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Special 301 Report's special one is Italy this year: are administrative enforcement models the way to go?

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Via a very special Katfriend and friend of this Kat's, comes the news that today the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) released its 2014 Special 301 ['301' as per Section 301 of the Trade Act 1974 as amended] Report.

As IPKat readers will probably know and as Wikipedia explains, this annual report first published in 1989 [see here for last year's one] identifies trade barriers to US companies and products due to IP laws in other countries, and - among other things - includes a list of countries which do not provide "adequate and effective" [Merpel knows that there are things that are effective but may not be adequate, yet wonders whether also the other way around is possible] protection of IP rights.

This year's Report identifies a wide range of concerns of the Obama Administration, including: (a) the deterioration of IPR protection, enforcement and market access for persons relying on IPR in a number of trading partners; (b) reported inadequacies in trade secret protection in China, India, and elsewhere, as well as an increasing incidence of trade secret misappropriation; (c) troubling 'indigenous innovation' policies that may unfairly disadvantages US rightholders in China; (d) the continuing challenges of copyright piracy over the internet in countries such as Brazil, China, India, and Russia; (e) market access barriers, including non-transparent, discriminatory or otherwise trade-restrictive measures, that appear to impede access to healthcare; and (f) other ongoing, systemic IPR enforcement issues in many trading partners around the world.

USTR finds that trade secret
protection remains an issue,
especially when it comes
to cat food recipes

Bad news first. In 2014 10 countries are on the Priority Watch List and 27 countries are on the Watch List. Several countries, including Chile, China, India, Indonesia, Thailand, and Turkey, have been listed every year since the Report’s inception.

Now: the good news. Since 1989, there has been significant progress in IP protection in a variety of contries, such as Korea [yet Merpel suspects that the Korea the Report has in mind is South Korea], Australia, Israel, Japan, Qatar, Spain, Taiwan, the United Arab Emirates, and Uruguay.

This year, two countries have been removed from the Watch List for the first time. They are the Philippines and Italy.

The former has been removed on consideration of the "sustained actions that the Philippine government has undertaken to improve intellectual property rights protection and civil and administrative enforcement".

This Kat's native land Italy has been removed "in recognition of its latest effort, addressing copyright piracy over the Internet."

Of course, what the Report has in mind is adoption by this blog's favourite administrative authority, ie AGCOM [#GoGoAGCOM], of its "long-awaited regulations [here] to combat copyright piracy over the Internet."

AGCOM-administered
enforcement in progress

Still according to the Report, "[t]he regulations, which entered into force on March 31, 2014, provide notice- and-takedown procedures that incorporate due process safeguards and establish a mechanism for addressing large-scale piracy [click here for a Katreport on AGCOM's first blocking order]. The adoption and entry into force of these regulations is a significant achievement, resulting from intensive efforts over many years, which the United States strongly welcomes. We look forward to continuing to work with Italy on our shared commitment to IPR protection and enforcement, and will closely monitor Italy’s implementation of these regulations."

Considering USTR's enthusiasm for Italy's enforcement reform [also acknowledged by IFPI in its 2014 Digital Music Report, noted here], the question now is whether this model will be imported by other countries around the world. In other words: is (usually faster) administrative-based enforcement of IP rights - especially copyright - the way to go?

This Kat suspects that other countries in Europe and elsewhere may envisage adopting solutions similar to AGCOM's regulations. To find other examples, it may be sufficient to look at current Spanish IP reform plans or site blocking in Malaysia. In all this, however, it is also quite interesting to recall that in its very recent 2-week public consultation on online copyright enforcement, Singapore acknowledged the need for improving the enforcement framework, yet rejected graduated response and administrative models, in that they "may not be suitable in Singapore's context as they are too intrusive on internet users".

