Drone pilots beware: You may have to get insurance, leave info after accident

Two bills pending in California legislature aim to make drones safer for all.

(credit: Erin Bennett)

Two California lawmakers have introduced two separate bills this week that would further regulate drones in America’s most populous state.

If passed, one of the new state laws would require "tiny physical or electronic license plates" and inexpensive insurance, among other requirements. A second bill would compel drone pilots who are involved in incidents that damage property or injure people to leave their contact information—similar to what drivers must do following auto accidents.

The proposed laws are in response to a series of unfortunate mishaps involving drones across the Golden State in 2015: there were some unmanned aerial vehicles that got in the way of firefighting efforts, while another crashed into power lines in Hollywood, and yet another hit a baby in Pasadena.

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Digitale Schattenwirtschaft: Wie sich das Darknet selbst reguliert

In der Anonymität des Darknets ist eine klassische Rechtsdurchsetzung nicht möglich. Herrscht deswegen totale Anarchie? Nicht ganz. Eine komplexe Selbstregulierung ermöglicht Geschäfte zwischen Unbekannten und versucht, die schlimmsten Auswüchse zu verhindern. (TOR-Netzwerk, Datenschutz)

In der Anonymität des Darknets ist eine klassische Rechtsdurchsetzung nicht möglich. Herrscht deswegen totale Anarchie? Nicht ganz. Eine komplexe Selbstregulierung ermöglicht Geschäfte zwischen Unbekannten und versucht, die schlimmsten Auswüchse zu verhindern. (TOR-Netzwerk, Datenschutz)

Pastry Shops Targeted Over Copyright Infringing “Star Wars” and “Minion” Cakes

Pastry shops in Croatia are receiving legal threats over their use of popular cartoon and movie characters on children’s birthday cakes. Baking cakes with a Star Wars or Minions theme is off-limits, as a local pastry chain has secured the rights from copyright owners.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.

minioncakeBirthdays are the highlight of the year for most children and what better way to celebrate than with a cake featuring their favorite cartoon character.

Although the parents and local pastry shops may be well-intentioned, there are lurking copyright issues that can easily spoil the party.

This issue is currently on debate in Croatia where nearly all pastry shops have received legal threats for their use of popular cartoon and movie characters. Facing fines in the range of $300 to $1,000 they are urged to stop baking infringing cakes.

The demands come from a law firm hired by the competing pastry chain Fun Cake Factory and target birthday cakes with popular Star Wars, Frozen, Sponge Bob, Peppa Pig and Ninja Turtles characters.

The company is a partner of Finsbury Food Group and has the exclusive rights to sell cakes with Disney characters. In addition the chain also secured the rights to use Nickelodeon, Astley Baker Davies and Universal Studios characters, which covers most popular cartoons.

With the legal claims the pastry chain hopes to prevent the competition from selling “infringing” cakes, so more people will choose to buy their products instead.

Ana Marcelić, owners of Zagreb’s pastry shop Fancy Cake was one of the recipients who received a threatening letter.

“We are appalled by this decision which we consider unfounded and unfair. It is a huge loss for us, because the penalties are terrible, and it is a difficult situation to explain to the customer,” Marcelić told Jutarnji.

“We can inform parents about the situation, but how do you explain the legal situation to children who are screaming because they simply want Elza on their birthday cake?”

Just to clarify what is allowed and what isn’t, a representative of the Association of Pastry Caterers contacted the law firm to get clarification, but thus far it only received an ambiguous response.

There haven’t been any reports of damage claims against disobedient pastry makers yet, however, if the pirated cakes continue to be sold offenders could eventually face a copyright infringement lawsuit.

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Minion photo credit: Dark Dwarf

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.

Raumfahrt: SpaceX und Orbital bauen Triebwerke für das US-Militär

Nach der Verschlechterung der Beziehungen zu Russland will das US-Militär ohne russische Raketentriebwerke auskommen. Das bedeutet Aufträge für US-Raumfahrtunternehmen. (Raumfahrt, Technologie)

Nach der Verschlechterung der Beziehungen zu Russland will das US-Militär ohne russische Raketentriebwerke auskommen. Das bedeutet Aufträge für US-Raumfahrtunternehmen. (Raumfahrt, Technologie)

Hitman: Mord in Episodenform

Das nächste Hitman-Abenteuer mit Auftragskiller “Agent 47” erscheint im März 2016 in Episodenform – ein Einsatzort nach dem anderen. Das neue Modell löst eine ungewöhnliche Mischung aus Vollpreis und Episoden ab. (Hitman, Square Enix)

Das nächste Hitman-Abenteuer mit Auftragskiller "Agent 47" erscheint im März 2016 in Episodenform - ein Einsatzort nach dem anderen. Das neue Modell löst eine ungewöhnliche Mischung aus Vollpreis und Episoden ab. (Hitman, Square Enix)

Offener Brief: Github soll sich mehr um seine Nutzer kümmern

In einem offenen Brief beschweren sich viele Open-Source-Projekte bei Github darüber, dass dessen Forderungen an die Plattform nicht umgesetzt würden. Sie wünschen sich vor allem einen besseren Bugtracker. (Github, Spam)

In einem offenen Brief beschweren sich viele Open-Source-Projekte bei Github darüber, dass dessen Forderungen an die Plattform nicht umgesetzt würden. Sie wünschen sich vor allem einen besseren Bugtracker. (Github, Spam)

How malware developers could bypass Mac’s Gatekeeper without really trying

New researcher pokes holes in Apple’s whack-a-mole approach for fixing Gatekeeper.

(credit: Patrick Wardle)

In September, Ars reported a drop-dead simple exploit that completely bypassed an OS X security feature known as Gatekeeper. Apple shipped a fix, but now the security researcher who discovered the original vulnerability said he found an equally obvious work-around.

Patrick Wardle said the security fix consisted of blacklisting a small number of known files he privately reported to Apple that could be repackaged to install malicious software on Macs, even when Gatekeeper is set to its most restrictive setting. Wardle was able to revive his attack with little effort by finding a new Apple trusted file that hadn't been blocked by the Apple update. In other words, it was precisely the same attack as before, except it used a new, previously unblocked Apple-trusted file. Notably, that file was offered by security company Kaspersky Lab. Late on Thursday, Apple released an update blocking that file, too.

"It literally took me five minutes to fully bypass it," Wardle, who is director of research of security firm Synack, told Ars, referring to the updated Gatekeeper. "So yes, it means that the immediate issue is mitigated and cannot be abused anymore. However the core issue is not fixed so if anybody finds another app that can be abused we are back to square one (full gatekeeper bypass)."

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Machine Learning: Yahoo veröffentlicht 13 TByte Daten an Nutzerverhalten

Für Forscher gibt Yahoo einen riesigen Datensatz frei, der den Umgang mit Nachrichten von Nutzern enthält. Gedacht ist dies für maschinelles Lernen und die Erprobung von Vorschlagsystemen. (Maschinelles Lernen, Yahoo)

Für Forscher gibt Yahoo einen riesigen Datensatz frei, der den Umgang mit Nachrichten von Nutzern enthält. Gedacht ist dies für maschinelles Lernen und die Erprobung von Vorschlagsystemen. (Maschinelles Lernen, Yahoo)