Links 28/01/2024: Microsoft Lays Off 30% of Staff in Sledgehammer Games
Contents
- Leftovers
- Science
- Hardware
- Health/Nutrition/Agriculture
- Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)
- Security
- Defence/Aggression
- Transparency/Investigative Reporting
- Environment
- Finance
- AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics
- Censorship/Free Speech
- Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press
- Civil Rights/Policing
- Internet Policy/Net Neutrality
- Digital Restrictions (DRM) Monopolies/Monopsonies
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Leftovers
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New Yorker ☛ How to Have a More Productive Year
Knowledge work is always changing, and our approach to it needs to change, too.
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Hackaday ☛ Nanotechnology In Ancient Rome? There Is Evidence
Anything related to nanotechnology feels fairly modern, doesn’t it? Although Richard Feynman planted the seeds of the idea in 1959, the word itself didn’t really get formed until the 70s or 80s, depending on who you ask. But there is evidence that nanotechnology could have existed as far back as the 4th century in ancient Rome.
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Hackaday ☛ Building A Cable-Driven Delta Printer
Most of us have played with a Cartesian-style 3D printer. Maybe you’ve even built a rigid delta. In this case, [Diffraction Limited] decided to a little further away from the norm with a cable-based delta design.
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France24 ☛ With six months to go before the 2024 Olympic Games, will Paris be ready?
The Paris 2024 Olympic Games are just six months away and the countdown is on to get everything ready in time, from logistics and security to transport and construction. But will the French capital be ready? FRANCE 24's Katrine Lyngsø went to find out.
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Science
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New York Times ☛ Dark Galaxies: What Happens When Stars Are Nearly Invisible
To dark matter and dark energy, add dark galaxies — collections of stars so sparse and faint that they are all but invisible.
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Hardware
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Hackaday ☛ Hackaday Podcast Episode 254: AI, Hijack Guy, And Water Rockets Fly
This week Hackaday Editors Elliot Williams and Al Williams chew the fat about the Haier IOT problem, and all other top Hackaday stories of the week. Want to prove your prowess at C programming? Take a quiz! Or marvel at some hairy display reverse engineering or 3D-printed compressor screws. On the lighter side, there’s an immense water rocket.
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Tom's Hardware ☛ Russia buys chips from Intel, AMD, and others to fuel war efforts — the country bought $1.7 billion worth of chips in 2023
Bloomberg report shows that Russia imported chips from AMD, Intel, Infineon, despite sanctions.
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Hackaday ☛ Wearable Robot Makes Mountain Climbing A Breeze For Seniors
You know, it’s just not fair. It seems that even if we stay active, age will eventually get the better of our muscles, robbing them of strength and our bodies of mobility. Canes and walkers do not provide additional strength, just support and reassurance in a treacherous landscape. What people could really benefit from are wearable robots that are able to compensate for a lack of muscle strength.
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Hackaday ☛ A DIY E-Ink Tank Watch
[Augusto Marinucci] liked the classic Cartier Tank series of dress watches aesthetic, but wanted something a bit more techy, with a decent runtime on a single battery. E-Ink displays are often used in such applications, but finding one to fit a custom case design, is a tall order. When ordering one off the shelf is not easy, the solution is to make one from scratch.
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The Next Platform ☛ The Tough Road Still Ahead For defective chip maker Intel In The Datacenter
A few years back, when defective chip maker Intel went up on the rocks with its CPU and GPU designs largely because its chip research and manufacturing did not keep pace with the manufacturing and packaging advances made by foundry rival Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, we said that we were rapidly moving towards a world where defective chip maker Intel might have 40 percent of the CPU market, AMD might have 40 percent, and Arm and RISC-V would fight over the remaining 19 percent and 1 percent remaining for other exotic datacenter compute engine chippery.
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Health/Nutrition/Agriculture
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Science Alert ☛ Listlessness in Depression Can Be Seen in The Eyes
Can our pupils predict treatment response?
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The Straits Times ☛ China’s grape-growing region Penglai on a quest to make its wines fine
January 27, 2024 5:00 AM
The area is shaking off its reputation as hub of counterfeit and bad wine to become China’s new wine destination.
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Higher fees won’t cure what ails emergency rooms at Hong Kong’s public hospitals
Our government is now grappling with a policy dilemma of the kind which is, sadly, particularly difficult for regimes which have dispensed with such luxuries as electoral politics and independent media: what sort of health service do we want?
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ HKFP Yum Cha: Carol Liang on fighting stigma surrounding mental health in Hong Kong
Mental health in Hong Kong was forced front of mind last June after two women were fatally stabbed in a shopping mall in an apparently random attack. Reports that the suspect had been diagnosed with a serious mental health condition were quick to emerge, sparking discussions rife with often alarmist inaccuracies.
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Science Alert ☛ Critical Enzyme For Breaking Down Fat Byproducts Slows The Aging Process
A key to a longer, healthier life.
