Millions of websites to get 'game-changing' AI bot blocker
Cloudflare's tech targets AI firm bots - also known as crawlers - programmes that explore the web, indexing and collecting data as they go. They are important to the way AI firms build, train and operate their systems.So far, Cloudflare says its tech is active on a million websites.Roger Lynch, chief executive of Condé Nast, whose print titles include GQ, Vogue, and The New Yorker, said the move was "a game-changer" for publishers."This is a critical step toward creating a fair value exchange on the Internet that protects creators, supports quality journalism and holds AI companies accountable", he wrote in a statement.However, other experts say stronger legal protections will still be needed.
'Surviving the age of AI'
Initially the system will apply by default to new users of Cloudflare services, plus sites that participated in an earlier effort to block crawlers.Many publishers accuse AI firms of using their content without permission.Recently the BBC threatened to take legal action against US based AI firm Perplexity, demanding it immediately stopped using BBC content, and paid compensation for material already used.However publishers are generally happy to allow crawlers from search engines, like Google, to access their sites, so that the search companies can in return can direct people to their content. Perplexity accused the BBC of seeking to preserve "Google's monopoly". But Cloudflare argues AI breaks the unwritten agreement between publishers and crawlers. AI crawlers, it argues, collect content like text, articles, and images to generate answers, without sending visitors to the original source—depriving content creators of revenue. "If the Internet is going to survive the age of AI, we need to give publishers the control they deserve and build a new economic model that works for everyone," wrote the firm's chief executive Matthew Prince. To that end the company is developing a "Pay Per Crawl" system, which would give content creators the option to request payment from AI companies for utilising their original content.
Battle the bots
According to Cloudflare there has been an explosion of AI bot activity. "AI Crawlers generate more than 50 billion requests to the Cloudflare network every day", the company wrote in March.And there is growing concern that some AI crawlers are disregarding existing protocols for excluding bots.In an effort to counter the worst offenders Cloudflare previously developed a system where the worst miscreants would be sent to a "Labyrinth" of web pages filled with AI generated junk.The new system attempts to use technology to protect the content of websites and to charge AI firms to access it.In the UK there is an intense legislative battle between government, creators and the AI firms over the extent to which the creative industries should be protected from AI firms using their works to train systems without permission or payment.And, on both sides of the Atlantic, content creators, licensors and owners have gone to court in an effort to prevent what they see as AI firms encroachment on creative rights.Ed Newton-Rex, the founder of Fairly Trained which certifies that AI companies have trained their systems on properly licensed data, said it was a welcome development - but there was "only so much" one company could do "This is really only a sticking plaster when what's required is major surgery," he told the BBC."It will only offer protection for people on websites they control - it's like having body armour that stops working when you leave your house," he added."The only real way to protect people's content from theft by AI companies is through the law."
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Daily Mail
12 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Britain's most targeted shop: Robbed, set on fire, ripped off and forced to tackle thieves herself. The luxury boutique owner who refuses to shut after astonishing crime wave
Preyed upon by fraudsters, rocked by Hollywood-style heists and nearly blown up by a petrol bomb - this is the luxury handbag store fighting for survival in Cheshire's Golden Triangle. Christine Colbert, 58, has suffered a series of 'catastrophic' setbacks which have routinely threatened to destroy Dress Cheshire, the beloved boutique she set up in the celebrity enclave of Prestbury back in November 2018. In the last five years, she has fallen victim to the notorious 'Kardashian of Cheshire' handbag fraudster, lost £430,000 worth of stock in two separate heists and suffered £10,000 in damage when the building next door was blown up by arsonists. On one occasion, she even had to take matters into her own hands by wrestling a shoplifter to the ground after they stuffed one of her Louis Vuitton handbags in an Aldi bag before brazenly walking out the front door. Speaking exclusively to the Daily Mail, Ms Colbert said: 'I have felt like a target, a massive target. It's made me very anxious and more nervous... I've had some very, very dark days.' She added: 'As a business, we've been rocked absolutely to the core through all of these unfortunate events. We're not sitting there feeling sorry for ourselves, but it's just been catastrophic. You couldn't write it.' Dress Cheshire suffered its first major burglary in March 2024 when four men scaled the back of the building, ripped out a window and drained the company of £180,000 worth of handbags in a terrifying heist. In the