Leftovers

• Lee Peterson ☛ My 2025 blogging workflow

  What I’ve found is 80% of my posts are done on my phone via the mobile app.

• [Old] Ankur Sethi ☛ Writing without a plan

  For me personally, this process just does not work for most kinds of writing I’m interested in. Or rather, it works to the extent that it allows me to produce something that looks like writing, but it makes the process of committing words to paper feel robotic and utilitarian. It works on the assumption that all I need to do to produce a piece of good writing is get the facts out of my head and rearrange them to make them palatable to my readers. It ignores that fact that I might not know what I want to say, or that there might not be any real “facts” involved in what I want to write.

• Positech Games ☛ A side effect of a potential AI mega-bubble. Maybe do not buy a house?

  People my age got used to the crazy certainty that house prices only went up. Many became ‘buy-to-let landlords’, and the default retirement plan was to buy a second home, rent it out to some poor young person who couldn’t afford the now much bigger deposit, and enjoy the fat easy profits. As someone who came from a pretty low income in my twenties (boatbuilder), I hated this and never did it, but I noted the phenomena with interest. Almost nobody ever revisited this core belief: that getting a mortgage was always an excellent investment. Nobody ever looked at a spreadsheet or did any maths. You just invested in property. Safe as houses.

• [Old] David ☛ Em Dashes

  As well as the Em Dash (—) there's the En Dash (–). Can you spot the difference? It can be subtle and depends on the font being used. The En is marginally shorter.

• Science

  • Science News ☛ This laser would shoot beams of neutrinos, not light

    A quantum mechanical phenomenon called superradiance underpins the idea. In superradiance, a group of atoms is coaxed to collectively emit light in a burst, rather than in dribs and drabs. Under the right conditions, superradiance could produce a neutrino burst instead, physicists report in the Sept. 12 Physical Review Letters. Such beams could enable new studies of neutrinos and quantum physics.

  • MIT Technology Review ☛ Why basic science deserves our boldest investment

    Their efforts culminated in a moment that now marks the dawn of the information age. Transistors don’t usually get the credit they deserve, yet they are the bedrock of every smartphone, computer, satellite, MRI scanner, GPS system, and artificial-intelligence platform we use today. With their ability to modulate (and route) electrical current at astonishing speeds, transistors make modern and future computing and electronics possible.

    This breakthrough did not emerge from a business plan or product pitch. It arose from open-ended, curiosity-driven research and enabling development, supported by an institution that saw value in exploring the unknown. It took years of trial and error, collaborations across disciplines, and a deep belief that understanding nature—even without a guaranteed payoff—was worth the effort.

• Career/Education

  • NPR ☛ The school shooting industry is worth billions – and it keeps growing

    In the wake of those shootings, an industry has emerged to try to protect schools — and business is booming. According to the market research firm Omdia, the school security industry is now worth as much as $4 billion, and it's projected to keep growing.

    "The school safety and security industry has grown rapidly over the past decade," says Sonali Rajan, senior director with the research arm of Everytown for Gun Safety, which advocates for gun control. "The challenge right now is that these school safety products, the vast majority, have absolutely no evidence guiding their effectiveness."

• Hardware

  • Hackaday ☛ Smartphone Sensors Unlocked: Turn Your Phone Into A Physics Lab

    These days, most of us have a smartphone. They are so commonplace that we rarely stop to consider how amazing they truly are. The open-source project Phyphox has provided easy access to your phone’s sensors for over a decade. We featured it years ago, and the Phyphox team continues to update this versatile application.

  • Digital Camera World ☛ What is a point-and-shoot camera?

    Point-and-shoots are typically compact cameras, but importantly, not all compact cameras are point-and-shoots. Point-and-shoots get their name from the simple design and low learning curve. But, some compact cameras look similar to a point-and-shoot, yet have far more advanced features.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • Ivan Sagalaev ☛ Mental capacity

    I'm a fan of a hypothesis about "mental capacity" being a finite quantity that you spend while actively using your brain and recover during rest. It may sound obvious, but history is full of many seemingly "obvious" truisms that were ultimately disproved by science (like geocentric planetary model or cold weather being the reason for common cold).

