Month: June 2020

Schools turn to surveillance tech to prevent COVID-19 Spread

Schools hope tracking beacons can identify where students congregate, who should be isolated.

TBB Saf-T Liner Jouley electric school bus

Enlarge / A Daimler electric schoolbus (powered by Proterra) on display at CES 2019. (credit: Jonathan Gitlin)

When students return to school in New Albany, Ohio, in August, they’ll be carefully watched as they wander through red-brick buildings and across well-kept lawns—and not only by teachers.

The school district, with five schools and 4,800 students, plans to test a system that would require each student to wear an electronic beacon to track their location to within a few feet throughout the day. It will record where students sit in each classroom, show who they meet and talk to, and reveal how they gather in groups. The hope is such technology could prevent or minimize an outbreak of COVID-19, the deadly respiratory disease at the center of a global pandemic.

Schools and colleges face an incredible challenge come the fall. Across the world, teachers, administrators, and parents are wrestling with how to welcome pupils back into normally bustling classrooms, dining rooms, and dorms, while the threat of the coronavirus remains ever-present.

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What’s up with Sweden?

After limiting its lockdown, Sweden is neither success story nor disaster zone.

State epidemiologist Anders Tegnell of the Public Health Agency of Sweden has admitted that the pandemic response he promotes hasn't worked out as well as he hoped.

Enlarge / State epidemiologist Anders Tegnell of the Public Health Agency of Sweden has admitted that the pandemic response he promotes hasn't worked out as well as he hoped. (credit: ANDERS WIKLUND/Getty Images)

Earlier this week, Sweden's government epidemiologist, Anders Tegnell, admitted that his plans for how the country should handle the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic hasn't quite worked out as he hoped, saying there's "quite obviously a potential for improvement in what we have done," according to one translation. There are probably very few public health officials on the planet who couldn't say the same. But Tegnell's admission made headlines, largely because Sweden has charted its own path, starting with relatively light restrictions compared to other European countries in the hope that the pandemic's economic impact would be blunted.

That approach has turned Sweden into a political talking point far from the Baltic Sea, with many people who would be horrified by Sweden's taxation levels and social safety net suddenly adopting it as a model of minimal government intervention. The role of Sweden in Internet arguments grew increasingly large as opposition to social distancing measures became organized in a number of countries. So, with the country's coronavirus plan architect saying mistakes were made, it's worth taking a look at how Sweden handled the pandemic—and what the results have been.

The plan and its economics

Some countries in Europe, like Italy and Spain, were faced with a rapid surge in cases early in the pandemic; others had the examples of Italy and Spain to guide their policy. The end result was that most European countries imposed pretty severe social distancing regulations, banning large gatherings, closing schools, and limiting access to a variety of businesses. In most cases, this has limited the spread of the pandemic, or at least it started to bring an out-of-control situation back into something more manageable.

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Japan Passes New Copyright Law to Criminalize Manga Piracy & Linking Sites

Japan’s parliament has passed amendments to copyright law that aim to prevent illegal downloading of manga, magazines and other texts. Set to be implemented in two phases, the new framework also outlaws so-called ‘leech sites’ that provide links to copyrighted content hosted elsewhere.

From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

Japan flagEight years ago, Japan passed legislation that made it illegal to download unlicensed movies and music from the Internet.

The move to criminalize this activity with a prison sentence of up to two years received a general welcome from copyright holders. However, rightsholders offering other types of content felt left out. Ever since they’ve called for the law to be expanded to include manga (local comics) and other literary works.

Fines and Prison Sentences For Downloaders

This week and after years of work, their goals were achieved. Japan’s parliament passed new copyright amendments Friday that ban the unlicensed downloading of manga, magazines and academic texts from the Internet, in line with the previously outlawed media categories.

In common with the penalties already available for movies and music, those illegally downloading publications from the Internet now face a theoretical sentence of two years in prison or a fine of up to two million yen (US$18,300).

The new downloading law will come into effect on January 1, 2021, but there will be some exceptions.

Those who download a small section of a manga publication or a handful of pages from a larger book, for example, will not face prosecution. After protests over the strict nature of an early draft of the law, people who accidentally include copyrighted works in screenshots will also avoid breaking the law.

New Criminal Penalties For ‘Leech Site’ Operators

Other amendments passed Friday including the outlawing of so-called “leech” sites. Outside Japan, these are often called indexing or linking sites since they host no copyrighted content themselves but link to external platforms or users that do. These have previously proven a thorn in the side of local copyright holders who previously claimed that around 200 were operating with impunity in the country.

As of October 1, 2020, however, site operators or those publishing apps that have the same function will face the harshest sentences available under the law. Such offenses will carry a sentence of up to five years in prison, a maximum fine of five million yen (US$45,760), or in some cases, both.

New Legislation Overcame Significant Hurdles to Become Law

In early 2019, the Cultural Affairs Agency proposed an expansion of the law to cover all copyrighted content but things didn’t go smoothly. Opponents argued that the proposed legislation was too tight and could even meet the private copying of images with a prison sentence.

Due to these and similar fears, the amendments were eventually shelved. This led to the production of an amended bill that received approval in March.

Passed by parliament this week, the government says that the amendments represent a fair yet effective compromise.

From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

Trump jubiliert: Zahl der Arbeitslosen ist im Mai um 2,5 Millionen zurückgegangen

Das Bureau of Labor Statistics hat die überraschende Zahl im Monatsbericht angegeben, aber am Schluss angemerkt, dass aufgrund von Fehlern Millionen als beschäftigt erfasst wurden, die eigentlich als arbeitslos gelten sollten

Das Bureau of Labor Statistics hat die überraschende Zahl im Monatsbericht angegeben, aber am Schluss angemerkt, dass aufgrund von Fehlern Millionen als beschäftigt erfasst wurden, die eigentlich als arbeitslos gelten sollten