Links 04/05/2024: Attacks on Workers and the Press
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Free, Libre, and Open Source Software
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Programming/Development
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Qt ☛ Enhancing Productivity in Distributed Software Development Teams
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Happy Birthday, BASIC
The newbie-friendly BASIC language is now 60 years old.
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Rlang ☛ Expenditure-Based and Multivariate Weighted Indices: An R Package to Calculate CPI and Inflation
Introduction Hello everyone! I’m excited to announce the release of our latest collaborative effort (R package), designed to make complex consumer price and inflation calculations a breeze: emWeightedCPI.
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Leftovers
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Stanford University ☛ Inside the Junk Drawer: Childhood myths
"The spell broke because I had gradually outgrown it," writes Kaylee Chan.
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The Name Quest
I went on a trip to Mongolia to find out the meaning behind my name.
[...]
It is a lowkey unique name, even in my country, Türkiye. Especially when you count the other variants such as Orhan, Orkun and even Orçun. I'm not a linguist but I'm assuming they mean the same thing. And meanings are important ✨
Even in the tech world we sometimes think a lot about naming an insignificant variable. That being said, I can't even think of how hard it would be to name an actual human being.
So, good job Dad!
In my early years in life, I was already aware of the meaning of my name, thanks to the history lessons and from people who already knew about it. A quick Google search also reveals it: it comes from Orkhon inscriptions in Mongolia.
Okay, but what/where the hell are they and what's their importance? When I asked my dad he told me that he was impressed by the history behind it and named me after them.
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Dedoimedo ☛ WhatsApp can't send this video error
Solving problems on the Internets. For teh lulz. I've fashioned a short tutorial showing how to work around the issue of WhatsApp not being able to send chat messages with embedded SD format videos, including deeper overview of the problem, SD to HD conversion options, some other considerations, dank memes, and moar [sic].
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Public Knowledge ☛ PKTrains Opportunities Sign-Up
Use this form to sign up for more information and to learn about openings.
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Science
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Reason ☛ Review: Mrs. Davis Tests the Limits of Science and Faith
When does a sufficiently advanced algorithm start to mimic our conception of God?
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Science Alert ☛ Seven Rare High-Energy Neutrinos Detected in a Gigaton of Clear Ice
Powerful origins.
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Science Alert ☛ Exercising in Midlife May 'Reverse' Years of Inactivity, Large Study Finds
It's never too late.
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Science Alert ☛ Does Obesity Protect Against Dementia, or Increase Risk?
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Science Alert ☛ In Medieval England, Leprosy Jumped Between Squirrels And Humans
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Science Alert ☛ 'Picky' Parasites Alter Hosts' Metabolism by Selectively Dining on Their Lipid Buffet
It's the first time we've seen this.
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Education
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YLE ☛ Education minister criticises Angry Birds maker's foreign student import [Ed: Finland has no software developers. Apparently.]
Angry Birds founder Peter Vesterbacka wants to bring 15,000 foreign high school students to Finland, but the Education Ministry finds problems with this aspiration.
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Hardware
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Tom's Hardware ☛ Man who sold counterfeit Cisco networking gear on eBay and Amazon sentenced to six years in jail – Military, school and government agencies were victims of fraud scheme
A year after arresting counterfeit Cisco network device seller Onur Aksoy, the Department of Justice announced his sentence and the court awarded him with six years of jail time and $100 million as restitution to the networking company.
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Hackaday ☛ Plasma Cutter Gets CNC Treatment At Low Cost
[Daniel] has been metalworking on a budget for a while now. Originally doing things like plasma cutting on old bricks, he used his original plasma cutter to make an appropriate plasma cutting table complete with a water bath which we presume was not only safer but better for his back. Since then he’s stepped up a little more with what might be the lowest-cost CNC plasma cutter that can reliably be put together.
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Hackaday ☛ A Vernier Take On A 3D Printer Extruder Indicator
A common way to visualize that a 3D printer’s extruder motor — which feeds the filament into the hot end — is moving is to attach a small indicator to the exposed end of the motor’s shaft. As the shaft turns, so does the attached indicator.
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The Next Platform ☛ Supermicro Finally Mints Some Coin Peddling Rackscale Iron
With new generations of GPUs and other kinds of Hey Hi (AI) accelerators either shipping or soon to start shipping and new CPUs also soon to be available from defective chip maker Intel and AMD, and sales already at a historical high level at Supermicro, you might not be expecting for sales to bust through a whole new higher ceiling starting in the next quarter.
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CNX Software ☛ Intel Processor N95 vs N97 vs N100 vs Core i3-N305 benchmarks comparison
Intel Alder Lake-N processors have been pretty popular in mini PCs and to a lesser extent in single board computers in the last year or so, thanks to their excellent performance/price and features/price ratios. All processors have more or less the same features, but performance differences do exist and do not always match the increasing part number. Since we’ve reviewed a bunch of Alder Lake mini PCs, I’ve decided to compare the performance of the Processor N95, Processor N97, Processor N100, and Core i3-N305 CPUs to have a better understanding of the differences between each part.
