Links 27/07/2024: Quicket Scooped up by Ticketmaster, Microsoft Uses Windows' Global Outage as Excuse to Loosen Antitrust Enforcement
Contents
- Leftovers
- Science
- Health/Nutrition/Agriculture
- Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)
- Security
- Defence/Aggression
- Transparency/Investigative Reporting
- Environment
- AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics
- Censorship/Free Speech
- Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press
- Civil Rights/Policing
- Digital Restrictions (DRM) Monopolies/Monopsonies
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Leftovers
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Seth Michael Larson ☛ 2024-07-22 [Older] YouTube without YouTube Shorts [Ed: quality has gone down by a lot]
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Science
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The Conversation ☛ 2024-07-19 [Older] Open golf 2024: neuroscience reveals the secrets of better putting – new study
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The Conversation ☛ 2024-07-22 [Older] Why does traditional masculinity have such longevity, even among younger boys?
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The Conversation ☛ 2024-07-22 [Older] A cave discovered on the Moon opens up new opportunities for settlement by humans
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The Conversation ☛ 2024-07-25 [Older] What lunar caves tell us about the shared origins of the Earth and the Moon
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The Conversation ☛ 2024-07-23 [Older] If we want to settle on other planets, we’ll have to use genome editing to alter human DNA
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Health/Nutrition/Agriculture
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Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)
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The Register UK ☛ Adobe likens subscription cancellation fees to heroin: FTC • The Register
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Channel Brief: Avaya Lays Off 180, ServiceNow’s Desai Resigns, MSoft Signals Kernel Changes Post-CrowdStrike
Good morning, folks, and happy Friday! What a week it's been, eh?
Today, we're looking at Microsoft's push to remove kernel access for software like CrowdStrike to prevent another incident like last week's, Avaya's latest round of layoffs, ServiceNow's exiting execs and its acquisition of Raytion to bolster AI-powered search on the Now platform and Bocada Cloud's addition of an integration with HaloPSA.
As always, drop me a line at sharon.florentine@cyberriskalliance.com if you have news to share or want to say hi!
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SAG-AFTRA Announces Strike Against the Video Game Industry
SAG-AFTRA has announced that, after a year and a half of negotiations, they are officially calling on their members to go on strike against the video game industry. The affected companies include EA, Take-Two/Rockstar, Insomniac, and more.
For the last year, the video game industry has been in a dire state. For one, there are the countless layoffs/closures that have affected Microsoft, Bungie, Embracer Group, Behaviour Interactive, Riot Games, Sega, Sony, EA, Take-Two, and more. Additionally, actors in the industry have had to contend with the growing reality of AI voices replacing their jobs. After months of poor treatment from companies, it was only a matter of time before unions took action.
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Corporate Layoff Warning
Deere has already laid off nearly 1,500 employees this year. And that statement is the precursor to another round of layoffs that will lower headcount by 15%. That’s approximately 9,000 jobs.
Part of the reason for the layoffs is that Deere is moving some of its manufacturing capacity to Mexico. Deere isn’t the only company looking to cut costs by “near-shoring” manufacturing to Mexico. Virtually every car maker is doing the same thing. iPhone assembly company Foxconn, toymaker Mattel and medical device maker Medtronic are all making moves in Mexico.
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Tras la renuncia silenciosa, el "ostracismo obligado": la estrategia de las empresas para ahorrarse la indemnización
[Según Conrad, no renunciar cuando fue reasignado por primera vez fue una cuestión de principios: "No me rendiría porque tenía un desempeño excelente y simplemente no era justo".] Conrad was a mid-level salesman at IBM, which underwent two job changes in two years. In the first case, his manager told him that his position had been eliminated...
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Gizmodo ☛ 2024-07-24 [Older] World of Warcraft‘s Developers Just Made a Huge Leap Forward For Video Game Unionization
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Modern Diplomacy ☛ 2024-07-22 [Older] A Day the Digital World Stood Still: Lessons from the Microsoft and CrowdStrike Crisis
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Jacobin Magazine ☛ 2024-07-21 [Older] Big Tech Consolidation Amplified the [Windows] Outage
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-07-20 [Older] Microsoft Says About 8.5 Million of Its Devices Affected by CrowdStrike-Related Outage
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Security
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Privacy/Surveillance
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Tech Central (South Africa) ☛ Americans are finally switching to WhatsApp
Meta Platforms-owned WhatsApp has hit 100 million monthly active users in the US and is growing its daily audience by double digits, signs the messaging app is gaining traction in a market largely dominated by Apple’s iMessage and traditional texting.