Freeablo is that Diablo engine remake we've been wishing for, is currenly looking for contributors (and general ravings about Diablo. In fact, mostly that)

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Freeablo engine in its early stages

Who doesn't love the original Diablo? When it was first released in 1996, this game set a notable landmark for making the RPG genre more accessible to a broader audience, while still keeping many gameplay aspects of classic Rogue-derived RPGs, that kept the game fresh and unique even after being completed several times. This bridge between classic and modern aspects combined with an incredible attention to detail, a uniquely crafted atmosphere that still gives me the creeps, and a gameplay pacing and length that is just the right balance between level progression and grinding, has helped making Diablo one of my all time favourite games. Well, that and Battlenet, of course, we can never forget how Diablo was one of the first to make it so easy to just go dungeon crawling with a couple of friends online.

There is, however, one thing that I don't like about Diablo. One thing that annoyed me all over these years of repeated runs and occasional multiplayer meetups. And that is how Blizzard itself decided to neglect its maintenance and compatibility completely and practically drop all active support for it, despite keeping the Battlenet servers online. Yes, you will have a tough time trying to buy a fresh copy of this game nowadays, because Blizzard cares so much about their legacy games they don't even sell 'em anymore in their official store. But even if there still are plenty of used copies available online for cheap, running the game on modern systems can be a whole a new quest, given that the last patch is dated from 2000, which means no performance maintenance, no improved graphics compatibility, in fact, not even additional screen resolutions, and certainly no stability updates whatsoever.

The first Cathedral levels loaded and randomly generated in Freeablo

As a matter of fact, Blizzard has a whole tradition of being disrespectful to legacy fans. They refuse to let resellers touch their games (physical Diablo II and Starcraft copies still go by $25 nowadays, with no Steam or GOG versions in sight), they frequently discourage and hamper any type of mod support or mod attempts, other than whatever's produced under their little walled garden editor-type programs and, obviously, they never ever released the source code of any of their games, just to make sure us, the plebeian fans, would never touch their precious abandoned heritage with our filthy paws.

Luckily, this might just be about to change, with the coming of a bold, new engine remake project most aptly named Freeablo. This project aims to rebuild and expand upon the original Diablo engine, keeping it fully portable and compatible with modern systems, as well as making it adaptable and moddable for anyone willing to modify the game. All of this while still paying due respect to Blizzard and requiring the original game files in order to run the game. Now isn't this nice?

As of the current 0.1 release, there is still much to be done, which is why the project is open to contributors of all sorts. Hopefully, with enough time and effort, we can all free Diablo one day from the clutches of proprietary software and greedy corporate execs who are still stuck in a 90s mentality on how to commercialize and support video games.

Code License: GPLv3
Assets License: Relies on original proprietary data files

Official Website
Source Code (Github)

Midmarkets aggressively embracing Big Data Projects, says Dell Survey

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VARINDIA- INDIA'S FRONTLINE IT MAGAZINE

Midmarkets aggressively embracing Big Data Projects, says Dell Survey

Big data initiatives, enabled by new analytics tools and strengthening ties between business and IT leaders, are helping midsize organizations achieve the improved product quality and decision-making once reserved for large enterprises.

To find out what drives midmarket adoption of big data projects, Dell Software commissioned Competitive Edge Research Reports to conduct a global survey Competitive Edge Research Reports, "Roadblocks Crumbling: Midmarket Companies See Early Success with Big Data", April 2014 of midmarket executives. Focussed exclusively on midmarket organizations, the survey indicates that big data projects have made a significant shift from their enterprise roots, and have become a critical decision-making factor for midmarket companies across the globe. The survey findings also show midmarket organizations today overwhelmingly believe in the potential of big data projects to help them solve tangible business problems, and they are backing up that belief with action.

“Organizations today are sitting on large pools of data also popularly known as the big data. Many mid-market companies in India are unlocking the true potential of big data by making investments in big data analytics and many of these organizations are currently also focussing on refining the quality of business processes. Dell’s survey proves once again the importance of big data in the industry. We, at Dell, have developed a broad range of solutions and services in order to let customers of all sizes leverage big data to make faster and better informed decisions,” said Murli Mohan, General Manager, Dell Software, India.

