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The uConsole is pocket-sized computer with a 5 inch IPS LCD color display, a QWERTY keyboard, gaming buttons, arrow keys, and a mini trackball. It’s bigger than a typical smartphone, and probably less powerful than most. But thanks to a modular …
The uConsole is pocket-sized computer with a 5 inch IPS LCD color display, a QWERTY keyboard, gaming buttons, arrow keys, and a mini trackball. It’s bigger than a typical smartphone, and probably less powerful than most. But thanks to a modular design, it’s also incredibly versatile: there are four different processor options available. Clockwork is […]
The post Clockwork’s uConsole is a modular portable computer & “fantasy console” for $139 and up appeared first on Liliputing.
The uConsole is pocket-sized computer with a 5 inch IPS LCD color display, a QWERTY keyboard, gaming buttons, arrow keys, and a mini trackball. It’s bigger than a typical smartphone, and probably less powerful than most. But thanks to a modular …
The uConsole is pocket-sized computer with a 5 inch IPS LCD color display, a QWERTY keyboard, gaming buttons, arrow keys, and a mini trackball. It’s bigger than a typical smartphone, and probably less powerful than most. But thanks to a modular design, it’s also incredibly versatile: there are four different processor options available. Clockwork is […]
The post Clockwork’s uConsole is a modular portable computer & “fantasy console” for $139 and up appeared first on Liliputing.
A post from the popular weblog Boing Boing is at the center of a new dispute in the piracy trial between several major record labels and ISP Grande. The dated article contains allegations of extortion-like business practices by piracy-tracking outfit Rightscorp. The music companies label the blog as an unreliable “pro-piracy” source. Grande, meanwhile, notes that the article was valuable enough to be documented by Warner’s anti-piracy expert.
From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.
Three years ago, several of the world’s largest music companies including Warner Bros. and Sony Music sued Internet provider Grande Communications.
The recording labels accused the Astound-owned ISP of not doing enough to stop pirating subscribers. Specifically, they alleged that the company failed to terminate repeat infringers.
After several delays the trial is now in full swing, with both sides trying to convince the jury that their version of events is the correct one. This has resulted in several conflicts already, including when Grande surprised the labels by introducing testimony about subscribers who had previously denied piracy allegations.
These piracy claims, sent to the ISP by anti-piracy outfit Rightscorp, sit at the center of this case. The labels argue that Grande failed to take any meaningful action in response to the notices, while the ISP counters that the notices are unreliable and inaccurate.
To strengthen its case, Grande informed the labels of a piece of evidence it intended to introduce at trial today. The document in question is an email sent by Warner anti-piracy expert Howie Singer, to himself, several years ago. The email contains a copy of a blog post published by Boing Boing.
Copying isn’t the issue here; it’s the topic of the article that’s important. The article covers a Rightscorp call center script that was surfaced during an earlier lawsuit. Boing Boing labeled the script “terrifying extortion.”
These documents have always been part of Grande’s evidence so their introduction is no surprise. The problem lies with the labels’ claim that presenting them to the jury today would be problematic. In a motion filed at the court yesterday, they formally request the exclusion of both.
“Any fair review of this evidence reveals that Grande’s sole purpose in introducing this evidence is provoking outrage from the jury based on a hostile media source’s inflammatory mischaracterization of Rightscorp’s business practices,” the labels inform the court.
The article is not relevant because it doesn’t say anything about the accuracy of Rightscorp’s piracy detection technology. Instead, it’s an article from a “third-party pro-piracy website” that deals with other aspects of the business, the music companies add.
“[T]he BoingBoing evidence is irrelevant to the issues in this case. Rightscorp’s technology is at issue in this trial, but not its business methods, and certainly not how a hostile third-party might mischaracterize those methods.
“[T]he BoingBoing evidence should be excluded because it is nothing more than out of court declarations from a third-party pro-piracy website,” the labels insist, characterizing the evidence as hearsay from a source that lacks trustworthiness.
Shortly after the music companies submitted their motion, Grande filed its response. The ISP informs the court that the labels previously tried to exclude the article from the evidence list, but the request was denied.
Plaintiffs provide no evidence for their statement that Boing Boing is a pro-piracy site, the response adds, while mentioning that it is an award-winning web blog that has been around for more than 30 years.
Grande further notes that the evidence isn’t about the truthfulness of Boing Boing’s statements. Instead, it is offered to show that Warner’s own anti-piracy expert was aware of it and found it important enough to document.
“The evidence that Plaintiffs seek to exclude is highly relevant because it shows that Plaintiffs themselves recognized that Rightscorp was attempting to extort consumers,” Grande notes.
Rightcorp’s piracy evidence plays a crucial role in this case but the labels never used the company to send any warnings of their own. Instead, they purchased data from Rightscorp at a later stage to support their own legal campaign.
While music industry insiders previously tried to distance themselves from Rightscorp, they are now trying to convince the jury that its copyright violation detection technology is accurate. The Boing Boing email adds color to this argument, according to the ISP.
