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Atari Online News, Etc. Volume 15 Issue 36
Volume 15, Issue 36 Atari Online News, Etc. September 13, 2013
Published and Copyright (c) 1999 - 2013
All Rights Reserved
Atari Online News, Etc.
A-ONE Online Magazine
Dana P. Jacobson, Publisher/Managing Editor
Joseph Mirando, Managing Editor
Rob Mahlert, Associate Editor
Atari Online News, Etc. Staff
Dana P. Jacobson -- Editor
Joe Mirando -- "People Are Talking"
Michael Burkley -- "Unabashed Atariophile"
Albert Dayes -- "CC: Classic Chips"
Rob Mahlert -- Web site
Thomas J. Andrews -- "Keeper of the Flame"
With Contributions by:
Fed Horvat
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=~=~=~=
A-ONE #1536 09/13/13
~ Net Neutrality Trouble ~ People Are Talking! ~ Verizon vs. FCC!
~ Brazil PO'ed Over NSA! ~ Apple Not Innovative? ~ Finn Hacker Nabbed!
~ Police Web Hacker Jailed ~ Twitter Files for IPO! ~ More Cyberbullying!
~ UK Thwarts Cyber Crooks! ~ Facebook Privacy Woes! ~ Google Chrome Apps!
-* Video Game Sales on the Rise *-
-* Officials Misused US Surveillance *-
-* Google Chairman Won't Pass Judgement on NSA *-
=~=~=~=
->From the Editor's Keyboard "Saying it like it is!"
""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Happy Friday the 13th!! It seems like this week has been a perfect example
of unfortunate events that superstition usually occur on this day. That
said, it hasn't been a good week here, ulminating in a later than usual
issue release! So, without even considering some poignant remarks this
week, let's just get to the issue straightaway!
Until next time...
=~=~=~=
->In This Week's Gaming Section - Video Game Sales on the Rise As Launches Approach
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Sony Unveils Tiny PlayStation Vita TV Set-Top Box
'Pong' Creator Back with Trivia Card Game!
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE's Game Console Industry News - The Latest Gaming News!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Video Game Sales on the Rise As Xbox One, PS4 Launches Approach
The thriving video game industry has struggled in recent years to maintain
the momentum it developed over the last decade, but according to a recent
report from the NPD Group, August 2013 represents the first month for
year-over-year growth in sales since October 2011. The report states that
retail sales grew a modest 1% over August 2012 as growth in software and
accessories offset soft hardware sales as we near the launch of the Xbox
One and PS4.
It is important to keep in mind that the NPD Group only directly accounts
for physical retail sales, but when taking into account estimates of
digital sales, paid downloadable content, and rentals, the research firm
believes the total consumer spend for August was more than $1.2 billion.
The primary reason for the growth was an incredibly strong lineup of
software, which included Madden 25, Saints Row IV, Splinter Cell:
Blacklist, and the accessory-heavy Disney Infinity. Software launched in
August 2013 made up 58% of video game sales that month as opposed to a
meek 24% in August 2012.
Predictably, hardware sales have continued to slide as the releases of
the Xbox One and PS4 approach, although the 3DS and Xbox 360 remain at the
top of heap. The surge in software sales is a positive sign with new
hardware on the way, and might hint at a very strong 2014 for the video
game industry.
Sony Unveils Tiny PlayStation Vita TV Set-Top Box
Sony today unveiled the PlayStation Vita TV, a tiny set-top box device
that will offer Japanese consumers a new way to consume entertainment.
The company also unveiled the thinner, lighter Sony PlayStation Vita 2000,
which is aimed at attracting new PS Vita gamers.
During a press conference in Tokyo today, the electronics giant revealed
its smallest PlayStation device to date 6.4 cm by 10.5 cm with an
equally miniature $100 (9,954 Yen) price tag. Set for a Nov. 14 launch,
the PS Vita TV turns your television into an all-encompassing
entertainment system, where users can play games or watch movies and TV
shows - much like the Roku, Google Chromecast, or Apple TV.
Advertisement
With PS Vita TV, you can send Vita games to the TV and play with a
DualShock 3 controller. Those who purchase the PlayStation 4, though,
will be able to link up their PS Vita TV to the new console for "remote
play." So, if someone wants to watch Breaking Bad in the living room, you
can stream a game from the PS4 there to the PS Vita TV in the basement
and play down there.
The machine "allows TV to evolve and make it more fun," Andrew House,
president and group CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment, said Monday.
PS Vita 2000
He boasted access to a number of Japanese-based content services, as well
as Hulu and the PlayStation Store and 1,300 games at launch most titles
found in the PS Vita, PSP, and first-generation game archives. Vita games
that require a touch screen, motion sensors, camera, and other components
are not available via the TV device. A full list of Vita games playable
with the Vita TV is available online.
There is no word on whether the PS Vita TV will make its way to other
regions.
Sony also revealed its new handheld console, the PS Vita 2000, which is
20 percent lighter and 15 percent thinner than the current device. The
electronics maker added six color variations, aimed at attracting women
and children.
Don't get too excited about the 5-inch HD LCD display, 1GB memory card, or
extended battery life the Vita 2000 will launch exclusively in Japan on
Oct. 10 for $200 (19,929 Yen), with no word on expansion to foreign
markets.
If you've just got to have a PlayStation Vita, though, head to your local
retailer for the discounted console, now $199. Sony also slashed the
price of the Vita in Japan in February, which led to "a remarkable
increase in hardware and software" sales, the company said today.
Though Sony's press conference focused solely on the Vita and its family
of products, the company also revealed today that it will launch the
upcoming PlayStation 4 on Feb. 22 in Japan three months after its
Nov. 15 release in North America.
'Pong' Creator Back with Trivia Card Game
Atari's third-ever employee and the creator of the classic video game
"Pong" has taken to Kickstarter for his next video game project.
Seriously?!
The creator of the classic video game "Pong" has taken to Kickstarter for
his next video game project.
When it comes to video games, you can't get much more classic than "Pong,"
the 1972 Atari game which essentially spearheaded the ascension of the
modern video game industry. But now that even Atari's US chapter has been
forced to file for bankruptcy, what is "Pong" creator Al Alcorn to do
when he's inspired to produce a new video game?
Like many colleagues, Alcorn has looked to Kickstarter for the answer.
