#Google+ was shut down in 2019

[fibey234]

The last moments from Google+

I happened to look at an old folder of photos, and there I discovered old memories from Google Plus that made me nostalgic.

Friends, I have to tell you that I used to run this page on Google+.🥺😭

(Yes, I did. And I had hundreds of followers there..)

Since Google decided to shut down their social network, I haven't been able to recreate its exclusive experience anywhere else online.

Google+ was shut down in 2019, and since then until 2022 I haven't posted content anywhere else because I wanted to close all my accounts.

Google+ was where I would post my art on a daily basis, and it had a warm and supportive community.

This is one of my pages - "Disney Fairies - Cool Pictures".

(don't ask me why I called that name to this page, I wasn't that good at coming up with names in English because it's not my native language..🥴)

It was possible to create groups, communities, and collections.

My experience as a community manager was really fun. I was conduct activities, polls, and edits about Disney Fairies, and even upload comics that I created. ^_^

Well.. I found the folder of my early edits on Disney fairies, so many from them are so funny and I'm a bit jarring from them😅😂

But here some nice edits from the Google+ page archive (2013-2019):

I miss to Google+.❤️‍🩹😞

[kekeartzworld]

My Honest Opinion On If My Art Gets Reposted And Traced (PSA)

I know that plenty of artists out there don’t really appreciate it when they’re art gets reposted without their permission but honestly, with knowing how the internet works, I’m honestly going to be indifferent and say something that will probably make many of my fellow artists mad

I really don’t care if my art gets reposted and although credit is much appreciated, it really doesn’t matter all that much to me as long as I know that people genuinely appreciate my work and I’m getting more attention for the effort that I put in it

I feel what a lot of people miss is that reposters don’t always have malicious intentions but rather they appreciate your hard work and want to show it to more people on other platforms that you perhaps don’t post on as often or even not post on at all (like with me no longer posting on Twitter or TikTok for example)

If anyone reposts my works to say Twitter or TikTok, I really wouldn’t mind as these are platforms that don’t really have any form of relevance to me anymore because of how much stress both platforms have caused me in the past

As much as I would like to see credit if my works are to be reposted, it doesn’t bug me if I don’t get credited either

I understand how the online world works and I acknowledge that there really isn’t much I can do to stop people from reposting my artwork without first contacting me for permission

You can call me careless for this and you know what..? You’d honestly be correct because as long as I know that there are more people appreciating all of my hard work, it doesn’t make a difference to me if my works are reposted or not so as long as it’s out there and gaining recognition

Honestly, there are times where I question in my own head why there aren’t more artists out there that are like me who are actually willing to acknowledge that their art will be reposted no matter what and there’s really nothing we can do about it and just leaving it as that

I do acknowledge that there are other ways people can support artists but considering as I can never really set up a system for me to earn money off my works and the factor of my DeviantArt commissions never getting all that much attention, this is the very least that I can do to get more recognition for my work

I have a similar opinion on if my art was to be traced because I can understand that on a personal level as I have multiple works that are traced from other’s works myself

[wreckedhoney]

^^ "coming to the conclusion that positioning the "can people enjoy things that would be immoral IRL in their fiction" debate as a proship v anti fandom debate is akin to pretending that "should we have the death penalty" is a discussion that only matters in Death Note discourse"

not proshipper not anti but a secret third thing (person who has a career in the media and, through covering legislative politics, has watched "associating with problematic fiction or entertainment is an indicator of moral degeneracy" rapidly become a mainstream GOP position that they are encoding in legislation to target the queer community under the guise of protecting children, thus coming to the conclusion that positioning the "can people enjoy things that would be immoral IRL in their fiction" debate as a proship v anti fandom debate is akin to pretending that "should we have the death penalty" is a discussion that only matters in Death Note discourse — the extent and manner to which fiction affects reality is an issue that is immediately relevant to today's US politics, and to summarize my opinions on the matter in fandom terms would be to diminish the ways this debate is affecting america Right The Fuck Now. and i have stopped taking "this person is bad for shipping the wrong anime thing and being horny about it" in any sort of good faith ever since I saw it literally used as part of a GOP smear campaign against a transgender state legislator in an attempt to defend the right from backlash after they used their supermajority in the Montana house to prevent her from speaking on the floor. Anyway I think everyone on this site, especially Americans, could benefit from ceasing to think in proship v anti vocabulary and instead developing coherent political positions on the nature of fiction that do not directly align with current fascist political tactics)

[mustard-minneola]

basically just peeled the skin off my old fanfic writing sideblog

[sirfrogsworth]

Today in, "Conservatives keep making me side with Disney"...

So, Gina Carano is suing Disney. And Elon Musk is paying for her lawyers. And they released the complaint document.

It's... a doozy.

I can't decide if her lawyers are not taking this seriously at all or if they are taking it super duper extra seriously.

Like, that's a real thing that a lawyer wrote.

As you know, judges are famous for enjoying levity in official court documents. I think in law school you are encouraged to add comedy bits. True facts.

Gina wants money for emotional damages. But she also wants to be rehired, which sounds like another funny comedy bit. They scrapped an entire show because of her nonsense.

Most are saying this will get thrown out with haste due to the fact that Gina wasn't actually fired. She had already done her contracted work. Disney decided not to hire her for any *new* work. So I guess she wants them to honor an imaginary contract that was in her head.

The entire document is just as ridiculous as the opening crawl. It starts out by listing Gina's show biz bona fides. Her myriad accomplishments in Hollywood were listed one by one in a section titled...

Well, I'm intrigued.

Let's take a look at this illustrious career, according to this document.

"Carano is the first-ever female star in mixed martial arts cage fighting to successfully transition to a career in movies, breaking down substantial barriers for women in the sport."

Off to an interesting start.

All the cage fighting gals can act in movies now and they all have Gina to thank for barrier busting.

"Carano received roles in Hollywood and independent film productions such as Haywire, Fast & Furious 6, Heist, Deadpool, Almost Human, Extraction, Daughter of the Wolf, and Madness in the Method."

I've heard of several of those things! And I think I almost remember her in Deadpool! Very impressive.

Oh wait, they're not done...

