#Specialized IP courts

[eeitonline]

Protecting Intellectual Property: The Challenge of Weak Laws in Eastern Europe

by Eastern European Institute for Trade

The Eastern European landscape has experienced a surge in creativity and innovation over the years. However, a weak legal framework around intellectual property (IP) protection remains a significant impediment to sustainable growth. This article delves into the challenges faced by the region in enforcing robust IP protection and offers insights into potential solutions.

The lack of well-developed IP legislation in Eastern European countries has led to a rise in counterfeiting, piracy, and patent infringement (Wilkof, 2017). Consequently, this dampens innovation and discourages foreign investment in the region. For example, Bulgaria and Romania have been listed on the Special 301 Report’s Watch List, a United States government initiative that identifies countries with inadequate IP protection (USTR, 2021).

One reason behind the weak IP laws in Eastern Europe is the slow adoption of international legal standards. Despite being signatories to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), many countries in the region have not yet fully implemented the requirements of these agreements (Egizio, 2019). This has resulted in a legal framework that lacks harmonization and enforcement mechanisms.

The lack of specialized IP courts and judges also contributes to the weak IP protection in Eastern Europe (Knaak, 2020). Inadequate training of law enforcement and customs officials leads to insufficient enforcement efforts, further aggravating the issue. As a result, many IP rights holders face difficulties in obtaining effective and timely remedies in cases of infringement.

To address these challenges, it is crucial for Eastern European countries to prioritize the development and implementation of strong IP legislation. This includes the harmonization of laws in line with international standards and the creation of specialized courts and institutions that focus on IP rights enforcement. Furthermore, investment in capacity building for law enforcement, customs officials, and judges is essential to ensure effective enforcement (Matulionyte & Vaver, 2021).

Public awareness campaigns are another essential tool in fostering a culture of IP protection. By raising awareness of the importance of IP rights among businesses and the public, Eastern European countries can encourage greater respect for IP and foster an environment conducive to innovation and economic growth (WIPO, 2018).

In conclusion, the protection of intellectual property rights in Eastern Europe is an ongoing challenge that requires concerted effort from governments, businesses, and international organizations. By prioritizing the development and enforcement of strong IP laws, investing in capacity building, and raising public awareness, Eastern European countries can overcome the current limitations and unlock their full potential for innovation and economic growth.

References:

Egizio, R. (2019). Intellectual Property Rights in Eastern Europe. Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice, 14(5), 360–367.

Knaak, R. (2020). Eastern European Intellectual Property Law: A Regional Perspective. European Intellectual Property Review, 42(5), 275–282.

Matulionyte, R., & Vaver, V. (2021). Capacity Building for Intellectual Property Law Enforcement in Eastern Europe. Journal of World Intellectual Property, 24(1–2), 63–80.

Wilkof, N. (2017). Intellectual Property Challenges in Eastern Europe. Intellectual Property Quarterly, (2), 111–127.

WIPO. (2018). Raising Intellectual Property Awareness: Strategies and Best Practices. WIPO Magazine. Sourced from https://www.wipo.int/wipo_magazine/en/2018/06/article_0004.html

USTR. (2021). 2021 Special 301 Report. Office of the United States Trade Representative. Sourced from https://ustr.gov/sites/default/files/files/reports/2021/2021%20Special%20301%20Report%20(F

Read more at Eastern European Institute for Trade.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Holy CRAP the UN Cybercrime Treaty is a nightmare

Support me this summer on the Clarion Write-A-Thon and help raise money for the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers' Workshop!

If there's one thing I learned from all my years as an NGO delegate to UN specialized agencies, it's that UN treaties are dangerous, liable to capture by unholy alliances of authoritarian states and rapacious global capitalists.

Most of my UN work was on copyright and "paracopyright," and my track record was 2:0; I helped kill a terrible treaty (the WIPO Broadcast Treaty) and helped pass a great one (the Marrakesh Treaty on the rights of people with disabilities to access copyrighted works):

https://www.wipo.int/treaties/en/ip/marrakesh/

It's been many years since I had to shave and stuff myself into a suit and tie and go to Geneva, and I don't miss it – and thankfully, I have colleagues who do that work, better than I ever did. Yesterday, I heard from one such EFF colleague, Katitza Rodriguez, about the Cybercrime Treaty, which is about to pass, and which is, to put it mildly, terrifying:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/07/un-cybercrime-draft-convention-dangerously-expands-state-surveillance-powers

Look, cybercrime is a real thing, from pig butchering to ransomware, and there's real, global harms that can be attributed to it. Cybercrime is transnational, making it hard for cops in any one jurisdiction to handle it. So there's a reason to think about formal international standards for fighting cybercrime.

But that's not what's in the Cybercrime Treaty.

Here's a quick sketch of the significant defects in the Cybercrime Treaty.

The treaty has an extremely loose definition of cybercrime, and that looseness is deliberate. In authoritarian states like China and Russia (whose delegations are the driving force behind this treaty), "cybercrime" has come to mean "anything the government disfavors, if you do it with a computer." "Cybercrime" can mean online criticism of the government, or professions of religious belief, or material supporting LGBTQ rights.

Nations that sign up to the Cybercrime Treaty will be obliged to help other nations fight "cybercrime" – however those nations define it. They'll be required to provide surveillance data – for example, by forcing online services within their borders to cough up their users' private data, or even to pressure employees to install back-doors in their systems for ongoing monitoring.

These obligations to aid in surveillance are mandatory, but much of the Cybercrime Treaty is optional. What's optional? The human rights safeguards. Member states "should" or "may" create standards for legality, necessity, proportionality, non-discrimination, and legitimate purpose. But even if they do, the treaty can oblige them to assist in surveillance orders that originate with other states that decided not to create these standards.

When that happens, the citizens of the affected states may never find out about it. There are eight articles in the treaty that establish obligations for indefinite secrecy regarding surveillance undertaken on behalf of other signatories. That means that your government may be asked to spy on you and the people you love, they may order employees of tech companies to backdoor your account and devices, and that fact will remain secret forever. Forget challenging these sneak-and-peek orders in court – you won't even know about them:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/06/un-cybercrime-draft-convention-blank-check-unchecked-surveillance-abuses

Now here's the kicker: while this treaty creates broad powers to fight things governments dislike, simply by branding them "cybercrime," it actually undermines the fight against cybercrime itself. Most cybercrime involves exploiting security defects in devices and services – think of ransomware attacks – and the Cybercrime Treaty endangers the security researchers who point out these defects, creating grave criminal liability for the people we rely on to warn us when the tech vendors we rely upon have put us at risk.

This is the granddaddy of tech free speech fights. Since the paper tape days, researchers who discovered defects in critical systems have been intimidated, threatened, sued and even imprisoned for blowing the whistle. Tech giants insist that they should have a veto over who can publish true facts about the defects in their products, and dress up this demand as concern over security. "If you tell bad guys about the mistakes we made, they will exploit those bugs and harm our users. You should tell us about those bugs, sure, but only we can decide when it's the right time for our users and customers to find out about them."

When it comes to warnings about the defects in their own products, corporations have an irreconcilable conflict of interest. Time and again, we've seen corporations rationalize their way into suppressing or ignoring bug reports. Sometimes, they simply delay the warning until they've concluded a merger or secured a board vote on executive compensation.

