bot
In a lawsuit filed at a New York court in June 2024, publishers including Cengage Learning, Macmillan Learning, Elsevier, and McGraw Hill, bemoaned Google’s ‘systemic and pervasive advertising’ of infringing copies of their copyrighted textbooks.
The complaint alleged that Google Shopping ads placed by third parties used unauthorized images of the publishers’ genuine textbooks to promote sales of pirated copies; a ‘bait-and-switch’ by Google, the publishers said.
Further allegations of infringement concerned Google search results that allegedly returned piracy-heavy results in response to searches for the publishers’ products, rendering the original content more difficult to find. The publishers also claimed that takedown notices sent to Google had little effect. Notifications identifying alleged repeat infringers didn’t result in account suspensions either.
Dismissal of Vicarious Liability Claim
In a recent motion to dismiss, Google successfully argued that the publishers’ vicarious liability claim should be dismissed due to the absence of two key elements; the right and ability to supervise the infringing conduct and a direct financial interest in the same.
Since the infringing conduct took place on third party sites, the court found that Google lacked the required ability to supervise or control, so couldn’t be held vicariously liable. The publishers’ contributory copyright infringement claim wasn’t part of Google’s motion to dismiss so that remained outstanding.
Answer to First Amended Complaint
On July 2, Google filed a comprehensive answer to the publishers’ First Amended Complaint. Addressing the contributory infringement claim, Google accepts that the plaintiffs sent notices identifying URLs that they claimed infringed their copyrights in digital works.
However, Google notes that its Shopping platform is primarily used for legal purposes, and it takes substantial steps to combat infringement, including enforcing its Terms of Service and providing the means for rightsholders to report infringing content.
The system may not be perfect but, according to Google, perfection isn’t the required standard when combating infringement. Equally, mere knowledge of abuse does not render Google a contributory infringer or liable for the actions of a minority of users who abuse Google’s products for nefarious purposes.
“Were it otherwise, countless internet platforms and product manufacturers would essentially be held strictly liable simply for offering their products to users,” Google notes.
“The facts in this case will ultimately demonstrate that Plaintiffs’ claims are meritless.”
Motion for Stay, Pending Supreme Court Decision
In a letter to the court dated July 10, counsel for Google requests a stay in the current case.
“We respectfully request that the Court stay this case pending the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Cox Communications, Inc. v. Sony Music Entertainment….which will consider the standards for (i) contributory copyright infringement and (ii) willfulness under 17 U.S.C. § 504(c),” the letter reads.
As reported last month, Cox Communications successfully petitioned the Supreme Court to review a Fourth Circuit ruling that held the ISP contributorily liable for the actions of subscribers who engaged in piracy.
Labels, including Sony and Universal, had previously secured a $1 billion verdict from a jury in Virginia. This verdict was based on Cox’s knowledge of infringement, material contribution, and a $150,000 maximum statutory damages award per work for ‘willful infringement.
Given the clear similarities to the Cox case pending at the Supreme Court, Google notes that a stay in the publishers’ lawsuit is appropriate.
Core Claims of Willful Contributory Copyright Infringement
Google believes that the Supreme Court’s decision will not only have an impact on the publishers’ lawsuit, it could potentially determine the outcome.
“The core of Plaintiffs’ case is their claim that Google is a willful contributory copyright infringer,” the motion for stay continues.
“Given the centrality of the contributory infringement claim and Plaintiffs’ intent to seek enhanced willfulness damages, the Supreme Court’s decision in Cox will have a significant, and potentially dispositive, impact on the course of this litigation.”
Identical Theory of Liability
Google goes on to cite a petition by the U.S. Solicitor General which overwhelmingly sided with Cox while urging the Supreme Court to take on the case. Google says the theory of liability in Cox is identical to the theory presented by the publishers.
“Plaintiffs’ theory of Google’s liability is identical to the plaintiffs’ theory in Cox: Plaintiffs say Google is liable for willful contributory copyright infringement because it continued to provide merchants with access to Google’s Shopping platform after receiving notices of infringement,” counsel for Google notes.
