to deceive the public into believing there were links between Wikileaks and the Trump campaign. There were no such links.

• Sweden Drops Investigation of Julian Assange

  From the outset of this preliminary investigation, Julian Assange’s expressed concern has been that waiting in the wings was a United States request that would be unstoppable from Sweden and result in his spending the rest of his life in a US prison.

  Now that the US does seek Mr Assange’s extradition to stand trial on unprecedented charges for journalistic work, it continues to be a matter of extreme regret that this reality was never acknowledged and that in turn a process in Sweden, with which Mr Assange has always expressed his willingness to engage and indeed did so, became so exceptionally politicised itself.

  The US is seeking a 175-year prison sentence. Sweden has to date failed to give assurances it will block Mr Assange’s US extradition.

  The UN has investigated the procedural history of the Swedish “preliminary investigation” against Assange. The conclusions are clear. The matter became rapidly politicised and there has been no prospect for a fair hearing for many years. An investigation into how the justice system failed to withstand the political and media pressure and lessons learned should be pursued.

Environment

• Drones That Do the Work of 500 Farmers Are Transforming Palm Oil

  “We monitor satellite images twice a day and if there are any hot-spots near our boundaries, we’ll alert the plantation to take action,” said Narayanan Ramanathan, Genting’s senior vice president of plantation advisory. “If it’s too far away and we can’t access it by road, we’ll send a drone to check.”

  With oil-palm plantations spread across some 22.3 million hectares (86,100 square miles) of Malaysia and Indonesia — an area almost the size of the U.K., the industry represents fertile ground for drone sales.

• Introducing Climategate @ 10

  10 years on, this five-part series looks back at the key players that manufactured the scandal that came to be known as ‘Climategate’:

• How an Old Law Is Helping Fight New Plastic Problems

• Scientists’ climate gap is narrowing

  A poll shows scientists’ climate gap is shrinking − between their work on climate change and their own response to it..

• A New Silence

  On a recent weekend there were worldwide, youth-led strikes involving millions of people, against climate change. Some residents of the San Joaquin Valley, the worst air-quality zone in the nation, were discussing it around the kitchen table of Lydia Miller, president of the San Joaquin Raptor Rescue Center, who began speaking of the obvious loss of wildlife in the Valley.

• Driven by Anti-Science Agenda, Trump Agencies Defying Mandate to Save Endangered Species From Climate Risk

  “The window to act is narrowing.”

• Russian environmental activists and inflatable orca kayak past Kremlin in protest action

• How to Save the Planet and Ourselves

  If you read only one book this year, it should be Roger Hallam’s “Common Sense for the 21st Century: Only Nonviolent Rebellion Can Now Stop Climate Breakdown and Social Collapse.”

• ‘Time Is Up’: Campaigners Occupy Pelosi’s Office, Launch Global Hunger Strike for Climate Action

  “Meet with us or leave us to starve while you jet to your Thanksgiving feasts and cocktail parties in the glow of a burning world.”

• Energy

  • Major Victory as EIB Ends Fossil Fuel Financing by 2021

    As climate wins go this has been a long time coming but it is also a big one.

  • Big Oil Needs to Pay for the Damage It Caused

    This month in a Manhattan courthouse, New York State’s attorney general Letitia James argued that ExxonMobil should be held accountable for layers of lies about climate change. It’s a landmark moment—one of the  first times that Big Oil is having to answer for its actions—and James deserves great credit for bringing it to trial.

• Wildlife/Nature

  • Fueling Concerns of Approaching Catastrophic ‘Tipping Point,’ Deforestation of Brazilian Amazon Hit Highest Level in Decade

    “These figures confirm what we feared, namely that 2019 has been a dark year for the rainforest in Brazil.”

  • The Future of Wilderness Under Trump: Recreation or Wreckreation?

