Russia Mulls Legalizing Software Piracy As It’s Cut Off From Western Tech

With sanctions against Russia starting to bite, the Kremlin is mulling ways to keep businesses and the government running. The latest is a creative twist on state asset seizures, only instead of the government taking over an oil refinery, for example, Russia is considering legalizing software piracy. Ars Technica reports: Russian law already allows for the government to authorize — “without consent of the patent holder” — the use of any intellectual property “in case of emergency related to ensuring the defense and security of the state.” The government hasn’t taken that step yet, but it may soon, according to a report from Russian business newspaper Kommersant, spotted and translated by Kyle Mitchell, an attorney who specializes in technology law. It’s yet another sign of a Cyber Curtain that’s increasingly separating Russia from the West.

The plan would create “a compulsory licensing mechanism for software, databases, and technology for integrated microcircuits,” the Kommersant said. It would only apply to companies from countries that have imposed sanctions. While the article doesn’t name names, many large Western firms — some of which would be likely targets — have drastically scaled back business in Russia. So far, Microsoft has suspended sales of new products and services in Russia, Apple has stopped selling devices, and Samsung has stopped selling both devices and chips. Presumably, any move by the Kremlin to “seize” IP would exempt Chinese companies, which are reportedly considering how to press their advantage. Smartphone-makers Xiaomi and Honor stand to gain, as do Chinese automakers. Still, any gains aren’t guaranteed since doing business in Russia has become riddled with problems, spanning everything from logistics to finance.

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Researchers Release ‘PolyCoder’, the First Open-Source Code-Generating AI Model

“Code generation AI — AI systems that can write in different programming languages given a prompt — promise to cut development costs while allowing coders to focus on creative, less repetitive tasks,” writes VentureBeat.

“But while research labs like OpenAI and Alphabet-backed DeepMind have developed powerful code-generating AI, many of the most capable systems aren’t available in open source.”

For example, the training data for OpenAI’s Codex, which powers GitHub’s Copilot feature, hasn’t been made publicly available, preventing researchers from fine-tuning the AI model or studying aspects of it such as interpretability.

To remedy this, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University — Frank Xu, Uri Alon, Graham Neubig, and Vincent Hellendoorn — developed PolyCoder, a model based on OpenAI’s GPT-2 language model that was trained on a database of 249 gigabytes of code across 12 programming languages. While PolyCoder doesn’t match the performance of top code generators in every task, the researchers claim that PolyCoder is able to write in C with greater accuracy than all known models, including Codex….

“Large tech companies aren’t publicly releasing their models, which is really holding back scientific research and democratization of such large language models of code,” the researchers said. “To some extent, we hope that our open-sourcing efforts will convince others to do the same. But the bigger picture is that the community should be able to train these models themselves. Our model pushed the limit of what you can train on a single server — anything bigger requires a cluster of servers, which dramatically increases the cost.”

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Tech Workers at New York Times Vote to Certify Union

“Tech workers at The New York Times on Thursday voted in favor of certifying their union in a National Labor Relations Board election, making it one of the biggest tech unions in America,” reports the New York Times:

The workers voted in favor, 404 to 88, easily reaching the needed majority of the ballots that were cast. A win means the union, the Times Tech Guild, can begin negotiations for a contract with management. “We’re just elated and really soaking in what this means, not only for us as tech workers at The Times and for The New York Times but also for the tech industry as a whole,” said Nozlee Samadzadeh, a senior software engineer.

“I think this is going to be the start of a wave of organizing in the tech industry….”

The Times Tech Guild, which represents about 600 software engineers, product managers, designers, data analysts and other workers, asked The Times for voluntary recognition in April. The Times declined, so the matter went to a formal election through the labor board….

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Will Changing Opinions Boost America’s Nuclear Power Industry?

“The future of the nuclear power industry is being pushed on both by climate change and security fears stoked by Russia invading Ukraine and targeting the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant,” reports CNBC, with the world’s nations “coming to realize they can’t meet their climate goals with renewables, like wind and solar, alone.” Kenneth Luongo, founder of the security/energy nonprofit Partnership for Global Security, even tells CNBC there was a “sea change” in sentiment toward nuclear power at the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference.