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Health/Nutrition/Agriculture
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Science Alert ☛ Scientists Reveal Optimal Daily Ratio of Sitting, Standing, Sleeping And Movement
A 24-hour structure for wellness.
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong Kong urges industries to formulate their own safety codes after revising heatstroke warning system
The government has urged employers of outdoor workers to develop their own rules to prevent heatstroke after rolling out revisions to an official warning system that was slammed as ineffective and disruptive when introduced last year.
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Hackaday ☛ Follow The Red Ball Wobble Disk Roaster To Coffee Excellence
If you’ve never considered roasting your own coffee at home, you may be surprised to learn that it can be done in a few minutes with a regular popcorn popper and not much else. After all, you only really need two things to roast coffee: heat, and constant agitation to distribute that heat evenly. While the popcorn popper provides both, it’s easy to end up with semi-uneven roasts, probably because the beans are mostly just spinning around and not being tossed as well as they could be. Eventually, one might want a more advanced machine, and that’s where something like [Larry Cotton]’s latest wobble disk roaster can step in.
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YLE ☛ Blood suckers emerge as temperatures rise
Residents are already finding ticks as far north as Lapland.
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YLE ☛ Half of university students report loneliness
Young people in Finland are experiencing loneliness, according to a new poll.
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Defence/Aggression
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New York Times ☛ Kristi Noem’s New Book Falsely Says She Met Kim Jong-un
“I’m sure he underestimated me,” Ms. Noem writes of the North Korean leader in her forthcoming book. A spokesman said the error would be corrected.
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The Straits Times ☛ Wrong to boycott KK Mart as no intent or motive to insult Islam proven over sock issue: Malaysian Mufti
Penang mufti also called on Muslims to moderate their boycott of certain foreign brands over Gaza war.
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The Straits Times ☛ New Zealand signs MOU with German institute on Antarctica cooperation
New Zealand said on Saturday that its Antarctic agency signed a memorandum of understanding with Germany's Alfred Wegener Institute to foster cooperation between the two polar science bodies, amid China's growing presence in Antarctica.
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RFA ☛ China sends 300 workers to deep sea port project in Myanmar’s Rakhine state
Experts say the workers are at risk as the military and ethnic rebels vie for control of the region.
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ China launches Chang’e-6 lunar probe to collect far side Moon samples in world first
China launched a probe on Friday to collect samples from the far side of the Moon, a world first as Beijing pushes ahead with an ambitious programme that aims to send a crewed lunar mission by 2030.
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France24 ☛ China launches probe to collect samples from far side of the moon
China on Friday launched an uncrewed spacecraft on a nearly two-month mission to retrieve rocks and soil from the far side of the moon, the first country to make such an ambitious attempt.
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Atlantic Council ☛ China and Europe confront a ‘moment of truth’
As Chinese leader Pooh-tin Jinping travels to France, Serbia, and Hungary, both China and Europe have some soul-searching to do, writes Frederick Kempe.
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YLE ☛ Police: Taxi crashes into building near Presidential Palace
The accident happened at around 11:20am on Friday morning.
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France24 ☛ Turkey’s Israel trade freeze aimed at forcing Gaza truce, Erdogan says
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday said Turkey's move to halt trade with Israel was aimed at forcing the country to a ceasefire over Gaza and increasing the amount of humanitarian aid entering the besieged enclave. Erdogan's words came after the UN humanitarian office said that an Israeli military offensive in Rafah would put the lives of hundreds of thousands of Gazans at risk.
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France24 ☛ Danger at every corner: How Ecuadoran city of Guayaquil became unliveable
The Latin American nation of Ecuador has been experiencing an unprecedented security crisis for several months. In the port city of Guayaquil, now under the control of drug gangs, residents are living in fear.
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Defence Web ☛ Another Houthi UAV falls to Op Aspides
Another add to its successes in keeping Red Sea shipping safe from Houthi attacks came when the Italian Navy vessel ITS Virginio Fasan (F591) took down an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) last week.
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Environment
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Energy/Transportation
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RFA ☛ ANALYSIS: Beijing's political goals drive China's green tech surplus
China's export-led economic structure is baked in, while its people lack the spending power to consume more.
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YLE ☛ 'Fuel of the future' deposits found across Finland
The Geological Survey of Finland (GTK) published a map showing high concentrations of naturally occurring hydrogen in Finland's bedrock and groundwater.
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The Straits Times ☛ Affordable, versatile and zippy: E-rickshaws drive green mobility wave in India
E-rickshaws have also become a popular way for the urban poor to improve their livelihoods.
