The Institute for Information Infrastructure Protection (I3P), released its Cyber Security Research and Development Agenda. A summary of the agenda is provided in this press release. It was created by a consortium representing a cross section of 23 cyber security research organizations who have identified eight critical gaps in our information infrastructure.
The European Commission on Data Protection Working Party issued a new directive on January 29 addressing the protection of personal online data and the enforcement of IP rights. The Working Document, On-line Authentication Services, is here.
The Federal Trade Commission filed a complaint against the Educational Research Center of America, Inc. stating the company had "collected personal information from high school and middle and junior high school students through surveys," and used this data "to create lists of students that it sells to commercial entities for use in marketing." A copy of the settlement agreement reached in this matter is here, and a newly released FTC consumer alert for teachers and school administrators, titled "Student Surveys - Ask Yourself Some Questions," is available here.
Verizon is appealing the district court's decision compelling the ISP to release customer data to RIAA in a copyright dispute concerning music downloading. According to Verizon's deputy general counsel, "If this ruling stands, consumers will be caught in a digital dragnet - not only from record companies alleging infringement of their copyright monopolies - but from anyone who can fill out a simple form."
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), is the sponsor of S. 223, a bill to prevent identity theft, and for other purposes, introduced on January 28.
The Colorado House Committee on Technology and Information has introduced a new bill, HB 03-1200, to amend the Junk E-Mail Law to include a no-solicitation list similar to the telemarketing no-call list. The full-text of the Colorado Statute is here.
The Washington Post reports that since the 9/11 attacks the administration has been developing a Global Early Warning Information System (GEWIS) to secure the global telecommunications infrastructure from cyberattacks. This program is not part of TIA, but rather is administered by The National Communications System (NCS), which will become part of the Department of Homeland Security this March.
The UCLA Center for Communication Policy today released the third installment of their report, Surveying the Digital Future. The report addresses topics that include the following; Internet Users - Who is Online, Who is Not; Media Use and Trust; Consumer Behavior, Communications Patterns, Social Effects of the Internet (on family, children, friends, politics); the Internet at Work, and user satisfaction with the Internet. Results indicate that the majority of respondents believe the Internet is an important source of information, and spend more time online than watching television. However, levels of concern about ID theft are at an all time high.
Another recently released UCLA survey indicates that college freshmen spent less time studying and more time surfing the Net.
J.D. Lasica, blogger and senior editor for the Online Journalism Review, details the advantages of the increasingly popular free and fee-based news aggregator applications in News That Comes to You. These programs allow researchers who are suffering from information overload to scan headlines chosen from among thousands of news feeds that use RSS (Rich Site Summary) tags.
As noted in this post yesterday about the global escalation in cybercrime, many organizations prefer to stay silent when attacked rather than alert the public. Increasingly, these attacks result in the breach of large files of personal data, interruptions in a range of online services, and even global network disruptions that impact web access. Defining the Right to Know reviews the security issues associated with cybercrime attacks, and supports the position that proactively sharing information and resources about attacks is the correct path to fight further attacks.
President Bush announced during his State of the Union address the implementation of a new government data-mining program called the Terrorist Threat Integration Center. From his speech, "Tonight, I am instructing the leaders of the FBI, the CIA, the Homeland Security and the Department of Defense to develop a Terrorist Threat Integration Center, to merge and analyze all threat information in a single location."
According to a White House fact sheet on the program, Strengthening Intelligence to Better Protect America, "This new center will merge and analyze terrorist-related information collected domestically and abroad in order to form the most comprehensive possible threat picture.....The Administration will ensure that this program is carried out consistently with the rights of Americans."
See also this ACLU press release, ACLU Says New Intelligence Umbrella Agency Poses Serious Questions.
The New York City Council has passed, and sent to Mayor Bloomberg for signature, the first bill of its kind for any city or state, requiring online publication of all city agency reports and publications within ten days of issuance. A prior press release is available here.
All documents are to be sent in electronic format to the Department of Records and Information Services (DORIS). Thereafter, they will be made available to the public via the My NYC.gov Portal.
C-SPAN has a public service called CapitalHearings.org that allows you to listen live, via streaming audio, to selected Senate hearings. The site provides a schedule indicating the committee, time and location of each respective hearing.
California has introduced and passed pioneering legislation, (examples are here and here) to protect citizens against a range of cybercrimes. Several new bills have been introduced that seek to protect consumer privacy and stymie ID theft by limiting the use and display of social security numbers by the state, academic institutions, and employers. See AB 68 and AB 46.
The Assistant Law Librarian of the Federal Reserve Board Law Library, Richard J. McKinney, has updated his two valuable guides (both in PDF) for legal researchers: Research Guide to the Federal Register and the Code of Federal Regulations and Federal Legislative History Research, A Practitioner's Guide to Compiling the Documents and Sifting for Legislative Intent (with Ellen Sweet).
