July 2022 – Page 96 – news.buyenne.com

Fake Sky Representative Abuses Copyright Claims Board to Target Pirate Streaming App

The US Copyright Claims board officially opened less than a month ago and there’s already a highly suspicious claim on the docket. The unknown “Copyrights Protection” outfit filed a case against pirate streaming app HA Sports Studio ‘on behalf’ of Sky. However, Sky informs TorrentFreak that it has absolutely nothing to do with it.

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

CCB Last month, the US Copyright Claims Board went live. Through this Copyright Office-hosted venue, copyright holders can try to recoup alleged damages outside the federal court system.

The board aims to make it cheaper for creators to resolve disputes. There’s no attorney required and the filing fee is limited to $100 per claim. Accused parties also benefit as the potential damages are capped at $30,000. Those who prefer traditional lawsuits can choose to opt-out.

The benefits of the board are clear to many rightsholders. Opponents, however, feared that the system could be used by opportunistic rightsholders to extract ‘easy money’ from less law-savvy individuals.

Suspicious ‘Sky Group’ Claim

Thus far a few dozen complaints have been filed at the CCB. There’s no sign of systematic abuse but a rather strange copyright infringement claim was submitted last week, one that set off several alarm bells.

The claim was submitted by a group called “Copyrights Protection”, supposedly on behalf of the UK media giant Sky Group. The claim accuses the streaming app HA Sports Studio of infringing Sky’s rights.

“They are showing Sky Sports live broadcast through their mobile applications on Google Play Store without the permission of our client Sky Group,” the claim reads.

It would be a big deal if a major media company such as Sky began using the Copyright Claims Board to resolve a piracy issue. The piracy allegations may be true but in this case the claim itself is rather fishy.

When we go to the website of the supposed anti-piracy group we’re welcomed by a stock design template where various placeholder texts are still intact. There’s no contact address or information listed on the site either.

Sky is Not Involved

It seems odd that a company such as Sky would use an unknown and seemingly amateurish representative to file a case at the Copyright Claims Board. We reached out to Sky directly who informed us that it has nothing to do with this claim.

“This claim has not been brought on behalf of Sky. We have no association with Copyrights Protection, they are not authorized to act on our behalf and we will be contacting them to request the claim is withdrawn,” a Sky spokesperson informed us.

Sky’s response shows that someone is impersonating Sky at the Copyright Claims Board. This is relatively easy as rightsholders and their representatives are not required to verify their identity before submitting a claim.

Copyright Office Responds

When asked the US Copyright Office about this unusual case, it informed us that it doesn’t comment on pending cases or the internal work of the Board. However, it stresses that all cases go through a ‘compliance review’ where such inconsistencies may be revealed.

“Compliance review is the process in which CCB staff attorneys review a claim to determine whether it meets legal and regulatory requirements under the CASE Act and the Office’s regulations,” a US Copyright Office spokesperson says.

There is no formal identity verification process, as far as we know, but the Board may ask for additional information if needed.

“While the CCB generally does not conduct factual investigations, its review will naturally identify claims that have material inconsistencies and areas where the claimant may need to clarify certain issues, including its right to bring a copyright claim on behalf of another party.”

Who and Why?

It remains unclear who is behind this bogus claim and why it was submitted. We sent an email to the contact address “Copyrights Protection” provided to the CCB, asking for clarification but at the time of writing, we have yet to hear back.

Meanwhile, the “Copyrights Protection” website is no longer accessible, which makes it even more likely that we’re dealing with someone who sent a claim in bad faith.

We can only speculate at this point, but it’s possible that the sender hoped to get a damages award, without Sky noticing. Another, perhaps more likely option, is that a rival pirate streaming app is trying to get competition out of the way.

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

Buying on a budget: The best Prime Day deals we can find for $50 or less

Featuring deals on Amazon devices, Jabra headphones, Tile trackers, and Logitech mice.

Jabra's Elite 45h on-ear headphones may be the best value deal on headphones this Prime Day.

Amazon's Prime Day sale is underway, and we're rounding up all the best deals we can find. While the event's tens of thousands of discounts include a lot of junk, we're still seeing a handful of discounts for anyone hoping to pick up a good gadget without breaking the bank. To help those on a tighter budget, we've combed through Amazon's list to bring you the best Prime Day deals under $50.

Predictably, the highlights contain a number of Amazon devices, including Echo smart speakers, Fire HD tablets, and Kindle e-readers. There's also one of our favorite budget headphones, Tile trackers, gaming gear, Anker charging accessories, and several board games we like, among others. Most of these are at or exceed the best prices we've seen, and we've included the average street price for each product over the last few months in parenthesis.

Ars Technica may earn compensation for sales from links on this post through affiliate programs.

Read 16 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Feds may expand 2nd boosters to all adults as anxiety surges over BA.5 wave

Booster expansion could come within 2 weeks and wouldn’t preclude fall booster.

