Leftovers

• Hackaday ☛ Putting Some Numbers On Your NEMAs

  It’s official: [Engineer Bo] wins the internet with a video titled “Finding NEMA 17,” wherein he builds a dynamometer to find the best stepper motor in the popular NEMA 17 frame size.

• Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-06-24 [Older] Germany: Michael Schumacher's family blackmailed, 2 arrested

• Hackaday ☛ Access To Fresh And Potable Water: An Ancient And Very Current Challenge

  Throughout history, clean and potable water has been one of the most prized possessions, without which no human civilization could have ever sustained itself. Not only is water crucial for drinking and food preparation, but also for agriculture, cleaning and the production of countless materials, chemicals and much more. And this isn’t a modern problem: good water supplies and the most successful ancient cultures go hand in hand.

• Kickstart Your Kubernetes Security [Ed: It seems like this page is partly chatbot-spewed]

  Security is a challenging aspect of Kubernetes management, but leveraging the knowledge and tools from the community can significantly help.

• Hackaday ☛ Instant Filament Drying Satisfies An Immediate Need

  Most 3D printer filament soaks up water from the air, and when it does, the water passing through the extruder nozzle can expand, bubble, and pop, causing all kinds of mayhem and unwanted effects in the print. This is why reels come vacuum sealed. Some people 3D print so much that they consume a full roll before it can soak up water and start to display these effects. Others live in dry climates and don’t have to worry about humidity. But the rest of us require a solution. To date, that solution has been filament dryers, which are heated elements in a small reel-sized box, or for the adventurous an oven put at a very specific temperature until the reel melts and coats the inside of the oven. The downside to this method is that it’s a broad stroke that takes many hours to accomplish, and it’s inefficient because one may not use the whole roll before it gets soaked again.

• Hackaday ☛ Everyone Needs A 1950s Signal Generator In Their Life

  At Hackaday, we comb the world of tech in search of good things to bring you. Today’s search brought up something very familiar, [Jazzy Jane] has an Advance E1 tube signal generator, the same model as the unit on the shelf above where this is being written. It’s new to her, so she’s giving it a teardown and fixing any safety issues before powering it on.

• Hardware

  • Hackaday ☛ USB PD On CH32V003 Teaches You Everything

    How do you talk USB Power Delivery (PD)? Grab a PHY? Use a MCU with one built-in? Well, if you’re hardcore enough, you can do it with just a few resistors and GPIOs. [eeucalyptus] shows you their implementation of USB-PD on a CH32V003, which has no PD peripheral. This includes building a PD trigger, completely open source, and walking you through the entire low-level PD basics, too!

  • CNX Software ☛ NXP SAF9000 and SAF9100 Automotive Audio DSP bring Hey Hi (AI) to car infotainment

    NXP has recently launched the SAF9xxx Automotive Audio DSP family, which currently includes SAF9000 and SAF9100 Hey Hi (AI) audio DSPs. Built around Cadence’s latest generation high-performance Tensilica HiFi 5 DSPs, these new chips not only feature Hey Hi (AI) and ML capabilities, but also include features like driver’s voice pitches and accent recognition, noise cancellation, voice recognition, emergency siren detection, and more. Additionally, the SAF9000 chip includes a software-defined radio option with up to five integrated tuners (controlled by an integrated Arm Cortex-M7 core) that covers all major global broadcast radio standards, including DAB, HD Radio, DRM, CDR, and AM/FM into a single chip solution.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • Counter Punch ☛ 2024-06-27 [Older] Mask Bans and the Age of Pandemics (and Fascism and Climate Crisis)

  • Federal News Network ☛ VA employee files EHR lawsuit, claiming lack of accessibility features

    The VA launched the new EHR in White City, Oregon in June 2022, but a VA employee says she raised unresolved accessibility concerns before launch.

  • Pro Publica ☛ Stillbirth Prevention Hindered by Lack of Data

    At her baby shower in the summer of 2019, Ava Jones’ smile radiated above the gingham dress that fell snug around her growing belly.

    Jones’ pregnancy had been smooth — not even morning sickness — until four days before her due date. That afternoon, she realized that she couldn’t feel her baby move. Jones and her husband, Gregory, rushed to their hospital in Dallas, where she labored for two days before she delivered her stillborn baby.

  • The mechanism for menstrual irregularities after COVID vaccination? Not really.

    One of the oldest antivaccine tropes out there is that vaccines somehow affect fertility, especially female fertility. It’s a trope that dates back decades, starting at least as far back as the 1990s, when the myth surfaced in some countries in Africa and other underdeveloped nations that tetanus vaccines administered to young women would cause infertility, even “sterilize” them. The myth was particularly pernicious in Kenya, where Catholic bishops promoted it vigorously against all evidence, and, even though the medical establishment there called it out as nonsense, it was, like many such myths, widely believed because a source believed to be authoritative (bishops in the Catholic Church and some Catholic physicians) was promoting it. Unsurprisingly, HPV vaccines have also been a favorite target of this trope. Unsurprisingly, almost at the same time as mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines received emergency use approval (EUA) in the US, the myth resurfaced, applied to the new vaccines. (Actually, it first resurfaced during the clinical trials for the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.) They even came up with dubious scientific “mechanisms.”

• Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)

  • Digital Music News ☛ Former Ticketmaster Exec Pleads Guilty to Hacking Competition

    A former Ticketmaster executive has pleaded guilty to hacking a former employer and competitor to Ticketmaster under the charge ‘conspiracy to commit computer intrusions.’ Here’s the latest.

  • EA announces death of Battlefield games, online servers close November 7

    Electronic Arts (EA) took to the official Battlefield Comms X page to announce that on July 31st, the following Battlefield games will be removed from digital storefronts, along with access to any DLC content associated with the titles. The games that will be removed will be the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of Battlefield 3, Battlefield 4, and Battlefield Hardware.

  • Game Rant ☛ Tales of Kenzera: Zau Studio Announces Layoffs

    The studio behind Tales of Kenzera: Zau has let go of "over a dozen" employees in another blow to the game industry. Over the past several months, numerous layoffs have impacted numerous game companies, with the latest victim being Tales of Kenzera: Zau developer Surgent Studios.

