August 1, 2021 - Episode 600 F5 Live: Refreshing Technology (Video)

DescriptionThis week, Valve fires back at Wolfire Games, Amazon is paying a massive fine, and Scarlett Johansson wants what she's owed.
ParticipantsScott ErtzHostScott is a developer who has worked on projects of varying sizes, including all of the PLUGHITZ Corporation properties. He is also known in the gaming world for his time supporting the rhythm game community, through DDRLover and hosting tournaments throughout the Tampa Bay Area. Currently, when he is not working on software projects or hosting F5 Live: Refreshing Technology, Scott can often be found returning to his high school days working with the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), mentoring teams and helping with ROBOTICON Tampa Bay. He has also helped found a student software learning group, the ASCII Warriors, currently housed at AMRoC Fab Lab.
Avram PiltchHostAvram's been in love with PCs since he played original Castle Wolfenstein on an Apple II+. Before joining Tom's Hardware, for 10 years, he served as Online Editorial Director for sister sites Tom's Guide and Laptop Mag, where he programmed the CMS and many of the benchmarks. When he's not editing, writing or stumbling around trade show halls, you'll find him building Arduino robots with his son and watching every single superhero show on the CW.
OpeningPowered by TeknoAXENifty GiftiesPowered by Microsoft StoreFacebook's privacy apocalypse didn't happen, revenue grew insteadEver since Apple first announced its intention to introduce a new privacy feature in iOS, App Tracking Transparency, Facebook has been in panic mode. The company, along with Google, spent a lot of time and energy trying to convince people that the feature would be bad for everyone. But, as this quarter's financial report shows, the world-ending event never materialized. In fact, things got better for Facebook since the change.
read full articlePiltch Point with Avram PiltchPowered by PureVPNExtra LifePowered by Loot CrateValve claims antitrust is invalid, no one is entitled to free codesIn April, Humble Bundle creator Wolfire Games filed an antitrust suit against Valve. The claim is that Valve's policies around where and how developers can use free codes generated by the Steam Store represent a violation of anticompetitive behavior laws. This week, Valve fired back, saying that Valve and the Steam Store owe no one free codes, and its policies are sound.
read full articleNews From the TubesPowered by MalwarebytesMassive GDPR fine levied against Amazon, totaling $888 millionSince the implementation of the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which became enforceable in 2018, e EU has levied a number of fines against companies. While the general reason for fines is data breaches, they can also be levied for improper handling of consumer data. That is the situation that Amazon is currently facing, as the company has received the largest fine ever issued under the GDPR, coming in at $888 million. Amazon said of the fine,
read full article* DRM Not IncludedPowered by Amazon PrimeScarlett Johansson sues Disney over Black Widow breach of contractThe pandemic, and particularly the lockdowns, have caused a seemingly never-ending list of problems for individuals, companies, and industries. One of the industries that have seen the biggest change in operations has been the entertainment industry. Movies have specifically seen total chaos, with films intended for theaters shifted entirely to streaming platforms, while others have seen a hybrid approach. Either way, many of these releases have violated the contracts of people involved, and studios are seeing lawsuits over these violations.
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