A Citizen's Guide on Using The Freedom of Information Act and the Privacy Act of 1974 to Request Government Records (text version, pdf version), First Report by the Committee on Government Reform, June 23, 2003, House Report 108-172.

On June 26, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) introduced legislation, S. 1350 (the Notification of Risk to Personal Data Act) "to require businesses or government agencies to notify individuals if a database has been broken into and personal data has been compromised, including Social Security numbers, driver's licenses and credit cards. The bill is modeled, in part, on a California law that will come into effect on July 1."

Perk, and peril, in employees' attachment to e-mail: "For much of the working population, e-mail is not only available but indispensable, a tool not just for work but for maintaining personal bonds....many workers are accustomed to using a work computer and e-mail address to stay in touch with friends and family in the course of the day. Yet with the convenience comes risk. Although many people are aware that they may be sacrificing privacy by using workplace e-mail, they are sometimes indiscreet in what they write."

A Safer System for Home PC's Feels Like Jail to Some Critics. "As PC makers prepare a new generation of desktop computers with built-in hardware controls to protect data and digital entertainment from illegal copying, the industry is also promising to keep information safe from tampering and help users avoid troublemakers in cyberspace."

For related information, see my recent posting, Microsoft and Privacy Initiative.

From the Gainsvilles Sun: "In an effort to squelch the illegal sharing of copyrighted files in its residence halls, the University of Florida simultaneously launched an Internet piracy awareness campaign in the dorms and a new computer management system called ICARUS, which stands for Integrated Control Application for Restricting User Services. ICARUS monitors the UF computing network and detects when students in the residence halls are sharing a large number of files...It then "pulls the plug" on the offending dataport, cutting the student off from communication outside of UF and sending a pop-up message explaining why."

See also, RIAA Prepares for Extensive Legal Action Against File Sharers and USC May Assist RIAA In Prosecuting File-Sharing Violations.

3 to Spy on Those You Love: A review of Guardian Software's Guardian Monitor 8.0 ($40, www.guardiansoftware.com), Spytech Software's SpyAgent4.4 ($50, www.spytech-web.com) and Xelerate Software's SpyPC 7.0 ($40, www.xelerate.biz).

See also, Can Internet 'Washer' Programs Keep Web Surfing Private?

The Google Toolbar Beta 2.0 introduced last week includes three major new features: a pop-up ad blocker, a tool that automatically fills-out those ubiquitous web forms requiring personal data, and a "blog this" button to post to a blog. See also the Google Toolbar Beta 2.0 Help Index and the Google Toolbar Frequently Asked Questions.

On June 23, Congressman Sanders of Vermont addressed the issue of the Freedom to Read Protection Act at the joint conference of the American Library Association and Canadian Library Association at their General Assembly Program in Toronto.

From the press release:

Justices Put Access to Online Information in the Wrong Hands. Also see my posting, Supreme Court Backs Net Filters For Libraries.

Lost? Tap Into Law Librarian Expertise: "...a destination, one that is a must for every summer associate, is to meet, get to know and use one of your firm's most valuable resources: the library and its librarians."

From the National Do Not Call Registry homepage: "Most telemarketers cannot call your telephone number if it is in the National Do Not Call Registry. You can register your home and mobile phone numbers for free. Your registration will be effective for five years." See the FTC press release here, and be advised of the following if you have trouble accessing the site: "Due to high registration volume, you may experience slow response time."

From the Reed Elsevier press release:

Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Before and After the USA PATRIOT Act, from the FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, June 2003 (via Secrecy News).

The Circuit Court of Cook County (IL) has migrated from an antiquated information system that "ran all of its operations on a 1980's era mainframe, did not use e-mail or voicemail and provided only limited public Internet access," to a new, networked IT infrastructure that will manage the court's "2 million cases a year."

The Chicago Bar Association (CBA) launched a new portal that provides a member customizable homepage, access to case law resources, legal news, court forms, bar committee announcements, and more.

