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Anti-piracy outfit Rightscorp says that it’s working on a new method to extract cash settlements from suspected Internet pirates. The company says new technology will lock users’ browsers and prevent Internet access until they pay a fine. To encourage ISPs to play along, Rightscorp says the system could help to limit their copyright liability.
Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.
Earlier this week, anti-piracy outfit Rightscorp published its results for 2015. They make for dismal reading, with the company recording a net loss of $3.43m, up from the $2.85m net loss recorded in 2014.
The company has a number of problems. First and foremost it has too few clients and somehow needs to expand the catalog of copyrights under its protection. With a wider spread and greater volume it could do better, but that’s only part of the problem.
Internet service providers in the United States aren’t generally fans of copyright trolls like Rightscorp. They prey on valuable customers who often incorrectly conclude that their provider has been spying on them. Of course the sting in the tail is the compensation that Rightscorp demands, all conveniently delivered to the Internet subscriber by their ISP.
In its filing this week Rightscorp blamed falling revenues on a reluctance by ISPs to pass on these automated fines. Nevertheless, the company isn’t giving up on improved cooperation with service providers since it has a plan that could streamline its business and more or less force users to pay up.
Rightscorp says this could be achieved via a “next generation technology” its developing called Scalable Copyright, which will shift warnings and settlement demands away from easily ignored emails and towards an altogether more aggressive delivery method.
“In the Scalable Copyright system, subscribers receive each [settlement] notice directly in their browser,” the company reports.
“Single notices can be read and bypassed similar to the way a software license agreement works [but] once the internet account receives a certain number of notices over a certain time period, the screen cannot be bypassed until the settlement payment is received.”
The idea of locking browsers in response to infringement allegations is nothing new. Users of some ISPs in the United States already receive these warnings if too many complaints are made against their account. However, to date no company has asked for money to have these locks removed and the idea of ‘wheel clamping’ a browser is hardly an attractive one, especially based on the allegations of a third-party organization.
Still, Rightscorp seems confident that it can persuade ISPs to come along for the ride.
“Its implementation will require the agreement of the ISPs. We have had discussions with multiple ISPs about implementing Scalable Copyright, and intend to intensify those efforts. ISPs have the technology to display our notices in subscribers’ browsers in this manner,” the company notes.
While ISPs do indeed have the ability to hold their customers to ransom on Rightscorp’s behalf, the big question is why they would choose to do so. On the surface there seems no benefit to ISPs whatsoever, since all it will do is annoy those who pay the bills. But Rightscorp sees things somewhat differently and says that the system will actually be both cheap and beneficial to ISPs.
“We provide the data at no charge to the ISPs. With Scalable Copyright, ISPs will be able to greatly reduce their third-party liability and the music and home video industries will be able to return to growth along with the internet advertising and broadband subscriber industries,” the company explains.
That third-party liability is the requirement under the DMCA for service providers to terminate repeat infringers or face the prospect of losing their safe harbor protections.
“U.S. ISPs have a safe harbor that is conditional on terminating repeat copyright infringers. Rightscorp has the technology to identify these repeat infringers. ISPs either need to work with copyright holders to reduce repeat infringers identified by Rightscorp or face significant liability,” the company warns.
As the recent case between BMG and Cox Communications illustrates, ISPs do need to be cautious over the issue of repeat infringers and they must have policies in place to deal with them. However, the notion that a browser-lock system like this one needs to be deployed is unlikely to be on the agenda of many ISPs, especially considering Rightscorp’s track record.
While the MPAA/RIAA Copyright Alerts program limits the numbers of warnings that can be sent to single subscriber in order to avoid labeling them as repeat infringers too quickly, Rightscorp is on record as sending 112 notices to a single Comcast user in less than 48 hours over the sharing of a single torrent.
But despite all the rhetoric, these ambitious plans to hijack browsers to generate revenue will require ISPs to co-operate more with Rightscorp, not less, so the current downward trend in forwarding the company’s notices is hardly encouraging.
Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.
