Das kleine Eingabegerät Tourbox soll die Steuerung von Photoshop und Lightroom vereinfachen und mit Grafiktabletts und der Mausbedienung harmonieren. (Eingabegerät, Photoshop)
Das kleine Eingabegerät Tourbox soll die Steuerung von Photoshop und Lightroom vereinfachen und mit Grafiktabletts und der Mausbedienung harmonieren. (Eingabegerät, Photoshop)
Das kleine Eingabegerät Tourbox soll die Steuerung von Photoshop und Lightroom vereinfachen und mit Grafiktabletts und der Mausbedienung harmonieren. (Eingabegerät, Photoshop)
Das kleine Eingabegerät Tourbox soll die Steuerung von Photoshop und Lightroom vereinfachen und mit Grafiktabletts und der Mausbedienung harmonieren. (Eingabegerät, Photoshop)
Tesla hat die Marke von 100.000 produzierten Model-3-Elektroautos erreicht. Das Unternehmen brauchte zuvor einige Jahre, um 100.000 Stück der Modellreihen S und X zu bauen. (Tesla Model 3, Elektroauto)
Tesla hat die Marke von 100.000 produzierten Model-3-Elektroautos erreicht. Das Unternehmen brauchte zuvor einige Jahre, um 100.000 Stück der Modellreihen S und X zu bauen. (Tesla Model 3, Elektroauto)
Last year the film industry launched a legal search engine that targets ‘pirates’ specifically. The site is set up in such a way, that it draws people who search for pirate related terms. However, this also appears to have confused the “Web Sheriff,” who targeted the site’s URLs with takedown notices.
The Web Sheriff, aka John Giacobbi, has been protecting the Internet from pirates for well over a decade.
In the early days, he became somewhat of a cult figure thanks to his polite style and trademarked letterhead. This set him apart from other anti-piracy crusaders who usually sent DMCA takedown requests with a more aggressive lawyer-like style.
The Sheriff once had a lively discussion with The Pirate Bay folks, who then sent him this invoice fax. Not much later relationships deteriorated even further after Giacobbi announced he would sue the site’s operators in the US, France, and Sweden, but not much came of that.
In recent years the Web Sheriff hasn’t been parading in public much, but together with his deputies, he remains on duty. In recent years he has sent thousands and thousands of takedown requests to Google, for example.
We like to stay updated on the Sheriff’s accomplishments and when we looked at some recent submissions one targeted domain name stood out. Over the past weeks, Film.nl was targeted twice on behalf of the American film distributor NEON. The first time it listed a “Borg vs McEnroe” URL and later an “I, Tonya” link.
Granted, if you look at the pages in question, they might look suspicious with terms such as “I, Tonya torrent” and “I, Tonya downloaded,” surrounded by incomprehensible Dutch words.
I, Tonya on Film.nl
Way above that, however, there are eleven legal platforms listed. These include iTunes, Google Play and various local movie platforms, something a human reviewer can hardly miss.
The keywords such as “torrent” and downloaden” are used to draw in pirates who search for illegal content using these terms. If we translate the Dutch text below “I, Tonya torrent” we read the following.
“Do you think that in order to watch I, Tonya, you still have to find a torrent? Good news: that’s no longer the case. Nowadays there are several alternatives to illegal torrents. So you no longer have to search for torrents on websites that are bursting with viruses.”
A clever way to confuse some pirates, perhaps, but maybe it’s an idea to alert the Web Sheriff as well next time, before he starts shooting at innocent targets again.
Researchers from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, conducted a study to find out which piracy warnings are seen as most effective by the general public. As it turns out, more explicit variants tend to be favored. “STOP. This is illegal. You may be monitored and you may be fined,” paired with an appropriate warning icon, is seen as relatively most effective.
Over the past decades, the entertainment industries have tried out numerous anti-piracy campaigns.
From “don’t copy that floppy,” “copyright alerts,” to “get it right,” and everything in between, it has been tried.
