Month: September 2018

Nutzer von Windows 8.1 und MacOS El Capitan können künftig keine Updates für die Creative Cloud beziehen. Einige Programme wie Premiere Pro sind auch nicht mehr mit Windows 7 kompatibel. Aktuelle und ältere Versionen sind weiterhin installierbar. (Creative Cloud, Mac OS X)

While dozens of torrents sites have come and gone over the years, TNTVillage has managed to stay online for more than a decade. Focused on the Italian market, the site had a clear mission.

TNTVillage was created in 2005 to offer Italians, especially those living abroad, an opportunity to maintain access to “culture, art and intellectual works” via non-profit sharing using peer-to-peer networks.

“The main aim of this site was to highlight the now obsolete copyright law, which, due to the long duration of the protection of these rights, turns out to be a brake on culture and the spread of knowledge,” an early statement from its operators reads.

“Therefore, a drastic reduction of these ‘guarantee times’ is essential to ensure that some works can be freely disseminated, both for cultural purposes but also more simply for hedonistic purposes.”

TNTVillage’s operators sought a change in the law to free up access to content, particularly material that may have been forgotten or not made available at all, yet still subject to restrictions due to copyright terms.

However, TNTVillage set its own boundaries, ones which prevented the site from making content available in the months following its initial release, in order to respect the right of creators to make a living.

Now, however, TNTVillage is under intense legal pressure after a group of media and publishing companies filed a complaint against the platform at the Tribunale di Milano (Court of Milan).

Among the complainants are the Italian Publishers Association, Federation for the Protection of Audiovisual and Multimedia Content (FAPAV), Edi. Ermes (scientific publisher), Eagle Pictures (Italian film distribution and production company), plus at least eight other companies and groups.

Their complaint targets Associazione Scambio Etico (Ethical Exchange Association), the Italian association connected to TNTVillage that has long campaigned for the freedom to share knowledge. It also names Luigi Di Liberto, the operator of TNTVillage, who is believed to be around 65-years-old.

Di Liberto posted the complaint himself on Facebook some weeks ago but since TNTVillage has seemingly remained up without significant interruption, the news is only now filtering through.

The complaint against TNTVillage

The heavyweight companies behind the complaint claim that TNTVillage uses BitTorrent technology to spread their copyrighted works between members of the site, something which infringes their rights and damages their business.

According to photographs posted by Di Liberto to Facebook, authorities visited what appears to be Di Liberto’s home, carrying out a search and examining and copying the contents of his computer hard drive.

Search underway

Quite how this situation will now play out isn’t yet clear. Legal wheels can turn slowly and in some cases, don’t actually result in any progress, as the history of TNTVillage shows.

Back in 2006, authorities seized the site’s server but more than a year later it was returned, with no legal action taken against its operators. Only time will tell if this action in 2018 will have a different outcome but meanwhile, there is some fallout.

On August 31, fellow Italian platform TNTRip announced that following TNTVillage’s problems, it would be closing its doors.

“As a precautionary measure, given the bad time TNTVillage is passing, TNTRip will remain offline until further notice,” its statement reads.

“At the moment we can not provide a service that guarantees complete safety for both the provider and those who use it. We trust that you the users will understand why, while we are all waiting for new developments.”

Finally, while TNTVillage is undoubtedly involved in the spread of copyrighted content, nine years ago the site itself experienced its own data being shared in public.

In July 2009, around 50,000 usernames, passwords and email addresses belonging to site members were uploaded to various torrent sites after the site was hacked.

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

Die deutsche Automobilindustrie will eine 100-prozentige 5G-Abdeckung. Die Bundesnetzagentur ist bis zum Jahr 2022 zunächst mit 500 5G-Funkmasten zufrieden. (Roaming, Telekom)

MSI zeigt mit dem P65 Creator ein Notebook mit dedizierter Nvidia-Grafik, Coffee-Lake-H-CPU und einem für diese Produktklasse ungewöhnlich großen Akku. Das alles steckt das Unternehmen in ein Gehäuse, das nicht aufdringlich wirkt. Wie das Razer Blade ist das aber nicht ganz preiswert. (MSI, Notebook)

Für den NUC8 alias Hades Canyon gibt es eine aktuelle Radeon Software: Intel hat den Treiber aktualisiert, nachdem es monatelang keine neuere Version gab. Mit der Radeon Software 18.8.2 erhält die Vega-M-Grafikeinheit des KBL-G-Chips mehr Leistung und weniger Fehler. (Radeon Software, Intel)