Only a partial text is available to non-subscribers, but here is a link to a new Salon article, Total Information Awareness: Down, but not out, that contends Congressional efforts to limit the program may be a case of too little too late. "The federal government is unlikely to stop doing research into how to glean information from credit card databases, driver's license registrations and every other point at which human lives meet the computer."
According to this report from Statewatch, telecommunicatons surveillance conducted by the government is documented to have reached record levels throughout the UK.
The big-six music retailers, organized under the name Echo, have launched a new consortium to license and distribute digital music services.
Sharman Networks Ltd., owner of the file swapping application Kazaa, has responded to the January 23, 2003 order from the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California denying their motion to dismiss a copyright infringement lawsuit by the music and recording industries. Sharman filed its answer and counterclaims on January 27 in which it contends that the plaintiffs have "monoplize(d) the market for distribution of digital rights managed works."
Large scale, corporate cybercrime resulting in the loss of billion of dollars worldwide is escalating dramatically according to this recent New York Times article. The article cites a recent survey from a UK computer security firm, mi2g, which is available here, that the world record for the most digital attacks conducted in one month will be established in January, with an anticipated 20,000 successful attacks. Documenting key information associated with the growing number of computer crimes is proving difficult as companies require anonymity when reporting incursions to either government agencies or private firms collecting such data.
The Legal Technology Institute at the University of Florida Levin College of Law has released a study prospectus, Knowledge Management: An In-depth Look into the Current Use and Future Trends of KM in the Legal Profession and an associated study questionnaire.
This month SBC Communications Inc. launched an effort to actively protect its patents on a "structured document browser," U.S. patent No. 5,933,841 and No. 6,442,574.
SBC sent a patent infringement notice to information education products website Museum Tour indicating that "any website which has static, linked information (top banners, menus, bottom banners) which are displayed while other sections of the page are displayed as non-static (the area where products appear on most websites) infringes upon the patents they hold.
Museum Tour has posted a web page with links to SBC's 34 page infringment notice here. As a related resource, see Dan Gillmor's blog associated with his column on SBC's patent claims. He is seeking instances of prior art, and is updating this blog with pertinent information on what will no doubt remain a newsworthy story for some time.
In October 2002, I posted on the RIAA communicating their strong recommendation to college and university presidents that they put the brakes on the escalating rate of music downloading by students. Last week's decision in RIAA v. Verizon has given the industry impetus to follow-through on identifying those who engage in extensive downloading of copyrighted music, and many students qualify as members of this targeted group. In an article from today's Chronicle of Higher Education, RIAA President Cary Sherman states, "We have no current plans to do that, but that doesn't mean we wouldn't in the future." Sherman goes on to say that academic institutions qualify as ISPs under the DMCA, and could be subpoenaed for the names of infringers.
Project Gutenberg was established in 1971 as a volunteer effort to make important texts freely available in electronic form to readers around the world. To date, the collection comprises 6,267 e-books. See Any Text. Anytime. Anywhere. (Any Volunteers?) for background on this well known project and the challanges it faces.
The Department of Homeland Security quickly issued, without benefit of public comment, new final interim regulations limiting public access to secret and sensitive agency information under the Freedom of Information Act and Privacy Act Procedures.
Senators Feinstein, Leahy and Gregg introduced new legislation, The Social Security Number Misuse Prevention Act, S. 228, to remove social security numbers from public records that are available on the web. Feinstein's press release is here, and Leahy's is here.
For background on this legislation, which was introduced in 2001 (as S. 848), with the same title, see this report, Social Security Number Misuse, Identity Theft and The Internet, from the Office of the Inspector General at the Social Security Administration.
NextWave has prevailed in their case to maintain wireless spectrum licenses purchased from the FCC prior to its bankruptcy reorganization. An article on the decision from AP is here. The NextWave press release is here, and a copy of the decision is here. The Supreme Court oral argument transcript is here.
The first web-based open source encyclopedia, Wikipedia, celebrated its second anniversary with the milestone of publishing 100,000 articles in its English language version, all contributed by volunteers who maintain a non-partisan perspective. See this Wired article for background on this resource that is well worth a visit.
According to this AP article, House Speaker Dennis Hastert commented on the TIA program via his spokesman, Pete Jeffries, that its fate "is questionable," setting the stage for what appears to be an uncertain road ahead for funding of the controversial program when it reaches the conference committee in February.
The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press announced the launch of a new blog, Behind the Homefront, "a daily chronicle of news in homeland security and military operations affecting newsgathering, access to information and the public's right to know." The launch date was chosen to coincide with the official establishment of the Department of Homeland Security, the fifteenth Cabinet-level agency.
