Новости за 21.03.2016

The American Petroleum Institute (API), a group that represents the oil industry, apparently releases a fee-based report on oil prices, which is released to paying subscribers a week before the US government releases "official" data. For obvious reasons, this information is fairly valuable to traders, who are more than willing to pay the monthly fee to get early access to some crucial information on the price of oil. Apparently, last week, some people then took that data, and tweeted about it... leading API to issue DMCA takedown notices... Читать дальше...

Any time anyone routes around Hollywood's windowed food chain -- theatrical release, delay, video release, delay, VOD, longer delay, pay TV, even longer delay (or never), on-demand streaming -- studios and theaters get bent out of shape. This terrible system makes major studios and theaters happiest (and their own worst enemies), even though it's apparent a large percentage of the public would rather enjoy films on their own terms.

Along with the complaints about the reshuffling of The Schedule come the inevitable cries of "PIRACY!

One of the points that seems to be widely misunderstood by people who don't spend much time in computer security worlds, is that building secure encryption systems is really hard and almost everything has some sort of vulnerability somewhere. This is why it's a constant struggle by security researchers, cryptographers and security engineers to continually poke holes in encryption, and try to fix up and patch systems. It's also why the demand for backdoors is idiotic, because they probably already exist in some format. Читать дальше...

Charge your Apple products in style with the HoverDock for Apple Watch or for the iPhone. The HoverDock showcases a sleek design that helps to minimize cord tangles. The rubber bottom will keep the charging dock in place on your desk or nightstand. Your watch or phone are displayed for easy reading of incoming messages and notifications. Each HoverDock is available in the Techdirt Deals Store for $27.95.

Note: The Techdirt Deals Store is powered and curated by StackCommerce. A portion of... Читать дальше...

Support our crowdfunding campaign to help us keep covering stories like these! Over the weekend, the NY Times ran a big article providing a bunch of details about the Paris attacks from last year, now that the lone surviving member of those attacks has been captured in Belgium. The article is mostly based on a 55-page report put together by French antiterrorism police and given to France's Interior Minister. Someone apparently gave the report to the NY Times as well. And it does includes some interesting background info... Читать дальше...

When we last we checked in with Naruto the monkey, he was suffering a humiliating loss in a California courtroom. It was enough that it probably wiped this smile right off Naruto's face: Aw, who are we kidding? The monkey has no clue about any of this. It's a monkey! The case is really about a giant publicity stunt by PETA, which is pretending to represent the monkey and claiming that a monkey taking a selfie can get a copyright. Incredibly, PETA hired a big time, previously well-respected law firm by the name of Irell & Manella... Читать дальше...

Well, this isn't necessarily a huge surprise, but Friday afternoon a Florida jury sided with Hulk Hogan in his lawsuit against Gawker, awarding him a fairly astounding $115 million (he had asked for $100 million) for posting a short clip of a Hogan sex tape along with an article about it. We hadn't written about this case recently, as it was getting tons of press coverage elsewhere -- but when we discussed it three years ago, when a Florida court first issued an injunction against Gawker, we noted the serious First Amendment issues here. Читать дальше...

The unintended but entirely predictable consequences from the UK's disastrous Counter-Terrorism and Security Act keep on a-coming. You will recall that this handy piece of legislation tasked teachers with weeding out possible future-terrorists amongst the young folks they are supposed to be teaching. This has devolved instead into teachers reporting children, usually children that would be peripherally identified as Muslim children, to the authorities for what aren't so much as transgressions as they are kids being kids. Читать дальше...