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Links - New and Old Censorship, Anti-trust, Privacy Violations and Pollution.

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  • Anti-Trust

    • Pay TV piracy hits News
      The actions are documented in an archive of 14,400 emails held by former Metropolitan Police commander Ray Adams who was European chief for Operational Security between 1996 and 2002. The Financial Review is publishing thousands of the emails on its website at URL afr.com.

      The emails show that Murdoch used "piracy" as a competitive weapon, helping people to break the digital handcuffs of rival's pay TV boxes. The loss of face and revenue helped Murdoch to consolidate his media empire.



    • Microsoft all but buys Netscape with AOL patent acqusition

      This Microsoft friendly news source uses gloats over this superposed "end of the browser wars" and uses the term "intellectual property" while glorifying and validating software patents.



  • Censorship

    • The reason I'm helping Chris Hedges' lawsuit against the NDAA
      the Homeland Battlefield Bill has already a chilling effect upon my ability to investigate and document matters of national controversy that would ordinarily be subject to my professional inquiry. It has therefore prevented my readers from receiving the full spectrum of truthful reporting which, in a functioning democracy, they have a right to expect.


    • Iraq’s internet on the brink
      A year since the Arab Spring, the internet in the region is facing significant threats from governments trying to gain more control over it.


    • Media companies & ISPs outline plan to stop piracy

      Not so voluntary censorship is set to roll out on people in the US. Appealing accusations of sharing will cost people $35.



    • World Without Web
      ... we underestimate the alarming degree of contingency lurking behind ‘inevitable’ developments. ... The divergence point for this history is in 1983-1984, when the leadership of DARPA lied through its teeth to Congress about who was being allowed access to the Internet. ... what if DARPA had been caught in that lie, funding for its network research scaled back, and a serious effort made to kick randoms off the early net?


    • CISPA – The Sneaky Son Of SOPA

      A good collection of links about a nasty law against sharing.





  • Civil Rights



  • Privacy



  • Education Watch



  • DRM

    • How Adobe DRM Requires People to Pirate Library Books
      Open standards make sense. What makes no sense is that large companies in the field still do not understand this. ... It turns out that a majority of the 6,495 titles available at my local library were accessible only through a locked .acsm file format. ...you can think of a .acsm file as being very much like a .torrent file. If you use Windows or Mac, you can (theoretically) download and install Adobe Digital Editions (ADE). This software reads the .acsm file and then it will download the actual .epub book, complete with DRM. ... there is no legal way to access the content without breaking the law if you are using free (libre) software.

      Tell your local librarian to never use a system like this!





  • Intellectual Monopolies

    • Another Patent Attack on Google with More Wild $$ Predictions ~pj
      Nokia and Microsoft. Partners at law, so to speak. Is this another Microsoft/Nokia outsourced production? Remember when Barnes & Noble told us that it views Microsoft and Nokia's patent campaign as an antitrust violation, a deliberate campaign to destroy Android and maintain Microsoft's monopoly on the desktop and extend it to smartphones, with Nokia piggybacking with its patents for weapons and MOSAID being brought in to do some of the dirty work? So when you read the scare headlines, remember this: Google is awesome at patent litigation. It tends to prevail. I told you that when Oracle first sued Google


    • Oracle’s Position is Worse Than I Thought


    • USPTO Issues Interim Mayo Guidance ~pj
      "...the claimed product or process amounts to significantly more than a law of nature, a natural phenomenon, or an abstract idea with conventional steps specified at a high level of generality appended thereto." Why *wouldn't* that apply to software?


    • Mayo Decision Impacts Myriad Genetics - Judgment Vacated, Remanded ~pj
      Things are looking up in PatentLand


    • Prometheus bound: An important precedent for the next software patent case
      Plainly, this was not a dispute about software patents, but the Court’s unanimous opinion will guide it and lower courts as they analyze future software patent cases.


    • Copyrights

      • Judge rules file sharing is not a "conspiracy"
        The litigators are trying to get around the fact that judges aren't happy with allowing mass lawsuits, so what they are doing is taking one internet user to court but using that lawsuit as a pretext to subpoena other defendants who had participated in the same BitTorrent swarm. ... James Holderman of the Northern District of Illinois raised his eyebrow in disgust at this trick, saying that it was trying to get around the "stiffening judicial headwind."


      • 5000+ Artists Line Up For a Pirate Bay Promotion
        “We’re one of the worlds top 60 sites in the Internet. This brings us a responsibility to use the site to do something good. When I think about it, it’s insane that all the other top 100 sites only blast ads and self-centered stuff on their front pages. We do this for fun and for the love of culture, so we’re everything the major labels are not.”


      • 3 Major Publishers Sue Open-Education Textbook Start-Up

        See also this excllent summary

        To gain access to the digital alternatives, students select the traditional books assigned in their classes, and Boundless pulls content from an array of open-education sources to knit together a text that the company claims is as good as the designated book. The company calls this mapping of printed book to open material “alignment”—a tactic the complaint said creates a finished product that violates the publishers’ copyrights.


