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Monthly Archives: February 2018

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University Libraries Offer Online 'Lending' of Scanned In-Copyright Books
by BeauHD on 09/04/2020 at 3:30 am
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: The coronavirus crisis has forced the closure of libraries around the world, depriving the public of access to millions of printed books. Books old enough to be in the public domain may be available for free download online. Many recent books are available to borrow in e-book form. But there are many other books -- especially those published in the mid-to-late 20th century -- that are hard to access without going to a physical library. A consortium of university libraries called HathiTrust recently announced a solution to this problem, called the Emergency Temporary Access Service. It allows participating HathiTrust member libraries to offer their patrons digital scans of books that they can "check out" and read online. HathiTrust has a history of pushing the boundaries of copyright. It was the defendant in a landmark 2014 ruling that established the legality of library book scanning. At the time, HathiTrust was only allowing people with print disabilities to access the full text of scanned books. Now HathiTrust is expanding access to more people -- though still with significant limits. The program is only available to patrons of member libraries like the Cornell library. Libraries can only "lend" as many copies of the book as it has physical copies on its shelves. Loans last for an hour and are automatically renewed if a patron is still viewing a book at the hour's end. If you want to read a book that's currently in use by another patron, you have to wait until they're finished. The service differs from the Internet Archive's National Emergency Library in that it limits the "lending" of copies to how many physical copies there are available on its shelves. "During the pandemic, the Internet Archive isn't limiting the number of people who can 'borrow' a book simultaneously," reports Ars. "Cornell University legal scholar James Grimmelmann tells Ars that the limits on the HathiTrust program will put the group in a stronger position if it is ever challenged in court," the report adds. "The same fair use doctrine that allows HathiTrust to scan books in the first place might also justify what the organization is doing now -- though that's far from certain." Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Windows 10 Is Getting Linux Files Integration In File Explorer
by BeauHD on 09/04/2020 at 2:02 am
Microsoft is planning to fully integrate Linux file access into the built-in File Explorer. The Verge reports: A new Linux icon will be available in the left-hand navigation pane in File Explorer, providing access to the root file system for any distros that are installed in Windows 10. The icon that will appear in File Explorer is the famous Tux, the penguin mascot for the Linux kernel. Microsoft is testing the Linux File Explorer integration in a new build of Windows 10 that's available for testers today. Previously, Windows 10 users would have to manually navigate to a UNC path to get access to Linux files from the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL). If you have WSL enabled, then the Tux will appear in File Explorer, and Microsoft is now seeking feedback on the integration before it's finalized as part of a future Windows 10 update. The software maker will ship this update to all Windows 10 users later this year. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Nintendo's Animal Crossing Becomes New Hong Kong Protest Ground
by BeauHD on 09/04/2020 at 1:25 am
Nintendo's Animal Crossing has become a place for Hong Kong protesters to congregate without flouting social distancing rules. Bloomberg reports: Animal Crossing is a simulation game where players live on an idyllic tropical island and befriend anthropomorphic animals. Players can customize their islands with in-game illustrating tools and visit each other's islands online. Pro-democracy content created for the game has gone viral on social media, including Twitter. In a tweet last week, one of Hong Kong's most well-known democracy campaigners, Joshua Wong, said he was playing the game and that the movement had shifted online. In one video posted to Twitter, a group of players use bug-catching nets to hit pictures of the city's leader Carrie Lam on a beach in the game. A nearby poster states "Free Hong Kong. Revolution Now." Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Amazon's Shifting Definition of What Is 'Essential'
by msmash on 09/04/2020 at 12:45 am