The survey’s most significant finding is that 41 per cent of the respondents have one or more big data projects already in place, with another 55 per cent planning to start one in the foreseeable future. Further results show that more midmarket firms plan to use big data analysis to grow their businesses...........See More

Excused himself from the NSA's Target, Yahoo! Tightens Security

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Yahoo! is focused on tightening the security system, following allegations that mention this website get listed in the target of the National Security Agency (NSA). Plan to do i.e. encrypt the transfer of all information from the data center. (read: Yahoo! Makes a rival YouTube)

Later Yahoo! users are given the option to encrypt the data that can be accessed when using the Yahoo! services. Via his Tumblr page, the search engine giant said Internet traffic in the center of the data is fully protected. The search page, the main page of Yahoo!, and electronic mail services are encrypted since January, write them via Tumblr, which is reported by Engadget, Thursday, April 3, 2014.

As for how to do the encryption when accessing Yahoo! News by adding HTTPS before typing in the name of the column in the site URL. Users can protect their data when accessing the page, sports, finance, and news on Yahoo! News.

Yahoo! Security Chief Alex Stamos is convinced that the protection method is able to maximize data protection the user of Yahoo!. "His progress is very good, but there's still a lot of work to tighten security," he said. (read: Spy Issue, Obama Invite Discussion Boss technology)

Yahoo! will also build a system of encryption for chat service, Yahoo! Messenger. Though not mentioning his time, they ensure increased security at the service was done this year.

A number of global information technology-based company was the target of the NSA. Earlier, former member of the spy agency, Edward Snowden, leaked the NSA documents that utilize Facebook for breaking into millions of computers in the seuruh world.

Giant Panda Country home network, Huawei, also was the target of the NSA. Leaked document shows the NSA Snowden began operations which called as "Shotgiant" of Huawei.

United States worried the Chinese Government made Huawei products to conduct espionage against the customers of the company. Huawei network equipment providers is the world's second largest after the original company Land Abang Sam, Cisco Systems.

BREAKING NEWS: here are further excerpts from draft impact assessment on review of EU copyright

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Password on the Internet Predicted would soon be replaced

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How do you remember passwords for all devices and services on the Internet or banking? The average person requires a unique password 11 for all devices and services, ranging from online banking, social media or the other. These votes make stress. Not only that, the password in the form of writings already could not guarantee security.

"The last few years a simple password protection is not enough, easily penetrated an increasingly sophisticated hackers," said Gino m. Pereira, CEO of NXT-ID, a company that specializes in online authentication and encryption, Sunday, 29 December 2013,

Apple has released iPhone with fingerprint protection system. This step draw the player technology security devices and could threaten the existence of the password alias password.

Fido Alliance, one of the players in the field of computer security, in the event the Consumer Electronic Show early next year, will launch the product safety. They developed the biometric techniques so that consumers are protected from the threat of cybercrime.

The joint venture has developed three types of biometric security key: voice recognition, fingerprint readers, and scanners. "In one year, we were able to produce a product that includes a biometric security system," said Michael Barrett, President of Fido Alliance. The end of 2014, Android is planned with biometric security system was launched to the market.

One of these applications has been tested on a Barclays Wealth & banking services Investment. They are adopting voice recognition technology for authentication account holders. This system proved to be a success with the level of accuracy of 99,6%. In may, 90 percent chose the voice recognition system.

With this system, customers no longer need to remember some of the passcode to access their account online or by phone. Customers speak only with the phone operator for 20-30 seconds while the program check out their voices. The system is also being developed to recognize stress through sound. This is in order to anticipate if the customer is forced to open their accounts

Linux to the rescue! How Ubuntu can help a computer in distress

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This may sound like sacrilege, but it's not: Ubuntu Linux can be useful even if you’re a hardcore Windows user.

