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There are plenty of thin and light laptops on the market these days. But for years it’s been hard to beat the LG Gram lineup if you want really lightweight notebooks with big displays. The current lineup includes a 17 inch notebook that weighs l…
There are plenty of thin and light laptops on the market these days. But for years it’s been hard to beat the LG Gram lineup if you want really lightweight notebooks with big displays. The current lineup includes a 17 inch notebook that weighs less than 3 pounds, a 2.5 pound model that weighs just 2.5 […]
The post Lilbits: LG’s big, light laptops leaked, and the HTC HD2 gets new life (again) appeared first on Liliputing.
Kingdom Leaks, a music piracy site that has been leaking new music to the Internet for the past seven years, has announced its imminent demise. Due to personal reasons, from January 1, 2021, the site will permanently close down, taking all user data and content with it. While a disappointment to its followers, the site’s self-deletion won’t be discouraged by recording labels.
From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.
According to the music industry, the main threat to artists and labels from a piracy perspective is the availability of stream-ripping platforms and tools. On the other hand, however, a much more traditional threat also remains an issue.
Recording labels have long lamented the fact that insiders and other people with access to new music have made it available to others in advance of commercial release. Whether those are promo copies, so-called ‘dubplates’ in the vinyl scene, or even CDs liberated from the packing department of a manufacturing facility, early leaks can cause headaches – especially when they make it online.
Of course, leaks appearing online has been the standard for two decades already. The availability of music releases on streaming platforms simultaneously across borders has helped dampen the problem but it still hasn’t eradicated it. In fact, some sites specialize in ensuring content gets online as quickly as possible.
While there is no shortage of music leaking sites, Kingdom Leaks (in one form or another) has been around for roughly seven years. That’s quite a feat considering the content on offer. And, despite operating in a niche, the site still manages to pull in an estimated two million visits per month, with many users looking to grab music as far in advance of release as possible.
While this particular party was enjoyed by fans while it lasted, it’s clear that Kingdom Leaks will soon be pulling down the shutters for the last time.
“It is with a heavy heart and great sorrow that today I announce the shutdown of Kingdom Leaks. This was not a decision made lightly or abruptly, nor was this choice made because of legal pressure, a data breach, or anything of that nature,” site operator Lord Kingdom says in a final statement.
“The simple but unfortunate reason is this: mR12 and I have decided to move on, and there is no safe way to hand over the website to another party out of concern for the safety of everyone involved since the site’s inception 7 years ago.”
While many site operators can run on to ripe old ages without a hitch, Lord Kingdom says he has other ‘real-life’ matters on the agenda that require him to move on, with Kingdom Leaks (KL) firmly behind him.
“With a baby on the way and getting married next year, this is something that I need to put in the past, officially,” he writes.
“This reality has left us at the following decision: we will be permanently shutting down our servers on January 1st, 2021. All user and site data, including that which is stored on PassTheLeaks, will be permanently deleted.”
Those familiar with the site will recognize PassTheLeaks as one of the domains offered as an option for people trying to download music from KL, which is presented via related service Filecrypt. The news that all of this content is set to be deleted will come as a disappointment to users but according to Lord Kingdom, the topic won’t be revisited and the decision to close “is final”.
For many years, copyright holders and their anti-piracy partners have been working hard to have content uploaded by Kingdom Leaks delisted from Google. It will come as no surprise that the BPI takes the lead in the sheer volume of content targeted, closely followed by French music group SCPP and international music organization IFPI.
One of the other anti-piracy companies regularly trying to suppress KL is UK-based anti-piracy company AudioLock. If Kingdom Leaks keeps its word and closes down in just over a month’s time, AudioLock will have less work to do. Speaking with TorrentFreak, however, company founder Ben Rush says that he won’t be sad to see the site go.
“Kingdom Leaks has been around a long time and has a strong user base who are kept updated through various social media feeds of every new release. It covers a lot more rock and metal content than other similar sites and protects links from automated tools that take them down,” Rush says.
AudioLock’s owner says that Kingdom Leaks’ utilization of link encryption (Filecrypt) has meant that the site has been able to keep itself alive, driving its popularity but at the expense of artists who are struggling in the current climate.
“Now without the revenue from live events [due to COVID-19], we are seeing labels seeking to boost existing stream and download revenue by protecting it from piracy. This pressure combined with the site’s popularity will have made it a prime target,” he explains.
In what could be an important departing post, Kingdom Leaks admin mR12 (who is also a VIP uploader on The Pirate Bay) has penned an ‘essay’ on why people should be considering Spotify in their music consumption habits moving forward.
“As Kingdom Leaks comes to an unfortunate but inevitable close, you may be considering how your music needs will be sustainably met in the future. Many will understandably and reasonably move to other music blogs, other download sites, and with good cause,” he writes.
“I am not writing to condone these moves; however, I would like to argue, through a serious and practical consideration of the actual need that must be filled, that Spotify is the solution many people are looking for but simply don’t know it or haven’t given it enough consideration.
“I want to show that, yes, Spotify is worth $120 per year, and perhaps more importantly for those of you reading this, that Spotify is compatible with partial music piracy, which I believe is the most optimal and hassle-free solution for the vast majority of people.”
Time will tell how many soon-to-be-former users of KL find his arguments persuasive but Ben Rush is hoping that Kingdom Leaks’ passionate music-fan users will move to legal platforms rather than pirate sites.