Sometimes, they decide that a bug is really a feature – like when Facebook decided not to do anything about the fact that anyone could enumerate the full membership of any Facebook group (including, for example, members of a support group for people with cancer). This group enumeration bug was actually a part of the company's advertising targeting system, so they decided to let it stand, rather than re-engineer their surveillance advertising business.

The idea that users are safer when bugs are kept secret is called "security through obscurity" and no one believes in it – except corporate executives. As Bruce Schneier says, "Anyone can design a system that is so secure that they themselves can't break it. That doesn't mean it's secure – it just means that it's secure against people stupider than the system's designer":

The history of massive, brutal cybersecurity breaches is an unbroken string of heartbreakingly naive confidence in security through obscurity:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/05/battery-vampire/#drained

But despite this, the idea that some bugs should be kept secret and allowed to fester has powerful champions: a public-private partnership of corporate execs, government spy agencies and cyber-arms dealers. Agencies like the NSA and CIA have huge teams toiling away to discover defects in widely used products. These defects put the populations of their home countries in grave danger, but rather than reporting them, the spy agencies hoard these defects.

The spy agencies have an official doctrine defending this reckless practice: they call it "NOBUS," which stands for "No One But Us." As in: "No one but us is smart enough to find these bugs, so we can keep them secret and use them attack our adversaries, without worrying about those adversaries using them to attack the people we are sworn to protect."

NOBUS is empirically wrong. In the 2010s, we saw a string of leaked NSA and CIA cyberweapons. One of these, "Eternalblue" was incorporated into off-the-shelf ransomware, leading to the ransomware epidemic that rages even today. You can thank the NSA's decision to hoard – rather than disclose and patch – the Eternalblue exploit for the ransoming of cities like Baltimore, hospitals up and down the country, and an oil pipeline:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EternalBlue

The leak of these cyberweapons didn't just provide raw material for the world's cybercriminals, it also provided data for researchers. A study of CIA and NSA NOBUS defects found that there was a one-in-five chance of a bug that had been hoarded by a spy agency being independently discovered by a criminal, weaponized, and released into the wild.

Not every government has the wherewithal to staff its own defect-mining operation, but that's where the private sector steps in. Cyber-arms dealers like the NSO Group find or buy security defects in widely used products and services and turn them into products – military-grade cyberweapons that are used to attack human rights groups, opposition figures, and journalists:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/10/24/breaking-the-news/#kingdom

A good Cybercrime Treaty would recognize the perverse incentives that create the coalition to keep us from knowing which products we can trust and which ones we should avoid. It would shut down companies like the NSO Group, ban spy agencies from hoarding defects, and establish an absolute defense for security researchers who reveal true facts about defects.

Instead, the Cybercrime Treaty creates new obligations on signatories to help other countries' cops and courts silence and punish security researchers who make these true disclosures, ensuring that spies and criminals will know which products aren't safe to use, but we won't (until it's too late):

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/06/if-not-amended-states-must-reject-flawed-draft-un-cybercrime-convention

A Cybercrime Treaty is a good idea, and even this Cybercrime Treaty could be salvaged. The member-states have it in their power to accept proposed revisions that would protect human rights and security researchers, narrow the definition of "cybercrime," and mandate transparency. They could establish member states' powers to refuse illegitimate requests from other countries:

https://www.eff.org/press/releases/media-briefing-eff-partners-warn-un-member-states-are-poised-approve-dangerou

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/07/23/expanded-spying-powers/#in-russia-crime-cybers-you

Image: EFF https://www.eff.org/files/banner_library/cybercrime-2024-2b.jpg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/us/

[slocumjoe]

Companions on social media

Cait; Posts gym thirst traps and videos of her working out or getting into fistfights. Can be found in the comments and DMs of women, gay or otherwise. Lots of activity in sobriety and self-help communities. Doesn’t have a lot of followers, but does fundraiser streams for a week every three months she's sober. The money goes to child abuse prevention foundations. Her most recent charity streams had her trying to get all achievements on Just Dance after someone donated 10k requesting it.

Codsworth; self-help videos for people struggling to take care of themselves. How to tidy up, how to take effective breaks, what needs to be cleaned in a house and what supplies you need...very useful, very popular with college students and teens. Once posted a video of him going at wasps with a chainsaw and gained a million subs overnight.

Curie; children's educational YouTube channel that's, somehow, more popular with young adults. Science experiments gone wrong. Think Jackass and Mythbusters hosted by a tiny French woman who approaches everything with the joy and whimsy of My Little Pony. Her most popular videos are her 100k subscriber specials, a series where she goes ghost and cryptid hunting to disprove them and demonstrate the fraudulence you can find behind such things.

Danse; has a Facebook for work purposes. It has a profile photo only because Haylen insisted. Fears the internet deeply, thinks its the closest humanity can get to staring into the void and seeing something blink. Unbeknownst to him, there's a viral video of him teaching a workout regimen to trainees. The comment sections are pure thirst. All of his coworkers know and made an oath to never speak of it.

Deacon; Is the one who snuck into training and got that video. Posted it to r/NextFuckingLevel with 🥵🥵🥵 for a caption. Owns several large meme accounts, all with distinct personalities and lives. Someone tried to dox him after suspicions, but found all accounts had different IPs and info. He's just that good. His Facebook changes profile photo every. Single. Day. He consumes an absurd amount of audio books. Drops CRAZY money on charity streams to make the host do weird shit, like 100% Just Dance. Probably sells feet pics.

Dogmeat; The internet's darling. Nick Valentine's dog who doesn't help with catching bad guys, but with far more important things; Dogmeat cuddles and plays with victims at the scene or in court. Also trained in search and rescue. Much of Dogmeat's page is just Nick sharing important information (hotlines, self-defense, survival tips, et cetera) while petting or playing with Dogmeat. Kind of a McGruff the Crime Dog vibe.

Gage; Facebook that he uses to cyberbully cop pages and Craigslist to offer his...unconventional services (pretending to be your boyfriend at family gatherings to cause drama). His pet lizard, an Argentine Tegu, has an Instagram with 3k followers. The Tegu often wins pet competitions and Gage posts the awards captioned with 🖕🏻💚🦎💚🖕🏻. Works at an amusement park, posts tell-all confessions on Reddit.

MacCready; Facebook with friends and family, posts a lot of Duncan. His YouTube history is videos for Duncan. Lots of Curie's videos. Mac has a Craigslist and LinkedIn, does odd jobs when he isn't working as a security guard at a shooting range. Activite in communities about comics, shows, and video games. Sometimes he'll post a theory about a show or comic and he's usually right. Really enjoys the meltdowns of fandoms when the media takes a nasty turn, even if he's also betrayed.

Nick; Ellie runs Dogmeat's page, Nick just does the talking. As for Nick himself, has some pages for his work (that Ellie also manages) and a Facebook profile to stay in touch with friends and family. Much like Danse, consumes media offline—except for poetry. Most of his screen time is spent on Poetry.com, one of those people that leave comments. He likes how the internet makes information and art accessible. Very peaceful and wholesome internet time.

