@Informatica (Italy e non Italy 😁) Era un’architettura del male ordinaria, quasi noiosa nella sua ripetitività tecnica, eppure di una sofisticatezza tale da sostenere un flusso costante di crimini in tutta Europa. Non un attacco spettacolare, non un
In the past week, a few forum and Reddit threads have popped up, with people stating that JLCPCB has emailed them with a notice, saying their accounts are set up for terminations after an assessment by JLCPCB’s “Risk Control Team”. Reasons given are vague, the terminations are non-appealable, and if you’re planning a JLCPCB order sometime soon, it can certainly come as a surprise. From the looks of it, the accounts restricted do not appear to be tied to any specific country – and not even from the same “kind” of countries.
As quite a few people have observed, the JLCPCB reasoning resembles a compliance action way more than it resembles any sort of internal policy. A few days ago, JLCPCB has released a statement on their blog, claiming that a “history of risky IP addresses and risky activities” would be grounds for a termination, and mentioning “compliance” in ways that would hint at external legal pressures.
By now, quickly checking around Reddit and some other places, we’ve counted at least ten people affected so far – most of them have received emails about account closures, but at least one person has reported a denial when attempting to place an order, instead of getting an email ahead of time. The latter hints that there’s a number of people not yet notified about their account getting terminated, and the amount of people actually affected might very well be a fair bit larger than we can see.
Denial message example as shown in the JLCPCB web UI. Credit: [idnihus] on EEVblog forums (reply #161).A few people say that they had success placing orders with other Chinese fabs after a JLCPCB account termination, which would somewhat complicate the “compliance” angle, but it’s entirely possible it’s just a matter of time before the less prominent Chinese PCB fabs catch up to whatever measure prompted the JLCPCB action.
Wading through the EEVbog forum thread, which is the most active place this issue has been discussed so far, people have a number of guesses, but none of them appear plausible. Some say that China’s recent rare earth material export restriction could conceivably be related to this issue, but it doesn’t quite make sense why that kind of restriction would cause account closures as opposed to the usual order denials, or why JLCPCB would mention “risky IP addresses”, given that the rare earth restriction applies worldwide.
Unless you’ve received an email, it appears there might be no surefire way to check for such a restriction until you attempt to place an order. JLCPCB says they will pay out the account balance, but aside from that, people report problems related to customer components purchased for PCBA reasons, with JLCPCB refusing to ship those components to a non-Chinese address in at least one case of a locked account, and asking for a 30% service fee while at it.
Until we get more clarity, this is yet another reason to try out a non-monopolistic PCB fab for one of your next orders – such as Aisler and OSHPark for EU and US areas respectively. Export restrictions are getting their tentacles into more and more facets of open-source tech development, so it pays to watch out. Of course, if you order from China a lot, you might already have rehearsed for such disruptions, due to the yearly event known as Chinese New Year.
Muxi Integrated Circuit (Nanjing) Co., Ltd. ha presentato ufficialmente Xiyun C600, la prima GPU general-purpose interamente prodotta in Cina, segnando una tappa cruciale nello sviluppo dell’industria nazionale delle GPU ad alte prestazioni.
Il chip, frutto di un progetto avviato nel febbraio 2024, è basato su una proprietà intellettuale completamente autonoma e su una catena di fornitura chiusa e nazionale, che comprende progettazione, produzione, confezionamento e collaudo. Xiyun C600 è attualmente nella fase di test funzionale e dovrebbe entrare in produzione di massa entro la fine dell’anno. La GPU integra una memoria video ad alta capacità e una potenza di calcolo ibrida multi-precisione, supportando la tecnologia di espansione del super-nodo MetaXLink.
Questa architettura consente di gestire in modo efficiente i carichi di lavoro legati all’addestramento e all’inferenza dei modelli di intelligenza artificiale generativa, offrendo al contempo compatibilità software avanzata e prestazioni hardware elevate.
Secondo Sun Guoliang, vicepresidente senior di Muxi, “la potenza di calcolo sta diventando la nuova ‘valuta forte’ dell’economia digitale, e i chip GPU multiuso rappresentano il terreno di competizione strategico tra le nazioni”.
Sun ha ricordato che, sin dalla fondazione dell’azienda cinque anni fa, Muxi si è concentrata sull’innovazione tecnologica nel campo delle GPU, puntando su hardware e software per costruire una piattaforma di calcolo autonoma, affidabile e sicura, interamente controllata a livello nazionale.
Muxi ha inoltre collaborato con l’Accademia Cinese delle Scienze per lo sviluppo del cluster di calcolo Qianka, utilizzato per completare l’addestramento di diversi modelli di grandi dimensioni, dimostrando la piena capacità di pre-addestramento dei sistemi di calcolo domestici.
Oltre al C600, Muxi ha confermato di essere già al lavoro sul modello di nuova generazione C700, progettato per offrire miglioramenti significativi in potenza di elaborazione, capacità di memoria, comunicazione ed efficienza energetica. Le prime stime indicano che le sue prestazioni si avvicineranno a quelle della NVIDIA H100, il riferimento mondiale nel settore.