    Many wilderness advocates, scientists, and public land experts and professionals have recognized, for decades now, the growing problem of too much recreation use in Wilderness. Howard Zahniser, the Wilderness Act’s author, recognized the purpose of the Wilderness Act is to protect Wilderness, not establish any particular use. As far back as 1956 he warned the threat “from development for recreation,” which applies to overbuilt trails, unnecessary bridges, and other “improvements” made in Wilderness in response to demands from recreationalists. Thus, he emphasized the need for restraint in our dealing with Wilderness.

Finance

• Chief Justice Orders Delay in House Fight for Trump Financial Records

  Chief Justice John Roberts is ordering an indefinite delay in the House of Representatives’ demand for President Donald Trump’s financial records to give the Supreme Court time to figure out how to handle the high-stakes dispute.

• Yes, Something Stinks about the State Takeover of the Houston Independent School District

  A trio of activists on behalf of public schools wrote a blistering critique of the pending state takeover of the Houston Independent School District, based on the failure of ONE high school that has an unusually high proportion of students who are poor and have disabilities.

• New Jersey Political Boss Defends Tax Breaks, Denounces “King George” Critics

  The influential New Jersey businessman at the center of an investigation into the state’s troubled tax-incentive program appeared on Monday before state legislators, rebuffing allegations of corruption and defending the hundreds of millions of dollars in incentives to him and his business partners.

  Facing a panel of friendly lawmakers and a room of boisterous demonstrators, George E. Norcross III said the tax breaks had laid the groundwork for a “rapid and stunning renaissance” in Camden, the South Jersey city where he was born and where he built himself into the most powerful unelected figure in state politics.

• US: Approve Bill to Curb Money Laundering

  The United States Senate should pass a proposed law that would provide law enforcement a crucial tool for stemming corruption and advancing human rights, 10 human rights organizations said in a letter to senators today. 

• Amazon will pay $0 in taxes on $11,200,000,000 in profit for 2018

  While some people have received some surprise tax bills when filing their returns, corporations continue to avoid paying tax — thanks to a cocktail of tax credits, loopholes, and exemptions.

  According to a report from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), Amazon (AMZN) will pay nothing in federal income taxes for the second year in a row.

  Thanks to the new Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), Amazon’s federal tax responsibility is 21% (down from 35% in previous years). But with the help of tax breaks, according to corporate filings, Amazon won’t be paying a dime to Uncle Sam despite posting more than $11.2 billion in profits in 2018.

  How is that possible?

  [...]

  “This is another situation where the rhetoric from President Trump is completely divorced from what he does and what his policies do,” explained Wamhoff. “The part about cutting corporate tax rate was true. And they eliminated some corporate tax rates but not all.”

  He added: “The corporate tax revenue was a big loser. We aren’t going to see corporations suddenly paying more. We see that in the case of Amazon.”

  Declining tax revenue has only widened deficits, as national debt has ballooned up and over $22 trillion.

• Massive Hack Strikes Offshore Cayman National Bank and Trust

  A blast of sunshine has hit a secretive banking network used by global ultra-wealthy figures following a massive hack by “Phineas Fisher“, a notorious self-described “hacktivist”, of Cayman National Bank and Trust, which serves nearly 1,500 accounts in Isle of Man. Transparency collective Distributed Denial of Secrets has began publishing copies of the bank’s servers, a cache of documents as well as communications among bankers and others. Journalists around the world are investigating and have begun releasing stories.

  Following the hack, a manifesto was uploaded to the Internet addressing the motivation for hacking financial services companies. Unicorn Riot has embedded the manifesto below which includes previously unpublished code which the author claims was used to break into “Hacking Team” an Italian surveillance company. Hacking Team was an elite corporation that specialized in developing malware until Phineas Fisher hacked them and published their code online. The malware developed by Hacking Team was often used to attack journalists and activists on behalf of repressive governments .

  Unicorn Riot has obtained the small HackBack announcement text released exclusively in Spanish, described as “Desde las montañas del Sureste Cibernético” (‘From the mountains of the Cyber Southeast’). It bills itself as a “HackBack” DIY guide for “Una guía DIY para robar bancos” (‘A DIY guide for robbing banks.’) The announcement begins with a tongue-in-cheek dedication to “Subcowmandante Marcos” with an ASCII text-styled pipe-smoking cow referring to former Zapatista spokesperson Subcomandante Marcos.

AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

• Trump Sycophant Jon Voight to Receive National Medal of Arts

  Jon Voight thinks Donald Trump is “the greatest president since Abraham Lincoln,” which is probably reason enough for the praise-hungry president to give the star of movies like “Midnight Cowboy,” “Coming Home” and “Deliverance” the National Medal of Arts. Once an annual tradition, Trump hasn’t found anyone he deems sufficiently worthy (or sufficiently worshipful), since his 2017 inauguration, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

• Trump’s Child Separation Policy “Absolutely” Violated International Law Says UN Expert

  The way the Trump administration was “separating infants from their families only in order to deter irregular migration from Central America to the United States of America, for me, constitutes inhuman and degrading treatment.”

• House Impeachment Investigators Probing Whether Trump Lied to Mueller

  “The House is trying to determine whether the current president should remain in office. This is unbelievably serious and it’s happening right now, very fast.”

• Deputy head of Russia’s penitentiary system reportedly resigns after criticizing press policy changes

  Valery Maximenko, the deputy head of Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN), has reportedly submitted a resignation letter. The outlets Daily Storm and RBC both learned of the resignation from anonymous sources and said it was related to the arrival of a new director, Alexander Kalashnikov, at FSIN.

• ‘Fear of Victory’ for Sanders or Warren in 2020 Driving Bloomberg and Patrick Bids, Say Progressive Critics

  “There’s clearly anxiety from parts of the Democratic Party establishment and donor class about becoming a party that is unapologetic about taking on oligarchs, whether they’re Donald Trump or Jeff Bezos.”

• Fighting Corruption Worldwide

• The Fall of the Berlin Wall, Shock Therapy and the Rise of Trump

  The Berlin Wall fell 30 years ago. It was one of the few unambiguously joyous moments in modern history. This popular, nonviolent explosion of dissent effectively toppled East Germany’s despotic regime. And it signaled, if only symbolically, the end of the Cold War that had divided Europe for nearly half a century.

• Another Death Penalty Horror: Stark Disparities in Media and Activist Attention

  On November 12, intrepid abolitionist Sister Helen Prejean tweeted to her legions of followers: “What do Sen. Ted Cruz, Gigi Hadid, Kim Kardashian, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, and me all have in common? We’re among a growing local and national movement asking Texas @GovAbbott to stop the scheduled Nov. 20 execution of #RodneyReed[.]”

• Stefanik Stands By Her Man and Roger Stone Gets Convicted on All Counts: Impeachment Day Two

  The myth that the United States is a nation of laws provides the context for Friday’s hearings, if not for the entire process. The most obvious irony is that this occurs while lawless acts by the president of this nation of laws are being discussed. It is the trumpist belief that Trump either did nothing illegal or that even if he did, it doesn’t matter because he is president, As this process moves forward, it becomes clearer that many trumpists have little understanding of what is illegal. This is more than apparent just in their demands to name the whistleblower, which would be a blatant violation of the law should someone do so. Never mind their obfuscation of the particulars in Trump and Giuliani’s actions. Or, as far as the US government goes, the criminality of its foreign policy. The question in the Capitol is not, nor will it likely ever be, a question of who the nation’s laws serve. However, how those laws are enforced will become clearer as the process continues. If Trump and his co-conspirators get away with this, then it will certainly be clear who the nation’s laws do not apply to.

• #SayHerName, Impeachment, and a Hawk

  I was thinking about impeachment when a bird fell out of the sky.

• Andrew Yang’s Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Tech Policy

  Andrew Yang has been a bit of a surprise Presidential candidate this year, and is often described as a former “tech exec” or “Silicon Valley’s presidential candidate”. The “tech exec” claim seems a bit exaggerated, as he was a lawyer, and then ran a test prep company before a non-profit. Still, he got lots of attention for being a bit wonky and at least speaking the language of tech. His main claim to fame has been to support Universal Basic Income of $1,000/month which is a popular idea here in Silicon Valley.

