Facebook seeks investors for planned cryptocurrency, merchants who might accept it.
Enlarge/ Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg checks his phone during the annual Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference, July 13, 2018 in Sun Valley, Idaho. (credit: Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
If Facebook's pivot from town square to private living room wasn’t laden with enough irony, here’s a new twist: Big business, it appears, has been invited to join us by the fireplace.
On Thursday, The Wall Street Journal reported new potential details about Facebook’s long-awaited cryptocurrency plans. The company is reportedly seeking dozens of business partners, including online merchants and financial firms, in an effort to extend the reach of its blockchain-based marketplace. Facebook’s would-be partners are being asked to pitch into an investment fund, valued at $1 billion or more, that would serve as backing for Facebook’s coin and mitigate the wild speculative swings that make cryptocurrencies like bitcoin hard to spend. The pitch, according to the Journal, involves offering merchants lower fees than credit cards.
Some were quick to note that this would reduce Facebook’s ability to make money from payments in the short term. But that may not matter much—if, in the end, Facebook’s crypto effort is really all about getting you to spend more time glued to Facebook.
After unveiling plans to launch a $199 Linux laptop with a Rockchip RK3399 processor earlier this year, the folks at Pine64 have been hard at work designing the hardware and software for the upcoming Pinebook Pro. Now the team has posted a YouTube vide…
After unveiling plans to launch a $199 Linux laptop with a Rockchip RK3399 processor earlier this year, the folks at Pine64 have been hard at work designing the hardware and software for the upcoming Pinebook Pro. Now the team has posted a YouTube video showing off the latest prototype, and demonstrating that it has improved […]
Prepare yourself for Google I/O with a roundup of in-the-works projects.
Enlarge/ Shoreline Amphitheatre, as seen at Google I/O 2017. (credit: Ron Amadeo)
Google I/O kicks off May 7 in Mountain View, California, where Google will be hosting a keynote and a million other sessions at the Shoreline Amphitheater. The keynote starts at 10am PT, and we'll be there to cover everything announced at the show. But before we hop on a plane and fly down to Google HQ, we've prepared a likely list of things we anticipate Google will announce. If you want to know where the larger Google-verse is about to go, here are the rumors, expected updates on previously announced things, and notable schedule tidbits to keep an eye on at I/O 2019.
When it comes to entry-level smartphone pricing, Google gets the title of "Most Expensive Smartphone Lineup on Earth." Google wants to be a smartphone manufacturer, but its cheapest phone, the Pixel 3, starts at $800. Most other manufacturers have a range of smartphones starting as low as $100 and going up from there. You can even enter the iOS ecosystem for just $449, where Apple will still sell you a new iPhone 7.
At Google I/O 2019, Google will take a baby step toward offering a real smartphone lineup by launching something other than a premium smartphone: a mid-range Pixel is coming, and supposedly there will be two devices, called the "Pixel 3a" and "Pixel 3a XL," with identical designs. Hardware has been absent from Google I/O for several years, but these devices are pretty much a lock to debut at Google I/O—Google has already sent out a teaser for May 7.
Anti-piracy PSAs come in all shapes and sizes but most fail to hit the mark due to ridiculous scare tactics and over dramatization. A new PSA recently released in conjunction with EU Intellectual Property Office is unique in that it actually makes an effort to see the issue from the perspective of the average user. In fact, piracy isn’t directly mentioned at all.
Getting the public to stop downloading movies, TV shows, music, software, and other content from the Internet is a huge task.
For at least two decades, the public has been presented with Public Service Announcements (PSA) aimed at doing just that, but nothing seems to do the trick.
Most readers will be familiar with the “Piracy, It’s a Crime” campaign from 2004. It was so over the top it ended up becoming its own meme (before memes had a name) and was eventually lampooned by the IT Crowd.
With this experience in the bank, one would’ve thought that people producing these PSAs might get the message that scare tactics don’t work. However, year after year similar ads have appeared, most of which had the same non-effect on the public but perhaps with fewer laughs.
Reaching out to people to prevent them doing what many perceive as a victimless crime is difficult. But even when PSAs focus on this very aspect, that creators and the entertainment industry can suffer due to piracy, few get even close to the mark.
These days much effort seems to be centered around convincing pirates that they’ll have their devices reduced to virus-infested junk while “cybercriminals” pillage their networks and empty their bank accounts. These are classic scare tactics that work no better than most sex infection videos pumped out in the 80s.
The problem is that while in some cases people might indeed experience malware, few pirates know anyone who has experienced such a thing to the degrees stated. That means that once there’s no evidence to the claims, people simply ignore the entire message and discard it as pure propaganda.
Another issue centers around the over-dramatization of the effects of piracy. Constant claims that films or music won’t be made anymore is already provably false – one only has to look around at all the legal services today for evidence of that.
