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Submission Summary: 0 pending, 7 declined, 5 accepted (12 total, 41.67% accepted)

Submission + - Trump administrations threatens CNN for reporting on ICE tracking phone app

caseih writes: Gizmodo reports that the Trump Administration is threatening to prosecute CNN for reporting on a popular smartphone app that lets people report sightings of ICE raids. As Gizmodo notes, "It’s not illegal to report on the existence of an app, of course. But Trump and ICE are operating so far outside the bounds of the law that it’s not out of the question that these guys could go after CNN for writing about ICEBlock." Very few US news outlets are saying anything about this story or the app.

Submission + - When Open Becomes Opaque: The Changing Face of Open-Source Hardware Companies (adafruit.com)

caseih writes: A thoughtful post on the Adafruit Blog chronicles the problems facing open-source hardware companies, and how more and more companies, including Sparkfun, Arduino and Prusa, are becoming more and more proprietary. In Arduino's case, they are deliberately trying to stamp out the clones undercutting them. The new Arduino Pro is not open source in any way, and the web site has now removed references to being an open source company.

As always there are subtlies and nuances. In the case of Prusa, not only are Chinese companies taking Prusa designs and source to make proprietary, closed-source products, they are also actively patenting designs and algorithms they've taken from open source.

With Red Hat recently taking a step towards becoming a proprietary software company (which happens to use and work on open source projects) and now these reports, what are slashdotters' thoughts on the future? Are truly open source companies doomed to failure, especially when overseas companies do not respect or even understand the principles of open source development?

Submission + - Damaged US passport chip strands travelers (kdvr.com)

caseih writes: "Damaging the embedded chip in your passport is now grounds for denying you the ability to travel in at least one airport in the US. Though the airport can slide the passport through the little number reader as easily as they can wave it in front of an RFID reader, they chose to deny a young child access to the flight, in essence denying the who family. The child had accidentally sat on his passport, creasing the cover, and the passport appeared worn. The claim has been made that breaking the chip in the passport shows that you disrespect the privilege of owning a passport, and that the airport was justified in denying this child from using the passport."

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