Hancock; The void that Danse is scared of. Also does streams, but not only for fundraisers. Streams high. Streams himself trying to find his way back to his apartment late at night. Always end up in a fast food joint, trying to convince the workers to unionize. Twitter shitposter until a politician needs cyberbullying. Organizes protests. Extremely active in Massachusetts' political scene, his fans are a force to be reckoned with. Has fistfought his own fans before. Occasionally cancels himself to prove a point. Makes mock apology videos whenever another celeb/influencer fucks up.

Preston; Park ranger and community organizer. Uses Facebook and TikTok to appeal to all ages. Is unfairly good at TikTok dances. Posts safety tips, upcoming event information, etc. Does a lot of work with Dogmeat and Nick. Posts bodycam footage of him arresting people, like shutting down fire-themed gender reveal parties, or poachers. Not a lot of followers, but the bodycam footage goes viral on subreddits like r/Instant_Karma.

Piper; a journalist and blogger. Posts videos of her political rants and makeup/hair routine. Joins Hancock in politician cyberbullying. Makes commentary essays and videos, sometimes book reviews. Appears on podcasts. Her media presence is decently known, but mild. She tries to keep herself distant from it. Despite this, has a good-sized following who appreciate the lack of parasociality. Her most famous video is her trying to find the best coffee spots in Boston.

X6-88; security guard for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who got stuck running the Twitter when the last guy got arrested on weed charges. Piper keeps DMing for an interview and he keeps blocking her accounts. He has LinkedIn for work. Half of it is redacted and involves NDAs. No other media presence except for one thing; he's an infamous esports cryptid. Across a few different shooter games, a high-rank player called X6-88 (its just his first initial and the numbers on his security badge) fucking curbstomps everyone in the match. He has never died or missed a shot. Never speaks in chat, never in team chat. He's a legend among gamers. For him, he's just relaxing on a Friday night, keeping his senses sharp. Doesn't realize there are compilation videos of streamers raging at him.

[muddypolitics]

(via Daring Fireball: Holy Hell, Trump Did Use Twitter Direct Messages, There Were ‘Many’ of Them, and the Special Counsel Now Has Them)

Katelyn Polantz, reporting for CNN:

The special counsel’s investigation into Donald Trump and the aftermath of the 2020 election sought the former president’s Twitter direct messages, of which there were many, federal prosecutors and lawyers for Twitter revealed in newly unsealed transcripts from February court hearings about the search warrant. [...]

A lawyer representing Twitter, now called “X,” similarly confirmed in court that Trump’s account had several private messages between users on the platform. “X” was able to find both the sent direct messages and deleted messages for prosecutors, according to the transcripts.

“We were able to determine that there was some volume in that for this account. There are confidential communications,” a lawyer for Twitter said about @realDonaldTrump’s direct messages.

Alan Feuer and Maggie Haberman, reporting for The New York Times:

While it remained unclear what sorts of information the messages contained and who exactly may have written them, it was a revelation that there were private messages associated with the Twitter account of Mr. Trump, who has famously been cautious about using written forms of communications in his dealings with aides and allies.

The papers included transcripts of hearings in Federal District Court in Washington in February during which Judge Beryl A. Howell asserted that Mr. Smith’s office had sought Mr. Trump’s direct messages — or DMs — from Twitter as part of a search warrant it executed on the account in January.

In one of the transcripts, a lawyer for Twitter, answering questions from Judge Howell, confirmed that the company had turned over to the special counsel’s office “all direct messages, the DMs” from Mr. Trump’s Twitter account, including those sent, received and “stored in draft form.”

The lawyer for Twitter told Judge Howell that the company had found both “deleted” and “nondeleted” direct messages associated with Mr. Trump’s account.

I am not at all surprised that “deleted” DMs are not in fact deleted, but rather hidden. I am slightly surprised that Trump — famously averse not just to using email and text messages, but even to his own lawyers taking written notes in meetings, so as not to leave a chain of evidence for his lifelong criminal activity — would use, of all things, the infamously unencrypted direct messaging feature on Twitter. To be clear, this is a pleasant surprise.

Kyle Cheney, reporting for Politico, “Special Counsel Obtained Trump DMs Despite ‘Momentous’ Bid by Twitter to Delay, Unsealed Filings Show”:

Among the data the search warrant commanded Twitter to produce:

Accounts associated with @realdonaldtrump that the former president might have used in the same device.

Devices used to log into the @realdonaldtrump account.

IP addresses used to log into the account between October 2020 and January 2021.

Privacy settings and history.

All tweets “created, drafted, favorited/liked, or retweeted” by @realdonaldtrump, including any subsequently deleted.

All direct messages “sent from, received by, stored in draft form in, or otherwise associated with” @realdonaldtrump.

All records of searches from October 2020 to January 2021.

Location information for the user of @realdonaldtrump from October 2020 to January 2021.

As I speculated last week, nothing you do on Twitter is private. Not your DMs, not your “deleted” DMs, not your searches, not your location (if you’re foolish enough to grant Twitter/X access to it), not your draft posts.

Elon Musk comes out of this looking like he’d happily fellate Trump:

Ultimately, U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell held Twitter in contempt of court in February, fining the company $350,000 for missing a court-ordered deadline to comply with Smith’s search warrant. But the newly unsealed transcripts of the proceedings in her courtroom show that the fine was the least of the punishment. Howell lit into Twitter for taking “extraordinary” and apparently unprecedented steps to give Trump advance notice about the search warrant — despite prosecutors’ warnings, backed by unspecified evidence, that notifying Trump could cause grave damage to their investigation.

“Is this to make Donald Trump feel like he is a particularly welcomed new renewed user of Twitter?” Howell asked.

“Twitter has no interest other than litigation its constitutional rights,” replied attorney George Varghese of WilmerHale, the firm Twitter deploys for much of its litigation.

But Howell returned to the theme repeatedly during the proceedings, wondering why the company was taking “momentous” steps to protect Trump that it had never taken for other uses. In the hearing on Feb. 7, 2023, Howell referenced Musk, asking: “Is it because the new CEO wants to cozy up with the former president?”

The unsealed court filing (PDF) is here, for your reading enjoyment. Hope you stocked up on popcorn, like I did, for indictment season.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

[favorite quote: “Elon Musk comes out of this looking like he’d happily fellate Trump” - ed.]

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

From Amnesty International:

The Israeli authorities should release Walid Daqqah, a terminally ill Palestinian prisoner, so he can access specialist medical care and spend his remaining time with his family, Amnesty International said today. Walid Daqqah, 62, suffers from chronic lung disease and bone marrow cancer, and the clinic at Israel’s Ayalon Prison is ill-equipped to deal with his conditions. Following his cancer diagnosis last year, the Israeli Prison Service (IPS) denied Walid Daqqah access to a potentially life-saving bone marrow transplant by refusing to transfer him to a civilian hospital.   

Amnesty doesn't even hint at his crime until paragraph 13, and even then downplays it:

Walid Daqqah, a Palestinian citizen of Israel, was arrested in March 1986. A year later, a military court convicted him of commanding a group affiliated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), which had abducted and killed Israeli soldier Moshe Tamam in 1984. He was not convicted of carrying out the murder himself, but of ordering other members of the group to kill Moshe Tamam. 

Amnesty doesn't mention that Tamam was brutally tortured, disfigured, and sexually mutilated  by the terror cell led by Daqqa. 