    Founded by British actor Abubakar Salim, Surgent Studios began as Silver Rain Games in 2020 with Salim as its CEO. On April 23, the studio released its debut game Tales of Kenzera: Zau on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch. The 2.5D Metroidvania title follows the adventures of the titular protagonist, Zau, as he fights enemies and traverses unique environments on a quest to revive his father. Although the game fared well overall among critics, outside factors seem to have forced the company's hand into letting go of numerous employees.

  • New York Times ☛ Bruce Bastian, a Founder of WordPerfect, Is Dead at 76

    A favorite of early personal computer users, his company was eventually overtaken by Abusive Monopolist Microsoft Word. He later came out as gay and became an L.G.B.T.Q. activist.

  • Cloudbooklet ☛ What is Hey Hi (AI) Slop and Why Social Media is full of Hey Hi (AI) Slop

    Explore the concept of Hey Hi (AI) slop and its impact on social control media, from echo chambers to privacy concerns and user satisfaction.

  • Silicon Angle ☛ Google’s emissions grew 13% in 2023 amid increasing Hey Hi (AI) energy demand [Ed: And Microsoft more so, but that helps fake "demand" where there is none (except for electricity)]

    Google LLC produced 13% more emissions in 2023 than a year earlier, the search giant disclosed today. The Alphabet Inc. unit attributed the increase primarily to its supply chain and higher data center energy consumption. According to the company, the higher energy demand was partly driven by artificial intelligence workloads.

• Security

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • Cyble Inc ☛ Windows Recall Remains Insecure, Researcher Says

      Windows Recall was delayed over concerns that it would create privacy and security vulnerabilities by recording users’ screen activity and saving it in an easily hackable database. Those issues apparently still remain a few weeks later in preview versions of Recall.

    • Macworld ☛ A Siri divided against itself cannot stand

      The new, intelligent Siri will only work (at least for a while) on a select number of Apple devices: iPhone 15 Pro and later, Apple silicon Macs, and M1 or better iPads. Your older devices will not be able to provide you with a smarter Siri. Some of Apple’s products that rely on Siri the most–the Apple TV, HomePods, and Apple Watch–are unlikely to have the hardware to support Apple Intelligence for a long, long time. They’ll all be stuck using the older, dumber Siri.

      This means that we’re about to enter an age of Siri fragmentation, where saying that magic activation word may yield dramatically different results depending on what device answers the call. Fortunately, there are some ways that Apple might mitigate things so that it’s not so bad.

    • RTL ☛ Public 'health crisis': US Supreme Court takes on porn age-verification case

      Similar age verification laws have been passed in other states including Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas and others.

      Oral arguments in the case will take place during the Supreme Court term which begins on October 7.

    • The Korea Times ☛ Korean travelers, residents in China warned of police stop-and-search device checks

      According to a message from Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS), shared on Tuesday by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Koreans in China should be aware and careful of the potential risks regarding what they say or have stored in their mobile phones, as state officers now can inspect them simply on suspicion of espionage without requiring a court warrant.

      Videos, audio files, text messages, emails or anything the phones have access to could potentially cause legal troubles. Using a virtual private network to access Facebook, KakaoTalk or any other online services, which are blocked in China also carries the risk of penalty including detention.

    • The Record ☛ Supreme Court to take up Texas law requiring adults verify age to watch porn

      Plaintiffs’ attorneys cheered the Supreme Court’s decision to hear the case, saying a lower court’s ruling “wrongly allowed the government to rob adults of their online privacy and burden their access to protected speech, all under the guise of protecting children,” Vera Eidelman, staff attorney with ACLU’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, said in a statement.

      “Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time that such concerns have led legislators to pass unconstitutional laws,” Eidelman added. “Over the years, we’ve seen similar misguided laws about everything from drive-in movies to video games to websites, and courts have repeatedly struck these laws down.”

    • The San Fancisco Standard ☛ San Francisco app livestreams local bars to draw more patrons

      While Harris was striving for something akin to Surfline’s usefulness, critics said it was reminiscent of other tech debacles, such as SceneTap, which aimed to deliver livestreams and real-time info about the male-to-female ratio in bars in 2012.

      “Lemme guess, some techbro has this innovative idea of being the rent-seeking middleman charging venues and bands to run pay-per-view streams,” said Jamie Zawinski, the owner of DNA Lounge, a club and music venue in SoMa.

    • Bruce Schneier ☛ Public Surveillance of Bars

      This article about an app that lets people remotely view bars to see if they’re crowded or not is filled with commentary—on both sides—about privacy and openness.

    • Citizen Lab ☛ Digital attacks against exiled and diaspora women activists – re:publica 2024

    • Reason ☛ Federal Judge, ICE Agents Linked to Compromised Spyware Use

      The surveillance company mSpy just suffered its third data breach in a decade, exposing government officials snooping for both official and unofficial reasons.

    • Gizmodo ☛ 2024-06-22 [Older] YouTube Seems to Be Cracking Down on a VPN-Powered Discount

    • Press Gazette ☛ Google Sandbox rollout could cost publishers 60% of online advertising revenue

      Privacy Sandbox, Google’s upcoming replacement for third-party cookies, will reduce publishers’ revenue from programmatically-sold online ads by 60%, according to new research from advertising platform Criteo. Meanwhile, trade group the IAB Tech Lab has warned Sandbox would “throttle” smaller news publishers and restrict the media industry’s growth.

    • Digital Music News ☛ Diplo Responds to Revenge Porn Allegations: ‘Don’t Believe What You Read in the News’

      Diplo takes to Instagram to respond to the allegations that he has been distributing “revenge porn” of a Jane Doe, who is currently suing him in California federal court.

    • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong Kong 47: Defence lawyer argues for lesser sentence saying subversion scheme only a ‘remote possibility’

      A defence lawyer in Hong Kong’s largest national security case involving 45 pro-democracy figures convicted of subversion has argued for a lesser sentence for his client on the grounds that a plan to veto the government budget only had a “remote possibility” it would have succeeded.

• Defence/Aggression

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ Ukraine war fuels rise of killer AI robots — report details rapid evolution using consumer drones and Raspberry Pi

    Keeping the "human in the loop," in this case, means drone operators wearing modified VR headsets and using video game controllers. These often use hobbyist computers like the Raspberry Pi and modified consumer drones. We’ve all seen drones that can follow a snowboarder down a mountain — it isn’t much work to transform that software so it can instead track and follow an enemy combatant.

