Leftovers

• PC Gamer ☛ Denmark is switching to Linux

  Denmark is switching to Linux, says its Ministry of Digital Affairs, in a move that exchanges Windows and Office 365 for Linux and LibreOffice.

  Yes, that Danish government. The government of a nation of roughly 6 million people, which is the southernmost Scandinavian nation and/or the northernmost part of Central Europe, comprised of the Jutland peninsula and adjacent islands.

  It'll migrate about half of the Ministry of Digital Affairs away from Windows this summer, reports Danish newspaper Politiken. The move was attributed to a desire for greater digital sovereignty.

• Science

  • The Conversation ☛ 2025-06-13 [Older] Living on Mars: are there lessons from the terrible conditions of prisons?

  • The Conversation ☛ 2025-06-13 [Older] How pterosaurs can inspire aircraft design

  • The Conversation ☛ 2025-06-16 [Older] What dinosaur fossils could teach us about cancer

  • The Conversation ☛ 2025-06-16 [Older] A flesh-eating fly is spreading north to the US. It could devastate livestock farming if not controlled

  • The Conversation ☛ 2025-06-18 [Older] How pterosaurs learned to fly: scientists have been looking in the wrong place to solve this mystery

  • The Conversation ☛ 2025-06-18 [Older] Blinding lights: the hidden science behind gambling’s glow

  • Konrad Hinsen ☛ Why computational reproducibility matters

    Thirty years after my first contact with computational (ir)reproducibility, I am happy to note that many things have improved. Reproducibility, computational and otherwise, is increasingly recognized as an important aspect of scientific quality control, and mostly considered worth striving for. However, I also note that more and more people, including reproducibility activists, have lost contact with the day-to-day reality in which reproducibility matters. Reproducibility is becoming an item on a checklist, and its precise incarnation the subject of political bickering aimed at making it easy to check off that item. So let's take a look at why computational reproducibility matters for researchers.

• Career/Education

  • Ruben Schade ☛ Yeah, but do you need it?

    Which gets to my core mental shift. We have but a finite amount of time on this planet, so it’s also entirely rational to need silly things sometimes. Sure, it can’t come at the expense of your health or financial stability, but if you’ve saved money for a few months, why not travel the world if you can? Why not get a silly retrocomputer? Why not treat your partner, or your sister, or your friend to something, to show they mean a lot to you?

• Hardware

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-06-13 [Older] More Than 1 Million Power Banks Recalled After Some Consumers Report Fires

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • The Conversation ☛ 2025-06-17 [Older] Can Britain be a nation of tea growers? Scientists say yes – and it could even be good for your health

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-06-13 [Older] The cuppa that connects us: Coffee drinking across cultures

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-06-13 [Older] Can lab-made blood make up for global shortages?

  • TruthOut ☛ 2025-06-14 [Older] Cheeto Mussolini EPA Drops Case Against GEO Group Over Disinfectant Misuse in ICE Jail

  • TwinCities Pioneer Press ☛ Guns kill more US children than other causes, but state policies can help, study finds – Twin Cities

    The study, published in the medical journal JAMA Pediatrics on June 9, analyzes trends in state firearm policies and kids’ deaths since 2010, after the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in McDonald v. City of Chicago. The ruling struck down the city’s handgun ban, clearing the way for many states to make it easier for people to buy and carry guns.

• Proprietary

  • International Business Times ☛ 2025-06-20 [Older] Apple Expands in India as Foxconn Starts iPhone Casing Production Despite Cheeto Mussolini's Tariff Threats [Ed: This means reduced quality and reliability]

  • The Age AU ☛ 2025-06-14 [Older] ‘China has Apple by the balls’: How the rising superpower captured the tech giant [Ed: Apple is a Chinese company with marketing and HQ based in the US to improve its public image ;-)]

  • Ruben Schade ☛ The end of Intel macOS

    But back to this announcement! We knew it was coming—we’ve known for many years at this point—it was just a question of when. Those of us who lived through past transitions knew that our older hardware was living on borrowed time from the moment the new architecture was announced. It’s not all bad though; replacing Mac OS X on my iBook G3 was my gateway into NetBSD! But I digress.

