All posts tagged: license

UK High Court ends National Lottery license fight with Allwyn victory

UK High Court ends National Lottery license fight with Allwyn victory

Published by skeptic

The UK High Court has thrown out the legal attack on the award of the fourth National Lottery license, handing an important courtroom win to the Gambling Commission and operator Allwyn. The decision closes, at least for now, one of the longest and most expensive rows linked to one of Britain’s biggest public contracts. Claims brought by The New Lottery Company Limited (TNLC) and Northern & Shell PLC (N&S) against the Gambling Commission in relation to the award of the Fourth National Lottery Licence have been rejected by the High Court. To read more visit our website https://t.co/cO1MeKuxn7 pic.twitter.com/RsSoq684B9 — Gambling Commission (@GamRegGB) April 17, 2026 Richard Desmond’s businesses, Northern & Shell and The New Lottery Company, brought the case after failing to secure the license. They were seeking damages of as much as £1.3 billion ($1.8 billion). Their argument was that serious mistakes were made during the 2022 bidding contest and that later adjustments to the license terms should have forced the regulator to start the process again. The judge, Mrs Justice Smith, rejected …

Finally, a feature that makes my Windows 11 Pro license worth it

Finally, a feature that makes my Windows 11 Pro license worth it

Published by skeptic

Of course I’m a Pro Windows user. Duh. So are you, so is everyone. We are all on that “Pro” license because we’re not just regular home users, right? But what’s the actual difference, aside from the name and the price tag? There are plenty of feature differences between Home and Pro. There’s even a hardware limit — Windows Home doesn’t let you have more than 128GB of RAM. Thankfully, we’re on Pro so we can use our 2TB of RAM. There are plenty of differences, but when it comes to actual daily use, I haven’t felt much of them. BitLocker is fine, but it’s not something I reach for every day. I don’t care much for Group Policy Editor either. However, not too long ago, I came across a feature that’s exclusive to Windows 11 Pro — and for the first time, I’m genuinely glad I’m on it. Related The difference between Windows Home, Pro, Education, and Enterprise Windows editions are built for very different priorities once you look past the names. I’m talking …

State Laws Against Surveillance and License Plate Cams: What Works Best for Your Privacy

State Laws Against Surveillance and License Plate Cams: What Works Best for Your Privacy

Published by skeptic

In my coverage of controversial surveillance company Flock Safety and similar license-plate trackers, such as Motorola’s VehicleManager, I mentioned that one of the most effective steps US readers could take to protect their home and vehicles was to encourage their representatives to pass the right privacy protection laws. That’s even more important now that AI recognition capabilities can instantly recognize a car, a person’s face and other identifying information. That raises a large question: What are the best privacy protection laws? I wanted to provide more details for anyone wondering what to support or what their state is currently doing. One challenge is that every state is different, and there’s no clear guide on what privacy laws work and which have flaws. I spoke to senior policy counsel and lead for American Civil Liberties Union’s surveillance work, Chad Marlow, to find the best examples. These laws are making the biggest difference in our privacy.  “Collective action, rather than individual action, is required,” Marlow told me. “I would caution that while Flock is the most problematic ALPR …

Google releases Gemma 4 under Apache 2.0 — and that license change may matter more than benchmarks

Google releases Gemma 4 under Apache 2.0 — and that license change may matter more than benchmarks

Published by skeptic

For the past two years, enterprises evaluating open-weight models have faced an awkward trade-off. Google’s Gemma line consistently delivered strong performance, but its custom license — with usage restrictions and terms Google could update at will — pushed many teams toward Mistral or Alibaba’s Qwen instead. Legal review added friction. Compliance teams flagged edge cases. And capable as Gemma 3 was, “open” with asterisks isn’t the same as open. Gemma 4 eliminates that friction entirely. Google DeepMind’s newest open model family ships under a standard Apache 2.0 license — the same permissive terms used by Qwen, Mistral, Arcee, and most of the open-weight ecosystem. No custom clauses, no “Harmful Use” carve-outs that required legal interpretation, no restrictions on redistribution or commercial deployment. For enterprise teams that had been waiting for Google to play on the same licensing terms as the rest of the field, the wait is over. The timing is notable. As some Chinese AI labs (most notably Alibaba’s latest Qwen models, Qwen3.5 Omni and Qwen 3.6 Plus) have begun pulling back from fully …

“Demand For Critical Isotopes Rising, Supply Limited”: Oklo Lands First NRC License & Another DOE Milestone

“Demand For Critical Isotopes Rising, Supply Limited”: Oklo Lands First NRC License & Another DOE Milestone

Published by Jenni Sidey

In a double dose of regulatory green lights delivered on the same day, Oklo and its wholly owned subsidiary Atomic Alchemy just notched two meaningful milestones that underscore America’s push to reclaim control over critical nuclear supply chains. *Oklo Announces DOE Approval for Nuclear Safety Design Agreement of Aurora Powerhouse at Idaho National Laboratory — zerohedge (@zerohedge) March 17, 2026 The news sent the stock flying in early morning trading.  What happened? First, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued Atomic Alchemy its inaugural materials license. The permit authorizes the company to receive, possess, process, repackage, and distribute up to 2 curies of radium-226 (material currently treated as waste) along with sealed sources of cobalt-60 and americium-241 for calibration. Operations will kick off at Atomic Alchemy’s Idaho Radiochemistry Laboratory in Idaho Falls, paving the way for initial commercial sales of recovered isotopes used in cancer therapies, medical research, advanced manufacturing, and national security applications. Oklo CEO Jacob DeWitte said, “Demand for critical isotopes is rising, but U.S. supply remains limited. This work helps create a more …

