Hey, welcome back to the hardware news

recap for the week. This is actually the

second one for the week because there's

been a ton of news. So, uh, first up,

Intel says no 290K plus CPU. Also, the

PS5 prices have increased where the PS5

Pro now, which came out like I don't

know, almost two years ago or something.

2024 it came out, I think. That is now

$900, up from 700. Uh, the PS portal is

also up. They're both up over 25%. The

FCC won't let me be or let routers be

from

internationally. I the routers can't be

from other places. Only America can make

the routers now. Currently, we don't do

that. But uh there's going to be a plan

for it. AMD and Intel hiking CPU prices.

And also Lisa Sue joins the government's

council of tech CEO corruption and we

ratio the ever living out of her on

Twitter cuz I do we should normalize

bullying CEOs for doing bad things that

are uh I think corrupt. So let's get

into the news. We brought you this video

with our GN tabletop gaming dice over on

store.gamersacess.net. The 2GN dice kits

include one with e-waste inductors

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below. Thanks for your help. All right,

so first up, system integrators have

informed us that they're having trouble

getting CPUs now where they're saying

that there's an additional two to uh 6

weeks time beyond the prior time to get

access when they're ordering in the

supply chain. Um, this is on top the

prior delays that they were talking

about and this matches the published

rumors earlier this year where companies

in China said they were having

difficulty getting CPUs in a timely

fashion from both AMD and Intel. That is

now being reflected in global markets as

well. We've spoken to SI's in Europe and

in the United States and both have

expressed similar things. In addition to

this, a little over a week ago, uh, Tech

Power published a re-report of a Korean

news source indicating that Intel

intends to increase CPU prices by about

10%. This past week, following the

backroom conversations about Intel price

increases, NIC Asia Review has stated

that AMD CPU prices are expected to

increase by 15% in the coming months.

Nicay Asia via Tech PowerUp cites an 8

to 12 week timeline on CPU shipments,

which aligns with the timelines we were

just given and I mentioned a moment ago.

This is alongside other inbound price

increases. We've already known about the

memory and SSD price increases. Uh the

Steam Deck, at least one of them, was

put on pause because of memory supply

issues. The Steam frame and Steam

machine were delayed because of memory

and storage supply issues. And now

ASUS's news is that it is planning to

increase prices on several of its

product categories by 30%. Up next,

alongside AMD's 9950 X3D2 announcement,

which we covered in the episode just

before this one, it's it's a 9950 X3D

except with two CCDs that have the extra

cash on it. It's more cash. Uh Intel has

confirmed that it

doesn't have a response.

That's right. That's normally normally

they don't do it that way, but Intel

said that its Ultra 9290K won't exist.

So, the company explained its status in

a statement to PC games hardware. And

through machine translation, it reads,

quote, "The Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus

and Ultra 5 250K Plus are positioned to

deliver outstanding game performance at

incredible value to our competition." I

think that's that's probably supposed to

I think the machine translation's a

little off there, but I'm not sure what

it's gonna say on the screen. Depends.

It seems like the browsers give you a

different one every time, but as

compared to their competition. Let's go

with that. The quote continues, "Our

objective was to maximize performance

for the desktop SKUs that are most

available. As a result, Intel is not

launching a 290K plus skew." End quote.

This effectively confirms that the 250KP

and 270KP are likely the last two CPUs

on this platform. Intel not launching

290K, not entirely opposed to that, just

in general, because the 270K Plus is

already kind of kicking the ass. the

9950X in a lot of situations is like

half the price. So, it might be

something where Intel's like, "We don't

even need to respond." Um, it's always

good to have, you know, more options out

there, but especially with the way the

market is right now and prices and

things, maybe it makes sense for them to

just focus on the 250 270K Plus. Uh,

we'd always like to see a flagship. It's

just when they're already competing with

the existing flagship outside of Thread

Ripper in production workloads and

gaming actually to some extent um

without having a higher end part than

what they just put out then I don't I

$300 CPU to get something that Intel

used to sell for 400 is a massive move

in the right direction for the company.