same month, she turned 'Miss Marple' to help bring down Jack Watkin, the self-proclaimed 'rich kid of Instagram' who conned victims including Ms Colbert out of thousands of pounds in an elaborate designer handbag scam. Watkin, who befriended Ms Colbert in September 2020 and became a regular visitor to her shop, defrauded her out of £44,000. The scammer, who described himself as the 'Kardashian of Cheshire', persuaded people to invest huge sums - which he claimed was to buy and sell luxury handbags - but stole the money to fund his millionaire lifestyle. Luxury handbag seller's five years of hell 2020: Christine Colbert is befriended by Jack Watkin, a man who would go on to defraud her and others out of tens of thousands of pounds. March 2024: Dress Cheshire suffers its first major burglary as four men scale the back of the building and take £180,000 worth of handbags and stock. March 2024: Ms Colbert turns 'Miss Marple' to help bring down Watkin, luring him into a trap before police arrest him. August 2024: The building next door to Dress Cheshire is blown up in an arson attack, leading to £10,000 in damage to her shop. June 2025: Dress Cheshire suffers a second major burglary. This time £250k worth of handbags are stolen after thieves tunnelled their way in. Through all this time, Ms Colbert has had to fend off petty thieves and credit card scammers who have tried to bleed her accounts dry. Then in August 2024, two months after the first major burglary, the building next door to Dress Cheshire was blown up in an arson attack, which left the shop moments away from being destroyed in a gas explosion. Recalling the terrifying moment to the Mail, she said: 'Somebody petrol bombed next door and nearly blew us up. At like midnight, the police were banging on my door and I looked out the bedroom window and it was police blues and twos. I was thinking "what now?" because it had only been within weeks of the first burglary, and I answered the door in my dressing gown. And she said, "It's Dress Cheshire". 'And I said, "Don't tell me we're being burgled again." She said it wasn't us directly but the shop might catch fire if we don't get the gas turned off.' Unfortunately, this was just the latest in a string of 'traumatic' incidents for Ms Colbert. On June 8 this year, she was forced to watch a group of brazen thieves steal £250,000 worth of luxury handbags after tunneling through her shop. Three intruders circumvented Dress Cheshire's sophisticated security set-up by identifying the 3ft wide chimney stack as a weakness. Having smashed their way through, one used a duvet cover as a giant pouch to steal the highly sought-after pre-owned bags from brands including Chanel, Gucci, Dior, and Louis Vuitton. Live CCTV footage showed the skilled thieves ransacking the shop, where bags valued at as much as £30,000 were snatched. The second heist coincided with the start of Watkin's trial in June. Ms Colbert said: 'I knew June was going to be a horrendous month. I didn't anticipate the heist, who could. 'Because of the arson next door, that led to the heist because that building has been unoccupied since then and boarded up. So they took advantage of that situation and were going in and out.' When asked if she feels like the unluckiest business owner in Britain, she said: 'Well, yes and no. My cup's always half full... but I feel like I've definitely had my share of bad luck and it has been horrible. 'Throughout all of the frauds and the robberies, nobody really knew that I was dealing with Jack.' She added: 'Don't get me wrong, I think any one of those things could topple someone completely, and just have them thinking, I don't need this. But then also they're not going to knock me over. Absolutely no chance. 'Why would I allow these horrible individuals of all different categories that they are try and topple me, but don't get me wrong, I have felt like a massive target. 'We're a small business, we're not a big multi-million pound business. I've lost my own personal money here and people don't see that. 'I'm a northern girl. I don't come from a wealthy family. I just come from Northern grit. You just pick yourself up, dust yourself down and crack on. That's what my parents told me to do and that's what I've done.' In between the major heists and sickening fraud from a 'friend', Ms Colbert has also faced a terrifying credit scam from fraudsters posing as customers in her shop. Explaining how it works, she told the Mail: 'We've had people in trying to intercept our payment gateways. They literally try and keep us preoccupied whilst they make fraudulent payments in our card terminals. 'They blatantly walk in, they say they're going to buy a £5,000 bag, and then they try and use the machine for their own gain, and so not only steal the bag, but steal my money and empty my bank account at the same time.' She explained how they usually operate in pairs, with one talking to her and the other 'punching in' numbers to the card machine. The cunning plot sees the payment go through as a 'customer not present' transaction, allowing them to walk out with the bag before ringing their bank to say their card has been compromised in order to get a refund. Watkin posed as a millionaire on social media to persuade people – including his own father - to invest in his fake designer handbag business But this is a fraction of the fraud carried out by Watkin, a man who Ms Colbert thought was a friend before he rinsed her bank account. The 