Mark Stamp provides a thorough, enlightening commentary on DRM, examining applications, value and the associated controversy on the topic as it impacts commercial and consumer users in the areas of privacy and copyright. Continue Reading
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Monthly Archives: May 2003
Oregon Net Filter Bill Controversy
The USA Today reported on the status of Oregon House Bill 3101 which would eliminate state funding for libraries that refuse to install net filters for public access use of the Internet. Apparently “legislative counsel said it (the bill) is unconstitutional,” placing at least a temporary hold on this legislative initiative. Continue Reading
Hearing on Spam
Today the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, & Transportation held a hearing on Spam (Unsolicited Commercial E-Mail). “Description: Members will hear testimony relating to potential legislative, technical, and other approaches to curtailing unwanted spam. Senator McCain will preside.” The committee provides the full-text of available testimony via this main link. See also, Microsoft Proposes Law… Continue Reading
USPTO Releases Report on Protecting Ditigitzed Works
On May 20, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), submitted to Congress, as required by the Technology, Education, and Copyright Harmonization Act of 2002, its report, Technological Protection Systems for Digitized Copyrighted Works (pdf). Continue Reading
House Cmte Action on Copyright Act (CARP)
On May 20, the Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property conducted a markup of H.R. 1417, the “Copyright Royalty and Distribution Reform Act of 2003.” See also the following statements on CARP made before the Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property Committee on the Judiciary, April 1, 2003 Statement of Marybeth… Continue Reading
Access to Gov’t Documents After 9-11
Miriam Drake, Professor Emerita, Library, Georgia Institute of Technology has published part one of a two part article, Government Doublethink: Protection or Supression in Information, in which she reviews and addresses government efforts, through regulation and policy initiatives, to remove a range of documents from the public arena based on national security concerns. Continue Reading
FTC Testimony on Fair Credit Reporting Act
From the FTC press release: Prepared Statement of the Federal Trade Commission on The Fair Credit Reporting Act, Presented by J. Howard Beales, III, Director, Bureau of Consumer Protection, Before the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, United States Senate: Text of Commission Testimony [PDF 64KB]. Continue Reading
Judiciary Cmte Oversight on Patriot Act and Terrorism
From a May 20 Judiciary Committee news advisory: “House Judiciary Committee Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner, Jr. (R-Wis.) and Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.) released the answers received last week from the Justice Department regarding the USA PATRIOT Act and the war on terrorism. Chairman Sensenbrenner and Rep. Conyers wrote Attorney General John Ashcroft on… Continue Reading
New Pentagon Data Mining Program
Noah Shachtman’s Wired article reveals plans for a huge new database project, purportedly under development, called LifeLog (from DARPA, sponsors of the Total Information Awareness System, renamed the Terrorism Awareness Information Program), comprised of information compiled “by tracking where people go and what they see.” In an associated reference, on May 16 I posted information… Continue Reading
Further FOIA Exemptions for NSA
The NSA has proposed a FOIA exemption for “files that document the means by which foreign intelligence or counterintelligence is collected through technical systems.” Also via FAS, see the text of the proposed exemption, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2004, S. 747. From OMBWatch, “The Senate language, included in the proposed FY… Continue Reading
Total Information Awareness Becomes Total Terrorism Awareness
Big news day concerning DARPA’s Total Information Awareness Program, which according to this press release, is now called the Terrorism Awareness Information Program. This change coincides with the agency’s report to Congress delivered today, with links to associated documents as follows: Guide to the Report to Congress download Executive Summary (6 pages, 30Kb, pdf) download… Continue Reading
RSS Feeds For Summaries of Recent Supreme Court Decisions
From Thomas R. Bruce, Co-Director, Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School: “As part of some extensive (and ongoing) renovation of our Supreme Court collection, we’ve added RSS feeds that offer summaries of recent decisions. There are two: http://supct.law.cornell.edu:8080/supct/rss/0.91/supct_today.rss Actually the less-useful of the two feeds, this one takes in decisions handed down “today” (that is,… Continue Reading