Along with fellow Atari veteran Roger Hector, Alcorn recently launched a
Kickstarter campaign for a trivia card game called "Seriously?!" The game
will run on iOS and Android and the game developers note that it will be
"hosted" by a "Siri-like" character essentially, a snarkier version of
the iconic virtual assistant that's already become the butt of so many
jokes. There are also plans to introduce a number of celebrity hosts
including Atari founder Nolan Bushnell, who makes a guest appearance in
the game's pitch video.
As a comic trivia game, "Seriously?!" bears an unmistakable homage to
popular games like "Cards Against Humanity" (basically a more adult
version of "Apples to Apples") and "You Don't Know Jack" (the same, but
for "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire"). The idea with "Seriously?!" is to
combine tabletop games like "Cards" with their virtual counterparts.
Phones or tablets running the game will scan the physical cards and then
play a visual or audio cue for contestants. Kickstarter backers will also
be able to submit their own sample questions or challenges for the game.
Alcorn and Hector said that anyone who gets their work accepted will be
credited as a game designer in the final product.
With 25 days left to go, "Seriously?!" has a little more than $3,300 of
its $100,000 goal. [Editor's note: The Kickstarter campaign failed to
help raise the necessary funding]
=~=~=~=
A-ONE's Headline News
The Latest in Computer Technology News
Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson
Officials Misused US Surveillance Program
U.S. officials for nearly three years accessed data on thousands of
domestic phone numbers they shouldn't have and then misrepresented their
actions to a secret spy court to reauthorize the government's
surveillance program, documents released Tuesday show.
The government's explanation points to an enormous surveillance
infrastructure with such incredible power that even the National Security
Agency doesn't fully know how to properly use it: Officials told a judge
in 2009 that the system is so large and complicated that "there was no
single person who had a complete technical understanding" of it.
The documents, which the Obama administration was compelled to release as
part of a lawsuit by a civil liberties group, show that National Security
Agency analysts routinely exceeded their mission to track only phone
numbers with reasonable connections to terrorism.
Officials said that the complexity of the computer system and a
misunderstanding of the laws, court orders and internal policies
controlling analysts' actions contributed to the abuses. There's no
evidence that the NSA intentionally used its surveillance powers to spy
on Americans for political purposes, a fear of many critics who recall
the FBI's intrusive surveillance of civil rights leaders and protesters
in the 1960s.
"The documents released today are a testament to the government's strong
commitment to detecting, correcting and reporting mistakes that occur in
implementing technologically complex intelligence collection activities,
and to continually improving its oversight and compliance processes,"
said Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. "As demonstrated in
these documents, once compliance incidents were discovered in the
telephony metadata collection program, additional checks, balances and
safeguards were developed to help prevent future instances of
noncompliance."
The Obama administration had conceded earlier that, when it secretly began
gathering Americans' phone and Internet records in 2006, it scooped up
more domestic phone calls and emails than Congress or a court authorized.
But many details of the program's abuse were not known until Tuesday.
In a sweeping violation of court-imposed surveillance rules that went on
daily between 2006 and 2009, the documents show the NSA tapped the bulk
telephone records and compared them with thousands of others without
"reasonable, articulable suspicion," the required legal standard.
The NSA told the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court it misunderstood
restrictions on accessing data once it was archived, but Judge Reggie B.
Walton wrote in a March 2009 order that such an interpretation of the
court's orders "strains credulity." He was so fed up with the
government's overreaching that he threatened to shutter the surveillance
program.
After discovering government officials had been accessing domestic phone
records without a sufficient connection to terrorism for nearly three
years, the judge said in a blistering opinion that he had "lost
confidence" in officials' ability to legally operate the program.
Walton noted, for instance, that just 1,935 phone numbers out of 17,835 on
a list investigators were working with in early 2009 met the legal
standard.
The judge ordered the NSA to conduct an "end-to-end" review of its
processes and policies while also ordering closer monitoring of its
activities.
Later in 2009, a Justice Department lawyer reported to the spy court a
"likely violation" of NSA surveillance rules. The lawyer said that in some
cases, it appeared the NSA was distributing the sensitive phone records by
email to as many as 189 analysts, but only 53 were approved by the spy
court to see them.
Walton wrote that he was "deeply troubled by the incidents," which he
said occurred just weeks after the NSA had performed a major review of its
internal practices because of the initial problems reported earlier in the
year.
The judge said in November 2009 that on the same day the NSA
counterterrorism office reminded employees they were not allowed to
indiscriminately share phone records with co-workers and one day after
a similar reminder from the agency's lawyers an NSA analyst improperly
shared information with colleagues who were not approved by the
intelligence court to see it.
Walton also noted that sometimes a U.S. phone number would be reassigned
by a phone company, and in such cases the NSA would scrutinize the records
of an innocent customer. Walton called such cases "a source of concern by
the court." He noted that, months earlier, the court ordered the NSA to
explain more fully how it chooses which phone numbers to search and to
delete any information that was improperly collected.
"This report was not sufficiently detailed to allay the court's concerns,"
Walton wrote. He ordered the NSA going forward to regularly tell the court
the number of phone records searched, the time period when they could be
searched, and details about how the NSA analysts were conducting searches
suggested by results from other searches.
The hundreds of previously classified documents federal officials released
Tuesday came in response to a lawsuit filed by the Electronic Frontier
Foundation.
The Obama administration has been facing mounting pressure to reveal more
details about the government's domestic surveillance program since a
former intelligence contractor released documents showing massive
trawling of domestic data by the NSA.
The data included domestic telephone numbers, calling patterns and the
agency's collection of Americans' Internet user names, IP addresses and
other metadata swept up in surveillance of foreign terror suspects.
The Obama administration's decision to release the documents comes just
two weeks after it declassified three secret Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Court opinions including one in response to a separate EFF
lawsuit in the federal court in Washington. In that October 2011 opinion,
Judge John D. Bates said he was troubled by at least three incidents over
three years where government officials admitted to mistaken collection of
domestic data.
The NSA's huge surveillance machine proved unwieldy even for the experts
inside the agency. In a long report to the surveillance court in August
2009, the Obama administration blamed its mistakes on the complexity of
the system and "a lack of shared understanding among the key stakeholders"
about the scope of the surveillance.
Complexity has been a theme since the NSA leaks began this summer. Though
Obama said Congress was briefed on the programs, members of Congress said
they were surprised to learn how vast and intrusive the surveillance was.
