License | KitGuru https://www.kitguru.net KitGuru.net - Tech News | Hardware News | Hardware Reviews | IOS | Mobile | Gaming | Graphics Cards Fri, 07 Apr 2023 11:33:06 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 https://www.kitguru.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/cropped-KITGURU-Light-Background-SQUARE2-32x32.png License | KitGuru https://www.kitguru.net 32 32 Remedy comments on Quantum Break license issues https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/matthew-wilson/remedy-comments-on-quantum-break-license-issues/ https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/matthew-wilson/remedy-comments-on-quantum-break-license-issues/#respond Fri, 07 Apr 2023 10:30:35 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=610595 Quantum Break has officially been delisted from Xbox Game Pass, as well as all digital storefronts the game was available on. Microsoft commented on the situation earlier this week, confirming licensing issues at play. Now, Remedy has also released its own statement on the situation.  A Microsoft spokesperson confirmed earlier in the week that Quantum …

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Quantum Break has officially been delisted from Xbox Game Pass, as well as all digital storefronts the game was available on. Microsoft commented on the situation earlier this week, confirming licensing issues at play. Now, Remedy has also released its own statement on the situation. 

A Microsoft spokesperson confirmed earlier in the week that Quantum Break was leaving Game Pass due to licensing issues. At the time, we thought that the game would only be removed from Game Pass, but it has also been pulled from digital stores. If you already owned the game, you can still download it and play, but if you don't own the game, there is currently no way to buy it digitally.

In its own statement on the matter, Remedy said that Quantum Break “will be coming back”, adding that it is being “temporarily removed due to some licenses that expired that were in the process of being renewed”. It would seem that Remedy and Microsoft were already aware that this date was coming and had already proactively begun working towards addressing it.

We still don't know how long Quantum Break will be unavailable for, but it should return in a few months time. Alan Wake was also temporarily removed from sale a few years ago due to licensing issues, which were resolved after several months.

KitGuru Says: Quantum Break may end up benefiting from its recent return to headlines. The game had essentially been forgotten over the last few years, but now, there may be some people interested in trying it out when it returns. 

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Gaming rights for The Lord of the Rings IP to be auctioned off this week https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/matthew-wilson/gaming-rights-for-the-lord-of-the-rings-ip-to-be-auctioned-off-this-week/ https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/matthew-wilson/gaming-rights-for-the-lord-of-the-rings-ip-to-be-auctioned-off-this-week/#respond Thu, 10 Feb 2022 15:53:28 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=549948 The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings are two of the biggest fantasy IP in the world, garnering millions of fans across books, movies and games. It has been a while since the last major Triple A video game based on LOTR, but we should get more games in the years to come, as …

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The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings are two of the biggest fantasy IP in the world, garnering millions of fans across books, movies and games. It has been a while since the last major Triple A video game based on LOTR, but we should get more games in the years to come, as the gaming rights are about to be auctioned off. 

As reported by Variety, Saul Zentz Co is selling its stake in all things Tolkien and as a result, IP rights are being auctioned off for movies and gaming. Auctions are reportedly scheduled to begin this week and certain properties could fetch up to $2 billion USD.

Amazon is said to be a “prime candidate” to obtain rights, so we could potentially be heading towards a future where Amazon Prime Video is the new home for Lord of the Rings. Amazon already has the TV rights and will be releasing a TV series in the coming months, so the company could look to add movies and games to that roster. However, given Amazon's recent struggles with video game development, it is also possible that they leave the gaming rights for another company to pick up.

There are currently two Lord of the Rings games that we know of in active development, the long-running MMO, The Lord of the Rings Online, as well as Daedalic Entertainment's Gollum.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: With auctions currently taking place, we should have an update on this later this month as gaming and media companies put their bids in. 