• American Oblivion

  Nearly two hundred years ago the Russian diplomat and poet Fyodor Tyuchev wrote a poem that helps describe how Donald Trump and his associates impact all of life. The poem “The Vision (Videnie)” (1828) begins with four lines about a starry night when “the living chariot of the universe rolls openly into the sanctuary of the heavens.” But then the “night thickens, like chaos on the waters, and oblivion, like Atlas, crushes the earth [Bespamiatstvo, kak Atlas, davit sushu].” President Trump and many of his associates display ingrained habits of deception as well as bespamiatstvo—literally “without memory” or oblivion, the “state of being forgotten.” Tyutchev offers an apt description for the effect upon us of the flagrant deceptions of Trump and his team. A blizzard of lies, falling incessantly upon the public discourse and infecting our imaginations, makes truth itself a suspect. Bespamiatstvo threatens to crush and obliterate all that is sharp and clear in our minds.

• U.S. Angers Palestinians With Reversal on Israeli Settlements

  The Trump administration on Monday softened the U.S. position on Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, reversing four decades of American policy and further undermining the effort to gain Palestinian statehood.

• Trump ‘Pandering to His Extremist Base’ on Israeli Settlements, Says Bernie Sanders

  Sanders was one of a number of critics who saw the Monday announcement that the White House won’t treat the settlements as illegal as another attack on the Palestinian people. 

• ‘There Is No More Two-State Solution’: Trump Administration to Further Soften Opposition to West Bank Settlements

  “How the hell is it possible for the U.S. policy to be any softer?”

• Michael Lynk’s UN Report on Israeli Settlements Speaks the Truth, But the World Refuses to Listen

  He’s a very tall man with bright eyes and a broad smile, and he holds out a great paw when he greets you. But Michael Lynk is no gentle giant.

• Unpacking Media Propaganda About Bolivia’s Election

  To endorse the coup in Bolivia, numerous editorials in major US media outlets paint President Evo Morales as undemocratic. Exhibit A in their case is the Organization of American States’ (OAS) claims that there was fraud in the October 20 Bolivian election in which Morales was elected for a fourth term. They also argue that he should not have been allowed to run again in the first place.

• Whose News Literacy?

  In schools and campuses across the country, tens of thousands of students are in the midst of media and news literacy courses.

• Klobuchar unveils plan to secure elections as president

  In her plan, Klobuchar, who is a longtime advocate in the Senate for election security efforts, zeroed in on improving the transparency of political ads on social media, combating disinformation, and promoting cybersecurity.

  Key parts of the strategy include Klobuchar’s intention to issue an executive order that would bolster government-wide cybersecurity efforts, and launch a “cabinet-level taskforce” that would coordinate across federal agencies and with state and local governments to better address cyber threats to elections.

  Klobuchar would also require states to use paper ballots as a way to prevent cyber tampering with the vote, and set “strong cybersecurity standards” for voting infrastructure.

Censorship/Free Speech

• Ramzan Kadyrov says he was merely articulating Chechen ethics when he advocated the murder of ‘Internet gossips’ earlier this month

  Ramzan Kadyrov, the head of Russia’s Chechen Republic, has offered a public explanation of a speech he made earlier this month, where he advocated the murder, imprisonment, and harassment of people who “spread rumors” online. While visiting a construction site in Grozny, Kadyrov spoke in Chechen in an interview aired on local state television. The website Caucasian Knot later published a translation into Russian.

• Why Iran shut down the [Internet] this weekend

  The government shut down [Internet] access across the nation of 80 million people to staunch demonstrations that took place in a reported 100 cities and towns. That made it increasingly difficult to gauge whether unrest continued. Images published by state and semiofficial media showed the scale of the damage in images of burned gas stations and banks, torched vehicles and roadways littered with debris.