      • DRM is crushing indie booksellers online


      • MPAA Lines Up With Porn Studio in Steamy Copyright Dispute

        A video site that published movies as urls is surprised that people would download those movies. They also found a judge that agrees enough to shut down a website where users share the urls, sometimes as embedded movies.







  • Recent Techrights' Posts

    Digital Sanitation Good Practices
    leave behind Microsoftism
    10 Days Ago Richard Stallman Gave a Long Interview in French (linuxfr.org)
    English translation
    Science, Not Fast Food/Junk Food
    The commercial exploitation of users won't stop until users exercise full control over their software or - more broadly - their computing (including data)
    [Video] Dr. Richard Stallman at Technické Univerzitě v Liberci
    New/via libre-liberec.cz
     
    The Term "AI" is Not New and What Today's Media Calls "AI" Isn't Even AI
    Only the hype was new... and totally artificial
    Gemini Links 18/10/2025: "Planetary Rings", Steam, and PSU Replacement
    Links for the day
    Defeating LLM Abuse (State-of-the-Art Plagiarism) in the Area of Linux and GNU, Free Software, BSD, Security and So On
    The aim is to get them to stop using LLMs to rip off other people's work
    Links 18/10/2025: Russell Vought in Charge, US Government Leans to Russia Again
    Links for the day
    Credit Where It's Due: LinuxConfig.org Quit Doing LLM Slop, Back to Original and Real Articles
    We waited for a while to say this, now it seems conclusive
    Of Note: UbuntuPIT Aware of Critics of Slop, Adds Disclosure of Use of LLMs
    We appreciate the honesty
    Links 18/10/2025: Madagascar's President Flees and ICE Arrests Protest Comedian Robby Roadsteamer
    Links for the day
    Richard Stallman Near the European Patent Office (EPO) in 3 Days From Now
    It'll be a good opportunity for patent examiners to listen, ask questions, and maybe greet him in person
    From Scholar to Booster of Slop (and Even Slop in His Own Blog)
    We're going to keep an eye on future posts of his
    End of Vista 10 Also Good News for the BSDs
    There are many news sites that recommend trying GNU/Linux this month
    What's Wrong With Liking Parrots or Birds as Pets?
    They'd demonise people for speaking about freedom, no matter what they say or do
    The Free Software Foundation, Which Has Appointed a 43-Year-Old President, is Looking to Add Another Board Member (or Treasurer)
    expect the FSF to add more people
    Richard Stallman Confirms Next Week's Talk at Technical University of Munich, We Urge EPO Staff to Attend
    That's probably late enough for EPO staff to attend after work
    Gemini Links 18/10/2025: Notifications and Geminaut
    Links for the day
    Many Red Hat People Are Leaving, But It'll Be Framed Publicly as Leaving IBM
    Similarly, IBM layoffs (or "RAs" as they're called) include Red Hat layoffs
    Expect More Waves of Microsoft Layoffs This Month (at Least Two Rounds Confirmed Already)
    From what we can gather, assuming the recent rumours about XBox are true, there will be at least 3 waves of Microsoft layoffs this month alone
    Security Issues in Cisco and Jenkins Passed Off as "Linux" Problems
    Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt (FUD) tactics
    Over at Tux Machines...
    GNU/Linux news for the past day
    IRC Proceedings: Friday, October 17, 2025
    IRC logs for Friday, October 17, 2025
    Slopwatch: LinuxSecurity, Linux Journal (Slashdot Media), UbuntuPIT, and Google News (Noise)
    egregious plagiarism
    Links 17/10/2025: Better Answers Sought After Air Crashes, "China Fans Patriotic Sentiment as Trade War With U.S. Heats Up"
    Links for the day
    Security is Desirable, But Not When the Term Security is Misused to Imply Centralisation of "Trust" (Whose?)
    'Security' is not an excuse for vendor lock-in
    Links 17/10/2025: Fentanylware (CheeTok) Causing Problems, Japanese Government Blasts Slop
    Links for the day
    The Linux Foundation Seems to Have Turned Linux.com Not Only Into a Spamfarm But Also LLM Slopfarm
    it's polluting the Web, even important domains like Linux.com, with spam and LLM slop
    Links 17/10/2025: UK’s Largest Breach Penalty and Windows TCO Examples
    Links for the day
    Go Watch Video About Librephone, Get Microsoft Ads
    Very ethical company...
    Campaign of Defamation Against the People Who Built NixOS (and Are Now Pushed Out From Their Own Project)
    We've already grown familiar with - and resistant to - such tactics
    Links 17/10/2025: Nestlé Crisis, Canada Post Versus 'Gig Economy' [sic] and Vista 11 Breaks Itself
    Links for the day
    Tux Machines Has Helped Separate Opinions/Analysis From News
    In September 2023 we decided to split things apart and not repeat links in both sites
    Tux Machines Has Improved Navigation of GNU/Linux and BSD News
    Some more 'wiring' work
    What a World Would Look Like If Everyone Used Free Software Only