Even Rep. James Sensenbrenner, who sponsored the Patriot Act, said he
never knew it would be used to sweep up phone records of every American.
Google Chairman Wont Pass Judgement on NSA Spying
It seems that Googles call for more transparency on the National Security
Agencys data collection program isnt personal but just business. The
Guardian reports that Google chairman Eric Schmidt this week said that he
wouldnt pass judgement against the NSAs program since such
surveillance is the nature of our society. However, Schmidt still said
that he wanted the government to let his company reveal more about what
it discloses to the NSA since revelations about the agencys PRISM
program have created an atmosphere of mistrust among overseas companies
and governments.
The real danger from the publicity about all of this is that other
countries will begin to put very serious encryption we use the term
balkanization in general to essentially split the Internet and that
the Internets going to be much more country specific, Schmidt said at a
New York event hosted by the New America foundation. That would be a
very bad thing, it would really break the way the Internet works, and I
think thats what I worry about. Theres been spying for years, theres
been surveillance for years, and so forth, Im not going to pass judgment
on that, its the nature of our society.
Google and Microsoft recently teamed up to file a lawsuit against the
government to let them disclose more information on what data they collect
and share with the NSA as part of compliance with the Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Act (FISA). Many American companies have complained that
revelations about the NSAs data collection practices have hurt their
relationships with foreign companies and governments so it wont be
surprising to see a bigger lobbying push from the tech sector for more
transparency in the coming months.
Brazil's Rousseff Targets Internet Companies After NSA Spying
Angered by reports that the U.S. government spied on her and other
Brazilians, President Dilma Rousseff is pushing new legislation that
would seek to force Google, Facebook and other internet companies to store
locally gathered data inside Brazil.
The requirement would be difficult to execute, technology experts say,
given high costs and the global nature of the Internet. Still, Rousseff's
initiative is one of the most tangible signs of a backlash following
revelations that the U.S. National Security Agency monitored emails,
phone calls and other communications abroad.
The legislation, which is being written by a lawmaker in Rousseff's
left-wing Workers' Party and is scheduled to be completed next week, would
force foreign-based internet companies to maintain data centers inside
Brazil that would then be governed by Brazilian privacy laws, officials
said.
Internet companies operating in Brazil are currently free to put data
centers wherever they like. Facebook Inc, for example, stores its global
data in the United States and a new complex in Sweden.
Rousseff believes that the change would help shield Brazilians from
further U.S. prying into their activities, and she is considering urging
other countries to take similar measures when she speaks at the United
Nations General Assembly later this month, a senior Brazilian official
told Reuters.
"This would be a turning point for these companies," the official said,
naming Facebook, Google Inc and Microsoft Corp as examples, although they
would not be the only companies affected. "If you want to work here, you
will have to obey our rules."
The official spoke on condition of anonymity to frankly discuss
Rousseff's plans and the consequences of the law.
The proposal follows a series of media reports based on documents leaked
by Edward Snowden, a former NSA contractor who is now in asylum in
Russia.
While Brazil is one of several countries named as targets in the
documents, the revelations have been especially controversial here because
of a long-standing distrust of U.S. spy agencies' activities in Latin
America and a report that Rousseff's own communications were compromised.
In another sign of concern from the region, Brazil's Defense Minister
Celso Amorim said on Thursday he planned to discuss a plan for bilateral
cooperation on cyber defense with Argentina's president, Cristina
Fernandez, during a meeting in Buenos Aires.
Alessandro Molon, a legislator in Brazil's house of deputies, was invited
to the presidential palace on Tuesday to meet with Rousseff, several
ministers and other top aides to discuss the proposed changes to data
storage requirements.
Molon has been pushing Congress since 2012 to pass a bill known as the
"Internet Constitution." The law would establish Brazil's first legal
framework for users' rights online, and among other requirements would
force social media companies to delete users' data once they close their
profiles.
The president asked Molon to add language to the bill regarding data
centers, Molon's spokesman Leonardo Santos said.
Following the meeting, Rousseff's office filed a motion in Wednesday's
edition of the government's official gazette that seeks to force Congress
to vote on the bill in the next 45 days.
Santos said Molon has been in regular contact with internet companies over
the past year and he is aware of the technical challenges posed by
Rousseff's request and other provisions.
The proposed changes are "difficult, as they (the companies) say, but I
don't know if they're impossible," Santos said.
Santos declined to provide further details of the legislation, such as
which types of data would be covered by the law or which categories of
companies would be subject to such rules, saying such questions were still
under study.
Bill Coughran, a former senior vice president of engineering at Google and
now a partner at top-tier venture firm Sequoia Capital, said Brazil would
not be able to impose controls on the transport of all data.
A more likely outcome would be less onerous restrictions that keep some
data local, which might add to corporate expenses and reduce income while
making the consumer experience slightly worse, he said.
"Balkanization would increase the complexity of how you manage your
business," Coughran said.
Representatives for Facebook and Microsoft did not immediately respond to
requests for comment.
Some European countries already require certain sensitive personal data to
be stored locally. Microsoft, Amazon and other big providers of remote
computing services have data centers in those countries so their customers
can comply with local regulations.
Social media may be more difficult to govern. If a Facebook user in
Brazil commented on a French friend's post, for example, it is not clear
how that data could stay in Brazil.
Studies suggest building data centers in Brazil is more expensive and
logistically difficult than many other countries.
A 2012 report by real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield and
hurleypalmerflatt, an engineering consultancy, ranked 30 nations in terms
of risks posed to data center operations. Brazil finished in last place,
due primarily to high electricity costs, low education levels and a poor
environment for doing business.
However, as Latin America's largest economy and home to some of the
world's most prolific users of social media, Brazil may be too big for
companies to just walk away from if they do not like the legislation.
Brazil's internet penetration rate is 44 percent - half that of the United
States - meaning it still has plenty of growth potential.
The new legislation is one of several responses by Rousseff to the
reported spying.
She has demanded a detailed account from Washington on the extent of its
espionage in Brazil, and said that otherwise she may cancel a planned
state visit to Washington next month.
Her government has so far rejected Washington's contention that it gathers
intelligence only to guard against threats to U.S. national security.
Brazil is a peaceful democracy with no history of international terrorism
and no access to weapons of mass destruction.
The senior Brazilian official voiced a belief that the data storage bill
would not only work but other countries would follow suit, naming other
members of the BRICS bloc of large emerging markets: China, India, Russia
and South Africa.