"On May 13, 2008, “Gina Carano” was the fastest rising search on Google and third most searched person on Yahoo! while being ranked no. 5 on Yahoo!’s “Top Ten Influential Women of 2008” list."

In 2008 she was popular on Yahoo for a bit. Got it.

Has she won any awards?

"In 2012, Carano was the first recipient of the ActionFest Film Festival’s Chuck Norris Award for Best Female Action Star.

In 2017, Carano received the Artemis Action Warrior Award.

In 2019, Carano received The Rising Star award at Ischia Film Festival."

Very prestigious. I'm sure Chuck Norris has a lovely basement where that ceremony was almost certainly held.

You know what, why don't we just skip to The Mandalorian?

"Although her character instantly became one of the most recognized and popular characters in the series..."

Gina, no... that was the little green puppet.

You were the one who couldn't act very well but you made up for it by punching things good.

"Carano was again instrumental in the success of Season 2 of The Mandalorian."

Nope, still the puppet.

End of "accomplishments."

The next section is titled

For some reason they left out "bigoted" before speech. Weird.

In most of it, it legit sounds like they are making a case *against* her. They show that everyone at Disney and Lucasfilm tried very hard to give her chance after chance. They did everything but point blank tell her, "Either learn and relieve yourself of this ignorance or stop posting shit online."

She totally had the option to keep her shitty views to herself and shut the heck up for the duration and enjoy the money and success a Star Wars show can bring. It's like swatting away a lottery ticket.

I'm all for free speech. And if the government tried to arrest her for saying dumb shit, I'd be against that. But that freedom to speak does not mean there are never consequences. People are also free to not like what you have to say.

The entire last section of the document is just tweets that Gina screencapped. Like, her lawyers didn't even redo them so they had consistent formatting or pixel dimensions. They were literally just off Gina's phone.

She thought she was collecting receipts but it was mostly just her co-stars standing up for marginalized groups.

Based Pedro Pascal posted this...

And the document commented...

"Pascal was not disciplined, required to review documentaries on any of these topics or speak to individuals with contrary points of view, or pressured to apologize for any of his posts. His employment was not terminated, and Defendants made no public statements about his social media posts, much less refer to them as “abhorrent.”"

Yes, why wasn't Pedro forced to listen to MAGA dipshits tell him why they hate his sister? Why wasn't he told to watch a Dinesh D'Souza documentary? Why wasn't he told to apologize for posting cool ass muppet memes?

The most telling part of the document for me... the part that really showed her ignorance... was when she compared one of her tweets to one of Carl Weathers'.

First, her infamous tweet comparing the holocaust to conservatives being moderated on social media for spreading misinformation...

And then Carl posted this in response to conservatives banning books...

And the document says...

"Even Carano’s male co-star, the late Carl Weathers posted the exact same message, but no action was taken against him. Nor was Weathers accused by Defendants of denigrating people based on their cultural and religious identity."

THE EXACT SAME MESSAGE

THE. EXACT. SAME. MESSAGE.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

This day in history

#15yrsago Mall cops in Norwich, England get police powers https://web.archive.org/web/20091220231959/http://www.edp24.co.uk/content/edp24/news/story.aspx

#15yrsago Kenyan bike-mechanic’s homemade tools https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEeyY09YzEY

#15yrsago Science fiction fandom is 80 today https://web.archive.org/web/20091214023834/http://www.tor.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=blog&id=58405

#15yrsago English anti-terror cops ask nursery school workers to watch 4 year olds for signs of “radicalization” https://web.archive.org/web/20100106032907/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article6952503.ece

#15yrsago Just look at this awesome EU banana curvature regulation. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CONSLEG:1994R2257:20060217:EN:PDF

#15yrsago Anti-Olympic mural censored in Vancouver https://web.archive.org/web/20091214014017/https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/vancouver-orders-removal-of-anti-olympic-mural/article1396541/

#15yrsago RIAA, MPAA and US Chamber of Commerce declare war on blind and disabled people https://web.archive.org/web/20091214062920/https://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/12/blind_block/

#15yrsago Dr Peter Watts, Canadian science fiction writer, beaten and arrested at US border https://memex.craphound.com/2009/12/11/dr-peter-watts-canadian-science-fiction-writer-beaten-and-arrested-at-us-border/

#10yrsago Google News shuts down in Spain https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/12/google-news-shuts-shop-spain-thanks-ancillary-copyright-law

#10yrsago Calling out the doctors who abetted CIA torture https://kottke.org/14/12/medical-profession-aided-cia-torture

#10yrsago Lawquake! Judge rules that explaining jailbreaking isn’t illegal https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/12/pointing-users-drm-stripping-software-isnt-copyright-infringement-judge-rules

#10yrsago We know you love privacy, Judge Posner. We just wish you’d share. https://www.techdirt.com/2014/12/09/judge-posner-says-nsa-should-be-able-to-get-everything-that-privacy-is-overrated/

#10yrsago Furry convention evacuated after chlorine-gas attack https://www.themarysue.com/furry-con-terrorist-attack/

#5yrsago Twitter wants to develop an open, decentralized, federated social media standard…and then join it https://www.techdirt.com/2019/12/11/twitter-makes-bet-protocols-over-platforms/

#5yrsago The true nature of creativity: pilfering and recombining the work of your forebears (who, in turn, pilfered and recombined) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CB1KE5dbOZo

#5yrsago South Carolina’s feudal magistrate system may take a modest step toward modernization https://www.propublica.org/article/we-investigated-magistrates-now-lawmakers-want-to-overhaul-the-system

#1yrago Daddy-Daughter Podcast 2023 https://pluralistic.net/2023/12/11/daddy-daughter-2023/#not-bye

[winterwakesthewolf]

Wolves They Both Must Be

Jon Snow x Sansa Stark

Summary: “Did you bend the knee to save the North, or because you love her?”

Jon snaps his head up at Sansa’s question. Her eyes are brimming and hot and he can suddenly see this is not the argument he thought they were having. This is something else. Something deeper and much more intimate.

OR

The missing scene we deserved in 8x01

Author's Note: I first published this one shot on AO3 in 2019 and then a few years later I wrote a sequel that just sat in my google docs collecting digital dust. I may turn it into a series if there's enough interest so please let me know by liking, commenting, and reblogging if you want more.

