Project A: Riot Games nimmt Counter-Strike ins Visier

Ein ehemaliger Profispieler durfte bei Riot Games eine frühe Version von Project A ausprobieren und sich öffentlich dazu äußern. Der Multiplayer erinnert nach seinen Angaben vor allem an Counter-Strike, dazu kommen eher vorsichtig umgesetzte Elemente a…

Ein ehemaliger Profispieler durfte bei Riot Games eine frühe Version von Project A ausprobieren und sich öffentlich dazu äußern. Der Multiplayer erinnert nach seinen Angaben vor allem an Counter-Strike, dazu kommen eher vorsichtig umgesetzte Elemente aus Overwatch. (Riot Games, Counter-Strike)

Rightsholders Asked Google to Remove Five Million ThePirateBay.org URLs

Copyright holders have filed five million requests to delete ThePirateBay.org URLs from Google’s search results over the past several years. Roughly two-thirds of these requests indeed resulted in links being removed, while the search engine took no action at all for less than one percent. The Pirate Bay’s homepage remains available as well, despite repeated attempts to have it deleted.

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

The Pirate Bay is widely known for its refusal to remove content based on copyright infringement claims. Those who tried in the past found themselves mocked instead.

This means that copyright holders have to find other ways to minimize the site’s impact. That includes sending takedown requests to search engines, to lower the site’s presence there.

Most of these takedown notices are sent to Google, which receives requests to remove thousands of Pirate Bay links every day. These quickly add up and have now surpassed five million requests against Thepiratebay.org URLs alone.

Like many other pirate sites, The Pirate Bay has many proxy sites and previously used other domains as well. If we added all of these together, the totals would run into the dozens of millions.

The vast majority of thepiratebay.org URLs were reported since 2016, when the iconic torrent site returned to its original .org domain name, as can be seen in the graph below.

Targeted thepiratebay.org urls

The figures reported in Google’s transparency report count all the URLs that were submitted by copyright holders. This also includes duplicate requests. In other words, it doesn’t mean that five million search results were removed.

Of the 5,047,397 reported URLs, nearly two-thirds (66.5%) resulted in removed links. Little over 10% are duplicates that were sent in before by other copyright holders and 22.2% of the URLs were not indexed by Google in the first place.

It may seem odd that copyright holders ask Google to remove content that isn’t in its search engine. However, the company previously explained that it accepts these requests, which are put on a preemptive blacklist, to ensure that they are not added in the future.

When all of the above is taken into account there is still 0.8% left. These are reported URLs for which Google took no action. This can happen when the takedown request has clear errors, or if the reported URL isn’t copyright infringing.

As we previously reported, rightsholders have repeatedly asked Google to remove thepiratebay.org’s homepage. However, since this doesn’t link to any infringing content, Google keeps this page in its search results.

Google does, however, downgrade The Pirate Bay searches for some content. Because the site is repeatedly targeted, the search engine lowers its ranking in results for movies and other types of media.

While five million targeted URLs is significant, it is by no means a record. Several other sites including 4shared.com, Rapidgator.net, and Chomikuj.pl have been reported dozens of millions of times.

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

Rightsholders Asked Google to Remove Five Million ThePirateBay.org URLs

Copyright holders have filed five million requests to delete ThePirateBay.org URLs from Google’s search results over the past several years. Roughly two-thirds of these requests indeed resulted in links being removed, while the search engine took no action at all for less than one percent. The Pirate Bay’s homepage remains available as well, despite repeated attempts to have it deleted.

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

The Pirate Bay is widely known for its refusal to remove content based on copyright infringement claims. Those who tried in the past found themselves mocked instead.

This means that copyright holders have to find other ways to minimize the site’s impact. That includes sending takedown requests to search engines, to lower the site’s presence there.

Most of these takedown notices are sent to Google, which receives requests to remove thousands of Pirate Bay links every day. These quickly add up and have now surpassed five million requests against Thepiratebay.org URLs alone.

Like many other pirate sites, The Pirate Bay has many proxy sites and previously used other domains as well. If we added all of these together, the totals would run into the dozens of millions.

The vast majority of thepiratebay.org URLs were reported since 2016, when the iconic torrent site returned to its original .org domain name, as can be seen in the graph below.

Targeted thepiratebay.org urls

The figures reported in Google’s transparency report count all the URLs that were submitted by copyright holders. This also includes duplicate requests. In other words, it doesn’t mean that five million search results were removed.

Of the 5,047,397 reported URLs, nearly two-thirds (66.5%) resulted in removed links. Little over 10% are duplicates that were sent in before by other copyright holders and 22.2% of the URLs were not indexed by Google in the first place.

It may seem odd that copyright holders ask Google to remove content that isn’t in its search engine. However, the company previously explained that it accepts these requests, which are put on a preemptive blacklist, to ensure that they are not added in the future.

When all of the above is taken into account there is still 0.8% left. These are reported URLs for which Google took no action. This can happen when the takedown request has clear errors, or if the reported URL isn’t copyright infringing.

As we previously reported, rightsholders have repeatedly asked Google to remove thepiratebay.org’s homepage. However, since this doesn’t link to any infringing content, Google keeps this page in its search results.

Google does, however, downgrade The Pirate Bay searches for some content. Because the site is repeatedly targeted, the search engine lowers its ranking in results for movies and other types of media.

While five million targeted URLs is significant, it is by no means a record. Several other sites including 4shared.com, Rapidgator.net, and Chomikuj.pl have been reported dozens of millions of times.

