Posted in Bill Gates, Google at 10:39 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Note: we’re not defending the accused (and charged, then convicted), we’re only explaining how Google works
Ryan: “There’s where it starts. Google logged the file upload time, IP address, and emails. They are using a file “fingerprinting” scanner.”
Account zeroed in on.
DVD of account prepared for the police. Ryan: “The detective is reading through the guy’s emails. It includes many other things, including details of his sister, but this is interesting.”
Ryan: “He got a back and forth from a guy that Rick was in a sexual relationship with, skimmed over all their messages, and was able to note that they would frequently discuss young boys.”
Ryan: “The detective is fishing based on what he found in the exchange between Rick and David through the emails that Google sent as part of the DVD contents.”
Ryan: “He gets Rick to admit the whole thing.”
More on sending the illegal material. Ryan: “The Express Stop photos aren’t of interest with the Google thing, because they found those in his house with the Windows computers and hard disks and CDs and stuff.”
Ryan: “They feed all of the images in and see what comes back as a hit for child pornography from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.”
Ryan: “The additional material they found is catalogued and new material is submitted for inclusion into the database. The hashes are then shared with Google (and presumably others, like Microsoft OneDrive/Outlook, Apple iCloud) to train their detection systems, which is how Rick got himself reported in the first place.”
Ryan: “Since they caught Rick and found his trove of tens of thousands of child porn images/videos, they can now find anyone else who has a copy and has put them into a monitored cloud storage or email system.”
Summary: In light of increasing government surveillance, e.g. on peaceful protesters planning to attend a lawful protest, it is essential to understand how Google (and others in the Clown Computing space) cooperate with law enforcement; this isn’t a defence of this particular behaviour (the above is about a Bill Gates employee busted for pedophilia) but an effort at shedding light — for better insight — on the level of overlap between police and “GAFAM”
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Posted in Free/Libre Software, GNU/Linux at 1:33 pm by Guest Editorial Team
Article by figosdev
Summary: “RMS lost his position as FSF president to deception, as well as his position on the board. When his website was tampered with to make it look like he was also stepping down from the GNU Project, I couldn’t help being reminded of Fox running the false segment that made it look like Bush had won when not enough votes weren’t counted to tell.”
RMS probably isn’t fit to lead anymore. Most of the people saying this are even less fit to. I’m not sure that anybody is fit.
There was a time when I considered Alex Oliva, Ben Mako Hill, Kat Walsh, Denis Roio.
It wasn’t too bad a list; I picked at least one person that I’m told rms would have picked himself. Note that when I considered rms stepping down, it had nothing to do with the sort of corporate-led, immoral backstabbing that actually happened. It wasn’t a secret plan, but out in the open — it wasn’t based on lies or misrepresentation or double standards.
And it was based on the idea that someone could do better, at least rms could have someone worthwhile to hand over the reins to, which obviously has yet to happen in nearly a year since he was ousted as well.
“There was a time when I considered Alex Oliva, Ben Mako Hill, Kat Walsh, Denis Roio.”The FSF has a vested interest, now that they’ve usurped rms, in making things as shiny and new-looking as possible. They’ve gone all-out on graphics and propaganda, really laying it on thick with positive soundbites. They deserve to be called soundbites because they’re empty and ignore the reality of the situation, but you can’t expect people behind a dirty coup to just say “Yes, that was dirty. It was dishonest. Now buck up, it’s fun times from now on!”
They have to act like it didn't happen. They have to accentuate the positive.
Getting back to the negative disrupts their entire narrative. They can only bullshit you for so long before they accidentally start telling you what they really think, and what they really think is bullshit.
Funnily enough, when Techrights talks about organisations going on a giant “Charm Offensive” (like “Microsoft ♥ Linux”, even as they refuse to call it by its real name, which is GNU) they are usually talking about GIAFAM and Microsoft especially. They’re not generally talking about the “new” FSF.