Disclaimer: 18+, smut, (I'm serious, if you're not over 18 then scram), cousin incest, presumed half-sibling incest.

Word Count: 1.7K

part one - part two

“Did you bend the knee to save the North, or because you love her?”

Jon snaps his head up at Sansa’s question. Her eyes are brimming and hot and he can suddenly see this is not the argument he thought they were having. This is something else. Something deeper and much more intimate. 

She tries to conceal the dread in her eyes, but he knows her. This attempt to hide her heart from him makes her pain all the more transparent. He sees in her eyes that she is breaking and the sight of it breaks him too.

It cracks him wide open. 

Every memory and every touch, every heated quarrel like the one they are having now, every smile and tear, and every racing heart. Every night he took himself in hand when the temptation was too intense to ignore. Every shameful, possessive, and obsessive thought he tried to bury deep has been unearthed by this moment, by this unspoken admission of hers. By the unshed tears in her pale blue eyes, and the foreboding he finds in them.

He fears he is mistaken to think that she might love him the way he has tried not to love her. But they have so little time before the dead march down their doorstep, and he has grown beyond weary of this lie. 

So he treads carefully and takes a measured step forward. 

“Sansa, I don’t love her.”

A heavy, shuddering breath escapes from her lips. The undeniable relief is evident in the softening of her shoulders and the smoothing of the crease between her brows. In the way the corner of her mouth lifts slightly. 

It gives him a surge of hope and he realizes this may be his last chance. As hard as he will fight he knows they may very well die in this battle. He wants not for either of them to perish without Sansa knowing how desperately and deeply she is loved.

“There is only one woman who possesses my heart, Sansa,” Jon confesses, her name rolling softly off of his tongue before his voice takes on a guttural tone, “and it is not her. It has never been, and never will be her.”

Sansa’s eyes narrow and she draws in a slow breath, her chest gently heaving in what looks like defense, and he hopes more than any hope that his instinct has not deceived him.

“To whom does your heart belong?” She asks him, trepidatiously. 

“You know,” Jon whispers, so quietly he thinks she may not have heard him. 

But then she reaches out her trembling hand to him and he clasps it in both of his. Gazing down at the soft skin cradled between his calloused palms, a teardrop lands upon her knuckle and he brings it to his lips to kiss the cool saltiness away. 

She sweeps her fingers over his forehead, pausing to gently rub her thumb across the scar above his eyebrow. His eyes slowly slide shut at the sensation of her attentive touch. And when she cups his bearded jaw he leans into it, releasing a breath he hadn’t realized he had been holding since first he laid eyes on this red-haired specter at Castle Black.

Sansa steps gingerly into his space, careful and cautious as if he were an untamed animal. And maybe he is. What came back from death must have been half-beast at least. There is no other way to explain the twisted affections he has held for his father’s daughter all of these many moons. 

But she is leaning into him as well. She is pressing her forehead to his, setting his heart to race, pounding wildly back to life again (and again and again). If this love makes him a beast, then wolves they both must be because she is whispering his name like a honey-sweet song. And hers are the fingers twining through the curls at his neck as she softly bumps her nose against his. 

Her breath, hot upon his mouth, beckons him to open his eyes and when he does he finds the fear in her own has been replaced by a wild hunger he never imagined she would possess for him. A sudden ferocity claims him and he tempers a growl. His fists find her hips and he pulls at her skirts, tugging her body closer to his.

He breathes her name. It’s almost a groan and definitely a question. Pulling his forehead from hers, he finds the answer in her eyes, now a deeper blue than he has ever seen them. They shift swiftly from his lips to his eyes and back again. She inclines her head forward ever so slightly and it is enough to give him the courage to lift his hands to her face and take her lips softly, gently into his.

The kiss is tentative and soft at first like drifting snowflakes brushing his skin. She opens her mouth to him and he relishes the taste of her lips, committing the sweetness of her perfect mouth to memory as he sweeps his tongue across hers. 

Their hands roam, slow and careful at first. Releasing her face from his gentle grasp, he runs his fingers through her hair and slides his rough palms to cradle her neck and grasp the small of her back. He clutches her tightly to him, so close he knows not where he ends and she begins. The realization of it overwhelms him and he whimpers in relief. She hums in response.

Her delicate fingers pull at the leather strap in his hair and she grabs fistfuls, tugging gently at the freshly unbound curls.

A pulsating heat spreads from the core of Jon’s belly, intensifying at the sounds of Sansa’s soft, melodic moaning. The vibration of her song emanates into the lips that she begins to bite. He snarls at the delicious throbbing her teeth creates. It is everything Jon can do to keep from curling himself into her. From grabbing the back of her thighs and wrapping them around his waist to carry her into her bedchamber. From laying her down beneath him so that he may kiss the soft skin of her thighs and the wetness between them until she is breathless and howling his name.

But he refuses to test her limits, allowing her to take control and show him what she wants.

And as if sensing his intentions, she pushes herself into him until the back of his thighs bump against her desk. She grabs him by the waist and steers him to her chair. As she breaks away from their kiss she drags her hands up his chest and to his shoulders, pressing him down slowly onto the seat, all the while never taking her dark and heady eyes away from his. He gazes up at her perfect lips, swollen and reddened by his own. She is breathless and radiant and panting as heavily as he is. 

And as he whispers her name, she pulls her skirts up to her knees and climbs onto his lap. He is hard beneath her and if she hadn’t noticed before she surely knows it now, and yet it doesn’t deter her from relaxing into him. She cradles his face in her hands and proceeds to kiss him deep and slow. It makes him bold enough to take hold of her hips and rub circles into the sharp bones there with his thumbs. She moves her mouth to his neck and tastes his racing pulse with her hot tongue, licking and nipping a trail up to his ear where she breathes his name on a quivering sigh.

He knows it’s wrong but the thrill that sends wave after wave of chills, and the deep-seated coiling in his gut at her ministrations, make him forget his honor. Or hers. And when she begins to arch and grind herself into his lap he can’t help but dig his fingers into the flesh of her thighs, pushing himself up to meet her movements and claim her mouth once again. 