26-year-old former public schoolboy promised his victims - including Ms Colbert - a share of the profits if they loaned him cash to buy and sell expensive Hermes bags. But neither the handbags or any profit ever materialised and instead Watkin used the cash to fund his extravagant lifestyle. At one stage he spent weeks living at the five-star Dorchester Hotel, in London 's Mayfair, where rooms cost up to £3,000-a-night. Police said his bill topped £136,000 in just six months. He also paid more than £22,000 to travel around the capital in a chauffeur-driven Rolls Royce and regularly visited Harrods, where he 'scouted' for victims and spent almost £68,000. Ms Colbert spent three years trying to get back almost £44,000 she had loaned Watkin when she decided to take matters into her own hands in March 2024. With the help of Watkin's close friend, Hannah Jakes, 34, who was also defrauded of almost £100,000, the pair lured the fake millionaire, who was on the run from police, to a local pub with the promise of more cash. Ms Colbert revealed how she wore a 'large hat' as a disguise and hid in someone else's car in the car park of The Merlin public house, in Alderley Edge, Cheshire, so he would not recognise her. But as soon as the unsuspecting Watkin arrived Mrs Colbert swung into action and dialled 999. Minutes later detectives from Cheshire police swooped to arrest him. Watkin was convicted in June after Ms Colbert helped bring him down and and will be sentenced in September. But to her utter disbelief, while most of Watkin's victims have all been paid back, Ms Colbert remains more than £44,000 down. As of October last year, the Government made it a law that banking institutions had to repay customers who have been a victim of fraud where the bank could have stopped it. 'All the main banking institutions had signed up to this and as a result of Jack being actually convicted, they have repaid the victims - except the one bank that I sent money to Jack from wasn't signed up to the scheme, and they won't pay me back. 'So I brought everything to justice, everyone gets their money back and I have had a £300 cheque of a thanks very much for your hard work.' Ms Colbert opened her business up in Prestbury in November 2018 before going online during the pandemic. Along with Wilmslow and Alderley Edge, Prestbury makes up the so-called Golden Triangle of towns favoured by Cheshire celebrities and sports stars. Ex-Manchester United star Wayne Rooney and his wife Coleen used to live there until they moved to a £20million home they designed nearby. However the area has been frequently targeted by burglars including a gang who snatched more than 100 rare handbags worth over £1million when they raided a home in Alderley Edge in March.
Sky News
20 minutes ago
- Sky News
Europe's sanctions on Russia were to starve Putin's funds - instead something else has happened
Why is Donald Trump threatening to impose sanctions, or tariffs, or maybe both, on India in relation to the Ukraine war? The short answer is that India has established itself as one of the single most important customers for one of the single most important products made in Russia: crude oil. You only have to glance at the data on Russian fossil fuel exports to see what I mean. Nor is it just India. China has raised its imports of Russian fossil fuels by 44% since the imposition of sanctions. Back before the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, by far and away the biggest recipient of Russian energy exports was Europe. Then Europe imposed sanctions on various different Russian products, most notably oil. The idea was to starve Vladimir Putin of the revenues he is using to fund the Russian war machine. Instead, something else happened: those Russian tankers which previously delivered oil to Europe instead started sending it to Indian oil refineries. The Middle Eastern oil tankers that had previously served those Russian refineries began sending their oil to Europe. Nothing, fundamentally, really changed. And while Europeans are no longer taking direct shipments of Russian oil, they are taking plenty of shipments of oil products - from diesel and petrol to kerosene - made from Russian oil in Indian refineries. In the face of this, Europe and its G7 allies have subsequently begun to try to prevent those tankers from taking Russian oil at all. A price cap was imposed on legitimate shipping companies, limiting the amount of revenue Russia could derive from its exports. That, in turn, created another step-shift: Russia began to build up its own "shadow fleet" of tankers which it used to carry on sending oil to India and China. And so, in the latest episode of sanctions "whack-a-mole", the G7 has begun to implement a separate round of bans on that shadow fleet. Now, the point is not that any of these measures were pointless. Each has made a marginal difference in clamping down on Russia and limiting its revenues. But the whole exercise has proved far harder than expected. All of which is why Donald Trump is now talking about raising tariffs or imposing sanctions on India. He has discussed imposing secondary sanctions on countries continuing to do business with Russia. For all that he is being painted as one of Vladimir Putin's closest allies, in reality, these are dramatic economic levers that even Joe Biden stopped short of pulling. The question is whether they do indeed get activated - and what happens next in the game of sanctions "whack-a-mole".
