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Over the past several years hundreds of thousands of Internet subscribers have been sued in the United States for allegedly sharing copyrighted material, mostly films, online.

This year the people behind the Oscar-winning movie Dallas Buyers Club joined the game. Thus far the filmmakers have filed 66 lawsuits across the United States, targeting more than a thousand alleged downloaders.

In common with all other mass-BitTorrent lawsuits the end game is not a full trial, but the revelation of the alleged downloaders’ identities so they can be encouraged to settle. To accomplish this the movie studio asks courts to grant subpoenas ordering associated ISPs to give up their customers’ details.

Several courts have complied and recently the first settlement letters arrived in the mailboxes of account holders whose Internet connections were used to share the film.

Interestingly, not all alleged downloaders are treated the same. A settlement letter sent to a Texan Internet subscriber offers a complete settlement for $3,500, while an Ohioan in the same position was asked to pay $5,000.

The second offer was also presented in a more intimidating form, with a threat to raise the amount to $7,000 if the recipient doesn’t pay in time.

While $5,000 may sound high for sharing a single movie, the letter says that this is a reasonable request and that various courts have issued much higher damages awards in the past.

“Considering the large expense it incurs to enforce its rights, and further that some cases have awarded as much as $22,500 per infringed work, Dallas Buyers Club, LLC feels that asking for Five Thousand Dollars ($5000.00) to settle is very reasonable,” the letter reads.

One of the most often heard comments is that the person who pays for Internet access is not necessarily the infringer in these cases. The movie studio realizes this, but adds that this person is indeed responsible, an argument various courts have refuted in the past.

“Dallas Buyers Club, LLC has absolutely no interest or desire in making an innocent person pay; but it does have clear evidence to establish that your internet account was used to copy and distribute the file. Therefore, if it was not you, then it was someone that (sic) you gave the right to use your account,” the letter reads.

Dallas Buyers Club, LLC does offer letter recipients a chance to move out of the firing line if they reveal in a sworn affidavit who the real pirate is, but it’s unlikely that many subscribers will take up this offer.

Finally, the filmmakers address the “copyright troll” label handed to them by some news outlets. The company states that this label doesn’t apply, as they haven’t bought the copyrights just to sue alleged downloaders.

“No. We are not what many refer to as ‘copyright trolls’,” the letter explains, adding that their right to protect their copyrights are ignored and belittled by some Internet critics.

“Many internet blogs commenting on this and related cases ignore the rights of copyright owners to sue for infringement, and inappropriately belittle efforts of copyright owners to seek injunctions and damages,” they write.

These efforts to distance themselves from the troll label and critics seems a bit misplaced. Based on a very narrow definition of copyright troll they may have a point. But as DTD points out, by addressing the issue in their letter they only direct people to look into the phenomenon, which in settlement terms may result in the opposite of what they want to achieve.

Nevertheless, a large percentage of the people who receive a settlement letter are expected to pay up. With over a thousand defendants thus far the potential income from these lawsuits runs into the millions of dollars.

And as the dollars continue to roll in, it will be rinse and repeat for as long as the copyright protection efforts are profitable.

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

They are among us. [x]

These days, ambitious new skyscrapers are blanketed in a cloud of "green" buzzwords. Wind turbines! Hydrogen fuel cells! Insect farms! (Yes, insect farms.) Then there's Phoenix Towers, which has all of the above and more and looks like this. Let's call it what it is: a greenwashed dick-measuring contest.

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(Pro tip: Turn down the volume a bit as the guy in the car’s commentary is pretty loud irritating.)

Rush Hour in The Big T. Buckle UP.

From Boing Boing.

Japanese-based company Cup Noodle made a commercial called 'Samurai in Brazil.' Cup Noodle wants to..(Read...)

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Amazon's much-rumored and eagerly awaited smartphone will be exclusively carried by AT&T when it launches.

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For those of you that actually have a television set that can show it (and haven't seen the show), Netflix has announced that Breaking Bad is now available in 4K format. In a blog post, Netflix notes that Netflix and Sony agreed on an early subset of IMF for the transfer of the video and audio files for Breaking Bad. "We'll start small, but get bigger and bigger," says the company in regards to their 4K catalog. Netflix expects 4K to take around five years to hit mainstream adoption. The company has previously stated users will need at least 15 Mbps, though would "be fine" with a 50 Mbps line.

Breaking Bad now streaming in Ultra HD 4K everywhere @netflix is available!

Joris Evers (@jorisevers) June 16, 2014

Remember a few years ago when Blu-ray battled HD-DVD in the high-def DVD format war? Sony and Blu-ray ultimately won out, but there was a time when the electronics giant wasn't as successful in getting its way.