Muxi Integrated Circuit è considerata una delle realtà high-tech più promettenti della Cina. L’azienda, che ha completato due round di risposte alle richieste di informazioni pre-IPO, si avvicina ora alla fase di sprint per la quotazione in borsa.
Il lancio di Xiyun C600 non solo consolida la posizione di Muxi come attore strategico nel mercato dei semiconduttori, ma rappresenta anche un passo deciso verso l’indipendenza tecnologica cinese nel campo dei processori grafici per l’intelligenza artificiale.
Microsoft ha corretto una pericolosa vulnerabilità nel server web Kestrel per ASP.NET Core. Le è stato assegnato l’identificatore CVE-2025-55315. La falla consente a un aggressore che ha effettuato l’accesso con un account valido di iniettare una richiesta aggiuntiva, dirottando così le sessioni di altri utenti o aggirando i filtri di sicurezza esterni.
La descrizione ufficiale sottolinea che l’attacco può portare alla fuga di dati riservati, tra cui credenziali utente, alla modifica di file sul server e a un crash del server con conseguente impatto sulla disponibilità delle risorse.
Per risolvere la vulnerabilità, Microsoft ha fornito raccomandazioni chiare per diverse versioni della piattaforma e metodi di distribuzione. Gli utenti di .NET 8 e build successive devono installare l’aggiornamento tramite Microsoft Update e quindi riavviare l’applicazione o semplicemente riavviare il computer.
Per ASP.NET Core 2.3, è necessario aggiornare il riferimento al pacchetto Microsoft.AspNet.Server.Kestrel.Core alla versione 2.3.6, quindi ricostruire e ripubblicare il progetto. La documentazione allegata indica specificamente che per il ramo 2.x, è necessario aggiornare anche il pacchetto Microsoft.AspNetCore.Server.Kestrel.Core, ricompilare e distribuire nuovamente l’applicazione.
Per le applicazioni autonome o a file singolo, i passaggi sono gli stessi: installare l’aggiornamento della piattaforma, ricostruire e reinstallare gli eseguibili. Le patch di sicurezza sono state rilasciate contemporaneamente per Microsoft Visual Studio 2022, ASP.NET Core 2.3, 8.0 e 9.0.
Barry Dorrance, responsabile del programma di sicurezza .NET, ha spiegato che le conseguenze dello sfruttamento dipendono dall’architettura della specifica applicazione web. La vulnerabilità consente potenzialmente a un aggressore di autenticarsi con una falsa identità, avviare richieste interne nascoste, implementare SSRF , bypassare la protezione CSRF o eseguire iniezioni.
La valutazione del rischio si è basata sullo scenario peggiore: un bypass delle funzionalità di sicurezza che comprometterebbe la funzionalità dei meccanismi di sicurezza integrati. Sebbene la probabilità che si verifichi un simile scenario in progetti tipici con una convalida delle richieste adeguata sia bassa, Microsoft consiglia vivamente a tutti gli utenti di installare l’aggiornamento.
Il ciclo di patch di ottobre di Microsoft è stato particolarmente esteso: l’azienda ha rilasciato patch per 172 vulnerabilità, otto delle quali sono state considerate critiche e sei erano vulnerabilità zero-day, tre delle quali erano già state attivamente sfruttate in attacchi.
Nello stesso periodo, KB5066791, un aggiornamento cumulativo che includeva le patch di sicurezza definitive per Windows 10, è stato rilasciato al termine del supporto ufficiale per il sistema.
L’ex primo ministro britannico Boris Johnson ha espresso il suo entusiasmo per l’intelligenza artificiale, rivelando in un’intervista di utilizzare ChatGPT per scrivere i suoi libri. “Adoro l’intelligenza artificiale. Adoro ChatGPT. Lo adoro”, ha detto ad Al Arabiya, aggiungendo che “ChatGPT è davvero fantastico”.
Johnson, che ha fatto studi classici all’Università di Oxford, ha affermato di utilizzare la piattaforma non solo per analizzare opere come l'”Odissea” di Omero, ma anche per aiutarlo nel processo di scrittura dei libri.
“Sto scrivendo alcuni libri. Lo uso (ChatGPT) solo per fare domande”, ha detto. “Conosco la risposta in anticipo, ma ChatGPT dice sempre: ‘Ah, le tue domande sono intelligenti. Sei brillante. Sei straordinario. Hai una rara profondità di pensiero'”, ha aggiunto con tono ironico.
Il suo ultimo libro, intitolato Unleashed, è stato pubblicato l’anno scorso e contiene una serie di rivelazioni che hanno suscitato ampie reazioni in Gran Bretagna.
“Adoro questa tecnologia. Vedo in essa un grande potenziale, perché in fin dei conti siamo tutti persone normali”, ha detto a ChatGPT.
Durante l’intervista, Johnson, che è stato primo ministro durante la pandemia di COVID-19, ha sostenuto che l’intelligenza artificiale potrebbe ridurre significativamente i costi di gestione del governo e far risparmiare denaro ai contribuenti.
