𝕿𝖊𝖈𝖍𝖗𝖎𝖌𝖍𝖙𝖘 Bulletin for Tuesday, November 17, 2020 ┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅ Generated Wed 18 Nov 04:17:56 GMT 2020 Created by Dr. Roy Schestowitz (𝚛𝚘𝚢 (at) 𝚜𝚌𝚑𝚎𝚜𝚝𝚘𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚣 (dot) 𝚌𝚘𝚖) Full hyperlinks for navigation omitted but are fully available in the originals The corresponding HTML versions are at 𝒕𝒆𝒄𝒉𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒔.𝒐𝒓𝒈 Older bulletins can be found at 𝒉𝒕𝒕𝒑://𝒕𝒆𝒄𝒉𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒔.𝒐𝒓𝒈/𝒕𝒙𝒕-𝒂𝒓𝒄𝒉𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒔 Full IPFS index in 𝒉𝒕𝒕𝒑://𝒕𝒆𝒄𝒉𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒔.𝒐𝒓𝒈/𝒊𝒑𝒇𝒔 and as plain text in 𝒉𝒕𝒕𝒑://𝒕𝒆𝒄𝒉𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒔.𝒐𝒓𝒈/𝒊𝒑𝒇𝒔/𝒕𝒙𝒕 ╒═══════════════════ 𝐑𝐄𝐂𝐄𝐍𝐓 𝐁𝐔𝐋𝐋𝐄𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐒 ════════════════════════════════════╕ Previous bulletins in IPFS (past 7 days): QmPig3jMNnY2dzVgb9rcw8eJRYDRT4SsxYBZN3RMqf3h2h QmaZdkrm9QhwhS3ABAKPm8Sfe1zDFKWnB61w7JaC1AEAZx QmTVK9B2YvX97kQJqZEpTKfC2nhjXd4cwa59eQ2Xbazok2 QmZEByDfGomEW1TeQSQaoupWsxmo5EjLY3CFvKeUXyJoCF QmNrgTi6r2u49k1iWSiANjzATUMw9HkhQgXca2rMfMhcxQ QmUHG95G7Xyn2j8EiUB7jL2HKDjCAj7yo7FbmrTqs6hgn3 QmZfdzBRPSM9TQgGrdKVMYwyF5iVPE7d3ta8DoyURLBnvo ╒═══════════════════ 𝐈𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐗 ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════╕ Bulletin articles (as HTML) to comment on (requires login): http://techrights.org/2020/11/17/background-ernst-and-young-epo/#comments http://techrights.org/2020/11/17/epo-covid-violations/#comments http://techrights.org/2020/11/17/epo-non-confidence/#comments http://techrights.org/2020/11/17/google-versus-daniel-pocock/#comments http://techrights.org/2020/11/17/government-of-germany-upc-lies/#comments http://techrights.org/2020/11/17/irc-log-161120/#comments http://techrights.org/2020/11/17/oin-articles-or-puff-pieces/#comments http://techrights.org/2020/11/17/real-rms/#comments http://techrights.org/2020/11/17/trust-models/#comments Followed by Daily Links (assorted news picks curated and categorised): http://techrights.org/2020/11/17/firefox-83/#comments ╒═══════════════════ 𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐋𝐄 ═════════════════════════════════════════════════╕ ****** 11.17.20 ****** ***** Inside_the_EPO_During_Corona:_The_Hoax_‘Study’_From_Campinos_and_Donald Trump_Associate_(Mercer)_Debunked,_EPO_Management_Uninterested_Because_Facts Are_Inconvenient ***** Posted in Deception, Europe, Patents at 8:59 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz Today’s EPO, Europe’s second-largest institution, rejects science and facts [Campinos in Oktoberfest 2018] Summary: The Staff Union of the European Patent Office (SUEPO) highlights the degree of shamelessness, audacity and the sheer nerve EPO administration now has; when objectively refuted and presented with evidence to show that it is wrong the management responds “with mere hand-waving” BACK in summer a document outlining the flaws in the so-called ‘study’ about the EPO‘s financial situation was preceded by this concise text: The EPO’s financial situation has always been good, and right now it is excellent. Financial studies claiming the contrary are usually a prelude for cuts in staff benefits. The 2019 study by Mercer and Wyman is no exception. Although the EPO’s currently makes a budget surplus of about €400m / year (20% of the budget), Mercer and Wyman predict an overall €3.8bn deficit by 2038 and endorse the President’s suggestion to add a €1.9- 2bn “buffer” when closing the alleged gap. The principal means planned to fill the alleged gap will be a reform of the annual adjustment method for the staff’s salaries and pensions. Ernst & Young has performed an analysis which fully confirmed our earlier findings. Comparing the key assumptions of the 2019 study with those of other EPO documents, Ernst & Young found that the 2019 study consistently took a more conservative approach. It is clear that the EPO has no deficit. On the contrary, under normal circumstances the EPO will continue to generate surpluses. The EPO already has an operating surplus of about €400m/year. What is the President planning to do with the additional €2bn that he plans to save on the back of staff by changing the salary adjustment method? As we noted earlier this week, Benoît_Battistelli and António_Campinos basically gamble — for personal gain — with billions of euros of money that the EPO’s isn’t even supposed to hoard. It’s a massive scandal waiting_to_break_out (the corporate media is too full of cowards and too corruptible to make this a front page story). The full document reads as follows: 25.05.2020 su20028cp – 0.2.1/4.2.1/0.3.2 **** Background to the Ernst & Young analysis **** Introduction The EPO’s financial situation has always been good, and right now it is excellent. Financial studies claiming the contrary are usually a prelude for cuts in staff benefits. The 2019 study by Mercer and Wyman is no exception. Although the EPO’s currently makes a budget surplus of about €400m /year (20% of the budget), Mercer and Wyman predict an overall €3.8bn deficit by 2038 and endorse the President’s suggestion to add a €1.9-2bn “buffer” when closing the alleged gap. The principal means planned to fill the alleged gap will be a reform of the annual adjustment method for the staff’s salaries and pensions1,2. Deaf ears SUEPO and the Staff Committee quickly pointed out that there are major flaws in the 2019 financial study3. Representatives of the EPO pensioners’ association did the same4. Assuming that expenditure continues to rise with no increase in income – as Mercer and Wyman did for the EPO – is unrealistic and leads to dire predictions for any organisation. But the President and the delegates in the Administrative Council clearly did not want to listen. Heading for a conflict We expect the Administrative Council to approve the new salary adjustment method in their upcoming meeting. If so, then the only route to challenge that decision will be legal, with the ILO-AT as the final instance. Like the Council, ILO-AT is more inclined to listen to the EPO’s administration than to EPO staff. The staff representation is not heard at all – neither the Staff Committee nor SUEPO have any standing at ILO-AT. We therefore wanted to have a professional counter-study to provide staff with authoritative support in the complaints that will inevitably follow an unfavorable decision by the Council. What were the conditions? Our first approach to Ernst & Young was met with hesitancy to accept the mandate. It was made clear to us that they would not comment on the EPO study other than on the basis of solid documentary evidence available in the public domain. For that, they proposed to compare the assumptions used in the 2019 study with those used in the 2016 study by Deloitte and other data sources published by the EPO. We agreed to this proposal since it increases the credibility of the analysis. But Ernst & Young also demanded very stringent use restrictions that we could not accept. After intense discussions we agreed on a ____ 1 The SUEPO Salary Simulator estimates your personal financial loss. In a video we look back at the last months and explain the impact of the new method on our future salaries and pensions. 2 “The Salary Adjustment Procedure (SAP) – Timeline”, su20026cp, 19.05.2020. This paper provides an overview of what happened over the last months. 3 The Financial Study: Yet Another Hoax (sc19070cp, sc19071cp, sc19076cp and sc19081cp) 4 Letter to the AC by the EPO Pensioners’ Association, ex19151cl, 26.11.2019 ===================================================================== compromise: copies of the document can be given to the EPO’s President, the Vice-Presidents, the Council delegates and various other political actors as well as ILO-AT, but we have no permission to publish the document on the SUEPO websites and our members are to be given protected read-on access only. The results Even with their very stringent approach (requiring contradictory published EPO documents or obvious methodological flaws, before commenting), Ernst & Young fully confirmed our earlier findings5. Comparing the key assumptions of the 2019 study with those of other EPO documents, Ernst & Young found that the 2019 study consistently took a more conservative approach. Ernst & Young estimated what they called the “illustrative impact” of those highly conservative assumptions. Their main findings are the following: - more realistic assumptions (in line with those of the RFPPS actuaries) for the contribution levels to the RFPSS and the EPOTIF reduce the alleged gap by €2.3bn - more realistic assumptions of the return on the RFPPS and EPOTIF assets in line with other EPO documents reduce the gap by €4.0bn, - taking into account expected future income from patents existing in 2038 (omitted in the 2019 study) reduces the alleged gap by €4.7bn, - assuming that EPO internal fees will rise with inflation (rather than stay constant until 2038) reduces the gap by €1.6bn. - Ernst & Young further pointed out a methodological error in the 2019 study that inflates the gap by €1.3bn. The conclusion … Ernst & Young warned us that the above amounts cannot simply be added up because some are interdependent. Nevertheless, it is clear that the EPO has no deficit. On the contrary, under normal circumstances the EPO will continue to generate surpluses. We note that the EPO did not communicate its alleged gap outside the EPO. The external auditors who assess the financial situation of the EPO every year see no gap needing urgent action. The same applies to the actuaries of the RFPSS. The systematic bias towards unrealistically high levels of caution in the 2019 financial study and the purely internal communication show the clear intention of the EPO to convince staff that there is a financial gap where there is none for the purpose of reducing staff benefits. … and a question This nevertheless leaves us with the old question: cui bono? As indicated above, the EPO already has an operating surplus of about €400m/year. What is the President planning to do with the additional €2bn that he plans to save on the back of staff by changing the salary adjustment method? SUEPO Central ____ 5 “Selected analyses by Ernst & Young of the 2019 Financial Study of the European Patent Office”, su20025cp, 19.05.2020. SUEPO members can ask for access to the Ernst & Young analysis by sending an email to requestaccessreport@suepo.org including full name and place of employment. Not so long afterwards SUEPO also wrote to the management — in an open letter to Campinos and his_friend (whom he gave a high-paying job): 10 June 2020 su20030cl – 0.3.1 Open letter To: President, VP4 Cc: AC delegations Ernst & Young analysis of the 2019 Financial Study of the European Patent Office Dear Mr Campinos, Dear Ms Simon, You have on various occasions criticized the analysis by Ernst & Young of the 2019 Financial Study. More recently you seemed to focus on the indication “reliance restricted” which is written on the second page of the analysis by Ernst & Young. You seemed to imply that this indication renders the findings meaningless. However, an indication which means in legal terms the same as “reliance restricted” can also be found in the Financial Study (CA/ 46/19, pages 133-134) and in the follow-up document (CA/83/19, page 235). Such an indication is indeed standard for external expert opinions. We cite: “This report is not intended for general circulation or publication, nor is it to be reproduced, quoted or distributed for any purpose without the prior written permission of Oliver Wyman. There are no third party beneficiaries with respect to this report, and Oliver Wyman does not accept any liability to any third party” (CA/46/19, page 132, §1 & CA/83/19, page 135, §1) We resent the repeated attempts of the administration to discredit the Ernst & Young analysis. We are still waiting for serious comments on the substance of the analysis. The findings of Ernst & Young, confirming earlier observations by SUEPO, staff representation and by the pensioners’ association, raise serious questions about the actions taken by the administration during the last year in order to reform the salary adjustment method, which cannot be dismissed with mere hand-waving. Also in order to avoid a protracted legal battle, we urge you to enter into a discussion on the substance of the matter with the aim of reaching a solution appropriate under current circumstances and which is acceptable to staff. Sincerely yours, SUEPO Central In their message to staff they said: “we addressed Mr Campinos and Ms Simon (VP4) to urge them to enter into a discussion on the substance…” (echoing the above) The staff is being told that much of the blame should be put squarely on Campinos and his friend. “Mr Campinos and Ms Simon (VP4),” they say, “have on various occasions criticized the analysis by Ernst & Young of the 2019 Financial Study on purely formal aspects.” What do Mr Campinos and Ms Simon even know about studies? Have they ever conducted any? They’re not scientists and they don’t study anything. They’re just propagandists in formal clothing and no sense of shame. █ ╒═══════════════════ 𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐋𝐄 ═════════════════════════════════════════════════╕ ****** 11.17.20 ****** ***** Inside_the_EPO_During_Corona:_Half_a_Year_Ago_EPO_Management_Was_a ‘Superspreader’_of_COVID-19_and_It_Broke_the_Law_Regarding_Masks ***** Posted in Europe, Patents at 6:46 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz Related (June): EPO_2020_Vision:_Billions_for_Gambling,_No_Money_for_Masks_(for Staff’s_Safety) [Some droplets] Summary: The EPO ‘droplets’ have been spreading due to misguided, unscientific (some might say anti-scientific) EPO management; staff was pressured to come back to office premises and there were clear labour as well as privacy violations, not just Health and Safety violations THE management of the EPO belittled the crisis. This is no secret. We still routinely see an unmasked António_Campinos sitting next to colleagues. They proudly advertise photos of such violations. But just like Benoît_Battistelli, Campinos is exempted from the law. Nobody will be arrested at the EPO, but ‘bad’ judges will be dragged out of their offices if the Office President doesn’t like them. If, for example, they speak out about corruption… [EPO mask]This is no joking matter. We’ve written a great deal about the seriousness of this virus, which is having a ‘second go’ at Europe and is arguably outpacing the so-called ‘First Wave’, in some countries more than in others. “Nobody will be arrested at the EPO, but ‘bad’ judges will be dragged out of their offices if the Office President doesn’t like them.”This brings us to today’s disclosure of an internal document, composed by actual scientists who actually do work for the Office (not doing Webchats on premises of the Office for lousy, self-promotional photos ops in the EPO’s Web site). Here is what the Central Staff Committee published just under 6 months ago, noting that “the President announces that in the near future Office occupancy will be capped at some low level (20% to 50%) by massively using teleworking. Beyond possible issues with the Contracting States, this de facto constitute an implicit departure from Article 55a(1) ServRegs providing that employees shall normally perform their work on the Office’s premises. Consultation in the COHSEC and the GCC is a must.” “In addition,” they noted, “you should be aware that the Office has objectively more interest in pushing you into “voluntary” rather than “mandatory” teleworking because it can more easily shift the responsibility and operational risk onto your shoulders, including the risk and consequences of not reaching set objectives.” Here is the full publication in HTML form: Munich 20.05.2020 sc20086cp Gradual return to EPO buildings Dear colleagues, On 11 May 2020 the President made an announcement informing us of a gradual return to EPO buildings. A few days later a further announcement described which concrete measures would be introduced to ensure a safe return. We have already published a paper (“Working from home in times of Coronavirus”) which explains some basic principles concerning the relationship between an employer and its employees. As the Office appears to be now entering a new phase of working we think it is now time to revisit these principles. The Office’s premises Firstly, the Office is not a workplace like any other, be it a private company or even another International Organisation. It has been established within the framework of the EPC to take over from national patent offices the task of granting European patents, i.e. bundles of national patents, for the Contracting States1. To that effect, the states have decided that those tasks should normally be performed by civil servants on the Office’s premises. The introduction of large-scale teleworking would seem to question the validity of this, all the more so if staff are working in locations outside the host countries. In our view, the Contracting States must discuss any fundamental departure from this basic understanding2. Article 55a(1) ServRegs3 codifies the above and directly regulates your working conditions. Moreover, it is a safe bet that when you took up your official duties you assumed that you would be predominantly working on the Office’s premises. Now, the President announces that in the near future Office occupancy will be capped at some low level (20% to 50%). This may be justified with duty of care. However, this does not change anything to the fact that you will be instructed to work predominantly at a location other than the Office’s premises. This is a back-door change to your conditions of _____ 1 See e.g. Articles 2 and 4 EPC 2 See Article 33 EPC (and possibly Article 172 EPC) 3 Article 55a(1) ServRegs: “Permanent employees in active employment shall normally perform their work on the Office’s premises.” ===================================================================== employment disguised as a sanitary measure, for which statutory consultation is mandatory4. To wrap it up, the announced measures de facto constitute an implicit departure from the statutory provision of Article 55a(1) ServRegs. Consultation in the COHSEC and the GCC is a must. Failing this, all negative consequences directly deriving from the changes will be illegal. We think it is high time now for the President to cease ignoring our repeated requests for involvement and consultation. “Mandatory” teleworking vs ”voluntary” teleworking You might have the impression that management has been trying to make you forget that working on Office premises is the default option, for which you do not need any authorisation since the President has never closed them5. Teleworking has been presented as a possibility generously proposed to you on an individual basis. The scheme was probably so widely successful until now for reasons linked to the pandemic surge, e.g. because so many staff members had to stay home to take care of small children or relatives. The initial attractiveness of the scheme will probably wear out. Staff will feel the need to come more often to the Office and line management will have to make decisions, resorting to issuing “instructions to work from home again” or “strongly urging” their staff to do so. Until now the Office has consistently blurred the distinction between mandatory and voluntary teleworking, with a clear preference for the latter as it has been announced that “mandatory” teleworking should only apply to three very limited medical indications. As explained in our first paper, “mandatory” teleworking means that you have been forced, or “strongly urged” to work from home. Because the relationship between the Office and you is based on mutual trust and good faith, you are then expected to take reasonable measures, or make “best efforts”, to try to mitigate the consequences of the order to stay home. Nothing more, nothing less. In particular, the order does not commit you to reaching the objectives set by management. Conversely, “voluntary” teleworking means that you have still the right to come to the premises. It is convenient for the Office in that it can more easily shift the responsibility and operational risk onto your shoulders, including the risk and consequences of not reaching set objectives. Some directors in DG1 have already instructed their line managers to “hold discussions” with those having a productivity level below that planned _____ 4 See also Article 55a(2) ServRegs: “The President of the Office may, after consulting the relevant joint committee, establish implementing instructions allowing employees to perform their duties at a location other than the Office’s premises.” 