Oral arguments on the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA) case are scheduled for March 5. Solicitor General Ted Olson's 55 page brief (PDF) in U.S. v. American Library Association (ALA) is now available here. Olsen argues that the lower court decision (210 F. Supp 2d 401) overturning the requirement that federally funded libraries must filter Internet access to patrons should be reversed due to errors. In part, he states that filters do not constitute a restraint on private speech as web sites are freely available through myriad global access points beyond those provided by public libraries. Documents cited in the brief include The Children's Internet Protection Act and the Telecommunications Act of 1996 (as it pertains to e-rates and library funding).
A series of three articles on leveraging web sites and related applications such as e-mail newsletters for law firm marketing is available via law.com: Web Sites Can Net Attorneys More Clients, Firm Sites Must Click, and More Marketing Tools: It Ain't Just the Web Site.
On January 13, the United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma, denied Search King's motion for preliminary injunction against Google for tortious interference with contractual relations.
See also this Slate article, Google-Opoly: The Game No One but Google Can Play.
Senate Feinstein carries over the fight against ID theft, begun in the 107th Congress, to the new Congress as cosponsor of the Identify Theft Penalty Enhancement Act, S. 153. See her press release here, which details requirements for additional penalties of two and five years respectively for "aggravated identity theft" and for "anyone who commits identity theft for the purpose of committing a terrorist act."
Via Larry Lessig's blog, The Economist published an editorial, A radical rethink, stating "The best way to foster creativity in the digital age is to overhaul current copyright laws." Also, see this commentary, Copyright extensions put profits ahead of the public.
Global web access was disrupted on Saturday by an attack of a worm called SQL Slammer that affects Microsoft SQL Server 2000. Other consequences included a delay in e-mail delivery and all of Bank of America's ATMs were shut down.
Effective January 24, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms became the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) as provided in the Homeland Security Act of 2002. See this document detailing the change. The newly launched website for the TTB is here, and includes the following resource areas: Alcohol & Tobacco Newsletter, Alcohol & Tobacco Publications, an archive of press releases, Industry Circulars, and Tax Publications.
Momentum against the TIA program is escalating, as the Senate agreed yesterday in a voice vote to accept Ron Wyden's Amendment 59 to H. Res. 15, the continuing appropriations for the fiscal year 2003. The purpose of the amendment is to block the use of funds for further development and expansion of the program until such time as its impact on civil liberties can be accurately evaluated. Such an evaluation has not been possible as formal Congressional requests for detailed documentation on TIA activities have not yielded results. This matter will now probably move on to a House-Senate conference. In the interim, the program's funding, and its work, will continue.
For reference, please see the Congressional Record, January 23, 2003 (Senate), Page S1379-S1419. The text of Amendment 59 is toward the bottom of this document, which is quite long, and loads very slowly.
"IP Justice is a new non-profit organization that works to promote balance in global intellectual property law and protect freedom of expression with digital media." An interview with Executive Director Robin D. Gross, an IP attorney formerly with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, was conducted by CNet.
A new lobbying organization, the Alliance for Digital Progress, representing industry and advocacy groups, launched their website and announced their agenda yesterday via a press release and press conference presented by President Fred McClure. The group is "opposed to government-designed and mandated technology to solve the problem of digital piracy," and seeks to create acceptable industry based resolutions rather than those stipulated by legislation such as the Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act.
The Association for Computing Machinery's U.S. Public Policy Committee issued a press release "recommending a rigorous independent review of the U.S. Government's Total Information Awareness (TIA) program." The organization also issued a copy of a letter they sent to the Armed Services Committee, on behalf of their membership of 70,000 computer scientists, stating in part: "As computer scientists and engineers we have significant doubts that the computer-based TIA Program will achieve its stated goal of "countering terrorism through prevention. Further, we believe that the vast amount of information and misinformation collected by any system resulting from this program is likely to be misused to the detriment of many innocent American citizens."
On January 23, the "SEC adopted final rules to implement Section 307 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act by setting standards of professional conduct for attorneys appearing and practicing before the Commission in any way in the representation of issuers." See the press release here. In addition, see the text of the final rule, Disclosure Required by Sections 406 and 407 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.
From J M, via JOHO the Blog, another quick and easy way to locate names and addresses when you have only a telephone number: Using Google, simply type in the 10 digit phone number, and the search result will provide you with the name and address of the associated individual or organization, as well as a link to directions from Yahoo! Maps and MapQuest.
This USA Today article highlights how your employee data is increasingly vulnerable to ID theft. The means by which such information is obtained is not necessarily sophisticated or complicated, or accomplished electronically. For example, credit card receipts, 401K reports and direct deposit pay stubs thrown into the office trash are collected and then used to steal employee identities, so be careful what you throw away, and think about using a shredder for personal documents you discard.
Ambassador David Johnson, U.S. permanent representative to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) issued a statement in response to growing international concerns that U.S. anti-terrorism legislation such as the Patriot Act was negatively impacting the exercise of civil liberties. He stated, "The First Amendment rights of libraries, and bookstores and their patrons, are protected under these ordinances and will not be abridged."
