The Blog That Disappeared; New York Times, 7/29/16

Roxane Gay, New York Times; The Blog That Disappeared:

"On June 27, Mr. Cooper’s Google account was deactivated, he has said. He lost 14 years of his blog archives, creative work, email and contacts. He has hired a lawyer and made complaints, and many of his readers and fans have tried to support his efforts. There is a petition circulating, urging Google to restore his work. Pen America, an organization that promotes free expression, has weighed in, saying that Mr. Cooper deserves a substantive response from Google.

Thus far, these efforts have been in vain. Google has not responded beyond saying there was a violation of the Terms of Service agreement. It has neither identified the specific violation nor indicated why it also deleted Mr. Cooper’s email account. It has not provided Mr. Cooper with the ability to download his personal information so he might rebuild his blog and email account elsewhere. In one interview, Mr. Cooper said he thought that the male escort ads might have led to his account’s being deactivated, but this has not been confirmed by the company.

When I contacted Google for further comment, I got a response that said, “We are aware of this matter, but the specific Terms of Service violations are ones we cannot discuss further due to legal considerations.” I asked about why Mr. Cooper’s Gmail account was also deleted and whether or not he would be able to retrieve the archive of his work, and I was directed to Google’s Terms of Service, Gmail Policy and Blogger Content Policy, which did not offer any useful specifics."

Photographer sues Getty Images for $1 billion after she's billed for her own photo; Los Angeles Times, 7/29/16

Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times; Photographer sues Getty Images for $1 billion after she's billed for her own photo:

"Carol Highsmith is a distinguished photographer who has traveled all over America, aiming to chronicle for posterity the life of the nation in the early 21st century. She’s donating her work to the public via the Library of Congress, which has called her act “one of the greatest acts of generosity in the history of the Library.” The Carol M. Highsmith Archive, which is expected ultimately to encompass more than 100,000 images, is accessible royalty-free via the library’s website.

So one can imagine Highsmith’s reaction last December when she got a threatening letter from a firm associated with the photo licensing agency Getty Images, accusing her of license infringement by posting one of her own images online. The firm demanded a “settlement payment” of $120 from her nonprofit This Is America! Foundation, backed up by the implicit threat to take her to court.

Actually, one doesn’t have to imagine Highsmith’s reaction. One can read all about it in the lawsuit she filed this week against Getty in New York federal court, accusing the agency of illicitly claiming rights to 18,755 of her photographs and seeking more than $1 billion in damages. The lawsuit also names Alamy, a British-based licensing agency that was puportedly the license holder whose rights were infringed. Neither Getty nor Alamy had the right to claim a license or copyright on her photos, she says."

Stephen Colbert Officially Retired “Stephen Colbert” Because Corporate Lawyers Made Him; Slate, 7/28/16

Aisha Harris, Slate; Stephen Colbert Officially Retired “Stephen Colbert” Because Corporate Lawyers Made Him:

"The world rejoiced recently when Stephen Colbert, host of the Late Show, brought back “Stephen Colbert,” beloved host of The Colbert Report, to cover the Republican National Convention alongside Jon Stewart.* Viacom, parent company of Colbert’s old stomping grounds Comedy Central, on the other hand, did not. Instead, as the host put it on Wednesday evening, Viacom’s corporate lawyers contacted CBS’ corporate lawyers to claim “Colbert” as their intellectual property. “[It’s] surprising,” he said, “because I never considered that guy much of an intellectual.”"

A Presidential Priority: Unleashing Open Data; Huffington Post, 7/21/16

Joel Gurin, Huffington Post; A Presidential Priority: Unleashing Open Data:

"The Center for Open Data Enterprise has received support from the Laura and John Arnold Foundation to publish a nonpartisan informational Open Data Transition Report, which will be made public in October. The report will draw on experts from business, the public sector, and civil society to provide an action plan for continuity and further improvements in open government data — free government data released for public use. It will show how open data can fuel national initiatives in healthcare, medical research, energy, criminal justice reform, education, labor, veterans’ benefits, and many other critical areas...

The next president will have an unprecedented opportunity to lead a truly data-driven government, working with federal agencies and the U.S. Congress. By providing high-quality, usable data about everything from satellite observations to local neighborhood resources, the government can open new opportunities for scientific research, economic growth, and citizen engagement. The next administration’s task will be to solidify the gains that have already been made, shape a new vision for a data-driven democracy, and ensure that the leadership and resources are there to make that vision a reality.

The Open Data Transition Report will be designed to help the next administration identify and pursue the most compelling open data opportunities."

Uncle Sam Wants You — Or at Least Your Genetic and Lifestyle Information; New York Times, 7/23/16

Robert Pear, New York Times; Uncle Sam Wants You — Or at Least Your Genetic and Lifestyle Information:

"People can sign up through academic medical centers at Columbia University, Northwestern University in Illinois, the University of Arizona and the University of Pittsburgh, each of which is working with local partners. Columbia, for example, is collaborating with NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, Harlem Hospital and Weill Cornell Medicine.

Participants will be recruited to reflect the geographic, racial, ethnic and socioeconomic diversity of the nation. To help achieve that goal, officials have enlisted community health centers, where more than 90 percent of patients have annual incomes less than twice the poverty level (less than $23,760 for an individual). About one-third of health center patients are Latinos, and about one-fourth are African-Americans.

Officials said they wanted patients to be partners in the research, not just “human subjects.” To that end, patients will have access to all the information about themselves, including laboratory and genetic test results. Doctors could eventually use the data to shape treatment for an individual patient, rather than using standard treatments that may not work for everyone. Patients will help guide the research, sitting on its steering committee and advisory board."

"Tablet v. Newspaper"; Bizarro, 7/11/16

Dan Piraro, Bizarro:

"Tablet v. Newspaper"

Wellcome Trust launches open-access publishing venture; Nature, 7/6/16

Declan Butler, Nature; Wellcome Trust launches open-access publishing venture:

"One of the world’s largest biomedical charities, the Wellcome Trust in London, will launch an open-access publishing venture later this year. The idea behind Wellcome Open Research is to allow Wellcome grant recipients to publish their findings more quickly and to create a model that, according to the charity, other funders might adopt in future.

Management of the venture, which Wellcome announced on 6 July, will be contracted out to F1000Research, an open-access publishing platform. The platform publishes manuscripts and data sets within days of their submission, after a quick sanity check by its in-house editors, and then arranges post-publication peer review."