Natans: Sabotage an iranischer Atomanlage?

Auf Satellitenbildern sind erhebliche Zerstörungen an der Urananreicherungsanlage zu sehen. Westliche Berichte gehen von einer maßgeblichen Rolle Israels und den USA aus. Iran sucht Verantwortliche im Inneren

Auf Satellitenbildern sind erhebliche Zerstörungen an der Urananreicherungsanlage zu sehen. Westliche Berichte gehen von einer maßgeblichen Rolle Israels und den USA aus. Iran sucht Verantwortliche im Inneren

This self-driving startup built a “car without wheels” for remote driving

Voyage pulled the curtain back on its system for remote driving.

A man operates an automobile simulator.

Enlarge (credit: Voyage)

The ideal self-driving car would drive itself all the time, in all situations. But achieving that goal in practice is difficult—so difficult, in fact, that most self-driving companies have provisions for human backup to help cars get out of tricky or confusing situations.

But companies are often secretive about exactly how these systems work. Perhaps they worry that providing details—or even admitting they exist—will cast their self-driving technology in an unflattering light.

So it was refreshing to see the self-driving startup Voyage unveil its remote driving console as if it was announcing a major new product—which, in a sense, it is. Voyage didn't just create software that allows a remote operator to give instructions to a self-driving car—it built a physical "Telessist Pod" where a remote driver sits to control the vehicle.

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How small satellites are radically remaking space exploration

“There’s so much of the Solar System that we have not explored.”

An Electron rocket launches in August 2019 from New Zealand.

Enlarge / An Electron rocket launches in August 2019 from New Zealand. (credit: Sam Toms/Rocket Lab)

At the beginning of this year, a group of NASA scientists agonized over which robotic missions they should choose to explore our Solar System. Researchers from around the United States had submitted more than 20 intriguing ideas, such as whizzing by asteroids, diving into lava tubes on the Moon, and hovering in the Venusian atmosphere.

Ultimately, NASA selected four of these Discovery-class missions for further study. In several months, the space agency will pick two of the four missions to fully fund, each with a cost cap of $450 million and a launch late within this decade. For the losing ideas, there may be more chances in future years—but until new opportunities arise, scientists can only plan, wait, and hope.

This is more or less how NASA has done planetary science for decades. Scientists come up with all manner of great ideas to answer questions about our Solar System; then, NASA announces an opportunity, a feeding frenzy ensues for those limited slots. Ultimately, one or two missions get picked and fly. The whole process often takes a couple of decades from the initial idea to getting data back to Earth.

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Trollfabrik: Trump bestätigt Cyberangriff gegen Russland 2018

Der US-Präsent hat erstmals gesagt, dass es 2018 einen Cyberangriff gegen die russische Internet Forschungsagentur gegeben habe, der Einmischung in die US-Politik vorgeworfen wird. (Donald Trump, Cyberwar)

Der US-Präsent hat erstmals gesagt, dass es 2018 einen Cyberangriff gegen die russische Internet Forschungsagentur gegeben habe, der Einmischung in die US-Politik vorgeworfen wird. (Donald Trump, Cyberwar)

Hagia Sophia: Symbolik der Macht

Die Hagia Sophia, einst Kirche, dann Moschee und seit 1935 Museum, wird nach einem Gerichtsurteil wieder zur Moschee. Die Anhänger des türkischen Präsidenten jubeln, die UNESCO übt Kritik

Die Hagia Sophia, einst Kirche, dann Moschee und seit 1935 Museum, wird nach einem Gerichtsurteil wieder zur Moschee. Die Anhänger des türkischen Präsidenten jubeln, die UNESCO übt Kritik

Amazon Piracy Lawsuit: Court Restrains Assets & Domains of Pirate Sites

A lawsuit filed this week by Amazon Publishing, Penguin Random House and authors including Lee Child and John Grisham, has chalked up an early win. A Washington court has ordered that the assets and domains of Kiss Library, which is accused of massive copyright infringement, should be seized as part of a temporary restraining order.

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

LawsuitEarlier this week, Amazon Content Services, publisher Penguin Random House and several authors including John Grisham and Lee Child, filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against ‘pirate’ eBook sites operating under the Kiss Library brand.

Accusing the platforms of “rampant and willful infringement” due to their sales of pirated eBooks to the public, the plaintiffs alleged direct and secondary copyright infringement, while demanding the maximum statutory damages of $150,000 per infringed work. In addition, the architects of the lawsuit demanded urgent injunctive relief in an effort to bring the sites’ infringing activities to a swift halt.

After being filed on Tuesday and with the ink barely dry on the complaint, United States Senior District Judge Marsha J. Pechman responded immediately by handing down a temporary restraining order.

Comprehensive Temporary Restraining Order

“Plaintiffs have demonstrated they are entitled to immediate injunctive relief by establishing they are likely to succeed on the merits of their copyright claims,” the Judge wrote in her order.

“Defendants have gone to great lengths to conceal their identities, locations, and proceeds from Plaintiffs’ and this Court’s detection, including by using multiple false identities and addresses associated with their operations and purposely-deceptive contact information.”

The Judge found that given the above elusive behavior, it is likely that if any notice was given of an impending order, the defendants would likely destroy or hide evidence of their infringement and proceeds from the same, thus frustrating the relief sought by the plaintiffs.

The temporary restraining order is valid for 48 days but if the defendants don’t appear before August 25, 2020, to argue against it, a preliminary injunction will take its place. Whether the operators of Kiss Library will step forward remains a question but in the meantime, the Court has taken a pretty aggressive stance towards collapsing their business from every conceivable angle.

The list of targets is comprehensive, not only targeting the defendants themselves but also preventing anyone else from working or doing business with them, if that activity is connected to infringement of the plaintiffs’ rights. The companies include, but are not limited to, payment processors, domain registrars or hosts, Internet service providers, back-end service providers, affiliate program providers, web designers, and search engines.

Ex Parte Asset Restraint

Citing 17 U.S.C. § 502(a), the Judge also authorized a comprehensive restraining order against the financial mechanisms supporting the Kiss Library operation, requiring that banks, payment processors, merchant account providers and credit card companies to “immediately locate all accounts connected to Defendants or the Websites” and prevent them from transferring or disposing of any money or assets.

Judge Pechman also ordered domain registries and registrars, including Tucows Domains Inc., Whois Privacy Corp., and NameCheap, Inc., to take action against all of the defendants’ domains under their control, rendering them “inactive and non-transferable” pending further instruction from the Court.

Finally, a similar order was granted requiring email services, social media services, search engines and other online providers to disable service to all of the defendants’ websites.

The temporary restraining order obtained by Amazon Publishing, Penguin Random House, Lee Child, Sylvia Day, John Grisham, C.J. Lyons, Doug Preston, Jim Rasenberger, T.J. Stiles, R.L Stine, Monique Troung, Scott Turow, Nicholas Weinstock and Stuart Woods, can be found here (pdf)

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