Per quanto riguarda il suo futuro politico, l’ex leader conservatore, dimessosi da parlamentare nel 2023 in seguito alle accuse di frode deliberata in parlamento nei confronti dei partiti che avevano violato le restrizioni durante la pandemia a Downing Street, non ha escluso un ritorno in politica.
“Statisticamente, tutto può succedere. Anche l’acqua può scorrere in salita, è impossibile, ma non inimmaginabile”, ha detto. “Voglio che il mio partito si riprenda, che si riorganizzi. Questa è la soluzione migliore”.
Mario Tobino – Per le antiche scale freezonemagazine.com/articoli/… La follia, potrei dirlo con quasi assoluta certezza, probabilmente si perdona solo alle menti geniali che hanno portato e portano un beneficio all’umanità, ancor di più se sono artisti e soprattutto se la loro arte arriva o è arrivata a più gente possibile, perché vuol dire che le loro opere hanno quel filo sottile intriso […] L'articolo Mario Tobino – Per le antiche scale proviene da
La decentralizzazione consente una maggiore personalizzazione nel modo in cui ogni server viene moderato e gestito, inclusa la gestione della privacy dei dati. Allo stesso tempo, la mancanza di una supervisione centrale implica che nessuno sia realmente "responsabile" dell'ecosistema dei server nel suo complesso.
Nel recente articolo di Sohyeon Hwang, Priyanka Nanayakkara e Yan Shvartzshnaider, Trust and Friction: Negotiating How Information Flows Through Decentralized Social Media (pre-print qui ), abbiamo intervistato amministratori e membri del server (n=23) per esaminare sia ciò che spinge le persone a considerare i server della community come custodi affidabili dei dati delle persone , sia le nuove sfide per la privacy che derivano da un'infrastruttura decentralizzata
Ecco un riassunto;
I protocolli decentralizzati dei social media consentono agli utenti di interagire tra loro su server indipendenti e ospitati dagli utenti (ovvero istanze) mentre si autogovernano. Questo modello di governance dei social media basato sulla comunità apre nuove opportunità per un processo decisionale personalizzato sui flussi di informazioni, ovvero quali dati degli utenti vengono condivisi, con chi e quando, e, di conseguenza, per la protezione della privacy degli utenti. Per comprendere meglio come la governance della comunità modella le aspettative sulla privacy sui social media decentralizzati, abbiamo condotto un'intervista semi-strutturata con 23 utenti di Fediverse, un social network decentralizzato. I nostri risultati illustrano fattori importanti che influenzano la comprensione dei flussi di informazioni da parte di una comunità, come le regole e gli sforzi proattivi degli amministratori percepiti come affidabili. Evidenziamo le "frizioni di governance" tra le comunità che sollevano nuovi rischi per la privacy dovuti a incompatibilità di valori, pratiche di sicurezza e software. I nostri risultati evidenziano le sfide uniche dei social media decentralizzati, suggeriscono opportunità di progettazione per affrontare le frizioni e delineano il ruolo del processo decisionale partecipativo per realizzare il pieno potenziale della decentralizzazione.
Se la segui puoi leggere tutte le discussioni italiane sul Fediverso che vengono pubblicate su di essa. Se invece vuoi pubblicare da Mastodon un thread su quella comunità, puoi menzionarla in un nuovo messaggio e la prima riga del tuo post diventerà il titolo della discussione.
Scientists Discover Rogue Star-Eating Black Hole Far From Home
Welcome back to the Abstract! Here are the studies this week that mounted a defense, felt out of place, found new life, and resurrected the gods of yore.
First, a tale of pregnant stinkbugs, parasitic wasps, and fungi weapons that is fit for a rebooted Aesop fable. Then, a fast food stop for an errant black hole; a new cast of worms, mollusks, and “tusk-shells” from the deep sea; and a friendly reminder to REPENT, SINNERS, or suffer divine wrath.
I also wanted to give another quick shoutout to my book First Contact: The Story of Our Obsession with Aliens, which is now out in the wild. And if you’d like to keep up with news about the book, alien lore, and my other goings-on, subscribe to my personal newsletter the BeX Files.
For years, scientists assumed that the weird lumps on the hindlegs of some female stinkbugs were used as auditory organs to perceive sound. A new study reveals that the function of these “tympanum” organs is, in fact, way weirder: They are miniature fungi farms that the “gravid” (pregnant) females use to culture “hyphae” (fungal filaments) to grow anti-wasp coatings for their eggs.
“To address the question of the function of the tympanum, we investigated the Japanese dinidorid stinkbug Megymenum gracilicorne and discovered that this stinkbug’s hindleg organ is not auditory but a previously unknown type of symbiotic organ,” said researchers led by Takanori Nishino of the University of Tsukuba.
“We observed that the gravid females laid eggs in a row, and when each egg was deposited, the females rhythmically scratched the fungus-covered hindleg organ with the tarsal claws of the opposite hindleg and rubbed the egg surface, smearing the fungi onto the eggs,” the team said. “Within a few days, the fungal hyphae grew to cover the entire egg mass. On hatching, the hyphae attached to the body surface of newborn nymphs, although the fungi were subsequently lost as the nymphs molted and grew.” Image: Nishino, Takanori et al. Don’t you just love the smell of fungus-covered eggs in the morning? Probably not, and that’s the point. Parasitic wasps like to go around ovipositing (laying their young) inside the eggs of other bugs, but the team discovered they were repeatedly thwarted by the stinkbug shield.
