Bcstevieb

Following Martin Winterkorn's resignation from the world's largest car company a few minutes ago, the company's Supervisory Board put out a numbered list of "conclusions" it has reached about the growing emissions scandal that threatens to bring the entire company down.

The verbiage is mostly what you'd expect from a handful of suits who are suddenly scrambling to prevent an enormous global institution from falling like a Jenga tower, but it still reads a little strangely.

Here are the weirdest bits.

Continue reading…

We're only a few days away from the new Nexus announcement, and it's prime time for some leaks. We've already revealed the Nexus 5X and 6P boxes (along with confirming the names), but what about the phones themselves? Well, we've got a high-resolution press image of the Nexus 6P, and it is indeed that phone that was leaked a few weeks ago with the black bar on the back.

The Huawei-built Nexus 6P will be the larger of the two Nexus phones released this year.

Read More

[Exclusive] Here Is The Nexus 6P In All Its Glory, Front And Back was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Starting today everyone is free use “Happy Birthday” without having to pay a license fee, as a California federal court ruling suggests that the popular song is now the public domain*.

The ruling comes from District Court Judge George King in a dispute between several artists and publisher Warner/Chappell, which claimed to own the copyrights.

Warner made an estimated $2 million per year in licensing fees from the melody that was originally written before 1893, by sisters Mildred and Patty Hill. The rights to the song were later transferred to Summy Co., which was later acquired by Warner/Chappell.

For decades, Warner continued to demand licensing fees from filmmakers and other artists who used the song in their works.

In 2013 a group of artists including musician Ruypa Marya sued Warner’s music division claiming that the company doesn’t hold the rights to the song. Aside from missing agreements, the filmmakers alleged that it’s not clear what the true origins of the song are.

Before even reaching a trial, Judge George King awarded a groundbreaking victory to the plaintiffs. After a careful review of several agreements the court concluded that there is no evidence that the Hill sisters ever transferred their rights to Summy Co.

“Defendants have no evidence a transfer occurred, whether by oral statement, by writing, or by conduct. The Second Agreement was for piano arrangements. The Third Agreement was for copyrighted works, like Song Stories and the piano arrangements, that did not cover the lyrics,” Judge King writes (pdf).

According to the court there is no evidence available to conclude that the copyrights to the lyrics now belong to Warner.

“In fact, Defendants cannot even point to evidence showing that the Hill sisters transferred their rights in the lyrics to the Hill Foundation, such that the Hill Foundation could, in turn, legitimately transfer them to Summy Co.”

As a result, Judge King ruled that Warner/Chappell doesn’t own the copyright to Happy Birthday, which means that the company can’t demand licensing fees for its use.

“Accordingly, Defendants’ Motion is DENIED, and Plaintiffs’ Motion is GRANTED as to the issue of whether Summy Co. ever received the rights to the Happy Birthday lyrics from the Hill sisters.”

At this point it’s still unclear whether any of the artists will be compensated for the licensing fees they previously paid. Ruypa Marya, whose band paid $455 because the audience sang “Happy Birthday” on a live album, hopes that the ruling will trigger a more artist-centric copyright law.

“I hope we can start reimagining copyright law to do what it’s supposed to do — protect the creations of people who make stuff so that we can continue to make more stuff,” Marya told AP.

Warner/Chappell says it’s still evaluating the judgement and hadn’t decided yet on a possible appeal.

* Update: Technically speaking Happy Birthday is now an orphan work, not completely public domain.

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

It's a little less than a week until Google reveals its new Nexus devices in San Francisco, but as seems to happen every year, we know pretty much every detail beforehand. Oddly, one of the last things we knew about the new LG and Huawei Nexus phones were their actual names. A rumor last week suggested that LG's 5.2-inch follow-up to the 2013 Nexus 5 would be called the Nexus 5X, and that Huawei's 5.7-inch flagship would go by Nexus 6P.

