Oakfairy

I’ve written about my run-ins with Copytrack, a scam organization that extorts money from website owners by hitting them with false copyright infringement complaints for images from stock photo libraries.

I have an intellectual property attorney, the wonderful Leonard Duboff of the Duboff Law Group, who I recommend without hesitation to anyone in need of an IP attorney; he’s awesome.

When I first received a demand email from Copytrack, I knew instantly it was a scam; they were complaining about an image that I licensed from Depositphotos, with whom I have a subscription. I informed them I was represented by counsel, gave them my lawyer’s contact information, told them I would not be acknowledging any additional complaints that did not come through my attorney from a lawyer who was a member of the Oregon Bar Association and licensed to practice law in the state of Oregon, and assumed that would be the end of the matter.

David Attenborough voice: “That was not, in fact, the end of the matter.”

Copytrack continued to bombard me with fake copyright claims, in violation of Oregon RPC 4.2, which forbids opposing counsel from contacting anyone represented by an attorney.

Copytrack is clearly, egregiously, grossly, and repeatedly in violation of Oregon RPC 4.2, so I have shifted track.

I sent them a notification that as they were in violation of RPC 4.2, for each individual email they sent me, I would invoice them the sum of $1,800 US.

They emailed me again. I sent them an invoice for $1,800.

This morning, I woke to an email from a Copytrack lawyer telling me he didn’t think they should have to pay me in order to contact me.

I reminded him once again that I am represented by counsel, that by contacting me directly he was in violation of Oregon RPC 4.2, and…

…sent him another invoice for an additional $1,800.

For the record, I’m not joking. It is absolutely my intent to collect on these invoices, using all available avenues to the full extent of the law. If these fuckers think they can scam people out of money with fraudulent copyright requests, I intend to give them a nose full of bees.

The post The Copytrack saga continues appeared first on Franklin Veaux's Journal.

Handledsenhetspionjären Pebble återuppstod förra våren efter nio års dvala. Nu har Pebble presenterat en ny version av klockan Round med det passande namnet Round 2. Första modellen lanserades på Kickstarter år 2012.

Specialiteten med Pebble är intakt: e-pappersskärmar, lång batteritid och en annorlunda design. Pebble Round 2 erbjuder en bakbelyst 1,3-tums pekskärm (e-papper) med 64 färger, 260 x 260 pixlar, samt boett i rostfritt stål.

Utöver pekskärmen kan klockan styras genom fyra fysiska knappar. Klockan har en mikrofon, högtalare, vibrationsmotor och en vattentålig konstruktion. Mjukvaran kan hålla reda på steg och sömn och erbjuder över 10 000 olika urtavlor via Pebble Appstore.

Batteritiden är 10–14 dagar på en laddning. Armbanden har storlekarna 14 mm eller 20 mm och det finns fyra olika färger för klockan att välja mellan. Priset ligger på 199 dollar. Pebble Round 2 ska börja levereras i maj enligt hemsidan.

News Avengers: Doomsday

Steve Rogers Will Be Daddy in Avengers: Doomsday

You can see him yourself in the Avengers: Doomsday trailer if you get to your screening of Avatar: Fire and Ash a bit early…

By Vanessa Armstrong

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Published on December 18, 2025

Photo: Walt Disney Studios
Motion Pictures

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Photo: Walt Disney Studios
Motion Pictures

He’s baaaack. No, I’m not talking about James Cameron and his latest film, Avatar: Fire and Ash. I’m talking about the teaser before that film for Avengers: Doomsday, which reveals that a certain someone will be returning to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

That someone is none other than the first Captain America, Steve Rogers, played once again by Chris Evans. When we last saw Steve, he abandoned all those he knew and loved in our present day to live in the past with Peggy Carter. The teaser, according to Variety, shows Steve riding a motorcycle up to his home on a farm (because of course he lives on a farm). He stops, admires his helmet, which looks not unlike Cap’s helmet, and also admires a baby that, we assume, is his and Peggy’s. The Avengers theme is played on a piano over all of this, and the clip ends with a countdown timer to the premiere date of Avengers: Doomsday, which is just under a year away.