Since last summer, there have been a series of articles discussing the impending introduction of a new e-gov portal that will facilitate easy online access to, and accept public comments on, the thousands of proposed rules and regulations from over 150 federal agencies that appear each year in the Federal Register.
After much delay, the portal was launched this morning at 8:00 am. Regulations.gov provides two options for locating proposed rules currently open for comment. Users may find regulations using a keyword search, or choose to review regulations arranged by specific government agency. The text of the regulations are available in PDF and HTML formats, and include the CFR and Federal Register citation, the date published, and the date by which comments are due. Users may then choose to submit a comment on the respective regulation using an online form generated by the system, or comment by postal mail/commercial delivery or by e-mail.
Not surprisingly, on January 22, Microsoft filed an emergency motion for a stay pending appeal with the 4th Circuit, of the January 21 order by U.S. District Judge J. Frederick Motz(Maryland) granting Sun Microsystems Inc.'s motion for preliminary injunction requiring Microsoft to add Java to its Windows OS within 120 days of the order.
This recommendation to the Council of the European Union from 38 Members of Parliament from 7 political groups, conveys the groups opposition to the EU Data Directive which permits data mining, document retention and electronic surveillance programs involving citizens. The group states that these actions are "a violation of art. 8 of the European Court of Human Rights."
Do you ever jot down a telephone number and forget to note the name associated with it? I sure do. Here is a quick, easy to use, free Reverse Number Lookup service from Verizon that requires only that you type in a ten digit telephone number to obtain the name and address of the owner, as well as a map to his/her location (via icann.blog).
The United States Sentencing Commission (USSC) is seeking public comment on proposed amendments to guidelines applicable to persons convicted of crimes related to the misuse of computers (i.e., hacking, cracking, writing and disseminating viruses, ID theft, web-related fraud, etc.). These new guidelines have garnered a new level of attention due to significantly increased incidences of computer related crimes. In addition, the commission is seeking comment on other proposed guidelines in response to three major post 9/11 laws: the Patriot Act, the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002, and the Terrorist Bombings Convention Implementation Act of 2002.
The author of three computer viruses that were unleashed in 40 countries was sentenced to two years in prison by London's Southwark Crown Court, under the Computer Misuse Act of 1990. The viruses were: Gokar, Admirer, and Redesi.
The administration's proposed plans for e-government initiatives have been dealt a significant blow by Senate appropriations actions which cut $40 million from the requested total of $45 million for FY 2003. Through the E-Government Act of 2002, agencies are working on a coordinated effort to streamline, standardize and improve the management and operation of online systems, and to enhance citizen access to resources via e-gov portals.
According to both Government Computer News and Federal Computer Week, Sen. Joseph Lieberman, a strong supporter of e-government initiatives, will champion the cause of restoring this program funding.
The Digital National Security Archive currently hosts 35,000 declassified documents, comprising 15 distinct collections on U.S. security policies and decision making. For example, you may access documents from the Cuban Missle Crisis, Iran-Contra Affair, and Presidential Directives on National Security from Truman to Clinton. There is also a Documents of the Month section, and the site indicates that new document collections will be added annually. The site is sponsored by the National Security Archive (George Washington University) and ProQuest Information and Learning Company. (Via Internet Scout Weblog)
From Fast Search & Transfer™ (FAST), this press release announces new features for AlltheWeb.com™ that include Automatic Language Mapping (the site determines the user's language and provides query responses accordingly), new search tools, full support for common Boolean operators, and a Query Language Cheet Sheet.
Teoma 2.0 was launched this week, highlighting the new Advanced Search(BETA) which testing has determined provides improved relevance for search results.
Note: try these search engines. They are robust, multi-function services that offer researchers competitive alternatives to Google.
Judge John D. Bates, United States District Court for the District of Columbia, has ruled in favor of RIAA in their high profile case against Verizon to compel the ISP to provide personal data on customers' use and online distribution of music obtained using P2P downloading applications. See Recording Industry of America v. Verizon Internet Services, Misc. No. 02-323 Memorandum Opinion & Order, issued January 21, 2003.
RIAA's press release is here, and states in part that Verizon must now provide the name of a subscriber "who has illegally made available more than 600 copyrighted music files over the Internet."
Verizon's response is here, and states "This case will have a chilling effect on private communications, such as e-mail, surfing the Internet or the sending of files between private parties." Verizon will appeal the decision.
See also my post from October 19, 2002 for background on this case.
Senator Edward Kennedy is breaking new ground with a completely redesigned web site that meets the requirements of The Rehabilitation Act Amendments (Section 508). For more information on how federal agency sites must provide web site access and associated online services for individuals with disabilities, refer to this site, Section 508: The Road to Accessibility, from FirstGov.
This recent, well annotated article clearly explains the use of HTML coding techniques that facilitate web site accessibility according to Sec. 508 requirements.