There are about 440 nuclear power reactors operating in more than 30 countries that supply about 10% of the world’s electricity, according to the World Nuclear Association. Currently, 55 new reactors are being constructed in 19 countries, and 19 of those are in China. The U.S. only has two underway…. Currently, three new nuclear reactors are being built in Russia. But Russia is also the world’s top nuclear technology exporter….

As Russia and China have risen to prominence, the United States has lost “the muscle memory” to build conventional nuclear reactors, Luongo said. Nuclear power got a poor reputation in the United States after the nuclear accident at Three Mile Island in 1979 in Pennsylvania, and more globally after the accidents at Chornobyl in the Ukrainian Soviet Union in 1986 and Fukushima in Japan in 2011. But the tide is starting to turn. The Biden administration’s solution was included in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which was signed into law November, and was effectively a big subsidy. The law includes a $6 billion program intended to preserve the existing U.S. fleet of nuclear power reactors…. At the same time, the Russia-Ukraine war gives the United States leverage to pry open more of a footprint in the global market. While the war is tragic, “it’s going to result in more opportunity for U.S. nuclear firms as Russia really disqualifies itself,” said John Kotek of the Nuclear Energy Institute [a U.S. nuclear industry trade association]. Russia’s dangerous attack at Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine and China’s decision to not vote in favor of the IAEA’s resolution to prevent the kind of attack “will blowback on both countries’ nuclear export reputation,” Luongo told CNBC….

Nuclear plants are expensive to build and have, in many places, become more expensive than other baseload energy alternatives like natural gas. However, the U.S. is pushing hard into what could become the next generation of nuclear. “The United States has made a decision that they don’t want to allow Russia and China to dominate that next phase of the nuclear market. And so the U.S. is pouring billions of dollars — shockingly — billions of dollars into the development of what are called small modular reactors,” Luongo said. Specifically, the government is using the Idaho National Lab as a testing ground for these reactors.
Without specifically mentioning nuclear energy, former Gawker editor Alex Pareene recently argued a program of “mass electrification and renewable energy” could diminish the power of “oligarchic petrostates.”

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1 Million Fitbit Ionic Smartwatches Recalled Over Reports of Overheating Batteries and More than 100 Burn Injuries

“Fitbit has announced a voluntary recall of its Ionic Smartwatch,” reports Newsweek, “amid more than 170 reports that the battery has overheated, causing more than 100 reports of burn injuries….”

The Ionic smartwatch was first introduced in 2017 and the company stopped producing it in 2020. When worn, the smartwatch tracks activity, heart rate, and sleep. According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), one million of the watches were sold in the U.S. while a further 693,000 were sold internationally.

The company has received 115 reports in the U.S. and 59 reports internationally of the watch’s lithium-ion battery overheating, leading to 78 reports of burn injuries in the U.S. and 40 reports of burn injuries internationally, the CPSC added. Some burns were particularly severe, with four reports of second-degree burns and two reports of third-degree burns. Third-degree burns, in which multiple layers of skin are destroyed, are the most harmful of the two….

In a statement published on its website yesterday, the company said it would offer a $299 refund to Fitbit Ionic customers and “the health and safety of Fitbit users is our highest priority.”

“If you own a Fitbit Ionic, please stop using your device,” the company added.

Fitbit said the Ionic can be identified via the model number FB503 on the back of the watch under the “CE” mark, while those with a Fitbit account can check if an Ionic is connected to their account by clicking on the Today tab, then their profile picture, and then the Account page.

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Is a New Iron Curtain Descending Across Russia’s internet?

Cogent Communications, one of the world’s largest internet intercontinental backbone providers, has cut ties with Russian customers over its invasion of Ukraine. The Verge reports:

In a letter to Russian customers obtained by The Washington Post, Cogent cited “economic sanctions” and “the increasingly uncertain security situation” as the motives behind its total shutdown in the country. Cogent similarly told The Verge that it “terminated its contracts” with Russian customers in compliance with the European Union’s move to ban Russian state-backed media outlets.

