Der in finanziellen Schwierigkeiten steckende Elektroautohersteller Faraday Future hat mit dem V9 ein neues Fahrzeug angekündigt, obwohl noch nicht einmal das vor zwei Jahren vorgestellte Modell auf dem Markt ist. (Faraday Future, Technologie)
Der in finanziellen Schwierigkeiten steckende Elektroautohersteller Faraday Future hat mit dem V9 ein neues Fahrzeug angekündigt, obwohl noch nicht einmal das vor zwei Jahren vorgestellte Modell auf dem Markt ist. (Faraday Future, Technologie)
Verwunderung über die neue Netflix-Version auf iOS: Nutzern fehlt nach dem Update die Airplay-Funktion. Dies ist laut Netflix kein Fehler: Airplay wird wegen Apples Ausweitung von Airplay 2 auf Fernseher nicht mehr unterstützt. (Airplay, Apple)
Verwunderung über die neue Netflix-Version auf iOS: Nutzern fehlt nach dem Update die Airplay-Funktion. Dies ist laut Netflix kein Fehler: Airplay wird wegen Apples Ausweitung von Airplay 2 auf Fernseher nicht mehr unterstützt. (Airplay, Apple)
Under pressure from Reddit’s administrators over copyright issues, the site’s largest forum dedicated to piracy discussion has opted for “The Nuclear Option”. After voting by its contributors, all posts older than six months are now being deleted. That’s almost 10 years of data, the vast majority of it completely legal. The negative effects are already being felt.
With around a quarter of a billion monthly users, Reddit is one of the most important sites on the Internet.
The site plays host to millions of live discussions on countless topics ranging from the mundane to obviously controversial.
Recently we’ve reported on the troubles being faced by /r/piracy, Reddit’s most popular sub-Reddit focused on piracy discussion.
In an article published mid-March 2019, we reported how the moderators of the forum were making best efforts to keep content on the right side of the law and within Reddit’s rules. Just a handful of days later, however, the moderators received notice from Reddit that they were receiving too many copyright complaints from rightsholders.
For a sub-Reddit that has strict rules forbidding anyone posting links to infringing content, the notification came as a disappointment. While some complaints were legitimate (some people simply won’t abide by the rules and some posts do get missed), many were not. This placed the forum’s moderators between a rock and a hard place.
According to some of the copyright notices filed with Reddit, simply posting an alleged pirate site homepage URL warranted a complaint, even when that URL didn’t link to any infringing content. We’ve seen the same kind of issues before, when copyright holders have made attempts to have site homepages delisted from Google, despite their content never appearing there.
Further complicating the process is that the moderators of /r/piracy have no ability to respond to potentially false allegations. If a user makes a post that results in a copyright notice, only that user (or Reddit’s admins) are in a position to dispute the claim with the notice sender, so that rarely happens. Even if it does, nothing is made public.
Meanwhile, the notices keep building up, despite best efforts and whether they’re valid or not. Even people simply posting names of releases are being flagged for copyright infringement, something that isn’t illegal in any form. As a result, those posts too are now being removed, as quickly as the mods can reach them.
“I have begun unofficially removing release posts and it’s quite sad considering that a rather large bulk of our users look forward to them every day, I know I did,” moderator ‘dysgraphical‘ informs TF.
“We have had days when releases were the highlight of the day filled with hundreds of comments of excited people discussing the film. This has all been scrubbed now. We recently had an April Fool’s ‘Avengers: Endgame’ release post hit r/all and while the community was happy to meme on being fooled, a few users were concerned that copyright holders might act on it and have it removed.”
It’s nothing less than self-censorship in response to sloppy and/or fraudulent claims, but these are testing times.
But the really big issue here relates to the huge archive of posts already present on /r/piracy – some ten years’ worth of discussions. Is there anything in there that could warrant a surprise complaint? Apparently so, since rightsholders have been digging up issues from the past and complaining to Reddit.
This left the moderators of /r/piracy with a huge dilemma. Uncertain of what lay in the archives and only being in a strong position to be absolutely certain of the state of play more recently, they asked the community for input on the ‘Nuclear Option‘ – deleting every post older than six months old, just to be sure.
After the votes were counted, those in favor of deleting the archives outnumbered those asking for preservation by ten to one. All that was left was to find a way to begin deleting history, around 9.5 years of posts. A script was created and put into motion and the purge began.
“Given the speed, this might take weeks,” says moderator ‘dbzer0’, a nine-year veteran of the sub-Reddit.
It’s unclear when this sweeping process with be fully completed, but it’s hoped that it can keep the community alive. Not all of the moderators were in favor of the mass deletion since that, of course, deletes the community’s history too.
“The Scrubbing [as the deletion process is now called] is just a poorly, rushed attempt to elongate the community’s lifespan on Reddit,” dysgraphical says.
“We have already seen this performed in other subreddits in which mod teams have bent over backwards to please the administration by implementing their own set of stringent rules. These communities no longer exist.”
But the vote was cast and the final decision appears to have been a democratic one rooted in self-preservation. It does raise interesting points, however.
The recently highlighted situation shows that sub-Reddits devoted to controversial topics – especially those related to piracy – are at risk of being targeted. When they are, the copyright notice and counter-notice process is somewhat undermined.
While users can be banned for repeat infringements, it’s trivial to open a new account. And when the notices start to pile up on Reddit – legitimately or not – whole communities can be banned, despite working above and beyond the requirements of the law.
“The issue at hand is not that r/Piracy distributes copyrighted content, but rather that the discussion of digital piracy is no longer protected; it never was,” dysgraphical adds.
“As copyright holders continue pushing the envelope, by claiming that the mention of streaming sites infringe their IP, Reddit will continue complying and effectively ban r/Piracy. Copyright holders on Reddit no longer need to dig deep to find infringing content, they can pick any thread or comment at random that loosely relates to their IP, and file a DMCA takedown notice.”
To give a school analogy, it appears that if a few kids misbehave, get misinterpreted, or targeted incompetently, the whole class gets kept behind after school – before being permanently expelled. It’s effectively mass punishment based on the acts of a few – or the whims of bots.
Finally, subscriptions to /r/piracy have always been on the increase and are now edging towards 370,000 subscribers but the ongoing purge is having a clear effect on traffic to the sub-Reddit, when the two unusual peaks (including the April 1 surge) are discounted.
Reddit’s /r/piracy traffic stats
Whether the popular forum can fight back from this decline will remain to be seen but it’s clear that deleting most of its history is already causing pain. The big question is whether Reddit’s admins are taking note of this huge olive branch or whether they’ll still choose to chop down the whole tree regardless.
The resulting views from the ground were colorful.
Accelerated time-lapse video of AZURE mission lighting up the sky.
Late Friday night, two sounding rockets launched from a small spaceport in northern Norway. The two skinny rockets soared to an altitude of 320km, and along the way each released a visible gas to fall through, and illuminate conditions inside the aurora borealis. Some of the resulting images were stunning.
This NASA-funded AZURE mission, which stands for Auroral Zone Upwelling Rocket Experiment, is one of a series of sounding rocket missions launching over the next two years as part of an international collaboration know as the The Grand Challenge Initiative – Cusp. The goal of these flights will be to study the region where Earth's magnetic field lines bend down into the atmosphere, and particles from space mix with those from the planet.
Friday night's mission involved two Black Brant XI-A sounding rockets, a three stage sounding booster with a long heritage dating back to Canadian military research in the 1950s. The Black Brant rockets launched within two minutes of one another from the picturesque from the Andøya Space Center in Norway, beginning at 22:14 UTC Friday.
“You have to forget 2001, even if it’s forever etched in our brains and our bodies.”
The trailer for Claire Denis' High Life
For space-cinema fans, Spring 2019 has long had two big releases on the schedule unrelated to that big Apollo anniversary. The Brad Pitt-led, James Gray (Lost City of Z)-directed Ad Astracontinues to target May, and the Robert Pattinson-starring, Claire Denis-made High Life arrives this week.
