Month: March 2016

Google’s Project Soli is an effort to design a touch-free user interface for interacting with electronic devices using tiny radars. The company unveiled Project Soli at Google I/O in May, 2015, and now it looks like Google has begun sending development kits to testers. Engineer Alex Bravo has posted a short video showing a system […]

Typing on air with Google’s Project Soli mini-radar is a post from: Liliputing

Late last year several pirated copies of 4K videos started to leak from both Netflix and Amazon. These leaks were unusual as online 4k streams were always well protected against pirates.

While it’s still not clear how these videos were copied, a new lawsuit from Warner Bros. and Intel daughter company Digital Content Protection (DCP) suggests that HDFury devices may be involved.

In January the companies filed a lawsuit at a federal court in New York against the maker of the devices, technology company LegendSky, accusing it of violating the DMCA’s anti-circumvention provisions.

The HDFury devices in question allow users to strip the latest HDCP encryption. This hardware sits between an HDCP-compliant source and a secondary device, allowing it to pass on a “stripped” 4K signal.

This week the Chinese company responded to the allegations (pdf), asking the court to dismiss the lawsuit on the basis that DCP’s claims are ungrounded.

Among other things, the company argues that Warner Bros. and Intel will not be able to prove direct or contributory copyright infringement. Instead, they accuse DCP of copyright abuse to keep its monopoly intact.

“Plaintiffs’ claims are barred […] because of copyright abuse. Plaintiffs’ action against Defendant is an intentionally unlawful attempt to extend the scope of Plaintiffs’ copyright monopolies beyond their legal scope,” LegendSky writes.

The hardware manufacturer states that its products do not violate the DMCA. Instead, they point out that this type of circumvention is specifically permitted as a fair use exception, in order to connect two separate computer programs.

“Plaintiffs’ claims are barred by the doctrine of fair use,” the rebuttal reads.

“In particular, to the extent that Defendants’ products circumvent within the meaning of the DMCA, such circumvention is lawful because it enables interoperability between independently created computer programs with other programs.”

LegendSky further argues that DCP doesn’t have jurisdiction over the Chinese company and in its reply requests that the New York District Court dismisses the complaint.

It’s expected that the content protection outfit will counter LegendSky’s arguments during the weeks to come, as it’s essential for Warner Bros. that 4K copy protection remains strong.

The movie studio previously announced that it will release several dozen 4K Blu-ray movies this year and would rather not see these end up on pirate sites in the best quality possible.

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

Kodi is a cross-platform media center application designed to make your media look good on a TV that’s 10 feet away. Plug your computer into you TV, fire up Kodi, and you get a remote control-friendly user interface for navigating your music, movies, photos, and online media, among other things. But Kodi doesn’t offer just one […]

Kodi media center gets a new look with new default skins for Kodi 17 is a post from: Liliputing

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If you have a smartphone, tablet, or notebook, odds are that it’s got a built-in, front-facing camera that you can use to record videos or make calls over Skype, Google Hangouts, or other video calling services. But odds are also that it’s not very good at those things. The Logitech C920 HD Pro webcam, meanwhile, is […]

Deals of the Day (3-08-2016) is a post from: Liliputing

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Google’s Chromecast sells for $35… so maybe it’s appropriate that a recent report from Strategy Analytics says the inexpensive media streaming device had a 35 percent share of the market last year. According to the research firm’s numbers, 42 million media streaming devices shipped in 2015, and Google shipped more of those devices than any […]

Report: Google’s Chromecast took 35 percent of the media streamer market in 2015 is a post from: Liliputing

First launched more than two years ago, Popcorn Time remains the go to application for many people who want to pirate the latest Hollywood blockbusters and TV-shows.

In response, rightsholders are doing their best to put a halt to its popularity. Late last year the MPAA scored a major victory when it shut down one of the most used forks, but many alternatives remain online.

To counter this threat, Norwegian rightholders called in help from Norway’s police unit and prosecution authority for economic crimes (ØKOKRIM), who today announced that they had seized the Popcorn-Time.no domain name.

Unlike the name suggests, the site didn’t host the application itself but instead posted news articles, as well as links to sites that offered the application. Below is a screenshot of the site in action, which currently displays a notice from the police.

Popcorn-time.no when it was still active

In a public statement the Norwegian police and prosecution unit notes that the domain is believed to be complicit in criminal copyright infringement by linking to third party content.

“The Norwegian domain popcorn-time.no helps electronic publication by linking to other domains where the required software can be downloaded. In addition, the Norwegian popcorn-time.no domain posted information, user manuals and news updates,” the police states.

No one was arrested in association with the site, according to NRK.

The majority of the site’s users came from Norway but overall the site was relatively small. This is also confirmed by the site’s Facebook page, which only generated 102 likes since its launch.

Despite its modest size, police conclude that the domain name seizure is significant as the site contributed to a serious social piracy problem.

“Illegal file sharing of copyright-protected material on the Internet poses a serious social problem. The Norwegian domain popcorn-time.no constituted, in our view, part of a global problem in constant and rapid development.”

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

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