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Most people know that they are not allowed to share copies of their favorite band or film without permission. However, in some areas even your own creations may be illegal to share.

In several countries architectural structures are protected by copyright. That means you have to ask permission from the copyright holder to use your own picture in public.

This is also true for the Eiffel Tower in Paris. The famous landmark was built in 1889 which means that it falls within the public domain. However, the light show was added later and this is still protected by copyright.

It may sound absurd, but taking a picture of the Eiffel Tower at night and sharing that online may be copyright infringement. The stance is confirmed by the Société d’Exploitation de la Tour Eiffel, who note the following on their website.

“Daytime views from the Eiffel Tower are rights-free. However, its various illuminations are subject to author’s rights as well as brand rights. Usage of these images is subject to prior request from the Société d’Exploitation de la Tour Eiffel.”

The issue above was brought to the forefront by the EU Observer, who note that taking pictures of public buildings may lead to copyright violations in France, Belgium and Italy.

Dimitar Dimitrov, policy expert for Wikipedia’s European Wikimedia chapters in Brussels, told the EU Observer that nightly pictures of the Eiffel Tower may indeed be infringing.

“The lightshow is protected by copyright,” Dimitrov notes.

Similar legislation also prevents the public from using photographs of some famous landmarks in Belgium, including the Atomium. This is also why the Atomium’s Wikipedia entry has censored versions or models of the building on its website, instead of the real deal.

Censored Wikipedia entry (Norwegian)

In most other countries in Europe there is no ban on photos of architectural projects, thanks to a clause in the EU’s Information Society Directive. However, in Belgium, France and Italy this hasn’t been transposed into law.

According to Dimitrov this effectively means that people are not allowed to publicly use photos of the Atomium, Eiffel Tower at night, or any other copyrighted architecture. Not even on social media.

“If you take an image of the Atomium and put it on Facebook, that is copyright infringement,” Dimitrov says.

Good luck enforcing that…

^{Photo credit}

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

The UK Investigatory Powers Tribunal secretly granted permission to MI5 and MI6 to spy on journalists and lawyers, in ways that violate attorney-client privilege. Read the rest

Google appears to have turned on carrier billing support for Three customers in the UK. Though the company has not yet appeared on Google's page of listed partners, a reader has submitted a screenshot of the Play Store giving them the option to pay for Sons of Anarchy later on when their Three bill arrives.

Carrier billing isn't the most common way people pay for apps and Play Store content, but it's a convenient option for those who won't have the money they need until the end of the month or simply don't want to supply Google with a credit card.

Play Store Carrier Billing Support For Three Appears To Have Gone Live In The UK was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

A photograph shared by Beckitten in the Boing Boing Flickr Pool.

"The Whale" is one of the spaciest tracks on Electric Light Orchestra's Out of the Blue, an already very spacy album. Someone interspersed it with footage of actual whales in a feat of majestic literalism.

Whether it's an all-nighter or a boring meeting at work, we've all caught ourselves fighting to stay awake. Press the bridge of your nose to stay awake in a pinch.

Caffeine won't always be there to save the day, so it's good to know how to stay awake without any special resources or supplements. Pick The Brain explains why pressing the bridge of your nose might do the trick:

Making your index finger into a straight bar, place it on the bridge of tissue and cartilage between your nostrils. Apply pressure upward until you feel a slight discomfort. These nerve endings are particularly sensitive and are a quick way to keep you from nodding off. A few gentle pushes should do it. Beware that sometimes this can also cause you to sneeze – so have a tissue handy.

Next time you find yourself nodding off without any energizing products in hand, remember this tip. Hit the link below to learn more ways to stay awake.

5 Ways to Stay Awake Using Your Face | Pick The Brain

According to documents recently obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, Google's plan to show off its technology in special floating showrooms was scuppered late last year when the barges used in the project were deemed unsafe.

The mysterious barges appeared around the country in the latter half of 2013, with one in San Francisco, and one in Portland, Maine. After much speculation about their purpose, a Google spokesperson confirmed in November last year that it was exploring using the barges as "an interactive space where people can learn about new technology," such as its augmented reality Glass wearable. But at that point, The Wall Street Journal reports, the project had already been on hold for two months after the US Coast...

