The city follows only Massachusetts, which has banned cashless stores since 1978.
Enlarge/ Shoppers scan the Amazon Go app on the mobile devices as they enter the Amazon Go store, on January 22, 2018 in Seattle, Washington. (credit: Photo by Stephen Brashear/Getty Images)
This week, Philadelphia's mayor signed a bill that would ban cashless retail stores, according to The Morning Call. The move makes Philadelphia the first major city to require that brick-and-mortar retail stores accept cash. Besides Philadelphia, Massachusetts has required that retailers accept cash since 1978, according to CBS.
The law takes effect July 1, and it will not apply to stores like Costco that require a membership, nor will it apply to parking garages or lots, or to hotels or rental car companies that require a credit or debit card as security for future charges, according to the Wall Street Journal. Retailers caught refusing cash can be fined up to $2,000.
Amazon, whose new Amazon Go stores are cashless and queue-less, reportedly pushed back against the new law, asking for an exemption. According to the WSJ, Philadelphia lawmakers said that Amazon could work around the law under the exemption for stores that require a membership to shop there, but Amazon told the city that a Prime membership is not required to shop at Amazon Go stores, so its options are limited.
Ajit Pai's latest claim that his deregulatory policies have increased broadband deployment may be based in part on a gigantic error.
Pai's claim was questionable from the beginning, as we detailed last month. The Federal Communications Commission data cited by Chairman Pai merely showed that deployment continued at about the same rate seen during the Obama administration. Despite that, Pai claimed that new broadband deployed in 2017 was made possible by the FCC "removing barriers to infrastructure investment."
But even the modest gains cited by Pai rely partly on the implausible claims of one ISP that apparently submitted false broadband coverage data to the FCC, advocacy group Free Press told the FCC in a filing this week.
Die Bundesnetzagentur hat Eckpunkte für den künftigen Aufbau von Telekommunikationsnetzen wie 5G vorgestellt. Demnach müssen “kritische Kernkomponenten” überprüft und zertifiziert werden – sowohl die Hardware als auch der Quellcode. (Huawei, Mobilfunk)…
Die Bundesnetzagentur hat Eckpunkte für den künftigen Aufbau von Telekommunikationsnetzen wie 5G vorgestellt. Demnach müssen "kritische Kernkomponenten" überprüft und zertifiziert werden - sowohl die Hardware als auch der Quellcode. (Huawei, Mobilfunk)
The repository shows Calculator's surprisingly long history. Although it is in some regards one of the most modern Windows applications—it's an early adopter of Fluent Design and has been used to showcase a number of design elements—core parts of the codebase date all the way back to 1995.
The actual calculations are performed by this ancient code. Calculator's mathematics library is built using rational numbers (that is, numbers that can be expressed as the ratio of two integers). Where possible, it preserves the exact values of the numbers it is computing, falling back on Taylor series expansion when an approximation to an irrational number is required. Poking around the change history shows that the very earliest iterations of Windows Calculator, starting in 1989, didn't use the rational arithmetic library, instead using floating point arithmetic and the much greater loss of precision this implies.
Da werden natürlich Erinnerungen an Duke Nuken Forever geweckt: Das Entwicklerstudio 3D Realms hat ein neues Actionspiel namens Wrath vorgestellt. Es basiert auf der Quake-Engine – soll aber bereits im Sommer 2019 erscheinen. (3D Realms, Duke Nukem For…
Da werden natürlich Erinnerungen an Duke Nuken Forever geweckt: Das Entwicklerstudio 3D Realms hat ein neues Actionspiel namens Wrath vorgestellt. Es basiert auf der Quake-Engine - soll aber bereits im Sommer 2019 erscheinen. (3D Realms, Duke Nukem Forever)
Last December, Canada amended its Copyright Act to prevent abuse of the notice-and-notice regime. As a result, copyright holders are no longer allowed to demand cash in infringement notices and ISPs aren’t obliged to pass them on. Sadly, the rules are being ignored.
When Internet users download or share copyrighted content online, particularly using BitTorrent, they should presume that copyright holders are watching.
Transfers that take place without the protection of a VPN, for example, are easily traced back to ISPs, who have the ability to link that activity to a specific account, when asked to do so.