  • The Register UK ☛ US Army to get AI algos and safety systems from tech sector

    Bang said the Army is the largest user of AI and algorithms across the six branches of the US armed forces because, unlike the Navy with its ships or the Air Force with its planes, "our resource is our people." Those people generate a lot of data, ergo the Army ends up being the biggest user of machine-learning software to process all that information. That's why the Green Machine wants the industry's algorithms as a shortcut to handle that analysis.

  • Task And Purpose ☛ 2 Civil War soldiers receive Medal of Honor for ‘Great Locomotive Chase’

    Army Pvt. Philip G. Shadrach and Pvt. George D. Wilson will posthumously receive the Medal of Honor for the raid sometimes dubbed 'one of the earliest special operations missions.'

  • The Hill ☛ Medal of Honor awarded posthumously to two Civil War heroes

    They hijacked a train in Georgia called The General and drove it north for 87 miles while destroying railroad tracks and cutting telegraph wires. The group abandoned the train close to Chattanooga, Tenn., but were captured within two weeks.

    Shadrach and Wilson were among 22 men involved in the mission that is also known as Andrews’s Raid for James J. Andrews, who thought up the infiltration mission. Andrews and seven others, including Shadrach and Wilson, were hanged as spies in Atlanta.

  • Atlantic Council ☛ Bombing Europe’s breadbasket: Russia targets Ukrainian farmers

    Since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, the Kremlin has identified Ukraine’s vast and strategically vital agriculture industry as a priority target. This offensive against Ukrainian farmers has included everything from the blockade of the country’s seaports to the systematic destruction of agricultural produce and infrastructure.

  • Atlantic Council ☛ Hamas’s resistance doctrine is making it harder to broker a deal

    Apart from indifference to the US president’s political struggles, there are a number of reasons why Hamas is not jumping at Biden’s proposal. First and foremost, Hamas is an Islamist organization, and its resistance to Israel is riddled with rigid religious principles that permit no operational or strategic half-measures. Hamas’s 2017 charter characterizes Palestine—congruent with the mandate—as highly esteemed in Islam, probably due to its unique holy places. Hamas argues that Palestine is both the spirit and central cause of the ummah (Islamic community), and that Islam values standing up to aggression. In Hamas’s characterization, Israel is a colonial project imposed by force, and its settlement and Judaization of the country are illegitimate. Conversely, it sees all means to advance the struggle against Israel as legitimate. Escalating, de-escalating, or diversifying the means of the conflict are integral to the conduct of the fight. Much recent reporting reduces Hamas to its terrorist identity, rather than evaluating the group as a whole. Presenting an offer that Hamas would accept requires a full understanding of how the group perceives itself in the context of broader Islamic principles.

  • VOA News ☛ Local officials: Suspected jihadist attack in Mali Monday killed more than 20 civilians

    Both sources asked not to be identified given their positions. Since the junta came to power in the West African nation in 2020, information about such events is not generally made public.

  • PC Mag ☛ Nvidia AI GPUs Are Flowing Into China Through Underground Network

    The chips get into China through couriers like a Chinese student who brought six Nvidia A100 GPUs from Singapore to China back in November, The Wall Street Journal reports this week. The unnamed student reportedly said he received about $100 for each GPU for bringing them into the country—well below their actual market value.

  • El País ☛ Angela Zhang, professor: ‘In China, the addiction of apps like TikTok, Temu or Shein has been driven to perfection’

    The researcher analyzes the impact of regulation on the Chinese tech industry, which operates with a different system due to the relationships between the government, companies and public opinion

  • Atlantic Council ☛ Strengthening Taiwan’s resiliency

    Resilience is a nation’s ability to understand, address, respond to, and recover from any type of national security risk. Given the scale of risk Taiwan faces from mainland China, domestic resilience should be front and center in Taiwan’s national security strategy, encompassing areas such as cybersecurity, energy security, and defense resilience.

  • Defence Web ☛ ATMIS drawdown sees another base under Somali control

    In line with what the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) heard last month, the ATMIS (African Union Transition Mission in Somalia) drawdown and troop withdrawal continues as planned.

  • New York Times ☛ Israeli Generals, Low on Munitions, Want a Truce in Gaza

    Israel’s military leadership wants a cease-fire with Hamas in case a bigger war breaks out in Lebanon, security officials say. It has also concluded that a truce would be the swiftest way to free hostages.

  • ADF ☛ Kenyan NGO Aims to Boost Security on Both Sides of Somali Border

    No one knows the dangerous, porous borderlands of Kenya and Somalia like its residents, and in the face of increasing terrorist attacks and recruitment, members of the community are coming together to protect themselves.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Solo demos, heavy police presence as Hong Kong sees 5th year without protest march on Handover anniversary

    Hong Kong saw brief, solo demonstrations on the anniversary of the city’s return to China, when streets that crowds of protesters once marched through were instead filled with police on the public holiday. Outside Sogo department store in Causeway Bay, an elderly man surnamed Ng held up handwritten signs on Monday afternoon with arrest figures […]

  • Defence Web ☛ Mauritania acquires new military hardware from China

    Mauritania’s military has taken delivery of fire support vehicles, air defence systems, and unmanned aerial vehicles from China as it builds up its military capabilities. The new equipment was inspected by Mauritanian President and Armed Forces Commander Mohamed Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani on a 9 June visit to a military headquarters unit.

  • Atlantic Council ☛ What the Peruvian president’s state visit to China means for US economic diplomacy

    Peruvian President Dina Boluarte recently traveled to Beijing to meet with Chinese leader Pooh-tin Jinping. Washington should take note of the growing Peru-China relationship.

  • TwinCities Pioneer Press ☛ Strike kills family as Israeli evacuation order sparks panicked flight from southern Gaza city

    Israel’s order for people to leave the eastern half of Khan Younis has triggered the third mass flight of Palestinians in as many months.

  • France24 ☛ Israel carries out deadly strikes on southern Gaza after issuing evacuation order

    The Israeli army Tuesday bombarded southern Gaza, killing at least eight and wounding dozens in Khan Younis, after ordering some 250,000 Palestinians in the area to evacuate early Monday. The shelling came after Israel released Mohammed Abu Selmia, the director of Shifa hospital – formerly Gaza's largest – who said that he and other detainees had been held in harsh conditions and tortured.