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As we continue on the rounds of new Android Wear devices this year, the Asus Zenwatch will be the next in line for a U.S. release. In just two days — on November 9th — the Zenwatch will go on sale at Best Buy for $199 before landing in Google Play at a later date.

The Asus Zenwatch is one that has been anticipated by many for its more stylish hardware than other current Android devices. We first heard of it back at Google I/O before seeing it live at IFA in Berlin. If you haven't yet seen it in action, be sure to check out our full hands-on here.

As a refresher, the Android Wear powered Zenwatch is sporting a 1.63-inch AMOLED display at 320x320 resolution, along with 512MB of RAM and 4GB of onboard storage.

Will you be picking up a Zenwatch? Hit up the comments and let us know!

Source: TechCrunch

It is amazing how different the same tea tastes when you have the ability to consistently experiment with the brewing temperature and steeping time.

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Ninety year old homeless advocate Arnold Abbot and a pair of clergymen among others were cited by Fort Lauderdale police for violating the city's newly enacted food sharing ordinance, which aims to criminalize distributing meals to the poor and dispossessed. Read the rest

Frank Platt via Arbroath.

If you can photograph the architecture of the original builders in the animal kingdom with the same professional clarity and precision used to photograph human architecture, you’ll see that the work of animals stands up to anything we’ve made in our cities.

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Android/iOS: Fing shows you all of the devices on your network, down to the device type and manufacturer for each. Best of all, it puts all of that data in the palm of your hand.

Fing has been around for a while, but it's a quick solution for anyone who wants to take a peek at network activity from their mobile device. Just launch the app to see a list of connected devices, their IP and MAC addresses, customizable device names, and manufacturers. Tap a device to add notes, as or change the name, icon, or location. In addition, Fing keeps a full history of your discovered networks for reference.

If you think you're dealing with something serious, do a more thorough investigation of your network to see exactly what's going on, but Fing is a handy app for day to day use of knowing who you're connected with. It's available for free for iOS and Android.

Fing - Network Tools | Google Play Store via Ghacks

Fing - Network Scanner | iTunes App Store

Well this one came out of nowhere: Amazon is building a speaker that's controlled with your voice. It's called Echo, and Amazon tells The Verge it will be "shipping in the coming weeks." Available on an invite-only basis to start, Echo is regularly priced at $199. But for a limited time, Amazon will offer Echo for $99 to Prime members who receive an invite. Amazon says the black, cylindrical speaker is always connected to the cloud and will provide information, music, news, weather, and more whenever you ask for it. It's the sort of thing you'd expect from Google — only it's an Amazon product.

The built-in voice recognition can hear users from across the room, according to Amazon, essentially acting as a Siri-like personal assistant....

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Short stories are stolen moments from a different world, captured and framed in a few thousand words. The best of them capture the emotional depth of full-length novels without requiring proportional investments. They challenge the reader with retellings of real world issues, without losing the elegance of brevity. Most importantly, plenty of them can be found online for free.

For our inaugural round-up of interesting fiction from around the Internet, we've collated four unique tales about artificial intelligence. They range from a college kid's experiments in giving life to the Muppets to a revenge saga told by an exacting hive-mind, who uses Big Data to identify its mother's murderer.

Tomorrow is Waiting

Jim Henson's Muppets have...

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Microsoft is making some big improvements to its Office mobile apps today, starting with an entirely new iPhone app. When the original iPhone version debuted last year, it was basic and underwhelming. Today’s new iPhone app is a lot more similar to the iPad version, and that’s a good thing. After using the new app over the past several days I can’t imagine going back to the old Office Mobile solution. The entire codebase has been replaced with the iPad version, creating a universal app that brings all the features you’d expect.

The confusing interface is gone, replaced with easier editing options and the ability to shape and move photos and other elements in documents. There’s a special formula keyboard in Excel, a full screen view, and...