“It would be extremely prejudicial to Grande’s defense if the Court allowed Plaintiffs to make these arguments while precluding Grande from showing that Plaintiffs’ internal communications refute their litigation-driven narrative,” the ISP says.
“Plaintiffs cannot affirmatively present Rightscorp’s business and system as legitimate while suppressing evidence that shows they know the opposite is true. These documents show that Plaintiffs knew exactly who they were partnering with in this lawsuit.”
The trial is scheduled to continue today. Thus far the court has yet to rule on this latest dispute but the issue may be settled behind closed doors, without any public record.
—
A copy of the record labels’ motion in limine is available here (pdf) and Grande’s response can be found here (pdf)
From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.
A post from the popular weblog Boing Boing is at the center of a new dispute in the piracy trial between several major record labels and ISP Grande. The dated article contains allegations of extortion-like business practices by piracy-tracking outfit Rightscorp. The music companies label the blog as an unreliable “pro-piracy” source. Grande, meanwhile, notes that the article was valuable enough to be documented by Warner’s anti-piracy expert.
From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.
Three years ago, several of the world’s largest music companies including Warner Bros. and Sony Music sued Internet provider Grande Communications.
The recording labels accused the Astound-owned ISP of not doing enough to stop pirating subscribers. Specifically, they alleged that the company failed to terminate repeat infringers.
After several delays the trial is now in full swing, with both sides trying to convince the jury that their version of events is the correct one. This has resulted in several conflicts already, including when Grande surprised the labels by introducing testimony about subscribers who had previously denied piracy allegations.
These piracy claims, sent to the ISP by anti-piracy outfit Rightscorp, sit at the center of this case. The labels argue that Grande failed to take any meaningful action in response to the notices, while the ISP counters that the notices are unreliable and inaccurate.
To strengthen its case, Grande informed the labels of a piece of evidence it intended to introduce at trial today. The document in question is an email sent by Warner anti-piracy expert Howie Singer, to himself, several years ago. The email contains a copy of a blog post published by Boing Boing.
Copying isn’t the issue here; it’s the topic of the article that’s important. The article covers a Rightscorp call center script that was surfaced during an earlier lawsuit. Boing Boing labeled the script “terrifying extortion.”
These documents have always been part of Grande’s evidence so their introduction is no surprise. The problem lies with the labels’ claim that presenting them to the jury today would be problematic. In a motion filed at the court yesterday, they formally request the exclusion of both.
“Any fair review of this evidence reveals that Grande’s sole purpose in introducing this evidence is provoking outrage from the jury based on a hostile media source’s inflammatory mischaracterization of Rightscorp’s business practices,” the labels inform the court.
The article is not relevant because it doesn’t say anything about the accuracy of Rightscorp’s piracy detection technology. Instead, it’s an article from a “third-party pro-piracy website” that deals with other aspects of the business, the music companies add.
“[T]he BoingBoing evidence is irrelevant to the issues in this case. Rightscorp’s technology is at issue in this trial, but not its business methods, and certainly not how a hostile third-party might mischaracterize those methods.
“[T]he BoingBoing evidence should be excluded because it is nothing more than out of court declarations from a third-party pro-piracy website,” the labels insist, characterizing the evidence as hearsay from a source that lacks trustworthiness.
Shortly after the music companies submitted their motion, Grande filed its response. The ISP informs the court that the labels previously tried to exclude the article from the evidence list, but the request was denied.
Plaintiffs provide no evidence for their statement that Boing Boing is a pro-piracy site, the response adds, while mentioning that it is an award-winning web blog that has been around for more than 30 years.
Grande further notes that the evidence isn’t about the truthfulness of Boing Boing’s statements. Instead, it is offered to show that Warner’s own anti-piracy expert was aware of it and found it important enough to document.
“The evidence that Plaintiffs seek to exclude is highly relevant because it shows that Plaintiffs themselves recognized that Rightscorp was attempting to extort consumers,” Grande notes.
Rightcorp’s piracy evidence plays a crucial role in this case but the labels never used the company to send any warnings of their own. Instead, they purchased data from Rightscorp at a later stage to support their own legal campaign.
While music industry insiders previously tried to distance themselves from Rightscorp, they are now trying to convince the jury that its copyright violation detection technology is accurate. The Boing Boing email adds color to this argument, according to the ISP.
“It would be extremely prejudicial to Grande’s defense if the Court allowed Plaintiffs to make these arguments while precluding Grande from showing that Plaintiffs’ internal communications refute their litigation-driven narrative,” the ISP says.
“Plaintiffs cannot affirmatively present Rightscorp’s business and system as legitimate while suppressing evidence that shows they know the opposite is true. These documents show that Plaintiffs knew exactly who they were partnering with in this lawsuit.”
The trial is scheduled to continue today. Thus far the court has yet to rule on this latest dispute but the issue may be settled behind closed doors, without any public record.
