December 2020 – Page 50 – news.buyenne.com

Google kills Android Things, its IoT OS, in January

Google promised three years of updates at launch but stopped updates after one year.

The <a href="https;//shop.pimoroni.com/products/rainbow-hat-for-android-things">Android Things Rainbow Hat</a> from Pimoroni.

The latest dead Google project is Android Things, a version of Android meant for the Internet of Things. Google announced it had basically given up on the project as a general-purpose IoT operating system in 2019, but now there's an official shutdown date thanks to a new FAQ page detailing the demise of the OS.

The Android Things Dashboard, which is used for managing devices, will stop accepting new devices and projects in just three weeks—on January 5, 2021. Developers will be able to continue updating existing deployments until January 5, 2022, at which point Google says "the console will be turned down completely and all project data will be permanently deleted—including build configurations and factory images."

Android Things was a stripped-down version of Google phone OS meant for the Internet of Things, a network of small, cheap devices like sensors and smart home devices. The idea was that Android would bring wide hardware compatibility, an established app SDK, and easy access to Google's cloud platform to IoT, along with regular security updates, which are currently unheard of in the fire-and-forget IoT firmware space. Android gets a lot of flak for its inability to update every smartphone quickly, but that's based on smartphone standards. In IoT, where your device will probably never get a firmware update, Android's typical three-to-six-month-late update cycle would be an incredible upgrade to the nightmare security world of IoT.

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Daily Deals (12-17-2020)

The Epic Games Store is giving away Cities:Skylines today only. Amazon is running a sale on select storage products. You can snag a pair of true wireless earbuds for $10. And eBay’s 15-percent off sale on refurbished items (with a 2-year warrant…

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Looking into the genetics of severe COVID-19

Genetics may underlie some of the variability in people’s symptoms.

A medical worker in protective gear stands beside a bedridden patient hooked into all manner of machines.

The body's response to SARS-CoV-2 infection range from imperceptible to death, raising an obvious question: what makes the difference? If we could identify the factors that make COVID-19 so dangerous for some people, we could do our best to address these factors, and provide extra protections for those who are at highest risk. But aside from the obvious—health disparities associated with poverty and race seem to be at play here, too—we've had trouble identifying the factors that make a difference.

A recently published study takes a look at one potential influence: genetics. In a large study of UK COVID-19 patients, researchers have found a number of genes that appear to be associated with severe cases, most of them involved in immune function. But the results don't clarify how immune function is linked to the disease's progression.

All in the genes

The work took place in the UK, one of the countries involved in the GenOMICC (Genetics Of Mortality In Critical Care) project, which has already been exploring the genetics underlying hospitalization for communicable diseases. For the new study, the researchers worked with over 200 intensive care units in the UK to identify study participants. All told, they managed to get genetic data for over 2,700 critical COVID-19 patients. These were matched with people in the UK's Biobank who had similar demographics in order to provide a control population. The one weakness of this design is that some people in the Biobank may be susceptible to severe COVID-19 but simply haven't been infected yet, which would tend to weaken any genetic signals.

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Telekom-Chef: Fusionen in Europa und USA als Hinterlassenschaft

In seinen verbleibenden Jahren bei der Telekom würde Tim Höttges gerne mit Orange oder Telefónica fusionieren und in den USA mit Comcast zusammengehen. Als sein Nachfolger gilt nun Srini Gopalan. (Timotheus Höttges, Telekom)

The Epic Games Store is now an app store too (starting with Spotify)

The Epic Games Store made a splash when it first launched as a Steam competitor in early 2019, at least partly due to Epic’s decision to give away at least one game for free every week. But now it looks like Epic isn’t stopping with games….

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YouTube-DL Dispute Helps Yout.com Enhance Lawsuit Against RIAA

The RIAA recently caused outrage by filing a copyright complaint that took down YouTube-ripping tool youtube-dl from Github. In a pre-emptive move, YouTube-ripping platform Yout.com filed a lawsuit against the RIAA, demanding that its service be declared legal. In an amended complaint, Yout now appears to be using the youtube-dl case for additional leverage.

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

During October, the RIAA ignited a fierce debate and significant outrage when it filed a complaint that took down the open source software youtube-dl from Github.

The music industry group stated that the “clear purpose” of youtube-dl was to “circumvent the technological protection measures” used by YouTube to “reproduce and distribute music videos and sound recordings owned by our member companies without authorization for such use.”

Pre-Emptive Strike By YouTube-Ripper Yout

Just days later with public opinion swinging strongly in youtube-dl’s favor, YouTube-ripping platform Yout seized the opportunity to sue the RIAA. Yout had previously been targeted with similar allegations, including that Yout is an illegal tool that violates Section 1201 of the DMCA by circumventing YouTube’s “technical protection measures.”

Dismissing the RIAA’s claims as baseless, Yout’s complaint outlined various actions taken by the label group that ended up damaging its business. For example, Google took the RIAA’s copyright complaints at face value and delisted Yout from its search results. On top, the public takedown notices also devalued Yout’s business by tarnishing its reputation, the company explained.

