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Appeals court seems poised to reverse landmark Qualcomm antitrust ruling

“What would be anticompetitive about that?” one judged asked.

Judges Consuelo Callahan, Johnnie Rawlinson, and Stephen Murphy.

An attorney for the Federal Trade Commission faced a skeptical reception from three appellate judges Thursday as he fought to defend a landmark ruling that Qualcomm's aggressive modem chip licensing tactics violated antitrust law.

"Isn't that maybe being overly capitalistic but not necessarily anticompetitive?" Judge Consuelo Callahan asked at one point during the argument before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in California. Callahan, a George W. Bush appointee, was hearing the case alongside another Bush appointee, Stephen Murphy, and Clinton pick Johnnie Rawlinson.

Last May, a federal trial court judge ruled that Qualcomm had violated antitrust law with its "no license, no chips" policy. Under this policy, no one was allowed to buy chips from Qualcomm unless they first agreed to pay royalties for Qualcomm's patents.

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Daily Deals (2-14-2020)

Two laptops with Intel Core i7-1065G7 Ice Lake processors are on sale for under $1000 at the moment. Lenovo’s Yoga 730 13″ convertible with an 8th-gen Intel Core i5 processor is just $580. The Epic Games Store is giving away two free titles…

The post Daily Deals (2-14-2020) appeared first on Liliputing.

Chrome 81 brings NFC to mobile web apps

Phones with support for NFC (Near Field Communication) can use the technology to quickly pair with headphones or other accessories, make mobile payments at stores, or scan employee or conference attendee badges among other things. Now you can do some o…

The post Chrome 81 brings NFC to mobile web apps appeared first on Liliputing.

BitTorrent ‘Copyright Troll’ Lawsuits Skyrocket In Sweden

The number of piracy lawsuits filed against alleged file-sharing pirates in Sweden hit a record high in 2019. In total, more than 60,000 IP-addresses of alleged BitTorrent users were targeted. The information was made available by the local Internet provider Bahnhof, which labels the ‘copyright trolling’ practice as extortion.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and more. We also have VPN reviews, discounts, offers and coupons.

Sweden is widely known as the birthplace of The Pirate Bay, without a doubt the most iconic torrent site on the Internet.

However, in recent years the country has also evolved into a hotbed for copyright trolls. These use the same file-sharing technology to extract monetary settlements from suspected pirates.

This ‘copyright-trolling’ phenomenon is driven by a select group of copyright holders. In court, they ask for permission to obtain the personal details of account holders, claiming that their IP-addresses are tied to infringing activity.

The law firms involved represent a variety of companies, including the makers of familiar movie and TV titles such as ‘Angel Has Fallen,’ ‘Black Sails’ and ‘Spartacus,’ but also music, and adult entertainment.

The first wave of these lawsuits in Sweden started almost four years ago but the practice has grown exponentially since. According to Swedish Internet provider Bahnhof, which has kept track of these developments, record numbers were reached last year.

During 2019, a total of 140 new applications were submitted to the Patent and Market Court. This is up from 72 during the whole of 2018, and substantially more than the 27 applications that were filed a year earlier.

Not only has the number of applications grown, but the cases also target more IP-addresses in total. In 2019, 60,368 IPs were targeted which is a 15% increase compared to 2018. Combined with the 2017 numbers, we see that more than 144,000 IP-addresses have been targeted over the past three years.

It’s worth noting that this exceeds the number of targets in other, much larger countries, including the United States. While the US has a much larger population, the number of targeted IP-addresses in federal cases are at most a few thousand in a typical year.

It may seem odd that an Internet provider is keeping track of these statistics. Especially when considering that Bahnhof has an entire website dedicated to the copyright trolling efforts, which it describes as extortion practices.

However, Bahnhof is not an ordinary ISP. The company has been very vocal in opposing these legal demands and actively shields its subscribers from getting exposed. With success, as it simply doesn’t hand over any data.

This dedication to protecting the privacy of subscribers is good PR for the company. Its competitors, however, will be less pleased.

According to Bahnhof, four ISPs were requested to disclose data during the past year. Telia was the main target with 31,572 IP-addresses, followed by Com Hem (19,520), Telenor (9,276), and Tre (312).

A significant number of the targeted IP-addresses were requested by adult entertainment companies, which results in settlement requests such as the one below.

