The Global North Lives Off Intellectual Rents: The Twenty-Sixth Newsletter (2025)


Despite rapid technological innovations, Global South countries remain trapped in Global North-dominated intellectual property regimes designed to extract endless rents through patents and licensing fees– stripping them of wealth and stunting their development.
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Despite the growing technological and industrial capacity of countries in the Global South, countries and corporations in the Global North continue to own intellectual property patents on key products, locking the South into indefinite patent payment regimes. These include patent payments for pharmaceuticals, digital technologies (such as licensing fees for software and telecommunications infrastructure), and agricultural goods (such as genetically modified seeds, fertilisers, pesticides, and equipment). Scientific and technological advances have indeed accelerated in the Global South, with several countries – particularly in Asia – developing sophisticated high-speed rail, green technologies, and telecommunications infrastructure. Yet even in these sectors, most countries continue to pay large rents to Global North firms that own patents on key components.


There are five sectors where the imbalance in patent-related payments is most severe (in other words, where Global South countries pay significantly more in royalties and licensing fees than they receive in return):

  1. Pharmaceuticals. Drug patents are largely owned by firms based in Europe, Japan, and the United States. A recent example of the high price of access to essential medical technologies was the cost of importing mRNA vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic. Several countries in the Global South, such as South Africa and India, faced delays and inflated costs in vaccine procurement due to patent restrictions and limited technology transfer. (South Africa eventually opted to purchase vaccines from India’s generic producers – such as Cipla and the Serum Institute – which saved the country approximately $133 million over three years.)
  2. Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). Every component of ICTs – from software and hardware to semiconductors and mobile networks – costs Global South countries a king’s ransom. This is not only because of the price of the physical products themselves, but also because of the high licensing fees for the underlying technologies, which are often controlled by exclusive patent pools (consortia of firms that jointly manage and license essential patents).

Read full article here: thetricontinental.org/newslett…

Writing a basic Linux device driver when you know nothing about Linux drivers or USB
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A couple of months ago I bought the Nanoleaf Pegboard Desk Dock, the latest and greatest in USB-hub-with-RGB-LEDs-and-hooks-for-gadgets technology. This invention unfortunately only supports the real gamer operating systems of Windows and macOS, which necessitated the development of a Linux driver.

Over the past few posts I’ve set up a Windows VM with USB passthrough, and attempted to reverse-engineer the official drivers, As I was doing that, I also thought I’d message the vendor and ask them if they could share any specifications or docs regarding their protocol. To my surprise, Nanoleaf tech support responded to me within 4 hours, with a full description of the protocol that’s used both by the Desk Dock as well as their RGB strips. The docs mostly confirmed what I had already discovered independently, but there were a couple of other minor features as well (like power and brightness management) that I did not know about, which was helpful.

Emmanuel Florac reshared this.

Alarm puller: "The reason why heart disease and cancer and obesity and diabetes are bigger in the black community is because of the stress we carry from having to deal with being called the N-word directly or indirectly every day." minds.com/newsfeed/17849275631…

Germany: Police Target 170 People for Insulting Politicians Online
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If you call Chancellor Merz a “drunk” or Green leader Robert Habeck an “idiot” in Deutschland you could get a visit from law enforcement.

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ICC is about human rights, but we don't see it — Sara Duterte, Philippines' Vice odysee.com/Duterte-June-25:515…

A good press conference by Pete Hegseth and Chairman of Joint Chiefs describing the mission and what it took for the pilots, etc, and berates media for its awful reporting.

youtube.com/live/1_A-VBixOQk

in reply to Proletarian Rage

Every hour you read something more warmongering than the previous. Everyday they say openly that they take our money to give em to a bunch of capitalists and we, the working class, just standing there like hypnotized waiting for the military call to be meat for their profits.
#Warmongers #FuckWarmongers #Eupol #USA #Uspol #ArmsIndustry #ClassWar
#Europe is seeing a dramatic boost in defense budgets, driven by both long-standing pressure from Washington and the continent’s own reaction to #Russia ’s full-scale invasion of #Ukraine. That promises a glut of military contracts for weapons-makers in Europe as well as in the U.S., South Korea and elsewhere.
...The enormous scale of new defense spending — the European Commission estimates that the bloc’s members will need to spend €500 billion on defense over the next decade — still means there will be a lot of money available for European defense firms.
That said, the early winner of Europe’s defense buildup is likely to be the U.S.

politico.eu/article/donald-tru…

in reply to Proletarian Rage

Organizations, activists, political and material collectives who run for environmental issues, #ClimateCrisis etc. should take action to fight #warmongers. They openly say (everywhere, not just in #EuropeanUnion) that they must spend the money of #workingclass (you remember that big companies have less taxes than us?) for armaments and to leave the (capitalist) green transition aside. Means they don't care at all about the destruction war industry and their inevitable wars produce. Tusk explains better.

