From Lexington Herald-Leader:
She is either due your thanks for doing everything in her power to protect children from obscenity or she is due your disdain for wantonly taking away the constitutional rights of the people of Jessamine County.
She never meant to do the latter. She absolutely meant to do the former.
Archive of posts filed under the Intellectual Freedom category.
Child protection or censorship? – Library employees lose jobs over book
Norman parent’s questions stop author’s visit to school
From The Oklahoman:
A visit by a best-selling author to a Norman middle school was canceled after a parent questioned the content of one of the author’s books.
Author Ellen Hopkins was scheduled to speak to eighth-graders at Whittier Middle School today about her career, writing process and books.
Hopkins is the author of several New York Times [...]
Australian PM’s website hacked
From The Australian:
Hackers temporarily shut down Kevin Rudd’s website last night in an apparent protest at federal government proposals for a mandatory internet filtering system.
The website of the Australian Communications and Media Authority was also taken down by the attack at about 7.20pm, but both sites were reported to be back online an hour later.
There [...]
Vietnamese blogger released after outcry
From The Australian:
A Vietnamese blogger who was arrested in a recent crackdown and who also printed T-shirts to protest a controversial mining project has been released after a week in custody, he said.
Bui Thanh Hieu, 37, was one of three online writers recently arrested in a “mounting crackdown” that drew strong condemnation from a global [...]
Google Book Privacy Policy: Good Start, Much More Needed
From the Electronic Frontier Foundation:
Late yesterday afternoon, September 3, 2009, Google finally issued a privacy policy for Google Books, both the current service and the extensive new book-related services they hope to have a federal court approve in October.
While there are some good things in the policy — many that EFF and its coalition partners [...]
Privacy Group Asks to Join Google Book Lawsuit As Deadline Approaches
From Wired:
A key privacy group is seeking to intervene in the ongoing copyright lawsuit over Google’s plan to build the library and bookstore of the future, arguing that reader privacy is at risk no matter how much Google promises to have a good privacy policy.
EPIC, or the Electronic Privacy Information Center, asked federal court judge [...]
CDT Urges Privacy Requirements Be Included in Google Books Settlement
From the Center for Democracy & Technology:
CDT today filed a “friend of the court” brief in the Southern District of New York requesting that key privacy requirements be included in the Court’s approval of the class-action settlement that would dramatically expand Google Book Search.
CDT Releases Privacy Recommendations Report for Google Book Service
From the Center for Democracy & Technology:
CDT today released a report analyzing the privacy risks associated with the proposed expansion of Google Book Search. The report urges Google to commit to a strong privacy regime for the new service in advance of the settlement fairness hearing this fall. The tentative settlement between Google and publishers, [...]
University of Michigan, Amazon announce book-printing deal
From Michigan Live:
Reprints of hundreds of thousands of out-of-copyright books from the University of Michigan libraries will be available for purchase by the general public through Amazon.com, under an agreement announced Tuesday.
Reprints of 400,000 rare academic books contained in the U-M libraries will be available for purchase for $10 to $45 from the online retailer’s [...]
Advocates Ask Google for Privacy Guarantees in Online Library
From the New York Times:
Three advocacy groups have asked Google to commit to protect the privacy of readers in its book search service, which is poised for a major expansion under a pending class-action settlement. The groups, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Samuelson Law, Technology and Public Policy Clinic [...]