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Science Alert ☛ Weight Loss Drugs Like Ozempic Could Have a Surprising Effect on Drinking Habits
This could be life changing.
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Science Alert ☛ Lupus Tracked to Changes in a Single Gene That Tames The Immune System
The link we've been looking for.
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Science Alert ☛ Green Spaces May Have a Powerful Effect on The Bones of Children
Get those kids outside.
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Science Alert ☛ The Ideal Running Pace Is Slower Than You Might Think
Stay in the zone.
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Techdirt ☛ California DA’s Office Used A Made-Up Story About A Dead Kid To Pitch Its Fentanyl Fantasies
There’s not much that’s more inadvertently hilarious than the efforts of law enforcement officials to convince the general public that simply being in the immediate area of fentanyl could result in instant death.
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The Kent Stater ☛ Flashes Fighting Hunger seek student volunteers
Flashes Fighting Hunger, Kent State’s student-powered organization dedicated to fighting food insecurity and food waste, is seeking student volunteers for the MLK Family Engagement event at the King Kennedy Community Center in Ravenna this Saturday, Jan. 27.
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Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)
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EuroGamer ☛ Layoffs at Toys for Bob and Sledgehammer Games affect between 30% and 40% of staff, insider says
Crash Bandicoot developer Toys for Bob and Call of Duty studio Sledgehammer Games have reportedly lost around 40 per cent and 30 per cent of their staff, respectively.
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Bruce Schneier ☛ Chatbots and Human Conversation
For most of history, communicating with a computer has not been like communicating with a person. In their earliest years, computers required carefully constructed instructions, delivered through punch cards; then came a command-line interface, followed by menus and options and text boxes. If you wanted results, you needed to learn the computer’s language.
This is beginning to change. Large language models—the technology undergirding modern chatbots—allow users to interact with computers through natural conversation, an innovation that introduces some baggage from human-to-human exchanges.
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Security
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Privacy/Surveillance
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ACLU ☛ What’s Hiding in the Immigration & Border Deal? More Mass Surveillance
Behind closed doors, the White House and Congress continue to negotiate major changes to border and immigration law as part of a larger deal on foreign military assistance. One of the rumored proposals is to expand a program called Family Expedited Removal management, or FERM.
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JURIST ☛ US Senator releases letter alleging NSA buys personal data without warrant
Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) released a letter Thursday alleging that the US National Security Agency (NSA) buys Americans’ internet browsing information from commercial brokers without a warrant. According to the letter, US intelligence agencies are acquiring data about Americans from private data brokers, and have been for several years.
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Medevel ☛ Revolutionize Your Video Surveillance with a Web-Based Open-Source NVR with Object Detection
This is an open-source web-site self-hosted network video recorder (NVR) web application that allows you to monitor your IP security camera network, record camera feeds to your computer's hard drive, and monitor motion events through a web app.
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Pro Publica ☛ Unreleased Bodycam Videos Captured NYPD Wrongly Arresting Kids
I got my first real lesson in police accountability in 2019 on Halloween. My wife, Sara Pekow, and our daughter had watched an NYPD officer drive the wrong way up a Brooklyn street and hit a Black teenager. The police had been chasing him as a suspect in the theft of a cellphone. When the boy rolled off the car and ran away, the officers turned their attention to other nearby Black boys who seemed to be simply trick-or-treating. The police lined them against the wall of our neighborhood movie theater, cuffed them and took them away.
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Yahoo News ☛ Phones Track Everything but Their Role in Car Wrecks
Cellphones can track what we say and write, where we go, what we buy and what we search on the internet. But they still aren’t being used to track one of the biggest public health threats: crashes caused by drivers distracted by the phones.
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Defence/Aggression
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JURIST ☛ Report by human rights monitoring group claims churches hit by military airstrikes in Myanmar
The Centre for Information Resilience (CIR) has released a report about military airstrikes in Myanmar. Their research details the impact of these airstrikes on churches in Chin, Myanmar’s only majority Christian state.
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The Straits Times ☛ North Korea and China agree to defend common interests as senior envoys meet
North Korea has dramatically upgraded its ties with China and Russia.
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New York Times ☛ Russia Extends U.S. Reporter Evan Gershkovich’s Detention
The ruling means that Evan Gershkovich, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, will spend at least a year in custody awaiting trial on a spying charge Washington says is politically motivated.
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BIA Net ☛ Turkey, Russia, and Iran issue a joint statement on 'Syria' in Astana
Discussions were focused on the situation on the ground, regional developments, the political process, returns, and humanitarian aid in the meeting on Syria held in Astana with the participation of Turkey, Russia, and Iran.
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Meduza ☛ In the eye of the beholder: Why are people in the Russian Far East going under the knife to make their eyes wider? — Meduza
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New York Times ☛ Bali Bombing Conspirators Get 5 More Years at Guantánamo Bay
A military jury sentenced two Malaysian men to 23 years for helping perpetrators of the bombing that killed 202 people, but a side deal reduced the punishment.