“If the Supreme Court ultimately agrees with the United States and rejects the Fourth Circuit’s rule on these issues, that would undermine—likely fatally—Plaintiffs’ theories of contributory liability and willfulness here. But regardless of what happens, the Supreme Court’s eventual decision will shape the key issues presented in this case, including questions related to the scope of relevant fact and expert discovery.”
Google believes that oral argument in the Cox matter “could be heard as early as the November sitting, with a possible decision a few months later.”
Describing a few months delay as a modest postponement that could even offer “significant economies” in the current case, Google says that the plaintiffs will not face “any meaningful prejudice” from a short delay.
Google’s Motion for Stay Pending Supreme Court’s Decision in Cox, is available here (pdf)
From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.
From TorrentFreak via this RSS feed
Phoenix is in Marvel Rivals, which means I might finally put Overwatch 2 on the shelf for a bit and get back into NetEase’s hero shooter game. Not out of some deep admiration for Phoenix, mind you. The only things I know about her are what I gleaned from Wikipedia after NetEase announced her for Marvel Rivals season 3 and one important fact from her character trailer: She actually moves like a normal human — well, mutant — and that was exciting, something I couldn’t say for Rivals prior to this point.
Since the game launched in December 2024, Marvel Rivals players have periodically complained on Reddit about how slow character movement speed is, or seems to be. Some said it felt like walking in slow motion; others said it was just a perspective trick, that of course games like Overwatch seemed faster, since the camera is first person and seems more dynamic. I agreed with the former and lamented the slow strides and glacial attack pace that plagued every hero in Rivals, gradually playing less and less as the perceived issue grew more and more annoying.
Now that Overwatch 2 has its third-person Stadium mode, and after seeing how Phoenix seemed to move more quickly, I decided to see if my theory about the rest of Rivals being so slow was right. It was. Kind of.
The practice arena in both games includes areas with distance measurements to help calculate damage drop-off ranges, which also doubles as the perfect place to test movement speed. After messing around with multiple characters, I confirmed that Rivals characters take roughly half of a stride longer to travel five meters compared to Overwatch 2 characters. That sounds like a problem, but Rivals‘ distance scaling is also a bit different. Five meters in Rivals is about 11.5 inches, where the same distance is approximately 10 inches in Overwatch 2.
“Why does this matter?” you might be asking. The answer is that it means Rivals characters move about as fast as most Overwatch 2 characters, or even faster, since they’re technically covering a longer distance in the same-ish number of steps. It’s not a speed issue. It’s a style issue.
Cloak and Dagger, Namor, Spider-Man, and the rest move as if they’re auditioning for a role in Baywatch, loping dramatically down the battlefield in big, rangey steps. Lengthy pauses punctuate attack combos for everyone who isn’t the martial arts expert Iron Fist, turning what should be high-energy battles into something that wouldn’t be out of place in a ballet. Most attack sounds and animations are muted, too. Winter Soldier’s swanky pistol sounds like a popgun with a silencer on it, and Scarlet Witch’s life absorption has, well, no life to it. All this is elegant in an understated way, sure — but it’s not very super.
Phoenix changes all of that. A searing whoosh sound accompanies her attacks, with a small explosion after three consecutive hits on the same enemy. Her other offensive skill detonates an even bigger explosion. She zooms around in flaming-bird form to quickly relocate, and can even combine this with a second mobility skill, one that doesn’t have an obscenely lengthy cooldown timer. When she dodges or changes direction, she’s moving quickly instead of leaning lazily to one side as if she can’t be bothered, and there’s a quickness to her movement animations that adds a sense of urgency, even if she’s not actually moving faster. (She isn’t. Cloak and Dagger cover the same distance in fewer steps.)
Basically, NetEase finally found a combination of style and function that isn’t boring and doesn’t make you feel like you’re swimming through pudding. Phoenix plays and moves like you’d expect a trained fighter to move, so even though she may not be fundamentally different from other characters, her fights feel exciting. And that’s enough for me.
From Polygon via this RSS feed
All due respect to developer Rare — I really enjoyed my time with Diddy Kong Racing, team! — I’m choosing to willfully ignore almost the entirety of its work on the Donkey Kong franchise, because there’s a bunch of very confusing ape lore I’d prefer not to think about while I play Donkey Kong Bananza next week.