—
A copy of the record labels’ motion in limine is available here (pdf) and Grande’s response can be found here (pdf)
From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.
RNC lawsuit says Gmail sends nearly all its end-of-month emails to spam folders.
Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | pagadesign)
The Republican National Committee is suing Google over Gmail's spam filtering, claiming the company is "unlawfully discriminating against" the RNC by "throttling its email messages because of the RNC's political affiliation and views."
"Google has relegated millions of RNC emails en masse to potential donors' and supporters' spam folders during pivotal points in election fundraising and community building," claims the lawsuit filed Thursday in US District Court for the Eastern District of California. The spam filtering has "caused the RNC to lose valuable revenue in California and the rest of the country, and Google's conduct will continue to cost the RNC further revenue in the coming weeks as the 2022 midterm election looms, and beyond," it says.
The lawsuit argues that the "timing of Google's most egregious filtering is particularly damning." The RNC said nearly all of its emails get through to users' inboxes for most of each month, but that the ratio flips at the end of the month.
Trust in scientists remains high, but Republicans want them out of policy decisions.
Enlarge (credit: Portra / Getty Images)
On Tuesday, the Pew Research Center released the latest iteration of its surveys of Americans' views of science and scientists. On the most basic level, they see a drop in the public's opinion of scientists since the height of the pandemic in 2020. But, as always, the situation is more complex when the numbers are examined closely.
In general, there was a drop in trust of almost every occupation during that time period, and in the case of scientists, this largely represents a return to pre-pandemic popularity. The exception is that nearly everyone is less likely to say that scientists should get involved in policy decisions, with Republicans feeling especially strong in this regard.
The Pew surveys are large, with more than 10,000 participants, and have been done for long enough (six years for some questions) that trends should be apparent in the data. And the results have generally been positive for scientists: Science as a whole is widely supported, and scientists are one of the most highly respected groups in the US.
There are a growing number of Android-based handheld devices designed for streaming games from the web, including the $350 Logitech G Cloud and the $400 Razer Edge. But you know what’s a whole lot cheaper and probably just as capable? Slapping a…
There are a growing number of Android-based handheld devices designed for streaming games from the web, including the $350 Logitech G Cloud and the $400 Razer Edge. But you know what’s a whole lot cheaper and probably just as capable? Slapping a mobile game controller on the phone you already have. Right now Amazon is […]
The post Daily Deals (10-25-2022) appeared first on Liliputing.
As DALL-E synthesis comes to Shutterstock, Getty Images makes countermoves.
Enlarge / The Shutterstock logo over an image generated by DALL-E. (credit: Shutterstock / OpenAI)
Today, Shutterstock announced that it has partnered with OpenAI to provide AI image synthesis services using the DALL-E API. Once the service is available, the firm says it will allow customers to generate images based on text prompts. Responding to prevailing ethical criticism of AI-generated artwork, Shutterstock also says it will compensate artists "whose works have contributed to develop the AI models."
DALL-E is a commercial deep learning image synthesis product created by OpenAI that can generate new images in almost any artistic style based on text descriptions (called "prompts") by the person who wants to create the image. If you type "an astronaut riding a horse," DALL-E will create an image of an astronaut on a horse.
DALL-E and other image synthesis models, such as Midjourney and Stable Diffusion, have ignited a passionate response from artists who fear their livelihoods might be threatened by the new technology. In addition, the image synthesis models have "learned" to generate images by analyzing the work of human artists found on the web without artist consent.
The Group B-inspired EV uses Formula E motors to turn its tires into smoke.
Enlarge / The Audi S1 Hoonitron is inspired by the company's 1987 rally car. (credit: Jonathan Gitlin)
The last time I wrote about one of rally driver Ken Block's jaw-dropping Gymkhana videos, it was about his trip to the summit of Pike's Peak in a 1,400-hp methanol-fueled 1965 Ford Mustang. Spectacular as it was, I couldn't help but feel it was time for Block to join the EV revolution. That time has now come, as Block released his latest demonstration of automotive acrobatics in Las Vegas on Tuesday. The video's name gives it away: Electrikhana.
Now, you don't just go hooning any old EV around the strip, at least not if you're Ken Block. In this case, his ride is a stunning one-off electric Audi, the S1 Hoonicorn, inspired by the 1987 Audi Sport quattro S1 Pikes Peak car.
"Developing a fully electric prototype for the unique requirements of our partner Ken Block was a big and exciting challenge to which the whole team rose with flying colors. It is great to see how ‘Vorsprung durch Technik’ is presented in an all-new environment," said Oliver Hoffman, Audi's board member for technical development.
Easybell vermarktet Festnetzprodukte, SIP Trunks und Cloud-Telefonanlagen. Jetzt hat Dstny aus Belgien den Betrieber gekauft. (VDSL, DSL)
Easybell vermarktet Festnetzprodukte, SIP Trunks und Cloud-Telefonanlagen. Jetzt hat Dstny aus Belgien den Betrieber gekauft. (
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