Month: April 2022

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In the early days of file-sharing the demise of a large pirate site or service would mean just that. The shutters would come down and users would migrate to new homes – story over.

In more recent times, the situation has become more fluid. The closure of a pirate site often means that identically named or at least similarly presented platforms appear as reincarnations, replacements, or simply the next big thing.

That’s why we’re reporting today on the closure of Zone-Telechargement (ZT), one of the most popular French-language pirate sites, almost six years after it was first ‘permanently’ shut down.

French Military Police Shut Down Site in 2016

After being founded in 2011, ZT grew to become one of France’s most-visited sites overall with millions of visitors every month. Offering a wide variety of pirated content, including movies, TV shows, games and music, the site’s domain was once the 11th most popular in France. But in 2016, ZT ran into serious trouble.

Following complaints from copyright holders, the French Gendarmerie and Andorran police arrested seven people as part of an operation to shut ZT down. Within hours the site flickered back to life (at least in a limited fashion) and over the years, several platforms with the same name attempted to emulate the original.

Bizarrely, at least one of these was run by an anti-piracy company but others preferred a more traditional ‘pirate’ business model, attracting blocking measures by rightsholders.

Zone-Telechargement Shuts Down Again

On Monday, visitors to some of the most successful ‘replacement’ domains (zone-telechargement.cam and zt-za.net, for example) found themselves redirected to an announcement revealing that ZT had pulled down the curtain once again.

“Hello everyone. It is on these few lines that we announce the closure of the ZT site. Yes that’s the end no joke, not everything is eternal,” the message reads.

“Thank you all without exception, they were very good times spent sharing on ZT. We would like to thank everyone who took part in this adventure for their loyalty, their support, and those who made ZT, the download directory. We hope everyone appreciates.”

Specific domains aren’t listed on the platform but the announcement states that all old and new domains connected with the platform will be closed. For good measure, the site’s operators say they will “completely destroy” the database and there will be no recovery or reincarnation, meaning that around 11 million monthly users will be affected.

Tirexo Says It Will Also Shut Down

In an announcement Sunday, the operators of popular streaming site Tirexo revealed that they too will shut down. The closure is expected to take place in the next few days but the announcement carries a similar message to ZT – thanks to everyone, but the show is over.

“The Tirexo adventure ends here. Thank you for everything. You can rage, yell, insult us (yes, yes, you’re entitled to that, I had to remove comments, it hurt my heart) but it won’t take anything away from what we’ve done for us and you until now. Bye,” the message reads.

In the meantime, the big questions remain unanswered: Why have the sites shut down now and were they under pressure?

Fingers Point Towards Anti-Piracy Groups

When pirate sites suddenly shut down in France, anti-piracy groups ALPA and SACEM are often among the main suspects. French journalist Tristan Brossat says that in response to his inquiries, ALPA responded: “No comments at this stage” but what we know already is that ZT and Tirexo were at the top of ALPA’s priority list.

In a report published last year titled ‘Illegal consumption of videos in France’ (pdf), ALPA listed ZT and Tirexo-branded domains in first and third positions in its ‘illegal site’ list.

If any group takes responsibility for the closures, we’ll publish an update here.

Determining which domains will fall out of use for both sites will hopefully become easier in the coming days. Google is awash with results for similarly named platforms meaning that these pirate ‘brands’ will continue in the months and years to come, even if the ‘real’ sites have long since been retired.

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

LineageOS is an Android-based operating system designed to be installed as a replacement for the software that ships on many supported smartphones, tablets, and other devices. It’s an open source operating system based on Android Open Source Project code that, among other things, can bring new features and the latest security updates to old devices.

Now the team behind the operating system have released LineageOS 19, the first stable version of the operating system to be based on Android 12 and Android 12L.

Among other things, that means the latest version of LineageOS incorporates an adapted version of Android 12’s Material You design language as well as enhanced privacy and accessibility features. Android security patches released through April, 2022 have also been included in LineageOS 19 (and backported to LineageOS 16, 17, and 18).

LineageOS isn’t just stock Android software though, and the developers note that version 19 of the operating system also includes new and updated features including:

• Dark mode enabled by default
• New app icons, a new default wallpaper, and a new set of Android 12-compatible wallpapers
• Volume panel is a pop-out expanding side panel
• Android TV builds of LineageOS ship with an ad-free Launcher (unlike Google’s version, which has ads)
• Bug fixes and improvements for the LineageOS web browser, system updater app, gallery, and recorder apps
• The default camera app is now Camera2
• WiFi display is supported
• Custom charging sounds for different types of charging are available (wired or wireless)

The LineageOS firewall, restricted networking mode and per app data isolation were all rewritten to support Android 12 as well. Developers can also now port LineageOS to run on Android Automotive hardware.

Unfortunately it’s not all good news. Some older Android devices won’t support LineageOS due to changes in Android Open Source Project code. Basically if you’ve got a phone, table, or other device with Linux kernel version 3.18 or older, you’re probably not going to see an official build of LineageOS 19 anytime soon.

You can find more details about LineageOS 19 in the changelog.

The post LineageOS 19 now available for dozens of phones (Android 12-based custom ROM) appeared first on Liliputing.

Enlarge / A Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft launch NASA's Crew-4 mission early on Wednesday morning. (credit: Trevor Mahlmann)

4:45 am ET Wednesday Update: Beneath a starry Florida sky on Wednesday morning, a Falcon 9 rocket streaked spaceward carrying four astronauts. A few minutes later Commander Kjell Lindgren, Pilot Bob Hines, and Mission Specialists Jessica Watkins and Samantha Cristoforetti were safely in orbit. The Falcon 9 first stage, making its fourth flight, soon landed in the center of a drone ship.

All in all, it was SpaceX's seventh human spaceflight in less than two years, and its fifth crew mission for NASA to the International Space Station. This launch came just 19 days after the company's previous Crew Dragon flight, of the Axiom-1 mission, on April 8.

Shortly after reaching orbit the mission's commander, Lindgren, thanked the teams at SpaceX that developed the Crew Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket for the smooth ride to space. "We're feeling great, and looking forward to the view," he radioed back down to Earth.

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