5 Of course the President could forbid you to come on its premises, either on an individual basis or on a collective basis. You are then obliged to obey this injunction. In the House Rules: “The right to grant or refuse access to the premises is exercised by the President and those to whom the President has delegated this authority, in particular the site managers and security staff.” ===================================================================== before the pandemic. No doubt that this will also play a role when line management assesses your performance for 2020. In conclusion, you should be aware that the Office has objectively more interest in pushing you into “voluntary” rather than mandatory teleworking. If you believe that your teleworking is not actually “voluntary”, you must insist on receiving clear written instructions from your line management (e.g. an instruction to work from home or a formal prohibition to access the Office’s premises)6. Some concrete measures Most of the announced concrete measures appear reasonable. However, two should be singled out for comment. - The President has announced that “each staff member is responsible for providing their own mask”. This is petty-minded and illegal, because the employer is legally_obliged to provide masks in order to discharge its duty of care. In addition, it also appears reasonable from a hygienic viewpoint to avoid the proliferation in the Office of different masks of uncontrolled provenance and uncertain protective effect. Deciding which type of mask to wear should not be the responsibility of individual staff members. We therefore recommend that you contact Health & Safety (H&S) to obtain a mask if you need one, as advocated in the announcement. It appears that H&S has been instructed to provide masks only “if you are asked by your line manager to come to work at EPO premises”7. We recall that you are entitled to come to work unless you are on mandatory teleworking. - The President has announced the completion of a mandatory e- learning course as a precondition for coming to the Office premises. In view of the obvious importance of this module, we suggest that it should be available in all three official languages. Stay healthy. The Central Staff Committee _____ 6 See Article 20(2) ServRegs: 7 Management argues that there is no need for the Office to provide masks, as staff is not forced to come back to the Office! Changing rules requires consultation with and approval from contracting states and definitely from staff that never consented to such changes. But the EPO is like a monarchy and its management is just making up the rules as it goes along, and we know in whose favour. As the representatives moreover point out, about failure to provide masks to staff: “This is petty-minded and illegal, because the employer is legally obliged to provide masks in order to discharge its duty of care.” Illegal, but who will hold EPO managers accountable? Nobody. Nobody was ever held accountable for the EPO’s ‘suicide wave’ and some of those responsible are still in positions of power, still intimidating staff into censorship and self-censorship. █ ╒═══════════════════ 𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐋𝐄 ═════════════════════════════════════════════════╕ ****** 11.17.20 ****** ***** SUEPO’s_EPO_Staff_Survey:_Confidence_in_Staff_Representatives_at_All-Time High_and_Confidence_in_EPO_President_at_Only_3% ***** Posted in Europe, Patents at 8:08 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz [Three soda drinkers: European panzer office] Summary: Early preview following a staff survey showed how awful things had become at the Office even after two years with the supposedly ‘nice’ and ‘improved’ President (he’s even less popular than his predecessor at equivalent periods of the presidency) “Preliminary results of the 2020 EPO Staff Survey (run by Technologia),” SUEPO wrote, “are available in English and French.” That was quite some time ago. We already wrote about some of the findings back in summer, taking_note_of_the fact that Benoît_Battistelli‘s record after two years at the EPO (Office) was better than that of António_Campinos, judging by what staff thought of him (same survey). Under normal circumstances such appalling approval rates would necessitate or make an impeachment imperative. For the EPO’s very survival… “There’s more than one “orange dictator”, but European media cares only about Trump’s violations of the law…”Right now Campinos fights against the survival of the EPO. He makes it a vastly less attractive workplace, he plans to lay off many more employees, and he keeps breaking the law while smiling to the cameras. Sort of like Donald Trump. There’s more than one "orange_dictator", but European media cares only about Trump’s violations of the law… Here’s what SUEPO wrote about early findings from the Technologia staff survey: 26 May 2020 su20027cp Preliminary results of the 2020 EPO Staff Survey (run by Technologia) Dear SUEPO members, dear colleagues, The 2020 Staff Survey is now complete. Thanks to all of you who participated despite all the difficulties generated by the current pandemic! Some preliminary results are available in English and French. Final results and analysis will follow in due course. As you know, this year’s survey asked the same questions as the previous surveys conducted in 2010, 2013 and 2016 in order to be able to reliably compare the results. Although we are waiting for Technologia’s full evaluation, it is already clear that our collective working experience at the EPO has not improved over the past four years. The trend is worrying. We thank you for your trust and support. Be assured of our commitment to trying to improve the situation. SUEPO Central Here are the slides/deck in English: [SUEPO_survey_0] [SUEPO_survey_1] [SUEPO_survey_2] [SUEPO_survey_3] [SUEPO_survey_4] [SUEPO_survey_5] [SUEPO_survey_6] [SUEPO_survey_7] [SUEPO_survey_8] [SUEPO_survey_9] [SUEPO_survey_10] [SUEPO_survey_11] [SUEPO_survey_12] [SUEPO_survey_13] Later on SUEPO would shed/share further pertinent details. █ ╒═══════════════════ 𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐋𝐄 ═════════════════════════════════════════════════╕ ****** 11.17.20 ****** ***** Open_Source_Program_Office_at_Google_Versus_Daniel_Pocock ***** Posted in Debian, Google at 9:43 pm by Guest Editorial Team Reprinted with permission from Daniel_Pocock Early in 2020, at the outset of the pandemic, the UN’s special rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment, Professor_Nils_Melzer_of_Switzerland, spoke out about the growing_problem_of cybertorture. I could immediately relate to this. I had been a volunteer mentor in the Google Summer of Code since 2013. I withdrew from the program at an accutely painful time for my family, losing two family members in less than a year. Within a week, Stephanie Taylor, the head of the program at Google, was sending me threats and insults. Taylor’s Open_Source_Program_Office_at_Google relies on hundreds of volunteers like me to do work for them. Everybody else in my life, my employer, friends and other non-profit organizations that I contribute to responded with compassion and sympathy. Taylor and her sidekicks chose threats and insults. Taylor had chosen to take the pain from my personal life and drag it into my professional life. Despite exercising my rights under the GDPR and asking her to stop this experiment and get out of my life, she continues to sustain it. The UN’s Forum on Business and Human Rights is taking place this week. It is online due to the pandemic. In the session about accountability_and_remedies for_victims_of_human_rights_abuse, my experience with Stephanie Taylor and Google was at the front of my mind. I’m not the only one thinking about Google as a bunch of gangsters: a British_parliamentary_report and US_Department_of Justice_investigation has also used terms like digital gangster and unlawful to describe the way that people like this are operating. Yet when I entered the UN’s online event and asked about the connection from Professor Melzer’s analysis to Google’s wrongdoing, the question vanished. I posted a subsequent question asking why my query was censored and it was immediately subject to censorship. This is the golden rule of censorship: don’t ask about censorship. I never received any correspondence or complaints about the question. [united nations, censorship] Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights proclaims_the_right_to free_speech. Within the first year of the pandemic, the UN has already set that aside, not wanting to offend the Googlers who slink_around_the_corridors_of power. If somebody asked the same question in a real world event at the UN in Geneva or New York, would a trap door open up underneath them and make them disappear? Or would members of the panel and the audience need to contemplate Professor Melzer’s work on cybertorture seriously? If you wish to participate in the final day of the forum, you can use the following links: * Main_web_site_for_the_UN_Forum_on_Business_and_Human_Rights * Live_stream_room_1, Live_stream_room_2 * Ask_questions_here_(use_the_code_#9thForumBHR) █ [daniel pocock, dante pesce, united nations, geneva, palais des nations] [daniel pocock, united nations, geneva, palais des nations] ╒═══════════════════ 𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐋𝐄 ═════════════════════════════════════════════════╕ ****** 11.17.20 ****** ***** The_Stench_Follows_and_Spreads:_Another_UPC_Lie_Now_Followed_by_Lies_From the_Government_of_Germany ***** Posted in Deception, Europe, Patents at 5:28 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz Zombie bill, zombie brains (no thinking required anymore) [Death coming] Summary: Mindless propaganda from Team UPC finds its way onto the desks of German politicians; but nevertheless, another month passes with no progress whatsoever as UPCA remains dead in the water IT IS almost November 18th already, so the "early_November"_promises_look_like a_farce_already. Team UPC can’t stop lying. It has done this for nearly a decade, together with EPO management (Benoît_Battistelli told endless UPC lies and António_Campinos promoted the UPC within a couple of days of taking that ‘presidential’ job owing to nepotism). Everything that touches the UPC tends to look foolish and dishonest, not to mention disrespectful towards the law and various constitutions. Why would anybody (at this stage) wish to be publicly seen among Team UPC? “Now we see the government as a whole promoting a lie.”At Bristows, a prime source of UPC lies, Gregory Bacon is almost ‘last man standing’ and he has_just said “the [German] government noted that the unitary patent/UPC project has, over the many years of negotiations, had strong support from German and European industry, including SMEs.” This is a lie. Bristows is still happy to perpetuate lies. [COME WITH US]The Government of Germany is self-nuking by saying that SMEs ‘love’ the UPC. What next or what else will they tell us? Donald Trump “had strong support” from black people? Putting aside software_patents’_effect_on European_coders, SMEs across many sectors openly opposed the UPC (those who had time to watch what was going on and could still not afford lobbyists). Earlier this year we said that the stunts from the German ministry of injustice would cost it greatly in credibility and stature. Now we see the government as a whole promoting a lie. This whole thing won’t end well for Germany. Its reputation is already severely harmed by a number of scandals on the patent front, nullifying the notion that it’s a nation of law and order. It fast becomes the “wild west” of Western Europe. █ ╒═══════════════════ 𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐋𝐄 ═════════════════════════════════════════════════╕ ****** 11.17.20 ****** ***** IRC_Proceedings:_Monday,_November_16,_2020 ***** Posted in IRC_Logs at 2:56 am by Needs Sunlight [GNOME_Gedit] [GNOME_Gedit] #techrights_log #boycottnovell_log [GNOME_Gedit] [GNOME_Gedit] #boycottnovell-social_log #techbytes_log Enter_the_IRC_channels_now =============================================================================== **** IPFS Mirrors **** _____________________________________________________________________________ |CID___________________________________________|Description___________________| |QmfMuFoAhyWQcg6UFCdFFimPFs7MLdy1XYWC7shxv9ZWkp|IRC log for 161120 (full IRC | |______________________________________________|log)__________________________| |QmcDijagH5hGL4USfDgWSaTDZaBjqYhc3vq3vDWGKn9WeQ|IRC log for social-161120 | |______________________________________________|(full_IRC_log)________________| |QmUQhJJc7f1KJByGMrSn5uZ8TrJnPqRzThTSdwSanhFhVB|IRC log for techbytes-161120 | |______________________________________________|(full_IRC_log)________________| |Qmbqaoz2CWQtw2noSK9FPZ9CznwBvZ6kRvkexcb9Kn5pcW|IRC log for techrights-161120 | |______________________________________________|(full_IRC_log)________________| [IPFS logo] **** Bulletin for Yesterday **** Local_copy | CID (IPFS): QmUHG95G7Xyn2j8EiUB7jL2HKDjCAj7yo7FbmrTqs6hgn3 ╒═══════════════════ 𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐋𝐄 ═════════════════════════════════════════════════╕ ****** 11.17.20 ****** ***** OIN_is_Lying_Because_It’s_Not_Helping_GNU/Linux_and_Not_Defending_the Community,_It’s_Only_Defending_Software_Patents_From_Activists_and_Actual Developers ***** Posted in Free/Libre_Software, GNU/Linux, Microsoft, OIN, Patents at 8:39 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz Not too shockingly, the toothless (barks only) OIN isn’t developers and isn’t for coders; it’s just diplomats and lawyers in “Linux” clothing (they don’t even use Linux) [Just come closer]Summary: The ‘suits’ running the Open Invention Network (OIN) have done nothing for software freedom and programmers’ safety; 15 years down the line they have almost no accomplishments to show, just a massive patent pool that hardly protects anyone, only the status quo WE recently_wrote_about — albeit without mentioning names (in order to avoid negative impact on an ongoing dispute) — GNU/Linux distros being shaken down by patent trolls. “As we recently noted, without naming distros or the patent trolls that attack those distros, there’s a campaign of patent extortion underway.”We heard from a well-known_community_member about this matter. It’s a real problem. Hours ago the Open Invention Network (OIN) released another lousy_press_release merely celebrating its existence. The headline is a lie. OIN is not protecting us, it is protecting software patents from our scrutiny. It uses terms like “Open Source” (which are themselves inherently dishonest) and so far nobody covered it except ZDNet‘s OIN parrots, who wrote about this non-news. It’s just some lousy anniversary of a corporate front group (for corporations with massive troves of patents). The thing we must remember about the so-called ‘Open’ Invention Network is what Bruce Perens keeps remining us. They protect IBM et al (software patents proponents) but not the community or community- centric distros… just as was intended all along. Patents are instruments of monopolisation and the ‘Open’ Invention Network helps monopolies (including Microsoft now, just like the so-called ‘Linux’_Foundation). It’s not new that ZDNet is a megaphone of Open Invention Network and LOT propaganda (those two groups have overlaps) — in essence promoting the software patents agenda. Snakeoil vending