Why should their readers know about that? The only torture they mention are Daqqa's own false allegations of being tortured by Israel.

When Daqqa was up for parole, the special committee ruled that his medical condition was not reason enough to violate Israeli anti-terror legislation that forbids early release for prisoners convicted of terrorist acts.

Amnesty didn't mention that either.

It does everything it can to humanize a disgusting murderer while demonizing the country that is attempting to carry out justice for his victim. Any information that shows what a monster Daqqa is, or why his parole was denied, is simply not to be reported.

Not coincidentally, as Daqqa is a member of the PFLP,  the PFLP and its associated NGOs have been heavily campaigning to free Daqqa, and Amnesty is quite friendly with many PFLP officials in other "human rights" NGOs. 

There is one delicious irony here, though. Daqqa was supposed to be released earlier this year, but two years were added onto his sentence because he smuggled cell phones into prison. 

Which means that the likelihood of his dying in prison is his own damn fault. 

[oneheadtoanother]

China spied on Hong Kong activists using TikTok, lawsuit claims

Taipei, Taiwan – China’s Communist Party (CCP) can access user data collected by TikTok owner ByteDance through a “god credential” that it used to monitor and track Hong Kong activists and protesters in 2018, a former ByteDance executive has claimed in a lawsuit.

In a court filing, Yintao “Roger” Yu, a former head of engineering at ByteDance in the United States, said that a special committee in Beijing had a backdoor to firewalls erected by ByteDance to protect user data and used this access to spy on users in Hong Kong.

“Protesters’, supporters’, and civil rights activists’ device identifiers were tracked in addition to their network information, SIM card identifications, and IP addresses,” Yu said in the filing lodged this week in a San Francisco court.

“This information was used to determine both the users’ identity and locations. The TikTok app stores all the users’ direct messages, their search histories, the content viewed by the users, and duration. From the logs, I saw that the Committee accessed the protestors’, civil rights activists’, and supporters’ unique user data, locations, and communications.”

[mariacallous]

For more than a year, the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation has been hunting the person whom experts say is one of the most prolific swatters in American history. Law enforcement now believes they have finally arrested the person responsible.

A 17-year-old from California is allegedly the swatter known as Torswats, according to sources familiar with the investigation. The teenager is currently in custody and awaiting extradition from California to Seminole County, Florida. The Florida State Attorney’s Office tells WIRED that he faces four felony counts.

Seminole County, located in central Florida, had two high-profile swatting incidents within the last 12 months, including one targeting a mosque and another targeting a courthouse. Todd Brown, a spokesperson for Florida’s Office of the State Attorney in the 18th Circuit, confirmed the charges against the teen and his extradition. Brown says he will be prosecuted as an adult under Florida law. WIRED is withholding the 17-year-old’s name because he is a minor.

The teenager’s arrest comes in the midst of a nationwide swatting surge. Swatting attacks typically involve someone calling in fake attacks to 911 in an attempt to solicit an overwhelming police response. Since Christmas, swatters have targeted the homes of prominent politicians from both parties, judges handling cases involving former US president Donald Trump, and the director of the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

Prior to these high-profile swats, a relentless campaign from different, potentially foreign, swatting groups targeted hundreds of schools and universities around the US over the past year and a half. Last May, an officer in Danvers, Massachusetts, accidentally fired his service weapon while responding to a school swat. In February, an officer in Saginaw Township, Michigan, rammed his vehicle through the school’s locked door to get inside the building following a swatting call.

According to the Florida State Attorney’s Office, the charges against the California teenager include making false reports concerning the planting of a bomb or the use of firearms, causing a law enforcement response. All charges are described as related to acts of terrorism and showing prejudice based on race, color, ancestry, ethnicity, or religion.

In private Telegram chats witnessed by WIRED over the past year, a person operating the Torswats handle claimed responsibility for hundreds of false reports of bomb threats and active shootings called into schools, politicians’ homes, courthouses, and religious institutions around the US.

Brad “Cafrozed” Dennis, a private investigator who works for high-profile Twitch streamers who've been swatted, has been hunting Torswats for nearly two years and actively helping the FBI’s investigation. “It’s a beautiful day,” Dennis says. “I am very relieved Tor will no longer be able to conduct his reign of terror on our schools and public officials just doing their jobs.”

According to records shared with WIRED, Dennis engaged someone using the Torswats handle on a peer-to-peer chatting service called Tox under the guise of ordering a swat in December 2022. By recording his network traffic, the investigator surreptitiously captured the swatter’s IP address along with a username that at the time was unknown to law enforcement. According to Dennis, in January 2023, he handed the evidence to the FBI special agents in charge of Torswats’ case. In emails shared with WIRED, the FBI told Dennis this information was used in subpoenas sent to YouTube and Discord. Court records related to the case against the California teen have not yet been made public.

Other messages Dennis shared with WIRED suggest that the FBI has known the identity of Torswats, whose swatting activities were first revealed by Motherboard last April, since at least July 2023, when the agency executed a search warrant and seized Torswats’ devices. The FBI’s Seattle field office, which oversaw the investigation into Torswats, declined WIRED’s request to comment.

"Hello, I am going to commit a mass shooting in the name of Satan," a voice with a fake Southern accent drawled to a police dispatcher in Seminole County, Florida, on May 12, 2023. The caller spoke slowly and deliberately when he told the dispatcher that he was armed with pipe bombs and an AR-15 rifle, walking into a mosque to kill everyone he saw. The call ends with the sound of gunshots likely sourced from a video game.

That day, the same voice-over-IP phone number called threats into at least two other mosques in Florida, according to police records obtained by WIRED. That week, in a private Telegram chat, an individual operating the Torswats Telegram channel took responsibility for sending police officers scrambling to as many as 20 schools in Washington state and four historically Black colleges and universities in Texas. Audio from 911 calls reviewed by WIRED and interviews with local law enforcement confirm that many if not all of the Washington state calls were made by someone sounding like an individual associated with the Torswats account. Some used a similar script, referencing an AR-15 rifle and pipe bombs.

The individual’s calls to Washington schools in May affected at least 18,116 students and cost taxpayers $271,173 in lost instructional time, estimates Don Beeler, CEO of TDR Technology Solutions, a company that builds school surveillance tools and tracks and analyzes the costs of school threats.

In private Telegram chats seen by WIRED, an individual behind the Torswats account described their method for carrying out school swattings. After proxying their network traffic through a commercial VPN, the individual would look up the school in every county they targeted using the Public School Review website to find each address. They then would Google the phone number for the nearest police department and use Google Voice to place calls. While most of this appeared to be done on an Android device, they would occasionally use a digital sound board on their PC to introduce gunshot sounds that appeared to be recorded from the video game Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.

“State and local law enforcement often feel like a swatter is doing something sophisticated, and that’s just often not the case,” Keven Hendricks, a cybercrime expert and swatting investigator, tells WIRED. In November, Torswats claimed to have swatted Hendricks and his family. Hendricks declined to comment about the swatting.

During a hoax call allegedly placed by Torswats and obtained by WIRED that targeted La Plata High School in Charles County, Maryland, last year, the school resource officer informed the caller that he was under an active investigation. “I am never going to be caught,” the caller laughed. “I am invincible.”