AllTheWeb Now A Better Search Experience Than Google. Includes a summary of features tested.

Reps. Lofgren and Doolittle Announce the Public Domain Enhancement Act to Address the Need for Copyright Reform. From the press release of June 25:

From a June 25 Recording Industry Association of America press release: "Starting tomorrow, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) will begin gathering evidence and preparing lawsuits against individual computer users who are illegally offering to "share" substantial amounts of copyrighted music over peer-to-peer networks....The RIAA expects to use the data it collects as the basis for filing what could ultimately be thousands of lawsuits charging individual peer-to-peer music distributors with copyright infringement. The first round of suits could take place as early as mid-August."

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ("The nation's largest -- and most controversial -- appeals court...") ruled in favor of website publishers in Batzel v. Cremers (41 page pdf), stating that "providers and users of interactive computer services.....are immune from liability for defamatory or obscene speech...when the material is provided by someone else." See the Telecommunications Act of 1996.

FTC Outlines Steps to Assist Identity Theft Victims.

From this AP article: "The nation's librarians, set back by a Supreme Court ruling upholding requirements for Internet filters to block p*****graphy, plan to step up pressure on software vendors to disclose more about how their products work." Related articles worth a look: Questions and Answers on Web Filtering and this EFF webpage on Examples of Inappropriate Blocking.

According to Declan McCullagh's News.com article, Sen. Ron Wyden continues to shine a spotlight on the Pentagon's TIA surveillance program as he relentlessly pursues the answers to specific questions regarding "the project's scope, its implications for privacy and civil liberties, and which private-sector and government databases would be linked into the system."

New Annenberg Report Examines Americans’ Understanding of Online Privacy - "Do Americans understand the purpose on internet privacy policies? Do they know how websites use information about them? Do they trust government to protect their personal information?"

Major Information Brokers Face Class Action for Invasion of Privacy. Class actions lawsuits filed May 30, 2003 in U.S. District Court, Southern District of Florida W. Palm Beach.

Congress Finds Rare Unity in Spam, to a Point. Promises abound that this will be the year when Congress enacts anti-spam legislation, as bi-partisan support, consumer demand and corporate frustration have reached a crescendo. See my related postings on current legislation here and here, and this June 20 article, Senate Once Again Backs Stringent Penalties for Spam Senders: "With minimal discussion and debate, the Senate Commerce Committee unanimously approved a bill to make it illegal for anyone to use fraudulent or deceptive return e-mail addresses, fake e-mail headers or use false subject lines."

From today's Washington Post, Overview: Short History of Copyright in the Digital Age, Internet Sparks a Copyright Fire. From the battles between the entertainment industry, "fair use rights" advocates, consumers and copyright holders, this article touches on the complex, high-stake issues, legislative initiatives and key players making news in this arena.

Vivisimo, co-winner of the 2002 Search Engine Watch award for Best Meta Search Engine, is featured in this new article, CMU (Carnegie Mellon) trio develops Internet search tool that sorts results in helpful clusters. (via Search Engine News). For more information, see the company's Clustering Engine webpage.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the Online Policy Group (OPG) yesterday announced the release of their joint report, Internet Blocking in Public Schools, A Study on Internet Access in Educational Institutions. "The study found that blocking software overblocked state-mandated curriculum topics extensively -- for every web page correctly blocked as advertised, one or more was blocked incorrectly."

Microsoft's press release: Microsoft Hires Peter Cullen as Chief Privacy Strategist - Internationally Recognized Privacy Industry Leader Brings Extensive Consumer Protection Experience to Microsoft. See also Trustworthy Computing, Microsoft White Paper, October 2002, and One year on, is Microsoft 'trustworthy'?

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia issued a ruling on June 20 in AFL-CIO v. FEC, terminating the Commission's "public release of all investigatory files not exempted from the Freedom of Information Act." See this article for more information - Appeals court blocks FEC from documents release.

