Media stories for Thursday:

The Nieman Journalism Lab examines an Ohio court case against the mugshot exploitation business (acquire mugshots, demand money to take them down) with strong possible consequences for news organizations. A key is whether the case might redefine rights of publicity to include public records, including images that haven't been endorsed.

The New York Review of Books features an essay on the value of the copy editor as part of the writing process. Tim Parks concludes that "as the Internet era matures and more authors self-publish online without any editorial assistance, we will begin to grow nostalgic for those finicky copy editors who at least gave us something well defined to kick against."

R.U. Sirius, writing for The Verge, has a look at the information-wants-to-be-free debate and finds that no easy solution is at hand as content is shared and creators are finding it challenging to earn a living. He identifies several significant discussions necessary as society contends with the economic obsolescence --- he concludes the world isn't ready for info to be free --- but is an optimist that society will rescue the creator.

"The curator is an information chemist." So writes Robert Scoble, the Scobleizer, one of the Internet's veteran developers and journalists.

He is writing in the context of the journalist-as-curator era we are entering, in which the gatekeeping and even authenticating roles are in some question, and the role becomes one of consuming, editing and presenting more personally.

But Scoble has hit the wall, which means the rest of the pack has long since done so, because he lacks the tools for the job. His seven-point advice would make a developer prosperous.

His points (and my interpretations in parentheses):

1. Curators need to bundle. (Is there a tool to package the most relevant 10 Tweets? No.)
2.  Curators need to reorder. (Is there a tool to take someone's package and place new emphasis on some components? Not really.)
3. Curators need to distribute their bundle. (Is there a way of combining the elements you want, then sending them across networks? Not exactly.)
4. Curators need to editorialize. (Part of the value of the new editor is the added value of commentary, but is there is a tool to easily do that?5.  Curators need to update. (The ability to take the package and revamp it isn't going to be addressed by the blog; it needs more dynamic firepower from software.)
6. Curators need to encourage participation. (Widgets to build the audience into the creation aren't around.)
7. Curators need to track the audience. (Tools aren't there to give real-time audience measurement and to understand particularly who they are.)

As journalists morph into curators, Scoble offers some clear imperatives for the industry serving them.