«Making references to Russia's full-scale invasion of #Ukraine and Belarus's campaign of instrumentalised migration, which his country has experienced firsthand, Tusk implored EU states to address security "seriously" and be "flexible" and "creative" to design novel ways to finance the necessary boost in military expenditure.»
«"I'll be honest: we shouldn't really care too much about what method we adopt to finance pan-#European defence projects," he told lawmakers in #Strasbourg
«In the prime minister's view, "some" of the environmental regulations that the #EU has introduced in the past five years are responsible for the "prohibitively" high #energy prices. - Energy bills began rising in 2022 when the market hit record-high levels in reaction to #Russia 's manipulation of gas supplies.»

in reply to Proletarian Rage

#Warmongers of #EU-US-NATO as a chorus use false arguments to convince european population that is right to suffer for a supposed threat. The lies are huge; as their profits.
The more the industrial monopolies of northern Europe fall (3 years now) the more they push for armaments. The reason? Their stuck industries (e.g. vehicles) to turn into defence equipment industries. In the end all this mess imposed by Northern European Capital will be paid by the working class of Europe, both by the gigantic cut in spending on social needs, as well as by funding the industrialists through the defence industry. The latter, you know, do not pay the same taxes paid by the workers...
todon.nl/@smaurizi@mastodon.so…
#FuckWarmongers
in reply to Proletarian Rage

They ask for more spending on #militarism while EU is ready to approve 820€ billion. They don't have anything to loose by these calls, on the contrary they stand to gain millions or billions in commissions from arm industries.
Only the #workingclass loose in this #warmongers "game".
#ClassWar #SmashTheWarmongers #FuckTheWarmongers #FuckWarmongers #capitalism #Poland #EU #NATOkillers #NATO
This entry was edited (4 months ago)

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[#ÀlairLibre 📺] Handicap: «Toute la société est validiste»

L’année 2025 marque l’anniversaire de plusieurs lois sur le #handicap mais les droits des personnes concernées restent bafoués. Travail, école, espaces publics, accès aux droits: dans «À l’air libre», nos invités détaillent la façon dont le #validisme imprègne les structures de notre société.

Par À l’air libre › mediapart.fr/journal/internati…

Fallece el periodista y escritor catalán Arturo San Agustín


Con una trayectoria que pasa por El Periódico, El Mundo y La Vanguardia, fue un referente en el género de la entrevista y la crónica de ambiente y publicó numerosos libros

El periodista y escritor Arturo San Agustín (Barcelona, 1949) ha fallecido durante la mañana de hoy a los 76 años, según ha informado a primera hora La Vanguardia, uno de los periódicos que habían acogido sus crónicas y artículos de opinión y con el que más asiduamente colaboro en esta última etapa de su vida profesional.

Antes había sido una figura frecuente primero en El Periódico, desde donde proyectó su mirada crítica de la realidad catalana y barcelonesa, y después en el diario El Mundo. Junto a su faceta periodística, en la que se reveló un maestro de las entrevistas, desarrolló otra importante como escritor muy vinculado a temas como el Fútbol Club Barcelona, del que era un gran seguidor, y el Vaticano.

Destacan en su bibliografía títulos como El otro zoo de Barcelona, de 1976; M'agrada que em faci aquesta pregunta: l'entrevista en premsa, de 1999, La nena del Leopoldo: Una crónica de Barcelona, de 2010 o Un perro verde entre los jóvenes del Papa de 2011.

En el campo del ensayo, escribió Tras el portón de bronce, que analizaba la realidad vaticana en tiempos del papa Francisco. Otro libro relevante suyo, publicado en el 2014, fue Cuando se jodió el nuestro, en el que analizaba la complicada relación entre Catalunya y España con entrevistas incisivas a personajes como Miquel Iceta, Jordi Pujol, Josép Cuní, Enrique Juliana, José Manuel Lara o Juan Manuel Tresserras.

Nacido en Barcelona en 1949, Arturo San Agustín pasó su juventud en el barrio del Poblenou –ahora renovado y principal colonia expatriada en la ciudad– y después entre el Somorrostro y una escuela de la Barceloneta, siempre ligado a esta parte de Barcelona. Su padre trabajaba para la compañía gasista El Arenal, situada en el distrito.

