Russia Anti-Piracy Agreement Expires, Now Relies on Goodwill of Search Engines

The anti-piracy memorandum signed by rightsholders and major Internet companies in Russia has expired. This means that search engines no longer have to remove allegedly-infringing content from their indexes. Whether they will continue to do so in advance of legislation compelling them to do so now appears reliant on goodwill.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and more. We also have VPN reviews, discounts, offers and coupons.

Following intense pressure on local Internet companies, particularly search giant Yandex, last year an important meeting took place at the headquarters of Russian telecom watchdog Roscomnadzor.

Held between search engines and major copyright holders, the aim was to find a solution to the online proliferation of copyrighted content. By early November consensus had been reached, with Channel One, the National Media Group, Gazprom-Media, the Internet Video Association, the Association of Film and Television Producers, Yandex, Rambler Group, Mail.Ru Group, vKontakte, and RuTube signing up to a memorandum.

The voluntary agreement, which was timetabled to run until September 30, 2019, saw the creation of a centralized database of infringing content, maintained by rightsholders. Search companies agreed to query this database every few minutes in order to obtain the URLs of ‘pirate’ material so that they could be removed from search results.

Since the agreement was voluntary and time-limited, it was envisioned that the terms would be written into law, before the memorandum ran out. However, there have been a few points of contention, including a requirement from rightsholders that some continuously-infringing sites should be completely delisted from results, without a court process.

These things naturally take time to work out but in this case, too much time. On Monday, as per the original timetable, the memorandum expired. According to local news outlet RBC, the necessary amendments to copyright law were not submitted to the State Duma before that day, meaning that none of the signatories are bound by the agreement.

Sources at the companies involved told the publication that the memorandum has indeed timed-out but added that an informal agreement has now been reached by the parties to continue compliance for another two weeks. An extension of the agreement until December 31, 2019 had previously been agreed but its terms were not met by September 30.

According to Leonid Levin of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, the bill to write the terms of the memorandum into law was submitted to the State Duma in a non-finished form. There will reportedly be another meeting between the parties this week.

“As soon as we finalize the document, it will be submitted to the State Duma,” Levin said. “Until then, we hope that all interested parties will continue to adhere to those provisions that were enshrined in the so-called anti-piracy memorandum, which meets all the interests of the industry.”

Roscomnadzor declined to comment on the delay but the Internet Video Association said that it would be “very disappointed” if Internet companies stopped removing links to pirated content due to the memorandum expiring.

At the moment, it appears that the memorandum is surviving on goodwill but according to reports the issue is in the balance. The so-called ‘repeat infringer’ clause, which would see sites permanently removed from search results, is still a point of contention moving into this week’s planned meeting.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and more. We also have VPN reviews, discounts, offers and coupons.

Risikobewertung: Finanzbranche rüstet sich für den Klimastresstest

Im Zuge der Klimakrise soll Anlagevermögen auch nach Klimarisiken bewertet werden. Startups, die dafür IT-Tools entwickeln, sind gerade heiß begehrt. Ein Bericht von Christiane Schulzki-Haddouti (Klimakrise, GreenIT)

Im Zuge der Klimakrise soll Anlagevermögen auch nach Klimarisiken bewertet werden. Startups, die dafür IT-Tools entwickeln, sind gerade heiß begehrt. Ein Bericht von Christiane Schulzki-Haddouti (Klimakrise, GreenIT)

Blu-ray, Ultra HD Blu-ray sales stats for the week ending September 21, 2019

The results and analysis for DVD, Blu-ray and Ultra HD Blu-ray sales for the week ending September 21, 2019, are in. A disappointing (box office wise) latest addition in a superhero franchise in this week’s top seller (and the only new release in the t…



The results and analysis for DVD, Blu-ray and Ultra HD Blu-ray sales for the week ending September 21, 2019, are in. A disappointing (box office wise) latest addition in a superhero franchise in this week's top seller (and the only new release in the top 20). Find out what movie and franchise it was in our weekly DVD, Blu-ray and Ultra HD Blu-ray sales stats and analysis feature.