This FTC press release provides an overview of their new 2002 National and State Trends in Fraud Identity Theft Report (in PDF). ID theft accounts for 43% of total complaints made, with fraud associated with Internet auctions accounting for 13% of complaints.
See also another new FTC report, ID Theft: When Bad Things Happen To Your Good Name, a step-by-step guide to prevent ID theft that also provides considerable useful documentation on services and resources available to those who are already victims of fraud.
For more information on this issue, the FTC participates in a program called Consumer Sentinel, along with state, federal and international law enforcement agencies and consumer advocacy groups, which produces, maintains and updates an ID theft and consumer fraud database. Some of the data is available to the public, such as fraud complaint and ID theft victims reported by state, as well as a chart of top complaint categories.
Via AP, this article indicates that Department of Defense Inspector General Joseph E. Schmitz communicated with Sen. Charles Grassley about an audit on a joint FBI-Pentagon plan to expand the TIA data mining program. The Senator stated in a letter to Attorney General Ashcroft, "I am very concerned that DOJ and the FBI may have been less than forthright to the press and the American people about their involvement with TIA."
My previous post on the escalating tide of Congressional opposition to the TIA program is here. Further information on Congressional amendments opposed to data mining, including the one offered by Grassley as SA 53 to H.J. Res 2, is available in a PDF document here.
In related news, a recent New York Times article offers insight into the history and evolution of the increasingly controversial TIA program, its goals and objectives, and the mastermind behind the initiative, John Poindexter.
For the past two years, an ABA task force of the Section of Dispute Resolution has studied the issue of consumer disputes as they apply to e-commerce transactions. A draft of their final report, that included recommendations and proposed guidelines, was released in April 2002.
This ABA press release indicates that there is now a final report available: Addressing Disputes in Electronic Commerce: Final Report and Recommendations of the American Bar Association Task Force on Electronic Commerce and Alternative Dispute Resolution. However, a link to the report is not provided.
Via Research Buzz news that a treasure trove of searchable, historical Congressional documents and debates (with many imaged texts) from 1774-1875 are now available to researchers from the American Memory Project, A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation. Included are House bills from the first forty-three sessions of Congress, Senate bills and resolutions beginning with the 16th Congress, and Statutes at Large, 1789-1875.
On January 20, Microsoft and Sun delivered an agreement to Maryland U.S. District Court Judge J. Frederick Motz detailing how Microsoft would implement Java in its Windows OS, in accordance with the judge's order to do so within 120 days. See this Reuter's article for more details.
Appellate courts around the country are attempting to craft procedures that apply to the use of technology by cybercrime offenders once they leave incarceration. Disparate determinations are being made in regard to such offenders, allowing some to return to regular use of the Internet and e-mail, while others, such as notorious hacker Kevin Mitnick, was subjected to strict limitations on his access to computer systems during his three years of probation after release from prison.
New Jersey State Senator Shirley K. Turner introduced Senate Bill No. 2245, the New Jersey Financial Information Privacy Act, that "protects privacy of an individual's financial information by prohibiting disclosure without the prior informed, affirmative consent of the consumer."
Senator John Edwards introduced the National Cyber Security Leadership Act of 2003, S. 187, "A bill to provide for the elimination of significant vulnerabilities in the information technology of the Federal Government, and for other purposes." For more information, see this Government Computer News article.
As a result of their October 2002 FOI lawsuit, EPIC and the ACLU obtained over 200 documents related to DOJ surveillance activities undertaken subsequent to the Patriot Act. However, this ACLU press release indicates that the documents were so heavily redacted as to provide little if any relevant information. Examples of these documents are available here. The DOJ has stated that no further documents will be forthcoming without further litigation.
The current issue of the Duke Law and Technology Report (2003 Duke L. & Tech. Rev. 0001), has an article by Mark Sweet, Political E-mail: Protected Speech or Unwelcome Spam? This link comes via politechbot.com, where Declan McCullagh has been discussing Sen. Joseph Lieberman's use of bulk e-mail to promote his recently announced 2004 Presidential bid.
Tech-savvy Australian law firm Phillips Fox is exploring the use of e-mailing their attorney's audio dictation files, using smart card technology, to typists in their New Zealand offices, according to their IT Manager. Due to the time zone difference, documents e-mailed in the evening would be ready first thing the next morning.
Lawrence Lessig has not laid down the gauntlet in his crusade to amend the term of copyright protections despite last week's Supreme Court decision. See his Op-Ed, Protecting Mickey Mouse at Art's Expense, in the January 18 New York Times, as well as his announcement about a new effort to tackle the issue on the legislative front via The Eric Eldred Act FAQ, "a proposal to help move work that has no continuing commercial value into the public domain."
Also worth noting is After the copyright smackdown: What next?, an insightful commentary on the digital rights advocacy movement whose consumer supported agenda is gaining momentum, and some strong support in Congress.