So AMD is still at the top with X3D CPUs

for gaming. It's just in production like

we talked about the 270KP review. Uh

Intel's a real threat there which is

awesome. like it's great to see some

real competition. Talk sucks about the

rest of the market like the memory

prices, but you know that's we haven't

seen that in a while. Um overall we like

the positioning of the 270K Plus. 250K

Plus wasn't bad. The 270 was really

interesting though. And um our biggest

complaint about the CPU is that it's on

a dead-end platform. So I really hope

Intel takes that seriously next time

where they they get over their ego and

they just make something that actually

can have CPUs for more than one and a

half generations. that would be nice.

But realistically, Intel is likely

suffering the same fate as most the

other hardware manufacturers right now

on the consumer side, which is a lot

lower sales. So, and this is something

we'll be talking about more, but um in

Intel's case, it's contributing to its

own problems by being part of the AI

bubble. Just it's it's two different

groups of the same company, and it's the

consumer group that is getting screwed

here. But, I mean, fortunately for them,

the rest of the company is part of the

AI bubble. So, I guess that works out.

Uh and they're part owned by Nvidia and

the United States. So related to price

increases, Sony also announced some the

same week. So we've got Asus, Sony,

Intel, AMD, at least those two kind of

behind the scenes and a few others, but

Sony's are big uh changes by percentage.

The company cited quote continued

pressures in the global economic

landscape. End quote, which is putting

it lightly and said that quote, "This

was a necessary step. The updated

recommended retail prices for PS5

consoles are effective starting April

2nd, 2026 as follows." End quote.

They're giving some time, some heads up

at least. In the US, Sony noted that the

PS5 will now be sold at $650.

$600 for the digital edition and $900

for the PS5 Pro. Europe gets the same

treatment except in euros instead. Sony

also noted that its PS portal system

will now be $250 in the US. The $900 PS5

Pro price is up 29% since its launch in

November of 2024. Prices are supposed to

go down as technology ages, not up. And

this has especially been true of

consoles over the years. The PS portal

has been $200 for a couple years at

least now and is increasing 25%. Up

next, Brendan Cars FCC has effectively

ended the sale and importation of

foreignade routers, even if it's US

companies making them overseas uh in a

new covered list entry after the

executive branch of the government

concluded that foreignade routers quote

pose unacceptable risks end quote to

safety and security of the US and its

persons which uh we think alongside the

ID verification requirements and

restricting access to certain websites,

especially without ID, starts to lay the

groundwork for a

a government control in general of the

internet for the United States and an

ability to build a domestic surveillance

apparatus. That is the direction I think

we're going with this. Speaking with

Wendell of Level One Tech, he has a lot

of similar concerns with government

control over networking devices. And I

mean as far as posing unacceptable risk

to safety and security of the US and its

persons, I I think we can point to quite

a few things that the government itself

is doing that also would match that

definition, but somehow we haven't

banned it. So, the FCC's so-called

covered list is a list that the Public

Safety and Homeland Security Bureau

publishes quote of communications

equipment and services that are deemed

to pose an unacceptable risk to the

national security of the United States

or security and safety of the United

States people and quote despite

previously only listing individual

companies and specific equipment. The

covered list's latest entry simply

states, quote, "Routers produced in a

foreign country except routers which

have been granted a conditional approval

by, as they say, the DO or the DHS." End

quote. To be clear, almost every router

commercially available is made not in

the United States. So, uh,

an interesting plan, but there exists

effectively no manufacturing

infrastructure to make routers in any

meaningful quantity or price in the

United States. This seems to have been

enacted without an immediate plan. But

the regulations may also be another of

the type where companies can just simply

bribe their way through them by paying

various super PACs, inaugural committees

or candidates to get their approvals

with uh we'll call them donations. At

the time of writing, the Department of

Defense, which is still formally and

legally named the Department of Defense,

not the DOW, as only an act of Congress

can actually rename it and there hasn't

been one yet, and the Department of

Homeland Security have conditionally

approved four drone system devices.

