IP Theft Surges To 36% Of Global Counterfeiting.
"Intellectual property theft (brands, trademarks and copyrights) surged to
36% of global counterfeiting during the month of February 2005."
The Congressional Internet Caucus is holding a forum titled "Campaign Regulation and the Internet," beginning at 3 PM ET. [Link] Watch a live webcast of the event via C-SPAN.
From the New York Times, Report Calls U.S. Intelligence 'Dead Wrong' on Iraq Weapons. See also related references.
GSA releases RFI for new FirstGov search engine: The General Services Administration earlier this week released a request for information on ways to improve the much-criticized Web-portal."
From the WSJ's Free Features today, New Web-Watching Tools Pique Interest of Investors.
From AP, WMD Panel to Fault Intelligence Agencies, and the New York Times, Panel's Report Assails C.I.A. for Failure on Iraq Weapons.
At News-Record.com's homepage, there is a prominent link to the dozen topical blogs available to readers, a number that far surpasses that of any other national or local paper.
From the Privacy Rights Clearing House: Privacy Groups Urge Federal Reserve Board to Protect Consumers from Identity Theft and Stolen Convenience Checks
From the New York Times, A Supreme Court Showdown for File Sharing.
RSS: Moving Into the Mainstream, by Randy Reichardt, Cameron Science and Technology Library, University of Alberta.
ICANN Completes Negotiations with Applicants for .JOBS and .TRAVEL: "ICANN has completed negotiations with the applicants for the .JOBS and .TRAVEL sponsored top-level domains. The .JOBS and .TRAVEL sponsored TLD registry agreements have been posted on the ICANN website and submitted to the ICANN Board for approval."
From the State Department today: "The Supporting Human Rights and Democracy: The U.S. Record 2004 - 2005 report is submitted to the Congress by the Department of State in compliance with Section 665 of P.L. 107-228, the FY 03 Foreign Relations Authorization Act, which requires the Department to report on actions taken by the U.S. Government to encourage respect for human rights. This third annual submission complements the longstanding Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2004, and takes the next step, moving from highlighting abuses to publicizing the actions and programs the United States has employed to end those abuses." [navigate from the site as linked above to each section of the report, each of which is available in PDF]
Summary: H.R. 418 would authorize the appropriation of such sums as necessary for fiscal years 2005 through 2009 for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to make grants to states to cover the costs of improving the security of driver's licenses as required by the bill. The legislation also would make changes to current immigration law that aim to prevent the entry of suspected terrorists into the United States. CBO estimates that implementing H.R. 418 would cost about $100 million over the 2005-2010 period, assuming appropriation of thenecessary amounts. [6 pages, PDF]
A new Congressional Budget Office Report is available for S. 167 (4 pages, PDF)
WSJ Free Feature Today: From Wikipedia's Creator, A New Site for Anyone, Anything.
Press release from Public Knowledge: "The U.S. Copyright Office should permit movie makers, recording artists, authors, scholars and others to make a "reasonable effort" to find copyright owners as a way of making "orphan works" more available..."Orphan works" are copyrighted materials for which the copyright owner can’t be reasonably located. Artists who want to use such material in new creations could be liable for copyright infringement under present law."
Aviation Security: Secure Flight Development and Testing Under Way, but Risks Should Be Managed as System Is Further Developed GAO-05-356, March 28, 2005. Highlights.
"Change in Format of Print Edition - Beginning next Thursday, as part of a reorganization of technology news coverage, the weekly Circuits pages will appear in Business Day." [Link] Bummer.
"This Yahoo! Search service finds content across the Web that has a Creative Commons license. While most stuff you find on the web has a full copyright, this search helps you find content published by authors that want you to share or reuse it, under certain conditions." Additional details available from Internetnews.com
Announced yesterday: "Earlier this week, ICANN's Board took steps to authorize the delegation of .EU as a ccTLD (country code Top Level Domain), and for ICANN Staff to enter into an agreement with EURid and to complete the delegation of .EU." Additional details available in this AP article.
From the Chronicle of Higher Education, this commentary, available free: Hollywood Profits v. Technological Progress: "Commenting on a case that pits entertainment companies against peer-to-peer program developers, which is scheduled for argument in the Supreme Court next week, Doron Ben-Atar, a professor of history at Fordham University, writes that it is impossible to contain the abuse of technology without undermining the free flow of knowledge."