Antes de dedicarse de lleno al periodismo, San Agustín trabajó durante diez años como creativo publicitario, una etapa que le sirvió para desarrollar un estilo comunicativo directo y desinhibido, repleto de matices sugerentes, que aplicó posteriormente a sus labores tanto literarias como periodísticas.

Rutte se refiere a Trump como "papi" y la Casa Blanca difunde un vídeo en el que llama a la OTAN "la casa de papá"


El presidente de EEUU explota el 'peloteo' del secretario general de la OTAN: "Creo que le gusto" Mark Rutte, el secretario general que hizo del servilismo a Trump una forma de liderar la OTAN Los mensajes privados del secretario general de la OTAN a Trump: “Europa pagará a lo grande”

Que Mark Rutte está encantado con Donald Trump no es ningún secreto. Primero el presidente de EEUU publicó en redes hace unos días una conversación con Rutte, secretario general de la OTAN, en la que este le adulaba hasta niveles –para muchos– bochornosos por el ataque de Estados Unidos a Irán.

Luego, ya durante el marco de la cumbre de la OTAN en La Haya, Rutte y Trump comparecieron este miércoles de forma distendida ante la prensa. Mientras el estadounidense trataba de explicar que veía el conflicto entre Israel e Irán como “dos niños en el patio del colegio” a los que hay que dejar que se peguen un rato antes de calmarse, el secretario general de la OTAN le compraba el argumento, y apostillaba: “Sometimes, daddy has to use strong language” (A veces, papi tiene que usar lenguaje fuerte).

La frase provocó la risa de algunos asistentes a la rueda de prensa, y la cosa no quedó ahí. En otra comparecencia posterior de Donald Trump ante los medios, una periodista de Sky News le preguntaba: “Mark Rutte le ha llamado papá; ¿usted ve a los aliados de la OTAN como una especie de hijos?”. Trump contestaba que Rutte es su amigo: “Le gusto, creo que le gusto, lo ha hecho con cariño… ‘papá, eres mi papá’”. De fondo, ni siquiera Marco Rubio, secretario de Estado de EEUU, podía aguantar la risa.

Y de nuevo, el asunto no ha quedado ahí. Esta madrugada, la cuenta oficial de la Casa Blanca ha publicado –en redes y en su web oficial– un vídeo de la llegada de Trump a la cumbre de la OTAN que podría parecer parodia, pero no lo es. Lleva en grande el título ‘Daddy’s home’ (la casa de papá) y va acompañada de la canción de Usher con ese mismo nombre.

Dear @creativecommons ,

I read your article about your initiative for new licenses for dataset holders in the AI industry.

Let’s be clear: I do not want to re-license my hundreds of CC-By comic pages to please AI giants.

I wish you would support CC artists suffering from massive plagiarism. You should enforce your own existing licenses against AI mass crawling. It seems you’ve joined the battle only after the casualties and still managed to side with the wrong people.

creativecommons.org/2025/06/25…

Unknown parent

@prinlu @ArneBab No: the court refused the author of "A Recent Entrance To Paradise" to be copyrighted. Not a case of a owner fighting for their intellectual properties.

The fact "it can't be copyrighted" doesn't mean it cannot be attacked if it degrades the Intellectual property of a brand, or owner, or bring them commercial prejudices.

The result of this bbc.com/news/articles/cg5vjqdm… will answer (on a US law POV) the debate around Intellectual Property usage in AI output...

in reply to David Revoy

@ArneBab @prinlu In the blog post the other commenter provided above, the author knows that they generated Terminator (a copyrighted character) so it's considered some kind of unauthorized reproduction under copyright laws and since they know that it's extremely difficult if impossible to defend. And note that in machine learning and AI, if a model reproduces parts of its training data, it's considered overfitting and pretty much researchers are aiming to avoid that

Meanwhile in #Gaza:

WATCH: “In a courtyard shattered by war and stripped of all signs of life, I found children sweeping the rubble with their tiny hands, trying to bring back a place that was once a playground. They ran barefoot after a faded ball, as if chasing days that haven't arrived yet. I walked closer and asked one of them, ‘Aren't you scared of the drones?’ He looked up, breathless, and said, ‘When did we ever stop playing?’”

via Eye On Palestine on Telegram

t.me/Eyeonpalestine2/15244

in reply to Proletarian Rage

kafeneio.social/@foufoutos/114…


Israeli settlers are burning down the Christian town of Taybeh in the West Bank

The village is known for its uniquely all-Christian population.

