Anzeige: Sicherheitsstrategien für Systemadministratoren

Systemadmins tragen entscheidend zur Cybersicherheit in Unternehmen bei. Dieser Workshop zeigt, wie IT-Infrastrukturen vor aktuellen Bedrohungen geschützt und Angriffe frühzeitig erkannt werden. (Golem Karrierewelt, Sicherheitslücke)

Systemadmins tragen entscheidend zur Cybersicherheit in Unternehmen bei. Dieser Workshop zeigt, wie IT-Infrastrukturen vor aktuellen Bedrohungen geschützt und Angriffe frühzeitig erkannt werden. (Golem Karrierewelt, Sicherheitslücke)

Beelink ME mini is a NAS with an Intel N200 processor and support for up to 6 SSDs

The Beelink ME mini is a compact computer that measures 99 x 99 x 98.3mm (about 3.9″ x 3.9″ x 3.9″) and features a 6-watt Intel N200 quad-core processor based on Alder Lake-N architecture. It’s also Beelink’s first mini PC…

The Beelink ME mini is a compact computer that measures 99 x 99 x 98.3mm (about 3.9″ x 3.9″ x 3.9″) and features a 6-watt Intel N200 quad-core processor based on Alder Lake-N architecture. It’s also Beelink’s first mini PC that’s positioned for use as a network-attached storage device. Inside this compact cube there are M.2 connectors […]

The post Beelink ME mini is a NAS with an Intel N200 processor and support for up to 6 SSDs appeared first on Liliputing.

The Piracy Pandemic: COVID-19 Led to a Surge of New Pirates

New research published in the Journal of Cultural Economics documents how the COVID-19 pandemic created a surge in “new pirates”. Contrary to simple narratives, increased online piracy during the pandemic isn’t always associated with less legal consumption. In fact, the relationship between piracy and legal markets is far from straightforward.

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

masksFive years ago, the World Health Organization formally declared the COVID-19 outbreak as a pandemic.

Follow-up measures taken by governments and organizations around the world directly affected the lives of billions of people.

Those who were lucky enough to keep their jobs started to work from home, if possible. The same applied to school-going youth, who saw their social lives cut off due to lockdowns and curfews.

The devastating health crisis is over today, but its impact can’t be understated. Aside from lingering health issues, the aftermath also extends to the online piracy niche, where the effects of COVID-19 were already visible in anecdotal piracy figures early on.

In early 2020, we reported that there was increased interest in the movie Contagion, a decade-old classic which depicts a worldwide virus outbreak. Mid-March, the first signs revealed an increased interest in pirate sites and services in severely affected regions.

Soon after the pandemic was official, additional research revealed that torrent traffic spiked in many countries when lockdown measures were put in place.

Academic Paper Documents a Diverse Piracy Pandemic

While we take our own journalistic research seriously, it doesn’t compare to proper academic research. This typically takes years to complete and paints a more detailed and complex picture of COVID-19’s effects on piracy.

A paper titled “Digital piracy in times of Covid‑19” was published in the most recent issue of the Journal of Cultural Economics. Authored by Julia Mazzei and colleagues, it presents the results of an extensive survey conducted in 2022.

The full dataset includes 25,939 respondents, 7,095 of which are minors, from 14 different countries including France, Germany, United Kingdom, United States, Australia, Indonesia, and Brazil. All respondents were asked about their media consumption habits during the pandemic.

Paired with demographic information, including whether respondents experienced income reductions or significant changes to online working or schooling, the responses allowed the researchers to obtain more insight into the link between the pandemic, legal consumption, and piracy.

New Pirates Emerged

The overall conclusion shows that the number of new pirates grew faster than usual during the pandemic, while existing pirates increased their illegal consumption volumes.

“[A]s much as 6–8% of the population started using illegal channels during the pandemic, as opposed to a maximum of 2.5% that would be expected as a result of demographic developments. In addition, many who had used illegal channels before increased their pirating activities,” the researchers note.

pandecon

The paper identifies two main drivers of this effect: affordability and available time. With more spare time, especially for those who were home-bound, people were eager for entertainment, including content offered through pirate sites and services.

