Mindset: "A Yahoo! Research Labs demo that applies a new twist on search that uses machine learning technology to give you a choice: View Yahoo! Search results sorted according to whether they are more commercial or more informational (i.e., from academic, non-commercial, or research-oriented sources)."
Never done this before, but...first time for everything (lyric by Roger Miller), please visit http://www.technolawyer.com/tlballot2005.htm and cast your ballot for beSpacific, and for LLRX too! Thanks.
Advertising Panel Lays Down Rules for Law Firm Ads on Web, by Charles Toutant, New Jersey Law Journal.
"In a Vanity Fair exclusive, W. Mark Felt, 91 years old and formerly second-in-command at the F.B.I., says that he is the confidential Watergate source who assisted Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein—and helped bring down President Richard Nixon." [Text version, and in PDF]
On May 30, AP reported: The Bush Administration wants to compel ISPs to turn over information about subscribers as part of its fight against terrorism.
From today's LA Times (reg. req'd), Federal ID Act May Be Flawed - The new law could actually increase the risk of a person's identity being stolen, critics say.
What is the future for Web sites in a world of RSS? by Matt McAlister, VP & General Manager, Online, InfoWorld. [Micro Persuasion]
Keep Spam on Ice - Instead of sweating over a custom anti-spam server and software combo, consider the appliances on the market, by Brett Burney.
Information Security: Radio Frequency Identification Technology in the Federal Government GAO-05-551, May 27, 2005. Highlights:
Press release, May 25, 2005: Acting Assistant Attorney General John C. Richter of the Criminal Division, Homeland Security Assistant Secretary for Immigration and Customs Enforcement Michael J. Garcia, and Assistant Director Louis M. Reigel of the FBI's Cyber Division today announced the first criminal enforcement action targeting individuals committing copyright infringement on peer-to-peer (P2P) networks using cutting edge file-sharing technology known as BitTorrent. This morning, agents of the FBI and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) executed 10 search warrants across the United States against leading members of a technologically sophisticated P2P network known as Elite Torrents. Employing technology known as BitTorrent, the Elite Torrents network attracted more than 133,000 members and, in the last four months, allegedly facilitated the illegal distribution of more than 17,800 titles-including movies and software-which were downloaded 2.1 million times."
IBM press release, May 24, 2005: "IBM today introduced first-of-its-kind software that allows organizations to anonymously share and compare information without revealing private or sensitive personal details, introducing a new era of open, collaborative data sharing in financial services, healthcare, retail and other industries. The breakthrough IBM technology, DB2 Anonymous Resolution, helps customers to rapidly and more securely share information with other organizations, while protecting - or "anonymizing" - the identity of individuals within their respective data repositories."
Consumer Reports WebWatch Investigations - Wireless Networks Offer Flexibility, Potential Snooping, offers a quick overview of security issue and makes recommendations on enabling safety solutions for home and on the road.
The Google Print program now has its own homepage, Discover and browse printed material online. [Google Blogoscoped]
"The UK Copyright Service provides copyright registration for original works by writers, musicians, artists, designers, software providers, authors, companies, organisations and individuals. Known as Copyright Witness internationally, and the UK Copyright Service in the UK, the service supports international copyright protection by securing independent evidence that will help prove originality and ownership in any future claims or disputes." [Webuser]
WSJ free content today: Measuring the Impact of Blogs Requires More Than Counting
Press release, May 24, 2005: Miller, Schakowsky Launch Unprecedented E-Hearing on United Airlines Pension Plans - Online Hearing is Believed to Be First of Its Kind; Witnesses Invited to Provide Testimony Via Email
The Washington Post reports today (reg. req'd) on a maverick whose crusade against the proliferation of personal data, available free and for a fee, from government and corporate sources, motivates her to post links to public records that reveal information about a range of public officials.
From the New York Times, Are Bloggers Setting the Agenda? It Depends on the Scandal. Refers to the Pew Internet and American Life Project report issued last week, "Buzz, Blogs and Beyond: The Internet and the National Discourse in the Fall of 2004."