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New York Times ☛ China Says It Has Imprisoned Ian Stones, a British Businessman, on Spy Charges
A businessman who had worked in China for decades vanished from view in 2018, but his fate had been unknown, and publicly unremarked upon, until now.
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ China says it jailed British national for 5 years in 2022 for spying
China said Friday it had sentenced a British national in 2022 to five years in jail for spying, in its official confirmation of a case that had gone unreported until this week.
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New York Times ☛ Kenyan Court Blocks Deployment of Police Force to Haiti
A contingent of 1,000 Kenyan officers was intended to lead a multinational force financed by the United States to restore security in a Caribbean country terrorized by armed gangs.
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JURIST ☛ Texas governor asserts state right to self-defense in response to escalating southern border tensions
Texas Governor Greg Abbott issued a statement asserting Texas’ constitutional right to self-defense on Wednesday as tensions with the Biden administration over security along the US southern border escalated.
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JURIST ☛ UN warns of growing power of gangs in Haiti igniting tensions across the Caribbean
The head of the UN Drug and Crime Office (UNODC) Ghada Waly, briefed the UN Security Council Thursday raising concerns about increasing gang violence in Haiti leading to increasing violence across the Caribbean.
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Defence Web ☛ The African Union is working on peace in Sudan: expert explains why it’s in everyone’s interests
The African Union has recently named a team to work on a peaceful end to Sudan’s civil war. The team will engage Sudan’s feuding military factions alongside civil society and international players to resolve the conflict that has been raging since 15 April 2023.
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Defence Web ☛ SDSP 2024 “critical in shaping military leaders” – Kubu
The 2024 Security and Defence Studies Programme (SDSP) is up and running at the SA National Defence Force (SANDF) College in Thaba Tshwane. This year’s programme, previously the Executive National Security Programme (ENSP), is number 10 since the name change.
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Forbes ☛ Head Of UN Agency Denounces ‘Shocking’ Funding Cuts Amid Allegations Staffers Were Involved In Hamas’ Attack On Israel
The head of the United Nations agency providing humanitarian aid to Palestinian refugees on Saturday denounced a move by a growing number of countries to pull funding for the agency following allegations by Israel that some of its staffers participated in Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7.
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France24 ☛ Alabama carries out first nitrogen gas execution in US after Supreme Court green light
The southern US state of Alabama on Thursday put to death a convicted murderer using nitrogen gas, the first time the country has used a method that the UN rights chief said may amount to torture.
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RFERL ☛ Kyrgyz Man Who Cut Off Ex-Wife's Nose, Ears Gets 20 Years In Prison
The Sokuluk district court in north Kyrgyzstan's sentenced a man on January 26 to 20 years in prison for severely beating his ex-wife and cutting off her nose and ears. Azamat Estebesov was found guilty of torture, rape, attempted murder, violation of privacy, and inflicting serious bodily harm.
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Defence Web ☛ SA, Iran and the wider war in the Middle East
The Israel-Hamas war in Gaza has sparked a wider Middle East war, which could yet draw in the world’s major powers and threaten a global conflict. The greatest danger is that the US and its allies could come into direct conflict with Iran, and that China and Russia fall in behind Tehran.
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LRT ☛ Baltic customs bodies agree on uniform application of sanctions on Russia
The heads of the Lithuanian, Latvian, and Estonian customs authorities have agreed on uniform controls in the implementation of EU sanctions against Russia and Belarus.
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Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine
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Meduza ☛ Bloomberg: Russia signaling readiness for negotiations, but U.S. officials skeptical — Meduza
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Meduza ☛ Anti-war Russian presidential hopeful Boris Nadezhdin will not submit signatures collected abroad when applying for candidacy — Meduza
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Meduza ☛ ‘The situation took a wrong turn’ How the Kremlin feels about the sudden popularity of Boris Nadezhdin, Russia’s anti-war presidential hopeful — Meduza
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Meduza ☛ Meduza has been outlawed for a year now, but we’re holding on, thanks to your support. Here, you can leave a message for our editorial team or our readers in Russia. — Meduza
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Meduza ☛ Russia to open polling stations abroad for upcoming presidential election, including in countries deemed ‘unfriendly’ by Kremlin — Meduza
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RFERL ☛ Putin Announces New Nuclear Icebreaker As Part Of Arctic Fleet Expansion
Russian President Vladimir Putin on January 26 announced construction of another nuclear-powered icebreaker as part of an expansion of the country's Arctic Fleet.
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France24 ☛ Ukraine and Russia trade accusations over military plane crash
Russia and Ukraine traded accusations Thursday over the crash of a military transport plane that Moscow said was carrying Ukrainian prisoners of war and was shot down by Kyiv’s forces, another heated episode in the information war that has been a feature of the conflict.
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RFERL ☛ Kyiv, Moscow Exchange Soldiers' Remains In Move Unrelated To Disputed Downing Of Russian Transport Plane
"I don't know whether they did it on purpose or by mistake, out of thoughtlessness - but they did it," Putin said.
