The EFF has updated its legal guide for bloggers. Via Boing Boing.

When can I borrow someone's images for my blog post?

Images are subject to the same copyright and fair use laws as written materials, so here too you'll want to think about the fair use factors that might apply. Is the image used in a transformative way? Are you taking only what's necessary to convey your point? A thumbnail (reduced-size) image, or a portion of a larger image is more likely to be fair use than taking an entire full-size image. If you want to go beyond fair use, look for Creative Commons licensed images.

I break this guideline all the time. I blog from the outskirts of the law.

Misc.

* NYC's maple-syrup smell mystery resolved! It was New Jersey. (Really!)

* The AP lacks a basic understanding of fair use. More at MeFi.

* Raccoons have invaded the White House. Sadly the Secret Service has only trained for nighttime raccoon assault.

* How Obama is screwing up the stimulus: failure to counteract zombie Republican lies. More on this from Steve Benen.

* Also on the Obama-screwing-up front: he's publishing op-eds in dead-tree media. Nobody reads newspapers anymore, gramps!

* Though they do, apparently, read alt-weeklies.

* Also: Judd Gregg still sucks.

* Climate Progress now has one-stop anti-nuclear shopping.

* The nonprofit industrial complex.

* How various songs react to Ze Frank's voice-activated drawing applications.

* And via Kottke: Who wouldn't want to take a class entitled "What's So Great about The Wire?"?

This is absolutely ancient, so ancient that I somehow either completely missed it the first time or else saw it but unwisely decided not to bother—but on the advice of one of summer students we watched the first Harry Potter movie with the "Wizard People, Dear Reader" parody track, and the results did not in any way disappoint.

YouTube's got it for you, all synced up and ready.

As you can see, I've been slack blogging the last day or so—I've been catching up with other things. Here are a few Friday links to keep us busy:

* I've got a short review in the Indy of Harvey Pekar's new book on the history of Students for a Democratic Society.

* Joseph Romm of Climate Progress has an article at Salon arguing "it won't be easy but we can fix our oil and climate problems at the same time."

Thus we come to one of the biggest questions of our time: Is humanity wise enough not to pursue carbon-intensive alternative fuels, even though pretty much all of them are economically profitable at current oil prices?

Wisdom! Curses! Our one weakness!

* A judge has ruled that Wal-Mart doesn't have a trademark on the smiley face.

* Also at Boing Boing, a bed that will protect you from the terrorists.