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Huawei promises continued updates following Android license dispute https://www.kitguru.net/lifestyle/mobile/matthew-wilson/huawei-promises-continued-updates-following-android-license-dispute/ https://www.kitguru.net/lifestyle/mobile/matthew-wilson/huawei-promises-continued-updates-following-android-license-dispute/#respond Mon, 20 May 2019 14:18:07 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=413236 Last night, it was officially revealed that Google has revoked the Android license from Huawei. This means that going forward, Huawei will be cut off from Google’s apps and services. Huawei has now put out its own statement, promising security updates and after-sales services for devices currently in circulation. Huawei and its subsidiary brand, Honor, …

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Last night, it was officially revealed that Google has revoked the Android license from Huawei. This means that going forward, Huawei will be cut off from Google’s apps and services. Huawei has now put out its own statement, promising security updates and after-sales services for devices currently in circulation.

Huawei and its subsidiary brand, Honor, already has plenty of phones still in stock globally, in addition to all of the still supported devices already owned by consumers. In an email sent to The Verge today, Huawei confirmed its support plans for customers moving forward, even without the full Android license.

“Huawei has made substantial contributions to the development and growth of Android around the world. As one of Android’s key global partners, we have worked closely with their open-source platform to develop an ecosystem that has benefitted both users and the industry. Huawei will continue to provide security updates and after-sales services to all existing Huawei and Honor smartphone and tablet products, covering those that have been sold and that are still in stock globally.”

Huawei then ends its statement saying that it will build a “safe and sustainable software ecosystem” for its customers globally. Huawei has apparently been preparing for this day by developing its own OS alternative to Android, which may end up making its debut on the next batch of smartphones.

KitGuru Says: Losing the Android license may just be the start of Huawei’s concerns. Apparently, the company may also be cut off from using Qualcomm and Intel chips in the future too, which would make matters worse.

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Adobe warns subscribers of potential legal action for using old versions of apps https://www.kitguru.net/channel/generaltech/matthew-wilson/adobe-warns-subscribers-of-potential-legal-action-for-using-old-versions-of-apps/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/generaltech/matthew-wilson/adobe-warns-subscribers-of-potential-legal-action-for-using-old-versions-of-apps/#respond Fri, 17 May 2019 10:51:34 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=413146 Nowadays, digital software purchases all come with legal terms and conditions specifying that you are buying a revocable license to a product, rather than ownership over an application. Usually, this is easily ignored as companies are unlikely to go after its paying customers. That is not the case for Adobe Creative Cloud subscribers though, who …

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Nowadays, digital software purchases all come with legal terms and conditions specifying that you are buying a revocable license to a product, rather than ownership over an application. Usually, this is easily ignored as companies are unlikely to go after its paying customers. That is not the case for Adobe Creative Cloud subscribers though, who have been warned of potential infringement claims for using discontinued versions of software.

Adobe switched over to the Creative Cloud subscription model back in 2013, delivering access to programs like Photoshop, Lightroom, Premiere and more for a convenient monthly fee. Unfortunately, we are now seeing the darker side of that change. Earlier this month, Adobe did announce that Creative Cloud subscribers would only be able to download the two most recent versions of its applications going forward. This was then followed by reports of users receiving emails stating that they no longer have a license to use older versions and could face third-party infringement claims.

We don’t know specifically why Adobe had to discontinue older versions of its applications, or why that would lead to ‘third-party infringement claims’ against paying subscribers. However, as Apple Insider points out, the issue could be tied to an ongoing copyright lawsuit from Dolby Labs.

Dolby filed its lawsuit against Adobe last year, claiming that the company sold audio-video creation and editing software using Dolby’s audio processing technologies between 2002 and 2017, all without accurately reporting its sales numbers and paying the agreed royalty fees for the Dolby license.

Adobe has not confirmed that this is the root cause of these recent issues, but it seems very likely. Whether or not Dolby would go after Adobe’s customers directly remains to be seen.

KitGuru Says: This is a disappointing and somewhat ugly situation, particularly if ordinary consumers get dragged into the mess. Do many of you actively subscribe to Creative Cloud at the moment? Did you receive one of these warning notices?

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Nearly 1000 games have been approved in China since the licence freeze https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/damien-cox/nearly-1000-games-have-been-approved-in-china-since-the-license-freeze/ https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/damien-cox/nearly-1000-games-have-been-approved-in-china-since-the-license-freeze/#respond Wed, 03 Apr 2019 09:13:29 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=408983 The State Administration of Press and Publications (SAPP) has continued its efforts to clear the backlog of video game approvals since China began handing out licences again last December, with its latest batch approving 97 new games. 30 of those titles were foreign IPs for the first time since the restart, pushing the total number …

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The State Administration of Press and Publications (SAPP) has continued its efforts to clear the backlog of video game approvals since China began handing out licences again last December, with its latest batch approving 97 new games. 30 of those titles were foreign IPs for the first time since the restart, pushing the total number of licences to 989 as of March 29.