    I don't know of any actual research into this hypothesis, but my life experience keeps providing me with confirmations.

• Proprietary

  • The Register UK ☛ Dozens more Salt Typhoon domains uncovered

    Security researchers have uncovered dozens of domains used by Chinese espionage crew Salt Typhoon to gain stealthy, long-term access to victim organizations going back as far as 2020.

  • Thomas Günther ☛ The web behind glass · Medienbäcker Thomas Günther

    iOS 26 and its Safari will introduce exciting new features for web designers. Most importantly a completely new design language for the frame <del>around</del> on top of the websites we build. I’ve been using the beta for a few months now and collected some advice for designing and developing websites for the delightful and elegant new design language, Liquid Glass™.

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI) / LLM Slop / Plagiarism

    • India Times ☛ Building AI guardrails: No child’s play, this!

      With millions of teenagers using AI tools, and lawsuits already filed against tech companies for teen suicides linked to online platforms, legal experts say India’s legal vacuum is about to be tested.

    • Futurism ☛ Data Shows That AI Use Is Now Declining at Large Companies

      In their latest biweekly survey of AI adoption, the US Census Bureau found evidence of an obvious drop-off in corporate AI use — the largest since the survey began in November of 2023.

      The survey, which compiles data from over 1.2 million firms throughout the US, shows usage of AI tools among companies with over 250 employees dropping from nearly 14 percent in mid-June to under 12 percent in August.

    • Los Angeles Times ☛ The teenager taking on AI tech bros

      Either way, Revanur, a 20-year-old Stanford University senior who grew up in Silicon Valley, isn’t worried about personal attacks, though she’s been getting more of them lately — especially from some big tech bros who wish she’d shut up about artificial intelligence and its potential to accidentally (or purposefully) destroy us all.

      Instead of fretting about invoking the ire of some of the most powerful men on the planet, she’s staying focused on the breakneck speed with which AI is advancing; the utter ignorance, even resistance, of politicians when it comes to putting in place the most basic of safety measures to control it; and what all that will mean for kids who will grow up under its influence.

    • Stanford University ☛ How Do We Protect Children in the Age of AI?

      As students return to classrooms this fall, many teachers are concerned about emerging AI tools getting in the way of learning. But a more worrisome AI trend is developing: Older kids are beginning to use “undress” apps to create deepfake nudes of their peers. Following a few news stories of incidents in places like California and New Jersey, the prevalence of this phenomenon is unclear, but it seems not to have overwhelmed schools just yet. That means now is the time for parents and schools to proactively plan to prevent and respond to this degrading and illegal use of AI.

    • Security Week ☛ PromptLock Only PoC, but AI-Powered Ransomware Is Real

      “The reality is that threat actors have been leveraging foundational models to conduct cybercrime for years now. It sounds shocking that modern LLMs can be used to orchestrate all parts of a modern ransomware campaign, but the reality is it’s not difficult to do this, when the attacker breaks the attack up into small task-driven pieces,” Exabeam senior director of security research Steve Povolny said.

    • Mike Judge ☛ Where's the Shovelware? Why AI Coding Claims Don't Add Up

      I wish the AI coding dream were true. I wish I could make every dumb coding idea I ever had a reality. I wish I could make a fretboard learning app on Monday, a Korean trainer on Wednesday, and a video game on Saturday. I’d release them all. I’d drown the world in a flood of shovelware like the world had never seen. Well, I would — if it worked.

      It turns out, though, and I’ve collected a lot of data on this, it doesn’t just not work for me, it doesn’t work for anyone, and I’m going to prove that.

  • Windows TCO / Windows Bot Nets

    • Cyble Inc ☛ LockBit Attempts Comeback With LockBit 5.0 Ransomware

      LockBit announced the release of LockBit version 5.0 on the underground forum RAMP last week (image below), coinciding with the sixth anniversary of the group’s ransomware operations. LockBit says the update includes a complete redevelopment of their ransomware panel and lockers, and the new malware is more modular and offers faster encryption and better evasion of security defenses.

