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The information on Groklaw is not intended to constitute legal advice. While Mark is a lawyer and he has asked other lawyers and law students to contribute articles, all of these articles are offered to help educate, not to provide specific legal advice. They are not your lawyers.

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Infinite-capacity wireless vortex beams carry 2.5 terabits per second | 305 comments | Create New Account
Comments belong to whoever posts them. Please notify us of inappropriate comments.
UEFI and Secure Boot - less Freedom is No Freedom
Authored by: TiddlyPom on Monday, June 25 2012 @ 08:09 AM EDT
Secure boot (through UEFI) is one of the biggest threats to Linux yet and we are marching towards a situation where hardware manufacturers can deny us the opportunity to boot Linux on the platforms that we want to.

Se e "Less Freedom is no freedom"

Even more worrying is the though that governments could then use "secure boot" as a means of preventing people from booting any other code than that 'authorized' by the state. In other words we can prevent you from running Linux on your laptop simply because we don't want you to - after all if the operating system does not have the relevant government back doors in it then you must be a terrorist or child molester - right?

This is an attack on fundamental freedoms - and with Red Hat/Fedora and Canonical/Ubuntu capitulating to Microsoft over the use of secure keys - it means that ultimately Microsoft can CONTROL whether Linux can run on 'their' hardware (even though the hardware is generic and not tied exclusively for Windows).

I know that WE have known about the problem for ages (plenty of people will be saying 'I told you so'). It is time that the wider public knew about this too otherwise Microsoft's conquest of the consumer computer industry will be complete.

---
Support Software Freedom - use GPL licenced software like Linux and LibreOffice instead of proprietary software like Microsoft Windows/Office or Apple OS/X

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Apple vs Motorola dismissed with prejudice
Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, June 25 2012 @ 09:16 AM EDT
Don't know if this has been noted, but the Apple vs Motorola case was dismissed with prejudice on Friday: link (infoworld.com). Any opinions?

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

How Bad Laws Happen
Authored by: sproggit on Monday, June 25 2012 @ 09:41 AM EDT
The BBC News web site is currently carrying this article about 4 people who are being charged after making a protest about Climate Change outside Buckingham Palance last Sunday.

What's interesting about this is that the article goes on to say that the individuals are being charged under provisions of the Serious Organised Crime & Police Act of 2005.

Say what?

How could it be that an Act of Parliament designed to provide the legal foundation for the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) could include something relating to protests? Believe it or not, this story gets even more bizarre...

Part Four of the Act is entitled, "Public order and conduct in public places etc" and includes provisions relating to this as a general area of criminal activity. Section 132 of the Act criminalises unauthorised demonstrations within a "Designated Area". Then, Section 138 of the Act goes on to clarify that anywhere within a "straight-line" distance of 1 kilometre of Parliament Square, or any other area deemed relevant by the Home Secretary shall be a designated area.

Obviously, Buckingham Palace (site of the arrests in question) falls within the 1km radius of the nearest point of Parliament Square and thus the arrest of the 4 individuals was entirely lawful...

But here's the weird bit. How on earth did we get "protests at Parliament Square" added to the Serious Organised Crime Act??? Isn't "Serious Organised Crime" things like drug cartels, gang labour, organised crime syndicates and the like?

Well, of course it is. So why did the provisions against protests make it into SOCA?

The on-line documentation does not reveal the true reason. I can speculate that it just so happened that when, a few years ago, we had issues of protests at Parliament Square, MPs decided that they did not like to see protesting citizens right outside their offices and chose to stop it by enacting laws to outlaw such behaviour (for, cynically speaking, a government would not want to be seen to be back-tracking on policy just because someone had the temerity to protest...).

But that brings a problem. The issue is that it takes a sitting government a lot of time and effort to spin up to writing a new law. First it has to be declared in the Queen's Speech at the opening of the next parliament. Then drafts have to be prepared by committee, various and multiple readings of the law by both chambers (House of Commons, House of Lords) and finally enactment via Royal Ascent.

All of which takes time.

So, what do you do when you're a sitting government and are publicly embarrassed by a group of citizens who choose to protest right on your doorstep? Answer, make a quick change to a law that's already going through the enactment process, to get your ideas in a little bit faster. Hence we have public protests covered by SOCA.

