Tesla hat nach Angaben von Firmenchef Elon Musk bereits 187.000 unverbindliche Reservierungen für den erst Ende der vergangenen Woche vorgestellten Cybertruck erhalten. (Tesla, Technologie)
Tesla hat nach Angaben von Firmenchef Elon Musk bereits 187.000 unverbindliche Reservierungen für den erst Ende der vergangenen Woche vorgestellten Cybertruck erhalten. (Tesla, Technologie)
Nintendo is structurally wiping piracy-enabling sites from search results. Instead of regular DMCA notices, the gaming company is using anti-circumvention complaints to have Google remove links to console jailbreaking software and flash card adapters from its search engine. The infamous Team-Xecuter is a prime target, but the company also targets legitimate stores such as Newegg.
As one of the most iconic gaming manufacturers in the world, Nintendo has been fighting piracy for many years.
The company has an in-house anti-piracy division that signals the latest threats to steer enforcement actions in the right direction.
This has resulted in high-profile lawsuits against ROM sites as well as site blocking efforts. For example, earlier this year the company obtained an injunction from the UK High Court which ordered local ISPs to block sites that enable Nintendo Switch piracy.
This included the homes of the infamous Team-Xecutor, as well as sites that sell R4i flashcard adaptors which allow Switch owners to load custom firmware.
The problem for Nintendo is that this blockade is limited to the UK. However, in recent months the company has used another strategy to limit the availability of these sites worldwide, with minimal effort. Instead of going to court, it went to Google.
The gaming company has sent hundreds of takedown notices to the search engine, targeting thousands of URLs. These requests are not standard copyright takedowns. Instead, Nintendo flags the sites for violating the DMCA’s anti-circumvention provision.
This includes many pages from Team-Xecuter’s site, which offers software to jailbreak the Switch console and bypass other protection measures.
“Nintendo’s technological protection measures (‘TPMs’) ensure that only official copies of its game software can be played on Nintendo’s video game systems,” Nintendo writes.
“The circumvention devices, products or components offered at the reported links bypass Nintendo’s TPMs so that users can play unauthorized copies of Nintendo’s game files that are offered unlawfully via the Internet,” the notice adds.
Some of the URLs
Nintendo notes that some of the URLs offer circumvention devices and tools directly, but it also highlights pages that “promote and direct” visitors to resellers of the circumvention components.
While Team-Xecuter is one of the main targets, Nintendo is also going after legitimate stores that offer R4i and R4S dongles. This includes Newegg, a well-known electronics retailer based in California.
At the time of writing, Newegg no longer lists any R4i dongles on its .com site but the Canadian version still has some, including the one below. Nintendo also asked Google to remove this page, but for now, it’s still listed in the search results.
The same isn’t true for many other pages. Most well-ranked Team-Xecuter URLs, including the homepage, have been removed from Google. The same is true for other sites such as usachipss.com, mod-switch.com, mlgames.net, and funnyplaying.com.
Whether the site operators agree with the takedowns or not, they are generally irreversible. Google says that unlike regular DMCA copyright takedowns, there is no counternotice process. The DMCA doesn’t prescribe a takedown and counter-notification scheme for DRM circumvention.
While Google has voluntarily chosen to take the URLs offline, it is not required to offer a counter-notice option. This puts targeted sites at a severe disadvantage.
This means that for rightsholders this takedown route can be quite effective. Just a few weeks ago we showed that the RIAA uses the same grounds to remove the URLs of YouTube download platforms, and even scammers have previously used the anti-circumvention route as well.
Popular VPN provider Private Internet Access (PIA) is set to be acquired by Kape Technologies. This will transform the company into a major player in the VPN industry. The deal has sparked a lively debate about Kape’s intentions and PIA’s future, but the company stresses that it remains committed to protecting the privacy of its users.
Private Internet Access, commonly known as PIA, is one of the largest VPN providers in the world.
In recent years it’s become a well-established brand that has had its no-logging policy tested in court, with success.
