Google’s cloud data centers “utiliz[e] spare bandwidth across the whole system.”
Enlarge/ Find out what becomes of (the simulated versions of) these athletes much faster with Google Stadia!
Since Stadia's public unveiling, one of Google's main selling points for the platform is that the power of its cloud infrastructure can provide high-definition, high-frame-rate visuals even on low-end client hardware (though Internet latency is still a worry, of course). Now, the makers of at least one Stadia launch game are claiming that the Stadia version will actually play better than versions running on local hardware as well.
That developer is Sports Interactive, and the game is Football Manager 2020. While Football Manager is something of a niche franchise in the US, it's consistently a best-seller across Europe, where millions use it to simulate how their favorite teams might do under all sorts of counterfactual conditions, from team makeup to training regimens.
These simulations have only gotten more complex as the series has evolved over the years, to the point where even running a single team through an entire simulated season can take hours or days (depending on your level of micromanaging). It's not hard to find complaints about that simulation speed online, often alongside configuration tips for speeding things up even on a low-end laptop ("Go on holiday" seems like a favorite piece of not-that-helpful advice for enduring the wait).
Fitbit’s latest smartwatch is a $200 model with support for voice controls, courtesy of Amazon Alexa. The Fitbit Versa 2 is up for pre-order today and it should begin shipping in September. There’s also a $230 Fitbit Versa 2 Special Edition…
Fitbit’s latest smartwatch is a $200 model with support for voice controls, courtesy of Amazon Alexa. The Fitbit Versa 2 is up for pre-order today and it should begin shipping in September. There’s also a $230 Fitbit Versa 2 Special Edition model that features a woven wristband and comes with a 3-month free trial to […]
A group of major music companies including Sony, Universal, and Warner Bros, has sued Internet provider RCN for failing to take action against pirating subscribers. The music companies state that the ISP deliberately turned a blind eye to pirating customers, while at the same time profiting from their activities.
For roughly two decades, copyright holders have been sending takedown notices to ISPs to alert them that their subscribers are sharing copyrighted material.
Under US law, providers must terminate the accounts of repeat infringers “in appropriate circumstances” and increasingly they are being held to this standard.
Several major music industry companies have filed lawsuits against a variety of Internet providers. With help from the RIAA, the companies targeted Cox Communications, Grande Communications, and Charter, hoping to recoup damages for their role in the pirating activities of their subscribers.
The overall theme of these lawsuits is the same. The music companies accuse the ISPs of turning a blind eye to pirating subscribers. This is also made clear in a new complaint that was just filed against several ISPs that operate under the RCN brand.
The lawsuit is again filed by music companies, including Arista Music, Bad Boy Records, Capitol Records, Laface Records, Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music, UMG Recordings, and Warner Records. Some of these are also involved in the aforementioned cases.
“This is a case about a leading internet service provider knowingly enabling its customers’ massive online copyright infringement of sound recordings,” the music companies allege in a complaint filed at a federal court in New Jersey.
“Defendants operated RCN as a haven for infringement. Defendants promoted RCN’s high internet speeds to customers, knowing that the ability to download copyrighted material illegally using high-speed internet, without repercussions, was a substantial draw for infringers,” they add.
The music companies state that RCN, including several local branches, willingly profited from keeping pirates on board. The ISP advertised high-speed internet which would be particularly appealing to BitTorrent pirates, it’s claimed.
“RCN provides its subscribers with a fully functioning system that allows them to engage in copyright infringement on a massive scale using BitTorrent networks,” the complaint reads.
“And for those subscribers who want to pirate more and larger files at faster speeds, RCN obliges them in return for higher fees. The greater the bandwidth its subscribers require for pirating content, the more money RCN receives.”
Current ‘speed’ mention on RCN.com
We have seen similar claims in related “repeat infringer” lawsuits. Previously it was pointed out that, while it is certainly true that high-speed Internet access is beneficial for pirates, legal users of streaming platforms such as Netflix would benefit as well.
The music companies, however, are convinced that the high speeds lure pirates to RCN. On top of that, they accuse the Internet provider of ignoring repeat infringers, so it can continue to profit from this piracy activity.
The music companies back up their claims with data from anti-piracy tracking company Rightscorp, which previously sent RCN more than five million infringement notices. These notices identified tens of thousands of alleged pirates.
Despite being aware of this copyright-infringing activity, RCN did nothing to stop it, the complaint notes. According to the Rightscorp data, 36,773 subscribers repeatedly engaged in piracy, with hundreds of these being flagged more than 1,000 times.
Since Rightscorp doesn’t monitor all activity, this is likely a small fraction of all the infringing activity occurring over RCN’s network, the music companies add. And despite the high number of repeat infringers, RCN did little to stop it.
“Defendants failed to take any meaningful action to discourage this wrongful conduct. Instead of terminating repeat infringers—and losing subscription revenue— RCN for years simply looked the other way and chose to allow the unlawful conduct to continue unabated.
“By ignoring the repeat infringement notifications and refusing to take action against repeat infringers, and instead providing those customers with ongoing internet service, Defendants made a deliberate decision to contribute to known copyright infringement,” the complaint adds.
In cases like this, Internet providers can generally rely on the DMCA safe harbor defense, which shields them from liability. However, the music companies argue that RCN lost this right by not having a properly functioning repeat infringer policy.
“Although RCN purported to adopt a policy to address repeat infringers, RCN in reality never adopted or reasonably implemented a policy that provided for the termination of repeat infringers—despite receiving over five million infringement notices. Its purported policy was a sham,” the complaint reads.
