Month: December 2017

The Google Pixel 2 has one of the best smartphone cameras on the market, and one of the niftiest features is its support for portrait-style photos that blur the background. While that’s not an unusual feature for top-tier smartphones, most other phones that have a portrait mode use dual cameras to achieve it. Google’s Pixel […]

Camera NX brings Pixel 2 portrait mode to older Nexus, Pixel devices is a post from: Liliputing

The Google Pixel 2 has one of the best smartphone cameras on the market, and one of the niftiest features is its support for portrait-style photos that blur the background. While that’s not an unusual feature for top-tier smartphones, most other phones that have a portrait mode use dual cameras to achieve it. Google’s Pixel […]

Camera NX brings Pixel 2 portrait mode to older Nexus, Pixel devices is a post from: Liliputing

In July 2015, Portugal’s Ministry of Culture announced the signing of a memorandum between its own General Inspection of Cultural Activities (IGAC), the Portuguese Association of Telecommunication Operators (APRITEL), various rightsholder groups, the body responsible for administering Portugal’s .PT domain, and representatives from the advertising industry.

The memorandum laid out a new mechanism for blocking so-called ‘pirate’ sites. In common with similar frameworks elsewhere, the process can be triggered by a complaint from a rightsholder association. Local anti-piracy group MAPINET then collates evidence that a site is engaged in the unlawful distribution of copyright works and has failed to cease its activities.

The system was quickly utilized by rightsholders seeking to block access to their content. Within six months, 330 sites had been blocked by ISPs, but that was only the beginning. In the months and years that followed, hundreds more sites were rendered inaccessible but in common with similar programs elsewhere, no official list of blocked sites was made available. People are keeping watch, however.

SitesBloqueados (Blocked Sites) is a web portal run by Revolução dos Bytes (Bytes’ Revolution), a group of like-minded anti-censorship activists in Portugal. Created a few months after blocking began in the region, their comprehensive database now contains almost 1,400 domains, the majority of which have been blocked on copyright grounds.

“SitesBloqueados was mainly created because, although the Memorandum of Understanding contained certain requirements to make a site eligible to be blocked – such as 500 items [or links] to copyright content or one third of the site containing copyrighted material – there was no official way to validate that data and make sure that these ‘rules’ are being respected,” team member Henrique Mouta informs TF.

The manner in which the list is maintained is quite unique. As mentioned earlier, there are no official sources listing blocked domains so the people behind SitesBloqueados had to get creative. Alongside this project they also run Ahoy!, a Chrome and Firefox extension that allows users to circumvent censorship in Portugal and it’s through that tool they gather information.

“Ahoy! basically bypasses any traffic to a blocked site through our own proxies, allowing the users to navigate in a free, uncensored internet,” Henrique explains.

As this extension works on a whitelist basis, we had to create a mechanism to automatically detect and whitelist sites that have been blocked, so if a user accesses a blocked site that is not on our list yet, we get a notification so we can review the site and add it to the list. That is the list that is also powering SitesBloqueados.pt.”

When the voluntary agreement was first announced, local ISPs came under intense criticism for agreeing to work with copyright holders without need for a court process. However, Henrique says they are actually in a precarious position.

“We usually see the ISPs as the bad guys, blocking sites, throttling our internet and, more recently, going against the Internet Neutrality. But, in this particular case, all the major ISPs are forced to block any sites that have been requested in 15 days, or they might pay fines for every single day after the deadline.

“MAPiNET (MOVIMENTO CÍVICOANTI PIRATARIA NA INTERNET) is the organization, alongside with IGAC (Inspecção Geral Das Actividades Culturais), that compiles the lists of sites and sends them to the ISP. It’s usually two lists per month. Of course, I’m not excusing the ISPs, as they should stand up against censorship. But we all know that’s asking too much of them,” Henrique adds.

Interestingly, the first site blockade in Portugal wasn’t actioned on copyright grounds. It was, in fact, targeted at Uber.com.

“This happened in June 2015, after a court order to suspend all Uber activity in Portugal. This opened a huge precedent, with all these anti-piracy organizations seeing how easy is to block a site, technically speaking.

“So, at the end of August of that same year, the [anti-piracy] Memorandum was signed by all the parties and, since then, both MAPiNET and IGAC have the power to request any site block, without any court order, without any legal order,” Henrique notes.

This lit a fire under the team and two and half years later, Ahoy! is now being used by 100k people to unblock almost 1,400 sites, while feeding back information on newly blocked domains. These are then added to the blocklist database and considered for unblocking methods via the addon.

