● 10.25.10

● Links 25/10/2010: Canonical Splits From GNOME Shell, LibreOffice Gains Momentum

Posted in News Roundup at 2:46 pm by Dr. Roy SchestowitzContentsGNU/LinuxGNU/Linux

• My colleagues who went to the talk also want to migrate to Linux and Open Office! Didn’t they see the beautiful video Microsoft produced explaining why you shouldn’t? Or how the grades of students are affected negatively if they use Open Office instead of MS Office for their assignments?

• We are talking about DESKTOP LINUX, remember? What does that mean? Well, that is pretty self-explanatory: it means desktop computers that RUN Linux. We are not talking about sales figures here. We are talking about desktop computers. Sales figures are sales figures; desktop computers are desktop computers. These are different concepts as the realities they embody.

• I completely stopped using Windows around 2002, and I’ve really enjoyed it, very, very much

• Since then I’ve been distro-hopping (swapping different Linux-versions, more commonly known as “distributions”, or “distros”) through everything from Slackware Linux to Ubuntu. It’s been a rocky and unstable ride to be quite honest, but it’s been an awesome learning-experience.

• I can’t even begin to count all the problems concerning re-installation of Windows on both my hands. Yes, that’s BOTH hands! I really, REALLY hate re-installing Windows. And if you’re a super-user like me, who likes to play around with your computer-systems, you’ve done a re-install a couple of dozen times (or maybe even more).

Server

• If the third test is successful, the LSE will open on Linux on 1 November, otherwise it will postpone the launch for a fortnight.

• David Lester, CEO of Turquoise, said that alongside the 126 microsecond average latency, 99% of orders would be processed within 210 microseconds, and only 0.1% will take longer than 400 microseconds.

• The dictionary is a tool that any writer or student should have on their computer. And Linux users are not immune from this need. But if you look through the possibilities of Linux dictionary tools you find quite a large amount available. Which of these tools are the best or easiest to use?

Audiocasts/Shows

Kernel Space

Graphics Stack

• It was just last week that page-flipping and sync-to-vblank support came to the Nouveau driver and now this open-source NVIDIA driver has initial support for Zaphod mode. While the Nouveau kernel mode-setting code has supported RandR 1.2 for quite a while with multi-monitor support, Red Hat’s Ben Skeggs has made an initial pass at providing Zaphod mode.

• According to Ben’s Git commit this less than 100 line patch should provide Zaphod mode capabilities for at least simple configurations. Zaphod mode is an older, alternate way for configuring dual-head mode support under Linux (rather than just configuring the displays with RandR) and is supported by some drivers. Setting up Nouveau’s Zaphod mode requires using the ZaphodHeads option (similar to the other supportive drivers) within the xorg.conf for specifying the RandR outputs that should be used for a particular driver instance.

• As we mentioned earlier, Apple’s Jeremy Huddleston took over release management of the X.Org Server 1.9 series now that it’s stable and will only receive bug-fixes from this point on. Meanwhile, Keith Packard and the gang of X.Org developers are focusing on X.Org Server 1.10 to have that ready by early next year. Jeremy Huddleston on this Saturday night has just made his first point release, X.Org Server 1.9.1.

• This release though is not exactly a surprise considering there’s been release candidates for a few weeks and it was expected to make its debut in October so that it can be released as part of the X.Org 7.6 Katamari, but all has been quiet on that front, so it may be delayed or has just been held up until xorg-server 1.9.1.

Applications

• YALI, Yet Another Linux Installer, is the installation program of Pardus, a desktop-oriented Linux distribution with roots in the National Research Institute of Electronics and Cryptology (UEKAE), Turkey. The next stable release of Pardus will be Pardus 2011. According to the release announcement of Pardus 2011 beta, which was released a couple of days ago, YALI will ship with a redesigned interface and a bunch of advanced features not available in previous editions.

• The post a week ago mentioning a few non-console programs was well received, so here are a few more I made a note of, but probably wouldn’t pursue personally.