Meta acquired WhatsApp in 2014 for US$19-billion, and while the app has amassed billions of users worldwide and become a staple in countries such as Brazil and India, its presence in the US has lagged behind.
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PC World ☛ How to stop X's Grok AI from scanning your tweets
Well, it seems like a constantly refreshed pool of conversations from some of the web’s most active users was simply too much for company xAI to resist, which now automatically scans your “posts as well as your interactions, inputs, and [Grok search] results.”
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US News And World Report ☛ Senators Call on Federal Trade Commission to Investigate Automakers' Sale of Driving Data to Brokers
After reading a report in The New York Times, Wyden's office looked into the three automakers and found that they shared data with broker Verisk Analytics. In the letter to Khan, the senators wrote that all three automakers confirmed disclosure of the data. GM also confirmed that it disclosed customer location data to two other companies that the automaker would not name, the letter said.
Verisk used the data to prepare reports on driving-behavior history and sold them to insurance companies, the letter said. Some automakers may have deceived customers by advertising data disclosures as a way to reduce insurance bills, without telling them that some insurers could charge more, the senators wrote.
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Ars Technica ☛ Chrome will now prompt some users to send passwords for suspicious files
Google has long allowed users to switch on the Enhanced Mode of its Safe Browsing, a Chrome feature that warns users when they’re downloading a file that’s believed to be unsafe, either because of suspicious characteristics or because it’s in a list of known malware. With Enhanced Mode turned on, Google will prompt users to upload suspicious files that aren’t allowed or blocked by its detection engine. Under the new changes, Google will prompt these users to provide any password needed to open the file.
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Defence/Aggression
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Atlantic Council ☛ The world is sleepwalking into an era of extreme heat. The UN just issued a wake-up call.
In the Call to Action, the secretary-general makes clear that governments and policymakers must protect and care for the lives and livelihoods of frontline communities, protect workers, advance the evidence base to drive innovative resilience solutions, and limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
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Greece ☛ Harris joins TikTok, another sign of the app’s value in reaching young voters
Within six hours, the eight-second post had been viewed 5.8 million times, and Harris had reeled in more than 1.1 million followers.
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Fortune ☛ TikTok Shop set to launch in Spain and Ireland this summer—a move to boost ByteDance's e-commerce efforts in Europe | Fortune Europe
TikTok Shop has recruited a team of about 40 workers in Spain, making it one of the company’s largest e-commerce outposts in Europe, according to the people. The firm is also hiring Spanish speakers in places like Madrid and London for roles ranging from logistics to compliance and strategies for Shop, according to its job site.
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France24 ☛ Foreign interference, terrorism, cyber-attacks: Paris Olympics face unprecedented security risks
According to a report by public radio station France Inter, French intelligence services have identified a dozen leaders of the Islamic State group in Turkey and Syria capable of activating terrorist sleeper cells in France at any time.
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JURIST ☛ European Court upholds Sweden's refusal to grant refugees families residency status
The reason for the refusals came down to the failure of both applicants to satisfy the requisite income and size-of-accommodation thresholds outlined in the “maintenance requirement.” Both the Eritrean and Ethiopian nationals submitted their requests for family reunification more than three months after being granted refugee status meant that their claims were subject to the maintenance requirement.
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HRW ☛ 2024-07-22 [Older] Bangladesh: Security Forces Target Unarmed Students
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-07-22 [Older] Homeland Security Secretary Names Independent Panel to Review Trump Assassination Attempt
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CBC ☛ 2024-07-21 [Older] U.S. Secret Service says it previously denied Trump campaign requests for tighter security
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-07-21 [Older] The Secret Service Acknowledges Denying Some Past Requests by Trump's Campaign for Tighter Security
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-07-20 [Older] Israeli Military: No Security Incident in City of Eilat
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Defence Web ☛ 2024-07-19 [Older] SSA Ready To Build State Capacity
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Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine
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Insight Hungary ☛ Trump quotes Orban in his latest speech
Former President Donald Trump has quoted Hungary's far-right Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in his acceptance speech. Orban, seen as Russia's closest ally in the EU endorsed Trump multiple times - AP reports.
“Viktor Orbán, Prime Minister of Hungary, very tough guy,” Trump remarked. He noted that Orbán, a frequent visitor to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida—including a visit just last week following a highly controversial meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump quoted Orbán: “There’s only one way you can solve it. You’ve got to bring President Trump back.”
