Month: June 2016

Die Zukunft der Fliegerei werde elektrisch, sagt Nasa-Chef Charles Bolden. Die US-Raumfahrtbehörde baut derzeit ein Elektroflugzeug mit vielen Propellern. Es könnte in absehbarer Zeit fliegen. (Flugzeug, Technologie)

Neue Gerüchte, vor allem aber ein Interview mit Playstation-Chef Andrew House weisen darauf hin, dass die Playstation 4 Neo noch 2016 auf den Markt kommt. Wahrscheinlich gibt es einen einfachen Grund, warum Sony das bislang nicht offiziell ankündigt. (Playstation 4, Sony)

Ransomware kommt neuerdings im Paket: Die RAA-Schadsoftware ist komplett in Javascript geschrieben und installiert zusätzlich einen Passworttrojaner. Das Erpressergeld wurde an den hohen Bitcoin-Kurs angepasst. (Ransomware, Virus)

Der VLC Media Player bekommt Unterstützung für Googles Chromecast. Eine erste Vorabversion des Media Players mit der neuen Funktion ist verfügbar, allerdings funktioniert sie bisher nur bruchstückhaft. (VLC, Applikationen)

Acting on intelligence provided by the UK’s Federation Against Copyright Theft, police in Northern Ireland raided a Londonderry home in May 2011.

Police were looking for evidence relating to streaming links site FastPassTV and discussion and linking forum BedroomMedia. FACT believed that the brains behind the operation was local man Paul Mahoney. He was arrested and police seized equipment and cash totaling £83,000.

Like many cases of this type, passage through the legal system was glacial and it took until February 2015 for Mahoney to be charged. At first he pleaded not guilty but that wouldn’t last.

In June 2015 the 30-year-old pleaded guilty to all four charges against him including allowing the public to view copyrighted movies without rightsholder permission, conspiracy, and generating up to £300,000 in advertising revenue.

Prosecutors initially argued that Mahoney had cost the movie industry around £120 million but that was eventually brought down to a large, although more reasonable, £12 million.

In September 2015, Mahoney was found guilty and was sentenced to four years in prison, two of which to be spent on license. However, with such a long sentence it was always likely that Mahoney would appeal the decision. That process is now complete and it’s bad news for the 30-year-old.

Lord Chief Justice Sir Declan Morgan, Northern Ireland’s most senior judge, presided over the appeal. He was unsympathetic to Mahoney’s arguments.

“On any view this was a case of very significant harm,” he said.

An aggravating factor were the actions taken by Mahoney since 2007 to avoid having his sites closed down. Sir Declan noted that cease-and-desist notices issued by FACT were ignored and despite police arresting Mahoney twice, he still continued.

“The website was clearly professionally structured and he retained staff to assist him with this,” the judge said.

“He was the driving force behind the criminal behaviour.”

At his earlier trial, Mahoney’s health issues including partial blindness and reclusive behavior were presented as mitigating factors. He never intended to get rich, his lawyer argued, it was a hobby that got out of control.

“There were no Rolex watches, no Ferraris outside and no evidence of an extravagant lifestyle. This enterprise took on a life of its own and became far more successful than this defendant ever envisaged,” he said.

Dismissing Mahoney’s appeal, the judge found that the mitigating factors had already been taken into consideration when the original sentence was handed down. He also said that Mahoney’s chance for a lighter sentence came and went when he failed to cooperate during initial interview and failed to plead guilty at the earliest opportunity.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.

Erstmals ist ein Testflug der New Shepard live im Internet gestreamt worden. Die Rakete soll wohlhabenden Weltraumtouristen wenige Minuten Schwerelosigkeit bieten. (Jeff Bezos, Raumfahrt)

This week we have three newcomers in our chart.

Warcraft is the most downloaded movie.

The data for our weekly download chart is estimated by TorrentFreak, and is for informational and educational reference only. All the movies in the list are BD/DVDrips unless stated otherwise.

RSS feed for the weekly movie download chart.

Ranking	(last week)	Movie	IMDb Rating / Trailer
torrentfreak.com
1	(2)	Warcraft	7.7 / trailer
2	(…)	The Huntsman: Winter’s War	6.2 / trailer
3	(1)	X-Men: Apocalypse (HDCam/TC)	7.7 / trailer
4	(…)	Whiskey Tango Foxtrot	6.8 / trailer
5	(3)	Eye In The Sky	7.6 / trailer
6	(4)	Zootopia	8.3 / trailer
7	(7)	London Has Fallen	5.9 / trailer
8	(6)	13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi	7.4 / trailer
9	(…)	The Last Heist	3.7 / trailer
10	(5)	Midnight Special	6.9 / trailer

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.

Die Top-500-Liste der schnellsten Supercomputer hat einen neuen Spitzenreiter: Der Sunway Taihu Light stammt aus China und nutzt CPUs aus eigener Entwicklung statt US-amerikanische von Intel. (Supercomputer, Computer)

Der Schauspieler Anton Yelchin, dessen bekannteste Rolle wohl die des Navigators Pavel Chekov in den modernen Star-Trek-Kinofilmen war, ist tot. Er starb im Alter von 27 Jahren an den Folgen eines Verkehrsunfalls. (Star Trek)

Das Unicode-Konsortium hat sich entschlossen, bei den neuen Emoji-Symbolen eine Änderung vorzunehmen, nachdem Apple seinen Einfluss geltend gemacht hat. Ein Gewehr-Emoji wird es nicht geben, genauso wenig wie eines für den modernen Fünfkampf. (Apple, IBM)