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The back-and-forth war between YouTube and the music industry continues, this time with a new privacy report from Google. In the company's "How Google Fights Privacy" report released today, the company details data showing that YouTube has paid $2 billion (£1.5 billion) to copyright holders through its Content ID system. That's double the payout it announced in 2014, which covered the payments received by the music industry since Content ID was introduced back in 2007.

Content ID is YouTube's way of scanning user-created content for copyright infringement, and it also has the music industry up in arms. When a creator uploads content to YouTube, the Content ID system detects if there's any trace of copyrighted material in the user-generated content, such as music. The copyright holders have the power to use Content ID to either report, block, or monetize videos that are identified as containing copyrighted content. In Google's report, YouTube claims that 90 percent of the more than 8,000 rightsholders choose to monetize that content, and 50 percent of the music industry's revenue from YouTube comes from this monetization.

While Google and YouTube have consistently reported how much they pay copyright holders, the music industry claims that the $2 billion it has received is not enough and that the Content ID process is inefficient. It's true that Content ID hasn't been completely accurate in the past; it erroneously flagged content that has been protected under fair use, such as Let's Play videos that include gaming content owned by gaming companies. Some reports also note that Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG) estimated that Content ID "fails to identify upwards of 40 percent of the use of UMPG’s compositions on YouTube."

A new Skype for Linux client is now available as an alpha.

The Skype client for Linux had been long abandoned—it's stuck on version 4.3, compared to version 7 on Windows—but Microsoft has now belatedly recognized that Skype is at its most desirable when it's available on every platform. To that end, it has created an all-new Skype client.

The new client in fact has two versions. There's a Linux app for users of traditional Linux systems. There's also the Skype Web Client, which is supported in Chrome on Linux and Chromebooks running Chrome OS. Whether using the Web or the standalone app, the core code and capabilities are the same: it's using Chrome's WebRTC support to provide a plugin-free, Web-based Skype client.

A CC-licensed photo that was incorrectly used in an Italian festival's promotional materials has led to a public apology by the organisers for not respecting the terms of the licence, and the reimbursement of legal costs incurred.

The picture in question was taken by Niccolò Caranti, who is a professional photographer and an active member of the Wikipedia community—nearly 900 of his images are available on Wikimedia Commons. The photo was used by the Festival delle Resistenze 2016, held in Trentino-Alto Adige, in northern Italy.

Journalist Federico Rampini was one of the guest speakers at the festival, and the image used for all the promotional material was a photo of him taken by Caranti, which had been uploaded to Wikimedia Commons under the Creative Commons BY-SA 4.0 licence. This particular variant allows the image to be used freely for any purpose on the condition that it includes attribution and releases it under the same or a similar licence. However, neither condition was respected in the festival's publicity materials.

Love it or hate it, Pokémon Go is bringing out the best in people. There are the impromptu meet ups, organised walks of thousands, and the general feeling that, yes, humanity isn't so bad, which is quite the feat given the a torturous few weeks we've had in the UK. Unfortunately, like any video game (AR or otherwise), unscrupulous players have entered the Pokémon Go fold, and they've figured out some (admittedly clever) ways of cheating the game out of Pokémon, without even having to walk around to do so.

The first method is actually a way to get Pokémon Go up and running on a PC. The technique, created by YouTuber Travis D, involves installing the Android phone emulator BlueStacks, and then rooting that virtual device in order to install an app that spoofs the reported GPS location. From there, you can play the game just like you can on an Android or iOS phone, without the need to go outside at all. The solution isn't perfect given that you have to tab out every time you want to change your GPS location, and there are random crashes. That's not to mention that, thanks to GPS spoofing, you can effectively take over Pokémon gyms and find Pokémon that would otherwise be inaccessible, thus screwing over those who actually put in the hard work and walk around for miles.

There was a similar cheat unveiled on Twitch earlier this week, dubbed the Pokémon Go Cheat Tool, which involved downloading a modified version of the Android app APK that allowed you to change location at will. In the stream, which has now been removed, the player was able to catch numerous Pokémon without leaving his seat. The streamer also claimed that the hack would allow Pokémon Go players to collect items and level up their Pokémon without having to grind or use in-app purchases.

Reaction Engines, the UK company behind the reusable SABRE jet-cum-rocket engine that could dramatically alter air and space travel, has secured the final piece of funding that will allow for the creation of a SABRE demonstrator engine by 2020.

At the Farnborough Air Show on Tuesday, Reaction Engines signed a £10 million development contract with the European Space Agency. In turn, this commitment from the ESA unlocked a £50 million grant from the UK Space Agency (which is an executive agency of the government).

Back in November 2015, BAE Systems—the massive defence and aerospace multinational based in the UK—invested £20.6 million in Reaction Engines; in return, it picked up 20 percent of the company's share capital, while also agreeing to provide industrial and technological support during the development phase.