Announcement from Jill McC. Watson, The American Society of International Law:

Philadelphia's High-Tech Courtroom: "Courtroom 625, the pride and joy of the Philadelphia Common Pleas Court, is equipped with everything the savvy trial attorney could need to present a state-of-the-art, multimedia case to a judge and jury. A video presentation system with plasma screen monitors, document cameras, a DVD and a videotape player, computer connections, and a teleconferencing system are just some of the features at your fingertips in the freshly unveiled room."

American Libraries Online has an interesting article on AG Ashcroft's June 19 presentation at the Aspen Institute Journalism and Homeland Security conference. Ashcroft is quoted as stating the following:

Library: An Unquiet History, by Matthew Battles. See the review in Newsday:

"Public Interest Registry (PIR) is a not-for-profit corporation created to manage the .ORG registry. PIR looks forward to serving the .ORG community by providing superior technology; new services designed for noncommercial registrants; and responsive, responsible stewardship. PIR has established its new .ORG Advisory Council. The council will focus on .ORG policy, outreach, and service issues."

The Corporate Blog Is Catching On: "Alan M. Meckler, the head of Jupitermedia, keeps a Weblog, an online journal of his thoughts. He says he didn't notify the company's lawyers."

In a 6 to 3 decision (56 pages, pdf) released today in United States v. American Library Association (02-361), the Supreme Court ruled that the Children's Internet Protection Act does not violate the First Amendment, and Congress can thereby require the use of Internet filters by public libraries receiving federal funds.

See also:

H.R. 2517 (introduced June 19 by Rep. Lamar Smith), the Piracy Deterrence and Education Act of 2003, to enhance criminal enforcement of the copyright laws, educate the public about the application of copyright law to the Internet, and clarify the authority to seize unauthorized copyrighted works. In the bill language is the following statement:

From the June 19 Meeting of the DOJ Technology and Privacy Advisory Committee (TAPAC):

According to this National Association of Securities Dealer's June 18 press release:

From the Department of Commerce Technology Administration: Examining Information Technology Education and Training Landscape in 21st Century, a report mandated by the American Competitiveness in the 21st Century Act of 2000.

National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program: An Interview with Laura Campbell, Associate Librarian for Strategic Initiatives Library of Congress.

According to The Register, "the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has sent "cease and desist" letters to four people it alleges were illegally offering hundreds of copyrighted songs over the Internet. The names were handed over by Verizon, which until now has refused to reveal the identity of its punters accused of pirating music, claming the matter could have a "chilling effect" on Internet users." See some of my previous postings on this case here, here, and here.

As a follow-up to my June 16 posting see this press release from Congressman Martin Olav Sabo (D-MN), who "succeeded in requiring stricter scrutiny of the Transportation Security Administration's proposed computerized airline passenger screening program known as CAPPS2, during full committee markup of the FY2004 House Homeland Security Appropriations bill."

More from the press release as follows, which also includes the full-text of the amendment:

Orrin Hatch: Software Pirate? This story has some legs. According to the Wired article:

WatchBlog, "2004 U.S. Election News and Opinion, is a multiple-editor weblog broken up into three major political affiliations, each with its own blog: the Democrats, the Republicans and the Third Party (covering everything outside the two major parties)."

Each party is represented by a column on the site's main page where readers may review the respective postings, or choose to click-through to each separate, topical blog. The three blogs provide an "about" link, an archives (beginning May 2003), links to party resources and candidate websites, and a form to become a "WatchBlog editor."

The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003, S. 877, was approved by the Senate Commerce Committee today by voice vote.

See the following related articles:

The Law Librarians' Society of Washington, D.C., Inc. (LLSDC) today announced the availability of:

According to an article in the USC Daily Trojan, the university, which is an ISP, may be "legally obligated to turn over the names of account holders suspected of breaking computer copyright laws."

