● 06.10.22

Gemini version available ♊︎

● Links 10/06/2022: systemd-oomd Killing Software Badly

Posted in News Roundup at 3:45 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNU/Linux

Desktop/Laptop

=> ↺ ‘I Love the Linux Desktop, But That Doesn’t Mean I Don’t See Its Problems All Too Well’

Instructionals/Technical

=> ↺ [Older] A cautionary tale about locking Linux & FreeBSD user accounts

• Indeed it is a cautionary tale about locking Linux and FreeBSD user accounts. No matter how careful you are, there will always be some side effects with optimization. I enabled ssh speed optimization via multiplexing, and I met with some surprises. Check the following manual pages using the man command for more info: [...]

=> ↺ DPKG Architecture List

• Array is one of the most important topics in the C language. We can store the same type of data elements in a contagious memory allocation through an array.

=> ↺ How to Install NSE3 on CentOS 7

• NS, short for Network Simulator, is a series of discrete event network simulators (ns-1, ns-2, ns-3). They are mainly used in teaching and research. It is free and open-source.

=> ↺ Sam Hartman: Flailing to Replace Jack with Pipewire for DJ Audio

• I could definitely use some suggestions here, both in terms of things to try or effective places to ask questions about Pipewire audio. The docs are improving, but are still in early stages. Pipewire promises to combine the functionality of PulseAudio and Jack. That would be great for me. I use Jack for my DJ work, and it’s somewhat complicated and fragile. However, so far my attempts to replace Jack have been unsuccessful, and I might need to even use PulseAudio instead of Pipewire to get the DJ stuff working correctly.

=> ↺ Manage Flatpak Permission Using Flatseal [Tutorial]

• A tutorial on how to manage Flatpak package permission using Flatseal application with examples and additional tips.

=> ↺ Monitor CPU Thermal Temperature in Linux

•  Laptops usually face thermal issues due to their compact space, providing less area for airflow than recommended. However, there are other factors involved, like running resource-heavy applications in low-end systems or still using the old hardware system.

• It can be disastrous to ignore the temperature details, which might put your system in danger and your body in close contact with your system (laptop) due to thermal fire.

• Linux provides some third-party CLI/GUI applications to monitor your CPU thermal temperature, which we are about to learn.

Distributions and Operating Systems

BSD

=> ↺ Fundamentals of the FreeBSD Shell

• There are two shells included in the FreeBSD base system – sh and csh – corresponding to evolutions of the Bourne and C shells. Early on, the consensus was generally that the Bourne shell was the better shell for scripts and programming while the C shell was a better interactive shell. These strengths also influenced subsequent developments. Many innovations for interactive shell use were added first in tcsh, a fork of csh that can be considered its natural successor. Similarly, the Korn shell is built on the foundations of the Bourne shell, primarily adding features more commonly associated with programming languages.

• Today, Bourne-style (sh) syntax has come to the fore. It is the one syntax covered by the POSIX standard. The interactive innovations of tcsh were adopted and further embellished by shells that used sh syntax such as Z shell and bash. Scripts included as part of a FreeBSD system for things like starting and stopping services all use sh. But until now, the C shell has remained the default shell for the root user on FreeBSD.

• Using the same shell for both scripts and interactive use has the advantage that knowledge is transferable. So, changing the default root shell reduces how much a new user needs to learn. It also makes FreeBSD feel more familiar to new users coming from other Unix operating systems. For a long-time FreeBSD user who is unhappy with the change, it is easy to revert root’s shell to csh.

Fedora Family / IBM

=> ↺ Ubuntu 22.04 Kills Apps Too Frequently – Users Aren’t Impressed – OMG! Ubuntu!

• If you’ve found memory management in Ubuntu a little on the aggressive side since upgrading to 22.04 LTS know this: you are not alone.

• A discussion on the Ubuntu mailing list highlights issues scores of users are experiencing. Out of the blue, with no indication anything is wrong, apps like Firefox, Chrome, and Visual Studio Code just die… Blink out of existence.