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

Auftragsfertiger: TSMC kann 6,7 Milliarden US-Dollar für Fabs nutzen

Mehr Geld für die Halbleiterfertigung: Der Auftragsfertiger TSMC hat die Freigabe für 6,7 Milliarden US-Dollar erhalten. Diese sollen in Produktionsanlagen, Belichtungsmaschinen, Kapazitätserweiterungen, Packaging-Systeme und Entwicklung gesteckt werde…

Mehr Geld für die Halbleiterfertigung: Der Auftragsfertiger TSMC hat die Freigabe für 6,7 Milliarden US-Dollar erhalten. Diese sollen in Produktionsanlagen, Belichtungsmaschinen, Kapazitätserweiterungen, Packaging-Systeme und Entwicklung gesteckt werden. (TSMC, Halbleiterfertigung)

Steam: Virtual reality’s biggest-ever jump in users happened last month

We know, we know—VR is still a sliver, but that sliver sure is picking up pace.

Well-dressed partygoers dance in VR headsets.

Enlarge / If Steam's latest VR hardware stats are any indication, parties like this may very well be happening in your neighborhood. (Yes, we know, most of these models are sporting headsets outside of the SteamVR ecosystem. If you'd like to model for our next VR article's imagery, send your snaps to Aurich Lawson, stat.) (credit: Aurich Lawson / Getty)

How well are virtual reality headsets selling? With most of the sector's major players remaining coy on sales figures, we're left to draw an incomplete picture from various bits of data. This month, at least, we have an intriguing new data point: a burst in PC-VR hardware use, two months in a row.

Valve's gaming marketplace Steam includes an opt-in hardware survey feature, and the results are published as percentages of surveyed users on a monthly basis. You'll find all kinds of data about Steam-connected computers every month, and this includes operating systems, video cards, VR systems, and more. In the latter case, that figure is counted out of all Steam users—as opposed to a less-helpful stat like "70 percent of VR fans prefer Product A, 30 percent Product B."

We were intrigued (but not surprised) to see a jump in connected VR devices for the reported month of December 2019. That's the holiday season, after all, and it's reasonable to expect Santa's deliveries of headsets to affect data.

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Galaxy Z Flip im Hands-on: Endlich klappt es bei Samsung

Beim zweiten Versuch hat Samsung aus seinen Fehlern gelernt: Das Smartphone Galaxy Z Flip mit faltbarem Display ist alltagstauglicher und stabiler als der Vorgänger. Motorolas Razr kann da nicht mithalten. Ein Hands on von Tobias Költzsch (Samsung, Sma…

Beim zweiten Versuch hat Samsung aus seinen Fehlern gelernt: Das Smartphone Galaxy Z Flip mit faltbarem Display ist alltagstauglicher und stabiler als der Vorgänger. Motorolas Razr kann da nicht mithalten. Ein Hands on von Tobias Költzsch (Samsung, Smartphone)

Maveric: Airbus testet neuartiges Design für Verkehrsflugzeuge

Airbus testet ein neues Konzept für Passagierflugzeuge. Maveric soll deutlich weniger Treibstoff verbrauchen als ein herkömmliches Flugzeug. Ob und wann es gebaut wird, ist noch unklar. (Airbus, Nasa)

Airbus testet ein neues Konzept für Passagierflugzeuge. Maveric soll deutlich weniger Treibstoff verbrauchen als ein herkömmliches Flugzeug. Ob und wann es gebaut wird, ist noch unklar. (Airbus, Nasa)

Raumfahrt: Ehemaliger Nasa-Raumfahrtchef wechselt zu SpaceX

Nach 40 Jahren bei der Nasa wird William H. Gerstenmaier in Zukunft als Berater für die Sicherheit der Dragon-Raumschiffe sorgen. Er gilt als führender Experte auf dem Gebiet. Sein Wechsel wird zur internationalen Anerkennung von SpaceX beitragen. (Spa…

Nach 40 Jahren bei der Nasa wird William H. Gerstenmaier in Zukunft als Berater für die Sicherheit der Dragon-Raumschiffe sorgen. Er gilt als führender Experte auf dem Gebiet. Sein Wechsel wird zur internationalen Anerkennung von SpaceX beitragen. (SpaceX, Nasa)

Cloud Gaming: Activision Blizzard zieht Spiele von Geforce Now zurück

Schwerer Schlag für das Spielestreaming bei Nvidia: World of Warcraft, Call of Duty und alle anderen Games von Activision und Blizzard sind ab sofort nicht mehr über Geforce Now verfügbar. Die Community ist empört – viele geben Nvidia die Schuld. (Gefo…

Schwerer Schlag für das Spielestreaming bei Nvidia: World of Warcraft, Call of Duty und alle anderen Games von Activision und Blizzard sind ab sofort nicht mehr über Geforce Now verfügbar. Die Community ist empört - viele geben Nvidia die Schuld. (Geforce Now, WoW)

Icann: Registrare warnen vor massivem .com-Preisanstieg

Eine Vertragsverlängerung zwischen der Icann und dem Betreiber der .com-TLD, Verisign, erlaubt deutliche Preissteigerungen um bis zu 7 Prozent pro Jahr. Registrare wie Namecheap wollen nun dagegen vorgehen. (Icann, DNS)

Eine Vertragsverlängerung zwischen der Icann und dem Betreiber der .com-TLD, Verisign, erlaubt deutliche Preissteigerungen um bis zu 7 Prozent pro Jahr. Registrare wie Namecheap wollen nun dagegen vorgehen. (Icann, DNS)