While most of the media attention focused on the role of ISPs, there is an even more controversial proposal that has been largely overlooked. According to the report, pirated content should be banned on the operating system level.

“Other players that possess the potential ability to limit piracy are the companies that own the major operating systems which control computers and mobile devices such as Apple, Google and Microsoft,” one of the main conclusions reads.

“The producers of operating systems should be encouraged, or regulated, for example, to block downloads of copyright infringing material,” the report adds.

The report references last year’s Windows 10 controversy, noting that these concerns were great enough for some torrent sites to block users with the new operating system.

Source: Report: Operating Systems Should Actively Block Pirated Downloads – TorrentFreak

Really? Just like cassette and DVD players make decisions on what content to play? Oh wait they don’t. Is this a money making scam, forcing people to pay someone to certify their content or else the OS won’t download it? This is not a decision the OS should be making.

In an extraordinary judgment, the organization that hopes to take over running the top level of the internet later this year has been slammed by an independent review as at best incompetent and at worst deliberately mendacious.

The decision [PDF] by ICANN’s Independent Review Panel (IRP) over the organization’s decision to refuse “community” status for three applications covering business suffixes has exposed a level of double-dealing that many suspected occurred in the non-profit organization but has been difficult to prove.

Source: Simply not credible: The extraordinary verdict against the body that hopes to run the internet

This is an incredible story of lawyers who feel they are above the law, insider dealing and nepotism. What a mess at ICANN

We find that 84\% of paths originating in Brazil traverse the United States, but when relays are used for country avoidance, only 37\% of Brazilian paths traverse the United States. Using the open DNS resolver infrastructure allows Kenyan clients to avoid the United States on 17\% more paths. Unfortunately, we find that some of the more prominent surveillance states (e.g., the U.S.) are also some of the least avoidable countries.

Cornell University Library

Unfortunately, it seems our service has to come to an untimely end. After being previously told we were in 100% compliance with the rules, our Amazon affiliate account was closed a few months ago. Amazon claimed we were violating their rules against showing product and price information that was more than 24 hours old. Obviously, this is something ALL price history trackers do, not just PriceZombie. Overnight, we lost over 90% of our income but we kept going, hoping to resolve any issues and return to compliance. However, our appeals to Amazon affiliate program administrators (associates@amazon.com) and even Jeff Bezos (jeff@amazon.com) were either ignored or answered incompletely

Source: Important Announcement – PriceZombie will be shutting down unless..

Wtf?

Unfortunately, it seems our service has to come to an untimely end. After being previously told we were in 100% compliance with the rules, our Amazon affiliate account was closed a few months ago. Amazon claimed we were violating their rules against showing product and price information that was more than 24 hours old. Obviously, this is something ALL price history trackers do, not just PriceZombie. Overnight, we lost over 90% of our income but we kept going, hoping to resolve any issues and return to compliance. However, our appeals to Amazon affiliate program administrators (associates@amazon.com) and even Jeff Bezos (jeff@amazon.com) were either ignored or answered incompletely

Source: Important Announcement – PriceZombie will be shutting down unless..

Wtf?

Everyone has been there. So in 2010, London-based UX designer Harry Brignull decided he’d document it. Brignull’s website, darkpatterns.org, offers plenty of examples of deliberately confusing or deceptive user interfaces. These dark patterns trick unsuspecting users into a gamut of actions: setting up recurring payments, purchasing items surreptitiously added to a shopping cart, or spamming all contacts through prechecked forms on Facebook games.

Dark patterns aren’t limited to the Web, either. The Columbia House mail-order music club of the ’80s and ’90s famously charged users exorbitant rates for music they didn’t choose if they forgot to specify what they wanted. In fact, negative-option billing began as early as 1927, when a book club decided to bill members in advance and ship a book to anyone who didn’t specifically decline. Another common offline example? Some credit card statements boast a 0 percent balance transfer but don’t make it clear that the percentage will shoot up to a ridiculously high number unless a reader navigates a long agreement in tiny print.

“The way that companies implement the deceptive practices has gotten more sophisticated over time,” said UX designer Jeremy Rosenberg, a contributor to the Dark Patterns site. “Today, things are more likely to be presented as a benefit or obscured as a benefit even if they’re not.”

When you combine the interactive nature of the Web, increasingly savvy businesses, and the sheer amount of time users spend online, it’s a recipe for dark pattern disaster. And after gaining an awareness for this kind of deception, you’ll recognize it’s nearly ubiquitous.

Source: Dark Patterns are designed to trick you (and they’re all over the Web)