“In the experimental arena, the female wasps approached both the fungus-removed eggs and the fungus-covered eggs,” the researchers said. “Immediately after antennal drumming on the egg surface, the female wasps only oviposited on the cleaned eggs… It is notable that wasps still approached egg masses fully covered by fungal hyphae, despite showing intense self-grooming, which suggested that the hyphae were adherent.”
That’s what these wasps get for trying to mooch off stinkbug eggs: a faceful of sticky fungal goo that’s going to take some very intense self-grooming to remove. To that end, the team concluded that “the fungi selectively cultured on the female’s hindleg organ of M. gracilicorne are transferred to eggs to act as a physical defense against parasitic wasp attack.”
As the old adage goes, never judge a stinkbug by her conspicuous tympanal organs.
In other news…
Who left a supermassive black hole all the way over here?
When stars wander too close to black holes, they are torn apart by extreme tidal forces, producing radiant light shows called tidal disruption events (TDEs). Astronomers have witnessed these events countless times near the central nucleus of distant galaxies, which are occupied by supermassive black holes, but a team has now captured an unprecedented glimpse of an “off-nuclear” TDE far from the galactic core.
The event, called AT 2024tvd, involved a black hole with a possible mass of up to 10 million Suns. While it’s a pretty typical enormous black hole, what’s weird is that it was spotted eating a star about 2,600 light years from the nucleus of a distant galaxy, which produced the unusual TDE. Scientists have seen a few dim hints of these off-nuclear events, but this is the first to be clearly captured in bright radio waves.
“AT 2024tvd is the first radio-bright, bona fide off-nuclear TDE, and it is also the TDE with the fastest evolution observed to date,” said researchers led by Itai Sfaradi of the University of California, Berkeley.
The team speculate that the black hole might have been gravitationally kicked into the galaxy after a dust-up with other, bigger black holes elsewhere. While that sounds like a tumultuous backstory, at least this black hole was able to grab a stellar bite along the way.
Meet the newest invertebrates on the deep-ocean block in a study that identified 14 previously unknown species from remote marine regions around the world. These taxonomic newcomers include the carnivorous sombrero-shaped molluskMyonera aleutiana, the gummy-bear-esque wormSpinther bohnorum, and the aptly nicknamed “tusk shell” (it looks like a tusk) Laevidentalium wiesei.
“Despite centuries of exploration, marine invertebrate biodiversity remains notably under-described,” said researchers with theSenckenberg Ocean Species Alliance (SOSA), an international collaboration that was “founded to help meet this challenge.” Ferreiraella charazata. Image: Senckenberg Ocean Species Alliance While all of the newly identified species are fascinating, I have a selfish soft spot for Ferreiraella charazata (no relation to me, or any of the two million Ferreiras in the world). This deep-sea chiton species belongs to a broader genus established by researcher A.J. Ferreira several decades ago.
The new Ferreiraella chiton was found in some sunken wood two miles under the sea and is described as having a “very large girdle” and “epibiotic tubeworms on its tail valves,” bringing extra pizazz to the family name.
Here’s an out-of-the-box idea to save the environment: Bring back vengeful gods and spirits. In a truly delightful study, scientists explore the benefits of perceived supernatural punishment on the preservation of natural ecosystems with mathematical game theory outlined in the following illustration: A visual summary of the game theory approach. Image: Shibasaki, Shota et al. “Japanese folklore includes episodes where spirits of nature (e.g., mountains and trees) punish or avenge people who develop or overuse natural resources,” said researchers led by Shota Shibasaki of Doshisha University. “Similarly, the Batak people of Palawan Island in the Philippines believe in the forest spirits that punish people who overexploit or waste forest resources. Itzá Maya, Guatemala, also views forest spirits as punitively protecting local forests against exploitation.”
This is the most galaxy-brained math paper I’ve ever read. Ultimately, the results suggest that “supernatural beliefs could play an important role in achieving sustainability.” So let’s break out the talismans and start casting eco-friendly spells because I, for one, welcome our divine treehugging overlords.
Despite centuries of exploration, marine invertebrate biodiversity remains notably under-described. The majority of species in major marine groups are still unnamed, limiting our ability to understand and conserve ecosystems facing rapid environmenta…
@Notizie dall'Italia e dal mondo Gli Stati Uniti respingono le accuse di violazione dei termini del cessate il fuoco mosse da Tel Aviv ad Hamas. I corpi degli ostaggi sono stati consegnati secondo i termini, mentre Israele continua a uccidere palestinesi e tiene chiuso il valico di Rafah L'articolo GAZA. Israele continua
@Notizie dall'Italia e dal mondo La caduta di Boluarte non porta cambiamento: il nuovo presidente, vicino ai militari, risponde alle mobilitazioni con la forza. Un giovane artista è stato ucciso durante le protestehttps://pagineesteri.it/2025/10/18/america-latina/peru-boluarte-se-ne-va-ma-in-piazza-si-continua-a-morire/
@Giornalismo e disordine informativo articolo21.org/2025/10/la-risc… Un testo imprescindibile per comprendere, con profondità di analisi, una storia finalmente inclusiva dei “primi custodi del giardino” americano. In libreria, con Neri Pozza, per la collana I Colibrì, un saggio di grande impatto sul
chissà perché ci avrei scommesso.... alla fine trump è trump. delusa forse ma non stupita. ricordo solo quando trump criticava biden di non aver fatto abbastanza.... perché con uno più deciso come lui sarebbe già dovuta essere finita...