And, yeah, Candy Kong is a big part of that. I never want to think about Candy Kong in particular.
As a longtime fan of games Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr., and 1994 Game Boy game Donkey Kong, I’m going to approach the events of Bananza as the next major milestone in that franchise — a legacyquel, if you will. I’m positively buzzing at seeing how the events of Bananza lead directly into Donkey Kong, a story about Mario climbing a building to save a woman — if that is indeed how the Super Mario Odyssey team has decided to handle this potential prequel.
Nintendo is, of course, withholding those important story details in the lead up to Bananza. The company hasn’t explained why the modern-day Donkey Kong is buddying up with a 13-year-old Pauline, a person he seemingly kidnapped some 44 years ago. I’m both excited to see where this story goes and therefore earnestly avoiding spoilers for the upcoming Switch 2 game in a way I never thought I would. Who cares about Donkey Kong spoilers? Me, apparently!
While it’s been made clear in last month’s Donkey Kong Bananza Nintendo Direct that Country-era Kongs like Cranky, Diddy, and Dixie Kong will show up in DK’s new adventure, I’m going to recanonize those apes to suit my own selfish needs. There will be dozens of named and unnamed simians in Bananza, and I’ll recognize their existence with fresh eyes.
Why do I choose to ignore those Donkey Kong Country and Donkey Kong Land games? Largely for their dated humor and Saturday-morning-cartoon-approach to extending the Donkey Kong universe in careless, corny ways. Also, the character designs are simply atrocious (see Swanky Kong, Candy Kong, Kiddy Kong, Chunky Kong, etc.). As previously mentioned, I have a real issue with the design of Candy Kong, an alarmingly sexed-up ape who feels like a barely disguised fetish and thus probably scarred impressionable children for life. (Funky Kong is OK.)
Donkey Kong Bananza, however, looks to flesh out Kong lore and ape variety in more visually intriguing ways. The game’s giant animal Elders and the menacing apes of VoidCo are a leap forward in design, and they give the world of Bananza a mystical, lived-in world feel. Bonanza’s bad guys look to be an evolution of the antagonists of Donkey Kong Jungle Beat, albeit much more creative.
None of my planned willful ignorance of the Donkey Kong Country games (and by extension the Donkey Kong Country Returns games) should be interpreted as a slight against how those games play. They are fine. Some of them are good! Some of them are Donkey Kong 64. But as a Nintendo enthusiast turned off by the Rare-era planet of apes, I’m perfectly fine to let them all live in the past and move on to a brave new Donkey Kong world.
From Polygon via this RSS feed
Superman is the most powerful superhero in DC Comics, able to go toe to toe with its most powerful villains, like Darkseid and Brainiac. That’s why it’s surprising that his nemesis is Lex Luthor, a man without any superpowers.
The best versions of Luthor across comics, television, and movies make him a threat precisely because of that disparity. He fights Superman with wealth and connections rather than with fists or energy beams. He understands Superman’s moral code and uses it to his advantage, knowing that even if Superman is convinced Luthor is behind the latest scheme he’s unraveled, he can’t do anything about it without hard proof that will convince the authorities.
But superhero stories require an exciting climax, and writers have struggled with how to put Luthor at the center of the action. Some stories put him in a war suit so he can survive a punch from the Man of Steel. Justice League Unlimited gave him superpowers by fusing him with Brainiac. In Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely’s All-Star Superman, which James Gunn said was a primary influence for his 2025 Superman, Luthor uses Superman’s DNA to gain his powers.
Gunn found a different way to let Luthor fight Superman, one that leans more into his skills as a mastermind. It’s a spin that links up closely with a clever recent reinvention of a Marvel villain, and it forces Superman to find a new way to take his nemesis down.
[Ed. note: Major spoilers follow for Superman — and Spiderman: Far From Home.]
