Month: January 2017

Es ist drahtlos, benötigt keine externen Sensoren und die Grafik sieht besser aus als beim Gear VR: Grundlegend überzeugt Intels Project Alloy. Noch braucht das System aber Feinschliff, etwa beim Controller und beim Inside-out-Tracking. (Head-Mounted Display, Intel)

Alexa überall: Sehr überraschend sind viele neue Alexa-Geräte auf der Elektronikmesse CES vorgestellt worden. Keines davon stammt von Amazon - Autofirmen, Smartphone- und Kühlschrankhersteller haben sich für den digitalen Assistenten entschieden. (CES 2017, Amazon)

December 2015 a Virginia federal jury ruled that Internet provider Cox Communications was responsible for the copyright infringements of its subscribers.

The ISP was found guilty of willful contributory copyright infringement and ordered to pay music publisher BMG Rights Management $25 million in damages.

Cox disagreed with the outcome and a few weeks ago the ISP filed its appeal arguing that the district court made several errors that may ultimately restrict the public’s access to Internet services.

The company received support from several industry associations, academic institutions, libraries and digital rights groups, who submitted amicus briefs to the court of appeals voicing their concerns. However, BMG is not fighting alone.

Late last week, several copyright industry groups, including the RIAA, MPAA, and the Copyright Alliance, rallied behind the music rights group.

The submissions, which total roughly 150 pages, all stress that the current verdict should be upheld. ISPs such as Cox should not be able to enjoy safe harbor protection if they fail to disconnect “repeat infringers” from their networks, BMG’s supporters say.

The MPAA stresses that the District Court made the right decision by holding Cox liable. They stress that online piracy is a massive problem which copyright holders can’t handle without the proper legal tools to hold intermediaries such as Cox accountable.

“Online piracy accounts for a full quarter of all internet traffic and costs the entertainment industry tens of billions of dollars per year,” the MPAA writes in its brief (pdf).

“…it is simply not feasible to combat the epidemic of online infringement unless copyright-holders have the legal tools to incentivize the cooperation of intermediaries like Cox and to hold them accountable when they knowingly facilitate widespread online infringement.”

One of the central elements in this case is the “repeat infringer” question. Under the DMCA, ISPs are required to have a policy to disconnect persistent pirates, but both sides differ on their interpretation of the term.

In its defense, Cox said that only courts can decide if someone is an infringer. Otherwise, people will be disconnected based on one-sided allegations from copyright holders, which remain untested in court.

However, the MPAA, RIAA and other rightsholder groups believe that regular takedown notices should count as well, noting that earlier court verdicts made this clear.

“If Congress meant that a subscriber should have been sued in court, had a judgment entered against her, and failed to overturn that judgment on appeal — multiple times — before facing even the threat of losing internet access as a repeat infringer, it would have said so,” the RIAA writes in its brief (pdf).

In a situation where repeat infringers only lose their Internet subscriptions following a court order, copyright holders would have to launch massive legal campaigns in the U.S. targeting individual file-sharers.

That would result in an unworkable situation which runs counter to the purpose of the DMCA, the RIAA argues.

“Under Cox’s interpretation, copyright owners would be forced to launch demanding campaigns of multiple lawsuits against every individual infringer even to hope to obtain the benefit of ISP repeat-infringer policies.

“That would require a stream of individual lawsuits in federal district courts all over the country, imposing an additional burden on the courts and draining the resources of copyright owners and individual subscribers alike,” the RIAA adds.

Siding with BMG, the copyright groups ask the appeals court to keep the district court ruling intact. This runs counter to Cox’s request, which asked the court to reverse the judgment or grant a new trial.

The recent amicus briefs illustrate the gravity of the case, which is shaping up to be crucial in determining the future of anti-piracy enforcement in the United States. As such, it would be no surprise if the case goes all the way to the Supreme Court.

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

Die Minikonsole NES Classic wurde gehackt, Besitzer können nun per USB-Kabel auch andere als die vorinstallierten 30 Spiele verwenden. Der erste Schritt für den vom Hersteller nicht vorgesehenen Zugriff ist offenbar ein Savegame in Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo, Games)

Rund 1,5 Millionen Daten von Mitgliedern der E-Sports Entertainment Association (Esea) sind offenbar im Netz aufgetaucht. Auch Angaben zur Steam-, Xbox-Live- und PSN-ID sind mit dabei - somit könnten besonders glaubwürdige Phishing-Mails gebastelt werden. (E-Sport, Xbox Live)

This type of concept is a long waited one for guys like me. I have no idea how many battery I’ve replaced for my wireless mouse as I’ve used it quite a lot for work and play. It’s both expensive if you think it carefully when comparing to a casual wired mouse, and not really-earth […]

This type of concept is a long waited one for guys like me. I have no idea how many battery I’ve replaced for my wireless mouse as I’ve used it quite a lot for work and play. It’s both expensive if you think it carefully when comparing to a casual wired mouse, and not really-earth […]

Die Preise bei Unitymedia steigen um über 16 Prozent. Grund seien wachsende Kosten für den Netzausbau und Betrieb bei dem weltgrößten TV-Kabelnetzbetreiber. (Unitymedia, Kabelnetz)

Die Initiative Let's Encrypt schaut auf das Jahr 2016 zurück und ist mit dem ersten vollen Jahr im Produktivbetrieb zufrieden, auch wenn es einige Probleme gab. (Let's Encrypt, Wordpress)

Kein SUV und keine Knutschkugel: Die neuen Fahrzeuge von Googles Spin-off Waymo werden Vans sein, die mit Technik bis über das Dach vollgestopft sind. Sie sollen sich selbst ihren Weg durch die Straßen bahnen. Ende Januar starten die öffentlichen Tests in den USA. (Autonomes Fahren, Google)