The problem with these campaigns is that it’s hard to measure the direct effect. This prompted psychology researchers Joanne Ullman and Clayton Silver from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, to conduct a controlled experiment.
The results, published in an article titled “Perceived Effectiveness of Potential Music Piracy Warnings” show that some warnings are more effective than others.
The researchers conducted a study where students would see a series of piracy warning labels. These came with one of four icons, depicted below, as well as one of the signal words; NOTICE, IMPORTANT, and STOP. For each of these, five different warning categories were created.
1. Icon + Signal word – No warning
2. Icon + Signal word – “This is illegal”
3. Icon + Signal word – “This is illegal. You may be fined.
4. Icon + Signal word – “This is illegal. You may be monitored.”
5. Icon + Signal word – “This is illegal. You may be monitored and you may be fined.”
4 icons were tested with varying signal words and warnings
The students then had to rate each of these 60 warning messages for perceived effectiveness. These ratings were then analyzed to see if some are believed to work better than others, which was indeed the case.
The computer icon with a download arrow and a slash through it received the highest rating. The one of the right, with the cross and without the computer, was seen as least effective.
“The highest perceived warning effectiveness icon was the computer with the download paired with a slash; whereas, the no computer with the download followed by the cross, had the lowest perceived warning effectiveness,” the researchers write.
As for the signal words, both IMPORTANT and STOP were seen as more effective than NOTICE. This is something senders of infringement ‘notices’ might want to keep in mind.
When it comes to warnings, the combination of “this is illegal” with “you may be monitored and fined” received the highest perceived effectiveness rating. The control group where no warning was shown was the least effective.
These findings suggest that the more explicit warnings work better. Indeed, that’s also the case when the researchers pinpointed the most effective combinations of all, with an example pictured on the right.
The most effective warning includes a computer for context, a download symbol, a slash symbol, the signal words STOP or IMPORTANT, and a message with all consequences (fined and monitored).
It is worth noting that these results are about ‘perceived’ effectiveness. While that’s a decent indicator, it doesn’t say anything about how these warnings would change the behavior of an actual audience of pirates.
This experiment is limited to a small set of warnings, but the researchers believe that developing an effective warning label can help to deter piracy and inform consumers.
The research suggests that explicit warnings are better than vague ones. In addition, we would caution that some campaigns can also go too far. Over the past decade, the “Piracy. It’s a crime” PSA has been mocked and ridiculed for being overly dramatic, without much substance.
Joanne Ullman, lead author of the article, tells us that the “Piracy. It’s a Crime” campaign isn’t particularly informative and therefore not very explicit. Providing explicit information about the risks appears to be most effective.
“This may be of value to some consumers given that we all have varying levels of risk aversion due to personality and/or situational factors,” Ullman says.
“For others, perhaps being reminded of these restrictions would embolden them to take legal and proactive measures to change current policies. The overall aim of this research is to maximize the capacity of people to make sound decisions for themselves.”
Researchers from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, conducted a study to find out which piracy warnings are seen as most effective by the general public. As it turns out, more explicit variants tend to be favored. “STOP. This is illegal. You may be monitored and you may be fined,” paired with an appropriate warning icon, is seen as relatively most effective.
Over the past decades, the entertainment industries have tried out numerous anti-piracy campaigns.
From “don’t copy that floppy,” “copyright alerts,” to “get it right,” and everything in between, it has been tried.
The problem with these campaigns is that it’s hard to measure the direct effect. This prompted psychology researchers Joanne Ullman and Clayton Silver from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, to conduct a controlled experiment.
The results, published in an article titled “Perceived Effectiveness of Potential Music Piracy Warnings” show that some warnings are more effective than others.
The researchers conducted a study where students would see a series of piracy warning labels. These came with one of four icons, depicted below, as well as one of the signal words; NOTICE, IMPORTANT, and STOP. For each of these, five different warning categories were created.