A Wired article reports that the anonymous youths suspected of having hacked LexisNexis claim to have acted on whim rather than with the objective to profit from the use of personal information they accessed.
AP reported that an audit revealed Montana state agencies failed to scrub the hard drives of state computers containing personal data (including social security numbers, income tax reports and medical records) prior to donating, selling and otherwise transferring their ownership.
From the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, an update today to their report, A Chronology of Data Breaches Reported Since the ChoicePoint Incident
Enron Offers an Unlikely Boost to E-Mail Surveillance
FTC press release today: FTC, Partners Launch Campaign Against Spam "Zombies": "The Federal Trade Commission and 35 government partners from more than 20 countries have targeted the technology trick used by illegal spammers to tap into consumers' home computers and use them to send millions of pieces of illegal spam. Spammers use hidden software that allows them to hijack consumers' home computers and route spam through them. By routing their emails through "zombie" computers, the spammers are able to hide the true origin of the spam from consumers and make it more difficult for law enforcement to find them. Consumers often do not discover that they, themselves, have been sending spam."
Internet Protocol Version 6: Federal Agencies Need to Plan for Transition and Manage Security Risks, GAO-05-471, May 20, 2005. Highlights.
One of today's WSJ free features: Sky-High Search Wars - Microsoft, Google Vie to Offer Best Aerial Views of Earth
Press release, May 19, 2005: Metro adopts privacy policy and makes other records easier to access: "A new privacy policy adopted by the Metro Board today protects the privacy of customers' personal information.
The new policy was designed to protect the privacy of individuals by disclosure without prior written authorization from the person. It assures individuals access to their own information and an accounting of disclosures. It establishes rules regarding the collection and use of data such as that recorded by SmarTrip or credit card usage in the Metro system."
Antispyware legislation redux: HR 29 and HR 744 were passed yesterday with only one and four dissenting votes respectively.
Nick Bradbury's May 20 post, RSS, Spam and Spyware, raises significant questions about security and privacy issues arising from the push for RSS ubiquity. Scroll down and read the comments as well.
Statement of Douglas Holtz-Eakin, Director, Congressional Budget Office: The Individual Alternative Minimum Tax, before the Subcommittee on Taxation and IRS Oversight Committee on Finance, United States Senate, May 23, 2005 (15 pages, PDF):
From BusinessWeek.com, A Google Project Pains Publishers - The major presses are raising thorny legal issues with the search giant's initiative to digitize the books of the world's great libraries.
On May 19, there was a Google Factory Tour, for which there are accompanying screen shots and a webcast.
Details of the information presented include this posting about Google Machine Translation Systems,
A Guided Tour of Google's Personalized Home Page, and 'Google Earth' Ready to Travel the World.
"On Thursday, May 26, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence will consider in closed session a draft bill that would both renew and expand various USA PATRIOT Act powers. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has obtained a copy of the draft bill, along with the committee's summary of it.." [Link]
As reported by the Chicago Tribune on May 20, 2005 (and cited in American Libraries Online, with another article in the Washington Post), this summer, the Naperville, Illinois public library will install biometric scanners on their 130 PCs with web access.
Information Security: Improving Oversight of Access to Federal Systems and Data by Contractors Can Reduce Risk GAO-05-362, April 22, 2005. Highlights.
Division of Corporation Finance, Office of the Chief Accountant, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, May 16, 2005 - Staff Statement on Management's Report on Internal Control Over Financial Reporting:
From today's Washington Post: Computers Seized in Data-Theft Probe - Federal Investigators Remove PCs, Discs From Several Locations; LexisNexis Break-In Linked to Paris Hilton Phone Hacking
The Indexable Web is more than 11.5 billion pages, a study by Antonio Gulli and Alessio Signorini. [Internet Search Engine Database]
The U.S. Secret Service and Carnegie Mellon University Software Engineering Institute's CERT® Coordination Center (CERT/CC) announced the findings of the latest Insider Threat Study: Computer Sabatoge in Critical Infrastructure Sectors (45 pages, PDF).
