X-Git-Url: http://pere.pagekite.me/gitweb/homepage.git/blobdiff_plain/f0fb139a5fce135bd644325181b3a2b51a2559c1..eb973c52f2e5a325c7ca6df9b9ff95d4f0dc3100:/blog/index.html diff --git a/blog/index.html b/blog/index.html index ea88d1fa0d..caec1056c6 100644 --- a/blog/index.html +++ b/blog/index.html @@ -20,79 +20,19 @@
-
Using VLC to stream bittorrent sources
-
14th February 2018
-

A few days ago, a new major version of -VLC was announced, and I -decided to check out if it now supported streaming over -bittorrent and -webtorrent. Bittorrent is one of -the most efficient ways to distribute large files on the Internet, and -Webtorrent is a variant of Bittorrent using -WebRTC as its transport channel, -allowing web pages to stream and share files using the same technique. -The network protocols are similar but not identical, so a client -supporting one of them can not talk to a client supporting the other. -I was a bit surprised with what I discovered when I started to look. -Looking at -the release -notes did not help answering this question, so I started searching -the web. I found several news articles from 2013, most of them -tracing the news from Torrentfreak -("Open -Source Giant VLC Mulls BitTorrent Streaming Support"), about a -initiative to pay someone to create a VLC patch for bittorrent -support. To figure out what happend with this initiative, I headed -over to the #videolan IRC channel and asked if there were some bug or -feature request tickets tracking such feature. I got an answer from -lead developer Jean-Babtiste Kempf, telling me that there was a patch -but neither he nor anyone else knew where it was. So I searched a bit -more, and came across an independent -VLC plugin to add -bittorrent support, created by Johan Gunnarsson in 2016/2017. -Again according to Jean-Babtiste, this is not the patch he was talking -about.

- -

Anyway, to test the plugin, I made a working Debian package from -the git repository, with some modifications. After installing this -package, I could stream videos from -The Internet Archive using VLC -commands like this:

- -

-vlc https://archive.org/download/LoveNest/LoveNest_archive.torrent
-

- -

The plugin is supposed to handle magnet links too, but since The -Internet Archive do not have magnet links and I did not want to spend -time tracking down another source, I have not tested it. It can take -quite a while before the video start playing without any indication of -what is going on from VLC. It took 10-20 seconds when I measured it. -Some times the plugin seem unable to find the correct video file to -play, and show the metadata XML file name in the VLC status line. I -have no idea why.

- -

I have created a request for -a new package in Debian (RFP) and -asked if -the upstream author is willing to help make this happen. Now we -wait to see what come out of this. I do not want to maintain a -package that is not maintained upstream, nor do I really have time to -maintain more packages myself, so I might leave it at this. But I -really hope someone step up to do the packaging, and hope upstream is -still maintaining the source. If you want to help, please update the -RFP request or the upstream issue.

- -

I have not found any traces of webtorrent support for VLC.

- -

As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my -activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address -15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b.

+ +
30th August 2018
+

It might seem obvious that software created using tax money should +be available for everyone to use and improve. Free Software +Foundation Europe recentlystarted a campaign to help get more people +to understand this, and I just signed the petition on +Public Money, Public Code to help +them. I hope you too will do the same.

@@ -100,23 +40,62 @@ activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
- -
13th February 2018
-

A new version of the -3D printer slicer -software Cura, version 3.1.0, is now available in Debian Testing -(aka Buster) and Debian Unstable (aka Sid). I hope you find it -useful. It was uploaded the last few days, and the last update will -enter testing tomorrow. See the -release -notes for the list of bug fixes and new features. Version 3.2 -was announced 6 days ago. We will try to get it into Debian as -well.

- -

More information related to 3D printing is available on the -3D printing and -3D printer wiki pages -in Debian.

+ +
13th August 2018
+

A few days ago, I wondered if there are any privacy respecting +health monitors and/or fitness trackers available for sale these days. +I would like to buy one, but do not want to share my personal data +with strangers, nor be forced to have a mobile phone to get data out +of the unit. I've received some ideas, and would like to share them +with you. + +One interesting data point was a pointer to a Free Software app for +Android named +Gadgetbridge. +It provide cloudless collection and storing of data from a variety of +trackers. Its +list +of supported devices is a good indicator for units where the +protocol is fairly open, as it is obviously being handled by Free +Software. Other units are reportedly encrypting the collected +information with their own public key, making sure only the vendor +cloud service is able to extract data from the unit. The people +contacting me about Gadgetbirde said they were using +Amazfit +Bip and +Xiaomi +Band 3.

+ +

I also got a suggestion to look at some of the units from Garmin. +I was told their GPS watches can be connected via USB and show up as a +USB storage device with +Garmin +FIT files containing the collected measurements. While +proprietary, FIT files apparently can be read at least by +GPSBabel and the +GpxPod Nextcloud +app. It is unclear to me if they can read step count and heart rate +data. The person I talked to was using a +Garmin Forerunner +935, which is a fairly expensive unit. I doubt it is worth it for +a unit where the vendor clearly is trying its best to move from open +to closed systems. I still remember when Garmin dropped NMEA support +in its GPSes.

+ +

A final idea was to build ones own unit, perhaps by basing it on a +wearable hardware platforms like +the Flora Geo +Watch. Sound like fun, but I had more money than time to spend on +the topic, so I suspect it will have to wait for another time.

+ +

While I was working on tracking down links, I came across an +inspiring TED talk by Dave Debronkart about +being a +e-patient, and discovered the web site +Participatory +Medicine. If you too want to track your own health and fitness +without having information about your private life floating around on +computers owned by others, I recommend checking it out.

As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address @@ -125,7 +104,7 @@ activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address

- Tags: 3d-printer, debian, english. + Tags: english.
@@ -133,116 +112,36 @@ activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
- -
12th February 2018
-

Jeg lar meg fascinere av en artikkel -i -Dagbladet om Kinas håndtering av Xinjiang, spesielt følgende -utsnitt:

- -

- -

«I den sørvestlige byen Kashgar nærmere grensa til -Sentral-Asia meldes det nå at 120.000 uigurer er internert i såkalte -omskoleringsleirer. Samtidig er det innført et omfattende -helsesjekk-program med innsamling og lagring av DNA-prøver fra -absolutt alle innbyggerne. De mest avanserte overvåkingsmetodene -testes ut her. Programmer for å gjenkjenne ansikter og stemmer er på -plass i regionen. Der har de lokale myndighetene begynt å installere -GPS-systemer i alle kjøretøy og egne sporingsapper i -mobiltelefoner.

- -

Politimetodene griper så dypt inn i folks dagligliv at motstanden -mot Beijing-regimet øker.»

- -

- -

Beskrivelsen avviker jo desverre ikke så veldig mye fra tilstanden -her i Norge.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
DataregistreringKinaNorge
Innsamling og lagring av DNA-prøver fra befolkningenJaDelvis, planlagt for alle nyfødte.
AnsiktsgjenkjenningJaJa
StemmegjenkjenningJaNei
Posisjons-sporing av mobiltelefonerJaJa
Posisjons-sporing av bilerJaJa
- -

I Norge har jo situasjonen rundt Folkehelseinstituttets lagring av -DNA-informasjon på vegne av politiet, der de nektet å slette -informasjon politiet ikke hadde lov til å ta vare på, gjort det klart -at DNA tar vare på ganske lenge. I tillegg finnes det utallige -biobanker som lagres til evig tid, og det er planer om å innføre -evig -lagring av DNA-materiale fra alle spebarn som fødes (med mulighet -for å be om sletting).

- -

I Norge er det system på plass for ansiktsgjenkjenning, som -en -NRK-artikkel fra 2015 forteller er aktiv på Gardermoen, samt -brukes -til å analysere bilder innsamlet av myndighetene. Brukes det også -flere plasser? Det er tett med overvåkningskamera kontrollert av -politi og andre myndigheter i for eksempel Oslo sentrum.

- -

Jeg er ikke kjent med at Norge har noe system for identifisering av -personer ved hjelp av stemmegjenkjenning.