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RFERL ☛ Mass Public Concert To Support Kremlin-Backed Leader Of Russia's Bashkortostan Held Amid Crackdown
A mass public concert to support Radiy Khabirov, the Kremlin-backed leader of Russia's Republic of Bashkortostan, was held on January 26 in the central square in the Bashkir capital, Ufa.
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RFERL ☛ Russia Puts Writer Boris Akunin On Wanted List For Unspecified Charges After Anti-Kremlin Comments
Russia's Interior Ministry has put prominent writer Grigory Chkhartishvili, known under the pen name Boris Akunin, on a wanted list for alleged criminal activity, although specific charges were not listed.
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RFERL ☛ Independent Russian Online Newspaper's Reporter Under Pressure In Volgograd
A Russian independent online newspaper, the Kavkazsky Uzel (The Caucasus Knot), says unknown masked men tried to break in the apartment of one of its correspondents in the southwestern city of Volgograd, on January 25.
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CS Monitor ☛ His name means ‘hope.’ Has a credible challenger to Putin emerged?
Russians are lining up to sign a petition in support of a President Vladimir Putin challenger: Boris Nadezhdin. As he calls for peace with Ukraine and dialogue with the West, the candidate’s growing popularity reveals an undercurrent of dissent.
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Meduza ☛ ‘It’s impossible to get this money’: Russian convicts-turned-soldiers write to Putin, complaining of broken promises — Meduza
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Meduza ☛ St. Petersburg couple arrested for allegedly disseminating napkins calling for Putin’s execution — Meduza
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Meduza ☛ Putin says Ukrainian air defenses hit Russian military transport plane — Meduza
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Latvia ☛ Latvia and Lithuania discuss financial help for Ukraine
On Friday, January 26, Latvian Finance Minister Arvils Ašeradens met with Lithuanian Finance Minister Gintarė Skaistė to discuss the European Union's support to Ukraine, questions about sanctions against Russia and Belarus, as well as the introduction of the new Economic Management Mechanism and the current economic situation and forecasts.
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JURIST ☛ Russia accuses Ukraine of shooting down plane carrying Ukraine prisoners of war, Ukraine accuses Russia
Russia accused Ukraine of deliberately shooting down a Russian Military Transport plane Wednesday carrying 65 Ukrainian Military personnel for an alleged “pre-agreed exchange” of prisoners of war. The incident reportedly killed 74, including six crew members and 3 Russian officers.
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LRT ☛ Ukraine willing to move part of drone production to Lithuania – FM
Ukraine is willing to move part of its drone production to Lithuania, Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis has said.
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RFERL ☛ U.S. Speaker Warns Senate Against Ukraine Deal, Suggesting It Will Be 'Dead On Arrival' In House
U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson took a strong stand on January 26 against a bipartisan Senate deal to pair border enforcement measures with Ukraine aid, sending a letter to colleagues that aligns him with hard-line conservatives determined to sink the compromise on border and immigration policy.
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RFERL ☛ Russian Court Issues Arrest Warrant For Self-Exiled Ex-Lawyer Who Defended Noted Activists
A Moscow court on January 26 issued an arrest warrant on a charge of distributing "fake" information about Russia's military for self-exiled Russian lawyer Mark Feigin, who has defended noted Russian and Ukrainian activists.
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RFERL ☛ Croatian Court Rules To Transfer Oligarch's Yacht To Ukraine
A district court in the Croatian city of Split has ruled in favor of transferring the Royal Romance yacht that belonged to pro-Moscow Ukrainian oligarch Viktor Medvedchuk to the Ukrainian state, the head of Ukraine's Asset Recovery and Management Agency, Olena Duma, reported on Telegram.
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RFERL ☛ Russian Couple Arrested For Placing Pro-Ukrainian Leaflets In Grocery Store
A court in Russia's northwestern city of Gatchina on January 25 sent a couple to pretrial detention on a charge of calling for terrorist acts by placing pro-Ukrainian leaflets in a local grocery store.
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New York Times ☛ A Child of Another War Who Makes Music for Ukrainians
Mirza Ramic, a Bosnian who sought refuge in the United States, is bringing his electronic music to Ukraine, “to show my support in these hard times.”
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Meduza ☛ Russian police search for armed ex-prisoner suspected of committing assault after return from deployment in Ukraine — Meduza
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Security Week ☛ Russian TrickBot Malware Developer Sentenced to Prison in US
Vladimir Dunaev sentenced to 5 years in prison after admitting to participating in the development and distribution of the TrickBot malware.
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Transparency/Investigative Reporting
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Vice Media Group ☛ How to Read Leaked Datasets Like a Journalist
'Hacks, Leaks, and Revelations' is a how-to guide for everyone who's curious about secrets.