He has wanted this for too long, longer than he can even admit to himself. The feel of her softness, of her heat so close to his, sends his desire climbing so high and so fast he nearly spills right then like a green boy. 

“Sansa,” he groans, reluctantly pulling away from the sweetness of her lips. 

“Hmmm?” 

He meant to put a stop to this most depraved entanglement, to tell her that he will not dishonor her. But as he gazes into her hooded eyes, so full of hope and desire, and remembers that soon they might both be dead, he can’t think of any reason to end a moment so deliciously akin to his shameful fantasies. And maybe the fact that he knows this is not just a reverie makes him daring enough to speak his most hidden secret into existence.

“Sansa, my heart is yours. Only ever yours.” The confession staunches the relentlessly bleeding ache in his chest and he is desperate for the relief of it. 

“It has been yours since the moment I clapped eyes on you at Castle Black. It was then I knew why I was brought back from the nothingness of death. It is why I pushed myself out of that pit of men on the battlefield that day you came to save me. Why I swam to the surface of the freezing wight-infested water. It was for you. To protect you as I promised I always would. Everything I have done since then, all of it, has been to return home... to you.”

Sansa releases a tremulous breath and gently sweeps her thumbs across his cheeks. She kisses away the lingering dampness that the tears he hadn’t even realized he shed left upon his skin. With her hands on his chest, she pushes herself up and climbs away from his body. It aches from her sudden absence. And then she takes his hand in hers, pulls him up from the chair, and leads him quietly to her bedchamber.

Jon knows he should stop her. When she closes the door behind her. When her dress falls to her feet. When she undresses him and lays him down upon the furs atop her bed. But when he kisses her scars, and she kisses his, he forgets to care about all the reasons why they should stop. 

And when he buries himself inside of her and draws her pleasure out, bringing silent tears from her shining eyes, he refuses to regret any love they make between them, forbidden or not. 

And if they soon should die, at least for now they truly live.

~

Taglist: @thaisthedreamer @bluedaffodil21 @ilargizuri

[mariacallous]

About three years ago, some of Google’s security engineers came to company attorneys with a gigantic mess.

The security team had discovered that Google unwittingly was enabling the spread of malicious software known as Glupteba. The malware had corrupted more than 1 million Windows computers, turning them into vehicles to mine cryptocurrency and spy on users. By hijacking Google accounts, purchasing Google ads to lure in users, and misusing Google cloud tools, the hackers behind the operation were on their way to infecting even more computers.

Tech giants such as Google long have had a playbook for destroying botnets like Glupteba. They call up fellow companies and US authorities and together coordinate a massive takedown operation. Sometimes, the cops file criminal charges. But this time around, Google’s legal team recommended an approach that the company hadn’t pursued in years: Sue the hackers for money.

The eventual lawsuit against two Russian men and a dozen unnamed individuals allegedly behind Glupteba would be the first of a run of at least eight cases that Google has filed against various hackers and scammers, adding to a sporadic few filings in the past. The tactic, which Google calls affirmative litigation, is meant to scare off would-be fraudsters and generate public awareness about scams. Now, for the first time, Google is opening up about this strategy.

Leaders of Google’s security and legal teams tell WIRED they believe going after people in court has paid off. Google hasn’t yet lost a case; it has collected almost all of the more than $2 million that it has won through the legal process, and forced hundreds of companies or websites to shut down. The awards are trivial to Google and its parent Alphabet, a $2 trillion company, but can be devastating for the defendants.

“We’re disrupting bad actors and deterring future activity, because it’s clear that the consequences and the costs are high,” says Chester Day, lead of the three-person “litigation advance” team at Google that’s focused on taking people to court. Google, he adds, is “making it clear that we’re willing to invest our resources into taking action to protect our users.”

Google blog posts and similar content about the lawsuits and the underlying scams have drawn more than 1 billion views, according to the company. Google representatives say that the awareness increases vigilance among consumers and shrinks the pool of vulnerable targets. “Educating people about how these crimes work may be the best thing we can do to stop the crime,” says Harold Chun, director of Google’s security legal team.

Several Big Tech companies have pursued affirmative litigation, though not necessarily under that name and with varying strategies. Microsoft has filed more than two dozen lawsuits since 2008 with a focus on securing court permission to dismantle botnets and other hacking tools. Amazon has been a prolific complainant since 2018, filing at least 42 cases over counterfeit products, 38 for reviews fraud, three for copyright abuse, and, recently, two for bogus product returns. Amazon has been filing so many counterfeit cases, in fact, that the federal court in western Washington assigned three magistrate judges to focus on them.

Since 2019, Meta has filed at least seven counterfeiting or data theft cases, with settlements or default judgments in four so far, including one in which it won nearly $300,000 in damages. Like Meta, Apple has sued Israeli spyware developer NSO Group for alleged hacking. (NSO is fighting the lawsuits. Trials are scheduled for next year.)

Some attorneys who’ve studied how the private sector uses litigation to enforce the law are skeptical about the payoff for the plaintiffs. David Noll, a Rutgers University law professor and author of a forthcoming book on state-supported private enforcement, Vigilante Nation, says it’s difficult to imagine that companies could bring the volume of cases needed to significantly stop abuse. “The fact that there is a small chance you might be named in a suit isn’t really going to deter you,” he says.

Noll believes the big risk is that Google and other tech companies could be burdening the court system with cases that ultimately secure some favorable headlines but do less to make the internet safer than the companies could achieve through investing in better antifraud measures.

Still, of the six outside legal experts who spoke to WIRED, all of them say that overall Google deserves credit for complementing the work of underfunded government agencies that are struggling to rein in online abuse. At an estimated hundreds of thousands of dollars per case, it’s a low-risk endeavor for the tech giant, former prosecutors say.

“Reliable and regular enforcement when folks step outside the law brings us closer to a society where less of us are harmed,” says Kathleen Morris, resident scholar of law at UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies. “This is healthy and robust collaboration on law enforcement by the public and private sectors.”

Google’s general counsel, Halimah DeLaine Prado, tells WIRED she wants to send a message to other companies that the corporate legal department can do more than be the team that says “no” to wild ideas. “Legal can be a proactive protector,” she says.