- -

Posisjons-sporing av mobiltelefoner er ruinemessig tilgjengelig for -blant annet politi, NAV og Finanstilsynet, i tråd med krav i -telefonselskapenes konsesjon. I tillegg rapporterer smarttelefoner -sin posisjon til utviklerne av utallige mobil-apper, der myndigheter -og andre kan hente ut informasjon ved behov. Det er intet behov for -noen egen app for dette.

- -

Posisjons-sporing av biler er rutinemessig tilgjengelig via et tett -nett av målepunkter på veiene (automatiske bomstasjoner, -køfribrikke-registrering, automatiske fartsmålere og andre veikamera). -Det er i tillegg vedtatt at alle nye biler skal selges med utstyr for -GPS-sporing (eCall).

- -

Det er jammen godt vi lever i et liberalt demokrati, og ikke en -overvåkningsstat, eller?

- -

Som vanlig, hvis du bruker Bitcoin og ønsker å vise din støtte til -det jeg driver med, setter jeg pris på om du sender Bitcoin-donasjoner -til min adresse +

+
7th August 2018
+

Dear lazyweb,

+ +

I wonder, is there a fitness tracker / health monitor available for +sale today that respect the users privacy? With this I mean a +watch/bracelet capable of measuring pulse rate and other +fitness/health related values (and by all means, also the correct time +and location if possible), which is only provided for +me to extract/read from the unit with computer without a radio beacon +and Internet connection. In other words, it do not depend on a cell +phone app, and do make the measurements available via other peoples +computer (aka "the cloud"). The collected data should be available +using only free software. I'm not interested in depending on some +non-free software that will leave me high and dry some time in the +future. I've been unable to find any such unit. I would like to buy +it. The ones I have seen for sale here in Norway are proud to report +that they share my health data with strangers (aka "cloud enabled"). +Is there an alternative? I'm not interested in giving money to people +requiring me to accept "privacy terms" to allow myself to measure my +own health.

+ +

As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my +activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address 15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b.

- Tags: norsk, surveillance. + Tags: english.
@@ -250,22 +149,66 @@ til min adresse
- -
11th February 2018
-
- -

We write 2018, and it is 30 years since Unicode was introduced. -Most of us in Norway have come to expect the use of our alphabet to -just work with any computer system. But it is apparently beyond reach -of the computers printing recites at a restaurant. Recently I visited -a Peppes pizza resturant, and noticed a few details on the recite. -Notice how 'ø' and 'å' are replaced with strange symbols in -'Servitør', 'Å BETALE', 'Beløp pr. gjest', 'Takk for besøket.' and 'Vi -gleder oss til å se deg igjen'.

- -

I would say that this state is passed sad and over in embarrassing.

- -

I removed personal and private information to be nice.

+ +
31st July 2018
+

For a while now, I have looked for a sensible way to share images +with my family using a self hosted solution, as it is unacceptable to +place images from my personal life under the control of strangers +working for data hoarders like Google or Dropbox. The last few days I +have drafted an approach that might work out, and I would like to +share it with you. I would like to publish images on a server under +my control, and point some Internet connected display units using some +free and open standard to the images I published. As my primary +language is not limited to ASCII, I need to store metadata using +UTF-8. Many years ago, I hoped to find a digital photo frame capable +of reading a RSS feed with image references (aka using the +<enclosure> RSS tag), but was unable to find a current supplier +of such frames. In the end I gave up that approach.

+ +

Some months ago, I discovered that +XScreensaver is able to +read images from a RSS feed, and used it to set up a screen saver on +my home info screen, showing images from the Daily images feed from +NASA. This proved to work well. More recently I discovered that +Kodi (both using +OpenELEC and +LibreELEC) provide the +Feedreader +screen saver capable of reading a RSS feed with images and news. For +fun, I used it this summer to test Kodi on my parents TV by hooking up +a Raspberry PI unit with LibreELEC, and wanted to provide them with a +screen saver showing selected pictures from my selection.

+ +

Armed with motivation and a test photo frame, I set out to generate +a RSS feed for the Kodi instance. I adjusted my Freedombox instance, created +/var/www/html/privatepictures/, wrote a small Perl script to extract +title and description metadata from the photo files and generate the +RSS file. I ended up using Perl instead of python, as the +libimage-exiftool-perl Debian package seemed to handle the EXIF/XMP +tags I ended up using, while python3-exif did not. The relevant EXIF +tags only support ASCII, so I had to find better alternatives. XMP +seem to have the support I need.

+ +

I am a bit unsure which EXIF/XMP tags to use, as I would like to +use tags that can be easily added/updated using normal free software +photo managing software. I ended up using the tags set using this +exiftool command, as these tags can also be set using digiKam:

+ +
+exiftool -headline='The RSS image title' \
+  -description='The RSS image description.' \
+  -subject+=for-family photo.jpeg
+
+ +

I initially tried the "-title" and "keyword" tags, but they were +invisible in digiKam, so I changed to "-headline" and "-subject". I +use the keyword/subject 'for-family' to flag that the photo should be +shared with my family. Images with this keyword set are located and +copied into my Freedombox for the RSS generating script to find.

+ +

Are there better ways to do this? Get in touch if you have better +suggestions.

As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address @@ -274,7 +217,7 @@ activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address

- Tags: english. + Tags: debian, english.
@@ -282,72 +225,96 @@ activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
- -
7th January 2018
-

I've continued to track down list of movies that are legal to -distribute on the Internet, and identified more than 11,000 title IDs -in The Internet Movie Database (IMDB) so far. Most of them (57%) are -feature films from USA published before 1923. I've also tracked down -more than 24,000 movies I have not yet been able to map to IMDB title -ID, so the real number could be a lot higher. According to the front -web page for Retro Film -Vault, there are 44,000 public domain films, so I guess there are -still some left to identify.

- -

The complete data set is available from -a -public git repository, including the scripts used to create it. -Most of the data is collected using web scraping, for example from the -"product catalog" of companies selling copies of public domain movies, -but any source I find believable is used. I've so far had to throw -out three sources because I did not trust the public domain status of -the movies listed.

- -

Anyway, this is the summary of the 28 collected data sources so -far:

- -

- 2352 entries (   66 unique) with and 15983 without IMDB title ID in free-movies-archive-org-search.json
- 2302 entries (  120 unique) with and     0 without IMDB title ID in free-movies-archive-org-wikidata.json
-  195 entries (   63 unique) with and   200 without IMDB title ID in free-movies-cinemovies.json
-   89 entries (   52 unique) with and    38 without IMDB title ID in free-movies-creative-commons.json
-  344 entries (   28 unique) with and   655 without IMDB title ID in free-movies-fesfilm.json
-  668 entries (  209 unique) with and  1064 without IMDB title ID in free-movies-filmchest-com.json
-  830 entries (   21 unique) with and     0 without IMDB title ID in free-movies-icheckmovies-archive-mochard.json
-   19 entries (   19 unique) with and     0 without IMDB title ID in free-movies-imdb-c-expired-gb.json
- 6822 entries ( 6669 unique) with and     0 without IMDB title ID in free-movies-imdb-c-expired-us.json
-  137 entries (    0 unique) with and     0 without IMDB title ID in free-movies-imdb-externlist.json
- 1205 entries (   57 unique) with and     0 without IMDB title ID in free-movies-imdb-pd.json
-   84 entries (   20 unique) with and   167 without IMDB title ID in free-movies-infodigi-pd.json
-  158 entries (  135 unique) with and     0 without IMDB title ID in free-movies-letterboxd-looney-tunes.json
-  113 entries (    4 unique) with and     0 without IMDB title ID in free-movies-letterboxd-pd.json
-  182 entries (  100 unique) with and     0 without IMDB title ID in free-movies-letterboxd-silent.json
-  229 entries (   87 unique) with and     1 without IMDB title ID in free-movies-manual.json
-   44 entries (    2 unique) with and    64 without IMDB title ID in free-movies-openflix.json
-  291 entries (   33 unique) with and   474 without IMDB title ID in free-movies-profilms-pd.json
-  211 entries (    7 unique) with and     0 without IMDB title ID in free-movies-publicdomainmovies-info.json
- 1232 entries (   57 unique) with and  1875 without IMDB title ID in free-movies-publicdomainmovies-net.json
-   46 entries (   13 unique) with and    81 without IMDB title ID in free-movies-publicdomainreview.json
-  698 entries (   64 unique) with and   118 without IMDB title ID in free-movies-publicdomaintorrents.json
- 1758 entries (  882 unique) with and  3786 without IMDB title ID in free-movies-retrofilmvault.json
-   16 entries (    0 unique) with and     0 without IMDB title ID in free-movies-thehillproductions.json
-   63 entries (   16 unique) with and   141 without IMDB title ID in free-movies-vodo.json
-11583 unique IMDB title IDs in total, 8724 only in one list, 24647 without IMDB title ID
-