“No one was betrayed more than rms of course, but I compare the whole thing to the 2000 United States Presidential election — of which Microsoft was a sponsor, I might add (on Bush’s side.)”The FSF has been on a charm offensive ever since they ousted rms, for the same reason that Microsoft goes on them. There are people at the FSF that I’m told are “really not like that” — I’m willing to believe it, up to a point. Then there are people who I actually believe are “really not like that” — in other words, they’re sincere. And I’m obviously willing to believe that up to a point, or I wouldn’t suggest that such people exist.
Some people are sincere, but there’s nothing wrong with saying they’re naive — when they really believe everything is alright. Others do know better, and there’s nothing wrong with calling them liars for it.
Either way, the move the FSF is executing right now is “FSF ♥ Freedom.” But like Microsoft, they have a funny way of showing it.
At one point, rms was asking us to continue supporting the FSF. I did that for as long as I could stand it, but the more I learned the more I realised the extent to which we were all betrayed. No one was betrayed more than rms of course, but I compare the whole thing to the 2000 United States Presidential election — of which Microsoft was a sponsor, I might add (on Bush’s side.)
“People who care about freedom did try to warn both rms and the FSF, which fell on deaf ears.”The election was so close, Al Gore may have actually won. Fox aired a segment that made it look like Bush won, before the votes were done being counted — even when Gore was ahead. Making it look like Bush won at such a critical point had a profound effect on the election.
Instead of drawing out the counting process too much, Gore decided to hand over the office to Bush. For a game of checkers, this might make plenty of sense. Less than a year later, Planes flew into the Twin Towers, and the Constitution itself took a major hit via the extremely Un-American PAT-RIOT act.
Al Gore acted like the most important thing to do was get on with the business of people running the country. I won’t say that he’s the worst President in history for basically stepping down and letting a corrupt administration take his place — but that’s what he did, and the cost to the country makes him one arguably one of the worst presidents ever.
Years afterwords, during a presentation about the environment, Gore would complain that he was supposed to be flying in Air Force One, and now he has to take his shoes when he goes to the air — Shut The Fuck Up, Al — we ALL have to take our shoes off. You’re not on Air Force One because you walked away and left your country in terrible hands.
My feelings for rms are warmer than this, for one because Gore was President-elect for about 5 minutes and completely and utterly useless, while rms gave us about 4 decades (nearly half a century, you bastards) of service to Free software — which you’ve somehow managed to brush aside like it was nothing. For two of those decades, Open Source has worked to co-opt everything. Very nice, very nice — and you’ve done well with that.
“When his website was tampered with to make it look like he was also stepping down from the GNU Project, I couldn’t help being reminded of Fox running the false segment that made it look like Bush had won when not enough votes weren’t counted to tell.”Although we owe rms for liberating software development far more than we own Open Source for packing it back up and selling it off to the same corporations we worked so hard to be free from, (IBM, Microsoft, Oracle — who now collectively own Red Hat, GitHub and enough of what used to be Sun Microsystems) the truth is that for the past 5 years, free software has spent more of its time slipping out of our hands.
People who care about freedom did try to warn both rms and the FSF, which fell on deaf ears. We even predicted rms getting ousted by bad people — nobody listened.
RMS was certainly a better president than Al Gore, but like Al Gore he has failed to defend everyone below him from what happened. To be certain, I blame the people leading the coup (and perhaps in a better position than rms right now, as far as the FSF goes) more than I blame its most prominent victim. Though the fact that rms chose to trust his betrayers over his defenders is a fact that can’t be ignored. He has since asked his defenders to support his betrayers.
RMS lost his position as FSF president to deception, as well as his position on the board. When his website was tampered with to make it look like he was also stepping down from the GNU Project, I couldn’t help being reminded of Fox running the false segment that made it look like Bush had won when not enough votes weren’t counted to tell. It made it look like he wasn’t leading the GNU Project anymore — and he hasn’t been treated like the leader since then.
“Along with this petition, the people moderating the FSF mailing lists were manipulating public opinion by censoring the mailing lists of messages supporting and defending him.”Instead, a petition not unlike the one to remove him from LibrePlanet (helping us to predict his ousting from the FSF itself) was launched against his leadership of GNU as well. Along with this petition, the people moderating the FSF mailing lists were manipulating public opinion by censoring the mailing lists of messages supporting and defending him. And this is the (now) corrupt organisation rms wants us to support!
