Month: November 2016

Weder Bundesverkehrsministerium noch Telekom machen Angaben zum echten Glasfaserausbau des Konzerns bis ans oder ins Haus. Das Geheimnis wird von beiden Seiten gehütet. (Vectoring, DSL)

Wenn Hillary Clinton oder Donald Trump ihr Amt als US-Präsident antreten, bekommen sie auf Twitter und Facebook eine leere Timeline: Das Weiße Haus hat bekanntgegeben, wie die Social-Media-Kanäle der aktuellen Administration übergeben werden. (Barack Obama, Soziales Netz)

Nach der Veröffentlichung von Final Fantasy 15 will Entwickler Square Enix mit einer Downloaderweiterung einen kostenpflichtigen Koop-Modus für bis zu vier Spieler nachreichen. Vorher sollen drei Episoden für Einzelspieler erscheinen. (Final Fantasy, Rollenspiel)

Der Hersteller verspricht, dass Kinder mit seinem Kugelroboter nicht nur Spaß haben, sondern auch das Programmieren lernen können. Zuerst haben wir damit die Kollegen geärgert und uns dann an selbst geschriebenen Steuerprogrammen versucht. (Roboter, Technologie)

Der Automobilhersteller Ford intensiviert seine Kooperation mit Blackberry: Künftig soll das QNX-System dank eines eigenen Teams bei Ford weiterentwickelt werden. Dadurch soll eine noch sicherere Plattform für vernetzte und autonome Autos entstehen. (Blackberry, QNX)

In einer koordinierten Aktion starten die großen Browserhersteller die Vorschauphase für Webassembly. Das Design des sogenannten Bytecodes fürs Web ist damit so gut wie abgeschlossen, weshalb das Projekt schon im kommenden Jahr Javascript in Teilen ablösen könnte. (Chrome, Firefox)

Es soll noch fahren, wenn auch der größte Tesla schon stehen geblieben ist: Henrik Fiskers neues Luxus-Elektroauto Fisker Emotion soll eine Reichweite von 640 Kilometern haben. (Elektroauto, Technologie)

In the US, Europe, and Canada, copyright holders have been teaming up with piracy monitoring firms to develop a new flow of revenue. Together they track down alleged pirates and hit them with a demand for cash settlement – or else.

This so-called ‘copyright-trolling’ hit Sweden earlier this year. An organization calling itself Spridningskollen (Distribution Check) headed up by law firm Gothia Law, said its new initiative would save the entertainment industries and educate the masses.

“One can compare it to a speed camera. In the same way that a speed camera only records those who drive too fast, only those Internet users who share copyrighted material without permission are logged,” said spokesman Gordon Odenbark.

Those ‘speeding fines’ were set at around $250 but backed up by threats that they would increase if file-sharers were uncooperative. Predictably there was a huge backlash, both among the public and in the media, but few expected the announcement that came yesterday.

“Gothia Law, who on behalf of rights holders in the film and television industry created Distribution Check, is now ending its involvement in the file sharing issue,” the firm said.

“In a short time, Distribution Check has given rise to criticism but also a decline in illegal file sharing. This without a single collection letter being sent out.”

Noting that in a short time the anti-piracy campaign had generated intense debate, the law firm also went on to claim that it had been a success.

“Knowledge of an individual’s legal responsibility is higher today than it was before the initiative was launched. It also established that the method to address a claim against a person who held a particular IP address through which copyrighted materials were distributed illegally, is in full compliance with both Swedish and European legislation,” the company added.

The claim that the campaign had somehow achieved its aims is somewhat weak, especially when one considers the legal and administrative costs that have been accrued in what was a sizeable operation.

That is further compounded by the fact that no letters being sent out means that a) all the threats and promises were hollow and b) zero revenue was generated. Perhaps worse still, those threats were made by a law firm that now has to deal with damage to its reputation among both its clients and the general public.

“The polarized debate focused on how to act to avoid the Swedish law. Many hold the belief that it is socially acceptable to withhold the truth in order to escape the penalty for a criminal act, which also seriously damages the cultural sector,” Gothia said.

“As legislation and public opinion differs in a significant way, Gothia Law has now ended its involvement in the file-sharing issue.”

It is quite something for a law firm to state that it’s backed out of a project because people have no respect for the law. Then again, it’s not unusual for law firms to get involved in this type of work only to find that it’s more trouble than it’s worth. Still, the company signs off with its successes, which were apparently achieved in just two months and without sending out a single letter.

“The initiative has meant a certain success for rights holders who will continue to protect their own interests in the file-sharing issue. Not only has the issue risen on the agenda, during the time that has passed since the initiative was launched, illegal downloading in Sweden also declined,” Gothia said.

While it’s reportedly true that file-sharing in Sweden is on the decline, it seems unlikely that this campaign had much of an effect on that since its launch in September. Nevertheless, Gothia insists that it did.

“The decline in sharing of the 150 titles represented by Distribution Check has been greater than the overall decline. For some titles, the download has fallen by 17 percent,” the company concludes.

It’s difficult to see the announcement as anything less than a damage limitation exercise but for local ISP Bahnhof, the news is still welcome. Bahnhof CEO Jon Karlung has been Distribution Check’s most vocal critic and through his company has been a thorn in the side of the project. Now it’s all over, people can relax again.

“This means that ordinary families do not have to come home to mysterious invoices that you have to think about whether to pay or not,” Karlung says.

“Hopefully this means that the copyright industry will seriously leave the 90s behind and put their resources into better experiences instead, such as Netflix and Spotify have done.”

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

Situs Inversus heißt der letzte und besonders schwierige Einsatz in der ersten Staffel von Hitman. Die Entwickler ziehen nach dem Abschluss ihres Episodenexperiments ein positives Fazit. Sie sind schon mit der Planung weiterer Staffeln beschäftigt. (Hitman, Square Enix)

Manche Apps in Googles Play Store erreichen Topplatzierungen, indem die Macher Downloads und Bewertungen kaufen. Derartige Machenschaften sollen in Zukunft dank eines neuen Erkennungssystems verhindert werden - und im Zweifel zur Löschung der App aus dem Store führen. (Google Play, Google)