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Over the past decade I have visited the Moab, Utah area seven times and have fallen in love with the entire southern Utah landscape. I created this video love letter to let Moab know how much I appreciate the beauty of her landscape and the dark skies above. By Ron Risman Read the rest

Android: There's no shortage of ways to keep people out of your apps. Oops! AppLock provides a unique alternative, though. This app prevents users from accessing others until they enter a specific pattern of volume button presses.

The advantage to this method is that it's almost entirely invisible. While you can see the first screen of an app when it's first launched, users can't interact with it. They're also not given any sort of prompt or instructions to unlock, so only the person who set up the code would know how to unlock it. Oops! AppLock also disguises itself as a note-taking application with its own lock code to protect it from being opened. It won't stop serious hackers from stealing your corporate secrets, but it may keep nosy friends out of your photos.

Oops! AppLock | Google Play Store via Addictive Tips

Welcome to the roundup of the best new Android applications, games, and live wallpapers that went live in the Play Store or were spotted by us in the previous 2 weeks or so.

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Expense IQ - Expense Manager

This week's roundup is brought to you by Expense IQ - Expense Manager from Handy Apps.

42 Best New Android Apps And Live Wallpapers From The Last 2 Weeks (10/22/14 - 11/5/14) was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

If you follow Artem on Google+ or check Reddit, you probably saw him discussing the likelihood that Google has delayed updating Nexus devices to Android 5.0. This was originally slated to begin November 3rd, but now the date we're hearing is November 12th. There's no official word, but it looks like a particularly troublesome WiFi bug in the developer preview might be to blame.

  

Users are reporting that the Nexus 5 is waking up frequently when WiFi is on, causing "Miscellaneous" to rocket to the top of the battery use menu.

[Update: Fixed] The Android 5.0 Nexus Rollout Might Be On Hold Because Of A Serious WiFi Battery Drain Bug was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

If you're wondering how secure the messaging apps and tools you use every day are, this scorecard from the nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation covers over three dozen messaging tools—including FaceTime, Google Hangouts, Skype, and SnapChat—to see how they stack up when it comes to keeping your messages safe.

This day and age, the privacy of our digital lives is a hot topic, and many of us want to believe the tools we use to communicate are perfectly safe. The EFF took a look at today's most popular services and compared them all. For each service they sought to answer seven important security related questions about encryption, verifying contacts, code auditing, and how secure your past communications are.Unsurprisingly, messaging services designed specifically for secure communication—like ChatSecure, CryptoCat, and Silent Text—passed most of the tests. In regards to first party messaging services, FaceTime, iMessage, and Google Hangouts ranked fairly well.

It's important to keep in mind that this table is not designed to endorse any services, only provide information on the security of the tools available. You can check out the complete table and read more about their methodology at the link below.

Secure Messaging Scorecard | Electronic Frontier Foundation

Chrome: Google Drive is adding an "open with" option to the right-click menu. As you can see in the GIF above, this lets you directly open photos in Photoshop, PDFs in your favorite PDF tool, and so on from your web browser.

If your installed program isn't open, Google Drive will launch it. The update makes it much easier to open files stored on Google Drive anywhere but the web browser.

Here's the Application Launcher extension, and the instructions from Google:

To get started, install the latest version of the Drive app for Mac or PC (version 1.18) and sync your files. Then, visit Google Drive in your Chrome browser (make sure you're on the new Google Drive). Finally, right-click on the file and select "Open with" to see a list of compatible applications on your computer that can open it. For example, you can choose to open a PDF file with Adobe Reader, or a .psd with Photoshop, make your edits and save back changes to Drive which will sync across all your devices and other collaborators. If you have any questions about this feature, you can learn more in the Help Center.

Read more at the link below.

Launch desktop applications from Google Drive in Chrome | Google Drive Blog

Publishers worldwide have been complaining about Google News since its launch, arguing that story excerpts appearing in search are a way for Google to capitalize on others' work. Last year, after a legal battle, Google News essentially became opt-in for German publishers: if they didn't like the way Google News was doing business, they could leave. Many large publishers in Germany didn't take Google up on the offer until two weeks ago, when about 200 publishers opted out. Axel Springer, the country's largest news publisher, is now walking back that decision.

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