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Saturday, November 8th, 2014
| Time | Event |
| 9:40a | Google Pressured to Push Proper Porn Over Piracy
Google has been handing out treats too lately, and like parents everywhere it’s now realizing that when you do something for one and not another, you get accused of discrimination. As usual the problems center around piracy. During October and after years of applying metaphorical Band Aids, Google flicked its algorithmic wrist, pirate sites were demoted, legal content was promoted, and the creative industries rejoiced. Well some did at least. Less than a month has passed and now Google is suffering fresh wailing in its other ear, this time from the porn industry. Entirely predictably the skin-flick pushers say they too want a piece of the piracy put-down pie. According to the BBC, “prominent figures” in the porn industry are now demanding that Google does for them what the search engine just did for the audio-visual sector. “Our whole industry has been turned upside down due to the stealing of adult content,” studio owner and actress Tasha Reign told the corporation. But if Google’s movie and TV show issues are complex, that’s nothing when compared to getting friendly with the porn industry. Firstly, Google has begun placing ads at the top of search results when people search for TV shows such as Game of Thrones. Friendly links therein direct users to legal sources. That is not going to happen with porn – Google forbids it. In fact, AdWords doesn’t even allow promotions for dating or international bride services. Good luck with Gangbangs of New York and Saturday Night Beaver. Secondly, the porn industry is virtually impossible to navigate. While the MPAA and IFPI might have the luxury of speaking for the major studios and 90%+ of the recorded music sector, no such coordination exists in the porn industry. Reaching consensus on what precisely should be done could prove impossible. Then comes the issue of demoting sites. The ‘pirate’ enemy cited most often by the adult industry are so-called tube sites but that raises even more complex issues, not least since some of the biggest companies in porn own several of the largest tube sites. Throw in the fact that many tube sites carry both licensed and unlicensed content and any demotion could hit legitimate creators’ distribution strategies of using thousands of adult movie clips to drive traffic to external sites. But whatever the complexities are, they are all completely moot. When approached by the BBC on the topic, Google declined to comment – period. The search engine wouldn’t be drawn “on any aspect” of the discussion, a sign that in this case the porn industry isn’t going to get what it wants. “By working with adult companies, Google could ensure the content that is seen contains age restrictions, unlike pirated content,” protests Tasha Reign. Tumbleweed, stage left….. Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services. |
| 4:55p | Night Time Eiffel Tower Photos Are a Copyright Violation
In several countries architectural structures are protected by copyright. That means you have to ask permission from the copyright holder to use your own picture in public. This is also true for the Eiffel Tower in Paris. The famous landmark was built in 1889 which means that it falls within the public domain. However, the light show was added later and this is still protected by copyright. It may sound absurd, but taking a picture of the Eiffel Tower at night and sharing that online may be copyright infringement. The stance is confirmed by the Société d’Exploitation de la Tour Eiffel, who note the following on their website. “Daytime views from the Eiffel Tower are rights-free. However, its various illuminations are subject to author’s rights as well as brand rights. Usage of these images is subject to prior request from the Société d’Exploitation de la Tour Eiffel.” The issue above was brought to the forefront by the EU Observer, who note that taking pictures of public buildings may lead to copyright violations in France, Belgium and Italy. Dimitar Dimitrov, policy expert for Wikipedia’s European Wikimedia chapters in Brussels, told the EU Observer that nightly pictures of the Eiffel Tower may indeed be infringing. “The lightshow is protected by copyright,” Dimitrov notes. Similar legislation also prevents the public from using photographs of some famous landmarks in Belgium, including the Atomium. This is also why the Atomium’s Wikipedia entry has censored versions or models of the building on its website, instead of the real deal.  In most other countries in Europe there is no ban on photos of architectural projects, thanks to a clause in the EU’s Information Society Directive. However, in Belgium, France and Italy this hasn’t been transposed into law. According to Dimitrov this effectively means that people are not allowed to publicly use photos of the Atomium, Eiffel Tower at night, or any other copyrighted architecture. Not even on social media. “If you take an image of the Atomium and put it on Facebook, that is copyright infringement,” Dimitrov says. Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services. |
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