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI) / LLM Slop / Plagiarism

    • IP Kat ☛ 2025-06-17 [Older] IP implications of the FDA guidance for use of AI in drug development

    • Project Censored ☛ 2025-06-16 [Older] Marketing Mars and AI Battle Space

    • 404 Media ☛ Is ChatGPT Rotting Our Brains? New Study Suggests It Does

      A preprint study found that participants who used an LLM to write essays performed worse “at all levels” than those who didn’t.

  • Social Control Media

    • The Register UK ☛ Seven held in Europe-wide teen murder-for-hire ring

      Seven people, including a 14-year-old, have been arrested or surrendered to Danish authorities after allegedly using encrypted messaging apps to hire other teenagers for contract killings in what Europol calls a "violence-as-a-service" operation.

    • EFF ☛ Protect Yourself From Meta’s Latest Attack on Privacy

      Researchers recently caught Meta using an egregious new tracking technique to spy on you. Exploiting a technical loophole, the company was able to have their apps snoop on users’ web browsing. This tracking technique stands out for its flagrant disregard of core security protections built into phones and browsers. The episode is yet another reason to distrust Meta, block web tracking, and end surveillance advertising.

      Fortunately, there are steps that you, your browser, and your government can take to fight online tracking.

    • Rodrigo Ghedin ☛ Hiding metrics from the web ⁄ Manual do Usuário

      “What’s going on here is that these quantifications of social connection play right into our (capitalism-inspired) innate desire for more,” he explained.

      In creating his extension, Ben questioned why there were so many numbers “a system (and a corporation) that depends on its user’s continued free labor to produce the information that fills its databases.”

      All of this in 2012!

  • Windows TCO / Windows Bot Nets

    • 2025-06-12 [Older] School Districts Unaware BoardDocs Software Published Their Private Files

    • 2025-06-12 [Older] A guilty plea in the PowerSchool case still leaves unanswered questions

    • Tonga ☛ Ransomware attack takes down Tonga’s National Health Information System

      Tonga’s National Health Information System is a victim of hackers who are demanding a ransom from the Tonga Government to release the nation’s medical records and health plans, the Minister of Health revealed this afternoon.

    • The Record ☛ Tonga Ministry of Health hit with cyberattack affecting website, IT systems

      Minister of Health Ana ‘Akau’ola then told parliament on Thursday that an unnamed ransomware gang attacked the National Health Information System, demanding millions in ransom to restore the system.

    • The Record ☛ Krispy Kreme: Over 160,000 people had data stolen during November 2024 cyberattack

      The attack was claimed in December by the Play ransomware gang. The FBI and several international law enforcement agencies warned that Play is one of the most damaging ransomware gangs operating, launching a total of 900 attacks on organizations since emerging in 2022.

    • IT Wire ☛ iTWire - Half the spam in your inbox is generated by AI – ‘its use in advanced attacks is at an earlier stage’

      Our research team trained detectors to identify automatically whether a malicious/unsolicited email was generated using AI.

      We achieved this by assuming that emails sent before the public release of ChatGPT in November 2022 were likely to have been written by humans. This allowed us to establish a reliable ‘false positive’ for the detector.

    • The Register UK ☛ Qilin’s 'on-call lawyer' capability is fooling no one

      The lawyers can also supposedly step in and orchestrate the negotiations directly themselves, and advise the victim how exactly Qilin can inflict "maximum damage" if a ransom is not paid.

    • Security Week ☛ Aflac Finds Suspicious Activity on US Network That May Impact Social Security Numbers, Other Data

      Aflac says that it has identified suspicious activity on its network in the U.S. that may impact Social Security numbers and other personal information, calling the incident part of a cybercrime campaign against the insurance industry.

• Entrapment (Microsoft GitHub)

  • The Register UK ☛ New GitHub Copilot limits push AI users to pricier tiers

    Welcome to the AI industry's latest variation on bill shock, made famous in the telecom industry and later refined for the cloud computing industry.

• Security

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • The Conversation ☛ 2025-06-20 [Older] WhatsApp introducing advertising is a potentially lucrative but risky move

    • Project Censored ☛ 2025-06-19 [Older] Insufficient Press Coverage on the Big Data Surveillance Complex

    • The Record ☛ Judge overturns Biden-era HHS rule on HIPAA protections for those seeking reproductive care

      The ruling does not strip all protections from people seeking reproductive care, and it does not affect HIPAA in other ways, experts said.

  • Confidentiality

    • Computational Complexity ☛ Computational Complexity: Why Can't We Break Cryptography?

