Month: January 2017

Von zwei elektrischen Pferden über Pac-Man zu Tekken und Ridge Racer: Der Gründer des japanischen Spieleunternehmens Namco, Nakamura Masaya, ist mit 91 Jahren gestorben. In seiner langen Amtszeit führte er das Unternehmen durch verschiedene Phasen der Spieleindustrie. (Namco Bandai, Games)

Zwei Anbieter wollen den komplizierten Umgang mit PGP vereinfachen. Ox Guard bietet PGP auf dem Server des Mailanbieters an, Mailvelope über ein Browser-Plugin. Wir haben uns beide Alternativen angeschaut. Von Hauke Gierow (PGP, Yahoo Mail)

Schneller als Google Translate und Microsoft Translator und mindestens genauso gut: Die Forschung lässt ein System entwickeln, das es ermöglicht, ohne Fremdsprachenkenntnisse ausländische Dokumente zu durchsuchen und zu analysieren. (Wissenschaft, Technologie)

Wem eine reine SSD zu teuer und eine HDD zu langsam ist, kann zu einer SSHD greifen. Eine solche Hybrid-Festplatte mit Flash-Speicher lässt eine Playstation 4 (Pro) Spiele flotter laden. Das gilt aber wie erwartet nur bei bestimmten Voraussetzungen. (Hybrid-Festplatte, Playstation 4)

Flappy Bird war vom ersten Moment an sehr schwer. Ninja Spinki Challenges, das neue Mobile Game von Dong Nguyen, setzt auf eine ähnlich verzwickte Steuerung - aber mit der niedlichen Hauptfigur kommen Spieler zumindest in den ersten Runden einfacher zum Erfolg. (Flappy Bird, Games)

Der Streit zwischen deutschen Datenschützern und Whatsapp geht vor das Landgericht Berlin. Die Sammlung von Daten und die Weitergabe an Facebook seien widerrechtlich. Doch Facebook hat die Weitergabe ausgesetzt. (Whatsapp, Soziales Netz)

Nur wenige Tage nach der Veröffentlichung ist der Kopierschutz der PC-Version von Resident Evil 7 offenbar geknackt worden. Zum Einsatz kam das System von Denuvo - das bislang als sehr sicher gilt. (Denuvo, Adventure)

In the present day and age, online piracy is perhaps more scattered than it’s ever been.

Torrent sites, streaming services, cyberlockers, mobile apps, linking sites and many more are all labeled as infringing sources.

But, the piracy problem is not restricted to ‘shady’ sites and services alone. On many ‘legal’ platforms there’s a wide availability of copyright infringing material as well, Facebook included.

While anyone can casually post an infringing video or song on Facebook, there are some who dedicate entire pages to it. This was also the case for the Dutch page “LiveBioscoop” (LiveCinema) which was started by a 23-year-old man from Rotterdam.

As the name suggests, the page regularly streamed movies online with help from Facebook’s own live streaming service. In a relatively short period, it amassed over 25,000 followers who could regularly vote on which movies the ‘cinema’ should stream next.

The site’s popularity spilled over to the Dutch press last week, with the AD reporting on the unusual activity of LiveBioscoop and a similar page, Livebios. Commenting on the issue, anti-piracy group BREIN said they would investigate the issue, and not without result.

The operator of the Facebook page was quickly confronted by the anti-piracy group. Facing an ex-parte court order from a local court, the man agreed to stop the infringing activities and sign a settlement of €7,500. While the Facebook page itself is still online, infringements have stopped.

Commenting on the issue, BREIN director Tim Kuik says that they decided to go to court straight away, due to the gravity of the issue.

“This is just stealing revenue from cinemas and rightsholders. It has to end as soon as possible. That is why we have opted for an ex parte injunction with a penalty, instead of first issuing a summons,” Kuik says.

The other ‘pirate cinema’ on Facebook wasn’t mentioned by BREIN, but is no longer available at the time of writing. It seems likely that the operator of this page decided to stop voluntarily to avoid further problems.

Instead of simply cracking down on all these pages, copyright holders could also learn from them. As it turns out, many LiveBioscoop users sincerely enjoyed and appreciated the social cinema visit, which may prove to be an interesting opportunity.

“LiveBioscoop has to stay. It feels better and is more fun that way. People can talk. Netflix is just like, I watch a movie and that was it. Since I found LiveBioscoop I no longer watched Netflix movies,” one follower commented.

While this is the first time that we have seen a settlement with a Facebook live streamer, movie piracy is relatively common on the social network. There still are dozens, if not hundreds of popular pages dedicated to pirated movies and TV-shows.

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

This week we have three newcomers in our chart.

Doctor Strange, of which a leaked screener was released, is the most downloaded movie.

The data for our weekly download chart is estimated by TorrentFreak, and is for informational and educational reference only. All the movies in the list are Web-DL/Webrip/HDRip/BDrip/DVDrip unless stated otherwise.

RSS feed for the weekly movie download chart.

This week’s most downloaded movies are:

Movie Rank	Rank last week	Movie name	IMDb Rating / Trailer
Most downloaded movies via torrents
1	(10)	Doctor Strange (DVDScr)	8.0 / trailer
2	(3)	La La Land (DVDscr)	8.8 / trailer
3	(2)	Arrival (DVDscr)	8.3 / trailer
4	(9)	Hacksaw Ridge (DVDscr)	8.5 / trailer
5	(…)	Allied (DVDscr)	7.1 / trailer
6	(1)	Jack Reacher: Never Go Back	6.3 / trailer
7	(…)	Manchester By The Sea (DVDscr)	8.3 / trailer
8	(…)	Live By Night (DVDscr)	6.6 / trailer
9	(4)	Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Subbed HDRip)	7.1 / trailer
10	(5)	The Girl on The Train	6.6 / trailer

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

Mit LTE Advanced Pro alias 4.5G soll die Mobilfunkdatenrate kräftig steigen. Netzwerkausrüster wie Huawei, Provider wie die Deutsche Telekom und Modemhersteller wie Qualcomm arbeiten bereits daran. Der Standard könnte schneller erscheinen als gedacht und bereitet den Weg für den 5G-Standard. Ein Bericht von Achim Sawall und Marc Sauter (Long Term Evolution, Nokia)