That's because there’s no way to boot a full Windows system from a USB stick to troubleshoot your PC—well, not without an Enterprise version of Windows and Windows To Go—but anyone can make a free Ubuntu USB drive, CD, or DVD. A Ubuntu live drive can be used as a digital Swiss army knife to troubleshoot all sorts of problems with anyPC, whether you need to recover files from a failing computer, diagnose hardware problems, perform a deep virus scan from outside Windows, or even reset a forgotten Windows password.

We’ll be getting our hands dirty with some Linux terminal commands here, but don’t worry—the Linux terminal won’t bite. You can even copy-paste most of these commands directly into the terminal.

Create Ubuntu Live media

To get started, you’ll need a Linux live USB drive, CD, or DVD. You can use any Linux distribution for this, but we’re focusing on Ubuntu to simplify things.

Visit Ubuntu’s website and download Ubuntu Desktop— we used 12.04 LTS for this, but any available version will do. Download the Universal USB Installer tool, then select your USB drive and the ISO file and the tool will create a bootable USB drive. You can also burn the ISO file to a CD or DVD, but those spinning discs will run slower than a USB drive.

2 boot ubuntu live media — You'll want to select the "Try Ubuntu" option to use the live drive.

Just insert the live drive into a computer and reboot. It should boot straight into Ubuntu; if it doesn’t, you’ll need to change the boot order in your computer’s BIOS. Once you're in, the troubleshooting begins.

Recover files from a failing drive

We’ve all been there. Your PC may not boot, Windows may be showing errors and blue-screening, or—even worse—you may hear that dreaded mechanical hard drive clicking.

Even if you can’t boot Windows, there’s a good chance you can read the drive from within Linux and recover some files before the hard drive dies completely. Or, if the Windows system is corrupted and the drive itself is fine, you can recover all of the files from outside Windows.

recover windows files from ubuntu — Recovering Windows-stored files with Ubuntu is as easy as opening a folder.

There’s no Linux terminal involved here. Just click the folder icon on Ubuntu’s launcher to open the file manager. You’ll see your Windows drive under Devices in the sidebar; click it and you’ll see your Windows file system. If you have multiple partitions or hard drives, you’ll see multiple devices here.

Connect an external drive or USB stick to your computer and it will appear under Devices, too. Copy and paste the files you want to back up from the Windows system to your external drive, just as you would on Windows. You could even fire up a web browser and upload the files directly to Dropbox or another cloud storage service, or open the Brasero Disc Burner application included with Ubuntu to burn them to disc.

Reset your Windows password

Ubuntu can also edit your Windows user account passwords, which is great if you’ve forgotten your Windows password. We tested this on a modern Windows 8.1 Update system and it worked perfectly. We’ll be modifying the Administrator account here—after you unlock it and clear its password, you can log into Windows as Administrator and reset your other passwords.

Open a terminal by clicking the Ubuntu logo in the top-left corner of the launcher, typing Terminal, and pressing Enter. Run the following commands to install the password-changing utility you’ll need. (If you’ve already run the first two commands, you don’t need to run them again—just run the third one here.)

sudo add-apt-repository "deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu $(lsb_release -sc) universe"
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install chntpw

Be sure to open the file manager from the launcher and click your Windows drive under Devices to view its contents if you haven’t yet. This will “mount” the drive and make it available in the terminal.

12 reset windows password find directory — Finding the Windows directory using the Terminal.

Next, start typing the following command into the terminal, but do not press Enter:

cd /media/

Now, press the Tab key twice. You’ll see an alphanumeric label that corresponds to your hard drive. Type the first few characters and press Tab again to automatically fill the label in. Now type /Windows/System32/config so you end up with a command that looks like the following, and then finally press Enter:

cd /media/9A72A08872A06AA9/Windows/System32/config

Run the following command and press Enter to start modifying the Administrator account. SAM is the name of the Windows system file containing the hashed user account passwords.

sudo chntpw SAM

If your Administrator account is locked—and it is by default—type 4 at the prompt and press Enter to unlock it. Type y at the confirmation prompt and press Enter to confirm.