• Tivion is a simple streaming player for TV online. It’s a program that I develop with Python using the GTK library, PyGTK and the backend of player Mplayer. This is the official page of news recopilations for the program.

• I have just pushed* the tarballs for the 0.9.2 release of compiz.

Instructionals/Technical

• When Zimbra is talked about in the open source community, it usually means someone is talking about the open source groupware server that waits in the background to overtake Exchange. That may be the case, but there is another Zimbra tool that should be on the lips of anyone looking for a great email/social client. That tool? Zimbra Desktop.

Games

• Nicholas from Gaslamp Games commented on a post last week noting that their upcoming roguelike RPG Dungeons of Dredmor will be released for Linux…

• MMORPG space combat game ‘Vendetta Online‘ is coming to the Ubuntu software Centre.

• The game, which uses a subscription-based model for funding, sees users to take on the role of spaceship pilots who are able to fly around the in-game universe battling, trading and interacting with potentially thousands of other players online at the same time.

• UK based award-winning independent games studio PuppyGames are currently offering up a triple pack of their retro-styled, addictive arcade games for the insane price of of $4.97 – saving you well over $50 on the original sale prices!

• I’ve mentioned this game obliquely before, but not formally… yet.

• Minecraft is a Java-based game about placing blocks. While running from skeletons.

Desktop Environments

K Desktop Environment/KDE SC)

• Unlike tile-based maps used as layers in map themes, offline routing maps consist of large chunks of data that enable the calculation of routes in a certain area. For all of the offline routers supported by Marble, these maps are created by a router specific conversion tool: Put an osm map file in, get a router map file out. When copied to the right place, Marble uses them for offline routing. This task can only be accomplishing by users with detailed technical knowledge and quite some motivation to read the documentation and follow all steps. Clearly nothing I’d expect from the average user.

GNOME Desktop

• Canonical is changing the default interface on the next release of Ubuntu from GNOME to Unity, a new open source project that focuses on simplified interface and three dimensional displays.

• Canonical made the switch for the next release of its Ubuntu desktop Linux distribution, because of increasingly divergent views of how a desktop interface should look and operate, according to Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth.

• The GNOME development team have issued the first development version of GNOME 3.0, the next major release of the popular open source desktop for GNU / Linux and Unix. Version 3 of GNOME was originally scheduled for release towards the end of last month, however, in July of this year the release date was moved back by six months to April of 2011 because the GNOME release team felt the code was not sufficiently mature.

Distributions

PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandrake/Mandriva Family

Red Hat Family

• Red Hat Inc. has a market cap of $7.4 billion; its shares were traded at around $39.15 with a P/E ratio of 71.1 and P/S ratio of 10. Red Hat Inc. had an annual average earning growth of 22.7% over the past 5 years.

• VRSN competes in the Application Software industry with Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) [Chart - Analysis - News]—the largest firm in the industry group—and Red Hat, Inc. (RHT) [Chart - Analysis - News], who have returned 3.88% and 1.47% during the past month, respectively. VRSN is likely to be sensitive to its competitors so future weakness in the Application Software industry could be an early warning sign that things might be turning around.

Fedora

• I’ve been approved as a Fedora Ambassador for the North America region. I’d like to thank my mentor Larry Cafiero and the people in the #fedora-ambassadors irc channel on Freenode. My goals in this position are to spread the good word about the Fedora Project. I’ll be attending various Fedora events, I’ll be setting up my own events and I’ll likely do some talks regarding key features in the latest release of Fedora which will soon be Fedora 14. I am also investigating the process of setting up a Fedora and Free Software based netcast. It’s something I’ve started to get interest in ever since I saw a book on it at Value Village this weekend.

Debian Family

Canonical/Ubuntu

• A blueprint suggesting a that a variant of the Unity netbook interface should be used on the desktop edition for Natty Narwhal has been approved by Mark Shuttleworth for discussion at the Ubuntu Developer Summit this week.

• What’s on tap for this week in the world of Ubuntu? It’s the Ubuntu Developer Summit for the Ubuntu 11.04, Natty Narwhal cycle, otherwise known as UDS-N.

