According to this Washington Post article, the nation's largest ISPs are responding to the recent escalation of email viruses (Blaster and SoBig.F) innundating customer accounts by planning to implement scanning applications to screen all attached documents. With as many as half of all incoming emails infected with viruses, AOL, Comcast, Microsoft, and Covad have already begun scanning, while EarthLink and BellSouth have indicated they plan to do so this fall. The process is costly, on both the IT side as well as in terms of additional customer support requirements.

More news about radio frequency id tags, as RSA Security has published a detailed and informative white paper on the technology, which unbeknownst to many, is already ubiquitous in many aspects of our daily life, an example of which is the tags used by drivers on their car windshields which automatically scan and log toll payments. These tags may also in future track your travel itinerary, via RFID readers, as you traverse our nation's highways. The intertwined issues of privacy and authentication associated with these tags present considerable challenges to corporations using the technology to facilitate inventory controls, as well as to government use for security-related activities. However, negative consumer/citizen response to this passive tracking system is a major consideration, especially with a the growing use of employer-issued smartcards.

From the GPO: Essential Titles for Public Use in Paper Format: The list comprises 48 titles, along with associated web links as available.

From the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, this news on the release of "nearly 2,000 pages of transcripts of emergency calls made on September 11, 2001, to Port Authority police command from civilians and officers...under an order by Bergen County, N.J., Superior Court...Judge Sylvia R. Moses...The Times (New York Times) had told the court that the transcripts are a historical record of public employees doing their job during a national emergency and that they must be released under the states' open records laws."

From ALA, a pdf version of a three page letter sent to Dept. of Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, on August 27, concerning limitations on the public dissemination of "homeland security information" determined to be "sensitive but unclassified." ALA was one of 75 organizations that signed the letter (including journalists, evironmental groups, scientists and privacy advocates). The signatories seek public comment on the implementation of new procedures that would restrict the dissemination of critical federal and state and local data associated with homeland security, as interpreted by the Homeland Security Act.

Catching up on some news from earlier this month, a press release from the Supreme Court of Appeals, State of West Virginia, dated August 8 announced:

Sorry to say all of the above have been the gremlins in my machine the past couple of days. If you would like to read beSpacific postings for August 26 and 27, I invite you to visit the site.

Homeland Security: Efforts to Improve Information Sharing Need to Be Strengthened. GAO-03-760, August 27. Highlights.

This FTC press release from August 27 includes information, associated fees and links for use by telemarketers to obtain data from the national do not call registry when it is released on September 2.

The Lawyer's Committee for Human Rights issued a media alert that responds to specific statements in support of the Patriot Act made by Attorney General Ashcroft in a speech he delivered at the American Enterprise Institute on August 19.

The Library of Congress announced the official acquisition, on September 10, 2003, of a collection comprising over 130,000 "written accounts, e-mails, audio recordings, video clips, photographs, websites, and other materials that document the attacks on New York City, Washington D.C., and western Pennsylvania and their aftermath." On that day, LC will also host a symposium, "September 11 as History: Collecting Today for Tomorrow." Details about speakers and the program schedule are here.

The Pew Internet Project released a new report on August 27, Internet Use by Region in the United States. A link to the table of contents of the report is available here, or you may download the report in its entirety here.

The Foundation for Taxpayer & Consumer Rights (FTCR), a non-profit California advocacy group, is publicizing their purchase of personal data, including social security numbers and home addresses, of high ranking Bush administration officials, as a means of demonstrating the need for stronger privacy legislation. However, states such as California, which recently passed the strongest financial privacy law in the country, are concerned that proposed amendments (H.R. 2622) to the Fair Credit Reporting Act may undermine these new protections.

Cryptome.org has a free link to this informative WSJ article from August 27, "A New Battleground In Web Privacy War: Ads That Can Snoop -Software Programs Track Where Users Go On Net, Then Target Them With Pop-Ups." Although certainly not a new story, it is nevertheless worth reading as it succinctly addresses privacy, copyright and trademark issues associated with spyware programs and consumer tracking applications, which can be associated with such frequent web activities as music downloading and online shopping.

Tethered by a high-tech leash - "Computers mean you can (must?) work anywhere, anytime." Sound familiar?

From the Utility Consumers' Action Network/Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, Employment Background Checks: A Guide for Small Business Owners: "This guide is intended to acquaint small business owners with basic information about screening applicants and current employees."

