Washington Post – “…Librarians have been no match for the beast. When authors sign up with a publisher, it decides how to distribute their work. With other big publishers, selling e-books and audiobooks to libraries is part of the mix — that’s why you’re able to digitally check out bestsellers like Barack Obama’s “A Promised… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Legislation
Everything to know about the third stimulus check: Timeline, IRS calculations and more
CNET – “A third stimulus check for up to $1,400 per person could become real this week, as Congress works to finish up the final COVID-19 relief package and get to the President Joe Biden to sign in the coming days. While there’s an outside chance details on the new stimulus payment could change before the… Continue Reading
America, Your Privacy Settings Are All Wrong
The New York Times Editorial Board – Using an opt-in approach will help curb the excesses of Big Tech. “Despite what corporations profess, much of this personal data is used not to improve products themselves, but to make those products more attractive to advertisers. One straightforward solution is to let people opt in to data… Continue Reading
Levin, Senator Jack Reed Introduce Legislation to Modernize Library Infrastructure
Rep. Andy Levin: “[On March 3, 2021], Congressman Andy Levin (D-MI) teamed up with Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) to introduce the House companion of S.127, the Build America’s Libraries Act, which provides long-term improvements to library facilities and updates library infrastructure, prioritizing libraries in predominantly low-income and underserved communities. The Build America’s Libraries Act authorizes… Continue Reading
Interim National Security Strategic Guidance
On March 3, 2021 “the Administration released the Interim National Security Strategic Guidance, attached. This interim guidance has been issued to convey President Biden’s vision for how America will engage with the world, and to provide guidance for departments and agencies to align their actions as the Administration begins work on a National Security Strategy.”… Continue Reading
CRS – Banking Policy Issues in the 117th Congress
Banking Policy Issues in the 117th Congress, March 2, 2021: “Over the past 14 years, banking has experienced significant events and changes and has regularly been the subject of policymaker initiatives and debates. In response to the 2007-2009 financial crisis, Congress—primarily through the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank Act; P.L.… Continue Reading
Zombie Laws
Wasserman, Howard, Zombie Laws (February 2, 2021). Florida International University Legal Studies Research Paper No. 21-02, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3778122 “Zombie laws” are the statutory remainder from constitutional litigation. Neither a judicial declaration of constitutional invalidity nor an injunction prohibiting enforcement removes or erases a challenged law from the books. The court stops the defendant… Continue Reading
Accidental Wiretaps: The Implications of False Positives By Always-Listening Devices For Privacy Law & Policy
Barrett, Lindsey and Liccardi, Ilaria, Accidental Wiretaps: The Implications of False Positives By Always-Listening Devices For Privacy Law & Policy (February 8, 2021). Available at SSRN: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3781867 “Always-listening devices like smart speakers, smartphones, and other voice-activated technologies create enough privacy problems when working correctly. But these devices can also misinterpret what they hear, and thus… Continue Reading
The Little Magazine That Incubated Team Biden
The New York Times: “It has only 500 subscribers. And yet Democracy: A Journal of Ideas, a 15-year-old quarterly run by a three-person staff out of a small office blocks from the White House, may be one of the most influential publications of the post-Trump era. Six of President Biden’s 25 Cabinet-level officials and appointees,… Continue Reading
What is an “algorithm”? It depends whom you ask
MIT Technology Review – “…In statistics and machine learning, we usually think of the algorithm as the set of instructions a computer executes to learn from data. In these fields, the resulting structured information is typically called a model. The information the computer learns from the data via the algorithm may look like “weights” by… Continue Reading
Washington’s Most Influential People
Washingtonian – “The 250 experts and advocates—outside the government—who’ll be shaping the policy debates of the years to come. Contents: Antitrust Banking and Finance Business and Labor Civil Rights and Criminal Justice Climate/Environment Economic Policy Education Energy Foreign Affairs Good Government Healthcare Immigration Infrastructure and Transportation Legal Intelligentsia National Security and Defense Tech and Telecom Continue Reading
The Best Law You’ve Never Heard Of
The New York Times – Taking back control of our personal data can feel like a lost cause. But there’s hope! “Americans should feel angry about companies harvesting every morsel of our data to sell us sneakers or rate our creditworthiness. But a data protection law that few of us know about should also give… Continue Reading
