Month: October 2016

Bei einem Marktanteil von über 90 Prozent kommt man nicht um die Google-Suche herum. Oder doch? Wir haben uns fünf alternative Suchmaschinen zum Selbsthosten angesehen. Wir erklären, wie leicht sie sich installieren lassen, wie gut ihre Suchergebnisse sind und ob sich das für Otto Normalnutzer lohnt. (Suchmaschine, Google)

Auf einigen Strecken im Ausland kauft die Deutsche Bahn Kapazität der Mobilfunknetze für ihr kostenloses Zug-WLAN zu. Zugleich wird deutlich, dass der Umbau bis Jahresende wohl nicht abgeschlossen werden kann. (Deutsche Bahn, Telekom)

Das IoT-DDoS-Botnetz Mirai sorgt derzeit für die größten bekannten DDoS-Angriffe mit einer Kapazität von mehr als 1 Tbit/s. Der Sicherheitsforscher Brian Krebs hat analysiert, wer die unsicheren Geräte herstellt. (Brian Krebs, Virus)

Android hat sie, iOS hat sie und Windows 10 Mobile noch nicht: Eine 64-Bit-Unterstützung für mehr als 4 GByte Arbeitsspeicher und flottere Apps soll zu einem unbestimmten Termin folgen. Die verbauten Smartphone-Chips sind schon längst bereit dafür. (Windows 10 Mobile, Smartphone)

One of the main problems faced by anti-piracy outfits is identifying their adversaries. Pirates of all kinds value anonymity and many go to great lengths to protect it.

When it comes finding out the personal details of a pirate, whether that’s the user of a regular consumer-level ISP or the operator of a large torrent or linking site, the usual method is via court order.

Such orders are obtained in a variety of ways, but it usually involves presenting evidence and having a judge compel a provider to hand over whatever details it has on file. This happens in at least hundreds of cases every year.

Of current interest is a report from anti-piracy outfit BREIN. The Dutch-based operation says it’s investigating three as-yet-unnamed linking sites that have been distributing large quantities of popular movies and TV shows hosted on a cyberlocker.

BREIN has been trying to uncover the identities of the people behind the sites since this makes it much easier to ramp up the pressure. Indeed, once their names are known, some site operators have a tendency to throw in the towel.

The first stage of this process was fairly straightforward since the pirates were using servers belonging to a local hosting provider. This gave BREIN a nice start to its investigation and it’s all thanks to case law established more than a decade ago.

In 2003, stamp dealer and lawyer Augustinus Pessers was wrongfully accused of fraud by an individual posting on a website operated by Internet service provider Lycos. Pessers began legal action, demanding that the allegations be taken down. He also wanted to force Lycos to hand over the name and address of the poster making the allegations.

After two years of litigation and against a defense mounted by Lycos, in November 2005 the Dutch Supreme Court ruled that Lycos must hand over the personal details of the user to Pessers. The stamp dealer had won and outfits such as BREIN received a welcome boost.

Armed with this case law, BREIN found that the servers used by the pirate sites in their current investigation were Dutch-based, at hosting company Serverius. Under the Pessers ruling the company would have to comply with a disclosure request. However, those servers were actually operated by another company based overseas.

3NT Solutions is a UK-based hosting provider owned by companies in Belize and Panama. According to BREIN, 3NT handed over the personal details of the pirate sites it was hosting at Serverius, without a court order.

“These details consist of name, address, e-mail address and payment details. 3NT also ceased its hosting services to the illegal sites at issue,” BREIN says.

Normally when anti-piracy companies want to find out the identities of an ISP’s customers in the UK, they obtain a court order known as a Norwich Pharmacal Order. In this case, BREIN says that wasn’t needed, since 3NT had servers in the Netherlands.

“Both Serverius as well as 3NT have a legal responsibility to assist in curtailing piracy. Simply being based – or registered – in another country than where the servers are, does not mean one can escape that responsibility,” BREIN chief Tim Kuik informs TorrentFreak.

Kuik says that both Serverius and 3NT were “reluctant to abide by their responsibilities” but they also know that BREIN would sue them if they didn’t comply and would likely lose the case and end up losing money.

“Under Dutch case law – based on EU rules – intermediaries are obliged to provide identifying details voluntarily upon request in case of infringement and damage, and the interests of the injured party prevails,” Kuik adds.

“In the Netherlands, it is a regular occurrence for BREIN that identifying details are provided by intermediaries voluntarily upon request. Court cases are exceptional,” he concludes.

BREIN say that more and more companies outside the Netherlands, include Google recently, have been following these disclosure rules.

Meanwhile, Kuik and his colleagues say that with personal details in hand they will continue their quest against the operators of the pirate sites in question, and the cyberlocker they were using.

3NT did not immediately respond to TorrentFreak’s requests for comment.

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

Jim Munroe is a Canadian science fiction author, film director and games designer. He publishes his work independently under the imprint No Media Kings.

Join us as we discuss why an ex-Sony exec loves piracy and if that marks the end of the cool pirate.

In addition we talk about why Millennials won’t pay for content or watch adverts, and how to make them love creators; and how your operating system can be used to operate YOU – and not just by stopping you from pirating.

Finally Jim discusses his new interactive fiction creation software Texture (try it! it’s free!), and his virtual reality sci-fi series Haphead, offering some great tips for creators looking to keep their heads in our dirty, digital world.

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Steal This Show aims to release bi-weekly episodes featuring insiders discussing copyright and file-sharing news. It complements our regular reporting by adding more room for opinion, commentary and analysis.

The guests for our news discussions will vary and we’ll aim to introduce voices from different backgrounds and persuasions. In addition to news, STS will also produce features interviewing some of the great innovators and minds.

Host: Jamie King

Guest: Jim Munroe

Produced by Jamie King
Edited & Mixed by Riley Byrne
Original Music by David Triana
Web Production by Siraje Amarniss

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

Das Android-Smartphone G5 verkauft sich weniger gut, als erhofft - dennoch will LG am Konzept der wechselbaren Module festhalten. Daran soll auch die Vorstellung des konventionell aufgebauten V20 nichts ändern. (LG G5, Smartphone)

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Der Preis von 20 Euro für 500 MBit/s im FTTB/H-Netzwerk ist günstig, doch nach dem ersten Jahr wird es erheblich teurer. Bald soll es sogar für die Haushalte 1 GBit/s geben. (Telekom, Glasfaser)

Google hat mit David Foster offenbar einen ehemaligen hochrangigen Manager von Amazons Hardware-Abteilung eingestellt, der die Entwicklung der neuen Pixel-Smartphones leiten soll. Foster war zuvor unter anderem für die Entwicklung des Amazon Echo und der Kindle-Serie verantwortlich. (Google, Smartphone)