PATRIOT Propaganda: Justice Department's PATRIOT Act Website Creates New Myths About Controversial Law. See also my previous posting on the Preserving Life & Liberty website.

Sleuths Try to Stay Step Ahead of Online Worms. Computer security and antivirus companies around the world are working to stay one step ahead of viruses that are increasingly impacting corporations, government agencies and home users. These "virus sleuths" are also assisting the FBI to track down and minimize the damage from malicious worms such as the recent SoBig.F.

Designing a protocol to circumvent Internet censorship:

Feasibility and Viability of the Digital Library in a Private Law Firm - "The authors reveal the results of a research study on the feasibility and viability of the digital library. Using information derived from surveys of law librarians, legal publishers, and attorneys, they provide a snapshot of the current state of the digital library in a private law firm setting."

Princeton University computer science professor, author, security expert, and of course, blogger (his blog is called Freedom to Tinker, Ed Felten warns in this interview of "A collision is happening between creativity and protecting intellectual property."

"EPIC has collaborated with numerous consumer and privacy organizations, legal scholars and technical experts to submit an amicus brief in Doe v. Chao, an important privacy case that will be heard by the Supreme Court later this year. This case concerns the wrongful disclosure of the Social Security Number by a federal agency and whether a person should be required to prove actual damages to obtain relief under the Privacy Act. Our view, and the view of most federal courts, is that it should only be necessary to show "adverse effects" to obtain the minimal $1,000 damages under the Act." [Link]

Bloggers Train Sites on State Governments is an article which highlights several blogs that are published via newspapers in Washington state, Texas and California.

Memorandum of Legal Opinion, Library Procedures for Disabling Software Filtering and Unblocking Web Sites, by Janet M. LaRue, Chief Counsel, Concerned Women for America. (via LISNews.com)

The proposed Electronic Vehicle Identification (EVI) system would require the installation of read-only microchips in all new vehicles whose purpose is to provide information on vehicular operation, including location and related activity such as speeding infractions, car theft, and parking violations.

From Federal Computer News, this interesting article about the adoption of wireless laptops to expand information exchange between Syracuse, New York police officers in their vehicles and civilian counterparts in the office.

RFID Gussied Up With Biosensors. After noting that radio frequency id tags (RFID) are in use, and proposed, for a range of consumer items, it is important to mention that the associated privacy controversy also involves the food industry. Under the auspices of the Support Anti-Terrorism by Fostering Effective Technologies ("Safety") Act of 2002 (the SAFETY Act, subtitle G of the Homeland Security Act, P.L. No. 107-296), the industry wants to use "the multifunction RFID tags will track America's food supply "from birth to the bun."

California Identity Theft Laws, Compiled July 2003, by the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse.

CAPPS II is very much in the news recently, with articles on the subject appearing in the Washington Times, Washington Post, and Federal Computer News.

As a follow-up to my recent posting on radio frequency ID tags in consumer goods, here is an article, WhereWare, that describes how wireless devices (notebooks, PDAs, cell phones) will be used as location tools to track their "owners every movement."

Today, the California Supreme Court issued a decision (53 pages, pfd) in DVD Copy Control Inc. v. Andrew Bunner, resolving "the apparent conflict between California's trade secret law and the free speech clauses of the United States and California Constitutions." Thanks to Jim Tyre for the heads-up.

From the FCC press release, August 19: "The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has extended to January 1, 2005, the effective date of its new rules requiring written consent before sending advertising faxes. This action does not change the effective date for the comprehensive telemarketing rules, including other rules regarding faxes, adopted on June 26, 2003. This action also does not change the October 1, 2003 effective date for the national do-not-call registry."

cdfreaks.com reports on a study by the Dutch magazine, PC-Active, involving tests on 30 separate brands of recordable CDs to ascertain whether data and audio tracks saved on the disks was still readable after a 20 month period. The very bad news was that despite marketing indicating data is stable for up to ten years, many brands cannot be read less than two years after they are recorded. (via Slashdot)

From the Techstreet press release, August 25:
"Today, the Thomson Corporation (TSX: TOC; NYSE:TOC) announced that it has acquired Techstreet, Inc. a digital content delivery company that provides full-text industry standards and specifications to engineers, researchers, and technical and information professionals worldwide... The Techstreet unique offering also includes a large collection of technical books, materials property data, and technical training from over 1,000 publishers, industry associations, and technical societies worldwide. Searchable online, the content covers a broad range of subjects, including research, design, manufacturing, testing, and inspection in industries such as electrical and electronics, petrochemical, architecture and construction, food safety and public health, wastewater engineering, information technology, and aerospace/aviation."

