Surprise: Judge Throws Out Jury’s Awful Copyright Infringement Decision Over Katy Perry Song Techdirt.

Mar 202020
 

Last summer, we wrote about yet another post-Blurred Lines decision, showing that any two random songs that sounded kinda a little similar, might be ripe for a court to find infringing. In this case, it was a Katy Perry song, Dark Horse, that was found to infringe on a little known artist named “Flame,” who had a song called “Joyful Noise.” As we noted at the time, the similarities between the song were simply basic…

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 2020-03-20  Comments Off on Surprise: Judge Throws Out Jury’s Awful Copyright Infringement Decision Over Katy Perry Song Techdirt.

Banks Pressure Health Care Firms to Raise Prices on Critical Drugs, Medical Supplies for Coronavirus The Intercept

Mar 202020
 

In recent weeks, investment bankers have pressed health care companies on the front lines of fighting the novel coronavirus, including drug firms developing experimental treatments and medical supply firms, to consider ways that they can profit from the crisis. The media has mostly focused on individuals who have taken advantage of the market for now-scarce medical and hygiene supplies to hoard masks and hand sanitizer and resell them at higher prices. But the largest voices…

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Hacking the planet with Notcurses LWN.net

Mar 202020
 

Author Nick Black has written an extensive book on the creation of textual user interfaces using the notcurses library; it’s available under the Apache license [PDF]. “Many people asked how such a thing was useful. My usual response was that numerous devices don’t present a bitmap interface, that X11 GUIs run remotely over SSH are effectively unusable, that plenty of machines don’t have a GUI environment installed, that there are obvious applications for large outdoor…

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Dealing With Coronavirus Requires Bold Action. The Democratic Leadership Won’t Take It. Jacobin

Mar 202020
 

The Democrats have an opportunity to push for desperately needed, sweeping economic change in response to coronavirus. Instead, they’re letting themselves be outflanked by Republicans. US Speaker of the House Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) speaks to members of the media as Rep. Lizzie Fletcher (D-TX), Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) and Rep. Susie Lee (D-NV) listen at the US Capitol March 13, 2020 in Washington, DC. Alex Wong / Getty There’s nothing better to shift our…

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 2020-03-20  Comments Off on Dealing With Coronavirus Requires Bold Action. The Democratic Leadership Won’t Take It. Jacobin

Charter Countersues Music Companies for Sending Inaccurate DMCA Notices TorrentFreak

Mar 202020
 

Last year, several major music companies sued Charter Communications, one of the largest Internet providers in the US with 22 million subscribers. Helped by the RIAA, Capitol Records, Warner Bros, Sony Music, and others accused Charter of deliberately turning a blind eye to its pirating subscribers. Under US law, providers must terminate the accounts of repeat infringers “in appropriate circumstances” and Charter failed to do so, according to the music labels. Specifically, the ISP is…

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ASCII art + permadeath: The history of roguelike games Ars Technica

Mar 202020
 

Appreciate the game that inspired the genre and its name: Rogue. Roguelike games have grown in popularity over the 40 years the genre has existed, even though they implement ideas that might seem anathema to popular gaming: extreme randomness, ASCII graphics, permadeath, enormous complexity, and more. Yet these days, you can just about sneeze and hit something that has at least been influenced by roguelikes. And so, in the spirit of game genre histories past—we’ve…

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Pervasive digital surveillance of citizens deployed in COVID-19 fight, with rules that send genie back to bottle The Register

Mar 202020
 

Israel is up for it. America, Iran, Thailand may be, too. China is there already, natch Pervasive surveillance through digital technologies is the business model of Facebook and Google. And now governments are considering the web giants’ tools to track COVID-19 carriers for the public good.…

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Bernie Sanders Is Trying to Rescue America’s Frail Democracy Jacobin

Mar 202020
 

The Democratic Party elite insists nothing can be done to mobilize working-class nonvoters. By challenging their cynicism, Bernie Sanders is rendering a profound service to American democracy. Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders participates in a coronavirus public health roundtable with healthcare professionals on March 09, 2020 in Detroit, Michigan. Scott Olson / Getty Let it be said at once: the treatment received by Bernie Sanders in the leading media in the United States and…

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Baking through the pandemic: Sourdough soft pretzels Boing Boing

Mar 202020
 

A few days ago I started a sourdough starter because baking chills me out and provides stuff to eat. I took a look at the old French Press carafe I am using as a container a few hours after the 3rd time I fed said starter. The starter looked like it was READY TO GO but I figured I should probably feed it a few more times just to be sure. I did not, however,…

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Hong Kong makes wearable trackers mandatory for new arrivals, checks in with ‘surprise calls’ too The Register