- -

I keep finding more data sources. I found the cinemovies source -just a few days ago, and as you can see from the summary, it extended -my list with 63 movies. Check out the mklist-* scripts in the git -repository if you are curious how the lists are created. Many of the -titles are extracted using searches on IMDB, where I look for the -title and year, and accept search results with only one movie listed -if the year matches. This allow me to automatically use many lists of -movies without IMDB title ID references at the cost of increasing the -risk of wrongly identify a IMDB title ID as public domain. So far my -random manual checks have indicated that the method is solid, but I -really wish all lists of public domain movies would include unique -movie identifier like the IMDB title ID. It would make the job of -counting movies in the public domain a lot easier.

+ +
12th July 2018
+

Last night, I wrote +a +recipe to stream a Linux desktop using VLC to a instance of Kodi. +During the day I received valuable feedback, and thanks to the +suggestions I have been able to rewrite the recipe into a much simpler +approach requiring no setup at all. It is a single script that take +care of it all.

+ +

This new script uses GStreamer instead of VLC to capture the +desktop and stream it to Kodi. This fixed the video quality issue I +saw initially. It further removes the need to add a m3u file on the +Kodi machine, as it instead connects to +the JSON-RPC API in +Kodi and simply ask Kodi to play from the stream created using +GStreamer. Streaming the desktop to Kodi now become trivial. Copy +the script below, run it with the DNS name or IP address of the kodi +server to stream to as the only argument, and watch your screen show +up on the Kodi screen. Note, it depend on multicast on the local +network, so if you need to stream outside the local network, the +script must be modified. Also note, I have no idea if audio work, as +I only care about the picture part.

+ +
+#!/bin/sh
+#
+# Stream the Linux desktop view to Kodi.  See
+# http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Streaming_the_Linux_desktop_to_Kodi_using_VLC_and_RTSP.html
+# for backgorund information.
+
+# Make sure the stream is stopped in Kodi and the gstreamer process is
+# killed if something go wrong (for example if curl is unable to find the
+# kodi server).  Do the same when interrupting this script.
+kodicmd() {
+    host="$1"
+    cmd="$2"
+    params="$3"
+    curl --silent --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
+	 --data-binary "{ \"id\": 1, \"jsonrpc\": \"2.0\", \"method\": \"$cmd\", \"params\": $params }" \
+	 "http://$host/jsonrpc"
+}
+cleanup() {
+    if [ -n "$kodihost" ] ; then
+	# Stop the playing when we end
+	playerid=$(kodicmd "$kodihost" Player.GetActivePlayers "{}" |
+			    jq .result[].playerid)
+	kodicmd "$kodihost" Player.Stop "{ \"playerid\" : $playerid }" > /dev/null
+    fi
+    if [ "$gstpid" ] && kill -0 "$gstpid" >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+	kill "$gstpid"
+    fi
+}
+trap cleanup EXIT INT
+
+if [ -n "$1" ]; then
+    kodihost=$1
+    shift
+else
+    kodihost=kodi.local
+fi
+
+mcast=239.255.0.1
+mcastport=1234
+mcastttl=1
+
+pasrc=$(pactl list | grep -A2 'Source #' | grep 'Name: .*\.monitor$' | \
+  cut -d" " -f2|head -1)
+gst-launch-1.0 ximagesrc use-damage=0 ! video/x-raw,framerate=30/1 ! \
+  videoconvert ! queue2 ! \
+  x264enc bitrate=8000 speed-preset=superfast tune=zerolatency qp-min=30 \
+  key-int-max=15 bframes=2 ! video/x-h264,profile=high ! queue2 ! \
+  mpegtsmux alignment=7 name=mux ! rndbuffersize max=1316 min=1316 ! \
+  udpsink host=$mcast port=$mcastport ttl-mc=$mcastttl auto-multicast=1 sync=0 \
+  pulsesrc device=$pasrc ! audioconvert ! queue2 ! avenc_aac ! queue2 ! mux. \
+  > /dev/null 2>&1 &
+gstpid=$!
+
+# Give stream a second to get going
+sleep 1
+
+# Ask kodi to start streaming using its JSON-RPC API
+kodicmd "$kodihost" Player.Open \
+	"{\"item\": { \"file\": \"udp://@$mcast:$mcastport\" } }" > /dev/null
+
+# wait for gst to end
+wait "$gstpid"
+
+ +

I hope you find the approach useful. I know I do.

As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address @@ -356,7 +323,7 @@ activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address

@@ -364,402 +331,152 @@ activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
- -
20th December 2017
-

I går var jeg i Follo tingrett som sakkyndig vitne og presenterte - mine undersøkelser rundt - telling - av filmverk i det fri, relatert til - foreningen NUUGs involvering i - saken om - Økokrims beslag og senere inndragning av DNS-domenet - popcorn-time.no. Jeg snakket om flere ting, men mest om min - vurdering av hvordan filmbransjen har målt hvor ulovlig Popcorn Time - er. Filmbransjens måling er så vidt jeg kan se videreformidlet uten - endringer av norsk politi, og domstolene har lagt målingen til grunn - når de har vurdert Popcorn Time både i Norge og i utlandet (tallet - 99% er referert også i utenlandske domsavgjørelser).

- -

I forkant av mitt vitnemål skrev jeg et notat, mest til meg selv, - med de punktene jeg ønsket å få frem. Her er en kopi av notatet jeg - skrev og ga til aktoratet. Merkelig nok ville ikke dommerene ha - notatet, så hvis jeg forsto rettsprosessen riktig ble kun - histogram-grafen lagt inn i dokumentasjonen i saken. Dommerne var - visst bare interessert i å forholde seg til det jeg sa i retten, - ikke det jeg hadde skrevet i forkant. Uansett så antar jeg at flere - enn meg kan ha glede av teksten, og publiserer den derfor her. - Legger ved avskrift av dokument 09,13, som er det sentrale - dokumentet jeg kommenterer.

- -

Kommentarer til «Evaluation of (il)legality» for Popcorn - Time

- -

Oppsummering

- -

Målemetoden som Økokrim har lagt til grunn når de påstår at 99% av - filmene tilgjengelig fra Popcorn Time deles ulovlig har - svakheter.

- -

De eller den som har vurdert hvorvidt filmer kan lovlig deles har - ikke lyktes med å identifisere filmer som kan deles lovlig og har - tilsynelatende antatt at kun veldig gamle filmer kan deles lovlig. - Økokrim legger til grunn at det bare finnes èn film, Charlie - Chaplin-filmen «The Circus» fra 1928, som kan deles fritt blant de - som ble observert tilgjengelig via ulike Popcorn Time-varianter. - Jeg finner tre flere blant de observerte filmene: «The Brain That - Wouldn't Die» fra 1962, «God’s Little Acre» fra 1958 og «She Wore a - Yellow Ribbon» fra 1949. Det er godt mulig det finnes flere. Det - finnes dermed minst fire ganger så mange filmer som lovlig kan deles - på Internett i datasettet Økokrim har lagt til grunn når det påstås - at mindre enn 1 % kan deles lovlig.

- -

Dernest, utplukket som gjøres ved søk på tilfeldige ord hentet fra - ordlisten til Dale-Chall avviker fra årsfordelingen til de brukte - filmkatalogene som helhet, hvilket påvirker fordelingen mellom - filmer som kan lovlig deles og filmer som ikke kan lovlig deles. I - tillegg gir valg av øvre del (de fem første) av søkeresultatene et - avvik fra riktig årsfordeling, hvilket påvirker fordelingen av verk - i det fri i søkeresultatet.