Before even so much as seeing a trailer for the former, I now know that the only thing these two films likely have in common will be an out-of-this-world setting.
At the most basic-level, High Life centers on the story of Monte (Pattinson), the last man on the nondescript spaceship No.7. Quickly, the film reveals he hasn't always been this alone—originally Monte was one of nine inmates released from their sentences in exchange for accepting an interstellar mission. "We were scum, trash, refuse that didn't fit into the system until someone had the bright idea of recycling us to serve science," as Monte's narration frames it. Why and how these people ended up as hauntingly beautiful floating space debris makes up the bulk of High Life's minimalist plot, as does the question of what made Monte avoid and continue to put off such a fate. Violence, mental challenges, and some off-the-books drugs and research complicate everything.
Android Q Beta 2 is out! Despite the plethora of bug warnings from Google, I flashed it on my daily driver and am back to report on some things. Beta 2 gives us a whole new feature to play with called "Bubbles," lots of little changes, and frustratingly slow development on Android's gesture navigation system.
Of course everything is a work in progress, and there are plenty of bugs and weird design quirks. We're still going to bring attention to them now, though, in the hope that they get cleaned up before release. Let's dive in!
Bubbles—Messaging-app feature or crazy notification-panel replacement?
Google's bubble sample app lets you talk to animals. [credit:
Ron Amadeo ]
The headline feature of Android Q Beta 2 is "Bubbles," which is a multitasking UI that bears a striking resemblance to the old Facebook "Chat Heads" feature. Apps pop up in floating windows and can be minimized into a little floating circle. Android supports this at the OS level, so any app can be a bubble. Google suggests using this for messaging apps, note apps, directions, and anything else you might want to keep at hand while you move around your phone.
Eigentlich sollte seine Zeit im SAP-Vorstand noch bis 2021 laufen, allerdings verlässt Robert Enslin das Unternehmen bereits jetzt. Er ist damit das dritte hochrangige Mitglied in Folge, das die Firma verlässt. Möglicherweise hat die Umstrukturierung d…
Eigentlich sollte seine Zeit im SAP-Vorstand noch bis 2021 laufen, allerdings verlässt Robert Enslin das Unternehmen bereits jetzt. Er ist damit das dritte hochrangige Mitglied in Folge, das die Firma verlässt. Möglicherweise hat die Umstrukturierung des Unternehmens etwas damit zu tun. (SAP, Cloud Computing)
Ein Hacker-Team der Organisation Jisc konnte in die Systeme von 50 britischen Universitäten gelangen – in jeweils weniger als zwei Stunden. Das sei eine alarmierende Nachricht. Dabei ist das schwächste Glied wieder einmal der Mensch selbst. (Hacker, Ma…
Ein Hacker-Team der Organisation Jisc konnte in die Systeme von 50 britischen Universitäten gelangen - in jeweils weniger als zwei Stunden. Das sei eine alarmierende Nachricht. Dabei ist das schwächste Glied wieder einmal der Mensch selbst. (Hacker, Malware)
With a consent judgment issued by a New York federal court, Take-Two Interactive has settled its case with a prominent GTA V cheat maker. The Georgia man, one of the key people behind the ‘Menyoo’ and ‘Absolute’ cheats, allegedly earned more than $100,000 from the copyright-infringing activities.
Take-Two Interactive Software, the company behind ‘Grand Theft Auto V’ (GTA V), is working hard to eliminate cheaters.
The company has filed several lawsuits in the US and abroad, accusing alleged cheat makers and sellers of copyright infringement.
One case, filed at a New York court a little over a year ago, targeted Georgia resident David Zipperer, who was accused of working on and distributing the ‘Menyoo’ and ‘Absolute’ cheats.
Zipperer didn’t deny his involvement and said that he had already stopped working on the cheats. With help from a pro-bono attorney, he discussed a possible settlement. However, the game company wanted “tens of thousands” of dollars, which the defendant said he couldn’t afford.
