Kunstaktion: Polizei räumt Apple Store am Ku’damm

Der Apple Store am Berliner Kurfürstendamm ist am Samstagnachmittag geräumt worden, weil Unbekannte eine silbrige Flüssigkeit auf den Tischen und ausgestellten Geräten verteilt hatten. Um was es sich handelt, ist nicht genau bekannt, die Beteiligten sprechen von Gallium. (Apple Store, Apple)

Der Apple Store am Berliner Kurfürstendamm ist am Samstagnachmittag geräumt worden, weil Unbekannte eine silbrige Flüssigkeit auf den Tischen und ausgestellten Geräten verteilt hatten. Um was es sich handelt, ist nicht genau bekannt, die Beteiligten sprechen von Gallium. (Apple Store, Apple)

Emtec GEM Box review (micro-console with GameFly streaming support)

Emtec GEM Box review (micro-console with GameFly streaming support)

Gaming can be an expensive hobby. The latest Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo game consoles costs hundreds of dollars, and gaming PCs can easily cost several times as much.

Over the past few years a number of companies have tried to shake things up by launching micro-consoles which are typically smaller, cheaper, and less powerful than a PS4, Xbox 360, or most PCs. Results have been mixed at best.

The much-hyped Ouya was a flop.

Continue reading Emtec GEM Box review (micro-console with GameFly streaming support) at Liliputing.

Emtec GEM Box review (micro-console with GameFly streaming support)

Gaming can be an expensive hobby. The latest Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo game consoles costs hundreds of dollars, and gaming PCs can easily cost several times as much.

Over the past few years a number of companies have tried to shake things up by launching micro-consoles which are typically smaller, cheaper, and less powerful than a PS4, Xbox 360, or most PCs. Results have been mixed at best.

The much-hyped Ouya was a flop.

Continue reading Emtec GEM Box review (micro-console with GameFly streaming support) at Liliputing.

Sony Pictures Tries to Censor Wikileaks With Dubious DMCA Notice

Daniel Yankelevits, one of the top legal executives at Sony Pictures Entertainment, has asked Google to remove a leaked email published by Wikileaks after the 2014 hack. The top executive used a copyright takedown notice to bury an email which exposes his personal salary, claiming “it’s not right.”

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

wikileaksLast year Wikileaks published a searchable database of the emails and documents that were exposed following the Sony Pictures Entertainment hack.

Journalists had already picked out the most juicy details during the months before, but Wikileaks opened it up to the public.

This also allowed search engines such as Google to index all leaked emails, which made them even more widely accessible.

At Sony they were not happy with the exposé and one of the company’s top executives recently decided to take action.

A few days ago Daniel Yankelevits, Senior Vice President Legal Affairs at Sony Pictures, sent a DMCA takedown request to Google asking the search engine to censor Wikileaks’ archive of the hacked emails.

Interestingly, this request appears to be personally motivated, as the only email highlighted is about Mr. Yankelevits himself.

Google search for Daniel Yankelevits

wikisalary

In the email, the human resources department informs the company’s chief counsel Leah Weil that Yankelevits’ salary will increase from $320,000 to $330,000, as his contract allows.

“Daniel’s contract provides for a discretionary annual increase on 3/1 and compensation has come back with a recommendation of 3.1% taking him from $320,000 to $330,000,” the email reads, asking Weil if she approves.

Sony Pictures’ VP of Legal Affairs is not happy that his salary details are now out in the open. Not least because it appears at the top of Google’s search results for his name.



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While the desire to have this email scrubbed from the Internet is easily understood, using a copyright claim to achieve this is questionable.

First of all, the reason for the takedown request is that “it’s not right,” which is a rather meager motivation for the Senior Vice President Legal Affairs of such a large company.

“My salary is in Google due to Sony Hack wikileaks.org/sony/emails/emailid/103755 please remove the above on your results page. It’s not right,” it reads.

Secondly, the DMCA notice itself is inaccurate and incomplete.

