Google Wants to be Big Brother

Google, whose motto is famously 'Don't Be Evil', is changing its terms and conditions in order to know as much as possible about all its users by tracking them individually, and everything they do,  across 57 of its sites and services; that's almost all of them, including Google search, GMail, YouTube, Google+, Google Maps, Picasa and Google Docs.  For legal reasons, only Google Chrome, Google Wallet and Google Books will be excluded, but Android users will be affected.

The changes come shortly after the company announced its intention to 'personalise' search results, using information it has collected about you to tell you want you want to know. They will come into force on 1 March and users can only opt out by closing their accounts completely and losing all data (including emails, addresses and pictures) they have stored in a Google application.  Announcing the changes in a company blog post on 24 January,  Alma Whitten, Google's privacy director, said that the company will “treat you as a single user across all our products, which will mean a simpler, more intuitive Google experience.”

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The intellectual property war goes on

The Megaupload case continues to reverberate following last Friday's action against the file-sharing site which saw the US Department of Justice shut down the websites of the Hong Kong based company and the FBI enforce the arrests of Megaupload executives in New Zealand on the grounds of copyright infringement. Much as you may dislike Megaupload and the millionaire frat boy antics of its founder, Kim Schmitz (alias Kim Dotcom), there's something worrying about America's urge to play international Wyatt Earp on behalf of Hollywood.

The relevant US laws are the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DCMA)  and the PRO-IP Act of 2008 (Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property). Like the Stop Online Piracy Act, the US act recently batted into the long grass thanks to a campaign by WIkipedia, Google and numerous others, these laws remain controversial.

The comparative ease with which it has been possible for the US authorities to stop Megaupload supports the view that, rather than to strengthen the US law on copyright infringment, SOPA was always primarily intended to put pressure on worldwide websites such as Google which may unwittingly provide links to third parties infringing copyright. SOPA's critics have always argued that it would be unfair, impractical and possibly illegal for sites like Google to enforce anti-piracy legislation on a global level on behalf of the US government. The Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital Trade Act (OPEN), proposed in both the House and Senate after the SOPA debacle, seeks to empower the International Trade Commission to enforce online piracy laws globally. Media companies think it's too soft on pirates, but it still seeks to cover extraterritoriality with a veneer of international acceptance.

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Defending Media Pluralism in Hungary

Over recent weeks serious questions have been asked by the European Commission about 30 new laws in Hungary, including a major constitutional revision, and these concerns continue, according to EU Commissioner and Vice President of the EC, Neelie Kroes, on her personal blog (January 5, 2012). These laws have passed against the backdrop of a media law adopted in late 2010, which was found by the European Commission to put fundamental rights at risk, and by the Hungarian courts to breach the Hungarian constitution.

The European Union Charter of Fundamental Rights clearly states that “the freedom and pluralism of the media shall be respected,” and the EU has always stood up for media freedom and pluralism. Both the European Commission and I have defended press freedom and fundamental rights from the outset of the intense debate in Hungary over a year ago.

In parallel we have continued to push for the expansion of the internet and the opportunities it provides, including as a vehicle for new media and free expression. That is significant, because however worrying the general media environment may be in Hungary, the opportunities of Hungarians to express themselves and access the opinions of others has grown immeasurably because 98% of Hungarians now have access to broadband internet.

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Who owns your Twitter followers - you or the boss?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/dec/27/company-sues-ex-employee-twitter

A tweeter is being sued for £217,000 by his former employer, according to a report on the Guardian's website, because he took his Twitter followers with him when he left the company. Noah Kravitz, a US-based writer, built up a following of 17,000 when he was working for the mobile phone website, PhoneDog. He posted as @Phonedog_Noah. In October 2010, Kravitz resigned and renamed his account @noahkravitz. His followers stayed with him.

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Wikipedia Suspends Editors Connected to PR Company

Online encyclopaedia Wikipedia has suspended 10 user accounts registered as editors connected to PR company Bell Pottinger. Bell Pottinger, a company founded by one-time UK Conservative Party PR guru, Tim Bell, is alleged to have breached Wikipedia guidelines, designed to prevent people directly involved with a topic or organisation from writing or amending an article about that topic or organisation.

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Duck SOPA

The news that the Business Software Alliance, which includes major companies such as Microsoft, Intel,  Adobe and Apple, had dropped its support for the US Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) was a major blow to the bill, sponsored by  Lamar Smith, the right-wing and notoriously anti-gay Republican Congressman for Texas who is Chair of the House Judiciary Committee.

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Mosley sues Google in sex video fight

Writing in the Financial Times, 24 November 2011, Ben Fenton, the paper's Chief Media Correspondent, reports that Max Mosely is suing Google over its refusal to censor its own search results to block sites including material about his sex life. The revelation was part of Mosley's testimony to  the Leveson inquiry in London which is looking into UK media attitudes to privacy and the use of illegal or unethical methods to unearth information about individuals of interest to the press.

Resisting the temptation to demonstrate the ease with which it might be possible to prove Mosley's case, we thought it worth pointing out that the former Formula One boss's vigorous defence of the right to privacy risks coming bang up against several other countervailing rights - most notably the one about freedom of information.

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Penguin to withhold e-books from UK library suppliers

Writing in The Bookseller 24 November 2011, Charlotte Williams reports that Penguin UK will withhold the supply of e-book releases to UK library suppliers, following a similar decision by Penguin US a few days previously. Commentators believe that the issue is entirely connected with the publisher's fears about potential breaches of copyright because of weaknesses in digital rights management technology associated with e-book readers.

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Other stories

Brussels says no to European minimum broadband speeds

Authors to get online sales figures

Murdoch+Convergence = New Regulation

Belgian neutrality returns

Yahoo sacks chief executive

Stallman Lectures on Digital Freedom, Copyright

Government to create copyright small claims jurisdiction

LulzSec hacks Sun - threatens to release Brooks emails

US ISPs Finally Get Together on Piracy

Twitter may reveal names

Government hires Guardian digital chief

UK government e-petition site to return

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