Amended Complaint Highlights Additional Damage

In an amended complaint filed in a Connecticut court this week, Yout repeated many of the allegations contained in its original complaint. However, a new piece of information suggests that the RIAA also used its powers to attack Yout’s ability to make and receive money.

Yout says that in response to searches for its platform, Yout’s customers were informed by Google that due to copyright complaints received against Yout.com, results had been removed at the behest of the RIAA. This, the platform claims, ended up in Yout customers canceling their subscriptions.

Furthermore, Yout claims that the RIAA also used its powers to limit its ability to receive process payments.

“On information and belief, Defendants’ DMCA notices have caused PayPal to shut down Yout’s account, causing Yout further significant monetary and reputational damage,” the filing reads.

“The Defendants acted with intent and actual malice when they engaged in the foregoing conduct because they intended to harm the Plaintiffs.”

Enhanced Rejections of Anti-Circumvention Allegations

In Yout’s original complaint the platform described itself as a time-shifting service that, in the absence of any specific circumvention of technological copyright protection, cannot be in violation of the anti-circumvention measures of the DMCA.

Indeed, Yout flatly denied circumventing any of YouTube’s protection measures, including its so-called “rolling cipher”, the mechanism at the very heart of the RIAA’s complaint against youtube-dl. What is interesting in Yout’s amended complaint is that it now makes enhanced claims and denials, which show clear signs of benefiting from the EFF’s and Github’s legal stance in the youtube-dl matter.

“[T]he rolling cipher mechanism employed by YouTube does not prevent copying of videos or other digital media,” Yout’s amended complaint reads.

“Yout’s software platform works the same way as a browser when it encounters
the signature mechanism: it reads and interprets the JavaScript program sent by YouTube, derives a signature value [referred to by RIAA as a ‘rolling cipher’], and sends that value back to YouTube to initiate the video stream

“Yout’s software platform contains no password, key, or other secret knowledge that is required to access YouTube videos. It simply uses the same mechanism that YouTube presents to each and every user who views a video,” the company adds.

In a nutshell, Yout says that it cannot circumvent the rolling cipher (as defined in the DMCA) because YouTube itself provides the means to access video streams to anyone who asks for them.

“[O]ne cannot ‘circumvent’ an access control by using publicly available means,” the platform concludes.

Targeting YouTube-DL Proves Counterproductive

Whether the RIAA anticipated the backlash in response to its targeting of youtube-dl or not, it now faces a significantly more difficult struggle to suppress similar tools and services. With the EFF and Github now heavily involved, it’s no longer a simple case of sending takedown notices and watching tools disappear.

And, as Yout’s lawsuit shows, there could be additional legal repercussions too, including a potential effect on long-running cases that the RIAA is already embroiled in.

Yout’s amended complaint can be found here (pdf)

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

Corona-Folgen: Bundestag beschließt Homeoffice-Pauschale von fünf Euro

Mit dem Jahressteuergesetz hat der Bundestag steuerliche Begünstigungen für Freifunker und Beschäftigte im Homeoffice beschlossen. (Homeoffice, Internet)

Lektionen aus dem Syrien-Krieg

Die verschwundene politische Opposition: “Wir waren naiv.” Und die Lehre der Interventionisten: “Mehr denn je müssen die Amerikaner in andere Länder, um zu Hause sicher zu sein.”

Die verschwundene politische Opposition: "Wir waren naiv." Und die Lehre der Interventionisten: "Mehr denn je müssen die Amerikaner in andere Länder, um zu Hause sicher zu sein."

“Simp,” “incel” part of newly banned insults on Twitch

New policies also tighten restrictions on sexual harassment, hateful content.

An icon for the Twitch app displayed on a smartphone screen.

As part of a crackdown on "sexually focused terms" on its platform, Twitch says terms like "simp," "incel," and "virgin" will soon be banned when used as insults by streamers or chatters on the popular game-streaming service.

In a livestreamed town-hall presentation yesterday, Twitch COO Sara Clemens said that the terms would be barred specifically when used in a context that "negatively refer[s] to another person's sexual activity." Twitch later clarified in a statement that "using these terms on their own wouldn't lead to an enforcement [action], but we would take action if they were used repeatedly in a harassing manner."

That largely mirrors Twitch's existing policy against hateful slurs, which are generally barred but can be used "in an empowering way or as terms of endearment when such intent is clear." Contextual enforcement of the policy on these words could be important, since many streamers self-identify as virgins or incels, for instance. The term simp (in re: "Someone who does way too much for a person they like"), meanwhile, is often used as generic trash talk rather than with any specific sexual connotation.

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Jailbreak for Amazon Kindle Paperwhite (current-gen)

There’s good news for folks looking to jailbreak Amazon’s latest Kindle Paperwhite eReader: there’s a new method for doing that. But there’s also bad news: Amazon has just begun rolling out a firmware update that breaks compatibility with this method. So if you think you might want to jailbreak the 10th-gen Kindle Paperwhite (also known […]

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