"A new open access e-journal entitled "Open Government: a journal on freedom of information" published its inaugural issue on the 22nd March 2005. The journal, funded by School of Business Information at Liverpool John Moores University aims to publish research and communications related to Freedom of Information (FOI) legislation from the perspective of academics, practioners and FOI users..This open access journal is available free of charge at: www.opengovjournal.org and will be published on a quarterly basis." [Link]
From the House Judiciary Committee: Legislative History of the Civil Rights Commission - This legislative history includes: (I) Committee Reports; (II) Congressional Record; (III) Court Opinions; and (IV) News Articles. Note, this document is in PDF, and is 566 pages.
The launch of a pioneering project, OurMedia provides "provide free storage and free bandwidth for your videos, audio files, photos, text or software. Forever. No catches." Partners in the project include the non-profit Internet Archive which hosts the media files, Bryght, a Canadian community content hosting and publishing service, which hosts the pages/data, and Creative Commons.
From the Federal Election Commission, this draft notice is 47 pages, PDF.
Information Security: Securities and Exchange Commission Needs to Address Weak Controls over Financial and Sensitive Data GAO-05-262, March 23, 2005. Highlights-PDF
From the Consumer Federation of America (CFA), the following documents:
Press release: New University of Florida Study Ranks States' Records Access Laws - The project's panel of experts, known as the Sunshine Review Board, compared the state laws for 30 categories of legal provisions related to records requests and ranked them on a Sunshine Index for openness. The overall ranking is based on states' performance in six subcategories: redaction (removing sensitive information mixed with public data); copying, inspection and delivery of records; requester requirements; agency responsibilities to manage the records; request specifications; and agency responsiveness. The study showed that Pennsylvania, California, North Carolina, Vermont, Rhode Island and Massachusetts had more requester-friendly requirements including whether a requester has to state a purpose for his request, present identification or be a U.S. citizen or state resident to request a public record.
Press release today: "About 36 million Americans—or 27% of internet users—say they download either music or video files and about half of them have found ways outside of traditional peer-to-peer networks or paid online services to gather and swap their files, according to the most recent survey of the Pew Internet & American Life Project."
Following up on previous postings involving the FEC and potential regs impacting blogs, Declan McCullagh reports that public response to such plans have resulted in a longer, more contested process than may have otherwise been the case.
Searching for Jobs, Finding Scams, Beware Money Laundering Schemes on Career Web Sites, March 15, 2005.
AP reports that Gannett Co., Knight Ridder Inc. and the Tribune Co. have each acquired a 25 percent share in Topix.net which already has an arrangement with the New York Times to feature selected topical articles each day. The full text of the press release with details about the future impact on the site and its services is available on the Topix.net blog.
Get Assistance from a Federal Depository Librarian: Government Information Online Pilot Project
At a presentation today titled, "They Want Your Secrets: Personal Information Privacy in the Post-9/11 World, during the Emerging Issues in National and International Security conference, Valerie Caproni, General Counsel of the FBI stated in reference to issues concerning Section 215 of the Patriot Act, "We don't like the fact that librarians are upset...While their concerns are held very much in good faith, they are misplaced." [GovExec.com]
Credit Reporting Literacy: Consumers Understood the Basics but Could Benefit from Targeted Educational Efforts, GAO-05-223, March 16, 2005. Highlights.
Available as a free feature on today's Wall Street Journal, State Laws for Living Wills - "Rules for living wills, written instructions on the type of care a person would want in the event of a life-threatening medical condition, vary by state. Download the details on living wills and advance directives for your state."
Press release yesterday: "Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., today released previously withheld portions of an FBI document critical of interrogation practices used by the Department of Defense (DOD) at Guantanamo Bay in 2002, disclosing information in that document previously withheld by the Department of Justice (DOJ). In a letter to DOJ on February 10, 2005, Levin and Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., had requested reconsideration of the decision to withhold portions of that FBI document and, in response, DOJ released a new version of the FBI document with the additional information."
Press release: "U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) today announced the introduction of legislation to prohibit a variety of surreptitious practices that result in spyware, adware and other unwanted software being placed on consumers’ computers. The bipartisan SPYBLOCK (Software Principles Yielding Better Levels of Consumer Knowledge) Act, introduced with Senator Conrad Burns (R-Mont.), would prohibit the installation of software on a computer without the owner’s notice and consent. The legislation also requires reasonable “uninstall” procedures for all downloadable software. Spyware, adware and other hidden programs often secretly piggyback on downloaded Internet software without the user’s knowledge, transmitting information about computer usage and generating pop-up advertisements. Frequently such software is designed to be virtually impossible to uninstall."