Marketing Scams

DeLaine Prado says that from its earliest days, Google has considered pursuing litigation against people abusing its platforms and intellectual property. But the first case she and other leaders within Google recall filing was in 2015. Google accused Local Lighthouse, a California marketing company, of placing robocalls to dupe small businesses into paying to improve their ranking in search results. Google alleged trademark infringement, unfair competition, and false advertising. As part of a settlement, Lighthouse stopped the problematic calls.

Since then, Google has filed complaints against five similar allegedly scammy marketers, with three of them ending in settlements so far. A Florida business and its owners agreed to pay Google $850,000, and a Los Angeles man who allegedly posted 14,000 fake reviews on Google Maps agreed to stop. Terms of the third deal, with an Illinois company, were not disclosed in court files, but Google spokesperson José Castañeda says it involved a seven-figure payment to Google.

Castañeda says Google has donated all the money it has collected to recipients such as the Better Business Bureau Institute, the National Consumers League, Partnership to End Addiction, Cybercrime Support Network, and various US chambers of commerce.

Another genre of cases has targeted individuals submitting false copyright complaints to Google to get content removed from the company’s services. A man in Omaha, Nebraska, whom Google accused of falsely claiming ownership of YouTube videos to extort money from their real owners, agreed to pay $25,000 to Google. Two individuals in Vietnam sued by Google never responded—a common issue.

In 2022, Google won default judgment against an individual in Cameroon who never responded to charges that he was using Gmail to scam people into paying for fake puppies, including a $700 basset hound. After the lawsuit, complaints about the scammer dried up, according to Google.

But legal experts say the most fascinating cases of Google’s affirmative litigation are four that it filed against alleged computer hackers. The suits emerged after months of investigation into Glupteba.

Security engineers at Google realized that eradicating Glupteba through the typical approach of taking down associated servers would be difficult. The hackers behind it had designed a backup system involving a blockchain that enabled Glupteba to resurrect itself and keep pilfering away.

That’s in part why Google’s attorneys suggested suing. Chun, the security legal director, had pursued cases against botnets as a federal prosecutor. “I thought this would be something good to do from a civil angle for a company as well,” he says. “Law enforcement agencies have limits on what they can do. And Google has a large voice and the litigation capacity.”

Chun and other attorneys cautioned their bosses that the hackers might use the lawsuit to reverse engineer Google’s investigation methods and make Glupteba more evasive and resilient. But ultimately, DeLaine Prado, who has final say over lawsuits, signed off. Chun says his former colleagues from the government applauded the complaint.

Google sued Dmitry Starovikov and Alexander Filippov, alleging that they were the Russia-based masterminds behind Glupteba after linking websites associated with the virus to Google accounts in their name. The search giant accused the duo (and unknown co-conspirators) of violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, and the Electronic Communications Privacy Act. The lawsuit also alleged a trademark law violation for hiding Glupteba in a tool that claimed to download videos from YouTube.

Google argued that it had suffered substantial harm, having never received payment for ads it had sold to the hackers, who allegedly were using fraudulent credit cards. Users also had their experiences with Google services degraded, putting them at risk and impairing the value of the company’s brand, according to the lawsuit.

In court papers, Starovikov and Filippov stated they learned of the lawsuit only through friends and then decided to hire a New York attorney, Igor Litvak, to fight on their behalf. The defendants initially offered innocent explanations for their software related to Glupteba and said that their projects had not targeted the US market. At one point, they countersued Google for $10 million, and at another, they allegedly demanded $1 million each to hand over the keys to shut down the botnet. They eventually denied the allegations against them.

Following an ordeal over whether the defendants could obtain Russian passports, sit for depositions in Europe, and turn over work files, Google’s attorneys and Litvak traded accusations of lying. In 2022, US district judge Denise Cote sided with Google. She found in a 48-page ruling that the defendants “intentionally withheld information” and “misrepresented their willingness and ability” to disclose it to “avoid liability and further profit” from Glupteba. “The record here is sufficient to find a willful attempt to defraud the Court,” Cote wrote.

Cote sanctioned Litvak, and he agreed to pay Google $250,000 in total through 2027 to settle. The jurist also ordered Starovikov and Filippov to pay nearly $526,000 combined to cover Google’s attorneys fees. Castañeda says Google has received payment from all three.

Litvak tells WIRED that he still disagrees with the judge's findings and that Russia’s strained relationship with the US may have weighed on whom the judge trusted. “It’s telling that after I filed a motion to reconsider, pointing out serious issues with the court’s decision, the court went back on its original decision and referred [the] case to mediation, which ended with … me not having to admit to doing anything wrong,” he says in an email.

Google’s Castañeda says the case achieved the intended effect: The Russian hackers stopped misusing Google services and shut down their marketplace for stolen logins, while the number of Glupteba-infected computers fell 78 percent.

Not every case delivers measurable results. Defendants in Google’s other three hacking cases haven’t responded to the accusations. That led to Google last year winning default judgment against three individuals in Pakistan accused of infecting more than 672,000 computers by masquerading malware as downloads of Google’s Chrome browser. Unopposed victories are also expected in the remaining cases, including one in which overseas app developers allegedly stole money through bogus investment apps and are being sued for violating YouTube Community Guidelines.

Royal Hansen, Google’s vice president for privacy, safety, and security engineering, says lawsuits that don’t result in defendants paying up or agreeing to stop the alleged misuse still can make alleged perpetrators’ lives more difficult. Google uses the rulings as evidence to persuade businesses such as banks and cloud providers to cut off the defendants. Other hackers might not want to work with them knowing they have been outed. Defendants also could be more cautious about crossing international borders and becoming newly subject to scrutiny from local authorities. “That’s a win as well,” Hansen says.

More to Come

These days, Google’s small litigation advance team meets about twice a week with other units across the company to discuss potential lawsuits. They weigh whether a case could set a helpful precedent to give extra teeth to Google’s policies or draw awareness to an emerging threat.

Team leader Day says that as Google has honed its process, filing cases has become more affordable. That should lead to more lawsuits each year, including some for the first time potentially filed outside the US or representing specific users who have been harmed, he says.

