Hasta La Gadget!

Last week, France’s Commission Nationale de L’informatique et des Libertes, more commonly known as the CNIL, hit Google with a fine over a long-brewing spat concerning privacy laws and the … Continue reading

intWhen AT&T announced their Sponsored Data program, many were wondering how it might affect net neutrality. In fact the FCC announced that they would be keeping a close eye on the carrier and respond if they were found to be in violation, but as it turns out that might not longer be happening as the federal appeals court has basically told the FCC that they do not have the power to police internet service providers to treat all traffic equally. Basically what this means is that for AT&T’s Sponsored Data program, the carrier will be able to allow the data being sponsored by companies to pass through faster, thus providing users with faster downloads of videos and files, but can also block other services when not in use, as long as they tell their subscribers about it.

This does sound “unfair” since it would mean that those who can afford it, are able to get access to better/faster internet speeds compared to the average user. Judge David Tatel admitted that there could be some negative consequences at striking down net neutrality, which he states, “The commission has adequately supported and explained its conclusion that absent rules such as those set forth in the Open Internet Order, broadband providers represent a threat to internet openness and could act in ways that would ultimately inhibit the speed and extent of future broadband deployment.” The FCC has vowed to continue to fight for net neutrality, although given that they have just lost the case, we’re not sure how they plan on doing so.

Federal Court Strikes Down FCC’s Net Neutrality Rules original content from Ubergizmo.

This morning a court has struck down the FCC’s ability to enforce certain key “Net Neutrality Rules” on companies that would favor certain kinds of web traffic over others. That’s … Continue reading

Nobody likes it when someone answers a phone call in a movie, especially when the offender does not have the courtesy of turning their cellphones off or putting it to silent. Even more distracting is when you’re trying to watch a movie but the person next to you or in front of you is constantly texting, with the glare from the phone affecting your overall movie experience, but the right thing to do is to tell the other person to stop, or get the cinema’s manager to step it, not to take justice into your own hands. Unfortunately that is exactly what happened in Miami when a man was shot to death over texting on his phone during a movie.

According to the reports, the man was using his phone during the previews which annoyed a retired police officer sitting behind him. Despite being asked to stop, the man continued, claiming he was texting his 3 year old daughter. Finally the man had enough and went out to fetch the manager but was unable to find them, and that’s when the argument escalated to the point where popcorn was thrown (it was unclear who threw it first) followed by a loud bang which came from the gun of the retired police officer who shot the other man dead. The gunman has since been charged with second-degree murder. What do you guys make of this? Was this a little too much? What would have been a better solution if you were in his place?

Man Shot To Death For Texting In The Cinema original content from Ubergizmo.

Despite the best efforts of music labels and movie studios, fighting piracy online has proven to be an uphill battle. As soon as one site is taken down, another few more spring up in its place, almost as if the masses are eager to fill in the empty spot. Well it looks like Warner Bros. are looking to help beef up their anti-piracy team by looking for an IT expert to help them combat online piracy. According to the job listing posted by the company, they are seeking an individual to join their Content Protection and Analytics department, whose objective is to protect Warner Bros. intellectual property in film, TV, and games, and with a “primary focus on internet piracy in all of its forms”.

As it stands, Warner Bros. has sent about 1.9 million takedown requests to Google, although a good portion of it was sent by third party vendors as Warner Bros. simply does not have the time or resources to police the entire internet by themselves. No content with just taking down content, the position also calls for the individual to be skilled enough to develop solutions that are able to bypass link encryption, captchas, and FLASH. As TorrentFreak suggests, a good candidate for this position would be a former pirate themselves as they would know the tricks of the trade, although whether Warner Bros. would be more interested in hiring such an individual versus prosecuting them is another question. What do you guys think? Should Warner Bros. instead focus their efforts on finding a way to deter piracy rather than just fighting it head on?

Warner Bros. Looking To Step Up Anti-Piracy Efforts original content from Ubergizmo.