"Once we do it, it will become a standard," the official said.
Verizon - F.C.C. Court Fight Takes On Regulating Net
Few people would dispute that one of the biggest contributors to the
extraordinary success of the Internet has been the ability of just about
anyone to use it to offer any product, service or type of information they
want.
How to maintain that success, however, is the subject of a momentous fight
that resumes this week in the United States Court of Appeals for the
District of Columbia Circuit. The battle pits one of the largest providers
of Internet access Verizon against the Federal Communications
Commission, which for nearly 80 years has been riding herd on the
companies that provide Americans with telecommunications services.
Verizon and a host of other companies that spent billions of dollars to
build their Internet pipelines believe they should be able to manage them
as they wish. They should be able, for example, to charge fees to content
providers who are willing to pay to have their data transported to
customers through an express lane. That, the companies say, would allow
the pipeline owner to reap the benefits of its investment.
The F.C.C., however, believes that Internet service providers must keep
their pipelines free and open, giving the creators of any type of legal
content movies, shopping sites, medical services, or even pornography
an equal ability to reach consumers. If certain players are able to buy
greater access to Internet users, regulators believe, the playing field
will tilt in the direction of the richest companies, possibly preventing
the next Google or Facebook from getting off the ground.
The court is set to hear oral arguments starting Monday morning in
Verizon v. F.C.C., which is billed as a heavyweight championship of the
technology world, setting the old era against the new.
This will determine whether the laws and regulations of the past the
pre-Internet age will apply to the Internets future, said Scott
Cleland, the chairman of NetCompetition, a group sponsored by broadband
companies, including Verizon. It will determine the regulatory power and
authority of the F.C.C. in the 21st century.
Susan Crawford, a supporter of the F.C.C.s position who is co-director of
the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard and a professor at
Yeshiva Universitys Cardozo School of Law, called the showdown a moment
of grandeur.
The question presented by the case is, does the U.S. government have any
role to play when it comes to ensuring ubiquitous, open, world-class,
interconnected, reasonably priced Internet access? Ms. Crawford said.
Does the government have good reason to ensure that facility in
America?
European countries are similarly struggling with whether and how to
regulate Internet service. The Netherlands has some wireless regulations
in place, and France this year introduced strict anti-discrimination
measures. But while European Union officials have voiced support for what
is known as net neutrality, a recent proposal gives Internet providers
great leeway. In December 2010 the F.C.C. issued its Open Internet
Order, an 87-page set of instructions directing Internet service
providers not to block or to unreasonably discriminate against any type
of Internet traffic deemed not harmful to the system. The only exception
to the open access principle is for reasonable network management, a
loosely defined term that allows a company to do what it takes to keep
its network up and running.
Internet service providers also were ordered to disclose how they manage
their networks and how their systems perform like how they handle
congestion when a large portion of users are, for example, downloading
high-definition video.
The order was necessary, the F.C.C. said in court papers, because there
were significant threats to openness, and thus to the engine that has
driven investment in broadband facilities. In the past, the F.C.C. said,
several broadband access providers had blocked or degraded service. One
was Comcast, which in 2008 was punished by the F.C.C. for blocking access
by some of its users to the file-sharing service BitTorrent, which was
often used for the unauthorized exchange of movies or music.
Other providers have the technological capability and the economic
incentive to engage in similar acts, the commission said. And with the
majority of Americans having only two wireline broadband choices (many
have only one), market discipline alone could not guarantee continued
openness. The F.C.C.s rules generally are more strict for wireless
carriers, because those networks are more susceptible to congestion.
In the Comcast case, the cable company appealed the F.C.C. ruling, and the
D.C. federal appeals court the same court hearing the Verizon case
said in 2010 that the agency had overstepped its bounds, failing to show
that it had the authority to regulate an Internet service provider.
It is in fact far from easy for the F.C.C. to demonstrate that it has such
authority. That is because in 2002 the commission, then led by Michael K.
Powell, a Republican, voted to classify Internet service as an information
service rather than a telecommunications service.
The difference meant that Internet providers were not subject to
regulation like a telephone company. Instead, they were free of
restrictions on rates and exempt from regulations that would require them
to open their networks to allow competitors to offer lower-cost service
over the same pipes.
The judge who wrote the Comcast decision, David S. Tatel, is one member of
the three-judge panel that will hear Verizons appeal. Many industry
experts view the two other judges as highly likely to take opposing sides,
leaving Judge Tatel as the swing vote.
Verizon argues that the F.C.C.s Open Internet Order should be struck down
because it is arbitrary and capricious, and aims to prevent activity that
is not taking place. It argues in its court filings that the F.C.C. has
documented only four examples, over six years, of purported blocking of
Internet content by service providers.
During those six years, the company said, end users successfully accessed
the Internet content, applications and services of their choice literally
billions of times.
More broadly, Verizon argues that the F.C.C., as in the Comcast case,
fails to identify any statutory authority for the rules. And in fact,
Verizon said, the F.C.C. order is so broad that it would give the
commission the power to regulate all sectors of the Internet economy
without limit.
The court is likely to take several months to issue its decision, lawyers
involved in the case say perhaps before the end of the year, but more
likely in 2014. When the ruling comes, many people will be waiting. More
than 400 organizations or individuals weighed in at the F.C.C. when the
rules were being considered. More than 60 signed legal briefs supporting
the F.C.C., while at least a dozen did so backing Verizon.
Net Neutrality Faces Uncertain U.S. Court Ruling
Its difficult to predict how an appeals court will rule after it hears
arguments Monday in Verizon Communications challenge of the U.S. Federal
Communications Commissions net-neutrality rules.
Groups on both sides of the debate over the FCCs rules prohibiting
broadband providers from selectively blocking or slowing traffic say they
believe they have a good case at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the
District of Columbia Circuit. Reading the courts tea leaves has become
as much of a case of wishful thinking as a predictive science.
On one hand, the same appeals court ruled against the FCC in April 2010,
when the agency tried to force Comcast to comply with an Internet policy
statement after the cable broadband provider was caught slowing
BitTorrent and other bandwidth-hogging applications. The court said then
that the FCC lacked any statutorily mandated responsibility to enforce
network neutrality rules.