This week the company announced that some changes are afoot. PIA’s parent organization LTMI Holdings is in the process of a merger acquisition by the publicly traded Kape Technologies, which also owns the Cyberghost and Zenmate VPN services.
As part of the planned deal, Kape will pay $95.5 million. Part of this will be paid in cash, Vox reports, and Kape is also planning to pay the $32.1 million in existing debt PIA has on the books.
With the planned merger acquisition Kape hopes to become a dominant force in the VPN industry.
“In one acquisition, I believe we have positioned Kape to fast become one of the leading digital privacy service providers in the world, empowering consumers to manage their own data and digital security,” Kape’s CEO Ido Erlichman comments.
PIA’s CEO Ted Kim is also pleased with the deal and notes that it will help to improve the digital privacy and security of PIA’s subscribers worldwide.
There are no changes planned in the short term. The Private Internet Access name will remain in use for now, just as Cyberghost and Zenmate are still using their original brands. However, the acquisition has raised questions among some users.
Some have pointed at Kape’s history. The company had previously operated under the name Crossrider and was active in the advertising space. Among other things, it installed toolbars with ‘potentially unwanted software.’ While the company has since switched to a focus on cybersecurity, this past has made some people suspicious.
In an article addressing some of the questions, PIA assured its subscribers that its course is not going to change. According to Chief Communications Officer, Christel Dahlskjaer, privacy and security remain the top priority.
“From day one, we have been clear that your privacy is our policy and that the Private Internet Access VPN and our other privacy products exist to bring power to the people.
“The people are our stakeholders, and it is to you all, collectively, that we must remain accountable,” Dahlskjaer adds. She points out that PIA worked with Kape’s to establish a shared mission and guiding principles, which reflects the core values.
It’s inevitable that any corporate deal in the VPN industry will be watched closely and that’s a good thing. VPN providers rely on trust and should be judged by their actions. The company that protects its customers the best way it can, will ultimately be the most successful.
PIA believes that, by teaming up with Kape, it has the best shot at achieving this goal and asks users to give it the time to prove itself.
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Disclaimer: PIA is one of our sponsors. This article was written independently, as all of our articles are. We generally don’t report on VPN business news but felt that it was good to mention this development.
As usual, Amazon is offering deep discounts on Fire tablets for the holiday shopping season. And as usual, some folks would like Amazon’s tablets better if they worked a bit more like other Android tablets. Amazon Fire tablets run a fork of Andro…
As usual, Amazon is offering deep discounts on Fire tablets for the holiday shopping season. And as usual, some folks would like Amazon’s tablets better if they worked a bit more like other Android tablets. Amazon Fire tablets run a fork of Android called Fire OS. That means they have an Amazon-designed user interface and ship […]
We can’t tell you much without spoiling the fun, but it’s a must-see film.
Enlarge/ Daniel Craig sports a southern accent and plenty of panache as Det. Benoit Blanc in Knives Out. (credit: YouTube/Lionsgate)
A wealthy family patriarch dies under mysterious circumstances and a brilliant detective suspects foul play in Knives Out, Director Rian Johnson's terrific postmodern take on the classic whodunnit. Frankly, I can't tell you much without spoiling the fun—there are twists upon twists upon twists throughout—but the film should be on everybody's must-see list.
(We are very mindful of spoilers below, apart from brief descriptions of the premise and main characters, and well-known tropes of classic mystery novels.)
It's not as much of a radical departure for Johnson as it might seem. His debut feature film, Brick (2005), was a crime drama with film noir overtones, largely inspired by the works of Dashiell Hammett and starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt. (The actor would go on to star in Johnson's third film, 2012's Looper.) For Brick, Johnson had his actors read Hammett and watch classic screwball comedies like His Girl Friday to bring a lighter touch to the traditional noir genre.