Supermanopens just after Superman (David Corenswet) gets absolutely pummeled by the Hammer of Boravia, a hulking armored figure who claims to be avenging his home country after Superman stops Boravia from invading a neighboring country. The supposed national champion of Boravia is capable of smashing the world’s most powerful metahuman into the pavement, but it’s quickly revealed that he isn’t actually Boravian: He’s a creation of Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult), who is guiding every blow in the fight from a command center in his Metropolis skyscraper.
It’s a team effort reminiscent of how the illusionist Mysterio operates in Spiderman: Far From Home. While Quentin Beck (Jake Gyllenhaal) is disguised as a hero from another dimension, supposedly battling to save Earth from invading elementals, he has a whole crew working behind the scenes to make the illusion convincing, in a scheme to earn Peter Parker’s trust. Luthor’s Superman clone Ultraman is inside the Hammer of Boravia’s armor, delivering the big hits and taking Superman’s punches while Luthor directs his every move, with the help of a small army of lackeys. Luthor doesn’t need to fight Superman himself, because he’s used his intellect to stage a battle entirely on his terms. “Brain beats brawn,” Luthor crows when he has Superman at his lowest.
Like the MCU’s Mysterio, who spent 12 years uniting other disgruntled Stark Industries employees and plotting his revenge, this Luthor is patient. Luthor’s spent the three years since Superman entered the world stage studying Superman’s every move so Luthor could choreograph a fight against him. Luthor combed through the sites of his battles for blood he could use to clone Superman. Luthor convinced Boravia’s leader that the tech billionaire wanted a war for real estate — a nice nod to the land-grabbing versions of the character played by Gene Hackman in 1978’s Superman and Kevin Spacey in 2006’s Superman Returns — when Luthor was really just looking for an excuse to kill Superman. Even the Hammer of Boravia attack is just a distraction Luthor can use to infiltrate Superman’s Fortress of Solitude, in search of something he can use to fight Superman in the court of public opinion.
Both Mysterio and Luthor want everyone to know just how smart they are. Mysterio lays out every part of his plan at the villainous wrap party he hosts after successfully tricking Peter into giving him control of the tech Tony Stark deeded to Peter. Luthor similarly villain-monologues to Superman after imprisoning him, confident in the redundant defenses of having him trapped in a sunless pocket dimension in a cell with a living hunk of Kryptonite. The hubris might seem silly if it wasn’t so very core to his character.
While Gunn’s Superman doesn’t follow the plot of All-Star Superman, where the dying hero completes a set of Herculean trials to put his affairs in order, the movie is true to Morrison’s excellent version of Luthor. The brilliant scientist sees himself as an avatar of human potential and ambition, and Superman as an invasive species that threatens to smother those qualities. Luthor doesn’t think of himself as a villain, but as a savior of a threatened humanity. Gunn’s version of Luthor has even more of a point than Morrison’s, since this Superman was sent to Earth precisely because he’s so much stronger than humans that he could easily dominate the planet if he chose to.
Hoult beautifully delivers those same sentiments. His Lex is a petty tyrant who enjoys the fear he inspires in his subordinates so much that after dropping a mug full of pencils just to watch them scramble to clean up the mess, he immediately knocks over another one, like a sadistic cat. But he’s honest about his failings, admitting that he’s extremely jealous of Superman. He had to spend years scheming to create a credible threat for someone who fell out of the sky and became the most powerful man on Earth.
But while Luthor accounts for all of Superman’s fighting techniques, he doesn’t grasp his greatest strength: the ability to inspire others. Superman escapes from Luthor’s prison by enlisting the help of Metamorpho (Anthony Carrigan). He stops his schemes in Boravia by getting the Justice Gang to take up the cause. His girlfriend Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan) leads the investigation that exposes Luthor’s crimes. Even Superman’s kindness to the misbehaving superpowered dog Krypto helps him win the final battle.Luthor ends the film shipped off Belle Reve, the base of operations of Amanda Waller’sTask Force X, so he will almost assuredly have more of a role to play in the future of Gunn’s DC Universe. Even defeated, this is a version of the character with huge potential. He’s already shown his skill at commanding a group capable of taking down Superman. With the ground laid for the Justice Gang to become the Justice League, hopefully Luthor will get to take on his other big role in DC Comics: leader of the Legion of Doom.