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-07-20 [Older] Three 'Pro-Russian' Hackers Arrested in Spain Over Cyberattacks
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The Age AU ☛ 2024-07-26 [Older] Russian and Chinese bombers on joint patrol intercepted over Alaska
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CPJ ☛ 2024-07-25 [Older] Russia seeks to arrest, prosecutes, fines, and restricts 13 exiled journalists
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CBC ☛ 2024-07-25 [Older] Russian fraudster uses 19 aliases to defraud Sask. government of $150K
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-07-24 [Older] Russia: Military intelligence officer injured in car bombing
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-07-24 [Older] G7 Finance Leaders to Discuss Ukraine Loan Plan, Longer Freeze on Russian Assets
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Vox ☛ 2024-07-24 [Older] ISIS? Russian sabotage? The biggest security threats at these Olympics.
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Modern Diplomacy ☛ 2024-07-23 [Older] Algeria stands as Russia’s gateway to Maghreb region
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-07-23 [Older] Hungary calls on EU to mediate over Ukraine-Russia oil spat
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-07-23 [Older] Russia's Tuapse Oil Refinery Is Still Operating, Deputy PM Says After Ukrainian Drone Strike on It
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-07-22 [Older] Russia's Tuapse Oil Refinery Damaged in Ukraine Drone Attack, Russian Officials Say
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Modern Diplomacy ☛ 2024-07-21 [Older] How Russia Tries to Stuff the Ballot Box: Slovakia et. al
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Modern Diplomacy ☛ 2024-07-21 [Older] Russia and Africa: Strategizing for Effective Cooperation
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Scheerpost ☛ 2024-07-21 [Older] Russia Says It May Deploy Nuclear Missiles in Response to New US Missile Deployment to Germany
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-07-21 [Older] Ukraine updates: Deterring 'Putin's Russia' a must — Germany
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-07-21 [Older] Exclusive-Illicit Chip Flows to Russia Seen Slowing, but China, Hong Kong Remain Transshipment Hubs
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-07-21 [Older] Russia Says It Scrambled Fighter Jets to Intercept U.S. Bomber Planes Over Barents Sea
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-07-21 [Older] Zelenskiy Calls for Long-Range Weapons After Drone Attack on Kyiv
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-07-21 [Older] Russia Says Its Jets Prevented US Bombers Violating Border Over Barents Sea
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-07-21 [Older] Ukrainian Civilians Wounded in Russian Drone and Shelling Attacks as Russia Claims Gains in the East
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-07-20 [Older] At Least 6 Dead and Thousands Without Power as Russia Continues Strikes on Ukraine
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-07-20 [Older] Residents Protest Over Power Cuts in Southern Russian City
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-07-20 [Older] Russia Hikes Import Tariffs for Consumer Goods From 'Unfriendly Countries'
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-07-20 [Older] Russian Missile and Drone Attack Kills 2 in Ukraine, Hits Energy Infrastructure
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Modern Diplomacy ☛ 2024-07-26 [Older] To end the war in Ukraine through peace talks only
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-07-25 [Older] Ukraine updates: Kyiv and Moscow maintain demands for talks
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-07-25 [Older] Ukraine: What's behind recent talk of a negotiated peace?
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The Local DK ☛ 2024-07-25 [Older] Denmark to send Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine this summer
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-07-25 [Older] Pentagon Finds Another $2 Billion of Accounting Errors for Ukraine Aid
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-07-24 [Older] Can China help mediate peace in Ukraine?
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-07-24 [Older] Olympics-Zelenskiy Says Ukraine's Participation in Paris Is a Big Accomplishment
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Gizmodo ☛ 2024-07-23 [Older] Ukraine’s Drone Czar Is a ‘Warhammer’ Guy
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-07-23 [Older] Ukraine updates: Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba visits China
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-07-23 [Older] Estonia Will Support Ukraine 'Until Victory', New PM Says
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-07-23 [Older] Hungary to Block EU Funds for Member States Until Ukraine Allows Lukoil Transit
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-07-23 [Older] In Push for More Ukraine Troops, City of Moscow Hikes Pay for Contract Soldiers to $60,000 a Year
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-07-23 [Older] Poll Says 32% of Ukrainians Open to Territorial Concessions for Quick Peace
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-07-23 [Older] Ukraine's Foreign Minister Arrives in China to Discuss 'Fair Peace'
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-07-22 [Older] Ukraine updates: Zelenskyy thanks Germany for Patriot system
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-07-22 [Older] Ammunition Deliveries to Ukraine Will Accelerate, Czech Minister Says
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-07-22 [Older] On Biden, the Kremlin Says the Ukraine War Is More Important
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Modern Diplomacy ☛ 2024-07-21 [Older] Ukraine: a few takeaways for both the Defense industry and government procurement agencies
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-07-21 [Older] Divers Search for Girl in Ukraine's Dnipro River After Amusement Ride Tragedy
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-07-21 [Older] Ukraine's Zelenskiy Says He Respects Biden's 'Tough but Strong' Decision
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-07-20 [Older] Ukrainian nationalist ex-lawmaker Iryna Farion shot dead
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-07-20 [Older] Blinken Points to Wider Pledges to Support Ukraine in Case US Backs Away Under Trump
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-07-20 [Older] Slovak PM Blasts Ukraine's Lukoil Sanctions as Oil Flow Stops
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Transparency/Investigative Reporting
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BoingBoing ☛ WSJ columnist contradicts himself in essays on Harris
This whiplash-inducing pivot raises questions about the columnist's motives and credibility. Is Riley suffering from short-term memory loss? Did his boss holler at him about the first one he wrote? Or is he simply writing any old thing that enters his mind whether he believes it or not — because who can be picky when you're on deadline?
