Decision in French court comes after former head of Formula One said that showing images breaches his privacy.
The important consideration in this story is the following snip:
The decision is a setback to Google as it tries to defend a global stance that the search engine is merely a platform that delivers links to content and it should not be responsible for policing them.
Although Google can delete images on its website, it cannot prevent others reposting them, resulting in a constant game of catch-up.
In a statement, Google said the court’s request would require it to build a new software filter to continuously catch new versions of the posted images and remove them.
“This is a troubling ruling with serious consequences for free expression and we will appeal it,” said Google’s associate general counsel Daphne Keller in a statement.
Web inventor Berners-Lee sounds alarm on mass spying | CNET
Sir Tim Berners-Lee says the activities of the NSA and its UK counterpart, the GCHQ, could warp his baby, making the Internet vulnerable to attack and depriving humanity of a “safe space” for problem solving.
Startup Gives Free Stuff to Student Influencers | Mashable Sumpto, a startup that identifies top social-media influencers at colleges across the country, sends students free gifts from brands in hopes that they will tweet, post and share photos of the free swag on their social-media accounts.
Illinois Library Comes Under Fire | American Libraries Magazine
“Sometimes libraries that are doing ‘all the right things’ pay a price for their excellence through uncivil attacks and attempts to dismantle their work,” Barbara Jones, director of ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF), told American Libraries. She is referring to Orland Park (Ill.) Public Library (OPPL) in south suburban Chicago, which has endured several intellectual-freedom challenges over the past few months.
The Library Vending Machine | BookRiot
Changing demographics and difficulty securing new funds for new libraries, The Pioneer Library System in Norman, Oklahoma decided to to use technology to meet its patrons needs. So last week, it opened the first 24-hour library vending machine in the United States. Built by EnvisionWare, this fully automated machine will be able to to dispense more than 400 pieces of media (books/DVDs/audiobooks) and store more than 1000 returned items.
A video game studio censored negative YouTube reviews of its latest title, using spurious copyright-infringement claims to get its way. And now the gaming world is hoisting its controllers in revolt.
Curated links of banned books news stories from the U.S. that you should read if you are concerned about intellectual freedom and the freedom to read. Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye challenge is of particular interest, as the author is from Ohio and the challenge to her novel originated from an official at the Ohio State Board of Education.
At DragonCon last month, a couple of cosplayers decided to sidestep the usual fare of superheroes and cartoon characters in favor of dressing up as the carpet at the Marriott hotel where the con takes place. Yup, there was carpet-colored camo. That is a real thing that now exists. Naturally, other people wanted to emulate the design, but, alas, this psychedelic carpet army was not to be – because Courtisan Inc., the company that designed the original rug, issued a Cease and Desist soon after the design went up.
Volpin Props, the cosplay designer, posted on their facebook page about the incident and received almost 300 comments, ranging from serious discussion of copyright and intellectual property to expressions of surprise that anyone would admit to having designed such an ugly carpet. Still, Volpin Props has gracefully stated that they are “in complete agreement with [Courtisans] decision,” so it looks like anyone looking to blend in with the carpeting in the future will have to make their own costume. Or maybe they should try the wallpaper? Carpet controversy aside, I think that we all can rest easy knowing that this photo exists:
The moral of the story is A. Cosplayers are will always find new ways to be creative and awesome and B.You can’t sell carpets that don’t belong to you, no matter how ugly they are.
A Virginia court weighed in on the topic this week, and found that actions on Facebook – even if they only involve one click of a mouse – are indeed protected by the [US] First Amendment.
A lack of “literary value” has apparently left Ralph Ellison’s landmark 1952 novel, Invisible Man banned from school libraries in Randolph County, N.C., the Asheboro Courier-Tribune reports.
infophile 