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From ineffective anti-piracy efforts to wanting more of it, read the news roundup for the week ending 3 April 2016
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From ineffective anti-piracy efforts to wanting more of it, read the news roundup for the week ending 3 April 2016
A new study shows that 28% of piracy takedown requests submitted to Google may be questionable at best.The study by researches at Columbia University’s American Assembly and Berkeley’s School of Law looked at more than 108 million takedown re…
A new study shows that 28% of piracy takedown requests submitted to Google may be questionable at best.
The study by researches at Columbia University's American Assembly and Berkeley's School of Law looked at more than 108 million takedown requests submitted to the search engine, and found that a large percentage of these may be invalid.
4.2% of these requests targeted content that wasn't even present on the listed URLs, while another 24% raised issues about the request's validity, including in relation to fair use.
Some also targeted websites that no longer existed, such as the now shuttered Megaupload.com.
Rights-holders themselves usually aren't involved in the actual process of locating infringing links. Instead, they outsource the job to companies that specialize in anti-piracy activities. These companies will normally use automated scripts to scour the web for potentially infringing links, but these automated "bots" are prone to false positives.
Worse yet, when these links are submitted to Google, Google's uses their own bots to determine the validity of the request, meaning the entire process could be devoid of human intervention and verification. The researchers also say Google, like many other service providers, takes a cautions approach when it comes to removal requests and often over removes content just to protect themselves legally.
This, the researchers say, is why calls for a "take down, stay down" regime are potentially very dangerous, with many legitimate sites likely to be wrongly targeted.
Blue already proved it could land. Now it’s showing it can rinse and repeat.
Engineers work on a New Shepard capsule in March inside Blue Origin's rocket factory near Seattle. (credit: Blue Origin)
Today marks the third time in just over four months that Blue Origin has successfully launched and landed its New Shepard spacecraft and propulsion module. The launch and landing took place in a remote area of West Texas and is a significant step for a company that wants to dramatically cut the cost of access to space.
Before last November, when New Shepard made its historic first flight, it was unclear how difficult it would be to land a rocket vertically on the ground after sending it into space. But then Blue Origin did it. A month later SpaceX performed the same feat with its Falcon 9, a much larger and more powerful booster that had just delivered a payload into orbit.
That led to the next hurdle: could rockets be refurbished quickly and relatively inexpensively for subsequent flights? This was a stumbling block for the space shuttle, which required hundreds of millions of dollars in engine tests and retrofitting after every flight. Blue Origin has begun jumping this hurdle too. First, it flew the New Shepard module again in January, a turn-around time of about two months.
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After iPhone unlock in San Bernardino, FBI re-assures police it will try to help.
(credit: Cliff1066™)
In a new two-paragraph letter to state and local law enforcement partners, the FBI reiterated its commitment to helping those agencies unlock seized encrypted devices.
The letter was first reported Friday evening and published by BuzzFeedbefore being sent to Ars and presumably other media outlets.
Earlier this week, government prosecutors formally asked a federal judge in California to cancel her prior order that would have compelled Apple to assist efforts to unlock a seized iPhone linked to the San Bernardino attacks in late 2015. US Magistrate Judge Sheri Pym did so on March 29.
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A recent study commissioned by Hollywood shows that with 120 legal online services, movies and TV-shows are more accessible than ever before. Unfortunately, however, content remains scattered and the dominant streaming service Netflix doesn’t have any of the best picture Oscar winners of this century in its U.S. catalog.
Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.
An often heard excuse from pirates is that they can’t find the content they’re looking for in their home country, at least not for a decent price.
In recent months Hollywood has started to attack what they see as a myth, pointing out that movies and TV-shows are more widely available than ever before.
“The number of online platforms for legally viewing movies and TV shows continues to grow steadily, making more creative content from all over the world available to more audiences than ever before,” the MPAA’s Julia Jenks wrote last week.
“There are now more than 480 unique legitimate online services available in countries around the world and 120 such services available in the United States.”
