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Verdi versucht, Amazon mit Streiks im Weihnachtsgeschäft unter Druck zu setzen. Zudem ging die Gewerkschaft gerichtlich gegen Sonntagsarbeit in Leipzig vor - mit Erfolg. (Amazon, Internet)

Durch Kernfusion mit Helium-3 vom Mond und Asteroiden sollen die Energieprobleme auf der Erde gelöst werden. Die Reaktortechnik ist dabei das kleinste Problem. (Kernfusion)

When long-time software pirate Jakub F was tracked down by the Business Software Alliance, things were looking bleak.

After years of illegally sharing titles including Microsoft’s Windows, the Czech national faced a police raid at his workplace and the confiscation of a computer and related equipment. And that was only the beginning.

As previously reported, Jakub ended up with a three-year suspended sentence and the possibility of getting sued for more money than he could pay in a lifetime.

However, with little chance of collecting such a huge amount, the BSA made Jakub an offer he couldn’t refuse. Make an anti-piracy ad, reach 200,000 YouTube views, and get away with a financial slap on the wrist.

The deal was done and after a slow start the video suddenly went viral. At the time of writing and against the odds, it now has in excess of one million views.

While Jakub might look sombre in the image above, the (presumably) former pirate must be delighted at achieving his target. Two hundred thousand views was a pretty big ask and he must’ve wondered whether it would be possible. But once news began to spread, people seemed more than happy to help.

At the time though, many (myself included) dismissed Jakub’s video as propaganda. It was, after all, a pirate being paraded in public, humiliated even, for the pleasure of corporate giants. But the more one thinks about it, hasn’t this turned out well for everyone?

After keeping up his side of the bargain, the BSA is finally off Jakub’s back and he can relax, free from the worries of financial ruination. Suspended sentence aside, that’s the best result he could’ve hoped for.

The BSA got what they wanted too. Getting a million views and a viral story for an anti-piracy ad is a really spectacular achievement that nothing has come close to matching in recent years. The UK’s Creative Content campaign, for example, has a lot of backing yet its video has only clocked up 123,000 views since October.

But there are other winners too. The campaign, whatever people thought of it, became a huge talking point for a few days, sparking interest in the whole copyright debate. Did Jakub get what he deserved? Did the BSA go too far? Where can I download Jakub’s stuff? Yes, there was some of that too.

Overwhelmingly though, people seem to come out in support of Jakub, the little guy getting picked on by bullies. While each YouTube click might indeed represent a win for the BSA, each view could also be viewed as an Internet upvote for a desperate man down on his luck. And with Adblock turned on, as some vowed, the BSA wouldn’t get a penny.

Nevertheless, to appreciate the true value of the video one needs to view it through forgiving eyes. While some may disagree, I believe that while a dramatized version of events, the video was a pretty realistic depiction of what can happen to some Internet pirates. They do get tracked, they do get raided, they do face prosecution, fines, damages and God knows what else.

In that respect the BSA video is not only cautionary, but educational. It’s intended as a scare piece, no doubt about that, but for many it will function as a useful and helpful reminder that any prolific sharer is in danger of being singled out online if precautions aren’t being taken. Clearly, some people need reminding.

In this instance everyone gained something from the experience and Jakub got off extremely lightly indeed. If you still have doubts, tune in tomorrow for a really shocking story about several young men teetering on the brink of having their lives changed forever. This BSA deal will look like a walk in the park in comparison and no will come out a winner.

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

The PS4 has beaten the Xbox One in sales in November, for the lucrative US market, according to Sony. Sony made the announcement ahead of the official NPD report for the US market, due out next week.

This is a major coup for Sony, as Microsoft's "greatest gaming line-up ever" strategy failed to allow it to claim victory for the very important month of November (which also includes the Black Friday sales), a month that the Xbox One won last year.

For this year's Black Friday sales event, both Sony and Microsoft discounted their flagship consoles to only $300 (an offer that has now been extended by both companies until the end of the holiday shopping season). This price parity meant that Microsoft's sole advantage was its "greatest" gaming line-up, which includes exclusives such as Halo 5, as well as new games in the Forza, Gears of War and Assassin’s Creed series. In an indirect way, the Xbox One's new Xbox 360 backwards compatibility feature for selected 360 games, also helped Microsoft puff up its gaming line-up for November.