Chad Little, owner of Planet Replay, a P2P service that allows users to share TV shows they have digitally recorded using SonicBlue's ReplayTV, has issued a press release indicating the discontinuation of part of his website's service. This was done to protect the privacy of site users as a result of the entertainment industry's copyright suit against SonicBlue, for which he was deposed.
See also this Washington Times article, Gadgets outpace laws in digital age, on the battle between the TV and movie industries and consumers over fair use issues involving ReplayTV and copying DVDs.
U.S. military websites are subject to a new directive issued on January 3 by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, to remove sensitive, unclassified information published on the huge DOD web databases (comprising 770 gigabytes of total data), that could potentially be of assistance to the intelligence gathering efforts of our enemies.
A Spam Filtering Conference was held on January 17, 2003 at MIT. The conference was organized by Paul Graham, author of A Plan for Spam (published August 2002), and had 580 attendees. Brief abstracts of papers presented at the conference, including titles and authors, are here. Topics included applications solutions for specific platforms, legal efforts to ban spam and anti-spam policies.
The National Intellectual Property Law Enforcement Coordination Council Report 2001-2002 (in PDF) to Congress is a joint effort by DOJ, USPTO, State Dept., U.S. Trade Representative, Commerce, and the Copyright Office. "The mandate of the Council is to coordinate domestic and international intellectual property law enforcement among federal and foreign entities." See also the DOJ site cybercrime.gov, for details on prosecutions involving computer piracy cases.
On January 17, PBS aired a program on Copyright in America, which included a useful timeline on the history of copyrights. In addition, they also published the transcript of an interview conducted by Rick Karr, called Tollbooths on the Digital Highway, with such industry advocates of copyright fees as Jack Valenti, Chairman, Motion Picture Association of America and Pat Schroeder, president of the Association of American Publishers, and fair use advocates including former American Library Association President Nancy Kranich.
California's Department of Motor Vehicles apparently caught personnel from Allstate Insurance illegally accessing online records for personal purposes, and subsequently banned the company's direct access to the system pending further review. Previous incidents involving obtaining personal data through online DMV searches has resulted in criminal acts, and is therefore an issue of significant concern for the state and privacy groups, who maintain that appropriate safeguards are not in place to protect personal data that often includes medical reports.
For further reference on this issue, please see the text of the Federal Driver's Privacy Protection Act that defines limitations on public access to personal data on drivers collected and maintained by state motor vehicle departments.
The Federal Trade Commission is doggedly pursuing frauds committed using spam e-mail, and their latest efforts have culminated in compliants filed in six federal courts (copies of which are available here), with charges against "marketers who used the Internet and spam to sell purportedly authentic international driver's permits (IDPs)."
This Action Alert from the American Associaton of Law Libraries (AALL) Washington Affairs Office urges law librarians to contact the ABA House of Delegates as they consider Resolution 113G, proposed by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL) that, "Approves the Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act (2002) promulgated by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws as an appropriate Act for those States desiring to adopt the specific substantive law suggested therein."
Prentice Hall has made the leap into open source publishing, in no small measure due to the impetus provided by Bruce Perens, author, programmer, researcher, and father of the open source movement.
He states on this site, "I've convinced Prentice Hall PTR to publish a series of books that have their text under Open Source licenses." Not surprisingly, it is called the Bruce Perens' Open Source Series, and will include 6 technical books that will be freely distributed on the web, and will not go out of print, under the terms of the Open Publication License.
The House BlackBerry communication program, initiated in 2001, provided all members with the device, and paid for the associated e-mail service (to the tune of $6 million). The adoption of this wireless technology was related to the events of 9/11.
However, Congress is now caught in an uncomfortable position concerning its continued use of the Blackberries, as reported today by the Washington Post. A patent infringement case between BlackBerry's Canadian parent, Research in Motion (RIM) and NTP Inc., threatens to force the removal of the devices. In an unusual action, James M. Eagen III, Chief Administrative Officer, U.S. House of Representatives, requested that the parties seek a resolution allowing Congress to keep their Blackberries.
A recent survey of how U.S. public librarians have responded to information requests from law enforcement as a result of the Patriot Act indicates that the community is divided in regard to protecting patron privacy. Of those surveyed, 219 indicated that they provided data on patrons, while 229 responded that they did not do so. The survey, Public Libraries and Civil Liberties: A Profession Divided (in PDF), was conducted by the Library Research Center at the University of Illinois. A press release detailing the survey design methodology is here.
The increased focus on the activities of the Total Information Awareness program culminated this week with several legislative initiatives, as mentioned in my post here.
It is interesting to note that the TIA site now hosts a slide show with detailed accompanying notes, titled, Security With Privacy (in PDF). There is also a media update here, with the supposedly assuring language, "Today, the full TIA prototype exists only as a vision."
Today the United States District Court for the District of Columbia issued a decision supporting EPIC's claim that it was a representative of the news media, and therefore entitled to "preferred fee status under FOI" as it related to obtaining substantial numbers of documents concerning the activities of the Total Information Awareness program (TIA).