In many cases this results in an ISP forwarding an infringement notice to a customer on behalf of a rightsholder, to warn that an account may have been used to breach copyright. However, over the years some rightsholders (often referred to as ‘copyright trolls’) have taken things a step further by including demands for cash in their notices.
In Canada, where a so-called ‘notice-and-notice‘ system is in place, this wasn’t well received by the government. So much so that during December 2018, the law was amended to prohibit companies from sending notices containing the following:
(a) an offer to settle the claimed infringement; (b) a request or demand, made in relation to the claimed infringement, for payment or for personal information; (c) a reference, including by way of hyperlink, to such an offer, request or demand;
“Such notices are deemed to be invalid under the regime,” government advice reads.
Unfortunately, however, copyright holders are ignoring the new law.
A notice sent by Eastlink, an ISP headquartered in Halifax, Canada, to one of its customers and reviewed by TorrentFreak, reveals a copyright holder breaching every single rule detailed above.
Filed by anti-piracy outfit Digital Millennium Forensics, on behalf of Elevation Pictures, the notice claims infringement of the 2015 movie ‘Into The Forest’. It lists the time and date of the alleged infringement (in January 2019) along with the alleged infringer’s IP address.
What follows is a wall of text, citing various laws and “recent amendments to the Copyright Act, which came into force on November 7, 2012” outlining the rights of Elevation Pictures and warning that the company could seek to unmask the subscriber through the courts, “should this matter remain unresolved.”
Of course, like all such companies, Elevation Pictures doesn’t want to take the matter to court. What it really wants is money.
“In order to help avoid legal action, we have been authorized by Elevation Pictures to offer you a settlement opportunity that we believe is reasonable for everyone,” Digital Millennium Forensics writes.
That offer, of course, clearly breaches rules (a) and (b) detailed above but the notice soon creeps ever closer to a full house by breaching rule (c) too.
“To access the settlement offer for this claim, you have until [a date three weeks after the notice was issued (redacted for privacy reasons)] to visit the provided URL and complete the settlement instructions,” it reads.
TorrentFreak obtained written permission from the Eastlink customer to access the provided URL. Below is a redacted version of the offer to settle, which is clearly in breach of the new government guidelines. (Note: TF has redacted the dollar amount too since it is very specific indeed and may identify the subscriber. However, we can confirm it is between CAD$250 and CAD$300)
A clear demand for cash, contrary the government’s wishes
It’s no surprise that both copyright holders and anti-piracy companies are failing to respect the terms of the new regime. There are no penalties for sending non-compliant notices, so there’s no incentive for copyright holders and their agents to follow the rules.
Furthermore, while there is no obligation on ISPs to forward non-compliant notices, that is clearly happening at Eastlink. The ISP does inform its customers that any notices falling foul of the rules (a), (b), or (c) are invalid, but sends them anyway.
This is problematic. Not only will some people feel pressured to pay up whether they’re the infringer or not, the notice seen by TF contains references to the “Copyright Act, R.SC, 1985″, and “(i) the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, (ii) the Universal Copyright Convention, (iii) bilateral treaties with other countries including Canada, and/or those copyright laws and regulations as cited herein.”
Legal jargon such as that highlighted above is not easily understood by the layman and can be difficult to comprehend without professional legal advice. It’s not unexpected, therefore, to find recipients who are overwhelmed by notice that simply shouldn’t have been sent.
TorrentFreak wrote to Eastlink asking why clearly abusive notices are being forwarded to its customers. Jill Laing, Head of Public Relations & Media, informed us that the volume of notices being received presents a problem for Internet service providers.
“The federally regulated Notice and Notice regime has resulted in ISPs receiving millions of such notices a year, which presents significant challenges for operators to filter,” Laing said.
“While we are compliant with the federal government’s legislation, we have and continue to provide clear communication to our customers that these specific types of notices are not valid. We fully support and encourage government and industry initiatives that would prevent copyright holders from sending invalid notices such as these.”
While it can indeed be reasonably argued that the government’s recent amendments go some way to dealing with the issue, the loopholes are clear to see and, as predicted, are now being abused by rightsholders.
Late last year, a coalition including Canada’s major ISPs called on the Government to create a standard for copyright infringement notices. This would make it easier to handle the massive volume of notices. In addition, the companies asked for a meaningful deterrent to stop those who breach the rules.