Technically, the takedown request asks Google to remove the homepage of the leaked email archive, claiming that the email published by Wikileaks is the original content. In other words, even if Google did comply the email discussing the salary would remain online.

What raises the most eyebrows, however, is that the request is personally motivated and has very little to do with copyright. Yankelevits is neither the sender nor the recipient of the email, so even if copyright was an issue, the fact that his salary was exposed is totally irrelevant.

While Sony Pictures Entertainment is listed as the “copyright holder” in the DMCA notice, it’s unknown whether the company is aware of the takedown attempt.

Ironically, the takedown request is only destined to make matters worse for the Sony Pictures’ legal executive. Google has refused to remove the email, so instead of covering it up, Yankelevits has put a big spotlight on his salary. A classic example of the Streisand Effect.

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

Mom alerted to adult content on her teenage son’s Snapchat, so she sues

Snapchat spokesman: “We are sorry if people were offended.”

(credit: Ben Mieselas)

A concerned parent has sued mobile app Snapchat on behalf of her unnamed 14-year-old son, who was easily able to access adult-themed content on “Snapchat Discover.” This section of the mobile app is run by various media companies, including BuzzFeed.

In the Thursday lawsuit, the woman’s lawyer, Ben Mieselas, wrote that because Snapchat does not provide the adequate warnings it is required to do under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, it is liable to pay $50,000 per violation. That's $50,000 every time a minor viewed such content.

In the 32-page civil complaint, Mieselas details how the boy, referred to as “John Doe,” came across numerous “Snapchat Discover” stories with titles like: “10 Things He Thinks When He Can’t Make You Orgasm” and “I Got High, Blown, and Robbed When I Was A Pizza Delivery Guy.”

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Led Zep lawyers want $800k for defending “Stairway to Heaven” lawsuit

Lead attorney is billing at $330 an hour, says it’s “below” going rate.

(credit: DerekVelasquez)

Just weeks ago, Led Zeppelin defeated a Los Angeles federal copyright infringement lawsuit claiming the opening to the 1971 classic "Stairway to Heaven" was a rip-off of the 1968 instrumental song "Taurus." The suit was brought in 2014 by the estate of Randy Wolfe, who wrote the song for his band Spirit. Wolfe (aka Randy California) died in 1997.

Now nearly three weeks after the verdict, Zeppelin's lawyers are seeking almost $800,000 in costs and legal fees for their troubles. In American law, it's usually up to each side of a lawsuit to pay their own legal fees and court costs. But that's not always true when it comes to copyright law. And the Supreme Court on June 16 provided nuanced guidance to lower courts in determining whether the prevailing party in a copyright lawsuit should be awarded attorney fees. That ruling is likely to make it easier for winners in copyright cases to collect fees from the losing side.

In the "Stairway to Heaven" case, the lawyers said (PDF) in court documents that the suit should not have been brought in the first place. Zeppelin's lawyers claim the suit amounted to "nearly half-century-old claims that neither Randy Wolfe nor the owner of the allegedly-infringed copyright ever bothered to assert." Zep's attorney, Peter Anderson, added that the Wolfe trust "tried to tar 'Stairway to Heaven' and its authors, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant."

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Kingdom Death: Monster is the $400 board game borne from bloody nightmares

Massive bosses. Civilization-building. Everyone you love dying for no reason.

Comes with everything you see here. (credit: Adam Poots Games)

You'll never encounter a more brutal game than the pen-and-paper monstrosity that is Kingdom Death: Monster. Let's rattle off every one of its negatives:

Its print run is incredibly limited, meaning you can currently only buy the game from eBay resellers. Their insane price hikes make the game's retail ask of $400 seem quaint.

The box is crammed to the brim with enough content to terrify anybody. There's a 223-page book, a series of elaborate play boards, a gazillion minis, and hundreds of cards split into dozens of decks.