See my related posting on EPIC's use of FOI to obtain TIA documents here. Also see EPIC's Total Information Awareness Page for documentation on the non-profit's lobbying efforts against TIA, as well related news links.
According to this new Nielson-Netratings survey, broadband usage at home has increased by 59% in one year, accounting for more than 33 million users accessing the web via high-speed connections. Seniors, children, men and women have all increased broadband usage, whereas the pace of dialup connectivity is dropping.
The most recent search engine statistical report published by Greg Notess (December 31, 2002) indicates that Google still has a commanding lead, followed by AlltheWeb, and then AltaVista, who has made significant progress in regaining user confidence.
Greg also reports on the continued downward spiral of once well regarded search engine Northern Light, a favorite of many researchers for its special collections, news and alert features.
Senators Ron Wyden, and Harry Reid are seeking to disable the Total Information Awareness surveillance program by the most direct means possible - an amendment to discontinue its funding.
Wyden, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, issued a press release that stated, "It is time for the Senate to put some reins on this program before it grows exponentially and tips the balance with respect to privacy rights and the need to protect the national security of this country in a fashion that is detrimental to our Nation."
A PDF version of the amendment to "prohibit the use of funds for research, development, test and evaluation on the technology of the Total Information Awareness program" is available here. It is titled the Data-Mining Moratorium Act of 2003, and also has Sen. Russ Feingold as a co-sponsor.
The press release is here. The full-text report, Bigger Monster, Weaker Chains: The Growth of an American Surveillance Society, was issued by the ACLU on January 15.
Think twice, and then a third time, before you trash your old PC hard drive. This MIT press release describes a recently released study conducted by two of the university's grad students about their purchase of 158 used drives from which they successfully salvaged a treasure trove of personal credit card information, banking transaction data, medical documents and other data collected by former PC owners.
In all to many instances, PC owners simply do not purge their hard drives before swapping them out for new ones, or they use utilities that do an inadequate job at wiping the drives clean of recoverable data.
According to this press release from the Department of the Treasury, today the IRS will announce details about a new program (IRS Free File) that facilitates the free e-filing of tax forms by most Americans. The home page for Free File is here.
The IRS entered into a agreement with a consortium of tax software companies, called the Free File Alliance, to "provide free tax preparation and filing to at least 60 percent of the American taxpayers, or approximately 78 million people."
On January 15, the Supreme Court issued a 7-2 decision in Eldred et al. v. Ashcroft, Attorney General, upholding the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, and extending by 20 years existing copyrights and future copyrights.
Via Cornell's Legal Information Institute there is access to the PDF versions of the Syllabus (PDF version), the Opinion (Ginsburg), Dissent (Stevens), Dissent (Breyer).
The transcript of the oral arguments from October 9, 2002 is here.
See Wired's article on the decision here, and the Washington Post article here. Needless to say, there are many blog postings on this decision, so start with one of the most comprehensive, here at Copyfight.
This Business Week article provides perspective on Google's growing pains, as the high profile, successful company (fielding an amazing 75% of all search engine queries) increasingly becomes the target of rivals in the advertising and e-commerce arenas. See also this Business Week review of Google's beta web shopping network search engine, Froogle.
The website for the Office of the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives provides quick access to a wealth of information for the 108th Congress, including: an official, searchable list of members (by name or state), links to Democratic and Republican leadership data, links to House Floor Proceedings for the last 7 legislative days, roll call votes, the current Rules of the U.S. House of Representatives (in PDF) and a Congressional profile.
There are several reports today that Microsoft will release its source code to governments around the world in an attempt to stem the tide of their migration to open source operating systems such as the increasingly popular Linux. According to the Wall Street Journal, "Russia and NATO have already signed up for the Microsoft initiative."
However, the "Government Security Program" comes with various strings attached, and is primarily meant to support Microsoft's marketing efforts concerning the security and stability of its applications, and allow governments to test the various Windows platforms within their specific, secure environments.
eMarketer has published an article, Personal Information: The Push-Pull Between Companies & Consumers, that incorporates survey data collected by a number of organizations including, Harris Interactive, ConsumerWebWatch, and PricewaterhouseCoopers. E-privacy and ID theft concerns dominate consumer perspectives when conducting online transactions. In a related article, MSNBC reports on extensive credit card fraud complaints involving PayPal, the dominant force in Internet transaction payment systems. PayPal is the subject of class action lawsuits, and merged with eBay in October, 2002.
Yesterday afternoon, the Recording Industry Association of America announced via this press release that "key members of the recording and technology industries" had reached an agreement on a set of principles as the foundation for their joint anti-piracy and copyright protection lobbying efforts in the 108th Congress. The agreement is a result of efforts by three organizations: RIAA, the Business Software Alliance, and the Computer Systems Policy Project, whose participants include all the major industry players - Microsoft, Dell, Apple, HP, and Adobe, among others.