Dan Farber's posting, An antidote for phishing you can't have, references comments by Symantec's CEO on how an unnamed bank had successfully implemented a strategy to combat phishing, but it will remain proprietary.
As previously documented, there has been an ongoing controversy associated with website blocking of links to free annual credit reports, resulting in the requirement that users had to actually type the requisite URL into their respective browsers. Today EPIC reported that due to the efforts of advocacy groups and the support of Congressman Barney Frank, "the major credit reporting agencies have unblocked links to the free credit report site," annualcreditreport.com, allowing users to access the site by clicking on web links. However, consumers are still advised not to obtain a free copy of their credit report online, but to do so via the telephone.
ZoomInfo, which has a free search engine as well as fee-based services, provides users with search options to: Find Person by Name, Find Employees by Company, Find Alumni by University, and to Find People Mentioned on a Specific Website [see this Advanced Search page]. Data retrieved on individuals varies in regard to its scope, consistency, specificity and accuracy withing what should be appropriate context, so note that this is not a one-stop source for background data on individuals.
A search I conducted on a top 10 law firm returned the names of individuals no longer with the firm, but correctly listed their present positions/affiliations, as well as summaries of current members that included education and employment data, related affiliations and relevant news articles. The data mining and aggregating company, formerly Elyion Technologies, obtains its information by spidering and indexing the public web. Registered users may update/change their bios.
Press release: New Study Shows Limited Use of Electronic Medical Records: "Less than a third of the nation's hospital emergency and outpatient departments use electronic medical records, and even fewer doctors’ offices do, according to a report released today by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)...The use of electronic records in health care lags far behind the computerization of information in other sectors of the economy. In health care, billing applications were the first to be computerized. Electronic billing systems are used in three-quarters of physician office practices, but computerization of clinical records has been much slower."
PC Forum: Healthcare and IT clash by ZDNet's Dan Farber -- "Healthcare panel at PC Forum dealt with the of challenges using IT as a cure for what ails the system."
The President's Information Technology Advisory Committee report, Cyber Security: A Crisis of Prioritization, released March 18, 2005 (72 pages, PDF)
As a follow-up to my recent posting about Dennis Hamilton's new article, Internal Blogs: So, Are They Different From External Blogs?, I suggested the monikers enterpriselogs, enterlogs, or even enterpriseblogs to describe blogs behind the corporate firewall. MrDave's Blog! has a related posting I recommend, IntraBlog - the next wave?. Other suggestions welcome! [thanks Claudia]
From research guru Marcus P. Zillman, news that his terrific Finding People Info blog has been completely updated, as he has published a new, free white paper, Knowledge Discovery Resources 2005.
Announcing BlogWiki2005 Workshop, May 19-20, 2005, Coral Gables FL
Press release today: "The National Security Archive today filed (108 pages, PDF) suit in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia against the Department of the Air Force for a pattern and practice of mishandling scores of FOIA requests. The suit alleges that the Air Force fails to acknowledge FOIA requests, loses FOIA requests, fails to process requests, tries to discourage the public from pursuing FOIA requests, fails to respond to inquiries about the status of the requests and lets requests languish while records are destroyed or transferred to other agencies."
From Slate, The Age of Missing Information - The Bush administration's campaign against openness.
Keyloggers Foiled In Attempted $423 Million Bank Heist
The new AP and Freedom of Information website includes links to FOI news stories from AP, an interactive guide to filing FOI requests, a list of links to FOI resources, and a Q&A with AP's CEO, Tom Curley, who states: "As we have reported, government at all levels is restricting access to information. We in the media, of course, have a stake in what's happening. We also have a duty to spotlight why this is a dangerous trend, especially when court or constitutional issues are at stake. The on-going battle against terrorism has followed the pattern of all eras when concern for security has moved to the forefront. There are real issues of public safety, which we all expect government to address. But historically government goes too far. As we can see in recent court rulings, the pattern has played out again in the aftermath of 9/11."
The Google Codewebsite ("Google's place for Open Source software") indicates the launch on March 17 of two RSS feeds: "the updates feed and the featured program feed, in which we pick a great app that uses some Google tool or api."
AP reported today that "Americans made more than 4 million requests to the federal government under the Freedom of Information Act in 2004, a new high for requests in a single year."
Related references from EPIC:
Press release today:Westlaw Ends SSN Sales to Private Companies, Greatly Limits Sale to Law Enforcement, Other Public Agencies:
Press release (PDF): Satisfaction With E-Government Stalls in Latest Findings From American Customer Service Index.