“The harsh reality is that if these users want to have releases made by the labels and artists they enjoy, then they need to support them now. Without this support, there will be many labels who will no longer exist, and many artists unable to continue to create music,” he says.
“Show your appreciation and support to the labels and artists that mean so much to you. Secure their future by purchasing directly from the label itself or from legitimate platforms.”
It may have taken seven years but at this point (and if only partially), some kind of consensus appears to have been reached.
From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.
The FTC seems pretty sure there’s a “there” there but isn’t sure how to proceed.
Enlarge / All Facebook, no matter which way you look. (credit: Michael Short | Bloomberg | Getty Images)
After well over a year spent investigating Facebook, state and federal regulators are more than ready to start launching a slate of cases against Facebook, new reports say—that is, as soon as the agencies can agree on how they actually want to do it.
New suits against Facebook should come before the end of January, The Wall Street Journal writes. Both the Federal Trade Commission and a coalition of attorneys general for 47 states and territories are expected to take some kind of action.
The state and the federal probes are basically looking into two overall buckets of potentially anticompetitive behavior. The first has to do with Facebook's effects on other businesses that could or do compete with it. That's the investigation that delves into mergers and acquisitions, both large and small, as well as Facebook's behavior toward companies that refuse a buyout.
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Apple’s Notification Center had already long ago replaced Growl in most cases.
A Growl notification. (credit: Aurich Lawson)
Growl, once a key part of the Mac desktop experience, is being retired after 17 years. Christopher Forsythe, who acted as the lead developer for the project for years, announced the retirement in a blog post on Friday.
Launched in 2004, Growl provided notifications for applications on Macs (it was also offered for Windows) before Apple introduced its own Notification Center. Notification Center was added to macOS (then styled Mac OS X) in the Mountain Lion update in 2012, but it first debuted on iOS a year earlier.
Here's a snippet of Forsythe's announcement:
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Amazon’s Fire tablets offer a lot of bang for the buck. With list prices starting as low as $60, they’re far cheaper than any iPad, and more affordable than most tablets from companies like Samsung, Google, or Lenovo. Amazon’s tablets…
Amazon’s Fire tablets offer a lot of bang for the buck. With list prices starting as low as $60, they’re far cheaper than any iPad, and more affordable than most tablets from companies like Samsung, Google, or Lenovo. Amazon’s tablets also go on sale for even lower prices at least a few times a year […]
The post Hack your Amazon Fire tablet with Fire Toolbox (Install Google Play, disable Amazon apps, and more) appeared first on Liliputing.
After hitting the barriers at 140mph, the car split in half and caught fire.
The medical car and track marshals were on the scene seconds after Grosjean's car came to rest, half of it wedged into the guardrail. [credit: BRYN LENNON/POOL/AFP via Getty Images ]
The Formula 1 cars had barely made it a third of the way around the track before the red flag brought a temporary halt to this weekend's Bahrain Grand Prix. The start of an F1 race is often chaotic, especially among the back half of the grid, and so it proved on Sunday when the Haas VF-20 driven by Romain Grosjean speared off track to the right after exiting turn three.
First-lap crashes aren't that unusual in the sport, unlike what happened next. After hitting the guardrail at about 137mph (220km/h), Grosjean's car ripped in half and then burst into flames—something that hasn't happened for over 30 years. To make matters worse, the front half penetrated between the guardrails that lined this section of track. As crashes go, this one was more reminiscent of the bad-old days of F1, the kind that claimed the lives of drivers like Roger Williamson or Francois Cevert.
But Grosjean walked away—understandably gingerly—with little more injury than some burns to his hands. And that is a testament to the safety that's designed into modern F1.
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Wer weiterhin flexibel VWs Carsharing-Dienst We Share nutzen will, muss deutlich tiefer in die Tasche greifen. Für Vielnutzer gibt es ein Abo-Angebot. (Carsharing, Technologie)
Wer weiterhin flexibel VWs Carsharing-Dienst We Share nutzen will, muss deutlich tiefer in die Tasche greifen. Für Vielnutzer gibt es ein Abo-Angebot. (Carsharing, Technologie) Die Bundesregierung will vorerst keine automatische Gesichtserkennung gesetzlich erlauben. Stattdessen erhält die Bundespolizei andere Befugnisse. (Gesichtserkennung, Datenschutz)
Die Bundesregierung will vorerst keine automatische Gesichtserkennung gesetzlich erlauben. Stattdessen erhält die Bundespolizei andere Befugnisse. (Gesichtserkennung, Datenschutz) The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano is a thin and light laptop with a 13 inch display and a premium design with support for optional features like a touchscreen and a 5G wireless modem. Weighing as little as 2.11 pounds and measuring as little as 0.54 inches …
The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano is a thin and light laptop with a 13 inch display and a premium design with support for optional features like a touchscreen and a 5G wireless modem. Weighing as little as 2.11 pounds and measuring as little as 0.54 inches thick, depending on the configuration, this thing is pretty […]
The post Lenovo’s 2-pound ThinkPad X1 Nano is now available appeared first on Liliputing.
Impfung noch in diesem Jahr? Geht es um die weltweite Verteilung, haben andere Kandidaten Vorteile. Bei Skeptikern wecken die neuen Gen-Impfstoffe Befürchtungen
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