Der Erfinder der CI/CD-Lösung Jenkins, Kohsuke Kawaguchi, stellt Pläne für die Software vor. Er will die Entwicklung von Jenkins 2 beschleunigen und zugleich eine Cloud-Native-Version veröffentlichen, die auf Kubernetes läuft. (Open Source, Lego)

Einige Hersteller haben auf der Ifa neue komplett kabellose Ohrhörer vorgestellt. Während Sony bereits in diesem Segment aktiv ist, betreten Sennheiser und Audio Technica diesen Marktbereich erstmals. Es wird erwartet, dass Apple diesen Monat mit den Airpods 2 ebenfalls neue Bluetooth-Stöpsel vorstellt. Von Ingo Pakalski (Ifa 2018, Sony)

Over the past decade, online video streaming has become the preferred media consumption tool for many, and more and more people are getting on board.

While legal streaming tools such as Netflix and YouTube have a massive reach, unauthorized streaming sites and services have grown alongside.

To curb this trend several new anti-piracy initiatives have popped up. These include the Coalition Against Piracy (CAP). The group launched last year as CASBAA’s anti-piracy arm and is now backed by its successor, the Asia Video Industry Association (AVIA).

To get an overview of the latest developments TorrentFreak reached out to AVIA’s Neil Gane, who works as the Coalition Against Piracy‘s General Manager. While he prefers not to mention any specific piracy targets, Gane emphasizes that pirate streaming boxes remain a top enforcement priority.

“I can say that CAP’s immediate focus is on infringing applications and its associated ecosystem, including the preloaded illicit streaming devices (ISD) used to access infringing content,” Gane informs TF.

These illicit streaming devices are boxes pre-configured to stream pirated content. This allows users to watch free movies and TV-shows, or live broadcasts including sports games, which millions do.

The streaming box problem isn’t an easy one to solve. However, Gane hopes that a lot of progress can be made when various industry players and organizations work together.

“There is no one silver bullet to streaming piracy and the infringing APK ecosystem. And there will always be a small number of consumers who prefer to free-ride,” Gane says.

“What is required is a holistic solution with all stakeholders including content producers, distributors and industry associations working together to address this serious and growing problem.”

AVIA already works closely together with similar-minded groups. This includes the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment, which is very active in the US, with which it shares intelligence and resources. This results in more efficient and effective investigations, Gane notes.

While the entertainment industry has a similar goal, AVIA would also like various governments to work together. By providing the rights enforcement tool and updating copyright law, where needed. Thus far, progress on this front has been slow.

“The impact that intellectual property crimes can have on a country’s economy is now widely accepted. But this recognition does not always result in legislative change and meaningful solutions,” Gane tells TF.

“Unfortunately, some policymakers in Asia have chosen to delay any action on ISDs and the APK infringing ecosystem, whilst the problem grows and enters the consumer mainstream.”

But even when the entertainment industries and governments are aligned, more collaboration is required. In particular from Internet services such as online shopping platforms and payment providers.

There is some progress on this front. For example, PayPal and Mastercard are helping to address the piracy problem in Asia, and so are local e-commerce platforms such as Lazada.

“Working alongside e-market platforms and social media sites where ISDs are commonly traded, as well as disrupting illicit commercial transactions at the point of sale are key components of any anti-piracy strategy,” Gane notes.

“Over the last 8 months CAP has been working closely with popular e-markets in SE Asia as well as local and international payment processors including PayPal and Mastercard.”

Overall, the key term is collaboration. According to Gane, things are going well between local and international industry associations.

AVIA and the Coalition Against Piracy itself are a good example of collaboration too. The latter protects the interests of many major players in the region, including Disney, Fox, HBO Asia, NBCUniversal, Premier League, Turner Asia-Pacific, BBC Worldwide, National Basketball Association, TV5MONDE, Viacom International, and others.

More progress can be made against streaming piracy if governments and Internet services work along as well. That, however, is more easily said than done.

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

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Unitymedia startet mit Conrad Connect sein erstes IoT-Projekt mmit Lora. Der Kabelnetzbetreiber kann mit wenigen Sendern ein Dutzend Kilometer ausleuchten. (IoT, Heimvernetzung)