From BBC News: "Researchers at Hewlett Packard have developed a prototype electronic book which can hold a whole library on a device no bigger than a paperback. The brushed metal device is about one centimetre thick and looks like an oversized handheld computer. The technological tome is dominated by a screen and a series of touch sensitive strips that allow the reader to navigate through the book. E-books are loaded on to the device using a standard USB port on a computer."

A recently released GAO report, Records Management: National Archives and Records Administration's Acquisition of Major System Faces Risks, documents significant problems with the develpment of the Electronic Records Archives (ERA). The "ERA will authentically preserve and provide access to any kind of electronic record, free from dependency on any specific hardware or software."

The winners of the FindLaw Web Site Awards for 2003 were announced August 14. In the large firm category, the winner is Allens Arthur Robinson; in the mid-size firm category, Swaab Attorneys is the winner; and Immigration Solutions is the winner in the small firm category.

Links to resources from today's ACLU forum, "CAPPS II: Passenger Screening and Privacy Concerns," are as follows:

The Escalating Copyright Wars by Peter K. Yu, Michigan State University-DCL College of Law, to be published in the Hofstra Law Review, Vol. 32, Spring 2004:

Tools to Dress Up The Web Browser. This brief article directs readers to several useful search engine toolbars and bookmarklets.

From the ABA Journal eReport: GOING BEYOND GOOGLE - Law Librarians Stress Legal Research by the Books.

RIAA's Subpoena Strategy is Chilling Downloads: "The possibility of a copyright infringement suit from the Recording Industry Association of America is apparently having a chilling effect on individuals who swap online music, according to new research from the NPD Group. The market research firm said households acquiring music files online illegally reached a high of 14.5 million in April of 2003, but that the number dropped off to 12.7 million households in May, followed by another drop to 10.4 million households in June."

From the ABA Legal Technology Resource Center:

From the USPTO press release:
"The American Library Association (ALA) recently selected the Department of Commerce’s United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Web site as one of the MARS Best Free Reference Web Sites of 2003. MARS is the ALA’s Machine-Assisted Reference Section of the Reference and User Services Association, and represents the interests of those concerned with attaining the highest possible quality in planning, developing, managing, teaching or conducting all forms of computer-based reference information services in libraries."

Press release from Overture: "Overture Services, Inc., a global leader in commercial search services on the Internet, today announced the launch of the world's largest search index of approximately 3.2 billion documents. The index was developed by the former Web search unit of Fast Search and Transfer (FAST), which Overture acquired in April."

Here is a link to a draft of the Victory Act (89 pages, pdf), courtesy of Rich Allen, Winthrop Public Library. Rich found the link on PatriotWatch, a blog that has numerous links to related documents, most of which are hosted by advocacy groups. Many thanks Rich!

Consumers Rate Online Search, Portals, and News: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly:

From the New Jersey Law Journal:

From News.com:

This presentation, RFID and the Public Policy Void, by Beth Givens, founder and director of the non-profit Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, was delivered to the Joint Committee on Preparing California for the 21st Century. Radio frequency ID tags, used by manufacturers and merchants in a wide range of products ranging from automobiles to clothing, are the subject of growing concern among privacy advocates.

From a posting on Lisnews.com written by Nancy Macomber:

The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press has issued a list of questions for reporters to ask Attorney General Ashcroft as he pursues his national PR campaign in support of the Patriot Act. The questions focus on the impact of Sec. 215 of the Act (Access to Records and Other Items Under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act).

From the Oxford Dictionary of English press release, news of the addition of 3,000 new words and phrases to their database of 350,000 entries, including the following techie terms: blog, bounce (as in e-mail), CD-RW, CGI, click rate, cyberstalking, data smog, DNS, DoS, and many more. A full list of the new additions and their definitions are available here.