 

Autonomes Fahren: Tesla soll Start-up Deepscale gekauft haben

Tesla hat laut Medienbericht das Start-up Deepscale übernommen, das auf Bilderkennung spezialisiert ist. Die Technik könnte Tesla helfen, das autonome Fahren zu verbessern. (Tesla, Elektroauto)

Tesla hat laut Medienbericht das Start-up Deepscale übernommen, das auf Bilderkennung spezialisiert ist. Die Technik könnte Tesla helfen, das autonome Fahren zu verbessern. (Tesla, Elektroauto)

IMk: Nissan stellt neue Elektroauto-Studie für die Stadt vor

Der Nissan IMk ist ein Elektroauto für die Stadt: Klein und wendig, mit kurzen Überhängen und einem geringen Platzangebot ist er vornehmlich für kurze Strecken gedacht. Noch handelt es sich um eine Studie. (Nissan, Technologie)

Der Nissan IMk ist ein Elektroauto für die Stadt: Klein und wendig, mit kurzen Überhängen und einem geringen Platzangebot ist er vornehmlich für kurze Strecken gedacht. Noch handelt es sich um eine Studie. (Nissan, Technologie)

Super Mario Maker 2 catches up with 1998, lets you play online with friends

Sweeping patch adds “play with friends” feature three months after launch.

Though Super Mario Maker 2 was the first game in the decades-old Nintendo series to support online multiplayer, the feature premiered in late June with a curious twist. Its owners could jump online and play a slew of custom-created levels in either versus or co-op modes, but only against strangers.

Shortly before the game's Switch launch, Nintendo acknowledged how crazy this sounded and promised that friends would eventually be able to pair up in these online modes via friend lists. In the months that followed, Nintendo remained utterly silent... until the wee hours of Tuesday night, when the game's 1.1.0 patch went live.

We can confirm that Super Mario Maker 2 now works like most every other online game we've ever played. We were able to contact people we knew on a Nintendo Switch friend list, start a SMM2 session, and play with (or against) said friends. (Only Nintendo could merit an entire article about playing an online game with friends in 2019.)

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Vitis Software Platform: Xilinx’ FPGAs einfacher und kostenlos programmieren

Entwickler müssen sich bei Xilinx’ FPGAs nicht länger mit Hardware-Sprachen auseinandersetzen: Bei der Vitis Software Platform reichen C++ oder Python, um die Schaltungen zu programmieren. (Xilinx, IBM)

Entwickler müssen sich bei Xilinx' FPGAs nicht länger mit Hardware-Sprachen auseinandersetzen: Bei der Vitis Software Platform reichen C++ oder Python, um die Schaltungen zu programmieren. (Xilinx, IBM)

Activision: Call of Duty als mobile Schießbude

Multiplayermatches, Stufenaufstiege sowie massenhaft Waffen und sonstige Ausrüstung bietet Call of Duty Mobile auf Smartphone und Tablet. Ausgerechnet das Abfeuern der Waffe erfolgt in einem Steuerungsmodus fast automatisch. (Call of Duty, Activision)

Multiplayermatches, Stufenaufstiege sowie massenhaft Waffen und sonstige Ausrüstung bietet Call of Duty Mobile auf Smartphone und Tablet. Ausgerechnet das Abfeuern der Waffe erfolgt in einem Steuerungsmodus fast automatisch. (Call of Duty, Activision)

Life after the Joker: Harley Quinn finds a new gang in Birds of Prey trailer

Subtitle: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn.

Margot Robbie reprises her role as Harley Quinn in Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn.

Margot Robbie chewing up the scenery as love-crazed villain Harley Quinn was one of the best things about the 2016 DCEU film, Suicide Squad—so much so that Warner Bros. and DC Films have been developing a trilogy of films focusing on the character. Now we have a trailer for the first of those: Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of Harley Quinn). And while it's still far too early to make a call one way or the other as to the film's merits, it looks like it could be a lot of R-rated Harley-centric fun.

Birds of Prey is based on the long-running comic series of the same name, originally focused on Barbara Gordon (daughter of James Gordon), aka Batgirl. Barbara reinvents herself as the Oracle after an encounter with the Joker paralyzes her from the waist down. Oracle teams up with Black Canary, an accomplished martial artist with an ultrasonic superpower known as the "Canary Cry." Various other characters have come and gone over the course of the series, most notably (for current purposes) a former mafia princess turned vigilante dubbed Huntress.

(Some spoilers for Suicide Squad below.)

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Gemini dual-screen laptop (or two tablets) returns to Indiegogo

The Gemini dual-screen laptop (which is really just two tablets) has returned to Indiegogo about a month after the campaign was paused and put under review. According to the folks behind this unusual dual-screen/dual-device product, Indiegogo has &#822…

The Gemini dual-screen laptop (which is really just two tablets) has returned to Indiegogo about a month after the campaign was paused and put under review. According to the folks behind this unusual dual-screen/dual-device product, Indiegogo has “finished reviewing our functional product and video,” but the team doesn’t note one other change — the company […]

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