From Polygon via this RSS feed
There’s a new AI in the house.
I've waited two years to try out the new Alexa, which was first announced way back in 2023, and this week I finally got access to Alexa Plus (not organically - I did have to pull a few strings). I've now spent 24 hours with Amazon's generative AI-powered voice assistant, and it's not just an improvement on the original; it's an entirely new assistant.
Alexa Plus knows more, can do more, and is easier to interact with because it understands more. I can ramble, pause, sigh, cough, change my request mid-sentence, and it can adapt and respond appropriately. No more, "Sorry, I'm not sure about that." Miraculous.
I'm impressed, but unsurprising …
Read the full story at The Verge.
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I’ve played 500 hours of Elden Ring. I’ve beaten every boss, explored every invisible door, collected every rare armament. If I had to pick one favorite, generation-defining game above all others it would definitely be the base game and its Shadow of the Erdtree expansion.
But 160 hours into Nightreign, FromSoftware’s multiplayer spinoff that launched at the end of May, I know that there’s no way I could ever go back to the original open-world game anymore. Nightreign changed everything.
Nightreign is the brainchild of Junya Ishizaki, the developer who oversaw combat on Elden Ring. Ishizaki wanted to create a game with a different flow than that of Elden Ring, which is how FromSoftware arrived at Nightreign’s peculiar design proposition: “What if Elden Ring but make it Fortnite meets Monster Hunter?”
The drama of just barely reviving a player on their third wheel when no one has any flasks left is a shot of pure dopamine.
A team of three sets upon an expedition where the eventual goal is to defeat a tough Nightlord boss. You each start at level 1 with basic gear, and must scrounge your way into a better kit. Everything takes place on one large land mass, but the loot and boss battles are randomized. Things can be shaken up suddenly by events, like locust swarms that steal levels from players or gods who bribe the player into buying back their health.
It’s not exactly what fans would expect out of FromSoftware, who are known for lore-driven single-player experiences. The gameplay is still punishing, and players can expect to see “YOU DIED” often, just as they do in the main game. But while core Souls games offer co-op, the multiplayer is typically stuck behind a convoluted process involving arcane items and limited areas. Some players only do co-op as a last measure against boss fights that they can’t take on their own, and it’s something that is typically frowned upon by longtime diehards. Otherwise, the expected Souls gameplay loop involves slow-paced methodical exploration over dense areas pocked with winding routes and inscrutable secrets.
Nightreign’s lightning-fast design structure was bound to be a shock for even the most ardent FromSoftware fans. An ever-encroaching storm means that players cannot scour every pixel of an area, as they might in Elden Ring. Despite the emphasis on online connectivity, Nightreign is missing many of the modern conveniences people expect from multiplayer games. Matchmaking options are limited, and the game is best played with three people even if smaller teams are technically possible.
Group play, as a concept, also takes some getting used to. There are few ways to communicate with one another; players can emote or use items to say small phrases that are barely audible. Areas of the map can be marked, and equipment can be signaled to your squad. But Nightreign is a complicated game where little is explained and much is expected out of the player. It’s hard to optimize builds when you can’t talk to your team to discuss who gets what gear or why a specific area of the map is worth visiting over another, at least when you mostly play with randoms like I do. A third of my matches sometimes end early purely because someone has rage quit after dying once, which may not have happened if anyone could have reasoned with them.
There are no shortage of flaws in Nightreign, many of which have been spoken about at length by Elden Ring fans and detractors alike. I still can’t imagine going back to the core game.
Some of this realization is purely mechanical. You can run faster in Nightreign, and easily climb a hill at a 90-degree angle.There’s no such thing as fall damage, even if you’re vaulting off the tallest possible point on the map. There are two different running speeds, separate from the walking speed. The combat is also brisker, especially if you play agile classes like Duchess. Elden Ring now seems like it moves at a glacial pace, almost as if the player has been enveloped in a thick layer of molasses. That’s the last feeling I want on a revisit.
