Month: July 2016

1&1 Versatel verlegt 300 Kilometer neue Kabeltrassen für ein Landesnetz. 70 Prozent der Schulen sollen Glasfaseranschlüsse erhalten. (Versatel, Telekommunikation)

The vast majority of publicly available ‘pirate’ sites rely on some kind of advertising to generate revenue. With millions of visitors per month, some are reported to make significant sums.

As a result, copyright holders have been investing considerable resources into initiatives that try to persuade advertisers to stop supporting them. If advertising is removed from these sites, they will cease to exist, entertainment companies argue.

But despite immense pressure on mainstream advertisers, it is still fairly common to be presented with gambling adverts when visiting unauthorized torrent and streaming portals. Just months ago, Bet365, Coral and Sky Bet in the UK were called out over the practice.

However, it’s now clear that if UK gambling operators want to keep their valuable licenses clean, they will have to ensure there is no repeat of these mistakes.

The Gambling Commission is a government-sponsored body with a mandate to keep the gambling business clean in the UK. Its responsibilities include protecting children and other vulnerable people while ensuring that gambling is fair and open. It is also charged with keeping all aspects of crime out of gambling.

In September 2016, the Commission consulted on amendments (pdf) to licensing conditions that would compel licensees to ensure that advertisements “placed by themselves and others” do not appear on websites providing unauthorized access to copyright content.

That consultation was published in May (pdf) followed by a supplementary consultation this month. All respondents agreed in principle that gambling operators should not advertise on pirate sites but there was less consensus on how that could be achieved.

While not advertising directly is less of a problem, some respondents indicated that they use affiliates to place adverts on their behalf, so monitoring them all could prove difficult. Others noted that special software designed for the task might prove expensive.

Overall, however, the Gambling Commission says that something still needs to be done since ads for gambling companies continue to appear on pirate sites.

“Although adverts placed on such websites are not criminal in themselves, they contribute to funding the websites, and are therefore associating gambling with crime. They also frequently appear next to other adverts and links containing malware or viruses,” the Commission says.

As a result, the Commission is now taking action. Due to the perceived seriousness of the situation, the implementation of a ‘social code’ often employed by the industry was rejected. Instead, a new licensing condition is being introduced which will require licensees to ensure that their marketing does not appear on pirate sites.

Licensees will be free to choose which preventative measures they take but they are being advised to make use of the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit’s ‘Infringing Website List‘. Operators are also advised to tighten their agreements with affiliates, making it clear that “robust action” can be taken for any breaches. The use of proactive monitoring software is also advised.

There were some objections from operators, mostly concerning the difficulty of the task ahead, but help will be at hand. Licensees will able to draw on the experiences not only of PIPCU, but also the Federation Against Copyright Theft and the BPI.

“We have decided to implement the new licence condition requiring operators to take responsibility for preventing digital adverts advertising their brand from appearing on websites providing access to unauthorised content,” the Gambling Commission said in response to the consultation.

“We have taken account of respondents’ views and have amended the wording of the licence condition to make clear that in the case of third party advertising operators should implement all reasonable steps to prevent marketing appearing on such websites, and to react quickly and effectively if they do appear.”

The new licence condition (shown below) will be implemented in the autumn/fall.

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

Warum mit einem Wearable den Schlaf überwachen, wenn es auch ein Kissen dafür gibt? Das Zeeq-Kissen soll nicht nur bequem sein, sondern auch die Schlafqualität messen und den Nutzer mit acht eingebauten Lautsprechern musikalisch in den Schlaf begleiten. Wer schnarcht, wird automatisch angestupst. (Crowdfunding, Kickstarter)

Das Einschwenken in den Orbit ist ohne Schaden geschafft: Die Sonde Juno hat das erste Bild aus der Jupiterumlaufbahn zur Erde gefunkt. Allerdings aus großer Distanz - Juno entfernt sich gerade vom Jupiter. (Juno, Nasa)

Niemals zahlen! Diese Warnung bei Ransomware-Angriffen ist bei einem neuen Vertreter der Spezies besonders angebracht - denn die Malware hat gar keine Wiederherstellungsfunktion. (Ransomware, Virus)

Der neue Entwurf der Bundesnetzagentur zum Vectoring im Nahbereich am Hauptverteiler sei schlimmer als der Vorgänger, meinen IT-Verbände, der Deutsche Landkreistag und Städtetag. Laut einem Gutachten will die Telekom-Konkurrenz jedoch nur von den rentablen 15 Prozent der Ausbauhaushalte profitieren. (EWE-Tel, DSL)

Nicht jeder kann die Bürotemperatur an seine eigenen Bedürfnisse anpassen. Ein neuer Bürostuhl mit integrierter Heizung und Lüftung soll das möglich machen. Wir haben ihn ausprobiert. (Ergonomie, Lüfter)

The results and analysis for DVD, Blu-ray and Ultra HD Blu-ray sales for the week ending July 2nd 2016 are in. New release Kung Fu Panda 3 led the sales charts for the week. 

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

Helium soll der neue Bildsensor im Format Super 35 mm heißen, den Kamerahersteller Red vorstellen will. Mit 29,9 x 15,77 mm ist er kleiner als der bisherige 8K-Sensor Dragon von Red. Das ermöglicht die Nutzung von mehr Objektiven. (8K, Foto)

Nintendo may have overestimated the number of Wii U consoles they planned to sell by more than 90 million units, Nintendo's president Tatsumi Kimishima has candidly revealed.

Kimishima revealed the existence of this wildly inaccurate prediction at an investor meeting recently. The prediction is said to have come from an unnamed salesperson at the company, a prediction made just before the Wii U was released in 2012.

"In an internal sales representative meeting, someone projected that we would sell close to 100 million Wii U systems worldwide," said Kimishima. 

As of March, Nintendo has only sold 12.8 million Wii U consoles worldwide.

There was solid reasoning behind the prediction though. Nintendo's previous console, the Wii, sold more than 102 million units worldwide, and many in the company expected the Wii's successor to do just as well.

But as Kimishima explains, he wasn't one of those who thought the Wii U would be an automatic success, not without the right sales pitch.

"I said that, since the Wii had already sold so well, we need to clearly explain the attraction of the Wii U if we are to get beyond that and sell the new system, and that this would be no easy task," said Kimishima.

And no easy task it proved to be, with the Wii U languishing in a very distant third place behind console rivals the PS4 and Xbox One.

Kimishima will hope that Nintendo's next console, codenamed the NX, will have a better launch and marketing strategy when it launches in March next year.

For now, Nintendo can be content with its recent launch of the iOS/Android game 'Pokemon GO'. The huge success of the game on launch has helped Nintendo stock record a 50% rise since the game was launched late last week.

[Via Fortune and Nintendo]