The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) have been lobbying and releasing for quite a period on the Google Book Settlement (GBS).
I have carried their links on a number of sites regarding the oft-neglected issue of Consumer data privacy in relation to the GBS.Today, so, I am carrying a link to their latest information and to their site, for those who are interested in the issue of privacy and digitisation.
Here’s the Checklist (in brief, full version at link):
1). Does your ebook/service tool/etc protect your privacy?
2).Does it tell you what it is doing?
3).What happens to additions of books you buy, (commentaries/annotations/highlights)?
4).Do you own your book or just rent or licence it?
5).Is it censorship-resistant?
Number 5 interests me mostly, having experienced some degree of censorship myself, thus a simple enough question? :
We live in an era where Defamation laws (UK/Ireland) are preponderant, (Blasphemy in Ireland), if a book or licenced edition eBook were to fall foul of these laws, has our government the right to stymie /trace/track our reading ?
It may seem a silly question but as can be seen in many countries, words piss off governments and even giants like Google fall foul of the censors. I mean if everything were in data banks who gets to snip and clip at an advisory level?
The article is here:
EFF ‘Digital Books and your Rights’
Chris Murray 