Category: Uncategorised

Der App-Store des asiatischen Spielzeugherstellers Vtech ist gehackt worden, Informationen von rund 200.000 Kindern sind in die Hände eines Unbekannten gelangt. Auch Kunden aus Deutschland sind betroffen. (Security, Technologie)

Islamische Extremisten sollten im Internet stärker kontrolliert werden: Das will EU-Digitalkommissar Günter Oettinger. Gleichzeitig fordert er eine andere gesellschaftliche Einstellung gegenüber den Geheimdiensten. (Günther Oettinger, Internet)

For several years Hollywood studios and international recording labels have engaged in legal action to have ‘pirate’ sites blocked in the UK.

The injunction applications were all filed at the High Court with the earliest example dating back to the 2012 blocking of The Pirate Bay at the hands of the BPI (British Recorded Music Industry).

Since then more than 20 injunctions have been handed down targeting a range of content but it took until May 2015 for the book publishing sector to land its first victory.

In an injunction application targeting major ISPs including BT, Sky, Virgin Media, O2, EE and TalkTalk, the Publishers Association successfully argued that their rights were being infringed by a number of e-book download sites.

Shortly after, Avaxhome, Ebookee, Freebookspot, Freshwap, Libgen, Bookfi and Bookre were all blocked at the ISP level, with Internet users in the UK confronted with a message similar to the one below.

Of course, blocking a handful of sites was never likely to achieve long-term results, especially with fresh domains, proxies, mirrors, and other workarounds being deployed on a regular basis. No surprise then that the Publishers Association has recently applied to have yet more URLs blocked by ISPs. (full list below)

All appear to relate in some way to sites that were blocked in the earlier court order, including Avaxhome, eBookee, FreeBookSpot and Library Genesis. This means that the Publishers Association won’t have needed to start a fresh process and will have simply added these URLs to the existing injunction.

This latest expansion is only the latest in a long line of applications made by a wide range of entertainment industry groups.

Earlier this month the UK’s blocklist silently expanded with the addition of around 170 sites, an effort that was preceded in October with the blocking of dozens of new domains, including those relating to Popcorn Time.

Updated Publishers Association blocklist

avxhome.se.prx2.unblocksit.es
avxhome.unblocked.la

ebookee.co
ebookee.unblocked.la
ebookooabc.org
ebookooawe.org
www.pdfbooksplanet.ru

freebookspot.unblocked.la
freebookspot.unblockme.co
freebookspot.unblockme.net

libgen.unblocked.la
libgen.unblockme.co
libgen.unblockme.net
libgen.unblock.al

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.

Wir haben diese Woche versucht, unser Heim smart zu machen - und aus gegebenem Anlass unseren Trekkie als Yedi verkleidet. Sieben Tage und viele Meldungen im Überblick. (Golem-Wochenrückblick, Internet)

Netherlands-based anti-piracy group BREIN is one of few such outfits to directly go after both the operators and users of pirate sites.

The Hollywood-backed group doesn’t target random file-sharers but focuses on prolific uploaders, who share hundreds or thousands of files.

This month these efforts led to another victory for the organization. A Breda court ruled in favor of BREIN in an ex-parte case against a 20-year-old student, who uploaded over 750 torrents to KickassTorrents.

Most torrents were targeted at the Dutch public, including a full season of The Walking Dead and the film Avengers: Age of Ultron, both with subtitles.

BREIN argued that the man’s infringing activities were causing irreparable damage for the various copyright holders involved. In addition, his efforts help frustrate the growth of legal services such as Spotify and Netflix.

The court agreed with BREIN’s assessment and ordered the uploader to stop sharing pirated content on KickassTorrents (pdf). Refusing to do so will result in a €2,000 fine per day, with a maximum of €50,000.

Responding to the verdict, the man, whose name is not made public, deleted his account as well as all uploads.

TorrentFreak tracked down what appears to be the user in question. This person frequently uploaded torrents with Dutch subtitles, some of which were mentioned in the case.

The deleted profile

BREIN notes that the student also agreed to pay compensation to the copyright holders as well as costs for the legal proceedings. While calculating the appropriate ‘damages’ figure BREIN took the man’s personal circumstances into account.

This means that the uploader has gotten off relatively unharmed, when compared to the million dollar claims we’ve seen elsewhere at least.

It’s not clear how BREIN tracked down the uploader. The anti-piracy group is known to scour the Internet for information that can identify infringers, some of whom are surprisingly easy to find.

In addition, BREIN also uses previously convicted file-sharers to gather intelligence, and rival uploaders also rat out their competitors voluntarily every now and then.

“We do get anonymous tips regarding offenders and from time to time it is clear that a tip comes from a ‘competitor. It’s just like with other crime on any turf,” BREIN’s Tim Kuik told us previously.

Looking ahead, BREIN is planning to intensify its efforts to hold prolific uploaders responsible. Not just those who upload to torrent sites, but also those who simply download and share.

Last week NOS reported that BREIN is preparing to monitor IP-addresses systematically to identify prolific sharers, which they then hope to identify through their Internet providers.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.

Der weltweit größte PC-Hersteller Lenovo arbeitet künftig eng mit Razer zusammen: Gemeinsam sollen neue Gaming-Systeme wie Desktops und Notebooks entstehen sowie bestehende aufgewertet werden. (Razer, Lenovo)

Viele Spieler haben darauf gewartet: Künftig werden die Razer Blade genannten Gaming-Ultrabooks auch in Deutschland verfügbar sein - das gilt für aktuelle wie kommende Modelle. Der Preis hat es in sich. (Razer Blade, Mobil)

Der Bundesrat hat darauf verzichtet, den Gesetzesbeschluss zur freien Wahl von Routern zu behindern. Unitymedia hatte bei Abschaffung des Routerzwangs von "Beeinträchtigung eines ganzen Clusters mit mehreren hundert Teilnehmern" gewarnt. Der Anga-Verband sah Netzunterbrechungen kommen. (Router, Netzwerk)

DVB-T2 startet erst 2017 im Regelbetrieb. Ab 2023 will die ITU-Weltfunkkonferenz die Frequenznutzung im gesamten UHF-Band von 470 bis 960 MHz "ergebnisoffen überprüfen". (DVB-T, H.265)

Hyperloop-Erfinder Elon Musk lässt den Wettbewerbern beim Bau ihrer Fahrzeuge für die Hochgeschwindigkeitsbahn viel Spielraum. In einem Dokument verrät der SpaceX-Gründer technische Einzelheiten. (Hyperloop, Internet)