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Federal News Network ☛ National Archives clears pandemic-era backlog for vet records, seeks to digitize decades of paper
National Archivist Colleen Shogan told Federal News Network in an interview Friday that NPRC employees who put in extra hours on holidays and weekends were essential to driving down the backlog.
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Environment
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Energy/Transportation
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RFA ☛ North Korea cracks down on theft of electricity meant for industry
Three months hard labor for tapping into wires that supply electricity to factories or hospitals.
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RFA ☛ Clean energy leads charge in China’s 2023 economic growth
Analysis shows the sector solely drove the country’s investment growth.
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H2 View ☛ China commits €2bn for Serbian renewable energy and hydrogen project
Serbia has today (January 26) secured €2bn ($2.17bn) of Chinese investment to build renewable power plants and a hydrogen production facility.
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Latvia ☛ Latvia receives 27-million-euro 'RePowerEU' payment
On Thursday, January 25, the European Commission (EC) transferred an advance payment of 26.95 million euros to Latvia as part of the 'RePowerEU' initiative to strengthen Europe's energy security and the transition to renewable resources.
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New York Times ☛ London’s High Line Will Echo Its New York Inspiration, With Local Notes
Hoping to repeat the success of Manhattan’s park, London is transforming a disused rail line, elevated 25 feet above the city’s streets, into its own floating green space.
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Wildlife/Nature
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YLE ☛ Popularity of Finland's national parks continues to rise
Visitors are also spending more money and boosting the economies of communities around the parks.
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Finance
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ How Pooh-tin Jinping’s corruption crackdown turned its attention to China’s embattled finance sector
By Matthew Walsh Pooh-tin Jinping’s crackdown on official corruption has ripped through a secretive missile force, the Communist Party elite, the national football team, and now risks hammering a finance industry already grappling with an economic slowdown.
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YLE ☛ JHL strike: Strike to hit train, metro and tram services next Friday
"The changes that the government is pushing for only benefit employers," the public and welfare union's interim president said.
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YLE ☛ Food industry workers announce strike next week
Union members will be off the job for two days as part of a wave of work stoppages aimed at pressuring the government to revise its labour market policy.
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YLE ☛ Consumers struggle with rising housing costs
Last autumn, only one in four Finns thought their housing costs were too high, yet now more homeowners are seeking help for over-indebtedness.
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YLE ☛ Energy company, Fortum, may lay off up to 130 of its staff
The majority-state-owned energy giant needs to reduce annual costs
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Silicon Angle ☛ Salesfarce reportedly lays off 700 employees following recruiting push
Salesfarce Inc. is reportedly laying off 1% of its workforce, or about 700 staffers, a few months after launching a hiring effort intended to recruit thousands of new employees. The Wall Street Journal reported the job cuts today, citing a person familiar with the matter.
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AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics
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France24 ☛ For better or for worse? South Korean men seek brides in Vietnam
Some men and women decide to spend their lives together despite knowing from the outset that they have almost nothing in common. More and more South Korean men are finding their wives abroad, be it in Vietnam, China or Thailand. These multicultural partnerships are a response to a national crisis: South Korea's low marriage rate. Our reporters travelled to Vietnam and South Korea to investigate.
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Reason ☛ Conviction for Threatening (in the U.S.) Supporter of Democracy in China
From yesterday's Justice Department press release: A Berklee College of Music student, who is a citizen of the People's Republic of China (PRC), was convicted by a federal jury in Boston today of stalking and threatening an individual who posted fliers in support of democracy in China around the Berklee campus area.
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Techdirt ☛ Utah Delays Constitutional Reckoning Over Its Social Media Law By Promising To Repeal & Replace It
As you may recall, Utah was the first of a bunch of states to pass one of the now increasingly popular laws trying to ban kids from social media. Utah legislators knew they’d get sued over it, and for that reason set a date for the law to go into effect in March of this year (over a year after the bill became law). For unclear reasons, the bill was not challenged immediately. In late December, NetChoice finally sued to block the law. By that point, bill author Michael McKell had already said he had planned to amend the law.
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AntiWar ☛ US-China Policy Is Not Going According to Plan
On January 13, the Taiwanese returned the Democratic Progressive Party and its new leader, Lai Ching-te, to power. Lai’s winning campaign had a platform of promoting a separate identity for Taiwan and rejecting China’s territorial claims.
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RFERL ☛ Ex-Deputy Chief Of Kyrgyz Customs Service Added To Wanted List
The Kyrgyz Interior Ministry official told RFE/RL on January 26 that the former deputy chief of the Customs Service, Raimbek Matraimov, who in 2020-2021 was at the center of a high-profile corruption scandal, was added to the wanted list of the State Committee for National Security.
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RFERL ☛ Kazakh Lawmakers Propose Bill Legalizing Refusal Of Accreditation Of Foreign Media
A group of Kazakh lawmakers approved a draft bill on January 25 that would allow the Central Asian nation's authorities to refuse accreditation to foreign media outlets and their reporters on grounds of national security concerns.
