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Daily Archives: May 27, 2019

Center on National Security and the Law Launches Online, Searchable Database of Foreign Intelligence Law Collection

“On May 23, Georgetown Law’s Center on National Security and the Law launched the Foreign Intelligence Law Collection — a publicly available, online searchable database of all declassified and redacted U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and Court of Review opinions; all Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) statutes; legislative history; associated regulations, guidelines, executive orders, and presidential directives; all publicly available reports on FISA implementation, and more.

“It was built as a resource for…anyone and everyone seeking to know more about foreign intelligence law,” said Nadia Asancheyev, the center’s executive director. The practitioners and academics who came to inspect the product clearly welcomed the new resource, which will also be useful to journalists, government lawyers, members of Congress and their staffers. Adjunct Professor Carrie Cordero, senior fellow and general counsel of the Center for a New American Security — who moderated the discussion with Professor Laura Donohue and Research Librarian Jeremy J. McCabe — called the collection “an incredible public service.”

“I was a FISA practitioner, and if only there had been a resource like this…,” Cordero said, adding that the practitioners, those who practice before the court, the judges, the law clerks…”not even to mention the academic and scholarly community, and journalistic community [will] be interested in this valuable collection.”…

The Digital Public Library of America has re-released the Mueller Report as a well-formatted ebook instead of a crappy PDF

BoingBoing: “Back in April, Andrew Albanese from Publishers Weekly wrote a column deploring the abysmal formatting in the DoJ’s release of the Mueller Report, and publicly requesting that the Digital Public Library of America produce well-formatted ebook editions, which they have now done! Albanese writes, To me, this is an important development, because with the… Continue Reading

MegaPixels – an art and research project investigating the ethics, origins, and individual privacy implications of face recognition datasets created “in the wild

“MegaPixels is an art and research project first launched in 2017 for an installation at Tactical Technology Collective’s GlassRoom about face recognition datasets. In 2018 MegaPixels was extended to cover pedestrian analysis datasets for a commission by Elevate Arts festival in Austria. Since then MegaPixels has evolved into a large-scale interrogation of hundreds of publicly-available… Continue Reading

Survey of Law Library Plans for Print Collections

Via Library Boy: Primary Research Group, a New York-based publisher of research reports and surveys about law libraries, is surveying law libraries in the USA and Canada about their plans for their print materials collections. “Survey data is aggregated and respondents are not identified in open ended questions unless they identify themselves. We do encourage… Continue Reading

Louisiana State Univ will terminate comprehensive subscription deal with Elsevier

Inside Higher Education: “Citing unsustainable price increases, leaders at Louisiana State University have decided to walk away from their comprehensive subscription deal with Elsevier.  Louisiana State University will terminate its “big deal” with publisher Elsevier at the end of this year, joining the growing list of U.S. institutions that have recently decided not to renew… Continue Reading

EPA wants to triple level of rocket fuel chemical allowed in drinking water

Think Progress – “The Trump Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) wants to raise the threshold for a chemical found in rocket fuel to triple the previous limit allowed in drinking water supplies. This is the first new drinking water rule introduced by the agency since the George W. Bush administration. In the EPA’s latest move to… Continue Reading

X Marks the Spot Where the Personal Information is Stored

X Marks the Spot Where the Personal Information is Stored: Avoiding Common Mistakes in Data Mapping – “With new global privacy laws requiring consumer access to specific pieces of personal information and documentation of processing generally, organizations are now finding themselves having to go on treasure hunts for buried personal information within the company. Between… Continue Reading

Two Sides of the Same Coin: Misinformation and Disinformation

“Giorgi Revishvili discusses the issues of misinformation and disinformation. Revishvili is a fellow at the Sunlight Foundation participating in the Professional Fellows Program, which is funded by the U.S Department of State and operated by the American Councils. Hailing from Georgia — the country in the South Caucasus, not the U.S. state — he works… Continue Reading

Legislative Purpose and Adviser Immunity in Congressional Investigations

CRS – Legislative Purpose and Adviser Immunity in Congressional Investigations May 24, 2019: “The Trump Administration has recently questioned the legal validity of numerous investigative demands made by House committees. These objections have been based on various grounds, but two specific arguments will be addressed in this Sidebar. First, the President and other Administration officials… Continue Reading