Month: May 2016

Schnelles Abbremsen vor der Radarfalle soll Autofahrer bald nicht mehr vor Bußgeldern schützen. Mit Section Control kann auf einer Strecke gemessen werden, ob der Fahrer im Durchschnitt zu schnell war. Dazu gibt es bald einen Pilotversuch in Deutschland. (Datenschutz, Technologie)

Im zweiten Anlauf ist es gelungen, das neue Modul für die ISS aufzublasen. Der erste Versuch am Tag davor wurde abgebrochen, nachdem sich das Modul nicht so weit ausdehnt hatte wie erhofft. (Raumfahrt, Internet)

As 2016 nears its midway point the rhetoric over DMCA takedowns is more fiery than ever. Aware that a favorable change in the law might be possible sometime in the future, copyright holders are pushing the Copyright Office in the United States to consider a ‘takedown, staydown’ system.

This proposal, should it ever become enshrined in law, would enable copyright holders to issue a DMCA notice to a site for a particular piece of content with the expectation that it will never appear again on that same platform. Opposition to such a regime is notable but it’s not difficult to see why copyright holders are so keen to have it implemented.

In the meantime they are stuck with the existing system and their efforts are clearly illustrated in Google’s Transparency Report. During the past month alone 7,015 copyright holders and 3,176 reporting organizations sent requests for 87 million URLs to be removed from Google’s indexes. It’s a huge amount by any standard.

What is interesting is how a relatively small number of domains account for a disproportionate number of takedowns. For instance last month two sites – file-hosting site 4shared and MP3 site GoEar – accounted for close to 11 million takedowns. That means that it took complaints against another 77,855 domains to make up the remaining 76 million URLs.

When looking at the figures for the last year a similar picture emerges, with a small number of domains attracting disproportionate levels of complaints. Interestingly, those thinking that The Pirate Bay or KickassTorrents would get the top slots will be disappointed. Those sites pale into insignificance when compared to the front runners.

Also of interest is the kind of site being targeted.

In first position is 4shared, a file-hosting site traffic ranked 434th in the world by Alexa. While that represents huge amounts of traffic, it’s the site’s popularity in Brazil that is causing it to receive a disproportionate number of notices. 4shared is ranked the 53rd most popular domain there, something that hasn’t gone unnoticed by local anti-piracy outfit APDIF who since 2013 have filed 17 million complaints in response.

MP3 indexing site FlowXD takes second place with an ‘impressive’ 8.2 million takedowns. Again APDIF has been sending the lion’s share of the notices, presumably due to the site’s popularity in Brazil and elsewhere in South America.

In a close third with almost 7.7 million takedowns in the past twelve months is Chomikuj, a Cyrus-incorporated file-hosting site that is the 34th most-visited site in Poland. Overall, the UK’s BPI has shown the most interest in the site, having sent more than 4.5 million notices since 2011. More recently, however, a much wider spread of copyright holders have targeted the site.

Perhaps unsurprisingly a website unblocking service is also up there with the front runners. Unblocksit.es has had almost 7 million complaints filed with Google, mostly by anti-piracy outfit Rivendell who boast being the “world Leader on Google’s transparency report for removal illegal links.”

In fifth and sixth place respectively sit file-hosting giants Rapidgator and Uploaded with around 6.5 million complaints each. A wide range of copyright holders focus on both sites with an emphasis on the music sector. Rapidgator and Uploaded have experienced a decline in traffic since the start of the year but neither are showing signs of going away any time soon.

From there, all remaining sites in the top 10 are dedicated to offering free music. None seem particularly popular with English-speaking users. GoEar gets quite a lot of Spanish eyes and for some reason Gooveo is rocking it in Guatemala. Viciomp3 and Esamusica both appear to be defunct although copyright holders are continuing to send complaints to Google.

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

Eine frühere Apple-Store-Mitarbeiterin berichtet von ihrer Arbeit und gibt neue Einblicke. Sie enthüllt die geringen Aufstiegschancen eines Verkäufers und zeigt den von Apple gewünschten Umgang mit Kunden. Dabei spielt auch die Lieblingseissorte des Kunden eine Rolle. (Apple Store, Apple)

Von Google enttäuscht: Der Ideengeber von Project Ara übt Kritik an Googles Neuausrichtung des Projekts. Seiner Ansicht nach ignoriert das Unternehmen den Grundgedanken eines modularen Smartphones. (Project Ara, Smartphone)

From Game of Thrones pre-release to Disney releases, read the news roundup for the week ending 29 May 2016

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With E3 just around the corner, the rumor mills are working over time and the latest signs point to not one but two new Xbox One consoles, one coming this year, and another much more powerful one coming in 2017.

