Month: September 2016

In October 2015, a well-known copyright-trolling outfit announced the launch of the “largest” anti-piracy campaign seen in the UK for years.

German-based monitoring company Maverick Eye said that it had teamed up with London-based Hatton & Berkeley and other key players to target file-sharers with cash settlement demands.

Due to the complexity of the setup, some likened the project to a “smoke and mirrors” operation.

Initially, Hatton & Berkeley and its owner Robert Croucher became known for demanding money from alleged Sky Broadband downloaders of the Robert Redford movie The Company You Keep.

“Hatton and Berkeley stands alongside our colleagues in an international operation that has so far yielded drastic reductions in streaming, torrenting and illegal downloads across Europe,” a company spokesperson said at the time.

Common to all of Hatton and Berkeley’s letters to ISP subscribers are threats that if they don’t pay, ultimately they will end up in court. To date, that has never happened, but interestingly Hatton and Berkeley’s Robert Croucher is now in some legal trouble of his own.

According to a Court News report (subscription), 35-year-old Croucher has been appearing in court this week following allegations of a serious assault.

It all began following a night out at the exclusive members-only Raffles club in Chelsea, London, which is frequented by the rich, famous, and Croucher. It is the only nightclub the Queen has ever attended.

After leaving the club, it’s understood that Croucher tried to get into an Uber car but things quickly got out of hand.

According to driver Mohammad Hussain, a woman was the first to get into his vehicle. Croucher is said to have thrown his bag into the car, something which provoked an argument between the pair. Croucher then slammed the door.

“I got out to open the door, and then the gentlemen took the keys from through the window,” Hussain told Hammersmith Magistrates’ court. “He then slapped me.”

Croucher admits hitting Mr Hussain but according to the Uber driver, things got much worse from there.

“I was begging for my keys and he suddenly pushed me on the pavement,” Hussain told the Court.

“He has just kicked me in several parts of my body and head. My head was very swollen, I went to hospital where I stayed for four hours. I went to my GP a few days later and got prescribed antibiotics, it was severe pain.”

Croucher, who gave his address as Hawthorn Road, Hornsey, north London, admits assault but denies kicking Mr Hussain.

This is the third time in as many months Croucher has made the news.

In the House of Lords during July, Lord Lucas advised recipients of threatening letters from Croucher’s Hatton & Berkeley to thrown them away.

“I really urge them to put [their correspondence] in the bin. The current scammers aren’t pursuing anyone [in court] they’re just after threats, and extortion, and shaking people down,” Lord Lucas said.

Then in August, the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority published details of its investigation into claims on Croucher’s personal website that one of his projects had created 10,000 jobs.

The ASA concluded that the claims were misleading and ordered the advertising not to appear again in its current form. Despite the ruling, the claim is still present on the site’s main page.

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

Für eine Hasselblad geradezu günstig ist die neue X1D, die erste spiegellose digitale Mittelformatkamera der Schweden. Uns hat sie gut gefallen. (Hasselblad, Digitalkamera)

Action in 4K und mit Rundumblick: Nikon hat zur Photokina die auf der CES 2016 angekündigte 360-Grad-Actioncam mitgebracht. Wir haben sie uns angeschaut: Der erste Eindruck war positiv. (Nikon, Digitalkamera)

Kaum hat McLaren Berichte über Übernahmeverhandlungen dementiert, wird im Zusammenhang mit den angeblichen Plänen für ein Apple-Fahrzeug das nächste Unternehmen genannt: Lit. Das Startup baut selbstbalancierende und vollverkleidete Motorräder. (Elektroauto, Apple)

Nach dem Elektroauto kommt jetzt das Solardach mit Hausakku von Tesla. Elon Musk kündigte an, dass die Lösung im nächsten Monat vorgestellt wird. Mit dem Akku lässt sich auch das Auto laden. (Tesla Motors, GreenIT)

Selected HP printers will now reject the use of third party ink cartridges thanks for a new DRM that the company has implemented.

The DRM was part of firmware updates for selected printers back in March, but the component that rejects third party cartridges as "damaged" was only set to activate on September 13.

Those with the firmware update installed and using a third party cartridge will be warned that the cartridge is actually "damaged", and that the user must replace it with a new, HP branded cartridge.

Third party cartridges and refills are a big headache for printer manufacturers, who have long relied on the business model of selling cheap printers (sometimes at no profit or below cost), and relying on steady income from cartridges.

The firmware update also appears to be buggy for some users. Some have reported the same error messaging even when they're using HP branded cartridges, while others have noted that the printer refuses to release the cartridges in order for a change to take place.

HP has explained that the firmware update was made to "protect HP’s innovations and intellectual property."

The protection is unlikely to last very long though, as it has been reported that third party manufacturers are already scrambling to produce new cartridges with updated chipsets that get around the new protection.

[via Arstechnica]

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Roku is prepping its next-gen media streaming devices, and blogger Dave Zatz got the scoop on the names (and a few new features) last month. Now he has pictures. Lots and lots of pictures.

Say hello to the new Roku Express, Premier, and Ultra hardware.

Here’s a run-down of what we know about the new devices so far:

• Roku Express 3700: An entry-level model that’s half the size of a normal Roku box
• Roku Express Plus 3710: A fancier version of the above (maybe with more ports?)
• Roku Premiere 4620: A larger box, probably with a faster processor and possibly with 4K support
• Roku Premier+ 4630: Same as above, plus Ethernet, a microSD card slot, HDR support, and maybe an improved remote control
• Roku Ultra 4640: 4K support, HDR support, and a bunch of ports including USB, optical, Ethernet, and a microSD card reader

Roku hasn’t officially announced the new hardware yet, so we’ll have to wait a little while to wait to find out of those features can be confirmed, if there are more features we don’t know about, and how much the new models will cost (although it’d be odd if they were much more expensive than their predecessors, which tend to sell for around $50 – $130).

Continue reading Roku Express, Premiere, and Ultra streaming media players leaked at Liliputing.

Das dürfte einer der größten Datenhacks der Geschichte sein. Der Umfang der bei Yahoo entwendeten Nutzerdaten ist noch deutlich größer als bislang angenommen. (Yahoo, Sicherheitslücke)