Intro to Weblogs for Law Firm Marketing - This important new web publishing tool can help legal services marketers reach niche audiences: by Amy Campbell, whose review includes mentions of SCOTUSBlog, HIPAA Blog, and this blog, about which she states:

Via StateWatch: The EU's Article 29 Data Protection Working Party has issued a strong report on access by the USA to personal data on passengers flying from the EU to the USA.

Tips and techniques for making your site accessible, by German website designer Alex Horstmann, offers 14 quick usability tips, along with associated html code as applicable.

From OMB Watch: In an unclassified memorandum by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), entitled The Consequences of Permissive Neglect, a senior official on the agency’s Foreign Denial and Deception (D&D) Committee, James B. Bruce, called for a targeting of the news media, making them legally accountable for leaked information that they publish.

From the company's press release: AltaVista's expanded multimedia index catalogs more than 540 million comprehensive, high-quality image files and approximately 11 million video and audio files, including popular formats such as MP3 and MPEG.

From the Lawyers Committee on Human Rights press release: On June 17, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals granted the government broad authority to withhold the names of hundreds of non-citizens detained in the United States in the post September 11 sweeps. The case, Center for National Security Studies v. DOJ, was on appeal from a federal district court in Washington, D.C." See also this press release from the Reporters Committee on Freedom of the Press.

Rep. Joseph M. Hoeffel (PA) introduced a bill to amend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 to improve the administration and oversight of foreign intelligence surveillance, the Surveillance and Oversight and Disclosure Act of 2003 (SODA).

A tempest is swirling around the prepared and spontaneous statements of Senator Orrin Hatch before the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, "The Dark Side of a Bright Idea: Will Personal and National Security Risks of P2P Networks Compromise the Promise of P2P Networks?" on June 17.

AMA 2003 E-Mail Rules, Policies and Practices Survey (8 pages, pdf), from the American Management Association:

Information Flows: The Costs and Benefits to Consumers and Businesses of The Collection and Use of Consumer Information, June 18, 2003.

Jerry Lawson's detailed and informative article on LLRX.com, Web Logs for Lawyers: Lessons from Ernie the Attorney, received a mention in the June 16 MSNBC Weblog Central column.

Consumer WebWatch has launched an ad campaign to spotlight 28 websites whose content complies with the organizaton's five guidelines for improving Web site credibility, published April, 2002. Sites that are identified as "Praise Worthy" include Adobe.com, CBS MarketWatch.com, and WebMD. See also my article from LLRX, Getting It Right: Verifying Sources on the Net.

June 17, 2003 - Legislative hearing on H.R. 2344, the Intellectual Property Protection Restoration Act of 2003 (to restore Federal remedies for infringements of intellectual property by states), Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property.

On March 27, Sen. Biden introduced S. 731, the Secure Authentication Feature and Enhanced Identification Defense Act of 2003" (SAFE ID Act), to prohibit fraud and related activity in connection with authentication features.

From the June 16 Federal Register: GSA Discontinues Printing and Distribution of the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance: The Internet and GSA's free CFDA Web site will be the primary means of disseminating the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance. In addition to what is already there, the Web site will soon contain a version of the Catalog that, when printed by any user, will have the same layout as the printed document that the Government Printing Office (GPO) has provided.

The press release, FTC Joins International Law Enforcers in Announcing Newly Developed Cross-Border Fraud Guidelines, is here, and provides links to press releases from participating countries, including Australia, Finland, Japan, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.

See also:

According to this New York Times article from June 16, Net Profiling Lures Advertisers, "visitors to The Wall Street Journal Online today will become the latest lab rats of online advertising, as the Web site starts grouping them into classes like "car buffs" and "consumer techies," all the better to serve them ads for Lexus or NetFlix wherever they may roam on the site."