Both companies released statements stating that November had been the best November ever for both consoles, suggesting that sales of both consoles are growing strongly.

While it's still possible that the Xbox One actually had the better Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales, it appears that for the entire November at least, Sony's console, which many gamers considers to be superior in performance to the Xbox One, was the one that had the "greatest" month.

The Tronsmart Orion R68 is a Android 5.1 box that lets you run Android apps on a TV. When it launched this summer it was one of the first TV boxes to feature Rockchip’s RK3368 64-bit octa-core processor, so the folks at Geekbuying sent me a demo unit to review. I never got around to it. […]

Tronsmart Orion R68 Android media streamer giveaway is a post from: Liliputing

About a month after Microsoft announced plans to drop the amount of free cloud storage it offered users of its OneDrive service, the company is throwing a lifeline to existing users. Starting early next year anyone that signs up for OneDrive will only get 5GB of free storage instead of the 15GB Microsoft currently offers. […]

Microsoft OneDrive users can opt-in to keep their free 15GB of storage space is a post from: Liliputing

IT-Fachkräfte verdienen in Frankfurt am Main mit 66.520 Euro am besten. In anderen deutschen Städten, vor allem im Süden, wird aber ähnlich viel gezahlt. (Studie, IT-Jobs)

Eine Million Grad heiß ist es in dieser Woche in der Fusionsanlage Wendelstein 7-X geworden - und wir waren ganz nah dran. Und Axel Springer hat nach einem Erfolg vor Gericht einem Youtuber mit Klage gedroht. Sieben Tage und viele Meldungen im Überblick. (Golem-Wochenrückblick, Internet)

Microsoft introduces a brand new web browser with Windows 10. The Edge browser is fast, has a simple user interface, and support for some unusual features, such as writing “web notes” on the pages you visit. But one thing Edge doesn’t support? Third-party extensions. Microsoft has said it’s working on adding support for extensions that […]

Lilbit 313: Extensions coming soon to Microsoft Edge web browser is a post from: Liliputing

During the summer of 2014 LionsGate suffered a major setback when a high quality leak of the then unreleased Expendables 3 film appeared online.

Fearing a massive loss in revenue the movie studio sued the operators of several websites that allegedly failed to remove the infringing files.

Over the past year there has been little progress in the case as most of the accused site operators failed to respond to LionsGate’s complaint.

In a new filing at the California district court LionsGate indicates a desire to move forward by asking for a default judgment (pdf) against the operators of LimeTorrents and the defunct Dotsemper and Swankshare sites.

While the sites have nothing to do with the original leak, they allegedly failed to respond to a slew of takedown requests sent by the movie studio in the days after the film leaked.

According to the court papers LimeTorrents is operated by Javed Ashraf, who like the other two operators is not based in the United States.

“Prior to filing this lawsuit Lions Gate sent multiple demand letters to Defendant Ashraf demanding that he immediately cease his infringement but received no response, and the infringement did not stop,” the studio writes.

This inaction contributed to the millions of pirated downloads that occurred before the film officially premiered, LionsGate argues, accusing the defendants of causing “substantial and irreparable damage.”

The movie studio is now asking the court to issue a default judgment preventing the site operators from offering or linking to pirated copies of The Expendables 3.

In addition, LionsGate demands the maximum $150,000 statutory damages for willful copyright infringement from each of them, as well as compensation for attorney fees and additional costs.

Previously LionsGate settled with the operator of video hosting service Played.to. Without the other defendants showing up in court, it is also expected to win this case easily.

Whether the accused site operators will actually cough up the money is another matter.

At the time of writing both Swankshare and Dotsemper are offline, and have been for a while. LimeTorrents and TorrentDownload.biz remain operational though.

In fact, while LimeTorrents blocked the “Expendables 3″ term from its search results, there are still hundreds of individual torrent download pages available that link to the film.

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