• At fault? Ubuntu 22.04 LTS’s introduction of systemd-oomd, a user-space out of memory killer that’s designed to “take corrective action before an OOM occurs in the kernel space’. When it detects that memory pressure is getting a bit too stressed, it intervenes to ensure the system copes, and (most) things stay running.

• But it seems that it’s being triggered too frequently, killing apps even though memory isn’t at a critical impasse.

Devices/Embedded

=> ↺ ShaRPiKeebo handheld Linux computer based on Raspberry Pi Zero (2) W ships with a LoRa radio

• Morpheans ShaRPiKeebo is a portable Linux computer based on Raspberry Pi Zero W or Zero 2 W SBC that reminds me of the Allwinner R8 powered PocketCHIP handheld computer that was introduced in 2016, and was quite popular (for a niche product) at the time.

• The ShaRPiKeebo comes with a physical QWERTY keyboard, a daylight-readable screen, and Wi-Fi & Bluetooth connectivity, but also adds a 433 MHz LoRa radio that should make it usable as an off-the-grid communicator. Just like PocketCHIP, the ShaRPiKeebo can be used for system administration, retro-gaming, pen testing, STEM education, and all sort of maker projects.

Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

=> ↺ Best Nintendo 64 (N64) Emulators for Android in 2022

• Nintendo 64, often referred to simply as N64, is one of the most loved video game consoles of all time. With hit games like Super Mario 64, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, or GoldenEye 007, the console ushered in the era of true 3D graphics; and that’s just one of its many achievements.

• It’s no surprise then that there are many gamers who fondly remember all the fun they had when sitting in front of a CRT TV with the iconic Nintendo 64 controller in their hands.

• Regardless if you count yourself among them or just want to see what the Nintendo 64 era was all about, you can do so with any decent Android smartphone and one of the best N64 emulators for Android.

Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

GNU Projects

=> ↺ GNU Hackers’ Meeting 2022 proposal: İzmir, Turkey

• The GNU Hackers Meetings are a friendly and informal venue to discuss technical issues concerning GNU and free software.

• The time we proposed for GHM 2022 is approaching but unfortunately we only received three replies expressing interest. If we are to hold the event then we need more participants; at this stage a simple informal expression of interest is enough.

• The event is planned for an extended weekend (with talks from Friday to Saturday) in October 2022 in İzmir, Turkey. For the time being all the infamous entry barriers or restrictions are lifted in Turkey, with the exception of medical facilities. İzmir is well-linked with European airports, in many cases by daily direct flights.

Licensing / Legal

=> ↺ Linus Torvalds Gives GPL Credit for Linux’s Success

• “I love the GPL and see it as a defining factor in the success of Linux,” Torvalds said.

• GPL is what is known as a reciprocal license and requires any code adjustments to be contributed back to the community and made freely available. Torvalds said that the GPL enforces the need to give back, which makes fragmentation less likely.

• Torvalds also commented about new operating systems, including Google’s Fuscia, which is now being built to enable internet of things (IoT) devices. Fuscia is not being made available under the GPL, and as such Torvalds doesn’t think it will grow a community like Linux’s.

• “The GPL says a company may be big, but no one will take advantage of your code. It will always be free, and that can’t be taken away from you,” Torvalds said.

=> ↺ The Story of the GPL

• The GNU General Public License was born of the simple idea that freedom matters. Yet this simple tool for protecting freedom has another important feature that makes it even more powerful, and that is the ability to build communities.

Programming/Development

=> ↺ Array in C

• Array is one of the most important topics in the C language. We can store the same type of data elements in a contagious memory allocation through an array. The special feature of an array is we can store a group of variables in the same name but in different index no. Index means the address of each memory block. So it has three main features.