  • ADF ☛ Boko Haram Regroups, Inflicts ‘Abject Misery’ in Niger State

    Boko Haram terrorists in Nigeria killed 20 young men in one of a series of early June attacks in the mountainous Shiroro communities of Niger State.

  • ADF ☛ Land Mines, Booby Traps Haunt Libya’s Landscape

    Four years after fighting ended in the southern suburbs of Tripoli, land mines and booby-trapped explosives continue to maim and kill civilians. Over the past five years, more than 400 people have been killed or injured by hidden explosives across Libya.

  • JURIST ☛ Australia’s first coercive control laws come into force to stem tide of domestic violence

    Laws criminalizing coercive control came into force in New South Wales (NSW), Australia on Monday. Section 54D of the NSW’s Crimes Act 1900 criminalizes coercive conduct and abusive behavior against intimate partners by attaching a maximum penalty of seven years imprisonment upon conviction.

• Transparency/Investigative Reporting

  • US News And World Report ☛ Roger Waters Says Prepared to Help Fund WikiLeaks, Hopeful Assange Might Return

    Asked if he would be prepared to help fund WikiLeaks, which Assange founded in 2006, Waters said: "Of course. I mean, I can’t fund the whole thing. One has a limited war chest...I want them to encourage whistleblowers everywhere to go to them."

• Environment

  • Omicron Limited ☛ Harmful substances in soft plastic lures: Risks for anglers and the environment

    A sub-sample of 10 baits was also tested for possible estrogenic activity. One extract showed hormonal activity, which could be due to unknown additives. Parallel to the chemical analysis, the researchers conducted a survey among anglers in Germany. The majority of participants were concerned about the potential ecological impact of soft plastic bait and were in favor of labeling the ingredients and legal restrictions on toxic ingredients.

  • Smithsonian Magazine ☛ Alaska's Juneau Icefield Is Melting at an 'Incredibly Worrying' 50,000 Gallons per Second, Researchers Find | Smithsonian

    A new study published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications highlights the icefield’s unprecedented and accelerating melting. Its snow-covered area is shrinking 4.6 times faster than it was prior to the 1980s, researchers say—and between 2010 and 2020, it lost roughly 1.4 cubic miles of ice per year. Now, meltwater is flowing from the icefield at 50,000 gallons per second, reports Seth Borenstein of the Associated Press (AP).

  • Maine Morning Star ☛ Here’s how experts want to see Maine combat climate change in the next four years

    Gov. Janet Mills created the climate council in 2019 to establish an action plan to help the state achieve carbon neutrality by 2045 and combat climate change. A recently-released assessment of climate change and its impacts on Maine showed that the state’s climate is getting warmer and seeing more severe weather. According to the report, each year from 2020 through 2023 ranked among the ten warmest years on record for Maine.

  • Smithsonian Magazine ☛ Leftover Ramen Broth Is Causing Problems on South Korea's Mount Halla

    Authorities are concerned about the environmental implications of this trend, as the salty liquid could run off into streams and harm aquatic wildlife. They’re also worried about how ramen broth will affect the growth of endangered plant species on the mountain. The smell is attracting wildlife like crows and weasels.

  • CNN ☛ Mount Halla: Soup broth harming South Korea’s highest mountain, warn officials

    “Ramen broth contains a lot of salt, so discarding it along the valley’s water stream makes it impossible for aquatic insects to live in contaminated water,” the National Park Office wrote in a Facebook post.

  • The Korea Times ☛ Rising instant noodle consumption on Mount Halla sparks environmental concerns

    Improperly discarded ramen broth poses a significant threat to the ecosystem. If the briny soup is poured onto the ground, it can flow into valley streams, contaminating water sources critical for aquatic life such as caddisflies, dragonfly larvae and salamanders unique to Jeju Island.

    Moreover, the seepage of ramen broth into the soil can endanger specialized plant species exclusive to Mount Halla, potentially leading to their extinction. The scent of discarded food like ramen may attract animals like crows, badgers and weasels to areas such as Witse Oreum. It will cause disruptions within the ecosystem as these animals consume contaminated food.

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-06-27 [Older] Germany's top court rules against 'climate neutral' fruit gum ad

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-06-27 [Older] Climate Change Boosted Deadly Saudi Haj Heat by 2.5 C, Scientists Say

  • Vox ☛ 2024-06-25 [Older] Why this year’s Hajj was so deadly

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-06-25 [Older] Flooded Brazil 'Ghost Town' a Climate Warning to World, UN Advisor Says

  • TruthOut ☛ 2024-06-25 [Older] Colorado Judge Rejects Industry’s Attempt to Kill Landmark Climate Lawsuit

  • Modern Diplomacy ☛ 2024-06-25 [Older] European Union: Leading the Fight Against Climate Change

  • Modern Diplomacy ☛ 2024-06-25 [Older] Amazon deforestation declines, but more still needs to be done, particularly as effects of climate change become increasingly visible

  • Counter Punch ☛ 2024-06-26 [Older] Water, Climate, Violence

  • Energy/Transportation

    • ADF ☛ CAR Accuses Chinese Mining Company of Colluding With Rebel Groups

      Authorities in the Central African Republic revoked a Chinese mining company’s license in the southern town of Mingala in June over concerns it was cooperating with armed militias.

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • The Revelator ☛ Map the Commons, Protect the Planet

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-06-24 [Older] Germany: Rare Rothschild giraffe born at Berlin zoo

    • France24 ☛ Brazil's Amazon rainforest sees worst 6 months of wildfires in 20 years, data shows

      Brazil's Amazon rainforest saw its worst six-month period of wildfires in 20 years despite a decrease in deforestation, satellite data showed Monday. The 13,489 wildfires – likely sparked by agricultural burning – recorded from January to June 2024 represents a more than 60 percent increase year-on-year.

• Finance

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-06-22 [Older] Argentina: Less inflation, more poverty since Milei took office

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-06-22 [Older] Argentina's Milei receives award in Hamburg, Germany

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-06-25 [Older] U.S. Sanctions 'Sprawling' Shadow Banking Network for Supporting Iranian Military

  • The Age AU ☛ 2024-06-28 [Older] ASX boosted by banks; Wall Street braces for inflation report

  • NL Times ☛ 2024-06-24 [Older] Dutch banks expect home sales prices to keep breaking records these months

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-06-24 [Older] Germany: Charges against Cum-Ex banker dropped over health

  • RFA ☛ Lao central bank governor removed amid economic crisis

    Inflation, currency depreciation and high debt have hampered growth as young people seek jobs in Thailand.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • France24 ☛ Paris Olympics organisers hope for peaceful reaction to French election

    The key risk to the Paris Games from the political uncertainty gripping France is public disturbances that could impact the already stretched security services, a former International Olympic Committee executive told AFP on Monday.