The tech giants' ever-sprawling empires leave no shortage of novel cases to pursue. Google’s sibling company Waymo recently adopted the affirmative litigation approach and sued two people who allegedly smashed and slashed its self-driving taxis. Microsoft, meanwhile, is weighing cases against people using generative AI technology for malicious or fraudulent purposes, says Steven Masada, assistant general counsel of the company’s Digital Crimes Unit.

The questions remain whether the increasing cadence of litigation has left cybercriminals any bit deterred and whether a broader range of internet companies will go on the legal offense.

Erin Bernstein, who runs the California office of Bradley Bernstein Sands, a law firm that helps governments pursue civil lawsuits, says she recently pitched a handful of companies across industries on doing their own affirmative litigation. Though none have accepted her offer, she’s optimistic. “It will be a growing area,” Bernstein says.

But Google’s DeLaine Prado hopes affirmative litigation eventually slows. “In a perfect world, this work would disappear over time if it’s successful,” she says. “I actually want to make sure that our success kind of makes us almost obsolete, at least as it relates to this type of work.”

[macravishedbymactavish]

Abandoned Driveways

Alex Keller x GN!Reader

| Blog HQ | Modern Warfare 2019 / 2022 Masterlist |

| Series Masterlist | Previous Part | Next Part |

TW for eventual angst, light swearing and flirting, mostly a fluff

Chapter 02

“Uh, stupid question.” He awkwardly chuckled, rubbing over the back of his neck as he stepped back to let you in his house.

“How fancy should I be going? These are my nicest jeans I have on, I have some button downs and flannels in the closet. Or I have the makings of a suit somewhere, I'd need a few minutes to find it though.” The anxiety clear in his tone, his rambling getting softer as he trailed off. Ending with a panicked smile.

“Depends on what you're thinking for food. Unless you want to find one of the fancier restaurants, what you have on now is fine. I like it.” You shrugged, guesting toward the retro Nintendo shirt he wore.

“Ohthankgod.” He breathed, chuckling as he grabbed his wallet and keys. Telling you that he was driving since you insisted on paying. Quickly locking his front door, and grabbing his sneakers he led you to his garage.

Sharpie marked boxes lined one wall, flattened cardboard stacked neatly in another corner. Allen was busy these last few days.

Sliding into the passenger seat of his Jeep, you watched as he started the vehicle and opened the large door behind you. Then turning his attention to the screen inbetween you, opening Google Maps. Holding back a soft laugh, you lightly placed your hand over his. Flinching softly as he pulled back, looking at you confused.

“I have no idea where I'm going. I barely made it to the grocery store earlier.” He admitted, cheeks flushing as he busied himself with adjusting the fan speed.

“I do?” You offered with a shrug, playfully glaring when he laughed. “What?”

“You also strike me as someone who would tell me about the turn I missed 3 blocks after I missed it.” He pulled back as you lightly smacked his shoulder, feigning offense.

Looking out the passenger window as he reversed you mumbled. “You're not wrong, but that isn't the point. Now what do you feel like having tonight?”

“Food.” He answered bluntly, turning out of the neighborhood. Ignoring your faux annoyed expression. “What do you recommend? Nothing too fancy, neither of us are dressed for the occasion and that would feel too much like a date.”

“Agreed! There's a cute coffee shop on main street with pastries and drinks. Or a little ma and pa place.” You shrugged, watching as he nodded. Gaze set to the road in front of him.

“I like ma and pa restaurants, and I am an enjoyer of caffeine.” He offered, sparing a glance in your direction. “Just like you're an enjoyer of staring into people's windows at night.”

You felt your heart sink as he chuckled. All week you thought you were off the hook.

“For starters, shut your curtains. Anyone could be watching! Secondly, that was my idiot best friend, I was in my kitchen minding my own business.” You defended, sinking lower into your seat as you watched the scenery pass by.

“Not the most compelling argument, but did your friend enjoy their view at least?” He asked, volume dropping toward the end of his sentence. Your cheeks burning as you desperately tried to formulate a response.

“They did. And I know this sounds like asking for a friend. But it genuinely was not me, I promise.” You laughed, relief flooding your system when he joined. Running a hand through his hair as he shook his head playfully.

“It totally sounded that way.” He laughed, pulling into a parking lot and shifting the vehicle into park. His full attention now on you. “I'm normally pretty good at remembering those things, the curtains and privacy I mean. I’'m not a total playboy, fuckboy, whatever kids these days call them. I prefer an emotional connection before I dive into a physical one.”

You were in awe at his honesty, how his values aligned with yours in a world where…..you were in a grocery store parking lot?

“Allen. Where are we?” You asked, leaning down to scan your full surroundings through the windshield as he stated your name in the same tone.

“I told you, I don't know my way around except to the grocery store. And someone, you, said don't worry about Google Maps. I'll tell you where to go!” He mimicked you, fingers wiggling as he spoke.

Scoffing, you smiled at him. “I sound nothing like that!”

Mimicking you again, he laughed. “Last time you said I was wrong about you; I was right. You suck at directions.” He gave you a cocky smirk before leaving the vehicle. Locking the doors as he wandered into the store.

“Excuse me, why are we here?” You laughed, jogging up behind Allen as he scanned the isles. Basket hanging in the crook of his elbow as he shopped.

“Excuse you, why didn't you give me any directions.” He teased, pulling food items out of a cooler. “Since you failed your job, and left me to my own sad devices. I'm making supper.”

“Well, then I'm paying. And buying us drinks before we head home.” You stated firmly, trying to peek into his basket. Which seemed to always be pulled away from your view.

Glancing over at you, basket pressed against his opposite hip Allen chuckled. “Supper is now a surprise, and we'll see about drinks. My standards for the night have changed considerably.”

“So, what type of caffeine do you enjoy?” You asked, scanning over the menu. Despite already knowing what you would order.

You felt the man beside you shrug and ask for recommendations. Clearly overwhelmed by the options laid out for him. 

Taking charge, you smiled at the barista and ordered 2 of your usual drink. Eyebrows raising when you heard him ask for a croissant to be added to the order.

“We're literally going home to have supper.” You mumbled in awe, paying for the order as the barista smiled politely at the two of you.