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RFA ☛ US national security advisor to meet Chinese foreign minister in Bangkok
The meeting stresses Thailand’s strategic position as the middleman for the super powers, says expert.
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JURIST ☛ Zimbabwe opposition party leader resigns amid accusations of election interference by ruling party
Nelson Chamisa, former leader of Zimbabwe’s opposition party Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC), announced his abrupt resignation from the party Thursday on X (formerly known as twitter).
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CS Monitor ☛ Lift for elections with honest observers
Independent watchdogs with expertise in voting standards are proving essential to boost democracies, even in the U.S.
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RFERL ☛ Georgia, Armenia Sign 'Strategic Partnership' Agreement During Pashinian Visit
South Caucasus neighbors Georgia and Armenia signed a “strategic partnership” memorandum during a visit to Tbilisi by Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian on January 26, Georgian Premier Irakli Garibashvili said.
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Censorship/Free Speech
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Techdirt ☛ Fucking Hell: David Mamet Files The Most Pointless, Silly Amicus Brief In Supreme Court Content Moderation Case
Okay, look, this post is basically a repost of a post from two years ago. But, because David Mamet has decided to refile the exact same amicus brief he filed for the 5th Circuit again at the Supreme Court, I figured we can repost the same exact post ripping it apart (with a few tiny changes to reference the Supreme Court instead of the 5th Circuit). And yes, the new filing appears exactly the same, including the copyright notice from 2022 (though I can find no evidence that he ever bothered to register the copyright), but signed by a different lawyer who apparently didn’t write any of the actual brief.
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ China approves 115 video game licences as state crackdown on sector eases
China has granted more than 100 new video game licences in January, regulators said Friday, the highest number of monthly approvals since Beijing lifted a freeze imposed during a sweeping state crackdown on the sector.
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Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai vowed to take US sanctions bid ‘to the extreme,’ ex-publisher says
Media mogul Jimmy Lai was undeterred by the Beijing-imposed national security law, the former publisher of Lai’s shuttered Apple Daily newspaper has testified, saying Lai had vowed to take his push for US sanctions to be placed on mainland Chinese and Hong Kong officials “to the extreme.”
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Reason ☛ "College Is All About Curiosity. And That Requires Free Speech."
An excellent piece in the N.Y. Times Magazine by Prof. Stephen Carter (Yale Law).
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Civil Rights/Policing
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Techdirt ☛ Clingy Guy Who Filed A SLAPP Suit Against Women He Dated Has Lawsuit Thrown Out… Immediately Refiles (Oh, And Also Gets Convicted For Tax Fraud)
Nikko D’Ambrosio has had a pretty rough week, but apparently that’s not going to stop him from texting the court from a new number. You may recall this dude bro from the Chicago area, for his decision to sue basically everyone he could think of after a few women he dated wrote about their experiences with him on the Facebook group “Are We Dating the Same Guy.” We don’t need to rehash just how stupid the lawsuit was, beyond the fact that it included tons of defendants who either appeared to have nothing to do with the case, or who were clearly immune under Section 230 (which wasn’t even mentioned in the complaint).
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JURIST ☛ Argentina workers mount general strike against President Javier Milei’s austerity measures
Millions of workers in Argentina have walked out after the country’s three major labor confederations—the General Confederation of Labor, the Argentine Workers’ Central Union and the Argentine Workers’ Central Union—called for a general strike against recently-elected President Javier Milei. The strike began on Wednesday in response to Milei’s proposed national legislative and economic reforms.
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The Nation ☛ Rocket
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RFA ☛ China tests new ethnic assimilation policy on Uyghurs
The measure aims to further replace Uyghur culture with that of Han Chinese, experts say.
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LRT ☛ China suspends visa issuance to Lithuanian citizens
The Chinese mission in Vilnius has suspended the issuance of visas to Lithuanian citizens as of Wednesday, Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis has confirmed.
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Techdirt ☛ Judge Releases Last Of The ‘Newburgh Four,’ Excoriates FBI For The Entrapment It Calls ‘Counterterrorism’
The FBI’s counter-terrorism work has always been noted for its willingness to radicalize people just to arrest them. The FBI has a lot of wins in the win column, but many of those wins have been obtained through… well, let’s call it what it is: cheating.
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CS Monitor ☛ What Fani Willis controversy means for major lawsuit against Trump
A district attorney’s ties to a prosecutor she hired have sparked calls for her to step aside. The situation complicates a high-stakes lawsuit against Donald Trump in Georgia.
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The Straits Times ☛ Australia PM condemns neo-Nazis after arrest of 'disguised' group
New laws banning the Nazi salute and display of symbols associated with terror groups have come into effect.
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Reason ☛ Brickbat: Thought Crime
Police Scotland has agreed to pay £5,500 ($6,967 U.S.) to settle a lawsuit brought by Angus Cameron, a street preacher who was handcuffed and detained for "homophobic language." The agency will also pay £9,400 ($11,907 U.S.) for Cameron's legal costs. The police also agreed to remove a "non-crime" hate incident report from Cameron's record.
