Month: December 2016

In Australien ist Valve wegen der Rückgabe- und Garantiebedingungen auf Steam zu einer Geldstrafe verurteilt worden. Diese ist laut Medienberichten deutlich höher ausgefallen als üblich - weil Valve die örtliche Gesetzgebung lange Zeit schlicht ignoriert habe. (Steam, Verbraucherschutz)

Windows und Linux werden sich dank Microsoft immer ähnlicher: Android läuft auf ChromeOS und vom Internet-of-Things über Telefone und Desktops bis zum Server verschmelzen die Systeme immer mehr. Das vergangene Jahr war der Start in eine neue, andere IT-Welt. (Open Source, Ubuntu)

Aus einer Selbsthilfeaktion einer Bäuerin wurde B4RN. Hier haben Bauern gezeigt, dass sie sich selbst in Eigenleistung mit FTTH 1 GBit/s für 35 Euro im Monat versorgen können - nach dem Motto: "Just Fucking Do It." (Glasfaser, Internet)

Chris Roberts erklärt den Wechsel von der Cryengine zur Lumberyard-Engine bei Star Citizen und Squadron 42. Der Grund sei vor allem der veraltete Netzcode, den die Laufzeitumgebung von Crytek bietet. Der Umstieg sei sehr schnell und unkompliziert verlaufen. (Star Citizen, Amazon)

Drei chinesische Unternehmen investieren in Here und erhalten einen kleinen Anteil am Unternehmen. Damit soll der Kartendienst besser an die Bedürfnisse des wichtigen chinesischen Markts angepasst werden. (Here, Auto)

Für IT-Firmen ist die Suche nach Fachkräften eines der größten Probleme des kommenden Jahres. Der Mangel an Experten für IT-Jobs werde zu einem der Hauptrisiken für künftige Geschäftstätigkeiten. (Studie, IT-Jobs)

Der Misfit Shine 2 ist ein in Deutschland bislang wenig bekannter Fitnesstracker für Einsteiger. Dank durchdachtem Interface, wasserdichtem Gehäuse und sehr langer Laufzeit kann uns das Gerät überzeugen - nur beim Design gibt es mehrere Meinungen. (Wearable, Test)

The US government agency, the USTR (The U.S. Trade Representative) has come under fire for listing websites that critics say should not be on the list.

The USTR maintains what the agency calls a "Notorious Market List", which aims to highlight the most notorious countries, regions and websites that deal with pirated and counterfeit goods.

In its latest report, the USTR listed the usual suspects, including The Pirate Bay and ExtraTorrent, but has also expanded the list to include MP3 ripping site Youtube-MP3.org and cyberlocker site 4shared. 

It's these last two inclusions that have digital rights groups, such as the EFF, scratching their heads. A post on the EFF's official website explains in details why the group believes that, while both sites offer pirated content, they should still be excluded from the list.

Youtube-MP3.org allows users to rip the audio component of YouTube videos. This has allowed users to rip the audio from officially uploaded YouTube music videos, which is the main reason why the site has been added to the "Notorious Market" list. The EFF argues, however, that YouTube-MP3.org has many legitimate uses, such as users ripping their own uploaded videos in order to easily extract the audio (for example, to create a podcast version of a video upload). The EFF also argues that many YouTube videos are freely licensed, and that this and other fair use cases means the site cannot be casually regarded as a piracy site.

For 4shared and other cyberlocker sites, the EFF argues that these sites are no different to say YouTube, as the content on the site are user generated. This means these sites receive "safe harbor" protection from existing copyright laws, as long as they take steps to ensure rights-holders have an avenue to get unauthorised content removed. The EFF points out that 4shared not only provides rights holders tools to remove pirated content, the site goes "beyond the requirements of the law" in providing additional tools that help prevent pirated content from being uploaded.

And in what appears to be a clerical error, the "Notorious Markets" list also list the wrong domain name for cyberlocker site Putlocker, according to TorrentFreak.

Also listed are Russian social media site vKontakte and the Chinese version of eBay, Taobao. The former has been listed despite working with rights-holders over the past year to try and eradicate the piracy problems on the site.

[via EFF, TorrentFreak]

The Asus Chromebook C302 is a laptop with a 12.5 inch full HD touchscreen display, a Core M3-6Y30 Skylake processor, 4GB of RAM, and 64GB of storage.

It also has a 360-degree hinge that lets you flip the screen all the way back and use the computer as a tablet.

Asus hasn’t officially introduced the Chromebook C302 yet, but we learned about it thanks to leaks in October. And now you can buy one from Newegg for $499.

Continue reading Asus Chromebook C302 convertible notebook goes on sale for $499 at Liliputing.

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