for monopolies… For the rest us? Nothing. As we recently noted, without naming distros or the patent trolls that attack those distros, there’s a campaign of patent extortion underway. The developers reach out to us, but they don’t want us to say too much. “Did OIN offer any help with this?” I asked one of them. “If not, I’d like to write something about that…” It has been a fortnight now and no reply. “I would appreciate any advice that you have,” one of them said. “I am not responding presently [to the patent trolls] and if it comes to it, I intend to fight this. It is making me very anxious however and I suspect this is their intention. Settling is another problem: if I do so, I have effectively admitted that their patents are valid and this queues me up for a long line of encounters with [redacted], other [redacted] codecs etc.” Yes, it’s about codecs, i.e. software patents. “I’ve contacted Jean Baptiste-Kempf (VideoLan) president and Ben Henrion,” (FFII) the developer added. “Both have told me that the patents are not legal.” What has OIN done to help? Nothing. “I’ve been a member of OIN for years,” the developer noted when asked about it, “but haven’t contacted them yet. I plan to do so later this week.” It has been over a month. “I was wondering if it’s worth getting in touch with United Patents,” said the next suggestion (for Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) inter partes reviews (IPRs), “although they seem primarily focused in the US.” They started tackling software_patents_in_Europe as well not too long ago. EPO- granted patents… A month ago I said: “This will be interesting to follow. It will be very important to see if OIN even lifts a finger to help.” It has not. I’ve kept this in my notes for a while. And OIN has done nothing to help. So when the ZDNet propaganda says (hours ago) that OIN is our friend it’s pretty clear that it bothered talking to nobody outside OIN and its circles. It’s just parroting press releases and PR, quite frankly as usual. █ ╒═══════════════════ 𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐋𝐄 ═════════════════════════════════════════════════╕ ****** 11.17.20 ****** ***** The_Real_Richard_Stallman_is_Not_Coming_Back ***** Posted in Free/Libre_Software, FSF, OSI at 3:09 am by Guest Editorial Team By figosdev [Coming down] Summary: “Free Software was created to defend the freedom of every user, not to coddle monopolies or excuse actions taken against users in bad faith.” Many people have worked to end Richard Stallman’s career, and the good news is that he will continue fighting. While his career with the FSF has ended (he has no real authority left there, mostly people pretending to help him and others working against him directly), his activism continues behind the scenes, encouraging other parties to respect the freedom of users. We know this for a fact, and I take some comfort in it. But while he will continue to fight, much unlike the watered down new_FSF, there are things the “Real Richard Stallman” would do that this one will not. Free Software was created to defend the freedom of every user, not to coddle monopolies or excuse actions taken against users in bad faith. It does not excuse mass surveillance, controlling users or silencing activism. Open Source has excused and literally promoted all of these things. And while people complained that Open Source was not promoted by Stallman, that he refused to endorse its wishy-washy corporate entryism, refusing corporate entryism was exactly what Free Software needed to do to survive. It failed. “Open Source doesn’t love anybody, they only love when you don’t show integrity.”Open Source does not make exceptions for its sycophants; when you cave to Open Source, you are dealing with bait-and-switch scams and shell games. Open Source pretends it is Free Software, while saying it is also something else. This “something else” is an attack on users as well as freedom. It’s much too easy to find examples of this, just say: “OK Google, violate my privacy”. Open Source pretends to be neutral and both Martin Luther King Jr. and Desmond Tutu have spoken about the side that neutrality takes in oppression, but either way it suffices that the neutrality of Open Source is nothing more than sheep’s clothing; Open Source joined the war on users that Microsoft declared in internal memos decades ago and they also sought to rebrand Free Software so they could redefine and control it. The tech press (which even ESR spoke disparagingly of with comments in the Halloween documents) paints this as a paranoid conspiracy theory, but even in OSI (which ESR co-founded) Microsoft has too many people in control today, and some want to literally redefine the Open Source Definition. This is not a theory. But we know this about the Real Richard Stallman. He has never supported Open Source as an alternative to Free Software. He even said that Open Source people “treat him like shit”. [It's coming]But as I was saying, Open Source does not make exceptions for sycophants. Torvalds promoted Open Source and slighted Free Software for years, pandering to corporations who don’t care about freedom. For Torvalds, and Open Source, this is just a development methodology. He has recited Open Source’s mantras for decades, but despite his lack of integrity as a person overall, there is one thing they couldn’t get Torvalds to do: make sacrifices in the way he maintained the kernel. This is his one good point, and it is the reason he had to go. It’s not really because Torvalds is an asshole. All the people who control Torvalds today are assholes; they’re bigger liars and they’re slowly destroying and co-opting the Linux kernel, just as “Linux” co-opted GNU. If you talk to them, or even watch the way they’ve treated Linus, you can tell that even if Torvalds is a scumbag, these people are corporate bullies who treat Linus like shit. Open Source doesn’t love anybody, they only love when you don’t show integrity. No exceptions are made, not even for Linus; bow to Corporate or GTFO. If you matter to Open Source, it certainly doesn’t matter if you’re an asshole. Steve Ballmer is a HUGE asshole. It never mattered. The only “crime” of Ballmer’s that Microsoft cared about was him losing money. This is business, they care about results, not personality. IBM thinks we could do better in terms of a leader, but they happily and literally worked with Hitler. Obviously the right amount of money can buy a LOT of understanding. Torvalds has stood year after year in the way of backdoors and other bad moves for the kernel, so credit where credit is due. But this is why Torvalds is not in control anymore. And that brings us to what they’ve done to Richard Stallman. For a while I referred per comments made on another article to Stallman as “rms”. Today, I will do that in the past tense. RMS was Stallman’s hacker name. Richard Stallman is, I think, when he referred to it as his “mundane name”. RMS is dead, but Stallman is still fighting. We know rms is dead, because he was outspoken, did not bow to false compromise, and never stopped fighting. So at least one part of rms still lives on, because Stallman is still fighting. That really is better than nothing. But he is no longer outspoken, and we really need him to be. The things that are happening now are just as atrocious as when they were mere outspoken (and seemingly hyperbolic) warnings. It seemed hyperbolic to equate SOFTWARE with human rights. And yet today we are being showered constantly with examples of how very basic human rights (as in the Constitution or the more globally relevant UDHR) are eroded and/or threatened by technofascist gizmos that are too popular for George Orwell not to rise from the dead and yell “WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?!” Old George is coming back, folks, any day now. “So at least one part of rms still lives on, because Stallman is still fighting. That really is better than nothing.”On a regular basis I find memes that honestly and reasonably compare the destruction of riots to the destruction of the so-called “polite society” — we live in a “polite society” that uses torture and chemical warfare (albeit mostly “softer” torture and “softer” chemical warfare, but either way, methods and chemicals that are banned for being unethical and immoral) on protesters engaged in activities which are protected by the First Amendment. Or at least, were protected by the First Amendment. Now that Biden is in, expect those rights to continue to erode, as they did with Trump. But then we are still talking about the world here. Those who were horrified (as was I) by the recent tear gassing and rubber bullets of protesters and journalists ought to pay closer attention to the history of how G7 protesters are treated even before 9/11. This sort of corporate tyranny is nothing new (but it is definitely still getting worse and more common). And you have people saying that Trump’s actions regarding the pandemic are akin to exterminating people. While rioting is not the method of protest that I advocate (I still lean towards being outspoken, and I think most protesters actually prefer this to rioting) I am forced to cede that the people saying “‘polite society’ is worse than a riot” are not at all likely mistaken. “Polite society” is full of war crimes, engineered poverty, countless resulting deaths, and the mass murder and endless exploitation of civilians. But then many of the same people who defend rioting on a regular basis are dead-set against Richard Stallman either being outspoken against corporations engaged in mass surveillance capitalism or in favour of due process. I know I’m painting with a broad brush here, I know there are loads of exceptions. But the overlap and inconsistency is still boggling. Anyway, the methods used to put a leash on Torvalds and Assange and the methods used to put one on Stallman are too similar to ignore. It hasn’t stopped there either, because political correctness is now being wielded as a way to yoke all developers of mainstream software (whether mainstream and non-free, or mainstream and under a free license) into indentured servants of projects that have been taken over by corporate donors who then force even original authors Linus and Guido to do things the way the monopoly wanted, or get out. I note with great sadness that Guido showed less integrity than Linus in this regard. It’s real sadness as although I don’t love the Linux kernel anymore, I do love Python. (And PyPy more than Python, but it is still an implementation of the Python language). Guido is a talented developer and it’s very sad to watch him not only sell out, but sell every user out. As I have said many times, I do not think Stallman has sold out. I think he was sold out by others. GNOME Guix (working together with Deb Icaza among many others) are some of the biggest traitors, but so is ESR who still has the audacity to claim to be Stallman’s “friend”. “If you make a list of the 20 worst things about Open Source you can think of (from a Free Software point of view) you can use that as a watchlist for what’s happening to Free Software itself.”Eric, real friends don’t stab people in the back the way you did. Perens knows it, and anybody who knows what happened knows that. You’re a shameless opportunist living in the shadow of a great man, who you created a name around your jealousy of for years and years, you’re NOT a “friend”. You are far closer to being the Cain to his Abel; a person who would slay his own brother simply for being favoured. And all of what you call “Open Source” is made in your image, much like which president after you sold OSI directly to Microsoft? Even ESR was ultimately ousted, the same way they did to Torvalds. And while I undoubtedly sympathise more with ESR than with the people who ousted him, it is (clearly) not very much; it’s the principle of the thing. Whatever I may think of him, the way he was ousted was wrong and ultimately bad for all of us. As with Linus and his owner Jim, the lesser of two evils was screwed over by the greater. My beef with Open Source was not created by Richard Stallman, it was created by Open Source itself. I originally, and foolishly, bought into its vapid rhetoric years ago. “We are like Free Software but more reasonable,” they said. They have a facade of being friendly, inviting, helpful, and above all Laid Back. The GPL is like slavery, Free Software is hateful, we are nice people who don’t care what you do. Stop choosing software based on licenses and just use what works for you! What a bunch of crap. Open Source acts like Free Software is full of sacred cows (and a couple of those really are annoying) but to Open Source, every monopolistic corporation that participates in the smallest way is a sacred cow. Yet users are not. These sacred corporations can literally murder people, but Open Source advocates who catch you criticising actual human rights violations will smear you personally, and act like the Microsoft logo is a thing you can be “bigoted” against. Open Source is one of the biggest, stupidest lies in the world. It’s not laid back, it’s not friendly, it’s not fair (it assassinates anyone whose integrity gets in its way) and it just sells Free Software out to Microsoft. As I’ve said in other articles, I made my way into — then out of — a cult as a teenager. I know how they get people who are longing for community, I know how they gradually (and abusively) nudge people into doing their bidding, I know how they try to keep people from leaving, even when anybody is allowed to leave. As I realised that Open Source had the same levels of bullshit and the same two-faced reality once you supported them, and that Open Source really does indoctrinate and use people, I grew disgusted with their attacks on freedom and their constant lying and apologies for companies that act in bad faith. It would only be a service to cults to refer to things that aren’t really like them as cults, but I know one when I see one. You may find only the disguise at first, but when the lying never stops and the double standard keep piling up, you know it’s bullshit. If you make a list of the 20 worst things about Open Source you can think of (from a Free Software point of view) you can use that as a watchlist for what’s happening to Free Software itself. And “rms” would be (and once was) outspoken about those things. I’m very sorry that rms is no longer with us. But I believe Richard Stallman is sincerely doing his possible best, and also that it is more than most people would do in your situation. Most people, including myself, would have given up a lot sooner. “Until he was hanged, rms was a public advocate of freedom. Now the real fight and the real advocacy is done quietly, safely.”Richard Stallman should not be less outspoken, he should be more outspoken now than ever before. But he won’t be, and this is why– People are human. You can’t always get a human to part with their values. That’s a strength (yes, in some instances it is a shame). I do not think that Richard Stallman has sacrificed his values. Nor do I think he has stopped trying. That’s to his credit. As I said, most of us would have given up after the 20+ years of abuse and slander he’s withstood. I’m not saying he’s perfect, fuck knows he’s loaded with faults as we all are. But he is undoubtedly a good person, and the hate of many (with the added weight of the corporate sycophant tech press even ESR used to condemn) is strong. A lot of people in Stallman’s situation would act like more of a martyr. While Stallman acknowledges and is (of course) unhappy about the abuse he has received, the vast majority of time is spent fighting and (until recently) advocating. Until he was hanged, rms was a public advocate of freedom. Now the real fight and the real advocacy is done quietly, safely. I’ve made it clear that in his situation, I don’t think most of us could do better, not after fighting openly and withstanding regular slander for as long as he has. He’s got a right to be tired and he said that he would fight as long as he lives, and he’s still keeping that promise. But there will be no more substantial advocacy (public advocacy at least) from Richard Stallman, because that outspokenness died when rms did. Free Software advocates are under literal surveillance, not just from the NSA and GCHQ, but from Microsoft. Not only this, but 20 years ago Microsoft (read the Halloween documents) said they wanted to closely monitor Free Software developers and poach the best ones for themselves. Now they’ve got Guido, I don’t know if Miguel de Icaza really counts as “the best”, but remember we are talking about Microsoft standards of quality here. Of course you can cause a lot more trouble with mass surveillance than just poaching the best developers. The point is, rms the Real Richard Stallman would never be quiet or accept false compromise around Microsoft GitHub. He was openly against GitHub even before it was owned by Microsoft, and for much smaller reasons. RMS has shown more accurate foresight than nearly any other technologist when it comes to freedom and civil liberties, but he is not without a few blind spots. I think one of them is that he squandered an opportunity to consider the full implications of what Lawrence Lessig proposed to the FSF board when he was there. To me that was always the FSF’s greatest drawback. “RMS has shown more accurate foresight than nearly any other technologist when it comes to freedom and civil liberties, but he is not without a few blind spots.”While Oliva says that copyright has “nothing to do with free software”, I said the DMCA was a perfect example of how wrong that is and this was before Joe “RIAA” Biden came back into politics, ensuring that the next few years will not just try to fuck us harder with patents (THANKS GNOME! Assholes…) but that copyright will be standing beside patents and waiting for another turn. For people not directly taxed by the DMCA, international trade agreements like CAFTA, NAFTA, ACTA (failed) and TPP/TTIP (failed) along with the “EEE-Eww…” have worked to establish a global system of censorship and corporate theft that makes WIPO look like Elmo’s World. But copyright has nothing to do with