### Issue 1981 - Friday 24th November, 2023

If you missed me on the radio Wednesday night, my appearance on 3RRR's Byte Into IT is now available as a podcast! I suggest subscribing to it as it's a great Australian tech podcast if you're looking for some local voices to listen to.

## In Today's Issue

- Binance & CEO CZ plead guilty to rampant money laundering
- Uruguay changes law to give artists more money, Spotify quits Uruguay market
- Government to re-think how much data they force companies to store
- Brollie is my favourite online streaming service now
- Friday Forum Update
- Far too many items to list here thanks to various Black Friday Sales

## The News

### Binance & CEO CZ plead guilty to rampant money laundering

Changpeng Zhao (aka CZ), the CEO of Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, plead guilty to criminal charges of failing to adhere with "basic anti-money laundering steps". That failure allowed terrorist groups like al-Qassam, al-Qaeda, ISIS and Hamas to fundraise via Bitcoin. It allowed almost US$899m to be traded by people in Iran, as well as Cuba, Syria and Russian occupied areas of Ukraine - all against US sanctions. Binance also enabled "tens of millions" in ransomware transactions and US$106m in darknet marketplace transactions. Probably the worst of all would be more than "1,000 transactions took place involving three marketplaces that dealt in child pornography and related material". Binance and CZ really did not give a shit, did they? Binance will pay a US$4.3b fine, while CZ has quit as CEO and was fined US$50m, I don't know if he will face much jail time - this WSJ article claims "a maximum prison sentence of 18 months under federal sentencing guidelines", which seems low to me?

⬆ Share or Discuss

### Uruguay changes law to give artists more money, Spotify quits Uruguay market

Uruguay amended their copyright law to add a requirement for artists to get "fair and equitable remuneration" for their recorded material and that "social networks and the internet" are treated as "formats for which, if a song is reproduced, the performer is entitled to financial remuneration". As soon as that amendment was passed, Spotify announced it'll stop operating in Uruguay by February 2024 as "any additional payments would make our business untenable". Spotify's is concerned if the additional costs are the responsibility of rights holders or if it's the streaming platform, as Spotify might be required "to pay twice for the same music". I assume this means they pay for it when they license it from a label and then again when they pay the artist themselves rather than the label distributing the funds from the money they got from Spotify.

⬆ Share or Discuss

### Government to re-think how much data they force companies to store

You know how when Optus and Medicare got popped and we were all like, "why the fuck do these companies hang on to all this data???". Well as part of the 2023-30 Cyber Security Strategy released this week, the government realised that it's one of the reasons businesses hold on to so much data for so long, with various laws requiring it, particularly the mandatory data retention legislation. As a result, the government will review "federal legislative data-retention requirements to determine whether existing provisions are appropriately balanced, with a view to minimising or simplifying retention requirements". It's too early to pre-empt any major changes, but at least they've realised the problem - unnecessary data hoarding. You can't leak what you don't have!

⬆ Share or Discuss

## Something I Saw On The Internet

### Brollie is my favourite online streaming service now

Umbrella Entertainment's Brollie streaming service is ready to watch! It makes Umbrella's amazing back catalog of Australian and cult/indie films, docos & TV shows easy to view, as heaps of this content just isn't available anywhere else. It'll be great to re-watch see some of my favourite movies that I've managed to see at film festivals, on SBS as a kid or on long lost DVDs and discover new titles I may have heard about but struggled to find, even on the big internet piracy machine. I had a quick peek Brollie's movie list last night and there's some bangers worth a watch if you've never seen them. I can recommend these: The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, Police Story, Road Games, The Man From Hong Kong & Pusher. I can't wait to see what else Umbrella dig up as they grow the service.

⬆ Share or Discuss

## Friday Forum Update

Here's five interesting discussions over on The Sizzle's paid subscriber forum for you to enjoy over the weekend. If you are not a paid subscriber but want to get involved, visit https://thesizzle.com.au/payme to get onboard.

- wongm is wondering if they should use the built-in RAID on their PC's mainboard or get a dedicated RAID card
- Browncodes has a relative struggling to use a PC and wants to know if there's an easy way to lock it down/manage it for them
- Pete posted about an Australian chip design company called Morse that's trying to get their Wi-Fi HaLow design mass produced
- bym007 is after a high quality, long lasting cordless beard trimmer
- trs80 wants to know what they should watch out for when buying a 2nd hand 4K TV

## Bargains

- iPhone 15 Pro 256GB - $1899.05 from digiDirect (eligible for 4% cashback via Shopback)
- Starfield for Xbox Series X - $70.36 from The Gamesmen's eBay store
- Nintendo Switch OLED, Mario Kart 8 & Nintendo Online 3m sub bundle - $449 from Amazon
- Sonos Roam Portable Smart Speaker - $99 from Harvey Norman
- Huawei Freebuds Pro 2 - $149 from Amazon
- ZSUS 14" 2160x1440 portable USB-C monitor - $78 from Aliexpress
- WD Red Plus 10TB 3.5" NAS HDD - $265.88 from Amazon USA
- Dell WD22TB4 Thunderbolt 4 Dock - $299.99 from RonaRigs
- Brother MFC-L2730DW Mono Laser Printer, All-in-One - $219.26 from Amazon
- LG 65" OLED65C3PSA 4K TV - $2675 from Appliance Central
- 20% off CDs and vinyl at JB Hi-Fi
- Crucial P5 Plus 2TB PCIe 4.0 SSD - $128.54 from Amazon UK
- Ubiquiti UniFi U6 Pro Wi-Fi 6 Access Point - $249 from Wireless1's eBay store
- Refurb Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon 6th Gen (14" 1080p, i5-8350U, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD) - $350.22 from Max Direct's eBay store
- Adobe Creative Cloud All Apps - $43.97/m from Adobe
- Xiaomi Mi Smart Scale 2 - $27 from Tomtop's AU warehouse
- Amazon Fire TV Stick 2023 4K or 4K Max - $34/$54 from Amazon
- Logitech MX Master 3S Performance Mouse - $104 from Officeworks or Amazon
- WD 22TB Red Pro (WD221KFGX) 3.5" SATA HDD - $574.66 from Amazon USA
- Xiaomi Mi Computer Monitor Light Bar Wireless Remote Control - $57.71 from Xiaomi Global's eBay store
- DROP CTRL Mechanical Keyboard TKL - $123.25 from Amazon
- Dell WB3023 2K QHD Webcam - $59.50 from JB Hi-Fi
- DJI Goggles 2 - $879 from D1Store
- 10% off Apple Macintosh personal computers at JB Hi-Fi
- Philips 438P1 43" 4K monitor - $545.20 from Computer Alliance's eBay store
- EA Sports FC 24 Standard or Ultimate edition for PC - $49.97/$64.97 via Steam
- Hisense 100" U7KAU 4K MiniLED TV - $4436 from Harvey Norman
- Jabra Elite 10 or Elite 8 Active wireless earbuds - $265.30/$230.30 from Jabra
- 8% cashback from the Apple online store, $150 cap, 12pm-6pm via Cashrewards
- 8% cashback from the Apple online store, $100 cap, 5pm-11:59pm via Shopback

## Image Of The Day

On 1 September 2022, the Royal Australian Mint released a limited edition fifty cent commemorative coin to celebrate the Australian Signals Directorate's (ASD) 75th anniversary. Fifty thousand coins were produced for purchase by coin collectors and the Australian public, but have since sold out. (Australian Signals Directorate / me, this is my coin!)

## The End

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