- -

Det som måles er ikke (u)lovligheten knyttet til bruken av Popcorn - Time, men (u)lovligheten til innholdet i bittorrent-filmkataloger - som vedlikeholdes uavhengig av Popcorn Time.

- -

Omtalte dokumenter: 09,12, 09,13, 09,14, -09,18, 09,19, 09,20.

- -

Utfyllende kommentarer

- -

Økokrim har forklart domstolene at minst 99% av alt som er - tilgjengelig fra ulike Popcorn Time-varianter deles ulovlig på - Internet. Jeg ble nysgjerrig på hvordan de er kommet frem til dette - tallet, og dette notatet er en samling kommentarer rundt målingen - Økokrim henviser til. Litt av bakgrunnen for at jeg valgte å se på - saken er at jeg er interessert i å identifisere og telle hvor mange - kunstneriske verk som er falt i det fri eller av andre grunner kan - lovlig deles på Internett, og dermed var interessert i hvordan en - hadde funnet den ene prosenten som kanskje deles lovlig.

- -

Andelen på 99% kommer fra et ukreditert og udatert notatet som tar - mål av seg å dokumentere en metode for å måle hvor (u)lovlig ulike - Popcorn Time-varianter er.

- -

Raskt oppsummert, så forteller metodedokumentet at på grunn av at - det ikke er mulig å få tak i komplett liste over alle filmtitler - tilgjengelig via Popcorn Time, så lages noe som skal være et - representativt utvalg ved å velge 50 søkeord større enn tre tegn fra - ordlisten kjent som Dale-Chall. For hvert søkeord gjøres et søk og - de første fem filmene i søkeresultatet samles inn inntil 100 unike - filmtitler er funnet. Hvis 50 søkeord ikke var tilstrekkelig for å - nå 100 unike filmtitler ble flere filmer fra hvert søkeresultat lagt - til. Hvis dette heller ikke var tilstrekkelig, så ble det hentet ut - og søkt på flere tilfeldig valgte søkeord inntil 100 unike - filmtitler var identifisert.

- -

Deretter ble for hver av filmtitlene «vurdert hvorvidt det var - rimelig å forvente om at verket var vernet av copyright, ved å se på - om filmen var tilgjengelig i IMDB, samt se på regissør, - utgivelsesår, når det var utgitt for bestemte markedsområder samt - hvilke produksjons- og distribusjonsselskap som var registrert» (min - oversettelse).

- -

Metoden er gjengitt både i de ukrediterte dokumentene 09,13 og - 09,19, samt beskrevet fra side 47 i dokument 09,20, lysark datert - 2017-02-01. Sistnevnte er kreditert Geerart Bourlon fra Motion - Picture Association EMEA. Metoden virker å ha flere svakheter som - gir resultatene en slagside. Den starter med å slå fast at det ikke - er mulig å hente ut en komplett liste over alle filmtitler som er - tilgjengelig, og at dette er bakgrunnen for metodevalget. Denne - forutsetningen er ikke i tråd med det som står i dokument 09,12, som - ikke heller har oppgitt forfatter og dato. Dokument 09,12 forteller - hvordan hele kataloginnholdet ble lasted ned og talt opp. Dokument - 09,12 er muligens samme rapport som ble referert til i dom fra Oslo - Tingrett 2017-11-03 - (sak - 17-093347TVI-OTIR/05) som rapport av 1. juni 2017 av Alexander - Kind Petersen, men jeg har ikke sammenlignet dokumentene ord for ord - for å kontrollere dette.

- -

IMDB er en forkortelse for The Internet Movie Database, en - anerkjent kommersiell nettjeneste som brukes aktivt av både - filmbransjen og andre til å holde rede på hvilke spillefilmer (og - endel andre filmer) som finnes eller er under produksjon, og - informasjon om disse filmene. Datakvaliteten er høy, med få feil og - få filmer som mangler. IMDB viser ikke informasjon om - opphavsrettslig status for filmene på infosiden for hver film. Som - del av IMDB-tjenesten finnes det lister med filmer laget av - frivillige som lister opp det som antas å være verk i det fri.

- -

Det finnes flere kilder som kan brukes til å finne filmer som er - allemannseie (public domain) eller har bruksvilkår som gjør det - lovlig for alleå dele dem på Internett. Jeg har de siste ukene - forsøkt å samle og krysskoble disse listene for å forsøke å telle - antall filmer i det fri. Ved å ta utgangspunkt i slike lister (og - publiserte filmer for Internett-arkivets del), har jeg så langt - klart å identifisere over 11 000 filmer, hovedsaklig spillefilmer. - -

De aller fleste oppføringene er hentet fra IMDB selv, basert på det - faktum at alle filmer laget i USA før 1923 er falt i det fri. - Tilsvarende tidsgrense for Storbritannia er 1912-07-01, men dette - utgjør bare veldig liten del av spillefilmene i IMDB (19 totalt). - En annen stor andel kommer fra Internett-arkivet, der jeg har - identifisert filmer med referanse til IMDB. Internett-arkivet, som - holder til i USA, har som - policy å kun publisere - filmer som det er lovlig å distribuere. Jeg har under arbeidet - kommet over flere filmer som har blitt fjernet fra - Internett-arkivet, hvilket gjør at jeg konkluderer med at folkene - som kontrollerer Internett-arkivet har et aktivt forhold til å kun - ha lovlig innhold der, selv om det i stor grad er drevet av - frivillige. En annen stor liste med filmer kommer fra det - kommersielle selskapet Retro Film Vault, som selger allemannseide - filmer til TV- og filmbransjen, Jeg har også benyttet meg av lister - over filmer som hevdes å være allemannseie, det være seg Public - Domain Review, Public Domain Torrents og Public Domain Movies (.net - og .info), samt lister over filmer med Creative Commons-lisensiering - fra Wikipedia, VODO og The Hill Productions. Jeg har gjort endel - stikkontroll ved å vurdere filmer som kun omtales på en liste. Der - jeg har funnet feil som har gjort meg i tvil om vurderingen til de - som har laget listen har jeg forkastet listen fullstendig (gjelder - en liste fra IMDB).

- -

Ved å ta utgangspunkt i verk som kan antas å være lovlig delt på - Internett (fra blant annet Internett-arkivet, Public Domain - Torrents, Public Domain Reivew og Public Domain Movies), og knytte - dem til oppføringer i IMDB, så har jeg så langt klart å identifisere - over 11 000 filmer (hovedsaklig spillefilmer) det er grunn til å tro - kan lovlig distribueres av alle på Internett. Som ekstra kilder er - det brukt lister over filmer som antas/påstås å være allemannseie. - Disse kildene kommer fra miljøer som jobber for å gjøre tilgjengelig - for almennheten alle verk som er falt i det fri eller har - bruksvilkår som tillater deling. - -

I tillegg til de over 11 000 filmene der tittel-ID i IMDB er - identifisert, har jeg funnet mer enn 20 000 oppføringer der jeg ennå - ikke har hatt kapasitet til å spore opp tittel-ID i IMDB. Noen av - disse er nok duplikater av de IMDB-oppføringene som er identifisert - så langt, men neppe alle. Retro Film Vault hevder å ha 44 000 - filmverk i det fri i sin katalog, så det er mulig at det reelle - tallet er betydelig høyere enn de jeg har klart å identifisere så - langt. Konklusjonen er at tallet 11 000 er nedre grense for hvor - mange filmer i IMDB som kan lovlig deles på Internett. I følge statistikk fra IMDB er det 4.6 - millioner titler registrert, hvorav 3 millioner er TV-serieepisoder. - Jeg har ikke funnet ut hvordan de fordeler seg per år.

- -

Hvis en fordeler på år alle tittel-IDene i IMDB som hevdes å lovlig - kunne deles på Internett, får en følgende histogram:

- -

- -

En kan i histogrammet se at effekten av manglende registrering - eller fornying av registrering er at mange filmer gitt ut i USA før - 1978 er allemannseie i dag. I tillegg kan en se at det finnes flere - filmer gitt ut de siste årene med bruksvilkår som tillater deling, - muligens på grunn av fremveksten av - Creative - Commons-bevegelsen..

