Month: June 2021

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A billion-dollar judgment in a piracy lawsuit involving a major Internet service provider could force ISPs to terminate more customer accounts and "punish the innocent and guilty alike," advocacy groups have warned. Urging an appeals court to overturn the ruling, the groups wrote that "upholding this verdict would result in innocent and vulnerable users losing essential Internet access."

These concerns were raised in a court filing last week by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), the Center For Democracy and Technology, the American Library Association, the Association of College And Research Libraries, the Association of Research Libraries, and Public Knowledge. The groups' filing was made to the US Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit in a case seeking to overturn a ruling in a different case launched by record labels against Cox Communications.

"In going after Internet service providers for the actions of just a few of their users, Sony Music, other major record labels, and music publishing companies have found a way to cut people off of the Internet based on mere accusations of copyright infringement," the EFF wrote in a blog post announcing the filing. "When these music companies sued Cox Communications, an ISP, the court got the law wrong. It effectively decided that the only way for an ISP to avoid being liable for infringement by its users is to terminate a household or business's account after a small number of accusations—perhaps only two. The court also allowed a damages formula that can lead to nearly unlimited damages, with no relationship to any actual harm suffered. If not overturned, this decision will lead to an untold number of people losing vital Internet access as ISPs start to cut off more and more customers to avoid massive damages."

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Today, Apple detailed its plans for watchOS 8, the next major software update for the Apple Watch. Apple introduced some smaller updates to health and fitness features, improved texting and photo sharing, and new HomeKit integrations.

The Apple Watch's Breathe app has new animations and adds "Reflect," which gives you mindfulness prompts to accompany a calming animation while you reflect. These new features are found under the new Mindfulness app.

In Fitness, Apple is adding two new workouts: Tai Chi and Pilates. Apple Fitness+ is adding another set of workouts focused on HIIT (high-intensity interval training), along with Artist Spotlights, which suggests music to aid your workout. watchOS8 will also add respiratory-rate tracking to sleep but not workouts.

In a virtual presentation at the WWDC 2021 conference today, Apple executives outlined the company's plans for macOS Monterey, the latest major software release for the Mac family of computers.

The new name follows Apple's California landmark-based naming scheme for recent macOS releases, dating back to the launch of OS X Mavericks in 2013.

As for what's included in the update, macOS Monterey introduces a new feature called "Universal Control," which allows users to share control of Mac and iPad devices with a single mouse and keyboard. Apple SVP of Software Engineering Craig Federighi demonstrated the ability to set an iPad near a Mac, move the cursor of the latter toward the former, and have the iPad automatically recognize it. This makes it possible to directly drag and drop files between the devices, for instance. Apple demonstrated this feature working across an iMac, MacBook, and iPad in concert.