    • Cyble Inc ☛ Chinese Hackers Impersonate U.S. Congressman In Malware Sting On Trade Stakeholders: Report

      APT41 also makes heavy use of publicly available exploits. Past alerts from U.S. agencies note the group’s exploitation of vulnerabilities in Citrix, Atlassian Confluence, and Microsoft Exchange. Analysts believe the spyware used in the Moolenaar impersonation likely followed a familiar playbook: reconnaissance, credential harvesting, lateral movement, and long-term surveillance.

    • Security Week ☛ Chinese Spies Impersonated US Lawmaker to Deliver Malware to Trade Groups: Report 

      The email contained an attachment that appeared to be a draft of the legislation. However, it turned out to be a piece of malware that has been linked to the threat group tracked as APT41, which has long been believed to be sponsored by the Chinese government, specifically the Ministry of State Security.

    • International Business Times ☛ Cyber Attack Chaos: Jaguar Land Rover Forced to Shut Down After 'Severe' Hack Rocks Tata's Luxury Brand

      The 'Scattered Lapsus$ Hunters' group has taken credit for the cyberattack on JLR. The luxury brand, which the Tata Group owns, has confirmed that an investigation is in progress, but stated there is no evidence so far to indicate any personal data has been compromised.

    • The Record ☛ Cyberattack on Jaguar Land Rover threatens to hit British economic growth

      But he cautioned there could be a disconnect between the actual economic and social impact of cyber incidents below this catastrophic threshold and the way that the government was actually prepared to respond to them.

• Security

  • Integrity/Availability/Authenticity

    • The New Leaf Journal ☛ Aegis Authenticator and Linux Authenticator

      I came across a blog post by Imran Nazar titled Degoogling TOTP Authenticator Codes (via Hacker News page one). In the post, Mr. Nazar, who explains that he spends most of his computer time “in a terminal window on MacOS or connected to a Linux machine,” sought a solution that would allow him to decrease his dependence on the proprietary Google Authenticator TOTP phone app and access his TOTP codes through the command line using a utility called oathtool. Mr. Nazar describes his new TOTP workflow in detail for those who are interested. I decided to construe the post as an invitation to describe my own TOTP workflow – which is powered by Aegis Authenticator, Authenticator (for Linux), and Syncthing.

    • Krebs On Security ☛ 18 Popular Code Packages Hacked, Rigged to Steal [Cryptocurrency]

      At least 18 popular JavaScript code packages that are collectively downloaded more than two billion times each week were briefly compromised with malicious software today, after a developer involved in maintaining the projects was phished. The attack appears to have been quickly contained and was narrowly focused on stealing cryptocurrency. But experts warn that a similar attack with a slightly more nefarious payload could lead to a disruptive malware outbreak that is far more difficult to detect and restrain.

    • Silicon Angle ☛ Massive npm [breach] poisons 18 packages with billions of downloads

      Npm packages are reusable blocks of JavaScript code published to the Node Package Manager registry that developers can install and use in their own projects. The packages provide common functionality, such as formatting text, connecting to databases, or handling user input, allowing developers to not have to write every aspect of a project from scratch and are highly popular.

    • Amos Wenger ☛ color npm package compromised

      On September 8 2025, around 13:00 UTC, someone compromised Josh Junon’s npm account (qix) and started publishing backdoored versions of his package.

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • EPIC ☛ EPIC Recommends Additional Clarifications to Strengthen Privacy and Online Safety Protections for Minors in Comments to the Colorado Attorney General

      The proposed rule clarifies the scope of critical provisions in the CPA that will improve minors’ privacy and safety online. In addition to ensuring that the term “sensitive data” includes inferences from precise geolocation information, the rule also clarifies the knowledge standard required to apply the law’s safeguards to minors and the extent to which design features may extend or maximize online engagement.