  • The Conversation ☛ 2024-06-26 [Older] How to decide how to vote – a psychologist’s advice

  • JURIST ☛ Germany court fines far-right politician for using Nazi slogan

    A regional court in Halle, Germany fined Björn Höcke, a prominent member of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, €16,900 on Monday for publicly using a slogan associated with the Nazi party. Höcke posted a video on X (formerly Twitter) announcing the fine.

  • BIA Net ☛ Erdoğan appoints new ministers for environment, health in cabinet reshuffle

    The AKP’s candidate for İstanbul mayor has returned to the environment ministry and Fahrettin Koca, who oversaw Turkey’s response to the Covid pandemic, has been replaced as the health minister.

  • Pro Publica ☛ Joe Biden Interview With ProPublica: Full and Unedited

    In the wake of President Joe Biden’s poor debate performance, his opponents and most major media organizations have pointed out that he has done few interviews that give the public an opportunity to hear him speak without a script or teleprompters.

  • New Yorker ☛ The Supreme Court’s Immunity Ruling Is a Victory for Donald Trump

    The conservative Justices gutted the January 6th case—and have made it harder to prosecute any President.

  • New Yorker ☛ Nathan Englander Reads Chris Adrian

    The author joins Deborah Treisman to read and discuss “Every Night for a Thousand Years,” which was published in The New Yorker in 1997.

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ Chinese AI firms mixing different GPUs inside individual AI servers to combat GPU shortages from US sanctions

    Chinese tech companies are bundling GPUs from different suppliers for their AI training needs to circumvent American sanctions limiting their access to advanced hardware. With the White House taking active measures to stop U.S.-made tech from entering China, like revoking eight of Huawei's export licenses in 2024, data center GPUs required for advanced AI processing are getting more complicated in the East Asian Country.

  • New York Times ☛ Investors Pour $27.1 Billion Into A.I. Start-Ups, Defying a Downturn

    A.I. companies are attracting huge rounds of funding reminiscent of 2021, when low interest rates and pandemic growth pushed investors to take risks on tech investments.

  • Mark Dominus ☛ My reply to the people who want to designate my neighborhood a "historic district"

    Also, a house that is "worth a lot of money" is only worth a lot of money on paper. To actually get the money for my house, I'd have to sell it. Then I and my family would have nowhere to live. We'd have to get another house. And because of widespread attempts to keep housing in short supply, that place would be expensive. High property values only help you if you are planning to move out of the neighborhood to somewhere cheaper, or if you're a very wealthy person who invests in multiple properties.

  • Tech Central (South Africa) ☛ Apple set to get OpenAI board observer role

    Phil Schiller, the head of Apple’s App Store and its former marketing chief, was chosen for the position, according to people familiar with the situation. As a board observer, he won’t be serving as a full-fledged director, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the matter isn’t public.

  • India Times ☛ Government working to regulate AI: IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw

    The government is working on regulation and legislations for artificial intelligence (AI) with a focus on containing the risks associated with the technology and implementing guard rails around AI, union minister for electronics and information technology Ashwini Vaishnaw said.

    The regulation for AI will need global coordination between like-minded countries, Vaishnaw said.

  • Terence Eden ☛ We’ve received a letter about you

    It is nonsense, of course. My ego enjoys the brief allure of being puffed up, but then safely returns to a more manageable size. But I can see why people like it - and why it drags down so many otherwise upstanding people.

  • European Commission ☛ Second report on the State of the Digital Decade

    Today, the Commission has published the second report on the State of the Digital Decade, providing a comprehensive overview of the progress made in the quest to achieve the digital objectives and targets set for 2030 by the Digital Decade Policy Programme (DDPP). This year, for the first time, the report is accompanied by an analysis of the national Digital Decade strategic roadmaps presented by Member States, detailing the planned national measures, actions and funding to contribute to the EU's digital transformation.

  • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

    • Press Gazette ☛ Lib Dems and Tories defy media critics to continue fake newspaper tactics

      The Lib Dems defended the practice, arguing they are "an effective way of communicating".

    • VOA News ☛ Did Ukraine’s first lady purchase $4.8 million Bugatti supercar?

      The news is false.

      Bugatti S.A.S. told Polygraph.info that the company is “aware” of “fake news” “suggesting a recent purchase of a BUGATTI vehicle by Mrs. Olena Zelenska, the First Lady of Ukraine.”

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • BIA Net ☛ Turkey's media watchdog revokes radio station’s license over genocide remembrance broadcast

    The Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK) has revoked the license of the independent radio station Açık Radyo. The decision comes after the station was penalized for a broadcast that mentioned the Armenian genocide on April 24, marked as the remembrance day for the genocide.

  • VOA News ☛ Russia issues arrest warrants for exiled journalists over war coverage

    Russian courts last month issued arrest warrants for three journalists who are in exile, in a move that analysts say is designed to harass critics outside the country’s borders.

  • Reason ☛ Saudi Arabia Reportedly Sentences Netflix Comedian to 13 Years in Prison

    But the Saudi authorities aren't laughing along. In a now-deleted YouTube video, Masameer County producer Abdulaziz Al Muzaini said that he had been sentenced to 13 years in prison and a 13-year travel ban due to the show, according to Middle East Eye, a London-based news outlet. Authorities pressed charges back in 2021, and the case is now being appealed to the Saudi Supreme Court, the comedian claimed.

  • RFERL ☛ Russian Anti-War Documentary Director's Prison Term Extended

    A St. Petersburg court of appeals on July 2 extended the three-year prison term of documentary director Vsevolod Korolyov, known for his anti-war stance, to seven years, the court press service said. [...]

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Busker jailed over playing 'Glory to Hong Kong' faces fresh charges

    Li was sentenced to 30 days in prison last October for unlicensed performance and fundraising after playing the protest anthem Glory to Hong Kong in public, with Magistrate Amy Chan saying that his offences amounted to “soft resistance”.

