Month: May 2016

Die Bundesregierung will das "innovationsfreundlichste Straßenverkehrsrecht der Welt" schaffen. Fragwürdig scheint der Vorschlag, eine Ethik-Kommission über Algorithmen autonomer Autos entscheiden zu lassen. (Autonomes Fahren, Technologie)

Der Quellcode der Cryengine ist nun auf Github für alle zugänglich. Hersteller Crytek will damit den Spieleentwicklern entgegenkommen. Freie Software ist die Engine aber nicht. (Cry Engine, Versionsverwaltung)

Nicht nur Google, auch Apple will Amazon das Feld bei intelligenten Steuereinheiten für das Zuhause nicht mehr lange überlassen. Amazons Echo wird also bald mehr Konkurrenz erhalten und in einem ersten Schritt will Apple Siri konkurrenzfähiger machen. (Apple, Amazon)

E-Ink hat es geschafft: Das Unternehmen hat ein elektronisches Papier entwickelt, das viele Farben darstellen kann. Allerdings hapert es noch an der Auflösung. (E-Ink, Display)

Zu den beiden weltweit erhältlichen 4K-Ultra-HD-Blu-ray-Playern von Samsung und Panasonic kommt bald ein dritter Player. Verkauft wird er unter der Marke Philips, doch Philips hat mit dem Player nichts zu tun. Außerdem wir nur ein Teil des neuen 4K-Marktes bedient. (UHD-Blu-ray, Blu-ray)

For more than a decade researchers have been looking into the effects of online music piracy on the revenues of the record industry, with mixed results.

Both positive or negative effects have been reported, often varying based on the type of artist, music genre and media, among other variables.

That said, research has more often found that piracy hurts overall music sales, and an extensive new report from the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) confirms this trend.

The new study uses an elaborate model to quantify the effect of piracy on music sales, which it puts at 5.2% for the EU as a whole in 2014. This means that piracy resulted in €170 million in lost revenue across the EU.

The effects on digital sales are the most pronounced, €113 million compared to €57 million for physical products.

In addition to the direct effect on the music industry, there is also a secondary loss of €166 million in other sectors, and a €63 million loss in government revenue through direct and indirect taxes. The study doesn’t look at any positive effects, such as a possible increase in media player sales.

Interestingly, the estimated piracy losses are not equal across the EU. In absolute numbers they are the highest in the UK, with €48.6 in direct losses. This makes sense as it’s one of the largest music markets.

Relatively speaking the piracy effects are the most pronounced in Spain and Greece, with losses of 8.2% and 8% respectively. Croatia and Hungary are least affected, with both under 4%.

It is worth noting that the reported lost sales are a the expected additional revenue if people wouldn’t have pirated the music. It doesn’t count every pirated track as a lost sale, nor does it estimate the potential revenue if piracy wouldn’t exist at all.

Commenting on the results, EUIPO’s Executive Director António Campinos says that the current findings offer additional evidence in the ongoing piracy debate.

“The question of whether piracy reduces or increases sales of recorded music has been the subject of many studies with contradictory results,” he says.

“Our study’s results are in line with the prevailing consensus and find that piracy reduces the revenue of legitimate industry in both digital and physical formats,” Campinos adds.

Interestingly, the findings presented this week contradict an earlier EU study which revealed that online piracy doesn’t hurt digital music revenues. So, whether this week’s study will be the end of the ongoing debate about the effects of piracy remains to be seen.

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

Read 8 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Huawei sieht seine LTE-Patente von Samsung verletzt und will dafür Geld sehen. Ericsson setzte in einem ähnlichen Fall 650 Millionen US-Dollar durch. (Huawei, Rechtsstreitigkeiten)

The results and analysis for DVD, Blu-ray and Ultra HD Blu-ray sales for the week ending 14th May 2016 are in. New release Deadpool was the week's top seller, and it helped Blu-ray record a fanstastic week of results. It was also interesting to note that 3 of the top four best sellers on Blu-ray had Ultra HD Blu-ray versions for sale! 

Read the rest of the stats and analysis to find out how DVD, Blu-ray, Ultra HD Blu-ray did.

Aberwitzige Argumente, uralte E-Mails und merkwürdige Wendungen: Der Copyright-Prozess Oracle gegen Google hat alles, was eine richtig gute Seifenoper braucht - aber wenig, mit dem die Jury etwas anfangen kann. (Oracle vs. Google, Urheberrecht)