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Spector: Kleines Gerät soll Schriften und Farben erkennen

Mit Spector hat eine Designstudentin ein kleines Gerät erfunden, das auf Knopfdruck Schriften und Farben erkennen können soll. Die Schriften sollen direkt auf dem PC angezeigt und anschließend auch heruntergeladen werden. (PC, Arduino)

Mit Spector hat eine Designstudentin ein kleines Gerät erfunden, das auf Knopfdruck Schriften und Farben erkennen können soll. Die Schriften sollen direkt auf dem PC angezeigt und anschließend auch heruntergeladen werden. (PC, Arduino)

New research explains why Antarctic sea ice has grown

Natural Pacific variability also influences regional Antarctic winds.

Summer sea ice and a large iceberg near Antarctica's Totten Glacier. (credit: Kelsey Winsor)

While sea ice in the Arctic has shrunk remarkably over the past few decades, sea ice around Antarctica has been dancing to the beat of a different drum. You might expect that as the world warms, sea ice would dwindle no matter which end of the planet it’s on, but the two regions are quite different.

While the North Pole sits in an ocean surrounded by land, the South Pole is in a continent surrounded by water. Antarctic sea ice grows outward from the coast, aided by the isolating winds that encircle the continent and carry frigid, inland air that pushes the ice around. So even as warmer water reaches under the floating ice shelves of Antarctica’s glaciers, persistently eating away at them, the growth of winter sea ice is more closely tied to wind patterns.

Climate models project a big decline in Arctic sea ice, with the end of summer becoming essentially sea-ice-free within a few decades at the current rate of warming. But in Antarctica, the models project smaller long-term declines.

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Samsung: Wasserdichtes Galaxy S7 Active ist nicht wasserdicht

In den USA ist Samsungs aktuelles Top-Smartphone Galaxy S7 in der angeblich besonders widerstandsfähigen Active-Version erhältlich. Tests eines Verbrauchermagazins zeigen allerdings, dass das Active-Gerät nicht wasserdicht ist und gleich zwei Mal kaputtgeht. (Samsung, Galaxy S7)

In den USA ist Samsungs aktuelles Top-Smartphone Galaxy S7 in der angeblich besonders widerstandsfähigen Active-Version erhältlich. Tests eines Verbrauchermagazins zeigen allerdings, dass das Active-Gerät nicht wasserdicht ist und gleich zwei Mal kaputtgeht. (Samsung, Galaxy S7)

The Analogue Nt is the best NES that (a lot of) money can buy

If you have $500+ to spend on a 30-year-old console, this is the one to buy.

Your aging plastic cartridges have never looked so good.

Back in 2014, we marveled at the announcement of the Analogue Nt, a heavily modified version of the original Nintendo Entertainment System with a solid aluminum case and an even more solid starting price: $500. We’ve been playing with our loaner unit for a few months now, and we’ve come away impressed with this sleek, modern love letter to classic gaming. While the price will put it beyond all but the most dedicated retro gaming hobbyists, we’re glad a product made with such obvious care and devotion exists for those who value authenticity and style above all else.

Before you go comparing apples to oranges, let’s be clear about what the Analogue Nt is not. It’s not one of those gray-market “Famiclone” systems that uses knock-off chips and provides “close enough” compatibility with most NES and Famicom cartridges (see our review of the Generation NEX for an example). It’s also not a system that uses an Android-based software emulator to run legitimate cartridges (like the Retron 5) or ROMs loaded onto an SD card. And it’s not one of those do-it-yourself kits that upgrades an existing NES with more modern features.

At its core, the Analogue Nt is actually a Famicom, the original Japanese version of the NES. Designer Christopher Taber tells Ars he sourced the system’s internals from “a large quantity of HVC-001 Famicom systems that were in cosmetically undesirable/unsellable condition.” That means the CPU and PPU that power the Analogue Nt were produced by Nintendo to run Famicom software about three decades ago. This means in turn that, unlike some other modern hardware that runs NES cartridges, the Analogue Nt should be compatible with any and all of the hundreds of NES/Famicom cartridges in existence with perfect accuracy (every game we’ve been able to test has run flawlessly). The Analogue’s authentic core also means it can take the Japan-only Famicom Disk System as an attachment. We haven’t tested that, but it’s an important feature for a certain subset of collectors.

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