Read More

[Exclusive] Leaked Images Of The New Nexus Phone Retail Boxes Confirm 'Nexus 5X' And 'Nexus 6P' Model Names was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

 FreedomPop, the startup that is stirring up the world of mobile carriers with free phone services, is announcing two new advances that will help the company spread its brand to new demographics and new geographies. The company is kicking off the commercial launch of its service outside of the U.S. — in the UK, where CEO and co-founder Stephen Stokols says that 250,000 people have… Read More

Posted by Sri Harsha Somanchi, Product Manager

Sometimes you get mail from someone who’s really disruptive. Hopefully it doesn’t happen often—but when it does, you should be able to say, “Never see messages from this person again.” That’s why you can now block specific email addresses in Gmail—starting today on the web, and over the next week on Android. Future mail will go to the spam folder (and you can always unblock in Settings).
In addition, the unsubscribe option is now making its way to Android, so you’ll be able to opt out of eligible mailing lists directly from the Gmail app. It’s perfect for those newsletters you subscribed to a while back but don’t read any more.
So try block or unsubscribe when the situation calls for it. And stay in control of your inbox.

 Following the recent reveal that the Chinese Apple App Store had become infested with malware, thanks to dozens of infected consumer-facing mobile apps that had been built and updated with a compromised version of Apple’s iOS developer software, Xcode, Apple is now urging mobile app developers to verify their Xcode installations. The company reminded developers via email and a message… Read More

 Here is a small but useful new feature in Gmail that’s launching today: you can now block specific email addresses with two clicks. So whenever you’re getting a lot of email from somebody who is being annoying, you can now easily ban them from your inbox (and after they show remorse, you can unblock them again). Read More

Every week movies appear online after being illegally recorded in cinemas using camcorders. Hollywood has blamed the phenomenon for eating into box office revenues and has spent years trying to stamp it out.

Pirates, on the other hand, download the illicit copies in their millions, despite them being of generally poor quality. Today, however, there is one less source for these so-called ‘cams’.

According to the Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT), a UK-based man in his thirties was arrested before the weekend on suspicion of recording Hollywood movies in cinemas and then uploading the copies to the Internet.

The 33-year-old, from Nottingham in the East Midlands, was tracked down following a joint investigation carried out by the Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT) and the Government Agency Intelligence Network (GAIN).

FACT reports that it supported officers from both the East Midlands GAIN Disruption Team and EMOpSS during the execution of search warrants in the Hinkley area last Friday. Items including laptops were taken away for examination.

A man was arrested on suspicion of recording American Ultra and Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials on the days they were released and then uploading that footage to the Internet. He was questioned and later bailed pending further inquiries.

“Over 90% of counterfeit versions of movies originate initially from a copy recorded in a cinema. Piracy not only costs the film industry millions of pounds but can also affect thousands of jobs, so it is crucial we act upon intelligence we receive about this activity,” says Kieron Sharp, Director General of the Federation Against Copyright Theft.

“With two big releases due to hit the screens in the next few months it is incredibly important we work to combat those behind illegal film recordings. We thank the East Midlands GAIN Disruption team for their support in this investigation.”

Earlier this year a leaked report shone light on FACT’s anti-camming activities in the UK. One of the slides references offenses taking in place in Leicester although its unclear whether they relate to Friday’s arrest.

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

 French music streaming service Deezer has filed for IPO on the Paris-based stock exchange Euronext. Planned to take place at the end of the year, the company isn’t disclosing how much it hopes to raise or its expected valuation. Read More

France's data protection regulator has rejected Google's appeal to a May order compelling the search giant to expand Europe's "right to be forgotten" ruling to every one of its websites worldwide, including Google.com. Google has been complying with requests to remove search results only within the version of its search engine accessible within the country from which the request came, such as google.fr for France. Google now faces both fines as well as the possibility of seeing the case kicked to the broader European level. Lawmakers could then establish a broader scope of the controversial privacy concept that lets European citizens ask Google to remove unfavorable search results.

France’s Commission Nationale de l’Informatique et des...

Continue reading…

Dropbox is launching a team feature that aims to make its file hosting service a better tool for workplace collaboration, the company announced Monday. Existing Dropbox users will soon see a "team" tab on the left-hand menu list that will let you organize groups of employees and share files with those sets of users in a central hub.

Dropbox is also making it easier to separate your personal files from your work ones after the company discovered that around 60 percent of both basic and pro users access Dropbox for work. "Most people, if you look at their data, they put everything in one account," said Pranav Piyush, a Dropbox product manager, in an interview.

The end result, Piyush added, is a situation where many users' personal files...