The GPO Access Training Booklet, July 2003, 73 pages in pdf, is available here. GPO Access is one of the premier e-gov resources, providing access to over 2,900 databases, including the daily editions of the Federal Register and the Congressional Record. This manual's content, which includes a number of screen shots, covers searching strategies, resources on GPO Access, finding aids, how to track legislation, and user support information.

Fishing for Information? Try Better Bait. Congrats to Tara Calishain whose book Google Hacks: 100 Industrial-Strength Tips and Tools receives much deserved recognition in the beginning of this article that focuses on advanced search features specific to the major search engines.

The California State Senate passed SB 1 yesterday, by a vote of 32 to 6.

Day Three of the W32/SoBig.F virus, which is hitting home users hardest. Counterpane Internet Security has identified 1,500 malicious file attachments associated with the virus, and counting. For more information, see the following links:

The Department of Justice is hosting what can only be described as a PR website, Preserving Life & Liberty, that promotes the USA PATRIOT Act. The site links to documents that include: major speeches by Attorney General Ashcroft, a list of point/counterpoint statements that are presented using the caption "Myth" vs. "Realty"; a detailed Senate vote chart on the USA PATRIOT Act (House Republicans Voting Yes: 96%, House Democrats Voting Yes: 69%), statements from 2001 from various prominent Democrat and Republican Senators stating their support of the act's passage, a select group of excerpts from pro-Patriot Act news articles, a poll conducted by Fox News July 31 indicating public support for the act, and a link to the text of the act.

3rd Circuit OKs Posting Addresses of Convicts Under Megan's Law:

Internet Search Companies Could Face Fight on Ads: "Some of the biggest Internet search services (Google and Overture) could be setting the stage for a legal battle with companies that object to the way these sites are using their trademarks." (thanks Donna)

From PCWorld: The RIAA, the MPAA and the NMPA "have asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to overturn the decision by U.S. District Court Judge Stephen Wilson" denying the entertainment groups' request to shut-down music downloading services Grokster and Morpheus. For more details on the case, see my previous posting here.

Today I was spammed several hundred times, causing me to enable the overdrive level of my spam blocker. This is a first for me, but I know that unfortunately I was not alone, and sure hope tomorrow will be a quieter day in the e-mail realm. For my previous postings on spam, click here.

Spam and political campaigns are developing a synergy, to which the growing number us who have been on the receiving end, through no effort on our part, can attest. So I was quite interested when I learned about a new website, Political Spam. This independently operated site, from Richard Paul Welty, was launched in early July, and reports on spam sent by all the various Presidential campaigns and related organizations, solicits their responses when queried about the mailings, and invites copies of offending e-mails from readers. There is also a related weblog.

Press release from the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, announcing a new report: "State and local homeland security officials – the first responders and preventers in the war on terror at home – have not yet been fully integrated into the Bush Administration’s national strategy on homeland security and continue to operate without critical information they need from the federal government."

From Library Journal (reg. req'd): Fair Use Under Fire - ALA's copyright expert gives her take on the challenges digital rights management presents for end users - and librarians:

The Cost to Preserve Authentic Electronic Records in Perpetuity: Comparing Costs across Cost Models and Cost Frameworks:

This article is reprinted from the August 18 WSJ: Google Is Most Popular Search Site, But Others Sometimes Do It Better. Has Teoma surpassed Google's technology? Give it a try and make your own determination.

A CIPA Toolkit - Answers to the most frequently asked questions about the Supreme Court's June ruling that upheld the filtering requirement in the Children's Internet Protection Act. (reg. req'd)

According to FCW.com, Maya Bernstein is the new "head of the office in charge of agency (IRS) policies for protecting taxpayers' personal information — an increasingly important job as data is handled by more electronic systems in the agency's modernization."

The National Consumer Privacy Coalition Group obtained a draft of the VICTORY Act (Vital Interdiction of Criminal Terrorist Organizations Act of 2003), which has been circulated on Capitol Hill, but a copy of which I have yet to find posted on the web (please contact me if you have a link). This article indicates that the legislation "is a grab-bag of enhanced police-state powers."

Report to Congress, Children’s Internet Protection Act, Pub. L. 106-554, Study of Technology Protection Measures in Section 1703, August 15, 2003, Department of Commerce, National Telecommunications and Information Administration.

