Month: August 2017

In June 2015, police and Trading Standards officers in the UK carried out raids on sellers of Android boxes configured to receive unauthorized content. One seller, operating from GeekyKit.com, told customers that his physical shops would be shutting down.

“As you may be aware we were visited yesterday by Sky [television] in conjunction with Trading Standards. Whilst we continue to investigate our position the stores will remain closed and support will remain suspended. Our sincere apologies for any inconvenience caused,” he explained.

Julian Allen was arrested after raids at ‘Geeky Kit’ premises in Billingham and Middlesbrough in the north of England. One of the locations is pictured below.

Despite the seriously incriminating storefront claims, Allen insisted that his businesses couldn’t be held responsible for copyrighted TV shows, movies and sports received by customers on boxes his company supplied.

“We do not control the content that is accessible on the internet via the product that we sell. We are currently working with Trading Standards to ensure that we can sell our products whilst adhering to UK copyright laws,” he said.

This January, Allen appeared before Teesside Crown Court charged with laundering £135,173, money said to have been generated via the sale of pre-loaded set-top boxes and premium packages over a 30-month period.

Allen was expected to appear for a week-long trial scheduled to start this Monday but that was scrapped after the 40-year-old pleaded guilty to using or acquiring criminal property.

According to Gazette Live, a proceeds of crime hearing has been scheduled for next year. In the meantime, Allen was granted unconditional bail until sentencing on October 20, where he faces a potential jail sentence.

“I don’t know what the sentence will be until all the matters are known,” the judge said.

Ever since a European Court of Justice ruling earlier this year that found that selling “fully-loaded” streaming boxes are illegal, people in a similar position to Allen have seen their cases take a turn for the worse.

One such case, involving Middlesbrough shopkeeper Brian Thompson, appears to be progressing under different legislation, however. Thompson stands accused of two offenses under section 296ZB of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, which deals with devices and services designed to circumvent technological measures.

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

Medienberichten zufolge arbeitet Apple daran, das Innenleben des iPhone SE mit dem A10-Chipsatz des iPhone 7 zu aktualisieren. Auch zum mutmaßlichen Highend-Smartphone iPhone 8 gibt es neue Meldungen. (iPhone SE, Smartphone)

Oculus VR hat auf einen Wunsch der Rift-Besitzer reagiert: Durch Update auf Version 1.17 ist es nun möglich, etwa auf Steam gekaufte Virtual-Reality-Anwendungen direkt im Startmenü des VR-Headsets einzubinden. (Oculus Rift, Steam)

Entweder verlötet oder gesteckt im M.2-Formfaktor: Toshibas BG3 sind SSDs von der Größe eines Daumennagels mit bis zu einem halben Terabyte Speicherplatz. Sie integrieren 3D-Flash-Speicher und einen Controller, statt DRAM gibt es einen Software-Cache. (Toshiba, Speichermedien)

Immerhin stellt es der Publisher vor der Veröffentlichung ausführlich vor: Das Vollpreisspiel Mittelerde - Schatten des Krieges wird Spielern die Möglichkeit geben, Ausrüstung und Orks für echte Euro zu kaufen. (Mittelerde Schatten des Krieges, Rollenspiel)

Die elektronische Gesundheitskarte sollte Milliardensummen einsparen und Menschenleben retten. Mehr als elf Jahre nach ihrem Start ist nichts davon verwirklicht. Aus der Spitze des Gesundheitswesens kommen Zweifel, ob die Karte trotz Milliardeninvestition jemals das halten wird, was sie versprach. (Datenschutz, IBM)

From one Game of Thrones leak to another, read the news roundup for the week ending August 6, 2017

Continue reading ...