Free Software. If that’s true, then neither do patents. .oO Que porra é essa? Rather I think that Free Culture advocates actually know more about copyright than Stallman and Oliva combined (and even that is plenty more than nothing, I’m sure) and Free Software is weaker against copyright threats because of this. Free Culture advocates, in turn, are often weak on Free Software. Stallman noticed this and it’s plain to see. But I have long noticed that Free Software advocates who support Free Culture are often stronger Stallman supporters and stronger Free Software supporters compared to the average, at least. They tend to be more informed and are often more passionate. This is what Free Software has squandered, because there are more people who care about the right to remix than the right to control their software, and they are ultimately twin rights (even if most Free Software advocates and Free Culture advocates haven’t noticed). Stallman also truly underestimated Microsoft. Somewhere along the line, his necessary tools for converting software into Free Software became the hammer to every corporate nail, and Microsoft has often been treated as “just another nail” to be hammered with the GPL if possible. This is tragic, and its shortsightedness has led to the FSF’s downfall. Never giving up is one thing, but Free Software has wrapped itself in a warm blanket of hubris while the fortress comes down. Today, Richard Stallman promotes software attainable only by dealing with the corporate surveillance put in place by Microsoft. His address to LibrePlanet was a watered down appeal to promote EXACTLY what the FSF has focused on of late — tools like Jami and BigBlueButton, both of which are controlled by Microsoft. One person said the video was “scripted” which I find too horrible and un-Stallman-like to contemplate. Though I don’t deny it sounds more like a script than the man himself. As holographic Whitney Houston told fans about “some of the songs ‘I did’” following her death, that video seems to betray an outside interest. Of course the differences between the new FSF and the old are sometimes subtle, even slightly plausible. “You build GNU IceCat, Jami or BigBlueButton, Microsoft’s stocks go up and then they fight even harder against your freedom with patents and surveillance.”If GNOME has taken the fall for patents, then the FSF has taken the fall for GitHub, and some might say that Free Software has little choice if all the real alternatives to Zoom and Teams are developed on Github, what is the FSF supposed to do? For starters, they could point out how incredibly bleak it is that ALL ALTERNATIVES involve dealing with the same company that pushes (and builds continuing revenue from) the same software patents that harm Free Software. You build GNU IceCat, Jami or BigBlueButton, Microsoft’s stocks go up and then they fight even harder against your freedom with patents and surveillance. Not to mention that they continue to use GitHub to co-opt and steer key projects like Python. RMS would never, ever stand for this. But Richard Stallman does. I can’t be any clearer that I understand why he would at his age and at this level of concerted and corporate effort to betray him and his supporters decide to choose his battles. You could even argue that he has always warned us about relying on the “Cloud” (which is what GitHub is one of the more horrific examples of very easily the most horrific for Free Software development) and specifically about GitHub, so why would he need to lead a campaign against the more recent and more horrible effects of doing so? Instead, I argue that rms is gone. But I also said that he isn’t coming back. And here is why… Stallman is an old man. He is still fighting, and that’s inspiring. He has fought for his entire career, which is inspiring as well. The fact that Free Software exists at all, we owe to this man and (obviously) many others, everybody knows that. Nobody has ever fought as much for Free Software as Stallman; not ESR, certainly not Linus, not Perens, Lessig, de Raadt, Eich, Guido, Roio, not even Oliva (who wouldn’t deny this is true for a moment). Though I deeply admire the practically absurd lengths that Lessig has gone to (along with his friend, Aaron Swartz) in the name of freedom. Old men do generally soften as fighters. The exceptions are few, and I still think this has more to do with machinations than age because that’s where the actual evidence points. But age is most certainly a factor. We are up against time itself, as Stallman is mortal. But whether it is due to his fight getting softer, or being stifled or both, this trend is only going to continue. And if we do not lend our support to this cause, and be the outspoken advocates against the destruction and co-opting of free software that rms was, then it will not make rms fight much harder. I am confident he is fighting as hard as he can right now and that is not the mark of a sellout. Obviously the best way to honour the (continuing) legacy of rms is to join Richard Stallman in fighting for the freedom of all users, not just the freedom granted by a Free Software license alone, but the freedom granted by a Free Software license with people defending everything that license stands for. “The FSF tells him to promote GitHub, and he does. They give him a platform, as long he says exactly what they’re saying already.”That’s exactly what the FSF has abandoned, and why the FSF is no longer fighting for anyone. They aren’t fighting for users anymore, they are (not unlike Creative Commons, which always had this problem to a saddening degree) only fighting for the use of certain licenses. Any way you can work around the license to limit the ability for users to have control of their computing — the FSF will do VERY little to stop you, or even condemn what you’re doing. They will even promote you! Essentially, if we do not pick up the fight that rms fought during his lifetime, then Stallman will not be able to either. But if we do pick up that fight, as we certainly ought to, then Stallman will not need to. At this point in the game, he will let us do that part for him. Unless someone has plans to make him immortal, now is as good a time as any to pick up where rms left off. As for Richard Stallman, he is still an ally, he has not sold out (at least I am 99% certain he hasn’t) but he does not fight like he used to. He chooses his battles, and very key problems are not fought anymore. The FSF tells him to promote GitHub, and he does. They give him a platform, as long he says exactly what they’re saying already. That’s not rms. It’s just what’s left of Richard Stallman. But make no mistake he may have been forced out of full time public activism to being something a little closer to being a politician… (I’m sorry, having watched the video that’s what I must conclude). He is still on our side. He INVENTED our side. And the more you learn about the layers and layers of the history of computing from the time Stallman became active onwards, the more evidence you find that this is even understated by his supporters. Because until they do extensive research, even many of them don’t know just how true it is. That honour isn’t going anywhere. Recognition is often fickle, awards are frequently given to the wrong individuals, but honour is immortal. “Recognition is often fickle, awards are frequently given to the wrong individuals, but honour is immortal.”Richard Stallman was and still is one of the great minds and great human beings of the 20th and 21st centuries. But “rms” will be missed, much more sorely if we do not take up his mantle. We know Stallman Was Right, but the battles that need to be fought continue to present themselves. If we do not meet those challenges with the passion and integrity that the FSF has put aside forever, we will lose. Open Source may have “won” for the time being, though users are still becoming less free for such a cynical corporate victory. Open Source “wins” by taking whatever side looks like it’s winning. It’s what allows people like Bryan Lunduke to smirk and slander rms, then go work for Purism and have a friendly interview with Stallman, then later start attacking Free Software (using all of Open Source’s time-tested bullshit) again. Free Software wins differently, by staying vigilant about what we are actually fighting for, and making sure all of its reasonable compromises are reasonable and not simply giving in to a hostile corporate takeover of what is supposed to be activism. Long live rms, long live Richard Stallman and happy hacking. █ Licence: Creative_Commons_CC0_1.0 (public domain) ╒═══════════════════ 𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐋𝐄 ═════════════════════════════════════════════════╕ ****** 11.17.20 ****** ***** Regaining_Control_Over_Infrastructure_With_Decentralisation_and_Trusted Encryption ***** Posted in Free/Libre_Software, GNU/Linux at 11:46 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz Clown computing isn’t about security but lack of it (you’ve been compromised the moment you migrated to ‘the clown’) [Cloud Mass / rain is coming] Summary: Considering some recent developments in the GnuPG project, there are growing reasons for concern; recently we’ve been studying what alternatives to it already exist and are sufficiently mature; there are other betrayals or cases of divergence from a strict trust model and the issue needs to be brought up a lot more often SOME of ours readers are security folks. They mostly agree with what we’ve published about conflating “fake trust” (authorisation from monopolies) with the user’s trust (in effect not outsourcing_trust to some dodgy, military- connected firms) and the idea that encryption between node and server (e.g. Facebook user and Facebook servers) is somehow “privacy”, never mind if Facebook abuses all the data it gathers and moreover sells this data. This isn’t privacy. This is a joke. The media helps these monopolies mislead the public, leaving people utterly confused about what privacy even means. Google says it’s improving GMail privacy/security while harvesting, scanning and sharing with governments contents of E-mails. Is that privacy? Microsoft puts back doors in Windows (there’s_evidence), but at the same time it claims to deliver “security updates”. What does security mean in this context? National security? As in US access to all of the files and communications of innocent people? Even on their own desktop/laptop? But that’s where it gets even worse. Years ago the_father_of_Linus_Torvalds said_very_publicly_that_his_son_had_been_asked_by_the_NSA_to_put_back_doors_in Linux. Not only did the son not deny this; he turned a question about it into a joke, refusing to explain if he agreed or not. This is no way to establish or regain trust. [Bison coming]Recently, in light of the_Guix_petition, we’ve received some mail alarming us about GnuPG (it is among the signatures there, in effect seeking the ousting of Richard Stallman from the GNU Project — a project that he founded). “GnuPG is showing signs of compromise by outsiders,” a reader recently told us. “I think we need to start looking at alternatives before the spyware starts to (inevitably) creep in. If [Werner] Koch can accommodate Yubico, he can accommodate the NSA and friends.” The Yubico_Authenticator_is_developed_on_Microsoft_(NSA/PRISM)_servers_with proprietary_software and the product itself isn’t trustworthy; it's_proprietary itself. Yubikey is expensive_snakeoil which raises the access barrier, both technically and fiscally (how many in poor African countries would shed a grand or two for a bunch of glorified “keys”?). Who stands to benefit? Probably the deep-pocketed (state-subsidised) surveillance giants that have redefined “security” and “privacy” their own way (they want us to assume they’re guardians of both, not agents or facilitators of digital imperialism). In the coming days we shall be writing about, then exploring, a plethora of alternatives. They do exist, not many people use these, and the media certainly isn’t giving them the publicity they deserve. A lot of media coverage is nowadays up for sale; those who raise more money can dominate publishers or even so-called ‘influencers’ in social control media (to get paid-for ‘endorsements’). █ ╒═══════════════════ 𝐃𝐀𝐈𝐋𝐘 𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐊𝐒 ════════════════════════════════════════╕ ****** 11.17.20 ****** ***** Links_17/11/2020:_PrimTux6_and_Firefox_83 ***** Posted in News_Roundup at 12:09 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz [GNOME bluefish] **** Contents **** * GNU/Linux o Distributions o Devices/Embedded * Free_Software/Open_Source * Leftovers * **** GNU/Linux **** o **** Audiocasts/Shows **** # ** Full_Circle_Weekly_News_#190 ** AWS Creates Its Own Docker Images https://www.zdnet.com/article/aws-preps-its-own- library-of-public-docker-container-images/ Dell Adds Privacy Drivers to the Kernel https://www.debugpoint.com/2020/11/dell-privacy- driver-linux/ Elementary OS Is Making Progress with Dark Mode in Odin https://blog.elementary.io/dark-style-progress/ Raspberry Pi 400’s New Form Factor https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/raspberry-pi-400- the-70-desktop-pc/ KDE Announces Updates and Updates https://kde.org/announcements/releases/2020-11- apps-update/ Nitrux 1.3.4 Out https://nxos.org/changelog/changelog-nitrux-1-3-4/ Emmabuntus Debian Edition 1.03 Outinstallation features https://emmabuntus.org/on-november-2020-emmade3-1- 03-focuses-on-the-reuse-for-all/ Sparky Linux 5.13 Out https://sparkylinux.org/sparky-5-13/ LXQT 0.16 Out https://github.com/lxqt/lxqt/releases/tag/0.16.0 Collabora Office 6.4 Out https://www .collaboraoffice.com/press-releases/ collabora-online-6-4-0-released/ Second Gen Librem Mini from Purism Out https://9to5linux.com/purism-launches-2nd-gen- librem-mini-linux-pc-with-a-10th-gen-intel-core-cpu o **** Applications **** # ** LazPaint:_A_Free_&_Open_Source_Paint.NET_Alternative ** If you are fond of using tools to quickly edit and manipulate images and screenshots, you may have heard about Paint.NET, which is available only for Windows systems. It is a popular nifty tool to get a lot of basic editing tasks done along with a bunch of options available. You might be aware of several image editing tools but Paint.NET is a pretty popular option just because it is easy to use without any bloated feature for an average user. LazPaint comes to the rescue as an impressive open source replacement to Paint.NET for Linux, Windows, and macOS. It offers most of the essential features one would need to manipulate images while being easy to use. # ** Top_6_Open_Source_Shells_for_Linux ** In the world of Operating Systems, the Linux operating system is everyone’s favorite gladiator and for obvious reasons. Firstly, it is open- source, meaning the only thing you need to worry about is your internet provider’s stability and subscription rates. There is no exchange of cash needed for you to get the best experience in the Linux world. Secondly, the Linux OS is powerful. If you are thirsty for a tech-savvy experience, you will never run out of things to do on the Linux operating system environment. Lastly, the reason we gathered this article. It is only fair to state that if an operating system is categorized as open- source, then the software and applications that define it should also be in the same domain. If we are to count the number of open-source software and applications Linux offers, we will have to enter a black hole. Each day, the Linux community produces new and improved software and applications related to the Linux distros. # ** Bitwarden_in_Linux ** In the modern era, the world has seen major progression in the technological sector. New and advanced technologies have made the lives of people easier. Not long ago, people used landlines to communicate with one another, but now, devices such as smartphones have arrived. Such advances have truly revolutionized the lives of humans in ways that go beyond the concept of communication. Such has been the impact of technology on our lives that every aspect of modern life has been merged with it. Whether it involves our finances or our social profiles, all rely heavily on technology. However, this reliance of ours has made us much more vulnerable to data breaches. The real-life cases of Adobe and eBay clearly indicate what a serious issue cybersecurity is. Cyberattacks have also been on the rise and, to top it off, even more advanced and new kinds of attacks are being developed every day. Although Linux is much more secure than Windows and other operating systems, it is still vulnerable to viruses. o **** Instructionals/Technical **** # ** Best_Diff_Tools_to_Compare_File_Contents_on_Linux ** Diff tools helps for file comparison which helps for debug and save times. Here some picked hand picked best file comparison tools for Linux. # ** How_to_upgrade_to_Terraform_0.12_|_Opensource.com ** Updating your environment to Terraform 0.12 is not for the faint of heart, but this how-to will make it less painful. # ** How_to_Install_Microsoft_Edge_Browser_in_Linux [Ed: What a horrible idea, giving Microsoft (the foremost NSA partner) the ability to install software on your machine remotely, using proprietary software from Microsoft's own repositories. It's as "back door" as Windows Update is.] ** # ** How_to_Get_Notifications_from_Gmail_in_Chrome ** # ** How_to_Use_Bash_printf_Command_for_Printing_Formatted Outputs ** You may print simple outputs with echo command but that’s not enough for complicated formatted outputs. It’s time you realize the power of the printf command. o **** Desktop Environments/WMs **** # **** K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt **** # ** KDE_maintainers_speak_on_why_it_is_worth_looking beyond_GNOME ** KDE dates from 1996, when it was announced by Matthias Ettrich, a Linux fan who sought an alternative to Microsoft’s Windows 3.1, of which he said back in 2003: “There was really nothing good one could say about it, but it was popular.” The name originally stood for Kool Desktop Environment and was also a pun on CDE (Common Desktop Environment), a proprietary Unix desktop. Ettrich choose the