The more recent rehash of the Xbox One SKU could see a new Xbox One console that's cheaper, comes with 2TB of storage, but possibly minus the Blu-ray drive. This new Xbox One "Slim" is 40 percent smaller than the current Xbox One, but will have the same power under the hood. Microsoft is expected to announce this new SKU at E3.

This, however, won't be true for second model in the updated Xbox One line-up. With Sony all but certain to release an updated, more powerful PS4, dubbed the PS4 Neo, it appears Microsoft has embraced a similar "iterative" upgrade plan. The "iterative" upgrade would make the console upgrade cycle similar to other consumer devices, such as the iPhone, but would ensure compatibility across newer and older devices.

Microsoft's new super console is apparently codenamed 'Scorpio', and what is has under the hood may hold a lethal sting for rival Sony. Early reports suggests that while the exact specs of Scorpio has not yet been finalized, Microsoft is targeting a peak performance of 6 teraflops. The PS4 Neo is rumored to have a performance target of 4.14 teraflops. To put all of this into context, the current PS4 is only capable of 1.84 teraflops, while the Xbox One only operates at 1.32 teraflops.

More will definitely be revealed at E3. Microsoft's E3 event is scheduled to occur on Monday, June 13 at 12:30pm (Eastern), while Sony's event is the same day, at 9pm (Eastern).

Over the past two decades the Business Software Alliance (BSA) has represented major software companies, including Adobe, Apple, Microsoft, Oracle and Symantec, in their fight against under-licensed businesses.

This has resulted in audits at thousands of companies worldwide, whose computers are carefully inspected to see if the business owner has failed to pay his or her dues.

While companies are often contractually obliged to comply with such audits, BSA’s selection procedures are raising eyebrows.

Since a few years the industry group has been actively soliciting tips from the public about potentially infringing companies. Promising hard cash rewards, it asks “whistleblowers” to expose any wrongdoing.

BSA generally follows up these tips with a threatening letter to the business owner in which it requests an audit, something they are contractually obliged to agree to.

If unlicensed software is found during an audit, the group generally follows up with a demand for damages, which can run into hundreds of thousands of dollars for some companies.

To find out more about the process TorrentFreak spoke with Robert J. Scott, managing partner at Scott & Scott, LLP., who has represented hundreds of defendants in BSA related cases over the past couple of years.

According to Scott a typical audit request comes after “a tip by a disgruntled employee or former employee, often seeking to recover advertised reward money.”

Many of Scott’s clients liken BSA’s tactics to a form of extortion, but he prefers not to use this term. In principle he believes that software companies have the right to protect their work. However, he certainly doesn’t agree with BSA practices.

The reward money in particular is problematic as it tends to attract disgruntled people who have a history with the company. For example, a fired employee who hopes to cash in while getting back at a former boss.

“I challenge the payment of reward money to disgruntled employees,” Scott says. “I also have been opposed to the method of calculating damages in BSA cases as being contrary to law.”

The damages awards demanded in these cases are typically three times the regular licensing fee, and can easily run to hundreds of thousands of dollars depending on the number of computers that are in use.

In a recent article for TechCrunch Scott shares the story of Fuzzy’s Radiator, a Texas automotive repair company. In a threatening letter the BSA accused the company of running unlicensed Microsoft products, stating that it could owe millions of dollars for the alleged infringement.

The timing of the letter was interesting, as it came in shortly after Fuzzy’s Radiator’s in-house IT person left the company. “I think the disgruntled former employee was trying to bring down the company,” Fuzzy Radiator’s Trinda Lopez said.

Facing a potential bankruptcy, the company decided to freeze employee salaries and postpone the purchase of new equipment. Eventually, the dispute was settled for a fraction of the initial demand.

While some business owners may run unlicensed software on purpose, this is certainly not always the case. Sometimes the software is installed by relative outsiders, or IT personnel who decide to skip the licensing part on their own accord.

Intentional or not, if the BSA comes knocking it’s bound to get costly. Scott hopes that small business owners will become more aware of the potential risk and ensure that their licenses are in order.

“After handling over 250 cases by BSA, what I have learned is that small business owners can’t trust IT to manage software license compliance,” Scott tells us.

Finally, it’s worth keeping in mind that BSA uses the prospect of excessive penalties to intimidate companies and elicit fear. With a proper defense the actual settlements turn out to be much lower.

Too bad for the disgruntled employee, who gets a stake of the settlement.

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

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