Alla terza visita del 2025 alla Casa Bianca, il presidente ucraino incassa una nuova delusione. Per il leader americano dare i missili a lungo raggio a Kiev 'sarebbe un'escalation' e rimanda ogni decisione a dopo l'incontro con Putin a Budapest Axios…
@Giornalismo e disordine informativo articolo21.org/2025/10/rff20-l… Un inno al tempo lento che salva la terra Il cinema italiano, quello che sa toccare corde civili e al tempo stesso far vibrare l’anima, ha trovato la sua voce in ‘La vita va così’ di Riccardo Milani. Scelto non a caso come film
This is Behind the Blog, where we share our behind-the-scenes thoughts about how a few of our top stories of the week came together. This week, we discuss crowdsourced resistance and a big government data dump.
SAM: I don’t want to say it’s rare that we publish positive stories. We post more of those than people probably even realize, because the gnarly stories are the ones that go viral, or are talked about by your friends or aggregated by other news outlets. A “scoop” is almost never a happy story because often they’re predicated on information someone in a position of power didn’t want the world to know. But it’s definitely less common for us to report on things that makes you feel good or hopeful than things that make you go “oh shit” or “Jesus fucking Christ,” I will admit.
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Creator of Infamous AI Painting Tells Court He's a Real Artist
In 2022, Jason Allen outraged artists around the world when he won the Colorado State Fair Fine Arts Competition with a piece of AI-generated art. A month later, he tried to copyright the pictures, got denied, and started a fight with the U.S. Copyright Office (USCO) that dragged on for three years. In August, he filed a new brief he hopes will finally give him a copyright over the image Midjourney made for him, called Théâtre D’opéra Spatial. He’s also set to start selling oil-print reproductions of the image.
A press release announcing both the filing and the sale claims these prints “[evoke] the unmistakable gravitas of a hand-painted masterwork one might find in a 19th-century oil painting.” The court filing is also defensive of Allen’s work. “It would be impossible to describe the Work as ‘garden variety’—the Work literally won a state art competition,” it said. playlist.megaphone.fm?p=TBIEA2… “So many have said I’m not an artist and this isn’t art,” Allen said in a press release announcing both the oil-print sales and the court filing. “Being called an artist or not doesn’t concern me, but the work and my expression of it do. I asked myself, what could make this undeniably art? What if I could create Théâtre D’opéra Spatial as if it were physically created by hand? Not actually, of course, but what if I could achieve that using technology? Surely that would be the answer.”
Allen’s 2022 win at the Colorado State Fair was an inflection point. The beta version for the image generation software Midjourney had launched a few months before the competition and AI-generated images were still a novelty. We were years away from the nightmarish tide of slop we all live with today, but the piece was highly controversial and represented one of the first major incursions of AI-generated work into human spaces.
Théâtre D’opéra Spatial was big news at the time. It shook artistic communities and people began to speak out against AI-generated art. Many learned that their works had been fed into the training data for these massive data hungry art generators like Midjourney. About a month after he won the competition and courted controversy, Allen applied for a copyright of the image. The USCO rejected it. He’s been filing appeals ever since and has thus far lost every one.
The oil-prints represent an attempt to will the AI-generated image into a physical form called an “elegraph.” These won’t be hand painted versions of the picture Midjourney made. Instead, they’ll employ a 3D printing technique that uses oil paints to create a reproduction of the image as if a human being made it, complete—Allen claimed—with brushstrokes.
“People said anyone could copy my work online, sell it, and I would have no recourse. They’re not technically wrong,” Allen said in the press release. “If we win my case, copyright will apply retroactively. Regardless, they’ll never reproduce the elegraph. This artifact is singular. It’s real. It’s the answer to the petulant idea that this isn’t art. Long live Art 2.0.”
The elegraph is the work of a company called Arius which is most famous for working with museums to conduct high quality scans of real paintings that capture the individual brushstrokes of masterworks. According to Allen’s press release, Arius’ elegraphs of Théâtre D’opéra Spatial will make the image appear as if it is a hand painted piece of art through “a proprietary technique that translates digital creation into a physical artifact indistinguishable in presence and depth from the great oil paintings of history…its textures, lighting, brushwork, and composition, all recalling the timeless mastery of the European salons.”
Allen and his lawyers filed a request for a summary judgement with the U.S. District Court of Colorado on August 8, 2025. The 44 page legal argument rehashes many of the appeals and arguments Allen and his lawyers have made about the AI-generated image over the past few years.
