Month: November 2024

Chinas Luft- und Raumfahrtindustrie hat eine verbesserte CH-7-Stealth-Drohne vorgestellt. (Drohne, Politik)

Bei der Volkswagen-Softwaretochter Cariad zeichnen sich erneut Veränderungen in der Führungsebene ab. (Cariad, Silicon Valley)

Ein früherer IT-Administrator der Stadtverwaltung Dresden hat unberechtigt auf vertrauliche Wählerdaten zugegriffen. (Security, Cybercrime)

Im Kampf gegen Cyberangriffe wird fundiertes Wissen über Hacking-Techniken immer wichtiger. Ein fünftägiger Intensiv-Workshop vermittelt die wichtigsten Methoden und bereitet IT-Professionals auf die CEH-Zertifizierung vor. (Golem Karrierewelt, Sicherheitslücke)

Im Kampf gegen Cyberangriffe wird fundiertes Wissen über Hacking-Techniken immer wichtiger. Ein fünftägiger Intensiv-Workshop vermittelt die wichtigsten Methoden und bereitet IT-Professionals auf die CEH-Zertifizierung vor. (Golem Karrierewelt, Sicherheitslücke)

The astronauts who came home from the International Space Station last month experienced some drama on the high frontier, and some of it accompanied them back to Earth.

In orbit, the astronauts aborted two spacewalks, both under unusual circumstances. Then, on October 25, one of the astronauts was hospitalized due to what NASA called an unspecified "medical issue" after splashdown aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule that concluded the 235-day mission. After an overnight stay in a hospital in Florida, NASA said the astronaut was released "in good health" and returned to their home base in Houston to resume normal post-flight activities.

The space agency did not identify the astronaut or any details about their condition, citing medical privacy concerns. The three NASA astronauts on the Dragon spacecraft included commander Matthew Dominick, pilot Michael Barratt, and mission specialist Jeanette Epps. Russian cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin accompanied the three NASA crew members. Russia's space agency confirmed he was not hospitalized after returning to Earth.

Read full article

Comments

The last time I spent much time thinking about the QNX operating system was when Lee spent a few weeks in 2011 figuring out how to root a BlackBerry PlayBook tablet running the QNX-based PlayBook OS, sideload Android apps onto the tablet, and even load the Google Android Market (which was the predecessor to the […]

The post BlackBerry’s QNX operating system is now free for non-commercial use appeared first on Liliputing.

In late 2022, several of the world’s largest music companies including UMG, Warner and Sony Music prevailed in their lawsuit against Internet provider Grande Communications.

The record 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.

The trial lasted more than two weeks and ended in a resounding victory for the labels. A Texas federal jury found Grande guilty of willful contributory copyright infringement, and the ISP was ordered to pay $47 million in damages to the record labels.

$47 Million Appeal

Grande was unhappy with the verdict and appealed. Internet providers shouldn’t be held liable for pirating customers based on third-party allegations, the company noted. This appeal was supported by several telecoms organizations which agreed that terminating accounts of suspected pirates is a drastic and overbroad remedy.

In addition to the liability aspect, Grande also protested the damages calculations. The jury calculated the damages per song, instead of per album, which is the wrong interpretation of U.S. law according to the ISP.

Last month, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals handed down a mixed order. The court confirmed that the ISP is liable for copyright infringement but upheld its concerns over damages. A new trial was issued to establish the lower damages award, on a per-album basis.

The Court agreed that, in this instance, awarding statutory damages on a per-song basis “would make a total mockery” of Congress’ mandate. If rightsholders would like this to change, they should ask Congress to change the law.

Record Labels Want Rehearing

UMG, Warner, Sony and the other labels agree with the finding on liability but object to the damages calculation since this substantially lowers the $47m award.

Last week, they filed a petition for a rehearing en banc. They argue that the Fifth Circuit’s decision on the damages’ calculation is too narrow.

The labels note that each song that was infringed is its own “work” under the Copyright Act, and that they are entitled to damages for each individual song.

Their argument is based on the “independent economic value” test, which asks whether the unit of expression has “independent economic value” to the copyright owner. If it does, then the copyright owner is entitled to statutory damages for the infringement of each copyrightable unit of expression.

In this case, songs can have individual value, whether they are part of an album or not. This notion is supported by the fact that most music is consumed via digital streaming platforms, which provide access to individual songs.

“In the digital era, streaming is the primary source of revenue and necessarily involves the commercialization of individual recordings,” the labels write.

Piracy Changed the Music Biz

The labels point out that there’s a certain irony in the Fifth Circuit’s decision. They note that rampant piracy was a primary reason the industry moved from selling physical albums to making individual downloads and streams available.

This means that statutory damages, which are supposed to compensate copyright owners and deter infringers, are based on the old “album” model, which has been disrupted by online piracy.

“Thus, the panel’s decision calculates statutory damages awards based on the remnants of a business model that digital piracy severely diminished,” the petition reads.

One Work?

In addition to the independent economic value test, the labels disagree with the court’s interpretation of Section 504(c)(1) of the Copyright Act, which states that all parts of a compilation constitute one work.

The Fifth Circuit held that albums are compilations, which should therefore be seen as a single work. However, the labels believe that this narrow interpretation only applies if the alleged copyright infringement is an album.

In this case, the labels alleged infringements of individual songs, not albums. Therefore, it should be appropriate to calculate damages per song, they argue.

“Thus, the panel’s rule serves no purpose other than to punish copyright owners for their decision to include their standalone works on compilations in addition to commercializing them individually,” the labels write.

This present lawsuit is based on alleged BitTorrent downloads. It’s not immediately clear whether these were only torrents for individual songs. However, the labels seem to suggest this is the case.

All in all, the music companies argue that there is sufficient reason for a rehearing. If the current verdict stands it will significantly harm their ability to combat rampant online piracy, they conclude.

—

A copy of the petition for a rehearing en banc, which was submitted at the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals last week, is available here (pdf).

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

Huawei wagt sich im Streit mit den USA wieder aus der Deckung. Nun will man, dass die Vorwürfe der USA fallengelassen werden. (Huawei, Politik)

The bankruptcy estate of collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX has sued the company's former rival Binance in an attempt to recover $1.76 billion or more. The lawsuit seeks "at least $1.76 billion that was fraudulently transferred to Binance and its executives at the FTX creditors' expense, as well as compensatory and punitive damages to be determined at trial."

The complaint filed yesterday in US Bankruptcy Court in Delaware names Binance and co-founder and former CEO Changpeng Zhao among the defendants. FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried sold 20 percent of his crypto exchange to Binance in November 2019, but Binance exited that investment in 2021, the lawsuit said.

"As Zhao would later remark, he decided to exit his position in FTX because of personal grievances he had against Bankman-Fried," the lawsuit said. "In July 2021, the parties negotiated a deal whereby FTX bought back Binance's and its executives' entire stakes in both FTX Trading and [parent company] WRS. Pursuant to that deal, FTX's Alameda Research division directly funded the share repurchase with a combination of FTT (FTX's exchange token), BNB (Binance's exchange token), and BUSD (Binance's dollar-pegged stablecoin). In the aggregate, those tokens had a fair market value of at least $1.76 billion."

Read full article

Comments