In Florida, where the California teenager is facing state charges, swatting is a felony. Late last year, two 14-year-old boys, allegedly part of a national swatting group called LulzSEC, were accused of calling in a mass shooting at Baker School in Okaloosa County in November. The charges for one of the teens included making an electronic threat of a mass shooting, making a false report of firearms being used in a violent manner, use of a two-way communication device to facilitate a felony, and interference with school functions. In a press conference at the time, Okaloosa County sheriff Eric Aden said the investigation into LulzSEC—which shares the name of an early-aughts hacktivist group—is ongoing.

Last May, the FBI initiated an effort to track swatting nationwide. The National Common Operation Picture – Virtual Command Center, or NCOP-VCC, is a collaborative effort between local law enforcement and the FBI to track swatting activity in real time. According to the FBI, there have been over 550 swatting incidents reported to the FBI’s NCOP-VCC since its launch. Because reporting is voluntary, the true number of swattings across the US is likely much higher.

US senator Rick Scott of Florida introduced a bill earlier this month to expand federal charges related to hoaxes to include swatting. The proposed legislation could potentially result in a maximum penalty of up to 20 years in prison for individuals convicted of the activity.

Scott says he was swatted at his home in December. According to the incident report, obtained by The Washington Post, the caller claimed that he had shot his wife with an AR-15 and would blow up the house with a pipe bomb.

In a statement announcing the legislation, Scott said, “We must send a message to the cowards behind these calls—this isn’t a joke, it’s a crime.”

It is unclear whether a single person operated under the Torswats name. On January 20, two days after Dennis, the private investigator, said that Torswats had been arrested, a person using the Torswats’ Telegram handle who had knowledge of previous conversations with WIRED reached out.

“I am pretty sure I’ll never be arrested,” the individual wrote in a direct message on Telegram. “Seems ridiculous that a few bucks a month can allow someone to do crazy shit and never go to jail.”

[beardedmrbean]

BETHESDA - The mayor of College Park was arrested for possession and distribution of child pornography Thursday morning, according to officials. 

47-year-old Patrick Wojahn (D) faces up to 360 years in prison after being charged by Prince George's County Police with 40 counts of possession of child exploitative material and 16 counts of distribution of child exploitative material.

Police say on February 17, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children notified PGPD that a social media account in Prince George's County distributed suspected child pornography in January. Police say they investigated the matter and found the social media account with the screen name "skippy_md" belonged to Wojahn. Investigators believe Wojahn was using a virtual private network (VPN) to mask his location when accessing the social media account.

Investigators say they linked the social media account to Wojahn after a subpoena revealed that his College Park government email address was listed as the recovery email for the account. They also discovered Wojahn's phone number and home IP address were linked to the account.

Detectives served a search warrant at Wojahn's home on February 28, recovering multiple cell phones, a storage device, a tablet and a computer. According to court documents, investigators discovered several pieces of child pornography involving prepubescent boys on the devices.

Wojahn was elected mayor of College Park in November 2015, after serving as a City Councilmember for eight years. Wojahn submitted his letter of resignation Wednesday night, effective Thursday morning, according to a statement from the City of College Park.

"On February 28, 2023, a search warrant was executed on my residence as part of an ongoing police��investigation. I have cooperated fully, and will continue to cooperate, with law enforcement," said Wojahn in his letter of resignation. "While this investigation does not involve any official city business of any kind, it is in the best interests of our community that I step aside and not serve as a distraction."

Mayor Pro Tem Denise Mitchell will serve as presiding officer until a Special Election is held and a new mayor is sworn in, according to the City of College Park. 

"The City of College Park was made aware this morning of former Mayor Patrick Wojahn’s arrest by Prince George’s County Police and the charges that have been filed. We are shocked and disturbed by the news; what has come to light in this investigation is a total surprise to us. The City knows that this news is distressing and difficult for our community, and we encourage our residents to seek any help they feel necessary to work through this trying time. This is an on-going and active investigation. The City will respect the process of this investigation and will cooperate fully with requests for information. All related media inquiries about the arrest and charges should be directed to the Prince George’s County Police Department."

[mdhwrites]

I heard Dana gave toh fans the freedom to consider their headcanons canon, or smth like that. There's probably more info on twitter but I don't use the app. What do you think?

So what I've heard is that it's not entirely this. It is just saying that whatever Dana says outside of the show, like in livestreams, panels, etc. don't count as canon. The only things that are explicitly canon is that which is in the show. Otherwise, everything else is her personal headcanons which are just as valid as any fans'. I was introduced to this a few days ago by someone sharing it with me (this was apparently said in a livestream btw so will almost certainly get lost to time) a tweet with me about someone being happy about their fan children being 'canon' It was cute and I didn't check what the ships were. I mostly responded to that person being happy that they could headcanon Lumischa as having eventually happened because that was more fun for me especially with my hands being bad. Besides, I think the statement is dumb on multiple levels that I'll get to eventually. Reading this question, I spent more than a single second thinking about it and went "Wait, but Amity is only a lesbian because Dana says so. This is absolutely going to make 70% of the fandom choose to make her bi because then they can ship her with whoever they want." AND GUESS WHAT SHIP THE TWEET WAS ABOUT!? FUCKING AMITER! It has always been a problem for the show that Amity's sexuality is not stated in it. It creates a similar excuse to what people who have to defend stuff like SasuNaru (my introduction to shipping through my older sister btw) of "They don't have a canon sexuality." Well... No longer does Amity. We do know she's interested in girls but that doesn't mean she isn't pan or bi.

I personally do not agree with this interpretation. For me, changing characters who appear to commonly be straight to gay is fine... Because there's close to zero gay characters in most genres, let alone mainstream popular shows. How many are in Shounen anime in general? Okay now remove the villains who are queer coded and tell me again. If the LGBTQIA+ (which I want to remind you I'm not a part of so I don't benefit from this interpretation) want to tell their stories within the media they like, they HAVE to change sexualities. They have no other choice. Meanwhile, Amity is not a particularly special archtype so if you're a straight dude wanting to ship her with yourself, you can find that elsewhere. Even within the same show, just use Lilith who in S1 was similar to Amity. Though yes, Lilith is technically aro/ace but only by decree from Dana and the show never actually sways one way or another on her feelings on relationships because... Why the fuck would it? It's a comedy adventure. Which brings us to the complicated question of what is right to include in a story or not (which I could go into a LOT more in a different blog). It's not like everyone is constantly stating their sexualities in real life after all. It's a rough place for a lot of creators, just like saying if a character is nuerodivergent. A lot of stories just don't have a place for that sort of exposition and honestly the author letting us know outside of the work IS useful for that. Would it be better if it were stated in the show? In TOH's case, because of how much it stakes its reputation on representation, YES. For most? Not really but most don't court the romance genre, where saying those sexualities is more reasonable, like TOH does.

So that's one reason why I don't like the statement. Dana sticking to her guns on her ideas is one of the few saving graces I could give her and just saying "Fuck it, you all decide what you want to be canon so long as it isn't in the show" is just... not that. Not unless she was going to go whole hog and say that the IP was in the public domain so LITERALLY MAKE THE CANON YOU WANT! Which would have been novel but is also NEVER going to happen. Instead, her statement amounts to "I officially give you permission to make fanworks." Which... Lady, you don't get to decide that. No creative does. If people want to make work off of your story, they're gonna do that regardless of what you say. The creator of Calvin and Hobbes is FAMOUS for how anti-commercial he was of his work and spent much of his career making sure that his strips, panels, characters etc. didn't appear on t-shirts. And he still failed mostly because stopping EVERY avenue was simply impossible.