    • Cyble Inc ☛ Roblox Turns To AI-Based Age Estimation For All Communication-Ready Users

      Roblox is rolling out a bold move to bolster child protection on its platform. In a Safety + Civility update, Chief Safety Officer Matt Kaufman announced that, by the end of 2025, every user accessing communication features—including chat and voice—will go through age estimation via a combination of facial AI, ID verification, or parental consent. These updates aim to provide safer, age-appropriate experiences and could become a best practice across the gaming and social media industries.

    • 404 Media ☛ ICE Spends Millions on Clearview AI Facial Recognition to Find People ‘Assaulting’ Officers

      A new contract with Clearview AI explicitly says ICE is buying the tech to investigate "assaults against law enforcement officers."

    • Dave Gauer ☛ Make a Web Font Subset - ratfactor

      Using the Python fontTools (github.com) library, you can create your own subset of a TrueType Font (TTF) and turn it into a web font that is surprisingly small and covers just the glyphs you need to render on your page. (Licensing still applies, so make sure you use a free font or have the license to use it or make a subset.)

      If you just need a few characters, you can make font files under 3Kb!

  • Confidentiality

    • [Old] Ruben Verweij ☛ How to encrypt existing emails with your PGP key

      In the past three years, I’ve tried three different mail providers in my quest for the “perfect”, zero-knowledge encryption mailbox: Proton, Tuta and Mailbox.org (in that order, this article is of course not sponsored). Spoiler alert: the perfect (to me) mail provider doesn’t exist yet, but I’ve managed to configure Mailbox.org to suit my needs for now. It’s not straightforward though and I’ve learned some lessons along the way.

• Defence/Aggression

  • France24 ☛ France: What you need to know about the political crisis

    France is under acute pressure to fix its finances. Saying tough decisions were needed, Bayrou, a veteran centre-right politician and Macron's fourth prime minister since Macron's re-election, sought to pass a budget for 2026 that would require 44 billion euros ($51.51 billion) in savings, including pension freezes, healthcare cuts, and the scrapping of two public holidays. This provoked an outcry from opponents. Unable to see a path to adoption, Bayrou called a confidence vote on his fiscal strategy, in a gamble the opposition called political suicide. Analysis by Richard Werly, international correspondent at Blick.

  • Meduza ☛ ‘We have every legal right’ Deputy Security Council Chairman Dmitry Medvedev threatens to toss out Moscow’s WWII settlement with Helsinki, accusing Finland of becoming a NATO staging ground to attack Russia

    In June 2025, the Finnish media outlet Yle reported that satellite imagery revealed construction work to expand Russia’s military presence near the Finnish border. Two months earlier, The Wall Street Journal reported that Russia was sending its latest equipment and many new troops to bases along its NATO border, suggesting its capability “to wage its full-scale ground war in Ukraine while simultaneously increasing the strength and armament of its ground forces along the Finnish border.”

  • C4ISRNET ☛ US Army soldiers kick the tires on a new class of multipurpose drones

    In an interview after the demonstration, the Army’s program manager for uncrewed aircraft systems, Col. Danielle Medaglia, said that while the service’s Launched Effects initiative predates these Pentagon directives, the urgency and high-level tasking from Hegseth is key to aligning priorities within the service and making sure the program sticks to its delivery timelines.

  • The Record ☛ Nepal social media ban sparks protests, dozens injured | The Record from Recorded Future News

    Thousands of mostly young protesters filled the streets of Kathmandu on Monday, marching toward parliament after authorities restricted access to 26 platforms last week, including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Signal, YouTube and X.

  • Sky News ☛ At least 19 dead in Nepal protests over social media ban

    Police were said to have shot at protesters trying to storm the building.

  • Bruce Schneier ☛ AI in Government

    The Trump administration’s plan to use AI to advance their regulatory rollback is a case in point. DOGE [sic] has introduced an “AI Deregulation Decision Tool” that it intends to use through automated decision-making to eliminate about half of a catalog of nearly 200,000 federal rules . This follows similar proposals to use AI for large-scale revisions of the administrative code in Ohio, Virginia and the US Congress.

