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Wenige Tage nach Erscheinen von Redfall ist es bei Saturn bereits in einem Bundle mit der Xbox Series S erhältlich. Hohe Rabatte garantiert. (Redfall, Saturn)
Liverpool Crown Court has sentenced a 54-year-old reseller of pirated IPTV subscriptions to five years in prison. City of London Police applauds the verdict but also calls on the public for help, as the former IPTV salesman has reportedly fled the country with his dog.
From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.
Offering piracy-related services is a serious offense in the UK for which several vendors have received multi-year prison sentences in recent years.
These sentences are typically announced by copyright holders or the police, as a deterrent for those who might be tempted to follow in the same footsteps.
Reporting on these news releases can be tricky, as the information tends to be limited. This is particularly true when court documents are unavailable, something true for another conviction announced today.
City of London Police have just announced that at Liverpool Crown Court today, 54-year-old Mark Brockley was sentenced to five years in prison. Police were alerted to Brockley’s activities in 2018, when BT reported the now-suspended Twitter account @Infinity_IPTV in connection with sales of illegal IPTV subscriptions.
Brockley reportedly charged £15 per month for a subscription. Between October 24, 2014, and May 8, 2019, the operation made 5,251 sales and generated £237,058. Of these sales, 1,408 directly referenced IPTV and no taxes were paid on the income.
Police visited Brockley in 2019 and seized his laptop and mobile phone, which linked him to the Infinity IPTV Twitter account. Based on this and other evidence, Liverpool Crown Court found Brockley guilty of supplying articles for use in fraud and the fraudulent evasion of income tax.
City of London Police are pleased with this outcome. According to Detective Constable Geoffrey Holbrook of the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU), the IPTV seller continued even after he was interviewed by police.
“Brockley made tens of thousands of pounds from an illegal activity and used the money to fund his lifestyle. Despite being interviewed by PIPCU officers and knowing that his actions were against the law, he continued to sell IPTV subscriptions..,” Holbrook notes.
There is one major unresolved issue in this case, however. The former IPTV seller has disappeared and was sentenced in his absence, current whereabouts unknown.
“We are now appealing for information on Brockley’s whereabouts, and ask anyone who may be able to help to contact the City of London Police,” Holbrook says.
The authorities believe that the IPTV seller didn’t flee alone. The man reportedly took his dog with him and presumably set course for France. City of London Police are encouraging anyone with knowledge of Brockley’s whereabouts to come forward. This can also be done anonymously through the Crimestoppers hotline.
Public records show that, after his involvement with the IPTV business, Brockley got involved in spirits sales through his company Anfield Gin. At the time of writing, the website for this ‘handmade gin’ company no longer appears online.
From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.
Die Kernfusion ist der große Hoffnungsträger für saubere Energieerzeugung. Der Durchbruch fehlt zwar noch, aber es gibt vielversprechende Forschung, gerade auch hierzulande. Ein Bericht von Werner Pluta (Kernfusion, Wendelstein 7-X)
Die Kernfusion ist der große Hoffnungsträger für saubere Energieerzeugung. Der Durchbruch fehlt zwar noch, aber es gibt vielversprechende Forschung, gerade auch hierzulande. Ein Bericht von Werner Pluta (Kernfusion, Wendelstein 7-X) Battlefield 2042 war ein Desaster und wir fürchteten schon das Aus für die ganze Serie. Dann aber haben EA und Dice auf die Community gehört. Ein Test von Oliver Nickel (Battlefield 2042, Electronic Arts)
Battlefield 2042 war ein Desaster und wir fürchteten schon das Aus für die ganze Serie. Dann aber haben EA und Dice auf die Community gehört. Ein Test von Oliver Nickel (Battlefield 2042, Electronic Arts) “A room full of the dudes who gave us the issues & fired us for talking about the risks.”
Enlarge / US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris meet the 'Investing in America Cabinet' to discuss the Investing in America agenda in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on May 5. (credit: Jim Watson/AFP via Getty)
On Thursday, President Joe Biden held a meeting at the White House with CEOs of leading AI companies, including Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, and Anthropic, emphasizing the importance of ensuring the safety of AI products before deployment. During the meeting, Biden urged the executives to address the risks that AI poses. But some AI experts criticized the exclusion of ethics researchers who have warned of AI's dangers for years.
Over the past few months, generative AI models such as ChatGPT have quickly gained popularity and rallied intense tech hype, driving companies to develop similar products at a rapid pace.
However, concerns have been growing about potential privacy issues, employment bias, and the potential for using them to create misinformation campaigns. According to the White House, the administration called for greater transparency, safety evaluations, and protection against malicious attacks during a "frank and constructive discussion" with the executives.
The mobile gaming service seemed to lose momentum—Apple wants to regain it.
Enlarge / A screenshot from What the Car?, one of the more intriguing games from Apple's new Arcade additions. (credit: Apple)
Apple Arcade is still around, and it's still a priority—at least, that's the message we imagine Apple's surprise launch of 20 new games on the same day seeks to send.
