Fox’s 8-Day Delay on Hulu Triggers Piracy Surge

It’s been a week since Fox stopped offering free access to its TV-shows the day after they air on television. The TV-studio took this drastic step in the hope of getting more people to watch their shows live and thus make more revenue. TV-viewers, however, are outraged by the decision and have massively turned to pirated sources to watch their favorite shows.

One of the main motivations for people to download and stream TV-shows from unauthorized sources is availability. If fans can’t get a show through legal channels they turn to pirated alternatives.

TorrentFreak

Anime Subtitle FAILs - When Fan Subtitles Go Horribly Wrong

Forkparty

Verizon sucks at Photoshop: confuses the Droid X for an iPhone

Engadget

Stupid California Police Warn Parents of Pedobear, the 'Pedophile Mascot'

The San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's Department is warning parents about a disturbing new phenomenon made popular by pedophiles and sexual deviants.

The Pedo Bear began as an online Japanese cartoon character, and is known for his "lecherous nature" towards prepubescent children.

Recently, pedophiles have adopted the bear as a mascot.

Although there have been no reported sightings of the image on the Central Coast, individuals dressed in the bear costume and car decals have been seen in Southern California.

Valleywag

WWE Star -- Victim in Lady Gaga Concert Scam

JTG -- a self-professed Gaga fanatic -- tells TMZ, he went on Craigslist.com and successfully tracked down and purchased two $125 tickets to Lady G's sold out Wednesday night show in L.A. But when he showed up to the Staples Center, the ticket lady refused to accept them ... because they were fake.

Now JTG is on the rampage, desperately trying to track down the scumbag who swindled him -- but first, he wants to make sure the bad guy gets the respect he deserves.

The wrestler tells TMZ, "Game recognize game, so I gotta respect his hustle. But when I catch him, I hope he can respect my Brooklyn-style beatdown."

JTG says he's been power dialing the Craigslist con artist ever since ... but it keeps going straight to voicemail.

TMZ

Woman's nude photos exposed by tech support

Best Ever Cease And Desist

The very special but also very real letter is from the National Pork Board, who claims we're infringing on the slogan "The Other White Meat," a slogan they're apparently thinking about phasing out anyways.

ThinkGeek

Woman Sues Google for Bad Directions

Rosenberg, a Los Angeles California native, is suing Google because Google Maps issued directions that told her to walk down a rural highway. She started walking down the highway--which had no sidewalk or pedestrian paths--and was struck by a car. She is suing Google for her medical expenses ($100,000), as well as punitive damages. She is also suing the driver who struck her, Patrick Harwood of Park City, Utah.

On January 19, 2010, Rosenberg was apparently trying to get from 96 Daly Street, Park City, Utah, to 1710 Prospector Avenue, Park City, Utah. She looked up the walking directions using Google Maps on her Blackberry. Google Maps suggested a route that included a half-mile walk down "Deer Valley Drive," which is also known as "Utah State Route 224."

There's not much more to say--she started walking down the middle of a highway, and a car hit her. Who wouldn't have seen that one coming?

PCWorld

Did Warner Bros. Pirate Antipiracy Technology?

Fri May 21, 2010 @ 01:52PM PST

By Eriq Gardner

Warner Bros. has been sued for stealing an antipiracy technology patent.

The claim comes from a German company called Medien Patent Verwaltung. According to new infringement lawsuits filed against Warners, Technicolor and Deluxe in New York and Germany, MPV says that in 2003, it introduced the studio to a method of marking films with a distinctive code so it could track back sources of piracy to the exact theater in which an unauthorized copy originated. MPV says it has been trying to get Warners to pay for use of the technology since it allegedly began incorporating the invention in prints throughout Europe in 2004.

“We disclosed our anti-piracy technology to Warner Bros. in 2003 at their request, under strict confidentiality, expecting to be treated fairly," MPV says in a statement. "Instead, they started using our technology extensively without our permission and without any accounting to us. However, we had taken care to obtain patents to protect MPV's technology, and we are now in a position where we must assert our rights.”

Warner Bros. declines to comment on the dispute. But we've discovered that MPV made a little mistake in its New York lawsuit.

The patent that MPV cites in its complaint is 7,187,633, entitled "Motion Picture and Anti-Piracy Coding."

But our search of the patent records reveals that patent number has another title: "Marking of a Data Medium Material for Information Intended for Reproduction." There is another patent entitled "Motion Picture and Anti-Piracy Coding." The assignee? You guessed it: Warner Bros.

Did the Germans accidentally steal the title of Warners' own patent when suing the studio for stealing?

The answer appears to be yes. Reached for comment, New York attorney Richard Garbarini, representing the plaintiffs, admits the error and says he will file an amended complaint.

In the meantime, there's still the larger issue of whether a major studio stole technology to help it prevent people from stealing its movies.

The Hollywood Reporter

Cops: Burglar logs into MySpace on store computer

KENNEWICK, Wash. – A burglar who spent about five hours on a store's computer after breaking into the business gave police all the clues they needed to track him down. Investigators said the 17-year-old logged into his MySpace account while at Bella Office Furniture and that made it easy for them to find him. He also spent time looking at pornography and trying to sell stolen items, all while using the business' computer.

He was arrested Tuesday and charged with first degree burglary. Kennewick Police said he helped officers recover a cell phone stolen in the break-in.

Yahoo!

Ubisoft DRM authentification server is down, Assassin's Creed 2 unplayable

According to numerous reports from prospective players of the game, Ubisoft's DRM authentification servers have crashed, forcing some players to suffer lengthy login periods when booting up Assassin's Creed 2, and locking some folks out of the game entirely.

Joystiq