Harry Potter and the Cursed Child goes in an unexpected direction, but it’s still magical.
The world of Harry Potter has become an industry. The books have sold hundreds of millions of copies around the world, the film adaptations raked in billions of dollars, and there are now real-life Hogwarts castles at Universal theme parks. But the latest creation born from the fantasy franchise is a decidedly old-school entity: it's a play, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, showing exclusively in London.
Most people won't ever get to see the staged version for themselves—it's already sold out for the next year—but fans can buy the script in book form (UK). Within two weeks of its release, it has already become controversial among fans. The play is nevertheless required reading if you liked the novels. It's a genuine reinvention of the Potterverse with a new cast of Hogwarts students who create very different alliances than their parents' generation did.
Walmart may be the biggest retailer in the world, but the company’s dominance doesn’t extend to the online world, where Amazon reigns supreme.
Walmart is looking to challenge Amazon though, and the company just announced it’s making a $3 billion bet to do that. Walmart is acquiring Jet.com.
Jet launched a year ago, looking to bring BJ’s/Sam’s Club retail model to the internet: pay $49 per year for a membership and you get access to a wide range of discounted products at prices that are lower than those offered by most rivals.
Walmart may be the biggest retailer in the world, but the company’s dominance doesn’t extend to the online world, where Amazon reigns supreme.
Walmart is looking to challenge Amazon though, and the company just announced it’s making a $3 billion bet to do that. Walmart is acquiring Jet.com.
Jet launched a year ago, looking to bring BJ’s/Sam’s Club retail model to the internet: pay $49 per year for a membership and you get access to a wide range of discounted products at prices that are lower than those offered by most rivals.
Thirty years ago, Nintendo released its action-adventure game Metroid on the Famicom platform. This Saturday, to coincide with the anniversary, a group of game makers pooled their resources and released their AM2R (Another Metroid 2 Remake) game, for free. In response, Nintendo sent in the lawyers.
An astonishing three decades have passed since Nintendo first unleashed Metroid on a still-young video gaming market. Debuted in Japan in 1986 on the now-classic Famicom system, Metroid gained a dedicated and passionate following.
For those interested in the game’s development, Kotaku has decent potted history. However, this weekend, with Metroid turning 30, another big event reignited the fires.
AM2R (Another Metroid 2 Remake) has been in development for more than 10 years. Based on Metroid II: The Return Of Samus, it’s a game written by fans, for fans. After a demo version was released in 2014, this Saturday the full version landed, free of charge.
“Finally. This is the first full release of AM2R. You’ll be able to complete Metroid 2 like you never did before,” a post by developer DoctorM64 revealed.
“It was a long journey. I grew up both as a person and as a developer along this project. Today I can start sharing with you the rest of the game. There’s lots of improvements and features planned for a near future.”
The release delighted the gaming press, with shouts of “brilliant” and “hot hot hot“. But now it appears that Nintendo is attempting to pour cold water on the flames using the DMCA.
According to an announcement this morning by leading Metroid fansite Metroid-Database, Nintendo took exception to the site hosting the game files and filed a complaint with its webhost.
Friends: Nintendo has hit us (meaning, our website host) with a DMCA takedown notice. We can no longer host the AM2R file. Sorry!
In a follow-up, Metroid Database lead designer Infinity’s Edge published the full email, which was sent to the site’s web host by a lawyer acting for Nintendo of America.
Dear Copyright Agent,
We represent Nintendo of America Inc. (Nintendo) in intellectual property matters. Nintendo recently learned that content hosted by SoftLayer at http://www.metroid-database.com/files/AM2R_10.zip infringes copyrights owned by Nintendo. This notice is provided pursuant to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, 17 USC § 512, and SoftLayer’s DMCA Policy.
The above URL provides access to a software file that makes unauthorized use of Nintendo’s copyrighted material from its Metroid video game franchise, including but not limited to the images and fictional character depictions from U.S. Copyright Reg. Nos. PA0000356142, supp. by PA0000547461 (Metroid); VA0000474073 & TX003221317 (Metroid II: Return of Samus); PA0000720157 (Super Metroid); PA0001275461 (Metroid Prime); PA0001275460 (Metroid Prime 2: Echoes); PA0001633666 (Metroid Prime 3: Corruption); PA0001915118 (Metroid Prime Hunters); and PA0001791606 (Metroid: Other M).