These include one from Sci-Fily

Aviation, MobileCom, Scoutdi, and Verge

Arrow, with each one's approval granted

less than a week before the covered

list's latest update. The executive

branch explains the decision further in

its summary of determination, stating,

quote, "The president's 2025 National

Security Strategy or NSS says, and

they've got a sub quote here, the United

States must never be dependent on any

outside power for core components from

raw materials to parts to finished

products necessary to the nation's

defense or economy. We must resecure our

own independent and reliable access to

the goods we need to defend ourselves

and preserve our way of life. And sub

quote, "One of these core components

that is necessary to both our nation's

defense and economy is routers. Allowing

routers produced abroad to dominate the

US market creates unacceptable economic,

national security, and cyber security

risks." End quote. Now look, from a

purely technological standpoint, all the

other aside, purely

technologically, absent other ideology,

although certainly I've made mine clear,

um our opinion is that there's no

greater risk to the residents of any

nation than that nation's own government

overseeing the communications devices

that the citizens or residents of that

nation use. that is a pathway to

authoritarianism and control of free

speech. I mean technologically speaking

again absent all the other

purely technologically if you control

the flow of communication to and from

the internet through something like a

router you control everything that's a

control of the media that's a control of

how people talk to each other. Sure, you

get into like meshet stuff and whatever

and maybe that becomes more of a thing

which wouldn't be a bad thing, but uh it

enables

governments which clearly are also in

bed with corporations. So there could be

competitive concerns here too. Even if

you take away all the free speech stuff

too, even just from a free market

perspective, if that's your thing, this

is controlling the market in a way that

is inherently not free. And likewise

creates a situation where companies that

are in bed with the government are able

to potentially enact change that affects

their competition as it comes to things

like how they're surfaced on the

internet. If you control the supply of

routers, you can uh insert, as the

government points out here, ironically,

malware that can tap into exactly what

people are looking at, what they're

reading, who they're talking to, what

they're communicating about. There are

encryption layers and protections and

SSL and all this stuff. But if you can

control the router, you can get a lot of

information that's dangerous to have

about an individual. Um, and it's just a

matter of waiting until they're

interested enough to use that

information. And that's kind of my

opinion on it. So whatever country it

is, I don't really care. But controlling

networking infrastructure and

communications protocols, that's

dangerous. Uh people talk about the

great firewall of China a lot. I've been

there. I've experienced it. It's real.

Uh huge pain in the ass, you know,

trying to use anything that I need to

use since we operate on Google. But

people talk about that. I've met people

who have no idea that certain events

have happened in China because of that.

and you start to clamp down on it starts

with adult content which they've done

because it's hard to argue against that

because it might be embarrassing to

people then it slowly spreads like like

a cancer on the system and I think

that's what we're sort of seeing here.

So anyway those are my thoughts on it.

Um but this is a path I think towards

that the US is already requiring

government ID to access a lot of

websites. Meta Facebook is lobbying to

mandate government ID verification for

use of things like uh I saw connections

to potentially operating systems via

meta lobbying if I understood it

correctly as one of the things they're

pushing for and you know there's an aim

now to also control routers so the

infrastructure is going to be in place

to exercise control over people what

they see and what they say um because if

you think you might be tracked you're

going to be careful about what you say

so anyway even if you think that I'm

like a crazy conspiracy theorist for

seeing and being concerned about these

things from a technology perspective.

Again, even if you just look at the

economic implications, uh this creates a

restrictive anti-competitive market

where consumers get locked into high

prices and reduced access to companies

that are competitive or innovate and

that's I think a problem. So anyway, the

post cites specific attacks submitting

that quote, "Routers produced abroad

were directly implicated in the

Voltault, Flax, and Salt Typhoon cyber

attacks, which targeted critical

American communications, energy,

transportation, and water

infrastructure." End quote. Now, be

clear, US-made devices are really no

more secure against those types of

things. They can all be exploited this

way. So, um, they're every bit as

vulnerable to attacks, maybe even more

if they have less experience building

the routers properly because they don't

do it. The FCC also describes exactly

what being on the covered list entails,

explaining, quote, "New devices on the

covered list, such as foreignade

consumer grade routers, are prohibited

from receiving FCC authorization and are

therefore prohibited from being imported

for use or sale in the US. This update

to the covered list does not prohibit

the import, sale, or use of any existing

device models the FCC previously

authorized. This action does not affect

any previously purchased consumer-grade

routers. consumers can continue to use

any router they have already lawfully

purchased or acquired. End quote. The

FCC also clarifies on its FAQ page that

there aren't any restrictions on

consumers ability to use covered

routers. Our understanding is the

restrictions would instead apply to the

devices FCC authorization future

importation and future sale mostly

affecting new products going forward.