Ein Chip mit einem HBM2-Stack: Der Speicherinterface-Entwickler eSilicon arbeitet an einem Design, das im 14LPP-Verfahren entsteht. Dabei könnte es sich um AMDs Zen-basierte APUs namens Raven Ridge handeln, denkbar ist aber auch der Chip des Nintendo NX. (PC-Hardware, Prozessor) 
Ein Chip mit einem HBM2-Stack: Der Speicherinterface-Entwickler eSilicon arbeitet an einem Design, das im 14LPP-Verfahren entsteht. Dabei könnte es sich um AMDs Zen-basierte APUs namens Raven Ridge handeln, denkbar ist aber auch der Chip des Nintendo NX. (PC-Hardware, Prozessor) 
Apple denkt wieder an die 4-Zoll-Fans, Microsoft hat auf der Build viele kleine Neuerungen vorgestellt. Und Oculus hat uns mit der Endkundenversion des Rift beeindruckt. Sieben Tage und viele Meldungen im Überblick. (Golem-Wochenrückblick, Server) 
Apple denkt wieder an die 4-Zoll-Fans, Microsoft hat auf der Build viele kleine Neuerungen vorgestellt. Und Oculus hat uns mit der Endkundenversion des Rift beeindruckt. Sieben Tage und viele Meldungen im Überblick. (Golem-Wochenrückblick, Server) 
Get Android notifications on your desktop. The catch: You have to install Cortana.
The Windows 10 Anniversary Update just keeps getting crazier. After teaming up with Ubuntu to build an entire Linux subsystem and Unix's Bash shell into Windows 10, Microsoft is now integrating Android-specific features into the OS. If you're an Android user, you'll be able to mirror your phone notifications on your Windows 10 computer, and if you dismiss a notification on one device, it will be dismissed on all your devices.
Microsoft actually gave cloud capabilities to the entire Action Center in Windows 10, allowing Windows 10 devices to sync notification centers with one another. Since Android 4.3, Android has provided a way to ship the entire notification panel off to other apps. With the Cortana app, Microsoft is connecting these capabilities, provided you sign in to both devices with your Microsoft account. You don't just see the notifications—you can interact with them, too. The demo (which starts at about 16:30 in this video) demonstrates replying in-line to an Android SMS notification from a Windows 10 device.
At Build 2016, the keynote barely mentioned Windows Mobile at all. Instead, iOS and Android were name dropped more than Microsoft's own platform. Microsoft seems less interested in using its ecosystem to prop up Windows Mobile and more interested in helping Windows users live a multi-OS life on whatever mobile platform they prefer. With the Action Center's cloud capabilities, Microsoft is making the world's most popular desktop operating system work with the world's most popular mobile operating system.
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Wheeler disappoints Netflix critics who called for investigation.
(credit: Netflix)
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler said yesterday that he has no plans to investigate Netflix for throttling its own video streams, despite Netflix's critics calling for an investigation.
Netflix acknowledged last week that it reduces video quality on most mobile networks to help users stay under their data caps and avoid data overage charges. Opponents of net neutrality rules that prevent Internet service providers from throttling online content claimed Netflix is being a hypocrite, since the video company supported the FCC's ban on throttling.
Netflix critics acknowledge that the FCC's net neutrality or "Open Internet" rules apply only to Internet service providers and not content providers like Netflix. Nonetheless, they insist that the company should be investigated. That isn't going to happen, Wheeler said in a Q&A with reporters after yesterday's monthly FCC meeting.
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Review: This moody thriller will rip your mind apart but might leave you unsatisfied.
Warner Bros
Alton may be able to penetrate your mind with his gaze, but he still isn't sure what kryptonite is.
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Midnight Special wastes no time getting to the point. From the very first scene, we're in the middle of the action, as two men and a little boy race their car down a quiet road somewhere in the American South. Immediately, small details give away that this is no ordinary getaway. In the driver's seat, Lucas (Joel Edgerton) is wearing night goggles so he can drive with the lights off. Roy (a crazy-eyed Michael Shannon) has a look of tight-lipped insanity as he listens to police chatter on their radio. And in the back seat, a little boy wearing swim goggles and giant headphones is calmly reading a comic book.