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Environment
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CBC ☛ 2024-07-25 [Older] Canada's premiers forced to confront escalating climate change-related disasters
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-07-25 [Older] Germany's Last Generation group aims to revive climate protests
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The Scotsman ☛ The 'truly outstanding' Scottish bog in the Highlands that has won world heritage status
After almost 40 years of campaigning, the stunning patchwork of peatland, bog and rare flora and fauna, which stretches across Caithness and Sutherland, has won the award from Unesco.
Achieving world heritage status is a rare honour - it is for places recognised on the global stage for outstanding cultural, historical, natural or scientific significance.
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Wired ☛ Dengue Fever Threatens to Gate-Crash the 2024 Summer Olympics
“It is very difficult to limit the epidemic risk when it comes to dengue,” explains Anna-Bella Failloux, a medical entomologist working at the Pasteur Institute in Paris. The virus is transmitted from human to human by mosquitoes, the culprit in France being the invasive tiger mosquito, Aedes albopictus. The insect becomes an increasing problem when the weather warms up, and Europe’s hot summer is creating conditions for the species to thrive. “The eggs are very resistant, and the metabolism of the mosquito speeds up with the heat. The insect becomes an adult earlier, and, therefore, it bites earlier too.”
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Los Angeles Times ☛ Commentary: Tourists have made Europe a nightmare. I was part of the problem
My advice has nothing to do with conflict or pestilence. Or perhaps it does, because from what I saw, the hordes of humans who burn tons of jet fuel flying to faraway places so they can trample on sites known for their beauty and history might qualify as pests.
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Energy/Transportation
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-07-25 [Older] How to limit environmental damage from oil spills
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Vox ☛ 2024-07-24 [Older] There’s one perfect way to see Twisters
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-07-25 [Older] Frankfurt airport: Climate activists stop scores of flights
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The Local DK ☛ 2024-07-25 [Older] Flights to and from Denmark affected by Frankfurt climate demonstration
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International Business Times ☛ 2024-07-23 [Older] JPMorgan Strategist Who Predicted Biden Withdrawal Has Gloomy Outlook For EV Sector, Ukraine War
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Greece ☛ Future of undersea electricity cable linking Greece, Cyprus and Israel will be decided next month
Officials have said the 1.9-billion-euro cable, known as the Great Sea Interconnector, would end the energy isolation of both the east Mediterranean island nation and Israel while promising consumers cheaper energy through the conveyance of more power generated from renewable energy sources (RES). The European Union is partly financing the project with 657 million euros.
The Greek project operator, the Independent Power Transmission Operator, or ADMIE, initially made it a condition that construction costs should be borne by Cypriot taxpayers to make the project viable and, in turn, attract investors. That was turned down by the Cypriot energy regulator, CERA.
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USMC ☛ Two former Marines to serve prison time for neo-Nazi power grid plot
A judge sentenced Liam Collins, 25, of Johnston, Rhode Island, to 10 years in prison. Justin Wade Hermanson, 25, of Swansboro, North Carolina, received a prison sentence of one year, nine months. Both men were part of a neo-Nazi group that sought to destroy transformers, substations and other components of the power grid at about a dozen locations across Idaho and its surrounding states.
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Wildlife/Nature
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-07-23 [Older] Brazil to Allow Miles of Selective Logging in Effort to Preserve the Amazon
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-07-25 [Older] Citing Climate Change, a Federal Court in Brazil Halts Rainforest Highway Paving
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The Revelator ☛ Sparrow Spared, Cactus Extinct, and More Links From the Brink
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Overpopulation
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-07-23 [Older] How to solve water shortage in cities
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Atlantic Council ☛ ‘We’re back to square one’ in fighting the hunger crisis, warns Cindy McCain
McCain spoke at an Atlantic Council event hosted on the sidelines of the Group of Twenty (G20) meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors in Rio de Janeiro. She pointed out that one in eleven people globally faced hunger last year.
