While this could be considered a “major win” for the music industry, I think it becomes a scary reminder of what the Internet has become. It used to be that we could access whatever site we wanted, naturally at our own risk and discretion, but court orders like this are indicative of what we may have to expect moving forward.

We make our jokes about the Great Firewall of China, but it’s not just China where sites are being blocked. Among the ISPs in the UK forced to block The Pirate Bay are Sky, O2, Virgin Media, TalkTalk, and–ironically enough–Everything Everwhere. They may have to change their names to Some of the Stuff in Select Locations.

Of course, there are ways to circumvent this block, like using proxies, but that’s up to you.

[Source]

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The next generation Xbox (Xbox 720 maybe) codenamed Durango is expected to be an impressive gaming console. The latest rumors suggest that the machine is going to be a powerhouse, but will also be a big blow to the used games market.

According to VG247, Microsoft is planning to release the Xbox 360 successor during Christmas 2013, which is also rumored to be the launch timing for the PlayStation 4/Orbis, and the new console will feature either four or six core processors. It will also boast two GPUs that will be as fast as “two PCs taped together” and a built-in Kinect sensor.

The new rumor also suggests that the Durango will arrive with a Blu-ray drive. We are a bit doubtful about that info as we heard a lot of reports earlier that suggested the company was thinking about moving its content delivery to digital download only.

But what will be the most alarming info for many is that the Durango will require an internet connection at all times while it is being used. That move is most probably for combating used game sales. A mandatory internet connection could mean that there will be a requirement to authenticate discs and lock them to user accounts, and this would restrict the resale of games; if there are any discs that is.

But, of course, none of this should be taken without a pinch of salt. Do let us know whether you will be interested in the new Xbox if it comes with the above said features, and stay tuned for updates.

[ Source ]

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Looks like there’s more than one group that wants to set up the pirate Internet. The Pirate Bay has been constantly bombarded with all kinds of legal battles surrounding the sharing of copyright material, so it looks like they’re going to circumvent the problem by sending some GPS-controlled drones over international waters and hosting part of the site there.

Sound crazy? Yeah, a little, but it starts to make a lot of sense if you stop to think about it. By hovering portions of the site over international waters and having the ability to move these drones around, it’s a heck of a lot harder for authorities to take down these “pirates” for good. The plans aren’t concrete yet, but they are working on “sending out some small drones that will float some kilometers up in the air.”

They’ll still need to rely on land-based data centers for a lot of the heavy lifting, but according to The Pirate Bay’s blog, the “Low Orbit Server Stations (LOSS) are just the first attempt. With modern radio transmitters we can get over 100Mbps per node up to 50km away. For the proxy system we’re building, that’s more than enough.”

Puts a whole new meaning to “going to the cloud,” don’t you think?  So what’s stopping the US Government or even Warner Bros. from building weaponized anti-pirate drone fighters?

[Source]

The post Harr Harr, Airbone Drones Over International Waters Says The Pirate Bay appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

So much for all the black outs and all! It appears like they can do whatever they want without passing any new legistlation. The feds have brought the curtain down on Megaupload, one of the most popular “locker services” on the Internet. No, you haven’t missed anything; SOPA and PIPA are yet to be passed.

Calling it one of the largest criminal copyright cases ever brought by the United States, the FBI and the Justice Department seized the website and have taken seven Megaupload employees into custody accusing them of running an international enterprise based on Internet piracy.

According to the federal indictment, the website is responsible for a loss of over $500 million in media revenue.

The site’s founder Kim “Dotcom” Schlitz has been arrested in New Zealand. But no hints about what’s going to happen to the website’s CEO rap producer Swizz Beatz who seems to be not too worried about the matter probably because he is still a successful rap producer, an NYU professor, and most importantly Alicia Keys’ husband.

And it’s only been a day after internet’s big protests over the proposed antipiracy bills. The authorities didn’t need any new powers to bring down the giant website. And how big it is, you ask? According to the Department of Justice, the website boasted “more than 150 million registered users, 50 million daily visitors and accounting for four percent of the total traffic on the Internet“.

See below if you want to take a peek at the full indictment.
Mega Indictment

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The project is called the Hackerspace Global Grid and the goal is to launch an independent satellite into space. This is meant to “support unrestricted channels on the Internet” and will provide a connection to a series of independent ground stations. The net result is a “network of nodes completely independent from the Internet itself.” No censorship. No rules. No restrictions.

Naturally, the group is going to face more than its fair share of challenges. It has to build the infrastructure of terrestrial nodes, design and build the satellite itself, and then hitch a ride on someone else’s rocket so that they can get the pirate satellite into low-Earth orbit. That’s expensive and complicated, but once achieved, the possibilities are endless.  Think, unrestricted satellite telephones, VoIP and even cellular communications.

The project was pitched at the Chaos Communications Congress in Berlin, a hacker conference hosted by the German Chaos Computer Club. Keep up with their progress on the official HGG wiki.

The post Hackers To Build Pirate Internet With Pirate Satellites appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Apparently, if Nintendo is able to detect that a 3DS is using “equipment which is illegal or unapproved by Nintendo,” it’s going to send out a system update that makes the system non-bootable. Similarly, if they detect that you “do customisation which is unapproved by Nintendo,” the company might do the same.

We all know this has to do with the flash cartridges where people load up their downloaded ROMs and play commercial games for free (illegally). Considering that we’ve seen Xbox 360s banned from Xbox Live and Wii firmware updates that kill previously functional mods, the porbable gamer really is no exception.

In this way, I don’t think it’s a “kill switch,” in the strictest sense. Instead, it sounds like it’s more of the same with mod-killing firware updates. Not surprisingly, Nintendo says that it can “not discuss product security details.”

[Euro Gamer]

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