Internet Law 2003, Program of Instruction for Lawyers, Harvard Law School, presented by Prof. Jonathan Zittrain, Prof. Charles Nesson and John Palfrey. Links are provided to resources on course topics that include: jurisdiction on the internet; P2P file sharing; digital democracy; litigation and the digital environment; and privacy.

"The new Hoover's features a multitude of customer-driven enhancements. It's an easy-to-use, intuitive service that lets you quickly find the information you need about the companies, industries, and people that matter to you. Improved Site Design And Navigation; Enhanced Tools And Content; NEW Tools And Content."

Copyright and licensing for digital preservation. "Libraries cannot preserve digital material they do not own. Adrienne Muir describes a new project to identify copyright and licensing issues that currently hinder digital preservation and looks at whether new legislation (UK) will help."

The dead poets society: The copyright term and the public domain, by Matthew Rimmer.

"This paper...advocates a critical theory of copyright law, which highlights the gap between the symbolic significance of legislation, and its instrumental effects in terms of economic impact and cultural costs. It demands a greater scrutiny of the politics and the rhetoric of Congress, the judiciary, and the public domain. This paper claims that the case of Eldred v Ashcroft offers a lens through which a disciplinary pattern can be discerned. It is interested in how copyright lawyers have analysed the dispute and certain kinds of assumptions. This paper evaluates the relative influence of the various intellectual disciplines at play on the decision of the Supreme Court."
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See Lawrence Lessig's response to the article here.

Professor Pamela Samuelson, School of Information Management and Systems, University of California at Berkeley, published a new article, The Constitutional Law of Intellectual Property After Eldred v. Ashcroft, 50 J. Cop. Soc'y (forthcoming 2003). Link via A Copyfighter's Musings, which reviews the article, and its significant citations from other forthcoming articles.

Steven D. Hinckley, Associate Dean for Library and Information Technology & Professor of Law, University of South Carolina, authored, Your Money or Your Speech: The Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA) and the Congressional Assault on the First Amendment in Public Libraries, in the Washington University Law Quarterly, vol. 80, No. 4, Winter 2002 (via The Censorware Project).

Electronic filing of all Section 16 reports will become mandatory on June 30, 2003. See Release No. 33-8230 which states:

An interview with Steven Aftergood, Project on Government Secrecy, Federation of American Scientists: Government Secrecy in the Age of Information, by Joe Fitzgerald and Antonia Badway, Biodefense Quarterly, Summer 2003 (a publication of the Johns Hopkins Center for Civilian Biodefense Strategies).

According to this June 14 Washington Post article, the controversial CAPPS II airline passenger data collection and surveillance program will be scaled back as a result of considerable opposition from the public and advocacy groups. The article also states that "new details about the system are expected to be included in a Privacy Act notice to be published in the Federal Register next week." I will post the link when it is available.

See also my related topical postings:

Online Locator Software Use Grows: There is growing interest and technology development in identifying online users according to location or geography, called geotargeting or geolocating. Marketing can be targeted to specific zip codes or areas. Although this article states that privacy advocates should not be overly concerned, a range of electronic retailing sectors, including entertainment, sporting and banking, are turning to this technology, which includes the ability to screen consumers "for suspect behavior."

New Online EIN application process: "An Employer Identification Number (EIN), also known as a Federal Tax Identification Number, is a nine-digit number that the IRS assigns to business entities. The IRS uses this number to identify taxpayers that are required to file various business tax returns. EINs are used by employers, sole proprietors, corporations, partnerships, non-profit organizations, trusts and estates, government agencies, certain individuals and other business entities."

From ALAWON, the American Library Association Washington Office Newsline: "On June 11th, Representatives Joseph M. Hoeffel (PA-D), Sam Farr (CA-D), and House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers (MI-D) announced their joint sponsorship of H.R. 2429, the Surveillance Oversight and Disclosure Act. This bill would require greater reporting by the Justice Department on USA PATRIOT Act activities, including special reports about how library records are obtained and used."

