With only 13 months left to go in the seemingly interminable 2020 US election season, senators are calling on Facebook, Snapchat, Reddit, and other social networks to do something sooner, rather than later, about the potential proliferation of misleading "deepfake" videos
"Over two-thirds of Americans now get their news from social media sites," Sens. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) jointly write in a series of letters to several technology platforms. "Increased reliance on social media will require your company to assume a heightened set of obligations to safeguard the public interest and the public's trust."
Image manipulation is nothing new, and doctored and misleading images have frequently gone viral online since enough Americans had fast-enough Internet access to make the sharing of digital images possible. The potential for not only doctored but completely fabricated video to be able to pass for the real thing, however, is a newer trend.
Six researchers are reportedly calling for the retraction of their study, which claimed that a trial of genetically modified (GM) mosquitoes went horrifically wrong and resulted in extra-dangerous, mutant blood-suckers flying rampant in a Brazilian city.
The study—authored by 10 researchers in total and published September 10 in Scientific Reports—monitored the consequences of a pilot release of GM mosquitoes in Jacobina, Brazil, that started in 2013.
The GM mosquitoes are a strain of Aedes aegypti created by British biotechnology company Oxitec and dubbed OX513A. The insects carry an artificially created gene (a transgene) that kills nearly all of their offspring, thereby smacking down the mosquito population overall.
As promised, Microsoft has started taking pre-orders for three of the new Surface devices unveiled today. In doing so, the company has also revealed some more key specs. The Microsoft Surface Pro 7 tablet is up for pre-order for $749 and up and begins …
As promised, Microsoft has started taking pre-orders for three of the new Surface devices unveiled today. In doing so, the company has also revealed some more key specs. The Microsoft Surface Pro 7 tablet is up for pre-order for $749 and up and begins shipping October 22nd. You can also order the new ARM-powered, fanless, and […]
Microsoft is shipping Android and Google Play on this dual 5.6-inch-display device.
The Microsoft Surface Duo. It's a dual-screen Android phone. [credit:
Microsoft
]
Which narrative should we go with for this one? The long-rumored Surface Phone has finally arrived! The Microsoft Courier is back from the dead! After the death of Windows Phone, Microsoft finally gave in and made an Android phone!
However you want to frame this news, meet the Microsoft Surface Duo, a dual-screen Android phone made by that company that makes Windows.
Microsoft did not say a lot about the Surface Duo during its big Surface press event. The release date is "Holiday 2020"—that's right, not this year, next year. The company announced the Surface Duo more than a year before it is scheduled to go on sale. We have no idea what specs the Duo has other than two 5.6-inch displays, and there's no price.
The Federal Communications Commission has mostly defeated net neutrality supporters in court even though judges expressed skepticism about Chairman Ajit Pai's justification for repealing net neutrality rules.
One of the three judges who decided the case wrote that the FCC's justification for reclassifying broadband "is unhinged from the realities of modern broadband service." But all three judges who ruled on the case agreed that they had to leave the net neutrality repeal in place based on US law and a Supreme Court precedent (see ruling).
The case at the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit turned on the FCC's decision to reclassify broadband as an information service instead of as a telecommunications service. Telecommunications services are regulated under common-carrier laws, which provided the legal basis for net neutrality rules. The act of reclassifying broadband as an information service deregulated the broadband industry and removed the legal underpinning for the net neutrality rules.
The RIAA has submitted its most recent overview of “notorious markets” to the U.S. Government. As usual, the music industry group lists various torrent sites, download portals and stream-ripping sites as direct threats. This year, however, the messaging app Telegram is also highlighted as a problem.
Responding to a request from the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR), the RIAA has submitted its annual list of “notorious markets.”
The submission identifies online and offline piracy hubs to help guide the U.S. Government’s position towards foreign countries when it comes to copyright enforcement.
“The online and physical markets identified in our comments are harming American creators, businesses, and the American economy,” writes George York, the RIAA’s Senior Vice President of International Policy.
Traditionally the online focus lies on classic pirate sites, such as torrent indexers, linking sites, cyberlockers, download portals, and stream-rippers. These are also listed in the latest RIAA submission. It includes many of the usual suspects, such as The Pirate Bay, Flvto, Newalbumreleases, and Uploaded.
While these mentions were expected, there’s also a new ‘issue’ highlighted by the music group – the encrypted messaging app Telegram. The software, which was launched by VKontakte founders Nikolai and Pavel Durov a few years ago, is frequently used by pirates, the RIAA notes.
The RIAA points out that messaging apps by themselves are of no special concern. However, Telegram also allows its users to share files of up to 1.5GB, a process that can be automated with scripts. This is a feature that many pirates have embraced.
“Telegram offers many user-created channels which are dedicated to the unauthorized distribution of copyrighted recordings, with some channels focused on particular genres or artists,” the RIAA notes.
Many of these files are hosted on Telegram’s servers and the RIAA says that it sent 18,000 DMCA notices to Telegram, identifying over 18,000 instances of copyright infringement.
The messaging app says that it forwards these requests to channel owners. However, according to the music group, this doesn’t have the desired effect, as many channel operators ignore the takedown requests. In addition, repeat infringers don’t appear to be punished in any way.
One of the many channels
“We have found, however, that most channel operators appear to take no action in response to our notices, with nearly all of infringements listed in our notices remaining available,” the RIAA writes.
“Likewise, Telegram makes no apparent attempt to verify that channel operators have complied with our notices and does not seem to have any kind of repeat infringement policy.”
By putting Telegram on the USTR’s agenda the RIAA hopes to, directly or indirectly, motivate the messaging app to do more to prevent piracy. Interestingly, Telegram is registered as both a UK LLP and an American LLC, so it’s not clear to us whether it’s indeed a “foreign” market from a US point of view.
Telegram is by no means new to piracy complaints. Two years ago the application also made the news when it, for the first time, removed an entire channel where a pirated copy of Taylor Swift’s album Reputation was shared. The service took this action following pressure from Google and Apple.
In addition to the issues discussed above, the RIAA’s submission mostly includes familiar topics. In this year’s ‘issue focus,’ the RIAA points out that malware remains a problem on pirate sites for example. This puts the public at risk and should be mitigated where possible, it says.
The music group also highlights problems with bulletproof hosting providers that ignore DMCA notices, and CDN services such as Cloudflare. In addition, it once again stresses that WHOIS data should become public and verified.
The USTR will use the input above to make up its own list of notorious markets. This will help to identify current threats while calling on foreign governments to take appropriate action.
—
A copy of the RIAA’s latest submission to the Office of the US Trade Representative is available here (pdf).
The RIAA has submitted its most recent overview of “notorious markets” to the U.S. Government. As usual, the music industry group lists various torrent sites, download portals and stream-ripping sites as direct threats. This year, however, the messaging app Telegram is also highlighted as a problem.
Responding to a request from the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR), the RIAA has submitted its annual list of “notorious markets.”
The submission identifies online and offline piracy hubs to help guide the U.S. Government’s position towards foreign countries when it comes to copyright enforcement.
“The online and physical markets identified in our comments are harming American creators, businesses, and the American economy,” writes George York, the RIAA’s Senior Vice President of International Policy.
Traditionally the online focus lies on classic pirate sites, such as torrent indexers, linking sites, cyberlockers, download portals, and stream-rippers. These are also listed in the latest RIAA submission. It includes many of the usual suspects, such as The Pirate Bay, Flvto, Newalbumreleases, and Uploaded.
While these mentions were expected, there’s also a new ‘issue’ highlighted by the music group – the encrypted messaging app Telegram. The software, which was launched by VKontakte founders Nikolai and Pavel Durov a few years ago, is frequently used by pirates, the RIAA notes.
The RIAA points out that messaging apps by themselves are of no special concern. However, Telegram also allows its users to share files of up to 1.5GB, a process that can be automated with scripts. This is a feature that many pirates have embraced.
“Telegram offers many user-created channels which are dedicated to the unauthorized distribution of copyrighted recordings, with some channels focused on particular genres or artists,” the RIAA notes.
Many of these files are hosted on Telegram’s servers and the RIAA says that it sent 18,000 DMCA notices to Telegram, identifying over 18,000 instances of copyright infringement.
The messaging app says that it forwards these requests to channel owners. However, according to the music group, this doesn’t have the desired effect, as many channel operators ignore the takedown requests. In addition, repeat infringers don’t appear to be punished in any way.
One of the many channels
“We have found, however, that most channel operators appear to take no action in response to our notices, with nearly all of infringements listed in our notices remaining available,” the RIAA writes.