      Cryptography is designed to look completely random. No compression. If you remove the randomness you have nothing left. And thus modern algorithms have no hook to attack it.

• Defence/Aggression

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-06-17 [Older] Amazon, Telekom Vehicles Set Ablaze in Suspected Political Attack in Berlin, Media Report

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-06-17 [Older] Greece Protests Turkey's Maritime Zoning Plan, Says It Lacks Legal Basis

  • BIA Net ☛ 2025-06-17 [Older] Turkey plans to ramp up missile production to establish deterrence, says Erdoğan

  • International Business Times ☛ 2025-06-18 [Older] How LA Residents Are Using Amazon Ring to Thwart ICE Raids in Their Neighbourhoods

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-06-13 [Older] What's the big deal with rare earth elements?

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-06-14 [Older] UK: Two jailed over gold toilet theft from Blenheim Palace

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-06-14 [Older] Northern Ireland: Police deploy water cannon against rioters

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-06-14 [Older] Germany tackles explosive wartime legacy at sea

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-06-14 [Older] How the LA protests may boost appetite for authoritarianism

  • ANF News ☛ 2025-06-19 [Older] Members of Palestinian Islamic Jihad migrate from Syria to Turkey and Lebanon

  • ANF News ☛ 2025-06-19 [Older] Turkey’s mercenaries murder a young man in a village in occupied Afrin

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-06-16 [Older] Germany updates: Syrian 'torture' doctor sentenced to life

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-06-16 [Older] German Court Sentences Syrian Doctor to Life in Prison for Torture and War Crimes in His Homeland

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-06-16 [Older] Germany Hands Syrian Doctor Life for Torturing Assad Critics

  • ANF News ☛ 2025-06-20 [Older] AI: Unlawful use of force by police against protestors in Turkey may amount to torture

  • Techdirt ☛ The Shell Game Of Fascist Gaslighting

    This isn’t hyperbole. This isn’t political theater. This is a written directive for ethnic cleansing and political warfare, posted publicly by the President of the United States.

    But here’s what’s going to happen next—what’s already happening: his supporters will tell you that you’re overreacting. That Trump is “just being hyperbolic.” That you suffer from some cognitive pathology if you take him seriously. They’ll perform concern for your mental health while his ICE agents conduct raids in the exact cities he named, using the exact dehumanizing language he provided.

    This is the shell game of fascist gaslighting, and you need to understand how it works.

    The game has three moves, executed simultaneously: [...]

  • [Repeat] New York Times ☛ Europe’s Growing Fear: How Trump Might Use U.S. Tech Dominance Against It

    Soon after, Microsoft, which is based in Redmond, Wash., helped turn off Mr. Khan’s I.C.C. email account, freezing him out of communications with colleagues just a few months after the court had issued an arrest warrant for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel for his country’s actions in Gaza.

  • C4ISRNET ☛ Eying a Starlink alternative, France to boost Eutelsat stake

    European militaries have been eyeing the role of Starlink in Ukraine, where the constellation of satellites operated by Elon Musk’s SpaceX vital for command and control, drone operations and maintaining battlefield communications. The European Union plans to build its own satellite broadband system called IRIS², but lacks anything with the coverage of Starlink for now.

  • USMC ☛ Judge asks if troops in Los Angeles are violating Posse Comitatus Act

    Title 10 allows the president to call the National Guard into federal service when the country “is invaded,” when “there is a rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the Government,” or when the president is otherwise unable “to execute the laws of the United States.”

    Breyer found that Trump had overstepped his legal authority, which he said allows presidents to control state National Guard troops only during times of “rebellion or danger of a rebellion.”

  • SBS ☛ Australia's social media ban: Can age assurance be successful?

    As she grew up on the platforms, she says she didn't immediately understand the impact it was having on her.

    She says that in hindsight, though, she can see that a lot of her "behaviours" and "the content and interactions" she had on social media platforms were "definitely not great" for her mental health.

  • NPR ☛ The story behind the arrest of 87-year-old veteran John Spitzberg at the Capitol

    Spitzberg was among the dozens of veterans who were arrested at the Capitol last Friday. The arrests came just half a day before millions of people flooded American streets for No Kings protests, meant to stand in contrast to the military parade being held the same day.

    "I think the parade was a colossal slap in the face of the American people," said Spitzberg, an Army and Air Force veteran. "And the president of the United States apparently sees himself as more than the people's president. He sees himself as a king or, I don't even know, an emperor."