The legal situation has changed since then, however. Last December, the
same appeals court ruled in favor of the FCC after Verizon Wireless had
challenged the agencys authority to impose data roaming rate rules on
mobile carriers. The question over the FCCs authority to impose data
roaming rules is similar to the one raised by Verizon in the net
neutrality case, some telecom experts said.
Then, in May, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled, in a case called City of
Arlington v. FCC, that a regulatory agency generally be given broad
deference when interpreting its own authority when statutory ambiguity
exits. That decision could influence the upcoming appeals court decision,
some experts said, although others cautioned that the cases have
significant differences.
Adding to the difficulty in predicting an outcome: The court has a number
of options it could take. It could strike down the FCCs net neutrality
order, it could uphold it, or it could take some type of middle ground.
For example, the court could kick back the rules to the FCC by saying the
agency may have the authority but hasnt made its case.
Verizon argues that the FCC doesnt have authority to regulate an
information service, a class of communications that the agency has
previously exempted from most regulation. The net neutrality rules are a
violation of Verizons First Amendment free speech rights and its Fifth
Amendment property rights, the company has argued.
The agency has claimed broad authority over broadband using twisted
regulatory logic, Verizons lawyers wrote in their brief to the appeals
court. As with the earlier Comcast case, the FCC has acted without
statutory authority to insert itself into this crucial segment of the
American economy, while failing to show any factual need to do so,
Verizon said in the court brief.
That earlier Comcast decision from the same court presents a major
hurdle for the FCC, said Randolph May, president of the Free State
Foundation, a free market think tank that has joined a brief calling for
the court to overturn the rules. Although the FCC, in its 2011 net
neutrality order, made an effort to beef up its argument that it
possesses authority under the Communications Act to regulate Internet
access service, I think the overall impression is that the agency is
reaching too far, May said by email.
May would lean toward the FCC losing the case, he said. The court will
look at whether the FCCs net neutrality rules were reasonable, May said,
and many critics have argued the regulations were unnecessary because
there have been few examples of violations.
Even if the court finds that the FCC possesses authority under the
statute, there is a pretty good chance the court will find, in light of
the lack of persuasive findings concerning market failure, consumer harm,
or impact on investment and innovation, that the agencys decision is
arbitrary and capricious, May said.
The Free State Foundation, free market think tank TechFreedom and other
critics of the net neutrality rules argue in their brief that the U.S.
government could police major violations of net neutrality principles
under existing antitrust law.
If the appeals court strikes down the rules, net neutrality will be dealt
with the same way concerns about competition are dealt with throughout the
rest of the economy, Berin Szoka, president of TechFreedom, said by
email.
The TechFreedom/Free State Foundation brief also repeats concerns that the
rules violate broadband providers free speech rights. By denying
Internet service providers their editorial discretion and by compelling
them to convey content providers messages with which they may disagree,
the Order violates broadband providers First Amendment rights, the
brief says.
The First Amendment and Fifth Amendment concerns are silly, countered
Matt Wood, policy director at Free Press, a digital rights group that has
pushed for strong net neutrality rules. The FCC hasnt taken away
Verizons ability to communicate on its website or its blogs, and the
agency hasnt taken away the carriers network, he said.
Verizons argument that its free speech is impacted when it provides the
pipes for other peoples messages is contrary to the notion to what a
carrier does and how the Internet works, he said.
verizon logo
Verizon, during other debates, has argued it should not be held
responsible for the communications of its broadband customers, says the
Center for Democracy and Technology and a group of legal scholars in their
brief to the appeals court.
The FCCs order does not violate Verizons free speech rights, but
instead protects the First Amendment interests of Internet users, CDT
says in the brief. Certainly, Verizon often does speak via the Internet,
using websites, blogs, email, social media, and the like. But its
separate conduct in transmitting the speech of others should not be
confused with Verizons own speech.
Still, the FCCs argument that it has so-called ancillary authority to
regulate broadband because it has authority over other communications
services may be a tough sell, Wood said. The appeals court rejected the
ancillary authority in the 2010 Comcast case, he noted.
The Supreme Courts City of Arlington case and the data roaming case give
the FCC a mini-winning streak, however, Wood said. He gives the FCC a
close to 50 percent chance of winning the Verizon case.
The FCC has a good chance of winning, countered Michael Weinberg, a vice
president at digital rights group Public Knowledge. The agency is
basically right in arguing it has the authority to regulate broadband
under the Communications Act, he said.
The agency had potential court challenges in mind when it drafted the net
neutrality order, Weinberg said. The FCC was thoughtful about this, he
said.
Twitter Takes First Step Toward Going Public
Twitter Inc has filed for an initial public offering with U.S. regulators,
the company said on Thursday, taking the first step toward what would be
Silicon Valley's most anticipated debut since Facebook Inc's last year.
The impending IPO of the microblogging phenomenon ignited a competition
among Wall Street's biggest names for the prestige of managing its
coming-out party. Goldman Sachs is lead underwriter, a source familiar
with the matter said on Thursday, which is a major coup for the Wall
Street bank.
Twitter filed for an IPO confidentially under a 2012 law intended to help
emerging corporations with less than $1 billion in revenue go public.
Seven-year old Twitter, which allows users to send out streams of
140-character messages, has become an indispensable tool to governments,
corporations and celebrities seeking to communicate with their audience,
and for individuals seeking both news and entertainment.
Chief Executive Dick Costolo has for years waved off suggestions it
intended to go public, saying the company remained flush with cash.
Facebook's mismanaged 2012 debut and subsequent share-price plunge also
chilled the consumer-dotcom IPO market.
Facebook, however, has clawed its way back to its $38 IPO price in July,
and the stock is at a record high after touching $45 this week.
Twitter, which has been valued by private investors at more than $10
billion, should break even this year and is on track for 40 percent
annual growth at a $1 billion annual revenue run rate, Max Wolff of
Greencrest Capital estimated.
"It's completely conquered mobile. It has an enormous social network. It's
becoming a key utility as a second screen to TV and it's literally the
first draft of history," Wolff said.
"Normally a company like Twitter would have been public for some time,"
he said.
Since Jack Dorsey, Twitter's inventor, dispatched the first tweet from a
downtown San Francisco office in March 2006, the service has grown into a
worldwide phenomenon with more than 200 million regular users
contributing more than 400 million posts a day.
The company makes money by inserting paid, targeted ads that resemble
ordinary, user-generated content. Twitter's success with its advertising
model created a new paradigm for mobile advertising and prompted Facebook
last year to adopt a similar ad product, called Sponsored Stories.