Furthermore, the average pirate really doesn’t make the connection between piracy and “real” crime, a point overlooked by this recent PSA from Film Ireland. It manages to pack in plenty of drama while also threatening the end of the movie industry.
While the above may have some effect on casual pirates, the fact that it currently has less than 400 views on YouTube shows, bluntly, that no one cares about this type of PSA. There are zero comments too, which seems to show that it’s not even controversial. Cruelly, perhaps, it’s quite boring.
The problem is that the vast majority of ads and campaigns fail to see the issue of piracy from the user’s perspective. Hardcore pirates are unlikely to be moved to “correct” their ways no matter what they see, but there’s a huge population of casual and potential pirates that, given a bit of thought, might reconsider.
Given these people make up the bulk of the entire media-consuming public, a new anti-piracy PSA produced by content-awareness group Agorateka in conjunction with the EU Intellectual Property Office caught our attention.
Instead of all the scare tactics, they appear to have sat down and actually considered what the average person (who isn’t highly proficient in piracy techniques) might encounter when looking for content to watch online. In fact, it doesn’t mention piracy directly at all and instead focuses on the end goal – getting people to use legal sites.
In summary, the PSA seems to suggest that regular Internet users and casual, non-technical pirates have a choice. They can spend a long time looking around trying to sort the wheat from the chaff, or they can go straight to a legal source and enjoy content immediately.
There’s no malware suggested, no decaying cinemas, no dying actors, and no police raids. Piracy itself doesn’t even get a mention.
Of course, there will be no shortage of people viewing the video noting that it only takes them a few minutes to find whatever they want on their favorite pirate sites, so this doesn’t apply. There’s no arguing with that, but skilled pirates do not make up the bulk of the public.
So what this video attempts to do, it appears, is ask the viewer a simple question – what do you value more? Is time your most precious commodity or are a few euros, dollars or pounds spent online each month an effective trade? For many, especially those with the cash to spare, time can invariably come out on top.
The message may even ring true with some proficient pirates too.
Many reports show that pirates have access to Netflix or similar services, so it seems unlikely that many will head over to the nearest streaming site or legally questionable platform when the legal variant is so much more simple. Kodi add-ons might be the weapon of choice for some ordinarily, but none guarantee a flawless trip.
In short, the PSA won’t be for everyone but it’s definitely not annoying, it’s non-judgmental, and it doesn’t come over as propaganda. It merely suggests that an easy and quick alternative to piracy are legal resources and they can be found via the Agorateka portal.
That’s a great starting point for those who want to prevent people from downloading a car but don’t want to alienate them.
Der neue Kabelnetzstandard Docsis 3.1 ermöglicht Downloadgeschwindigkeiten mit mehreren Gigabit. Die Fritzbox 6591 Cable hat allerdings noch einen weiteren Vorteil, der einen Umstieg lohnenswert macht. (Fritzbox, Netzwerk)
Der neue Kabelnetzstandard Docsis 3.1 ermöglicht Downloadgeschwindigkeiten mit mehreren Gigabit. Die Fritzbox 6591 Cable hat allerdings noch einen weiteren Vorteil, der einen Umstieg lohnenswert macht. (Fritzbox, Netzwerk)
Die Max-Planck-Gesellschaft will künftig Grundlagenforschung zu Kryptographie und Datenschutz betreiben. Die Gründungsdirektoren des neuen Instituts stehen bereits fest. (Security, Technologie)
Die Max-Planck-Gesellschaft will künftig Grundlagenforschung zu Kryptographie und Datenschutz betreiben. Die Gründungsdirektoren des neuen Instituts stehen bereits fest. (Security, Technologie)
Die sozialen Netzwerke Twitter und Facebook gehen inzwischen schärfer gegen rechte Hetzer und Verschwörungstheoretiker in den USA vor. Das gefällt US-Präsident Donald Trump gar nicht. (Donald Trump, Google)
Die sozialen Netzwerke Twitter und Facebook gehen inzwischen schärfer gegen rechte Hetzer und Verschwörungstheoretiker in den USA vor. Das gefällt US-Präsident Donald Trump gar nicht. (Donald Trump, Google)
Twitter-Nutzer müssen mit Tweets zu Wahlen künftig vorsichtiger sein: Der Dienst hat erste Nutzer gesperrt, weil sie Wahlwitze mit Bezug zur AfD gemacht haben. Ein bekannter IT-Rechtsanwalt ist wegen einer drei Jahre alten Äußerung betroffen. (Twitter,…
Twitter-Nutzer müssen mit Tweets zu Wahlen künftig vorsichtiger sein: Der Dienst hat erste Nutzer gesperrt, weil sie Wahlwitze mit Bezug zur AfD gemacht haben. Ein bekannter IT-Rechtsanwalt ist wegen einer drei Jahre alten Äußerung betroffen. (Twitter, Soziales Netz)
Alle wünschten sich ein gutes Netz, aber niemand wolle eine Station in Sichtweite haben, klagt der Vodafone-Deutschlandchef Hannes Ametsreiter. Manche provisorisch eingerichtete Mobilfunkstation müsse Vodafone sogar wieder beseitigen. (Vodafone, Glasfa…
Alle wünschten sich ein gutes Netz, aber niemand wolle eine Station in Sichtweite haben, klagt der Vodafone-Deutschlandchef Hannes Ametsreiter. Manche provisorisch eingerichtete Mobilfunkstation müsse Vodafone sogar wieder beseitigen. (Vodafone, Glasfaser)
It’s no surprise that some hosting companies rather not host torrent sites that offer a wide variety of pirated content. In some cases, however, an anti-torrent policy can go further than needed. This is what developer Maurerr found out, when his free hosting account was suspended for uploading a package with of the Open Source BitTorrent software LibTorrent.
