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Judge approves Anthropics $1.5 billion settlement with authors

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A federal judge in San Francisco has granted final approval to a $1.5 billion settlement between Anthropic and a class of authors who accused the AI company of illegally downloading their copyrighted books, closing out what the court called the largest copyright class action settlement in history. U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín signed the order on July 20 , resolving claims brought by lead plaintiffs Andrea Bartz, Kirk Wallace Johnson, and others over Anthropic's use of pirated libraries LibGen and PiLiMi to build its book collection. Notably, the underlying dispute centered on how Anthropic acquired the books, not on whether training AI models with copyrighted material is lawful. SEE ALSO: Anthropic to provide California government with AI tools In an earlier ruling cited throughout the order , the court had already determined that the use of training itself constituted fair use. Per the settlement, ...

The NWSL is finding its next generation of fans online

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The National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) is finding new fans in more places than the stadium. According to new data from the league , views across its YouTube channels increased 41.7 percent through the first 10 weeks of the 2026 season, reaching 11.2 million. Watch time climbed nearly 50 percent, while subscribers grew 17.9 percent. Those gains are part of a strong first half of the season for the NWSL . Attendance is up, the league’s social following has expanded, and merchandise sales have increased. New clubs and a wider mix of broadcast and streaming options are also creating more ways for people to follow the league. So, who are these new fans, how are they discovering the NWSL, and what is turning their interest into a lasting connection with the league? Who is watching the NWSL? The NWSL's audience is broader than the young, predominantly female fan base often associated with women's sports. Nielsen estimated that the league had 39.3 million fans in the United St...

Researchers create a drone that becomes almost invisible by spinning 25 times per second

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Rather than using camouflage, transparent panels, or Predator-style light-bending materials, Phantom Twist exploits motion blur and the limits of human vision. Read Entire Article from TechSpot https://ift.tt/fLucp1r via

The moments that defined the 2026 World Cup

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Every four years, the World Cup reminds us why we fall in love with sports in the first place. The 2026 tournament was one of firsts. For the first time, three countries — Canada, Mexico, and the United States — shared hosting duties. For the first time, the field expanded from 32 to 48 teams, giving more nations a chance to compete on the sport's biggest stage and more federations the opportunity to showcase their depth. That expansion brought historic debuts for Cape Verde, Jordan, Curaçao, and Uzbekistan. Their first appearances delivered some of the tournament's most unforgettable moments. It also felt like a farewell tour. Cristiano Ronaldo. Lionel Messi. Luka Modrić. Neymar. Son Heung-min. Guillermo Ochoa. A generation that shaped the sport for two decades took one last bow on the biggest stage, with several likely making their final World Cup appearances. Taken together, those storylines made this World Cup feel bigger than any single match. Over the cour...

FluentCleaner ditches the bloat with a new 3.5 MB Classic edition

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FluentCleaner Classic swaps the WinUI 3 shell for a portable 3.5 MB WinForms build on .NET Framework 4.8, no runtime install needed. Same cleaning engine, just far less overhead than the standard app's 140 MB footprint. The result is a fast, no-frills cleaner that runs on virtually any Windows installation. Read Entire Article from TechSpot https://ift.tt/FcLEtAe via

House of the Dragon Season 3, episode 5: Who is killing the Gold Cloaks in Kings Landing?

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All men must die, but apparently that goes double if you're wearing a gold cloak. House of the Dragon Season 3, episode 5 sees an already-embattled Rhaenyra (Emma D'Arcy) contending with a new threat from inside King's Landing: The systematic murder of her City Watch, who are having their throats and bowels slashed open at an alarming rate. So, who is doing it, and why? Let's unpack. SEE ALSO: 'House of the Dragon' Season 3 family tree: How the Targaryens, Hightowers, and Velaryons connect What happens to the Gold Cloaks in Season 3, episode 5? "Two of our Gold Cloaks were found dead in the streets this morning," says Daemon (Matt Smith) during a Small Council meeting. "Put to the blade by an unknown hand." He's keen to get to the bottom of the problem himself, but while meeting with Ser Luthor (Tom Cullen), who heads up the Gold Cloaks, he finds two more of their number dead. T...

The internet reacts to the first-ever World Cup Halftime show

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The FIFA World Cup final between Spain and Argentina is living up to the hype. And to add to the festivities was a fun but odd sight in the world of association football: a halftime show. Soccer is normally a brisk sport, but with this edition of the World Cup being co-hosted in the US (the first World Cup in the US since 1994), it's fallen into the American Sports Entertainment Vortex™. Which isn't a bad thing, minus the universal dislike for the hydration breaks, which many commentators have pointed out are glorified commercial breaks for the Fox network. But given the lineup — Shakira, Madonna, BTS, and Justin Bieber, with a Sesame Street cameo and a Ted Lasso intro thrown in for good measure — the World Cup's first-ever halftime show was just fine . The whole thing clocked in at under six minutes, which somehow made it funnier: FIFA spent months hyping a halftime show shorter than the ad break before it. The internet noticed and acted accordingly. Madonna kicks us ...