=> ↺ Dart Streams

• A stream in the Dart programming language is defined as a series of asynchronous events. It is pretty much like the iterable data structure. However, the main difference between a stream and an iterable is that in the case of the latter one, you need to manually ask for the upcoming events, whereas, in the case of the former one, the stream itself keeps telling you that the next event is ready. This process continues until there are no more events left in the stream to be read. The Dart streams also resemble pipes in which you insert a value from one end, and this value is read by the receiver at the other end. In this tutorial, we will learn the basic usage of the streams in the Dart programming language in Ubuntu 20.04.

=> ↺ Dart Nulls

• “A value in a database is zero. The value null denotes the absence of a value. Null is not a memory location when it is used as a value. Only pointers store memory locations. A string would not terminate correctly if it lacked a null character, causing problems. In the Dart programming language, null is symbolized by the keyword null. In Dart also, Null refers to a variable that has never had any values assigned to it and was created with nothing. This article will cover how to handle Null type in Dart programming language.”

=> ↺ Dart Lists

• The lists in Dart also fall under the category of Dart collections. A Dart list may or may not have duplicate elements. There is a wide range of functions associated with the lists in Dart. Therefore, in this guide, we will be talking about the usage of the lists in the Dart programming language in Ubuntu 20.04.

Python

=> ↺ Get a Class Name in Python

• Python is well-known for its object-oriented programming support, especially classes and objects. It has a well-defined program structure and allows for easy code modification. Because the class is readily available, the code can be reused, and it also has the advantages of encapsulation, abstractions, and polymorphism. With examples and output, we will look at the Python class and how it gets the class name of an object in this article. Let’s begin!

=> ↺ Convert String to Set Python

• The inbuilt method set() in Python’s standard library changes a string to a set. There have been no recurring elements in a set structure. If we require more than one element, that element only occurs once during the set structure. Because the set() method would have its encryption technique, the elements will not always exist in the same order as it is in the string. Let’s explain several methods of how to turn a string into a set in this article. We will utilize some inbuilt methods as well as a few customized ones. Let’s begin the article by going through how a string is used in Python. Strings, like boolean data type, integer data type, and floating points, are forms in the Python programming language. A string is defined as elements enclosed by single or double quotation marks. A series of elements can sometimes be referred to as a string.

• To transfer a string to a set, we must first split every element. This set of items would be isolated by commas. Set returns a list of comma-separated elements from a string. Every item may correspond to a unique index value. Consider the following strategies for translating a string to a set.

Standards/Consortia

=> ↺ Re: Subscripts And Superscripts In Gemtext

• As a further example, sigma notation only behaves that way when it’s inline. ‘Block-level’ sigma notation places one row above the sigma and the other below, and makes the sigma like twice as large as the rest of the text. This holds true for a lot of other operations as well, such as integrals (∫), sequential products (∏), and sometimes unions (∪). Limits also follow the same rules, except they’re not extra-large because they don’t have their own symbol.

Leftovers

Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

=> ↺ Partly Cloudy With A 75 Percent Chance Of COVID Exposure

• Which would be great — except that the forecasts have less data to work with now than they’ve had in years. COVID-19 case data is less and less reliable thanks to rapid testing, for one. In addition, hospitalization data can lag behind trends in transmission and may become unavailable in the coming months. And new sources like wastewater surveillance aren’t yet ready to replace clinical data. Imagine producing a weather forecast without reliable temperature or humidity measurements.

Proprietary

=> ↺ Microsoft’s Alex Kipman resigns after being accused of watching ‘VR porn’ in office: report

=> ↺ Microsoft HoloLens chief to resign after misconduct allegations

• Microsoft HoloLens chief Alex Kipman is reportedly leaving the company in the mixed reality reorganisation following allegations of misconduct.

• According to geekwire.com, the tech giant is splitting its HoloLens mixed reality group and parting ways with Kipman.