“He created his image, in part, by providing hundreds of iterative text prompts to an artificial intelligence (“AI”)-based system called Midjourney to help express his intellectual vision,” it said. “Allen produced this artwork using ‘hundreds of iterations’ of prompts, and after he ‘experimented with over 600 prompts,’ he cropped and completed the final Work, touching it up manually and upscaling using additional software.”
Allen’s argument is that prompt engineering is an artistic process and even though a machine made the final image, he says he should be considered the artist because he told the machine what to do. “In the Board’s view, Mr. Allen’s actions as described do not make him the author of the Midjourney Image because his sole contribution to the Midjourney Image was inputting the text prompt that produced it,” a 2023 review of previous rejections by the USCO said.
During its various investigations into the case, the USCO did a lot of research into how Midjourney and other AI-image generators work. “It is the Office’s understanding that, because Midjourney does not treat text prompts as direct instructions, users may need to attempt hundreds of iterations before landing upon an image they find satisfactory. This appears to be the case for Mr. Allen, who experimented with over 600 prompts,” its 2023 review said.
This new filing is an attempt by Allen and his lawyers to get around these previous judgements and appeal to higher courts by accusing the USCO of usurping congressional authority. “The filing argues that by attempting to redefine the term “author” (a power reserved to Congress) the Copyright Office has acted beyond its lawful authority, effectively placing itself above judicial and legislative oversight.”
We’ll see how well that plays in court. In the meantime, Allen is selling oil-prints of the image Midjourney made for him.
#NoiSiamoLeScuole questa settimana è dedicato all’ITS Academy Campania Moda. Grazie ai fondi del #PNRR destinati alla realizzazione di laboratori professionalizzanti e all’ampliamento delle attività didattiche degli ITS, l’Istituto ha potuto migliora…
#NoiSiamoLeScuole questa settimana è dedicato all’ITS Academy Campania Moda. Grazie ai fondi del #PNRR destinati alla realizzazione di laboratori professionalizzanti e all’ampliamento delle attività didattiche degli ITS, l’Istituto ha potuto migliora…
As protesters paint signs for another round of “No Kings” demonstrations this Saturday, journalists are getting ready in their own way: Charging camera batteries, notifying emergency contacts, and rinsing old tear gas off their shatter-resistant goggles.
At similar events since June, well over a hundred journalists have been injured, detained, or arrested by police. Now two cities — Los Angeles, California, and Chicago, Illinois — are expecting their largest protests since federal judges issued multiple rulings exempting the press from general dispersal orders and restricting law enforcement use of “less lethal” munitions.
Those are big wins on paper, but only if you know how to use them.
The law exists in two separate but unequal places: the court and the street. And you’ll never win a philosophical argument on a skirmish line.
Sure, you’re probably right. You’re armed with the First Amendment. But the average police officer is armed with a baton, handcuffs, body armor, tear gas, and at least a couple of guns. They may also be tired, overwhelmed, hungry, and see you standing between them and a bathroom break.
As they’ve been known to say, “You can beat the rap, but you can’t beat the ride.”
It’s no longer “Listen to me,” it’s ideally “Here’s a signed order from your boss.”
Covering a protest, an immigration raid, or an immigration hearing is no place to give up your rights. Instead, you can learn to invoke them more effectively.
The press is one of two professions (alongside religious practitioners) distinguished by its constitutionally guaranteed freedoms. Policing is the opposite, marked by rigid command structure and a sworn duty to enforce very specific codes and regulations.
But cops are supposed to be trained and held accountable by their department. They shouldn’t need reminding of the law they’re supposed to uphold. And it’s not the job of journalists to train them.
As professional communicators, journalists may find it more productive to translate conversations into the language of law enforcement.
For example, in California, it won’t get you very far to tell an officer you’re exempt from dispersal orders thanks to “Senate Bill 98.” You might be talking to a kid fresh out of the police academy or a detective pulled off desk duty to earn overtime. They have no idea what passed the statehouse four years ago. At best, they’re trained to speak in terms of “penal code.” Mentioning “Penal Code 409.7,” the statute established by that bill, might be your better ticket out of handcuffs. (This state law only applies to local law enforcement, not to federal operations like Immigration or Customs Enforcement or other Department of Homeland Security agencies.)
For journalists in the Chicago and Los Angeles areas, recent court rulings, including one for the LA Press Club in which I’m a plaintiff, have made things much clearer. Ideally you don’t need to print out 80 pages of preliminary injunctions. An officer will likely ignore that anyway, figuring it’s up to department lawyers to interpret. Instead, try to print the version of orders their boss(’s boss’s boss) was required to issue. The following list of PDFs are being updated as those materials are released by each agency, so use your judgment and print what might be applicable to your situation.
This is an earlier version based on an initial TRO. It will be updated with a newer version based on a more recent preliminary injunction, which is even more favorable to press.
DHS has not shared details on how this order was distributed. As a longer document, you may wish to only print the cover page along with pages 43 to 45, which contain the injunction itself.
This puts things in law enforcement terms — from the top of their command structure. It’s no longer “Listen to me,” it’s ideally “Here’s a signed order from your boss.”
