Die Powertoys kommen zurück: Auf Github stellen Entwickler kleine Tools vor, die Windows 10 um diverse Funktionen erweitern. Geplant sind verbesserte Tastenkürzel und das schnelle Erstellen neuer Desktops – statt eines verbesserten Autoplays für CD-ROM…
Die Powertoys kommen zurück: Auf Github stellen Entwickler kleine Tools vor, die Windows 10 um diverse Funktionen erweitern. Geplant sind verbesserte Tastenkürzel und das schnelle Erstellen neuer Desktops - statt eines verbesserten Autoplays für CD-ROMs. (Github, Microsoft)
Die HTTP-Bibliothek des Curl-Projekts gilt als wahrscheinlich am weitesten verbreitete dieser Art überhaupt. Für Embedded-Geräte erstellt der Hauptentwickler nun Tiny-Curl, das mit nur rund 100 KByte weniger als ein Viertel so groß ist wie übliche Pake…
Die HTTP-Bibliothek des Curl-Projekts gilt als wahrscheinlich am weitesten verbreitete dieser Art überhaupt. Für Embedded-Geräte erstellt der Hauptentwickler nun Tiny-Curl, das mit nur rund 100 KByte weniger als ein Viertel so groß ist wie übliche Pakete. (Open Source, Embedded Systems)
Google has voluntarily agreed to remove 832 pirate sites from its search results after reaching a “voluntary” agreement with content owners and ISPs in Australia. That’s according to Village Roadshow chief Graham Burke who described the move as “Google doing the right thing”. The news appears to come with some caveats, however.
Section 115a of Australia’s Copyright Act allows copyright holders to apply for court injunctions that compel local ISPs to block subscribers from accessing ‘pirate’ sites.
Since it became active in 2015, the legislation has been used a number of times to block large numbers of mainly torrent and streaming platforms. However, such sites are often quick to adapt, deploying alternative domains, mirrors and proxies to undermine the blockades.
While Google has nothing to do with these actions, it has been regularly criticized for allowing users to carry out searches which enable them to find these workarounds. That has provoked harsh criticism from rightsholders, in particular Village Roadshow chief Graham Burke.
To tackle this and other loopholes, in November 2018 Australia passed new legislation that allows rightsholders to expand blocks without having to go to court. It also compels search providers to remove links to sites detailed in court orders from their search results.
While this framework is easily understood, this morning a report appeared in SMH declaring that peace has effectively broken out between rightsholders and Google.
The latter has reportedly entered into a “voluntary agreement” to remove 832 “sites” currently blocked by ISPs from its search results, despite the court orders covering these locations not necessarily applying to Google.
“This means we, as content owners, will be able to avoid the expense, effort, time and uncertainty of going to court,” Roadshow’s Burke said.
“We’ve gone from being enemies to being allies … because I believe Google is doing the right thing by Australians,” he added.
“[The] pirates’ business model is robbing and scamming people, they have sophisticated ways to take your information. Google has come down on the side that is right.”
Burke’s praise for Google is somewhat of a surprise and the turnaround in his tone quite remarkable. Equally, Google entering into a voluntary agreement over a process it slammed last year also raises eyebrows.
In particular, Google opposed any process that didn’t have the “direct oversight of the Federal Court” while noting that “there is no utility in extending site blocking schemes beyond ISPs to other online service providers.”
TorrentFreak contacted Google for additional detail last evening and it provided the following statement.
“Google supports effective industry led measures to fight piracy, and we invest significantly in the technology, tools and resources that prevent copyright infringement on our platforms,” a spokesperson said.
Google is clearly reluctant to put any additional meat on the bones of this “voluntary agreement” but TorrentFreak has learned that this scheme only affects Australia and is directly linked to the new legislation passed last year.
It seems possible then that this mass de-indexing of pirate resources represents a game of catch-up.
A large proportion of existing pirate sites are already blocked under existing court orders that were granted under earlier legislation that didn’t require search engine de-indexing. It therefore seems likely that in order to have Google remove the sites from its results, copyright holders would have to return to court.