Which again I want to point out the

technological irony here where if the

concern is malware and attack vectors

then blocking the importation and sale

of new things that bacon better

protections is not going to help with

that. Keeping people on older stuff that

has known exploits that can be more

easily compromised that might have

weaker encryption standards that's the

worst part of the deal here that is not

being stated. I don't know if they don't

think about it, but I think it is easy

to overlook that wait a minute if people

don't buy new stuff because it's too

expensive or doesn't exist or the thing

they want doesn't ex

becomes a a challenge where as companies

age the product and stop updating it

especially it becomes the security

vulnerability becomes a a feedback loop

or maybe a self-fulfilling prophecy if

you want to look at it that way. The

register points out that quote the flaw

with the policy is that practically all

routers are manufactured in other

countries. End quote. Some of the

largest router manufacturers including

TPLink, Netgear, ASUS, Lynxes, and Cisco

manufacture the majority of their

routers outside the US. Meaning if the

FCC doesn't conditionally approve those

manufacturers newest models, we may

potentially see a router shortage in the

notsodistant future. Now, there's good

news. these companies can probably make,

we'll call them

political contributions to get around

these restrictions, which would help to

resolve the problem, I guess, but that's

not much better. On the other hand,

domestic manufacturers like Starlink,

which produces routers in Texas and is

owned by a man who has worked for the

government, uh, seem positioned well to

benefit from the recent changes. That's

also pretty interesting, I think. Now,

we don't expect the FCC's update to

cause any immediate changes because it

applies to the newest models, but this

is something that will be a problem over

time. Uh, especially as models roll out

with either new features where we're

going to start lagging behind in

technology implementation or as they

roll out with security changes that may

not be possible to enact on older models

or that companies may be unwilling to

enact on older models because they're

old and they're not making money anymore

on them. Um, so anyway, we're certainly

interested in how the decision will

unfold over time. We'll cover it some

more as we as we see more unfold,

though. But there's some good news, some

light-hearted news here, which is that

OpenAI killed Sora. Sora is open was

OpenAI's free AI slop generator. and it

announced its decision on Twitter, which

is a human slop generator that's

becoming a human AI slop generator

interface, saying, quote, "We're saying

goodbye to Sora. To everyone who created

with Sora, shared it, and built

community around it. Thank you. What you

made with Sora mattered, and we know

this news is disappointing. We'll share

more soon, including timelines for the

app and API, and details on preserving

your work. Signed, the Sora team." End

quote. That's right. what you made

mattered for the Open AI team to suck in

all the data and prompts and everything

they could attach to your account and

then use it to train their other AI or

something. But the uh it's they it's I

will say it's not disappointing. I'm I'm

I'm quite appointed actually. Is that

the opposite of disappointment?

>> Everyone here is extremely gruntled.

>> An hour after posting the company edited

its announcement, changing quote, "We're

saying goodbye to Sora." End quote. to

instead read, quote, "We're saying

goodbye to the Sora app." End quote. We

assume this edit seemed to suggest that

uh Open AI only planned on killing the

Sora app and not the Sora internet

service, but the BBC and New York Times

have each separately confirmed that in

fact both platforms are being

terminated. Maybe they're keeping the

name or something. Oddly, OpenAI never

actually explained why it was killing

the app. Although Thomas Husten of

Forester reported via the BBC claims

that Sora was a quote resource black

hole end quote and speculates that quote

the decision may have been taken now to

minimize the associated risks in the

run-up to a potential stock launch end

quote. Regarding what's next for Sora,

the New York Times notes quote in a

statement to the New York Times, OpenAI

said it would continue to use video

generation technologies behind the

scenes as a way of teaching skills to

robots. Because videos provide a

reasonable simulation of the physical

world, they are often used to train

robots for specific tasks. End quote.

Possibly foreshadowing a future

partnership between OpenAI and Nvidia,

even further as it relates to Nvidia's

Omniverse technology. All of this comes

less than four months after signing a

three-year licensing agreement with

Disney in which Disney agreed to become

a quote major customer of OpenAI using

its API to build new products, tools,

and experiences end quote and also

agreed to quote make a $1 billion equity

investment in OpenAI and receive

warrants to purchase additional equity

end quote. Interestingly, Reuters

reports that the quote transaction

between the companies never closed. Two

other people familiar with the matter

said and no money changed hands end

quote. which just sounds like OpenAI's

business model in general. Make promises

and boost the valuation of everyone

involved and then uh don't move any

money around. And when you do move the

money around, it's the same money going

back and forth. According to the BBC,

quote, a spokesperson for the Walt

Disney Company said uh sub quote here,

we respect OpenAI's decision to exit the

video generation business and to shift

its priorities elsewhere. End quote.

