Movie streaming site is like 'Netflix for pirates': Dan Misener

By Dan Misener, CBC News Posted: Mar 11, 2014 9:24 AM ET Last Updated: Mar 11, 2014 3:50 PM ET

Dan Misener
Spark

Dan Misener is a technology journalist at the CBC. He works on Spark, CBC Radio’s technology show, and is also a columnist for CBCNews.ca.

It's been called “Netflix for pirates."

Popcorn Time is a new open source app for downloading and watching movies. It's dead simple: a list of movie genres on the left and a wall full of movie posters on the right. That's it. Click a poster, and you're presented with the option to "Watch it now."

Under the hood, Popcorn Time runs BitTorrent software optimized for streaming. This means almost no waiting for a download to finish; the movie starts playing immediately.

This immediacy and simplicity is by design.

"I have a lot of friends who don't understand torrents and I wanted to make it easy and effortless to use torrent technology," says one of the app's designers, going only by the name Sebastian, in an interview with TorrentFreak.

"It reminds me of Napster. It's so easy," says Gil Zvulony, a Toronto-based internet lawyer who has seen the application.

It may be easy, says Zvulony, but's it's not legal.

"Its primary use is to make copyrighted material available. It doesn't have any other use. It clearly infringes copyright according to the Canadian copyright act."

Screenshots on the Popcorn Time website show movie posters for very old public domain movies such as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920), The Phantom of the Opera (1925) and The Three Stooges: Malice in the Palace (1949).

But if you actually download the software and look at what's available, it's almost exclusively pirated material, including recent Oscar nominees such as 12 Years a Slave, American Hustle, Gravity, Frozen… almost all of it copyrighted.

The Popcorn Time website carries a loud, yellow warning: "Downloading copyrighted material may be illegal in your country. Use at your own risk."

Zvulony thinks the app's creators are playing dumb, and are aware that people will use their software to infringe copyright.

Using Popcorn Time to download and watch movies may infringe copyright, but here in Canada, the financial risk to individuals is small. Back in 2012, Bill C-11 capped damages for non-commercial copyright infringement at $5,000.

"That's really for the worst type of case," explains Zvulony. Realistically, he says, "you're looking at $100 or $200 in terms of damages awarded, which makes it extremely uneconomical for movie studios to go after individual downloaders."

Though BitTorrent has a reputation as a "pirate" tool, it also has many non-infringing uses, such as the distribution of educational content for non-profit organizations. That said, piracy and copyright infringement seems to get the most attention.

For me, Popcorn Time feels significant because of how it pulls BitTorrent movie piracy from a world of sketchy torrent sites full of porn ads and scammy pop-ups into a simple, streamlined interface.

For years, services like iTunes and Netflix have been able to compete with piracy by offering the paid options in a cleaner, safer environment.

With Popcorn Time, it seems as though the bar has been raised on the pirates' side.

"It's like an arms race," says Zvulony. "There's always new innovation."

March 15: Beyond Antibiotics Mar. 12, 2014 12:06 PM This week on Quirks & Quarks, we look at the threat of a post-antibiotic world, and what new strategies researchers are looking at to cope with a world where antibiotics no longer work.

View the original article here

'Phone spoofing' scammers disguise as local callers

Phone spoofing scammers use simple software to disguise their calls as local numbers. (CBC News)

Phone scammers are using software to mask their real identities by displaying a fake telephone number.

The trick is called 'phone spoofing.' It's a tool used by fraudsters to mislead people into thinking the call is from a reputable business or person. 

'They do not quit. It's about driving me to the brink of sanity,'- Mike Boychuk

Sometimes the number the scammer uses already belongs to a real person. 

Mike Boychuk, a real estate agent in Saskatoon, has been a victim of phone spoofing.

It all began last year when Boychuk started getting suspicious calls with the Saskatchewan 306 area code coming through on his work cell phone, personal cell phone and home number. When he would answer, an automated voice would inform him he had won a cruise or offer an exclusive deal on air miles.

"I'd get a call from a local —what appeared to be — cell phone," Boychuk said.

Mike Boychuk, a Saskatoon-based real estate agent, is a victim of phone spoofing. (Mikeboychuk.ca)

?Boychuk told CBC News he tried to ignore the calls, but a couple days after the calls started, regular people started calling him.

"I started getting people phoning me... they'd say 'I'm just calling you back', and I'd say 'who is this?'" Boychuk said. "I thought it was really strange because I hadn't made any calls."

After these sorts of calls persisted, Boychuk contacted his cell phone carrier, Telus Mobility.

Boychuk said Telus told him he was a victim of phone spoofing and assured him that the scammers usually used a particular number for only one or two weeks before they'd move on to another.

Chris Gerritsen, a spokesperson for Telus Mobility, told CBC News it is difficult for the company to actually help its customers who are repeatedly victims of the popular phone scam.

"It's very, very difficult to trace," Gerritsen said. "These spoofing applications are software that an individual loads onto their computer to use...it can't really be discerned which company is providing the spoofing service."

Telus Mobility said it is concerned about phone spoofing and has asked its customers to take precautionary measures against the scam.

