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Audio/Video

Flaw in home security cameras exposes live feeds

posted onFebruary 8, 2012
by l33tdawg

A security flaw in web-connected home security cameras made by Trendnet, which distributes in Australia, is allowing internet users to spy on the private video feeds of thousands.

Trendnet, a US company, issued an update to fix the flaw on February 6 but it requires owners of the cameras to take action, which has led to some speculating that many will not install the fix unless they are made aware of the flaws.

"We're just like YouTube," Megaupload lawyer tells Ars

posted onJanuary 25, 2012
by l33tdawg

Megaupload's US attorney, Ira Rothken, has a succinct description of the US government case against his client: "wrong on the facts and wrong on the law."

The week has been a busy one for Rothken, a San Francisco Internet law attorney who has previously represented sites like isoHunt and video game studios like Pandemic. When I call, he's eating crab cakes and waiting for yet another meeting to start, but he has plenty of time to attack the government's handling of the Megaupload case.

Why the video pros are moving away from Apple

posted onJanuary 16, 2012
by l33tdawg

Six months after the launch of Final Cut Pro X (FCPX), Apple's major overhaul to its professional video editing software Final Cut Pro, video pros find themselves increasingly looking at other software options. The new version of Final Cut Pro was controversial—there were significant changes to the Final Cut interface, a plethora of editing features were taken away, and worst of all, Final Cut Pro X was rendered unable to import projects from previous versions of the software.

Magic Lantern announces free HDR video firmware for Canon DSLRs

posted onDecember 22, 2011
by l33tdawg

Those cheeky gear hackers at the Magic Lantern team have announced a very interesting upgrade to their custom Canon firmware mod. As of tomorrow, owners of 550D, 600D and 60D DSLR cameras will be able to use a very cool new tool to shoot video in HDR, meaning that you can capture scenes where the lights would normally be too bright and the shadows too dark to get a workable exposure level. Check out the demo video after the jump.

Did French President Sarkozy download pirated movies, music?

posted onDecember 16, 2011
by l33tdawg

Someone in the home of French President Nicholas Sarkozy, a strong proponent of anti-piracy legislation, has been using BitTorrent to download pirated versions of music and movies, according to a French blog.

An associate of the Nikopik Web site found IP addresses allocated to the Elysee Palace, Sarkozy's residence, on YouHaveDownloaded.com, a Russian-based site that tracks public downloads from BitTorrent.

$200 kit smashes Intel's HD video encryption

posted onNovember 25, 2011
by l33tdawg

German boffins have pulled off a successful attack on HDCP copy protection – using cheap hardware and a lot of clever coding.

Intel's HDCP (high-bandwidth digital content protection) allows the encrypted transfer of high definition video signals via DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort and other connectors and between TVs and Blue-ray discs or set-top boxes. The HDCP master key was leaked last year but there was no easy way to exploit this.

It's official: America a land of young, casual pirates

posted onNovember 16, 2011
by l33tdawg

A major new survey of American attitudes to online copyright infringement has found that 70 percent of all 18 to 29-year-olds have pirated music, TV shows, or movies. But almost no Americans are hardcore grog-swillers, and two-thirds of those who do acquire copyrighted material without permission also acquire content legally.