Released today by the GAO: Telecommunications: Greater Involvement Needed by FCC in the Management and Oversight of the E-Rate Program. GAO-05-151, February 9. Highlights.
Press release: "ACLU Seeks Records on Use of Patriot Act to Deny U.S. Entry to Prominent Foreign Scholars - Citing a serious and growing threat to academic freedom, the American Civil Liberties Union today filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for records concerning the government’s practice of excluding scholars and other prominent individuals from the U.S. because of their political views."
"LexisNexis has created a Web site with helpful information regarding data privacy at http://privacyfacts.lexisnexis.com."
Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection hearing today on Protecting Consumer's Data: Policy Issues Raised by Choice Point. Prepared Testimony (PDF) is available from the following:
This Washington Post (reg. req'd) article reviews how individuals are using fee-based services that digitize their personal medical records as a way to manage uniform access to them in the event of medical emergencies and to facilitate the process of diagnostic evaluations. This may forecast a near term future of non-standard applications that fill the gap before the implementation of the National Health Information Network (NHIN).
The Project for Excellence in Journalism has published the State of the News Media 2005 report (navigate the contents of the 500 plus pages via this link) which reviews two distinct categories of media: the first is identified as text-based media, and includes newspapers and Internet news sites; the second is electronic media, inclusive of broadcast network and cable network news.
FTC Bars Bogus Anti-Spyware Claims
Two articles worth reading from The Los Angeles Times (reg. req'd):
The University of Maryland Center for Public Policy and Private Enterprise announced the availablity of a report, The Unintended Audience: Balancing Openness and Secrecy - Crafting an Information Policy for the 21st Century (76 pages, PDF), that addresses post 9/11 limitations on public access to unclassified but "sensitive" government documents, and the associated impact of such restrictions on various professional communities throughout the country. The authors, Jacques S. Gansler and William Lucyshyn, recommend that the president issue an executive order creating a procedure to identify and designate specific government documents as Controlled Unclassified Security Information (CUSI). This system would clearly define what documents were to be made available within and between government agencies on the federal and local levels, as well as permitted access to various combinations of the scientific, academic and business communties, and to the public.
Following up on my post from January, Will New York Times on Web Remain Free?, more machinations on the topic of anticipated fees for online access to the Times and other papers: Can Papers End the Free Ride Online?
This page, which will be updated throught Sunshine Week, provides summaries and links to selected national and state sources on the open government issue.
Related resources:
From the founder and CEO of Technorati's posting today: "Technorati is now tracking over 7.8 million weblogs, and 937 million links. That's just about double the number of weblogs tracked in October 2004. In fact, the blogosphere is doubling in size about once every 5 months. It has already done so at this pace four times, which means that in the last 20 months, the blogosphere has increased in size by over 16 times."
From Wired, Pharming Out-Scams Phishing: "First Pharmers simply redirect as many users as possible from the legitimate commercial websites they'd intended to visit and lead them to malicious ones. The bogus sites, to which victims are redirected without their knowledge or consent, will likely look the same as a genuine site. But when users enter their login name and password, the information is captured by criminals."
See also:
Just a reminder that LLRX.com's Court Rules, Forms and Dockets remains the only comprehensive, free, regularly updated guide of its kind on the web. Suggestions for new links are always welcome.
From the National Journal, this article is worth savouring for those who appreciated what are referred to as "Ratherisms". Example:
Released March 10, 2005 to the Senate Armed Services Committee, this Review of DoD Detention Operations and Detainee Interrogation Techniques (21 pages, PDF), authored by Vice Adm. Albert T. Church III, determined that there was "no policy that considered or condoned torture..."
Reporter's FOIA request dates to 1981
Related references:
As a followup to Andy Haven's article, The Role of Peer to Peer File Sharing in Law Firm Marketing, see this March 13 Washington Post, BitTorrent May Prove Too Good to Quash.
Politology: "...this weblog is specifically about both politics and technology, including (but not limited to) the intersection between the two subjects...In addition, we'll be using this site specifically to launch new political technology media. Whether it is animations, interactive web applications, graphics, offline publications, or even games, it's likely to pop up on these pages at one time or another."
From Internetnews.com, this article on soon to be released fee-based products providing consumers with tracking and alert services on fraudulent activities associated with their personal data.