14 unlock administrator account and write changes — Unlocking the Windows admin account.

You’ll have to run the sudo chntpw SAM command again to get back into the program. Type 1 and press Enter at the prompt to clear the Administrator’s password and make it blank. Type y at the prompt and press Enter to confirm again. Important: Do not use the change password option here, as it could cause problems.

You can now log into Windows with the username Administrator and a blank password. From there, you can open the Control Panel and reset other user account passwords. (Worried about other people doing this to your Windows system? Set a BIOS password to ensure they can’t boot to removable media and mess around with it.)

Scan for malware

Rootkits are a nasty type of malware that burrow deep into Windows and start at boot-up, pulling strings in the background so they’re invisible to antivirus programs and hidden even from the Windows Task Manager. Even if you have bog-standard malware, it’s often easier to remove malware from outside Windows. Antivirus companies often make dedicated antivirus boot discs you can use to scan your system from outside Windows, but you can do this all from within Ubuntu.

We’ll use ClamAV here because it’s open source and easily installable on Ubuntu. It isn’t the only option, though; you may also want to look at commercial antiviruses like AVG Free for Linux or BitDefender for Unices.

To install ClamAV, open the terminal and copy-paste or type each of the following commands into the terminal in order, pressing Enter after each. (Again, if you’ve already run the first two commands performing another task, you don’t need to run them again—just start at the third.)

sudo add-apt-repository "deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu $(lsb_release -sc) universe"
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install clamtk

Type y and press Enter to confirm the installation.

Next, run the following command to update your virus definitions:

sudo freshclam

scan all files clamav — Be sure to have ClamAV scan all files and directories.

You can now run the clamtk command in the terminal or open ClamTk from your list of installed applications. Be sure to click the Preferences button and enable the “Scan all files and directories in a directory” option after you do.

clamav start recursive scan — Selecting a recursive scan while ClamTk is open.

To actually scan your Windows drive for malware, click the Scan option on the menu at the top of ClamAV's screen and select Recursive Scan. Select your Windows drive in the sidebar and clickOK. ClamTk should scan every file on your Windows drive with the ClamAV antivirus engine.

Give your hard drive a check-up

Ubuntu can also check for hardware-related issues.

The SMART hard drive status system allows a failing hard drive to warn you before it goes down in flames. To check a drive’s SMART status from Ubuntu, click the Ubuntu logo icon at the top-left corner of your screen, search for "Disk Utility" and press Enter. Select your Windows drive and look next to SMART Status to see the drive’s health status. You can click the SMART Data button to see more details and perform self-tests.

smart check status — Checking your disk drive's health is SMART. Get it? Hey, stop groaning.

SMART isn’t perfect. A drive may be failing and reporting that everything is fine even as it grinds to a halt. Another drive may report a serious problem and continue working fine for months. But, if you see a serious warning, you should get your files off the drive and replace it as soon as possible.

Test your RAM

Ubuntu comes with the popular memtest86+ memory-testing utility built-in. This utility will write data to your computer’s RAM, read it back, and check if it’s correct. If your RAM has a problem, memtest86+ will notice when the RAM returns different data. In normal computer use, these problems can lead to application crashes, file corruption, and even the dreaded blue screen of death.

This utility must be chosen at boot, so you’ll have to restart your computer if you’re already at the Ubuntu desktop. When Ubuntu starts booting, repeatedly press Escape and you’ll see the normally hidden boot menu. Select the Test Memory option here to launch memtest86+.

5 boot into memory check — You want the "Test Memory" option.

Give memtest86+ some time alone with your computer after it begins. After a single successful batch of tests, known as a pass, you’ll see the message “Pass complete, no errors, press Esc to exit.” You can exit memtest86+ after the message appears or allow it to perform multiple passes. If you see an error, you likely need to replace one or more of the RAM sticks in your PC.

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