Best Buy is starting its Black Friday deal a bit early, with deep discounts on hundreds of items. But Amazon already kicked off its own Black Friday pricing on a bunch of products a few days ago — meaning you can pick up a Fire tablet for as litt…
Best Buy is starting its Black Friday deal a bit early, with deep discounts on hundreds of items. But Amazon already kicked off its own Black Friday pricing on a bunch of products a few days ago — meaning you can pick up a Fire tablet for as little as $30, among other things. Oh, […]
It was a slow show for new models but there were some interesting cars on display
The Vision Mercedes Simplex re-imagines the 1901 Mercedes 35PS. [credit:
Brian Won ]
The prophets of doom are right; the auto show is fast becoming a spent force. I’ve been resistant to that idea, but this year’s LA Auto Show was as lackluster an event as I can remember. There was big car news these past days, all of which took place in LA: the Ford Mustang Mach-E, Volkswagen ID Space Vizzion, and of course the Tesla Cybertruck all made waves. But each met the public at an off-site event, and the Ford and VW were old news by the time the doors to the convention center opened for the first press day on Wednesday.
But we’re not going to focus on negativity today. Instead, we’re going to celebrate some of the four-wheeled eye candy at the show. The OEMs might not have brought much new to LA, but many of them did wheel out their takes on the future. Some are next year’s model with some added greebles, others are a view of decade or more from now, and require enabling technologies that aren’t quite there yet. Two are just race cars, built for SEMA and brought along to LA to make up the numbers.
No mind—I asked photographer Brian Won to walk the halls and, like the video game said, try to catch them all. And he did, with a couple of exceptions; BMW had put away its MNEXT and Kia's Futuron was also hiding somewhere. Most of the captions are his, and I urge you to check out the massive gallery at the top of this article—the pictures are where it's at.
Greetings, Arsians! Black Friday is nearly here, but many retailers and device makers have set some of their most notable holiday discounts live over the last couple of days. To help you see if you can get some holiday shopping done ahead of the rush later this week, the Dealmaster has rounded up some favorites from this latest batch of early Black Friday tech deals.
Of particular note today are savings on both PlayStation 4 and Xbox One hardware. Sony has the PS4 Pro down to $300 and a PS4 Slim bundle that includes God of War, Horizon Zero Dawn: Complete Edition, and The Last of Us: Remastered available for $200. Microsoft, meanwhile, now has Xbox One X bundles for $350, Xbox One S bundles for $200, and Xbox One S All-Digital Edition bundles for $150. It's worth remembering that both companies will have new consoles by this time next year, but this is as low as we typically see any of these consoles. There are also tons more deals on both consoles' respective games, controllers, and subscription services if you don't need a whole new system. (The Nintendo Switch, on the other hand, doesn't have any major sales live just yet.)
Chinese mini-PC maker One Netbook has cranked out a bunch of tiny computers over the past year and a half — but most have been variations on a theme. Take a convertible laptop with a touchscreen display and a 360-degree hinge and shrink it down t…
Chinese mini-PC maker One Netbook has cranked out a bunch of tiny computers over the past year and a half — but most have been variations on a theme. Take a convertible laptop with a touchscreen display and a 360-degree hinge and shrink it down to somewhere between 7 and 8.4 inches. Next year the […]
No matter how frequently it happens, when people online love something obsessively, when they simply must stan, it always brings out the cynics. Their cynicism, in turn, will be understood as intellectual seriousness. As maturity. To wit: This week the internet pledged its fealty to Baby Yoda—the tiny alien from Disney+’s The Mandalorian—and was immediately met with the rationale of Adult Nerds eager to pronounce each fan a nerf-herding sap who doesn’t really understand the object of their affection. It’s a reality created by clicks as much as crotchetiness. Baby Yoda hype has produced beatific meme-collection posts showcasing how many adherents would die for the li'l green cherub, speculations about what role Baby Yoda will play in The Mandalorian, and beyond. Naysaying is the obvious next step. Baby Yoda backlash has alreadybegun.
Tesla hat nach Angaben von Firmenchef Elon Musk bereits 187.000 unverbindliche Reservierungen für den erst Ende der vergangenen Woche vorgestellten Cybertruck erhalten. (Tesla, Technologie) 
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