The rest is the cost of exposing things

oday we made some more progress regarding legal matters. We are still eyeing the Court of Appeal for next year. All these processes are slow, but we exercise our legal rights and we do so strictly based on the protocols available.

Reporting regarding the EPO has been successful. It seems like the “monarch” is being stopped. At last.

The reporting is a public service. We always did this pro bono.

Seeking affirmation through conformism and appeasement means being toothless

ournalism requires courage – sometimes stubbornness – and good journalism “pushes boundaries” (or touches them). The notion of “playing it safe” comes from high-risk disciplines like rock-climbing; the risks are different with ropes and high falls.

Moreover, one tactic to discourage particular reporting or reporting about a particular topic is to paint the reporter as “vlogger” or “blogger” or “social media user” etc. It’s not accidental, as the real intention is to rob people of protections offered to reporters, columnists, commentators and journalists.

I’ve seem all those demonisation tactics over the years. I think I know how to tackle or defuse them.

If you always “play safe”, you probably will never expose the most dangerous people and not achieve anything meaningful. Retaliation is proportional to the magnitude of measurable outcomes.

It matters a lot

his coming December I’ll turn 45. I’ve been writing a lot since I was a teenager and I still try to improve. It’s not about grammar, it’s about structuring one’s explanation/s, making the key points easy to identity and clear to everyone (even without any prior knowledge). I was recently receiving some constructive criticism of my latest series. I’ve tried to internalise it.

In my writings about Garrett, for instance, someone asked, “is his connection restricted boot briefly summarized there too?” As “leaving it out allows him to raise lynch mobs among the a-holes in ‘fediverse’ [and] there are many ways to do that, some more formal some less formal…”

Another remark was, “is his connection restricted boot briefly summarized there also?”

I’ve decided to remind people of the Big Picture. Days later I was told this was “nice” and “just, please, please, remember to add a sentence about restricted boot to each and every post which names him” (as it’s about his actions).

The reader said, “that is so *very* important for when that post happens to be the first Techrights post a visitor reads,” for we have had many first-time visitors lately (accordingly more people in IRC as well).

“It’s also *very* important to establish the connection between him and it, and to reinforce that the debate is about computing freedom and not a personal spat even though MULTIPLE sides seem to sometimes work to make it look like a personal spat [...] tldr; keep the eye on the ball…”

It can be tiring to add an intro or background of full context to every article or installment (in a series), but I recognise it’s necessary for effective communication.

Breaks and more

oday Durian stayed here until 6:40PM. It was already dark, but Durian is very young so his instincts are different. He eventually left as I had given him everything he wanted. I managed to curate many links today. I also published many articles and I’ll try do do the same tomorrow. Feeding the birds gives me almost 50 breaks per day. That seems like a good form of exercise, with occasional nags to force me to have recess.

I’m quite pleased to see audience size has grown a lot this month. I can see what sort of topics interest more people and research these more.

Tomorrow I shall publish “Production Freeze at the European Patent Office (Opposing Monarchy, Institutional Maladministration and Corruption)”.

It’s an epic scandal it’s a disgrace that media does not cover it.

Common saying

think it’s fair to say that I cover many topics these days. “In relative terms,” I wrote last week, “pages that mention the SLAPPs are a drop in the ocean, maybe 100 out of 3,700 or less than 3%.”

If one also counts links from Daily Links, then it’s probably even lower than 3%.

Nothing would please me more than being able to focus 100% to the key topics, not the thugs who try to prevent me from covering them.

“If you can’t identify what makes your story unique and interesting, chances are nobody else will either.” gatech.edu

never blocked roads. I never participated in those sorts of actions. I did urge for boycotts, but I did not risk an arrest for it. My “weapon” is the pen. That is both legal and safe (for the most part).

The way I campaign (a sense of purpose for campaigners) is simple: I explain what I see. Sometimes I call for actions.

However, effective communication is key. I try to improve this. In my 40s, I still have a long way to go and to improve. I hope to still do it (even better) in my 70s.

The world needs more “pen warriors”. Even the writings alone can compel companies to change their behaviour.

Expect further abuse

his week we’re taking things “up a notch” and telling the story of how, two years ago, retaliation attempts (after I wrote about corruption and hate crimes) came to target our webhost. The series’ part so far:

There will be dozens more. Later I’ll cover swatting attempts as well (another series).

“Please make sure that each mention of crazy Matt [Garrett] connects him with Restricted Boot,” a reader has said. “For many it will be the first Techrights post which they read and it is thus essential to keep the connection visible. So that they understand WHY he is a problem And WHY Microsoft is keeping him alive.”

“Restricted Boot” being opposed is what started this whole mess.