The new games include (but aren't limited to) a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles-branded battler titled TMNT Splintered Fate, a Disney-themed Scrabble-like game called Spellstruck developed in partnership with a Words With Friends co-creator, a city builder called Cityscapes: Sim Builder, and a follow-up to the Arcade smash hit What the Golf? titled What the Car? (If you haven't played What the Golf? yet, you probably should—it's available on other platforms now, too.)
There are also a few updated versions of classic premium games from prior eras of iPhone gaming, like LIMBO, Kingdom Two Crowns, Farming Simulator 20, Octodad: Dadliest Catch, Temple Run, and Bennett Foddy's Getting Over It—think of those like Apple's equivalent of a TV-streaming service also offering episodes of classic TV shows like The Office or Star Trek.
Using a mouse for extended periods of repetitive activities like audio editing wreaks havoc on my wrist, so I picked up a vertical mouse a few years ago which seems to help a bit. I’ve also tried a few trackballs, but have never really gotten th…
Using a mouse for extended periods of repetitive activities like audio editing wreaks havoc on my wrist, so I picked up a vertical mouse a few years ago which seems to help a bit. I’ve also tried a few trackballs, but have never really gotten the hang of using them. But I really like the […]
The post Lilbits: Brydge collapses, and your next TV might be free (with persistent ads on a second screen) appeared first on Liliputing.
The Topton D6 is a small, inexpensive desktop computer available with up to an AMD Ryzen 7 7730U processor. To save you the trouble of looking through AMD’s complicated Ryzen 7000 lineup, that’s basically a new name for an older chip: the …
The Topton D6 is a small, inexpensive desktop computer available with up to an AMD Ryzen 7 7730U processor. To save you the trouble of looking through AMD’s complicated Ryzen 7000 lineup, that’s basically a new name for an older chip: the Ryzen 7 7730U is virtually identical to the Ryzen 7 5825U. But that’s […]
The post Toptop D6 min PC with Ryzen 7 7730U sells for $299 and up appeared first on Liliputing.
Lots went wrong at Brydge, but trying to work inside Apple’s market was brutal.
Enlarge / The Brydge Max+, one of the company's last iPad products. Brydge focused on aluminum builds, laptop-like hinges, and—before Apple decided it would offer them—integrated trackpads.
Brydge, a company that once aimed to make high-quality iPad keyboards that all but transformed them into MacBooks, has gone out of business. The company's website is just a logo, employees and preordering customers haven't heard anything in months, and 9to5Mac has a detailed telling of Brydge's downfall, supported by conversations with nearly a dozen former employees.
You should read the whole investigation if you want to know how badly managed growth, a hostile workplace, the pandemic, and the nerve-wracking nature of trying to work with and alongside Apple led to Brydge's shuttering. You'll read about business, leadership, and marketing decisions that, with hindsight, point toward an inevitable conclusion. But there's also an inside story about what it's like trying to hitch your wagon to the whims and preferences of the world's largest technology corporation.
A Brydge 9.7-inch iPad keyboard from 2018. [credit: Ars Technica ]
Brydge is best known for making Apple accessories, and particularly keyboard cases for iPads, with a focus on materials, design, and functionality that aimed to go further than Apple's own accessories. They were made from aluminum, had a more laptop-like hinge, and their keyboards were backlit. In October 2019, Brydge tried to get a six-month jump on Apple by releasing the trackpad-included Pro+ for iPad Pro. Because iPadOS 13 didn't have native trackpad support—that would arrive with iPadOS 13.4 in March 2020—Brydge's keyboard used an Assistive Touch accessibility workaround. The trackpad and its implementation disappointed critics like Six Colors' Jason Snell.
Hoping to have his stream-ripping service declared legal, in 2020 the operator of Yout.com proactively took on the RIAA. After the court ruled in favor of the recording labels in 2022, Yout took the case to appeal and in February filed its opening brief. This week the RIAA filed a 62-page response; it concedes not even a single, solitary inch.
From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.
When the global music industry declared YouTube-ripping platforms public enemy number one and responsible for most music piracy online, the stage was set for legal showdowns.
Stream-ripping platform Yout took the initiative in 2020 by suing the RIAA, hoping that the court would declare its service non-infringing. The battle to convince the judge centered on YouTube’s ‘rolling cypher’ and whether it should (or should not) be considered a Technological Protection Measure (TPM).
Under the DMCA, unauthorized circumvention of a TPM amounts to copyright infringement, so it was up to Yout owner Johnathan Nader to satisfy the judge that his platform does not amount to a circumvention tool. In 2022, Judge Stefan Underhill concluded that since Yout’s evidence failed to meet that standard, the case would be dismissed and the RIAA would emerge on top.
Based on his firm belief that YouTube-ripping tools do not violate the DMCA, Nader took his case to the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. No stone was left unturned in his 92-page opening brief, with Nader claiming that the lower court’s dismissal was premature.
Arguing that the Yout platform amounts to a modern VCR with just as many non-infringing uses, once again Yout explained how anyone with a browser can download videos from YouTube for time-shifting purposes. The service doesn’t save any of that content on its own servers either, every decision lies with the user.