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AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics
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FAIR ☛ NYT’s Predictable Advice for Kamala Harris: Go Right
As the Democratic Party began to coalesce behind Kamala Harris, the New York Times‘ popular Morning newsletter (7/23/24) quickly put forward the knee-jerk corporate media prescription for Democratic candidates: urging Harris to the right.
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FAIR ☛ Ari Berman on Minority Rule
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EFF ☛ Digital Apartheid in Gaza: Unjust Content Moderation at the Request of Israel’s Cyber Unit [Ed: And since EFF does politics now, maybe it should belatedly issue a statement on Islamic terror attacks too]
Government involvement in content moderation raises serious human rights concerns in every context. Since October 7, social media platforms have been challenged for the unjustified takedowns of pro-Palestinian content—sometimes at the request of the Israeli government—and a simultaneous failure to remove hate speech towards Palestinians. More specifically, social media platforms have worked with the Israeli Cyber Unit—a government office set up to issue takedown requests to platforms—to remove content considered as incitement to violence and terrorism, as well as any promotion of groups widely designated as terrorists.
Many of these relationships predate the current conflict, but have proliferated in the period since. Between October 7 and November 14, a total of 9,500 takedown requests were sent from the Israeli authorities to social media platforms, of which 60 percent went to Meta with a reported 94% compliance rate.
This is not new. The Cyber Unit has long boasted that its takedown requests result in high compliance rates of up to 90 percent across all social media platforms. They have unfairly targeted Palestinian rights activists, news organizations, and civil society; one such incident prompted Meta’s Oversight Board to recommend that the company “Formalize a transparent process on how it receives and responds to all government requests for content removal, and ensure that they are included in transparency reporting.”
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Techdirt ☛ The Kids Online Safety Act And The Tyranny Of Laziness
The difference between the aspirations of KOSA and its inevitable impacts work like this: KOSA wants systems engineers to design algorithms that put safety first and not user engagement. While some companies are already pivoting away from pure engagement focused algorithms, doing so can be really hard and expensive because algorithms aren’t that smart. Purely engagement focused algorithms only need to answer one question — did the user engage? By asking that one question, and testing different inferences, the algorithms can get very good at delivering content to a user that they will engage with.
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Wired ☛ Steve Jobs Knew the Moment the Future Had Arrived. It's Calling Again
“How many of you are 36 years … older than 36?” he asks. That’s how old the computer is, he says. But even the younger people in the room, including himself, are sort of “precomputer,” members of the television generation. A distinct new generation, he says, is emerging: “In their lifetimes, the computer will be the predominant medium of communication.”
Quite a statement at the time, considering that very few of the audience, according to Jobs’ impromptu polling, owns a personal computer or has even seen one. Jobs tells the designers that they not only will soon use one, but it will be indispensable, and deeply woven into the fabric of their lives.
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Pratik ☛ Advice for Young People for Voting
Voting is the least thing you can do to preserve a republic and live in a democracy if you cannot afford to donate money or time to help a candidate win. If you don’t vote, your opinion doesn’t count later. You may still accrue some benefits as part of the spillover, but you lose any right to demand or even expect policies aimed at you. There is always a long list when a new President takes office, so obviously, the first priority is to address the needs of the people who showed up.
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Lou Plummer ☛ You Can't Love Both
Jesus said, "I was thirsty and you gave me drink." Republicans cut environmental protections for clean water (even though it was Nixon who started the EPA) and they allowed the for-profit privatization of public water.
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The Guardian UK ☛ The era of privatisation is nearly over. But cleaning up the mess left behind will take years
Why, then, was privatisation such a popular policy, at least among those who dominated the policy debate from the 1980s until recently?
The simplest explanation is that politicians saw privatisation and private infrastructure as a way to get access to a big bucket of money, which could be spent on popular projects without the need to raise taxes. This was a fallacy, refuted many times over, but resurrected just as often in zombie form. Either the government hands over the right to collect revenue to private operators, as in the case of toll roads, or the public forgoes the earnings of government business enterprises, as with asset sales.
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Sumana Harihareswara ☛ "A Story About Jessica" by SwiftOnSecurity
The cybersecurity expert SwiftOnSecurity, a decade ago, wrote a parable called "A Story About Jessica" and posted it to their (now-deleted) Tumblr blog. I found it moving and insightful. The consultancy Superbloom pointed to it as one of several "security-focused resources for building empathy".
I've been unhappy that "A Story About Jessica" was so hard to find, available only through other Tumblrs' reblogs and through archival copies in the Wayback Machine.
So, with SwiftOnSecurity's permission, I'm re-posting it to make it easier to discover and reference, followed by my present-day comments.
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Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-07-20 [Older] Poland Calls on EU to Stress Ties With U.S. to Counter Russian 'Disinformation'
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VOA News ☛ Recycled Russian conspiracy theories falsely accuse Ukraine of child organ harvesting
Moscow has sought to deny those allegations by using the propaganda technique known as "accusation in a mirror" — in which the aggressor accuses its victim of committing the crimes that it has committed or plans to commit.
The Kremlin has also spread unfounded conspiracy theories to implicate Ukrainian authorities and military forces in extreme abuses against its own children.
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VOA News ☛ Russian Defense Ministry falsifies encounter with US B-52s over Barents Sea
Russia's Defense Ministry is falsely claiming that Russian Air Force fighter jets prevented two American strategic bombers from entering the Russian airspace in the Arctic.
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BoingBoing ☛ Here are the dirty tactics Trump's team says it will use to smear Harris
The GOP has no qualms about using professional operatives (who they lovingly call "ratf***ers") to spread false information with the aim of damaging opponents' reputations and swaying voters.
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Censorship/Free Speech
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RFERL ☛ Another Kazakh Stand-Up Comedian Jailed For 'Hooliganism'
[...] The charge stems from his performance in a restaurant in Astana last month, a video of which went viral on the Internet. [...]
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ANF News ☛ Nobel Laureates sign open letter expressing concern about the detention conditions of Öcalan
In an attempt to end Öcalan's incommunicado detention, his lawyers appealed to the United Nations Human Rights Committee (OHCHR) on July 29, 2022, as a last resort due to the exhaustion of domestic remedies, including the Turkish Constitutional Court (AYM). They also requested an injunction against the restriction preventing any type of communication with Mr. Öcalan. The OHCHR urged Turkey to end the incommunicado detention and allow him immediate and unrestricted access his lawyers. Instead of complying with the injunction, the Turkish government defended these prohibitions with no legal grounds in its responses to the Committee. No further steps have been taken on his behalf by OHCHR.
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USDOJ ☛ Western District of New York | New Jersey man charged with terrorism offenses relating to his attempted murder of Salman Rushdie | United States Department of Justice
A grand jury returned a three-count indictment charging Hadi Matar, 26, of Fairview, New Jersey, with attempting to provide material support to Hizbollah, a designated foreign terrorist organization, engaging in an act of terrorism transcending national boundaries and providing material support to terrorists.
“We allege that in attempting to murder Salman Rushdie in New York in 2022, Hadi Matar committed an act of terrorism in the name of Hizbollah, a designated terrorist organization aligned with the Iranian regime,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “The Justice Department will prosecute those who perpetrate violence in the name of terrorist groups and undermine the basic freedoms enshrined in our Constitution.”
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BBC ☛ Salman Rushdie attacker charged with supporting militant group Hezbollah
The attack left him in hospital for six weeks recovering from his injuries.
Sir Salman's memoir about the incident "Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder" was released earlier this year.
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Associated Press ☛ Man who attacked Salman Rushdie charged with supporting terrorist group
Hadi Matar, a U.S. citizen from New Jersey, was attempting to carry out a fatwa, Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles Kruly said. According to the prosecutor, Matar believed the call for Rushdie’s death, first issued in 1989, was backed by the Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah and endorsed in a 2006 speech by the group’s secretary-general, Hassan Nasrallah.
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Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press
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CPJ ☛ 2024-07-23 [Older] US-Russian journalist Alsu Kurmasheva sentenced to 6½ years in secret trial
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-07-23 [Older] Russia Sentences Journalist Zygar in Absentia to 8-1/2 Years in Jail for Army 'Fakes'
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-07-23 [Older] Russian-German lawyer faces Moscow treason charges
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-07-23 [Older] Russia Accuses Detained Russian-German Lawyer of State Treason, TASS Reports
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Project Censored ☛ 2024-07-24 [Older] Is the Press Working Hard or Hardly Working?
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Project Censored ☛ 2024-07-24 [Older] The Project Censored Newsletter—July 2024
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Sydney Morning Herald ☛ The ‘secret battle’ over the future of the Murdoch empire
Rupert Murdoch is locked in a secret legal battle against three of his children over the future of the family’s media empire, as he moves to preserve it as a conservative political force after his death, according to a sealed court document obtained by The New York Times.