There’s no shortage of possible pain points, and most of them are the other people playing with you. Oh, the melee player has taken the staff that the magic user on our team would actually benefit from. Or Ah, there goes H1TL3R in a beeline in the opposite direction of the team, toward a boss that will kill them in a single hit. Also see: Why is the archer pinging a point on the island on the completely opposite side of the map? We love to watch in complete helplessness as a teammate runs toward the waypoint while contributing absolutely nothing.
Maybe it’s Stockholm syndrome, but I’ve also come around on the way Nightreign handles its social aspects. The fact that communicating is so difficult makes a good run feel phenomenal. The high of wailing on a boss with your crew with such precision that their AI stops being able to move is peak. No moment in Elden Ring matched the terror of seeing your entire team fall to its knees, only to have one player stand back up with his single-use revival item – and then proceed to beat the boss with a sliver of health left. The drama of just barely reviving a player on their third wheel when no one has any flasks left is a shot of pure dopamine.
The smaller moments stay with me as well. It’s noticing a player silently drop an item for you. It’s running back and forth between someone and a weapon on the ground until they notice you’re trying to tell them something. It’s watching the entire team run in happy circles after beating a boss, because in a few seconds the game will toss you back into the lobby and you’ll never see each other again.
Some things are as annoying as they are endearing. I’ve found myself in a pinging war against other teammates where everyone repeatedly ‘argues’ for going to a specific point in the map. It’s frustrating, but I also know that the people involved all care about having a good run. There are uglier emotions as well, like the shame of repeatedly getting downed by an enemy and needing your teammates to revive you. Conversely, I know that when I’m on the other side of that interaction, the person I’m risking life and limb to revive knows what the stakes are. I like to imagine they’ll try a little harder so that your efforts aren’t in vain. Ultimately, even when the emotional repertoire is difficult, I like that Nightreign can evoke such a wide range of feelings to begin with.
In recent weeks, my interest in Nightreign has been reinvigorated by its inclusion of souped-up versions of existing bosses, which it calls ‘Everdark’ Nightlords. But I’d probably be playing even if there wasn’t new content. Though I’ve spent nearly 200 hours bolting through its castles and ruins trying to evade the impending storm, I know that Nightreign is flush with secrets. There are events I’ve never seen before, only glimpsed in social media posts from bewildered players. There are routes I haven’t tried, treasures I’ve yet to find. I discover something new nearly every day about the way Nightreign’s world works. I’m constantly developing new approaches for better runs.
At first, I saw Nightreign’s design as anathema to everything Elden Ring stood for. I couldn’t understand the logic in rushing me through a landscape that was flush with opportunities. I saw Nightreign through the lens of denied possession: I wanted things, and the game was telling me that I couldn’t have them.
Here’s the thing: I’ve played Elden Ring. Really, I’ve wrung it dry. Whatever magic that brought that world alive to me is gone. I imagine this is what the Tarnished might have felt like at the end of the game, after the player becomes the Elden Lord. Getting to that point requires strength and persistence. The player has to survive countless monsters and forces beyond the realm of human understanding. Beating Elden Ring is unmistakably an achievement.
Your reward: a dead husk of a game, where every living thing has been snuffed out until the player is the only one left standing. A kingdom of ashes.
Nightreign only defies you. It tells the player they can’t have everything they want, just because they want it. Every time you set out to conquer it, the world of Nightreign is born anew. You can’t map out its contours, nor can you predict the gifts the world might bestow upon you. There’s only sacrifice: What will you pursue at the cost of all other possibilities? Are you certain?
But by denying me like this, Nightreign also makes me appreciative. It’s true, I can never go back to Elden Ring. I can also never fully possess Nightreign like a pinned butterfly in a frame. For a spell of this caliber to work, maybe it’s for the best that I can’t hear what my teammate CUML@RD has to say.
From Polygon via this RSS feed
There used to be a time when Linux gaming was a tricky affair, filled with trial and error, obscure fixes, and things randomly breaking. Many gamers used to avoid gaming on the platform due to those issues.
Now? Things have changed dramatically. Tools like Wine, Proton, DXVK, etc. have taken Linux gaming to another level. Bottles is one of those handy tools helping make the experience that much easier for gamers.
Sadly, the project has hit a funding roadblock.