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-06-13 [Older] Fact check: Many viral fakes after Israel's attack on Iran

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-06-13 [Older] Gulf states anxious about being drawn into Israel-Iran fight

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • Meduza ☛ Belarus releases Siarhei Tsikhanouski and 13 other political prisoners after Lukashenko meets with Trump envoy — Meduza

• Environment

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-06-20 [Older] Brazil to Push for Corporate, Local Government Climate Targets at COP30

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-06-19 [Older] 'Crunch time' for climate action, scientists warn

  • CBC ☛ 2025-06-18 [Older] What farmers' adaptation to climate change means for the future of food

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-06-18 [Older] Major oil companies face first 'climate death' lawsuit

  • Vox ☛ 2025-06-18 [Older] How climate change will worsen hunger

  • CBC ☛ 2025-06-17 [Older] From roundabout gardens to park meadows, how cities across Canada are encouraging pollinators

  • Bridge Michigan ☛ 2025-06-16 [Older] Michigan cities fight effects of climate change

  • Federal News Network ☛ Union warns Trump’s rapid changes for wildland firefighters will be ‘disastrous,’

    A union is warning about the risks of moving too fast on the Trump administration’s plans to consolidate federal programs for wildland firefighters, as the U.S. heads into an intense wildfire season.

  • Energy/Transportation

    • The Conversation ☛ 2025-06-17 [Older] What could have caused the Air India crash? An expert examines the proposed failure scenarios

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-06-14 [Older] Air India crash: Death toll hits 270 as families mourn

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-06-13 [Older] Air India crash: Black box recorder recovered

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-06-13 [Older] Air India crash sparks aviation safety debate

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-06-15 [Older] India: At least 4 killed, dozens injured in bridge collapse

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-06-15 [Older] India: Helicopter crash in Uttarakhand kills 7

    • Vox ☛ 2025-06-16 [Older] Why we’re barely keeping track of this growing climate problem

    • HRW ☛ 2025-06-16 [Older] Bonn Climate Talks Should Make Progress on Fossil Fuels

    • ANF News ☛ 2025-06-19 [Older] Strait of Hormuz: Global energy trade's flashpoint

    • Bridge Michigan ☛ 2025-06-17 [Older] Opinion | Repealing clean energy investments would hurt Michigan businesses, workers

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-06-16 [Older] Why Israel is hitting Iran's vital energy infrastructure

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-06-13 [Older] US Says Monitoring Israel-Iran Attacks' Impact on Global Energy Supply

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • BIA Net ☛ 2025-06-18 [Older] Over 1,500 loggerhead turtle nests found on Turkey's Mediterranean coast

    • The Conversation ☛ 2025-06-19 [Older] Could trees know when the summer solstice is?

    • The Conversation ☛ 2025-06-20 [Older] How mice ‘listen’ with their whiskers

  • Overpopulation

    • Deseret Media ☛ What Utah's water situation looks like as drought spreads to start summer

      Utah water managers are urging residents to reduce water consumption as much as possible this summer. Tips on how to save water can be found on a website that the state set up.

• Finance

  • BIA Net ☛ 2025-06-19 [Older] One in four people in Turkey face debt-related legal notices

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-06-20 [Older] Switzerland Lifts Economic Sanctions on Syria

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-06-19 [Older] Exclusive-Syria Made First Direct International Bank Transfer Via SWIFT Since War, Central Bank Governor Says

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-06-19 [Older] Exclusive-Syria Completes First Global SWIFT Transfer Since War, Governor Says

  • Counter Punch ☛ 2025-06-18 [Older] Economic Well-Being in Today’s Political Climate

  • The Age AU ☛ 2025-06-15 [Older] Remember bank tellers? I found one and defeated faceless banking in a single day

  • International Business Times ☛ 2025-06-20 [Older] Amazon's AI Revolution Brings Job Cut Warnings, Relocation Mandate Adds to Employee Uncertainty [Ed: Both are a ruse; business failure disguised as "AI", mass layoffs as "RTO" or "forced reloc"]

  • The Conversation ☛ 2025-06-20 [Older] A pink diamond just sold for over US$ 14 million – no wonder, when you look at the mysteries behind their chemistry

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-06-15 [Older] Spain housing crisis: Locals blame tourists and speculators

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-06-15 [Older] Large anti-tourism protests planned across Spain