What the hell is going on here? That question propels the film with growing urgency as we learn more about Roy's son Alton (Jaeden Lieberher), who is wearing those goggles for very good reason. We follow Roy and Lucas as they dodge the police—their faces are popping up on every news show as dangerous kidnappers—and try to shelter with friends who make oblique references to late-night sermons in a compound. Slowly, we piece together where the trio has come from, partly by watching more and more weird incidents coalesce around Alton and partly by watching NSA agent Paul (Adam Driver, in soulful non-Kylo mode) try to figure everything out. There's a great, spine-tingling moment where Paul asks his colleagues why satellite imagery shows a nuclear explosion hovering over Alton's location at all times.
What's made this flick from indie favorite Jeff Nichols (Take Shelter, Mud) a favorite among critics is how the mystery of Alton's preternatural powers is woven into a human-scale story. We discover that Alton was born in what seems to be a charismatic Christian cult, whose leader took the boy away from his parents when he began to manifest bizarre abilities. Like a metaphysical X-Man, Alton can shoot a beam of light from his eyes into other people's, sending them otherworldly images and a sense of peace. There are hints that members of the cult are addicted to his gaze. It has even inspired a frantic devotion in Roy and Roy's friend Lucas, who are willing to do almost anything to protect the boy and bring him... somewhere.
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Judge: “The jury is not a fantasy team composed by consultants.”
(credit: Harper's Magazine via Wikimedia)
After being prodded by a judge to swear off the practice, lawyers from Google and Oracle have agreed not to do any Internet research on jurors in their upcoming high-stakes copyright trial.
In a March 24 order (PDF), US District Judge William Alsup urged the two sides to make such an agreement. At that time, he indicated that Google was willing to forego researching jurors on social media, but Oracle's lawyers balked.
Looking at jurors' online information isn't unusual in high-stakes corporate trials these days, but Alsup nonetheless offered a pointed critique of the lawyers' intentions.
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Following years of declining smartphone sales, BlackBerry tried something different in 2015, launching its first smartphone running Google Android software instead of BlackBerry OS. But it doesn’t look that has done much to help the company’s hardware sales. The BlackBerry Priv launched in November, and according to the first full-quarter earnings report since that launch, […]
BlackBerry phone sales are down, but software revenue is up is a post from: Liliputing
Following years of declining smartphone sales, BlackBerry tried something different in 2015, launching its first smartphone running Google Android software instead of BlackBerry OS. But it doesn’t look that has done much to help the company’s hardware sales. The BlackBerry Priv launched in November, and according to the first full-quarter earnings report since that launch, […]
BlackBerry phone sales are down, but software revenue is up is a post from: Liliputing
Experts prepare for pockets of transmission on US mainland as mosquito season begins.
A female Aedes aegypti mosquito takes flight after a blood meal. (credit: CDC)
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention gathered more than 300 local, state, and federal authorities and experts at its Atlanta headquarters Friday to prepare for clusters of mosquito-transmitted Zika infections on the US mainland.
“The mosquitoes that carry Zika virus are already active in US territories, hundreds of travelers with Zika have already returned to the continental US, and we could well see clusters of Zika virus in the continental US in the coming months,” CDC Director Tom Frieden said in a statement prior to today’s meeting. “Urgent action is needed, especially to minimize the risk of exposure during pregnancy.”
Zika, a virus that has been tearing across Central and South America since last year, is mostly transmitted by mosquito, but it can also be spread through sexual contact. Generally the virus only causes mild illness, with symptoms including fever, rash, pink eye, and aches. But in the recent outbreaks, Zika has been linked to rare cases of paralyzing auto-immune disease, called Guillain-Barré syndrome. Of most concern, it's also linked to devastating birth defects, including microcephaly, in which babies are born with small, malformed heads and brains.
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Ein Graphikdesigner hat seinen Lebenstraum wahr gemacht und sich einen eigenen, lebensecht aussehenden Roboter gebaut - der rein zufällig wie der Hollywoodstar Scarlett Johansson aussieht. Die ist darüber möglicherweise nicht sonderlich erfreut. (
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