140 Kaiser patients' private data put online:
"In a troubling episode involving medical privacy in the digital age, Kaiser Permanente is notifying 140 patients that a disgruntled former employee posted confidential information about them on her Weblog."
"Here at the Microsoft Security Response Center, we investigate thousands of security reports every year. In some cases, we find that a report describes a bona fide security vulnerability resulting from a flaw in one of our products; when this happens, we develop a patch as quickly as possible to correct the error. In other cases, the reported problems simply result from a mistake someone made in using the product. But many fall in between. They discuss real security problems, but the problems don't result from product flaws. Over the years, we've developed a list of issues like these, that we call the 10 Immutable Laws of Security. Don't hold your breath waiting for a patch that will protect you from the issues we'll discuss below. It isn't possible for Microsoft—or any software vendor—to "fix" them, because they result from the way computers work. But don't abandon all hope yet—sound judgment is the key to protecting yourself against these issues, and if you keep them in mind, you can significantly improve the security of your systems." [Link]
A Model Regime of Privacy Protection, by Daniel J. Solove, George Washington University Law School, and Chris Jay Hoofnagle, EPIC, March 10, 2005 (14 pages, PDF).
Blogs Not Yet in the Media Big Leagues - Very few Americans read them with any frequency:
"The Federal Trade Commission testified...before the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs about the reach of existing federal laws that require certain information providers to safeguard sensitive information and to ensure that the information doesn’t fall into the wrong hands. The Senate Banking Committee is examining recent developments involving the security of sensitive consumer information." [Link]
From The Globe and Mail (via Connie Crosby), this article describes how video clips drive considerable traffic to even small blogs. In addition, it notes the potentially significant impact of vlogs on e-commerce, political discourse and news in general. And don't forget the video search engines as well.
From Roll Call today (subscription req'd) this article abstract: "FEC May Exempt Bloggers - Amid a growing hysteria sweeping the Internet over the idea that the Federal Election Commission intends to crack down on bloggers, some FEC officials say they are open to creating an exemption for those who maintain Web logs to ensure they are in no danger of being caught up in the agency's regulatory framework."
Related references:
We Need Spy Blogs - An Army officer calls for better information gathering.
What is customized news?: "We've made a number of improvements to Google News that allow you to customize your News front page by creating sections that focus on topics you care about...You can also design your custom front page by mixing and matching existing standard sections from the 22 regional editions of Google News from around the globe." The FAQ reference above also provides users with details of the enhanced service and features, that include the ability to share the URLs of customized pages you have created.
On March 2, I referenced several sources advocating destroying hard drive platters as the only reliable means of permanently wiping the data. As a follow-up, take a look at this movie gallery of shredding demonstrations that includes CD's/floppy discs, computer circuit boards, and whole computers (requires Flash player). [blogdex]
Press release from Sen. Patrick Leahy today: "Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), the ranking Democratic member of the committee, introduced legislation on Thursday to establish an advisory Commission on Freedom of Information Act Processing Delays. The 16-member commission would be charged with reporting to Congress and the President its recommendations for steps that should be taken to reduce delays in the processing of requests under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)."
The US Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs will hold a hearing on Identity Theft: Recent Developments Involving the Security of Sensitive Consumer Information, 3/10/05, 2:30 PM. [Link]
Economics of scientific and biomedical journals: Where do scholars stand in the debate of online journal pricing and site license ownership between libraries and publishers? [Library Link of the Day]
The ramifications of personal use of workplace email continues to resonate. The Wall Street Journal follows-up with Snooping E-Mail by Software Is Now a Workplace Norm, also available free to readers. The article details how customized programs allow companies to monitor and review employee email and IMs using broad and specific criteria that encompass administrative and compliance issues.
Press release from Reed Elsevier PLC and Reed Elsevier NV: LexisNexis investigates compromised customer IDs and passwords to Seisint U.S. consumer data.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee today approved, by 43-0 vote, the Antispyware bill, H.R. 29, The Securely Protect Yourself Against Cyber Trespass Act or the 'SPY ACT'.
Press release from the United States Attorney, Central District of California, March 7, 2005: "An Encino man who used personal information fraudulently obtained from ChoicePoint Service and other companies to commit identity theft against thousands of victims was sentenced today to 66 months in federal prison. Adedayo Benson, a 38-year-old Nigerian national, was sentenced this afternoon by United States District Judge Gary A. Feess. In addition to the 5 1/2-year prison term, Judge Feess ordered Adedayo Benson to pay nearly $155,000 in restitution to 10 financial institutions."