Hard Work Deserves Appreciation
The lead developer behind Bottles, Mirko Brombin, recently shared an update on the project’s current state. He points out that, while Bottles has sponsorships from companies like Linode, JetBrains, and Hyperbit, they are still facing funding shortages that make sustained development difficult.
Despite having over 3 million downloads on Flathub, the project receives only about €100 per month in donations, an amount easily overshadowed by the server costs alone.
That sounds concerning. 🫤
Mirko also brought attention to Bottles Next, a complete rewrite of the app designed to modernize the codebase and improve performance. He said that they are still working on it, and while it’s due sometime in the future, continued support from Bottles users will help the team focus on development and deliver a better product faster.
He further added:
I am actively working to find sponsorships, I am in contact with a possible funding that could allow us to accelerate development, to pay a small bonus to those working on Next, to give some breathing room to those who are contributing. But here too, it takes time. And that’s precisely why today I feel the need to speak openly.
We don’t want to make Wikipedia-style appeals, with the usual “just one euro each.” But it’s right that those who love Bottles know how things really are. If you want to see Next grow, if you want to see Bottles finally become what it’s meant to be, we invite you to consider supporting us. Even just a symbolic donation, even just a monthly subscription, if done by many, can become what we need to take the next step.
If you use Bottles and want to see it grow, even a small donation helps more than you might think. Supporting the project now means faster updates and a better experience down the line.
Suggested Read 📖
It's FOSS NewsAnkush Das
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Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) are a must for privacy-minded Linux users. They encrypt your internet traffic, mask your IP address, and help bypass censorship or surveillance.
Mozilla VPN is one such option from the makers of Firefox that has been available to Linux users for some years now, though installing it was limited to Debian-based systems via the .deb package.
This is no longer the case. 😉
Mozilla VPN Comes to Flathub
The Mozilla VPN client for Linux is now available as a Flatpak on Flathub, making it accessible to a wider range of Linux distro users. With this, anyone can install the VPN easily, regardless of their distribution, and without needing to worry about compatibility or manual setup.
/The app itself has yet to receive the verified badge on Flathub, but it should get approved soon, as Mozilla officially maintains it.
If you haven’t used it before, Mozilla VPN offers the basics, like encrypted connections, no logging, and the ability to block ads and trackers. You can use it on up to five devices, and it provides access to servers in over 30 countries. Plans start at $9.99 per month, with about 50% savings on the annual plan, which costs $59.88 before taxes.
Proton VPN
Want to Install It?
If you have Flatpak set up on your system, then you can install Mozilla VPN directly from your distribution’s Software Center (e.g., GNOME Software, KDE Discover, etc.).
You can also install it via the terminal by running this command:
flatpak install flathub org.mozilla.vpn
Launch it using the command below:
flatpak run org.mozilla.vpn
If you have a graphical interface, you can also start it from your app menu or launcher.
Via: OMG! Ubuntu
Suggested Read 📖
It's FOSSAnkush Das
From It's FOSS News via this RSS feed
The Playdate is easy to forget about. It's colorful and weird, but it's also tiny. Like the Game Boy Micro before it, sometimes I toss it in a bag and then can't remember where I put it. But over the past few weeks, the yellow handheld has been in constant rotation in my house, despite being up against big distractions like Mario Kart World and Death Stranding 2, thanks to the Playdate's now-complete second season of games.
The seasonal structure is one of the unique aspects of the Playdate. When the handheld first launched in 2022, owners got access to a curated selection of 24 games that were released over time. It was a great introductio …
Read the full story at The Verge.
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Just four years after Rivian began selling its R1T truck, 2025 marks the beginning of the R1T and R1S' second generation. Considering they look essentially the same on the outside, it might be hard to decipher what warrants a new generation. But underneath, it's actually quite easy: all-new electric architecture, a new motor arrangement, retuned suspension, and more. Kicking off at $107,700, here's how all these revisions make the 2025 Rivian R1S Premium Tri-Motor a true frontrunner in the modern EV space.
Specs
The tri-motor arrangement fits in between the base dual and top-level quad, and was my tester's powertrain for a whole week. All …
Read the full story at The Verge.
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