Is it appropriate? Probably not. Was it really necessary? Only to those who didn't like being reminded that what they were doing was unpopular. What's the result? Another potentially distorted law going on to the statute in the UK.

One of the things I find to be a challenge when I discuss this with fellow UK citizens is that 99% of people don't understand why this could be a problem. They don't see that the vastly complex and unwieldy laws cost us a fortune to enforce. They don't always understand that hugely complicated systems of benefits and deductions, of taxes and allowances, require us to have a small army of civil servants to make sense of it, and cost us a fortune to administer. Nor do they see the potential for injustice and mistakes when we try to implement such laws.

This isn't a "party political" issue, nor is it unique to the UK. It seems to be a problem across the world, where a sitting government "tweaks" legislation to suit their own purpose.

What a shame that no potential candidate, no aspirant political opposition, is willing to step up to the plate and commit to doing something to sort out the awful mess of laws by which we are governed...

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Has Microsoft opened the door to the Linux desktop?
Authored by: JamesK on Monday, June 25 2012 @ 10:03 AM EDT
Microsoft has alienated its hardware partners and will soon be rolling out a version of Windows that many people already dislike. Will the Linux desktop finally get its shot for the big-time?

---
The following program contains immature subject matter. Viewer discretion is advised.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

ACTA
Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, June 25 2012 @ 01:43 PM EDT
Today, the Dutch Secretary of Security and Justice and the Minister of Economic
Affairs have confirmed to Parliament that the Dutch Cabinet will not sign the
Anti Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), No Matter What The EU Bodies Will
Decide

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

  • ACTA - Authored by: stegu on Tuesday, June 26 2012 @ 08:00 AM EDT
    • ACTA - Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, June 26 2012 @ 04:44 PM EDT
Microsoft Passes On Motorola Settlement for Patent Lawsuit
Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, June 25 2012 @ 01:44 PM EDT
Source: Microsoft Passes On Motorola Settlement for Patent Lawsuit
In the latest move in the Microsoft-Motorola patent lawsuit, Motorola, now owned by Google, reportedly asked for a 2.25 percent royalty on all Xbox 360s sold to walk away from litigation, but Microsoft turned down Motorola’s settlement offer.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Infinite-capacity wireless vortex beams carry 2.5 terabits per second
Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, June 25 2012 @ 02:21 PM EDT
These twisted signals use orbital angular momentum (OAM) to cram much more data into a single stream. In current state-of-the-art transmission protocols (WiFi, LTE, COFDM), we only modulate the spin angular momentum (SAM) of radio waves, not the OAM. If you picture the Earth, SAM is our planet spinning on its axis, while OAM is our movement around the Sun. Basically, the breakthrough here is that researchers have created a wireless network protocol that uses both OAM and SAM.
Sebastian Anthony, ExtremeTech

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

NAD (National Association of the Deaf) sues Netflix
Authored by: qrider70 on Monday, June 25 2012 @ 05:34 PM EDT

Because Netflix is not providing subtitles or captioning for Deaf and hard of hearing users (in violation of ADA and other laws), NAD (and other plaintiffs working with NAD) are now in the process of suing Netflix so that Deaf and hard of hearing consumers are able to fully enjoy the information available on the internet. Hopefully, this will help other providers of online streaming and the content providers themselves to take into consideration the needs of those of us who are not able to access their programming without subtitles.

NAD is a Deaf-led national organization that represents the needs of Deaf people in the United States who function as a linguistic community where American Sign Language is the preferred language of communication. Deaf organizations at the state and local levels contribute to the decision- making process of the NAD.

There are other organizations that represent the needs and views of those who are hard of hearing and prefer to function more as a hearing person. In this instance, having subtitling or captioning available is a shared interest for both Deaf and hard of hearing individuals.