1. Icon + Signal word – No warning
2. Icon + Signal word – “This is illegal”
3. Icon + Signal word – “This is illegal. You may be fined.
4. Icon + Signal word – “This is illegal. You may be monitored.”
5. Icon + Signal word – “This is illegal. You may be monitored and you may be fined.”
4 icons were tested with varying signal words and warnings
The students then had to rate each of these 60 warning messages for perceived effectiveness. These ratings were then analyzed to see if some are believed to work better than others, which was indeed the case.
The computer icon with a download arrow and a slash through it received the highest rating. The one of the right, with the cross and without the computer, was seen as least effective.
“The highest perceived warning effectiveness icon was the computer with the download paired with a slash; whereas, the no computer with the download followed by the cross, had the lowest perceived warning effectiveness,” the researchers write.
As for the signal words, both IMPORTANT and STOP were seen as more effective than NOTICE. This is something senders of infringement ‘notices’ might want to keep in mind.
When it comes to warnings, the combination of “this is illegal” with “you may be monitored and fined” received the highest perceived effectiveness rating. The control group where no warning was shown was the least effective.
These findings suggest that the more explicit warnings work better. Indeed, that’s also the case when the researchers pinpointed the most effective combinations of all, with an example pictured on the right.
The most effective warning includes a computer for context, a download symbol, a slash symbol, the signal words STOP or IMPORTANT, and a message with all consequences (fined and monitored).
It is worth noting that these results are about ‘perceived’ effectiveness. While that’s a decent indicator, it doesn’t say anything about how these warnings would change the behavior of an actual audience of pirates.
This experiment is limited to a small set of warnings, but the researchers believe that developing an effective warning label can help to deter piracy and inform consumers.
The research suggests that explicit warnings are better than vague ones. In addition, we would caution that some campaigns can also go too far. Over the past decade, the “Piracy. It’s a crime” PSA has been mocked and ridiculed for being overly dramatic, without much substance.
Joanne Ullman, lead author of the article, tells us that the “Piracy. It’s a Crime” campaign isn’t particularly informative and therefore not very explicit. Providing explicit information about the risks appears to be most effective.
“This may be of value to some consumers given that we all have varying levels of risk aversion due to personality and/or situational factors,” Ullman says.
“For others, perhaps being reminded of these restrictions would embolden them to take legal and proactive measures to change current policies. The overall aim of this research is to maximize the capacity of people to make sound decisions for themselves.”
Study finds people prefer complicated methods because that’s what they’re used to.
Enlarge/ The wrongful conviction of Sally Clark for the murder of her two sons is a famous case of misuse of statistics in the courts. (credit: Chris Young, PA Images/Getty Images)
In 1999, an English solicitor named Sally Clark went on trial for the murder of her two infant sons. She claimed both succumbed to sudden infant death syndrome. An expert witness for the prosecution, Sir Roy Meadow, argued that the odds of SIDS claiming two children from such an affluent family were 1 in 73 million, likening it to the odds of backing an 80-1 horse in the Grand National four years in a row and winning every time. The jury convicted Clark to life in prison.
But the Royal Statistical Society issued a statement after the verdict insisting that Meadow had erred in his calculation and that there was "no statistical basis" for his stated figure. Clark's conviction was overturned on appeal in January 2003, and the case has become a canonical example of the consequences of flawed statistical reasoning.
A new study in Frontiers in Psychology examined why people struggle so much to solve statistical problems, particularly why we show a marked preference for complicated solutions over simpler, more intuitive ones. Chalk it up to our resistance to change. The study concluded that fixed mindsets are to blame: we tend to stick with the familiar methods we learned in school, blinding us to the existence of a simpler solution.
Interior Department hasn’t responded to a FOIA request, so New Jersey has sued.
Enlarge/ Oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico. There are nearly 5,000 functioning oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico and 27,000 abandoned wells. (credit: Dave Walsh/VW Pics/UIG via Getty Images)
This week, New Jersey's attorney general sued the US Department of the Interior (DOI) for failing to comply with a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request seeking more information about why the DOI exempted Florida from offshore oil drilling lease auctions but not any other state.