    Freedom is what matters, not "Open".
    The Media Helps Microsoft, Amazon and Others (GAFAM and Beyond) Lie About Mass Layoffs Amid Valuation Bubble
    The media, instead of saying that there's an "AI bubble" crashing the economy might instead choose the narrative of "jobs replaced by AI"
    Bad Tempered? You Might Have Just Given Away That You're Losing the Argument
    Brett Wilson LLP is fully aware that it is being investigated
    Richard Stallman (RMS) is a Target of Defamation Campaigns Because of His Views on Software (But Politics Are the Excuse for Defaming Him)
    Here in this site we try to refrain from politics, except in Daily Links
    End of Vista 10 and Rise of GNU/Linux as Client Side Operating System
    It seems certain GNU/Linux will grow in popularity over time
    Taking Stock of a Week's Worth of EPO Leaks
    We remain committed to exposing EPO corruption as long as it keeps happening
    Mathieu Parreaux claims FINMA knew since day one
    Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
    Calumny, Libel, Joerg Jaspert & debian-private untouchable cyberbullies
    Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
    Over at Tux Machines...
    GNU/Linux news for the past day
    IRC Proceedings: Thursday, October 16, 2025
    IRC logs for Thursday, October 16, 2025
    Techrights Turns 19 in 3 Weeks
    coverage of suppressed topics and protecting all sources/whistleblowers
    International E-Waste Day Same Day as End of Vista 10
    message from Akira Urushibata
    The EPO's Central Staff Committee Presents Evidence That Staff Compensation Lowered While the Office Increases Income by Illegally Granting Invalid Patents
    These people become millionaires by doing illegal things
    Second or Third Wave of Microsoft Mass Layoffs in October 2025, This Time Portugal
    Those are just the ones we know about, there may be several more
    'Help Net Security' (helpnetsecurity.com) May Have Become a Slopfarm as Well
    Zeljka Zorz, Editor-in-Chief at Help Net Security, was reported to us
    Gemini Links 17/10/2025: Rant About Network Solutions, Strange Anomaly on Lagrange
    Links for the day
    EPO Staff Representation Lacks Social Dialogue With Relevant Management, Controversial and Sometimes Illegal Policies Implemented Without Necessary Input
    "In this open letter, the CSC requests that the President submits an agenda item in the next available General Consultative Committee (GCC) meeting on setting up regular meetings between the CSC and the higher management of DG1."
    Links 16/10/2025: Political Leftovers and Gemini Protocol Links
    Links for the day
    Lies Need to be Corrected
    the Court never invited us
    Slopwatch: Guardian Digital (linuxsecurity.com), Slashdot, Google News, and More
    Maybe one day, once the bubble pops completely, Google News will just outright delist all slopfarms
    Lufthansa Modern Slavery, Joerg Jaspert (ganneff) & Debian NSB Softwareentwicklung charade
    Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
    Links 16/10/2025: US Starting More Trade Wars With China, CIA War on Venezuela
    Links for the day
    SUSE Blog is Still LLM Slop, Marketing Manager at SUSE Cannot Write
    Would you buy from a company or seek support from a company that cannot even write (or fakes writing)?
    Pretend You're Not Dead: Microsoft Spent Almost Two Decades Rebranding Things as "Cloud, Then "AI", Now "XBox" and "Quantum"
    "AI" bubble pops, Microsoft harping about "quantum" already
    IBM Allegedly Found New Tricks for Silent Layoffs: LPI, Then MIS (Not PIP)
    Remember that "Red Hat layoffs" won't be reported after the bluewashing
    Links 16/10/2025: Red Lines and Feeding of Microsoft Trolls
    Links for the day
    MIT as a Propaganda Mill of GAFAM, Paid by GAFAM
    "the news" today
    Links 16/10/2025: Lies Euphemised as ‘Dueling Versions of Reality’ and Microsoft "Open" "Hey Hi" Resorts to Porn as No Business Model Was Found
    Links for the day
    The Local Staff Committee Munich (Representation of the EPO's Staff) Explains When Cluster of Pregnancies May Result in Reduced Pay
    "...even one week of part-time working is sufficient to reduce the salary you perceive during the entirety of your maternity leave."
    Another Black Eye for 'Secure Boot', Microsoft Media Tries to Blame "Linux"
    It enables Microsoft to remotely control computers, even computers that don't run Windows and never had any Microsoft software installed
    Slopwatch: UbuntuPIT, linuxsecurity.com, and Various Slopfarms in Google News Attacking "Linux"
    A new survey of the Web said that the majority of the Web is now slop (that's being said in the news this week)
    Over at Tux Machines...
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    IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, October 15, 2025
    IRC logs for Wednesday, October 15, 2025
    Links 16/10/2025: Increased Use of Social Control Media Surveillance in US, French Rage Over Pensions
    Links for the day