China Says It Will “Severely Strike” Websites Involved in Piracy

A new campaign launched by Chinese authorities is threatening tough action against any Internet site that assists in the unlawful online distribution of movies, TV shows, eBooks, and even news articles. Pirate sites and app stores will come under the spotlight while social media platforms will be subjected to “strict supervision.”

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

When it comes to the protection of intellectual property, China is often viewed as one of the world’s leading scofflaws. Everything is copied in the country, from designer watches to cars. Not even major landmarks can escape the replica treatment.

In more recent times, however, there have been signs that China might be at least warming to the idea that IP protection should be given more priority.

For example, every few months authorities announce a new crackdown on Internet piracy, such as the “Jian Wang 2016” program which shuttered 290 piracy websites in the final six months of last year.

Maintaining the same naming convention, this week China’s National Copyright Administration revealed the new “Jian Wang 2017” anti-piracy program. During a meeting in Beijing attended by other state bodies, copyright groups, rights organizations, and representatives from the news media, the administration detailed its latest plans.

The anti-piracy program will focus on protecting the copyrights of the film, television, and news industries in China. Infringing websites, e-commerce and cloud storage services, social networks, plus mobile Internet applications will all be put under the spotlight, with authorities investigating and prosecuting major cases.

The program, which will run for the next four months, has a mission to improve compliance in three key areas.

The first aims to assist the film and TV industries by cracking down on ‘pirate’ websites, the unlawful use of file-sharing software, plus “forum communities and other channels that supply infringing film and television works.”

Also on the cards is a blitz against users of the hugely popular social media and instant messaging app, WeChat.

Released in 2011, WeChat now has more than 930 million users, some of which use the platform to republish news articles without permission from creators. Chinese authorities want to reduce this activity, noting that too many articles are stripped from their sources and reproduced on personal blogs and similar platforms.

The second area for attention is the booming market for pirate apps. Chinese authorities say that cracked app stores and the software they provide are contributing to a huge rise in the unlawful spread of films, TV shows, music, news and other literature. Set-top boxes that utilize such apps will also be targeted in the crackdown.

Finally, there will be a “strengthening of copyright supervision” on large-scale e-commerce platforms that supply audio and video products, eBooks, and other publications. Cloud storage platforms will also be subjected to additional scrutiny, as these are often used to share copyright works without permission.

What kind of effect the program will have on overall copyrighted content availability will remain to be seen, but if previous patterns are maintained, the National Copyright Administration should reveal the results of its blitz in December.

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

Sandbox-Leak: Daten über die Antiviren-Cloud herausschmuggeln

Heutige Antivirenprogramme laden häufig verdächtige Dateien in Cloud-Systeme des jeweiligen Anbieters hoch. Das können Angreifer nutzen, um Daten aus Systemen ohne Netzwerkzugriff herauszuschmuggeln. (Virenscanner, Technologie)

Heutige Antivirenprogramme laden häufig verdächtige Dateien in Cloud-Systeme des jeweiligen Anbieters hoch. Das können Angreifer nutzen, um Daten aus Systemen ohne Netzwerkzugriff herauszuschmuggeln. (Virenscanner, Technologie)

Arduino vs. Arduino: Marke und Produktion wieder unter Kontrolle der Gründer

Die Arduino-Gründergruppe um Massimo Banzi übernimmt die Führung der Arduino AG. Damit sollte ein langjähriger Open-Source-Krimi endlich ein Ende finden. (Arduino, Politik/Recht)

Die Arduino-Gründergruppe um Massimo Banzi übernimmt die Führung der Arduino AG. Damit sollte ein langjähriger Open-Source-Krimi endlich ein Ende finden. (Arduino, Politik/Recht)

IT-News der Woche: Ein warmer Drohnenregen zur Sommerpause

Im letzten Wochenrückblick vor der Sommerpause lassen wir Autos allein einparken, alte Rechner hochleben und Drohnenteile vom Himmel regnen. Sieben Tage und viele Meldungen im Überblick. (Golem-Wochenrückblick, Malware)

Im letzten Wochenrückblick vor der Sommerpause lassen wir Autos allein einparken, alte Rechner hochleben und Drohnenteile vom Himmel regnen. Sieben Tage und viele Meldungen im Überblick. (Golem-Wochenrückblick, Malware)

Download Site Forced to Remove Google Ads for File Sharing Software

Open source software download portal FossHub has been forced to remove all Google ads from its pages hosting file sharing and BitTorrent client software, after Google banned the site on an “unauthorized file sharing” charge.Google originally banned ads…



Open source software download portal FossHub has been forced to remove all Google ads from its pages hosting file sharing and BitTorrent client software, after Google banned the site on an "unauthorized file sharing" charge.

