Month: April 2016

Die Vectoring-Technologie der Deutschen Telekom ist umstritten. Nachdem die Bundesnetzagentur das Unternehmen unterstützt, warnt der Verbraucherschutzminister von Baden-Württemberg jetzt vor der Technologie. Sie "schade" dem Wirtschaftsstandort Deutschland. (Vectoring, DSL)

For many digital pirates the Internet is a playground, a place where they can do as they please without fear of retribution. While that assertion has become less valid as the years have progressed, acts of sharing defiance are still commonplace.

With the ‘War on Sharing’ apparently impossible to win by force alone, various educational campaigns have been launched by the entertainment industries in the hope that pirates and would-be pirates will eventually see the error of their ways.

In the UK one such project from Creative Content UK is known as Get it Right From a Genuine Site. While yet to achieve significant mainstream exposure, the overall campaign is head and shoulders above the offensive and aggressive campaigns of years gone by.

Whether the millions being spent by the government will have the desired effect is unknown at this point, but those behind the campaign have already taken measures to ensure that it doesn’t get sabotaged.

UK music group BPI owns the GetitRightFromaGenuineSite.org domain but to be doubly sure there are no imposters the group has also bagged at least 17 others, including the .audio, .band, .biz, .com, .digital, .email, .foundation and .net variants.

TF discovered these domains while trawling through WHOIS records this week but it was more of a surprise to see that the BPI had also grabbed a bunch of ‘pirate’ versions too. As can be seen below, the BPI has secured the opportunity for people to GetitRightFromaPirateSite too.

Of course, the chances of the BPI turning its hand to torrent and streaming site promotion are somewhat slim so there must be an alternative reason for it securing not only this .com variant but also many, many more.

We spoke to the music group who confirmed that their intention was indeed preventing abuse of the ‘Get it Right’ campaign.

“It’s standard practice to adopt in respect of brands or major campaigns or initiatives,” a BPI spokesperson said.

“It gives options should alternatives ever be required and also helps to reduce possible abuse.”

The BPI’s strategy here is pretty sound as this kind of thing has happened in the past.

Perhaps most famously, aggressive Swedish anti-piracy outfit and Pirate Bay nemesis Antipiratbyran (Anti-Piracy Agency) was countered by equally notorious piracy activist group Piratbyran (Piracy Agency) whose website remains operational to this day.

But while a notional threat of sabotage remains in 2016, it seems much less likely today than it did several years ago. It’s true that millions of people are currently sharing content every day but the stunts carried out by activists during file-sharing’s golden years have largely disappeared.

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

Die zweite gelungene Landung der Falcon 9, diesmal auf dem Meer, zeigt, dass die Wiederverwendung von Raketen ein Teil der Zukunft der Raumfahrt sein wird. (SpaceX, Internet)

In Zusammenarbeit mit Wordpress wird Let's Encrypt alle dort gehosteten Seiten mit einem SSL-Zertifikat ausstatten. Ein Problem mit Windows-XP-Nutzern wurde zwischenzeitlich behoben. (Let's Encrypt, Firefox)

Mehr als 200.000 Briefkastenfirmen in Panama sind in dieser Woche aufgeflogen. Wir sind mit HTCs Vive durch Höhlen gekrochen und mit Microsofts Hololens auf dem Mars gewesen. Sieben Tage und viele Meldungen im Überblick. (Golem-Wochenrückblick, Internet)

In the latest non binding interpretation of EU copyright law, as advised by European Court of Justice's advocate general, linking to pirated content in itself may not constitute copyright infringement.

Making an advisory opinion in case involving Dutch website GeenStijl.nl and Playboy, EU Advocate General Melchior Wathelet says that linking to pirated works, even directly linking to it, is not necessarily the same as "making them available".

The case involves the linking to of pictures taken originally by Playboy and published without authorization on a third party website. GeenStijl.nl linked to these, although the site did not directly host or upload them.

While Wathelet does agree that such linking would be helping users to find pirated content, to "facilitate their discovery", such linking cannot be considered copyright infringement because the content is already available publicly, with or without intervention from GeenStijl.nl.

"... hyperlinks which lead, even directly, to protected works are not 'making them available' to the public when they are already freely accessible on another website, and only serve to facilitate their discovery," the advisory reads.

"The actual act of 'making available' is the action of the person who effected the initial communication. Consequently, hyperlinks which are placed on a website and which link to protected works that are freely accessible on another site cannot be classified as an 'act of communication' within the meaning of the Directive."

The Court was also at pains to note that the advisory opinion only affects this particular case, and that the nature and main purpose of the website (that is, whether the site's main purpose is to provide pirated content) will need to be taken into affect when considering the legal status of the hyperlinking.

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There are two types of virtual reality headsets on the market these days: expensive accessories for a PC or game console, like the HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, and upcoming PlayStation VR, and cheap headsets that let you strap a phone to your face to experience VR on your phone screen. But we’re starting to see […]

DeePoon M2 VR headset doesn’t require a phone or a PC is a post from: Liliputing

An Asus notebook with a display that flips 360 degrees for use in tablet mode showed up this week at the FCC website. According to the FCC label, this system is called the Asus Q304U, although the user manual refers to it as the E11208. It’s possible that those could just be different names for […]

Asus Q304U convertible notebook hits the FCC is a post from: Liliputing