Currently, around 50 new domains are blocked every month in Portugal and Henrique and the team are determined to document every one of them. They believe that by keeping an eye on things publicly, it lets the anti-piracy groups know they are being watched and cannot act with impunity. Around 90% of all blocked domains are restricted on copyright grounds but some also fall foul of new gambling laws that forbid unlicensed sites.

From the beginning, the big question has surrounded potential abuse. So, given the lack of a court process, have any players attempted to game the system?

“So far, we haven’t seen any signs of intentional abuse. There have been a few problems with sites being wrongly blocked. The most popular case is Carbon Games site that was blocked nearly two years ago, and it was mistaken for a different site, a Gambling site, named Carbon Gaming,” Henrique says.

“A few months later, we detected another case. A Spanish journalist had a website where he was posting videoclips of the latest releases. All of these releases were originally on YouTube, uploaded by the respective owners, however that was not enough to keep the site alive.”

Under pressure from Revolução dos Bytes this block was reversed but it’s not the only instance of errors. Non-existent sites have been blocked as have sites publishing headlines and linking to the respective online newspapers.

With blocking continuing at a steady pace, dozens of new domains are restricted every month. But Henrique and the team believe it won’t achieve anything positive and only serves to harm the Internet and democracy.

“Blocking sites to prevent piracy is the same as being on a sinking submarine, trying to patch every leaking hull hole with duct tape. If they want to fight piracy, they should try to understand, in the first place, why it happens and what they can do to change it.

“It’s well known that having cheap and quality services like Netflix and Spotify helped Internet piracy levels drop to record lows, DRM issues aside, of course. And the worst of it is the timing: these organizations see the decreasing levels of piracy as a signal that their stupid censorship is actually working. I’m really afraid that this is now an unstoppable snowball. The Internet in Portugal has seen much better days,” Henrique concludes.

But while he’s pessimistic over current developments, it appears that the Ahoy! movement is only set to grow. The team say they want to bring the browser-based system to other countries that are suffering from similar blockades and that suggestions from the public are welcome.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and more. We also have VPN discounts, offers and coupons

There are a lot of things you can do to modify Amazon’s 2017 line of Fire tablets without rooting them. You can install the Google Play Store, try alternate launchers, and more. But there are even more things you can do with root access… it’s just that up until recently there was no good way to […]

Amazon Fire HD 10 (2017) can be rooted (running Fire OS 5.6 or earlier) is a post from: Liliputing

Kurz vor Neujahr hat Intel noch einen neuen Grafiktreiber für integrierte GPUs veröffentlicht. Er soll die Leistung in Direct3D-11-Spielen steigern und unter D3D12 oder Vulkan mit Multisampling-Kantenglättung eine höhere Bildrate liefern. (Grafikchip, Prozessor)

Zhaoxin hat die KX-5000 genannten x86-Chips vorgestellt, die mit DDR4-Speicher und einer Grafikeinheit ausgerüstet sind. Mit den KX-6000 soll der Takt kräftig steigen und spätestens mit den KX-7000 will Zhaoxin die Leistung von AMDs Ryzen erreicht haben. (Prozessor, TSMC)

Obgleich Apple eigentlich erst im Januar 2018 bei diversen Modellen - darunter iPhone 6(S) und iPhone 7 - den Akku für einen geringeren Preis wechseln wollte, hat der Hersteller den Austausch zumindest in Nordamerika noch vor Neujahr gestartet. (iPhone, Apple)

Konferenz, Barcamp, Jobmessen: Im 20. Jahr unseres Bestehens haben wir uns an Veranstaltungen gewagt - und gewonnen. Abseits davon haben wir wieder viel probiert, verworfen und natürlich geschrieben und gefilmt. Von Benjamin Sterbenz (Golem.de, Internet)

Every year we write roughly 900 articles here at TorrentFreak, and some are more popular than others.

On the brink of 2018, we look back at 2017 by going over the 17 most read news items of the year.

The ExtraTorrent shutdown was a clear eye catcher. Not only was it the most read article, there are also two related news items in the list.

All in all, it was quite a controversial year once again. Website and domain issues tend to be popular items, as the full list shows, as are the inevitable Game of Thrones mentions.

But what will 2018 bring?

1. ExtraTorrent Shuts Down For Good

Popular torrent site ExtraTorrent shut down in May. The abrupt decision was announced in a brief message posted on the site’s homepage and came as a complete surprise to many friends and foes.