• Just as UDS website states, “Be there and make a difference”, I’ll be blogging, denting, tweeting, facebooking and more from the sessions this week. I am looking forward to seeing what we, as users of Ubuntu, can expect for our desktops, servers, ARM devices, and more from Ubuntu 11.04.

• There is also community sessions where I’ll find out what projects are happening in and around the community where you can contribute and let you know about those as well.

• Earlier this month we delivered Ubuntu 10.10 benchmarks from some different hardware comparing the performance of this “Maverick Meerkat” release to that of Ubuntu 9.10 and 10.04.1 LTS. The results were interesting, but since then we have had the time to complete additional tests. In this benchmarking roundabout, we decided to see how the performance of every release from Ubuntu 8.04 LTS through the new Ubuntu Linux release performs when tested in a virtualized environment using Linux’s KVM virtualization. Here are the virtualized guest results for Ubuntu 8.04.4 LTS, 8.10, 9.04, 9.10, 10.04.1 LTS, and 10.10.

• In his keynote address at the Ubuntu Developer Summit Mark Shuttleworth has announced that Ubuntu 11.04 will use a new desktop version of Unity for the default desktop environment.

• ‘Desktop Unity’ will be installed as the default desktop for users whose hardware support it. Improved work on the hardware front will ensure as many users are able to benefit from the unified interface as possible.

• …we have already started porting !Unity from mutter to Compiz and the initial work is much faster…

• Helping to fund your favourite open-source applications will become much easier in Ubuntu 11.04.

• A new method will be introduced to the Ubuntu Software Store to allow users to ‘sponsor a package’ for any amount they so wish via the in-place UbuntuOne payment structure.

• While GNOME 3.0 is expected to roll out in March and will boast the brand new GNOME Shell interface with the Mutter compositing window manager, this will not appear by default in the Ubuntu desktop. Certainly not in Ubuntu 11.04 and it doesn’t look like it will be used at all in the future by default (granted, you’ll be able to install the shell from a package repository). It’s just been announced that beginning with Ubuntu 11.04, the desktop spin will begin using the Unity shell that Canonical originally developed for netbooks.

• LibreOffice is a productivity suite that is compatible with other major office suites, and available on a variety of platforms. LibreOffice is a fork of the famous project OpenOffice project which is now under Oracle. It is free software and servers all your basic needs. It is the result of immense efforts by The Document Foundation aimed at making an Office suite or desktops that servers all your needs for free.

• Unity is the current Ubuntu Netbook Edition interface and has received a lot of criticism since UNE 10.10 came out such as not being finished, poor performance and the lack of customization.

• If you though Compiz was left in the dark once Gnome Shell comes out, think again.

• No doubt that Ubuntu 10.04 LTS was a really good distribution and still it’s LTS ” Long Term Support ” release, Desktop releases will be supported for 3 years and server releases supported for 5 years, but with Ubuntu 10.10 won’t be supported when the next release comes out 11.04 Natty Narwhal.

• CloudSigma AG, a leading European provider of cloud servers is pleased to announce the launch of a new range of pre-installed Ubuntu 10.10 servers in its cloud. CloudSigma customers can now enjoy the new features of Ubuntu’s new ‘Maverick Meerkat’ release in the form of instantly deployable high performing cloud servers.

• The latest version of Ubuntu known as Maverick Meerckat or 10.10 has a minor bug which might be bothering you as well. When you try to open a folder via Places, instead of opening it as a folder, it opens it with some media player, Rhythmbox or VLC, etc.

• The tenth day of the tenth month in the tenth year of this century has been the day for revolutionary day in mobile technology.

• Ubuntu Linux hit the market on this day with a 10.10 revision that is using a new Unity desktop interface, which is expected to make the congested net book screens more organized. This software purchase will make the Ubuntu platform as an app with a free 2 GB Drop box-like cloud storage that automatically synchronizes the files and folders, while streaming music to android and other devices like iPhones.

