Month: September 2020

UK: Streit um Plan B für Nordirland

London will den Regionen ehemalige EU-Kompetenzen zuweisen aber gleichzeitig dafür sorgen, dass sie Waren aus anderen Teilen des Vereinigten Königreichs akzeptieren

London will den Regionen ehemalige EU-Kompetenzen zuweisen aber gleichzeitig dafür sorgen, dass sie Waren aus anderen Teilen des Vereinigten Königreichs akzeptieren

Beware of sandworms: Dune trailer gives us our first look at an epic world

Director Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation provokes mixed reactions among Ars staffers.

Timothée Chalamet stars as Paul Atriedes in Denis Villeneuve's upcoming adaptation of Dune.

Warner Bros. debuted the first trailer today for Dune, director Denis Villeneuve's ambitious (could it be anything else?) adaptation of Frank Herbert's sprawling epic novel. It was preceded by a livestreaming event in which Late Show host Stephen Colbert interviewed Villeneuve and several cast members: Timothée Chalamet, who stars as Paul Atreides, Oscar Isaac, Rebecca Ferguson, Josh Brolin, Zendaya, Javier Bardem, Jason Momoa, and Sharon Duncan-Brewster.

As we reported last year, Dune is set in the distant future and follows the fortunes of various noble houses in what amounts to a feudal interstellar society. Much of the action takes place on the planet Arrakis, where the economy is driven largely by a rare life-extending drug called melange ("the spice") that also conveys a kind of prescience. There's faster-than-light space travel, a prophecy concerning a messianic figure, giant sandworms, and lots of battles, as protagonist Paul Atreides (a duke's son) contends with rival House Harkonnen and strives to defeat the forces of Shaddam IV, Emperor of the Known Universe.

That brief synopsis hardly does justice to the sweep and enormous cultural influence of Herbert's novel. When it was first published, the Chicago Tribune called it "one of the monuments of modern science fiction." Astronomers have board games, computer games, and numerous prequels and sequels written by his son, Brian Herbert, with Kevin J. Anderson.

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Motorola’s new Razr is a foldable 5G flip phone coming this fall for $1400

As expected, Motorola is launching a new version of the Motorola Razr smartphone with a foldable OLED display. And as expected, the new model brings a faster processor, 5G support, and upgraded memory, storage, battery, and cameras. What’s a lit…

Motorola Razr 5G

As expected, Motorola is launching a new version of the Motorola Razr smartphone with a foldable OLED display. And as expected, the new model brings a faster processor, 5G support, and upgraded memory, storage, battery, and cameras. What’s a little surprising is that the new Motorola Razr is also cheaper than the previous model… although not […]

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Xbox All Access seems like one of the best deals in gaming

Subscribers pay nothing upfront for hardware and can save money over two years.

A photo collage of various video game characters.

Enlarge (credit: Microsoft / Getty Images / Aurich Lawson)

Today, Microsoft revealed prices for its next-gen consoles: $299 or $499 for an Xbox Series S or Xbox Series X, respectively, starting November 10. But Microsoft is also talking up a smartphone-style program that lets players get either system for no money upfront as part of a subscription plan called Xbox All Access.

We've seen "no money down" Xbox hardware plans like this before—a similar All Access program has been available for the Xbox One line since 2018. But we're using this high-profile occasion to remind you of a little-known fact about Xbox All Access: it can save new console buyers money in the long run, as well as upfront.

What’s the deal?

First, let's run the numbers. With Xbox All Access, you make a two-year commitment to pay $24.99/month (for the Xbox Series S) or $34.99/month (for the Xbox Series X). In exchange for that commitment, you get the relevant hardware upfront, to keep, as well as a two-year subscription to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.

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Cloudflare Must Expose Operators of Popular Pirate Streaming Sites

Anti-piracy coalition ACE is going after the operators of several pirate streaming sites. The members of ACE obtained a DMCA subpoena that requires Cloudflare to hand over the personal details and account information related to 37 domain names, including Flixtor.to, Myflixer.to, Watchserieshd.tv, HDSS.to and Soap2day.to.

From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

ACE logoThe online piracy ecosystem is constantly evolving.

Ten years ago the entertainment industries were mostly concerned with torrent sites. Today, online streaming sites and services are the main challenges.

To tackle this threat, some of the largest companies in the world bundled their powers. In 2017 they formed the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), which lists prominent members including major Hollywood studios, Netflix, Amazon, and other entertainment giants.

ACE’s Ongoing Anti-Piracy Efforts

The coalition has been very active both in- and outside of court. It has shut down various streaming sites and tools, including Kodi add-ons and builds, pirate streaming box vendors, and unauthorized IPTV services.

These efforts often start with intelligence gathering. At ACE, a dedicated team of investigators is constantly trying to identify the people behind these sites and services. One way to do this is by subpoenaing Cloudflare for information.