From Internet Magazine, news of the publication, by the UK Information Commissioner, responsible for data protection & freedom of information, of the third part of the Employment Practices Data Protection Code - Monitoring at Work, the Do's & Don't for workplace monitoring. Links to these documents, and to the other parts of the guide, are available here. Also see the Trades Union Congress website, called workSMART, that provides resources on workplace monitoring and internet policies.

From the June 11, Federal Register, notice of Meeting of the Technology and Privacy Advisory Committee (TAPAC). "The purpose of the meeting is for presentations of interest and discussion concerning the legal and policy considerations implicated by the application of advanced information technologies to counter-terrorism and counter intelligence missions." Related information from Cryptome: Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld appointed Newton Minow Chairman of the new Department of Defense Technology and Privacy Advisory Committee in 2003.

Notification of Agreement Under the Small Webcaster Settlement Act of 2002, Federal Register, June 11, 2003. "The Copyright Office is publishing an agreement which sets rates and terms for the reproduction and performance of sound recordings made by a noncommercial webcaster under the section 112 and 114 statutory licenses." See also a recent posting with additional links on this issue here.

Federal Decision Deals With Who Pays the Costs: Judge Shira Scheindlin's ruling in Zubulake v. UBS Warburg, 02 Civ. 1243, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, May 13, 2003, "lists seven factors to test in order to determine which side of a case should pay for electronic discovery."

RSS Directory, from blogStreet, "contains a listing of 11,000+ RSS feeds of blogs, making it one of the largest directories of RSS. An added advantage is that the latest feeds of the listed blogs can be read through RSS Discovery - RSS Discovery finds out the RSS feed of a blog, the time when it last changed and displays the latest feed in HTML." Find a blog using the search engine or the alphabetical listing.

See also Technorati, with "384,996 weblogs watched," that recently launched a new Keyword Search (Beta) feature that supports Boolean searching.

Introduced 6/11/2003, by Sen Charles E. Schumer (NY), S. 1231, A bill to eliminate the burdens and costs associated with electronic mail spam by prohibiting the transmission of all unsolicited commercial electronic mail to persons who place their electronic mail addresses on a national No-Spam Registry, and to prevent fraud and deception in commercial electronic mail by imposing requirements on the content of all commercial electronic mail messages.

Related news:

WeCanStopSpam is a Wiki with a clearly stated agenda, providing links to free spam filters, commentary on solutions to the spam problem, and signatures to make spamming more difficult.

From the June 13 USGPO news release: "With nearly a quarter of a million titles available online and free of charge, and with public retrievals exceeding 32 million every month, GPO Access (www.gpoaccess.gov), a service of the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO), has become one of the principal tools for providing public access to official U.S. Government information. As a result, by September 30, 2003, the GPO will close all of its brick-and-mortar bookstore operations outside Washington, DC."

Benefitsblog is a tax, benefits and ERISA law commentary and news filter created by B. Janell Grenier, Esq., launched in April 2003.

The 2003 Global Software Piracy Study (14 pages pdf), from the Business Software Alliance, can be viewed according to regional data as follows:

According to this article from the Chronicle of Higher Education, the National Library of Medicine has created and published freely available standards, called the Journal Archiving and Interchange Document Type Definition (DTD), for the uniform digital publication and distribution of journal content.

Commercial Law for the New Commerce UCITA (Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act) and UETA (Uniform Electronic Transactions Act) (PowerPoint) by Patricia Brumfield Fry, Visiting Professor of Law, Wm. Mitchell College of Law.

A compilation of studies from the U.S., Canada, Europe and Japan, assembled and introduced by Joichi Ito, titled A Report of Research on Privacy for Electronic Government. As indicated in these documents (all in pdf), the development and implementation of electronic government systems in countries throughout the world must address issues related to their respective laws and legislation related to privacy, as well as the digital domain, industry standards, international ramifications of data collection and distribution, and technology infrastructures. Link via Lessig Blog.