While this is a small victory in the

fight against AI slop, we can't help but

feel a little bit concerned about the

suddenness of the move and what OpenAI

is planning next because it does doesn't

seem like it's it I don't think it's

going to be good. Uh, up next, Jensen

and Lisa Sue join the Council of Tech

Corruption. That's uh that's my name for

it. Up next, the Tech Executives Council

of Corruption gains new members. and GN

bullies Lisa Sue on Twitter just like we

do to Jensen Juan to be clear and Sam

Alman and and and all of them really.

President Trump just appointed the first

13 of 24 paying members sorry

individuals designated to serve on the

president's council of adviserss on

science and technology including the

likes of AMD's Lisa Sue who excitedly

accepted on Twitter while gleefully

praising Epstein associate Howard

Lutnik. also including Nvidia's Jensen

Juan who recently said he's 100% in on

the war in Iran. I was also asked you

know given what's happening in the

Middle East. Uh is that an area where we

believe that we can expand artificial

intelligence too? Um I believe that

there's a reason we went to war and I

believe at the end of the war Middle

East will be more stable than before.

And so if we were there, if we're

considering it before, we should

absolutely be considering it after. And

so I'm 100% in on that.

>> And Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, who's

lobbying for ID verification laws

potentially at the operating system

level as we understand it, and

Alphabet's Sergey Brin, who also has

ties to Epstein and Maxwell for visiting

the island, just to name a few of the

Arudite members. No matter who Jensen

and Lisa sit next to, although we are

curious if they get to choose their own

seats, it seems that their options are

sitting next to a man on the Science and

Technology Council who actually at one

point said he believes that American

technology can manipulate space and

time, sitting next to a man with

financial ties to crypto tether, uh, or

visitors to Epstein Island. Those are

their options. Welcome to the council,

Jensen and Lisa. Uh, of course, the

cousins could also just sit next to each

other and discuss the family business.

Shockingly, and we know this is hard to

believe, but nearly every executive that

Trump appointed has either directly or

indirectly contributed financially to

the Trump administration, its connected

campaigns, its inaugural committees, or

its ballroom at some point. honestly a

relatively cheap price of admission

because what this council does is

enables these tech CEOs to make public

policy directly with the government in

collaboration with it. And uh AMD's

recent million-doll donation to MAGA

Inc. is a pretty cheap entry price for

Lisa Sue. As for the remaining seats,

the White House released notes, quote,

"Additional members will be appointed in

the near future along with information

about how you can pay to get a ticket."

No, wait, no, that doesn't that that's

not right. Where did the I lost lost my

place on the with information about how

about the council's first meeting. Uh

sorry, I misread that. Anyway, uh we

actually have a video clip of the

council's first meeting and in it you

can see Jensen Juan welcoming Lisa Sue

to the council.

>> You're on this council, but we do not

grant you the rank of master.

>> What? Now, Gamers Access also through

its sources obtained a secretive video

clip of Nvidia CEO Jensen Juan accepting

his invitation to the council from

Trump.

>> Miss Ja Binks, missing your humble

servant.

>> Interestingly, the president established

the PCAST through an executive order

enacted back in January 2025. A press

release at the time explained the

group's supposed purpose, stating,

quote, "The PCAST shall advise the

president on matters involving science,

technology, education, and

magnets." And that's why we're welcoming

the insane clown. Oh, no, wait, I mixed

it up again.

Innovation policy, not magnets. The

council shall also provide quote the

president with scientific and technical

information that is needed to inform

public policy relating to the American

economy, the American worker, national

and homeland security, and other topics.

End quote. Our understanding is that

this gives control over public policy to

executives like Lisa Sue, Jensen Juan,

Mark Zuckerberg, and people like that.