When he got control of his website back, and made it clear that he was not stepping down, and the petition failed to gain support, the coup did not end there. Since May or earlier, there has been a page on the GNU wiki to basically continue the effort to nullify his leadership, and replace it with a consortium of corporate developers who don’t care about your freedom.
This reminds me too much of the effort to further “democratise” the Open Source Initiative, which enabled corporate sponsors to basically overthrow and self-deputise themselves into the organisational structure of OSI. At this point it might as well be called the Bill and Melinda Open Source Foundation, although as far as I know it’s Microsoft, not the Gates Foundation that controls OSI now.
“What will most likely happen with your money instead, is these organisations will be used to channel money from corporations to (relatively) smaller things like the Python Foundation, where more free software projects are essentially bribed to become a symbolic part of Microsoft.”This it the future of the FSF, if nobody stops the coup. Since rms is not stopping it, but asking people like you and me to throw money at it (I believe he does this in good faith — but far too much faith) I believe you are probably wasting your money — bootstrapping the next Open Source coup with funds accepted under false pretenses.
The new FSF betrays your freedom, it will not fight for it any more than OSI will fight for the few causes they actually stood for — as Roy has said on various occasions, OSI has stopped fighting since the takeover.
What will most likely happen with your money instead, is these organisations will be used to channel money from corporations to (relatively) smaller things like the Python Foundation, where more free software projects are essentially bribed to become a symbolic part of Microsoft.
The Linux Foundation is an even better example of what the FSF stands to become than OSI.
The organisations that have betrayed us, lied to us, and betrayed rms include the Software Freedom Conservancy, the Free Software Foundation Europe, the FSF itself as well as GNOME, several times over.
If you are “supporting” the FSF now, you are not only supporting the coup that ousted rms and continues to work (even now) to oust him further, but you are paying them to oust YOU and replace any say you have via exactly the same tactics that turned OSI into a Microsoft puppet organisation and Torvalds into Microsoft’s gimp boy.
“The Linux Foundation is an even better example of what the FSF stands to become than OSI.”Any money you give to the FSF will likely be used to tear it down and weaken free software further.
What I’ve done for the past half year is try to find reasons this might not be so. Unfortunately, the more I look for good news, the more bad news I find.
Most of the good news you’ll hear right now (including the outcome of the GNOME battle with/for bogus software patents) is either hypothetical, about something in the future, or just spin from the same P.R. firms that probably figured out how to attack rms in the first place.
But no matter what toilet you decide to flush your money down, the FSF is still falling apart and rms (who still runs the GNU Project) has very little say in anything that happens. That’s why the GNU Project continues to move closer to Microsoft and IBM/Red Hat, as Debian did years ago.
So who is really leading the FSF?
Nobody. For nearly a year, the FSF has had no real leader, anymore than Bush Jr. was leading the country when he was reading his favourite Hungry Caterpillar book when the planes hit the Twin Towers. Cheney, along with various companies who stood to benefit from a new sort of global warfare initiative, seized a historical amount of power.
As tech companies have done to the Linux Foundation and OSI, the FSF is next — the FSF takeover is happening, right now. You can send money to fund their corporate puppet show, while they “unite” with the corporations eager to fill the power vacuum created by the departure of rms. Of course I would argue that vacuum started forming half a decade ago, but officially nothing changed until more recently.
“GNU continues to slip into the wrong hands, and replacing its leader with a fake democratic process run by traitors won’t lead GNU to fair better than Debian.”One thing I haven’t talked about, except in retrospect, is who would make a better leader than rms. The answer is nobody — nobody has stepped up, everybody in place now (whether they intend to be or are simply being used) is part of the same 20-year-long shell game that replaced RMS with Torvalds and Torvalds with monopoly corporations. Not everybody keeping his seat warm is necessarily a traitor or intentional puppet, but they’re still only holding it for more corporate takeover.
RMS won’t stop this, he will only be used to beg for money for this. The puppets in charge certainly won’t stop this. The corporations taking over won’t stop this, and the shills apologising for all this will only keep this going.