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Reason ☛ No, Blocking Traffic Is Not Protected by the First Amendment
The freedom to protest is essential to the American project. It also does not give you carte blanche to violate other laws.
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Reason ☛ A Constitutionally Dubious California Bill Would Ban Possession of [CG] Child Pornography
The proposal seems to conflict with a Supreme Court ruling against laws that criminalize mere possession of obscene material.
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Pro Publica ☛ American Museum of Natural History to Close Native American Exhibits to Comply With New Federal Regulations
The American Museum of Natural History, one of the country’s largest museums whose prestige was built in part on excavating Native American gravesites, is shuttering some of its longtime exhibits that display cultural materials that could be subject to return to tribal nations.
The move comes as the New York City museum and many others, including the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, consult with tribes and evaluate their compliance with new federal regulations intended to speed up the process of returning ancestral remains and sacred items under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. ProPublica published a series of articles last year, called “The Repatriation Project,” about the failures of museums to comply with the law in the past three decades.
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Reason ☛ Review: Exposing a Broken Juvenile Court System
Kids were jailed for minor offenses, as detailed in The Kids of Rutherford County podcast.
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Reason ☛ Crackdown on Freedom Convoy Violated Canadians' Rights, Says Court
Opponents of pandemic restrictions had their day in court and won a victory for open dissent.
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Internet Policy/Net Neutrality
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New York Times ☛ David L. Mills, Who Kept the Internet Running on Time, Dies at 85
He developed and implemented the protocol that synchronizes the digital clocks nestled within billions of networked devices.
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Techdirt ☛ Cable Giants Insist That Forcing Them To Make Cancellations Easier Violates Their First Amendment Rights
Neither the FCC nor FTC has a particularly good track record of standing up to broadband and cable giants when it comes to their longstanding track record of anticompetitive behavior, price gouging, or nickel-and-diming their often captive customers with bogus, hidden fees.
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Internet Society ☛ Lessons from Past Sins and Corruption Can Bolster Future Network Security: NDSS Symposium 2024
The Network and Distributed Systems Security (NDSS) Symposium returns to San Diego, USA, from 26 February to 1 March 2024. An incubator of ideas, the NDSS Symposium has for 31 years brought together leading academics, industry researchers, students, and security practitioners to discuss top-tier, peer-reviewed research and exchange ideas.
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Public Knowledge ☛ Privileged Conversations | Feb. 2024
Public Knowledge has the pleasure of inviting you to a multifaceted program focused on training and developing the next generation of tech policy experts and public interest advocates that reflects the diversity of voices and experiences in our society. Please join us for our monthly Career Breakfast Series.
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Digital Restrictions (DRM)
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Right to Repair ☛ Malicious Compliance with Right to Repair Laws
Complying with the letter—but not the spirit—of the law is called
'malicious compliance,' and it’s exactly what manufacturers are doing with
Right to Repair. Apple, Samsung, and John Deere are front and center in
this deceptive practice. For example, Apple's so-called support for Right
to Repair in California comes with a major compromise, effectively killing
independent repair by requiring parts to be bought directly from them.
Samsung, once seemingly favorable to Right to Repair, now limits part sales
and enforces monopolistic agreements. And John Deere? They're dodging
legislation through agreements that restrict farmers' access to essential
diagnostic software. This article dives deep into these practices,
revealing how big companies are twisting laws to stifle competition and
maintain their repair monopolies.
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Hackaday ☛ Hacking A Xiaomi Air Purifier’s Filter DRM To Extend Its Lifespan
When [Unethical Info] was looking at air purifiers a while back, their eye fell on a Xiaomi 4 Pro, with a purchase quickly made. Fast-forward a while and suddenly the LCD on top of the device was showing a threatening ‘0% filter life remaining’ error message. This was traced back to an NFC (NTAG213) tag stuck to the filter inside the air purifier that had been keeping track of usage and was now apparently the reason why a still rather clean filter was forcibly being rejected. Rather than give into this demand, instead the NFC tag and its contents were explored for a way to convince it otherwise,
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Tedium ☛ Locked Up In Regions
The history of region-locking, a once-unintentional process of keeping devices built for one region from being used in another. (Now Apple’s doing it.)
It’s not unheard of for smartphones to be tied to specific countries—until recently, for example, OnePlus limited its midrange R line to the Indian market—but the decision by Apple to comply with new European Union rules requiring the company to allow sideloading and alternative browsers on iOS opens up a new front in the history of the smartphone. Simply put, numerous features are being region-locked to an entire continent to comply with a law. Today’s Tedium considers the history of region-locking, why it’s so frustrating, and why it persists despite the fact that consumers generally hate it. Is Apple about to learn how many of its users are willing to jump over borders to use something other than the App Store?