I have a good faith belief that this use is not authorized by the intellectual property owner, its agent, or the law. I hereby state that the information herein is accurate and, under penalty of perjury, that I am authorized to act on Nintendo of America Inc.’s behalf.
We would appreciate your expeditious removal of all infringing content. Please contact me immediately with any questions.
This notice is not intended to and shall not waive or prejudice any rights and remedies that Nintendo may have at law, in equity, or otherwise. Any and all such rights and remedies are hereby expressly reserved.
Best regards,
Brian Sniffen
Attorney for Nintendo of America Inc.
Miller Nash Graham & Dunn LLP
3400 U.S. Bancorp Tower | 111 S.W. Fifth Avenue | Portland, Oregon 97204
Office: 503.224.5858 | Fax: 503.224.0155
Why Nintendo appears to have targeted Metroid Database with a takedown and not yet the official site is unclear. However, the official site is currently only linking to files hosted elsewhere (Mediafire, Filedropper), so it could be that the third party sites will receive notices directly. That being said, no files have yet been taken down.
TorrentFreak has reached out to Brian Sniffen for comment but in the meantime a DMCA notice published by Kickstarter in June confirms that the lawyer has acted for Nintendo in earlier Metroid copyright cases.
Of course, fans of the remake and indeed the whole Metroid series are pretty upset that Nintendo appear to be spoiling the party, but with the game already widely distributed, Nintendo isn’t going to be able to do much to stop things now.
Die Telekom hat sich von Nokia die schnellste Mobilfunkstation in Europa bauen lassen, um zu beweisen, dass mit LTE eine Datenrate von 1,2 GBit/s möglich ist. Dazu brauchte man Frequenzbänder im Bereich 1.800 MHz, 2.100 MHz und 2,6 GHz. (Telekom, Nokia)
Die Telekom hat sich von Nokia die schnellste Mobilfunkstation in Europa bauen lassen, um zu beweisen, dass mit LTE eine Datenrate von 1,2 GBit/s möglich ist. Dazu brauchte man Frequenzbänder im Bereich 1.800 MHz, 2.100 MHz und 2,6 GHz. (Telekom, Nokia)
Mit dem Moto G Play wird auch Lenovos Einsteiger-Moto in Deutschland erhältlich sein: Mit einem Preis von 170 Euro liegt es deutlich unter dem des Moto G4. Die Spezifikationen des Smartphones wirken vertraut: Sie gleichen in vielen Details denen des Moto G3 von 2015. (Lenovo, Smartphone)
Mit dem Moto G Play wird auch Lenovos Einsteiger-Moto in Deutschland erhältlich sein: Mit einem Preis von 170 Euro liegt es deutlich unter dem des Moto G4. Die Spezifikationen des Smartphones wirken vertraut: Sie gleichen in vielen Details denen des Moto G3 von 2015. (Lenovo, Smartphone)
The airline was forced to ground all flights early this morning due to IT problems.
Long lines for Delta passengers at Logan Airport earlier this morning. (credit: Getty Images | Dina Rudick/The Boston Globe)
Chaos hit Delta Airlines early on Monday morning as a loss of power at its Atlanta data center resulted in the airline grounding all its flights worldwide for several hours. Although the company's planes are now taking to the air, Delta informed customers flying today to expect delays and cancellations.
The problem completely crippled the airline, knocking out flight operations and bookings. Although it is yet to be confirmed by Delta, a member of the FlyerTalk forums was told by the captain of their flight that the cause was a fire in the data center:
According to the flight captain of JFK-SLC this morning, a routine scheduled switch to the backup generator this morning at 2:30am caused a fire that destroyed both the backup and the primary. Firefighters took a while to extinguish the fire. Power is now back up and 400 out of the 500 servers rebooted, still waiting for the last 100 to have the whole system fully functional
This is the second severe IT-induced travel disruption in recent weeks. On July 20, Southwest Airlines lost a router in its Dallas data center, which resulted in 2,300 flight cancellations. Southwest's CEO Gary Kelly described that event as a "once-in-thousand-year flood."