Amazon wins tussle over lookalike site:

Although there has been considerable focus on the Patriot Act as it impacts libraries, this Atlanta-Journal Constitution article details the wider impact of law enforcement's significantly increased demand for customer data from businesses that range from scuba shops to telecommunications companies. Examples from the article include the following:

Scalable Exploitation of, and Responses to Information Leakage Through Hidden Data in Published Documents, by Simon Byers, AT&T's Research Labs.

Aggregators Attack Info Overload : "Maniacally wired netizens who read a hundred blogs a day and just as many news sources are turning to a new breed of software, called newsreaders or aggregators, to help them manage information overload."

Who Me? Blog? Ideas and Inspiration for Blogging Librarians, by Tasha Saecker, Green Lake Public Library [Library Stuff].

China blocks foreign software use in gov't:

A GAO report released August 12 determined that the Executive Office for the U.S. Attorneys has serious security issues associated with the administration of IT systems, with specific concerns detailing the operation of a virtual private network (VPN) linking the 93 U.S. Attorney offices located throughout the US.

Senator Norm Coleman (R-MN), Chairman, Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, announced hearings on the RIAA's aggressive anti-file sharing efforts targeting students and ISPs.

ISPs Among First to Detect, React to Outage:

A User's Guide to the Stored Communications Act - And a Legislator's Guide to Amending It, by Orin S. Kerr, George Washington University Law School:

From the CIA press release, the announcement about the availability of The World Factbook 2003:

Internet Survives Power Failure: The Internet was for the most part performing normally, despite the power failure, according to Internet performance tracker Keynote Systems.

According to the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, the non-profit Law Library Microform Consortium is creating a digital library, called LLMC-Digital, that will eventually comprise 91,000 volumes (100 million pages) of legal materials, half of which are currently available on microfiche. The beta site is currently available for free, but will become a fee-based service next month.

From Internetnews.com: "A massive power outage has unexpectedly darkened New York and most of New York state as well as other Northeast American cities including Detroit and Cleveland, as well as Toronto and Ottawa in Canada."

From the Google press release: The Google Toolbar is out of beta, and available for download at http://toolbar.google.com. Google's free browser utility enables users to search from any page on the web and offers pop-up blocking, web form filling, and a new Blogger button that makes posting to Blogger.com weblogs quick and easy.

What Home Pages Tell (And Don't Tell) About A Candidate. This article provides screen shots and links to 9 candidate sites, and evaluates them based on the following categories: Ease of contributing money, Excitement, Clarity of purpose, Clarity of message, Amount of useful information, and Professionalism.

From the California Voter Foundation, Special Recall Election Resources includes links to the California Secretary of State website, campaign finance sites, recall election news from local, regional and national newspapers, pro and anti-recall organization links, and candidate websites (not all of those who have declared have one!)

From The Sacramento Bee, daily news updates from their Politics/Elections section.

The Condor, California Recall blog, with archives from July 31.
[http://www.jdlasica.com/blog/]

From the Justice Served website, this announcement identifies the top ten court websites chosen from among 900 considered. Two court sites in Washington, D.C. were recognized: the US Bankruptcy Court for the District of Columbia and the US District Court for the District of Columbia. [Rory Perry's Weblog]

Model Rule 1.6 was passed, and Model Rule 1.13 was amended earlier this week during the ABA Annual Meeting. See the following links: new Rule 1.6 and new Rule 1.13. Thanks to Brian Myers, Information Coordinator, ABA Division for Bar Services, for these links, as well as the text below:

From the Washington Post via Cryptome, the resignation letter of John M. Poindexter (Director, Total Information Awareness Office) to Dr. Anthony Tether, Director, Defense Advanced Projects Agency (DARPA), dated 12 August 2003.

A decision from the U.S. District Court, Maryland, July 10, Lowry's Reports v. Legg Mason, found that the financial services firm had violated copyright terms stipulated by its subscription to Lowry's report, through the ongoing distribution of the publication's content on the company's firm-wide intranet and via e-mail. [From BNA's Internet Law News]

"The Internet, of course, is the maze of phone and cable lines, satellites, and network cables that interconnect computers around the world. The Web is the name given to anything on the Internet that can be accessed using a Uniform Resource Locator, or URL." [Link]

Google Web Search Features - Calculator:

GartnerG2 and The Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School released a study, Copyright and Digital Media in a Post-Napster World (46 pages, pdf), which addresses:

A follow-up to my March 7 posting: the Child Online Protection Act (COPA) was ruled unconstitutional for a second time by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, in a decision ACLU v. John Ashcroft, no. 19-1324, filed March 6.