• Iran Blocks Internet for 3rd Day as Death Toll From Protests Rises to Eight

  “This is essentially a near-total blackout,” Alp Toker said. “There are a few ([Internet]) routes out (of the country), but these are very technical right now, so it’s not practical to circumvent these measures for most people.” Toker said some technically savvy Iranians might be able to get web access using a fixed line or broadband connection rather than a mobile device.

  The [Internet] outage has made it difficult for Iranians to share protest images and information with each other and the outside world. The demonstrations erupted in response to the government abruptly raising the subsidized price of gas by 50% early Friday.

• Democrats are not “censoring” Donald Trump — his increasingly desperate staff is doing that

  Except for maybe one person’s attention. The obvious purpose is to keep Trump busy so he doesn’t get into trouble, a management style familiar to any parent of toddlers. Frankly, it’s a smart move, as Trump’s behavior last Friday showed. Even on Fox Business, which has been fiercely pro-Trump, a host cracked and said that his Twitter behavior “makes him look like a big dumb baby” and draws more attention to the hearings than if he could just sit still with his coloring book like a big boy.

Privacy/Surveillance

• Supreme Court’s Warrant Requirement For Cell Site Location Info Apparently Killed Another Domestic Surveillance Program

  Oh, guess what? The NSA has ended another third party data collection — one it hopefully ended right after the Supreme Court’s Carpenter decision was released. Spencer Ackerman fills in the details at the Daily Beast.

• France embraces facial recognition tech

  Civil rights groups worry France is taking a step toward a surveillance state. It is about to become the first European Union country to introduce facial recognition software for government services.

• Inside Facebook’s efforts to stop revenge porn before it spreads

  In November 2017, Facebook launched a pilot in Australia inviting users to pre-emptively send the company their nude or intimate images. The idea was that Facebook could then block any attempts to distribute those images on the platform without the subject’s consent.

• Facebook’s Anti-Revenge Porn Tools Failed to Protect Katie Hill

  Later that year, Facebook piloted a program in which anyone could securely share their nude photos with Facebook to preemptively hash and automatically block. At the time, the proposal was met with some incredulity, but the company says it received positive feedback from victims and announced the program’s expansion in March. The same day, Facebook also said that it would deploy machine learning and artificial intelligence to proactively detect near-nude images being shared without permission, which could help protect people who aren’t aware their photos leaked or aren’t able to report it. (Facebook’s policy against nonconsensual porn extends to outside links where photos are published, but a spokesperson says that those instances usually have to be reported and reviewed first.) The company now has a team of about 25 dedicated to the problem, according to a report by NBC News published Monday.

• Senate Democrats unveil priorities for federal privacy bill

  Legislation built on the Democrats’ stated priorities would limit how much sensitive information tech companies are allowed to collect on their millions of U.S. users, require companies to audit whether their algorithms result in unintended discrimination against minorities and vulnerable populations, and allow users to sue companies that do not protect their privacy rights.

• Democrats request info on Google-Ascension partnership

  Four Democratic leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Monday sent letters to Google and Ascension requesting briefings and information related to the search giant’s partnership with the health system.

  The committee chair and heads of three relevant subcommittees requested briefings on the data partnership, codenamed project Nightingale, by Dec. 6.

Civil Rights/Policing

• Twenty free climbers reportedly fight security guards on roof of Moscow skyscraper

  A brawl broke out November 18 on the roof of Empire, formerly the Imperia Tower, in the Moscow skyscraper cluster Moskva-City. A source within the Russian capital’s law enforcement apparatus told TASS that 20 free climbers and a group of security guards were involved in the fight.

• Russian lawmakers add amendment on ‘harassment’ to draft legislation against domestic violence

  Federal lawmakers developing legislation that would introduce a formal concept of domestic violence in Russia have reportedly added language concerning harassment. The amendments will be reflected in the final version of the bill that will be submitted to the State Duma, co-author Oksana Pushkina told the website RBC.

• Protestors Massacred in Post-Coup Bolivia

• ‘Pinochet-Style Dictatorship’: Bolivia’s Coup Government Threatens to Arrest Leftist Lawmakers and Journalists

  “Bolivia is living through a violent, regressive, completely undemocratic power grab. All governments must sever relations with this illegal regime.”