=> ↺ Microsoft could finally kill HDD boot drives for good

• While Microsoft has declined to comment on the matter, the current trends indicate a complete market transition to SSD by 2023. Many PC makers already use SSD as their main storage option; however, it is still not a set standard, especially in emerging markets.

• Trendforce claims Microsoft is internally pushing for the switch to SSD as the main storage standard for Windows 11 PCs; however, the brand has not implemented any requirements for computer or laptop makers to follow.

Security

Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt/Fear-mongering/Dramatisation

=> ↺ New Linux Malware Symbiote is “Nearly Impossible to Detect”

Privacy/Surveillance

=> ↺ Facebook fails again to detect hate speech in ads

• The hateful messages focused on Ethiopia, where internal documents obtained by whistleblower Frances Haugen showed that Facebook’s ineffective moderation is “literally fanning ethnic violence,” as she said in her 2021 congressional testimony. In March, Global Witness ran a similar test with hate speech in Myanmar, which Facebook also failed to detect.

• The group created 12 text-based ads that used dehumanizing hate speech to call for the murder of people belonging to each of Ethiopia’s three main ethnic groups — the Amhara, the Oromo and the Tigrayans. Facebook’s systems approved the ads for publication, just as they did with the Myanmar ads. The ads were not actually published on Facebook.

Confidentiality

=> ↺ The information theory reason for assuming non-secret cryptography algorithms

• If a cryptosystem’s algorithm is part of its ‘secret key’, all three of these things are violated. The algorithm or the code implementing it is definitely not random (it will have a lot of structure, making ‘guessing’ it easier), it will be comparatively large, and it must be distributed to a lot of people who ‘know’ it at least in the sense of having access to it (and some of them will literally know it).

Defence/Aggression

=> ↺ Over 80 feared dead in attack on Catholic church in Nigeria, sources say

• More than 80 people are feared to have died in Sunday’s attack on a church in southwestern Nigeria, sources told ABC News on Wednesday.

=> ↺ Iran removes nuclear watchdog’s cameras after criticism

• Russia’s mission to the IAEA, which voted against the resolution along with China, tweeted that the US and its European allies did “not get the sensitivity of the moment”, adding: “Clearly #ViennaTalks taught them nothing: pressuring Tehran entails escalation.”

=> ↺ ‘Multiple’ GOP Lawmakers Sought Pardons for Trying to Overturn Biden Win: Jan. 6 Committee

• The Jan. 6 Commission promised big reveals, and Liz Cheney’s opening statement did not disappoint. One of two GOP representatives on the committee, Cheney laid out damning information about the behavior of members of her own caucus — including one by name: Rep. Scott Perry, of Pennsylvania.

• Cheney recalled how, in the build up to Jan. 6., then-President Donald Trump sought to clean House at the Justice Department, which was refusing to help him advance his Big Lie that he’d been deprived of a rightful election victory by fraud and voting irregularities. (Cheney laid out a significant slate of evidence that not only was this a lie, but that Trump and his staff knew that it was a lie.)

=> ↺ Why More Republicans Aren’t Outraged By Jan. 6

• The other factor at play here is the extent to which American politics has become a zero-sum contest. Nearly every issue and congressional vote is now framed in terms of winners and losers — and partisanship. And as political scientist Lilliana Mason wrote in her 2018 book, “Uncivil Agreement,” “In this political environment, a candidate who picks up the banner of ‘us versus them’ and ‘winning versus losing’ is almost guaranteed to tap into a current of resentment and anger across racial, religious, and cultural lines, which have recently divided neatly by party.”

=> ↺ Beijing-backed [crackers] breach ‘major telecommunications companies,’ authorities warn

• Cyber [crackers] backed by China are successfully targeting U.S. telecommunications companies in major breaches, the federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) warned on Tuesday.

• The FBI, National Security Agency (NSA) and CISA said in an advisory that [crackers] affiliated with the People’s Republic of China (PRC) have targeted and compromised “major telecommunications companies” through easy and known network and system vulnerabilities.