But Twitter was one of the first to prove that in-stream ads could be a
viable way to make money in the mobile era.
"There was a lot of concern about whether they'd ever be able to insert
advertising into their site," said Forrester analyst Nate Elliott.
"They've shown it can be effective. They offer in many ways better
measurement for marketers than larger companies like Facebook."
Twitter's lead law firm will be Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, the
firm's chairman Larry Sonsini told Reuters in an email. Sonsini's firm is
famous in Silicon Valley for taking public marquee names such as Apple,
Netscape and Google.
Wall Street continues to jostle for a slice of its impending debut,
sources told Reuters on Thursday.
Technology bankers at major banks from JPMorgan and Credit Suisse Group AG
to Morgan Stanley are still vying for roles in the IPO. Several are in
informal conversations with the microblogging network's management, said
two sources familiar with the matter who declined to be named because it
is not public.
A similar race is on around China's Alibaba, which is expected to raise
more than $15 billion this year. Bank chief executives such as JPMorgan's
Jamie Dimon and Citigroup Inc's Michael Corbat have made it a point to
meet Alibaba founder Jack Ma.
Twitter's debut, though much smaller than Facebook's, could generate tens
of millions of dollars in fees from the underwriting mandate itself.
Assuming it sells around 10 percent of its shares, or $1 billion,
underwriters could stand to divide a fee pool of $40 million to $50
million, assuming an overall fee cut of 4 percent to 5 percent, according
to Freeman & Co.
But the benefits for banks that underwrite the deal would likely be
far-reaching.
"Some companies will say, 'We liked the way you handled Twitter, and we
want to come to you first when we do our IPO,'" said David Menlow,
president of IPOFinancial.com.
"It's not only bragging rights," Menlow said. "It's getting through the
front door, which will line up banks for other transactions done after
that, like debt financings and M&A."
Twitter is allowed to file its registration statement confidentially due
to the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act, a 2012 law that
loosened some of the regulations surrounding the IPO process and other
forms of capital raising.
Companies that file under that law do not have to reveal certain details
until 21 days before embarking on an investor roadshow.
It could allow Twitter to avoid some of the harsh public scrutiny that
other tech companies such as Groupon Inc faced.
Meanwhile, Silicon Valley boosters who were left red-faced by Facebook's
stumble are hoping that Facebook's recovery and a smooth Twitter IPO
would turn investor sentiment back toward consumer Internet companies.
"If 2012 was the Facebook IPO horror story, then all of a sudden 2013 is
looking very nice," said Rick Heitzmann, a venture capitalist at Firstmark
Capital, which has invested in consumer Internet companies including
Pinterest. "We're now seeing that these are real companies proving they
can drive very, very impressive revenue."
Facebook Privacy Policy Update May Have Violated User Rights
In Facebooks latest round of privacy policy updates, it might have
violated a 2011 court order. That court order required the social
networking giant to alert users when their private information would be
shared with others and explain more clearly how their data was being
used. According to the New York Times, the Federal Trade Commission is
looking into whether or not the most recent changes to Facebooks policy
give the company unprecedented access to user data.
NYT reports that Facebooks new policies make clear that users are
required to grant the company wide permission to use their personal
information in advertising as a condition of using the service.
Facebook argues that it cleared the policy updates with the FTC before
implementing them, and is insistent that Facebook has not been granted
any additional rights on account of the new policy. Although Facebooks
rules regarding usage of its users information to advertise products
have been unchanged for quite some time, the language of the policy
update raised a few red flags that the FTC could not ignore namely a
provision that states minors are assumed to have been given permission by
their parents to have their information used in Facebook ads.
It might not result in any action, but the FTC is currently investigating
the legality of Facebooks proposed policy changes.
Finn Hacker Steals Personal Info in Cyber Strike
Helsinki Police say they detained a hacker last weekend suspected of
accessing thousands of usernames and passwords of visitors to more than
300 websites.
Police spokesman Jukkapekka Risu said officers arrested an unnamed local
man, who allegedly acknowledged his actions. Officers are analyzing his
confiscated computers. They declined to give more details.
The Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority warned Friday that the
suspect might have accessed "usernames and passwords of hundreds of
thousands of Finns," mostly from chat forums, adding that the attacks were
not aimed at banks.
Erkki Mustonen from global computer security company F-Secure Corp. said
it was one of the biggest hacker attacks in the Nordic country to date and
could have been prompted by a desire for the hacker to demonstrate his
skills.
Man Gets 3 Years for Hacking Police Websites
A 22-year-old Ohio man linked to the hacker collective Anonymous was
sentenced Thursday to three years in federal prison for breaking into
police-agency websites across the country.
Court records say John Anthony Borell III used Twitter to advertise his
exploits to other members of the group.
A newlywed, Borell was given until Dec. 6 to turn himself in at a federal
prison near his family in Toledo, Ohio.
He was arrested after taking down police-agency websites in Utah,
California, New York and Missouri in January and February of 2012.
Borell pleaded guilty to computer fraud in April and agreed to pay
$227,000 in damages to computer servers that had to be repaired or beefed
up for security.
Anonymous is a loosely organized group of Internet enthusiasts,
pranksters and activists that has targeted organizations such as
MasterCard and the Church of Scientology.
Cyberbullying Investigated in Suicide of Florida Girl
Authorities in Florida said on Friday they were investigating former
schoolmates of a 12-year-old girl who killed herself in central Florida
after she was bullied online for months.
It was not yet clear whether any criminal charges would be filed stemming
from the suicide on Monday of Rebecca Ann Sedwick, who leaped to her death
from the tower of an abandoned cement business site near her home in
Lakeland.
While Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd told a news conference on Thursday
that more than a dozen young girls were under investigation for bullying
Sedwick, a sheriff's office spokeswoman said the number of possible
suspects had been narrowed down considerably.
"There may have been only two or three of them who participated in the
bullying," said sheriff spokeswoman Donna Wood.
She added that any filing of criminal charges in the case could still take
some time.
"We have to determine if a crime has been committed. We have
cyber-stalking laws and cyberbullying laws. It really depends on how the
case goes," Wood said
Judd said earlier that investigators found messages on social media
addressed to Rebecca stating, "You should die," and "Why don't you go kill
yourself."