As Doug Madory, an internet analyst at network tracking company Kentik points out… unplugging Russia from Cogent’s global network will likely result in slower connectivity, but won’t completely disconnect Russians from the internet… Traffic from Cogent’s former customers will instead fall back on other backbone providers in the country, potentially resulting in network congestion. There isn’t any indication as to whether other internet backbone providers will also suspend services in Russia.
Digital rights activists have criticized Cogent’s decision to disconnect itself from Russia, arguing that it could prevent Russian civilians from accessing credible information about the invasion. “Cutting Russians off from internet access cuts them off from sources of independent news and the ability to organize anti-war protests,” Eva Galperin, the director of cybersecurity at the digital rights group Electronic Frontier Foundation, said on Twitter….

Cogent’s goal is to prevent the Russian government from using the company’s networks for cyberattacks and propaganda, The Post reports.

The Post argues that on a larger scale,”these moves bring Russia closer to the day when its online networks face largely inward, their global connections weakened, if not cut off entirely.”
“I am very afraid of this,” said Mikhail Klimarev, executive director of the Internet Protection Society, which advocates for digital freedoms in Russia. “I would like to convey to people all over the world that if you turn off the Internet in Russia, then this means cutting off 140 million people from at least some truthful information. As long as the Internet exists, people can find out the truth. There will be no Internet — all people in Russia will only listen to propaganda….”

[E]ven two weeks ago, Russia’s Internet was comparatively free and integrated into the larger online world, allowing civil society to organize, opposition figures to deliver their messages and ordinary Russians to gain ready access to alternative sources of news in an era when Putin was strangling his nation’s free newspapers and broadcast stations…. Patrick Boehler, head of digital strategy at Radio Free Europe, said CrowdTangle data showed that independent news stories in the Russian language worldwide were getting shared many more times on social media than stories from state-run media. He said that once the Kremlin lost control of the narrative, it would have been hard to regain.

Now the last independent journalistic outposts are gone, and the Internet options are increasingly constricted through a combination of forces — all spurred by war in Ukraine but coming from both within and outside Russia…. Government censors also blocked access to the BBC, Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Deutsche Welle, as well as major Ukrainian websites. The BBC, CNN and other international news organizations said they were suspending reporting in Russia because of a new law that could result in 15 years of prison for publishing what government officials deem false news on the war.

Meanwhile, Politico reminds us that even Oracle has shut down its Russian cloud service operations.
Laura Manley, the executive director of Harvard University’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy, said Russia is creating a perfect situation to control its narrative and limit outside coverage of its Ukrainian invasion by Western social media sources. “You have the lack of eyewitness information because you have critical infrastructure being shut off,” she said. “So it’s sort of a worst case scenario in terms of getting real-time accurate information.”

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Ukraine Receives $42M in Cryptocurrency Donations – Plus 180 NFTs They Didn’t Ask For

Thursday the Washington Post reported the Ukrainian government had already received more than $42 million in cryptocurrency donations since last Saturday — “plus digital artwork including a limited edition worth roughly $200,000,” according to blockchain analytics firm Elliptic.

Some of the crypto donations have already been converted into traditional currency, primarily euros, according to Kuna.io, the Kyiv-based cryptocurrency exchange that helped the government set up and manage its crypto wallets for donations. The money was then used to buy critical supplies like drones, bulletproof vests, heat-sensitive goggles and gasoline, from both state actors and the private sector.

