Month: September 2017

Rückkehr der A-Serie: Das Thinkpad A275 und das Thinkpad A475 verwenden AMD-Chips. Lenovo kombiniert die Bristol Ridge mit viel RAM, schnellen SSDs, einem LTE-Modem und USB Type C. (Thinkpad, AMD)

Ein Startup möchte Hotelkunden weltweit zu einem praktischen Begleiter verhelfen, der den Urlaub mit organisiert sowie kostenfreien Internetzugang und Telefonate ermöglicht. Leider hat das Unternehmen sich keine Gedanken zur IT-Sicherheit gemacht. Ein Bericht von Hauke Gierow (Handy, Smartphone)

Google kann so bürokratisch sein wie jedes andere Unternehmen. Eine Kundin von Google Fiber war mehrere Tage ohne Internetversorgung, weil sie durch eine Steuererhöhung plötzlich zwölf Cent schuldete. (Google Fiber, Google)

Founded way back in 2006, SwePiracy grew to become one of the most famous private torrent sites on the Swedish scene. Needless to say, it also became a target for anti-piracy outfits.

Six years after its debut and following an investigation by anti-piracy group Antipiratbyrån (now Rights Alliance), during 2012 police in Sweden and the Netherlands cooperated to shut down the site and arrest its operator.

In early 2016, more than four years on, SwePiracy’s then 25-year-old operator appeared in court to answer charges relating to the unlawful distribution of a sample 27 movies between March 2011 and February 2012. The prosecution demanded several years in prison and nearly $3.13 million (25 million kronor) in damages.

SwePiracy defense lawyer Per E. Samuelsson, who previously took part in The Pirate Bay trial, said the claims against his client were the most unreasonable he’d seen in his 35 years as a lawyer.

In October 2016, three weeks after the full trial, the Norrköping District Court handed down its decision. Given some of the big numbers being thrown around, the case seemed to turn out relatively well for the defendant.

While SwePiracy’s former operator was found guilty of copyright infringement, the prosecution’s demands for harsh punishment were largely pushed aside. A jail sentence was switched to probation plus community service, and the millions of dollars demanded in damages were reduced to ‘just’ $148,000, payable to movie outfit Nordisk Film. On top, $45,600 said to have been generated by SwePiracy was confiscated.

Almost immediately both sides announced an appeal, with the defendant demanding a more lenient sentence and the prosecution naturally leaning the other way. This week the case was heard at the Göta Court of Appeal, one of the six appellate courts in the Swedish system.

“We state that the District Court made an inaccurate assessment of the damages. So the damages claim remains at the same level as before,” Rights Alliance lawyer Henrik Pontén told Sweden’s IDG.

“There are two different approaches. We say that you have to pay for the entire license [for content when you infringe]. The District Court looked at how many times the movies were downloaded during the period.”

According to Pontén, the cost of such a license is hypothetical since there are no licenses available for distributing content through entities such as torrent sites, which have no mechanisms for control and no limits on sharing. That appears to have motivated the prosecution to demand a hefty price tag.

In addition to Rights Alliance wanting a better deal for their theoretical license, the official prosecutor also has issues with the amount of money that was confiscated from the platform.

“The operator has received donations to run the site. I have calculated how much money was received and the sum that the District Court awarded was almost half of my calculations,” Henrik Rasmusson told IDG.

Only time will tell how the Court of Appeal will rule but it’s worth noting that the decision could go either way or might even stand as it is now. In any event, this case has dragged on for far too long already and is unlikely to end positively for any of the parties involved.

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

Mit seinen Fritzboxen hat AVM viel vor. Der Mesh-Nachbau, der bisher auf einigen aktuellen Fritzboxen getestet wird, soll bald als Update bereitstehen. Perspektivisch sind auch Kabelboxen, weitere Geräte und zusätzliche Standards geplant. (Ifa 2017, DSL)

Trotz Early-Access-Status hat Playerunknown's Battlegrounds mittlerweile über zehn Millionen Käufer gefunden - und damit mehr als manch aufwendig beworbenes Vollpreisspiel. Chefentwickler Brendan Greene hat nun die Zahlen von League of Legends ins Visier genommen. (Playerunknown's Battlegrounds, Steam)

Oneplus hat für das Oneplus Three eine erste geschlossene Beta von Android 8.0 veröffentlicht, das 3T und das Oneplus Five sollen in Kürze ebenfalls eine erste Oreo-Version erhalten. Die öffentliche Beta soll möglicherweise schon Ende September 2017 erscheinen. (Android 8.0, Applikationen)

Huaweis Atlas-Plattform nutzt Fusionserver-G-Systeme, um Ressourcen für Kunden in der Cloud bereitzustellen. Das Besondere: Sie soll sich für ressourcenaufwendige Anwendungen wie KI eignen. (Huawei, Microsoft)

Domains von Webservices, die aufgegeben wurden, können ein Sicherheitsrisiko für Webseiten darstellen. Mittels einer nicht mehr genutzten Azure-Subdomain hätte der Autor des Artikels die Kontrolle über zahlreiche Webseiten erlangen können. Von Hanno Böck (Sicherheitslücke, Yahoo)

Nach über zwei Jahren ist Ark Survival Evolved aus dem Early Access. Das Grundprinzip, alleine oder gemeinsam prähistorischer Flora und Fauna zu trotzen, unterhält oft prächtig. Die Fehler und die schwache Performance nerven allerdings weiterhin. Ein Test von Marc Sauter (Ark Survival Evolved, Spieletest)