The affordability aspect of piracy applies to everyone, but was particularly important for those who lost income as a result of the pandemic, as they may not have the funds to take out additional subscriptions.

Complex Effects on Legal Consumption

While it’s clear that piracy increased overall, this doesn’t mean that legal consumption decreased across the board. In fact, the opposite effect can be found.

For example, film and TV piracy showed a positive association with legal consumption. One illegally accessed movie or series was linked to an increase of 0.5 in legally consumed items, suggesting a potential sampling or complementary effect overall.

The music industry was less lucky, however, as the researchers found substantial negative displacement. Consuming one music album through illegal channels was associated with a 0.7 reduction in the amount of music accessed legally.

For books, there was no statistically significant link between piracy and legal consumption, measured over the entire population. For games, there was a small negative effect, but this was only marginally significant.

Zooming In Reveals More Detail

To add to the complexity, these displacement effects can differ according to age group. Looking at film and TV piracy, piracy among minors was linked to greater legal consumption, while the effect was reversed for young adults (18-34).

For books, the roles were reversed; piracy was linked to less legal consumption for minors, while young adults showed a positive association.

Interestingly, piracy displacement effects might also cross categories in some rare instances. For minors, film and TV piracy increased legal viewing activity, but it was also correlated with less book consumption. In other words, the increase in film and TV consumption, was linked to less book reading.

All in all, the study indicates that the pandemic clearly resulted in new pirates and more piracy. However, at the same time, it suggests that piracy is not by definition linked to fewer sales, or less legal activity.

The researchers end the paper by noting that people should be cautious in interpreting the findings as causal effects. Nonetheless, they help to shed further light on the complex piracy phenomenon, as it will be interesting to see if the findings will hold up in future studies.

A copy of the paper, published under a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0) is available here. Mazzei, J., Martinelli, A., Nuvolari, A. et al. Digital piracy in times of Covid-19. J Cult Econ (2025)

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

Anzeige: Microsoft Teams optimal einsetzen und Workflows verbessern

Strukturierte Kommunikation, effektive Meetings und optimale Nutzung von Microsoft-365-Tools: Dieser Workshop zeigt, wie Microsoft Teams effizient für den Arbeitsalltag konfiguriert und genutzt werden kann. (Golem Karrierewelt, Betriebssysteme)

Strukturierte Kommunikation, effektive Meetings und optimale Nutzung von Microsoft-365-Tools: Dieser Workshop zeigt, wie Microsoft Teams effizient für den Arbeitsalltag konfiguriert und genutzt werden kann. (Golem Karrierewelt, Betriebssysteme)

Retina manipulieren: Neu entdeckte Farbe heißt olo

Zellen der Netzhaut werden mit Laserlicht stimuliert, um Farben außerhalb der Wahrnehmung zu sehen. Neue Displays und Eingriffe am Auge sind denkbar. (Medizin, Display)

Zellen der Netzhaut werden mit Laserlicht stimuliert, um Farben außerhalb der Wahrnehmung zu sehen. Neue Displays und Eingriffe am Auge sind denkbar. (Medizin, Display)

Ghost forests are growing as sea levels rise

As trees choked by saltwater die along low-lying coasts, marshes may move in.

Like giant bones planted in the earth, clusters of tree trunks, stripped clean of bark, are appearing along the Chesapeake Bay on the United States’ mid-Atlantic coast. They are ghost forests: the haunting remains of what were once stands of cedar and pine. Since the late 19th century, an ever-widening swath of these trees have died along the shore. And they won’t be growing back.

These arboreal graveyards are showing up in places where the land slopes gently into the ocean and where salty water increasingly encroaches. Along the United States’ East Coast, in pockets of the West Coast, and elsewhere, saltier soils have killed hundreds of thousands of acres of trees, leaving behind woody skeletons typically surrounded by marsh.

What happens next? That depends. As these dead forests transition, some will become marshes that maintain vital ecosystem services, such as buffering against storms and storing carbon. Others may become home to invasive plants or support no plant life at all—and the ecosystem services will be lost. Researchers are working to understand how this growing shift toward marshes and ghost forests will, on balance, affect coastal ecosystems.

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