The allegations are very similar to the other “repeat infringer” lawsuits we have seen in the past. As in the other cases, the ISP is accused of both contributory and vicarious copyright infringement. The same also applies to RCN’s management company Patriot.
The music companies claim substantial losses for which they want to be compensated. They request actual damages or statutory damages of $150,000 per work. With an illustrative list of more than 1,000 tracks as evidence, a list that may grow even longer, the potential damages are already over $150 million.
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A copy of the complaint, filed at the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey, is available here (pdf).
Current forecast calls for a Category 3 hurricane to hit near Kennedy Space Center.
Enlarge/ A NOAA satellite image from 11am ET shows the position of Tropical Storm Dorian near Puerto Rico. (credit: NOAA)
Tropical Storm Dorian appears to pose an increasing threat to the Southeastern United States, potentially including significant landmarks such as Disney World and the Kennedy Space Center.
As of Wednesday morning, Dorian was nearing hurricane strength, with sustained winds of 70mph. The storm's center should pass just to the east of Puerto Rico today and then have as much as four days to strengthen over open ocean before approaching the Florida coast.
The National Hurricane Center has ratcheted up its intensity forecast for Dorian, such that it is now predicted to come ashore as a Category 3 hurricane on Monday morning, near Kennedy Space Center on Florida's Atlantic coast.
Disney’s new Disney+ streaming video service isn’t set to launch for a few more months, but when it does it’ll be competitively priced, offering exclusive access to titles from the Marvel and Star Wars franchises, along with content f…
Disney’s new Disney+ streaming video service isn’t set to launch for a few more months, but when it does it’ll be competitively priced, offering exclusive access to titles from the Marvel and Star Wars franchises, along with content from Disney, Pixar, and National Geographic, and Fox for $7 per month or $70 per year. But […]
Vodafone streitet sich mit der Bundesnetzagentur, ob die Routerfreiheit in Glasfasernetzen auch für das Glasfasermodem (ONT) gilt. Doch die Behörde stellt klar: Die Gesetzeslage ist eindeutig. Allerdings fehlen Produkte. (Routerfreiheit, DSL)
Vodafone streitet sich mit der Bundesnetzagentur, ob die Routerfreiheit in Glasfasernetzen auch für das Glasfasermodem (ONT) gilt. Doch die Behörde stellt klar: Die Gesetzeslage ist eindeutig. Allerdings fehlen Produkte. (Routerfreiheit, DSL)
Thunderbird 68.0 dürfte gerade Admins gefallen: Die Software soll sich besser in großen Umgebungen einrichten lassen und unterstützt mehrere Sprachpakete. Auch ist es möglich, E-Mails aller Konten als gelesen zu markieren. Allerdings funktionieren auch…
Thunderbird 68.0 dürfte gerade Admins gefallen: Die Software soll sich besser in großen Umgebungen einrichten lassen und unterstützt mehrere Sprachpakete. Auch ist es möglich, E-Mails aller Konten als gelesen zu markieren. Allerdings funktionieren auch einige Add-Ons erst einmal nicht mehr. (Thunderbird, E-Mail)
New holding company wants to re-release Telltale’s old titles and make new ones.
Enlarge/ Lookout behind you, it's the new Telltale Games!
Telltale Games may have been dead for nearly a year now, but a zombie version of the brand is poised to rise, much like a character from the company's Walking Dead games.
Holding company LCG Entertainment will be taking on the "key assets, trademarks, technology, and select intellectual properties" of the old Telltale Games, according to a statement released by the newly formed corporation. The new company will be focused on "re-releasing select games from the studio’s back catalog and developing new games in some of the company’s best-selling brands," according to the announcement.
GameDaily reports on the efforts by game industry veterans James Ottilie and Brian Waddle to purchase and revive the Telltale Games brand. The pair—best known for work on mobile and licensed games and game engine marketing, respectively—joined with a number of industry investors to make an offer for the remains of the company as early as December, according to GameDaily. That was followed by months of negotiations with Telltale's creditors, Polygon reports.
The ZTE Axon 10 Pro is a smartphone with a 6.5 inch, FHD+ AMOLED display, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 processor, 256GB of storage, at least 8GB of RAM, and a starting price of $550. While I wouldn’t exactly call this a flagship phone with a mid-ra…
The ZTE Axon 10 Pro is a smartphone with a 6.5 inch, FHD+ AMOLED display, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 processor, 256GB of storage, at least 8GB of RAM, and a starting price of $550. While I wouldn’t exactly call this a flagship phone with a mid-range price tag, the price is probably one of the […]
Eine Sicherheitslücke im Dovecot-Mailserver könnte es Angreifern erlauben, Code auszuführen. Updates stehen bereit. (
Vodafone streitet sich mit der Bundesnetzagentur, ob die Routerfreiheit in Glasfasernetzen auch für das Glasfasermodem (ONT) gilt. Doch die Behörde stellt klar: Die Gesetzeslage ist eindeutig. Allerdings fehlen Produkte. (
Thunderbird 68.0 dürfte gerade Admins gefallen: Die Software soll sich besser in großen Umgebungen einrichten lassen und unterstützt mehrere Sprachpakete. Auch ist es möglich, E-Mails aller Konten als gelesen zu markieren. Allerdings funktionieren auch einige Add-Ons erst einmal nicht mehr. (
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