From European Digital Rights, an association of privacy and civil rights organizations in Europe:

Watching the Watchers - First two lawsuits challenging the Patriot Act likely aren't the last.

From the August 12 Federal Register:

Small and Solo Firm Technology Use: A brief overview of technology use in solo and small firms based on the 2002 ABA Annual Technology Survey.

Who's Watching the Class? According to this USA Today article, students in Biloxi, Mississippi schools will be continuously monitored while in their classrooms, all of which are equipped with webcams whose footage is stored on PC hard drives. The data may be viewed "on virtually any Internet-connected computer." The article also mentions the use of webcams in other school districts, as well as the privacy concerns associated with the use of this technology.

From Reuters:
"Google, the No. 1 Web search engine in the United States....announced eight customers for its enterprise search appliance (Google Search Appliance)...that helps companies and organizations search for products and information within corporate intranets and Web sites. The company, seen by many in financial circles as an ideal candidate for an initial public offering, said pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc., the U.S. Army and the city of San Diego are among the new paying users of its enterprise search appliance...Other customers include Xerox Corp., Hitachi Data Systems, Nextel Communications Inc., Procter & Gamble Co., Discovery Communications, the San Diego Union-Tribune, PBS.org, Cisco Systems Inc. and Boeing Co."

From the GPO press release: "Archivist of the United States John W. Carlin and United States Public Printer Bruce R. James announced today an agreement whereby the Government Printing Office (GPO) and the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) will ensure the documents you see today on GPO Access, the GPO web site that provides free online public access to more than 250,000 Federal Government titles, will remain available permanently. (thanks to Tanya Brown).

This week, Jonathan D. Glater of the New York Times, authored several articles on lawyer-client confidentiality. The first article, from August 11, An Issue Of Lawyer-Client Confidentiality (linked here as reprinted on lexisOne), focuses on efforts by the IRS to obtain the identity of 600 Jenkens & Gilchrist tax clients. The second article, Bar Association Eases Code on Client Secrets, reports on the ABA's vote yesterday during the ABA Annual Meeting to change the organization's Model Rules for Professional Conduct to "allow - but not require - lawyers to disclose confidences to prevent or rectify crime or fraud causing financial injury, when a lawyer's services were used to help perpetrate the crime."

Microsoft loser in patent suit: $500 million verdict in Net case: "Microsoft was told by a jury to pay $521 million to the University of California and a Chicago-area company that claimed they invented technology used in the Internet Explorer browser."

Errors Infect Doctor Lists on Web - Wrong Numbers, Dead Practitioners Found on Health Insurers' Online Directories:

Press release from Rep. Jane Harman, August 7, 2003: House Intelligence Democrats Call on Administration to Declassify Major Portions of 9/11 Report and Request Committee Investigation of Foreign Support for Terrorists.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) launched a website, Where's My Advance Child Tax Credit, for taxpayers to obtain information on the status of their credit. This release coincides with the following:

NetCoalition Sends Letter to RIAA Requesting Answers about Subpoena Initiative:

A new website and blog, from Ralph Nader's organization, Public Citizen, tracks the flow of money from private sources to President Bush's 2004 campaign. The site documents the dates/locations/key fundraisers at Bush campaign events (currently showing information from June 17-September 5), reports on contributors and political appointments, and background information on How the Presidential Public Financing System Works. The blog currently has 14 postings.

E-Learning Needs Analysis: "A hands-on approach to figuring out where you need to expend your training energies."

From the FTC: Do Not Call Registry Tops 30 Million Phone Numbers - California, Florida, and Texas Lead in State Registrations.

From the Politics and Science website, presented by Rep. Henry A. Waxman, Ranking Member, Committee on Government Reform, Minority Office:

A follow-up to my July 16 posting, Oyez Project Releases Supreme Court Oral Arguments in MP3 Format: from the New York Times, via the International Herald Tribune, Listening in for free at the U.S. Supreme Court.

From the EFF press release this afternoon:

This afternoon the Department of Justice FOIA site posted a new Annual Report Guidance for Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Related Agencies.

