Month: February 2020

Er sagte von sich gern, er sei ein Draufgänger. Seine Tollkühnheit ist Mike Hughes zum Verhängnis geworden: Er starb bei einem Flug mit seiner selbst gebauten Rakete. (Raumfahrt, Rakete)

Die Icann-Community soll künftig über ein Aufsichtsgremium Vetorechte für Entscheidungen beim Weiterbetrieb der .org-Domain erhalten. Die neuen Eigner gewähren der Icann zudem weiter Aufschub für eine Entscheidung zu dem Kauf. (Domain, Icann)

Die Entwicklerstudios Cloud Imperium Games und Crytek haben ihren Rechtsstreit um die Engine-Lizenzen von Star Citizen und Squadron 42 mit einer außergerichtlichen Einigung beendet. (Star Citizen, Crytek)

Wer sich vor dem Start von Disney+ in Deutschland für ein Jahresabo entscheidet, erhält es vergünstigt. Disney will damit gleich zum Start möglichst viele zahlende Abonnenten gewinnen. (Disney+, Disney)

Australia has often been described as a hotbed for piracy.

Some people link this phenomenon to long release delays and high prices. However, former Village Roadshow CEO Graham Burke and many other industry insiders disagree.

They mainly point the finger at the ease of access to pirate sites, which is facilitated by services such as Google.

While Burke stepped down from his position as movie studio CEO last year, he remains heavily involved in anti-piracy issues. He is currently the Chair of Creative Content Australia, an industry group that unites several major companies in the entertainment business.

In recent years the group supported broader anti-piracy measures such as website blocking. However, it also believes that more has to be done. In particular, they see a major role for third-party intermediaries including search engines such as Google.

The Australian government previously highlighted the responsibility of these online services in curbing piracy but despite the encouragement to do more, copyright holders say they have noticed little change.

“What is happening is that the government, with legislation, shut the front door by blocking websites by ISP, but the search engines, namely Google, are taking people to pirate process proxy sites,” Burke told The Australian.

“If you google PIR you get taken to Pirate Bay proxies, where they say unashamedly, if the government blocked your Pirate Bay access through your ISP we can re-engage you right here.”

Interestingly, last year Burke was the one who reported that Google has started to remove hundreds of pirate sites from its search result following a voluntary agreement. While that was touted as a victory, it didn’t result in the desired effect.

Creative Content Australia believes that search engines are not taking enough responsibility. Therefore, the group asked the government to step in to make sure that blocked sites are not findable through these third-party platforms.

This applies to search engines, including Google, as well as social media platforms such as Facebook. According to the rightsholders, these companies ignore the government’s recommendations as laid out in ACCC’s review.

With its call to action, Creative Content Australia is obviously looking out for the financial interests of its members. However, the group also stresses that pirate sites pose a danger to the public.

The industry group has repeatedly highlighted the risk of malware and other nefarious activities people can run into. Burke reiterates these comments and now notes that pirate sites can suck up passwords and empty people’s bank accounts.

“When piracy first started they had advertising and they’re still doing some of that, but the big profit, huge profit, comes from getting someone’s credit card details and emptying their bank account.

“Even just by clicking on to a ­pirate website, they’re so sophisticated they can suck up all your ­information, your passwords and everything,” Burke adds.

These statements go quite far and come without any evidence. While there certainly are some scammy sites online, we’re not aware of any regular pirate sites that steal people’s information and money.

In the past, the industry group also pointed out that pirate sites are the number one way through which malicious software is spread. While we previously debunked that claim, Burke continues to hammer on the threat.

Time will tell whether the renewed pressure on the Australian government will have any effect. At the time of writing, links to The Pirate Bay and other blocked sites remain widely available through search engines and social media platforms.

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

32 Zoll reichen nicht jeder Person aus. Deshalb bietet Asus den PG43UQ an, der mit 43 Zoll noch einmal wesentlich mehr Bildfläche liefert und trotzdem noch auf den Schreibtisch passt. Im Test schlägt sich der Bildschirm mit 4K, HDR und 144 Hz gut - wenn auch das Design Geschmackssache ist. Ein Test von Oliver Nickel (Asus, Display)

Sony hat beim Xperia 10 II im Vergleich zum Vorgänger einige Details verbessert: Das neue Modell hat drei statt zwei Kamera, kann Videos in 4K aufnehmen und hat ein OLED-Display. Der Preis liegt mit 370 Euro im Mittelklassebereich. (Sony, Smartphone)

Beim neuen Xperia 1 II setzt Sony den Fokus auf die Kamera: Bis zu 20 Bilder pro Sekunde lassen sich aufnehmen, der Fokus soll zudem sehr schnell sein. Auf einen hochauflösenden Sensor verzichtet der Hersteller aber, ebenso auf ein Display mit hoher Bildrate - dafür ist der Kopfhöreranschluss zurück. (Sony, Smartphone)

Google warnt: Wer ein Huawei-Smartphone ohne vorinstallierte Play-Dienste erworben hat, sollte diese Dienste nicht nachträglich installieren. Es würden Sicherheitsrisiken drohen. (Huawei, Google)

Die Preise von Rhodium und Palladium sind in den vergangenen Jahren massiv gestiegen. Katalysatoren, die diese Metalle enthalten, sind dadurch begehrtes Diebesgut geworden. (Auto)