“My client has no money. He swore to this Court that the money he earned from selling ‘cheat menus’ was used to support his family, that the money is gone, and that he has none left,” Zipperer’s attorney informed the court last summer.
Take-Two didn’t believe the cheat maker and swiftly submitted a scathing reply, painting a different picture. According to the game company, Zipperer repeatedly misled the Court regarding his financial situation.
Through a subpoena, they found out that the cheat maker earned at least $100,000, possibly much more. Some of these profits were spent on expensive electronic equipment and other personal purchases.
“Mr. Zipperer clearly has significantly more resources than he has repeatedly represented to this Court. We believe that these PayPal records reflect only a small fraction of the proceeds Mr. Zipperer has received from his illegal businesses,” the company wrote.
After the New York court issued a preliminary injunction Take-Two wanted to see a healthy settlement. It’s unclear whether it got what it wanted, but this week both parties agreed to a settlement, which is part of a consent judgment signed by the New York federal court.
The settlement remains “confidential” and involves an “undisclosed amount of money”, according to the legal paperwork.
From the consent judgment
It is clear, however, that Zipperer agreed that his work on the Menyoo and Absolute cheats constituted copyright infringement. He admittedly profited from these infringements, which caused Take-Two significant losses.
“Mr. Zipperer’s violations of the Copyright Act and New York law have caused, and continue to cause, Take-Two great and irreparable injury that cannot be fully compensated or measured in money,” the consent judgment reads.
The court order also includes a permanent injunction which prevents the cheat maker from engaging in any activities that infringe on the copyrights of Take-Two games, including GTA V. Creating or selling cheats for these games is also strictly prohibited.
This settlement is the latest in a series of similar outcomes. Several of Take-Two’s other lawsuits also resulted in confidential settlements.
—
A copy of the consent judgment signed by US District Court Judge Louis Stanton is available here (pdf).
Dass Borderlands 3 vorerst nur im Epic Store erhältlich sein wird, nervt viele Spieler auf Steam. Daher geben sie den Vorgängerspielen auf Steam negative Kritiken in großer Zahl. Valve reagiert und klammert diese aus. (Borderlands, Steam)
Dass Borderlands 3 vorerst nur im Epic Store erhältlich sein wird, nervt viele Spieler auf Steam. Daher geben sie den Vorgängerspielen auf Steam negative Kritiken in großer Zahl. Valve reagiert und klammert diese aus. (Borderlands, Steam)
Der in finanziellen Schwierigkeiten steckende Elektroautohersteller Faraday Future hat mit dem V9 ein neues Fahrzeug angekündigt, obwohl noch nicht einmal das vor zwei Jahren vorgestellte Modell auf dem Markt ist. (Faraday Future, Technologie) 
Verwunderung über die neue Netflix-Version auf iOS: Nutzern fehlt nach dem Update die Airplay-Funktion. Dies ist laut Netflix kein Fehler: Airplay wird wegen Apples Ausweitung von Airplay 2 auf Fernseher nicht mehr unterstützt. (
Eigentlich sollte seine Zeit im SAP-Vorstand noch bis 2021 laufen, allerdings verlässt Robert Enslin das Unternehmen bereits jetzt. Er ist damit das dritte hochrangige Mitglied in Folge, das die Firma verlässt. Möglicherweise hat die Umstrukturierung des Unternehmens etwas damit zu tun. (
Ein Hacker-Team der Organisation Jisc konnte in die Systeme von 50 britischen Universitäten gelangen - in jeweils weniger als zwei Stunden. Das sei eine alarmierende Nachricht. Dabei ist das schwächste Glied wieder einmal der Mensch selbst. (
Take-Two Interactive Software, the company behind ‘Grand Theft Auto V’ (GTA V), is working hard to eliminate cheaters.
Dass Borderlands 3 vorerst nur im Epic Store erhältlich sein wird, nervt viele Spieler auf Steam. Daher geben sie den Vorgängerspielen auf Steam negative Kritiken in großer Zahl. Valve reagiert und klammert diese aus. (
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