“Likewise, Telegram makes no apparent attempt to verify that channel operators have complied with our notices and does not seem to have any kind of repeat infringement policy.”
By putting Telegram on the USTR’s agenda the RIAA hopes to, directly or indirectly, motivate the messaging app to do more to prevent piracy. Interestingly, Telegram is registered as both a UK LLP and an American LLC, so it’s not clear to us whether it’s indeed a “foreign” market from a US point of view.
Telegram is by no means new to piracy complaints. Two years ago the application also made the news when it, for the first time, removed an entire channel where a pirated copy of Taylor Swift’s album Reputation was shared. The service took this action following pressure from Google and Apple.
In addition to the issues discussed above, the RIAA’s submission mostly includes familiar topics. In this year’s ‘issue focus,’ the RIAA points out that malware remains a problem on pirate sites for example. This puts the public at risk and should be mitigated where possible, it says.
The music group also highlights problems with bulletproof hosting providers that ignore DMCA notices, and CDN services such as Cloudflare. In addition, it once again stresses that WHOIS data should become public and verified.
The USTR will use the input above to make up its own list of notorious markets. This will help to identify current threats while calling on foreign governments to take appropriate action.
—
A copy of the RIAA’s latest submission to the Office of the US Trade Representative is available here (pdf).
Amazon is running a 1-day sale on select Acer products, which means you can save some money on a Chromebook, Windows laptop, monitor, mouse, or backpack, among other things. Here are some of the day’s best deals. Laptops Acer product sale –…
Amazon is running a 1-day sale on select Acer products, which means you can save some money on a Chromebook, Windows laptop, monitor, mouse, or backpack, among other things. Here are some of the day’s best deals. Laptops Acer product sale – Amazon Acer Chromebook 11 w/Celeron N3060/4GB/32GB for $150 – Amazon Acer Chromebook 15 […]
Beating Intel to the 1100 GFLOPS punch by 2 years got AMD a new Surface design.
Enlarge/ The new line of 15" Surface laptops is powered exclusively with AMD Ryzen APUs. (credit: AMD)
Today, Microsoft and AMD announced a new line of 15" ultraslim Surface laptops based on AMD Ryzen CPUs. These devices are still Zen 1 mobile parts, not the much-anticipated 7nm Zen 2—but their inclusion in such a high-profile and slim-form-factor laptop goes a long way toward answering lingering questions about AMD's ability to compete strongly in the higher end of the mobile CPU space.
Microsoft's press release claims that the Surface 3 with Ryzen 5 3580U CPU will have a battery life of up to 11.5 hours based on "typical Surface usage." Microsoft goes on to state that the Ryzen-powered Surface 3 is the fastest laptop in its class. This stat, unfortunately, gets less impressive when you read the fine print and discover that the "class" only includes other 15W TDP Ryzen processors.
We still expect the Ryzen Surface Edition to be a very good performer in the ultralight class, where the integrated GPU is a large factor in system responsiveness. Radeon Vega 8 already performed at roughly the same level as the new Iris Plus GPU in Intel's 10th-generation Ice Lake mobile processors, and while we don't have any benchmarks for the Vega 9 graphics used in the Ryzen 5 3580U, we do know it has one extra graphics compute unit compared to previously-available mobile Ryzen CPUs.
A demo of Windows 10X shows how the OS will be optimized for dual-screen devices.
The Microsoft Surface Neo prototype. [credit:
Microsoft ]
Today at an event in New York, Microsoft announced a bunch of new Surface devices, including a new dual-screen PC—but you won't get your hands on it until next year. The new Microsoft Surface Neo is a PC made of two 9-inch screens held together by a "360-degree" hinge and running a new version of Windows 10, dubbed Windows 10X.
What appeared to be a prototype was shown on stage today; the finished product won't be available until "next holiday." Microsoft didn't give away too many details about the device, but you can get the gist by reading the few specs listed above. Two 9-inch displays open up like a book thanks to the hinge that holds them together.
Microsoft's Panos Panay boasted the hinge's design, which includes micro-gears, a torque system, and components thinner than strands of hair. It essentially makes the device a tiny two-in-one, flexing into laptop, tablet, and other use modes. The device is 5.6mm thick and weighs just 655 grams. In many ways, it looks similar to Lenovo's Yoga Book, but with two LCD panels instead of a hybrid LCD and E-Ink pairing.
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