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • Meduza ☛ ‘We bought it, might as well drink it’ By restricting weekday liquor sales to a two-hour window, Russia’s Vologda region hopes to curb alcoholism. Here’s how it’s working out. — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ Kremlin propagandist Margarita Simonyan announces surgery amid speculation about her future at RT — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ Decapitated body of salt mining company CEO found in Russia’s Kaliningrad region — Meduza

• Transparency/Investigative Reporting

  • The Atlantic ☛ The Epstein Letter Is Real, and It’s Bad

    The most puzzling aspect of the total-denial approach is that it robbed Trump’s supporters of any fallback defense. The Epstein letter is eyebrow-raising—“We have certain things in common,” Trump writes, closing with the wish, “May every day be another wonderful secret”—but it is not an explicit confession. Trump could have admitted to being its author while arguing that the commonalities and secrets alluded to mundane, or at least legal, activities. Instead, he described the letter as “false, malicious, and defamatory”—conceding that, if it were real, it would be pretty bad.

    Guess what? It’s real. And it’s bad.

  • Digital Camera World ☛ Is photography desaturating? This study looks at the most dominant colors in film photography over the last 15 years, and black and white is booming

    Lomography analyzed the colors in photographs over fifteen years and revealed an interesting trend in the process

  • TMZ ☛ Epstein Birthday Book Jokes About Selling 'Fully Depreciated" Woman To Trump

    One letter, obtained by TMZ, is reportedly from businessman and longtime Mar-a-Lago member Joel Pashcow, and he jokes about Epstein selling a "fully depreciated" woman to Trump for $22,500.

• Environment

  • The Conversation ☛ Sustainable fuels could reduce the climate impact of military aircraft

    While the decision is primarily motivated by defence and alliance commitments, it also has environmental implications. Expanding training activities will increase the number of flight hours, and consequently, fuel use and emissions. Fighter jets consume large quantities of fuel per flight hour.

  • Energy/Transportation

    • Deccan Chronicle ☛ Munich Car Show Sees Launch of New Electric, Affordable Vehicles

      European automakers are showcasing a number of new models this year, after learning their lesson two years ago when they did not have any new models to counter the Chinese onslaught, said Tu Le, founder of consultancy Sino Auto Insights.

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • The Revelator ☛ Holy Herbaria: Protecting Plant History — or About to Become History?

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • Pro Publica ☛ Inside DOGE’s Takeover of the Social Security Administration

    On Feb. 10, on the third floor of the Social Security Administration’s Baltimore-area headquarters, Leland Dudek unfurled a 4-foot-wide roll of paper that extended to 20 feet in length. It was a visual guide that the agency had kept for years to explain Social Security’s many technological systems and processes. The paper was covered in flow charts, arrows and text so minuscule you almost needed a magnifying glass to read it. Dudek called it Social Security’s “Dead Sea Scroll.”

    Dudek and a fellow Social Security Administration bureaucrat taped the scroll across a wall of a windowless executive office. This was where a team from the new Department of Government Efficiency was going to set up shop.

  • RIPE ☛ Mapping a New Path for the RIPE Fellowship

    This longer-term goal isn’t one the programme has always met, partly due to its design: a one-size-fits-all approach aimed at catering to a diverse range of backgrounds and interests. The problem is that a general approach doesn’t always make for a lasting individual connection. Going forward, we hope to pave the way for more meaningful engagement by paying closer attention to the specific motivations that bring each RIPE Fellow to the community in the first place.

    Earlier this year, we began a project to rethink the programme along these lines and the result is a plan for a new RIPE Fellowship that, in true DIY spirit, connects the individual interests and passions of RIPE Fellows with the community’s core work.

  • PC World ☛ Intel's chip chief is now Johnson, as Holthaus departs

    Johnson had served as the interim head of Intel’s CCG as Holthaus took on senior roles. Now, his official title will be senior vice president and general manager, responsible for the PC and edge ecosystems, Intel said. Johnson has worked at Intel for 40 years, including in the Technology and Manufacturing Group and the Networking and Communications Group.

  • Marisa Kabas ☛ Why I had to see Trump at the US Open with my own eyes

    Just before the anthem began, Trump stepped back out accompanied by his son-in-law Jared Kushner, Attorney General Pam Bondi and their entourage of fascists. As the song began, he moved his hand into a salute, even though civilians aren’t supposed to do that. As a giant American flag was unfurled on the court and a saluting Trump was shown on the stadium screens, boos filled the space once more, along with an unsettling smattering of claps. Alcaraz and Sinner took center court and then, with more than half of the stadium still empty, the match began.

  • FOSDEM ☛ FOSDEM 2024 - Sequoia PGP: Rethinking OpenPGP Tooling

    Six and a half years ago, we, Justus, Kai, and Neal, started the Sequoia PGP project. Our goal with Sequoia PGP was not just to implement OpenPGP in Rust, but to provide a set of privacy and security tools that are easier to use, and more robust than what was previously available.

  • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

    • The Kyiv Independent ☛ US steps back from joint efforts to combat misinformation, FT reports

      The now-canceled efforts sought a joint response to disinformation from foreign adversaries. The U.S., European, and African countries worked together to identify and expose propaganda.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • BIA Net ☛ Turkey restricts social control media amid police blockade on opposition party

    By midnight, users reported disruptions on X, Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram.

  • BIA Net ☛ Manifest 'girl band' faces obscenity probe over age-restricted concert

    Authorities claimed the group’s dance routines and stage performance involved behavior that “violated public decency, modesty, and moral norms.” Prosecutors also alleged that such content could negatively influence children and young people.

  • The Future of Free Speech ☛ Preventing “Torrents of Hate” or Stifling Free Expression Online?

    This report found that a substantial majority (87.5% to 99.7%) of deleted comments on Facebook and YouTube in France, Germany, and Sweden were legally permissible, suggesting that platforms, pages, or channels may be over-removing content to avoid regulatory penalties.

    Only 25% of the examined pages or channels publicly disclosed specific content moderation practices, creating uncertainty for users about additional content rules beyond the general policies of platforms.

  • The Future of Free Speech ☛ Report: “Staggering Percentage” of Legal Content Removed from Social Platforms in France, Germany and Sweden

    “Policymakers have justified sweeping digital content regulations citing the need to address ‘torrents of hate speech’ online,” said Natalie Alkiviadou, Senior Research Fellow at The Future of Free Speech and lead coordinator of the report. “However, our analysis finds that legal speech made up a staggering percentage of deleted comments. Broad policies like the German Network Enforcement Act (NetzDG) will soon be superseded by the more comprehensive Digital Services Act in the EU. As a result, even more legal speech will be inadvertently caught in the crosshairs as companies aggressively moderate their platforms to comply and avoid excessive fines.”

    Additionally, the researchers found that over 56 percent of the removed comments were general expressions of opinion or statements without linguistic attacks, hate speech, illegal content, or spam. “Not only does legal speech make up most of the deleted comments, but a majority of those comments contain opinions on important issues,” Alkiviadou said. “The Internet cannot remain a bastion of open discourse when only the most innocuous speech passes through moderators.”

  • Rolling Stone ☛ Trump Repeatedly Booed at U.S. Open

    The U.S. Tennis Association on Saturday requested that broadcasters censor the crowd’s response to Trump and “refrain from showcasing any disruptions or reactions in response to the President’s attendance,” Bounces journalist Ben Rothenberg reported. But boos during the national anthem were audible on ESPN’s telecast of the event on ABC.

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • The Dissenter ☛ In Öztürk Case, Groups Urge Appeals Court To Uphold Rights Of Noncitizen Journalists

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • Michigan Advance ☛ US Supreme Court OKs racial profiling in Los Angeles immigration enforcement

    The order is temporary as the suit continues in lower courts, but it indicates a majority of the court is likely to side with the Trump administration’s defense against a complaint that targeting Latino and Spanish-speaking workers for immigration enforcement violated the U.S. Constitution’s Fourth Amendment that bars unreasonable search and seizure.

  • Los Angeles Times ☛ L.A. immigrants fear the worst after Supreme Court ruling: 'It's going to get ugly'

    “They’ve been given carte blanche to go after anyone,” said Maegan Ortiz, the executive director of a nonprofit group that works with day laborers. “My real concern is that it’s going to get ugly.”

  • Los Angeles Times ☛ Trump's 'Chipocalypse Now' is no joke, though it sounds like one

    “Chipocalypse Now.” When the slogan rolled out Saturday, it sounded like a campaign for Chipotle’s latest rebrand of the humble burrito. The reality was less savory. It was a declaration of war, on an American city, by a sitting president, under the guise of a harmless meme.

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • [Old] Jeff Geerling ☛ Starlink's current problem is capacity

    This blog post is a lightly edited transcript from my most recent YouTube video, in which I explain some of Starlink's growing pains: slower speeds due to oversubscription, design challenges with their v2 hardware, and a major bet on much larger v2 sats and a rocket (Starship) that has yet to complete an orbital flight.

  • Nick Heer ☛ Google Says the Open Web Is ‘in Rapid Decline’, But Insists It Means in an Advertising Sense

    Also, if you actually read the filing, you will quickly see that Google is clearly differentiates between “open web” — no hyphen, no qualifiers — and “open-web display”, with the latter explicitly referring to advertising. There is an entire section about the open web beginning on page 16, concluding with this paragraph: [...]

• Digital Restrictions (DRM)

  • University of Michigan ☛ An ode to my CD player: Physical music in a digital world

    With subscription services, we face the danger of having the music we love and listen to regularly taken away. In 2022, folk singer Joni Mitchell removed her music from Spotify in the midst of the pandemic and Spotify’s partnering with Joe Rogan’s podcast. Though some fans supported her cause and stood with her, others expressed outrage at both her political stance and the removal. When one owns physical copies of music, issues like these don’t arise because things can’t disappear out of your grasp completely.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• Press Gazette ☛ Publishers welcome EU move to break up Google adtech monopoly

  Daily Mail publisher DMGT is among those to have previously argued Google has been guilty of “punishing publishers that do not submit to its practices” by effectively rigging ad auctions. It filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google in the US in 2021.

  The new ruling will also encourage publishers involved in a collective £13.6bn damages claim against Google in the UK for exploiting its monopoly position in online advertising. That claim is expected to go to trial next year.

• Jérôme Marin ☛ By fining Google, Brussels refuses to bow to US pressure

  The fine was supposed to be “modest” and the announcement delayed by a few weeks, according to the latest whispers out of Brussels. Instead, in a surprise move, the European Commission has chosen to strike hard at Google. On Friday, it imposed a €2.95 billion penalty — the second-largest fine in history — for abusing its dominant position in the programmatic advertising market.

  It also threatened to break up the tech giant’s advertising empire, a remedy many thought had been ruled out. “At this stage, it appears that the only way for Google to end its conflict of interest effectively is with a structural remedy, such as selling some part of its Adtech business,” said Teresa Ribera, the EU’s new competition commissioner.

• Patents

  • CoryDoctorow ☛ Pluralistic: Fingerspitzengefühl

    America solved this problem with the promise of "free trade." The World Trade Organization divided the world into two blocs: countries that could trade with one another without paying tariffs, and the rabble without who had to navigate a complex O(n^2) problem of different tariff schedules between every pair of nations.

    To join the WTO club, countries had to sign up to a side-treaty called the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). Under the TRIPS, the Jeffersonian plan for industrialization (taking foreigners' ideas without permission) was declared a one-off, a scheme only the US got to try and no other country could benefit from. For China to join the WTO and gain tariff-free access to the world's markets, it would have to agree to respect foreign patents, copyrights, trademarks and other "IP."

• Copyrights

  • Torrent Freak ☛ Piracy Shield Study Reveals Massive Overblocking & Collateral Damage

    Faced with rampant piracy of content that generates a significant chunk of their revenue, sports leagues and their broadcasting partners are deploying increasingly aggressive anti-piracy measures. Italy's Piracy Shield was promoted as the solution, but a new peer-reviewed study casts a very different light. Researchers reveal an ineffective anti-piracy system easily circumvented by pirates, that causes collateral damage affecting hundreds of entirely innocent websites.