Scotsman
42 minutes ago
- Scotsman
Huge Scottish forest sold for £145m to Gresham House investors in 'astronomical' sale
The sale illuminates the demand for Scotland's asset-rich landscapes. Sign up to our Scotsman Rural News - A weekly of the Hay's Way tour of Scotland emailed direct to you. Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... A forest estate in Scotland has been sold to asset managers for £145 million in one of the biggest deals of its kind. Griffin Forestry Estate, near Aberfeldy in Perthshire, which spans some 5,560 hectares, has been bought by a subsidiary of Gresham House Ltd, a London-based asset management company now owned by a private equity firm headquartered in New York. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Griffin Forestry Estate near Aberfeldy in Perthshire. PIC: Savills. | Savills Griffin Forestry Estate is made up of three separate woodlands and a windfarm. The land was marketed by Savills in 2023 for offers over £130m given its 'exceptional sustainability and income credentials'. The sale of Griffin illuminates the demand for Scotland's asset-rich landscapes and the 'astronomical sums' paid by 'anonymous corporate investors' for the land, Community Land Scotland said. Meanwhile, Andy Wightman, Scotland's land ownership expert, said he believed that Gresham House and its subsidiaries could now be 'on track' to become Scotland's second-largest landowner following the Griffin deal, with his latest research into the company due. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Mr Wightman said: 'It is a unique property as it is so huge and has such valuable assets. This is a straightforward commercial transaction where £145m is deemed to be the price worth paying for that future stream of revenue from windpower and timber.' Griffin Forestry Estate was originally part of the Grandtully Estate and was earlier owned by Guy Hands, an investment manager and former chairman of record company EMI. The new owner is Gresham House FF VI LLP, a limited liability partnership between Gresham House Initial Partner Ltd and Gresham House Forest Fund VI LP, a Scottish Limited Partnership that includes City of Cardiff Pension Fund, Swansea Council Pension Fund and Gresham House Ltd among its limited partners. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Dr Josh Doble, director of policy and advocacy at Community Land Scotland , said the sale was another 'concerning example of landownership concentrating in Scotland into the hands of anonymous corporate investors'. He said: 'This sale also sets the remarkable and quite unbelievable precedent that an average sized Highland estate can sell for astronomical sums, which seem completely removed from the reality of many Highland communities who are in dire need of investment in local housing, travel infrastructure and local services. READ MORE: Owner of Scottish castle heads to court amid Net Zero tree planting row 'This disparity raises the serious question of who is benefiting from Scotland's natural resources and how a remote corporate entity such as Gresham House can justify an apparent investment of £145 million in a Highland estate, and how much of that investment will be benefiting the local area.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Dr Doble said he hoped the new owners would 'closely and meaningfully engage' with the local community about their plans for the estate and what benefits would be shared with the local community. In February last year, Olly Hughes, managing director of Gresham House, appeared before the net zero, energy and transport committee at Holyrood and told MSPs the company did 'not own any land directly under the name of Gresham House'. However, it is understood the firm and its subsidiaries are namd as General Partner in a number of Scottish Limited Partnerships (SLP) - legal entities which can own land.