=> ↺ NSA, CISA, and FBI Expose PRC State-Sponsored Exploitation of Network Providers, Devices

• The National Security Agency (NSA), Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) released a Cybersecurity Advisory (CSA) today, “People’s Republic of China State-Sponsored Cyber Actors Exploit Network Providers and Devices.” The advisory highlights how People’s Republic of China (PRC) actors have targeted and compromised major telecommunications companies and network service providers primarily by exploiting publicly known vulnerabilities. Networks affected have ranged from small office/home office (SOHO) routers to medium and large enterprise networks.

• The PRC has been exploiting specific techniques and common vulnerabilities since 2020 to use to their advantage in cyber campaigns. Exploiting these vulnerabilities has allowed them to establish broad infrastructure networks to exploit a wide range of public and private sector targets.

=> ↺ People’s Republic of China State-Sponsored Cyber Actors Exploit Network Providers and Devices

• This joint Cybersecurity Advisory describes the ways in which People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-sponsored cyber actors continue to exploit publicly known vulnerabilities in order to establish a broad network of compromised infrastructure. These actors use the network to exploit a wide variety of targets worldwide, including public and private sector organizations. The advisory details the targeting and compromise of major telecommunications companies and network service providers and the top vulnerabilities—primarily Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs)—associated with network devices routinely exploited by the cyber actors since 2020.

=> ↺ US SEC opens probe into Ericsson’s alleged bribery in Iraq

• Ericsson’s headquarters in Kista, Sweden. Swedish telecommunications equipment company Ericsson says it has been notified by the US Securities and Exchange Commission that an investigation has been opened into the company’s report about its 2019 dealings in Iraq.

• In a statement issued on Thursday, Ericsson said, while it was too early to predict the outcome of the investigation, it was fully co-operating with the SEC.

• The firm is facing a class action lawsuit in the US over the same issue. Chief executive Börje Ekholm and chief financial officer Carl Mellander have been named as defendants in the suit which was filed on 4 March.

• Details of alleged bribery in Ericsson’s dealings in Iraq were leaked to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists which shared the data with The Guardian, the BBC and the Washington Post in March.

• {loadposition sam08}The firm was said to have allegedly paid bribes to the Islamic State terrorist group in order to continue doing business in the country.

AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

=> ↺ Smedley Butler Helped Build American Empire. Then He Turned Against It.

• American elites, then and now, are loath to acknowledge the consequences of their own errors, and they don’t take kindly to being reminded. Even eighty years since Butler’s death, with Pax Americana irreparably fractured and the US security state increasingly crushed under the weight of its military commitments, elites still refuse to acknowledge the untenable future they are hurtling toward — and from which Butler attempted to save them (and everyone else).

• History can never absolve the young Smedley Butler for the atrocities he committed while serving as the tip of his country’s spear. But history has surely vindicated the older Smedley Butler, the man who threw himself against the wheel of American militarism even though he knew he was powerless to stop its churning.

=> ↺ The wild story of Marine legend Smedley Butler that you won’t hear at boot camp

• While Butler is known to most Marines for this rare achievement, he is better known outside of the military community for his late-in-life epiphany that during his 33 years of Marine Corps service, he and his men fought, killed, bled, and died more to shore up the profits of Wall Street than to defend the United States from foreign invaders.

• “During those years, I had, as the boys in the back room would say, a swell racket,” Butler later said of his time in the Marine Corps in a book he wrote titled “War Is A Racket.” “I was rewarded with honors, medals, and promotions. Looking back on it, I feel I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was operate in three city districts. We Marines operated on three continents.”

