Month: March 2021

Men Ordered to Pay 7 MIllion Euros in Damages For Illegal Sports Streaming

Five men who administered a ring of 20 pirate sports streaming sites were found guilty of intellectual property offenses by a court in France last summer. After being handed sentences ranging from fines to 12 months in prison, the court has decided that three of the men must now pay Canal Plus, beIN Sports and RMC Sport more than seven million in euros in damages.

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

Streaming KeyThe Association Against Audiovisual Piracy (ALPA) has been active in France since 1985, targeting pirates of all kinds.

More recently, ALPA has worked with broadcasting companies, targeting people who run unlicensed apps and sites dedicated to live TV programming. That work included an investigation into the administrators of beinsport-streaming.com and up to 20 other related sites.

Complaint Filed By ALPA and Broadcasters

Together with rightsholders Canal+ Group, beIN Sports and RMC Sport, ALPA filed a joint complaint with the French authorities. An investigation was carried out by the Cybercrime Group of the Research Section of the National Gendarmerie of Rennes, and in June 2018, the alleged founders and administrators of the sites were arrested.

The rightsholders demanded severe punishment of up to 10 years in prison on a range of offenses including organized counterfeiting and aggravated money laundering.

Last year, the men found themselves at the Criminal Court of Renne, which found them guilty of reproducing, communicating and distributing copyrighted content via the 20-site ‘beinsport-streaming’ ring. The convicted men were sentenced to varying degrees, from a 5,000 euro suspended fine right up to a 12-month prison sentence (six months suspended) for the group’s leader.

However, the thorny matter of damages remained.

Damages Hearing Held in January 2021

In common with similar trials in the past, the case against the beinsport-streaming defendants had a civil damages component. According to Canal+ Group, beIN Sports and RMC Sport, the financial and moral damage caused by the now-convicted men was massive – an estimated 91 million euros.

In the event, the Criminal Court of Renne stopped well short of this considerable sum but still found that the broadcasters were owed millions of euros. Canal+ Group’s compensation was set at 2.75 million euros, beIN Sports’ at 3.94 million, and RMC Sport’s at more than 600,000.

All of the men are liable to pay towards the compensation but three of the defendants, aged between 43 and 57-years-old, were ordered to pay the lion’s share – jointly and severally more than seven million euros. The two other men, aged 44 and 49, we ordered to contribute towards part of the sum.

The legal representative of one of the defendants, named in the media as Franck C, expressed satisfaction at the ruling, albeit in a limited way.

“It is a satisfactory decision in the sense that the damages are extremely reduced compared to the sums requested. However, we remain on extremely high sentences,” Katell Plançon said, commenting on the decision.

According to French media, the men were a mixed bunch. At the earlier hearing, FrancK C. was said to have been “taken for a simpleton” by the rest of the group. One of the men, a computer scientist, said he had acted in the “spirit of Robin Hood”, taking content from big companies and giving it to the poor. Group leader Olivier O., a family man with a passion for football, used to sell photocopying machines.

“Whether we are at one, two, three or four million euros, it does not change much because they are people who do not have the means to repay”, noted lawyer Hélène Laudic-Baron, who added that it was not out of the question that an appeal may yet be filed.

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

Ice Giant Pro Siphon Elite im Test: Größe ist eben doch nicht alles

Manche CPU-Kühler sind riesig, der Pro Siphon Elite ist gigantisch. Da stellt sich die Frage, ob auch die Kühlleistung monströs ausfällt. Ein Test von Marc Sauter (Kühlung, Prozessor)

Manche CPU-Kühler sind riesig, der Pro Siphon Elite ist gigantisch. Da stellt sich die Frage, ob auch die Kühlleistung monströs ausfällt. Ein Test von Marc Sauter (Kühlung, Prozessor)

Die Riester-Rente ist tot – es lebe die Risiko-Rente!

Strategiewechsel: Rente aus Aktien- und Investmentvermögen. Politik und Medien flankieren und bereiten den Weg zum Durchbruch. “Das macht doch nichts, das merkt doch keiner”?

Strategiewechsel: Rente aus Aktien- und Investmentvermögen. Politik und Medien flankieren und bereiten den Weg zum Durchbruch. "Das macht doch nichts, das merkt doch keiner"?