Qt framework from Trolltech (now the Qt Company) to build it, later becoming an employee. # ** Qt_3D_Changes_in_Qt_6 ** Qt 6 is nearly upon us. While this has not been addressed by other publications, Qt 3D is also introducing a number of changes with this major release. This includes changes in the public API that will bring a number of new features and many internal changes to improve performance and leverage new, low- level graphics features introduced in QtBase. I will focus on API changes now, while my colleague, Paul Lemire, will cover other changes in a follow up post. o **** Distributions **** # **** Reviews **** # ** Linux_Lite_5.2_Review_|_Best_Alternative_OS_for Older_Hardware ** It was on my list to write a short review about Linux Lite OS in a bit of detail for some time. So, here’s a review of one of the best alternative OS for older hardware – Linux Lite 5.2. # **** New Releases **** # ** PrimTux6_Released:_A_French_Educational_Linux Distribution_For_Students ** A few days ago, the PrimTux team launched the sixth version of its educational free and open source operating system, called PrimTux6. With PrimTux6, it is now available in two versions: one based on Ubuntu 18.04.5 or 20.04.1 for recent computers (64-bit) and the other on Debian 10 “Buster” for older computers (32-bit). However, both versions are designed to be extremely lightweight. For those who don’t know, PrimTux is a French-oriented Debian and Ubuntu-based Linux distribution for educational environments and to run on all types of PC, including old ones. Besides basic Linux applications, it offers a very rich educational software for children from kindergarten to the first years of college. # **** BSD **** # ** Toward_an_automated_tracking_of_OpenBSD_ports contributions ** A first step for the CI service would be to create a database of diffs sent to ports. This would allow people to track what has been sent and not yet committed and what the state of the contribution is (build/don’t built, apply/don’t apply). I would proceed following this logic: [...] # ** Why_I_use_OpenBSD ** In this article I will share my opinion about things I like in OpenBSD, this may including a short rant about recent open source practices not helping non-linux support. # **** Debian Family **** # ** Tails_4.13_Anonymous_Linux_Distro_Released_with Mozilla_Thunderbird_78 ** In this release, Tails finally upgrades the Mozilla Thunderbird open-source email, chat and news client to the latest 78 branch, which brings numerous new features and improvements like OpenPGP encryption. Tails 4.13 ships with Mozilla Thunderbird 78.4.2 by default. It’s also important to know that the Mozilla Thunderbird 78 series no longer supports the Enigmail add-on for OpenPGP functionality since it is now built into the applications. Therefore, Tails users who use Enigmail are recommended to read the official migration instructions before upgrading to version 4.13. o **** Devices/Embedded **** # ** Hands-on_with_the_Raspberry_Pi_400:_Pleased_and_impressed ** Well, first of all, hello – and I’m glad to be back. I’ve spent the past two and a half years teaching at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (AUAS). I initially thought that I would be able to keep up this blog while doing that, but it didn’t take long for me to realize how impractical that was. Now that I am done at the AUAS, I am very pleased to be writing here again. What better way to resume than with a brand new Raspberry Pi system? To me, this one confirms that the people at Raspberry Pi Towers really are a bunch of hard-core geeks who came of age with computers at about the same time that I did. In the 1980s, the Commodore 64 and the Sinclair ZX were the stuff of geeky dreams, and are still a source of nostalgia for those of us who remember them. So a Raspberry Pi in a keyboard brings huge smiles to a lot of old faces. # **** Open Hardware/Modding **** # ** Gamers ** # ** Update:_New_Hacktober_Gear ** I’ll be mostly focusing on hardware in this month’s update, I’ve been out of the software development loop for much of the month due to personal reasons. This, however, gives me an opportunity to talk to you at more length about the PineCube, Pinecil and SOEdge as well as some community-centric things. # ** How_to_Turn_a_Raspberry_Pi_Into_a_Game_Console ** The Raspberry Pi is a $35 computer that can do a lot of things, but few projects are as popular as turning it into a retro-gaming console; imagine something the size of an NES or SNES Classic mini console with a few hundred games on it instead of a few dozen. With about half an hour of free time and some lightweight technical know-how, you can convert this card-deck–sized computer into a console capable of emulating nearly every classic video game system from the 1970s, ’80s, and ’90s. # **** Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications **** # ** Google_removes_4_Android_apps_offering_loans_in India ** # ** 5_games_like_Among_Us_to_play_on_Android ** # ** OnePlus_OxygenOS_11_(Android_11)_update_tracker: Devices_that_have_received_the_stable ** # ** 10_Android_and_iOS_apps_you_will_end_up_using_daily, now_on_sale ** # ** Samsung_is_absolutely_killing_it_with_Android updates_now ** # ** How_to_back_up_photos_and_videos_to_Google_Photos_on Android_device ** # ** How_to_backup_text_message_on_Android_without_app ** # ** Less_than_500_euros_for_this_65-inch_4K_HDR10_LED_TV with_Android_TV ** # ** Doogee_S58_Pro_—_Stylish_and_rugged_Android smartphone,_at_home_both_in_the_office_and_the_field ** # ** Xiaomi_Mi_10_finally_gets_MIUI_12.2.2.0_stable update_based_on_Android_11 ** # ** Huawei_Mate_40_series_is_the_“number_one”_among Android_phones ** # ** “Huawei_Mate_40_is_number_one_among_Android smartphones.”_Huawei’s_bold_statement ** # ** Make_Sure_To_Delete_This_Android_App_Before_It Steals_Your_Money ** # ** YouTube_Music_Adds_a_‘Quick_picks’_Section_on Android,_iOS,_and_Web ** # ** PUBG_Mobile_introduces_lightweight_version_for Android ** # ** Google_Tests_Chrome_Browser_Video_Tutorials_for Android_Mobile_Users ** # ** 8_Best_Offline_Translator_Apps_for_Android_and_iOS ** # ** Fix_Android_Phone_Not_Receiving_SMS_Messages_Issue ** # ** After_you_use_dark_mode_in_these_14_Android_apps, you_won’t_ever_go_back ** # ** It’s_time:_Google_should_require_two_years_of updates_for_every_Android_phone ** # ** Google_Play_may_soon_sync_WiFi_passwords_on_Android and_Chrome_OS_devices ** # ** [Update:_$30]_This_Android_TV_dongle_is_based_on Google’s_ADT-3_w/_Netflix,_Prime_Video ** # ** 67%_of_Android_malware_comes_through_the_Play_Store ** # ** Nokia_8.3_5G_review:_Is_this_the_Pixel_5_XL_you’ve been_waiting_for? ** # ** OnePlus_9_spotted_on_Geekbench_with_Snapdragon_875 chip_and_Android_11 ** # ** Android_and_iPhones_are_all_about_privacy_now,_but startup_OSOM_thinks_it_can_do_better ** # ** Citizen’s_first_Wear_OS_smartwatch_is_the_sporty_CZ Smart ** # ** 5_settings_you_won’t_regret_changing_on_your_Android phone ** # ** What_is_Android_System_WebView?_Can_I_disable_it? ** o **** Free, Libre, and Open Source Software **** # ** If_you_want_to_go_far,_together_is_faster_(I). ** It was not until later on in my career, when I could relate to good Open Source evangelists but specially good sales professionals. I learned a bit about how different groups within the same organization are incentivized differently and you need to understand those incentives to tune your message in a a way that they can relate to it. Most of my arguments and those from my colleagues back then were focused on cost reductions and collaboration, on preventing silos, on shorten innovation cycles, on sustainability, prevention of vendor lock-in, etc. Those arguments resonate very well among those responsible for strategic decisions or those managers directly related with innovation. But they did not work well with execution managers, specially senior ones. When I have been a manager myself in the software industry, frequently my incentives had little to do with those arguments. In some cases, either my manager’s incentives had little to do with such arguments despite being an Open Organization. Open Source was part of the company culture but management objectives had little to do with collaboration. Variables like productivity, efficiency, time-to-market, customer satisfaction, defects management, release cycles, yearly costs, etc., were the core incentives that drove my actions and those around me. If that was the case for those organizations I was involved in back then, imagine traditional corporations. Later on I got engage with such companies which confirmed this intuition. I found myself more than once arguing with my managers about priorities and incentives, goals and KPIs because, as Open Source guy, I was for some time unable to clearly articulate the positive correlation between collaboration and efficiency, productivity, cost reduction etc. In some cases, this inability was a factor in generating a collision that end up with my bones out of the organization. # **** Web Browsers **** # **** Mozilla **** # ** Firefox_84_will_be_the_last_version_with_NPAPI plugin_support ** Mozilla plans to remove support for so- called NPAPI plugins in Firefox 85 according to a post by Jim Mathies, Senior Engineering Manager, to the Mozilla Dev Platform group. Mozilla dropped support for all NPAPI plugins except for Adobe Flash when it released Firefox 52 in March 2017. NPAPI allowed the browser to integrate plugins to add support for content such as Silverlight or Java to the Firefox web browser. When Adobe announced that it would stop supporting Adobe Flash at the end of 2020, it was clear that Mozilla would not only disable support for Adobe Flash in Firefox but remove the entire NPAPI codebase from the browser. # ** Firefox_83_Arrives_with_HTTPS-Only_Mode,_PDF Form_Filling_+_More ** # ** 83.0_Firefox_Release ** # ** Firefox_83_Released_With_Warp’ed_JavaScript, HTTPS-Only_Mode_Option ** Firefox 83.0 is now shipping as a notable update to the Mozilla web browser and this time around are some exciting changes. Most notable with Firefox 83 is the SpiderMonkey “Warp” upgrade aiming to deliver better website responsiveness and other real-world JavaScript performance improvements. Mozilla describes the Warp benefits as “improved page load performance by up to 15%, page responsiveness by up to 12%, and reduced memory usage by up to 8%. We have replaced part of the JavaScript engine that helps to compile and display websites for you, improving security and maintainability of the engine at the same time.” # **** Programming/Development **** # **** Rust **** # ** My_top_7_Rust_commands_for_using_Cargo_| Opensource.com ** I’ve been using Rust for a little over six months now. I’m far from an expert, but I have stumbled across many, many gotchas and learned many, many things along the way; things that I hope will be of use to those who are learning what is easily my favourite programming language. * **** Leftovers **** o ** In_Memory_of_the_Juan_Gómez-Quiñones:_Chicano_Scholar,_Activist and_Poet ** We lost one of the greatest intellectuals not only in the Americas, but also the world. The fact that JGQ was born a Mexican in el sur (Parral, Chihuahua, Mexico) and died a proud Mexican/Chicano in el norte (Los Angeles, California) in a time when the Mexican continues to be otherized, marginalized and pejoratized serves as a grim reminder of this great loss for la raza. For over 50 years, JGQ dedicated his life to uplift the people of the sun through his superior scholarship, dedicated mentorship, political actions and eloquent words. While his contributions are many, for the sake of space, here go a few: wrote classic books and articles on Chicana/o history, labor, politics and culture; helped establish the theoretical foundations of Chicana and Chicano studies, along with the living legend, Rodolfo “Rudy” Acuña, whom JGQ fondly admired; taught and mentored thousands of students who became leaders in their own right; supported and participated in countless political actions for social, economic and racial justice; lead co-author of El Plan de Santa Bárbara: A Chicano Plan for Higher Education; co-founded UCLA’s Chicano Studies Research Center (CSRC); co-founded CSRC’s Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies; NACCS (National Association of Chicana and Chicano Studies) Scholar Recipient, 1990; wrote poetry and eloquent prose; etc. o ** Nico_Perrino_and_John_K._Roth_–_The_Project_Censored_Show ** Then Mickey welcomes philosophy professor and author John K. Roth, who has dedicated most of his scholarly career to studying the Holocaust. He explains the conditions that gave rise to fascism and the genocide of Jews, and suggests what lessons modern societies should remember to avoid taking similar paths. o ** Radio_France_Internationale_publishes_obituaries_of_people_still alive ** Broadcasters and media outlets often prepare obituary material in order to be able to publish it promptly when a death is announced. The problem occurred when RFI was moving its website to a different content management system, according to its statement. It said “around a hundred” draft stories were published in error – not just to its own site but to partner sites including Google and Yahoo. o ** Tech_giants_have_begun_laying_off_blue-collar_contractors: report ** Big tech companies were among the first in the country to allow their white-collar employees to work from home indefinitely when the pandemic hit. And, following backlash about the impact that would have on blue-collar workers, some firms also pledged to continue to pay them as well, according to the newspaper. However, several Bay Area firms, including Electronic Arts, LinkedIn, Salesforce and Nvidia, have terminated contracts with transportation providers in recent months, while Yahoo cut more than 120 cafeteria jobs at its Sunnyvale, Calif., facility. In a report released Thursday, the labor advocacy group Silicon Valley Rising projected up to 12,000 workers could find themselves without health coverage if the trends continue on their current trajectory. o **** Science **** # ** It’s_been_a_week_since_Joe_Biden_won._Now_what_for_medical science_policy? ** A week ago this Saturday, after four days of ballot counting, tabulation, speculation, commiseration, and angst on all sides, it became clear that Joe Biden had won Pennsylvania, and with it the necessary Electoral College votes to put him over the top for the Presidency. True, there have been (and probably will still be) be recounts and legal challenges, but most agree that President Trump doesn’t have much of a leg to stand on legally, and thus far his legal challenges have been shot down like Japanese Zeroes during the Battle of the Philippine Sea. (Look it up if you’re not big on WWII history. It’s even a bit of a Thanksgiving reference.) It is also unlikely that recounts will change the results in enough states to flip the election back to President Trump. What this means is that, barring a truly unexpected development, on January 20, Joe Biden will take the oath of office and become the 46th President of the United States. o **** Health/Nutrition **** # ** “I’m_Not_Going_to_Be_Bullied”:_Michigan_Governor_Rebukes Trump_Aide’s_Call_for_Uprising_Over_Covid-19_Measures ** “Actual public health professionals do not incite violence in response to guidelines or policy that they disagree with. The purpose of public health is to help people, not endanger them.” # ** Lowering_the_Bar_on_Success:_Megan_McArdle_on_Drug Development ** Well, first we need a bit of perspective. Yes, we place an enormous value on our health and our lives, so getting effective treatments and vaccines quickly are extremely important. But we do also care about what we pay to get there. To take my favorite analogy, the firefighter who goes into a burning building to rescue a couple of children can be said to deserve many millions of dollars. After all, we put a huge value on human life. While firefighters are reasonably well-paid, most of their paychecks don’t cross $100,000. Should we pay all of our firefighters $1 million a year? Perhaps in some sense that would be fair, but the reality is that we can get people to do the work for far less. # ** 50_Years_After_the_Start_of_the_War_on_Drugs,_Americans Have_a_Chance_to_Fix_the_Harm_It_Created ** Today, policymakers and the public alike are increasingly adopting approaches that treat substance use as a public health issue rather than a criminal justice one. # ** Multisolving_Our_Way_to_COVID-19_Economic_Recovery ** # ** End_University_Mandates_for_COVID_Tech ** Since the COVID-19 crisis began, many universities have looked to novel technologies to assist their efforts to retain in-person operations. Most prominent are untested contact tracing and notification applications or devices. While universities must commit to public health, too often these programs invade privacy and lack transparency. To make matters worse, some universities mandate these technologies for students, faculty, staff, and even visitors.  As we’ve stated before, forcing people to install COVID-related technology on their personal devices is the wrong call.             This is why the EFF is launching our new campaign: End University App Mandates.  