"Don't give out your cell number to anyone other than those you trust," Gerritsen said.

However, precautionary measures won't help people like Boychuk. He said the calls still come on a regular basis.

"They do not quit ... It's about driving me to the brink of sanity because they call every number I have, my two cell phone numbers and my home number, maybe, at least twice a week," Boychuk said.

Canada's Anti Fraud Centre said victims of phone spoofing should immediately call their phone company when they realize what is happening.

"Your telephone or internet service provider may have the ability to determine the true IP address or telephone number but they must be informed quickly before this information is overwritten on their database," Canada's Anti Fraud Centre explains on its website.

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How humans shaped Canada's spectacular wilderness

By Emily Chung, CBC News Posted: Mar 11, 2014 5:00 AM ET Last Updated: Mar 11, 2014 11:50 AM ET

Long before Europeans arrived, Canada's aboriginal people were applying fire to shape the bison-friendly grasslands of the Prairies and the scrub oak forests of eastern Canada.

On the Pacific coast, they were cultivating camas lilies and settling salmon eggs in new streams, a new documentary series shows. And of course, the human influence on Canada's wilderness has only increased since then.

Wild Canada, which debuts on CBC-TV's The Nature of Things on Thursday, is a four-part series shot in ultra-high definition that takes viewers on an exploration of some of our country's most spectacular landscapes, and intimate encounters with the animals that live there. It also features historical re-enactments illustrating how humans have interacted with their surroundings and their animal neighbours for thousands of years. 

An interactive iPad app envisioned as a companion "coffee table book" can be downloaded for free until Thursday. Starting Friday, it will cost $3.99.

Canadian nature documentary filmmaker Jeff Turner had previously worked on projects such as BBC's Planet Earth series, acclaimed for its high-definition footage of beautiful and rarely seen wild places and wildlife around the world. Turner said he came to realize that the natural beauty of our own country had never been showcased like that.

"It's an incredibly wild and beautiful place," he said. "There was so much in the country that people hadn't seen before. There was a newness here."

After some research, he realized that despite its seemingly natural state, one of the things that makes Canada's wilderness unusual is that it has been influenced by humans from the beginning.

Dall's sheep live in the mountains of Canada's North. One of the goals of Wild Canada was to show people parts of Canada that most people haven't seen before. (CBC)

"Just 15,000 years ago, Canada didn't exist as a natural landscape. It was covered by ice," Turner said.

Shortly after that, the ice melted and exposed new landscapes for plants and animals to colonize. Human beings first set foot on the continent at about the same time.

"That's fairly unique in the world. All the landscapes that formed in the country – all the natural landscapes – formed with the presence of humans … people have been shaping the landscape that they lived in over thousands and thousands of years."

The vast prairie landscape stretching from Manitoba to the Rocky Mountains in the West is one of the classic examples showcased in the series.

"If human beings hadn't been here, then that landscape would have looked very different than it does today and it would have very different animals in it," said Turner.

It's easy to imagine that the Prairies have always been a sea of grasses stretching as far as the eye can see, providing the perfect habitat for vast herds of bison to roam. But the grasslands were actually shaped by regular fires that have kept trees at bay for thousands of years. And those fires were caused by humans in order to expand grazing lands for the bison, their prey, Turner said.

The Canadian Prairies were shaped by aboriginal people who use fire to keep trees from encroaching on the grasslands, expanding the habitat favoured by the bison they hunted. (CBC)

Meanwhile, the maple forests of Ontario that wow Algonquin Park visitors with their scarlet leaves each fall were shaped by Europeans, who valued the trees for the syrup they produced, the series shows.

Prior to the arrival of European settlers, aboriginal people kept the maples in check through burning, transforming the landscape into oak savannah forests. Those forests featured open grassy areas that provided the light for widely spaced trees to grow very large and produce more edible nuts and cones. Turner said one of the few remnants of that habitat remains in Toronto's High Park, and is now preserved by an annual burning every spring.

The series also shows how humans helped some wild animals spread beyond their traditional ranges, while changing what was the "natural" range for others. The bison are just one example.

On the West Coast, salmon were valued by the Heiltsuk people for food and recognized for their role in nourishing the entire ecosystem. One of their traditional practices was to take eggs from a river rich in fish to one that didn't have many, spreading salmon populations through the river system.

There are many ways humans have changed the way wild animals live in ways we don't even realize, such as pushing grizzly bears into the mountains, where they were less likely to prey on livestock, Turner said.

"We think of them as mountain species, but they're actually a prairie animal."

He added that humans are now recognizing this and allowing the grizzly bears back to their traditional habitat. The bears are resettling the Prairies.

"Nature is here," Turner said. "If we give it a chance, it'll come back."

Canadian nature documentary filmmaker Jeff Turner had previously worked on projects such as BBC's Planet Earth series, and realized the natural beauty of our own country had never been showcased like that. (CBC)

March 15: Beyond Antibiotics Mar. 12, 2014 12:06 PM This week on Quirks & Quarks, we look at the threat of a post-antibiotic world, and what new strategies researchers are looking at to cope with a world where antibiotics no longer work.

