Month: October 2016

(credit: Chris Chan)

On Friday, dozens of members of Congress wrote an open letter to the attorney general and the director of National Intelligence. In it, they requested a briefing regarding the recent Reuters story that Yahoo complied with a secret court order to search all of its customers’ e-mail.

They wrote:

There is significant confusion regarding the existence and nature of the program described by these reports and the legal questions implicated by the accuracy of specific details... As legislators, it is our responsibility to have accurate information about the intelligence activities conducted by the federal government. Accordingly, we request information and a briefing as soon as possible for all members of Congress to resolve the issues raised by these reports.

Previously, one of the lead co-signers of the letter, Rep. Ted Lieu, a Democrat who represents a portion of Los Angeles County, told Ars that this type of forced government request was "flat out unconstitutional." He also told us:

Enlarge (credit: Valentina Palladino)

When Samsung came out with the Smartcam HD Plus, it introduced a solid smart home security camera with some unique audio features at a competitive price. The HD Plus was, and still is, a good alternative to the Nest Cam, and, unlike the Nest Cam, it isn't tied to a cloud subscription plan that holds your videos hostage. Now Samsung is adding a new camera to its lineup, the Smartcam PT, that puts a spin (literally) on the HD Plus.

This $200 security camera swivels and turns to follow any movement it detects in a room, making sure you always have a full view of whatever and whoever is in your home. While its design differs from competing smart cameras, Samsung is hoping that a moving eye will be enough to persuade people to choose Smartcam over the rest.

Design: It follows your every move

The PT in this camera's name stands for "pan and tilt," meaning it can swivel nearly all the way around and look up and down to capture much more of your home than most cameras. According to Samsung, the Smartcam PT can pan 350 degrees, tilt up to 155 degrees, and the camera itself has a 96-degree field of view. Instead of fussing with the placement of the camera, I just set it on top of a bookshelf and used the app to adjust its aim.

Enlarge (credit: Photo: Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

The US Department of Justice isn't giving up its fight to access content stored in overseas servers. Federal prosecutors in New York late Thursday asked a federal appeals court to reconsider its July decision that allowed Microsoft to successfully claim that authorities had no legal right to access data stored on its servers outside the country, even with a warrant from a federal judge.

A three-judge panel of the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled that federal law, notably the Stored Communications Act, allows US authorities to seize content in US-based servers, but not in overseas servers—in this case, Dublin, Ireland.

The dispute is an outgrowth of a years-long battle over whether Microsoft must hand over e-mails to New York prosecutors in a narcotics investigation. But the case has broader implications far beyond the drug probe. The case touches on consumer privacy, international relations, and the government's desire to investigate criminal activity.

(credit: Defective by design)

In our recent review, we praised Shadow Warrior 2 for its varied weapons, random level generation, and over-the-top shooting. Apparently, the game has another feature that's sure to draw praise from many gamers: a complete lack of piracy protection or digital rights management, which the developers apparently think is a waste of time.

"We don't support piracy, but currently there isn't a good way to stop it without hurting our customers," Flying Wild Hog developer Krzysztof “KriS” Narkowicz wrote on the game's Steam forum (in response to a question about trying to force potential pirates to purchase the game instead). "Denuvo means we would have to spend money for making a worse version for our legit customers. It's like this FBI warning screen on legit movies."

Expanding on those thoughts in a recent interview with Kotaku, Narkowicz explained why he felt the DRM value proposition wasn't worth it. "Any DRM we would have needs to be implemented and tested," he told Kotaku. "We prefer to spend resources on making our game the best possible in terms of quality, rather than spending time and money on putting some protection that will not work anyway."