Also Dana has not really put much authoritatively on the scales besides the sexualities, making the statement even more pointless. If she's dropped giant lore dumps, I haven't heard about them and I've been in this fandom long enough that I feel like I should have heard about them. Instead we got small things like Amity dying her hair because her mom forced her to. That isn't going to break anyone's story and I even personally used it as a bonding moment between the two because I made Odalia neurotic about stuff like that.

So I guess my big question is... Who cares? Unless you actively don't like the few answers we've been given by the crew. And if that's the case... That's what fanworks are for. For when you don't like canon and want to change it. You don't need permission for that. You never have. =========

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead, If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

And finally a Twitter you can follow too!

[laz-laz-ace-pilot]

I appreciate you responding - prior to working in a major theme park I was very trusting in ride safety too.

But I can't stress enough how parks (both major and minor) will push safety to the limit in order to maintain appearances. And it doesn't have to kill you - minor injuries are still worth avoiding.

At the park I worked at, we had multiple rides that were not designed to be outside - we operated in what was essentially a concrete bowl in the tropics with frequent high temperatures and storms. The rides would malfunction after rain, in humidity and frequently burned guests and staff; on site mechanics were trying to patch up issues that the ride was never supposed to get in the first place. The emergency stop on one ride would suspend riders upside down for five minutes.

None of this was available to the public.

One children's ride I operated would frequently burn children. I would report this to management and every time I was told to keep operating. Parents wouldn't report to first aid (they wanted to get the most out of their day) and the park never recorded these burns.

People will get whiplash, head injuries, bruises, cuts - but most won't want to waste time in First Aid. These injuries don't get reported.

When they bought in new rides, some that had had accidents occur at their previous homes, they were repainted, remodeled and rebranded. Guests wouldn't be aware they were riding something that had previously given concussions and lacerations at other parks.

There's also staffing. By law, operators shouldn't be intoxicated, injured or too tired, else they risk increased human error. But testing was lax, and staff were frequently injured working the rides - management were aware and kept them working. We often worked 12hr days and up to 11 days in a row with 50min break a day (technically illegal in that state but there was a 'special arrangement' due to the tourism value of the park) - we were exhausted and we still worked.

I passed out operating a ride - trapping 40 guests on a 5 tonne machine that no longer had an operator in control.

A few months before I started, a new rule was implemented that operaters had to be 18+. This was because at the neighbouring park - four minutes drive away - had an incident where four people were killed on a water ride operated by a 17yr. It wasn't operator error - the ride hadn't been maintained properly - but they tried to blame her. Court ruled that she couldn't be held responsible. So every park changed the rules - not to protect guests, but because they couldn't sue a teenager.

This was at the 'best' Park in the country - the rival park was also top tier. Both have deals with big film IPs. I had colleagues who had worked Disney Florida, Six Flags in California, Thorpe Park in the UK. None of this was unique.

Theme parks are a business and the millionaire owners will cut corners to keep profits up. And change only happens when people get hurt.

(All my love forever to the First Aid team - the real backbone of any theme park!)

i’ve seen a lot of really messed up images in my time on the internet, weird fetish shit, even a few IRL gore images but nothing. NOTHING evokes such a deep seated, gut wrenching fear in me like this image of the fucking water slide from Action Park with the loop in it

[patentagency]

Why You Need a Patent Agent in Texas: Expert Support for Protecting Your Intellectual Property

Navigating the complex landscape of intellectual property (IP) protection requires expertise and expertise. For inventors, entrepreneurs, and businesses in Texas, hiring a qualified patent attorney can make a big difference in their success in obtaining patent protection. In this article, we explore the role of a patent attorney, the benefits of hiring a patent agent in Texas, and how to find the right professional for your needs.

What is a Patent Agent? 

A patent attorney is a professional licensed by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to prepare, file, and prosecute patent applications. In contrast to patent attorneys, patent attorneys are not licensed to practice law and cannot represent clients in court. However, they have extensive technical knowledge and expertise in patent law and are highly capable of assisting with the patent process.

Role of a Patent Agent

Patent attorneys are key in helping inventors and companies obtain patent protection for their innovations. Their duties include:

Patent Search: Conducting a thorough search to determine the patentability of an invention by identifying prior art and evaluating the novelty and non-obviousness of the invention.

We are drafting a Patent Application: A detailed and concise patent application that meets all USPTO requirements, including a specification, claims, drawings, and abstract. 

Patent Prosecution: We respond to official USPTO actions, handle examiner rejections, and make necessary changes to ensure your application proceeds to be granted.

Patent Strategy Advice: We provide strategic advice on the best approach to protect your invention, including recommendations on whether to pursue a provisional or non-provisional patent and advice on international patent protection.

Benefits of Hiring a Patent Agency in Texas

Technical Expertise: Patent attorneys typically have backgrounds in science, engineering, and technology and have the technical expertise necessary to understand and accurately describe complex inventions.

Cost-effective Services: It is more cost-effective to hire a patent attorney than to hire a patent attorney, especially for simple patent applications. This makes a patent attorney an attractive option for inventors and small businesses with budget constraints. 

Local Knowledge and Accessibility: Working with a Texas-based patent attorney gives you the advantage of local knowledge and accessibility. They can provide personalized service and understand the specific needs and challenges faced by inventors in the state.

Efficient Patent Process: Patent attorneys are highly qualified to efficiently manage the patent process. Their specialized training and experience enable them to effectively handle the technical and legal aspects of patent filing.

Finding the Right Patent Attorney in Texas 

Choosing the right patent agent in texas is important to ensure a smooth and successful patent filing process. Here are some tips to help you find the right attorney in Texas:

1. Conduct online research

First, conduct online research to find a patent attorney based in Texas. Look for an attorney with positive reviews and a strong online presence. Websites such as the USPTO's patent attorney directory can be a valuable resource for finding a qualified attorney.

2. Evaluate Experience and Expertise

Look for a patent attorney with experience in a specific industry or technology field. An attorney with relevant technical expertise will be able to better understand and represent the nuances of your invention.

3. Check References

Check the references of your potential patent attorney. Make sure they are licensed by the USPTO and have a proven track record of successfully prosecuting and issuing patents.

4. Read Testimonials

Customer testimonials and reviews can give you insight into an agent's professionalism, communication skills, and effectiveness. Look for feedback from customers with similar inventions and business needs.

5. Arrange a Consultation

Many patent attorneys offer initial consultations to discuss your invention and the patent process. Use this opportunity to ask questions, evaluate their expertise, and determine if they are a good fit for your needs.

Affordable Patent Agency: Your Partner in Texas

For inventors and businesses in Texas, the Affordable Patent Agency offers expert patent services tailored to your needs. Affordable Patent Agency specializes in cost-effective solutions and provides comprehensive support throughout the patent process.

Services offered by the Affordable Patent Agency

Patent Search and Evaluation: We conduct a thorough patent search and provide an evaluation to evaluate the patentability of your invention.