This is correct and backed up by a recent MPAA-commissioned study. But there’s also an important element missing from the analysis. Unlike the music industry, where subscription services such as Spotify offer the most popular content, the video market is much more scattered.
Perhaps the public doesn’t want to use dozens of different services to watch movies and TV-shows?
And what about the news that the content library of the dominant video platform Netflix is shrinking rather than growing? Earlier this week Allflix showed that the U.S. Netflix catalog has shrunk by more than 2,500 titles since 2014.
This prompted us to conduct a small survey, looking at some of the top movies made over the past two decades – the winners of the Academy Award’s Best Picture category. Quite surprisingly, none of the films that won the prestigious award this millennium are available on the U.S. version of Netflix.
We have to go all the way back to 1999 to spot the first Best Picture Oscar winner on Netflix, American Beauty.
Interestingly, many of the more recent Oscar winners are available in other regions, such as Afghanistan, Antarctica, Aruba, Canada, Guyana, Haiti and Venezuela, to name a few.
As can be seen in the table below, the only Best Picture-winning film that’s not on a non-U.S. version of Netflix is Spotlight, which makes sense as it hasn’t been released for the home-entertainment market yet.
| Year | Movie | Available US? | Available elsewhere? |
|---|---|---|---|
| torrentfreak.com | |||
| 2015 | Spotlight | No | No |
| 2014 | Birdman | No | Yes, Canada |
| 2013 | 12 Years a Slave | No | Yes, Japan and South Korea |
| 2012 | Argo | No | Yes, Afghanistan and 115 others |
| 2011 | The Artist | No | Yes, Aruba and 10 others |
| 2010 | The King’s Speech | No | Yes, Venezuela and 51 others |
| 2009 | The Hurt Locker | No | Yes, Cuba and 58 others |
| 2008 | Slumdog Millionaire | No | Yes, Samoa and 23 others |
| 2007 | No Country for Old Men | No | Yes, Guyana and 58 others |
| 2006 | The Departed | No | Yes, Antarctica and 34 others |
| 2005 | Crash | No | Yes, Suriname and 45 others |
| 2004 | Million Dollar Baby | No | Yes, Holy See and 3 others |
| 2003 | The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King | No | Yes, Azerbaijan and 131 others |
| 2002 | Chicago | No | Yes, Haiti and 45 others |
| 2001 | A Beautiful Mind | No | Yes, Norfolk Island and 21 others |
| 2000 | Gladiator | No | Yes, Montserrat and 45 others |
| 1999 | American Beauty | Yes | Yes, Bhutan and 210 others |
| 1998 | Shakespeare in Love | Yes | Yes, Puerto Rico and 6 others |
| 1997 | Titanic | No | Yes, Canada |
| 1996 | The English Patient | Yes | Yes, Martinique and 52 others |
The Oscar-winner limitations don’t seem to be tied to the Best Picture category either. Of the twelve films that won an Oscar in 2013, only two are listed in the U.S. Netflix library.
The two films are “The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life,” which won an Oscar for the best short documentary, and “The Great Gatsby” which won the Oscars for best costume and best production design.
We can’t and won’t point any fingers as to the source of this availability “problem.” It might be that the studios are reluctant to put their most acclaimed titles on Netflix, or perhaps Netflix isn’t willing to pay enough.
However, the above does illustrate that in its current form, Netflix alone is certainly not going solve Hollywood’s piracy problems. This is an important note, as Netflix is by far the most popular consumption platform for films and TV-shows.
Ultimately, it doesn’t really matter whether there are 12 or 12,000 legal video platforms in a country. More services may actually mean that it becomes less convenient for consumers, as long as the content is scattered.
Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.
Op-ed: Brief moratorium needed on calls for new spying laws after atrocities.
I am in Brussels. And I am scared. Very scared… of the probable security backlash following last month’s terrorist attacks.
I don’t want to live in a city where everyone is viewed with suspicion by the authorities, because it won’t stop there. Because suspicion is infectious. When misappropriated and misdirected, that sort of suspicion can very easily become racism and prejudice—two of the key ingredients that led the awful attacks on the morning of Tuesday, March 22.