Vivísimo, Inc. issued this press release today concerning nearly $1 million in grants awarded to the company to "enhance and modify [their] on-the-fly document clustering products to help intelligence analysts easily recognize patterns and identify trends from large amounts of unstructured data in many different languages."

According to this press release, on June 11 EPIC filed suit against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and the Department of Defense (DOD), under the Freedom of Information Act. The complaint seeks "the release of agency records concerning airline passenger screening procedures" (from the CAPPS II airline passenger profiling system.)

Via postings today on Law-Lib, the first from Judith C. Russell, the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, this important information on the status of the bookstores across the country, and the second from Marian Storck, Legal Information Specialist, U.S. Attorneys Office:

From today's press release issued by National Security Archive: Proposed FOIA Exemption Would Provide National Security Agency (NSA) With Virtually Unchecked Power to Keep Records Secret. This release includes links to significant documents on related FOIA exemptions for intelligence agencies, prepared by the National Security Archive (such as this Side By Side Comparison of Statutory FOIA Exemptions for Operational Files from the CIA, NIMA, NRO and NAS), and the Federation of American Scientists' Section-by-Section Analysis of FOIA exemption for the National Security Agency's operational files.

See also this website for links to U.S. Intelligence and Security Agencies.

Liz Donovan of The Miami Herald created the News Lib Blog, with postings from the SLA conference in New York submitted by News Division members. See also the terrific NewsLib listserve. Great work Liz!

Today the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation held a hearing on Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Reauthorization. Testimony was presented on the agency's work in the areas of competition and consumer protection, and future plans for programs that respond to the challenges from the wide range of consumer fraud conducted via the Internet, along with high-profile issues in the news such as personal data collection and web privacy, unsolicited commercial e-mail, IP and competition and antitrust enforcement.

Privacy vs. Internet piracy: "Verizon and Earthlink have informed five Internet service customers that they can expect to be hearing from the record industry very, very soon. But the Recording Industry Association of America says it hasn't decided what to do with the names it won last week in a bitter court battle over Internet piracy." See my recent posting on this case here.

According to a new Information Professional Web Survey whose results were reported at the Special Libraries Association (SLA) Annual Conference, "Ninety-one percent of respondents agree that their roles have shifted from information gatherer to information consultant."

The Web, According to Google: "Google has grown so fast that even those who use it religiously have started to worry about the tendency of its huge audience to increasingly regard the site as comprehensive when in reality its compilation of information is anything but...Webmasters are starting to question the opaque rules that Google uses to determine what to index -- or not."

"James Rettig, head librarian of the University of Richmond's Boatwright Memorial Library, noted that "people who use only search engines will miss things" -- such as books, which represent most of humankind's body of knowledge to date."

New Jersey's Privacy Commission (established under the state's Right to Know law, the Open Records Act (OPRA), that took effect on July 8, 2002, with 13 members appointed by the Governor), is holding hearings this week to solicit public opinion about posting a range of personal data on government websites.

For additional information see NJ OPRA Central website, with links to State Records Request Forms, documentation on How to Request Government Records, an alphabetical index that lists services and activities performed by State agencies, and links to the Governor's executive orders on the OPRA.

"Each year at PC World we seek out the best of the best--hardware, software, Web sites, and services that rise above their competitors. In each category, we look for a product that mixes top performance, good value, a reliable manufacturer, and preferably a dash of innovation. In the following pages are our 59 top choices for the 21st World Class Awards, from a hybrid phone that puts the Web in your pocket to a slick new Web-based e-mail service."

A Comparison of the Functions and Processes Associated with Identifying, Selecting, Acquiring, and Organizing Paper Books and Electronic Books by Lynn Silipigni Connaway, with Stephen R. Lawrence (PDF: 231K/11 pp.)

From PBS OnlineNewsHour: