Month: December 2018

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Mit Project Malta hat Alphabets Entwicklungssparte X einen Weg gefunden, Energie mithilfe von Salz zu speichern. Das Projekt ist jetzt ausgegliedert worden und agiert fortan als eigenes Unternehmen. (Alphabet, Google)

Mehrere Tage nach der Komplettsperrung des Flughafens Gatwick durch Drohnen-Flüge in der Umgebung hat die britische Polizei zwei Verdächtige festgenommen. Die Hintergründe sind noch unklar, ebenso die Kosten für die betroffenen Fluggesellschaften. (Luftfahrt, Internet)

Massive Nutzerproteste haben Logitech zum Umdenken veranlasst: Die Möglichkeit des lokalen Zugriffs auf den Harmony Hub wurde nun wieder freigegeben, nachdem ein Firmware-Update der undokumentierten Funktion zuvor den Garaus gemacht hatte. (Logitech, API)

Anyone wanting to develop new skills can find information to do so on the Internet. While many areas can benefit from one-to-one instruction, tutorials on how to accomplish most things under one’s own steam can be found online.

The majority of online tutorials are completely non-controversial but when it comes to learning skills that have the potential to break the law, things get a little more volatile.

This is particularly evident in the online piracy scene. With just a few clicks of a mouse, people can learn how to obtain content without paying for it, learn how to crack software or bypass anti-piracy mechanisms on pay TV, for example. It’s been this way for at least a couple of decades and doesn’t appear to be going away anytime soon.

That’s perhaps why there was such outcry on Reddit this week when a long-standing tutorial on how to pirate Adobe CC was taken down following a copyright complaint.

The tutorial, titled ‘Pirating Adobe CC for Dummies’, was posted in 2016 and was presumably interesting to the many thousands of people who read it, whether they went on to pirate anything or not. However, a takedown notice received by Reddit saw the tutorial removed.

Taken down after two years

The text that now sits in place of the tutorial doesn’t indicate that the takedown notice was sent by Adobe. However, it seems fairly likely the world-famous software company was behind the effort. In any event, Reddit clearly viewed the tutorial as problematic and removed it.

This ignited a very lively discussion about the legality of the tutorial, with people pointing out that it didn’t link to any unauthorized Adobe content, nor did it directly link to any of the tools required to pirate the company’s software.

Perhaps more surprisingly, however, is that many users turned their anger on Reddit’s admins, who were accused of taking the site in a corporate direction while pleasing shareholders with the takedown of content, this tutorial in particular. In fact, many posts discussed where users of /r/piracy could move to, in order to escape perceived censorship on Reddit.

There are several angles to this issue, none of which are straightforward. TorrentFreak showed the original thread to three lawyers at separate companies while pointing out the lack of links to copyrighted content, to see if this aspect might play a role in the validity of the original claim.

None particularly wanted to commit on whether the tutorial itself was illegal but in off-the-record comments, two independently touched on contributory infringement, “a means by which a person may be held liable for infringement even though he or she did not actually engage in infringing activities.”

TorrentFreak also sought comment from the EFF but at the time of publishing, we were yet to receive a response. Clearly, getting definitive answers on the legality of the tutorial itself wasn’t going to be easy but perhaps that’s the distraction here.

After receiving the complaint, Reddit was compelled by law to take the content down. There is, of course, the possibility to file a counter-notice, which would enable the author to challenge Adobe’s assertions of infringement (if that’s who sent the notice) and allow the content to go back up, at least for a while.

However, it is extremely unlikely the author of the tutorial would be prepared to file a counter-notice because that would mean a) identifying him or herself (with a statement including “name, address, and telephone number, and a statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of federal district court for the judicial district in which the address is located”) and b) exposing themselves to a potential lawsuit if the sender wanted to make a point.

This leads, of course, to the inevitable conclusion. Few people who write this kind of tutorial want to be exposed or find themselves on the end of a lawsuit, whether they believe they have the law on their side or not. For most people, expensive lawsuits are not fun and the fight for freedom of speech and access to information often stop when the bills come flooding in.