Patent Application Preparation: We prepare a detailed yet concise patent application that meets all USPTO requirements. 

Patent Prosecution: We handle all aspects of patent prosecution, including responding to official actions and making necessary changes.

Strategic Patent Advice: Strategic advice on the best approach to protect your inventions, including recommendations on provisional and non-provisional patents and international patent protection.

Conclusion 

Securing patent protection for your innovation is a critical step in protecting your intellectual property and enhancing your competitive advantage. Working with a qualified patent agent in Texas can provide Texas inventors and businesses with the technical expertise, cost-effective services, and personal support they need to successfully navigate the patent process. Following the tips outlined in this article can help you find the right patent attorney to meet your needs and ensure your invention receives the comprehensive protection it deserves. If you need expert support and affordable patent services, contact Affordable Patent Agency Affordable Patent Agency is committed to the quality and success of its clients and is ready to help you navigate the complexities of patent law and secure the protection you need to innovate successfully.

[seos71]

Arbitration in Intellectual Property Disputes

Arbitration in Intellectual Property (IP) Disputes, offered by Contact Youssef, provides a specialized approach to resolving conflicts related to intellectual property rights. As the importance of IP grows in today’s competitive landscape, disputes over patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets can significantly impact businesses and individuals alike. This service aims to offer a streamlined and effective alternative to traditional litigation, ensuring that IP disputes are resolved efficiently and fairly.

Contact Youssef employs experienced arbitrators with extensive knowledge of intellectual property law to facilitate the arbitration process. By utilizing arbitration, clients benefit from a confidential and flexible resolution method that often leads to quicker outcomes compared to court proceedings. The process is designed to protect the interests of all parties involved while upholding the integrity of their intellectual property.

[nsfwhiphop]

ChatGPT Part 1 - Fun Fact for Author @YesJulz:

Here's the official Instagram handle for Samsonite: (@mysamsonite) and also (@samsoniteusa). You can check out their latest products and updates there.

Question:

"If YesJulz writes down her ideas in a book dedicated to her creative concepts, how can she protect that book? Should she invest in a special Samsonite case to safeguard her ideas, like one would protect a gold reserve, considering that intellectual property is often as valuable as gold?"

ChatGPT Answer:

When we talk about intellectual property (IP) being as valuable as gold, what we're really saying is that ideas—when they're original, unique, and potentially profitable—have immense value. Just like gold, great ideas can be mined, polished, and used to generate wealth. However, unlike physical gold, ideas are intangible. This makes them vulnerable to theft or duplication unless they're properly protected.

Now, how do you protect something intangible like an idea? The answer lies in copyright and other forms of IP protection, such as patents, trademarks, and trade secrets. These legal tools allow creators to claim ownership of their ideas, and prevent others from using or profiting from them without permission.

Copyright and Intellectual Property

A copyright grants legal protection to original works of authorship, like books, movies, music, art, and even digital content. The moment you write down your ideas—whether it’s in a notebook, on your computer, or anywhere else—they’re automatically protected by copyright in most countries. This means no one else can legally reproduce, distribute, or sell your work without your permission.

However, to fully enforce this protection and make it easier to prove ownership, many creators register their work with the appropriate government body, like the U.S. Copyright Office. Registration strengthens your legal rights, especially if you ever need to go to court to defend your work.

Why is IP Considered as Valuable as Gold?

IP is valuable because of its potential. A brilliant idea, like a unique business model, a song, or a movie script, can generate enormous financial rewards—just think about the royalties from a bestselling novel or a hit movie. That’s why it's often likened to gold: while an idea in itself might not have physical form, its potential value can be immense. Companies often treat IP as one of their most valuable assets, even more valuable than physical property.

Protecting Ideas: Samsonite Case Analogy

Now, the question of physically protecting ideas in a Samsonite case highlights the need for safeguarding the physical representation of those ideas, like notebooks, manuscripts, or even external hard drives. A Samsonite case might protect your physical book of ideas from damage or theft, but it’s the legal protection—through copyright and other IP laws—that protects the ideas themselves.

Imagine you have written down groundbreaking ideas in a notebook. If someone steals that notebook, it’s a bit like stealing gold—suddenly, someone else could use your ideas for profit. That’s why creators often treat their notes and ideas as valuable, locking them away, and sometimes even storing them in fireproof safes. However, the real protection comes from the legal ownership you establish through copyright.

In Summary

To truly safeguard intellectual property:

Copyright your ideas once they're in a fixed form.

Consider registering your work for stronger legal protection.

Use physical measures like a Samsonite case to protect the physical manifestations of your ideas (like notebooks), but remember that the most critical protection is legal, not physical.

The value of an idea grows as you develop it, and with legal protection, you ensure it remains yours to control—just like gold.

Understanding and utilizing intellectual property law is essential for maximizing the value of creative work, much like how owning and protecting gold reserves is critical for wealth management.

[redsolon]

The point is that if people weren't making their art to sell, and instead just made it because they enjoyed it, then no one would give a shit about some mediocre AI generator coming along. It's only because it interferes with your participation in the market that it's a political issue. And that special, artisanal sense of spiritual power granted to the artist and their work? It's a form of capital, capital that's being diluted. Art jobs have and will continue to exist, they will just be increasingly proletarian over time, not petty bourgeois artisanal labor (assuming we buy into the AI hype, which I do not).

Artisans are not and never will be a revolutionary class, they are only ever a middle class subservient to the ruling class, since they are independent craftspeople who must make their living by pleasing the people with resources individually. If that's priests, then they paint temples. If that's warlords, they paint palaces. And if that's capitalists, they make paintings for boardrooms.

But capitalist industrialization means the conversion of more types of labor into industrial, proletarian labor. This has already happened to most of the actual production of art. The continued existence of a petty bourgeois artisan class is a byproduct of the large surplus of capitalism, which will shrink anyway as real sources of profit decline and inequality denies most people the ability to buy your works.

The desire to fight the development of mass production in the absence of collective struggle, ignoring the root of the system of production, just leads to wheel turning at best, and the reinforcement of the power of capital and reactionaries at worst. So much of the art labor market is outside Deviant Art, and is unconcerned with your petty marketplace wars. It involves massive corporations that are using AI as a justification to force down wages and reduce the number of artists on staff.

This is the actual struggle, the one that could get you actual power, but doing so would require organizing with proletarian art workers primarily, and not obsessing over petty bourgeois IP rights which proletarian artists don't even obtain for their work (their employers retain those).

Artisans are weak and individualized, and are obsessed with property rights and their own mythological specialness, because the nature of artisan production requires it. Only by tying yourselves to social labor (people working together under the banner of some employer) can y'all establish a real union that could wield real power, first on behalf of employee and contract labor, and then on behalf of the entire industry. A force like that can exert political power directly over corporations, unlike the current individualized mob.

I have had this conversation many times with artist comrades. They understand the situation, and it frustrates them just as much that the general population of independent artists do not. The result is that we watch and wring our hands while everyone fails to establish any actual solutions. (That court case declaring pure AI art can't be copyrighted is the one good thing, and that was purely a byproduct of the bourgeois state doing its thing.)