I certainly don’t expect people to rise up and take Free software back. I mean, I hope very strongly they will do this eventually — but I don’t expect them to right now. People are still smarting from what happened to rms, they’re being hopeful and agreeable (and some are simply a bit naive) and others just don’t give a shit at all — and never did.
Shills will say (as OSI has for years) that the FSF really doesn’t matter anymore, though they’re lying, because (like with Nokia handset) you have to devalue your target before you take control of it. They’ve spent years glorifying these corporations and speaking of the people who originally made Free software happen in diminutive terms — that’s happened as long as Open Source has existed. Open Source treats corporations like idols.
But the people voting to oust rms from GNU do not care about you or me. They are dishonest, conniving backstabbers, some of whom rms did not trust in the first place.
“Only a true grassroots movement, not a 501(c)3 corporation, will save free software now.”GNU continues to slip into the wrong hands, and replacing its leader with a fake democratic process run by traitors won’t lead GNU to fair better than Debian. If you want GNU to be Free-as-in-Freedom, rather than Open-Because-Free-Offends-Corporations, the only people who will ever be able to fill the shoes of rms will be the ones who still want software to be Free-as-in-Speech, not Free-as-in-GitHub-accounts.
Hope is a long way off, but the FSF will never fight for you again. As in the days when these people pretended to support rms — they will pretend to support you, as well.
Only a true grassroots movement, not a 501(c)3 corporation, will save free software now. A 501(c)3 can be leaned on for financial reasons and infrastructure, but becoming overdependent on incorporation is exactly what tied the puppet strings.
A few years ago, at LibrePlanet no less, Ben Mako Hill said “we should probably distance ourselves from Open Source.” Now that Open Source and the like has taken over the FSF, we should probably distance ourselves from the corporations causing the very same problems that Mako was referring to — they’re the ones running the show at the FSF. It does no justice to democracy or true advocacy, to pretend that either had anything to do with the state of things now.
Long live rms, nobody is better — and (like Digit says) keep the FAIF.
“The freedom to NOT run the software, to be free to avoid vendor lock-in through appropriate modularization/encapsulation and minimized dependencies; meaning any Free software can be replaced with a user’s preferred alternatives (freedom 4).” — Peter Boughton █
Licence: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0)
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Posted in Deception, Microsoft at 10:36 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
They always have excuses and ridiculous tales ready to promptly tell the gullible
Summary: An in-depth but concise analysis of the recent “layoffs wave” at Microsoft; it’s a lot more serious than they want us to think, with profound cuts that go much deeper and further than initially reported or acknowledged
MICROSOFT is not a growth company. It has been laying off workers for over a decade and buying all sorts of companies like Nokia that became “write-offs” (causing the company report massive losses, nor profits, quite a few times).
Microsoft Peter used to spread lies about their financial results every quarter up until his arrest for sexually abusing children. Even when Microsoft announced layoffs he would post Microsoft’s ‘prepared’ statements (lies basically). A company can hide losses some of the time, but not all the time. When it admits losses it wants to make sure there’s some good excuse for these.
Seeing the latest silence about Microsoft layoffs (employees were gagged about it and most weren’t even told about it, based on what they’ve told us), we’ve decided to do some further research into it. This article is merely an outline of our findings.
“Microsoft Peter used to spread lies about their financial results every quarter up until his arrest for sexually abusing children.”Firstly, let’s consider the Microsoft spin; marketing and PR drones inside the media give us a lot of insight into that. It’s all about the face-saving strategy. Microsoft’s propagandist Mary Jo Foley does the typical propaganda at ZDNet right about now; her headline is calling the layoffs “usual” and “fewer than usual” (as a Microsoft mouthpiece would claim; this isn’t some annual ritual). The company’s spokesman called it “optimization strategy” (in the past they used to call layoffs “reorg”). This site says “Business Insider reports that jobs have been cut in the Microsoft Azure division,” as we noted here before. Well, Azure is a failure and a fraud (or Ponzi scheme), according to insiders. What Microsoft tells shareholders about Azure is a lie (performance is being faked, hoping that false perception of ‘growth’ and ‘health’ will help suck businesses into this Clown Computing trap). It’s a lock-in-based long-term strategy. “There is also talk of layoffs for Azure, the cloud division that brings the company billions of dollars in revenues,” Brian Adam wrote.