TF asked Eastlink if it had ever told complainants that sending abusive notices is unacceptable. We also asked whether the company would consider not sending abusive notices to customers in the future. We received no response to either question.
With the loopholes in the new rules clearly being exploited, notice recipients should be aware that the government offers the following advice:
“The Notice and Notice regime does not impose any obligations on a subscriber who receives a notice, and it does not require the subscriber to contact the copyright owner or the intermediary.”
The Microsoft Surface Book line of products are 2-in-1 laptops with detachable displays that you can use as tablets. When Microsoft launched the 2nd-gen version in late 2017, the company offered two different screen sizes: 13.5 inches and 15 inches, as…
The Microsoft Surface Book line of products are 2-in-1 laptops with detachable displays that you can use as tablets. When Microsoft launched the 2nd-gen version in late 2017, the company offered two different screen sizes: 13.5 inches and 15 inches, as well as two different processor options: Intel Core i5-7300U dual-core or Core i7-8650U quad-core. […]
Laserscanner sollen beim autonomen Fahren eine wichtige Rolle spielen. Nun will die Google-Schwester Waymo mit einem selbst entwickelten Modul zum Hardware-Hersteller werden. (Autonomes Fahren, Google)
Laserscanner sollen beim autonomen Fahren eine wichtige Rolle spielen. Nun will die Google-Schwester Waymo mit einem selbst entwickelten Modul zum Hardware-Hersteller werden. (Autonomes Fahren, Google)
Lack of guidelines leads to capricious, reactive responses to controversy.
Enlarge/ One of the few safe-for-work images of Rape Day offered on the game's Steam page before it was taken down.
Since last June, Valve has claimed that "the right approach is to allow everything onto the Steam Store," with only minor exceptions for content that is "illegal or straight-up trolling." But Valve's decision to block controversial upcoming title Rape Day from Steam shows its actual moderation policy is more reactive and restrictive than originally promised.
Rape Day attracted plenty of headlines over the last week or so for its pre-release description of a visual novel where you "control the choices of a menacing serial killer rapist during a zombie apocalypse." Trailers and screenshots posted to the game's (now-deleted, archived, extremely NSFW) Steam page show some very basic branching dialogue choices amid brutal static scenes of hardcore pornography and sexual violence.
Developer Desk Lamp said in a March 4 update that the game had been submitted to Steam for approval and that "the review process was taking longer than expected." Yesterday afternoon, Valve posted a short blog post stating directly that "Rape Day will not ship on Steam":
New 250kW V3 Superchargers will start appearing later this year.
Enlarge/ The plug design will remain the same, but you'll know a V3 Supercharger by its much thicker cable. (credit: Tesla)
On Wednesday night, Tesla announced that it has developed a new, faster Supercharger for its electric vehicles. Currently, the company's almost-13,000 Superchargers top out at 120kW.
This was class-leading when Tesla started building out the network; at the time, the fastest DC Fast charger you could find for CHAdeMO or CCS maxed out at just 50kW. But times change, and companies like ElectrifyAmerica and ChargePoint are rolling out new DC Fast chargers for these standards that are capable of recharging a car at much higher power—350kW in the case of ElectrifyAmerica and 500kW in the case of ChargePoint.
Rather than be left behind, Tesla got busy developing its own solution. It's called the V3 Supercharger, and it can support up to 250kW per car, from a cabinet that's rated at 1MW. Tesla says that "[a]t this rate, a Model 3 Long Range operating at peak efficiency can recover up to 75 miles of charge in 5 minutes and charge at rates of up to 1,000 miles per hour."
Die Bundesnetzagentur hat Eckpunkte für den künftigen Aufbau von Telekommunikationsnetzen wie 5G vorgestellt. Demnach müssen "kritische Kernkomponenten" überprüft und zertifiziert werden - sowohl die Hardware als auch der Quellcode. (
Da werden natürlich Erinnerungen an Duke Nuken Forever geweckt: Das Entwicklerstudio 3D Realms hat ein neues Actionspiel namens Wrath vorgestellt. Es basiert auf der Quake-Engine - soll aber bereits im Sommer 2019 erscheinen. (
Laserscanner sollen beim autonomen Fahren eine wichtige Rolle spielen. Nun will die Google-Schwester Waymo mit einem selbst entwickelten Modul zum Hardware-Hersteller werden. (
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