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, he said Sedwick was despondent and
"beat down" after receiving the hate-filled messages and "absolutely
terrorized."
The problems between Rebecca and her former classmates began in 2012 over
a "boyfriend issue," according to Judd.
At one point, before her death, Sedwick was hospitalized for mental
health treatment, and she was home-schooled before enrolling at a new
school in the Lakeland area, away from her ex-classmates, the sheriff
said.
After her death, investigators discovered that Sedwick had told a
12-year-old boy and online friend in North Carolina about her decision to
kill herself, but he told no one, Judd said.
"I'm jumping. I can't take it anymore," she wrote in a message to him.
UK Police: Cyber Crooks Could Have Stolen Millions
A daring attempt to graft a rogue piece of hardware onto a computer at a
London branch of Spanish bank Santander could have drained millions from
its coffers, police said Friday, an indication of the potential for
electronic crime to tear huge chunks off financial institutions' balance
sheets.
London police and Santander said in a joint statement that 12 suspects
were arrested Thursday following an attempt by a bogus maintenance
engineer to install a keyboard-video-mouse a device typically used to
control several computers at once onto one of the bank's computers at
a branch located in a south London shopping center.
Few other technical details were released, but the statement said that
the hardware would have allowed the transmission of the entire computer's
desktop and "allowed the suspects to take control of the bank's computer
remotely."
Writing on the blog of Internet security firm Sophos, John Hawes said it
wasn't clear how much damage the would-be robbers might have done "even
with access to a workstation."
"If the systems were well controlled, secured and monitored, there should
still have been plenty of obstacles to overcome before they could find
their way into sensitive parts of the network, and move virtual cash out
of the bank's systems," he said.
Police said they took the attempted robbery very seriously. In their
statement, Det. Insp. Mark Raymond described it as a "sophisticated plot
that could have led to the loss of a very large amount of money from the
bank." The force put the potential losses in the millions of pounds
although it stressed that no money was ever withdrawn.
It's not clear from the statement whether the person masquerading as an
engineer was arrested at the scene. Police said that all but one of the
12 suspects, ranging in age from 23 to 50, were apprehended in the same
west London neighborhood.
The scale of the potential theft is another reminder of the huge amounts
that can be stolen by tech-savvy criminals. U.S. investigators say that
one gang operating across 27 countries recently managed to steal $45
million in two separate sprees after compromising payment systems used by
two Middle Eastern banks.
The suspects in the latest heist remain in custody. Police said searches
were being carried out in six different locations in the greater London
area. Santander said none of its staff were involved in the attempted
heist.
Google's Trojan Horse: How Chrome Apps Will Finally Take On Windows
Today, on Chrome's fifth birthday, Google is announcing the rollout of
what it's calling Chrome Apps. Don't feel bad if you're confused by the
name. Chrome has been serving up web apps since 2010 when the Chrome Web
Store opened up alongside the launch of the Chrome OS. Chrome Apps,
however, are different than what's been offered before. They comprise
Google's bid to elevate the browser into a true app platform one that
it thinks could one day be a legitimate rival to Windows, OS X, and
someday iOS and even Android.
The new apps look and behave much like the native apps you find on Windows
and OS X. They're built using web technologies, but also with
Chrome-specific code that means they won't be able to run on other web
browsers they're truly Chrome apps. "A new class of apps"They can exist
outside of your browser window as distinct apps, work offline, and sync
across devices and operating systems. They can also access your
computer's GPU, storage, camera, ports, and Bluetooth connection. Chrome
Apps are, for now, only available through Chrome on Windows or Chrome OS
on a Chromebook. Mac users will have to wait another six weeks before
their version of Chrome will be updated.
The Chrome team tells The Verge that its rather ambitious goal is for
Chrome Apps to be so polished and so powerful that users can't decipher
between this new breed of apps and regular old Windows apps. Chrome Apps
are designed to help turn Chrome OS into a truly viable desktop OS instead
of a de-facto second computer. "We want to make Chrome OS a full-fledged
operating system," says Brian Rakowski, a Chrome VP. "We want to make sure
there are no reasons its not the right product for everyone."
At launch, Google says that more than 50 Chrome Apps are available in the
Chrome Web Store. While big-name developers aren't on board yet, the
selection does at least show the potential for Chrome to grow into a
legitimate platform. Pixlr Touch Up offers basic photo editing that wasn't
native on Chrome before. Task-management app Wunderlist is slick and works
outside of the browser window. Perhaps the best of the bunch is Pocket,
which makes links you save while browsing the web available offline.
""Users may not even fully grasp what it means to be a Chrome App, and
hat's okay.""
Chrome Apps amount to a Trojan horse for Google. By way of the Chrome
browser, the company is essentially putting its own app ecosystem right
on top of Windows and OS X. It's a play that's been months in the making.
"There are still reasons why a developer would build a native app over a
Chrome App today, but we're working to tackle each one," Rakowski says.
Google began promoting a handful of Chrome Apps (then called Packaged
Apps) in May. In July, its Chrome notification center was pushed out to
Windows and Chrome OS users, allowing for alerts and pop-ups outside the
browser window. And for months, Chrome's developer channels have shipped
with an app launcher that lives in the Windows taskbar this launcher
rolled out to the public today too.
Even so, Google says it's not abandoning the web, merely adding more
options for users. It doesn't have a specific agenda to push users into
switching to Chrome Apps instead of web apps if the situation doesnt
call for it. "Users don't care what technology their apps are built
with," says Rahul Roy-Chowdhury, a project manager overseeing the Chrome
Apps push. "Users may not even fully grasp what it means to be a Chrome
App, and that's okay. We want Chrome Apps to be so good you don't even
realize it's something different."
"We're targeting the desktop as our first order of business because that's
where the majority of our users are," he adds. "We want to nail that
first. But our goal, eventually, is to get this to run everywhere that
Chrome runs." According to StatCounter, about 42 percent of web surfers
use Chrome, making it the most popular browser on the planet. Since
Chrome is so ubiquitous, Roy-Chowdhury argues that it's an ideal avenue
for app developers who want to reach as many users as possible. "At the
end of the day, developers have a choice do I build a web app, do I
build a native app, or do I build a Chrome App," he says. "Building a
different version of your app for each individual operating system takes
time and gets expensive. So our hope is that, if you want to be on every
platform, you'll build a Chrome App because eventually, you'll be able to
run Chrome Apps everywhere."
