Friday, 3 February 2012
Ad Break: 'You were born of the 21st Century, now act like it'
Michael Stipe says:
I’ve been listening to the new Perfume Genius record all last week in Mexico, it is a beautiful and amazing record and a stunning 2nd album and achievement. But in trying to advertise the record and first video, this short clip has been banned by YouTube. For YouTube to deem this advertisement as “non family safe” is dumbheaded discrimination; I find their actions in doing so disgraceful and cowardly. YouTube, shame on you. You were born of the 21st Century, now act like it. Read more about this here: http://www.queerty.com/watch-the-perfume-genius-clip-that-got-booted-from-youtube-for-adult-content-20120125/
Google changes enable 'per country' blog takedowns
Blogger sites can now be blocked on a "per country" basis after a change to its web address system.
Google will now be able to block access in individual countries following a legal removal request.The new system means blocking will not require restricting world-wide access to a blog.
The changes apply in Australia, New Zealand and India, but the BBC understands Google plans to roll it out globally.
The news follows Twitter's announcement that it could selectively block tweets on a country-by-country basis - news that attracted criticism from free speech campaigners.
However, Joss Wright, research fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute, said he felt the changes to Blogger were a positive step.
"Google's new approach to supporting country-level takedown requests in Blogger strikes a good balance between free speech, legality and practical issues for end users.
"By allowing per-country takedown requests, Google can meet local laws without blocking content at a global level."
Change of address
Under the new system, a blog reader will, in the first instance, be directed to a website address using a "country-code top level domain".
For example, for users based in Australia, Blogger's servers will automatically direct them to blogname.blogspot.com.au.
"If you visit a blog that does not correspond to your current location as determined by your IP address, the blogspot servers will redirect you to the domain associated with your country," Google said in a Q&A the company posted about the changes.
Google believes this will allow it to comply with local law enforcement requests, while keeping content available in other jurisdictions.
Additionally users will also able to tell Google to direct them to a different country web address by adding "/ncr" - ncr stands for "No Country Redirect".
In order to read a blog via a US web address users outside America would type " blogname.blogspot.com/ncr".
"Blog readers may request a specific country version of the blogspot content by entering a specially formatted 'NCR' URL, " the company wrote in the Q&A.
It is not clear, however, if this would work for requests to access blocked blogs made from the jurisdiction in which the removal notice originated.
Keeping it local
The company has in the past taken a similar local approach to blocking content in other products.
For example, Google has said it removes all Nazi-related content from Google.de, the address for its German services.
In a 2007 blog post, which the BBC understands still reflects the firm's position, Google said that "dealing with controversial content is one of the biggest challenges we face as a company".
In the same post the company noted that different national laws on free speech "create real technical challenges, for example, about how you restrict one type of content in one country but not another".
With this system Google may have, for Blogger at least, answered its own question.
@'BBC'
(Thanx Helen!)
Anonymous Hacks Neo-Nazis, Finds Ron Paul
The hacktivist collective Anonymous set out to take down the white supremacist American Third Party (A3P) in what they called “Operation Blitzkrieg” but they may have done much more.
In a document dump that includes private forum messages, emails, organization notes another other information the group found numerous connections between Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul and A3P. According to the documents, all hosted here, Paul himself regularly met with many A3P members, engaged in conference calls with their board of directors and engaged in a “bridging tactic” between A3P and the Ron Paul Revolution.
Other excerpts show A3P webmaster Jamie Kelso (whose email account was one hacked by the collective) coordinating meeting between Paul and other members of A3P such as corporate lawyer and chairman of the neo-Nazi group Paul. “I’m going to go to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) with Bill Johnson,” reads an email to an A3P member dated January 2011. “Bill and I will be meeting with Ron and Ran Paul. I have a teleconference call with Bill (and Ron Paul) tonight. Much more later. Things are starting to happen (thanks to folks like you).”
In another passage, Kelso, a former Scientologist and account owner of other German Nazi forums, wrote: “I’ll be at CPAC from Feb. 9 to Feb. 12. I’ll send back reports to you from personal meetings with Ron Paul, newly-elected Senator Rand Paul and many others. It’ll be here on WhiteNewsNow, a place that is really starting to get interesting because of the presence of folks like you. Birds of a feather flock together, and we are really gathering some quality here.”
Accusations of racism and ties to neo-Nazi interests have plagued Paul since the 1990s and have re-surfaced during this campaign. So far Paul has issued standard denials, claiming not to have been aware of the ties between his camp and the racist right and denied authorship of a series of racist newsletters, despite confirmation from his closest staff that Paul signed off on every detail.
So what’s Paul’s explanation now?
Jessica Pieklo @'care2'
(Thanx GKB!
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