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The Dissenter ☛ El Salvador Media Outlet Seeks To Revive Lawsuit Against Israeli Spyware Developer
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The Dissenter ☛ Unauthorized Disclosure: Wanda Bertram
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CPJ ☛ 3 Bangladeshi journalists killed in quota protests as reporters attacked, [Internet] blocked
CPJ has confirmed attacks on the 14 journalists listed below and is continuing to investigate reports that dozens more have been assaulted either by police, protesters, or supporters of the Bangladesh Chhatra League, the student wing of the ruling Awami League party. Of the 14, several required hospital treatment for injuries including head wounds.
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JURIST ☛ Committee to Protect Journalists calls for release of captured journalist in Sudan
Omar criticized the governor over the lack of services and the worsening water crisis during the civil war, which started in April 2023. The National Intelligence and Security Service in North Kordofan arrested Omar without any legal justification, constituting a violation of human rights charters, according to the Sudanese Journalists Network. The network condemned the decision to arrest Omar because it suppresses the freedom of opinion and expression as well as violates the right to privacy.
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Civil Rights/Policing
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RFA ☛ EXCLUSIVE: Buddhist Monastery destroyed to make way for Chinese hydropower project
Authorities have demolished a 19th-century Tibetan Buddhist monastery in the Tibetan area of Qinghai province to make way for a hydropower dam project, three sources with knowledge of the situation said.
A video shared exclusively with Radio Free Asia by a source who recorded it in early July shows that nothing remains of the religious structure, with the monastery’s main prayer halls and the many stupas that surround it completely razed to the ground. RFA was able to independently verify the authenticity of the video with two sources from Tibet and in exile.
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Reason ☛ Illinois Cop Who Shot Sonya Massey in the Face Is Fired, Charged With Murder
Grayson later reiterated to investigators that he was defending himself against the threat posed by the pot of hot water. But as First Assistant State's Attorney Mary Rodgers notes in a July 18 petition to deny Grayson pretrial release, "the pot was located in another room of the home, separated by a large counter," and Grayson was "still in the living room area." Yet "despite his distance and relative cover," Grayson "drew his 9mm firearm, not the less lethal TASER located on his duty vest, and threatened to shoot Ms. Massey in the face."
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Digital Restrictions (DRM)
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PC World ☛ Secure Boot is busted on 200+ PCs from Dell, Acer, Intel, and others
Security research firm Binarly reports that leaked cryptographic keys have compromised hardware from several major vendors in the PC industry, including Dell, Acer, Gigabyte, Supermicro, and even Intel. Eight percent of firmware images released in the last four years are compromised, with 22 untrusted keys discovered immediately.
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The Verge ☛ HP is ditching its bait-and-switch printer DRM — but only for LaserJets
Druckerchannel reports that HP is also quietly discontinuing all of its budget “e”-series LaserJet printers that straight-up mandated an HP Plus subscription, and HP confirms it’s discontinuing its Instant Ink subscription for laser printer toner as well. (Existing customers shouldn’t be affected.) But HP’s e-series inkjet printers (like the one I wrote about) and their Instant Ink subscription will live on, and HP will almost certainly continue to try to block third-party cartridges anyhow.
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Bruce Schneier ☛ Compromising the Secure Boot Process - Schneier on Security
This isn’t good:
"On Thursday, researchers from security firm Binarly revealed that Secure Boot is completely compromised on more than 200 device models sold by Acer, Dell, Gigabyte, Intel, and Supermicro. ..."
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IP Kat ☛ 2024-07-25 [Older] Book review: Enforcing Intellectual Property Rights [Ed: There's no such thing as "Intellectual Property Rights"; all three words are lies and part of a deliberate propaganda/indoctrination strategy]
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Hamilton Nolan ☛ Unions and Antitrust Are Peanut Butter and Jelly
Of course, unions oppose mergers more than they support them, because they know stronger companies are better at crushing workers. Microsoft, looking out at a time when Starbucks and Amazon union drives were racking up a ton of sympathetic press, just chose the savvier path of trying to bring unions into the fold. One way to weigh the consequences here is to do a little thought experiment: let’s say CWA unionizes essentially all of Microsoft’s non-managerial employees, and at the same time Microsoft, a $3 trillion company today, continues to grow and expand its market dominance. So maybe you end up with a very strong and influential and well compensated 200,000-member Microsoft union and a $6 trillion company with mind-boggling globe-spanning reach. I’m not suggesting there is an obvious answer here. I tend to think that in the long run it is foolish of unions to acquiesce to these expansions of corporate power even if they get gains in the short run, because inevitably the damage done to the broader society will outweigh the gains for those workers. But the answer to this question really depends more on how inherently dangerous and evil you believe international corporate power is than it does on hard evidence that you can spit out on a spreadsheet.
