theodp writes “Bill Gates and Ray Ozzie are listed as inventors of the Guardian Angel, which is described in a most uncommon Microsoft patent application that should intrigue privacy recommends. In addition to protecting you from possibly diseased people, by detecting body temperatures, the Guardian Angel’s ‘monitoring component can take note of the number of conversations occurring in a room (and more specifically, a breakdown of the types of people in the room accompanied by a warning for perilous persons, based on sex offender registration, FBI most wanted, etc.).’ The versatile Guardian Angel, Microsoft notes, can also advocate restaurants, advise you on the appropriateness of your jokes, detect that your heartbeat has stopped, display targeted ads on billboards, and block spam.”

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An anonymous reader writes “A Seattle Times editorial notes that the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal will put author Mark Steyn on trial for his book ‘America Alone,’ which has angered Muslims in Canada. Steyn is a columnist for the Canadian magazine Maclean’s. According to the editorial, British Columbia bans all words and images ‘likely to expose a person… to hatred or contempt because of race, religion, age, disability, sex, marital status or sexual orientation.’ Steyn is unapologetic, and is advertising his book as a ‘Canadian Hate Crime’ and daring the tribunal to ‘pronounce him bad.’” The Canadian tabloid the National Post has coverage of what it calls “a media storm.”

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A number of readers are sending word that the blogosphere and Twittersphere are alight with reports of Microsoft’s new block on messages containing YouTube URLs . Both MSN Messenger and Windows Live Messenger reportedly implement the block. One blogger sniffed the network to discover that such messages receive a NAK from Microsoft’s servers. Microsoft has been blocking messages by keyword, as an anti-phishing measure, for some time, but *.youtube.com wouldn’t seem to provoke much worry about phishing. Instead, as B.E.T.A Daily speculates, “This block seems to be related to the recent launch of Messenger Television in 20 countries which allows for sharing video clips from MSN Video on messenger.” Hard to get away with in an arena where you don’t enjoy a monopoly.

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Ian Lamont writes “Google has begun to scan the streets of Paris as part of its Street View service, but the company may be hindered from publishing them unedited. The reason? French privacy laws. Google may be forced to blur faces or use low-resolution versions of the photographs. The Embassy of France in the US has a page devoted to French privacy laws, that says the laws are needed to ‘avoid infringing the individual’s right to privacy and right to his or her picture (photograph or drawing), both of them rights of personality.’”

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NewYorkCountryLawyer writes “The RIAA’s top litigation lawyer, who has been personally leading the RIAA’s litigation campaign for the past several years, Richard Gabriel, will be leaving his law practice, after getting a job as a say court judge for a 2-year term in Colorado. What this will mean to the RIAA’s litigation machine is anyone’s guess. Mr. Gabriel has personally argued all of the RIAA’s main cases, including Elektra v. Barker, Atlantic v. Howell, Atlantic v. Brennan, Capitol v. Foster, Atlantic v. Andersen, UMG v. Lindor, and London-Sire v. Doe 1, and personally tried the Capitol v. Thomas case, the only RIAA case that has ever gone to trial. He was working directly under the supervision of the RIAA’s mysterious ‘representative’ Matthew Oppenheim.”

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An anonymous reader writes to tell us that it seems the UK is trying make up for their judicious use of surveillance cameras that, according to current research, don’t actually deter crime, by using the surveillance network to prosecute petty crimes. “Conjuring up the bogeymen of terrorists, on the web pedophiles and cybercriminals, the U.K. passed a comprehensive surveillance law, The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, in 2000. The law grants “the interception of communications, carrying out of surveillance, and the use of covert human intelligence sources” to help prevent crime, including terrorism. Current reports in the U.K. media indicate that the laws are being used for everything but terrorism investigations.”

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Techdirt called our attention to an interesting video of patent attorney Stephan Kinsella’s presentation on ‘Rethinking Intellectual Property Totally.’ It’s a long presentation, but well worth the time to watch. There is also an ongoing series of posts discussing intellectual property rights on Techdirt for additional reading.

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yo_cruyff notes a Computerworld article on Google’s recent annual shareholder meeting, which was dominated by argument over the company’s human rights policies. Google’s shareholders, on advice from their board, have voted down two proposals on Thursday that would have compelled Google to change its policies. “Google [has been] coming under fire for operating a version of its search engine that complies with China’s censorship rules. Google argues that it’s better for it to have a presence in the country and to offer people some information, rather than for it not to be active in China at all… [S]hareholders and rights groups including Amnesty International… continue to push Google to improve its policies in countries known for human rights abuses and limits on freedom of speech… Sergey Brin, cofounder and president of technology for Google, abstained from voting on either of the proposals. ‘I concurred with the spirit of these proposals,’ Brin said. But he said he didn’t fully support them as they were written, and so didn’t want to vote for them.”

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Barence writes “A PC Pro reader has received a demand for a £600 out-of-court settlement from lawyers claiming to have forensic evidence that he illegally downloaded a PC game on BitTorrent. The law firm, Davenport Lyons, is acting on the behalf of German games distributor Zuxxez, creator of the game in question, Two Worlds. The Computer Pro reader was given no prior warning to cease file sharing, unlike the usual ‘three strikes and you’re out’ approach adopted by the music industry. The reader says, ‘To add insult to injury it [Davenport Lyons] didn’t pay enough postage on the letter and I had to collect it from the sorting office at a cost of £1.30. This also used up most of the two weeks that it granted for a response.’”

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l2718 writes “Yesterday we discussed Skype’s appeal of a German court’s ruling against them regarding a violation of the GPL. Harald Welte (the plaintiff) now reports in his blog that following oral argument, Skype decided to drop the appeal and accept the lower court ruling in Weite’s favor. More details and analysis at Groklaw. Congratulations to Mr. Welte and GPL-violations.org!”

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