Webtagr - Technology News Summarizer

German Copyright Clearing House Reforms: Judicial Review for Website Restrictions

2025-08-24

After over four years, Germany's Copyright Clearing House for the Internet (CUII) claims success in combating illegal online business models. However, addressing criticism regarding its power, CUII is reforming its procedures. All website restrictions will now be subject to court review. This aims to create a more effective and legally sound process, addressing concerns about its private restriction of websites and potential fundamental rights violations. Hundreds of domains have been blocked, including streaming sites and Sci-Hub, sparking debate about freedom of science and information. The Federal Network Agency will no longer be involved in blocking recommendations; courts will become the ultimate arbiters. CUII states the new approach has been presented to the Federal Cartel Office and expects to reduce staffing.

(www.heise.de)

Tech

StarFive Vision Five 2 Lite: A $20 RISC-V SBC

2025-08-12

StarFive has launched the Vision Five 2 Lite, a budget-friendly RISC-V single-board computer priced at just $20 (excluding shipping and taxes). This stripped-down version features a slightly slower processor than the Vision Five 2, 2GB of RAM, and only one Ethernet port and one USB 3.0 socket. While attractive in price, its graphics driver support remains poor, with Ubuntu and Fedora only supporting server versions without a graphical desktop. Despite these limitations, it remains a compelling 64-bit RISC-V system for developers and enthusiasts.

(www.heise.de)

Hardware single-board computer

Denmark Ditches Microsoft, Embraces Open Source

2025-06-12

Denmark's Ministry of Digitization is abandoning Microsoft products in favor of Linux and LibreOffice. This move prioritizes 'digital sovereignty' and reduces reliance on a few tech providers, fueled partly by concerns over US influence following President Trump's Greenland ambitions. Half the ministry will transition to Linux and LibreOffice this summer, with a complete switch expected by fall. Major cities like Copenhagen and Aarhus are following suit, highlighting a growing trend towards open-source solutions.

(www.heise.de)

Tech

German Stellarator Sets New Fusion Record

2025-06-06

The Wendelstein 7-X stellarator fusion reactor in Greifswald, Germany, has achieved a new world record for the triple product in long plasma discharges, lasting 43 seconds. The triple product, a key factor in fusion, considers plasma density, ion temperature, and energy confinement time. This achievement utilized a novel pellet injector from Oak Ridge National Laboratory, precisely coordinating heating and fuel injection. While tokamaks still hold the record for short-duration discharges, this milestone demonstrates the stellarator's progress towards power plant applications, surpassing JET in longer discharge times despite a smaller plasma volume. This represents a significant step towards sustainable fusion energy.

(www.heise.de)

Tech

Germany Pushes for Digital Sovereignty: Building a 'German Stack' to Counter US Tech Giants

2025-06-06

Germany's Federal Minister for Digital Affairs, Karsten Wildberger, recently called for greater digital sovereignty for Germany and Europe at the re:publica internet conference. He advocates for open standards and open source as guiding principles, highlighting the need to reduce Europe's dependence on US tech giants. To achieve this, Germany plans to build a "German Stack," a unified IT infrastructure and cloud services to avoid redundant development. He also stressed the importance of digital identity, secure payment systems, and fostering a domestic digital economy. The German government is committed to establishing European-led structures in cloud computing to promote fair, open, and innovation-driven competition.

(www.heise.de)

Tech German Stack

Norwegian Startup's Airhull Tech Lets Electric Boats Glide on Air

2025-05-26

Pascal Technologies, a Norwegian electric boat startup, is equipping two of its boats, the Nabcrew Zero AirBlue 1240 and Hugin DC, with Airhull technology. This innovative technology creates an air cushion under the hull, reducing drag and significantly increasing efficiency, potentially saving up to 50% of energy consumption. Simpler to implement than hydrofoil technology, Airhull uses a comb-like structure on the hull's underside and a blower at the bow to lift the boat 15-20cm out of the water. Suitable for boats from 6m to 30m, the technology is showcased on a 12m workboat (Nabcrew Zero AirBlue 1240) and a 9.15m leisure boat (Hugin DC), both slated for launch later this year.

(www.heise.de)

Tech electric boats

NATS Trademark Dispute Escalates: Synadia Reclaims Project, CNCF Fights Back

2025-05-02

A legal battle is brewing over the trademark and marketing of the widely used NATS message server. After Synadia, the former owner, reclaimed the software from the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), the CNCF is now seeking to have the NATS trademark and logo deleted. The CNCF argues Synadia relinquished all rights in 2018 and must adhere to agreements. Synadia counters that the CNCF failed to foster community involvement, with most contributions originating from Synadia, and proposes switching NATS to a Business Source License (BSL). The CNCF rejects the BSL as non-open source, emphasizing its commitment to open-source values. The core dispute revolves around ownership, trademark rights, and licensing, potentially leading to a project fork similar to the Terraform/OpenTofu split.

(www.heise.de)

Development nats

Open-Source Software's $8.8 Trillion Economic Impact: A Revolution Fueled by 3,000 Developers

2025-03-21

A Harvard Business School study reveals open-source software holds an $8.8 trillion economic value. Without it, companies would spend 3.5 times more on software. Around 3,000 developers globally contribute to 95% of this value, with open source present in 96% of all codebases. Researchers calculated value by assessing development costs (supply value: $4.15 billion) against the cost for companies to rebuild it themselves (demand value: $8.8 trillion). Go stands out with a demand value exceeding $5 trillion. The study highlights open source as a modern common good, urging corporate and governmental contributions and promotion.

(www.heise.de)

Tech economic value

Baltic Sea GPS Jamming: Ships Suspected as Culprits

2025-03-05

Polish researchers have linked massive GPS disruptions in the eastern Baltic Sea to ships operating in the region. Between June and December 2024, they detected 84 hours of GNSS interruptions in the Bay of Gdansk, primarily caused by jamming, not spoofing. October saw the peak of activity, with two types of interference identified, suggesting increasingly sophisticated techniques. The study highlights the urgent need for a dedicated GNSS interference monitoring network along the Baltic coast to address these growing threats to maritime navigation and safety.

(www.heise.de)

Tech GPS jamming Ships

Used Seagate Drives Masquerading as New: A Global Hard Drive Scam

2025-02-09

Online retailers are unknowingly selling used Seagate hard drives as new. Fraudsters have reset the SMART values of drives, often with an average runtime of 25,000 hours, and reintroduced them into the supply chain. While SMART values can be manipulated, the FARM values (Field Accessible Reliability Metrics) remain, revealing the drives' true age. The issue is global, affecting official dealers and impacting customers worldwide. Suspicion points to decommissioned Chia cryptocurrency farms as the source of these drives. Many drives are sold as OEM, lacking manufacturer warranties, making consumer recourse difficult. Buyers are urged to verify warranty status immediately upon receiving drives.

(www.heise.de)

Hardware hard drive scam Chia farms

Hacker Remotely Revives Dormant Satellite: Beesat-1 Back Online

2024-12-30

The TU Berlin's Beesat-1 test satellite, launched in 2009, fell silent in 2013. However, at the 38C3 conference, hacker PistonMiner revealed how they remotely resurrected the satellite. Identifying a software bug, not hardware failure, as the culprit, PistonMiner used a 'Frankenstein-Beesat' ground test model for debugging. A software update restored functionality, even reactivating a presumed-broken onboard camera. This feat not only brought the small satellite back to life but also offers a potential model for reviving other defunct satellites.

(www.heise.de)

Tech satellite repair software bug