• Version 10.10 of Ubuntu, also known as “Maverick Meerkat,” has arrived. The Linux operating system comes in three different versions: one of desktops and laptops, one for servers and one with a special Unity interface designed specifically for netbooks. For version 10.10, Canonical has put a great deal of focus on the OS’s cloud offerings.

Flavours and Variants

Devices/Embedded

• Yesterday, I stopped by my local Walmart to buy a wireless router for my network. I wanted something small with good performance, a good price, and compatible with GNU/Linux. As I searched the computer electronics aisle, I saw wireless routers ranging from over $100 all the way down to about $60. However, $60 was more than I wanted to spend. I didn’t need anything fancy, just something that would allow me to get on the Internet with my IBM T40 laptop and my Dell netbook. I didn’t need IEEE 802.11n, 802.11g is fast enough for my network needs. I looked down and I saw the little white and yellow box containing the Belkin Connect N150. It seemed like a nice looking device, which made me quite happy. I was even happier when I saw the price: $29.95!

Phones

Android

• Yes, we all know that the default messenger for the Android does it job – it does exactly what it’s intended for and does it well, albeit with very few frills. However, there have been issues that you’ll encounter using it like transmitting photos, and having to switch back and forth to the main screen to chat to more than one person.

• If you’re like us, you probably follow the Android Developers team on Twitter to keep up with official news and announcements. If you don’t, then you would have missed the recent tweet that officially pegged the Android Market with 100,000 applications. Congratulations to Google, the Android team, and everyone who has helped push the Market forward!

Free Software/Open Source

• MyClientBase is an open source invoice and client management application that was built with simplicity and ease of use in mind. Running on your webserver, it comes with the following features among others

• * Multi Lingual * Customisable invoicing * Modular, extend functionality with contributed modules * Support for multi tax rate

SaaS

• You may have noticed there’s a fair bit of interest in this cloud computing thing. You’ve probably also come across various articles suggesting this is the end of free software – and the world – as we know it, since cloud-based platforms render operating systems on servers and desktops largely moot.

• We said there won’t be Radeon HD 6000 support ready for the Linux 2.6.37 kernel (the kernel release that’s beginning its development cycle right now) and that we’re unlikely to see any kernel mode-setting support ready before the Linux 2.6.38 kernel even if things go well. A Gallium3D driver is likely to come (not a classic Mesa driver) at some point after the DRM code has landed. Basically, if we’re lucky by the time major Linux distributions start rolling out in 2011 (i.e. Ubuntu 11.04, Fedora 15) we may see some form of open-source support for these new AMD Radeon graphics processors. However, at least a few users we’re wondering if AMD had some magical or surprise open-source drop to do for the Radeon HD 6800 series. Unfortunately, they do not. While there is no code or documentation to provide, in the days since the Radeon HD 6850/6870 launch we have learned at least a few more details about the forthcoming support.

Oracle

• It’s autumn, the leaves are falling and the nights are drawing in. The season for endings is upon us.

• And now, a different and exciting job awaits. My last day here is Oct 25, ending a brief and busy four years at Sun and then Oracle.

• Most free software accumulates myths. Most people only know about it second hand (if at all), but few are slowed by the fact that they don’t know what they are talking abo

• We had a really important amount of new contributions, but people tends to prefer figures to see it. I used the git repositories logs and gitdm to get the data and produce some graphs showing the intense activity around LibreOffice. The gitdm configuration and scripts to extract the data can be found in my personal git repos on freedesktop.org. The first graph is showing the number of contributors increasing each week. There are a few interesting points to note:

• * The number of new contributors grew quickly. The graph don’t show it, but there are now more than 60 new contributors. * The contributors counted in this graph are either developers or people working on localization. * Oracle is contributing: LibreOffice merges OpenOffice.org changes.

• It has been a long time but SVG import is coming to OpenOffice.org. This improves the scalability of graphics and makes it easier to use tools like InkScape to produce graphics for OpenOffice.org. This issue has been on the bug file since 2001… Some people have more patience than I.

• Want to know how I spent yesterday? I spent many hours on a single XP machine that had lost its anti-malware. The download of anti-virus libraries took all day because they kept aborting. I installed OpenOffice.org 3.2.1, Google Chrome browser as well as the fool anti-virus.