Today Google Labs released Google's New Personalized Homepage. It currently allows you to choose from among a discrete range of sources (gmail; news from Google, New York Times, BBC, Wired, Slashdot; weather; driving instructions; maps) for display on your homepage. Features will be expanded to include feeds from more sites. (Note: you need a Google account to use this feature. More info in this SFgate.com article.)
Information Security: Federal Agencies Need to Improve Controls over Wireless Networks GAO-05-383, May 17, 2005. Highlights.
The Internet Spyware Prevention Act of 2005 (I-SPY) Prevention Act of 2005 was approved yesterday by the House Judiciary Committee.
From the Pew Internet and American Life Project, a new report released on May 17 - Health Information Online: Eight in ten internet users have looked for health information online, with increased interest in diet, fitness, drugs, health insurance, experimental treatments, and particular doctors and hospitals. [press release]
The Harris Poll® #40, May 12, 2005: Almost Three-Quarters of All U.S. Adults – An Estimated 163 million – Go Online
"Google Desktop Search for Enterprise helps you easily manage the ever-growing mountain of information located on your computers and includes key standards-based administrator features that provide enhanced security, centralized configuration and easy company-wide deployment. Perhaps best of all—it's free."
A non-profit, non-government affiliated project, this free, browsable database of crimes reported in Chicago (with source data from the Chicago Police Department's Citizen ICAM website), makes use of Google for map views, and RSS feeds "for every block and police beat in the city." Users may browse by crime type, street, date, police district, location and city map, or use the Search function (which uses "did you mean" functionality to check spelling). The site's data is refreshed daily, covers a rolling 90 day time period, and is the work of Adrian Holovaty and Wilson Miner.
From the June 2005 issue of Consumer Reports, see this Internet Filtering Software Ratings, with rankings for 11 applications, including comparisons for price, fee, overall score, and variables for test results and features. [thanks Barbara]
Yesterday I posted a link to the New York Times announcement of a new fee-based service to access a selected range of current and archival content, effective September 2005. Bloggers, journalists, newspaper execs and financial analysts offer their responses: Business People Like 'NYT' Plan to Charge on Web; Bloggers Don't.
From today's WSJ free features, 'Evil Twins' and 'Pharming' - Hackers Use Two New Tricks To Steal Online Identities; Scams Are Harder to Detect.
Another follow-up, this time to my March 1, 2005 posting, California Bill to Prohibit State Issued IDs With RFID Tags. The aforementioned bill was approved by the California Senate on May 16. For details, see this EFF press release, Bill to Protect Californians' Privacy, Personal Safety, and Financial Security Advances in State Senate.
Follow-up to my May 9 posting, Justification for War Questioned by 88 Reps, today the Senate Democratic Policy Committee issued the following press release: New Intelligence Memo Raises Serious Questions About the Bush Administration's Case for War in Iraq.
A new report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project, Buzz, Blogs and Beyond: The Internet and the National Discourse in the Fall of 2004 (32 pages, PDF), "PIP and BuzzMetrics examined the interplay of blogs, online citizen chatter in newsgroups, the mainstream news media and official political spin from the Democrat and Republican election camps. They also conducted a case study of the "Rathergate" scandal involving CBS News and unauthenticated memos about George W. Bush’s record in the National Guard." [Link]
Encyclopedia Of The Supreme Court, by David Shultz. Publisher: Facts on File (May 31, 2005). For more details, see the press release.
EPIC FOIA Notes #5, May 16, 2005: "The SmarTrip farecard, which includes an embedded RFID chip, tracks each rider's metro travel and can be linked to address and credit card data. Most records held by state agencies are protected by law, but no similar protections exist for the SmarTrip system."