- -

For maskinell analyse av katalogene har jeg laget et lite program - som kobler seg til bittorrent-katalogene som brukes av ulike Popcorn - Time-varianter og laster ned komplett liste over filmer i - katalogene, noe som bekrefter at det er mulig å hente ned komplett - liste med alle filmtitler som er tilgjengelig. Jeg har sett på fire - bittorrent-kataloger. Den ene brukes av klienten tilgjengelig fra - www.popcorntime.sh og er navngitt 'sh' i dette dokumentet. Den - andre brukes i følge dokument 09,12 av klienten tilgjengelig fra - popcorntime.ag og popcorntime.sh og er navngitt 'yts' i dette - dokumentet. Den tredje brukes av websidene tilgjengelig fra - popcorntime-online.tv og er navngitt 'apidomain' i dette dokumentet. - Den fjerde brukes av klienten tilgjenglig fra popcorn-time.to i - følge dokument 09,12, og er navngitt 'ukrfnlge' i dette - dokumentet.

- -

Metoden Økokrim legger til grunn skriver i sitt punkt fire at - skjønn er en egnet metode for å finne ut om en film kan lovlig deles - på Internett eller ikke, og sier at det ble «vurdert hvorvidt det - var rimelig å forvente om at verket var vernet av copyright». For - det første er det ikke nok å slå fast om en film er «vernet av - copyright» for å vite om det er lovlig å dele den på Internett eller - ikke, da det finnes flere filmer med opphavsrettslige bruksvilkår - som tillater deling på Internett. Eksempler på dette er Creative - Commons-lisensierte filmer som Citizenfour fra 2014 og Sintel fra - 2010. I tillegg til slike finnes det flere filmer som nå er - allemannseie (public domain) på grunn av manglende registrering - eller fornying av registrering selv om både regisør, - produksjonsselskap og distributør ønsker seg vern. Eksempler på - dette er Plan 9 from Outer Space fra 1959 og Night of the Living - Dead fra 1968. Alle filmer fra USA som var allemannseie før - 1989-03-01 forble i det fri da Bern-konvensjonen, som tok effekt i - USA på det tidspunktet, ikke ble gitt tilbakevirkende kraft. Hvis - det er noe - historien - om sangen «Happy birthday» forteller oss, der betaling for bruk - har vært krevd inn i flere tiår selv om sangen ikke egentlig var - vernet av åndsverksloven, så er det at hvert enkelt verk må vurderes - nøye og i detalj før en kan slå fast om verket er allemannseie eller - ikke, det holder ikke å tro på selverklærte rettighetshavere. Flere - eksempel på verk i det fri som feilklassifiseres som vernet er fra - dokument 09,18, som lister opp søkeresultater for klienten omtalt - som popcorntime.sh og i følge notatet kun inneholder en film (The - Circus fra 1928) som under tvil kan antas å være allemannseie.

- -

Ved rask gjennomlesning av dokument 09,18, som inneholder - skjermbilder fra bruk av en Popcorn Time-variant, fant jeg omtalt - både filmen «The Brain That Wouldn't Die» fra 1962 som er - tilgjengelig - fra Internett-arkivet og som - i - følge Wikipedia er allemannseie i USA da den ble gitt ut i - 1962 uten 'copyright'-merking, og filmen «God’s Little Acre» fra - 1958 som - er lagt ut på Wikipedia, der det fortelles at - sort/hvit-utgaven er allemannseie. Det fremgår ikke fra dokument - 09,18 om filmen omtalt der er sort/hvit-utgaven. Av - kapasitetsårsaker og på grunn av at filmoversikten i dokument 09,18 - ikke er maskinlesbart har jeg ikke forsøkt å sjekke alle filmene som - listes opp der om mot liste med filmer som er antatt lovlig kan - distribueres på Internet.

- -

Ved maskinell gjennomgang av listen med IMDB-referanser under - regnearkfanen 'Unique titles' i dokument 09.14, fant jeg i tillegg - filmen «She Wore a Yellow Ribbon» fra 1949) som nok også er - feilklassifisert. Filmen «She Wore a Yellow Ribbon» er tilgjengelig - fra Internett-arkivet og markert som allemannseie der. Det virker - dermed å være minst fire ganger så mange filmer som kan lovlig deles - på Internett enn det som er lagt til grunn når en påstår at minst - 99% av innholdet er ulovlig. Jeg ser ikke bort fra at nærmere - undersøkelser kan avdekke flere. Poenget er uansett at metodens - punkt om «rimelig å forvente om at verket var vernet av copyright» - gjør metoden upålitelig.

- -

Den omtalte målemetoden velger ut tilfeldige søketermer fra - ordlisten Dale-Chall. Den ordlisten inneholder 3000 enkle engelske - som fjerdeklassinger i USA er forventet å forstå. Det fremgår ikke - hvorfor akkurat denne ordlisten er valgt, og det er uklart for meg - om den er egnet til å få et representativt utvalg av filmer. Mange - av ordene gir tomt søkeresultat. Ved å simulerte tilsvarende søk - ser jeg store avvik fra fordelingen i katalogen for enkeltmålinger. - Dette antyder at enkeltmålinger av 100 filmer slik målemetoden - beskriver er gjort, ikke er velegnet til å finne andel ulovlig - innhold i bittorrent-katalogene.

- -

En kan motvirke dette store avviket for enkeltmålinger ved å gjøre - mange søk og slå sammen resultatet. Jeg har testet ved å - gjennomføre 100 enkeltmålinger (dvs. måling av (100x100=) 10 000 - tilfeldig valgte filmer) som gir mindre, men fortsatt betydelig - avvik, i forhold til telling av filmer pr år i hele katalogen.

- -

Målemetoden henter ut de fem øverste i søkeresultatet. - Søkeresultatene er sortert på antall bittorrent-klienter registrert - som delere i katalogene, hvilket kan gi en slagside mot hvilke - filmer som er populære blant de som bruker bittorrent-katalogene, - uten at det forteller noe om hvilket innhold som er tilgjengelig - eller hvilket innhold som deles med Popcorn Time-klienter. Jeg har - forsøkt å måle hvor stor en slik slagside eventuelt er ved å - sammenligne fordelingen hvis en tar de 5 nederste i søkeresultatet i - stedet. Avviket for disse to metodene for endel kataloger er godt - synlig på histogramet. Her er histogram over filmer funnet i den - komplette katalogen (grønn strek), og filmer funnet ved søk etter - ord i Dale-Chall. Grafer merket 'top' henter fra de 5 første i - søkeresultatet, mens de merket 'bottom' henter fra de 5 siste. En - kan her se at resultatene påvirkes betydelig av hvorvidt en ser på - de første eller de siste filmene i et søketreff.

- -

- - -
- - -
- - -
- - -

- -

Det er verdt å bemerke at de omtalte bittorrent-katalogene ikke er - laget for bruk med Popcorn Time. Eksempelvis tilhører katalogen - YTS, som brukes av klientet som ble lastes ned fra popcorntime.sh, - et selvstendig fildelings-relatert nettsted YTS.AG med et separat - brukermiljø. Målemetoden foreslått av Økokrim måler dermed ikke - (u)lovligheten rundt bruken av Popcorn Time, men (u)lovligheten til - innholdet i disse katalogene.

- -
- -

Metoden fra Økokrims dokument 09,13 i straffesaken -om DNS-beslag.

+ +
12th July 2018
+

PS: See +the +followup post for a even better approach.

+ +

A while back, I was asked by a friend how to stream the desktop to +my projector connected to Kodi. I sadly had to admit that I had no +idea, as it was a task I never had tried. Since then, I have been +looking for a way to do so, preferable without much extra software to +install on either side. Today I found a way that seem to kind of +work. Not great, but it is a start.

+ +

I had a look at several approaches, for example +using uPnP +DLNA as described in 2011, but it required a uPnP server, fuse and +local storage enough to store the stream locally. This is not going +to work well for me, lacking enough free space, and it would +impossible for my friend to get working.

+ +

Next, it occurred to me that perhaps I could use VLC to create a +video stream that Kodi could play. Preferably using +broadcast/multicast, to avoid having to change any setup on the Kodi +side when starting such stream. Unfortunately, the only recipe I +could find using multicast used the rtp protocol, and this protocol +seem to not be supported by Kodi.

