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Because several weeks have passed without a TWiOT update, I am making this one a straight-ahead digest, listing the latest piece of news first.

Egyptian blogger receives International Press Freedom Award. The Canadian Journalists for Free Expression awarded Mohamed Abdelfattah the award for his work coverage of Khaled Said, a young man who was brutally beaten and killed by Egyptian police officers in Alexandria in June of 2010.

Burma unblocks websites. The Burmese government unblocked international media sites as well as websites run by Burmese exiles.

Germany led the charge in investigating Google for harvesting personal information via their Street View service. Dozens of countries and individuals followed in Germany's wake, launching investigations and prosecuting lawsuits against the company. When Street View finally debuted in Germany, over 240,000 residents opted out.

But the lawsuits continued. Now, however, a Berlin court has ruled definitively that, however odious the service may be to many, it is, in fact legal in Germany.

The arrival of Google Street View in Germany has not been without controversy. Indeed, thousands of Germans decided to opt out of the program and asked Google to blur their houses. Faced with the issues, Google decided to roll this service out slowly in Germany, starting with one small town two weeks ago. Today, however, Google is bringing Street View to Germany's 20 largest cities, including Hamburg, Munich, Cologne and Berlin.

Even though hundreds of thousands of Germans have opted out of having their homes displayed, Google Street View is now live in Germany.

Search Engine Land reports that the small town of Oberstaufen is the first to appear in Street View, with - as promised - many residences blurred out.

YouTube and the French music-rights collection agency SACEM just announced a deal that ensures that artists are compensated when their music is played on the French version of Google's popular video sharing site. According to SACEM, "the license covers the international repertoire managed by SACEM including in particular the Anglo-American repertoire of multinational publishers, as well as other works managed by SACEM present on the platform, from the launch of the service in France to 2012." In total, YouTube now has similar deals in eight countries.

According to German news magazine Der Spiegel, "several hundred thousand people" have asked Google to erase their houses from Google Streetview. While Google itself won't comment on these numbers, Der Spiegel cites sources close to Google and notes that the consumer affairs ministry in Germany expected about 200,000 opt-out requests when the program was announced earlier this year. The deadline for opting out of Google Street View in Germany is Oct. 15.

According to a German court in Hamburg, Google's YouTube can be held liable for damages when it hosts copyrighted videos without the copyright holder's permission. This case centered around three music videos by classical crossover soprano Sarah Brightman, but this ruling will likely have far-reaching consequences for YouTube's operations in Germany. YouTube will now have to block access to these videos and disclose how often its users accessed these streams. YouTube will also have to pay damages based on the number of plays. Google plans to appeal the ruling.

There's a memorable scene in the movie Minority Report where a man reads a futuristic newspaper with rich embedded multimedia updating live with breaking news. While we are a long way seeing anything like this in the hands of the general public, a German newspaper has taken a small step in that direction with the release of a special augmented reality (AR) edition of its Friday magazine.

In the wake of Google's allegedly accidental harvesting of personal information by its Google Street View vehicles, Germany required that company to turn over an accounting of what information was snatched. Sensitized by that event, Germany is now requiring Apple to do the same thing.

German news magazine Der Spiegel quotes German Federal Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger as saying Apple should "immediately disclose" what information they gather, how long it is kept and what it is used for.

A growing startup trend that we have been keeping a watchful eye on here at ReadWriteStart is mass customization and co-creation. Startups in this sector provide customizable products to the end user, like t-shirts, bags, jewelry and even food. Back in March we suggested that the U.S. may be on the verge of a co-creation invasion from Europe, where these kinds of startups are more prominent. This week the Smart Customization Seminar is being held at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts and some fascinating stats and trends have emerged from the discussions and talks.