  • VOA News ☛ Foreign professor fired from Chinese university after interview with VOA 

    Björn Alexander Düben, a German assistant professor at Jilin University's School of Public Diplomacy, was mysteriously dismissed and instructed to leave China after a nine-year tenure, following his participation in an interview with Voice of America (VOA). This dismissal highlights the severe restrictions on free speech imposed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

    [...]

    Feeling cornered and fearing repercussions from contesting the decision, Düben chose to resign. Following his resignation, he was told he could retain his visa but had to leave China by May 30 and would be barred from re-entering the country. The university administrator indicated that these were instructions from "above," allowing no room for negotiation.

  • Gizmodo ☛ 2024-06-26 [Older] Biden Admin Wins Supreme Court Case on Requests for Social Networks to Delete Posts

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-06-24 [Older] Germany: AfD's Höcke in court over second use of Nazi slogan

  • Site36 ☛ Call for solidarity with Israel: Open letter from 72 German professors against “Jew-hatred” at universities

    German professors express their solidarity with Jewish students and Israeli institutions. A student now complains with a similar tenor. In an open letter, 72 German professors speak out against anti-Semitism and the marginalisation of Jewish students.

  • EFF ☛ It’s Time For Lawmakers to Listen to Courts: Your Law Regulating Online Speech Will Harm Internet Users’ Free Speech Rights

    The question is, why aren’t lawmakers listening? Instead of focusing on passing consumer privacy legislation that attacks the harmful business practices of the most dominant online services, lawmakers are seeking to censor the internet or block young people from it. Instead of passing laws that increase competition and help usher in a new era of online services and interoperability, lawmakers are trying to force social media platforms to host specific viewpoints. 

    Recent decisions by the Supreme Court and two federal district courts underscore how these laws, in addition to being unconstitutional, are also bad policy. Whatever the good intentions of lawmakers, laws that censor the internet directly harm people’s ability to speak online, access others’ speech, remain anonymous, and preserve their privacy.

    The consistent rulings by these courts should send a clear message to lawmakers considering internet legislation: it’s time to focus on advancing legislation that solves some of the most pressing privacy and competition problems online without censoring users’ speech. Those proposals have the benefit of both being constitutional and addressing many of the harms people—both adults and young people—experience online. Let’s take a look at each of these cases.

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • ANF News ☛ Eight Kurdish journalists sentenced to six years and three months in prison each

    Lawyer Resul Temur described the proceedings as a "censorship trial", stating that the case is exemplary for the treatment of media in Turkey that do not bow to the raison d'état and refuse to be vicarious agents of the rulers' policies. "These journalists are in the dock because they have dedicated themselves to the path of truth and also scrutinise the state from time to time. The Kurdish media have shown this courage for four decades. This is precisely why they belong to the school of the free press," said Temur at the start of the trial in May 2023.

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ In this AI age, I still write my own articles

    How can you know if this text was really written by a human? I know, because I am writing it right now. But, of course, that previous sentence could have been written by artificial intelligence. It seems we now have to live with this uncertainty of who or what the author of something actually is.

  • VOA News ☛ American journalist Gershkovich arbitrarily detained by Russia, UN group says

    The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention said in its opinion, released Tuesday, that the Russian government is detaining Gershkovich over unsubstantiated claims.

    A correspondent with The Wall Street Journal, Gershkovich has been jailed in Russia since March 2023 on spying charges that he, his employer and the U.S. government vehemently deny. The U.S. State Department has also declared the 32-year-old wrongfully detained.

  • Penske Media Corporation ☛ Pitchfork Names Mano Sundaresan Head of Editorial Content

    He joins during a fraught time for media — numerous publications have laid off staff in the last 18 months — and for Pitchfork in particular. In January, parent company Condé Nast folded Pitchfork into GQ and cut a number of longtime staffers, including Puja Patel, who had served as editor in chief since 2018. The backlash was swift: The Washington Post declared “the end of Pitchfork,” while The Guardian called the move “a travesty for music media” and many publications ran postmortems eulogizing the venerated site.

  • Defector ☛ Music Journalism Can't Afford A Hollowed-Out Pitchfork

    As first reported by Semafor's Maxwell Tani, Condé Nast announced yesterday that it is moving Pitchfork's editorial operations under the GQ brand banner. In a note to employees announcing the move, Condé executive Anna Wintour described it as "the best path for the brand so that our coverage of music can continue to thrive within the company." Whatever that means!

  • Marcy Wheeler ☛ What Is To Be Done

    A. We can pound on the cowards and toadies

    1. The New York Times and the Washington Post and most cable news networks have forgotten who actually reads or watches, and what their paying audience wants. They act like showering us with the views of the MAGAs and attacking us and our candidates is cool.

    Let’s remind them. Cancel all your subscriptions to these Quislings. Use your subscription money to support independent journalism or give it to your favorite candidate. Write them a snotty email with your cancellation. It feels good.

  • RFERL ☛ UN Experts Say Russia Violated International Law By Imprisoning U.S. Reporter Gershkovich

    [...] The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, made up of independent experts convened by the UN’s top human rights body, said there was a “striking lack of any factual or legal substantiation” for the spying charges leveled against Gershkovich. [...]

  • VOA News ☛ Watchdog: Apple Daily trial typifies declining press freedom in Hong Kong

    In the four years since Hong Kong enacted its national security law, the country's press freedom record is in free fall, according to media advocates.

    More than 900 journalists have lost their jobs, several media outlets have closed or moved overseas, and some journalists, including pro-democracy Apple Daily publisher Jimmy Lai, are in prison.

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Key computer system operators to be kept confidential under proposed cybersecurity law, security chief says

    The names of companies behind critical computer systems to be covered under a proposed cybersecurity legislation will not be publicised to prevent them from being targeted, Hong Kong’s security minister has said. Authorities last week proposed a bill to fine critical computer system operators up to HK$5 million for lapses in cybersecurity.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ HKFP Lens: Hong Kong celebrates 27th anniversary of Handover to China [Ed: Is this something to celebrate or something China forces them to cheer for?]

    Monday marked 27 years since Hong Kong returned from British to Chinese rule. This year also marked the first Handover anniversary since the city passed the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance, a locally-legislated security law more commonly known as Article 23.