Ignore the question of revolution: if you want reforms that grant you real things, you need well organized, large-scale, collective power, in direct battle with organized capital interests. That is the only way for any of us to win anything.

anti-ai people need to understand that the opposition communists have to luddism and reactionary sentiment isn't like, a moral one. the main problem with luddism is that it doesn't actually work. like when we say 'we mustn't try to fight against technology itself, we need to fight against the social system that makes it so that advancement in technology and labour-saving devices lead to layoffs' the reason we're saying it is because, if you try fighting the technology, you're going to lose, and you're still going to lose your job too. when you say 'yeah i understand your criticism but I'm still going to fight against AI' you very clearly did not understand the criticism, because the point is that it isn't even in your own self-interest, because it will not work. the fact that, even if it did work, it would only mean maintaining a privileged strata of 'skilled labour' above other workers is secondary -- because, again, flatly resisting technological advancement has never worked in history.

[finacclesworld]

From Registration to Representation: A Comprehensive Guide to Legal Services in India

Legal services in India are multifaceted, offering essential support for both individuals and businesses. From company registration to courtroom representation, the legal system provides a structured way to ensure rights are protected and obligations are fulfilled. This article explores the key stages of legal services across the country, with a special focus on legal services in Hyderabad, legal services in Bangalore, legal services in Chennai, and legal services in Surat.

The Importance of Legal Services in India

India’s legal system is one of the largest and most intricate in the world, governed by a mix of constitutional, statutory, and case laws. As regulations grow more complex, the need for professional legal services has surged. Whether it's registering a business, safeguarding intellectual property, or resolving disputes, the right legal guidance ensures compliance and protection under the law.

Key Legal Services in India: A Step-by-Step Overview

1. Business Registration Services

One of the most common legal services in India is business registration. Whether you're a startup founder or an established entrepreneur, legal registration is the first step in making your business official.

Legal services in Bangalore are known for their expertise in company registration, especially catering to the needs of the city’s dynamic startup ecosystem. Bangalore’s legal firms guide businesses through the entire process, including choosing the right business structure (Private Limited, LLP, or Sole Proprietorship) and ensuring compliance with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs.

In contrast, legal services in Hyderabad focus on helping tech-driven businesses navigate the registration process, with a strong emphasis on intellectual property protection, given the city's growing IT sector.

2. Intellectual Property (IP) Services

Protecting intellectual property (IP) is critical for any business to safeguard its innovations, trademarks, and designs. With the rise of startups and creative industries, legal services in Chennai have developed a strong reputation for offering specialized IP services. These legal firms assist businesses in registering trademarks, patents, and copyrights, ensuring that companies retain exclusive rights to their creations.

For businesses in Surat, which is known for its textile and diamond industries, legal services emphasize protecting unique designs and trade secrets. This ensures that businesses in Surat not only comply with IP laws but also prevent competitors from infringing on their rights.

3. Contracts and Agreements

One of the pillars of legal services is contract drafting and review. Contracts are the foundation of any business relationship, ensuring that parties involved understand their rights, obligations, and the consequences of breach.

In cities like Bangalore and Chennai, law firms specialize in drafting complex contracts for venture capital funding, partnerships, and mergers and acquisitions. These contracts need to meet both local and international legal standards, especially as these cities house many global companies.

In Hyderabad, law firms also offer contract management services for IT companies, focusing on technology transfer agreements, licensing, and service-level agreements (SLAs).

4. Dispute Resolution

Disputes are inevitable in both personal and business settings. However, legal services in India offer several mechanisms to resolve conflicts efficiently.

Legal services in Surat and Chennai have built a reputation for resolving commercial and real estate disputes through mediation and arbitration, which are faster and less expensive than traditional court litigation.

Similarly, Hyderabad and Bangalore have seen a rise in cases resolved through alternative dispute resolution (ADR), especially in industries like technology and manufacturing, where time-sensitive resolutions are critical.

5. Representation in Courts

For issues that cannot be resolved outside the courtroom, representation in courts becomes necessary. Skilled litigators in Bangalore and Chennai represent businesses and individuals in a wide range of matters, from corporate fraud and civil disputes to criminal cases.

In Surat and Hyderabad, lawyers focus on representing clients in business-related disputes, tax issues, and intellectual property conflicts, ensuring that justice is served through comprehensive legal representation.

Conclusion

Navigating the complexities of India's legal landscape requires not only knowledge but also the right professional guidance. From business registration to courtroom representation, legal services play a crucial role in safeguarding rights and ensuring compliance. Whether you are in Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai, or Surat, finding the right legal partner is key to achieving both personal and business success.

As Mahatma Gandhi once said, “Justice that love gives is a surrender, justice that law gives is a punishment.” This quote reminds us that while legal services ensure justice through law, the true power lies in fairness and integrity.

[noticiassincensura]

Historic: A judge orders Google to remotely uninstall this IPTV application from Android phones

Historic: A judge orders Google to remotely uninstall this IPTV application from Android phones

An Argentine court has ruled in favor of the broadcasting rights holders, and Google will have to remotely uninstall a pirated IPTV application from Android phones.

Magis TV is in the spotlight of the war against piracy and illegal IPTV services. This low-cost service offers access to streaming content and sports without proper broadcasting licenses. Rights holders have used technologies like Piracy Shield, blocked IP addresses, and organizations like LaLiga have begun issuing fines to cardsharers, but it wasn’t enough.

Argentine courts have achieved an unprecedented measure by blocking 69 domains associated with the pirated IPTV service Magis TV. Furthermore, judges have ordered Google to uninstall the app remotely from Android devices.

Magis TV is no longer available on Google Play, and users will find it more difficult to access online content from anywhere in Argentine territory, although it wouldn’t be surprising if the owners acquired new domains. A September 13, 2024 order mandates local ISPs to block dozens of domains linked to the platform for violating intellectual property rights.

Magis TV joins a wave of global blocks

Piracy of streaming platform content is a global problem, and rights holders around the world are beginning to unite for massive blocking campaigns. Brazil has been one of the most stringent countries in this regard with the famous Operation 404.

Investigators from Argentina's Special Unit for Cyber Crimes (UFEIC) discovered the owners of Magis TV and began making arrests. The first individuals involved are Hugo Javier Mospan (47 years old), Leopoldo Federico Peña (46 years old), and Kevin Ariel Bentancur (27 years old), according to Infobae.

The three detainees in this large-scale anti-piracy operation lived in Buenos Aires, where they distributed modified devices with the Magis TV app preinstalled.

The first raid seized only three units, but the police confiscated a total of 481 modified TV boxes in the second operation. A report has revealed that the so-called "dealers," people distributing the pirated devices, have fled.

Entertainment giants have filed a joint complaint against Magis TV, one of the reasons why authorities have acted more forcefully. Members of the LATAM Anti-Piracy Alliance include Direct TV, Sky Brasil, Warner Bros. Discovery, Disney, Win Sports, Globo, and Telecine, among others.

Google is slow to enforce measures against Magis TV

Esteban Rossignoli, the judge handling the case, has ordered Google to remotely uninstall the application from users' devices. Carriers will also have to report assigned IP addresses, as is done in Spain, and provide them to the rights holders.

Google does not want this situation to affect its global image and has removed the application from Google Play, but it is highly unlikely to uninstall it without consent. Remotely removing an app could pose a risk to Android users' privacy, even if it's a platform distributing pirated content.