+ +

On the other hand, the rtsp protocol is working! Unfortunately I +have to specify the IP address of the streaming machine in both the +sending command and the file on the Kodi server. But it is showing my +desktop, and thus allow us to have a shared look on the big screen at +the programs I work on.

+ +

I did not spend much time investigating codeces. I combined the +rtp and rtsp recipes from +the +VLC Streaming HowTo/Command Line Examples, and was able to get +this working on the desktop/streaming end.

+ +
+vlc screen:// --sout \
+  '#transcode{vcodec=mp4v,acodec=mpga,vb=800,ab=128}:rtp{dst=projector.local,port=1234,sdp=rtsp://192.168.11.4:8080/test.sdp}'
+
+ +

I ssh-ed into my Kodi box and created a file like this with the +same IP address:

+ +
+echo rtsp://192.168.11.4:8080/test.sdp \
+  > /storage/videos/screenstream.m3u
+
+ +

Note the 192.168.11.4 IP address is my desktops IP address. As far +as I can tell the IP must be hardcoded for this to work. In other +words, if someone elses machine is going to do the steaming, you have +to update screenstream.m3u on the Kodi machine and adjust the vlc +recipe. To get started, locate the file in Kodi and select the m3u +file while the VLC stream is running. The desktop then show up in my +big screen. :)

+ +

When using the same technique to stream a video file with audio, +the audio quality is really bad. No idea if the problem is package +loss or bad parameters for the transcode. I do not know VLC nor Kodi +enough to tell.

+ +

Update 2018-07-12: Johannes Schauer send me a few +succestions and reminded me about an important step. The "screen:" +input source is only available once the vlc-plugin-access-extra +package is installed on Debian. Without it, you will see this error +message: "VLC is unable to open the MRL 'screen://'. Check the log +for details." He further found that it is possible to drop some parts +of the VLC command line to reduce the amount of hardcoded information. +It is also useful to consider using cvlc to avoid having the VLC +window in the desktop view. In sum, this give us this command line on +the source end + +

+cvlc screen:// --sout \
+  '#transcode{vcodec=mp4v,acodec=mpga,vb=800,ab=128}:rtp{sdp=rtsp://:8080/}'
+
+ +

and this on the Kodi end

+ +

+echo rtsp://192.168.11.4:8080/ \
+  > /storage/videos/screenstream.m3u
+
+ +

Still bad image quality, though. But I did discover that streaming +a DVD using dvdsimple:///dev/dvd as the source had excellent video and +audio quality, so I guess the issue is in the input or transcoding +parts, not the rtsp part. I've tried to change the vb and ab +parameters to use more bandwidth, but it did not make a +difference.

+ +

I further received a suggestion from Einar Haraldseid to try using +gstreamer instead of VLC, and this proved to work great! He also +provided me with the trick to get Kodi to use a multicast stream as +its source. By using this monstrous oneliner, I can stream my desktop +with good video quality in reasonable framerate to the 239.255.0.1 +multicast address on port 1234: + +

+gst-launch-1.0 ximagesrc use-damage=0 ! video/x-raw,framerate=30/1 ! \
+  videoconvert ! queue2 ! \
+  x264enc bitrate=8000 speed-preset=superfast tune=zerolatency qp-min=30 \
+  key-int-max=15 bframes=2 ! video/x-h264,profile=high ! queue2 ! \
+  mpegtsmux alignment=7 name=mux ! rndbuffersize max=1316 min=1316 ! \
+  udpsink host=239.255.0.1 port=1234 ttl-mc=1 auto-multicast=1 sync=0 \
+  pulsesrc device=$(pactl list | grep -A2 'Source #' | \
+    grep 'Name: .*\.monitor$' |  cut -d" " -f2|head -1) ! \
+  audioconvert ! queue2 ! avenc_aac ! queue2 ! mux.
+
+ +

and this on the Kodi end

+ +

+echo udp://@239.255.0.1:1234 \
+  > /storage/videos/screenstream.m3u
+
+ +

Note the trick to pick a valid pulseaudio source. It might not +pick the one you need. This approach will of course lead to trouble +if more than one source uses the same multicast port and address. +Note the ttl-mc=1 setting, which limit the multicast packages to the +local network. If the value is increased, your screen will be +broadcasted further, one network "hop" for each increase (read up on +multicast to learn more. :)!

+ +

Having cracked how to get Kodi to receive multicast streams, I +could use this VLC command to stream to the same multicast address. +The image quality is way better than the rtsp approach, but gstreamer +seem to be doing a better job.

+ +
+cvlc screen:// --sout '#transcode{vcodec=mp4v,acodec=mpga,vb=800,ab=128}:rtp{mux=ts,dst=239.255.0.1,port=1234,sdp=sap}'
+
-

1. Evaluation of (il)legality

- -

1.1. Methodology - -

Due to its technical configuration, Popcorn Time applications don't -allow to make a full list of all titles made available. In order to -evaluate the level of illegal operation of PCT, the following -methodology was applied:

- -
    - -
  1. A random selection of 50 keywords, greater than 3 letters, was - made from the Dale-Chall list that contains 3000 simple English - words1. The selection was made by using a Random Number - Generator2.
  2. - -
  3. For each keyword, starting with the first randomly selected - keyword, a search query was conducted in the movie section of the - respective Popcorn Time application. For each keyword, the first - five results were added to the title list until the number of 100 - unique titles was reached (duplicates were removed).
  4. - -
  5. For one fork, .CH, insufficient titles were generated via this - approach to reach 100 titles. This was solved by adding any - additional query results above five for each of the 50 keywords. - Since this still was not enough, another 42 random keywords were - selected to finally reach 100 titles.
  6. - -
  7. It was verified whether or not there is a reasonable expectation - that the work is copyrighted by checking if they are available on - IMDb, also verifying the director, the year when the title was - released, the release date for a certain market, the production - company/ies of the title and the distribution company/ies.
  8. - -
- -

1.2. Results

- -

Between 6 and 9 June 2016, four forks of Popcorn Time were -investigated: popcorn-time.to, popcorntime.ag, popcorntime.sh and -popcorntime.ch. An excel sheet with the results is included in -Appendix 1. Screenshots were secured in separate Appendixes for each -respective fork, see Appendix 2-5.

- -

For each fork, out of 100, de-duplicated titles it was possible to -retrieve data according to the parameters set out above that indicate -that the title is commercially available. Per fork, there was 1 title -that presumably falls within the public domain, i.e. the 1928 movie -"The Circus" by and with Charles Chaplin.

- -

Based on the above it is reasonable to assume that 99% of the movie -content of each fork is copyright protected and is made available -illegally.

- -

This exercise was not repeated for TV series, but considering that -besides production companies and distribution companies also -broadcasters may have relevant rights, it is reasonable to assume that -at least a similar level of infringement will be established.

- -

Based on the above it is reasonable to assume that 99% of all the -content of each fork is copyright protected and are made available -illegally.

+

As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my +activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address +15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b.

@@ -767,43 +484,121 @@ illegally.

- -
17th December 2017
-

After several months of working and waiting, I am happy to report -that the nice and user friendly 3D printer slicer software Cura just -entered Debian Unstable. It consist of five packages, -cura, -cura-engine, -libarcus, -fdm-materials, -libsavitar and -uranium. The last -two, uranium and cura, entered Unstable yesterday. This should make -it easier for Debian users to print on at least the Ultimaker class of -3D printers. My nearest 3D printer is an Ultimaker 2+, so it will -make life easier for at least me. :)

- -

The work to make this happen was done by Gregor Riepl, and I was -happy to assist him in sponsoring the packages. With the introduction -of Cura, Debian is up to three 3D printer slicers at your service, -Cura, Slic3r and Slic3r Prusa. If you own or have access to a 3D -printer, give it a go. :)

- -

The 3D printer software is maintained by the 3D printer Debian -team, flocking together on the -3dprinter-general -mailing list and the -#debian-3dprinting -IRC channel.