Video game approvals were halted in China for nine months in March 2018, while regulators reformed the licensing process. The aim was to strengthen its stance against underage addiction, to ensure greater compliance with Chinese law and to keep a tighter grasp on the amount of games flooding the market each year.

Although it has been confirmed that the SAPP is approving games in the order that they were submitted, the entity declared that it would be prioritising domestic applications. Of the 959 games approved since the restart, Niko Partners states that a hefty 914 are mobile games, 40 are PC titles and just 5 are headed to consoles.

Foreign titles finally received some attention in the 12th and latest batch, with their official Chinese publishers being handed 30 licences, including Tencent’s Game of Thrones. Overall, this consists of 22 mobile titles, 5 PC games and 3 for consoles.

Strangely, powerhouses such as Fortnite and Call of Duty Mobile are still waiting for approval and might not even make China’s notoriously small foreign allocation for the year. Back in 2016, China approved just 227 international games, increasing the number to 467 in 2017. Approximately 55 foreign games managed to receive a licence before approvals were frozen at the start of last year.

The SAPP still has a huge amount of applications to work through however, meaning there’s plenty more headed to the country throughout 2019.

KitGuru Says: It’s good to see the regulator maintaining its quicker pace, considering developers and publishers have been suffering at the lack of intended revenue. Bigger companies like Epic Games and Activision can make do for the time being but this has been truly detrimental to smaller publications pushing the biggest market in the world.

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Lenovo is licensing Sony’s PlayStation VR patents to build its own headset https://www.kitguru.net/tech-news/featured-tech-news/matthew-wilson/lenovo-is-licensing-sonys-playstation-vr-patents-to-build-its-own-headset/ https://www.kitguru.net/tech-news/featured-tech-news/matthew-wilson/lenovo-is-licensing-sonys-playstation-vr-patents-to-build-its-own-headset/#respond Wed, 31 Oct 2018 10:08:59 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=393108 In the VR world, there are several companies that license patents from a few big players. The HTC VIVE is built using Valve's developed technology, meanwhile the Samsung GearVR is built in partnership with Oculus. Now, it looks like Sony is opening up to licensing out its own virtual reality patents, with Lenovo set to …

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In the VR world, there are several companies that license patents from a few big players. The HTC VIVE is built using Valve's developed technology, meanwhile the Samsung GearVR is built in partnership with Oculus. Now, it looks like Sony is opening up to licensing out its own virtual reality patents, with Lenovo set to be the first customer.

This week, it was announced that Sony has officially licensed its PlayStation VR design to Lenovo. With the license, Lenovo will be able to build its own VR headset based on the PSVR's comfortable design, which means the ergonomics and headband design will be identical.

While the Lenovo VR headset will carry some resemblance to the PlayStation VR, it will run on a completely different platform. In this case, the Lenovo Mirage Solo runs on Google's Daydream platform. As The Verge points out, The Lenovo Mirage Solo originally launched in May, carrying some of the same DNA as the PSVR headset. Sony likely applied legal pressure to get a license into place.

The Sony-Lenovo license will last two years, so we may see more headsets featuring a similar design, perhaps for the Windows Mixed Reality platform. Although a new headset would likely require an extension or renewal of this patent agreement.

KitGuru Says: As much as I enjoy the Oculus Rift, its headstrap is not great. HTC made strides in this area with the VIVE Deluxe strap but I'd still give the top spot to Sony's PSVR in terms of comfort. How many of you have used a VR headset so far? 