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Molecular marker could help treat and prevent brain damage.
(credit: PackInsider)
A barely bruised brain can send out molecular SOS signals in the blood for days after an injury, researchers report this week in JAMA Neurology.
The finding suggests that new blood tests, already in development to detect those signals, may be able to identify even the mildest concussions well after a knock to the head.
“It is common for patients who have had a concussion or mild [traumatic brain injury] not to seek immediate medical attention,” the authors write. Kids, in particular, might have delayed or mild symptoms and go without treatment right away. Letting a concussion go undiagnosed may mean returning to work or school too soon, thwarting the brain's efforts to heal. This can lead to dizziness, memory loss, depression, and headaches. And if a patient returns to play or sports too quickly, further hits to the head could lead to more severe or even permanent damage.
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The company’s openness suggests confidence in the its vehicles.
Jeff Bezos stands next to a nozzle of a BE-4 engine in his Blue Origin rocket factory. (credit: Eric Berger)
For more than a decade Jeff Bezos kept his Blue Origin rocket company under a shroud. Engineers worked away at four versions of engines in a rocket factory near Seattle, and then tested those machines in a remote area of West Texas. All the while the spaceflight industry wondered what Bezos and his billions were up to.
In November the plan became more clear when Blue Origin pulled off the remarkable feat of flying its New Shepard space vehicle to 100.5km and then returning it successfully to the ground near its West Texas launch site. It then re-flew the booster.
After these successes Bezos began to open up Blue Origin a little bit. In March he invited Ars and a handful of other media outlets for an unprecedented tour of the Washington state-based rocket factory, and talked expansively about the company's plans. His philosophy about secrecy, he said, was that he didn't want to make unwarranted claims about Blue Origin's capabilities until they could be demonstrated.
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Ars Cardboard looks at the popular kinda-cooperative zombie game.
Welcome to Ars Cardboard, our weekend look at tabletop games! Check out our complete board gaming coverage right here—and let us know what you think.
When the zombie apocalypse inevitably comes, I sure hope I’m not stuck in the small town that’s the setting for Dead of Winter. Because boy, are those people just plain screwed. Traversing the hostile wasteland in the vain hope of scavenging supplies, fending off the never-ending onslaught of the undead—the end of the world is rough enough without a bunch of backstabbing friends making things harder.
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With a month left on tour, Ars talks to producer Brady Beaubien about Star Trek‘s legacy.
Star Trek: The Ultimate Voyage
3 more images in gallery
Back in January, a production group called CineConcerts launched a commemoration to science fiction’s greatest 50-year-old franchise, Star Trek. CineConcerts has been around for a while, pairing visual media from film and TV with a live symphony orchestra to allow concert goers to experience well-known scenes from their favorite shows with a more music-forward approach. With the Star Trek franchise, CineConcerts will play some of the series’ best-known musical themes. And the group will project montages from well-known parts of Star Trek movies and TV shows or individual scenes from the TV shows on a big-screen timed precisely to specific musical cues.
The tour has a little over a month left in its run and a couple dozen more cities to hit, including Los Angeles, Rapid City, South Dakota, and Paris, France. Before the commemoration draws to a close, Ars caught up with Brady Beaubien, a producer and writer for the Star Trek concert tour (called "The Ultimate Voyage"). Beaubien is also a co-founder of the CineConcerts group, which has produced similar live symphony orchestra concerts focusing on films like Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Gladiator, The Godfather, It’s A Wonderful Life, and A Christmas Dream.
Beaubien said he was attracted to the Star Trek project because he grew up watching The Next Generation. "I’ve always been a huge Star Trek fan. It’s had a profound affect on my intellectual development and enhanced my traditional education,” he told Ars. “When we started talking to Paramount about creating a special experience [to celebrate Star Trek’s 50th anniversary], this seemed like a wonderful way to give people a new way to experience it. It seemed like the model that we had developed with CineConcerts was uniquely suited [to the franchise].”
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