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Finance
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Tom's Hardware ☛ Intel received €30 million from Ireland to offset higher EU power bills — Ireland and defective chip maker Intel continue a tight partnership in chip fabs [Ed: Corporate welfare; the country or the taxpayers subsidise the billionaires]
Intel received €30 million from Ireland in an aid package to offset rising EU power bills in 2023, new data shows, in an expansion of Ireland's tax credits and grants extended the same year to Intel.
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YLE ☛ Paper: Finnish berry firms look to employ 1,000 Thai pickers [Ed: So only Thais can pick fruit because they DO NOT WANT TO PAY LIVING SALARY]
The industry faces a crisis this summer following a government decision to suspend the issuing of tourist visas to berry pickers from abroad amid widespread concerns of worker exploitation.
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YLE ☛ Older apartment prices fall by 5% year-on-year
Helsinki and Vantaa saw the most drastic price reductions.
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Reason ☛ Americans Are Still Really Worried About Inflation
And for good reason: Even at 3.5 percent, inflation is running higher than it did in almost every year for three decades before 2021.
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AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics
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France24 ☛ UK Labour Party easily wins by-election as Tories brace for more losses
Britain's ruling Conservatives lost a parliamentary seat to the main Labour opposition Friday, as the country awaited local election results likely to pile more pressure on embattled leader Rishi Sunak.
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New Yorker ☛ Israel, Gaza, and the Turmoil at One American University
Not since the Vietnam War has a protest movement reached college campuses with such fury. We look at the reverberations at one school, Harvard University.
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NYPost ☛ Sen. Tom Cotton introduces bill to block anti-Israel protesters from getting Biden student loan bailouts
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) introduced legislation on Friday that would prevent anti-Israel protesters from receiving student loan forgiveness if they are convicted of a crime stemming from campus demonstrations.
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France24 ☛ Police remove pro-Palestinian student protesters from Paris's Sciences Po university
Police entered Paris' Sciences Po university on Friday to remove dozens of students staging a pro-Gaza sit-in in the entrance hall, AFP journalists saw, as protests fire political debate about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
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NYPost ☛ Hims and Hers stock plummets 8% after CEO says he is ‘eager’ to hire anti-Israel protesters
The stock price of Hims & Hers Health, Inc. plummeted 8% after the company’s CEO said he and other executives were “eager” to hire anti-Israel student protesters who’ve faced disciplinary actions from their universities.
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Latvia ☛ Doctors and patients discuss cancer care improvements
The Minister of Health and the government have declared oncological care in Latvia as a national priority, starting work on a new plan for the improvement of health care services in the field of oncology for 2025-2027. The diagnosis and treatment of cancer, in words, has been a priority so far, but without result, Latvian Television reported on May 2.
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TwinCities Pioneer Press ☛ Republicans file lawsuit to block count of Nevada mail ballots received after Election Day
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS (THE ASSOCIATED PRESS) LAS VEGAS (AP) — The Republican National Committee on Friday filed a federal lawsuit seeking to prevent Nevada from counting mail ballots received after Election Day, as the state’s law currently permits. The law, passed by Democrats in 2021, permits the tallying of mail ballots received up to four […]
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JURIST ☛ Coalition of rights groups sues Alabama to block enforcement of law criminalizing absentee ballot assistance
A coalition of rights groups led by the Alabama State Conference of the NAACP filed a lawsuit Friday challenging four provisions of Alabama Senate Bill 1, Act No. 2024-33 (“SB 1”), which criminalizes absentee ballot assistance.
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Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda
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CS Monitor ☛ Can deepfakes be good for democracy? India tries to balance risks and rewards of AI.
Indian society is scrambling to respond to an uptick of political deepfakes during critical elections. Its efforts could help build a roadmap on how democracies balance the good and the bad of artificial intelligence.
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Censorship/Free Speech
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New York Times ☛ U.S.C. Will Host a Graduation Party at the Coliseum After Canceling Its Main Ceremony
The university said it would hold a celebration at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. More than 100 school-specific graduations and smaller receptions will also take place with tighter security.
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Explainer: Hong Kong’s national security crackdown – month 46
In the 46th month since Beijing imposed a national security law on Hong Kong, the city held a raft of events to mark National Security Education Day. China’s top man on Hong Kong affairs urged it to prioritise economic development after the passage of a second security law.
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Jimmy Lai trial: Prosecution witness denies fabricating evidence to reduce his own jail term
A prosecution witness in the national security trial of Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai has denied defence allegations that he had fabricated his court evidence in exchange for a shorter jail term after earlier lying to police.
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Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong Kong ranks low on global press freedom index as watchdog cites ‘unprecedented’ setbacks
Hong Kong has again ranked low in a global press freedom index, as a watchdog cited an “unprecedented series of setbacks” including newsroom closures and journalist arrests under Beijing’s national security law.