- -

The next step for Cura in Debian is to update the cura package to -version 3.0.3 and then update the entire set of packages to version -3.1.0 which showed up the last few days.

+ +
9th July 2018
+

Five years ago, +I +measured what the most supported MIME type in Debian was, by +analysing the desktop files in all packages in the archive. Since +then, the DEP-11 AppStream system has been put into production, making +the task a lot easier. This made me want to repeat the measurement, +to see how much things changed. Here are the new numbers, for +unstable only this time: + +

Debian Unstable:

+ +
+  count MIME type
+  ----- -----------------------
+     56 image/jpeg
+     55 image/png
+     49 image/tiff
+     48 image/gif
+     39 image/bmp
+     38 text/plain
+     37 audio/mpeg
+     34 application/ogg
+     33 audio/x-flac
+     32 audio/x-mp3
+     30 audio/x-wav
+     30 audio/x-vorbis+ogg
+     29 image/x-portable-pixmap
+     27 inode/directory
+     27 image/x-portable-bitmap
+     27 audio/x-mpeg
+     26 application/x-ogg
+     25 audio/x-mpegurl
+     25 audio/ogg
+     24 text/html
+
+ +

The list was created like this using a sid chroot: "cat +/var/lib/apt/lists/*sid*_dep11_Components-amd64.yml.gz| zcat | awk '/^ +- \S+\/\S+$/ {print $2 }' | sort | uniq -c | sort -nr | head -20"

+ +

It is interesting to see how image formats have passed text/plain +as the most announced supported MIME type. These days, thanks to the +AppStream system, if you run into a file format you do not know, and +want to figure out which packages support the format, you can find the +MIME type of the file using "file --mime <filename>", and then +look up all packages announcing support for this format in their +AppStream metadata (XML or .desktop file) using "appstreamcli +what-provides mimetype <mime-type>. For example if you, like +me, want to know which packages support inode/directory, you can get a +list like this:

+ +

+% appstreamcli what-provides mimetype inode/directory | grep Package: | sort
+Package: anjuta
+Package: audacious
+Package: baobab
+Package: cervisia
+Package: chirp
+Package: dolphin
+Package: doublecmd-common
+Package: easytag
+Package: enlightenment
+Package: ephoto
+Package: filelight
+Package: gwenview
+Package: k4dirstat
+Package: kaffeine
+Package: kdesvn
+Package: kid3
+Package: kid3-qt
+Package: nautilus
+Package: nemo
+Package: pcmanfm
+Package: pcmanfm-qt
+Package: qweborf
+Package: ranger
+Package: sirikali
+Package: spacefm
+Package: spacefm
+Package: vifm
+%
+

+ +

Using the same method, I can quickly discover that the Sketchup file +format is not yet supported by any package in Debian:

+ +

+% appstreamcli what-provides mimetype  application/vnd.sketchup.skp
+Could not find component providing 'mimetype::application/vnd.sketchup.skp'.
+%
+

+ +

Yesterday I used it to figure out which packages support the STL 3D +format:

+ +

+% appstreamcli what-provides mimetype  application/sla|grep Package
+Package: cura
+Package: meshlab
+Package: printrun
+%
+

+ +

PS: A new version of Cura was uploaded to Debian yesterday.

+ +

As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my +activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address +15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b.

@@ -811,76 +606,74 @@ version 3.0.3 and then update the entire set of packages to version
- -
13th December 2017
-

While looking at -the scanned copies -for the copyright renewal entries for movies published in the USA, -an idea occurred to me. The number of renewals are so few per year, it -should be fairly quick to transcribe them all and add references to -the corresponding IMDB title ID. This would give the (presumably) -complete list of movies published 28 years earlier that did _not_ -enter the public domain for the transcribed year. By fetching the -list of USA movies published 28 years earlier and subtract the movies -with renewals, we should be left with movies registered in IMDB that -are now in the public domain. For the year 1955 (which is the one I -have looked at the most), the total number of pages to transcribe is -21. For the 28 years from 1950 to 1978, it should be in the range -500-600 pages. It is just a few days of work, and spread among a -small group of people it should be doable in a few weeks of spare -time.

- -

A typical copyright renewal entry look like this (the first one -listed for 1955):

- -

- ADAM AND EVIL, a photoplay in seven reels by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer - Distribution Corp. (c) 17Aug27; L24293. Loew's Incorporated (PWH); - 10Jun55; R151558. -

- -

The movie title as well as registration and renewal dates are easy -enough to locate by a program (split on first comma and look for -DDmmmYY). The rest of the text is not required to find the movie in -IMDB, but is useful to confirm the correct movie is found. I am not -quite sure what the L and R numbers mean, but suspect they are -reference numbers into the archive of the US Copyright Office.

- -

Tracking down the equivalent IMDB title ID is probably going to be -a manual task, but given the year it is fairly easy to search for the -movie title using for example -http://www.imdb.com/find?q=adam+and+evil+1927&s=all. -Using this search, I find that the equivalent IMDB title ID for the -first renewal entry from 1955 is -http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0017588/.

- -

I suspect the best way to do this would be to make a specialised -web service to make it easy for contributors to transcribe and track -down IMDB title IDs. In the web service, once a entry is transcribed, -the title and year could be extracted from the text, a search in IMDB -conducted for the user to pick the equivalent IMDB title ID right -away. By spreading out the work among volunteers, it would also be -possible to make at least two persons transcribe the same entries to -be able to discover any typos introduced. But I will need help to -make this happen, as I lack the spare time to do all of this on my -own. If you would like to help, please get in touch. Perhaps you can -draft a web service for crowd sourcing the task?

- -

Note, Project Gutenberg already have some -transcribed -copies of the US Copyright Office renewal protocols, but I have -not been able to find any film renewals there, so I suspect they only -have copies of renewal for written works. I have not been able to find -any transcribed versions of movie renewals so far. Perhaps they exist -somewhere?

- -

I would love to figure out methods for finding all the public -domain works in other countries too, but it is a lot harder. At least -for Norway and Great Britain, such work involve tracking down the -people involved in making the movie and figuring out when they died. -It is hard enough to figure out who was part of making a movie, but I -do not know how to automate such procedure without a registry of every -person involved in making movies and their death year.

+ +
8th July 2018
+

Quite regularly, I let my Debian Sid/Unstable chroot stay untouch +for a while, and when I need to update it there is not enough free +space on the disk for apt to do a normal 'apt upgrade'. I normally +would resolve the issue by doing 'apt install <somepackages>' to +upgrade only some of the packages in one batch, until the amount of +packages to download fall below the amount of free space available. +Today, I had about 500 packages to upgrade, and after a while I got +tired of trying to install chunks of packages manually. I concluded +that I did not have the spare hours required to complete the task, and +decided to see if I could automate it. I came up with this small +script which I call 'apt-in-chunks':

+ +

+#!/bin/sh
+#
+# Upgrade packages when the disk is too full to upgrade every
+# upgradable package in one lump.  Fetching packages to upgrade using
+# apt, and then installing using dpkg, to avoid changing the package
+# flag for manual/automatic.
+
+set -e
+
+ignore() {
+    if [ "$1" ]; then
+	grep -v "$1"
+    else
+	cat
+    fi
+}
+
+for p in $(apt list --upgradable | ignore "$@" |cut -d/ -f1 | grep -v '^Listing...'); do
+    echo "Upgrading $p"
+    apt clean
+    apt install --download-only -y $p
+    for f in /var/cache/apt/archives/*.deb; do
+	if [ -e "$f" ]; then
+	    dpkg -i /var/cache/apt/archives/*.deb
+	    break
+	fi
+    done
+done
+

+ +

The script will extract the list of packages to upgrade, try to +download the packages needed to upgrade one package, install the +downloaded packages using dpkg. The idea is to upgrade packages +without changing the APT mark for the package (ie the one recording of +the package was manually requested or pulled in as a dependency). To +use it, simply run it as root from the command line. If it fail, try +'apt install -f' to clean up the mess and run the script again. This +might happen if the new packages conflict with one of the old +packages. dpkg is unable to remove, while apt can do this.

+ +

It take one option, a package to ignore in the list of packages to +upgrade. The option to ignore a package is there to be able to skip +the packages that are simply too large to unpack. Today this was +'ghc', but I have run into other large packages causing similar +problems earlier (like TeX).