Please help us call on university officials to publicly commit to the University App Mandate Pledge (UAMP). It contains seven transparency and privacy-enhancing policies that university officials must adopt to protect the privacy, security, and transparency of their community members. Whether you are a student, a worker, a community member, or an alum, we need your support in defending privacy on campus. San Francisco—The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) called on universities that have launched or plan to launch COVID-19 tracking technologies—which sometimes collect sensitive data from users’ devices and lack adequate transparency or privacy protections—to make them entirely voluntary for students and disclose details about data collection practices.Monitoring public… # ** Study_Detailing_‘Scandalous’_Hospital_Price-Gouging_During Pandemic_Proves_Medicare_for_All_Urgently_Needed ** “These are not markups for luxury condos, they are for the most basic necessity of your life: your health.” # ** Some_GOP_Governors_and_Senators_Are_Simply_Dismissing_New COVID_Surge ** # ** Trump_Obstructing_Biden’s_Transition_May_Hinder_COVID Vaccine_Rollout ** # ** Rapid_Testing_Is_Less_Accurate_Than_the_Government_Wants to_Admit ** The promise of antigen tests emerged like a miracle this summer. With repeated use, the theory went, these rapid and cheap coronavirus tests would identify highly infectious people while giving healthy Americans a green light to return to offices, schools and restaurants. The idea of on- the-spot tests with near-instant results was an appealing alternative to the slow, lab-based testing that couldn’t meet public demand. By September, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services had purchased more than 150 million tests for nursing homes and schools, spending more than $760 million. But it soon became clear that antigen testing — named for the viral proteins, or antigens, that the test detects — posed a new set of problems. Unlike lab-based, molecular PCR tests, which detect snippets of the virus’s genetic material, antigen tests are less sensitive because they can only detect samples with a higher viral load. The tests were prone to more false negatives and false positives. As problems emerged, officials were slow to acknowledge the evidence. # ** Winter_COVID_surge_is_upon_us_—_Trump_and_the_Republicans are_just_ignoring_it ** What she’s done to her state, Trump and the Republican Party are doing to the entire country. The winter surge that all the scientists predicted is upon us and it’s very bad. The president and his administration are obsessively trying to convince their voters that the election was stolen from them (which is a lie) so they aren’t even pretending to be interested in the rapidly spreading pandemic. Republican officials are missing in action on everything, with senators even refusing to appear on the Sunday morning shows in case they might be asked to explain why their president and their party are tilting at electoral windmills while refrigerator trucks are being commandeered in some states because the morgues are all full. # ** Suicide_Crisis_In_Prisons_Compounded_By_COVID-19,_Lack_Of Health_Care ** In the normal course of its work connecting prisoners across Wisconsin via email correspondence and newsletters, the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee of Milwaukee receives reports of the deaths of incarcerated people from their fellow prisoners.  One recent report involved Kristopher Carlisle, who was incarcerated at the Columbia Correctional Institution. # ** Whitmer_Gives_Sharp_Rebuke_to_Scott_Atlas’s_“Rise_Up” Tweet_Over_COVID_Rules ** o **** Integrity/Availability **** # **** Proprietary **** # ** If_you_updated_your_mac_to_macOS_Big_Sur_then_you have_problems_with_LibreOffice ** First problem – only LibreOffice 7.0 and newer works on macOS 11 Big Sur. Nobody knows why. So if you use older version you should update your LibreOffice to 7.0.3 # ** macOS_Big_Sur_update_causing_some_older_MacBook_Pros to_get_stuck_on_black_screens ** The macOS Big Sur update has been causing some older MacBook Pros to get stuck on black screens during installation, with no way that users can find to fix it. The issue seems to be most common on late-2013 and mid-2014 models of the 13-inch MacBook Pro. Owners of other Macs have reported Big Sur installation issues, too — and some say they’ve been able to fix those issues — but those two models of MacBook Pro seem to be having the most severe problems for now. # **** Pseudo-Open Source **** # **** Entrapment (Microsoft GitHub) **** # ** GitHub_Reinstates_Youtube-DL_and_Puts $1M_in_Takedown_Defense_Fund ** GitHub has reinstated the youtube-dl repository after it concluded that the code doesn’t violate the DMCA’s anti- circumvention provisions. The company believes that developers should have the freedom to tinker, whether the RIAA likes it or not, and has placed $1 million into a takedown defense fund. # ** Microsoft_reinstates_GitHub_repository for_YouTube_video_downloader ** The Microsoft-owned source code repository GitHub has reinstated the repository for youtube-dl, a popular command-line script that can be used to download videos from YouTube and many other videos from the Internet. # **** Security **** # ** Proposed_FTC_settlement_is_a_disservice_to Zoom_customers,_says_Commissioner ** Besides lying about the end-to-end encryption offered by their service, Zoom is also being called out for lying about the encryption status of recorded video calls stored in Zoom’s cloud service. The announcement added that Zoom: # ** Melbourne_firm_says_Windows_ransomware_threat dealt_with_promptly ** An Australian firm that was hit by the Windows REvil ransomware earlier this month has said that it has dealt with the incident fully and upgraded its defences to prevent any repeat. # **** Privacy/Surveillance **** # ** InternetLab’s_Report_Sets_Direction_for Telecom_Privacy_in_Brazil ** Five years have passed since InternetLab published “Quem Defende Seus Dados?” (“Who defends your data?”), a report that holds ISPs accountable for their privacy and data protection policies in Brazil. Since then, major Brazilian telecom companies have provided more transparency about their data protection and privacy policies, a shift primarily fueled by Brazil’s new data protection law.  InternetLab’s fifth annual report launches today, identifies steps companies should take to protect Brazil’s telecom privacy and data protection. This edition, featuring eight telecom providers for mobile and broadband services, shows Brazil telecom provider TIM leading the way, followed by Vivo and Oi right behind. TIM scored high marks for defending privacy in public policy debates and the judiciary, publishing transparency reports, and transparent data protection policies. In contrast, Nextel scored in the last place as it did in 2019, very far away from the rest of its competitors. Nextel did take a step forward in defending privacy in the judiciary, in contrast to 2019, when it received no stars in any category. Hiperderecho, Peru’s leading digital rights organization, has launched today its third ¿Quién Defiende Tus Datos? (Who Defends you Data)–a report that seeks to hold telecom companies accountable for their users’ privacy. The new Peruvian edition shows improvements compared to 2019’s evaluation. Movistar and Claro commit to require… # ** ‘Absolutely_Sickening’:_US_Military_Buys Location_Data_Harvested_From_Apps, Including_One_for_Muslim_Prayers ** “The military industrial complex and the surveillance state have always had a cozy relationship with tech. Buying bulk data in order to profile Muslims is par for the course for them,” says Rep. Ilhan Omar. # ** EFF_Urges_Universities_to_Commit_to Transparency_and_Privacy_Protections_For COVID-19_Tracing_Apps ** San Francisco—The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) called on universities that have launched or plan to launch COVID- 19 tracking technologies—which sometimes collect sensitive data from users’ devices and lack adequate transparency or privacy protections—to make them entirely voluntary for students and disclose details about data collection practices.Monitoring public health during the pandemic is important to keep communities safe and reduce the risk of transmission. But requiring students, faculty, and staff returning to campus to commit to using unspecified tracking apps that record their every movement, and failing to inform them about what personal data is being collected, how it’s being used, and with whom it’s being shared, is the wrong way to go about it.EFF is urging university officials to commit to its University App Mandate Pledge, a set of seven transparency-and privacy-enhancing policies that will help ensure a higher standard of protection for the health and personal information of students, faculty, and staff.In committing to EFF’s pledge, university officials are agreeing to make COVID-19 apps opt-in, disclose app vendor contracts, disclose data collection and security practices, reveal the entities inside and outside the school that have access to the data, tell users if the university or app vendors are giving law enforcement access to data, and stay on top of any vulnerabilities found in the technologies.“The success of public health efforts depends on community participation, and if students are being forced to download COVID-19 apps they don’t trust to their phones, and are being kept in the dark about who’s collecting their personal information and whether it’s being shared with law enforcement, they’re not going to want to participate,” said EFF Grassroots Advocacy Organizer Rory Mir. “University leaders should support the app mandate pledge and show that they are committed to respecting the privacy, security, and consent of everyone that is returning to campus.”Universities have rushed to adopt apps and devices to monitor public health, with some mandating that students download apps that track their locations in real time or face suspension. Location data using GPS, for example, can reveal highly personal information about people, such as when they attend a protest or go to a bar, where their friends live, and what groups they associate with. It should be up to users to decide whether to download and use a COVID-19-related app, and up to universities and public health authorities to communicate the technology’s benefits, protections, and risks.For the pledge:https://www.eff.org/app- mandate/pledgeFor more about COVID-19 and digital rights: https://www.eff.org/issues/covid- 19 Since this COVID-19 crisis began people have looked to technology to assist in contact tracing and notification. Technology will never be a silver bullet to solve a deeply human crisis, even if it might assist. No app will work absent widespread testing with human follow up. Smartphones are not… San Francisco—The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), in partnership with the Reynolds School of Journalism at the University of Nevada, Reno, today launched the largest-ever collection of searchable data on police use of surveillance technologies, created as a tool for the public to learn about facial recognition, drones, license plate readers,… As uprisings over police brutality and institutionalized racism have swept over the country, many people are facing the full might of law enforcement weaponry and surveillance for the first time. Whenever protesters, cell phones, and police are in the same place, protesters should worry about cell phone surveillance. Often, security… # ** EFF_Publishes_New_Research_on_Real-Time Crime_Centers_in_the_U.S. ** EFF has published a new report, “Surveillance Compounded: Real- Time Crime Centers in the United States,” which profiles seven surveillance hubs operated by local law enforcement, plus data on dozens of others scattered across the country.  Researched and written in collaboration with students at the Reynolds School of Journalism at the University of Nevada, Reno, the report focuses on the growth of real-time crime centers (RTCCs). These police facilities serve as central nodes and control rooms for a variety of surveillance technologies, including automated license plate readers, gunshots detection, and predictive policing. Perhaps the most defining characteristic of a RTCC is that a network of video cameras installed in the community that analysts watch on a wall of monitors, often in combination with sophisticated, automated analytical software.  EFF opposes police Body Worn Cameras (BWCs), unless they come with strict safeguards to ensure they actually promote officer accountability without surveilling the public. Police already have too many surveillance technologies, and deploy them all too frequently against people of color and protesters. We have taken this… # ** What_If_Cambridge_Analytica_Owned_Its Own_Social_Network?_CA_Backer_Rebekah Mercer_Admits_She’s_A_Co-Founder_Of_Parler ** Since the election, Parler has found renewed life among Trump supporters who feel that… [checks notes] being fact-checked, or limited for sharing debunked and dangerous conspiracy theories, is somehow an attack on… something (reality: it’s an attack on their delusions). And as Parler has gotten a new round of attention, some questions were raised about the funding behind it. After all, there was no big VC or known investor behind the company, so it wasn’t entirely clear how it was surviving. There was a crazy and incorrect conspiracy theory making the rounds that it was owned by Trumpists’ favorite bogeyman, George Soros. That’s not true, though it would have been completely hilarious if it had been. # ** Finland_Fast-Tracks_ID_Code_Law_Change After_[Cracking]_Case ** The government of Finland said Thursday it was preparing legislation that would allow citizens to change their personal identity codes in cases of gross data breaches that carry a high risk of identity theft. The government’s fast-tracked proposal was designed primarily to assist thousands of people whose personal information was stolen during a [cracking] of patient records at a private Finnish psychotherapy center. # ** Twitter_names_famed_hacker_‘Mudge’_as head_of_security ** The company on Monday named Peiter Zatko, widely known by his hacker handle Mudge, to the new position of head of security, giving him a broad mandate to recommend changes in structure and practices. Zatko answers to CEO Jack Dorsey and is expected to take over management of key security functions after a 45- to 60-day review. In an exclusive interview, Zatko said he will examine “information security, site integrity, physical security, platform integrity — which starts to touch on abuse and manipulation of the platform — and engineering.” # ** Twitter_hires_famous_hacker_to_head security_operations ** Zatko is a high-profile hacker known as “Mudge” and was a member of L0pht, a hacking group that testified to Congress in 1998 about cyber vulnerabilities in government. He is also one of the leaders of the Cult of the Dead Cow, a hacking group that released tools to hack Windows in a bid to force Microsoft to step up security. Zatko has also worked for both the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency at the Defense Department and for Google as part of its Advanced Technology and Projects division. # ** Zuckerberg,_Dorsey_to_Face_Republicans Furious_About_Trump_Loss ** Facebook Inc.’s Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter Inc.’s Jack Dorsey will face accusations from Republican senators that the companies censor conservative content, after several of President Donald Trump’s social- media posts claiming voter fraud were labeled as false or misleading in the wake of the election. The chief executive officers of the social networks are scheduled to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday in their second congressional appearance in a month to defend themselves against charges of silencing conservatives. The session is likely to focus on Twitter and Facebook’s handling of Trump’s statements about the election process and outcome, many of which have been labeled as false or misleading, as well as their treatment of an October story in the New York Post that was seen as potentially damaging to Democrat Joe Biden. o **** Defence/Aggression **** # ** ‘An_Act_of_Love,_An_Act_of_Justice’:_Anti-Nuclear Activists_Headed_to_Prison_for_US_Naval_Base_Protest ** “To be clear,” said Martha Hennessy, granddaughter of Dorothy Day and one of the sentenced, “these weapons are not private property, they belong to the people of the United States; they belong to me, to you, to us.” # ** Ceasefire_Ends_in_Occupied_Western_Sahara_After_U.S.- Backed_Moroccan_Military_Launches_Operation ** A nearly three-decade-old ceasefire has ended in occupied Western Sahara — what many consider to be Africa’s last colony. Fighting has broken out in several areas between the Moroccan military and the Polisario Front, the Sahrawi liberation movement seeking independence, after the Moroccan military broke into a no-go buffer zone in southern Western Sahara. For the past three weeks, Sahrawi civilian protesters had blocked a Morocco-built road in the area that Sahrawis consider to be illegal. The peaceful blockade backed up traffic for miles and cut off trade between Morocco and Mauritania to the south. The Polisario Front says it is now mobilizing thousands of volunteers to join for the fight for independence. “We have not seen fighting like this in Western Sahara since 1991,” says Jacob Mundy, associate professor of peace and conflict studies and Middle Eastern and Islamic studies at Colgate University. “We’ve seen tensions on the rise, but to have open warfare like this is very significant.” # ** US-Backed_Moroccan_Military_Breaks_Three-Decade_Ceasefire in_Western_Sahara ** # ** Most_Dem_Voters_Are_to_the_Left_of_Biden_on_Foreign Policy._Can_He_Be_Moved? ** # ** Biden_Signals_Flexibility_on_North_Korea,_but_Peace_Groups Are_Wary ** The friendly interplay last week between Moon Jae- in, the president of South Korea, and Joe Biden, the incoming president of the United States, signaled subtle but important differences about how to make peace with a nuclear-armed North Korea. o **** Environment **** # ** Green_spaces_keep_hearts_healthy_and_save_lives ** Planting trees and creating urban parks brings more green spaces and cleaner air, cutting heart deaths and saving lives. # ** More_Than_Two-Thirds_of_UN_Members_Embrace_Global_Plastic Pollution_Treaty—But_Not_the_US ** “Support for a global treaty on plastic pollution is a critical action that the Biden administration can take to correct the wrongs of the Trump era.” # **** Energy **** # ** Activists_Urge_Biden_to_Eschew_Fossil_Fuel-Friendly Former_Energy_Secretary_Ernest_Moniz_in_Transition, Cabinet_Teams ** Scores of environmental and progressive groups warn that Moniz, “an unrepentant founding father of the fracking industry,” would “extend our reliance on fossil fuels and the very companies with which he is linked.” # ** ‘Huge_News’:_Nearly_Four_Dozen_Faith_Institutions Announce_Divestment_From_Fossil_Fuels ** “While government leaders cling to the economic models of yesterday, faith leaders are looking ahead to the energy future we share.” # **** Wildlife/Nature **** # ** An_Awkward_Era_for_the_Commercial_Timber_Industry ** The logging industry is probably a prime example of the losing side. For that industry, the awkward question is, if acreage taken out of production by law is objectionable, why could acreage taken out of production by a changing climate not be equally objectionable? The basics of climate-driven risk to commercial forestry have been known for years, and the evidence has just kept getting better and better. For example, back in December 11, 2007, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences published a review of 75 studies of rising risk for this industry. The review of these studies revealed that “Even without fires or insect damage, the change in frequency of extreme events, such as strong winds, winter storms, droughts, etc. can bring massive loss to commercial forestry.” # ** Trump_Administration_Rushes_to_Auction_Off_Arctic National_Wildlife_Refuge_Drilling_Rights_Before_Biden Inauguration ** The pristine reserve is home to the Gwich’in people, who call it “Iizhik Gwats’an Gwandaii Goodlit,” or, “the sacred place where life begins.” # ** Protecting_the_Northern_Yellowstone_Ecosystem ** Our goal is to ensure that the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem remains functional in the future.  