Month: December 2016

Ein Netzbetreiber will sehr hohe Datenraten von 513 MBit/s bei LTE bieten. "Sobald genügend Endgeräte verfügbar sind, werden wir die Technologie dort anwenden, wo besonders viel Kapazität im Netz gebraucht wird", teilte A1 Telekom Austria mit. (Long Term Evolution, Nokia)

In 2009, Dutch anti-piracy group BREIN, representing the movie and music industries, took News-Service Europe (NSE) – one of Europe’s largest Usenet providers at the time – to court.

BREIN argued that NSE must delete all infringing content from its servers, and in 2011 the Court of Amsterdam sided with the copyright holders.

In its initial verdict, the Court concluded that NSE willingly facilitated copyright infringement through its services. As a result, the company was ordered to remove all copyrighted content and filter future posts for possible copyright infringements.

According to the Usenet provider, this filtering requirement would be too costly to operate. It therefore saw no other option than to shut down its services while the appeal was pending.

After several years of litigation and two interim decisions, the Amsterdam appeals court reached a final decision in the case this week.

The overall conclusion is that NSE is not directly or indirectly liable for copyright infringements that take place through its service. However, the Usenet provider is required to offer a fast and effective notice and takedown procedure (NTD), possibly with additional measures.

NSE is happy with the verdict which it characterizes as a big win.

“We see the outcome as a total victory. The court of appeal completely destroys the earlier verdict. NSE did not infringe copyright and is not liable for copyright infringement,” NSE CEO Patrick Schreurs informs TorrentFreak.

The takedown requirement is a moot point, according to NSE, which states that they already had this in place before they shut down.

“The fact that we do need to implement a NTD is void. Even before the lawsuit started, NSE already offered an effective NTD-procedure. The Court of Appeal even considered in an earlier interim judgment that NSE’s NTD-procedure is sufficient,” Schreurs notes.

BREIN had hoped for a better outcome but is happy with the takedown requirements the court included. The anti-piracy group also highlights that the judgment allows for possible additional measures, which could include a filter.

“We are disappointed that NSE is not deemed to infringe but we feel vindicated because of the recognition of this objective,” BREIN Director Tim Kuik told TorrentFreak.

“Let’s face it: People take subscriptions to download from Usenet because of the availability of infringing content. If that availability is lacking then the viability of this business model built on illegal use disappears,” he added.

An earlier court decision found that a proactive piracy filter would go against the ban on general monitoring requirements. However, new copyright proposals put forward by the European Commission could change this position.

While the verdict offers reassurance for the Usenet industry, it also provides rightsholders with a clear precedent to demand a proper takedown procedure. BREIN intends to keep a close eye on other Usenet providers, and won’t rule out future legal action.

“We will work with rights holders and vendors to determine whether Usenet providers are up to par. As in the case at hand, we are always willing to look for cooperation. However, if we find providers that are unwilling to come to an understanding and live up to their responsibilities then we will take them to court,” Kuik says.

Both parties still have the option to take the case to the Supreme Court, but this hasn’t been decided yet.

NSE itself did clearly state that it’s not relaunching its Usenet service. It could, however, start a separate case to ask for compensation for the losses suffered as a result of the shutdown, something BREIN also mentioned in court.

NSE CEO Patrick Schreurs couldn’t confirm or deny this but noted that the case isn’t over just yet.

“All I can say right now is that this isn’t the end,” he told us.

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

Fitbit soll kurz davor stehen, den Smartwatch-Pionier Pebble zu kaufen. An der Hardware-Abteilung ist Fitbit aber wohl nicht interessiert, weshalb die erfolgreich finanzierte Pebble Time 2 und der Pebble Core nicht erscheinen sollen. Viele Pebble-Mitarbeiter sollen ihre Jobs verlieren. (Pebble, Wirtschaft)

Normalerweise geht Nintendo mit großer Härte gegen Hacker und Cracker vor, doch nun bekommen diese Geld - natürlich nur, wenn sie Sicherheitslücken beim 3DS melden. Zuletzt gab es auf dem Handheld unter anderem Leaks bei Pokémon Mond und Sonne. (Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo)

Die unregelmäßige Einspeisung von Wind- und Solarstrom sorgt für gefährliche Schwankungen, die zum Zusammenbruch des Stromnetzes führen können. Riesige Akkus liefern sekundenschnell Strom oder speichern ihn, wenn es ernst wird. (Solarenergie, Technologie)

The results and analysis for DVD, Blu-ray and Ultra HD Blu-ray sales for the week ending November 19th 2016 are in. It's Black Friday week again, and we take a closer look at just how well, or how badly, Blu-ray and DVD sales have done during the year's biggest sales week.

Spoiler: Ultra HD Blu-ray may be having an impact on sales!

Read the rest of the stats and analysis to find out how DVD, Blu-ray, Ultra HD Blu-ray did.

Apple will die Ergebnisse seiner Künstliche-Intelligenz-Forschung künftig veröffentlichen. Das soll den Austausch mit anderen Wissenschaftlern ermöglichen - und offenbar auch der Personalanwerbung dienen. (KI, Apple)

Dropbox funktioniert auf Mobilgeräten bisher nur, wenn diese online sind. Bald soll es jedoch möglich sein, Ordnerinhalte offline unter iOS und Android zu sichern, damit diese immer verfügbar sind. Einige Einschränkungen gibt es dennoch. (Dropbox, Android)

Apple hat ein Support-Dokument aktualisiert, demzufolge nicht nur iPhone 6S aus dem Produktionszeitraum September bis Oktober 2015 von Akkuproblemen betroffen sind. Ein Software-Update soll Apple helfen, die Geräte zu identifizieren. (iPhone 6S, Apple)

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