Link Smorgasbord, June 17 - 23

Xbox One 'may not work' in unsupported countries
I am not sure if this still stands in light of the turn about on many of the restrictions.  Either way seeing Japan excluded from the list of supported countries made me wonder all over again what they were thinking (on top of existing disbelief).

How to Block the NSA From Your Friends List
On some of the other options for social networking and privacy

Your Feedback Matters - Update on Xbox One
A 180 on a number of issues with the Xbox One, which comes as a relief to the libraries that lend video games.

Great article by Corey Doctorow

Remember When The Patriot Act Debate Was All About Library Records?
One thing that has been driving me crazy are all the meme's depicting Liberals celebrating the Patriot Act when it was signed into law and only now getting upset. The liberal circles I circulate through were all incredibly upset about the Patriot Act.  Not only that, but in response to the Patriot Act many libraries actively stopped keeping certain records in defense of privacy.  To libraries, privacy is an important part of freedom to access.

The title says it all.  About the various hindrances of borrowing ebooks from the library and associated issues.

HathiTrust to partner with DPLA 
A great use of the discovery portal of the DPLA.

New DRM Will Change the Words in Your E-Book
This is very close to one of the reasons I remain attached to physical books - the words printed on the page remain printed on the page and the book remains on the shelf until someone comes and removes it physically.  I confess to no surprise on this development, it definitely qualifies as an interesting implementation of DRM, but I dislike the mutability of digital books.  On the other hand, maybe developments in this direction could lead to a simpler process for borrowing library ebooks as it could remove the requirement for the cumbersome authorization processes currently in use.

Win a signed copy of The Ocean at the End of the Lane
Online raffle for a fantastic book (if you're curious, here's link to my review)

Patent Infringement Suit Includes Linking URLs In an Email
/sigh

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