For 832 sites (832 domains seems more realistic) this would be a time-consuming exercise and one with a guaranteed outcome. It therefore seems reasonable to conclude that the parties agreed to save time and money by cutting out the middle man and conceding to the inevitable.
Burke suggests the de-indexing has already taken place so TF carried out some tests using various sites, including the most obvious blocking and de-indexing target (ThePirateBay.org) to see the effects.
First, we used two Australian IP addresses (one in Melbourne, the other in Sydney) to access Google.com. We then searched for The Pirate Bay, which appeared as the top result each time.
We then switched to Google.com.au and tested again with same IP addresses but ThePirateBay.org appeared as the top result again.
TPB search on Google.com.au, with Australian IP addresses
We presented Google with these results and asked if it could explain the precise parameters of its de-indexing so we could report more accurately.
The company declined to comment but it’s possible that not all de-indexing operations have been carried out yet. It’s also possible that only users of the ISPs specifically listed in the original court orders are affected, such as those using Telstra, Optus, Vocus, TPG, and Vodafone, plus subsidiaries.
Betriebe suchen intensiv nach Software-Entwicklern und IT-Anwendungsberatern. Dennoch schützt die hohe Nachfrage Informatiker nicht gänzlich vor Arbeitslosigkeit. (IT-Jobs, Gehalt)
Betriebe suchen intensiv nach Software-Entwicklern und IT-Anwendungsberatern. Dennoch schützt die hohe Nachfrage Informatiker nicht gänzlich vor Arbeitslosigkeit. (IT-Jobs, Gehalt)
Der Ölkonzern Shell will an der Elektromobilität mitverdienen und baut Ladestationen dort auf, wo bisher getankt wurde. Auch in Deutschland – aber in bescheidenem Rahmen. (Ladesäule, Technologie)
Der Ölkonzern Shell will an der Elektromobilität mitverdienen und baut Ladestationen dort auf, wo bisher getankt wurde. Auch in Deutschland - aber in bescheidenem Rahmen. (Ladesäule, Technologie)
The top 10 most downloaded movies on BitTorrent are in again. ‘Avengers: Endgame’ tops the chart this week, followed by ‘Cold Pursuit’. ‘Shazam!’ completes the top three.
The data for our weekly download chart is estimated by TorrentFreak, and is for informational and educational reference only. All the movies in the list are Web-DL/Webrip/HDRip/BDrip/DVDrip unless stated otherwise.
RSS feed for the articles of the recent weekly movie download charts.
Cultist Simulator, Photographs, Dungeon Warfare 2 und mehr: Diesen Monat lockt eine besonders hochkarätige Auswahl an kniffligen, gruseligen und komplexen Games an die mobilen Spielgeräte. Von Rainer Sigl (Games, Spieletest)
Cultist Simulator, Photographs, Dungeon Warfare 2 und mehr: Diesen Monat lockt eine besonders hochkarätige Auswahl an kniffligen, gruseligen und komplexen Games an die mobilen Spielgeräte. Von Rainer Sigl (Games, Spieletest)
Tesla-Chef Elon Musk hat die Leitung der Autopilot-Entwicklung persönlich übernommen. Zuvor sind Mitarbeiter entlassen und das Team umstrukturiert worden. (Tesla, Technologie)
Tesla-Chef Elon Musk hat die Leitung der Autopilot-Entwicklung persönlich übernommen. Zuvor sind Mitarbeiter entlassen und das Team umstrukturiert worden. (Tesla, Technologie)
The ‘six-strikes’ Copyright Alert System was once praised as an excellent tool to address online piracy. Nonetheless, it was shut down two years ago. Today, the domain name of the Center for Copyright Information still exists, but it’s now used to sell mattresses instead. While that’s not going to do anything to stop piracy, it could have been much worse.
In 2011, the MPAA and RIAA teamed up with several major U.S. Internet providers, announcing their plan to shift the norms and behavior of BitTorrent pirates.
The parties launched the Center for Copyright Information and agreed on a system through which Internet account holders would be warned if their connections were used to download pirated content.