Continue reading…

Apple has removed malware-infected apps from the App Store after acknowledging its first sustained security breach. The malware, known as XcodeGhost, worked its way into several apps by convincing developers to use a modified version of Xcode, the software used to create iOS and Mac software.

"We've removed the apps from the App Store that we know have been created with this counterfeit software," Apple spokesperson Christine Monaghan told Reuters. "We are working with the developers to make sure they're using the proper version of Xcode to rebuild their apps."

Continue reading…

Here Are All The Winners At The 2015 Emmys

There’s a theory among anti-piracy organizations that if unauthorized sites like The Pirate Bay can be separated from their finances they’ll eventually become a burden to their operators and close down.

This “follow the money” approach is gaining momentum worldwide and is largely centered on the companies financing pirate sites with their advertising spend.

Last week Sweden became the latest country to launch an initiative designed to stop ads appearing on torrent, streaming and other related sites. A partnership between anti-piracy outfit Rights Alliance and advertising association Swedish Advertisers, the partnership has clear aims.

“The aim of the project is to raise awareness, so that advertisers/brands don´t end up on the wrong sites and also to try to stop money from legal companies flowing to illegal sites,” Sara Lindbäck from Rights Alliance informs TorrentFreak.

To that end, Swedish Advertisers have come up with a set of recommendations designed to keep ads away from unlicensed sites. They include observing good ethics, avoiding advertising contracts that include bulk sales, and considering where ads are ultimately placed, beyond simply targeting a specific audience at a certain price.

According to the advertising association the initiative has been well received. As a result they’ve publicly announced the first batch of sites to be added to their fledgling ‘pirate blacklist’, a boycott which will be observed by around 600 advertisers.

“The recommendations have become very popular so now we are taking this a step further by naming movie sites where serious advertisers’ brands certainly should not be seen,” says Anders Ericson, CEO of Swedish Advertisers.

Topping the list in terms of popularity is The Pirate Bay, the Swedish born torrent site that simply refuses to die. Nine others currently being named are Dreamfilmhd.org, Sweflix.to, Swefilmer.ws, Swefilm.tv, Swesub.tv, Laddanerfilmer.com, Svenskafilmer.nu, Undertexter.se and film365.se.

“There has been an evolvement over time where the illegal sites are getting more and more commercial and getting substantial amounts from advertisements,” Lindbäck says.

“For example in the Swefilmer case where 13 million SEK ($1.57m) has been traced through the advertisement broker/platforms.”

The majority of the sites present on the blacklist do indeed contain large amounts of advertising, sometimes to the point where they become somewhat irritating to use. Nevertheless, that doesn’t stop big brands from advertising on them.

Dreamfilmhd, for example, carries advertising for Bet365 and Coral, two well-known gambling companies regularly featured on other pirate sites.

Interestingly, another ‘offender’ is Sky Bet. This gambling outfit is owned by British Sky Broadcasting, a massive media company whose parent is 21st Century Fox. Their somewhat hypocritical popup ad is shown below.

In order to suffer the full onslaught of advertisers, TF fired up an unprotected browser and deliberately clicked around on the sites in question to see what kind of ads we could discover. Major advertisers already seem few and far between but there is work to be done.

Largely though it’s a miserable user experience, with popups, popunders, ads for scammy fake download sites, plus get-rich-quick schemes regularly bombarding the senses. As schemes like this one in Sweden and others around the world really begin to bite, expect more of the same.

Pirate sites will almost certainly be able to find advertisers willing to put hands in pockets but as times get tough, the quality of those ads is likely to deteriorate even further still. With that, user experience will also decline. Will pirates put up with the junk? Time will tell.

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

Windows 10 comes with a few new keyboard shortcuts to take advantage of new features like the virtual desktop and the action center. Here’s a handy table of shortcuts you might not know about yet.

Microsoft offers a downloadable Word doc of these shortcuts, but I’ve also copied them as images for you below. You’re probably familiar with some of these from previous versions of Windows, but even still I found this a good refresher and reference guide.

Shortcut keys for Windows 10 | Microsoft

Impulsive shopping can wreck your budget faster than you can say “They’re putting up Christmas decorations already?” If you want to recalibrate how you see shopping, ask yourself one simple question. What if you could never buy anything again?