Asus and Verizon are now offering a follow-up to last year’s Zenpad Z8 tablet. The new model is called the Zenpad Z8s, and like last year’s model it’s an Android tablet with a 7.9 inch, 2048 x 1536 pixel IPS display and a $250 price tag. But the processor, memory, and operating system have all […]

Asus Zenpad Z8s hits Verizon for $250 is a post from: Liliputing

^{If you enjoy this episode, consider becoming a patron and getting involved with the show. Check out Steal This Show’s Patreon campaign: support us and get all kinds of fantastic benefits!}

In this episode, we meet Dan Hassan, a very early Bitcoin enthusiast who’s taking a different approach to making use of his cryptocurrency wealth. Instead of moving to Silicon Valley, buying a Tesla and funding dubious startups, Dan’s helping activists and progressives find their feet in crypto.

His aim is to create an extended gang of independently wealthy individuals who can dedicate themselves to disruption and the building of radical, new social alternatives. What could be more STEAL THIS SHOW?

*Please note, although we did manage to screw some crypto tips out of Dan, nothing in this show is to intended as financial advice. These are weird times. Literally no one can predict what’s going to happen!
—

Steal This Show aims to release bi-weekly episodes featuring insiders discussing copyright and file-sharing news. It complements our regular reporting by adding more room for opinion, commentary, and analysis.

The guests for our news discussions will vary, and we’ll aim to introduce voices from different backgrounds and persuasions. In addition to news, STS will also produce features interviewing some of the great innovators and minds.

Host: Jamie King

Guest: Robert Barat and Rob Vincent

Produced by Jamie King
Edited & Mixed by Riley Byrne
Original Music by David Triana
Web Production by Siraje Amarniss

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

Last summer, the torrent ecosystem lost two of its biggest stars. First, KickassTorrents was taken down following a criminal investigation by the FBI, resulting in indictments against the site’s operators.

Not long after KAT went offline, Torrentz.eu decided to close its doors as well, albeit voluntarily. Without prior warning, all torrent listings were removed from the meta-search engine, which was the third largest torrent site at the time.

The site’s operator confirmed the shutdown to TorrentFreak. The website itself was still on air but instead of the usual torrents, its users were left with the following message: “Torrentz will always love you. Farewell.”

Torrentz.eu says farewell

A year has passed since and Torrentz.eu is still online, but it remains torrent-less. An official explanation for the drastic action was never given, but it’s likely that legal pressure or the trouble at KAT weighed into the decision.

As we’ve seen with KAT, however, the Torrentz brand is still alive and kicking today. Soon after the original site ceased its regular operation, several ‘copies’ popped up, eager to take its place.

The most successful alternative, in terms of traffic, is the elegantly named Torrentz2.eu. Unlike many others, Torrentz2 has always been upfront with its users and never claimed to be an official resurrection. They just want to do what Torrentz did, or even better.

“We always wanted to operate a site as beautiful as the original torrentz site so recreating it was the only way to do it,” the site’s operator tells TorrentFreak.

Torrentz2 copied the look of Torrentz, but runs its own meta-search engine, indexing even more sites than its famous predecessor. At the time of writing the site covers 61,106,364 torrents from 241,559,021 pages on 80 domains.

“We want to add more sites to our index. There are 80 domains now. There is a really huge list of new torrent sites that we discover and will be added soon.
We are looking for hamsters to power up our servers, we believe that we are very close to finding them,” the operator says.

Torrentz2.eu, alive and kicking

The site hasn’t had any legal pressure yet, the operator says. In the future, they will continue down the same path, which doesn’t deviate much from the original site.

“We are trying to keep the feeling and the features of the original torrentz site. Features that are missing are the user comments and accounts but we are working
on it and will be added very soon.”

The public seems to appreciate the Torrentz alternative as well. The site has millions of active users today, which is pretty close to the original site. So for most people, not that much has changed actually.

In fact, it would not a surprise if many of the current Torrentz2 visitors have no clue that they’re not dealing with the “real” thing.

All in all, we can say that recent history has shown how flexible the torrent ecosystem can be when it comes to sudden site closures. Whether it’s KAT, Torrentz, isoHunt, EZTV, YTS or ExtraTorrents, users are quick to find an alternative and continue torrenting there, or move onto something new entirely.

While that may be a positive note for many torrent fanatics, for the sentimentalists it might be strange that those who worked hard to build certain brands for years are seemingly replaced so easily.

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