The program allowed ISPs to take a variety of repressive measures, including bandwidth throttling and temporary Internet disconnections. The “voluntary” agreement was praised by the US Government and seen as a prime example for other countries.
However, it didn’t last.
Early 2017 the MPAA, RIAA, and several major US ISPs pulled the plug. The parties never explained in detail why the effort was halted but it was clearly not the ideal solution for all involved.
This was good news for the people who were on the brink of being ‘punished’ by their ISPs after repeated notices. They could finally sleep easy again. That’s actually something the now-defunct Copyright Alert System website can help them with today.
After the scheme was stopped, the ‘copyrightinformation.org’ website remained online for months, offering the public information on how to avoid copyright infringement notices and where to obtain legal content.
That stopped eventually, and it now seems that the official domain has been taken over by a mattress review site.
People who try to access the former Copyright Alert System website are now redirected to buymattress.net. Apparently, none of the parties involved was interested in renewing the domain registration.
Mattress anyone?
The mattress site gladly picked up this valuable domain which has thousands of backlinks all over the web, including some from reputable news sites. That’s generally good for search engine optimization purposes.
Of course, a mattress site is not much of a problem for the RIAA and MPAA, but it seems like the anti-piracy groups dodged a bullet here.
Imagine if the domain was picked up the likes of The Pirate Bay, a prominent pirate streaming site, or even a stream-ripping service? That would have been quite an embarrassment, to say the least.
The MPAA is not completely unaware of this risk. After all, it still owns the TorrentSpy.com domain name, even though the website was shut down over a decade ago. Similarly, Isohunt.com and Hotfile.com are still under control of the Hollywood group, redirecting to MPAA.org.
That said, it’s not completely unprecedented for piracy or anti-piracy related domain names to fall into the hands of third parties. The Department of Justice, for example, let go of several Megaupload related domains a few years ago.
Most famously, back in 2007 The Pirate Bay took over IFPI.com, a domain name that was previously owned by the prominent music industry organization IFPI. The torrent site kept the acronym, but changed the meaning to “International Federation of Pirate Interests.”
Most phones that ship with Google’s Android operating system also come with a bunch of Google apps and services installed. But Android is open source software, so independent developers have been finding ways to de-Google Android for years. One o…
Most phones that ship with Google’s Android operating system also come with a bunch of Google apps and services installed. But Android is open source software, so independent developers have been finding ways to de-Google Android for years. One of the more recent options comes from developer Gaël Duval and the /e/ Foundation. The /e/ […]
Die Powertoys kommen zurück: Auf Github stellen Entwickler kleine Tools vor, die Windows 10 um diverse Funktionen erweitern. Geplant sind verbesserte Tastenkürzel und das schnelle Erstellen neuer Desktops - statt eines verbesserten Autoplays für CD-ROMs. (Github, Microsoft) 
Die HTTP-Bibliothek des Curl-Projekts gilt als wahrscheinlich am weitesten verbreitete dieser Art überhaupt. Für Embedded-Geräte erstellt der Hauptentwickler nun Tiny-Curl, das mit nur rund 100 KByte weniger als ein Viertel so groß ist wie übliche Pakete. (
Betriebe suchen intensiv nach Software-Entwicklern und IT-Anwendungsberatern. Dennoch schützt die hohe Nachfrage Informatiker nicht gänzlich vor Arbeitslosigkeit. (
Der Ölkonzern Shell will an der Elektromobilität mitverdienen und baut Ladestationen dort auf, wo bisher getankt wurde. Auch in Deutschland - aber in bescheidenem Rahmen. (
This week we have three newcomers in our chart.
Cultist Simulator, Photographs, Dungeon Warfare 2 und mehr: Diesen Monat lockt eine besonders hochkarätige Auswahl an kniffligen, gruseligen und komplexen Games an die mobilen Spielgeräte. Von Rainer Sigl (
Tesla-Chef Elon Musk hat die Leitung der Autopilot-Entwicklung persönlich übernommen. Zuvor sind Mitarbeiter entlassen und das Team umstrukturiert worden. (
In 2011, the MPAA and RIAA 
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