• The Eighteenth Brumaire of Macho Camacho: Jeffery R. Webber and Forrest Hylton on the Coup in Bolivia

  What kind of coup has taken place in Bolivia, and what are the stakes in labelling it a coup?

• Bernie Sanders’ Stance on Bolivia Matters

  Toward the end of Saturday night’s Democratic forum hosted by the Spanish language network Univision, moderator Jorge Ramos posed what can charitably be called a leading question to 2020 hopeful Bernie Sanders. Ramos, who cemented his place in the public consciousness when then-candidate Donald Trump had him tossed from a news conference in 2015, noted that Sanders had called the overthrow of Bolivian President Evo Morales a “coup,” but that others maintain that Morales was attempting to become a dictator. So what does Sanders think?

• Bloomberg Apologizes for ‘Stop-and-Frisk’ Police Practice

  Michael Bloomberg on Sunday apologized for his longstanding support of the controversial “stop-and-frisk” police strategy ahead of a potential Democratic presidential run, a practice that he embraced as New York’s mayor and continued to defend despite its disproportionate impact on people of color.

• Brooklyn DA’s Office Latest To Release A List Of Cops It Doesn’t Want Anywhere Nears Its Prosecutions

  The trickle of “Brady lists” continues, further enraging New York City’s police unions. The last batch of cops considered too dishonest or crooked to be called on to testify in court led the Sergeants Benevolent Association to claim the Bronx DA’s release of its “naughty list” was an attempt to “smear honest, hardworking cops.”

• New York Residents Unprotected, Served Up To Criminals By NYPD Employees

  Yeah, it’s real easy to sit back and second guess the hard work of law enforcement officers. Secure and safe in our warm homes, far away from the mean streets and thin blue line separating us from the criminal apocalypse, we have it easy. As one of the NYPD’s unions pointed out, citizens like us are clueless. We’ve (and I’m directly quoting here) “grown up on the nipple of what’s easy.” We “have no clue what a NYPD officer does,” and yet we criticize and disparage them.

• Calling Out Kazakhstan on Domestic Violence

  The United Nation’s top women rights body has criticized Kazakhstan’s government over its poor record on domestic violence and protecting women with disabilities.

• Central European University Opens Vienna Campus After Hungary Ousting

  In a bittersweet event, the Central European University (CEU) officially opened its Vienna campus last week. While the Hungarian government forced the CEU out of Budapest, Austria welcomed the university with open arms.

• Mickey Huff and Nolan Higdon – A Look at the Five Decades of Corrosive Political and Media Changes – The Project Censored Show

• The Young Activists Fighting Lead Pollution in Zambia

  A new video just published by Zambian environmental activists confirms Human Rights Watch’s research on how a former industrial lead mine in their hometown of Kabwe has left a legacy of severe lead contamination. The youth activists, who work with the nongovernmental organization Environment Africa to raise awareness of lead pollution and push for change, launched the video on the eve of the 30th anniversary of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

• Myanmar: More Jail Time for Satirical Troupe

  A Yangon court handed down more convictions against members of a satirical theater troupe for allegedly mocking Myanmar’s armed forces.

• Students Told They Would Be Better Off ‘If They Had Jesus in Their Life’

• An Arizona Sheriff Deputy’s Abuse of a Quadruple Amputee Teen Highlights a Policing Culture That Must Change

• Boris Johnson Must Waive Any Claim of Immunity for Prince Andrew

  Contrary to the Establishment line, Prince Andrew does not automatically have diplomatic immunity for statutory rape charges in the USA: and if he does, the UK Government can waive it.

• Control of the Internet may be the Real Reason for Police Violence at Chinese University of Hong Kong

  Many CUHK students suspect that the police is actually going after HKIX, because taking control of HKIX means Beijing can either shut down the [Internet] or monitor [Internet] communications.

