Month: May 2016

Für Amazon-Chef Jeff Bezos gehören Misserfolge zu einem erfolgreichen Unternehmen. Auf den Fire-Phone-Flop angesprochen, sagte Bezos, Amazon arbeite derzeit an "wesentlich größeren Misserfolgen". (Jeff Bezos, Smartphone)

Xiaomis Mi5 kann bereits ab 350 Euro plus Zoll nach Deutschland importiert werden und bietet dafür Ausstattung der Oberklasse. Da das Gerät aber für den chinesischen Markt gedacht ist, sind einige Einschränkungen zu beachten. Golem.de hat sich angeschaut, wo Abstriche gemacht werden müssen. (Xiaomi, Smartphone)

YouTube is arguably one of the best alternatives to piracy for casual listeners. Instead of going through the trouble of downloading a track for ‘sampling’ purposes, people can usually play it from YouTube straightaway.

The added bonus is that copyright holders also earn money from authorized plays on the site, which generates dozens of millions in added revenue per month.

While this might sound positive, the major music labels are not pleased with YouTube at all. In fact, in recent months they’ve been pushing hard to revamp current legislation, so they can make YouTube pay more than just a small portion of the ad-revenue.

Figures reported by BPI today reveal that music video plays surged 88% last year, but that revenues rose only 0.4% in the same period. According to BPI Chief Geoff Taylor artists and labels are clearly not benefiting from the growing demand

“Instead, dominant tech platforms like YouTube are able to abuse liability protections as royalty havens, dictating terms so they can grab the value from music for themselves, at the expense of artists,” he says.

“This is wrong. Music is precious – it’s not a commodity to be strip-mined for big data,” he adds.

Ultimately, the music industry wants YouTube and other user generated services to pay more. In part, they think this can be achieved by making sure that “pirate” videos no longer appear on the site.

If there was no pirated content on YouTube the labels believe they would be in a better position to negotiate than they are now. Ideally, this should happen by changing copyright law so the site can no longer “hide behind” safe harbor protections.

“This problem requires urgent action by the EU, and our Government needs to take the lead in making sure it is tackled,” Taylor says.

The music industry attack on YouTube is well-coordinated. BPI’s comments fall in line with similar complaints made by other music industry groups, including the RIAA which recently accused YouTube of running a DMCA-protected protection racket.

YouTube owner Google, meanwhile, remains seemingly unfazed by the complaints. The company recently stressed that it does have proper licensing deals with both major and independent labels and that it paid out over a billion dollars in recent years.

In addition the company noted that there are sufficient tools to remove infringing content from Google.

“Those pressing the ‘value grab’ argument also assert that the royalty rates in these licenses are too low, allegedly because the DMCA’s notice-and-takedown process makes it too difficult for record labels to withdraw their works from YouTube in the face of users re-uploading those works.

“This claim, however, ignores Content ID, which has been in existence since 2008 and which record labels use every day to monetize their works on YouTube,” Google noted.

One thing’s very clear though. With Google and YouTube being targeted from multiple sides, we haven’t heard the last of this yet.

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

Moderne TLS-Verbindungen nutzen üblicherweise das AES-GCM-Verschlüsselungsverfahren. Das benötigt einen sogenannten Nonce-Wert, der sich nicht wiederholen darf. Ansonsten ist die Sicherheit dahin. (SSL, IBM)

Finnland und Deutschland sollen näher zusammenwachsen - mit Hilfe einer schnellen Unterwasser-Glasfaserverbindung in der Ostsee. Die Kapazität entspricht der von einer Milliarde ISDN-Anschlüssen. Die Leitung ist in Frankfurt und Helsinki eröffnet worden. (Glasfaser, DE-CIX)

Unter der US-Stadt Dallas verläuft ein Gasleitungsnetz, das an hunderten Stellen leckgeschlagen ist. Mit Hilfe von Googles Streetview-Fahrzeugen, die die Straßen durchfahren, ist mit eingebauten Sensoren eine Karte mit den Erdgaskonzentrationen erstellt worden. (Google Street View, Technologie)

Wäre es nicht schön, alle Menschen auf der Welt unabhängig von ihrer Sprache zu verstehen und mit ihnen sprechen zu können? Genau das soll der Pilot von Waverly Labs ermöglichen: Der Ohrstöpsel soll ein Universalübersetzer werden. (Spracherkennung, Instant Messenger)

Google erweitert die Palette an verfügbaren Apps für seine Chromebooks: Künftig sollen Android-Apps auch auf Chrome OS laufen. Die Anwendungen können auch mit Maus und Tastatur genutzt werden. (Chrome OS, Google)

Multi Grammy Award winner Maria Schneider has called out Google for profiting from music piracy, in a submission to the US Copyright Office for changes to the existing DMCA regime.

Schneider, who most recently won three Grammys for her album 'Winter Morning Walks', not only feels that Google hasn't done enough to prevent piracy, a view shared by many in the music industry, but also believes that Google is actively and purposefully profiting from piracy. 

In her submission, Schneider states that "YouTube is guilty of criminal racketeering", and that the company is abusing the "outdated" DMCA for their own gains.

"YouTube has thoroughly twisted, contorted, and abused the original meaning of the outdated DMCA ‘safe harbor’ to create a massive income redistribution scheme, where income is continually transferred from the pockets of musicians and creators of all types, and siphoned directly into their own pockets," Schneider writes in heropen letter.

Using strongly loaded language, Schneider continues to state reasons why she thinks YouTube is deliberately profiting from piracy. Most of Schneider's argument relates to YouTube's upload system and the company's fair use and take-down policy, which Schneider believes is biased towards uploaders, not rights-holders. Schneider is also concerned about the entry requirements into YouTube's anti-piracy Content ID system, as not everyone can be accepted into the program.

And Schneider says none of these actions by YouTube and its parent company Google/Alphabet, is accidental, but rather a "scheme" to siphon revenue from rights-holders into their own pockets, and actually encourages users to behave badly to further their aim.

"The sweeping influence of their scam has succeeded in dismantling copyright from the inside, like a flesh-eating virus, influencing citizens to destroy themselves. Any company influencing behavior like this, especially for the purposes of eroding Constitutional rights, should lose their safe harbor," she adds.

As for a solution, Schneider shares the same talking point that have increasingly been heard from the copyright lobby, that is for Google to implement a "take down, stay down" regime, as well as actively checking and preventing uploads of copyright content, disregarding fair use if necessary.

Schneider also believes rights-holder's identities should remain private when they submit a take-down requests, even if said request is invalid to prevent "intimidation" from the general Internet public.

Purism is expanding its line of Linux-based computers with an emphasis on security, privacy, and open source software. The company’s new Librem 10 is a Linux-based tablet with a 10 inch display and a starting price of $599, while the Librem 11 is a higher-powered model with a bigger screen and a starting price of $999 for early backers of an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign.

Both tablets are expected to ship starting in September.

Continue reading Purism introduces privacy-focused, Linux tablets for $599 and up at Liliputing.