I’m not saying anything revelatory here, but antitrust and labor need to be on the same team. More than they already are, even. Whenever the AFL-CIO and Lina Khan find themselves on the opposite side of an issue, it provokes in me an extremely strong sense that both of us are being played—two starving people forced to fight for a scrap of bread by a cackling wealthy villain. More precisely, it probably reflects a desperation on the part of a labor movement that has gotten so weak that we become willing to strike dubious bargains to claw our way back up. And again—maybe this is the right call! If you accept the presence of normal union busting and the labor laws that currently exist in America, the prospect for unionizing Microsoft is almost nil. Like “unionize Google" or “unionize Amazon,” it is more of a statement of a long term goal that will require enormous investment of not just organizing resources but also political capital to change the underlying conditions that make it hard to do. Today, though, unionizing Microsoft is more of a question of applied organizing resources than anything else. It can conceivably be done. (At least until CWA unionizes enough of the company that Microsoft executives get nervous and scrap their union neutrality pledge, which I bet you $5 will absolutely happen one day.) Is that reality worth the price?
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The Verge ☛ Microsoft calls for Windows changes and resilience after CrowdStrike outage
CrowdStrike’s Falcon software uses a special driver that allows it to run at a lower level than most apps so it can detect threats across a Windows system. Microsoft tried to restrict third parties from accessing the kernel in Windows Vista in 2006, but was met with pushback from cybersecurity vendors and EU regulators. However, Apple was able to lock down its macOS operating system in 2020 so that developers could no longer get access to the kernel.
Now, it looks like Microsoft wants to reopen the conversations around restricting kernel level access inside Windows.
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Tech Central (South Africa) ☛ Ticketmaster acquires South Africa's Quicket
US ticketing giant Ticketmaster Entertainment has announced it is buying Cape Town-based Quicket in an effort to expand its footprint in Africa.
The value of the deal has not been disclosed.
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Patents
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Trademarks
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IP Kat ☛ 2024-07-23 [Older] Is a car key housing a component part of a car?
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Right of Publicity
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NPR ☛ Video game performers call strike against gaming companies
The use of A.I. in video game development has become a central issue in negotiations: “We’re not going to consent to a contract that allows companies to abuse A.I. to the detriment of our members. Enough is enough,” SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher wrote in a statement today.
SAG-AFTRA National Executive Director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland wrote that video game performers deserve “fair compensation and the right of informed consent for the A.I. use of their faces, voices, and bodies.”
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Copyrights
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IP Kat ☛ 2024-07-23 [Older] [Guest post] Harmonized technical standards under EU copyright: the Public.Resource.Org judgment
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IP Kat ☛ 2024-07-25 [Older] [Guest post] Germany: The House of Birkenstock – rise and fall under copyright law?
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The Moscow Times ☛ Composer Philip Glass Accuses Theatre in Annexed Crimea of 'Piracy'
"It has come to my attention that a ballet entitled Wuthering Heights featuring my music and using my name in its advertising and promotion is to premiere" at the Sevastopol Opera and Ballet Theatre, Glass wrote.
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Techdirt ☛ FCC Votes To Make Phone Unlocking Easier
With a unanimous 5-0 vote, the FCC says it is moving forward with plans that should make unlocking your mobile phone easier than ever. According to a new FCC announcement, the agency say it will begin crafting new rules that will require that wireless carriers unlock customers’ mobile phones within 60 days of activation.
At various times unlocking your phone was deemed downright illegal under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Things have eased some over the years; very often it’s now possible to unlock your device and change carriers if your phone is paid off and you’re no longer under contract.
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404 Media ☛ It May Soon Be Legal to Jailbreak AI to Expose How it Works
A proposed exemption to the DMCA would give researchers permission to break terms of service on AI tools to expose bias, training data, and potentially harmful outputs.
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Torrent Freak ☛ Music Industry Puts Pressure on 'Parasitic' Streaming App Musi
Musi is one of the most popular music apps in Apple's App Store. The free iOS music streaming tool has millions of happy users, but is branded a parasitic threat by the music industry. Behind the scenes, music industry group IFPI has been working hard to get it removed from the App Store. Apple hasn't taken action thus far but further escalation involving the major labels, YouTube, and a potential lawsuit, were proposed earlier this year.
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Torrent Freak ☛ Major Labels Block 40 Pirate Domains, Search Deindexing More Concerning
The world's largest recording labels are expanding their site-blocking program after obtaining an order from a Paris court. The order also requires search engines to deindex blocked domains from search results, which pushes look-a-like platforms to the top making malicious sites more visible. This disproportionately affects inexperienced users, undermines confidence in search engines, and has only a limited effect on those who regularly pirate.
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Monopolies/Monopsonies
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