Südasien: Auslaufmodell Demokratie

Indien ist seit letztem Jahr im Club der Autokratien. Pakistan und Bangladesch schon länger, Nepal auf der Kippe. Das Model Demokratie scheint sich erledigt zu haben – dem Westen sei Dank

Indien ist seit letztem Jahr im Club der Autokratien. Pakistan und Bangladesch schon länger, Nepal auf der Kippe. Das Model Demokratie scheint sich erledigt zu haben - dem Westen sei Dank

Exchange servers first compromised by Chinese hackers hit with ransomware

As if Exchange users didn’t already have enough to worry about, they have this.

Exchange servers first compromised by Chinese hackers hit with ransomware

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images)

Now organizations using Microsoft Exchange have a new security headache: never-before seen ransomware that’s being installed on servers that were already infected by state-sponsored hackers in China.

Microsoft reported the new family of ransomware deployment late Thursday, saying that it was being deployed after the initial compromise of servers. Microsoft’s name for the new family is Ransom:Win32/DoejoCrypt.A. The more common name is DearCry.

Piggybacking off Hafnium

Security firm Kryptos Logic said Friday afternoon that it has detected Hafnium-compromised Exchange servers that were later infected with ransomware. Kryptos Logic security researcher Marcus Hutchins told Ars that the ransomware is DearCry.

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Die Masernimpfpflicht überzeugt noch immer nicht

In der Diskussion um Corona-Impfungen ist sie deshalb ein schlechtes Vorbild. Das Gesundheitsministerium will aber zu einer wissenschaftlichen Fundamentalkritik nichts sagen

In der Diskussion um Corona-Impfungen ist sie deshalb ein schlechtes Vorbild. Das Gesundheitsministerium will aber zu einer wissenschaftlichen Fundamentalkritik nichts sagen

“Shocking” genetic data suggest Ebola lurked in survivor for 5-6 years

Ebola virus is known to persist in some survivors—but not for this long.

A staff member of the N'zerekore hospital lifts his shirt sleeve as he prepares to get his anti-ebola vaccination in N'zerekore on February 24, 2021. Nzerekore Hospital was where the first cases of Ebola were found at the end of January 2021.

Enlarge / A staff member of the N'zerekore hospital lifts his shirt sleeve as he prepares to get his anti-ebola vaccination in N'zerekore on February 24, 2021. Nzerekore Hospital was where the first cases of Ebola were found at the end of January 2021. (credit: Getty | Carol Valade)

The Ebola viruses behind a new outbreak in Guinea are stunningly similar to viruses identified during the massive West Africa outbreak that spanned 2013 to 2016, according to a new genetic analysis. The finding suggests that virus may have silently persisted in a survivor for at least five years and that the current outbreak was sparked by that unlucky person, rather than a spillover from an animal reservoir.

In the genetic analysis posted online Friday, a group of international researchers report that Ebola viruses collected from the current outbreak in Guinea have only a dozen or so genetic differences from Ebola variants collected from the same area of Guinea in 2014. Based on what researchers know about the pace at which Ebola collects such genetic substitutions—its evolutionary rate—that number of accumulated differences should have totaled over 110 in that timespan, not 12.

“This number of substitutions is far less than what would be expected during sustained human-to-human transmission,” they researchers write in their analysis. Instead, they note such a sluggish evolutionary rate is a “hallmark of persistent infections.”

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Qualcomm smartphones are the next devices to get hit by chip shortage

Qualcomm faces pandemic shortages, Huawei’s sanctions, and Texas power problems.

Qualcomm sign

Enlarge / A Qualcomm sign. (credit: Qualcomm)

We've already seen the global chip shortage hit cars, computers, and consoles. Up next, Qualcomm? A new report from Reuters gathers lots of quotes from the mobile industry that all basically say, "Yep, we're running out of chips."

Qualcomm has a lot working against it right now. First, like everyone in the electronics industry, the pandemic increased demand for all sorts of work-from-home gadgets and entertainment products while also occasionally forcing the shutdown of the factories that make those items.

Additionally, Qualcomm has to deal with increased demand thanks to the ongoing sanctions against Huawei. Huawei's HiSilicon division was one of Qualcomm's few Android SoC competitors (along with Samsung's Exynos line), and Huawei has long worked to cut all US chips out of its supply chain. The US sanctions against Huawei have made it unable to get a steady supply of chips, and its market share has plummeted (even in China). The companies moving in on Huawei's old turf are all mostly Qualcomm houses that don't have a problem shipping US chips, so demand is up.

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