Further down in the executive orders

administration clause, it states, quote,

"The Department of Energy shall provide

such funding and administrative and

technical support as the PCAST may

require to the extent permitted by law

and as authorized by existing

appropriations. In order to allow the

PCAST to provide advice and analysis

regarding classified matters, the

co-chairs may request that members of

the PCAST, its standing subcommittees,

or ad hoc groups who do not hold a

current clearance for access to

classified information receive security

clearance and access determinations

pursuant to executive order 12968 of

August 2nd, 1995. End quote. Uh so

basically our read on this is in

addition to being helmed by AI

hyperscalers, data center executives or

people involved in buying and selling

two data centers uh and in addition to

the tech CEO's now significant control

directly over public policy through via

membership of this board. It will also

be limitlessly funded, it seems, by the

department of energy.

And again, we're talking about data

centers which have an energy problem.

Uh, and this will supposedly grant

members security clearance to access

classified information as well. Within

hours of the PCAST announcing its newest

members, AMD CEO Lisa Sue, apparently

unable to contain herself after licking

a tasty boot, publicly thanked Epstein's

old pal, Secretary Lutnik. Sue lately

has thanked Lutnik a lot recently. You

should know, and you should also be

aware that Lutnik has been linked to

discussion of bailouts of private

entities in the past that probably don't

really deserve it. We think so. To us,

this is a signal that these companies

want to be in with the right people when

the bubble pops and when the bailout

money needs to start getting doled out.

Anyway, Lisa Sue said this to her new

friend. Quote, "Thank you, Howard

Lutnik, for joining the Semiconductor

Industry Association board for an

important discussion on strengthening

America's leadership in semiconductors

and expanding our domestic manufacturing

footprint. We deeply appreciate the open

dialogue and partnership with the

Commerce Department as we work together

to accelerate America's tech stack and

expand opportunities across the US

workforce. End quote. As for us, we uh

we had our own thoughts and so did like

all of Twitter that saw it. To us, all

of this is directly relevant to these

tech companies. They are helming the

boards making public decisions with a

government that is rolling out

restrictions on router sales among other

things. And in this situation, these

companies are positioning themselves to

drive public policy, work with the

Department of Energy, especially at a

time with an energy crisis where

everyone's bill is going up despite the

government planning uh to offer BYO

power plant alternatives, or as I'm

calling it, BYOP.

So, they have one one fewer P than

Intel's PPP, but they do still have a

BYOP plan. And most recently, Lisa and

Katzios, the White House man in charge

for data center policy, are working

together to, as we read these decisions

they make, reduce clean air and clean

water protections for people who live

near where data centers are going in. As

we said in the AMD WTF video, because

you, you shouldn't have bought a

house next to that data center-shaped

forest. These companies have a fast

track to destroying or plowing through

any regulations in their way. And this

isn't just like an environment thing. I

This is health and safety. It's noise.

It's whatever. It's it's everything bad

that comes with just a gigantic

structure popping up that pulls tons of

power without any planning whatsoever

going into it or at least with less

planning than used to be federally

mandated. Uh and also barreling through

states rights over these issues is

something we've repeatedly brought up.

This is something Katzios himself seems

to be continually pushing and Lisa Sue

seems to love working with Katzios when

he's not selling Shamwow. He's standing

on stage with Lisa Sue at CES uh 2026.

Ultimately, we're concerned about the

implications of the increased political

power that is being acred by these tech

CEOs and those serving on PCAST

specifically. We haven't yet fully

comprehended each member's individual

level of control, the extent of it, but

I'm sure we'll start seeing it pretty

soon. All right, last one. Almost a

month ago, we responded to a YouTube

channel that called us.

>> Good little marketing slaves.

>> And now about a month later, that

channel has a response. They took it

down, but they put one out there and we

saw it. Uh, as we said at the time, we

were more interested in responding to

what we thought was abuse of the DMCA

copyright strike system specifically to

silence critics and uh, that's the

channel sort of talked about that. It's

pretty interesting. If you really give a

crap about irrelevant DMCA drama and

want to learn why we strike disgusting

lying thieves on multiple platforms, you

can read the pen comment on this video.

We made sure disgusting people got

exactly what they deserved and we would

do it again in a heartbeat because we've

done nothing wrong.

