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It comes amid a major crackdown on the abusive industry that started during COVID

Thailand is preparing to receive thousands of people rescued from scam call centers in Myanmar as the country launches a major crackdown on the pervasive criminal activity across its border.…

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Just because Meta admitted to torrenting a dataset of pirated books for AI training purposes, that doesn't necessarily mean that Meta seeded the file after downloading it, the social media company claimed in a court filing (PDF) this week. Evidence instead shows that Meta "took precautions not to 'seed' any downloaded files," Meta's filing said. Seeding refers to sharing a torrented file after the download completes, and because there's allegedly no proof of such "seeding," Meta insisted that authors cannot prove Meta shared the pirated books with anyone during the torrenting process. [...] Meta ... is hoping to convince the court that torrenting is not in and of itself illegal, but is, rather, a "widely-used protocol to download large files." According to Meta, the decision to download the pirated books dataset from pirate libraries like LibGen and Z-Library was simply a move to access "data from a 'well-known online repository' that was publicly available via torrents." To defend its torrenting, Meta has basically scrubbed the word "pirate" from the characterization of its activity. The company alleges that authors can't claim that Meta gained unauthorized access to their data under CDAFA. Instead, all they can claim is that "Meta allegedly accessed and downloaded datasets that Plaintiffs did not create, containing the text of published books that anyone can read in a public library, from public websites Plaintiffs do not operate or own." While Meta may claim there's no evidence of seeding, there is some testimony that might be compelling to the court. Previously, a Meta executive in charge of project management, Michael Clark, had testified (PDF) that Meta allegedly modified torrenting settings "so that the smallest amount of seeding possible could occur," which seems to support authors' claims that some seeding occurred. And an internal message (PDF) from Meta researcher Frank Zhang appeared to show that Meta allegedly tried to conceal the seeding by not using Facebook servers while downloading the dataset to "avoid" the "risk" of anyone "tracing back the seeder/downloader" from Facebook servers. Once this information came to light, authors asked the court for a chance to depose Meta executives again, alleging that new facts "contradict prior deposition testimony." "Meta has been 'silent so far on claims about sharing data while 'leeching' (downloading) but told the court it plans to fight the seeding claims at summary judgement," notes Ars.

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Kenyan detectives have launched a major search for a Scottish businessman who vanished after leaving his luxury hotel in the country's capital city.

Morgan Kemble, 20, approached the victim who sat outside a shop on a street in Cardiff with a sleeping bag draped over her legs.

A 100-year-old Aussie woman has shared the secrets behind her long life - and why keeping it simple really is always best when it comes to beauty and health.

H&Ms new womenswear collection is inspired by the new season the White Lotus to such a degree that anyone wearing it may be in danger of being taken for a cast member.

Courteney Cox proudly officiated her friend's wedding in Australia, close to the Sydney Opera House on Thursday.

WARNING: DISTRESSING CONTENT. Daniel Whelan, 29, was caught after the vile footage caught him threatening his girlfriend on the night of the attack.

It is understood the 27-year-old man was stopped as he was going through security at Terminal Two in Manchester Airport on Wednesday.

Question Time presenter Fiona Bruce broke down in tears at the end of last night's programme as she announced the sudden passing of her long time colleague, Allison Fuller. 

The unencumbered view of St Paul's without the Millennium Bridge in the way was snapped in the latter part of Queen Victoria's reign by photographer George Washington Wilson.

Labour wants to give American Big Tech the right to hoover up the copyrighted creations of Britain's biggest brands - without paying a bean.

Once a month, a parcel is delivered through our letterbox, landing on the doormat alongside all the bills and junk mail.

Rivian reported its first-ever positive gross profit of $170 million in Q4 2024, driven by cost reductions and increased regulatory credit sales, despite a $4.7 billion net loss for the year. The company said it expects to sell 46,000-51,000 vehicles this year and achieve "modest gross profit." The Verge reports: Rivian reported $170 million in positive gross profits, which includes production and sales but does not factor in other expenses, for the three-month period that ended December 31, 2024. That was based on $1.7 billion in revenues. The company said its net loss for the fourth quarter was $743 million, as compared to $1.5 billion in net losses in the same period in 2023. Rivian earned $4.5 billion in revenue for the full year 2024, based on the delivery of 51,579 vehicles. It record a net loss of $4.7 billion, compared to $5.4 billion in 2023. Rivian cited increased revenue from the sale of regulatory credits to other automakers, which is also a primary revenue driver for Tesla. The company said it saw a $260 million increase in regulatory credit sales in the fourth quarter year over year.

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This was the week Nigel Farage put his finger on the most serious problem facing our country, with deeply worrying implications for everything my generation was brought up to hold dear.

The mother of a young woman struck and killed by a van while out walking with her baby told mourners at her funeral there 'is no hate in our hearts' for the driver.

The cricketing legend, 47, fronted the darts-themed show as it returned for a special one-off festive special last year to huge success.

A British man accused of axing a pensioner to death with an axe in Finland after he was allegedly tied down and raped told his mum: 'I'm not guilty.'

Murderers, rapists and child abusers had stood in the same dock in King's Lynn Magistrates' Court in Norfolk where my partner, Philip, and I were found guilty.

If anyone had any doubts about Donald Trump's attitude to the war in Ukraine, they will have been disabused of them over the last 48 hours.