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After your coffee's picked, what happens next? [Photo: Ryan Brown / Tonx on Flickr]

One of the most charming aspects of any in-depth relationship with coffee is getting to know the beverage's nuances from country of origin to country of origin. But as romantic as it sounds to credit a coffee's terroir with its final flavor, how the coffee itself is processed after harvest accounts for a great deal of what you taste in the cup. We've already highlighted some countries in these pages with unique ways of processing coffee, like Sumatra, but what are some other methods of coffee processing that are closely tied to their countries of origin, that makes coffee from these countries likely to be different and special?

Read on for a glimpse into more of the world behind the scenes of your daily brew.

Ethiopia

Natural process coffee in Ethiopia [Photo: Counter Culture Coffee on Flickr]

Ethiopian coffee has both a highly esteemed and divisive reputation. Those that undergo "natural" or "dry processing"—that is, they're set out to dry right after harvest with the coffee fruit and mucilage (that sticky layer just under the skin) still on the bean—are well known for their deeply sweet and fruity, full-bodied characteristics, reminiscent of a deep blueberry flavor. Once dried, the fruit and mucilage are then removed from around the coffee seed all at once.

The arguments against naturally processed coffees are that the process itself can carry with it a risk of overfermentation and negative impact on the bean itself, but in Ethiopia, where techniques like this have been in practice for longer than anywhere else, the results are likely to be delicious ones. "I think the reason natural coffees from Ethiopia are so good is that the coffee's so good already," said Gabe Boscana of Paramo Coffee in San Francisco. "They don't have a lot of rain, which is why naturals are really successful in Ethiopia. There's a lot of dry, steady, not super-hot heat&emdash;it's a temperate climate which I think helps them develop fairly clean naturals without a kind of ferment."

Kenya

[Photo: Dallis Bros. Coffee on Flickr]

Coffee plants thrive in Kenya's sunny weather, and the dry climate also benefits its method of coffee processing. The flavorful coffees that originate in this country are often known for their acidity, juiciness, and complex red fruit flavors. Kenyan coffees are also traditionally known for what's called a "clean cup," which is a shorter way of expressing that a coffee has delicacy and defined flavors, without hint of ferment, funkiness, or the earthy notes that can come from defects or processing.

Why's this the case? Kenyan coffees are washed—a post-harvest process that takes place in many countries, but Kenya's coffee washing stations, or "coffee factories" as they are called there, are by and large cooperatively owned, allowing for tremendous consistency and a shared interest in quality.

Kenyan coffees are first de-pulped to remove the fruit from around the bean, then are fermented and washed—sometimes in more than one cycle of both—and soaked in water. The beans are then dried and rested on specially built raised beds. The result? Highly expressive, balanced, and often intensely citric and fruity flavors considered to represent some of the most realized potential in coffee production.

Costa Rica

[Photo: Dallis Bros. Coffee on Flickr]

We've just compared countries who excel at natural processing and washed processing of coffee. Is it possible there's a happy medium somewhere in between? Costa Rica's unique "honey process" attempts to hit this mark.

Whereas in a washed coffee, where both fruit and mucilage are removed from the bean before it is fully dried, honey process—also called "pulp natural" and "semi-washed"—removes the skin of the fruit, but leaves some of the mucilage on the bean. The coffee is then set on patios or beds to dry with the mucilage still on, absorbing the naturally occurring sugars from the fruity mucilage—a sweetness you'll quickly testify to in the finished cup.

Depending on the technological abilities of an individual coffee mill, producers may even be able to attenuate the amount of mucilage left on the bean, which allows further control over the ultimate flavor. It can be risky, however—all those sticky beans can clump together, and drying them requires great care to rotate and monitor as a producer waits for the coffee to completely dry.

Honey process is a newer mode of handling coffee that's gained popularity in Brazil, Panama, and many other countries—but Costa Rica may be the country that's run the farthest with this ball. The Central American nation has different color-coded categories for how much mucilage is left on in the process, and have truly popularized the method to great success. "Once you roast it, it's precaramelized," says Boscana, a veteran coffee roaster. "When you throw it in the machine, you get this heavy sweetness that's coming from the sugars that dried around the coffee bean."

Brazil

Patio drying in Brazil [Photo: Liz Clayton]

In Brazil, you'll find natural processed coffees as well as washed. But newer technology sets this country's coffee processing apart. The Brazilian coffee industry benefits (some might say) from the country's affluence in terms of producers' ability to mechanize stages of the process, and experiment with different technological solutions. Mechanical picking machines do the labor formerly performed by humans at some Brazilian farms, stripping coffee trees of varying levels of ripe cherries to be sorted out later by other machines. Some of these machines are more basic, sorting out overly mature coffee beans by floating them in water, and discarding too-firm underripe beans. Yet further machines can sort by color, removing labor intensive hand-sorting from the quality control process.

What does all this mean to the coffee drinker? Hopefully, lower prices on coffees (be they natural, honey, or washed processed) with the classic Brazilian characteristics of sweet, chocolatey, balanced soft flavors, often used as low notes in espresso blends.