  Based on the current situation, Hong Kong authorities are more likely to control the [Internet] than shutting it down. In theory, every single message going through the HKIX center can be intercepted and monitored if the police gain access to the center.

• Many Native Americans Can’t Get Clean Water, Report Finds

  The groundwater in some areas has been contaminated by the 521 abandoned uranium mines. The new report, by DigDeep and the U.S. Water Alliance, says gastric cancer rates doubled in the 1990s where uranium mining occurred. Unregulated drinking water sources are the greatest public health risk on the Navajo Nation, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

  Fifty-eight out of every 1,000 Native American households lack plumbing, compared with three out of every 1,000 white people, according to the report. This disparity has implications for public health. They experience more deaths, poverty and higher unemployment rates.

• Challenging Islamic law in Egypt, Christian woman fights for inheritance equality

  Nasrallah is making the legal argument that, as a Coptic Christian, she should not be subject to Islamic law. Christian doctrine calls for equal inheritance rights between men and women, but while the Coptic Church has full authority over most of the issues pertaining to the personal status of Christians, such as marriage and divorce, its jurisdiction does not extend to inheritance rights.

  While Egyptian criminal codes are based largely on European legal traditions – namely, French, Italian and Belgian – Shariah law is the guiding principle for family and personal status issues.

Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

• The FCC Is About to Raise Billions. Congress Should Invest it in Fiber Infrastructure

  FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has announced his plans to begin freeing up valuable airwaves within the C-Band, a part of the spectrum—the radio frequencies that our cell carriers, television stations, and others use to transmit services—historically used for satellite television. Once freed, the spectrum would be auctioned and used for 5G and other advanced wireless services. The FCC is making the right call here. This announcement puts the public interest ahead of the desires of the few private actors currently occupying the spectrum, who sought to leverage the hype around 5G to enrich themselves at the public’s expense.

  Their proposal, known as the C-Band Alliance proposal, attempted to argue that the nation’s 5G coverage would benefit if they engaged in a private sale of public property, because it would be faster than the FCC conducting a public auction. But limited spectrum is not the main bottleneck to 5G deployment right now. What national 5G coverage lacks right now is dense fiber networks across the country to support high-speed wireless.

• Apathy Isn’t A Business Model: Major US Telcos Teeter Toward Bankruptcy

  For more than a decade we’ve noted how the US broadband industry’s biggest problem is a lack of healthy competition. In countless markets consumers either have the choice of a terrible phone company or a cable giant. The nation’s phone companies have spent the last decade refusing to upgrade (or in some cases even repair) their aging DSL lines, because they don’t see residential broadband as worth their while. That in turn is giving giants like Comcast and Spectrum an ever greater monopoly in many markets, reducing the already muted incentive to compete on price or shore up comically terrible customer service.

• ICA asks ICANN to block .Org private equity deal in damning letter

  Internet Commerce Association is asking domain overseer ICANN to block the sale of the .Org registry to Ethos Capital.

  It sent a damning letter (pdf) to ICANN today that states what many observers are thinking. In part: [...]

• Courts Shoot Down Another Barrier to Community Broadband

  Connecticut this week was the latest state to shoot down industry-backed barriers preventing your town or city from building its own broadband networks, even if nobody else will.

  Across the U.S., countless towns and cities either have no broadband at all, or are stuck with just one over-priced [Internet] service provider (ISP). A lack of serious competition means ISPs often have no incentive to expand or improve their networks, and revolving door regulators ensure government usually won’t pressure them to try harder.

  In response, more than 750 U.S. communities have started building their own locally-owned broadband networks, despite the industry’s near-constant effort to undermine them.

Monopolies

• Economics and IP: the good, the bad and the ugly (and a request for reader feedback)?

  IP rights have expanded, despite the findings of economic analysis. Trade agreements have slowly but surely extended the footprint of IP rights. Countries that primarily import, rather than export, IP may not benefit from IP regimes, which strengthen rights and increase enforcement domestically.