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-06-15 [Older] Milei urges Argentines to bank 'mattress dollars' as proof of trust in recovery

  • International Business Times ☛ 2025-06-19 [Older] 200 Central Banks, Foreign Entities Dump $48B in US Treasuries as Confidence in US Assets Falters

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-06-15 [Older] Former French President Sarkozy stripped of national honor

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-06-12 [Older] China, UK trade deals with Cheeto Mussolini pile pressure on EU

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-06-12 [Older] Far-right parties surge across Europe

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-06-13 [Older] Hungarian MEP: 'We took democracy for granted' [Ed: If nobody confronts a dictator, then that dictator become a "hero" and nobody can remove him/her. It's then a "king".]

  • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

    • CBC ☛ 2025-06-14 [Older] As disinformation and hate thrive online, YouTube quietly changed how it moderates content

    • The Telegraph UK ☛ Russia ‘using nuns as spies to spread propaganda’

      The Kremlin is using nuns at a remote convent in the Baltic region to spread pro-Russian propaganda for its hybrid war on Europe, Estonia’s government has warned.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • India Times ☛ Internet partially restored in Iran: UK-based watchdog

    Internet service was partially restored in Iran on Saturday, after Tehran imposed a blackout during its war with Israel, London-based online watchdog NetBlocks said.

  • Jacobin Magazine ☛ 2025-06-20 [Older] The Kneecap Trial Exposed Britain’s Free Speech Crisis

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-06-15 [Older] Turkish religious authority granted power to censor Quran translations

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-06-17 [Older] Scaffolding Goes up in Venice to Save Banksy's Migrant Mural

  • CBC ☛ 2025-06-16 [Older] Valedictorian told to stay home after making pro-Palestinian remarks in grad speech

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • International Business Times ☛ 2025-06-13 [Older] Rampage Jackson Warns Adin Ross That YouTuber Vitaly Zdorovetskiy 'Might Die' in Filipino Jail

  • CPJ ☛ 2025-06-20 [Older] Hold the Line Coalition welcomes Maria Ressa and Rappler’s acquittal on foreign ownership case, urges closure of remaining case

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-06-18 [Older] Raid of Swiss Banking Blog Sets Bad Precedent, Media Group Says

  • CPJ ☛ 2025-06-16 [Older] CPJ calls for answers as US journalist Austin Tice reported executed in Syria

  • Federal News Network ☛ Layoff notices delivered to hundreds of Voice of America employees

    In total, some 1,400 people at Voice of America and the U.S. Agency for Global Media, or 85% of its workforce, have lost their jobs since March.

  • Federal News Network ☛ Former archivist raises red flags over NARA cuts

    The budget proposal would cut 136 full-time employees across NARA. The agency’s budget justification document states the reduction comes from “implementation of an organizational realignment to improve program efficiency and operational resilience.”

  • The Age AU ☛ Video: Veteran photographer dies after alleged Melbourne mall assault

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • HRW ☛ 2025-06-17 [Older] Saudi Arabia: Prisoner, 70, Dies After Medical Neglect

  • ANF News ☛ 2025-06-18 [Older] Gender-based violence is a deepening crisis in Turkey

  • The New Stack ☛ LambdaTests Launches Automated Accessibility Tools

    Is your website truly accessible? What about your React application? How about those Android and iOS apps?

    More than 1.3 billion people globally live with disabilities, according to LambdaTests, a unified agentic AI and cloud engineering platform that released three new sets of tools this week to help developers check accessibility.

  • Rolling Stone ☛ 'Roblox' Protests Have Kids Clashing Against ICE

    “I made a Roblox because my son wanted to protest,” the caption reads.

    Rolling Stone spoke to Santos about the video and her Roblox experience. She says he “had been seeing videos about the protests and came to [her], asking how he could be a part of it.”

  • Xe's Blog ☛ Rolling the ladder up behind us

    The ownership class destroyed the livelihood of the skilled workers so that they could make untold sums of money producing terrible cloth that people would turn their one-time purchase of clothing into a de-facto subscription that they had to renew every time their clothing wore out. Now we have fast fashion and don't expect our clothing to last more than a few years. I have a hoodie from AWS Re:Invent in 2022 that I'm going to have to throw out and replace because the sleeves are dying.

  • Rolling Stone ☛ Will Trump Auction Off Millions of Acres of Public Recreation Land?

