The U.S. Government says it’s in no way responsible for the millions of Megaupload users who have lost access to their files due to the criminal proceedings against the file-sharing site. Responding to a motion from one of the site’s users, the Government explains that no “irreparable harm” has been done. Instead of targeting the Government, disadvantaged users should sue Megaupload or its hosting company Carpathia for damages.
...
North Koreans are subverting their government's censorship by sharing files on USB sticks and MP3 players, claims a report. A Quiet Opening, by Nat Kretchin and Jane Kim, uses testimony from defectors and refugees to build a picture of how popular media originating from other countries is within the isolated dictatorship. The answer, you may be surprised to hear, appears to be "very".
...
Talking about what goes into its improved 3D maps, Google casually mentioned today that it uses a fleet of airplanes to repeatedly fly over cities, shooting photos at 45-degrees and from directly overhead. That's cool tech, and all, but, like, Google has its own damn fleet of airplanes.
...
In news that one could file under “oddities”, an anti-piracy company has apparently decided to attack several websites in the midst of a rant against BitTorrent website H33t.
...
If Google really hated piracy, it would let copyright holders supply takedown lists of unlimited length. That's the view of the recording industry, which yesterday issued a blog post from a top anti-piracy executive that blasted Google in the wake of the company's updated Transparency Report tool.
...
Even if the latest beta update for uTorrent 3.2 integrates only a small set of fixes, the new release brings the application closer to a stable build.
...
Last week, a 50-something Chinese man got on his knees in Baishan City in Jilin Province, China. He begged a judge to grant him a divorce from his wife, even though the two recently retook their vows.
...
Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom is demanding access to 135 computers and hard drives that were seized from his home in January, so the data can be used for his defense. Until then, he refuses to give up passwords to encrypted data stored on the machines. Dotcom’s legal team is challenging the legality of the search warrants at the High Court in Auckland and is accusing the US Government of an unfair fight.
...
The people behind a company once accused of being complicit in copyright infringement through peer-to-peer filesharing are now selling software that blocks pirated content—and gives Internet service providers a way to make cash in the process. And soon, a version of the same technology could be used by ISPs to inject their own advertisements into search results—a capability that is sure to raise the ire of proponents of network neutrality.
...
The internet is built of services. One of the core services, and a major choke-point for control, is domain name resolution. There have been some alternates come and go, but one of the strongest has been OpenNIC, and they’ve just launched a new top level domain – .pirate
...
File-sharing site The Pirate Bay must be blocked by UK internet service providers, the High Court has ruled.
The Swedish website hosts links to download mostly pirated free music and video.
Sky, Everything Everywhere, TalkTalk, O2 and Virgin Media must all prevent their users from accessing the site.
...
If further proof is needed that copyright trolls are only interested in money and couldn’t care less about artists or their reputations, read on. A lawsuit, filed against fans of the band All Shall Perish, caused chaos in the past 48 hours when the horrified band revealed they know nothing about it. Speaking with TorrentFreak, the band’s manager says they are “gutted” by the news and have no idea what is going on.
...
The High Court has thrown out an appeal by some of the world's biggest media companies to stop internet piracy after it excused Australian service provider iiNet from policing unauthorised downloads.
...
Re: What are you listening to right now?
anon Today, 02:40 AM