=> ↺ Maj. Gen. Smedley Butler: A Marine hero who saw himself as a ‘racketeer for capitalism’

• And then, in 1931, the secretary of the Navy ordered Butler court-martialed for saying publicly that Benito Mussolini’s Italy was a “mad dog nation” and illustrating the point with a story about the fascist’s driver running over a child in the road. As the vehicle drove on, Mussolini advised a fellow passenger, “Never look back in life.” The administration of Herbert Hoover wanted to punish Butler for causing a diplomatic incident, but as Jonathan M. Katz writes, officials had a problem: It turned out Butler’s story was “substantially true.” The general retired and began saying more frequently what he thought of U.S. foreign policy. In three decades as a Marine, Butler wrote, “I spent most of my time being a high-class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer for capitalism.”

• [...]

• But eventually Butler realized he was not serving so grand a purpose as he thought. Posted in Nicaragua to defend U.S. mining interests, he wrote, “This is a d—-d fool expedition . . . inspired and financed by Americans who have wild cat investments down here and want to make them good by putting in a Government which will declare a monopoly in their favor.”

=> ↺ Twitter Germany blocks tweet of Austrian government politician regarding asylum seekers

• In terms of domestic politics, it was the stir of the weekend: “A total of 16,000 asylum applications have already been filed this year,” Sachslehner tweeted on Whit Monday. “The vast majority of asylum seekers come from Afghanistan and Syria. Austria thus suffers from the second highest per capita burden of asylum applications in the EU.” Especially the word “suffering” caused sharp criticism, especially from the Green coalition partner – eXXpress reported.

=> ↺ Srirangapatna: Mysore Archeological Survey Report Mentions Temple Razed To Build Mosque

• In an exclusive, Republic Media Network has accessed the Mysore Archaeological Department’s 1935 report amid the raging Mandir-Masjid row in Karnataka. The report notes that Tipu Sultan demolished the Anjaneya Mandir and built Jamia Masjid after filling up the ground floor of the temple structure.

• As per the report, Tipu Sultan constructed a temple over the Hanuman temple. Also, when he was the ruler of Mysore and Srirangapatna, he demolished several temples and built mosques. Republic also accessed the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) letter that was published in 2004 which originated from the Mysore Archaeological Department’s 1935 report.

• In the letter, the ASI opposed the running of Madrassa in the masjid premises as it was illegal. It stated that the Waqf board was running it illegally since 1979. The Hindu organisation also demanded the closure of Madrassas at the site and other activities like cooking, etc.

=> ↺ Hate Crime or Shakedown for Money?

• What this almost certainly is: another shakedown attempt. McDonald’s is a big corporation with lots of money. It doesn’t want a lot of negative publicity from CAIR’s Ibrahim Hooper and his sinister crew calling it “Islamophobic.” So it will likely hand some cash over to CAIR and Ghadir Alahmar to make this go away. Works like a charm.

=> ↺ Congress Stock Trading Leads to Major Conflicts of Interest

• The general public doesn’t seem particularly pleased about this ethical gray zone. According to a poll from the Campaign Legal Center, nearly 90% of voters believe ethics enforcement should be an “extremely important” or “very important” priority for Congress. Another recent survey from Morning Consult showed strong bipartisan support for a congressional stock trading ban, with 69% of Democrats, 64% of Independents, and 58% of Republicans in favor. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this flurry of proposed legislation comes at a time when Congress’s approval rating is in the teens, hitting a low point of 18% in January.

=> ↺ Anonymous [cracks] Chinese educational site to mark Tiananmen massacre

• Below the slogan was Taiwan’s national flag followed by its national emblem. The collective then said it was taking a “short break from #OpUkraine today to remember the Tiananmen Massacre.”

Misinformation/Disinformation

=> ↺ Fox News refuses to air Jan. 6 violence while trashing hearing as “boring” and “propaganda”

• Fox News viewers were the only news watchers who didn’t see the hearing Thursday night.

• [...]

• Media Matters’ Matt Gertz reported that Carlson did not go to commercial break once during the hearing he did not show.

• “Fox is desperate to keep its viewers from switching to another channel and seeing the hearing in real time,” Gertz tweeted, adding that “they want to push his propaganda so much that they are leaving money on the table to do it.”