The agreement titled, Technology and Record Company Principles, available in PDF, is a one page document comprising seven statements of principle. The Consumer Electronics Associations and the Computer and Communications Industry Association did not participate in this agreement, nor did the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), which issued this press release.
Following quickly on the heels of Sen. Harkin's letter requesting a hearing on the Total Information Awareness (TIA) program, Vermont's Senator Leahy also sent a letter to Attorney General Ashcroft requesting answers to a list of specific questions, so at to determine "the extent to which the Justice Department is relying on data-mining" applications and how privacy issues as they relate to the collection of personal data on citizens is being addressed.
In addition to these letters from Harkin and Leahy, EPIC together with other privacy coalition members, sent duplicate letters to House/Senate Committee Chairs (Armed Services, Defense Appropriations, Judiciary, Government Reform, Homeland Security, "urging Congress to stop further development" of TIA as the program's surveillance initiatives did not safeguard the privacy of America's citizens.
Also adding his voice to concerns about TIA and data mining is the Chairman of the Gilmore Commission (long title - Advisory Panel to Assess Domestic Response Capabilities for Terrorism Involving Weapons of Mass Destruction), former Republican Governor of Virginia, James Gilmore.
With Microsoft making news today regarding their efforts against government use of open source software (OSS), this newly revised article, Making Copyright Ambidextrous: An Expose of Copyleft, is a useful resource on the history of OSS and associated licensing issues.
Via CyberJournalist.net, here is a link to a guide for online journalists' ethics codes from around the world. Organized by country and topic (accuracy, copyright, civil rights, privacy, etc.), this is a fascinating, and up-to-date resource.
Via ZDNet there is news that Sharman Networks, the investment consortium based in Sydney, Australia that owns the popular and controversial P2P software Kazaa will fight the copyright infringement lawsuit brought against them in the U.S. District Court, Central District of California (CV 01-08541-SVW, CV 01-09923-SVW) by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, after the court issued a 46 page decision denying Sharman's motion to dismiss the case.
In typical fashion, you will not find any news releases from Google concerning legal issues actually posted on their own website. However, a number of tech publications, such as InfoWorld and PCWorld, have articles today stating that Google is fighting SearchKing's preliminary injunction, arguing that the motion "contains only bare and conclusory allegations." The text of Google's response is available here courtesy of LawMeme.
IBM announced that they now have a decade-long record for the most patents granted to one company (22,357). For 2002 alone, that number was 3,288 patents.
This is actually a new posting on yet another net taxes moratorium bill, this one sponsored by Virginia Senator George Allen . "Senator Allen's legislation will permanently ban taxes on Internet access, as well as taxes on Internet transactions by multiple jurisdictions, and discriminatory taxes that unfairly target Internet transactions." The bill, the Internet Tax Nondiscrimination Act of 2003, is S. 150, and not yet available via Thomas.
See my January 9, 2003 posting on a similar bill, The Internet Tax Non-Discrimination Act (H.R. 49 and S. 52), introduced by co-sponsors Cox and Wyden.
Something has gone terribly wrong with the FCC's Universal Service Program for Schools and Libraries. Known as the E-Rate Fund, the objective of the program, part of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, is to ensure low-cost public access to Internet services for needy schools and libraries throughout the country. The fund is capped at $2.5 billion in annual expenditures, and is administered by the Universal Service Administrative Company for Schools and Libraries (USAC). Telecom companies collect fees from all their customers (on your bill it may appear as a "universal service fee"), and these fees have then been used over the course of the past six years to fund Internet access to "86 percent of the nation's public schools, 21 percent of private...and 65 percent of libraries."
On January 9, The Center for Public Integrity issued a detailed investigative report on the E- Rate program, concluding that it is "honeycombed with fraud and financial shenanigans." The report cites a number of important documents, including a recent 34 page report from the FCC's Office of Inspector General that focuses on continued waste and fraud in the program, and a report on Top 25 Service Providers - FY2001, that clearly indicates how IBM and the top telecom companies have profited significantly from the program.
The CEO of Intel, Craig Barrett, spoke about digital rights at the 2003 International Consumer Electronics Show. His comments sought to strike a balance between fair use rights for consumers who legally purchase digital services and media, and appropriate punishment for those "who grossly violate anybody's content."
Senator Tom Harkin issued a written request on January 13 to Daniel K. Inouye Chair, Subcommittee on Defense U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriation, for a hearing to investigate the work of the Total Information Awareness Project. Quoting the Senator, "The Total Information Awareness project raises serious issues of privacy violations and legality, the choice of its leadership, and appropriate use of Defense Department funds." Sen. Harkin wants TIA Director Poindexter to testify at the hearing.
On December 5, 2002, Sen. Harkin sent a letter to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld expressing his concerns about the TIA program, and requesting more information about its objective, data collection policies, and privacy issues.