TGIF. Let’s get stuck into the tech news today.
1. Megaupload’s original operators sentenced to more than two years in prison
On Thursday, a New Zealand court sentenced two of the original operators of Megaupload, the long-defunct file-sharing site that definitely wasn’t a haven for piracy during the mid-2000s, to more than two years in prison over allegations they facilitated piracy and theft of intellectual property. As reported by the New Zealand Herald, Mathias Ortmann and Bram van der Kolk were sentenced to 2.7 and 2.6 years in prison, respectively. This was actually a better outcome for the two than what could have been, as they had been fighting back U.S. extradition for more than a decade, where they faced much more serious charges, including racketeering.
The conclusion from these light sentences should be not to extradited me to the US to face 185 years in jail. My co-defendants got a slap on the wrist. That’s why they made a deal with the US Govt. This huge discount shows the desperation of the US DOJ and weakness of their case.
— Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) June 15, 2023
2. BYD allocates extra EVs to Victoria before the subsidy ends
Earlier this month, it was reported that the Victorian EV subsidy was being scrapped on June 30, 2023 – 11 months earlier than expected. Now, with the hope of snatching up last-minute buyers in the state, BYD (through Australian distribution company EV Direct) has allocated extra cars to Victoria. “In response to the announcement from the Victorian government to drop the state-based EV subsidy, EV Direct has been able to immediately allocate an additional 750 BYD electric ATTO 3’s to VIC for delivery this month – and will allocate a further 1,950 for delivery by the end of this year,” EV Direct CEO Luke Todd said. The rebate will end on June 30, and up until then, EV buyers can save $3,000 on the purchase of an eligible electric car.
3. LG’s cool colour-changing fridge is coming down-under
The LG InstaView refrigerator with MoodUP LED colour panels was shown at CES this year, but it’s making its way to Australia in July for $7,999. The fridge is customisable, with the ability to select the colour of the LED panels (there are four of them) from up to 170,000 colour combinations. To change the colours, you just use the LG ThinQ app. My RGB-loving brain loves it, but it’s a bit steep for me.
4. Music labels sue Twitter for $US250 million
Music labels have sued Twitter for copyright infringement, in a class action lawsuit filed on Thursday. The labels claim the social media company used copyrighted music to increase the amount of time users spend on the platform and failed to remove the content after it received notifications to take the copyrighted content down. The National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) claims to have notified Twitter of more than 300,000 tweets that have infringed on music copyright since December 2021 and says when the NMPA sent Twitter the notice, it included thousands of specific links to tweets that included unauthorised musical compositions. The NMPA is requesting Twitter pay out $US150,000 for each of the roughly 1,700 songs affected, amounting to a total of $US250 million in damages.
5. Google tells employees to stay away from its own Bard chatbot
As Google continues to refine its own AI chatbot named Bard, its parent company Alphabet Inc. has a clear directive for its employees: Be careful around chatbots, even Bard. Four sources close to the matter told Reuters that the massive tech giant has advised employees not to enter confidential information into chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Google’s own Bard over fears of leaks. Alphabet is reportedly concerned with employees inputting sensitive information into these chatbots since human reviewers may sit on the other end reviewing chat entries. These chatbots may also use previous entries to train themselves, posing another risk of a leak. That risk is warranted, as Samsung confirmed last month that its own internal data had been leaked after staff used ChatGPT.
BONUS ITEM: 23 years later, we’re finally being blessed with a second Chicken Run movie.
First peek at ‘CHICKEN RUN: DAWN OF THE NUGGET’.
The film releases on December 15 on Netflix. pic.twitter.com/Fuc1DSbJ6o
— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) June 15, 2023
Have a good Friday and a terrific weekend.