    The ugly provision was introduced by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, chaired by Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), who recently made himself notorious for shitposting about a political assasination in Minnesota. Lee’s committee touts this “mandatory disposal” of federal lands as a way to “fulfill President Trump’s agenda” by “unlocking federal land” to “increase the supply of housing,” while generating at least $5 billion. Speaking to fellow conspiratorial loon Glenn Beck, Lee defended the initiative as a “common-sense solution to a national problem.” Lee’s provision has the support of The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board which alleges that “Uncle Sam” is “typically a poor steward of the land.”

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • The Register UK ☛ France to cough up cash to make Eutelsat a Starlink rival

    The French-owned satellite operator said it is looking to raise capital by the end of the year. It aims to accomplish this via a reserved capital increase (new share issue) of €716 million ($824 million) to France's Agence des Participations de l'Etat (APE) – the state investment body – and other key shareholders such as Bharti Space Limited.

• Digital Restrictions (DRM)

  • Smitop ☛ YouTube’s new anti-adblock measures

    Over the past few months, YouTube has been trying another round of anti-adblock measures. Currently the anti-adblock stuff is being A/B tested, and one of my accounts is in the experimental group. I wrote a filter that partially avoids one of the anti-adblock measures, fake buffering, on uBlock Origin (and Brave browser, since it uses the same filter rules). (It’s already in the default filter lists, you don’t need to manually add the filter.)

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• IP Kat ☛ 2025-06-20 [Older] [Book Review] The Protection of Traditional Knowledge at the Frontiers of Drug Discovery

• The Register UK ☛ EU top court advised to ditch Google appeal against €4B fine

  A European court has advised [PDF] that Google's appeal against a ruling that found it had abused its market dominance should be dismissed.

  In 2018, the European Union General Court imposed a fine on Google of €4.343 billion, arguing it had abused its dominant position in the mobile phone market. The court said Google imposed anticompetitive contractual restrictions on manufacturers and network operators by effectively saying they could only get the Play Store app on devices if they also pre-installed Google Search and Chrome. Google also made it a condition that hardware makers do not sell devices running versions of Android not authorized by the Chocolate Factory.

• Patents

  • IP Kat ☛ 2025-06-13 [Older] Mutant barley plant patent dispute keeps bubbling away as Board of Appeal remits beer case to Opposition Division

  • Kangaroo Courts

    • IP Kat ☛ 2025-06-13 [Older] [UPCKat] How has the UPC responded to BSH v Electrolux over the last three months? [Ed: UPC is illegal, but this author, a software patents profiteer, gains from this illegality]

    • IP Kat ☛ 2025-06-19 [Older] EBA decides G1/24 on claim interpretation: The description should always be consulted [Ed: Kangaroo Court of EPO; the dictator's tribunal]

• Trademarks

  • IP Kat ☛ 2025-06-20 [Older] CJEU determines that mistaken beliefs about trade mark functionality can be relevant for assessing bad faith in CeramTec decision

• Copyrights

  • David Friedman ☛ It’s True: The JAWS Shark is Public Domain

    As we’re all celebrating the 50th anniversary of the movie Jaws, here’s something I bet you didn’t know: Due to a fluke of publishing and copyright law, the Jaws shark is public domain.

    It’s not the character of the shark that’s public domain – or someone would surely be making a low-budget horror prequel about how he became the Amity Island Killer. But I’m talking about the famous shark painting from the movie poster: [...]

  • Project Censored ☛ 2025-06-13 [Older] Glen E. Friedman on His Photography, Bad Brains, and Rebellious American Music

  • IP Kat ☛ 2025-06-12 [Older] Getty Images v Stability AI - UK trial begins (Part 3 - Defences)

• Gemini* and Gopher

  • Personal/Opinions

    • Shedding cosplay photos

      I wanted to do some fun little photoshoot with my new tattoo and my lizard cosplay. They are rather connected after all!

    • rainy solstice

      My friend's birthday aligned with the solstice yesterday and he invited me to a sound journey. The room is filled with gongs, and other sound equipment, a friend of mine plays the flute, drums, synth and recites mantras, while another friend plays samples. It's quite the trip and the journey was really good.

      It was also my last karate class and I got to lead the whole class as no one else seems inspired to teach anything to the kids. I got them to warm up, and then do some infinite katas, and then we moved into katas where other students are around the one person in the center to mimic a 'real' fight.