Profits or just revenue, Brian?
Not the same thing.
If it’s so profitable, then why the layoffs? Why are datacenters being shut? Remember that Microsoft was always a company of lawyers and predatory legal contracts (Bill’s dad is a lawyer; Bill Gates studied law, albeit he never graduated). They use NDAs to silence their CFOs regarding financial misconduct and the sacked staff too is being gagged (to defend the lies; they try to discredit the few who speak out, sometimes they even bribe them to shut up, as is widely documented).
The above also says that “Microsoft has already been making cuts to its business over the past few months. In terms of its games business, it most notably closed streaming service Mixer just four years after acquiring it.”
“Microsoft hoped people would not notice all these layoffs. But sacked employees used encrypted communication software to speak to journalists (what’s left of them), so right now Microsoft is belittling their reports.”We’ve taken stock of at least four rounds of layoffs since June and it turns out that Microsoft isn’t even done sacking MSN workers. “Microsoft is reportedly making more job cuts at MSN,” this report says, echoing the “HEY HI” (AI) spin. As if it’s OK to lay off staff because of some buzzword.
“Microsoft announced the closure of all the physical stores to focus exclusively on online sales,” Brian Adam said. Again… pure spin.
These closures alone (about 100 stores) would be over 1,000 people.
We’re accustomed to this sort of spin, having seen it at the European Patent Office (EPO), Novell and other institutions that we studied very closely. We speak to people from the EPO and from Microsoft, so we have insight (but cannot elaborate too much; source protection first). We also spoke to Novell insiders, who gave us tips and information.
Microsoft hoped people would not notice all these layoffs. But sacked employees used encrypted communication software to speak to journalists (what’s left of them), so right now Microsoft is belittling their reports. As one might expect. █
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Posted in Deception, Europe, Microsoft, Patents at 8:53 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
As if the European Patent Office (EPO) boasts about being above the law
Summary: Weaponised and bribed media keeps telling us a lot of lies while turning a blind eye to corruption and other crimes that carry on unabated at the European Patent Office
TWO years ago (start of July 2018) António Campinos replaced Benoît Battistelli as ‘king’ of EPOnia. In practical terms nothing has changed; earlier this morning we noted that Campinos is lobbying for software patents in Europe (not even the US tolerates such patents because of 35 U.S.C. § 101; courts reject them en masse) and the approval rate of Campinos among EPO staff is near zero.
“Facts ceased to matter. Law ceased to matter. Constitutions are treated like tissue paper one finds inside toilet bowls.”The EPO’s attitude towards law and order is equally appalling. The legal processes, constitutions and most basic legality ceased to matter. The Rule of Law was in effect suspended for the sake of “productivity” (which means granting as many patents as possible and as quickly as possible). We see this in the mistreatment of staff, the fraudulent ‘studies’, and the endless lies; we see this in UPC too. Facts ceased to matter. Law ceased to matter. Constitutions are treated like tissue paper one finds inside toilet bowls. There’s also the lack of impartiality/independence of judges — an issue we addressed again this morning. If that’s not bad enough, here’s the EPO’s management openly bragging about illegal outsourcing (to Microsoft) of EPO legal processes. (warning: epo.org link)
“Even the EPO’s technical chiefs lack a technical background; they just happen to know Campinos from the old employer (whose IT department was outsourced to India months before he left).”This is illegal, but who cares, right? They put that in the “news” section on Friday as if to celebrate the illegality. It’s all just referred to as “VICO” (with a screenshot showing Microsoft). What the heck is going on? Only days ago there was a ruling of relevance. Yesterday one report said that “EU Court Again Rules That NSA Spying Makes U.S. Companies Inadequate for Privacy” (suffice to say, this applies to courts or tribunals). “This decision shows,” says the outline, “yet again, that the U.S. needs much broader, privacy-protective reform, and that Congress’ inaction makes us all less safe, wherever we are.”