“There are no good options”: Kansas’ new driver license law puts transgender Kansans in a bind

“There are no good options”: Kansas’ new driver license law puts transgender Kansans in a bind

Published by Sam Flores

Transgender people in Kansas have been placed in a tight spot by a controversial new law. Republican state legislators passed a law invalidating driver’s licenses and birth certificates that had been changed to reflect a preferred gender in February. The law, currently facing a lawsuit from trans Kansans represented by the ACLU, invalidated nearly 2,000 licenses in the state and made it illegal for transgender individuals to use restrooms aligned with their gender identity on government property. ACLU attorney Harper Seldin told Salon that the law left transgender Kansans with “no good options.” “This law is putting people in an impossible position,” he said. The plaintiffs requested a temporary restraining order to bar the law from taking effect while challenges make their way through the courts. That request was denied by Douglas County District Judge James McCabria last week. In his six-page ruling, McCabria said the plaintiffs had failed to provided evidence of harm should the law take effect. “The conclusion became self-evident — this Court simply does not have the information the law requires to …

Democrats blast FCC Chair Carr’s broadcast license threats as anti-First Amendment, ‘totalitarian’

Democrats blast FCC Chair Carr’s broadcast license threats as anti-First Amendment, ‘totalitarian’

Published by Sam Flores

Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr has drawn fierce backlash from Democratic lawmakers and free speech advocates for threatening to revoke broadcasters’ licenses over their coverage of the war in Iran. Carr on Saturday blasted broadcasters shortly after President Donald Trump called reports that Iran struck five U.S. tanker planes “fake news.”  In a post on X, Carr warned that broadcasters will lose their licenses if they don’t “operate in the public interest.” “Broadcasters that are running hoaxes and news distortions – also known as the fake news – have a chance now to correct course before their license renewals come up,” Carr wrote in the post, which attached Trump’s statement on Truth Social earlier Saturday.  Democrats said Carr’s comments amounted to an authoritarian assault on free speech. “Constitutional law 101: it’s illegal for the government to censor free speech it just doesn’t like about Trump’s Iran war,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., wrote Saturday on X. “This threat is straight out of the authoritarian playbook.” “We aren’t on the verge of a totalitarian takeover,” Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., wrote in a …

META Delays AI Rollout Because It Sucks, May License Gemini; Musk Reboots xAI ‘From The Foundations Up’

META Delays AI Rollout Because It Sucks, May License Gemini; Musk Reboots xAI ‘From The Foundations Up’

Published by Jenni Sidey

Mark Zuckerberg bet the farm on AI supremacy, and this year’s crop is infested with bugs. According to a new report, Meta has quietly pushed back the launch of its next-generation foundational AI model, internally code-named Avocado, from this month until at least May. The reason? Internal tests showed it underperforming on key benchmarks for reasoning, coding, and writing – trailing rivals like Google’s Gemini 3.0, even as it beat Meta’s own prior efforts and older Google models. The model, code-named Avocado, outperformed Meta’s previous A.I. model and did better than Google’s Gemini 2.5 model from March, two of the people said. But it has not performed as strongly as Gemini 3.0 from November, they said. -NYT This delay arrives after Zuckerberg has poured unprecedented resources into the race. Meta is guiding for $115–135 billion in capital expenditures this year alone – nearly double last year’s spend – with the overwhelming majority earmarked for AI data centers, compute clusters, and infrastructure. The company has also signaled longer-term commitments approaching $600 billion in U.S. investments, plus a …

Artistic License | Ingrid D. Rowland

Artistic License | Ingrid D. Rowland

Published by José Betancourt

The Basilica of San Lorenzo in Lucina is one of Rome’s oldest churches, founded, according to tradition, in the mid-fourth century. Excavations beneath the present floor level have revealed the ruins of an ancient Roman house, presumably that of Lucina, the Roman matron who donated her property to the newly legal Christian cause. A well in the ancient courtyard still produces clear water that reputedly has healing effects for the sick. The water’s effect on buildings is less beneficial; seepage has plagued the church for its entire history. In the seventeenth century San Lorenzo, strategically located between the great aristocratic palazzi around the Pantheon and the seedy artists’ quarter to the north called Four Corners (demolished by Mussolini), provided a showcase for the artistic giants of Baroque Rome, including Gian Lorenzo Bernini, the “divine” Guido Reni (who painted the high altarpiece), Carlo Saraceni, Simon Vouet, and the architect Giuseppe Sardi. Nicolas Poussin is buried there, among many illustrious others. In 1650 San Lorenzo’s original late antique interior was entirely remodeled in the Baroque style by …

New California bill to require license plates for electric bikes

New California bill to require license plates for electric bikes

Published by skeptic

A newly introduced bill in California could dramatically change how electric bikes are treated under state law – and it may put license plates on most e-bikes. Assembly Bill 1942, introduced by Assemblywoman Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, would require all Class 2 and Class 3 electric bicycles to be registered with the California Department of Motor Vehicles and to display a special license plate issued by the DMV. Under current California law, e-bikes are divided into three classes: Class 1 (pedal assist up to 20 mph or 32 km/h), Class 2 (throttle-equipped up to 20 mph or 32 km/h), and Class 3 (pedal assist up to 28 mph or 45 km/h). These classifications, established nearly a decade ago, were specifically designed to treat e-bikes more like bicycles than motor vehicles. That means no registration, no insurance, and no license plates – one of the key reasons e-bikes have become such an accessible alternative to driving. They’re as hassle-free as a bicycle while being easier to ride. AB 1942 would change that for Class 2 and Class 3 …