From Michigan State University, this free site, globalEdge, provides more than 2,000 business-related data resources on 200 countries, in areas that include "business climate, news, history, political structure, economic landscape, and relevant statistical data." Users may view information by specific country or region, or via a keyword search. The site offers an extensive library of government and business-sponsored links, as well as detailed country maps, and news feeds (daily and archived) that may be browsed by date(s) or keywords. Well worth a visit.

The Aviation Consumer Protection homepage has a link to an archive of Air Travel Consumer Reports, the most recent of which was published August 7, reflecting data from June 2003. Information is divided into report sections that address specific consumer issues, by carrier, that include: Flight Delays, Mishandled Baggage, and Consumer Complaints (Includes Disability Complaints). Reports are available in pdf and Word format, and make for interesting reading whether you are a frequent or occasional airline traveler.

The Center for New York City Law website, "provides information about, and analysis of, the laws and legal processes that govern New York City."

USAJOBS, the federal government's offical job site, with a database of over 16,000 job listings, has added new features that include:

From the Practical Nomad: What's wrong with CAPPS-II? (and what should be done about it?) by Edward Hasbrouck. This articles provides a wealth of links to primary and secondary documents on CAPPS I and II and the significant privacy issues inherent in the mining of personal travel data by the federal government.

A new Business Software Alliance (BSA) state-by-state study indicates a slight decline in software piracy in the United States, with overall national loses to be approximately $1.9 billion. The study provides data that includes: state piracy rate, state dollar retail losses, state employment losses, total wage and salary losses, total tax losses, as well as state settlements.

From a press release dated August 6, 2003: "The Competitive Enterprise Institute today filed suit in federal court against the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy for refusing to implement the Federal Data Quality Act in regard to two major global warming reports. The law, signed by President Clinton, requires that data disseminated by the government meet basic scientific standards for 'objectivity' and 'utility.' It has been ignored in the case of administration climate reports, despite earlier petitions by CEI.

From Research Buzz: "Google is finally offering news alerts, which may finally fill the giant hole left in my life by the demise of Northern Light News and THEIR alerts. You can get to 'em at http://www.google.com/newsalerts. Apparently you will not have to have an account for this. All the site offers is a space for you to enter a news query, a note for how often you want it (daily or as it happens) and your e-mail. Once you've entered a query Google News will send you a confirmation of that query. Confirm that and you'll start getting news alerts. Alerts contain links to storie containing your alert keywords as relevant "snippets" of the stories."

From the Federal Register, July 28, 2003:

On the Federal Side:

"The Americans for Fair Electronic Commerce Transactions (AFFECT), the national coalition opposing the Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act (UCITA), applauds the decision of the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL) not to spend any additional resources in promoting state adoptions of UCITA. The proposed legislation has been the subject of considerable controversy for a decade. NCCUSL was responsible for drafting the proposed uniform law to provide rules for licensing software and other computer information transactions. On Friday NCCUSL also announced that it would be discharging its Standby Drafting Committee for UCITA." [via EFF]

Copywrongs.org is a new website launched August 5 by a non-profit group comprised of techno-experts who have been affiliated with projects at MIT. From the Mission Statement:

Airline Security's False Hope?: An expert on aviation safety statistics says a new computer system to screen out terrorists may actually make things easier for them, by Arnold Barnett (reg. req'd).

From ZDNet: "A judge has ruled in favor of holding company NTP in its patent-infringement case against BlackBerry maker Research In Motion, awarding monetary damages and fees. The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Richmond, Va., ruled late Tuesday in the case brought against Waterloo, Ontario-based RIM. It awarded NTP $53.7 million."

S. 1517: A bill to revoke and Executive Order relating to procedures for the consideration of claims of constitutionally based privilege against disclosure of Presidential records (introduced July 31).

Specialized Court for Tech Cases Starts to Operate in Maryland:
"Maryland, with the enactment of Rule 16-205, effective on Jan. 1, has become the first state in the country to adopt a specialized court for business and technology cases. This specialized system is an effort to respond to the increased complexity of these cases arising in Maryland, which has one of the largest concentrations of bioscience and aerospace companies in the country and hopes to attract more such business by creation of this new court."

Search query saving tips, by Gwen Harris:
"Saving a search query for resubmission later is standard practice among users of for-fee information services. With some tweaking, this can also be done on the open Web. Saved searches can be used to watch for pertinent news stories on the major news search engines -- Google, Alltheweb and Altavista -- and for mention of topics at a Web site through any search engine. But, while there are several tools available, no one tool does the entire job."

