News roundup

  • Preliminary hearings in the patent-infringement suit brought against Google Earth by Skyline Software Systems appear to have the judge siding with Google when deciding on definitions for terms to be used during the suit. CNet says this bodes well for Google Earth.
  • A wonderful op-ed piece in The Indian Express about why censoring Google Earth would be a terrible idea. Among the many good points made:

    Censoring net access is simply not an option for India. We are not China. We should not think of putting filters or of asking Google to block its service from Indian IP addresses. Not even if Google is happy to do so — and that’s the second point. Google caved in to Chinese demands on censoring its services inside China. That shameful cop-out robbed Google of a great deal of moral authority on issues of censorship. Democratic governments must take the lead.