Hulu will reportedly stop offering free video, but that streaming service's users still be able to find some of Hulu's free shows thanks to a new business partnership with Yahoo.
In the next few days, Hulu will begin notifying customers of a plan to "shutter its offering of no-cost, ad-supported television and movies," The Hollywood Reporterwrote today. Hulu has already de-emphasized its free offerings, attempting to push customers toward subscription plans that cost $8 to $12 a month.
"For the past couple years, we've been focused on building a subscription service that provides the deepest, most personalized content experience possible to our viewers," Hulu Senior VP Ben Smith was quoted as saying. "As we have continued to enhance that offering with new originals, exclusive acquisitions, and movies, the free service became very limited and no longer aligned with the Hulu experience or content strategy."
There’s good news and bad news for folks that use online video service Hulu to catch up on the latest episodes of TV shows without paying a penny.
The bad news is that the company is ending its free, ad-supported video streaming service and pushing its subscription plans (starting at $7.99 per month).
The good news? You’ll actually still be able to access Hulu’s TV and movie collections without signing up for a subscription.
There’s good news and bad news for folks that use online video service Hulu to catch up on the latest episodes of TV shows without paying a penny.
The bad news is that the company is ending its free, ad-supported video streaming service and pushing its subscription plans (starting at $7.99 per month).
The good news? You’ll actually still be able to access Hulu’s TV and movie collections without signing up for a subscription.
Aktuell bleibt in Bayern mehr als jede zehnte freie Stelle für Informatiker oder anderweitige IT-Fachkräfte unbesetzt. Die Bundesagentur für Arbeit meldet speziell für Bayern einen Mangel an Spezialisten in der Softwareentwicklung und Programmierung. (IT-Jobs, Studie)
Aktuell bleibt in Bayern mehr als jede zehnte freie Stelle für Informatiker oder anderweitige IT-Fachkräfte unbesetzt. Die Bundesagentur für Arbeit meldet speziell für Bayern einen Mangel an Spezialisten in der Softwareentwicklung und Programmierung. (IT-Jobs, Studie)
Im nächsten Linux-Kernel 4.8 können ausgewählte Grafikkarten von AMD übertaktet werden, wenn auch noch nicht so bequem wie unter Windows. Die Testversion Linux 4.8rc1 wurde jetzt freigegeben. (Linux-Kernel, Intel)
Im nächsten Linux-Kernel 4.8 können ausgewählte Grafikkarten von AMD übertaktet werden, wenn auch noch nicht so bequem wie unter Windows. Die Testversion Linux 4.8rc1 wurde jetzt freigegeben. (Linux-Kernel, Intel)
Die Telekom hat sich von Nokia die schnellste Mobilfunkstation in Europa bauen lassen, um zu beweisen, dass mit LTE eine Datenrate von 1,2 GBit/s möglich ist. Dazu brauchte man Frequenzbänder im Bereich 1.800 MHz, 2.100 MHz und 2,6 GHz. (
Mit dem Moto G Play wird auch Lenovos Einsteiger-Moto in Deutschland erhältlich sein: Mit einem Preis von 170 Euro liegt es deutlich unter dem des Moto G4. Die Spezifikationen des Smartphones wirken vertraut: Sie gleichen in vielen Details denen des Moto G3 von 2015. (
Aktuell bleibt in Bayern mehr als jede zehnte freie Stelle für Informatiker oder anderweitige IT-Fachkräfte unbesetzt. Die Bundesagentur für Arbeit meldet speziell für Bayern einen Mangel an Spezialisten in der Softwareentwicklung und Programmierung. (
Im nächsten Linux-Kernel 4.8 können ausgewählte Grafikkarten von AMD übertaktet werden, wenn auch noch nicht so bequem wie unter Windows. Die Testversion Linux 4.8rc1 wurde jetzt freigegeben. (
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