Yout’s arguments inevitably focused on YouTube’s ‘rolling cypher’ and its characterization as a technological protection measure. The RIAA’s position couldn’t be more clear but the system actually belongs to YouTube; did the company design the mechanism to limit copying? If not, that could put the RIAA’s claims in a different light, Yout informed the court.
In an answering brief filed this week, the labels waste no time in drilling down to what they believe are the fundamental issues.
“This case involves Yout’s illicit stream-ripping service. YouTube provides users with streams of music videos, not free downloads. YouTube’s users can watch and listen to music videos for free on its ad-supported service, but those users do not get access to the digital files that contain the record companies’ valuable copyrighted works,” the brief begins.
“As its name suggests, Yout enables its users to gain unauthorized access to the digital music files from YouTube and download copies. The purpose of Yout is to bypass YouTube’s technological restrictions on accessing the digital copies of works streamed on YouTube.”
The RIAA claims that Yout’s users have no need to buy legal music subscriptions or visit ad-supported streaming services. Yout, meanwhile, “pays nothing to the owners of the copyrighted content that is plundered.”
Referencing the district court’s opinion, the RIAA describes it as “correct on all counts” and in line with findings by courts outside the U.S. that stream-ripping technology is unlawful. That leads directly back to the fundamental questions in the case on which the parties fundamentally disagree.
These questions have been answered many times since this process began in 2020, with Yout insisting there is no TPM and the RIAA arguing the opposite. In the labels’ answer dated May 4, they cite Yout’s explanation of what happens on YouTube and its subsequent actions as a service.
“First, Yout alleges that YouTube employs a ‘signature mechanism’ that requires ‘read[ing] and interpret[ing]’ JavaScript to ‘derive[] a signature value’,” the RIAA says. “That is a description of an effective technological measure.
“Second, Yout alleges that its service uses a process for avoiding or bypassing this technological measure by, among other steps, ‘modif[ying]’ the range of numbers in the ‘signature value,’ and thereby gaining unauthorized access to the ‘download[able]’ ‘file[s]’ that comprise the music video.”
From proceedings thus far it’s clear that the parties do actually agree on some details, albeit not for very long.
In the RIAA’s first point detailed above, both sides agree that Yout uses Javascript to “derive a signature value” to enable the video download process. The part where they disagree is whether YouTube’s use of the cypher was for copyright protection purposes right from the beginning.
To find out, Yout would like to involve YouTube, which might even help to support the RIAA’s claims. Ultimately, the RIAA doesn’t want that to happen because it says that YouTube’s intent doesn’t matter.
“Yout raises a scattershot of arguments for reversal. None of them succeeds. For example, Yout argues that discovery is necessary to determine whether YouTube ‘inten[ded]’ the signature value mechanism to be a technological measure under the DMCA…but YouTube’s intent is irrelevant under the statute,” the industry group says.
While that is technically correct, a senior Google attorney is on record in Europea saying that the measures were implemented to protect copyright holders. Whether that also applies to the United States is unknown.
At 68-pages long the RIAA’s answer is certainly detailed but if YouTube’s intent is irrelevent under the statute in the United States, the same doesn’t seem to apply when it comes to citing court decisions in jurisdictions thousands of miles away.
“Yout has faced anti-circumvention lawsuits outside the United States, where courts and law enforcement have uniformly concluded that Yout’s service violates those countries’ equivalents to the DMCA,” the RIAA’s answer notes, citing an injunction application in Denmark.
The labels also mention a case they launched against German hosting company Uberspace, which hosted the website of youtube-dl but not the software itself; that was available via a hyperlink to another site.
For perspective, Denmark blocks pirate sites, including YouTube-ripping platforms. Germany blocks pirate sites too. The United States does not. Also relevant is the fact that youtube-dl is hosted on Github in the United States. When the labels’ attempt to take it down failed, no lawsuit followed in the United States, where the DMCA actually has jurisdiction.
That GitHub is mentioned in the RIAA’s answer is interesting. The coding platform filed an amicus brief in the current case back in February.
Highlighting the importance of browser extensions such as Dark Reader, Google Translate, and OpenDyslexic, GitHub voiced concerns that the district court’s ruling could put developers at risk of criminalization if the DMCA is interpreted too strictly.
“YouTube’s decision not to provide its own ‘download’ button, however, is not a restriction on access to works. It merely affects how users experience them,” GitHub informed the court.
GitHub’s assertion that the court’s interpretation of section 1201(a) amounts to a control on how a person experiences content, rather than a control on access, is dismissed in the RIAA’s brief.
Translation or accessibility tools would not run afoul of section 1201(a) because they are “unlikely to involve a signature mechanism at all, let alone modifying that mechanism to provide access to an underlying digital file for a copyrighted work.”
In its conclusion, the RIAA says that Yout’s own allegations establish that its service violates the DMCA and, as such, the Court of Appeal should affirm the the district court’s ruling.
The RIAA’s answering brief is available here (pdf)
From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.
Wenige Tage nach Erscheinen von Redfall ist es bei Saturn bereits in einem Bundle mit der Xbox Series S erhältlich. Hohe Rabatte garantiert. (
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