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Steam VR public licenses now include more commercial options https://www.kitguru.net/components/vr/jon-martindale/steam-vr-public-licenses-now-include-more-commercial-options/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/vr/jon-martindale/steam-vr-public-licenses-now-include-more-commercial-options/#comments Fri, 04 Nov 2016 12:14:19 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=310798 If you want to let members of the public try out Steam VR games and experiences using your hardware, you need Valve's free commercial license to do so. However that limits you to only a few pieces of software for people to play. To expand that further, you need paid for licenses, which Valve now …

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If you want to let members of the public try out Steam VR games and experiences using your hardware, you need Valve's free commercial license to do so. However that limits you to only a few pieces of software for people to play. To expand that further, you need paid for licenses, which Valve now offers new and expanded ones for several extra titles.

Valve's current list of freely licensed games and experiences is made up of: Chamber 19, Destinations, Portal Stories: VR, Protonwar, Tesla VR and The Lab. All of these come as part of Valve's Steam Site Licensing program. Now though, thanks to some cooperation from developers, you can pay for licenses to show off a number of other popular titles too.

audioshieldgmae

Even if the timing isn't always perfect, Audioshield is still great fun

These include games like Audioshield, Cloudlands: VR Minigolf, Job Simulator, Space Pirate Trainer and Unseen Diplomacy. Individual licenses for these games will cost varied amounts depending on the game and developer, so to find them out you'll need a general license and to head to the relevant store page. For a full list of games though, you can read it on the Steam updated page here.

This should mean that moving forward we'll see some new games being demonstrated at trade shows, rather than just the same typical ones that have made appearances at shows gone past.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: If you haven't had much of a chance to play with VR yet, are there any particular games you'd like to see licensed for public use, so you can have a play?

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Too legit to quit: CS GO betting site seeks gambling license https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/too-legit-to-quit-cs-go-betting-site-seeks-gambling-license/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/too-legit-to-quit-cs-go-betting-site-seeks-gambling-license/#comments Wed, 03 Aug 2016 07:52:40 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=301435 One of the world's largest Counter Strike: Global Offensive betting sites, CSGO Lounge, has announced that it is applying for an official gambling license, in order to legitimise itself. This comes after it received a cease and desist letter from Valve, as well as a lot of negative attention from the gaming community. CS:GO betting …

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One of the world's largest Counter Strike: Global Offensive betting sites, CSGO Lounge, has announced that it is applying for an official gambling license, in order to legitimise itself. This comes after it received a cease and desist letter from Valve, as well as a lot of negative attention from the gaming community.

CS:GO betting sites have been a seedy underbelly of the gaming world for some time now, but they were pulled into the light recently when it was discovered that several of the most prominent, were being promoted by Youtubers, who held stakes in the sites' and their finances.

Many considered this doubly despicable because a lot of the Youtuber's embroiled in the scandal had young audiences, suggesting that they were promoting gambling to children, in order to make money from them. Since then Twitch has banned streams of gambling on the sites and Valve has sent out cease and desist letters to many of the site owners.

csgolounge

Considering how popular the site is, those ads suggest it is at least partially about earning money. 

Hence why CS:GO Lounge is now trying to become legitimate. It said in a statement on the site:

“From the very beginning, the lounge service was intended as an entertainment service for the esports community of Dota2 and CS:GO, and we have never considered it as a real money betting,” it reads.

“The situation is highly confusing – we are not offering games of luck, we are not offering any transactions with real money or equivalents. Despite those facts, in order to avoid or reduce the confusion, we have decided to acquire a license to legally operate in most of the countries and be able to accept the esports bets by our community, as if it would be real money.”

Moving forward it would look to ban people from ‘gambling' on the site if they were from a country or state where online gambling is not allowed and will also look to limit access to the site to those aged 18 and older.

While this may well go far enough to appease some regulators – if indeed CS:GO Lounge can successfully acquire a gambling license – it may not do much to stop Valve from wanting the service shut down. As Kotaku points out, Valve demanded sites like this stop using Steam accounts for business purposes, which breaks the subscriber agreement.

Gambling license or not, Valve doesn't want its accounts used for automated trading and money making.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: It will be interesting to see how Valve responds to these sorts of sites moving forward. Many of them may choose to ignore the cease and desist letter. Will that mean Valve will begin legal action against some of them in the future?