But never mind these ‘inconvenient’ (to EPO management) facts. Even the EPO’s technical chiefs lack a technical background; they just happen to know Campinos from the old employer (whose IT department was outsourced to India months before he left).
Where’s the media coverage about this scandal? Nowhere!
Nowhere at all.
“Where’s the media coverage about this scandal?”Kluwer Patent Blog mentioned it in passing several months ago, but it’s merely a blog that almost nobody can see except lawyers who follow the site closely.
Over at Managing IP (EPO mouthpiece) there are now sponsored ‘articles’ and even so-called ‘reporting’ by the “Georgia IP [sic] Alliance” (and the private company of the author), followed by this hogwash from Patrick Wingrove. It’s about “VICO”. “Patent owners and implementers say the lockdown has made negotiations more efficient,” he wrote, “but they’d like to use a hybrid remote and in-person model after COVID” (so even after the emergency they wish to maintain an illegal practice).
Should we expect this publication to take note of the illegality? Of course not, just follow the money…
“As long as EPO managers blackmail and bribe the media we can only expect those things to further exacerbate and create a fictional world with inverted facts.”The same author has also just produced an hilarious headline that says “EU hints UPC alive” (it’s not). Managing IP‘s Patrick Wingrove was previously spinning for Team UPC based on a telephone chat with Justice Huber months before Huber threw out the UPCA; months later Huber said there's more to the issue than just the two-thirds majority, but Team UPC doesn’t like to talk about that…
Citing the outrageous nonsense from Thierry Breton [1, 2, 3, 4], a Battistelli ally, Wingrove wrote the following: (to which we respond to in-line, in yellow)
EU Commission [well, Thierry Breton] says Germany can ratify UPCA despite Brexit
The European Commission would welcome Germany’s swift ratification of the Unified Patent Court Agreement despite Brexit, commissioner for the internal market Thierry Breton wrote on Wednesday, July 15.
In a letter to MEP Patrick Breyer, who is from the German Pirate Party and asked in May whether Germany could ratify the UPCA now that the UK has left the EU, Breton said that Brexit does not affect the UPC’s ratification process. [It’s a lie]
The commissioner reasoned that the UK ratified the UPCA when it was still an EU member state [but the UPC as a whole wasn’t ratified yet], and that its departure from the bloc simply meant that it would not be able to participate in the UPC after the end of the Brexit transition period. [The UK ratified a UPCA that still says there’s a court in London]
“The unitary patent will be an effective tool for [large foreign] businesses [and especially monopolists] to protect their inventions [monopolies] on [by suing] the European market at a competitive price [to them], and the Unified Patent Court will offer the possibility for these businesses to enforce their patents [sue many European SMEs] at a European Union level, thereby enhancing legal certainty and reducing costs,” Breton wrote. [Certainty for monopolies, business uncertainty for everybody else]
“It will further boost innovation in Europe [litigation is innovation, right?], which will be key for the economic recovery following the COVID pandemic.” [Which politician does not exploit COVID-19 these days when spreading lies?]
The UK confirmed in February that it would not seek to participate in the UPC, noting that membership was inconsistent with its aims to become an independent and self-governing nation.
In June, the German Federal Ministry of Justice called for comments on a draft of its UPCA Approval Act, three months after the Federal Constitutional Court ruled that Germany’s pre-ratification of the agreement was void because it did not have a two-thirds majority in the Bundestag. [There’s a lot more to it]
Of course, the lies are embedded in the ‘reporting’, which is little more than parroting Team UPC and its enablers (e.g. Thierry Breton, a Battistelli ally). With Bristows pushing it into Lexology and various law firms constantly pushing those same talking points it’s difficult to actually find facts. The signal-to-noise ratio is very low.
The demise of the law necessitates the demise of honest media. As long as EPO managers blackmail and bribe the media we can only expect those things to further exacerbate and create a fictional world with inverted facts. █
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Posted in Europe, Patents at 7:47 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
They’ve lost humility and a sense of shame, haven’t they?