We support designated wilderness under the 1964 Wilderness Act, the Gold Standard for land protection to preserve the Custer Gallatin National Forest’s critical wildlife habitat and significant wildlands (CGNF).  We also identify more than 50 stream and river segments that should be designated as Wild and Scenic Rivers. There are more than 700,000 roadless acres that qualify as wilderness on the CGNF. Among the largest roadless parcels are found in the Gallatin Range, which is the largest unprotected wildlands in the northern portion of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. o **** Finance **** # ** The_Federal_Government_Owns_92%_of_Student_Debt._Will Biden_Wipe_It_Out? ** Lifting these financial burdens would help individual debt holders meet daily needs, reduce the racial wealth gap, and give a boost to the national economy. # ** ‘It_Should_Belong_to_Humanity’:_Funded_by_Public, Promising_Moderna_Results_Bolster_Global_Call_for #PeoplesVaccine ** “It’s time for companies to live up to their human rights responsibilities and ensure the widest possible access to their innovations.” # ** What_Bernie_Sanders_Could_Do_as_Secretary_of_Labor ** Bernie Sanders’s greatest strength has always been his determination to push the boundaries of our politics. The fact that he is currently considering the idea of joining President-elect Joe Biden’s administration as secretary of labor is the latest example of his readiness to think outside the box. # ** Eviction_Notice ** # ** ‘Giving_People_Free_Stuff_is_Popular’:_Democrats_Urged_to Go_Big_as_#CancelStudentDebt_Demand_Goes_Viral ** Biden “has a progressive mandate and must use all the power at his disposal to materially improve people’s lives and boost public morale.” o **** AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics **** # ** This_Regime_Must_Go_NOW:_Three_Reasons ** First, consistent with my own and others’ understanding of the current White House as proto- fascist, Trump and his inner circle continue to absurdly claim that the 2020 election vote was fraudulent and have yet to give up conducting a coup. Key Trump operatives speak seriously of a “transition” to “a second Trump administration.” It would be foolish to laugh off such reckless talk. The Trump campaign and White House are scheming to get the Republican-controlled state legislatures of Wisconsin, Michigan, Georgia, Arizona and Pennsylvania to declare invalid the mail-in ballots required by the pandemic Trump fueled and fanned across the nation. This would be the pretext for some or all those legislatures trying to install (over the protests of Democratic governors in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan) un-elected slates of Trump electors to the Electoral College, claiming that Trump won the “legal” popular vote in their states. The murky legal and constitutional tangle that could result from such an action could involve Congress and the far-right Trump-appointed Supreme Court (6- 3 Republican, including three justices who served on George W. Bush’s side in Bush v. Gore) installing Trump for a second term. # ** The_Man_From_Central_Casting ** When people I know, and some to whom I’m related, admit voting for Reagan, I become silent. When my hero, Muhammad Ali, supported Reagan over issues of religion in school, I recoiled. When I remember Reagan’s dog-whistle appeal to racists at his opening campaign appearance in Philadelphia, Mississippi, near the site of the historic murders of three civil rights workers in 1964, I literally get sick to my stomach. When I catalogue Trump’s abrogation of nuclear weapons treaties, I think of Reagan’s nuclear insanity initiating the Star Wars’ program of space weapons. When I think of today’s endless wars, I know that it was Reagan who began the so-called low-intensity war march toward the acceptance of war in Central America that culminated in George H. W. Bush’s eradication of the Vietnam Syndrome that gave us the massive military-industrial-financial pissing away of trillions of dollars that could have gone to programs of social uplift. When I reach down into my pockets, I can witness the diminution of the change there through the destruction of my retirement cost-of-living adjustment whose underpinning was Reagan’s destruction of unions with his frontal attack on the air traffic controllers’ union. When I see a sea of kids in the uniforms of charter schools in New York City, I recall “A Nation At Risk” and the march toward the privatization of public schooling in the US. Here’s the man, Reagan, who provided money to fascist murderers in Central America in exchange for weapons for Iran: the Iran-Contra Affair. Here’s the man that began the real tax cuts for the very wealthy that robbed the Treasury of tax dollars that could have helped ordinary people on the streets and in the homes of the US. # ** Tomsk_mayor’s_wife_reportedly_threw_banking_records_out_of window_prior_to_apartment_search ** The wife of Tomsk Mayor Ivan Klyayn — the general director of the company “Tomskoe Pivo” (Tomsk Beer), Galina Klyayn — reportedly threw a pillowcase full of her family’s banking records out of a window moments before investigators searched their home on Friday, November 13. This was first reported by the news outlet Mash on the day of the search. Sources later confirmed these reports to the newspaper Kommersant. # ** Trump’s_Game ** I doubt it; I  think Trump is enough of a realist to realize that he has lost in a fair and free election.  It surely grates on him; as all commentators agree, he can’t stand losing.  But his narcissism does not explain all of his behavior. There is also calculation: He is looking for a path back to power in 2024. # ** McConnell_Pushes_to_Pack_Courts_With_Trump’s_Judges_While Neglecting_Pandemic ** # ** At_Odds_with_Haitian_Presidency,_a_Government_Watchdog_is Weakened_by_Executive_Decree ** President Moïse has ruled by decree, which is not formally allowed by the Haitian constitution, since January 2020, when the terms of most of parliament expired. He has extended executive powers, reforming the penal code, naming a new electoral council with a mandate to reform the constitution, and now weakening one of the last remaining institutions exercising government oversight. The latest decree follows years of conflict between the CSCCA and the Haitian presidency. In 2018, anticorruption protesters began advocating for an investigation into Moïse and his predecessors’ handling of billions in Petrocaribe- related spending. Moïse, under increasing pressure from the streets, pledged to support such an investigation. The CSCCA has since released three audit reports on Petrocaribe, finding widespread irregularities and fraudulent practices in the management of the Venezuelan-led aid program, and directly implicating the president, and the company he led before his election. Last year, members of the court had to temporarily leave the country due to threats. As of yet, there has been no real judicial progress in holding anyone accountable for the misuse of public funds. The president has denied all the CSCCA’s allegations. # ** Trump_Campaign_Keeps_Looking_for_Judges_to_Rule_in_Its Favor_Following_Election ** # ** Maia_Sandu’s_victory_What_you_need_to_know_about_Moldova’s 2020_elections_and_first_woman_president ** On Sunday, November 15, Moldova held a second round of voting in its 2020 presidential elections. Opposition candidate Maia Sandu won, becoming the first woman president in the country’s history. Sandu defeated the incumbent head of state, Igor Dodon, who is often referred to as one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s main supporters in the post-Soviet space. Sandu, on the other hand, is considered a pro-EU, anti-corruption candidate. Here’s what you need to know about the results of the elections in Moldova. # ** Draft_laws_impacting_children’s_and_transgender_rights_in Russia_withdrawn_from_State_Duma ** The authors behind two separate packages of amendments to Russia’s Family Code have withdrawn their initiatives from the State Duma following backlash over proposed changes that would impact child protective services and the rights of transgender people. # ** Robodebt:_Stuart_Robert_does_not_even_have_the_decency_to blush ** The Australian Government has cheerfully forked out $1.2 billion of those green notes to settle a lawsuit in the robodebt case. I think it’s a good moment to stop and consider whether some ministers should be told, in strict terms, to avoid taking any initiatives that involve technology. # ** Alexey_Navalny_files_defamation_suit_against_Kremlin spokesman_Dmitry_Peskov ** Russian opposition figure Alexey Navalny has filed a defamation lawsuit against Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov. The claim has been sent to Moscow’s Presnensky District Court, which has yet to set a trial date.  # ** You_Can’t_Eat_Civility:_A_Message_to_Joe_Biden_and_the Democrats ** Politeness will not solve the problems facing the country. Democrats must put forth and fight for bold solutions that will materially improve the lives of working people. # ** Mitch_McConnell_Is_Sacrificing_the_Entire_Economy_to Impede_Biden_Administration ** # ** Democrats_Must_Keep_Their_Eyes_on_the_Supreme_Court ** The rushed confirmation of Justice Amy Coney Barrett has, for the first time in decades, made Democrats think seriously about progressive reforms to the Supreme Court. Today, conservatives hold a 6-3 majority on the court, illegitimately engineered by Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell. This stark reality has radicalized the base. It has even made some Democratic senators consider using their power to achieve deep structural change, as opposed to cosmetic bipartisan redecorating. # ** How_Activists_Saved_Election_Day_in_Pennsylvania ** Allentown—On the morning of Election Day, Ashleigh Strange was ready for trouble. As the regional organizer for Lehigh Valley Stands Up, she and her team had spent months doing deep canvassing here. Working in close coordination with the immigrant rights group Make the Road and the young climate justice campaigners of the Sunrise Movement, they’d been talking—and more important, listening—to voters. These long, frequently sprawling conversations might start with anxieties about rent or child care or worries about immigrants taking away jobs, but they ended, surprisingly often, with people who’d long ago given up on voting deciding to take a chance on Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. # ** Debunking_Trump’s_Post-Election_Lies ** We must see this for what it is: A final attempt of a desperate, bitter man to cling to power. # ** Corporate_Democrats_Are_to_Blame_for_Congressional Losses—So_Naturally_They’re_Blaming_Progressives ** When Rep. Rashida Tlaib talks about “pushing the Democratic Party to represent the communities that elected them,” she actually means what she says. # ** “No_You_Didn’t”_Trends_After_Trump’s_Latest_Election Result_Lie ** “It is a sad failed pathetic coup attempt,” wrote one critic, “but it is still [nevertheless an] attempt to overthrow democracy.” # ** Nebraska’s_Last_Blue_Electoral_Vote? ** For four hours in 2016, state Senator Ernie Chambers spoke on the floor of the Nebraska Capitol in order to kill a bill championed by the Republican Party. Dressed in blue jeans and a short-sleeved sweatshirt, Chambers—an expert in Nebraska’s legislative rules and one of the state’s few Black lawmakers—ran down the clock. He talked about mountain lion hunting, the deterioration of his own memory, and whether or not the famed Nebraska author Willa Cather was a lesbian. “I’m having so much fun, it has to be a sin,” Chambers recalled after he successfully thwarted the bill. # ** Glasgow_Agreement,_A_Plan_of_Our_Own ** Rather than plans dictated from the top—which have proven not only to be unfair and destructive, but not even reach the necessary emissions cuts—we will build a plan of our own, from below. # ** Biden_Rushes_in_Where_Clinton_Failed_to_Tread ** There’s no returning to normal after Trump. # ** The_Coup_That_Succeeded ** Donald Trump’s pitiful attempts to cling to power have made a farce out of one of the key rituals of democracy, the peaceful transfer of power. Trump refuses to concede, is flooding the courts with frivolous lawsuits designed to stop certification of the vote, keeps urging state legislators to intervene in the picking of electors, and is egging on street conflicts between his supporters and his opponents. All of this is dismaying and destructive to democracy, but unlikely to result in the coup Trump so clearly wants. The key institutions that Trump needs for a coup—the courts, the military, and Republican state legislators in swing states—are all resisting Trump’s cajoling. # ** DNC_Sues_Georgia_Governor_Over_His_Bullshit_Claims Democrats_Hacked_The_State’s_Voter_Registration_System ** The never-ending amount of election related litigation keeps on coming. The Trump campaign is still heavily invested in lawsuits — a practice it started before the election and it hasn’t scaled back now that its boy has been handed an L. # ** This_Election_Was_Rigged ** If any governor wants to take away your vote, they don’t even have to tell you, they just kick you off the voting rolls, because right now voting is not a right in America, it’s merely a privilege. # ** It’s_2020_But_the_Dangerous_Myth_About_the_So-Called “Liberal”_Media_Still_Going_Strong ** Legitimizing this myth only serves the interests of those opposed to the critical analysis of current events in the United States. # ** Drawing_All_the_Wrong_Lessons_From_Media’s_Election_2020 Failures ** # ** Trump’s_Ongoing_Crime_Wave_Requires_a_Special_Prosecutor ** Trump is now being told that the courts don’t agree with his desperate lawsuits brought by firms such as Jones Day, whose lawyers can’t resist the lucrative billings that client Trump generates. Trump is also seeing that Republican Senators are starting to distance themselves from their roles as dittohead minions. Even puppet Mike Pence is not parroting Trump’s wild, flailing fictions. All this bluster is, however, more than the fluster of a failed gambling czar going off the rails. There are lootings to be done. By refusing to concede, Trump is raising millions of dollars from his supporters.  