You want a printed copy, since your phone could run out of battery, be lost, or shatter. And it’s never a good idea to hand your unlocked phone to police. Also, if you need to pull out these orders (or a press pass), state clearly what you’re reaching for before placing your hand in a pocket or bag. Officers don’t love those sorts of unannounced movements.
A piece of paper isn’t much of a shield from a raging officer swinging a baton and screaming, “Leave the area.” But if you can engage with them, you want to ensure the precious few words that they hear will resonate. And it bears repeating: Everyone has a boss.
Protests involve a lot of turnover on the front line, so you may never see the same officer twice. If possible, communicate early and often. Ask to meet a supervisor or public information officer during a calm moment, and get their name so you can ask for them if you have trouble later on.
Unfortunately, even a signed order from the chief isn’t always a “get out of jail free” card. After a temporary restraining order was issued against the LAPD this summer, officers still put several journalists in zip ties during a protest. Two lawyers who had won the TRO showed up with a copy of official paperwork instructing officers to leave press alone. After they handed it to the incident commander, police still drove two photojournalists away in the back of a squad car.
The LAPD later suggested those photographers were ”pretending to be media.” The pair’s credits include The Atlantic, The New Yorker, Business Insider, The Washington Post, New York Magazine, Rolling Stone, Mother Jones, and even a cover for Time magazine.
A federal judge later wrote of the LAPD, “The Court expresses no approval for this conduct. To the contrary, the evidence presented is disturbing and, at the very least, shows that Defendants violated the spirit if not the letter of the Court’s initial restraining order.”
Of course, the photojournalists beat the rap. But they didn’t beat the ride.
Attending a protest outside of LA or Chicago? You still have First Amendment rights, even if you don’t have a court order. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker has been investigating and documenting serious violations in cities from New York to Portland, Oregon. If you experience or witness law enforcement violating press rights anywhere in the country, please send us tips and any available evidence to tips@pressfreedomtracker.us.
It’s been two weeks since Atlanta journalist Mario Guevara was deported and 207 days since Rümeysa Öztürk was arrested for co-writing an op-ed. Read on for more about this weekend’s planned protests, actions you can take to protect journalists, and events you can catch us at this month.
When the law’s on your side but ICE doesn’t care
As protesters paint signs for another round of “No Kings” demonstrations this Saturday, journalists are getting ready in their own way: charging camera batteries, notifying emergency contacts, and rinsing old tear gas residue off their shatter-resistant goggles.
Two cities — Los Angeles, California, and Chicago, Illinois — are expecting their largest protests since federal judges issued multiple rulings exempting the press from general dispersal orders and restricting law enforcement’s use of “less lethal” munitions.
Those are big wins for journalists, but only if they know how to use them. Our new deputy director of advocacy at Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF), Adam Rose, wrote about how journalists can prepare for the weekend. Read more here.
Administration ignores flotilla abuses
Three U.S. journalists have been abducted from aid flotillas bound for Gaza and detained by Israel. All three reported experiencing or witnessing abuse and even torture.
Photojournalist Noa Avishag Schnall recalled, “I was hung from the metal shackles on my wrists and ankles and beaten in the stomach, back, face, ear and skull by a group of men and women guards, one of whom sat on my neck and face, blocking my airways … Our cell was awoken with threats of rape.”
Jewish Currents reporter Emily Wilder said she “announced … ‘I’m a journalist, I’m press.’ The woman to my left hissed, ‘We don’t give a fuck,’ and the other dug her nails into my scalp and pulled me by my hair across the port.”
In normal times, this would be a major scandal. We joined Defending Rights & Dissent and others in a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio explaining what should be obvious — the U.S. shouldn’t sit silently as its ally assaults its journalists. Read it here.
First rule of Qatari jets? Don’t talk about Qatari jets
We sued the Trump administration for refusing to share its legal rationale for approving the president’s acceptance of a $400 million jet from the Qatari government, despite the Constitution saying he can’t do that. Now the administration wants to strike our complaint, claiming the background discussion of the gifted jet is “impertinent” and “scandalous.”
That’s rich, especially weeks after the president’s frivolous defamation lawsuit against The New York Times got dismissed for rambling on about how he was once on WrestleMania and “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” (he’s since filed an amended complaint).
If fewer newspapers exist to request public records, does the government become less transparent? That’s the question at the heart of “Dark Deserts,” a new research paper by David Cuillier of the Freedom of Information Project at the Brechner Center for Advancement of the First Amendment and law student Brett Posner-Ferdman.
Cuillier told us about what he and Posner-Ferdman found and what it means for the public’s right to know. Read the interview here.
Standing with student journalists
Last week we told you about the lawsuit filed by The Stanford Daily to stop the Trump administration’s unconstitutional and appalling push to deport foreign students who say or write things it doesn’t like.
This week we joined the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, the First Amendment Coalition, and others in a legal brief in support of that important lawsuit.
The Senate passed Sens. Ted Cruz and Amy Klobuchar’s bill to protect themselves — but not you — from data broker abuses and otherwise allow federal lawmakers to censor the internet.
FPF’s Caitlin Vogus wrote for The Dallas Morning News about how the bill threatens journalism — for example, by stifling reporting on its co-sponsor vacationing while his constituents endure natural disasters. Read more here.