Part of the reason we often have such a problem with overspending is because we assume we can. Why get clothes that last if you can buy new ones later? A new phone’s coming out? Better upgrade! As personal finance blog Money After Graduation explains, though, simply asking yourself what you’d do if you could never buy anything again can help change how you think of shopping:

This is powerful mind exercise. Think about it: if you could never buy anything ever again, how much would you value what you currently have? How carefully would you treat your possessions? Would you be happy, or would you waste time pining over things you could never get your hands on? These questions took me out of my own head. I’ve been guilty for as long as I can remember of working to afford certain objects and status symbols, of playing that game of “I won’t need anything once I get XYZ” — a list that got progressively longer the more I learned was there to want. But now I tell myself that I’m already at my destination, that I already have acquired everything I’ve ever wanted.

Obviously, the literal-minded will have to make some mental adjustments (if you stop buying food, you’ll die). But rethinking how you spend your disposable income can be key to changing your habits. Maybe you’ll lust after that new laptop less if you think you need to make your current one last. The hardest thing for your budget to survive is your desire to buy more stuff.

Shopping Ban Update: Day 60 | Money After Graduation via Rockstar Finance

Photo by Retinafunk.

• Update 1: 2015/09/18 4:05am PDT
  It was pointed out to us that Android One was technically available in Europe since May, when General Mobile launched its first device in Turkey. The same phone later came

Google's Android One initiative aims to bring low-cost, high-quality Android phones to the hands of those who are not able to afford a more premium device. While they are not known for having the fastest processors or the most gorgeous screens, they do come with the promise of a Nexus-like experience of stock Android and fast updates — sometimes even beating Nexus devices at their own game.

Read More

Google Expanding Android One To Portugal And Spain was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

It looks like September will bring a host of improvements to Google's Chromecast. In addition to upgraded hardware, the search giant is reportedly adding Spotify support to Chromecast, according to documents seen by 9to5Google. Spotify support is likely to be announced at Google's event on September 29th, where it's also rumored to be announcing a second-generation Chromecast dongle, and two new Nexus phones.

Chromecast can already stream music from a number of sources, including Google Play Music, Pandora, Rdio, and Plex. Spotify was the largest of the streaming music services missing from that list, but the expected announcement should make Google's Chromecast dongle a more enticing option for home streaming — particularly if the new...

Continue reading…

If everything goes according to plan for the BBC, millions of Americans could be paying to watch exclusive TV series and movies as soon as next year. The British broadcasting giant is working on its own Netflix-style subscription service, one that's ostensibly more like HBO Now and other network-specific offerings than multi-network smorgasbords like Netflix and Hulu.

Of course, some BBC shows like Sherlock and Doctor Who are already available to American viewers through licensing deals with networks; others still are available on the same streaming services the BBC is seeking to emulate. Those shows won't be available as part of this service, at least not right away. But there are many others that have never aired in the US in any...

Continue reading…

Some major changes for the YouTube Android app appear to be coming down the pipeline. Several readers have reached out to us with screenshots and video documenting substantial tweaks they noticed when firing up the app.

The starkest difference can be found when you're browsing through a list of videos, whether it's the Videos tab that appears when you're viewing a YouTube channel or the History feed showing everything you've watched.

Read More

Google Appears To Be Testing Major Interface Changes In The YouTube Android App That Affect How You Browse And View Videos was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

It's official. Amazon is ready to sell you a tablet for just $50. Not only that, it will let you order six of them together for $250. The Internet retailer is making the task of filling a home with tablets as affordable as bringing home a Wii U.

We first caught wind of this device earlier this month, and they appear to pack better hardware than the junk Android tablets we're accustomed to from no-name brands.

Read More

Amazon Announces Its New $50 Fire Tablet (With $250 6-Pack Option), The $100 Kids Edition, The Fire HD 8, And The Fire HD 10—Its Largest Tablet Yet was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Amazon tablets are going the way of the e-reader.

One of the new tablets from the e-commerce giant is a 7-inch tablet — simply called the Fire tablet — that costs $50. That's right: for a cool Ulysses, a new Amazon Fire tablet can be yours.

In fact, Amazon is so convinced of this inexpensive Fire tablet's role as a utility that it's offering it in a six-pack. Buy five, and you'll get the sixth tablet free. Who's the cool dude rolling up to the party with a six-pack of tablets, or the person playing Santa Claus at the next holiday gathering? You with the $50 tablet, that's who.

Continue reading…