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New York Times ☛ Apple Blocks Android Users From Connecting to iMessage on Macs
Beeper Mini customers were using their Mac computers to connect to iPhone messaging on their Android phones. Now, they say Fashion Company Apple has blocked the messaging service on their Macs.
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Patents
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Unified Patents ☛ IP Investments entity DigiMedia Tech H.264/AVC patent monopoly challenged
On January 24, 2024, Unified Patents filed an ex parte reexamination proceeding against U.S. Patent 6,606,287, owned by DigiMedia Tech, LLC, an NPE and an IP Investments Group entity. The ‘287 patent monopoly generally relates to recording and storing a media signal, while determining an optimal compression rate based on characteristics of the media signal while maintaining acceptable quality.
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JUVE ☛ Lenovo subsidiary Motorola and Sharp sign patent monopoly cross-licence agreement
Motorola, a subsidiary of US-based electronics company Lenovo, and Japanese electronics company Sharp have reached a cross-licence patent monopoly agreement. The two companies announced the development today, which comes off the back of another major deal struck between Nokia and Oppo on Wednesday.
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JUVE ☛ VoiceAge victorious in nullity suits against HMD as battle enters final stage
VoiceAge EVS continues to successfully enforce its patents in its ongoing dispute with HMD. The German Federal Court of Justice has upheld the company’s patents EP 1 509 903 and EP 2 162 880 at the highest instance (case IDs: X ZR 11/22 and X ZR 14/22).
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Unified Patents ☛ $2,000 awarded for Biogy cybersecurity patent monopoly prior art
Unified is pleased to announce PATROLL crowdsourcing contest winners, Ekta Aswal and Dinesh Swami, who split a cash award of $2,000 for their prior art submissions on U.S. Patent 7,669,236, owned by Biogy, Inc., an NPE. The ‘236 patent monopoly specification generally relates to cybersecurity and preventing access to an entity by unauthorized entities. A generated passcode is received by another system, which authenticates the passcode by at least generating a passcode from a passcode generator, and comparing the generated passcode with the received passcode.
We would also like to thank the dozens of other high-quality submissions that were made on this patent.
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Trademarks
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TTAB Blog ☛ TTAB Orders Cancellation of FREEDOM PARTY Registration: Application Was Void Ab Initio Due to Nonownership
The Board granted a petition for cancellation of a registration for the mark FREEDOM PARTY for "organizing and conducting dance parties" on the ground that Respondent Hyman was not the sole owner of the mark when he filed his underlying use-based application. Therefore, his application was void ab initio and deemed invalid. Edward Levy and Marc Padro v. Kenneth Harris Hyman, Cancellation No. 92068029 (January 12, 2024) [not precedential] (Opinion by Judge Thomas W. Wellington).
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Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ Federal Circuit on TM Law’s Information Matter Doctrine
In a non-precedential 2023 decision, the Federal Circuit affirmed a decision by the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) refusing to register “Everybody vs Racism” as a trademark for apparel, tote bags, and services promoting racial justice advocacy. The court found substantial evidence supported the TTAB’s conclusion that the slogan fails to function as a source identifier for the applicant GO & Associates’ goods and services. Although the outcome here supports the informational matter doctrine barring registration, the court is clear that political slogans and other informational matter can be protected as trademarks so long as the applicant shows that they actually function as a trademark.
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Right of Publicity
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Silicon Angle ☛ George Carlin’s estate files suit over AI-generated comedy special
The estate of George Carlin is suing the creators of a YouTube video that mimics the deceased comedian’s voice using generative artificial intelligence. The lawsuit was filed on Thursday by the estate’s executor, Jerold Hamza, who was Carlin’s manager for 30 years.
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Digital Music News ☛ Who Created Those AI-Generated Explicit Photos of Taylor Swift? Scary Viewer Numbers Emerge After 24 Hours
AI-generated sexually explicit images of Taylor Swift went viral on the internet yesterday—doing scary numbers before being ‘removed.’ Who made these images? The proliferation of AI-generated porn reached an apex yesterday after images featuring Taylor Swift’s face appeared on X/Twitter.
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Copyrights
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Torrent Freak ☛ Dish & Sling Sue 'Pirate' IPTV Operation For Circumventing Widevine DRM
DISH Network and Sling TV have filed a lawsuit against a pirate IPTV operation that allegedly made more than $20 million. The defendants, who allegedly worked with many resellers, stand accused of circumventing Widevine DRM and rebroadcasting channels without permission. The set-top boxes that served as gateways were sold through Amazon stores.
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Torrent Freak ☛ Police Website Offers Pirated Live Sports Streams as IPTV FOIA Requests Denied
Two regional police forces have rejected Freedom of Information Act requests seeking data relating to cautions, penalty notices, and arrests in connection with illegal streaming. Since there is no way to run a report to provide the information requested, each potential case would need to be manually reviewed; too expensive, according to police. Meanwhile, a third regional police force's website appears to have been transformed into an illegal sports streaming platform.
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Monopolies/Monopsonies
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