piracy
Playstation 3 ‘Hacked’ By iPhone Jailbreaker?
January 28, 2010
The Sony Playstation 3 has finally been ‘hacked’. The man claiming to have found his way into the PS3 is George Hotz (or Geohot) who was the first person to hack into Apple’s iPhone.
But people have been questioning whether or not the PS3 has actually been ‘hacked’ as the CELL processor which is the power behind the PS3 is meant to have impenetrable internal decryption algorithms.
So firstly there is the question whether the PS3 has been hacked at all?
Continue reading »Pub Landlord Fined £8000 For Customer’s Pirate Download On Wi-Fi
November 30, 2009
One of the great things about Wi-Fi networks is that they are dead easy to set up, and thus let people easily access the Internet when they’re out and about – and that is why thousands of restaurants, pubs, fast food outlets and cafés (such as Starbucks) across the country are jumping onto the Wi-Fi bandwagon. But some may be feeling a little less confident about their decision thanks to this recent news.
The managing director of ‘The Cloud’ which is a company that provides wireless hotspots for the aforementioned establishments has said that over the summer a pub owner has been fined £8,000 because one of the people using his Wi-Fi illegally downloaded copyrighted material.
The owner of the rights to the material (the identity of which is not known) took the pub owner (the identity of which is also unknown) to court, and the result was this fine which presumably aims to persuade others to take stricter measures.
Microsoft Bans ‘Chipped Xbox 360 Pirates’ From Xbox Live
November 14, 2009
As millions of people across the globe eagerly got started on probably the biggest game this year; COD6: Modern Warfare 2, some for in for a nasty surprise as they discovered that they were on the raw end of Microsoft’s plan to help curb the increasing amount of piracy: they had been banned from Xbox Live, permanently.
The crime? Installing new chips that allows them to run unofficial or illegal programmes and games, and easily pirate games and download them for free. According to Microsoft this modifying of the console with the express interest to play games illegally is an infringement of the terms of use of Xbox Live and have therefore banned them from the service.
A spokesman for the company said: “All consumers should know that piracy is illegal and that modifying their Xbox 360 console to play pirated discs violates the Xbox Live terms of use, will void their warranty and result in a ban from Xbox Live”.
Continue reading »Pirate Bay Sale Opens New Chapter In Saga Or Ends It?
July 8, 2009
Yes the Pirate Bay Four are back again, everybody’s favourite copyright-hating illegal-download-endorsing quartet is back to your Zath page as the story (that surely will be made into a film, or at least a book) continues to rumble on – but even we didn’t really see this twist coming: The Pirate Bay has been sold.
With a price tag of around £4.7 million it didn’t come cheap, but the Swedish software firm ‘Global Gaming Factory X’ who made their money through a series of internet cafés and gaming venues hope to develop the business model (I’ll come back to this later) to one that will be not only profitable, but legal.
Continue reading »YouTube Upload Limits Increased
July 3, 2009
You don’t need me to tell you how big YouTube is – and with millions of hours worth of videos being uploaded every day it’s only getting bigger, and with the relatively recent introduction of high definition (HD) videos the file sizes are also following the trend of increasing in side.
So all those of you out there that like to use your HD recording ability and sharing it with the world will be glad to know that YouTube have decided to increase their upload limit allowing people to upload up to 2GB worth of video (doubling the previous 1GB maximum figure).
Continue reading »‘The Video Bay’ Is Released As Trial Drags On
June 29, 2009
Over the last few months we have followed trial of the “Pirate Bay Four” and seen how, although they did ultimately find them guilty, it has brought shame on the Swedish judicial system after a series of claims questioning the neutrality of the judges amid the already lengthy and convoluted trial.
As such it is unsurprising that (as we predicted) the story is back again, and with a few more variables just for good measure. Of course this has a lot to do with the fact that it is in the interest of the Pirate Bay founders to keep the story on the agenda, and I’m sure the timing of “The Video Bay” release (which I will cover later) is not coincidental.
Continue reading »The Pirate Bay Fiasco Continues…
May 26, 2009
So they were taken to caught and tried, then eventually the Pirate Bay Four were convicted in a case continues to cause controversy and raise some serious questions about the quality of the Swedish system as more and more problems are found.
As was predicted by pretty much everyone (and promised by Peter Sunde [one of the four] ) they launched an appeal against the combined four year and £2.5 million fine, and one of the principle points raised during this questioned the bias of the judge who administrated the sentence.
Continue reading »Facebook – Pirate Language Added!
April 28, 2009
Did you know that Facebook has an English (Pirate) language option within the standard settings? I certainly didn’t and don’t know how long it’s been there (probably ages), but have just seen it mentioned on Twitter by Jamie Harrop and had to give it a try.
All you need to do is scroll down to the bottom of any Facebook page and click on the link which say English (UK) or whatever current language you’re using, a popup window appears with a selection of standard languages, except one of the options is for English (Pirate) – you then simply select this and when you’re returned to your Facebook pages, you’ll see that most of your Facebook interface has now become Pirate-ised and ye will be talking like a pirate in no time!
Continue reading »Pirate Bay Four Found Guilty!
April 18, 2009
A decision on the landmark case against the people behind the most prolific file-sharing website on the web has finally been made, and it is one that has surprised many and been welcomed by thousands of artists across the globe – and it is one that sees all four of them sentenced to a year in jail and ordered to pay £2.5 million between them in damages.
The four men – Frederik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Carl Lundstrom and Peter Sunde Kolmisoppi – have been found guilty of breaking copyright law in Sweden where the website was founded, but despite this have promised that The Pirate Bay will still continue to operate through the numerous computers across the world.
Continue reading »Going Straight: A Solution To Internet Piracy? – Part 3
March 3, 2009
All right then, let’s get this over with. I’ve said a lot of bad things about Apple, but that’s because they deserve it. I’m not out to make enemies here, but as Robin Williams said “if you were right, I would agree with you”. In my opinion, Apple are a horrid, holier-than-thou, “also-ran” green-eyed-monster in the computing world. They know it too, and it’s evident in everything they do.
Although this short-falling doesn’t extend in to their rich-media offerings, the same paranoid, insular philosophy does. Quick to judge, slow to change. It’s amazing they’ve survived, but look at what they’re up against. Music Match Jukebox? What a pile of arse-biscuit that was. Why Sony isn’t king of on-line music and video is still a total mystery to me.
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