The teaser is reportedly just one of several that Marvel will be releasing in the upcoming weeks, with each one focused on a different character. For this one with Steve Rogers, the questions are many: Where and when is this farm, including what timeline in the multiverse? Where is Peggy? Where is this baby in our present time, assuming this teaser is a flashback? Is this the Steve Rogers we know from previous films, or is this another Steve Rogers from the aforementioned multiverse? And what is time, really?

The answers to these are still elusive, but we have 364 days to mull over them: Avengers: Doomsday premieres in theaters on December 18, 2026.

*Note: Since this article originally ran, the Steve Rogers trailer has been officially uploaded. Here it is in all its relative glory. [end-mark]

The post Steve Rogers Will Be Daddy in <i>Avengers: Doomsday</i> appeared first on Reactor.

Pirataktivister påstås ha tagit 86 miljoner musikfiler från Spotify genom dataskrapning, samt laddat hem metadata för 99,9 procent av alla spår på tjänsten. Innehållet distribueras genom en cirka 300 TB stor torrent som ska innehålla nästan all av musiken på Spotify som folk faktiskt lyssnar på.

Personerna som ligger bakom dataskrapningen säger sig ha genomfört piratkopieringen av princip och övertygelse. I inlägget – med rubriken ”Säkerhetskopiering av Spotify” – kallas torrenten för världens första helt öppna digitala bevarandearkiv för musik, vilket kan speglas av alla som har tillräckligt med diskutrymme.

En talesperson för Spotify säger till Billboard att illasinnade konton som begått olaglig dataskrapning har identifierats och inaktiverats. Spotify ska ha implementerat nya skydd för ”den här typen av anti-upphovsrättsattacker”.

Spotify has identified and disabled the nefarious user accounts that engaged in unlawful scraping. We’ve implemented new safeguards for these types of anti-copyright attacks and are actively monitoring for suspicious behavior. Since day one, we have stood with the artist community against piracy, and we are actively working with our industry partners to protect creators and defend their rights.

Artikeln har uppdaterats

Nederländska Fairphone har idag introducerat de trådlösa over-ear-hörlurarna Fairbuds XL. Precis som för Fairphones övriga produkter ligger fokus på miljötänk och hållbarhet. Konstruktionen består i hög grad av återvunnet material och är enkel att reparera, tack vare en modulär design. Det ska gå att plocka isär hörlurarna på bara några minuter med en vanlig skruvmejsel.

Fairphone utlovar tre års garanti. Batteriet är utbytbart och ska ha kvar minst 80 procent av sin kapacitet efter 500 kompletta laddningscykler (att småladda då och då är inte en full cykel). Att ladda batteriet från tom nivå till 50 procent tar en kvart.

Med aktiv brusreducering igång är batteritiden upp till 26 timmar och 30 timmar med ANC avstängt. Som vanligt går det att släppa in externt ljud om så önskas, för att exempelvis kunna prata med folk i omgivningen utan att behöva ta av sig hörlurarna.

Fairbuds XL erbjuder vidare 40 mm dynamiska högtalarelement, ett frekvensomfång på 20 Hz – 20 kHz, sex mikrofoner, IP54-klassning, samt stöd för kodekarna SBC, AAC och Aptx HD. Anslutning sker via Bluetooth 5.1, men det går även att lyssna via USB-C-kabel. Enligt Fairphone är hörlurarna kompatibla med Google-assistenten (som snart försvinner), Alexa och Siri. Allt väger 330 gram.

Hörlurarna kan vikas in så de tar mindre plats och enklare kan packas. Ett resefodral ingår. Priset ligger på 249 euro när Fairbuds XL beställs från tillverkarens webb.

