Month: January 2020

Mit einem Rekord will Rolls-Royce in ein neues Zeitalter der Luftfahrt einsteigen. Der britische Hersteller hat ein Flugzeug mit Elektroantrieb gebaut, das für Rekorde konstruiert worden ist. Ziel des Projekts ist, die Elektrifizierung der Luftfahrt voranzubringen. (Flugzeug, Technologie)

YTS is the most-visited torrent site on the Internet. With millions of daily visitors, it even beats the legendary Pirate Bay.

The site ‘unofficially’ took over the YTS brand when the original group threw in the towel in 2015. Since then, it has amassed a rather impressive user base. However, that growth didn’t go unnoticed by copyright holders.

The movie industry sees the popular torrent site as one of the main piracy threats and last year YTS became the target of three different copyright infringement lawsuits in the US.

These cases were not filed by the big law firms that represent Hollywood’s major movie studios. Instead, they were filed by a single attorney from Hawaii, Kerry Culpepper, who works for Millennium Films and several of its daughter companies.

With these lawsuits, the filmmakers hoped to take the site offline and recoup damages. That can be an extremely difficult endeavor, especially when a site operator resides abroad, but part of this mission has now been achieved.

In the case filed on behalf of Wicked Nevada LLC, known for the thriller “Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, And Vile“, the filmmakers agreed to a consent judgment with Senthil Vijay Segaran, the suspected operator of YTS.

The original complaint referred to the operator as a John Doe. However, this was later updated to name Segaran as the person in charge. Segaran was also the person who previously agreed to remove several torrents linking to Millenium Films’ movies from YTS.

In the consent judgment, signed a few days ago, Segaran denies liability for copyright infringements. However, he confirms that he is the ‘John Doe’ described in the complaint and admits that people used YTS to share pirated content.

“Senthil Vijay Segaran denies liability but acknowledges that he is Defendant JOHN DOE dba YTS as identified in the original complaint and concedes that one or more third parties uploaded the torrent file of Plaintiff’s motion picture to the website YTS.LT,” the judgment reads.

Segaran specifically admits that “his website YTS.LT provided links for distributing the torrent file under the file name ‘Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, And Vile (2019) [WEBRip] [720p] [YTS.AM]’.”

According to the consent judgment, which is signed by both parties, the operator didn’t upload the ‘Wicked’ torrent to the site. Who did, remains unmentioned.

Although Segaran denies liability, he did agree to pay $150,000 in damages, which also happens to be the maximum amount of statutory damages for copyright infringement.

“A Money Judgment is awarded in favor of Plaintiff Wicked Nevada, LLC against Defendant Senthil Vijay Segaran in the amount of $150,000 for damages,” the consent judgment reads.

The judgment was signed by US District Judge Susan Oki Mollway. In addition to the damages amount, it also includes a permanent injunction. This prevents YTS’s operator from distributing and/or promoting torrent files that point to Wicked Nevada’s film.

A damages judgment against the operator of the largest torrent site in the world is a major achievement. Although more people could manage the site, several Millenium Films movies are no longer listed on the platform.

That said, the site remains up and running. And as long as Wicked Nevada’s movie is not listed, YTS.lt doesn’t violate the permanent injunction.

The two remaining lawsuits against YTS, by the makers of movies including Hellboy, Singularity, The Hitman’s Bodyguard, and Hunter Killer, remain ongoing. However, given that they are handled by the same attorney based on a nearly identical complaint, we may see similar consent judgments there as well.

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TorrentFreak obtained a copy of the stipulated consent judgment between Wicked Nevada and Senthil Vijay Segaran, signed by United States District Judge Susan Oki Mollway, which is available here (pdf).

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

Lernen durch Algorithmen und bald auch durch menschliches Lächeln: Microsoft arbeitet an einem Machine-Learning-System, das seine Entscheidungen anhand von Gesichtsausdrücken und Emotionen gewichtet. Erste kleine Experimente scheinen Erfolg zu versprechen. (Microsoft, KI)

In einem eher ungewöhnlichen Schritt fordern die fünf großen Regional Internet Registrys alle Unterlagen der Icann zu dem .org-Verkauf. Dieser sei eine wichtige Richtlinienentscheidung, die das Vertrauen in die Icann beeinflussen könnte. (Internet, DNS)

Beide Unternehmen finden wieder zusammen: Apple zahlt Lizenzkosten in unbekannter Höhe und erhält mehr Zugriff auf geistiges Eigentum von Imagination Technologies, wohl für die eigenen Grafikeinheiten. (Imagination, Apple)

Kunden von Disney+ können sich nicht darauf verlassen, dass alle Inhalte des Abos dauerhaft verfügbar sind. Es sind erste Titel aus dem Sortiment von Disney+ entfernt worden, darunter auch Klassiker wie Kevin - Allein zu Haus. (Disney+, Disney)

Warum funktionieren Angriffe mit Word-Makros seit 20 Jahren? Der CCC-Sprecher Linus Neumann erklärt auf dem Hackerkongress, warum es so schwer fällt, sich dagegen zu schützen. Dabei gibt es viele Ansatzmöglichkeiten, die IT wirklich sicherer zu machen. Von Moritz Tremmel (Social Engineering, Virus)

Das Smartphone, das eigentlich nur aus Display besteht, ist nicht wie geplant auf den Markt gekommen. Ab wann Xiaomi das Mi Mix Alpha offiziell verkaufen wird, ist derzeit nicht bekannt. (Xiaomi, Smartphone)

Bei der Finanzierung des Elektrokleinwagens E.Go gibt es offenbar Probleme. Die Aktionäre sollen das Unternehmen durch eine Zwischenfinanzierung zwar vorerst gerettet haben. Doch E.Go Mobile muss nun liefern. (e.go, Technologie)

Sono Motors hat die erforderlichen 50 Millionen Euro für die Prototypproduktion des Elektroautos Sion per Crowdfunding nicht zusammenbekommen. Nun könnte die Crowdfunding-Kampagne verlängert werden. (Elektroauto, Technologie)