The drama started earlier this year when Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke moved to open more than 90 percent of federal offshore land to lease by oil and gas companies for oil drilling. State waters extend three miles offshore, at which point federal control over the waters and sea bed underneath it begin. This means that states don't always have a lot of control over whether there's an offshore oil drilling rig 3.1 miles offshore and beyond.
But some states contend that they should have more say in whether the federal government leases out its waters to offshore oil drilling because the states bear the economic brunt of any oil spills that happen. (The Deepwater Horizon rig, for example, was 41 miles off the coast of Louisiana.) For that reason, Democratic and Republican governors alike, from 10 of the states near newly opened federal waters, have opposed the Trump administration's efforts to open up their offshore areas.
Interior Department hasn’t responded to a FOIA request, so New Jersey has sued.
Enlarge/ Oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico. There are nearly 5,000 functioning oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico and 27,000 abandoned wells. (credit: Dave Walsh/VW Pics/UIG via Getty Images)
This week, New Jersey's attorney general sued the US Department of the Interior (DOI) for failing to comply with a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request seeking more information about why the DOI exempted Florida from offshore oil drilling lease auctions but not any other state.
The drama started earlier this year when Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke moved to open more than 90 percent of federal offshore land to lease by oil and gas companies for oil drilling. State waters extend three miles offshore, at which point federal control over the waters and sea bed underneath it begin. This means that states don't always have a lot of control over whether there's an offshore oil drilling rig 3.1 miles offshore and beyond.
But some states contend that they should have more say in whether the federal government leases out its waters to offshore oil drilling because the states bear the economic brunt of any oil spills that happen. (The Deepwater Horizon rig, for example, was 41 miles off the coast of Louisiana.) For that reason, Democratic and Republican governors alike, from 10 of the states near newly opened federal waters, have opposed the Trump administration's efforts to open up their offshore areas.
Good mileage and standard driver-assist tech but some baffling design choices.
In 2005, Lexus became the first luxury carmaker to deliver a hybrid to market. The RX 400h was an all-wheel drive 3.3-liter V6 with a pair of electric motors, one for each set of wheels. Lexus had the luxury hybrid market to itself for several years, so if you wanted a luxury ride with a side of green, it was the only game in town. At the cusp of the 2019 model year, however, there are now plenty of options to choose from—including some promising EVs from the likes of Jaguar and Audi. But Lexus—the second-most-popular luxury badge in the US—is still in the game, with five models at different price points.
Starting at $38,535, the NX 300h sits at the low end of the luxury-SUV price spectrum. Marketed by Lexus as a compact SUV, the NX 300h measures 182.3" (4,632cm), which is just a couple of inches shorter than an Audi Q5, Alfa Romeo Stelvio, or BMW X3. The NX 300h got a makeover at the beginning of 2018, adding a larger infotainment display, enhanced safety features, modest design tweaks, and a larger touchpad on the center console. While the NX 300 (formerly the NX200t) has a 2.0-liter inline four-cylinder engine, the NX 300h has a larger 2.5-liter inline four coupled with a pair of electric motors that charge via the internal combustion engine and regenerative braking. Combined, the hybrid power plant is capable of 194hp (144.7kW) and 152lb-ft (206.1Nm) of torque. It's no speed demon, getting you from zero to 60mph in 9.1 seconds.
Das kleine Eingabegerät Tourbox soll die Steuerung von Photoshop und Lightroom vereinfachen und mit Grafiktabletts und der Mausbedienung harmonieren. (Eingabegerät, Photoshop) 
Tesla hat die Marke von 100.000 produzierten Model-3-Elektroautos erreicht. Das Unternehmen brauchte zuvor einige Jahre, um 100.000 Stück der Modellreihen S und X zu bauen. (
The 
Over the past decades, the entertainment industries have tried out numerous anti-piracy campaigns. 
Indeed, that’s also the case when the researchers pinpointed the most effective combinations of all, with an example pictured on the right. 
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