Late last week, ACE obtained such a DMCA subpoena at a California District Court. The subpoena specifically directs CDN provider Cloudflare to hand over all useful information it has on a wide range of popular pirate streaming sites.

“The purpose for which this subpoena is sought is to obtain the identities of the individuals assigned to these websites who have exploited ACE Members’ exclusive rights in their copyrighted works without their authorization,” ACE wrote while requesting the subpoena.

Targeting Flixtor.to, HDSS.to, Soap2day.to and others

The legal paperwork lists 37 separate domain names, listed below. Several domains point to similar sites and the targets include Flixtor.to, Myflixer.to, Watchserieshd.tv, HDSS.to and Soap2day.to, which are all among the top hundred most-visited pirate streaming sites.

Myflixer
myflixer

At the time of writing all these sites are still operational. Cloudflare doesn’t have to take any direct action against the targeted customers either, it merely has to hand over the requested information.

Among other things, ACE is looking for the account holders’ names, IP addresses, and payment details. This information will be used “for the purposes of protecting the rights” of the Hollywood studios, Amazon, and Netflix.

Cloudflare is legally required to comply with the subpoena. Previously, it was unknown what information the company typically hands over but the latest transparency report, published last week, provided further insight.

Cloudflare to Share Names, IP-addresses, and More

The CDN provider said that, in response to valid legal requests, it shares IP-addresses that are used to login to the site as well as the login times. In addition, it hands over ‘basic subscriber info.’ including names, email addresses, physical addresses, phone numbers, and payment details.

How useful the provided information will be to ACE remains to be seen. However, it does show that the anti-piracy coalition is watching these sites closely. As such, it will likely do everything in its power to take them down.

Finally, it is worth mentioning that several of the targeted domains are tied to the Donuts domain registry. For example, those with the .movie and .email extension. This is odd since Donuts has a voluntary agreement with the MPA, which is part of ACE, to suspend pirate site domains when they are properly reported.

The MPA informed TorrentFreak that, in this case, they prefer to go for the Cloudflare subpoena route to support ACE’s investigations and the planned actions against the sites. Suspending the domains remains an option.

—

A copy of the letter ACE sent to Cloudflare informing it about the subpoena is available here (pdf). A full list of all the affected domain names is listed below.

– flixtor.im
– flixtor.is
– flixtor.se
– flixtor.vc
– flixtor.it
– flixtor.to
– myflixer.site
– myflixer.to
– myflixer.com
– xmovies8.pl
– xmovies8.ac
– xmovies8.com
– xmovies8.si
– xmovies8.tv
– watchserieshd.tv
– watchserieshd.cc
– watchserieshd.io
– gowatchseries.movie
– gowatchseries.fm
– gowatchseries.tv
– series.movie
– gowatchseries.video
– 123movies2020.org
– memovies.to
– putlockers.email
– top123movies.com
– putlockers.me
– putlockers.cr
– 0123movies.su
– hdss.to
– moviesjoy.net
– watchseries.movie
– fmovie.sc
– 1movies.is
– soap2day.to
– soap2day.se
– soap2day.im

From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

Climate change may wreck economy unless we act soon, federal report warns

Fires and floods are expensive and disruptive and we’re not ready, report finds.

A deep orange sky covers an automobile bridge across a lake.

Enlarge / A boat motors by as the Bidwell Bar Bridge is surrounded by fire in Lake Oroville during the Bear fire in Oroville, California, on September 9, 2020. (credit: Josh Edelson | AFP | Getty Images)

The ever-worsening climate crisis is already causing waves of human suffering—both internationally and here in the United States. And now, a new report from a US financial regulator finds that climate change is also poised to do major damage to some of the institutions with the most power to help mitigate it: Wall Street banks and investors.

Climate change "poses a major risk to the stability of the US financial system and to its ability to sustain the American economy," the report (196-page PDF) from the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) begins. Regulators "must recognize that climate change poses serious emerging risks to the US financial system, and they should move urgently and decisively to measure, understand, and address these risks."

The report, called "Managing Climate Risk in the US Financial System," was written by a group of 35 advisors from major banks such as Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase, environmental groups such as The Nature Conservancy and Ceres, energy firms such as BP and ConocoPhillips, several investment firms, and experts from several universities. It is the first analysis of climate change to come from a US financial regulator looking specifically at how change, already underway, will affect trading of agricultural commodities and futures, the real estate and insurance markets, and all the complex financial instruments that are built on multiple industries taken together.

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Lilbits: AMD, Apple schedule announcements

Apple is holding an event next week, when the company is expected to introduce its next-gen iPad and Apple Watch. We’ll probably have to wait another month for iPhone news. That’s the same month we expect to learn more about Google’s…

Apple is holding an event next week, when the company is expected to introduce its next-gen iPad and Apple Watch. We’ll probably have to wait another month for iPhone news. That’s the same month we expect to learn more about Google’s Pixel 4a 5G and Pixel 5 (or maybe Pixel 5s), although they most likely […]

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