The swift rise of omicron subvariant BA.5—with its increased immune-evading abilities and demonstrable growth advantage—has federal officials on edge. In a flurry of activity late Monday and early Tuesday, officials doubled down on pandemic measures, renewed calls for vigilance, and are considering expanding eligibility of second boosters to all adults.

In a press briefing Tuesday morning, White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator Ashish Jha outlined a battle plan against BA.5, which, as of today, is estimated to account for 65 percent of cases in the US. Jha highlighted efforts and tools to prevent another towering wave of infection as seen with the original omicron in January. The plan includes a stronger push to get Americans vaccinated and boosted, plus renewed encouragement to test, treat, mask, and improve indoor ventilation.

US COVID-19 cases are currently plateaued at a high level of around 117,000 new cases per day—but that's likely a significant underestimate given that many Americans are testing at home and not reporting their cases. Hospitalizations and intensive care admissions, meanwhile, are rising, with 17 percent and 21 percent increases over the past two weeks, respectively, according to tracking by The New York Times. Generally, the daily average of hospitalizations has more than doubled since the end of May, with the current average nearing 38,000.

Read 10 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Daily Deals (7-12-2022)

If you’ve been on the internet today, you probably know it’s Amazon Prime Day, which means you can score discounts on a wide range of products… if you have an Amazon Prime membership (or sign up for a free trial). I’ve rounded …

The post Daily Deals (7-12-2022) appeared first on Liliputing.

No, BMW is not making heated seats a subscription for US cars

In Korea, BMW will let owners subscribe to options instead of buying them outright.

BMW continues to experiment with subscriptions in markets like the UK and South Korea, but not in the US.

If there's a topic guaranteed to get rage clicks, it's the one about BMW making some of its car options available as a subscription rather than a one-time purchase. That story is doing the rounds again today after news that the Bavarian automaker is at it again.

"BMW starts selling heated seat subscriptions for $18 a month" declares one headline; "BMW Makes Heated Seats an $18/Month Subscription Service—Again" reads another. However, you'd have to read past the headlines and well into the bodies of the articles to find out that, actually, the automaker has no public plans to bring this subscription model here to the US market and that it's happening in South Korea.

Not that it hasn't tried such a thing in the past. In 2019, if you wanted Apple CarPlay as an optional extra, you had to subscribe to it for $80 a year, or $300 for 20 years. But the reaction by US consumers to this move was overwhelmingly negative, and, faced with resistance in its second-biggest market, the automaker relented and even made CarPlay standard across most of its range later that year.

Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Company of Heroes 3 Vorschau: Echtzeit-Strategie trifft Erscheinungstermin

Im November 2022 erscheint Company of Heroes 3 mit Kämpfen rund ums Mittelmeer. Golem.de konnte die Nordafrika-Kampagne anspielen. (Company of Heroes, Sega)

The Nothing Phone is official as a mid-ranger, with some lights on the back

OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei is back with a new company, but it has nothing to say.

The Nothing Phone (1) basically bets the farm that you'll instantly fall in love with this back design. If you don't, there's not much else to see.

The company "Nothing" is the latest startup to try to make something of itself in the smartphone market. The company is led by Carl Pei, the co-founder and former director of OnePlus, and Nothing seems mostly intent on retreading the early OnePlus playbook—just eight years later. So meet the "Nothing Phone (1)," a device being sold in limited quantities, mostly by invitation or via "limited partner drops" that are seemingly designed to generate long lines. The parenthetical smartphone was officially announced today with lots of hype, thanks to Pei's trademark "slow drip-feed of information" strategy over the last few months.

The phone is not being sold in the US and is instead focusing on Europe and China. It has a 120 Hz, 6.55-inch, 2400×1080 OLED display, a Snapdragon 778G+ SoC, 8GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, and a 4500 mAh battery with 33 W charging. The lower-tier screen specs and Snapdragon 778G+ make this a mid-range phone, with four 2.5 GHz ARM Cortex A78 CPUs and four 1.8 GHz Cortex A55 CPUs built on a 6 nm process with an Adreno 642L GPU. The price for the Nothing Phone (1)—399 pounds/469 euros (about $474)—seems about in line with what other companies charge for Snapdragon 778G devices.

A close-up of the white version. It's strange to see the screws and mechanical-style design but not have the repairability benefit from it, because everything is still behind a glued-on pane of glass. The phone also isn't very water-resistant. (credit: Nothing)

You get two rear cameras, a 50 MP Sony IMX766 main camera and a 50 MP Samsung ISOCELL JN1 ultrawide, while the front is a 16 MP Sony IMX471. There's an in-screen optical fingerprint reader, Wi-Fi 6E compatibility, wireless charging, and an "IP53" dust and water-resistance rating, which means it shouldn't be damaged from a few splashes but can't handle submersion in water. The phone comes with Android 12, three years of major OS updates, and four years of security patches that arrive "every two months" instead of at the standard monthly cadence.

Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments