The chief Internet adviser to Russian president Vladimir Putin made headlines by suggesting copyright owners shouldn’t “unnecessarily terrorize” people. Now it seems he owns a torrent site.
Torrnado.ru isn’t Russia’s most popular torrent site — Alexa says it’s only the 2,334th most popular site in Russia. But popular or not, Torrnado is owned by ECO PC Solutions, which TorrentFreak reports is owned by MediaMetrics, a company owned by Putin adviser Herman Klimenko.
Head to the site right now and you’ll see torrents of Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation, Terminator Genisys, and (for some reason) Jumanji. TorrentFreak isn’t claiming that Klimenko moderates the site, or is directly involved with running it, but it is clear that he owns it.
Herman Klimenko made headlines when, just days after officially becoming Putin’s Internet adviser, he told TV channel Russia 24 that blocking torrent sites would be “unfeasible for technical reasons,” adding that even if blocking were possible “it’s another question whether it is necessary to use it or not.”
Some Internet activists were happy to see someone with access to government take a moderate stance on enforcement. Media companies, presumably, were less pleased.
His argument seems to be that it’s not a good time to start strictly enforcing copyright in Russia — first, the economy needs to improve.
“Consumption of copyright content increases with economic growth, and when the situation is very serious, I think people do not have to unnecessarily terrorize these issues,” Klimenko said. “Pushing hard now on this topic, I think, is not worth it. When the economy improves, you should return to this issue.”
Regardless of whether you agree with the sentiment, it’s hard to see Klimenko as a neutral party while he profits from the exact “consumption” of protected intellectual property that he’s talking about here.
The absolutely absurd idea of putting a touchscreen display on a mouse isn't exactly new. Turtle Beach already did it with its Command Series MC7, which features a 2.25-inch control screen. But apparently, even that wasn't ridiculous enough for Arctic Fox Technologies. Its new Super Mouse looks like someone took the chunky old Atari ST mouse, slapped a touchscreen and scroll wheel on it, and called it an upgrade.
The result is a rather unusual-looking mouse that is now on Kickstarter, starting at $199. And as ridiculous as it looks, some of its features are genuinely intriguing.
Apple is less than a day away from launching its highly anticipated OLED MacBook Pro with a touch-sensitive screen. But it appears that the upgrade is going to cost a pretty penny. According to a report by Bloomberg, Apple is reportedly eyeing a starting price of $2,899 for the 14-inch MacBook Pro, while the 16-inch version could start at $3,399 in the US.
"At $2,899, the 14-inch model would mark the highest starting price for a new MacBook Pro model, surpassing the $2,799 Apple charged for a 17-inch version introduced in 2006," says the report. The report claims that Apple is targeting a minimum price hike of $400 for its upcoming redesigned 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models.
I've spent a good amount of time digging into the spec sheet of the new M6 MacBook Pro (14-inch), and for all intents and purposes, this is a classic Apple "chip and connectivity" refresh. It's not a full redesign. The chassis, Liquid Retina XDR panel, speakers, ports, and battery, all of them carry over unchanged.
However, the M6 brings more cores, stronger on-device AI, higher memory bandwidth on the larger configs, and modern wireless. Here’s the practical rundown of what actually improved, and whether those gains are worth your money.