Currently, Chrome Apps are only a reality on the desktop, but the team
says it has a long-term plan to bring the same technologies to mobile
apps, and to deliver them through the channels consumers are used to
Google Play on Android and the App Store on iOS. "We don't want to
recreate the wheel," Roy-Chowdhury says. "We want to build for the
future, we want to build a platform that delivers apps that are
available wherever you are, whatever OS you're on, syncing across all
your screens desktop or mobile." Still, the team cautions that Chrome
Apps on mobile devices won't be happening anytime soon. That's no
surprise as long as mobile operating systems have existed, true
cross-platform development has been a nearly impossible problem to
solve.
Mobile aspirations aside, Google is stepping back from the web standards
approach Chrome has been known for just to pull all this off on the
desktop. But the Chrome team said it's doing so not because it's giving
up on web standards, but because some of what ""We still believe in the
web.""it needs to do to compete with Windows and OS X calls for
functionality that isn't appropriate for the web. That includes letting
an app access a local hard drive or a USB-connected device, says Erik
Kay, an engineering director who helped build the Chrome Apps developer
tools. "We still believe in the web as much as we ever have," Kay says.
"But this is the only way to write full desktop, native-quality apps for
Chrome OS. Chrome OS is a big bet for us, so we want it to be every bit
as powerful as a desktop operating system."
But Chrome Apps aren't the only major gamble Google is making when it
comes to its relationship with the web. The Chrome team recently forked
WebKit and created its own rendering engine, Blink. Both initiatives push
Chrome into the territory of proprietary technologies. While all this
remains open source and allows competitors to use what Google has built,
the company runs the risk of de-emphasizing many of the web app standards
it once championed. Chrome's chance to be the next great app platform is
at stake, but so is its current place as the world's leading browser, as
well as Google's own reputation as a proponent of the open web.
Rakowski says both the Chrome Apps and Blink efforts are necessary if
Chrome OS is to grow into a viable alternative to Windows and OS X. But
so far, while the new Chrome Apps are novel and free from the browser
window, none are revolutionary or close to the quality of desktop
stalwarts like Photoshop, Apple's iLife line, or even Microsoft Office.
Chrome Apps will have to match, if not surpass, these defining
applications in order to prove that Chrome can be a real app platform,
not just a browser. The potential and ambition are evident, but now the
work of convincing developers and users to get on board really begins.
Apple Alum: Apple's Not Innovative Anymore
Another Apple alum is unimpressed with the current direction of the
company: This time its former design contractor Hartmut Esslinger, who
helped Steve Jobs create the original Mac in the early 1980s, and who
recently said that the iPhone is no longer smart enough to be
considered truly innovative.
As soon as you can copy something [like the iPhone], its not smart
enough anymore, he explained, according to The Atlantic Wire. I think
Apple has reached, in a certain way, a saturationthe curve [of
innovation] was really steep seven to eight years ago
But now my iPhone
is so full I am deleting apps because I want to keep it simple.
Its a backhanded compliment, no doubt, referencing the imagination and
early success of the companys smartphone, a brainchild of the late Steve
Jobs. But Esslinger now feels that, since coming forward with the iPhone
and iPad, Apples vision for innovation has diminished, something that has
allowed for other companies to catch up to Apple.
The retired industrial designer got to know and understand Jobs well,
something he has recounted in a memoir, Keep it Simple, set to release in
October. Esslinger partnered with Jobs to create the Snow White design
language featured on Apple's Macintosh computer beginning in 1984. He
also followed Jobs to NeXT, the former Apple co-founder's other computer
company.
Steve Jobs was a man who didnt care for any rational argument why
something should not be tried, Esslinger said, per The Atlantic Wire.
[Jobs] said a lot of no, but he also said a lot of yes to things and
he stubbornly insisted on trying new things.
This sentiment has been echoed by former Apple CEO John Sculley. In a 2010
interview posted by tech site Cult of Mac, Sculley said of Jobs, He was a
person of huge vision. But he was also a person that believed in the
precise detail of every step. He was methodical and careful about
everything a perfectionist to the end.
What makes Steves methodology different from everyone elses is that he
always believed the most important decisions you make are not the things
you do but the things that you decide not to do., Sculley continued.
Hes a minimalist.
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, much like Esslinger, has also offered
comments regarding the stale state of innovation in the company. In
February of this year, Woz told German economic news site Wirtschafts
Woche that, "Currently [Apple is], in my opinion, somewhat behind,
according to TechRadar.
Others have caught up. Samsung is a great competitor. But
precisely
because they are currently making great products," Wozniak remarked.
Apple did announce a couple of new iPhones this week, but the new iPhone
5s and 5c, both slight variations on last years iPhone 5, might not
quite represent the kind of new innovation that some Apple critics are
calling for. (Though we can't help but wonder if Esslinger thought the
gold version of the iPhone 5s was a nice touch.)
Intel Reverts Plans, Will Not Support Ubuntu's XMir
In an interesting change of events, the mainline Intel Linux graphics
driver has reverted the patch to support XMir - the X11 compatibility
layer for the Mir Display Server in Ubuntu Linux.
This week there was the surprise of the Intel 3.0 Linux DDX driver coming
and with it SNA acceleration is enabled by default and it also integrated
support for XMir. There's small work needed to the DDX X.Org graphics
drivers to be able to support running XMir, similar to XWayland for
Wayland users. The support was merged as Canonical said the XMir API
should be stable.
However, this morning the XMir work was reverted. In releasing a new 3.0
xf86-video-intel driver snapshot, Intel's Chris Wilson wrote in a Git
commit:
We do not condone or support Canonical in the course of action they
have chosen, and will not carry XMir patches upstream.
-The Management
Intel, which is a company heavily invested in Wayland and has many
full-time employees working on the competing display server (including
Kristian Høgsberg, the Wayland founder), now doesn't want any XMir
support in their mainline driver. It's interesting to see Intel
management force the XMir removal from the Intel driver just days after
it was committed and to publicly state a neutral stance on Canonical's
controversial display server.
Canonical will now need to carry the XMir support out-of-tree from the
xf86-video-intel driver. Canonical is also carrying patched versions of
Mesa, xf86-video-ati, and xf86-video-nouveau for being able to support
Mir/XMir in Ubuntu 13.10. The binary AMD and NVIDIA graphics drivers
also remain incompatible with Mir.
=~=~=~=
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