  • CS Monitor ☛ China’s new world order: What Xi’s vision would mean for human rights, security

    China’s road map for a new, multipolar world order raises questions of fairness, cooperation, and good governance.

  • New York Times ☛ Northwestern Law School Accused of Bias Against White Men in Hiring

    The lawsuit was filed a year after the Supreme Court struck down the use of racial and gender preferences in college admissions.

  • JURIST ☛ Louisiana faces new lawsuit over Ten Commandments classroom display law

    A coalition of Louisiana parents and civil rights organizations has filed a federal lawsuit challenging the new state law (House Bill 71) that mandates the display of the Ten Commandments in all public school classrooms, saying it violates the First Amendment by imposing religious beliefs on students.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Man arrested over flying drone on Hong Kong’s Handover anniversary

    A man has been charged after being arrested for allegedly flying an unregistered drone on the 27th anniversary of Hong Kong’s Handover from Britain to China. The 32-year-old from mainland China was taken to the Eastern Magistrates’ Courts on Tuesday morning to face four charges under the Small Unmanned Aircraft Order.

  • AccessNow ☛ Digital safety guide for LGBTQ+ activists in Africa

    Rising LGBTQ+ intolerance in many African countries drives digital repression of activists. This guide provides safety tips and resources for protecting against these threats.

  • CS Monitor ☛ How director Lagueria Davis brought out the joy and the legacy of Black Barbie

    What did the first Black Barbie mean to a generation of children? A director who says she “hated“ dolls draws joy and inspiration from an icon.

  • OpenRightsGroup ☛ What we learnt from the manifestos

    For the General Election 2024, we extracted everything we could from the manifestos of each UK political party, to understand what their understanding of digital rights issues is, and what we might expect from a new government. We also helped organise a Digital hustings for the political parties, which you can watch here.

  • Site36 ☛ Bringing back Maja T. is legally impossible: German extradition to Hungary causes criticism in Berlin legal committee

    Despite an instruction from the Federal Constitutional Court, the judiciary in Dresden had a person from the left-wing scene wanted on a warrant handed over to the Hungarian police. Now there is a threat of a repeat offence.

  • Techdirt ☛ Detroit Alters Facial Recognition Use Rules In Response To Multiple Bogus Arrests

    The main problem here wasn’t necessarily the software, which was provided by DataWorks Plus. It was the officers using it. Rather than follow internal rules and guidance supplied by DataWorks that made it clear potential matches weren’t supposed to be considered probable cause for an arrest, officers decided to go after whatever person the algorithm suggested might be a match.

  • Scoop News Group ☛ CFPB urged by consumer groups to take action on banks’ use of algorithms

    Two of the country’s top consumer advocacy organizations are urging the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to issue guidance on how banks use algorithms to inform credit decisions, a practice that they say could erect barriers to access for underserved populations without proper guardrails.

  • EDRI ☛ Empowering people to flourish and thrive: A vision for our digital future

    Our collective impact has the power to resonate beyond the ballot boxes, shaping the course of the 2024 European elections and echoing throughout the corridors of influence. In the rapidly evolving digital landscape, we, at EDRi, believe that our technology should empower people to flourish and thrive. This belief forms the cornerstone of our manifesto, which outlines a positive vision for our digital futures.

  • France24 ☛ Sierra Leone bans child marriage, enacts severe penalties for violations

    Sierra Leone's parliament approved the law last month, passing a bill that criminalises marrying girls below 18 with jail terms of at least 15 years or a stiff fine of more than $2,000.

  • New York Times ☛ Sierra Leone Bans Child Marriage With New Law

    There were about 800,000 girls under the age of 18 who were married in Sierra Leone, UNICEF reported in 2020, which is about a third of the girls in the country. Half had been married by the time they turned 15. About 4 percent of boys are wedded by 18, according to Human Rights Watch.

    Under the new law, those married as children can seek financial compensation. They also have a path out of their marriages: petitioning for an annulment.

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • The Register UK ☛ Tech luminaries criticize UN Digital Compact

    The UN wants an international agreement to address issues like "reaffirming the fundamental commitment to connecting the unconnected; avoiding fragmentation of the internet; providing people with options as to how their data is used; application of human rights online; and promoting a trustworthy internet by introducing accountability criteria for discrimination and misleading content."

    Draft Compacts emerged in April, May, and June of 2024. The most recent edition, Revision 2, can be found here [PDF].

  • International Business Times ☛ Multi-Chain Ecosystems: Why Web3 Won't Move Forward Without Interoperability

    The lack of interoperability is a major hurdle hindering the growth of the blockchain ecosystem. As long as blockchain networks remain fragmented, achieving a user experience (UX) robust enough to onboard one billion users to Web3 will remain a formidable challenge. The blockchain community recognises this issue, with developers actively building various protocols to address it. However, without unified interoperability standards, communication between different blockchains remains constrained. Prioritising collaboration over competition may be the key to finding a viable and long-lasting solution.

  • AIM ☛ Around 42% of Overall Web Traffic is Generated by Bots: Report

    A recent report by Akamai Technologies found that bots compose 42% of overall web traffic, and 65% of these bots are malicious.

    Akamai recently released a new State of the Internet (SOTI) report that details the security and business threats that organizations face with the proliferation of web scraping bots.

  • The Open Internet Order Doesn’t Need Chevron

    In Ohio Telecom Association v. FCC, the consolidated challenge to the FCC’s Open Internet Order [...]

  • Dhole Moments ☛ My Furry Blog is NOT an Opportunity to Develop Your Brand

    A common narrative on discussion boards like Hacker News is that my inclusion of my fursona on my technical blog posts somehow makes them unsuitable for consumption in a business setting.

  • Ted Unangst ☛ enterprise social

    The Honk Foundation is pleased to announce the initial release of Enterprise Social, previously known as Honk Enterprise, previously known as honk3. It’s reworked and retuned, reimagined and remade. A social network for the future.

    I wanted to rewrite the honk frontend for a while, just to try some new things, but the changes would only be visible to me. Showing it off would require letting users create their own accounts. But I have no interest in hoarding your data. The only migration technique that effectively works is hostname based, which requires vhosting support, making everything a bit more complicated. And the original honk code is not very efficient at multihosting.