Health & Safety Information on Household Products Portal: this new database service from the National Library of Medicine is a portal to information on over 4,000 products arranged in seven categories (auto, home inside, pesticides, landscape/yard, personal care, home maintenance, hobbies & crafts). Users are provided with data on brands, manufacturers, health effects, handling/disposal, and ingredients. The site also provides a keyword search feature for chemical names or CAS Registry Number, and for safety data sheets (MSDS) for effects of products.

From the Federal Trade Commission Consumer Alert, File-Sharing: A Fair Share? Maybe Not:

"Google introduced a new advanced search feature that enables users to search not only for a particular keyword, but also for its synonyms. This is accomplished by placing a ~ character directly in front of the keyword in the search box.
For example, to search for browser help as well as browser guides and tutorials users can search for browser ~help. The ~ character was chosen because it's shorthand for approximate and a good way for users to express their wish to expand searches to include synonyms. More information about this feature is available here." [via GoogleWeblog, and attributed to Nate Tyler, who is Public Relations Manager at Google Inc.]

U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth last week held the Environmental Protection Agency in contempt for destroying electronic documents in violation of a court order issued as a result of a Freedom of Information Act request. [Link]

ID Theft Continues to Increase: "The number of Americans who fell victim to identity theft in 2002 grew 81 percent over the year before. And incidents reported so far in 2003 suggest a major rise over last year...More than 13 million Americans have fallen victim to identity theft or fraud since January 2001," according to a new survey by Harris Interactive, designed by "Alan Westin, professor emeritus of public law and government at Columbia University." [Link]

On July 31, Sen. Bob Graham (D-FL) introduced the 9-11 Memorial Intelligence Reform Act, "aimed at overhauling the Intelligence Community to prevent another successful terrorist attack like the tragedy of September 11, 2001."

"The Vanderbilt Television News Archive, the world’s most comprehensive collection of television network news programs, marks its 35th anniversary this week by going digital." [Link]

The Inbox Defense Task Force is "a non-profit legal research organization dedicated to tracking down the true identities of spammers." The organization lists the following goals on its website:

Unpatriotic Acts: The FBI's Power to Rifle Through Your Records and Personal Belongings Without Telling You, July 2003, from the ACLU. The focus of this 26 page report (pdf) is an examination of, along with related resources and legal documents on, Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act, "which gives the FBI unprecedented access to private, sensitive records and any tangible things."

CIPA Decision Response: A statement from ALA President Carla D. Hayden and the ALA Executive Board, July 25, 2003.

Defamation Immunity On The Internet, by John W. Dean:

Prof. Anthony D'Amato, Northwestern University School of Law, notes his opposition to Loyola University Chicago's compliance with an RIAA subpoena for the names of two students who allegedly engaged in file-sharing, contrary to university policy.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) maintains a no-fly blacklist that may include thousands of names, to which the CIA, FBI, Immigration and Dept. of State contribute information.

"Microsoft's Web site was made inaccessible for an hour and 40 minutes Friday afternoon when a denial-of-service attack overwhelmed the site with traffic, making it impossible for legitimate page requests to get through." [Link]

Robin Good's Mini Guide: Become a News G-d: How to be the first one to know everything about anything - Intelligent Information Agents Come of Age.

Music Downloading, File-sharing and Copyright: A Pew Internet Project Data Memo [Link]

"Pacific Bell Internet Services, a unit of SBC Communications Inc., claims subpoenas filed by the Recording Industry Association of America and Titan Media Inc. threaten the privacy rights of its subscribers, most of whom live in California." [Link]

From the American Library Association Washington Office Newsline:

Storing e-text for centuries describes the LOCKSS (for "lots of copies keep stuff safe") project for permanent publishing on the Web, which is the brainchild of Stanford University librarian Vicky Reich and researcher David Rosenthal.

Special Report: E-Gov under construction
"A look at three prominent programs reveals how far government has come and how far it has to go."

Privacy Act: OMB Leadership Needed to Improve Agency Compliance. GAO-03-304, June 30. Highlights

From the US Association for Computing Machinery: CM's Internet Governance Committee released a white paper entitled Internet Governance: A View from the Trenches, Participation Needed for Successful Advocacy in the ICANN Arena.