Unrelated to the whiskey.
Texting is an intimate way to have a conversation. But how intimate is it, exactly, when you count up all the people who could be listening in?
The post Your Selfies Are Insecure. Here’s How to Encrypt Them appeared first on WIRED.
Source: Wired.com Top Stories
We know what a self-driving car will look like, but what about the platforms that will power it?
The post Tesla Summon Hints at How the World of Self-Driving Cars Will Work appeared first on WIRED.
Source: Wired.com Top Stories
Almost every metropolitan subway station is on this map.
The post Map Envisions What a Worldwide Subway System Would Be Like appeared first on WIRED.
Source: Wired.com Top Stories
As the phenomenon of chasing down alleged movie pirates continues around the world, so-called copyright trolls are continually honing their techniques in order to pin down individuals to force settlement.
While those accused rarely get off lightly in any jurisdiction, in the United States the situation is particularly grim.
Companies that pursue pirates have the luxury of huge statutory damages at their disposal, meaning that a failed defense of a willful infringement claim could mean that a defendant is on the hook for up to $150,000 in damages.
While such large awards are rare, it does mean that companies are motivated to spend more time on a case than they would in other regions where statutory damages do not exist. To that end, when faced with accusations from copyright holders, people who merely pay the Internet bill at a residence sometimes face deposition.
In these cases a deposition is a pre-trial hearing during which a witness answers questions under oath about the alleged offense. The idea is to find out what the witness knows but ultimately depositions allow plaintiffs to gain ammunition towards achieving their key aim – cash settlement.
At this stage the account holder might be the assumed (putative) defendant while remaining an unnamed ‘John Doe’ as far as the lawsuit goes. All that could change after the deposition of course, which is why people are advised to obtain legal advice before taking part in one. Sadly, people’s financial situations often dictate this is not possible.
However, an interesting find by the troll-watchers at FightCopyrightTrolls reveals that putative defendants in Oregon won’t have to walk blindly into a potentially damaging deposition.
In response to a wave of lawsuits filed by notorious troll lawyer Carl Crowell, Chief Judge Michael Mosman has decided that targets of settlement demands should have legal assistance, whether they can afford it or not. A recently drafted standing order details his offer.
“Plaintiffs have subpoenaed the Internet Service Provider (‘ISP’) to obtain the identity of the party assigned the ISP account associated with the infringing activity, commonly called the subscriber. The subscriber may or may not be the same as the alleged infringer,” Judge Mosman writes.
“In order to find out whether the subscriber is an innocent third party and, if so, the identity of the alleged infringer, plaintiffs request the Court to enter Orders allowing them to take certain action, such as issuing a subpoena to the subscriber for a deposition.”
The Judge notes that if Internet subscribers fail to respond, plaintiffs could ask the Court for a default judgment. It is therefore advisable for subscribers to receive legal advice. To that end, subscribers will now get that support regardless of whether they can afford it or not.
“The Court has established a panel of lawyers who are willing to provide assistance and advice to subscribers in these lawsuits at no charge for up to 3 hours,” Judge Mosman writes.
The offer of support before deposition will be welcomed by subscribers while a case management order issued alongside should ensure that lawyers like Crowell are kept in line. The order mandates that multiple does can’t be filed in a single case and, crucially, subscribers must be informed of the free legal advice being made available.
“The ISP subpoena must include a copy of [the standing order] from the Court regarding the availability of pro bono counsel with any communications to the subscriber/account holder,” the order reads.
The prospect of a deposition will be a scary one for Internet subscribers so the fact they have this support should certainly lighten the load, especially for those who simply pay the bill and have played no part in any infringement.
Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.
Source: TorrentFreak
This week we have two newcomers in our chart.
Spectre and Bridge of Spies were both released as a DVDrip a few days ago.
The Big Short is the most downloaded movie for the second week in a row.
The data for our weekly download chart is estimated by TorrentFreak, and is for informational and educational reference only. All the movies in the list are BD/DVDrips unless stated otherwise.
RSS feed for the weekly movie download chart.
| Ranking | (last week) | Movie | IMDb Rating / Trailer |
|---|---|---|---|
| torrentfreak.com | |||
| 1 | (1) | The Big Short (DVDscr) | 8.1 / trailer |
| 2 | (7) | Spectre | 7.9 / trailer |
| 3 | (2) | The Revenant (DVDscr) | ?.? / trailer |
| 4 | (8) | Bridge of Spies | 7.9 / trailer |
| 5 | (4) | The Intern | 7.4 / trailer |
| 6 | (3) | The Martian | 8.2 / trailer |
| 7 | (…) | Black Mass (Web-DL) | 7.1 / trailer |
| 8 | (5) | Solace | 6.4 / trailer |
| 9 | (…) | The Last Witch Hunter (WEB-DL) | 6.0 / trailer |
| 10 | (9) | Sisters (Webrip) | 6.5 / trailer |
Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.
Source: TorrentFreak
Today’s Falcon 9 tipped over after hitting its drone barge target.
The post SpaceX Botched Its Landing Thanks to a Broken Sea Leg appeared first on WIRED.
Source: Wired.com Top Stories
The movie industry has gone head to head with Google in recent months, demanding tougher anti-piracy measures from the search engine.
According to the MPAA and others Google makes it too easy for its users to find pirated content. Instead, they would prefer Google to remove sites such as The Pirate Bay from its search results completely.
In addition, Google should boost the rankings of legal services and sites that allow the public to find legal content. To lead the way, the movie industry group launched its own WhereToWatch search engine where visitors can find out where to watch the latest blockbusters.
Ironically, the MPAA’s very own site is now being censored by Google upon request of a movie industry outfit in Europe.
In recent weeks film distributor “Forum Film Poland” sent several DMCA takedown requests to Google listing five URLs of the MPAA’s WheretoWatch.com service. The search engine kindly complied with the request and as a result the pages are no longer listed in Google’s search results.
People who try to find the WhereToWatch page for “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2″ get the following result, linking to this DMCA notice.
Where to?
The DMCA notices were sent by the reporting agency “Anti-Piracy Protection” who also sent one on behalf of another Polish media outlet, ITI Neovision, which removed the entry for “The Fault in Our Stars.”
This means that six WhereToWatch pages are no longer present in Google’s search results.
The errors illustrate how easily mistakes are made by often automated takedown processes. It appears that WhereToWatch is not whitelisted by the reporting organization and mistakenly flagged as infringing content.
Similar errors have been made in the past with other movie industry supported search engines such as FindanyFilm and JustWatch.
Yes, these type of mistakes are easily corrected with a counter-notice but then they have to be spotted first, which is usually not the case.
It will be interesting to see how quickly the MPAA files a counter-notice to have their pages restored again. At Google, the inadvertent censorship will probably be welcomed with a smile.
Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.
Source: TorrentFreak
Each Saturday we round up the news stories that we didn’t break or cover in depth at WIRED, but which deserve your attention nonetheless.
The post Security News This Week: Tim Cook Demands That the White House Defend Encryption appeared first on WIRED.
Source: Wired.com Top Stories
This week, the Internet spent a lot of time mourning David Bowie and Alan Rickman. Here are a few things you might have missed during the collective grief.
The post While You Were Offline: Trump’s Musical Ode to Insanity appeared first on WIRED.
Source: Wired.com Top Stories
TorFlow maps Internet anonymity across the globe and across time.
The post Here’s What Tor’s Data Looks Like as It Flows Around the World appeared first on WIRED.
Source: Wired.com Top Stories