“I'm literally starving and want a snack for when you forget to give me directions and we end up hopelessly lost and in the woods. Are there woods around here? Probably.” He defended, eyes lighting up when the small parchment bag was handed to him.

Handing you the receipt, the barista laughed softly. “You two are adorable, literal relationship goals.”

Before either of you could correct her, she busied herself with making your drinks. Leaving the two of you standing in awe.

“We don't give off that vibe, we met last week and hit it off as best friends. This is casual best friend banter.” You whispered, understanding the mistake -- yet feeling like you had to defend yourself to the man beside you.

The man who was already eating his croissant and shrugging at you. Mumbling something along the lines of “is it the worst thing though?”

Staring at him with an exasperated look he held his free hand up at you in surrender. Moving it to pat his stomach, signaling again that he was literally starving.

General Taglist: @bloodonmyhands-1221 @v1naco @bowtruckleninja

Alex Keller Taglist: @glitterypirateduck @deadbranch @gcing-back-to-505

[inima]

my required reading for this class is a podcast (2019) and the website it's hosted on offers 5 links:

1. spotify (i don't have an account)

2. apple podcasts (i don't have an account)

3. google podcasts (shut down)

4. website not accessible in my country

5. website that only has the episodes from 2020 onwards

[beardedmrbean]

Not too long after Feminist Frequency shuts down Brianna Wu has her DMs leaked revealing her to be a two-faced hypocrite. What's Zoe Quinn been up to lately? And anyone else vocally opposed to GamerGate for that matter. By the way, since not everyone knows this, Brianna Wu is trans, so anyone claiming she's a transphobic cis woman are wrong.

Alec Holowka's death is on her, that's from 2019 though so no clue what might be next on the menu for her.

The Wu thing is news to me, gonna look real quick.

These guys are a subsidy of Reuters based in India, going with trustworthy enough.

Went over to her twitter to see, just googled it since I don't want the algorithm to think I want anything to do with her, this it what it gave me.

It starts out great and I thought is was gonna be her making excuses for herself because the preview just gave me the first sentence.

So we can see how it's totally different when it happens to someone else. I have no clue what happened with jonah hill and I really don't care context is for losers at this point.

ohh and the other person is a transmedicalist, had issues with blm, and all kinds of other stuff.

Chris here is gonna be all kinds of popular now too I bet.

how thrilling it all is.

[rjtempest9900]

Looking at different animation styles really gives me an idea of how I’d like my project to look.

These images are from a video game called GYLT developed by tequila works and released originally in 2019 for google stadia but that platform caused issues with the release by shutting down in 2023 causing the game temporarily unavailable to sell, it was later released in 2023 to our most well known platforms such as PS4, PS5, Xbox one, PC and the Xbox one S series and most recently in 2024 it has been announced that it’ll be released to the nintendo switch.

As you can see it’s a 3D generated game which when theres cut scenes turn in to a 2D digital format which makes the game look more personal to the artists, this is what I’m looking to add in to my stop motion with scenes that are 2D digitally drawn for a more personal feel and hopefully will engage viewers to continue watching.

This also works alongside my theme of mental health as the game is based around bullying and figuring out what’s going on behind the scenes.

[freshlypeeled]

I’ve been writing a scene where my fantasy character gets to sorta project themself into a (real) podunk town and kept it as accurate as I could by dropping myself there in google maps and typing out the things I saw as I “walked”

​to be extra cannon accurate I had to set the year back to the 2014 (specifically what I’m writing takes place in 2016/17) and also spent like 30 minutes researching if this one shit restaurant in the 2014 drive got shut down before or after then (in the 2019 drive it was a law firm and in 2023 it was abandoned) just to have a single sentence be accurate

[omnifitense]

It began with the forging of the three-

I'll start again.

It began with BioShock Infinite.

Now obviously, it didn't all begin there. It's the third game in a series that itself is a spiritual successor to another series. But that's where we're starting our story. Or where I'm starting this one. Like most things that came out in the fucking early 2010s, it has not aged well. I'm not qualified to talk about the racism for reasons that would be blindingly obvious. Most people in this hellhole are too harsh on it, or harsh on it for what I consider the wrong reasons (hint: your internalized misogyny may be showing).

At the time, I really liked it. It 'woke me up' out of a sort of stupor I'd been in for a while. So I eagerly awaited the story-based DLCs.

They were dogshit. Or more accurately, the second one was dogshit and would be worth an entire essay on its own. In fairness it was made while the studio was being shut down because the lead "auteur" Len Kevine (not his real name) was taking his ball and going home in more ways than one. He started his own studio shortly thereafter, and is still working on the first game there almost ten years later because he's an indecisive both-sidesing hack who keeps getting distracted by the new craze in whatever video game he played last.

Anyway: they were dogshit. I decided to rewrite them. In Absentia was a meandering project that took me about two years, but it mostly holds up. While trying to get a handle on how to write the main character I did a search for 'omnichronal perception' or something along those lines, and ended up on the Power Listing wiki. One of the other listings on that page was for a set of contact lenses on the SCP wiki. That's a second rabbit hole right there, and one I spent many years thereafter browsing.

After In Absentia I started work on another project that didn't pan out for a variety of reasons. It and my time with the SCP wiki sort of came to a head with the release of SCP 3999, which is just monstrous and wonderful at the same time. Right from the quotation at the top of the page, which introduced me to yet another rabbit hole I'm still going down today*, and then finally closing out with (and I maintain this wasn't there when I first read it, though I'm not going back through the edit history to check) a triumphant rendition of 'Sunday (Finale)' from Sunday In The Park With George.

What is that third rabbit hole? Well, the SCP wiki has a neat little habit of cross-referencing other SCPs, whether by name or by some other aspect. Sometimes they're hyperlinked, sometimes they're not. The quotation I mentioned contains the phrase 'Eleven-Day Empire', which I took to be another SCP, so I googled it. Except...it wasn't. It directed me, of all things, to the Doctor Who wiki and explained that it was a reference to a Doctor Who spinoff I'd never heard of before, and with good reason. It's been described as 'Doctor Who without the Doctor', which isn't strictly accurate: there are a few Doctor-shaped holes in the texts, as people have noted. (Though for legal reasons, they aren't named.)

