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The Apple Watch wasn’t the first smartwatch to hit the market, but it’s thought to be the best-selling device in its category. So what’s next? Apple has a new version of WatchOS scheduled to launch this fall, with new fitness-tracking features, additional Siri voice assistant functionality, and other improvements. And according to a report from […]
Apple’s next smartwatch may support 4G LTE is a post from: Liliputing
The Apple Watch wasn’t the first smartwatch to hit the market, but it’s thought to be the best-selling device in its category. So what’s next? Apple has a new version of WatchOS scheduled to launch this fall, with new fitness-tracking features, additional Siri voice assistant functionality, and other improvements. And according to a report from […]
Apple’s next smartwatch may support 4G LTE is a post from: Liliputing
“Halt use of all DJI products,” Army Aviation commands.
Enlarge / Because the cyber. (credit: Brad Jones)
The US military has a lot of drones—and an unending demand from troops in the field for more. As a result, the Army has for some time allowed units to purchase hundreds of off-the-shelf drones made by DJI, the Chinese consumer drone maker. The Army Aviation Directorate has provided "airworthiness releases" for DJI drones over 300 times for a variety of missions, according to a memorandum issued by the directorate's deputy chief of staff.
But now all of those drones are getting pulled from service, as the result of classified findings in a May study by the Army Research Lab at Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland, as well as a Navy memorandum citing "operational risks" in using DJI drones. The memorandum ordering the ban was obtained by Small UAS News.
The reason may be related to information gathering by DJI's products that could include geographic location of flights, audio, and video.
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The greatest tournament of all time for the greatest game of all time.
Enlarge / The aegis of champions. (credit: Valve)
The biggest competition in all of e-sports is about to kick off in earnest: the Dota 2 International 2017 starts on Monday. Sixteen teams will compete in Seattle's KeyArena for a prize pool of more than $23 million dollars, with the winning team alone picking up more than $10 million.
For reasons that aren't remotely clear to me, there are still a few people out there who don't play Valve's free-to-play masterpiece, Dota 2. Sure, you'll have to sink a casual couple of hundred hours into the five-on-five action real-time strategy game to really have a good grasp of it, but it's the most richly rewarding (and occasionally frustrating) gaming experience in the world.
Dota 2 has a large professional competitive scene, with several million dollar competitions over the year, and Valve's The International is the biggest of them all—the highlight of the Dota 2 calendar. The group stage is already underway, with the main event starting in front of the live crowd on Monday August 7th at 10AM Pacific (you can track the progress at the Flying Courier).
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An Illinois federal court has denied a motion to dismiss the criminal case against alleged KickassTorrents owner Artem Vaulin. Among other things, the defense argued that torrent files themselves are not copyrighted content. The court decided, however, that the US Government’s case is strong enough, so it will move forward.
Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.
Last summer, Polish law enforcement officers arrested Artem Vaulin, the alleged founder of KickassTorrents.
Polish authorities acted on a criminal complaint from the US Government, which accused Vaulin of criminal copyright infringement and money laundering.
While Vaulin is still awaiting the final decision in his extradition process in Poland, his US counsel tried to have the entire case thrown out with a motion to dismiss submitted to the Illinois District Court late last year.
One of the fundamental flaws of the case, according to the defense, is that torrent files themselves are not copyrighted content. In addition, they argued that any secondary copyright infringement claims would fail as these are non-existent under criminal law.
After a series of hearings and a long wait afterwards, US District Judge John Z. Lee has now issued his verdict (pdf).
In a 28-page memorandum and order, the motion to dismiss was denied on various grounds.
The court doesn’t contest that torrent files themselves are not protected content under copyright law. However, this argument ignores the fact that the files are used to download copyrighted material, the order reads.
“This argument, however, misunderstands the indictment. The indictment is not concerned with the mere downloading or distribution of torrent files,” Judge Lee writes.
“Granted, the indictment describes these files and charges Vaulin with operating a website dedicated to hosting and distributing them. But the protected content alleged to have been infringed in the indictment is a number of movies and other copyright protected media that users of Vaulin’s network purportedly downloaded and distributed..,” he adds.
In addition, the defense’s argument that secondary copyright infringement claims are non-existent under criminal law doesn’t hold either, according to the Judge’s decision.
Vaulin’s defense noted that the Government’s theory could expose other search engines, such as Google, to criminal liability. While this is theoretically possible, the court sees distinct differences and doesn’t aim to rule on all search engines in general.
“For present purposes, though, the Court need not decide whether and when a search engine operator might engage in conduct sufficient to constitute aiding and abetting criminal copyright infringement. The issue here is whether 18 U.S.C. § 2 applies to 17 U.S.C. § 506. The Court is persuaded that it does,” Judge Lee writes.
Based on these and other conclusions, the motion to dismiss was denied. This means that the case will move forward. The next step will be to see how the Polish court rules on the extradition request.
Vaulin’s lead counsel Ira Rothken is disappointed with the outcome. He stresses that while courts commonly construe indictments in a light most favorable to the government, it went too far in this case.
“Currently a person merely ‘making available’ a file on a network in California wouldn’t even be committing a civil copyright infringement under the ruling in Napster but under today’s ruling that same person doing it in Illinois could be criminally prosecuted by the United States,” Rothken informs TorrentFreak.
“If federal judges disagree on the state of the federal copyright law then people shouldn’t be criminally prosecuted absent clarification by Congress,” he adds.
The defense team is still considering the best options for appeal, and whether they want to go down that road. However, Rothken hopes that the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals will address the issue in the future.
“We hope one day that the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals will undo this ruling and the chilling effect it will have on internet search engines, user generated content sites, and millions of netizens globally,” Rothken notes.
For now, however, Vaulin’s legal team will likely shift its focus to preventing his extradition to the United States.
Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.
Wallets’ BTC exchanged for XMR, anonymous cryptocash favored by Shadowbrokers.
Enlarge (credit: Monero)
When the master or masters of the WannaCry cryptoransomware worm emptied the bitcoin wallets associated with the malware earlier this week, they apparently did so to make future movement of the funds more anonymous. According to researchers at the Italian information security firm Neutrino, the bitcoin were exchanged for XMR, the "untraceable" private digital currency backed by Monero.
On Wednesday, the 52.2 bitcoins in the wallet were drained out over nine transactions, as detected by a bot created by Quartz's Keith Collins. Neutrino researchers traced the moved bitcoins to wallets associated with Monero.
Monero is a private digital currency that is focused on anonymity. While it is based on blockchain like other cryptocurrencies and uses distributed consensus for all transactions to prevent wallet hacking, it uses "ring signatures"—an anonymous cryptographic signature scheme—to sign transactions. This makes it impossible to tell which parties were involved in a transaction when examining the blockchain itself.
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Most Android phones, tablets, and TV boxes sold in the US ship with the Google Play Store pre-installed. Some devices, like the Amazon Fire line of tablets lack the Play Store, but it’s often easy to find a way to load it yourself. But the Play Store isn’t the only place to find Android apps. […]
How to get Android apps without using the Play Store is a post from: Liliputing
Most Android phones, tablets, and TV boxes sold in the US ship with the Google Play Store pre-installed. Some devices, like the Amazon Fire line of tablets lack the Play Store, but it’s often easy to find a way to load it yourself. But the Play Store isn’t the only place to find Android apps. […]
How to get Android apps without using the Play Store is a post from: Liliputing
The charges stem from an alleged Ponzi-like scheme.
Enlarge / NEW YORK, NY - AUGUST 4: Former pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli arrives at the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, August 4, 2017 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. Jurors are onto the fifth day of deliberations and have not reached a verdict. Shkreli faces eight counts of securities fraud and conspiracy to commit securities and wire fraud. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images) (credit: Getty | Drew Angerer)
After nearly five full days of deliberations, the jury has found Martin Shkreli guilty of three counts of securities fraud. Specifically, he has been found guilty on two counts of securities fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud.
The notorious ex-pharmaceutical CEO was charged with eight counts of securities and wire fraud, stemming from what federal prosecutors described as a Ponzi-like scheme. Prosecutors argued during the five-weeks of testimony and examinations that Shkreli defrauded investors of two hedge funds he managed and siphoned millions from a pharmaceutical company he founded, Retrophin, in order to cover losses in those funds. Shkreli, most infamous for dramatically raising the price of an anti-parasitic drug by more than 5,000 percent, was arrested and charged in December of 2015. He faces up to 20 years in prison.
Shkreli's legal team, headed by Benjamin Brafman, argued during the trial that although Shkreli didn't "look great" on paper, he was a "brilliant mind" who lacked intent to defraud investors.
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Google is expected to launch at least two new smartphones later this year, and while the official names haven’t been revealed yet, it’s likely that one will be a follow-up to the 2016 Google Pixel, while the other will be a larger phone which replaces the Pixel XL in Google’s lineup. A lot of leaks […]
These photos show the 2nd-gen Google Pixel (probably) is a post from: Liliputing
Google is expected to launch at least two new smartphones later this year, and while the official names haven’t been revealed yet, it’s likely that one will be a follow-up to the 2016 Google Pixel, while the other will be a larger phone which replaces the Pixel XL in Google’s lineup. A lot of leaks […]
These photos show the 2nd-gen Google Pixel (probably) is a post from: Liliputing
Oliver Schmidt will be sentenced in Detroit in December.
Enlarge (credit: Getty Images)
A former Volkswagen executive has pleaded guilty to two charges related to the company’s diesel emissions scandal. He is the second VW Group employee to do so, following retired engineer James Liang pleading guilty last summer.
The VW Group executive, Oliver Schmidt, was based outside of Detroit and was in charge of emissions compliance for Volkswagen in the years before the company was caught using illegal software to cheat on federal emissions tests. Schmidt, a German citizen who was 48 when he was arrested in Miami in January on vacation, was originally charged with 11 felony counts. In accepting a plea deal from US federal officials, Schmidt will only plead guilty to two charges: conspiracy to defraud the US government and violate the Clean Air Act, and making a false statement under the Clean Air Act.
In this handout provided by the Broward Sheriff's Office, suspect Oliver Schmidt, an executive for Volkswagen, poses in this undated booking photo. Schmidt was arrested January 7, 2017 in Florida. (credit: Broward Sheriff's Office/Handout/Getty Images)
Schmidt will be sentenced in December. He could face up to seven years in prison, as well as fines from $40,000 to $400,000, according to the plea agreement. After that, Schmidt could also be required to serve four years of supervised release.
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FCC accused of prioritizing “raw dollars” over small businesses and consumers.
Enlarge / Democrats vs. Republicans. (credit: Getty Images | Linda Braucht)
The Federal Communications Commission proposal to repeal net neutrality rules ignores the public interest by favoring Internet service providers over other businesses and individuals, Democratic lawmakers told the FCC today.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's proposal to undo the rules "impermissibly ignores the Commission’s core mandate to fully consider the public interest before taking action," violating the commission's obligations under the Communications Act, the Democrats wrote in an FCC filing opposing Pai's plan. The lawmakers also questioned Pai's independence from President Donald Trump.
The FCC has prioritized one metric above all—the amount of money Internet providers have spent on upgrading networks since the rules were passed in 2015, Democrats wrote. The argument that investment has decreased is based on "scant evidence and questionable assumptions," and in any case, network investment should not be the FCC's only consideration, they wrote.
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