Microsoft reseller pays $250,000 over copyright infringement

OEM reseller PC Case Gear was allegedly infringing Microsoft’s copyright by obtaining 4000 Microsoft Windows 7 Certificates of Authenticity (COAs) that belonged to the Microsoft Authorised Refurbisher Program (MAR).

“PC Case Gear used the product keys from those MAR COAs to install Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium on new personal computers,” Microsoft stated today.

According to the vendor, MAR COAs and product keys are only licensed for use by authorised refurbishers in the MAR program for the purpose of installing Windows operating systems on refurbished second-hand machines for resale only.

PC Case Gear has co-operated on resolving the matter and will continue to be a “valued” Microsoft partner as “both parties are pleased to have resolved this matter”.

Ebay store:

The Federal Circuit Court of Australia ordered by consent that Victoria-based reseller Mount IT, which trades as AV2PC, and second respondent Kenneth John Skeats, AV2PC directir, pay a total of $22,000 to Microsoft for damages for infringement of copyright

AV2PC allegedly installed unlicensed copies of Microsoft Windows 7 onto new PCs infringing Microsoft’s copyright.

According to Microsoft the reseller used product keys that were printed onto counterfeit certificate of authenticity labels.

The reseller operates from its website, eBay store and a physical store.

OTHERS:

In August, Microsoft also settled with three resellers over the trade of unauthorised products and also copyright infringements.

Victorian business Software Oz, registered as Easy Peas Pty Ltd, agreed to pay $300,000 in damages to Microsoft for selling unauthorised copies of software and product keys.

PC-Tek, registered as XXIT Pty Ltd, settled for a $25,000 damages payout to Microsoft. And Sydney reseller Bytestech, registered as Jian Ping Wang, was accused of illegally copying Windows 10 and Office Professional Plus 2013 onto hard drives.

Leaked medical data exposes 1.3 million records

Personal data and medical records of more than one million Australian citizens donating blood to the Red Cross Blood Service have been exposed online in the country’s biggest and most damaging data breach to date.

A 1.74 GB file containing 1.28 million donor records going back to 2010, published to a publicly-facing website, was discovered by an anonymous source and sent to security expert and operator of haveibeenpwned.com

The database was uncovered through a scan of IP address ranges configured to search for publicly exposed web servers that returned directory listings containing .sql files.

The contents of the ‘mysqldump’ database backup contains everything from personal details (name, gender, physical and email address, phone number, date of birth and occasionally blood type and country of birth) to sensitive medical information, like whether someone has engaged in at-risk sexual behaviour in the last year.

The database collected information submitted when an individual books an appointment – either on paper or online – to donate blood. The process requires donors to enter their personal details and fill out an eligibility questionnaire.

It does not contain data on blood reports or analyses, or responses to the full donor questionnaire all blood bank visitors are required to fill out at the time of their donation.

Image result for blood bank privacy breach

Apple lifts the lid on three new MacBook Pros

Apple said the new MacBook Pro will come in a 15-inch version and in two 13-inch versions. The main difference between the 13-inch versions is that a lower-end configuration will not include the Touch Bar, and will only have two Thunderbolt 3 ports (compared with four Thunderbolt 3 ports on the other version).

Touch Bar

Taking the place of the function row of keys on the new MacBook Pro is what Apple is calling the Touch Bar, a touch-sensitive display strip that provides controls that adapt to whatever app is being used. At the most basic level, the Touch Bar can replace system functions like volume and brightness controls, but it also supports Apple-made apps as well as Microsoft Office and other third-party apps.

Apple is also adding Touch ID to the new MacBook Pro for fingerprint authentication and online Apple Pay purchases.

Apple said the 15-inch MacBook Pro will feature a sixth-generation, quad-core Intel Core i7 processor and up to 16 GB of memory. The starting price for the new 15-inch MacBook Pro is $3599 and it will be shipping within two to three weeks, Apple said

13-inch version (Touch Bar): specs and price

The higher-end 13-inch MacBook Pro will include a sixth-generation, dual-core Intel Core i5 and 8 GB of memory.

The starting price for the higher-end version of the new 13-inch MacBook Pro is $2699 and it will also be shipping within two to three weeks

13-inch version (No Touch Bar): specs and price

The lower-end 13-inch MacBook Pro will include a sixth-generation, dual-core Intel Core i5 processor and 8 GB of memory

The lower-end version of the new 13-inch MacBook Pro has a starting price of $2199 and begins shipping Thursday.

Torrent website has devised a plan to outsmart Google and the rights holders trying to shut it down

Realising there was a gap in the market for a new king following the demise of KAT, the people behind 1337x devised a genius plan to beat Google at its own game.

Understanding Google were forced to comply with the original take-down request because it listed a variety of popular torrents on its homepage, 1337x redesigned its website.

The new layout features a search box on its homepage, with not a torrent in site.

“Due to our old index being blocked by search engines, new users were having issues finding the website. We developed a new index page that contains only search, so we don’t get blocked by search engines in the future,” reads a notice on the website.

The operator of 1337x said it would likely take a while before Google made the website appear in search results, but the redesign would work in the long run.