None of the more than 180 donated digital artworks — known as non-fungible tokens, or NFTs — have been sold, according to data from blockchains, which store information in an immutable, public digital ledger…. Ukraine, which hadn’t asked for NFTs, received a map of the Donetsk area of eastern Ukraine, parts of which have been controlled by Russian-backed separatists, in the colors of the Ukrainian flag, plus photos of blue-and-yellow peace signs and an animated “fire dragon.” NFT donations also included images from the Shibelon collection, which is “based on a mythology in which Elon Musk was granted genius powers by an alien, who also created bitcoin,” wrote journalist

In addition to well-established cryptocurrencies, Ukraine received donations denominated in almost 100 obscure digital currencies, according to a Post analysis of data from Etherscan. They included a new one named Save Ukraine, another with a racially abusive name, and several themed after crypto community in-jokes focused on dogs and Musk, the Tesla CEO. The government’s strategy has been to convert less popular cryptocurrencies into traditional money first and hold bitcoin and ether in reserves because they are more stable and liquid, Chobanian said. Donations were still streaming in as new efforts to raise crypto for the Ukrainian government cropped up.

Early Tuesday morning Ukraine time, Ukraine’s 31-year-old deputy prime minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, announced AidForUkraine, a joint effort of his Digital Ministry, developers behind the Solana blockchain and Everstake. So far, AidForUkraine has raised $1.4 million, according to its website…. The speed with which the AidForUkraine fundraising effort came together was “magic,” said Everstake’s Vasylchuk, who fled Kyiv days before the invasion thanks to his pilot’s license and is in temporary housing in Florida…. Beyond the official government-led effort, Come Back Alive, an NGO benefiting Ukraine’s army, has also received millions in cryptocurrency donations — and is getting millions more from UkraineDAO, a group organized on the blockchain that held an auction to raise funds, according to blockchain data. The NGO organizers pivoted to crypto after their campaign was suspended from Patreon. But UkraineDAO is limiting spending to helping the victims of war, the New York Times reported. Patreon spokesperson Ellen Satterwhite said that would “absolutely be allowable under our guidelines.”

Elsewhere On GoFundMe, Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher have already raised over $15 million for refugee and humanitarian aid — in just one day.

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Protein Tweak Makes CRISPR Gene Editing 4,000 Times Less Error-Prone

Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin have identified a previously unknown structure of the protein that’s responsible for making edits to the wrong sections of DNA. After some tweaking, they were able to reduce the likelihood of off-target mutations by 4,000 times. New Atlas reports: CRISPR tools use certain proteins, most often Cas9, to make precise edits to specific DNA sequences in living cells. This can involve cutting out problematic genes, such as those that cause disease, and/or slotting in beneficial ones. The problem is that sometimes the tool can make changes to the wrong parts, potentially triggering a range of other health issues. And in the new study, the UT researchers discovered how some of these errors can happen. Usually, the Cas9 protein is hunting for a specific sequence of 20 letters in the DNA code, but if it finds one where 18 out of 20 match its target, it might make its edit anyway. To find out why this occurs, the team used cryo-electron microscopy to observe what Cas9 is doing when it interacts with a mismatched sequence.

To their surprise, they discovered a strange finger-like structure that had never been observed before. This finger reached out and stabilized the DNA sequence so the protein could still make its edit. Having uncovered this mechanism, the team tweaked this finger so that it no longer stabilized the DNA, instead pushing away from it. That prevents Cas9 from editing that sequence, making the tool 4,000 times less likely to produce off-target mutations. The team calls the new protein SuperFi-Cas9. The research was published in the journal Nature.

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California Issues Permits To Cruise, Waymo For Autonomous Vehicle Service

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) on Monday issued permits to self-driving units of General Motors and Alphabet to allow for passenger service in autonomous vehicles with safety drivers present. Reuters reports: CPUC said the GM unit Cruise and Alphabet’s Waymo are under Drivered Deployment permits authorized to collect fares from passengers and may offer shared rides. Prior to the announcement Cruise and Waymo had been permitted to provide passenger service only on a testing basis with no fare collection permitted.

Starting Monday, Cruise is allowed to provide the “Drivered Deployment” service on some public roads in San Francisco between the hours of 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. at speeds of up to 30 miles per hour, while Waymo can offer service in parts of San Francisco and San Mateo counties at speeds of up to 65 miles per hour, CPUC said. Neither company is allowed to operate during heavy fog or heavy rain. […] Waymo said it has tens of thousands of riders on a waitlst in California after it launched a tester program in August. “We’ll begin offering paid trips through the program in the coming weeks,” the company said.

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