Censorship/Free Speech

=> ↺ India tightens security after militant threat

• Several Indian media groups shared the June 6 letter attributed to Al Qaeda’s branch in the Indian Sub-continent (AQIS) in which threats were made to carry out suicide bombings in Indian states to defend, it said, the “honour of the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him).

• A federal home ministry official said intelligence agencies were checking the authenticity of the threats issued by AQIS.

=> ↺ Al-Qaeda Warns Of Suicide Attacks On Indian Cities Over Nupur Sharma’s Comments On Prophet

• The controversy triggered the insulting comments made by two, now suspended BJP spokespersons Nupur Sharma and Naveen Kumar Jindal against Prophet Muhammad is refusing to die down.

• Even as the government tries to firefight the backlash from Islamic countries in the middle east diplomatically, the controversy is only snowballing.

=> ↺ Syria, like much of the Arab world, inflicts country-wide [Internet] blackouts during exams

• There is no evidence that [Internet] shutdowns have reduced cheating in exams. The problem remains rampant in the Arab world, not least because students have a big incentive to do well. University admissions are based almost entirely on test results; last year only 60% of students in Syria passed. In 2016 an anonymous Facebook page published several questions ten minutes before the exams began, claiming it was promoting equity by offering poor students the same advantages that rich ones had paid for. Cheating has become so widespread in Algeria that the government ordered 500,000 students to retake their exams in 2016. And unscrupulous types find a way around outages. In Iraq education officials were accused of selling exam questions in 2018.

Civil Rights/Policing

=> ↺ Michigan police officer charged with murder in killing of Patrick Lyoya

• Schurr turned himself in and is expected to be arraigned Friday, according to Kent County Prosecutor Chris Becker, who made the charging decision. City officials confirmed that Grand Rapids Police Chief Eric Winstrom will be filing paperwork before the end of the day for Schurr’s suspension without pay.

=> ↺ Supreme Court Makes Federal Officials ‘Absolutely Immunized’ From Personal Lawsuits

• The Supreme Court on Wednesday made it even more difficult for U.S. citizens to bring lawsuits against federal employees who violate their constitutional rights, narrowing the already limited path to do so.

• In Egbert v. Boule, the conservative majority on the court ruled an individual business owner did not have cause to bring an action seeking damages against a federal agent accused of physically assaulting him. The ruling set a broad precedent that legal experts said would make it virtually impossible to sue federal officials.

=> ↺ Bottled water shortages reported in 5 states

• The president of ANPEC, a national small business association, told the newspaper Milenio that natural water resources are also limited in Coahuila, Baja California, Chihuahua and Sonora, leading residents of those states to buy greater quantities of bottled water, which has also generated shortages.

Digital Restrictions (DRM)

=> ↺ Spotify comes for audiobooks

• Spotify wants to make audiobooks the next pillar of its business. On Wednesday, company executives pitched the audiobooks business to investors as their next target for industry domination. When they launch the audiobooks vertical (which is TBD), it could have huge ramifications not only for Spotify’s own business, but for the publishing industry as well.

Monopolies

Copyrights

=> ↺ Netflix Settles Copyright Lawsuit Over Fish-Headed Villain in ‘The Umbrella Academy’

• Atkinson sued last year claiming that the source material, published in 2008, from which Netflix’s The Umbrella Academy is adapted, copied his design for a character that first appeared in 1996 in his Rogue Satellite Comics. Both characters are villains known for having talking fish in bell jars as heads with normal human bodies.

• To establish a copyright infringement claim, there must be proof of actionable copying, which involves access to the copyrighted work prior to the creation of the infringing work and evidence of similarity. If access cannot be demonstrated, a party may substantiate copying by showing a “striking similarity” between the disputed works.

Share in other sites/networks: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. Permalink  Send this to a friend

=> Techrights

➮ Sharing is caring. Content is available under CC-BY-SA.