+ +

Update 2018-07-08: Thanks to Paul Wise, I am aware of two +alternative ways to handle this. The "unattended-upgrades +--minimal-upgrade-steps" option will try to calculate upgrade sets for +each package to upgrade, and then upgrade them in order, smallest set +first. It might be a better option than my above mentioned script. +Also, "aptutude upgrade" can upgrade single packages, thus avoiding +the need for using "dpkg -i" in the script above.

As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address @@ -889,7 +682,7 @@ activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address

@@ -897,40 +690,23 @@ activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
- -
5th December 2017
-

Three years ago, a presumed lost animation film, -Empty Socks from -1927, was discovered in the Norwegian National Library. At the -time it was discovered, it was generally assumed to be copyrighted by -The Walt Disney Company, and I blogged about -my -reasoning to conclude that it would would enter the Norwegian -equivalent of the public domain in 2053, based on my understanding of -Norwegian Copyright Law. But a few days ago, I came across -a -blog post claiming the movie was already in the public domain, at -least in USA. The reasoning is as follows: The film was released in -November or Desember 1927 (sources disagree), and presumably -registered its copyright that year. At that time, right holders of -movies registered by the copyright office received government -protection for there work for 28 years. After 28 years, the copyright -had to be renewed if the wanted the government to protect it further. -The blog post I found claim such renewal did not happen for this -movie, and thus it entered the public domain in 1956. Yet someone -claim the copyright was renewed and the movie is still copyright -protected. Can anyone help me to figure out which claim is correct? -I have not been able to find Empty Socks in Catalog of copyright -entries. Ser.3 pt.12-13 v.9-12 1955-1958 Motion Pictures -available -from the University of Pennsylvania, neither in -page -45 for the first half of 1955, nor in -page -119 for the second half of 1955. It is of course possible that -the renewal entry was left out of the printed catalog by mistake. Is -there some way to rule out this possibility? Please help, and update -the wikipedia page with your findings. +

+
30th June 2018
+

So far, at least hydro-electric power, coal power, wind power, +solar power, and wood power are well known. Until a few days ago, I +had never heard of stone power. Then I learn about a quarry in a +mountain in +Bremanger i +Norway, where +the +Bremanger Quarry company is extracting stone and dumping the stone +into a shaft leading to its shipping harbour. This downward movement +in this shaft is used to produce electricity. In short, it is using +falling rocks instead of falling water to produce electricity, and +according to its own statements it is producing more power than it is +using, and selling the surplus electricity to the Norwegian power +grid. I find the concept truly amazing. Is this the worlds only +stone power plant?

As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address @@ -939,7 +715,7 @@ activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address

@@ -947,115 +723,57 @@ activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
- -
28th November 2017
-

It would be easier to locate the movie you want to watch in -the Internet Archive, if the -metadata about each movie was more complete and accurate. In the -archiving community, a well known saying state that good metadata is a -love letter to the future. The metadata in the Internet Archive could -use a face lift for the future to love us back. Here is a proposal -for a small improvement that would make the metadata more useful -today. I've been unable to find any document describing the various -standard fields available when uploading videos to the archive, so -this proposal is based on my best quess and searching through several -of the existing movies.

- -

I have a few use cases in mind. First of all, I would like to be -able to count the number of distinct movies in the Internet Archive, -without duplicates. I would further like to identify the IMDB title -ID of the movies in the Internet Archive, to be able to look up a IMDB -title ID and know if I can fetch the video from there and share it -with my friends.

- -

Second, I would like the Butter data provider for The Internet -archive -(available -from github), to list as many of the good movies as possible. The -plugin currently do a search in the archive with the following -parameters:

- -

-collection:moviesandfilms
-AND NOT collection:movie_trailers
-AND -mediatype:collection
-AND format:"Archive BitTorrent"
-AND year
-

- -

Most of the cool movies that fail to show up in Butter do so -because the 'year' field is missing. The 'year' field is populated by -the year part from the 'date' field, and should be when the movie was -released (date or year). Two such examples are -Ben Hur -from 1905 and -Caminandes -2: Gran Dillama from 2013, where the year metadata field is -missing.

- -So, my proposal is simply, for every movie in The Internet Archive -where an IMDB title ID exist, please fill in these metadata fields -(note, they can be updated also long after the video was uploaded, but -as far as I can tell, only by the uploader): - -
- -
mediatype
-
Should be 'movie' for movies.
- -
collection
-
Should contain 'moviesandfilms'.
- -
title
-
The title of the movie, without the publication year.
- -
date
-
The data or year the movie was released. This make the movie show -up in Butter, as well as make it possible to know the age of the -movie and is useful to figure out copyright status.
- -
director
-
The director of the movie. This make it easier to know if the -correct movie is found in movie databases.
- -
publisher
-
The production company making the movie. Also useful for -identifying the correct movie.
- -
links
- -
Add a link to the IMDB title page, for example like this: <a -href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0028496/">Movie in -IMDB</a>. This make it easier to find duplicates and allow for -counting of number of unique movies in the Archive. Other external -references, like to TMDB, could be added like this too.
- -
- -

I did consider proposing a Custom field for the IMDB title ID (for -example 'imdb_title_url', 'imdb_code' or simply 'imdb', but suspect it -will be easier to simply place it in the links free text field.

- -

I created -a -list of IMDB title IDs for several thousand movies in the Internet -Archive, but I also got a list of several thousand movies without -such IMDB title ID (and quite a few duplicates). It would be great if -this data set could be integrated into the Internet Archive metadata -to be available for everyone in the future, but with the current -policy of leaving metadata editing to the uploaders, it will take a -while before this happen. If you have uploaded movies into the -Internet Archive, you can help. Please consider following my proposal -above for your movies, to ensure that movie is properly -counted. :)

- -

The list is mostly generated using wikidata, which based on -Wikipedia articles make it possible to link between IMDB and movies in -the Internet Archive. But there are lots of movies without a -Wikipedia article, and some movies where only a collection page exist -(like for the -Caminandes example above, where there are three movies but only -one Wikidata entry).

+ +
26th June 2018
+

My movie playing setup involve Kodi, +OpenELEC (probably soon to be +replaced with LibreELEC) and an +Infocus IN76 video projector. My projector can be controlled via both +a infrared remote controller, and a RS-232 serial line. The vendor of +my projector, InFocus, had been +sensible enough to document the serial protocol in its user manual, so +it is easily available, and I used it some years ago to write +a +small script to control the projector. For a while now, I longed +for a setup where the projector was controlled by Kodi, for example in +such a way that when the screen saver went on, the projector was +turned off, and when the screen saver exited, the projector was turned +on again.

+ +

A few days ago, with very good help from parts of my family, I +managed to find a Kodi Add-on for controlling a Epson projector, and +got in touch with its author to see if we could join forces and make a +Add-on with support for several projectors. To my pleasure, he was +positive to the idea, and we set out to add InFocus support to his +add-on, and make the add-on suitable for the official Kodi add-on +repository.

+ +

The Add-on is now working (for me, at least), with a few minor +adjustments. The most important change I do relative to the master +branch in the github repository is embedding the +pyserial module in +the add-on. The long term solution is to make a "script" type +pyserial module for Kodi, that can be pulled in as a dependency in +Kodi. But until that in place, I embed it.

+ +

The add-on can be configured to turn on the projector when Kodi +starts, off when Kodi stops as well as turn the projector off when the +screensaver start and on when the screesaver stops. It can also be +told to set the projector source when turning on the projector. + +

If this sound interesting to you, check out +the +project github repository. Perhaps you can send patches to +support your projector too? As soon as we find time to wrap up the +latest changes, it should be available for easy installation using any +Kodi instance.

+ +

For future improvements, I would like to add projector model +detection and the ability to adjust the brightness level of the +projector from within Kodi. We also need to figure out how to handle +the cooling period of the projector. My projector refuses to turn on +for 60 seconds after it was turned off. This is not handled well by +the add-on at the moment.

As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address @@ -1064,7 +782,7 @@ activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address

@@ -1084,7 +802,17 @@ activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
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