Google Patents Country-Specific Content Blocking

theodp writes "Today Google was awarded US Patent No. 7,664,751 for its invention of Variable User Interface Based on Document Access Privileges, which the search giant explains can be used to restrict what Internet content people can see 'based on geographical location information of the user and based on access rights possessed for the document.' From the patent: 'For example, readers from the United States may be given "partial" access to the document while readers in Canada may be given "full" access to the document. This may be because the content provider has been granted full rights in the document from the publisher for Canadian readers but has not been granted rights in the United States, so the content provider may choose to only enable fair use display for readers in the United States.' Oh well, at least Google is 'no longer willing to continue censoring [their] results on Google.cn.'"

Comments

Obligation to turn in dissidents

[tepples]

Personally, if I was in a position where I had to do stuff like turn in dissidents, I would quickly seek another line of work.

Unless every line of work remotely related to what you're trained in carries an obligation to report certain acts to the police. For instance, teachers and medical professionals in the United States are obligated to report to the police their suspicions of "questionable disciplinary measures" applied by a child's parent. So it's either turn in one set of dissidents or emigrate to a country that requires turning in a different set of dissidents.