>> Previously, we showed how we think

YouTube channel Threat Interactive has

silenced critics at least seven to eight

times by using DMCA strikes, largely

citing critics displaying his thumbnails

in their videos as the reason for the

DMCA strikes. This also included via

lawyers who somehow passed the bar

sending a cease and desist in what we

think was an attempt to stop critic

Dallaso from speaking out. We won't

spend much time on this, but silencing

critics with illegitimate copyright

strikes via the DMCA copyright system is

uh illegal,

so it deserves some attention. Here's a

quick recap though of what happened last

time in case you missed it. So why do

these companies even try? because they

know channels like Hardware Unboxed,

Gamers Nexus, Digital Foundry, and all

these other mainstream voices are going

to be good little marketing slaves that

are going to dramatize a non-existent

race like some kind of infinite NASCAR

event.

>> So, first of all, I'm over here catching

straight. What the did I do?

>> I look at the computer. The computer say

>> hardware unboxed digital fan gamers

Nexus.

>> I'm like, WHAT HE SAY ME FOR? I

forgot to take off my good little

marketing slave cap to quote him when I

was talking about the DRAM cartel. You

know what? The guy who's asking for

$900,000 from his audience to fix video

game graphics once and for all and can't

set up an ultra key or green screen

without noisy artifacting has a point.

And uh I think I think it's time we hear

him out, listen to what he has to say

since he's presenting it. Yeah. I just

want to make sure I'm kind of dressed

for the occasion here so I can really

take it all in. I just

too much

as the green. It's a little too much

with the green. I think I look kind of

like auto man from the Simpsons. Anyway,

in the time since Threat Interactive

DMCA struck another person this time,

someone who re-uploaded our video clip

from GN critical of his actions. I want

to be clear, we didn't strike the guy

who reuploaded that clip. You can upload

clips. I don't give a I was fine

with it. Threat Interactive struck it,

we think illegitimately. Threat

Interactive also admitted on Twitter

that quote, "We will DMCA strike liars

and those who are wait and those who are

spread misinformation that dumbs down

the public on purpose. Why are you

defending those who call you dumb, and

want to keep you dumb?"

end quote. Yes. Yes. I I hate people who

spread who who are spread misinformation

and keep public dumb

and so I DMCA strike them. That's how it

works. Uh not only should this not be a

legal use of the English language or a

keyboard. It's also not a legal use of

the DMCA copyright strike system. And he

has now put his invalid uses in writing.

file it away in our things the lawyers

really wish you didn't put in writing

category of coverage. In fact, when

submitting a DMCA takedown request on

YouTube, you are signing under penalty

of perjury that you are authorized to

act on behalf of the copyright owner.

Threat Interactive filing to take down

our own clip that a user re-uploaded

could be a false attestation to the

authority to act on behalf of the

copyright owner, which is us. Now, all

issues are important, but I'm just

saying perjury on the scale of perjury

and you really hate TAA

so much that the mods of SLR/Fuck TAA

ban you, they're they're somewhere

somewhere like this apart from each

other. But more recently, in a video

that he immediately took down like

within an hour or something, he said

this, "And we're so not going to fall

for their pathetic attempt to demonize

us for copy striking accounts that steal

our content." If you really give a crap

about irrelevant DMCA drama and want to

learn why we strike disgusting, lying

thieves on multiple platforms, you can

read the pen comment on this video

because I'm not letting Steve buy any

more time against my accusations. It is

such a blatant red herring, it's

embarrassing. Long story short, we made

sure disgusting people got exactly what

they deserved and we would do it again

in a heartbeat because we've done

nothing wrong. You are a lazy, gullible

hypocrite if you try to use this topic

to invalidate this channel's work.

>> I All of the demonizing seems to be

coming from within the house. I'm not

trying to demonize anyone. I'm just

saying this guy is the one who's

copyright striking people for what he

thinks is, to quote him, spreading

misinformation and lying, which even if

those things are true, is not a

legitimate use of DMCA. That's a

different problem. And I mean, honestly,

frankly, if uh striking someone for

spreading misinformation and lying were

valid, then we wouldn't have any

politicians or CEOs to criticize on this

channel anyway. But I've watched those

video clips and in my opinion, the

people struck were transformatively

using his content. They were not thieves

or stealing it and they were providing

fair use criticism in my opinion as not

a lawyer, but I I've been through this

Rainer with Bloomberg. Like we're we're

pretty well connected here. So I'm just

saying that's not really how any of this

works. But um the users appear to be

sharing their opinions that just happen

to be critical of Threat Interactive is

what I'm saying. He handwaves all this,

says it's drama. Like, spoiler alert.