So, with no counter-claim forthcoming, the tutorial stays down and Reddit keeps its own safe harbor protections, ready to fight another day.

None of this should come as a surprise to anyone. Adobe trying to protect its content? Reddit responding to copyright takedown demands? Piracy tutorial creators not wanting to be part of a lawsuit? A heated debate over freedom of speech? It’s just another day at the office in the copyright world.

Finally, it’s worth noting that the /r/piracy sub-Reddit now has another copyright complaint to add to the increasing tally, despite the best efforts of its moderators who, like Reddit’s admins, may soon have tough choices to make about what content can stay and what must go.

Adobe did not respond to TorrentFreak’s request for comment.

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

Das Thema Gett hat sich bei Volkswagen offenbar erledigt: Wie Insider berichten, soll der Autohersteller trotz des erheblichen finanziellen Aufwands in der Vergangenheit seine Investitionen in den Konkurrenten von Uber und Lyft abgeschrieben haben. (VW, Wirtschaft)

Wir finden löchrige Wasserwerke im Internet. Die Befreiung der Meere von Plastik erleidet einen Rückschlag. Nachts versuchen wir, bei prasselndem Regen einzuschlafen. (Golem-Wochenrückblick, Internet)

Over the past year there has been a wave of copyright infringement lawsuits against alleged cheaters or cheat makers.

Two of the driving forces behind these cases are GTA V developer Rockstar Games and its parent company Take-Two Interactive.

In Australia, the companies filed a lawsuit in September, targeting several people believed to be linked to the popular “Infamous” cheat.

This lawsuit is notable because the Federal Court of Australia signed off on several broad enforcement actions. Not only were the defendants restrained from any cheating related activity, they were also the subject of a search and assets freezing order.

With the orders in hand, a search party was permitted enter several buildings and search, copy, or remove relevant evidence including any computers and documents related to “Infamous.” In addition, the freezing order prevented defendants from taking out more money than needed for regular expenses.

According to court documents, several devices and hardware belonging to defendant Christopher Anderson were indeed taken. While the case remains active, this week the court decided to return some of the seized items.

The list of returned items includes several laptops, an iPad and an iPhone, as seen below. In addition, the court also listed the assets freezing order. This will help the defendant to prepare his defense.

Returned devices

The order was issued after both parties appeared before the Australian Federal Court this week to discuss progress in the case. Anderson appeared via phone and chose to represent himself.

The defendant told the court that he is working on a defense but that this had been a challenge without access to funds and an unspecified “confidential” document, ZDNet reports.

According to Justice Nicholas, who has seen the document in question, the lack of access should not prohibit Anderson from preparing a defense.

This was also made clear in the order. After an earlier extension, the alleged cheat developer is now required to submit his reply on or before February 1st, 2019.

During the hearing, it also became clear that PayPal has frozen Anderson’s funds for 180 days. This money remains locked for now, which may continue until March.

Counsel for Rockstar Games and Take-Two Interactive contacted PayPal about the issue but it appears that there’s not much they can do about it.

“It is between him and PayPal and they do not appear to be the easiest depositors to have one’s money,” the Counsel said. “They have their own terms and conditions, and they do their own thing.”

March will be too late for the defendant. He has little more than a month to file a response, which means that he likely has to rely on other resources.

Finally, it’s worth noting that earlier court documents mentioned several possible defendants, referring to the “person or persons” known as Christopher Anderson, Cycus Lesser, Sfinktah, Koroush Anderson, and Koroush Jeddian. The latest court records only mention Christopher Anderson.

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

The One Mix 2S Yoga from One Netbook is a tiny laptop with an Intel Core m3-8100Y Amber Lake processor, 8GB of RAM, 256GB of storage, a touchscreen display, pen support, and a… kind of lousy keyboard. You can’t have everything, right? Still, over the past year or two we’ve seen a handful of tiny laptops from […]

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