View the original article here

Mysterious Windsor Hum gets Ottawa review

A federally funded report on the mysterious Windsor Hum has been submitted to both the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Natural Resources Canada.

For years, residents in west Windsor and the neighbouring town of LaSalle have been complaining of a mysterious rumble or hum that is often described as an idling truck or locomotive.

Both ministries are reviewing the results of the $60,000 report, said the University of Windsor’s Colin Novak, one of the authors of the report.

Novak said the report was submitted in January and that the final review has not yet been conducted.

A spokesperson for Windsor West NDP MP Brian Masse, who has been keeping tabs on the issue, said the two ministries have additional questions and are seeking clarifications on some points.

University of Windsor professor Colin Novak has been one of the leads on the Windsor Hum research.

Masse’s spokesperson said officials are trying to arrange a meeting between the ministries and researchers, including Novak and the University of Western Ontario's Peter Brown.

Masse wasn’t available for comment Wednesday but a spokesperson said the federal government needs to make the report public.

In 2012, a different federal study suggested the hum may originate from the U.S. side of the Detroit River, in the general area of Zug Island, an area of concentrated steel production and manufacturing in River Rouge, Mich.

Zug Island is directly across from the western edge of Windsor.

The mayor of River Rouge said at that time that his city doesn't have the funds to investigate further.

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Neil Young's Pono player, iPod rival, surpasses Kickstarter goal

Just one day after its launch, Neil Young's Pono digital music player has soared past its $800,000 US crowdfunding goal and well on its way to production.

A longtime critic of the highly compressed and less dynamic audio quality of most digital music, Young has been working with audio engineers for several years on a high-fidelity alternative that is as portable and convenient as an iPod or other .mp3 player.

On Tuesday, the San Francisco-based PonoMusic Team launched its $800,000 US fundraising campaign on the popular website Kickstarter.

By noon ET on Wednesday, pledges surpassed $1.5 million US.

"Pono is about the music, it's about the people who make the music and the way it sounds to us when we're in the studio making it. It's about you hearing what we hear," according to Neil Young. (Canadian Press)

Meanwhile the 68-year-old music legend pitched Pono — derived from a Hawaiian term denoting "righteous," according to Young — in Austin, Texas, at the South by Southwest Festival Tuesday evening. He discussed the prism-shaped music player and its eventual music sales website before a packed audience at the Austin Convention Centre.

"Pono is about the music, it's about the people who make the music and the way it sounds to us when we're in the studio making it," Young says in a video on the Kickstarter site.

"It's about you hearing what we hear, and that hasn't happened in a long time."

The fledgling player — slated for an October 2014 release at an expected retail price of $399 US — uses the FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) audio format and can play other high-resolution music formats.

The device features a touchscreen, basic button navigation and two outputs: one for headphones/personal listening and another for plugging into a home or car audio system.

The eventual online store Ponomusic.com will charge between $14.99 to $24.99 US per album. Prices for individual songs weren't disclosed.

Young has already garnered a bevy of famous converts for Pono's apparently warm, vinyl-quality sound. Appearing in a video to praise the sound and/or the player are such luminaries as Sting, Bruce Springsteen, Jack White, Norah Jones, Charlie Musselwhite, Arcade Fire, Patti Smith and super producers Rick Rubin and T-Bone Burnett.

"Just so I can sleep at night … I want to bring back real music," Young says.

"I want everybody to hear music that way. That's why we're on Kickstarter, and we can share it with everyone."

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Elephants can identify dangerous humans from their voices

Thomson Reuters Posted: Mar 11, 2014 11:26 AM ET Last Updated: Mar 11, 2014 1:14 PM ET

The big ears are not just for show.

Elephants can tell whether a human poses a threat by listening to his voice and sussing out subtle clues about his age, gender and ethnicity, according to a study released on Monday.

Researchers from the University of Sussex and the Amboseli Trust for Elephants played recordings of human voices to wild elephants in Kenya and watched how they reacted.

"Our results demonstrate that elephants can reliably discriminate between two different ethnic groups that differ in the level of threat they represent," the authors said in an article published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The study said an elephant herd was more likely to bunch up in a defensive position following playbacks of voices of Maasai people, an East African ethnic group that has hunted elephants for centuries, than other groups.

"Moreover, these responses were specific to the sex and age of Maasai presented, with the voices of Maasai women and boys, subcategories that would generally pose little threat, significantly less likely to produce these behavioural responses," according to the study.

The researchers said the findings provided the first proof elephants can distinguish between human voices, and suggested that other animals seeking to avoid hunters may also have developed this skill.

"Considering the long history and often pervasive predatory threat associated with humans across the globe, it is likely (this ability) could have been selected for in other cognitively advanced animal species," it said.

March 15: Beyond Antibiotics Mar. 12, 2014 12:06 PM This week on Quirks & Quarks, we look at the threat of a post-antibiotic world, and what new strategies researchers are looking at to cope with a world where antibiotics no longer work.

View the original article here