Cars, lands and home all attacked in a series of violent pogroms aimed at uprooting Palestinian communities. - MPN

#Palestine #WestBank #IsraelWarCrimes #FuckEU


Proletarian Rage reshared this.

Mothers and doctors in Gaza say formula shortages risk babies’ lives, blaming Israel’s aid blockade
https://www.euronews.com/health/2025/06/26/mothers-and-doctors-in-gaza-say-formula-shortages-risk-babies-lives-blaming-israels-aid-bl?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=activitypub

Posted into Europe News @europe-news-euronews

Gaza est un camp de la mort où les SS sont Israéliens.
Et ils s'en vantent en postant leurs tueries sur TikTok et Instagram !
Les USA fournissent les armes et le veto à l'ONU.
Les Allemands (qui n'ont pas compris les leçons de leur passé nazi) cautionnent cette répétition inversée de leurs crimes au nom de la "raison d'État".
Les Britanniques, usual bastards.
Les Français, bavards hypocrites.

Et le monde non-occidental regarde ça avec un dégoût croissant.

C'est une mauvaise configuration 😒

This entry was edited (2 months ago)

Elderly and disabled people told Congress that cutting Medicaid would kill people and in response they were zip tied and arrested in their wheelchairs.

#USA #DeathPolicies #BillionaireTaxCuts #Capitalism #SocialMurder #Politicians #SanitizedMurder #ProfitMotive #Bribery #Corruption #Murder #USGovernment #Politics #Death #DeathCult #ChristoFascism

The absolute “chutzpah” of the “Defence” minster of a genocidal terrorist state declaring that an Iranian bank is a terrorist organisation!

“Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz [..] yesterday announced that he has signed a special order declaring the Central Bank of Iran a terrorist organisation”

via MintPress News on Telegram

t.me/mintpress_news/9925

#Press #Gaza #WestBank #Palestine #Resistance #Israel #Genocide #Terrorism #WarCrimes #SettlerColonialism #Zionism #Barbarity #BloodLust

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== Donald #Trump réclame l’annulation du procès de Benyamin #Nétanyahou ==

« J’ai été choqué d’apprendre que l’Etat d’ #Israël, qui vient de vivre l’un des plus grands moments de son histoire et qui est fortement dirigé par “Bibi” Nétanyahou, poursuit sa ridicule chasse aux sorcières contre son immense premier ministre de temps de la guerre ! », écrit le républicain dans un très long message.
« “Bibi” Nétanyahou a été un GUERRIER, comme il n’y en a jamais eu dans l’histoire d’Israël, et le résultat a été quelque chose que personne ne pensait possible, l’élimination complète de potentiellement l’une des plus puissantes armes nucléaires dans le monde », déclare M. Trump.
« Probablement personne d’autre que Benyamin Nétanyahou n’aurait pu travailler en meilleure harmonie avec le président des Etats-Unis. Les #Etats-Unis ont sauvé #Israel et maintenant les Etats-Unis vont sauver “Bibi ”Nétanyahou. CETTE PARODIE DE “JUSTICE” NE PEUT ÊTRE AUTORISÉE ! »
« Il mérite bien mieux que cela, et l’Etat d’Israël aussi. Le procès de “Bibi” Nétanyahou devrait être ANNULÉ IMMÉDIATEMENT, ou une grâce devrait être accordée à un grand héros qui a tant fait pour l’Etat », écrit encore le président américain.


#netanyahu #us

Death toll in Kenyan anti-government protests rises to 16, says rights group
https://www.africanews.com/2025/06/26/death-toll-in-kenyan-anti-government-protests-rises-to-16-says-rights-group/?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=activitypub

Posted into Africanews @africanews-euronews

In Spain, parents gather at school gates to remember Gaza’s child victims
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/6/26/in-spain-parents-gather-at-school-gates-to-remember-gazas-child-victims?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=activitypub

Posted into Global News @global-news-AlJazeera

Palestinian elderly woman shot martyred by Israeli soldiers in Al-Quds en.abna24.com/news/1701818/Pal…

Just now catching up on some of the posts from this past week. I have stayed off x and just peeked in a little here and there on telegram and here. I’ve been so busy with coordinating home repairs and researching for bath remodel that I just now saw this… interesting

I just use x now for researching clips and more. There’s definitely a psyop game going on over there. I fell for it and stepping away helped me evaluate Trump and what’s going on better.

In God We Trust

This entry was edited (1 month ago)

Die Rente ist nicht sicher!