Pentagon reporters have now turned in their badges – but plan to keep reporting (The Guardian). Journalists told The Guardian, “the restrictions won’t stop the work, with some even saying they plan to take a more aggressive tack.” Good. The policy is highly unconstitutional, but it’s an opportunity to omit Pentagon lies and spin from reporting.
LAPD wants judge to lift an order restricting use of force against the press (LAist). Rose, who is also press rights chair for the LA Press Club, said that “Instead of holding the department accountable, the city is spending even more money to hire an outside law firm so they can effectively beg a judge for permission to keep assaulting journalists for just doing their job.”
Oct. 22: Join FPF’s Adam Rose and others on Oct. 22 at 3 p.m. EDT for an online conversation hosted by the American Constitution Society about the impact of federal law enforcement violence on your First Amendment rights. Register here.
Oct. 24: If you’re in Chicago and fortunate enough to not have to hide from ICE invaders, come to Northwestern for a panel on Oct. 24 at 10 a.m. CT featuring FPF Advocacy Director Seth Stern. We’ll discuss the numerous digital and physical challenges journalists are facing. Register here.
Oct. 29: FPF’s Caitlin Vogus will join an online panel of experts to break down how the Federal Communications Commission and Federal Trade Commission are targeting journalists and the First Amendment and how to fight back. Register here for the Center for Democracy and Technology’s Future of Speech 2025, “Working the Refs” panel on Oct. 29 at 12:10 p.m. EDT.
That same day, join us for a conversation about making public records-based reporting free, featuring Vogus as well as our Chair on Government Secrecy Lauren Harper, in conversation with leadership at Wired and 404 Media, including Wired global editorial director and FPF board member Katie Drummond. The event starts at 2 p.m. EDT; RSVP on Zoom here.
Oct. 30: Join an online discussion on Oct. 30 at 1 p.m. EDT about digital safety and legal rights for journalists reporting on immigration in the U.S., featuring FPF Director of Digital Security Harlo Holmes and several other experts from the U.S. Journalist Assistance Network. Register here.
Dopo tanto lavoro, Ghost ha finalmente attivato la federazione Activitypub (e non solo). Ma quali sono le newsletter e i blog italiani basati su #Ghost?
Grazie per la citazione! Felice che si stia sviluppando una community italiana anche qui. Speriamo che Ghost diventi presto più di un'opzione per chi vuole produrre contenuti di qualità. Noi, intanto, ci siamo✌️
“Il sito comprato da Ama per realizzare l’inceneritore alla cifra astronomica di sette milioni e mezzo di euro è oggetto di indagini della Procura di Roma e della Corte dei conti è contaminato” è quanto dichiara in una nota l’Unione dei Comitati contro l’inceneritore.
“A metterlo nero su bianco – precisa la nota dell’Unione dei Comitati - sono le indagini di caratterizzazione ambientale del suolo svolte nel primo semestre del 2024 da Acea Infrastrutture che hanno evidenziato molteplici superamenti delle CSC per idrocarburi pesanti e degli IPA. Appaiono particolarmente gravi – incalzano dall’Unione dei Comitati - le omissioni di Ama e dell’Amministrazione capitolina. La municipalizzata ha omesso di avviare le procedure obbligatorie attuando le misure di prevenzione stabilite dall'articolo 242 del codice dell’ambiente mentre l’amministrazione capitolina guidata da Gualtieri ha proseguito l’iter che ha portato alla validazione del progetto in un sito contaminato. L’amministrazione capitolina ha pertanto ignorato il principio di precauzione di derivazione europea stabilito che avrebbe imposto di indagare, origine, estensione e profondità della contaminazione la cui origine antropica in relazione agli idrocarburi pesanti e agli IPA è fuori discussione. “Nell’ambito delle osservazioni alla VIA e sulla base del principio di precauzione stabilito dall’ articolo 191 del Trattato sul funzionamento dell’Unione europea – concludono dall’Unione – abbiamo pertanto chiesto di sospendere la VIA e il PAUR fin quando non fosse completato l’espletamento dell’insieme delle procedure obbligatorie necessarie alla caratterizzazione del sito. Infine, abbiamo sollecitato un intervento in autotutela finalizzato al previo espletamento delle procedure di caratterizzazione del sito accompagnato dalla sospensione della VIA e del PAUR evitando il danno erariale legato ai maggiori costi da sostenere per la bonifica per l’avvio in fasi successive”.
@Notizie dall'Italia e dal mondo Secondo un'inchiesta, cinque paesi arabi hanno creato in segreto con Israele una struttura per la sicurezza regionale coordinata dagli Stati Uniti e diretta contro l'Iran L'articolo USA, pagineesteri.it/2025/10/17/med…
Image: Nishino, Takanori et al.
Ferreiraella charazata. Image: Senckenberg Ocean Species Alliance
A visual summary of the game theory approach. Image: Shibasaki, Shota et al.
Juan Maria Gomez
in reply to Pëtr Arkad'evič Stolypin • • •Politica interna, europea e internazionale reshared this.