Maddy Varner, reporting for The Markup: On March 17, Amazon informed U.S. sellers that it would no longer accept nonessential products at its warehouses. To the casual shopper, it might have sounded similar to the pledges Amazon has made in Italy, France, and India to stop taking orders from customers entirely for nonessential goods. But examining the fine print reveals that it was nothing of the sort. The original pledge -- which was announced as policy for March 17 to April 5 -- allowed Amazon to ship nonessential items that were already stocked in its warehouse, and sellers could also stock nonessential items in their own warehouses and ship directly to customers. Amazon defined essential loosely, saying that "most of the products" it would accept were in the categories of "Baby Products," "Health & Household," "Beauty & Personal Care," "Grocery," "Industrial & Scientific," and "Pet Supplies." Since that mid-March announcement, Amazon has quietly relaxed even further its definition of what is essential, while also extending indefinitely the date by which "operations will be fully restored." On March 27, archived snapshots of the page indicated that Amazon would broaden the list of new shipments it would accept from sellers, on an unspecified "item-by-item" basis. As of April 6, in the United States, you could still order a bowling ball, a 10-pack of rubber chickens, and a prom dress and have them show up at your door within a week. All of the items are described on the website as either "Fulfilled by Amazon" or "Ships from and sold by Amazon.com," and none of the items are in the categories previously deemed essential. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Italy Working On Coronavirus Tracing App To Help Lockdown Exit
by BeauHD on 09/04/2020 at 12:03 am
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Italian authorities are working on introducing a smartphone app that would help health services trace the contacts of people who test positive for the coronavirus as the government looks at ways of gradually lifting a lockdown imposed a month ago. Innovation minister Paola Pisano acknowledged that launching the app would raise major issues of privacy and data control, something which would have to be resolved before it went into operation. But it could help reduce contagion and limit the impact of a disease that has killed more than 17,000 people in Italy in just over a month. "This is delicate terrain. I think we are all conscious of that and we must remain so," she told a parliamentary hearing on Wednesday. Italy launched a fast tender for a monitoring and remote medical support app on March 24 and received hundreds of proposals which are currently under evaluation by a specially created task force. The app would be only one part of a wider monitoring and support system, Pisano said. It would function on a voluntary basis and would have to be limited to clearly defined ends and guarantee anonymity as well as meet technical requirements. The app would record when it came into proximity with another smartphone user with the app, for how long and at what distance and if a person tested positive for the coronavirus, authorities would be able to trace the contacts and alert them. The European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) is calling for a pan-European mobile app to track the spread of the coronavirus "instead of the current hodge-podge of apps used in various EU countries which could breach people's privacy rights," Reuters reported on Monday. "The EDPS said the use of temporary broadcast identifiers and bluetooth technology for contact tracing protected both privacy and personal data, but voiced concerns about the variety of apps sprouting up." "Given these divergences, the European Data Protection Supervisor calls for a pan-European model COVID-19 mobile application, coordinated at EU level," Wojciech Wiewiorowski, the head of the EU privacy watchdog, said in a statement. "Ideally, coordination with the World Health Organization should also take place, to ensure data protection by design globally from the start," he said. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Zoom Accused of Misrepresenting Security Measures In New Lawsuit
by BeauHD on 08/04/2020 at 11:20 pm
Video conferencing company Zoom is being used by a shareholder over allegations of fraud and overstating the security protocols in place on its service. Gizmodo reports: In the lawsuit filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, plaintiff Michael Drieu -- on behalf of individuals who purchased Zoom securities after the company went public last year -- accuses the company of making "materially false and misleading statements" about its product and failing to disclose key information about the service. Namely, the suit cites Zoom as claiming that its product supported end-to-end encryption, when in fact it supports a different form of encryption called transport encryption -- as the Intercept reported last month -- that still allows Zoom to access data. Additionally, the suit alleges that Zoom's security failures put users "eat an increased risk of having their personal information accessed by unauthorized parties, including Facebook," that these facts would necessarily result in a decline in users, and that the company's responses to ongoing reporting on myriad problems on the service were "misleading at all relevant times." The suit states that the fallout from these incidents was exacerbated by the covid-19 crisis, during which time users of the service jumped from just 10 million to 200 million in a matter of months as schools and organizations turned to Zoom amid social distancing measures and shelter-in-place orders. The suit cites documentation related to Zoom's IPO as evidence that the company misrepresented the security protocols in place for protecting users. Specifically, the suit states, Zoom said it offered "robust security capabilities, including end-to-end encryption, secure login, administrative controls and role-based access controls," and -- in what was clearly an embarrassing claim by the company -- that it strives "to live up to the trust our customers place in us by delivering a communications solution that "just works.'" Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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