Month: September 2016
Publishers Fail to Block Russia’s Top Search Engine Over Pirate Links
After Russia’s leading search engine Yandex failed to remove links to pirate books from its search results, publisher Eksmo filed a complaint with the Moscow Court. Technically, Yandex could’ve found itself blocked nationwide for copyright non-compliance but in the end, cooler heads prevailed.
Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.
Like many countries around the world, Russia is trying to do what it can to limit Internet piracy. Copyright holders feel that if infringement can be reigned in, the legitimate market will flourish.
In common with the United States and Europe, Russian service providers are expected to remove pirate content when asked to by rights holders. The country also has a streamlined backup system via the courts if service providers won’t comply.
Back in August, Eksmo, a publisher responsible for around 30% of all Russian books, filed a complaint with Yandex, the country’s largest search engine. Through anti-piracy outfit AZAPO, Eksmo complained that Yandex was allowing links to pirated content to appear in its search results.
There were no allegations that Yandex directly hosted any of the pirate material. Eksmo said that unauthorized digital copies of several books were hosted by users of Russia’s most popular torrent site, RuTracker, and that links to those torrents appeared in Yandex’s results.
According to a copy of the complaint obtained by Gazeta, Yandex was given 48 hours to “cease publishing any information necessary to access the forbidden resource rutracker.org.” Yandex did not remove the results.
In response, Eksmo and AZAPO chose to file a copyright complaint with the Moscow City Court. Complaints to this Court kickstart a process through which non-compliant domains can find themselves blocked by local ISPs for an initial period of 14 days before a full case is heard.
Eksmo and AZAPO hoped to set a precedent which would force search engines to remove ‘pirate’ links to RuTracker, a domain already blocked in Russia. It wasn’t to be.
According to a statement obtained by news outlet Vedomosti, the Moscow Court rejected the application for preliminary blocking measures against Yandex, a company with 57.6% of the local search market.
According to a Court spokesperson, the judge found no grounds for issuing a blocking order since Eksmo failed to show that Yandex had violated the rights of the books’ author.
One of the problems with Eksmo’s request was that when examining the evidence, the Court found that the links in Yandex’s search results failed to link to the copyrighted works in question. Ironically, it appears those links may have failed due to the fact that RuTracker is already blocked by all Russian ISPs.
In response to the decision, Yandex spokesperson Vladimir Isayev said that the complaint had only been received from the publisher last week. Furthermore, the RuTracker links referenced in the claim also appear on other search engines and websites. So, following Eksmo’s logic, any site could find itself blocked had the Court ruled in the publisher’s favor.
Finally, Isayev noted that the courts have previously recognized that Yandex is a search engine, not an information broker, and as such cannot affect the accessibility of documents stored elsewhere on the Internet.
And so the battle continues.
Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.
EU-Kommission: Facebook-Übernahme von Whatsapp wird neu geprüft
Vor dem Kauf von Whatsapp hatte Facebook versprochen, dass zwischen beiden Unternehmen keine Daten ausgetauscht werden. Das ist nun doch der Fall – die EU-Kommission geht der Sache nach. (Facebook, Soziales Netz)
13/15 R3 und 17 R4: Alienware packt AMDs Radeon RX in seine Spiele-Notebooks
Deus Ex: Systemspaltung setzt Mankind Divided fort
Ein alter Kollege von Hauptfigur Adam Jensen steht im Mittelpunkt des ersten Add-ons für Deus Ex – Mankind Divided. Square Enix hat jetzt erste Informationen über die Einzelspielererweiterung “Systemspaltung” bekannt gegeben, die noch im September 2016 erscheinen soll. (Deus Ex, Rollenspiel)
Office Suite: Apache denkt über mögliches Ende von Openoffice nach
Dennis Hamilton hat eine Diskussion die Zukunft der freien Officesuite angestoßen. Für den Vorsitzenden des Apache Openoffice Project Management Committee (PMC) gehört dazu auch ein mögliches Aus für das Projekt. (Openoffice, Office-Suite)
Die Woche im Video: Krumme Geräte, teure Tarife und spärliche Steuern
Notebooks, Gaming-PCs, Uhren, Telefone, Actioncams, Sensoren, Knöpfe, Chips, Navis: Die Liste der Produktneuheiten auf der Ifa ist lang. Wir geben einen Überblick über die Höhepunkte der Messe – und was abseits davon so geschah. Sieben Tage und viele Meldungen im Überblick. (Golem-Wochenrückblick, Netzneutralität)
Open Data: Der Lift ist nicht kaputt, sondern außer Betrieb
Rollstuhlfahrer Raúl Krauthausen löst seine täglichen Herausforderungen mit technischer Kreativität, Open Data und dank einer Community aus Freiwilligen. Das ist aber leichter gesagt als getan, da vor allem der Staat noch Probleme mit Open Data hat. (Barrierefreiheit, Open Data)
SpaceX reviewing 3,000 channels of data to find cause of accident
Company also updates status of its alternative launch pads in Florida and California.
SpaceX said Friday evening that its number one priority after Thursday's accident at Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station "is to safely and reliably return to flight for our customers, as well as to take all the necessary steps to ensure the highest possible levels of safety for future crewed missions with the Falcon 9."
The company said it has begun a full investigation of Thursday morning's explosion, which involved the loss of its Falcon 9 rocket and AMOS-6 satellite payload during preparations for a static fire test. SpaceX's "Accident Investigation Team," along with oversight from the Federal Aviation Administration and assistance from NASA and the US Air Force, is in the "early" stages of reviewing 3,000 channels of telemetry and video data covering a brief time period of 35 to 55 milliseconds.
The statement from SpaceX provided no additional information about the cause of the accident. It only repeated that the incident occurred during fueling of the launch vehicle before a static fire test, rather than during the test itself, and that the "anomaly" originated around the upper stage liquid oxygen tank. Whether the issue was related to a ground systems problem or occurred because of a defect with rocket itself remains unclear.
Razer gives its Blades a Kaby Lake, GeForce 10-series bump
The Ultrabook gets a faster processor, the gaming laptop a better GPU.
Razer has given its gamer laptops a bit of a bump to boost both battery life and performance.
When we reviewed the sleek 12.5 inch Razer Blade Stealth Ultrabook earlier this year we liked the looks, the Thunderbolt 3, and the price. But we weren't so keen on the battery life of the 4K system we tested. The updated version should make good progress in that department. Razer is updating the Blade Stealth Ultrabook to use one of Intel's new Kaby Lake processors. Kaby Lake is, all things considered, a pretty minor update over Skylake, but the new i7-7500U chip (2.7GHz base, 3.5GHz turbo) should offer a bit more performance and a bit more power efficiency than the i6-6500U (2.6GHz/3.1GHz) in the old version.
The update's bigger win comes from a bigger battery: the 45Whr unit in the old system has been replaced with a 53.6Whr one. Even without any savings from the new processor, that almost 20 percent increase in battery should translate directly into a 20 percent increase in battery life. That's enough to get the 4K laptop snapping at the heels of its 1080p competitors. Prices start at $999 for a 2560×1440 system with a 128GB SSD, with shipping due to start on September 14 and preorders available now.
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