zoobab writes: The US Senate to set to revive Software Patents with the PERA Bill, with a vote on Thursday, November 14, 2024. A crucial Senate Committee is on the cusp of voting on two bills that would resurrect some of the most egregious software patents and embolden patent trolls. The Patent Eligibility Restoration Act (PERA), S. 2140, would dismantle vital safeguards that prohibit software patents on overly broad concepts. If passed, courts would be compelled to approve software patents on mundane activities like mobile food ordering or basic online financial transactions. This would unleash a torrent of vague and overbroad software patents, which would be wielded by patent trolls to extort small businesses and individuals. The EFF is inviting members of the public to contact their Senators.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

If you’ve been looking to replace your Android phone’s camera app with one that doesn’t overprocess photos to alter lighting and detail in sometimes extreme ways, now there’s an option. Zerocam is a barebones app that promises to “shoot in RAW and process your photos to remove all artificial effects, delivering soft, pleasant-to-eye images.”

We’ve been talking about the definition of a photo for years, and we’re not the only ones complaining about HDR processing that sometimes makes images seem flat because they lack contrast between light and dark.

This app’s approach is similar to the Process Zero feature Halide offers within its iPhone camera app, but Zerocam goes a few steps further. This app doesn’t even have much of an interface:...

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'I have been working in the entertainment/film industry for around a decade and a half, and this has NEVER happened to me'

The post It’s Not Hard For A Billion-Dollar Company To Credit An Artist From Time To Time appeared first on Aftermath.

Officials inside the Secret Service clashed over whether they needed a warrant to use location data harvested from ordinary apps installed on smartphones, with some arguing that citizens have agreed to be tracked with such data by accepting app terms of service, despite those apps often not saying their data may end up with the authorities, according to hundreds of pages of internal Secret Service emails obtained by 404 Media.

The emails provide deeper insight into the agency’s use of Locate X, a powerful surveillance capability that allows law enforcement officials to follow a phone, and person’s, precise movements over time at the click of a mouse. In 2023, a government oversight body found that the Secret Service, Customs and Border Protection, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement all used their access to such location data illegally. The Secret Service told 404 Media in an email last week it is no longer using the tool. 

“If USSS [U.S. Secret Service] is using Locate X, that is most concerning to us,” one of the internal emails said. 404 Media obtained them and other documents through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the Secret Service.

Among the most influential and imitated movies of the last 25 years, The Blair Witch Project has never looked right on home video or DVD. That's not us saying it. We love the grainy whip pans and gushes of snot that The Blair Witch uses to burrow into your terror centers. However, thanks to some clarification by co-producer Mike Monello and a re-release from Second Sight, we can finally face the Witch in all her horrible, stand-in-a-corner glory.

Posting on his various social media channels today, Monello explained that the film was never transferred to DVD correctly. Shot on Hi8 video and 16mm black and white film and edited on a Media 100XR, the film wasn't fit for theaters. In the Stone Age of 1999, movie theaters did not have video projectors, so Blair Witch was transferred to 35mm film through a process called "telecine," in which a 35mm camera records the video on a special screen in a controlled environment. When the film's distributor, Artisan, transferred the movie for DVD and video for home release, they "made a huge mistake" and performed the telecine process again, recording the 35mm film back on video.

"This introduced serious motion errors; it gave the Hi8 footage film grain and muddied all the colors with a brown overcast, killing detail," Monello wrote. "The edits of that transfer became 3-frame dissolves rather than hard cuts. Everything about it is wrong, but at the time we were not in a position to demand it be redone."

Thankfully, for those living outside the U.S. or the proud owners of a region-free DVD player, the film has been re-transferred from the original tapes and film. The Blu-ray comes courtesy of the UK's Second Sight imprint. It will only be available in Europe, though Monello suggests requesting an American release from Lionsgate on their social channels.

"We put in a lot of work to make this happen, but none of us earn any money from sales of Blair Witch anything," he writes. "That's just the reality for first-time filmmakers with no leverage cutting a deal with a studio, but that's another story for another time."

"Honestly, I'm just thrilled the proper version is now available, and people can see our original intent for home viewing."

As exciting as it is to finally see the true Blair Witch in all her rock-stacking and map-tossing glory, we'd also like the people who made the film to start getting paid. Conservative estimates put Blair Witch's budget under $500,000, including Artisan's botch job on the home video release. After Artisan bought the movie for $1 million, it grossed $249 million, not including sequels, merchandise, and home video sales. Surely, there's a slice of the pie for the people who made the damn thing.

The new transfer is out now on Second Sight's website. But, in an ironic twist befitting the Witch of Burkittsville, it's currently sold out. We'd like to apologize to Mike's mom, Josh's mom, and our moms for that one.

Employees at Hachette Book Group are protesting after the company announced the launch of a new conservative imprint called "Basic Liberty." Hachette revealed this plan days after the 2024 presidential election, describing the endeavor as "a new conservative imprint that will publish serious works of cultural, social, and political analysis by conservative writers of original thought," according to Publishers Weekly. Thomas Spence, former president of conservative publisher Regnery, has been tapped to lead the new imprint; he's currently a visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation and published books by Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley, among others.

A group of Hachette employees shared the following letter of protest with the Instagram account xoxopublishingg (presented via Publishers Weekly):

"As employees of HBG, we stand together in firm disapprobation of the Heritage Foundation, Project 2025, and any conservative movement or thought that strips away sacred rights and the humanity of people. We disavow [HBG and Hachette UK CEO] David Shelley's unsympathetic and insensitive remarks,"—delivered, the letter notes, "shortly after many friends, colleagues, and loved ones were left reeling from election results"—"and maintain that the dignity, rights, and freedoms of all people should be upheld by everyone, especially those in positions of power."

"We condemn HBG's decision to put profit before its own people, to let the promise of financial gain overtake morality and conscience, and to platform a person who contributes to the advancement of the Heritage Foundation's vision for America. We are calling on HBG to recognize the responsibility it has as one of the world's leading publishers, to act with empathy and compassion for all people, and to reevaluate its decision to move forward with the creation of Basic Liberty and the hiring of Thomas Spence."

According to PW, at least one Hachette employee has resigned over Basic Liberty and the hiring of Spence. Workers at Hachette have seen success from collective action in the past; Woody Allen's memoir was dropped from the publisher's roster after a staff walkout. However, HBG has long published conservative writers and politicians. The company's Center Street imprint has published titles by Donald Trump Jr., Newt Gingrich, Vivek Ramaswamy, and, recently, Rob Schneider. 

"Hachette Book Group's mission is to reach a broad spectrum of readers by making it easier for everyone to discover new worlds of ideas, learning, entertainment, and opportunity. We publish books from all sides of the political debate," a spokesperson for HBG said in a statement to Publishers Weekly. "Since 1950, Basic Books' award-winning titles have helped shape public debate through the academic expertise of their authors, the serious approach to how subject matter is treated, and the rigor of its editorial process. Basic Books continues to build on HBG’s legacy of reaching readers of all backgrounds and beliefs."