The Death of the Mind

We can add another government agency to the list of entities that have been suckered in by Clearview’s highly questionable sales pitches about its unproven tech: the US Army. [Paywall ahead, but alternatives abound.]

The US Army has a contract with Clearview AI, according to documents that reveal the controversial facial-recognition startup making bold claims to the military about capabilities such as “criminal network discovery” and “force protection and area security.”

The contract, obtained with other documents by Insider via public-records request, shows the US military awarding a discounted contract for Clearview to work with the Army’s Criminal Investigation Command, which investigates serious crimes that could involve active service members or civilian workers for the Army.

Fantastic. Now, let’s…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20210823/17000247418/us-army-now-using-clearviews-unproven-tech-to-investigate-crimes.shtml

The judicial construct known as qualified immunity will continue to make it harder for people to obtain redress for rights violations… at least for the time being. While there has been a more sustained movement to reform law enforcement across the nation, thanks to cops doing the sort of stuff they’ve been doing for decades, qualified immunity seems particularly bulletproof.

It probably seemed like a good idea at the time. It provided government employees a way to avoid being entangled in frivolous litigation based on unsustainable allegations of rights violations. But since that point, it has morphed into an easy button for civil suits, a route cops can use to escape accountability for actual rights violations so…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20210822/12210747407/congressional-lawmaker-give-up-attempt-to-dump-qualified-immunity-police-reform-efforts.shtml

Amazon is installing high-tech cameras inside supplier-owned delivery vehicles. Workers say the cameras are a shocking invasion of privacy as well as a safety hazard.
An Amazon Prime delivery van in downtown New Orleans, Louisiana. Tony Webster / Wikimedia Commons Earlier this year, Amazon revealed plans to install high-tech surveillance cameras in its fleet of delivery vans that are now ubiquitous in neighborhoods across the United States. The cameras watch drivers as well as the road and provide real-time audio feedback. While many of these drivers work in Amazon Prime–branded vehicles, they are not Amazon employees, but rather are employed by third-party contractors called delivery-service partners (DSPs) — an arrangement that,…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://jacobinmag.com/2021/08/amazon-worker-surveillance/

At TorrentFreak, we have written hundreds of articles about dubious takedown notices. Today, we find ourselves at the center of another one.
Earlier this week the ‘American Society of Composers’ sent a series of “DRM Circumvention” complaints to Google, acting on behalf of the Video Industry Association of America.
These notices are similar to standard DMCA takedown requests but focus on content that violates the DMCA’s anti-circumvention provision. And there’s another important distinction. Unlike normal takedown notices, there is no option to appeal a wrongful accusation.
Irreversable DRM Circumvention Takedowns
Whether the site operators agree with the takedowns or not, they are generally irreversible. The DMCA doesn’t prescribe a takedown and counter-notification scheme for these notices and Google previously confirmed…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://torrentfreak.com/torrentfreak-news-article-targeted-by-dubious-drm-circumvention-complaint-210822/

Enlarge / A medieval form of mead called “bochet” calls for caramelizing raw honey in a cauldron over an open flame. (credit: Screenshot/Gemma Tarlach/Gastro Obscura)
Ah, mead, that sweet, honeyed alcoholic beverage that has been a staple at Renaissance Fairs for decades (along with giant turkey legs). It’s also increasingly popular among home craft brewers since it’s relatively easy to make. Those in search of a unique challenge, however, are turning to a special kind of medieval mead called bochet. The only known detailed recipe for bochet dates back to the late 14th century and was lost for centuries, until it was rediscovered around 2009.
Fermentation in general has been around for millennia, and mead (“fermented honey…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://arstechnica.com/?p=1788923

External feed Read More at the Source: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/freedom-moving-forward-an-overview-of-the-fsfs-history

These are glorious. Sound on!Motus Art:

Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.jwz.org/blog/2021/07/flip-digit-fluids/

External feed Read More at the Source: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/freedom-moving-forward-an-overview-of-the-fsfs-history

 
Urban crime is the golden child of local media, as recent FAIR coverage (6/21/21) has shown. But as FAIR’s Julie Hollar recently noted, the amount of attention given to a topic does not always reflect the seriousness of the situation.
The original KGO report (6/15/21) that sparked hundreds of followup stories.
An alleged “crime surge” at Walgreens drugstores in San Francisco was a hot topic for Bay Area news outlets in the early months of 2021. When Lyanne Melendez, a reporter for the ABC-owned KGO-TV in San Francisco, tweeted out a cellphone video of a brazen shoplifter, it elevated this narrative into a nationwide story. The video purports to show a man apparently filling a garbage bag with…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://fair.org/home/shoplifting-is-big-news-stealing-millions-from-workers-is-not/