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YouTube channel loses over 200K subs after trying to trademark ‘React’ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/generaltech/matthew-wilson/youtube-channel-loses-over-200k-subs-after-trying-to-trademark-react/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/generaltech/matthew-wilson/youtube-channel-loses-over-200k-subs-after-trying-to-trademark-react/#comments Mon, 01 Feb 2016 19:11:37 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=282547 The Fine Brothers have had a bit of a rough weekend and the PR nightmare isn't slowing down at all. The pair have one of the biggest channels on YouTube and are responsible for several series of ‘reaction' style videos showing people of different ages reacting to things like Netflix or old-school internet and in …

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The Fine Brothers have had a bit of a rough weekend and the PR nightmare isn't slowing down at all. The pair have one of the biggest channels on YouTube and are responsible for several series of ‘reaction' style videos showing people of different ages reacting to things like Netflix or old-school internet and in an effort to take the next step, the channel decided to try and trademark the word ‘React'- which hasn't gone down well at all.

It all started last week when the Fine Brothers announced ‘React World' a new company program set up to allow other content creators to buy a ‘license' in order to use the ‘React' name or a specific ‘React' series for their own channel. The Fine Bros already have approved trademarks for things like ‘adults react', ‘kids react' and ‘celebrities react' but the trademark for the sole word ‘react' is still under debate. The new licensing program, as well as the ownership of these trademarks,  would essentially allow The Fine Brothers to copyright bully channels on YouTube that create reaction videos under fair use without buying their license.

FineBros

Before the React World announcement, The Fine Bros YouTube channel had 14.1 million subscribers and since then, that number has depleted to 13.88 million at the time of writing and that number keeps lowering and lowering every second, as you can see by the real-time counter, HERE. 

To try and do some damage control, The Fine Bros published an update video over the weekend in which they state that they ‘do not own the genre' of reaction videos. Unfortunately, actions speak louder than words and the channel has already issued copyright takedown notices against other channels that post reaction videos merely for having the word ‘react' in the title.

As video game attorney, Ryan Morrison pointed out on Reddit, The Fine Bros already have a sense of entitlement when it comes to reaction videos and have been bullying smaller channels for years. At one point in time, there was a channel called ‘SeniorsReact', which was shut down following copyright strikes prior to The Fine Bros launching their own ‘Elders React' series.

KitGuru Says: One thing is clear, it seems people on the Internet don't want to let The Fine Bros monopolize the ‘reaction' genre on YouTube and I don't really blame them. The Fine Bros channel has already lost well over 200,000 subscribers in the last couple of days alone so it is clear that they are going to need to do something in response. 

 

 

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Rat on your business’ pirating to the BSA for a possible cash payout https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/jon-martindale/rat-on-your-business-pirating-to-the-bsa-for-a-possible-cash-payout/ https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/jon-martindale/rat-on-your-business-pirating-to-the-bsa-for-a-possible-cash-payout/#comments Mon, 23 Mar 2015 10:51:55 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=241410 Do you want to earn some money for ratting on your employer? Well now you can! Thanks to a scheme by trade group the Business Software Alliance, those that snitch on their bosses, co workers and other business professionals for using pirated software can now “pay off [their] credit card debt,” as any successful court …

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Do you want to earn some money for ratting on your employer? Well now you can! Thanks to a scheme by trade group the Business Software Alliance, those that snitch on their bosses, co workers and other business professionals for using pirated software can now “pay off [their] credit card debt,” as any successful court cases against firms that use pirated software can mean those that reported it can expect a monetary reward.

The idea behind this system is to help crack down on companies using unlicensed software, which are perhaps even as numerous as end user piracy – we know the US military has been doing it for years. However while that's an understandable goal, the way in which the BSA is going about it seems rather underhanded: offering cash incentives to people – most likely employees – that might know about such software license side-stepping.

It even tries to appeal to those cash-strapped around Christmas, with an advert posted online late last year that stated “money can get tight during the holidays. If you know a company using unlicensed business software, file a report today to be eligible for a cash reward.”

vacation

Unfortunately for those that think cashing in on this is a great idea, as TorrentFreak points out, the smallprint reminds you that you will only receive any money at all if the eventual court case is successful, which is not exactly certain. On top of that, if the company you reported is your own employer, that internal investigation could get pretty uncomfortable.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: Giving your employer a financial headache is never a good way to secure your job, especially if you're the one that caused it. These campaigns are trying to tease people into putting their jobs at risk with the vague promise of potential money. 