Google-flödet har börjat låta AI göra absurda omskrivningar av artikelrubriker. Många av de ändrade rubrikerna är inte bara dåliga utan direkt missvisande eller felaktiga, likt att ”Qi2 slöar ned äldre Pixlar”.

Utöver att de reviderade rubrikerna ibland varit rena galenskaper vill personerna som har skrivit de ursprungliga rubrikerna sannolikt inte att de ska ändras godtyckligt överhuvudtaget. Gränssnittet poängterar inte att rubriken är ändrad av AI, så läsare riskerar att tro att källan ligger bakom blundern.

I en kommentar till The Verge säger Google att det handlar om ett ”experiment” för att göra ämnen enklare att ”smälta”. Google har tagit sig friheter med den öppna webben senaste året, inte minst genom AI-svaren som anses ha kraftigt minskat trafiken till hemsidor.

I våras genomförde svenska studenter en studie för att undersöka hur pass svårt det är att upptäcka AI-genererade röster. Enligt en studie av Ipsos i samarbete med Deezer har vi även svårt att avgöra om musik är AI-genererad eller inte.

Studien genomfördes med 9000 deltagare i åtta länder. Deltagarna lyssnade på tre låtar och behövde därefter avgöra om musiken var helt AI-genererad eller inte. Hela 97 procent av deltagarna misslyckades. Värt att påpeka är att många förmodligen inte visste vad som är möjligt med dagens AI-verktyg, vilket kan ha påverkat resultatet.

Av de som deltog ansåg 80 procent att AI-genererad musik ska etiketteras på strömningstjänster, så att det tydligt framgår att musiken är skapad av AI. Det finns en ”artist” på Spotify med helt AI-genererad musik som i skrivande stund har 2,7 miljoner lyssnare globalt. Spotify berättar inte att musiken är skapad av AI.

AI har varit särskilt kontroversiellt inom kreativa yrken och konst. Kritiken är främst tredelad. Dels anser kritikerna att AI riskerar att ersätta kreativa, stimulerande yrken som folk älskar. Gällande just musik tar AI-genererade artister royalties från riktiga artister, på grund av hur utbetalningarna fungerar. En annan del av kritiken är att AI-modellerna baseras på artisters och konstnärers arbete – ofta utan ersättning.

Den tredje stora kategorin av kritik är mer filosofisk: kan en maskin överhuvudtaget förmedla riktiga känslor och erfarenheter och skapa konst, eller är det bara en sorglig och själlös imitation av vad människor redan har skapat?

Som tidigare rapporterats kommer de svenska 3G-näten stängas ned i år. Fler mobiler än väntat har drabbats av omställningen, eftersom vissa telefoner inte längre kommer kunna ringa 112 trots att de har 4G-modem.

Att de drabbade mobilerna inte längre kan hantera nödsamtal ska bero på att de saknar VoLTE Emergency – de kan inte ringa 112 över 4G. Post- och telestyrelsen anser att 2G-näten inte är en tillräckligt säker backup och har därför beordrat operatörer att blockera mobiler som inte kan ringa 112 över 4G.

Enligt SVT kommer tiotusentals mobiler i Sverige snart bli obrukbara. Operatörer ska ha meddelat berörda kunder. Känner du någon som blivit drabbad eller har du drabbats själv och behövt uppgradera?

News Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Chloé Zhao Recreated an Iconic Prop From One of Her Favorite Buffy Episodes and Gave it To Sarah Michelle Gellar

Zhao also shares some thoughts about her preferred Buffy love interests.

By Matthew Byrd

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Published on November 26, 2025

Screenshot: 20th Century Fox

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Screenshot: 20th Century Fox

The crew behind the Buffy the Vampire Slayer revival (reportedly titled Buffy the Vampire Slayer: New Sunnydale), have been doing an excellent job of keeping the show’s most important details a secret. Every now and then, though, one of the members of the revival can’t help but say a little something about the highly-anticipated series. This time around, it was showrunner Chloé Zhao who shared a small (but absolutely adorable) story from the shoot.