• The latest version of IBM’s OpenOffice.org based office suite ‘Lotus Symphony’ has been released.

• Lotus Symphony 3 boasts many new and enhanced features; benefits from the OpenOffice 3 codebase and introduces new sidebars for .

• With the formation of the Document Foundation (TDF), we saw the arrival of another office suite based on OpenOffice — it’s called Libre Office. Recently there was some conflict between TDF and OpenOffice.org/Oracle teams. We approached TDF to understand the current situation and the future of Libre Office. Here is an interview with Italo Vignoli of The Document Foundation.

FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

• Leena Simon is studying philosophy at Potsdam University and is currently completing a dissertation on problems with the concept of “intellectual property”. She also works with FoeBuD, and was involved in the organisation of this year’s “Freedom Not Fear” demonstrations which took place throughout Europe. We sat down to discuss the dangers of state surveillance, the importance of the politicisation of software, and how organisations like FoeBud and The Pirate Party, as well as the Free Software movement, must be careful not to succumb to dogmatism. For more, check out leena.de.

• The last 27 years have witnessed the rise of a different kind of software built in a different manner. This is the Free Software movement, started in September 1983 by Richard Stallman, who was working at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), United States, at that time. He started the GNU project to develop software that would free users from the restrictive licences imposed by software companies. He also prepared the GNU General Public Licence, or GPL, a “copy-left” licence currently in its third version, under which such software can be distributed so that the freedoms are always preserved. He was soon joined by many people, and today there are possibly tens of thousands of people contributing to various pieces of software that are distributed under free licences. The freedom to share it freely makes it available at virtually no cost, while the freedom to study and modify the software ensures that the human readable source code is available for anyone who wants it. And bugs are quickly discovered and fixed.

Licensing

• Average:

• License compliance is a major and costly issue for proprietary software, but the license involved in that case is an End User License Agreement (EULA), not a source license delivering extensive liberties. When we compare like-for-like, we discover open source software has no such issues. End-users do not need to have a license management server, do not need to hold audits, do not need to fear BSA raids. Open source is so much easier!

• But it’s easy to forget that. The New York Times recently featured the activities of the GPL enforcement community. While there’s a part of me that’s pleased there are people doing this, I’m concerned that their well-intentioned actions – and those elsewhere, such as the Linux Foundation’s compliance programme – are the focus of public understanding about open source software. Of the many attributes of software freedom that could move to front-of-mind, it strikes me that the minimal license compliance burdens for open source software are actually a comparative strength and having them presented as a feature applies a “frame” that serves only the detractors of software freedom.

Openness/Sharing

Open Data

• Canada’s privacy watchdog says the federal government is showing a “disturbing” lack of regard for the privacy of Canadians in the government’s use of wireless devices such as BlackBerrys and the disposal of documents and computers.

Standards/Consortia

• W3C has announced the third version of its standards for the inclusion of mathematical expressions in Web pages. MathML (Mathematical Markup Language) is aimed to make math on the Web more accessible and more international. While the basic markup remains the same, this version brings to it some improvements for assistive technology, as well as for formulas in languages that are written from right to left.

Leftovers

• The publisher may be right in the middle of introducing fees for its own online newspapers, but it is putting on ice Rupert Murdoch’s grander ambition of creating a pay-for digital news service comprising content from the entire UK news industry. At the same time, sources familiar with the company’s plans say similar efforts in the U.S. have been put on a slower track, but not being canceled.

• Nimbuzz, a popular mobile communication service provider, has been asked by Skype to remove support for all Skype services, effective October 31st.

• The startup will be announcing the news to its 30 million or so registered users later today.

• The Wi-Fi Alliance is about to drop a wireless connectivity bombshell called Wi-Fi Direct that will enable device-to-device connections using current Wi-Fi standards. The Wi-Fi Alliance will begin certifying Wi-Fi Direct devices today.

• One of the oldest customs of book lovers and libraries — lending out favorite titles to friends and patrons — is finally getting recognized in the electronic age, at least in one electronic book reader: Amazon has announced that it plans to allow users of its Kindle book reader to “lend” electronic books to other Kindle users, based on the publisher’s discretion.

Science

• Creaform just announced a brand new ultra-high-end handheld 3D scanner, the MetraSCAN. This totally amazing 2Kg device can scan 3D objects up to 10m in size to an astounding resolution of only 0.05mm, at a rate of 36,000 measurements per second!

Security

• Firesheep is free, open source, and is available now for Mac OS X and Windows. Linux support is on the way.

• Websites have a responsibility to protect the people who depend on their services. They’ve been ignoring this responsibility for too long, and it’s time for everyone to demand a more secure web. My hope is that Firesheep will help the users win.

• Just a quick note to let everyone know that Glibc is dangerous. This bug can be exploited to gain root privileges. This means that, basically, everything in the GNU tool chain is potentially a vector for entry. Hopefully a patch will be forthcoming, after which you can expect a million recompiles the world over.

Defence/Police/Aggression

• Frustrated at the direction the media’s narrative has taken, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange walked out of an interview with CNN’s Atika Schubert.

• She inquired about the rape allegations made against him in Sweden but he threatened several times to walk when she brought the subject up. When she didn’t drop it completely, he removed his mic and walked away.

• The reporter drew some frustrated comments from Assange when she suggested that the rape accusations — which Assange believe were fabricated by the Pentagon or another enemy — affect WikiLeaks. “I’m not going to talk about that in relation to this … this interview is about something else.

• Over the weekend, Wikileaks struck again. That’s the Web site that continues to get its hands on some sensitive documents and releases the information.

• To supplement my post yesterday about The New York Times’ government-subservient coverage of the WikiLeaked documents regarding the war that newspaper played such a vital role in enabling, consider — beyond the NYT’s sleazy, sideshow-smears against Julian Assange — the vast disparity between how newspapers around the world and The New York Times reported on a key revelation from these documents: namely, that the U.S. systematically and pursuant to official policy ignored widespread detainee abuse and torture by Iraqi police and military (up to and including murders).

• In the largest document leak in US history, WikiLeaks has released more than 400,000 secret US documents about the Iraq war. As with the second-largest leak in US history – the 92,000 Afghan war documents released in July – much of the substance of the leaks has been reported already, but details are new.

Environment/Energy/Wildlife

• BP and several other big European companies are funding the midterm election campaigns of Tea Party favourites who deny the existence of global warming or oppose Barack Obama’s energy agenda, the Guardian has learned.

• An analysis of campaign finance by Climate Action Network Europe (Cane) found nearly 80% of campaign donations from a number of major European firms were directed towards senators who blocked action on climate change. These included incumbents who have been embraced by the Tea Party such as Jim DeMint, a Republican from South Carolina, and the notorious climate change denier James Inhofe, a Republican from Oklahoma.

• BP has said it will sell its interests in four Gulf of Mexico oil fields to Japan’s Marubeni as part of its moves to pay for the oil spill there.

• The deal, which is subject to regulatory approval, is expected to raise $650m (£413m).

• BP is in the process of selling assets worth up to $30bn to meet clean-up and compensation costs.

• Last week, the company announced it would sell business interests in Vietnam and Venezuela for $1.8bn.

Finance

• After months of horror stories, it seemed that the real estate mess could not get any worse. But now, the nation is in the middle of yet another foreclosure crisis.

• We’re barely two years past the banking crisis, still weathering the mortgage crisis and nervously watching Europe struggle with its sovereign debt crisis. Yet every economic seer has a favorite prediction about what part of the economy the next crisis will come from: Municipal bonds? Hedge funds? Derivatives? The federal debt?

• Finance ministers from the world’s major nations agreed to a U.S.-brokered plan for easing tensions over exchange rates and world trade patterns, saying that a “fragile and uneven” economic recovery was at risk if top powers pursued conflicting policies or used the value of their currencies to gain an edge for their exports.

• A thought: it has occurred to me that we could use an economics equivalent of Keith Olbermann’s “Worst Person in the World” award. KO does not, of course, mean that the person he goes after on any given night really is the worst person in the world; he just uses the title to highlight some especially awful action or statement.

• President Barack Obama says consumers would lose if Republicans regain power in Congress and try to roll back his hard-won Wall Street overhaul.

• As the banking community wades through the murky waters of regulatory changes, Washington area institutions are forging ahead with strategies to offset compliance costs, falling fee income and tepid loan demand.

• Earlier this week, Bank of America, the nation’s largest consumer bank, reported its third-quarter earnings. It was a very good quarter; putting aside an accounting charge — a very large, $10.4 billion accounting charge, admittedly — the bank reported $3.1 billion in profits. It was the third consecutive quarter that Bank of America had earned more than $3 billion.

• Health insurers flirted with Democrats, supported them with money and got what they wanted: a federal mandate that most Americans carry health care coverage. Now they’re backing Republicans, hoping a GOP Congress will mean friendlier regulations.

• They may get more than they’re wishing for.

• The G20 sealed an accord branded as “historic” on Saturday (24 October) to reform the International Monetary Fund, in a grand bargain that will see Europe give up two seats on the Fund’s Executive Board in return for greater responsibility from emerging economies on currency valuations.

Internet/Net Neutrality/DRM

• Last Tuesday 215,646 Internet users in Iran evaded their regime to visit sites such as Facebook, Twitter and RadioFarda.com, the U.S.-funded Persian-language news service. In Syria, 14,886 people freely surfed; in Vietnam, 10,612; in Saudi Arabia, 14,691; in China, 18,000.

Intellectual Monopolies

• Facebook has filed another lawsuit, this time against Faceporn.com, an x-rated social-networking site. Facebook filed suit on Oct. 15 in the U.S. District Court in Northern California, claiming that Faceporn copied Facebook to build its site and is in violation of copyright.

• Faceporn calls itself “the number one socializing porn and sex network,” but its site has been down since Wednesday according a Tweet.

Copyrights

• Unlike the suspension by the Minister’s order, a suspension by the Copyright Commission’ recommendation can be made without requiring that the unauthorized reproduction or transmission takes place at least three times.

• You wouldn’t shoot a policeman, steal his helmet, go to the toilet in it and then send it to his grieving widow?

• Would you?

• That’s what the IT Crowd ask in a FACT parody.

• The IT Crowd is a British Channel 4 sitcom “Set in the London offices of the fictional corporation Reynholm Industries”, says the Wikipedia.

ACTA

• Negotiations on ACTA were formally announced on October 23, 2007. Now, three years later, the European Parliament is being asked to endorse an agreement that was officially published in near final form on October 6, 2010.[1] This letter addresses our concerns about the current text, and asks the Parliament to consider actions that would address its shortcomings.

• Overall, and in many important areas, the October 2010 version of the ACTA text is a significant improvement over the only other public version, the one published on April 16, 2010. In the October 2010 text, a number of important safeguards have been added in areas such as privacy, public health, and in clarifying the objectives and purposes of the agreement. The border measures and the Internet provisions have been significantly improved by removing patents from the border measures, narrowing the scope and more carefully addressing the importance of safeguards and balance in the text. We also note improvements in the civil litigation provisions on injunctions. This said, there are outstanding issues that are important, and which may undermine the credibility, usefulness and durability of the agreement.

• Briefing Note for Members of the European Parliament by HAI, TACD, MSF and Oxfam

• Negotiations are not the end of the road – ACTA is a blank cheque for the future

• In a move that would circumvent open debate and due scrutiny, the agreement proposes an annual meeting of signatories where amendments to the Treaty can be negotiated. Even some of the most contentious issues that have been removed during the negotiations could, within a year, be back in the text once ACTA is out of the public spotlight. Any future changes to ACTA must be subject to public scrutiny by all stakeholders and must receive parliamentary approval. (ACTA, Art. 6.4: Amendments, Arts. 5.1.2. 5.1.4)

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