• Digital Restrictions (DRM)

  • Digital Music News ☛ Spotify Is Testing An Emergency Alert System in Sweden

    The topic of emergency alerts in video and music streaming apps has come up in the past in the United States. In 2018, The Reliable Emergency Alert Distribution Improvement Act introduced by Senator Brian Schatz (D-HI) and Senator John Thune (R-SD) sought to create a commission to research the feasibility of requiring online streaming services to distribute emergency alerts—much like traditional mediums of television and radio.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• Patents

  • Kluwer Patent Blog ☛ The Future of UK PIs – Cyanamid, Skat and injunction creep

    The recent rivaroxaban PI cases may have caused you to ask yourself whether the American Cynamid principles for determining whether or not to grant preliminary injunctive relief in the UK are dead or at least dying.

  • JUVE ☛ Lavoix expands in Italy [Ed: Pure SPAM from JUVE, which to make money also lied to promote an illegal fake court]

    According to a joint press release, French outfit Lavoix recently acquired the Italian law firm Giambrocono. Lavoix and Giambrocono have worked together since the end of June.

  • Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ A few initial thoughts on Loper and the end of Chevron Deference

    This is just a first look at how overturning Chevron may impact patent monopoly practice. 

    In the past, both the USPTO and patent monopoly attorneys have largely ignored the larger scope of administrative law, but in recent years USPTO operations have been under tighter control from the White House, and courts have increasingly asked whether the agency is following the rules.  Administrative patent monopoly law was truly launched with  the American Invents Act of 2011 and the resulting administrative patent monopoly trials by the PTAB — resulting in hundreds of appeals arguing that the USPTO’s procedural

  • Kangaroo Courts

    • Kluwer Patent Blog ☛ Breaking news: Referral on claim interpretation at the EPO [Ed: But what if the Enlarged Board of Appeal is nowadays just another kangaroo court of the president?]

      Following months of speculation, EPO Board of Appeal 3.2.01 yesterday issued decision T 439/22 referring questions to the Enlarged Board of Appeal on the extent to which the description and drawings should be used in claim interpretation.   The claim feature at issue was: “in which the aerosol-forming substrate comprises a gathered sheet”.

  • Software Patents

    • Unified Patents ☛ Inflated patent monopoly damages settled in Delaware courts attract bad actors

      Delaware Online has published an article written by Jonathan Stroud, General Counsel at Unified Patents, over an influx of cash into intellectual property lawsuits.

    • DataCenter Dynamics ☛ Verizon slapped with $847m patent payment

      The total figure is made up of a $583m "reasonable royalty" for infringing US Patent No 7,230,931 (the '931) patent, plus a further $264m for infringing the other, 9,426,794 ('794), as per the court's ruling last week.

      Verizon allegedly infringed upon 5G and hotspot patents owned by General Access.

    • Inside Towers ☛ Verizon to Pay $847M For Infringing 5G and Hotspot Patents - Inside Towers

      In a massive patent verdict, a federal jury in East Texas has ordered Verizon (NYSE: VZ) to pay patent holder General Access Solutions, a total of $847 million, The Register reported. That total is the sum of $583 million that a jury considered a “reasonable royalty” for infringing US Patent No. 7,230,931 (the ‘931), and another $264 million for infringing the other, US Patent No. 9,426,794 (the ‘794).

      Dallas-based non-practicing entity General Access Solutions, which acquired the patents from original inventor, Raze Technologies, claims elements of Verizon’s 5G wireless networks, smartphone hotspots, wireless home routers, and MiFi devices violate its intellectual property. In the original complaint, it claims that Verizon’s base station equipment infringes its ‘931 patent – that has to do with beamforming networks across cell sites – and Verizon wireless devices that receive 4G and 5G cell signals infringe its ‘794 patent when they route information to mobile stations using 802.11 WiFi communications protocols.

    • Seeking Alpha ☛ Verizon found liable for $847M in patent infringement damages

      Verizon (VZ) responded that it didn't infringe the patents, and that both patents were invalid.

      The jury rejected both of those arguments. For violating the '931 patent, it awarded $583M, and for violating the '794 patent, it awarded $264M.

    • India Times ☛ China leading generative AI patents race, UN report says

      Generative AI, which produces text, images, computer code and even music from existing information, is exploding with more than 50,000 patent applications filed in the past decade, according to the World Intellectual {sic} Property {sic} Organization (WIPO), which oversees a system for countries to share recognition of patents.

    • Tech Central (South Africa) ☛ China is winning the gen AI patents arms race

      Generative AI, which produces text, images, computer code and even music from existing information, is exploding with more than 50 000 patent applications filed in the past decade, according to the World Intellectual [sic] Property [sic] Organisation (Wipo), which oversees a system for countries to share recognition of patents.

      A quarter of them were filed in 2023 alone, it said.

• Copyrights

  • Walled Culture ☛ Yet more examples of how copyright destroys culture rather than driving it

    That’s a significant chunk of modern culture that has just been erased. Shutting down those sites is deeply problematic because of copyright. Given the historical importance of much of the now-deleted material, institutions and individuals would doubtless have been willing to make multiple backup copies to ensure its preservation. But copyright forbids that, which means that there are now no official backups. There may be some unofficial ones that people have made, but these are likely to be fragmentary and will be hard or even impossible to find, rendering them useless for research purposes. As if to hammer home the point that copyright harms culture, another massive holding of modern material has just been removed from the Web by Paramount Global, reported here on the LateNighter site: [...]

  • Gizmodo ☛ 2024-06-27 [Older] YouTube Wants to Pay Record Labels to Create Soulless Versions of Your Favorite Artists

  • Torrent Freak ☛ DoodStream's Traffic Takes a Battering as Hollywood Lawsuit Takes Its Toll

    When the major Hollywood studios, Netflix, Amazon, and Apple, teamed up to file a lawsuit against DoodStream in March, that unlikely took the file-hosting service by surprise. After a Court ordered the removal of hundreds of thousands of links to mainstream movies and TV shows, the collapse in visitor numbers since was probably expected as well.

  • Torrent Freak ☛ Sony Music Goes After Piracy Portal 'Hikari-no-Akari'

    Hikari-no-Akari, a long-established and popular pirate site that specializes in Japanese music, is being targeted in U.S. federal court by Sony Music. The Japanese branch of the music company obtained a DMCA subpoena that requires Cloudflare to share all details it has on the site's alleged operators.