Big difference between internet drama

and you might actually be breaking laws.

That's it's kind of that's like a pretty

critical difference. Um, but anyway, the

DMCA does not allow for content to be

taken down on account of misinformation

or lies, if that's even true. And

YouTube and Twitter both highlight

invalid DMCA uses. Quote, "Only the

copyright owner or an authorized

representative can submit a copyright

removal request. The information in this

notification is accurate and under

penalty of perjury, I am the owner or an

agent authorized to act on behalf of the

owner of an exclusive right that is

allegedly infringed. End quote. It also

says, quote, I understand that abuse of

this tool, such as submitting removal

requests for content I do not own, may

result in termination of my YouTube

account. End quote. Finally, I can't

help but notice that he didn't have the

balls to copyright strike our video with

the DMCA strike where we criticized him

and referenced him for what we think is

abuse of the DMCA system, even though

his response video accuses us of the

very same things that he says the other

channels he copyright struck did. The

only difference I could find is that

those channels are smaller than his and

ours isn't. And if he can't do it when

someone is actually willing to stand up,

then I'm not sure how true those

convictions are just as an opinion.

Other crash out replies in the near

month since we pointed out the DMCA

abuses included calling people stupid or

generally accusing them of being too

dumb to understand his galaxy brains

decisions and statements. He also had

this to say. The fact that they failed

to war consumers about the complete

version of whatever topic they choose to

discuss. Regressed graphics have

everything to do with upscalers, not RAM

cartel investigations or waifu GPU

overuse.

>> Oh, like I I got to draw a line here.

here. I mean, the rest of it kind of

like whatever, right? It's just

kind of back and forth. Who who really

cares? I don't I don't care. The

marketing slave thing, I'm over it. You

know, even the DMCA stuff, I get past

that. And we can even all agree that a

literally convicted DRAMM cartel that

was colluding to raise the prices on

consumers. That's not a consumer issue.

I mean, who cares, right? But

waifu video cards,

you went after my waifu.

That's going too far. All consumers

deserve to know how hot my waifu is when

I test the video card and how loud in

the we're going to we're going to get

demonetized, I think, if I go further.

Oh, look, in all seriousness, there can

be multiple issues that people care

about. I I think it's great that people

care about video game graphics. I also

care. We've talked about it. I think

it's great that he's made it his mission

to do this. The problem is pursuing that

mission with things like abusing the

DMCA to science critics. It's not really

doing anything to get people on the

side. And uh there are a lot of things

to make better in this world. Video game

graphics is one of them. The DRM cartel

is another one. He called uh the the

trips that I've done to Washington, I

believe it was, and starts ranting about

irrelevant White House visits,

>> which first of all wasn't the White

House. That's a different thing from

Congress. But anyway, uh the that's fine

if he thinks it's irrelevant. I I really

don't give a Like I'm pretty

secure in what we're doing. I'm happy

with it. Viewers obviously pretty on

board with it and thank you. Um it's

great that people care about different

things because no one has the bandwidth

to to do everything. It's just that like

in the process of so doing silencing

critics with DMCA abuses that's kind of

killing the whole vibe, man. It's just

like that's not really working for me.

So anyway, that's kind of all we have to

say on this one, especially since he

took down his own response video.

Anyway, uh we're moving on now. I've got

bigger fish to fry.

>> There's always a bigger fish.

>> And it seems his audience gets it

anyway. So that's going to be it on our

side. I I I really I don't give a

about any of this. Just the DMCA stuff

really bothered me because it's

specifically abusing the DMCA to I think

this is my opinion bully smaller

creators and it didn't come back to us

and it seems pretty obvious to me why.

But anyway, remember don't get

Bloomberg. And with that one, thanks for

watching Hardware News. Subscribe for

more. You can go to patreon.com/gamers

nexus.net. Hang on. I got to get my uh

my right attire out. And you can go to

store.cameac.net where I'm sorry to

report these are not available. That's

right. This is a one of a kind. Thanks

for watching. Subscribe for more. We'll

see you all next time.

Doesn't really fit.

It's definitely not because my head is

gigantic.