In his Newsnight interview, Abu Nusaybah said he thought “a change” had taken place in his friend after his detention by security forces on a trip to Kenya last year. … Read More
Teen girl admits to Instagram ‘slut-shaming’
A 15-year-old girl has admitted to setting up the Instagram account that caused hundreds of teenagers to riot in Gothenburg last year, but her 16-year-old friend has denied involvement. … Read More
Even The Brits’ BBC Think Benghazi Is Actually A Big Deal
The other day, during the hearings before the House Oversight Committee on Benghazi, I watched my Twitter feed (something I rarely do), in order to keep up posts on the page where our live feed was conducted. … Read More
Ohio women found alive a decade after disappearance
Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight had been held at the home of Ariel Castro, 52, who has lived in that residence since 1992. Aurora Marti, a 75-year-old resident who lived across the street from the house in which the three women had been held, noticed one of the women as she yelled for help.“She was waving her arm and saying, ‘Help me! Help me!’” Marti told the Cleveland Plain Dealer.Another neighbor, Charles Ramsey, also heard one of the kidnapped victim’s cries for help, and knocked down the home’s door, allowing Berry to escape. Ramsey then phoned 911 to report the incident, but the dispatcher did not believe the story.According to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, police records show Ariel Castro was arrested for domestic violence in 1993, but never indicted. He was arrested by police at a nearby McDonald’s after fleeing his home.The three women all disappeared within a few years of each other. Amanda Berry had last been seen on April 21, 2003, one day prior to her 17th birthday. Gina DeJesus, 14 at the time, vanished on April 2, 2004 and Michelle Knight, then 21, was last seen on August 23, 2002.Family members said they hadn’t given up hope of seeing Berry and DeJesus again. Among them was Kayla Rogers, a childhood friend of DeJesus.”I’ve been praying, never forgot about her, ever,” Rogers told The Plain Dealer. “This is amazing. This is a celebration. I’m so happy. I just want to see her walk out of those doors so I can hug her.”In January, prison inmate Robert Wolford was sentenced to 4 1/2 years after admitting he provided a false burial tip in Berry’s disappearance. Only last summer, Wolford tipped authorities to look for Berry’s remains in a Cleveland lot. He was taken to that location, which was dug up with backhoes, but no remains were found.Prior to that, two men were arrested for questioning in the 2004 disappearance of DeJesus, but were released after a thorough police search and use of a cadaver dog did not turn up her body.Neighbors and local relatives of the suspect found news of the three women’s reappearance shocking.Julio Castro said that his nephew Ariel used to play bass in various bands that performed at a local club, once owned by DeJesus’ uncle.Meanwhile, a June 2004 story that appeared in a local neighborhood newspaper written by someone named Ariel Castro, which described the community’s anxiety since the disappearance of DeJesus and Berry has been the subject of speculation, though it remains unclear whether it had been written by the suspect. … Read More
Boston bomber friend released on bail
A 19-year-old friend of accused Boston bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was ordered free on $100,000 bail Monday as he awaits trial for allegedly lying to investigators probing the attack. Robel Phillipos, whose family emigrated from Ethiopia, was placed under house arrest, where he will be under the…
US Ambassador Pleads: Stop Pirating Game of Thrones, It’s Stealing
There can be little doubt that Game of Thrones has turned out to be somewhat of an epic. The show has millions of fans all over the world but of course, not all of them have been paying for the experience.
In fact, Game of Thrones has become the most-pirated show and ever since that news broke people have been weighing in on the debate.
Show director David Petrarca said shows like Game of Thrones thrive on “cultural buzz” and piracy, he suggested, helps to move that along. HBO programming president Michael Lombardo and actor Rose Leslie, who plays Ygritte in the show, both described piracy as a “compliment“.
Now, a senior figure in authority (with the most grand title thus far) has thrown his opinion into the mix. Speaking in support of this week’s 17th annual UN World Book and Copyright Day, Jeffrey L. Bleich is the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to Australia. The longtime friend of Barack Obama is unhappy at what has transpired.
“The file-sharing news website TorrentFreak estimated that Game of Thrones was the most-pirated TV series of 2012. One episode was illegally downloaded about 4,280,000 times through public BitTorrent trackers in 2012, which is about equal to the number of that episode’s broadcast viewers. In other words, about half of that episode’s viewers stole the program from HBO,” said the diplomat.
“As the Ambassador here in Australia, it was especially troubling to find out that Australian fans were some of the worst offenders with among the highest piracy rates of Game of Thrones in the world. While some people here used to claim that they used pirate sites only because of a delay in getting new episodes here, the show is now available from legitimate sources within hours of its broadcast in the United States,” he said.
Of course, good things often come from piracy. In response to the download controversy, HBO said it would try to air Game of Thrones more quickly in Australia in order to remove one of the prime reasons for people obtaining the show through unauthorized channels.
But, said the Ambassador, airing delays and other complaints are no excuse for theft.
“I realize that fans of Game of Thrones who have used illegal file-sharing sites have reasons. They will say it was much easier to access through these sites, or that they got frustrated by the delay in the first season, or their parents wouldn’t pay for a subscription, or they will complain about some other issue with copyright laws. But none of those reasons is an excuse – stealing is stealing,” he said.
Imploring fans to boycott “big businesses that make money by encouraging consumers to illegally upload material”, Ambassador Bleich asked people to imagine a scenario in which everyone downloaded Game of Thrones for free, season 3 was never made, and the show was off the air.
But Bleich’s comments weren’t well received by fans on Facebook who were less than sympathetic.
“You are an uninformed idiot, Bleich,” said one. “Why not tell HBO to allow people to subscribe to their online service around the world without having to pay for cable TV AND HBO just to get HBO Go?”
“Most of the commercial sites where we could actually watch stuff for free (that the U.S has access to) blocks our [IP addresses],” said another. “Content is always delivered later on our TV and rarely are shows like this delivered to free-to-air. We welcome U.S film makers etc to start treating us with some respect, not say ‘You can watch what everyone else has when WE say so’.”
In fact, digging through the dozens of comments one is hard pushed to find any that are sympathetic to the Ambassador’s plea. That being said, the vast majority aren’t boasting about getting something for free either. Instead one reads complaint after complaint from people wanting to buy a product but are being underserved by HBO.
We’ve often commented that piracy is a market signal, but it’s definitely worth saying again.
Source: US Ambassador Pleads: Stop Pirating Game of Thrones, It’s Stealing
Tamerlan Tsarnaev and Radical Religious Fundamentalism
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