  Dubious but successful copyright claims increase the cost of creating new content. Rightholders’ questionable efforts to protect their interests in the wonderful new cyberworld have had a chilling effect on research communities (e.g. Volkswagen versus Garcia.) Expanding IP tends to benefit the fortunate few, whereas economics – in theory – supports changes that benefit the many.

  Similarly, some copyright policy recommendations have not come to fruition, despite the economic arguments. Unable to empirically prove a lack of harm – something that is nigh impossible to do – the UK government was forced to quash a Hargreaves-recommended policy that permitted private copying. Thankfully, though, my hope was not completely misplaced, as economically justifiable policy changes have been implemented, including the UK orphan works and parody, character and pastiche copyright exceptions. The sky has not since fallen, as the economic evidence predicted.

  The last decade has seen continued hostility from parts of the IP community towards economics, with various criticisms that economics is anti-IP, or cannot and should not attempt, to analyse the legal complexities of IP. A keynote speaker at a legal seminar proposed economics should be relegated to Room 101 (the Ministry of Love’s torture chamber in Goerge Orwell’s novel “1984″.) Salacious suggestions aside, a general theme has been incredulity and scepticism of economic findings.

  The IP rightsholder community is, unsurprisingly, not a fan of economics as most of the economics research argues that IP rights are too strong. One of my personal claims to fame is that a prominent copyright stakeholder said, “what the f@@k was that?”, following my presentation on business models.

• Patents and Software Patents

  • En Banc at the Federal Circuit

    In American Axle, the patent is at issue, U.S. Patent 7,774,911, relates to “automotive driveshafts used in pickup trucks — claiming “novel and unconventional methods of manufacturing improved driveshafts that include ‘liners’—low cost, hollow tubes made of a fibrous material (such as cardboard).” Petition. The courts found the claims ineligible as directed to “Hooke’s law, and possibly other natural laws.”

  • CRISPR Motions Day at the PTAB: Broad Files Its Substantive Motion No. 2

    October 14th was a busy day at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) for the current interference over CRISPR technology (No. 106,115). The Junior Party (the University of California, Berkeley; the University of Vienna; and Emmanuelle Charpentier; collectively, “CVC”) filed its Substantive Motion No. 1 for priority benefit to its application No. 61/652,086, and its Opposition to the Senior Party’s (the Broad Institute, Harvard University and MIT) Substantive Motion No. 1. The Broad for its part filed three additional substantive motions (Contingent Motion No. 2 to substitute the count; No. 3 to designate claims as not corresponding to the count; and No. 4, for priority benefit to the Broad’s application No. 61/736,528). This post will discuss The Broad’s Substantive Motion No. 2; future posts will review the remaining Broad motions and CVC’s Substantive Motion No. 1.

• Copyrights

  • ‘Royalty-Free’ Music Supplied By YouTube Results in Mass Video Demonetization

    A YouTuber who used a royalty-free track supplied by YouTube itself has had all of his videos copyright claimed by companies including SonyATV and Warner Chappell. According to the music outfits, Matt Lownes’ use the use of the track ‘Dreams’ by Joakim Karud means that they are now entitled to all of his revenue.

  • Federal Court Approves First ‘Pirate’ Site Blockade in Canada

    A group of major broadcasters and telco giants, including Rogers and Bell, have obtained the first Canadian pirate site blocking order. The Federal Court approved a request that requires several major ISPs to block access to domains and IP-addresses of the pirate IPTV service GoldTV. The order paves the way for a broader site blocking push, that may target traditional pirate sites as well.

  • Music Collection Org: Revenues Are Booming… And That’s Proof Why We Need Even More Draconian Copyright Laws

    As we showed earlier this year in our latest Sky Is Rising report, revenue in the entertainment industry continues to shoot upwards — and not because of draconian new anti-piracy laws, but almost entirely because of successful innovations from internet companies that have opened up massive new markets for content creators. You’d think that maybe this would make some copyright system supporters think twice about continuing to push for expansionary copyright policies that are likely to hamstring the very internet services that have provided them this windfall, but that would be expecting self-reflection from an industry famous for blaming everyone else for everything that has ever gone wrong.