Link

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Microsoft partners inspired Surface design
Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, June 25 2012 @ 11:54 PM EDT
'"Apparently, a few weeks ago...Microsoft held executive- level reviews with Windows 8 tablet OEMs to get even further details on OEM launch and marketing plans and pricing." Then a few weeks after those meetings, Surface was launched, the first time for Microsoft to bring out a PC device in its roughly 40-year history.` link

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

RBS/NatWest Fail continues
Authored by: Chromatix on Tuesday, June 26 2012 @ 02:29 AM EDT
Someone got stuck in jail for an extra couple of days because the bank could not confirm that his bail payment had been made. BBC

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Ominous Copyright advice, MAFIAA will love it
Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, June 26 2012 @ 03:48 AM EDT
not law yet thank heaven

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Eben Moglen going strong strong strong!
Authored by: BJ on Tuesday, June 26 2012 @ 02:17 PM EDT
Story on Slashdot

bjd


[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

8 months after Jobs' death Apple admits its own mortality
Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, June 26 2012 @ 02:27 PM EDT
Apple Quietly Pulls Claims of Virus Immunity

In the wake of the Flashback botnet which targeted Mac computers, Apple has removed a statement from its messages on its website that Mac operating system X (OS X) isn't susceptible to viruses.

Apple removed the previous statement "It doesn't get PC viruses" and replaced it with "It's built to be safe," and "Safeguard your data. By doing nothing" with "Safety. Built in."

Hamish Barwick, Computerworld-Australia

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

The hogs are gathering at the trough.
Authored by: jvillain on Tuesday, June 26 2012 @ 03:00 PM EDT
MPEG-LA is tooling up for a whole new generation of patent encumbered video. Got a useless patent you haven't been able to get any one to bite on? Make a case for using it here.

Story

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

About patents from left field
Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, June 26 2012 @ 04:09 PM EDT
I just had a thought, don't laugh, sometimes the impossible is possible.
What if patents were only granted to applications that could show some value to
the citizenship as a whole. First they would have to PROVE that they are worth
the monopoly protection that having a patent gives them before gaining that
protection. I think that would end virtually all obvious or otherwise obtuse
claims. After all, isn't that what patents are for, extending knowledge by
providing temporary protection of new ideas? Why pay the price for little or no
benefit?

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

"...many paralegals I know can do the job of an attorney better than some attorneys"
Authored by: YurtGuppy on Tuesday, June 26 2012 @ 04:31 PM EDT
Abolish the Bar Exam by Allen Mendenhall

---
a small fish in an even smaller pond

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

EU Commissioner Reveals He Will Simply Ignore Any Rejection Of ACTA By European Parliament
Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, June 26 2012 @ 07:56 PM EDT
Second, once we will have identified and discussed these possible clarifications, I would intend to make a second request for consent to the European Parliament. Whether the Parliament will consider it under this legislature or the subsequent one, will be for you to decide.
This is an extraordinary admission. De Gucht says that even if the European Parliament unequivocally refuses to ratify ACTA next week, he will simply ignore that result, and re-submit it at a later date.
Glyn Moody, Techdirt

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Anyone heard of Sierra Club v. Orange County?
Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, June 26 2012 @ 08:18 PM EDT
I know this is an old lawsuit, but the California Supreme Court is in the process of reviewing it.

http://calpubrec.org/oclawsuit/

On April 21, 2009 the Sierra Club (SC) filed suit in Orange County Superior Court against the County of Orange (OC) to obtain GIS parcel mapping data under the California Public Records Act (PRA). The Sierra Club had requested this data several times in writing, and OC denied the request each time. The trial court denied the Sierra Club's request for a court order compelling Orange County to disclose the GIS parcel data under the PRA. The Sierra Club filed an appeal on August 27, 2010. The Court of Appeal heard oral arguments on March 18, 2011 and filed its opinion, ruling against the Sierra Club on May 31, 2011. On September 14, 2011 the California Supreme Court granted review. In case anyone is wondering the parcel data is an Oracle database that works with the GIS called ArcGIS. So, any database that is being used by a GIS magically turns into software!

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Flame could have taken one man-week to develop
Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, June 26 2012 @ 10:33 PM EDT
Glo wing Embers

The Myth of the Nation State Requirement, Todd Heberlein Net Squared, Inc.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

  • Slashdotted? - Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, June 27 2012 @ 03:58 PM EDT
Microsoft loses EU argument
Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, June 27 2012 @ 04:41 AM EDT
Arguments rejected by court but fine slightly reduced. It's still massive. That
opens the door for escalation penalties in other anti-trust action.

See here:-
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18606813

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

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