Google originally banned ads from being served on just one page in early June, for the software qBittorrent for the same "unauthorized file sharing" issue. As qBittorrent is just your standard, run of the mill BitTorrent client that does nothing unauthorized, FossHub originally tried to appeal the ruling by Google.

Unfortunately, and this is an experience shared by many websites including this one, it is often very difficult to get a real response from Google's AdSense team. FossHub received what they believed to be canned responses from Google in regards to the potential "false positive", and failed to get the ban lifted.

However, FossHub's willingness to let the matter go did not match up to Google's plan, and disaster struck when the entire FossHub site was banned from serving Google ads later that month, for seven days. This left the site without any income at all, and FossHub was forced to take the drastic action of removing all Google ads from file sharing software listings, even though the site does not believe any of these software violates any known laws and they will continue to be supported by the site in the future, despite the loss of income.

"qBitorrent and other similar apps are legit software. You are responsible for what you choose to download and share," a representative from FossHub wrote in a Reddit post on the matter.

"Many free projects and sites publish their files via .torrent files. Just an excellent example of how qBitorrent and other similar clients can help you download files and allow GIMP project to save bandwidth: https://www.gimp.org/downloads/."

The developers of qBittorrent also backed FossHub in the dispute.

"In any case, I am writing this to inform our user base about Google's shenanigans. And if any of you works at AdSense, then please help FossHub talk to a real person or treat all sites fair by allowing or not allowing BitTorrent clients," posted 'sledgehammer999', a developer of qBittorrent.

We at Digital Digest can also share our own problems when it comes to dealing with Google, on almost the exact same issue. Our AutoGK download page was also flagged as an "unauthorized file sharing" page by Google AdSense, despite AutoGK being a video conversion software and not featuring any file sharing functionality at all. Repeated attempts to appeal the decision by requesting a review has failed to get the ban lifted, with the same canned, possibly machine generated, response.

Unless the media attention FossHub receives from this issue forces a real person at Google to act, it's unlikely FossHub will ever be allowed to display Google ads on their file sharing software pages again.

[via TorrentFreakReddit]

Pared-down electric experience: Driving one of the first Model 3s off the line

Standard 3 goes 220 miles for $35K, Long-range 3 goes 310 miles for $44K.

Tesla

FREMONT, CA—On Friday at Tesla's factory, Ars got behind the wheel of one of the first Tesla Model 3s off the factory line. It was a quick, 5-minute guided drive around the factory, but it gave a quick impression of what may be Tesla's most important car.

After all, Tesla has been working up to the launch of the Model 3 for years. CEO Elon Musk's dream has been to build an affordably-priced electric vehicle for mass production, and he's consistently framed the the Roadster, the Model S, and the Model X  as luxury vehicles destined to subsidize a lower-priced electric car for the masses.

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Sprint seeks merger with Charter to create wireless and cable giant

Comcast could have veto power over deal because of agreement with Charter.

Enlarge (credit: Mike Mozart)

Wireless carrier Sprint is trying to merge with cable giant Charter Communications, The Wall Street Journal reported today.

Sprint Chairman Masayoshi Son proposed the merger to create "a new publicly traded entity that would combine Sprint and Charter and be controlled by Japan’s SoftBank Group," the Journal wrote, citing "people familiar with the matter." Son is the founder and CEO of SoftBank, which owns Sprint.

One thing that isn't certain is whether Charter wants to merge with Sprint. "It is far from guaranteed that Charter would ultimately agree to such a deal," the report said.

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Certificate Transparency: Webanwendungen hacken, bevor sie installiert sind

Mit Certificate Transparency werden HTTPS-Zertifikate in öffentlichen Logs gespeichert. Das bringt mehr Sicherheit im TLS-Ökosystem, es führt aber auch zu überraschenden Gefahren für Webanwendungen wie Wordpress. (SSL, Wordpress)

Mit Certificate Transparency werden HTTPS-Zertifikate in öffentlichen Logs gespeichert. Das bringt mehr Sicherheit im TLS-Ökosystem, es führt aber auch zu überraschenden Gefahren für Webanwendungen wie Wordpress. (SSL, Wordpress)

Linux-on-Windows comes out of beta this fall

Linux-on-Windows comes out of beta this fall

One of the most surprising things about Windows 10 is that it includes an option that lets you run Linux applications natively. It’s called Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), and it’s been available as a beta feature since Windows 10 first launched. Now Microsoft is getting ready to bring WSL out of beta. When the […]

Linux-on-Windows comes out of beta this fall is a post from: Liliputing

Linux-on-Windows comes out of beta this fall

One of the most surprising things about Windows 10 is that it includes an option that lets you run Linux applications natively. It’s called Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), and it’s been available as a beta feature since Windows 10 first launched. Now Microsoft is getting ready to bring WSL out of beta. When the […]

Linux-on-Windows comes out of beta this fall is a post from: Liliputing