2. Pirate Streaming Site 123Movies Rebrands as GoMovies

Pirate movie streaming site 123movies renamed itself to GoMovies for a fresh start last March. With the brand change and a new domain name, the popular site hoped to set itself apart from the many fake sites. Interestingly, the site has recently moved back to the old 123movies brand again.

3. Game of Thrones Episode “S07E06” Leaks Online Early

The sixth episode of the last Game of Thrones season leaked online early in August. Soon after, it was widely shared on various streaming and download portals The leak turned out to be the result of an error at HBO Spain.

4. ExtraTorrent’s Main Domain Name Shut Down By Registrar

Prior to its shutdown, ExtraTorrent lost control of its main domain Extratorrent.cc. The domain name was disconnected by the registrar, presumably after a copyright holder complaint.

5. ‘Putlocker’ Loses Domain Name Following Court Order

Putlockers.ch lost its domain name in February. The site’s registrar EuroDNS was ordered to suspend the domain name following a decision from a Luxembourg court, in favor of an entertainment industry group.

6. ExtraTorrent’s Distribution Groups ettv and EtHD Keep Going

ExtraTorrent shut down, but several popular release groups that originated on the site kept the name alive. Later in the year, ettv and EtHD launched their own website which is slowly gaining traction.

7. Anime Torrent Site NYAA Goes Down After Domain Name Deactivation

Popular anime torrent site NYAA lost control over several of its domain names last Spring. Several people later pointed out that NYAA’s owner decided to close the site voluntarily.

8. Popular Kodi Addon ‘Exodus’ Turned Users into a DDoS ‘Botnet’

Users of the popular Kodi addon Exodus became unwittingly part of a DDoS attack in February. After the issue raised eyebrows in the community, the Exodus developer rolled back the malicious code and retired.

9. Porn Pirate Sites Use ‘Backdoor’ to Host Videos on YouTube

Last January adult streaming sites were found to use Google’s servers to store infringing material at no cost. While streaming sites have exploited Google’s servers for a long time, the issue hit the mainstream news this year.

10. The Pirate Bay’s .SE Domain is Back in Action

The Pirate Bay’s .SE domain name sprang back into action in October, after it was deactivated. A few months later, the Supreme Court decided that it should be handed over to the authorities. TPB, meanwhile, sails on, relying on its original .org domain.

11. Man Leaks New ‘Power’ Episodes Online, Records His Own Face

Last summer a man leaked several episodes of the smash-hit TV series Power. The episodes were ‘cammed’ using a phone, with the ‘cammer’ recording his own face for good measure.

12. Live Mayweather v McGregor Streams Will Thrive On Torrents Tonight

The Mayweather v McGregor fight last August was a streaming success, but not just on legal channels. While centralized streaming services had a hard time keeping up with the unprecedented demand, lesser known live streaming torrents thrived.

13. The Pirate Bay Website Runs a Cryptocurrency Miner

In September, The Pirate Bay decided to use the computer resources of its visitors to mine Monero coins. This resulted in a heated debate. Supporters saw it as a novel way to generate revenue and a potential to replace ads, while opponents went out of their way to block the mining script.

14. Hackers Leak Netflix’s Orange is The New Black Season 5

In April the hacking group “TheDarkOverlord” leaked a trove of unreleased TV shows and movies. The group uploaded several videos, including episodes of Netflix’s Orange is The New Black, which it obtained the content from a post-production studio.

15. Demonoid Returns After Two Months Downtime

After nearly two months of downtime, the semi-private BitTorrent tracker Demonoid resurfaced online in March. The site was pulled offline due to hosting problems and had to endure some internal struggles as well.

16. “We Won’t Block Pirate Bay,” Swedish Telecoms Giant Says

In February a landmark ruling compelled a Swedish ISP to block The Pirate Bay. Copyright holders hoped that other ISPs would follow suit but telecoms giant Telia said it had no intention of blocking The Pirate Bay, unless it’s forced to do so by law.

17. Former Vuze Developers Launch BiglyBT, a ‘New’ Open Source Torrent Client

In August two long-time developers of the Vuze BitTorrent client, formerly known as Azureus, launched BiglyBT. The client emerged at a time when Vuze development stalled. The developers promised to take the project forward while removing all advertising and other annoyances.

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Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and more. We also have VPN discounts, offers and coupons

Gleiche Leistung, gleiche Funktionen: Den Smartphone-Herstellern fällt nichts Neues mehr ein. Das erschwert Kunden die Wahl und wirft die Frage auf, was wir für 2018 überhaupt noch erwarten können. Eine Analyse von Tobias Költzsch (Smartphone, Apple)