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France, Privacy Advocates Voice Google Book Deal Concerns

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on September 8, 2009 - 8:57am.
Mountain View, Calif. - Responding to concerns voiced by Germany, France and the European Commission, Google (NASD: GOOG) announced that it will not include European out-of-print works that are still in copyright in its massive digital book index without authors' permissions. A French Cultural Ministry official told Reuters that France will join Germany in asking a U.S. court to block Google's proposed $125 million settlement with authors over its book-scanning project.
tags: Law | Lawsuits | Google | Copyright | E-Books | EFF | Privacy | Publishing | Books | ACLU | Google Book Search | Consumer Watchdog |

Facebook Increases Privacy Protection on Quiz Applications

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on August 27, 2009 - 9:59am.
Palo Alto, Calif. - Facebook has agreed to implement new privacy safeguards that limit the personal information that quiz authors have access to, in response to complaints from the Canadian Privacy Commissioner, and a chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
tags: Social Networking | Facebook | Privacy | ACLU |

ACLU, EFF Urge Stronger Privacy at Google Book Search

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on July 24, 2009 - 6:08am.
San Francisco - A number of digital civil liberties advocates, including the ACLU and Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), this week sent a letter to Google's (NASD: GOOG) chief executive, urging the company to implement stringent privacy standards for its Google Book Search service. The organizations, which also included the Samuelson Clinic at the University of California, note that currently, Google tracks every book a user searches for and browses, as well as which titles are read and even what a user writes in the digital margins.
tags: Google | EFF | Privacy | Publishing | Books | ACLU | Google Book Search |

Tennessee Schools Filtering Pro-Gay Sites; ACLU Threatens Suit

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on April 16, 2009 - 10:16am.
San Francisco - The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has threatened to sue public schools in Tennessee for using Internet filtering software to block websites that discuss lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues, while allowing visits to sites that actively advocate against homosexuality, Wired.com reported.
tags: Law | Lawsuits | Policy | LGBT | ACLU | Education Networks of America |

Schwarzenneger Asks Calif. ISPs to Block Child Pornography

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on June 23, 2008 - 5:08am.

Sacramento, Calif. - California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. on Friday asked California's Internet service providers to follow the lead of Verizon, Time Warner Cable and Sprint by "removing child pornography from existing servers and blocking channels" that disseminate the illegal material. Earlier this month, the three ISPs announced an agreement with New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, under which they would eliminate access to child pornography newsgroups on Usenet, and also purge any existing child pornography on their servers.

tags: Law | Policy | Verizon | Sprint | Time Warner Cable | ACLU | Arnold Schwarzenegger | Usenet |

Federal Judge Rules Child Online Protection Act Unconstitutional

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on March 22, 2007 - 4:08pm.

Washington - A federal judge has ruled that the ten-year-old Child Online Protection Act (COPA) -- which has never been enforced, but provided criminal and civil penalties for those making sexually explicit content freely available online -- is unconstitutional, and issued a permanent injunction barring its enforcement.

tags: Lawsuits | Policy | Privacy | Washington | Pornography | ACLU | COPA |

Study: 1% of All Websites Are Pornographic; Filters Over 90% Effective

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 15, 2006 - 3:36pm.
Philadelphia - According to the findings of a U.S. government study, about 1% of all websites indexed by Google and Microsoft are sexually explicit, the Associated Press reported.
tags: Internet | Law | Reports | Metrics | Adult | Censorship | Children | Parental Control | ACLU | COPA |

ACLU, U.S. Govt. in Court Again Over Child Online Protection Act

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 23, 2006 - 1:21pm.
Philadelphia - The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) was in court again on Monday to continue its challenge to the 1998 Child Online Protection Act (COPA), which has not yet been enforced but would criminalize the act of publishing materials "harmful to children" online. The Supreme Court has already weighed in on the law, twice granting preliminary injunctions against its enforcement, and asked a lower court in Philadelphia to determine whether there have been any changes in technology that would affect the constitutionality of the statute.
tags: Internet | Law | Lawsuits | Censorship | Children | Parental Control | ACLU | COPA |

ACLU Files to Block RIAA Subpoena for Identity of Boston College Student

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on September 30, 2003 - 9:43am.
Boston -- The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has filed motions in federal court that aim to counter the recording industry's current subpoena and lawsuit campaign against alleged music file-swappers. On Monday, the ACLU and a Boston law firm asked a federal court to quash a recording industry subpoena filed to obtain the identity of a Boston College student from the school, in connection with alleged copyright infringement. The ACLU said in court papers that the provision of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act that allows the streamlined subpoena process currently being used by the RIAA in its anti-piracy legal campaign is "totally lacking in procedural protections," making it "an invitation to mistake and misuse." "We're not saying the recording industry shouldn't go after file sharers, only that they must do so in a way that's fair," said ACLU staff attorney Christopher Hansen.
tags: College | RIAA | Student | Boston | ACLU |