In the request, the account holder is offered a settlement of 7,000 Swedish Krona ($722). At the top of the letter, it prominently states that this is about “filesharing of an erotic movie”.

According to Bahnhof, this type of language is likely used to invoke some extra shame, which may increase the likelihood of paying.

As for the future, there is no sign that things will be slowing down anytime soon. Dozens of new cases have already appeared this year. Time will tell whether we will see another record in 2020.

More information on these and other cases is available on Bahnhof’s website, which is regularly updated with new information.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and more. We also have VPN reviews, discounts, offers and coupons.

As capable as a Jeep, as reliable as a Toyota—it’s the 2020 4Runner SUV

New infotainment and driver assists make the 4Runner more fit for suburbia.

The 4Runner has always placed off-road ability as highly as on-road manners. [credit: Toyota ]

Toyota's blocky, function-first 4Runner has made a name in SUV and off-roading circles as a reliable-as-a-rock brick that will go nearly forever and without much care or feeding. A donkey without the bouts of recalcitrance. A camel without the spitting. A faithful dog without the fur. While the current 4Runner is now in its 11th year in production, making it old in modern car terms, those looking for off-road capability favor the durability of proven mechanicals and basic construction rather than the latest and gee-whizziest. And because Toyota has adhered to this very simple formula, 4Runner sales have plodded along steadily without much feature updating over the years.

Well, that changes now, because the 2020 4Runner offers all the latest features in the Toyota box of tricks, making it perhaps the best it's been since a V8 engine option was pulled in the 2000s.

First off, all the implied off-road performance of the 4Runner is fulfilled by the TRD Pro version ($51,419 as tested) with serious off-roading suspension, clingy all-terrain tires, several terrain modes for rocks, sand, downhill, and mud for the four-wheel drive system, skid plates to protect the differentials and other vulnerable pieces underneath, and a few special trim pieces that others in the know will recognize. The 4Runner can tow 5,000 pounds (2,268 kg), as well. However, 4Runners can also be had in less trail-ready versions for more dedicated street use like the SR5, SR5 Premium, and Limited, in both rear-drive and four-wheel drive. In the dirty and muddy, the 4Runner TRD Pro essentially matches Jeep-levels of capability, which may anger the Jeep faithful, but there it is.

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Bildqualität: Netflix will AV1-Bildformat statt JPEG

Der Streaminganbieter Netflix will künftig mit dem AV1-Bildformat AVIF experimentieren. Dieses bietet vor allem für HDR und Bilder ohne Farbunterabtastung eine deutlich bessere Qualität als JPEG. (AV1, Video-Codec)

Geforce Now: “Missverständnis” zwischen Nvidia und Activision Blizzard

Kann ja mal vorkommen: Laut Nvidia hat ein “Missverständnis” dazu geführt, dass Activision Blizzard unter anderem World of Warcraft und Call of Duty vom Spielestreamingdienst Geforce Now abgezogen hat. (Nvidia, WoW)

Kann ja mal vorkommen: Laut Nvidia hat ein "Missverständnis" dazu geführt, dass Activision Blizzard unter anderem World of Warcraft und Call of Duty vom Spielestreamingdienst Geforce Now abgezogen hat. (Nvidia, WoW)

Microsoft: Bundesregierung will mehr Open Source statt Windows

Die Abhängigkeit von Microsoft bewegt die Bundesregierung anscheinend immer mehr zum Umdenken. Daher sollen in Zukunft mehr quelloffene Dienste genutzt und die IT-Infrastruktur diverser werden. Das hat Vor- und Nachteile. (Bundesregierung, Microsoft)

ORAN: Open-Source-Mobilfunk ist nicht umweltfreundlich

Ein Experte von Huawei hält verständlicherweise wenig von Open RAN im Mobilfunk, was Virtualisierung, White-Box-Hardware und Open-Source-Software bedeutet. Doch er kann Fakten nennen, darunter den hohen Energiebedarf. (Huawei, GreenIT)

Kryptografie: OpenSSH 8.2 unterstützt U2F-Hardware als zweiten Faktor

Das aktuelle OpenSSH 8.2 bringt erstmals Support für Fido U2F mit. Damit lässt sich für SSH künftig eine Zwei-Faktor-Authentifizierung über einen Hardware-Token einrichten. Die Entwickler bezeichnen SHA-1 außerdem als veraltet und wollen dies künftig e…