Trump’s defiance also distracts the media from the Executive Branch that is on a rampage of wreckage and revenge garnished by profiteering that will fill the defeated President’s days until January 20, 2021. # ** Trump_AWOL ** That’s how I feel about Donald Trump, minus the cap gun. He’s not finished. He may be around for a long time, out there bellowing more lies. With more than 72 million voters behind him, he will be a Republican power to be reckoned with. He may do it from the confines of a TV studio, emerging to conduct rallies to assuage his need for adoration. He reportedly has ruminated privately that he may run for a second term in 2024, if he’s not in prison. o **** Censorship/Free Speech **** # ** Don’t_Blame_Section_230_for_Big_Tech’s_Failures._Blame_Big Tech. ** Next time you hear someone blame Section 230 for a problem with social media platforms, ask yourself two questions: first, was this problem actually caused by Section 230? Second, would weakening Section 230 solve the problem? Politicians and commentators on both sides of the aisle frequently blame Section 230 for big tech companies’ failures, but their reform proposals wouldn’t actually address the problems they attribute to Big Tech. If lawmakers are concerned about large social media platforms’ outsized influence on the world of online speech, they ought to confront the lack of meaningful competition among those platforms and the ways in which those platforms fail to let users control or even see how they’re using our data. Undermining Section 230 won’t fix Twitter and Facebook; in fact, it risks making matters worse by further insulating big players from competition and disruption. While large tech companies might clamor for regulations that would hamstring their competitors, they’re notably silent on reforms that would curb the practices that allow them to dominate the Internet today. Today EFF is launching How to Fix the Internet, a new podcast mini-series to examine potential solutions to six ills facing the modern digital landscape. Over the course of 6 episodes, we’ll consider how current tech policy isn’t working well for users and invite experts to join us in imagining… Turkey’s recent history is rife with human rights- stifling legislation and practices. The Internet Law, its amendments, and the recent decision of Turkey’s regulator (BTK) further cemented that trend. The Internet Law and amendments require large platforms to appoint a local representative, localize their data, and speed… The upcoming U.S. elections have invited broad attention to many of the questions with which civil society has struggled for years: what should companies do about misinformation and hate speech? And what, specifically, should be done when that speech is coming from the world’s most powerful leaders?Silicon Valley companies and… # ** Trump_Campaign’s_Ridiculous_SLAPP_Suit_Against_CNN_Tossed Out_Easily ** Back in March you may remember that we wrote about yet another ridiculous SLAPP suit filed by the Donald Trump campaign (using lawyer Charles Harder, who, you may also remember, was the lawyer in the lawsuit against us as well). Harder’s track record in these performative cases continues to be… rather lacking. Last week, you may have missed that amidst all the other legal disputes Trump’s campaign was losing, this particular case was also dismissed — though, not quite as easily as I had expected. And it does leave it open for an amended complaint to be filed, though I still can’t see how it passes muster. # ** Insulting_Islam:_an_Encore_for Charlie_Hebdo ** In all of these cases, the killings were provoked as well as indefensible. The cartoons in question are all too easy to interpret as gratuitous insults against Islam and therefore against the almost 9% of the French population that are Muslim. Nonetheless, murder is incompatible with stable society. The latter being prima facie true, the next question is, What alternatives were available to those who were/are disgusted by the Charlie Hebdo caricatures? Lawsuits for defamation have been repeatedly filed. Some are still ongoing. However, to date, none have stopped the magazine’s demeaning ways. Well-organized public protests combined with steady political pressure might work in the long run. It was perhaps because such an effort was not forthcoming, at least not consistently, that action defaulted to emotionally driven individual fanatics. By the way, Charlie Hebdo, with its own brand of fanaticism, is what you might call an equal opportunity defamer. Topics ranging from the Catholic Church to Italians killed in earthquakes have been depicted in distasteful, sometimes semi- pornographic fashion. As it stands, the right to publish gratuitously insulting cartoons is not only legal in France but, because of all the related violence, also now defended as an important expression of French national culture. To make this point clear, French officials have announced the publication of a booklet to include the Charlie Hebdo images. This will be “handed out to high school students as a commitment to defend the values of the Republic.” o **** Freedom of Information/Freedom of the Press **** # ** Secondary_Targets:_When_You_Can’t_Punish_a_Journalist, Family_Will_Do_Just_Fine ** Even 4,300 kilometers away, people close to the Iranian government still try to intimidate her. Messages threatening harm to loved ones are just one of the tactics that Iran and other authoritarian regimes use to try to harass journalists who report from afar. Iran’s jailing earlier this year of VOA Persian TV host Masih Alinejad’s brother brought the risks to reporters’ families close to home. o **** Civil Rights/Policing **** # ** Grad_Workers’_Strike_Shows_Labor_Why_It_Must_Become Abolitionist ** # ** What_Should_We_Do_Now? ** We, on the left,  also need a program that combines economic, racial,  gender and environmental justice with real organizing and popular education that is truly national and includes small towns and rural areas and is ongoing. This is necessary and cannot start a year or less before the election.  The millions  who didn’t vote, one-third of the voting age population,  are even more important to talk  with and reach out to than those who voted for Trump. Your thoughts? From the exit polls, the majority of white women voted for Trump as did a slight increase in the proportion of Latinx, from 30% in 2016 to 33%-34 % in 2020. This small increase for Trump is sometimes exaggerated. Moreover, there was  a 2/3 increase in Latinx turnout which is a major  cause of Biden winning Arizona and Nevada and probably also, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. The Native American vote was also central to Biden and Harris  winning in  Arizona. # ** “I_Need_That_Pardon”:_Ronnie_Long,_Free_After_44_Years, Demands_Justice_for_His_Wrongful_Conviction ** “It’s a blessing within itself for me to even be sitting here right now,” says Ronnie Long, free after 44 years behind bars for a crime he did not commit. Long, who is African American, was convicted in 1976 of raping a white woman by an all-white jury and sentenced to 80 years in prison. In 2015, his lawyers learned that investigators had withheld exculpatory evidence proving his innocence — including semen samples and fingerprints taken from the crime scene that did not match his own — and witnesses for the state committed perjury at his trial. It would take several more years and a ruling by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for Long to win his freedom. Long walked out of the Albemarle Correctional Institute in North Carolina a free man on August 27. He is asking North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper for a pardon, which would fully clear his name and make him eligible for financial compensation. “You’ve got people that have been victimized by the system, like myself, and then you turn around and you put me back into a society and expect for me to live a productive life,” he says. “I need that pardon in order to try to get on with my life.” # ** Appeals_Court_Says_Baltimore_PD’s_Aerial_Surveillance Program_Doesn’t_Violate_The_Constitution ** The Baltimore PD can still use its flying spies, says the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. The aerial surveillance program — first “introduced” on accident in 2016 — allows the PD to track the movement of people across the entire city, thanks to high-powered cameras mounted on airplanes. The surveillance system (created by Persistent Surveillance Systems) can capture 32-square miles. People and vehicles are reduced to pixels despite the power of the 192-million-megapixel cameras, but combining this footage with street-level surveillance allows the PD to deanonymize moving pixels observed near crime scenes. # ** The_Impresarios_of_Trent ** Among the more unpleasant mythemes that one group of humans has devised about another is the blood libel: the claim that Jews murder Christian children, often around Easter, and use their blood in Passover rituals. Bits and pieces of this myth date back to ancient times. The Greek world produced some sinister stories about Jews annually fattening a Greek in their temples for sacrifice. And the New Testament (Acts 7:51–53) and the Quran (2:87) have cast Jews as persecutors and murderers of prophets. But the specific ingredients of the blood libel—innocent children murdered by conspiratorial Jews for blood rituals—were not baked into narrative until a child’s corpse was discovered in 12th century England and an enterprising monk accused the local Jewish community of murder. That first accusation sputtered out, but others soon followed in France and Germany that sometimes resulted in the execution of entire communities. With the invention of the printing press, the myth spread even more widely, throughout Eastern Europe and, with colonialism, into the Middle East and beyond. In the 20th century, there was even a genre of postcards depicting Jews draining the blood from young Christian boys. # ** The_real_2020_election_scandal:_voter_theft_targeting Black_people,_youth ** # ** State_investigators_refuse_to_open_criminal_case_over Russian_journalist’s_self-immolation ** The Nizhny Novgorod Region’s branch of the Investigative Committee has refused to launch a criminal case on incitement or inducement to suicide over the death of local journalist Irina Slavina, who self-immolated on October 2. # ** Russian_Supreme_Court_dissolves_anti-corruption_political party_led_by_Putin’s_cousin ** Russia’s Supreme Court has dissolved the political party “People Against Corruption” just months after President Vladimir Putin’s cousin, Roman Putin, became its chairman. # ** There_Are_More_People_Being_Displaced_Than_Ever_Before ** I saw them for only a few seconds. One glimpse and they were gone. The young woman wore a brown headwrap, a yellow short-sleeved shirt, and a long pink, red, and blue floral-patterned skirt. She held the reins of the donkey pulling her rust-pink cart. Across her lap lay an infant. Perched beside her at the edge of the metal wagon was a young girl who couldn’t have been more than eight. Some firewood, rugs, woven mats, rolled-up clothing or sheets, a dark green plastic tub, and an oversized plastic jerry can were lashed to the bed of the cart. Three goats tied to the rear of it ambled along behind. # ** Egyptian_women_speak_up_about_sex_crimes ** But the progress was largely illusory. Take the alleged gang rape, which was reportedly recorded by the attackers. It took weeks of campaigning by activists before the Public Prosecution Office moved, allowing some of the suspects to flee the country. Five men have since been arrested; at least two suspects are still at large. Three of the men arrested have been charged with rape, which they deny. Absurdly, the authorities also charged four people who came forward as witnesses (and two of their acquaintances) with violating laws on “morality” and “debauchery”. The media have characterised the incident as a “group sex party”, smearing all involved, including the alleged victim. This has had a chilling effect: once-vocal women have gone into hiding. After Ms Khamees was turned away by the police, she broadcast her accusations on TikTok, an app for sharing short videos, where she had more than 100,000 followers. Days after the video went viral, the police picked up the entire group who had been partying with her that night. The authorities seemed as concerned with their use of hash and the mixing of unmarried men and women, as with Ms Khamees’s claim that a man had held a razor to her face and raped her. Her attackers (she accused a group of people of facilitating the rape) were charged with rape and other offences. But Ms Khamees was also charged—with prostitution, drug use and “violating family values”. Only after she completed a programme to “correct her concepts” were the charges against her dropped. o **** Internet Policy/Net Neutrality **** # ** Colorado_Voters_Continue_To_Peck_Away_At_State_Law Restricting_Community_Broadband ** We’ve long mentioned how incumbent ISPs like AT&T and Comcast have spent millions of dollars quite literally buying shitty, protectionist laws in around twenty states that either ban or heavily hamstring towns and cities from building their own broadband networks. In some cases these laws ban municipalities from even engaging in public/private partnerships. It’s a scenario where ISPs get to have their cake and eat it too; they often refuse to upgrade their networks in under-served areas (particularly true among telcos offering DSL), but also get to write shitty laws preventing these under-served towns from doing anything about it. o **** Digital Restrictions (DRM) **** # ** Hulu_to_Increase_Price_of_Live_TV_Offering ** When streaming live TV bundles first became prevalent, they promised to offer the channels that people wanted to watch without a restrictive or expensive cable subscription. But these services have had to consistently raise their prices as they have added more channels to their bundles. The price increase means that Hulu + Live TV will soon cost the same as YouTube TV, which implemented its own price hike earlier this year. There are cheaper options still available. Sling TV, for instance, offers bundles starting at $30 per month, but the lineup of channels is smaller than those found in the Hulu or YouTube plans. o **** Monopolies **** # ** The_Law_Bytes_Podcast,_Episode_70:_“It’s_Massive_Free Distribution”_–_Village_Media’s_Jeff_Elgie_on_Why_His_Company Opposes_Lobbying_Efforts_to_Establish_a_Licence_for_Linking to_News_Stories ** Global News, Letting Tech Giants Like Facebook Regulate Themselves ‘Simply not Working’ Says Minister # ** Google_anti-trust_case_likely_to_fizzle_out_like_a_damp squib ** The anti-trust suit filed by the US against Google in October is unlikely to make any progress, judging by the kind of people whom US president- elect Joe Biden is taking onboard as part of his transition team and also in technology roles. # **** Patents **** # ** EPO_clarifies_reasons_for_CRISPR_patent_ruling [Ed: No, there is no "right" to patent and monopolise nature/life] ** The European Patent Office (EPO) has now clarified its reasoning behind the decision to find against the Broad Institute of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the latest round of a major patent dispute concerning rights to commercialise the revolutionary gene editing technology CRISPR. In January 2020, the European Patent Office’s Board of Appeal (BoA) ruled that a European patent owned by the Broad Institute be revoked after it dismissed the institution’s claims over its patent’s priority date. The EPO has now issued its long-awaited written reasoning behind this decision. Usually, a patent’s filing date is the date at which its validity is assessed. Sometimes, however, the patent may claim an earlier date, the priority date, from a previous patent application disclosing the invention. # ** Guide_to_ViCo_at_the_EPO [Ed: This does not mention that “ViCo_at_the_EPO”_is_an_illegal_practice] ** Facing up to the challenges that social distancing and travel restriction bring the European Patent Office (EPO), like many organisations and businesses in 2020, has introduced video conferencing (ViCo) as an important means to facilitate communication. On 10 November 2020, a Decision of the President of the EPO was issued indicating that from 04 January 2021, opposition oral proceedings will be held by ViCo unless serious reasons prevent the use of ViCo. Where there are such “serious reasons”, oral proceedings will be postponed until after 15 September 2021. Consent from all parties is no longer required. According to a corresponding EPO Notice on 10 November 2020, the “serious reasons” may include reasons relating to a participant to the oral proceedings as an individual, for example, a proven visual impairment that prevents a representative from following oral proceedings on screen, and reasons related to the nature and subject-matter of the proceedings, for example, where a demonstration or inspection of an object where the haptic features are essential, to the extent that this is possible in the current climate. Notably the EPO has indicated that “Sweeping objections against the reliability of videoconferencing technology or the non-availability of videoconferencing equipment will, as a rule, not qualify as serious reasons”. Where a request for an in-person hearing is refused, the parties will be informed of the reasons but such a refusal is not separately appealable. The EPO has explained that this change in practice is “with a view to guaranteeing effective access to justice and to avoid a continuous increase in the number of unresolved oppositions”. # **** Copyrights **** # ** Can_Open_GLAM_Reshape_the_Fashion_Heritage Narrative? ** Bringing together 250 participants from 38 countries on four continents— from museum professionals to fashion design students all the way to big fashion brands—the event was an opportunity to have important conversations about the benefits of open access and the challenges of bringing equity, diversity and inclusion into the policies and practices of fashion heritage institutions and the fashion universe more generally. The symposium’s program spanned two days and comprised presentations, roundtables, and a hands-on workshop.  # ** Upload_Filters_And_The_Internet_Architecture:_What’s There_To_Like? ** In August 2012, YouTube briefly took down a video that had been uploaded by NASA. The video, which depicted a landing on Mars, was caught by YouTube’s Content ID system as a potential copyright infringement case but, like everything else NASA creates, it was in the public domain. Then, in 2016, YouTube’s automated algorithms removed another video, this time a lecture by a Harvard Law professor, which included snippets of various songs ranging from 15 to roughly 40 seconds. Of course, use of copyright for educational purposes is perfectly legal. Examples of unwarranted content takedowns are not limited to only these two. Automated algorithms have been responsible for taking down perfectly legitimate content that relates to marginalized groups, political speech or the mere existence of information that relates to war crimes.  # ** 42,800+_‘BitTorrent_Pirates’_Targeted_By_Copyright Trolls_in_Sweden_in_2020 ** In 2020, Sweden has maintained its position as a priority target for companies aiming to extract cash settlements from alleged BitTorrent pirates. Data released by ISP Bahnhof reveals that thus far this year, copyright holders have demanded the personal details of Internet users behind 42,869 IP addresses. Once again, Telia is responsible for the majority of data handed over. # ** Twitch_Continues_To_Trip_Over_Itself_In_Response_To DMCA_Apocalypse ** What a few weeks for Twitch. You will recall that the platform went about pissing a ton of its talent and viewers off by nuking a metric ton of video content on the site in response to a flood of DMCA takedown notices, most of them from the RIAA. And this truly was the nuclear option, far different from the notice/counternotice system most platforms use. In fact, it was so extraordinary that it arguably lost Twitch its DMCA safe harbor. Regardless, when the company then followed up with a message to all Twitch creators that they should go educate themselves on matters of copyright and proactively delete any recordings or clips that might run afoul of copyright law, it created a cluster-fuck with virtually nobody having any idea how or what they should be doing. In response to the turmoil, Twitch brilliantly rolled out an announcement for a new emoji. ╘══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╛