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Press Gazette ☛ Alex Crawford slams Govt’s ’empty’ press freedom promises ‘without action’ on Gaza access
Crawford said a speech given to editors by the Prime Minister this week was "empty words".
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Internet Policy/Net Neutrality
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Hackaday ☛ My Space
If I could name one thing which has been the most transformative for our community over the last couple of decades, it would have to be the proliferation of hackerspaces. Ostensibly a place which provides access to tools and machinery, these organisations have become so much more. They bring together like-minded people, and from such a meeting of minds have come a plethora of high quality projects, events, and other good things.
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Xe's Blog ☛ Building a social network from scratch on a whiteboard
This is a transcription of a conference talk. This is not written in the same
way that I write technical articles. This is written in the way that I speak.
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Patents
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Have Australia’s ‘Raising the Bar’ Law Reforms Suppressed Patent Oppositions?
Australia has a pre-grant patent monopoly opposition system. That is to say, once an application has passed examination and been accepted for potential grant as a patent, there is a period (of three months) during which anybody may oppose the grant. The subsequent opposition proceedings – if they run their full course – consist of a series of evidentiary stages, legal submissions, and an oral hearing, following which the hearing officer (a delegate of the Commissioner of Patents) issues a written decision on the outcome of the opposition. In the final reckoning, the patent monopoly application may emerge unscathed, it may be refused, or it may end up being granted subject to narrowing amendments.
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JUVE ☛ Simmons & Simmons boosts Paris team with electronics specialist partner [Ed: Simmons & Simmons, which promoted the illegal UPC and paid (bribed) publishers like this one to participate, is getting SPAM disguised as "news" (no wonder the media is dying). Nobody cares about some 40 year old changing employer; it's not news, it is marketing SPAM.]
Dual-qualified lawyer and patent monopoly attorney Abdelaziz Khatab (41) has joined Simmons & Simmons as a partner in Paris, following nine years at French full-service firm, August Debouzy. His addition will strengthen the Simmons dispute resolution team, with his practice focusing largely on patent monopoly litigation in the telecommunication, electronics, medical technology and automotive sectors.
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Unified Patents ☛ $2,000 for Disintermediation Services web communications patent monopoly prior art
Unified Patents added a new PATROLL contest, with a $2,000 cash prize, seeking prior art on at least claim 1 of U.S. Patent 11,240,183, owned and asserted by Disintermediation Services, Inc. The present disclosure outlines a system for web-based communication. The system involves an electronic processor that manages conversations between users and responders.
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Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ Amazon Patent Enforcement Process Can Create Personal Jurisdiction
In a significant decision on personal jurisdiction in patent monopoly cases, the Federal Circuit held that using Amazon’s patent monopoly enforcement process (APEX) to target an alleged infringer’s listings can subject the patent monopoly owner to specific personal jurisdiction in the alleged infringer’s home state. SnapRays, LLC v. Lighting Def. Grp. LLC, No. 2023-1184 (Fed. Cir. May 2, 2024).
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Kangaroo Courts
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Kluwer Patent Blog ☛ UPC and Proportionality: Will the EU enters through the back door? (From 10xGenomics case to UPC “saisie-contrefaçon”) [Ed: UPC is illegal and those who still try to legitimate work for firms that advanced this crime with "lobbying" and bribes. This needs to be undone entirely. It's corruption at the highest level.]
Readers are familiar with the story of the founding of the UPC, which “obliged” its founders to make it an ad hoc Court, not integrated into the European judicial system (with a reinforced cooperation agreement between the members of the UPC). The fragility of this system has provoked much criticism (e.g., our comments here).
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Trademarks
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TTAB Blog ☛ TTABlog Test: How Did These Three Recent 2(d) Appeals Turn Out?
A TTAB judge once said to me that one can predict the outcome of a Section 2(d) appeal 95% of the time just by looking at the marks and the involved goods/services. Here are the three such appeals recently decided by the TTAB. How do you think these three came out? No hints this time. [Answers in first comment.]
In re TransAd, Inc., Serial No. 90877894 (April 25, 2024) [not precedential] (Opinion by Judge Mark A. Thurmon). [Section 2(d) refusal of IN-AD LANDING PAGE for, inter alia, "Advertising and commercial information services, via the internet; Advertising on the Internet for others," in view of the registered mark LANDINGPAGE for, inter alia, "dissemination of advertising for others via a global computer information network."]
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Copyrights
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Digital Music News ☛ Is Fashion Company Apple Liable for Astroworld Deaths? — A Houston Appeals Court Is Now Addressing That Question
Is Fashion Company Apple liable for the deaths that occurred during the Astroworld concert that it livestreamed? The first civil trial of the Astroworld tragedy has been delayed as the tech giant seeks dismissal from the lawsuit.
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Monopolies/Monopsonies
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