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RIAA now gunning for not-for-profit audio site https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/riaa-now-gunning-for-not-for-profit-audio-site/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/riaa-now-gunning-for-not-for-profit-audio-site/#comments Mon, 21 Jul 2014 08:10:16 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=203850 The RIAA baffled many onlookers last week when it went after Reel Radio, a site dedicated to providing archived radio air-checks, where it demanded that archives not be online for more than two weeks and that the site get permission from all stations that originally aired the checks, despite many of them being defunct. Now …

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The RIAA baffled many onlookers last week when it went after Reel Radio, a site dedicated to providing archived radio air-checks, where it demanded that archives not be online for more than two weeks and that the site get permission from all stations that originally aired the checks, despite many of them being defunct. Now it's continuing its bizarre attacks by targeting a not for profit site focused on vinyl mixtape archives.

PatesTapes.com is a site that offers archived vinyl recordings, taken manually from the original medium, copied on to digital tape and then digitised. This is something that the site doesn't earn any money from and has only around 200 listeners a day, but it's been doing it for years. The site even sends several of the biggest record labels $5,000 a year for licensing to play the old records. Despite all that, the RIAA thinks this is a major hub for piracy and wants its powers limited.

patestapes

“The demands are almost exactly the same as what ReelRadio is reporting – remove ‘archived recordings’ after two weeks and ‘archive recordings’ must be longer than five hours. In our case, saying what is in the recording before it plays is a no-no,” PatesTapes’ Dennis Wallace told TorrentFreak.

While initially it was thought that the restrictions would kill the site off, the owners have now decided to comply with the RIAA's wishes, but give the site of an overhaul in the same breath. Unfortunately that means that at the moment the site's functioinality is dead, with nothing to listen to at all. It will return though, in due time.

“We are revising the existing site to accommodate the wishes of the authorities,” reads an update on the site's blog. “Our mission remains unchanged; to introduce you to a vast and diverse array of musical styles. The site will be up but mute for a while…comments are encouraged. Till we meet again, enjoy in joy. Charles”

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: Once again the RIAA is flexing its muscle to shut down something, anything, so that it has a valid reason for existing. It's clearly unable to do anything about sites that actually pirate content and don't pay licenses, so it's targeting small non-profit ventures to make itself look busy. Pretty awful behaviour. 

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Driver records to be put online, could drop insurance prices https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/driver-records-to-be-put-online-could-drop-insurance-prices/ Thu, 09 Jan 2014 08:52:19 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=170941 The British government seems to have finally decided that this old internet fad isn't going away and it could actually help speed up and simplify some of the more stuffy, traditional activities that citizens are forced to drudge through, like renewing car insurance. Along with 20+ other services, driver records are now heading online, meaning …

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The British government seems to have finally decided that this old internet fad isn't going away and it could actually help speed up and simplify some of the more stuffy, traditional activities that citizens are forced to drudge through, like renewing car insurance. Along with 20+ other services, driver records are now heading online, meaning we could end up with cheaper insurance premiums and on top of that the paper license counterpart is set to be scrapped.

The move is planned for mid-2015, and will see information like accidents or driving offences put online and made accessible to insurance providers. This will allow those same companies to check a driver's record, instead of going on faith that what they've input is correct. This will mean they don't need to price in risk factors to every policy and could, according to the BBC, mean we're all looking at £15 off of our next renewal.

license
If I asked you to find yours now, I bet 90 per cent of you wouldn't have a clue where to start

However it's not just insurers that can look at this information. Car hire companies will also be able to check your driving record and of course you will be able to as well.

The man behind this recent digital push, is cabinet office minister Francis Maude, who said that Tax Discs could also end up being scrapped, right alongside the paper license. He did however take the opportunity to lament the fact that the UK's ID scheme fell through, suggesting that the planned identification of people by their National Insurance number and postcode wasn't as convenient.

“This is something that is a problem for countries that do not have an ID card system and a national ID database,” he said.

KitGuru Says: This sounds like a good idea. There's a lot of government functions that could be modernised and streamlined by heading online. Though I do wonder if it could make identify theft a little easier? 

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