Maybe I've beaten around the bush long enough. It's Faction Paradox.

Toward the end of my attempt to write that project from before, I kept imagining someone standing outside the house where most of the narrative was taking place. Just watching. Then, in...I can't remember the year, or the month at this point, but I want to say it was either 2018 or 2019, I had a dream. I can only remember three things from it now: the Twelfth Doctor (who was only in it briefly), something about the TARDIS being a tree, and the phrase The New Omnifitense. The strangest part was, I'd skipped most of the Twelfth Doctor's run; not out of any moral stand or anything, I just missed one episode and even back then I knew that I'd be hopelessly lost next time around, so it sort of snowballed.

Each of those aspects I managed to work into Blood and Tears, in addition to the things from 3999. Blood and Tears is still close to my (pardon me for saying so) heart; it came out almost exactly the way I hoped it would, which is no mean feat given the scares I had in 2022.

If you somehow made it this far, thank you.

[chris-the-dragonslayer]

Where I’ve been and why I didn’t post any new OC of my WIP: Book II in the last 10 months

Oh boy. Where do I even start with this. I stopped active writing / editing my book in late August of 2021. My last „real OC entry on here“ was around April of 2022. But why you might ask?

In April of 2019 Google+ got shut down. (Please bear with me this is relevant). Because of that I had a mad scramble to get all my posts saved on there. (Didn’t work out how I intended it to - but that’s life). I posted a lot of plants and flowers with short descriptions as a passion project. After that got shut down I had to move to a new place. So I opened a Google Sites website. (Only took me 4 months until that was finished). Because of that less and less of my free time I had to work on the WIP.

In October of 2019 I had the brilliant idea: I could make my own website. So I copied all my work from my Google Sites page to my website and worked on that. My own website launched on the 01.01.2020 at midnight.

During that time it grew a bit in popularity because of my account on the platform with the blue bird in the logo. So I spent most of my time working full time and building up my website.

My WIP 🚧 got kinda abandoned for a few months. Up until mid 2020. I started working on and off on it again until the end of 2021. The notes I got on my posts on here dwindled down tho, because i didn’t post as many snippets and pieces of OC on here anymore. I really wanted to turn my vision into a real book. I had searched for publishers and all.

So i thought, the less I share the less can be stolen from my idea. (Resulting in less interactions on my posts).

Around April 2022 I kind of lost interest in publishing my work again because I saw how „bad“ it all was. It’s no coherent idea/ story. A bit of a mashup between many genres at best.

I shifted my focus on my website again. Letting that take up my free time again. (Currently it has about 300 posts about plants on it - all in German tho).

I went on a silent hiatus on here. Not wanting to disappoint anyone. I thought no one would notice if I vanished.

That brings us to today. I picked up my WIP again. After so long. I want to work on it again. And somehow cut everything that I don’t need in it. I’ll keep a kind of „directors cut of everything“ but I’ll try and edit it so it makes more sense and puts all storylines in a coherent story.

I hope that some of my followers are still interested in progress updates and short snippets.

I can’t guarantee for anything. But I sure as heck will try my best.

- Mike aka Chris-the-dragonslayer / the one who doesn’t know when to stop with subplots

[mostlysignssomeportents]

This day in history

I'm coming to DEFCON! On Aug 9, I'm emceeing the EFF POKER TOURNAMENT (noon at the Horseshoe Poker Room), and appearing on the BRICKED AND ABANDONED panel (5PM, LVCC - L1 - HW1–11–01). On Aug 10, I'm giving a keynote called "DISENSHITTIFY OR DIE! How hackers can seize the means of computation and build a new, good internet that is hardened against our asshole bosses' insatiable horniness for enshittification" (noon, LVCC - L1 - HW1–11–01).

#20yrsago MSFT buys spam company, sues the competition, silences political activists https://web.archive.org/web/20040803201355/http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/001774.php

#20yrsago Genome of human zit sequenced https://web.archive.org/web/20040803105000/http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99996222

#15yrsago Annie Lennox gives her masters to mashup artist DJ Earworm https://web.archive.org/web/20090717083944/http://djearworm.com/annie-lennox-backwards-forwards.htm

#15yrsago High school student suing Amazon over book-deletions which rendered his study-notes useless

#15yrsago Six String Nation, the chronicle of Voyageur, a remarkable, unifying, synthesizing Canadian guitar https://memex.craphound.com/2009/07/30/six-string-nation-the-chronicle-of-voyageur-a-remarkable-unifying-synthesizing-canadian-guitar/

#15yrsago HOWTO make a prison soldering iron https://web.archive.org/web/20090803185647/http://prisonproxy.blogspot.com/2009/07/how-its-made-soldering-irons.html

#15yrsago Canadians vow mass-mooning of US spy-blimp https://web.archive.org/web/20090805142350/http://www.theobserver.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1680060

#15yrsago Rich NY town tries to shut down children’s library because poor kids might use it https://research.checkpoint.com/2019/cryptographic-attacks-a-guide-for-the-perplexed/

#5yrsago Cop says Amazon told him they had “partnered” with 200 US police forces to sell and tap into Ring surveillance doorbells https://www.vice.com/en/article/j5wyjy/amazon-told-police-it-has-partnered-with-200-law-enforcement-agencies

#5yrsago Affluent parents surrender custody of their kids to “scam” their way into needs-based college scholarships https://www.propublica.org/article/university-of-illinois-financial-aid-fafsa-parents-guardianship-children-students

#5yrsago The darkest SEO: forging judges’ signatures on fake court orders to scrub negative Google results https://web.archive.org/web/20190726010633/https://www.cbsnews.com/news/online-reputation-management-cbs-news-investigation-finds-fraudulent-court-orders-used-to-change-google-search/

#5yrsago Zero Sum Game: action-packed sf thriller about a ninja hero whose superpower is her incredible math ability https://memex.craphound.com/2019/07/30/zero-sum-game-action-packed-sf-thriller-about-a-ninja-hero-whose-superpower-is-her-incredible-math-ability/

#1yrago When the app turns you into a robo-scab https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/30/computer-says-scab/#instawork

Support me this summer on the Clarion Write-A-Thon and help raise money for the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers' Workshop!