MS, Yahoo! and Google snub debate on freedom
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Not all publicity is good publicity Yahoo!, Google and Microsoft have passed up the chance to take part in a web conference on internet freedom being hosted by human rights group Amnesty International this evening.â¦
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Plus: Is Microsoft search engine crawling Google? [News.com Extra]
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Google&#39;s recently launched news service in China doesn&#39;t display results from Web sites blocked by that country&#39;s authorities, raising prickly questions
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By Stephen Castle  One of Google's most popular services came under threat yesterday when a court banned the search engine from reproducing articles from Belgian newspapers and opened the door to similar challenges elsewhere in Europe.
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Google has responded to a U.S. congressman&#39;s series of questions about its privacy practices, with the company defending its use of consumer data.
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Privacy questioned Google has faced down one European probe into what it does with people's personal information, only to be challenged with another.â¦
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Blog: The U.S. government rejected Google's initial complaint that Microsoft was engaging in anticompetitive behavior, but at least one state attorney general is willing to look into it.
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MOUNTAIN VIEW, California  - The high priests of  free software have congregated at Google Inc.   headquarters this week to debate the future of the movement and  face down recent patent threats by Microsoft Corp. .
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UnanimousCoward writes &quot;A spokesperson has responded to the &#39;censorship&#39; questions in this article: &#39;&quot;Google has decided that in order to create the best possible search experience for our mainland China users we will not include sites whose content is
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The U.S. government still needs to block or impose conditions on Google Inc.&#39;s acquisition of online advertising server DoubleClick Inc., despite Google&#39;s call for global privacy standards, three privacy groups said Monday.
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Yahoo reopens a 5-year-old case that banned the selling of Nazi memorabilia on its auction site. Also: Dell leads in computer sales despite tax levies&hellip;.  Europe still watching what Microsoft does&hellip;. and more.
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By Stephen Foley  The American internet company Yahoo! has defended its record on human rights in China, and said it was asking the US government to challenge censorship in the communist country.
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(InfoWorld) - The Internet has an ever-growing role to play in allowing free expression across the globe, but only if attempts to reign it in are unsuccessful, Google Chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt said Tuesday. Schmidt, speaking in Washington, D.C., warned his audience that the Internet will continue to create public policy challenges asÂ another billion users move online in the coming years. One reaction to a perceived loss of privacy and to new Internet users questioning repressive governments will be to clamp down on information, he said. "[That approach] appeals to people who prize order over everything else," said Schmidt, speaking at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace's launch of a global think tank. "Those people exist everywhere." Schmidt acknowledged that a completely free flow of information over the Internet can be messy, but an unfettered Internet gives people the best information, he said. "The Internet has empowered people in a way we've never seen before. What we say at Google is, 'Don't bet against the Internet.'" he said In the coming years, governments will have to deal with a series of questions as more people come online, he said. The second billion Internet users will often compare the way their countries govern with other governments, he predicted. "They're going to see their government has been treating them badly," he said. "They're going to be annoyed." Some governments will struggle with how much free expression is too much, he said. Even in Western democracies, such as France and Germany, posting information about the Nazi Party is prohibited, Schmidt said, and other governments will struggle with what expression to allow. Schmidt said he hopes governments will err on the side of freedom, but free expression will continue to be a hot debate in coming years. "Have we gained more freedom than we want?" he said. "Freedom of choice may be more choice than people want." And with computers able to store more and more information, governments will struggle with the idea of privacy, Schmidt added. Many people will eventually regret rants or photos put online 20 or 30 years earlier. "What happens to personal privacy when everything that's created exists forever?" he said. "My daughter calls this 'too much sharing in your early life.'" The Internet creates paradoxes, Schmidt said. It creates a global marketplace, but it also allows people to segment themselves into tribes, he said. It allows the truth to emerge faster than with other mediums, but it also allows users to spread false information. "If you don't like a piece of information, spread some information," he said of the attitude of many Internet users. "People here wouldn't do that." When he heard groans from the Washington crowd, Schmidt amended his statement. "I should say, people in this room wouldn't do that," he said. Despite the policy questions, Schmidt encouraged the audience to work for ways to open information up to more people across the globe. "Globalization is fundamentally about universal access to information," he said. "This information revolution that's coming can be shaped."
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YahooÂs refusal to talk about its efforts to create digital copies of books is another setback for Google as it prepares to fight a copyright infringement suit.
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Google raises antitrust concerns in first public comment about Microsoft's proposed acquisition of Yahoo.
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Rumors have been flying on various weblogs all week, but today it's official: Google, along with Yahoo and MSN, is going to start supporting the attribute rel="nofollow" on links in an attempt to fight spam.    Except it won't work.
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'This is not about First Amendment rights, it is about protecting children' The world's largest porn studio says that Google and Yahoo! should "erect stronger barriers" to keep porn away from the world's children.â¦