Summary: The EPO has been brushing under a rug some really important issues; it’s using mindless fluff about COVID-19 and a so-called ‘study’ which in many ways demonstrate the opposite of what the Office claims
THE European Patent Office (EPO) is no ally of the fight against COVID. We have already pointed out that Benoît Battistelli‘s EPO awarded a fraud, whose patents were passed to patent trolls that now attack French researchers who look for COVID-19 cures/prevention.
“This is all just another smokescreen that serves to distract from EPO scandals.”The USPTO along with other ‘IP5′ offices would gladly exploit COVID-19 for propaganda, as would António Campinos, who does this every week. Now he’s using COVID-19 to attack his own staff.
EPO examiners are (still) smart people. Surely we don’t have to explain in much length what’s wrong with the above messages (screenshots taken). On Thursday or Friday (the slug says Thursday, but the CMS updates overnight for RSS feeds) the far-east propaganda was ‘dumped’ onto the EPO’s site. The latest puff piece (warning: epo.org link) takes advantage of “pandemic” for shameless patent propaganda (these patents actually help the pandemic spread as they restrict research). It says “[c]ommitted to common solutions to global challenges – a joint message from the EPO and the JPO” and there’s also a “[j]oint message from the EPO and the KIPO on COVID-19″ (warning: epo.org link) as if they’re some kind of health officials. They’re not!
“What ever happened to actual fact-checking and investigations?”This is all just another smokescreen that serves to distract from EPO scandals. The media has been 100% silent about those scandals, quite frankly as usual, and instead we saw parroted puff pieces in so-called ‘news’ sites like Metal Additive Manufacturing magazine and 3D Printing Progress (as noted here before in passing). What ever happened to actual fact-checking and investigations? No budget? Did the bribes and the blackmail by EPO management pay off?
IAM is meanwhile pushing FRAND, which is a "scam" according to people who properly understand it (Managing IP is boosting SPCs), and then IAM is also boosting the above EPO propaganda again, with its sister sites doing the same and promoting it here in Lexology. Are they journalists or parrots for a so-called ‘study’? Our response below in yellow:
The 3D printing boom is not over – Over on IAM there is analysis [no, parroting] of a boom in 3D printing patent applications [patents aren’t a surrogate] at the European Patent Office, with filers from the US leading the way [because the EPO is not serving Europe]. Overall the office saw applications for 3D printing or additive manufacturing inventions increase at an average rate of 36% from 2015 to 2018 [maybe because patent quality decreased and grants nearly doubled]. This is far above the 3.5% average growth that the EPO saw in applications overall [a reminder that the EPO may soon run out of work, having granted lots of bogus patents in a rush]. The number of filings has grown from less than 1,000 in 2013 to just over 4,000 in 2018. The analysis is available here [is this an analysis of just shallow promotion of the EPO’s own claims?]. A few years ago, the spectre of 3D printing was a hot topic in the trademark world. While that discussion isn’t as prevalent as it was, the brand issues that could arise from the technology persist (in an interview with ECTA Anette Rasmussen last month, it was revealed that the association’s December engagement meeting will focus on 3D printing and designs, Rasmussen stating that it remains “a live issue”). That is set to remain the case, the EPO report noting that additive manufacturing is forecast to capture 5% or more of the world’s $12 trillion manufacturing industry. [EPO as a marketing front for private industries]
Notice the EUIPO overlap, as noted here in 3DPrint.com:
The European Patent Office (EPO), one of the largest public service [public service? Really?!] institutions in Europe, is launching a new study on Monday, July 13th, titled “Patents and additive manufacturing – Trends in 3D printing technologies,” to offer evidence that Europe is a global 3D printing innovation hub [actually it shows Europe in the minority, even in Europe itself]. Ahead of the launch, there will be a panel discussion between EPO president António Campinos and Christian Archambeau, Executive Director of the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), and then the EPO’s Chief Economist, Yann Ménière, will present the study.
The timing of this, 2 days before the hearing about software patents in Europe, may be a coincidence. Or maybe not. But remember what happened a year ago when the 'Haar question' came home to roost. Never underestimate the minds of media strategists. They can groom the media to distract the public from more pressing and relevant matters. █
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