Invented by Bram Cohen nearly two decades ago, BitTorrent has established itself as the premier protocol to share large files among a broad audience and minimal cost.
While BitTorrent is used by many pirates, the technology itself is neutral and does a lot of good as well.
In fact, some of the largest tech companies including Facebook, Amazon, and Twitter all embraced it to distribute files within their internal networks.
Still, the pirate stigma is strong. Not without a reason, perhaps, because that remains the primary reason for most people to use it. However, an outright ban on everything torrent related can be a bit much.
A few weeks ago, we were approached by developer “Maurerr,” who maintains a repository of Linux packages for an opensource project. The ‘Entware-backports‘ project includes over two thousand packages that can be installed on MIPSel routers.
One of the packages is the Open Source LibTorrent library, which is widely used by torrent clients including qBittorrent, Deluge, rTorrent, and Tribler. It’s a basic piece of software that can handle torrent downloads, which isn’t infringing in any way.
However, when Maurerr uploaded the “libtorrent.pkg” to a backup mirror at the free hosting service Profreehost.com, his account was swiftly suspended. Apparently, the hosting service’s automatic filters flagged it as “prohibited activity.”
Suspended
Apparently, the “prohibited” activity was related to the word torrent. The hosting service didn’t provide much more detail, and when we asked why the LibTorrent package wasn’t allowed the answer was short but clear.
“Torrents and torrent related content is strictly prohibited on our service,” a representative informed us.
Profreehost.com offers a free service and has all the right to ban whatever content they please, of course. Perhaps the company has limited staff or negative experiences with torrent related abuse in the past.
However, in this case, the filter appears a bit broad, to say the least.
This isn’t the first time the developer ran into an issue with the hosting service. His free account was previously suspended for hosting a binary installer for a ‘rutorrent-plugin,’ which isn’t infringing either.
When Maurerr explained to the hosting company that this software wasn’t infringing either and that he planned to use it for his open source repository, a representative told him that torrents and warez are not allowed.
Profreehost’s Terms of Service does indeed ban warez, as it should, but we read nothing about a blanket ban on torrent there.
“Sites must not contain Warez, copyright or other illegal material including links or redirects to copyright material hosted on 3rd party websites / resources.”
While the hosting company confirmed that anything torrent related is not allowed, we were able to sneak a TorrentFreak logo onto the service. At the time of writing, that remains online.
Der neue Kabelnetzstandard Docsis 3.1 ermöglicht Downloadgeschwindigkeiten mit mehreren Gigabit. Die Fritzbox 6591 Cable hat allerdings noch einen weiteren Vorteil, der einen Umstieg lohnenswert macht. (
Die Max-Planck-Gesellschaft will künftig Grundlagenforschung zu Kryptographie und Datenschutz betreiben. Die Gründungsdirektoren des neuen Instituts stehen bereits fest. (
Die sozialen Netzwerke Twitter und Facebook gehen inzwischen schärfer gegen rechte Hetzer und Verschwörungstheoretiker in den USA vor. Das gefällt US-Präsident Donald Trump gar nicht. (
Twitter-Nutzer müssen mit Tweets zu Wahlen künftig vorsichtiger sein: Der Dienst hat erste Nutzer gesperrt, weil sie Wahlwitze mit Bezug zur AfD gemacht haben. Ein bekannter IT-Rechtsanwalt ist wegen einer drei Jahre alten Äußerung betroffen. (
Alle wünschten sich ein gutes Netz, aber niemand wolle eine Station in Sichtweite haben, klagt der Vodafone-Deutschlandchef Hannes Ametsreiter. Manche provisorisch eingerichtete Mobilfunkstation müsse Vodafone sogar wieder beseitigen. (
Invented by Bram Cohen nearly two decades ago, BitTorrent has established itself as the premier protocol to share large files among a broad audience and minimal cost.
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