National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws, June 14, 2014 [snipped from Draft]: “The purpose of this act is to vest fiduciaries with the authority to access, control, or copy digital assets and accounts. It is important to understand that the goal of the Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (UFADAA) is to remove… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Intellectual Property
Stealing Trade Secrets and Economic Espionage: An Overview of 18 U.S.C. 1831 and 1832
CRS – Stealing Trade Secrets and Economic Espionage: An Overview of 18 U.S.C. 1831 and 1832. Charles Doyle, Senior Specialist in American Public Law. July 25, 2014. “Stealing a trade secret is a federal crime when the information relates to a product in interstate or foreign commerce, 18 U.S.C. 1832 (theft of trade secrets), or when the intended beneficiary… Continue Reading
EFF Publishes New Whitepaper on the Broken Penalty System
EFF – “Today, the House Judiciary Committee [held] a hearing on “remedies” in copyright law—that is, the penalties, injunctions, and other means of challenging and penalizing alleged infringement. This is hugely important: fixing copyright’s remedy provisions (like excessive, unpredictable monetary penalties and government seizures of domain names) is key to ensuring that copyright does its job—helping… Continue Reading
Collection Directions: The Evolution of Library Collections and Collecting
“Written by Lorcan Dempsey, Constance Malpas, and Brian Lavoie, “Collection Directions: The Evolution of Library Collections and Collecting” takes a broad view of the evolution of collecting behaviors in a network environment and suggests some future directions based on various simple models. A preprint of the article is available online. In this article, the authors look at the changing dynamics… Continue Reading
The World in 2025 – 10 Predictions of Innovation
“This paper is a compilation of 10 innovation predictions for the world in 2025, based on research done by Thomson Reuters analysts using the company’s patent and scientific literature solutions. In some cases, the analysts found a growing body of work that gave additional credence to the prediction. In others, the topic was still emerging.… Continue Reading
New GAO Reports – Afghanistan, Bulk Fuel Pricing, E-Health Records, Littoral Combat Ship, Software Licenses
AFGHANISTAN: Kabul Embassy Construction Costs Have Increased and Schedules Have Been Extended, GAO-14-661R: Published: Jul 8, 2014. Publicly Released: Jul 8, 2014. BULK FUEL PRICING: DOD Needs to Reevaluate Its Approach to Better Manage the Effect of Market Fluctuations, GAO-14-595: Published: Jul 8, 2014. Publicly Released: Jul 8, 2014. ELECTRONIC HEALTH RECORDS: Fiscal Year 2013 Expenditure Plan Lacks Key Information Needed to… Continue Reading
Houston, We Have A Public Domain Problem – Commentary
Parker Higgins is an activist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation: “I received a bogus copyright takedown notice for using public domain audio on SoundCloud yesterday. The sound in question—the famous “Houston, we have a problem” snippet of the Apollo 13 mission—is incontrovertibly available to all, for any use, without copyright restrictions. The fact that it’s… Continue Reading
New GAO Reports – Aviation Safety, Export-Import Bank, Medicare Fraud, Traffic Safety
AVIATION SAFETY: Additional Oversight Planning by FAA Could Enhance Safety Risk Management, GAO-14-516: Published: Jun 25, 2014. Publicly Released: Jun 25, 2014. EXPORT-IMPORT BANK: Status of GAO Recommendations on Risk Management, Exposure Forecasting, and Workload Issues, GAO-14-708T: Published: Jun 25, 2014. Publicly Released: Jun 25, 2014. INFORMATION SECURITY: Additional Oversight Needed to Improve Programs at Small Agencies, GAO-14-344: Published: Jun 25, 2014. Publicly Released:… Continue Reading
Launch of openFDA Beta Research Project
“OpenFDA offers easy access to FDA public data and highlight projects using these data in both the public and private sector to further regulatory or scientific missions, educate the public, and save lives. OpenFDA is specifically designed to make it easier for developers, researchers, and the public to access and use the many large, important, health… Continue Reading
New GAO Reports – Federal Software Licenses, Foster Children, Freshwater
FEDERAL SOFTWARE LICENSES: Better Management Needed to Achieve Significant Savings Government-Wide, GAO-14-413: Published: May 22, 2014. Publicly Released: May 22, 2014: “The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the vast majority of agencies that GAO reviewed do not have adequate policies for managing software licenses. While OMB has a policy on a broader information technology (IT) management… Continue Reading
Metropolitan Museum Initiative Provides Free Access to 400,000 Digital Images
“Thomas P. Campbell, Director and CEO of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, announced today that more than 400,000 high-resolution digital images of public domain works in the Museum’s world-renowned collection may be downloaded directly from the Museum’s website for non-commercial use—including in scholarly publications in any media—without permission from the Museum and without a fee.… Continue Reading
IBM Research Discovers New Class of Industrial Polymers
News release: “Scientists from IBM Research have successfully discovered a new class of polymer materials that can potentially transform manufacturing and fabrication in the fields of transportation, aerospace, and microelectronics. Through the unique approach of combining high performance computing with synthetic polymer chemistry, these new materials are the first to demonstrate resistance to cracking, strength… Continue Reading