In einem Gespräch, das sich wie ein wirtschaftlicher #Seismograph liest, entlarvt der Finanzexperte Alexander #Streeb die #Altersvorsorge der Deutschen als fragile Illusion. Im Interview mit Markus #Langemann vom Club der klaren Worte spricht er nicht nur als Fachmann, sondern als Gewissen einer Branche, die sich in Deckung windet.

Streebs Bilanz ist vernichtend: Private Renten- und #Lebensversicherungen seien nichts weiter als „staatlich gedeckte Schuldscheine“, deren Auszahlungsversprechen durch Paragraph 314 des Versicherungsaufsichtsgesetzes jederzeit einkassiert werden können – ganz legal. Noch gravierender: Selbst wenn Versicherungen ihre Leistungen kürzen oder ganz verweigern, bleibt der Kunde zur #Beitragszahlung verpflichtet.

Streeb schildert, wie ganze Generationen unter dem Vorwand von Sicherheit Verträge abgeschlossen haben, die real – inflationsbereinigt – massive Verluste produzieren. Und er benennt Ross und Reiter: Politiker wie Friedrich Merz oder Ursula von der Leyen, die offen darüber sprechen, wie man an das Ersparte der Bürger „herankommt“.

Gleichzeitig warnt Streeb vor einem digital kontrollierten Finanzregime aus #Bargeldverbot, programmierbarem Euro und einem europaweiten Vermögensregister – flankiert von der neuen AMLA-Behörde, einem „trojanischen Pferd“ zur Überwachung der Finanzströme jedes Einzelnen.

Was bleibt, ist ein dramatischer Appell: Wer nicht selbst Verantwortung für sein #Vermögen übernimmt, wird es verlieren. Und mit ihm seine #Freiheit.

Das ganze Interview jetzt im

cdkw.org

Adrian von Ferenczy
Für den clubderklarenworte.de

External monitor power management issues


It feels weird to just jump into a generic Linux community and ask a question. It's nice being so small - kinda like the internet used to be.

Anyway, I've been running Linux servers for decades but only recently switched my desktop. I first tried Debian 12 and I'm now on OpenSUSE Tumbleweed - I switched in the hope of getting newer drivers and maybe fixing this issue.

I have a HP laptop with onboard Intel graphics and an external monitor connected with USB-C. In general it works great - until it doesn't. From time to time the external monitor does not wake up after a suspend. Normally turning the monitor off and back on will cause some sort of driver reset and it comes back. Once or twice this has not helped and I've had to reboot.

I'm running Xorg as Wayland on Tumbleweed won't start on t his machine. Wayland may have worked with Debian, I don't recall. I don't think it's worth listing details of my versions as it's happened on two distros and through a couple of minor updates to Xorg on openSUSE. It happens with KDE or LXDE.

Any suggestions?

in reply to catloaf

Does it work if you unplug and replug?


In general, yes.

If you hit a button other than power does it wake up, or does it say "no signal" or something?


Yes.

Does the laptop see it?


I'm assuming not as it does not display on it. Next time it happens I'll see what xrandr says.

Anything in any log?


Nothing in Xorg.0.log and nothing that seems related in the journal. I'll keep journalctl --follow running and see if anything that I didn't pick as being related comes up next time it happens.

Can you force a redetection from the laptop?


Probably, but I don't know how.

in reply to GreatBlueHeron

you're running way too old a distro for what you want. debian 12 has its merits as a server, you install it and leave it be and it just works.

what you want - fluidity with power management, dock/undock, etc - although achievable with tweaking this and that isn't being worked on, not on X, not on debian 12, so it's not like those things will eventually get there. so you need a semi-modern distro, like ubuntu or fedora or even trixie.

wayland isn't new, it's default on a lot of distros since 2021 or so, so you can be sure that your use case was previosly met and solved. costs you nothing to boot e.g. F42 off a USB and try it out (has to be 42 as earlier live sessions default to X11). if you have lots of RAM, add the rd.live.ram switch so it copies the image to RAM and everything is super-snappy for testing and it doesn't touch your SSD.

#NATO threatens #China and #Russia
Didn't the deafening defeat in #Ukraine teach them anything?
Are they that stupid?

youtube.com/watch?v=bU8hdkbMS3…

Don't like Laura, but this is important because using the 1st Amendment as an excuse is what MSM does. The last time I heard it was from The Atlantic, during that mess with Hegseth. One of the Karens said, "My editor has the right to free speech." A few of us were arguing the point. Islamists do, too. It's abused by the left, but we're not allowed the same right.

truthsocial.com/@Angela73/1147…