Mar 192020
 

Government CIO promises they don’t record location, just change of location Hong Kong has made it mandatory for all new arrivals to wear an “electronic wristband” that links to a smartphone to provide location-tracking services, so that authorities can be sure they’re observing COVID-19 quarantine requirements. And the city-state insists its privacy commissioner has signed off on the idea because it “does not pose privacy concerns.”…

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 2020-03-19  Comments Off on Hong Kong makes wearable trackers mandatory for new arrivals, checks in with ‘surprise calls’ too The Register

Unchecked Smart Cities are Surveillance Cities. What We Need are Smart Enough Cities. Deeplinks

Mar 192020
 

We can have beautiful cities without turning our cities into surveillance cities. Cities across the U.S. are forcing operators of shared bikes and scooters to use dangerous and privacy invasive APIs developed by the Los Angeles Department of Transportation. These APIs—collectively called the “mobility data specification,” or MDS—require that operators share granular location data on every trip taken. The location data that cities are demanding is incredibly sensitive and relates to the movements of real…

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 2020-03-19  Comments Off on Unchecked Smart Cities are Surveillance Cities. What We Need are Smart Enough Cities. Deeplinks

Librem 5 Keyboard Improvements Purism

Mar 192020
 

Smartphones haven’t really needed a full computer keyboard, until now. We are turning the Linux desktop ecosystem into a convergent one. In order to access desktop applications, our keyboard has to feel good on the small screen, as well as expose common desktop keystrokes. Terminal use While you can comfortably use the GUI in PureOS, the terminal is fully empowered. Giving you all your favorite GNU commands, anything missing is likely an install command away.…

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RCV Ballot Measure Approved for Alaska’s November Ballot What’s New – Fairvote

Mar 192020
 

Alaskan voters will get the chance to adopt statewide ranked choice voting (RCV) after the state’s Division of Elections certified a three-pronged ballot measure submitted by Alaskans for Better Elections, a bipartisan advocacy group. The ballot measure, officially certified on March 9, was filed with 41,068 signatures (36,006 deemed valid)—far more than the 28,501 valid signatures required by state law. The measure would replace partisan primaries with open top-four primaries for statewide and congressional offices and establish…

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Yesterday’s Elections Were a Disgrace Jacobin

Mar 192020
 

On Tuesday, despite urgent pleas from public health experts for postponement of the balloting, voters reported being forced into unsanitary environments and jumping through arduous hoops to vote. The culprit was the party that believes in science and voting rights. Poll worker Jeremy Block, center, directs 88-year-old Mort Winsberg to a voting booth in Leon County, Florida, precinct 5105, during the Florida primary on March 17, 2020 in Tallahassee. Mark Wallheiser / Getty Joe Biden’s…

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Conservative Worries Relief Checks Would Discourage Americans From Providing For Selves By Killing Him And Taking His Property The Onion

Mar 192020
 

NEW HAVEN, CT—Speaking out against proposals to provide federal assistance to Americans hardest hit by the pandemic-fueled economic downturn, local conservative Mark Garrett expressed worry Wednesday that relief checks would discourage citizens from learning to provide for themselves by killing him and taking his…Read more…

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Illinois Used Nearly 50 Facilities for Low-Income Seniors in Chicago as Polling Locations on Tuesday The Intercept

Mar 192020
 

In order to push forward with in-person elections on Tuesday, local election officials across Illinois relocated hundreds of polling locations due to concerns about exposing particularly vulnerable populations to the novel coronavirus. Guidelines issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ahead of the election were particularly stark.  “If you are an older person, stay home and away from other people,” the latest guidelines read. “If you are a person with a serious underlying health condition…

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 2020-03-19  Comments Off on Illinois Used Nearly 50 Facilities for Low-Income Seniors in Chicago as Polling Locations on Tuesday The Intercept

Enough is Enough—Let it Expire Deeplinks

Mar 192020
 

On March 15, 2020, Section 215—a provision of FISA with a rich history of government overreach and abuse—expired. That provision, along with two other provisions of FISA, lapsed after lawmakers failed to reach an agreement on a broader set of FISA reforms. Late last week, before the law expired, the House of Representatives passed the USA FREEDOM Reauthorization Act, which would have extended Section 215 for three more years, along with some modest reforms.  After…

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The Coronavirus Is Killing Iranians. So Are Trump’s Brutal Sanctions. The Intercept

Mar 182020
 

A woman mourns during a funeral held at Beheshte Masoumeh Cemetery for the victims of the new coronavirus in Qom, Iran, on March 17, 2020. Photo: Fatemah Bahrami/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images The U.S. government is run by sociopaths. How else to explain the Trump administration’s callous disregard for the lives of ordinary Iranians in the midst of this global coronavirus crisis? How else to make sense of U.S. officials doubling down in their support…

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