In an interview with Lauren Veneziani that was posted to Instagram, Zhao revealed that one her favorite Buffy episodes is Season 3’s “The Prom.” It’s the episode that ends with Jonathan giving a passionate speech in which he becomes one of the few Sunnydale High students to acknowledge and appreciate what Buffy does for everyone on a regular basis. Buffy then receives the “Class Protector” award: a kind of parasol affixed to a golden base. The award has come to symbolize one of the sweetest and most powerful moments in the series. Yet, Zhao says she learned that Sarah Michelle Gellar never kept the Class Protector award prop from that episode. So, she hatched a plan.

“On the day of the wrap, we made a replica of that [award] and then I memorized the speech,” Zhao says. “So, I went up there to say, ‘Some of us didn’t know you,’ you know there’s that speech… I did the whole thing. And then we presented her with the [Class Protector award]. It was amazing. Some of the crew members were like, ‘What’s happening?’ But the ones that know the speech… I had such a good time doing that.”

There is sadly no media of the recreated prop available at the moment, though we’ll hopefully get a peek of that soon now that Zhao has shared the story. And while that prop will (likely) not make an appearance in the revival, it’s always fascinating to hear Zhao reminisce about Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Those memories not only solidify her super fan status but offer a window into her thoughts about the series that perhaps reveal little things about what we can expect from the show.

So far as that goes, Zhao also took he time to talk about her favorite Buffy love interests and give a little respect to one of the slayer’s more “boring” beaus.

“In my 40s, I appreciate Riley more,” Zhao says of the one that got away (in a military helicopter). “When I was younger I thought he was kind of boring and I preferred Spike. Now, I’m like ‘maybe a little less Spike and a little more Riley.’”

But don’t worry fans and friends. Zhao admits that Buffy and Angel had the best chemistry despite him being a “runner.” [end-mark]

The post Chloé Zhao Recreated an Iconic Prop From One of Her Favorite <i>Buffy</i> Episodes and Gave it To Sarah Michelle Gellar appeared first on Reactor.

News House of the Dragon

House of the Dragon and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Aren’t Ending Any Time Soon

Both Game of Thrones spinoffs have been renewed for another season

By Molly Templeton

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Published on November 20, 2025

Credit: Theo Whiteman/HBO

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Credit: Theo Whiteman/HBO

We are all in Westeros until further notice. HBO announced today that House of the Dragon, the first Game of Thrones spinoff, has been renewed for a fourth season. The third season isn’t expected until next summer, so this is a very early renewal for the tale of the Greens and Blacks and dragons and murders.

But that’s not all! Months before the series premiere, HBO has also already renewed A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms for a second season. As Variety points out, “The second season is slated for 2027, meaning Thrones fans will have new dispatches out of Westeros every year through 2028.”

Francesca Orsi, the head of HBO’s drama series and films, said, “Together, House of the Dragon and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms reveal just how expansive and richly imagined George R. R. Martin’s universe continues to be. In January, I think audiences will be delighted by the inspiring underdog tale of Dunk and Egg that George and [showrunner] Ira Parker have captured so beautifully. And this summer, House of the Dragon is set to ignite once again with some of its most epic battles yet.”

Get it? Set to ignite? Because there are dragons? I’ll see myself out.

In 2022, in a blog post full of praise for House of the Dragon’s first season, George R.R. Martin wrote, “It is going to take four full seasons of 10 episodes each to do justice to the Dance of the Dragons, from start to finish.” There is no indication in HBO’s announcement as to whether or not the fourth House of the Dragon (or “HOT D,” as Martin referred to it in the same post) season will be the show’s final season. But there is certainly precedent for HBO taking a series past the end of Martin’s writing.

The Dance of the Dragons continues at some unannounced date next summer. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, which explores the tales of Dunk and Egg, a knight and his squire, premieres on January 18th. [end-mark]

The post <i>House of the Dragon</i> and <i>A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms</i> Aren’t Ending Any Time Soon appeared first on Reactor.