From the ACLU press release: "The Senate Intelligence Committee announced today that it is rushing forward with a markup of Patriot Act reauthorization legislation Thursday, but that the session will be behind closed doors...Some of the most extreme parts of the Patriot Act are set to sunset, or expire, at the end of this year unless Congress reauthorizes them. When lawmakers passed the Patriot Act just 45 days after 9/11, they included these sunsets because they knew that some provisions shouldn’t be made permanent. The committee will be reviewing legislation involving the sunsets and other key parts of the Patriot Act that impact civil liberties."
Microsoft press release: Searching just got smarter with launch of MSN Search Toolbar with Windows Desktop Search:
Index of Drug Specific Information: "FDA is in the process of updating its drug safety information and making it available to consumers in a new, user friendly format. Under the new format, clicking on a drug takes you to a "core page" with links to all information on that drug available on the FDA site. If you click on a drug whose information is not yet in the new format, you will reach a single information page on that product."
From this posting by James Snell, a member of the IBM's Software Standards Strategy Group: "...IBM today is publishing an announcement on its Intranet site encouraging all 320,000+ employees world wide to consider engaging actively in the practice of "blogging"...So with IBMers blogging both inside and outside our Intranet environment, recognizing full well that it was time to formalize their support for what many of us had been doing for quite some time, the corporate communications and legal teams worked collaboratively with the IBM Blogging Community to draft the Corporate Blogging Guidelines copied below. The core principles -- written by IBM bloggers over a period of ten days using an internal wiki -- are designed to guide IBMers as they figure out what they're going to blog about so they don't end up like certain notable ex-employees of certain notable other companies."
Missing Pieces: A Study of First Page Web Search Engine Results Overlap
Press release from FTC, May 12, 2005: Agency Seeks Comment on Definitions and Substantive Provisions Under the CAN-SPAM Act. The Federal Trade Commission published a Federal Register notice today seeking public comment on certain definitions and substantive provisions under the...CAN-SPAM Act.
Press release: "The New York Times announced today a new online offering called TimesSelect, which for a modest fee will provide exclusive access to Op-Ed and news columnists on NYTimes.com, easy and in-depth access to The Times's online archives [initially, the archives will go back only to 1980 but eventually to 1851], early access to select articles on the site, as well as other exciting features. While most of the news, features and multi-media on NYTimes.com will remain free and available to users, the work of Op-Ed columnists and some of the best known voices from the news side of The Times and The International Herald Tribune (IHT) will be available only to TimesSelect subscribers beginning in September. Home-delivery subscribers will automatically receive TimesSelect as part of their benefits. TimesSelect will be priced at $49.95 for an annual subscription."
The FirstGov.gov Reference Center Libraries. An alphabetical list of links to resources including: national, federal and local libraries, online library databases, email listservs, Government RSS Library, and lots more. Worth a look.
Follow-up to my April 29, 2005 posting: New Justia Web Site Enables Consumers to Easily Track Auto Recalls:
John Doyle, Washington and Lee Law School, announced that his Current Law Journal Content currently covers 800 journals. He is seeking to "include additional English language non-U.S. titles."
The terrific folks who give us continuous, open access to New York Times articles through the New York Times Link Generator are in need of support following the failure of their server hard drive.
From the New York Times, this article reports that the UT Austin undergraduate library will be "empty... of books" by mid summer, having replaced them with "software suites."
Federal Register, May 11, 2005: United States Sentencing Commission , NOTICES, Sentencing guidelines and policy statements for Federal courts, 24852–24856. SUMMARY: Pursuant to its authority under 28 U.S.C. 994(p), the Commission has promulgated amendments to the sentencing guidelines, policy statements, commentary, and statutory index. This notice sets forth the amendments and the reason for each amendment.
Can We Stop Zabasearch -- and Similar Personal Information Search Engines?: When Data Democratization Verges on Privacy Invasion, by Anita Ramasastry.
Press release, May 12, 2005: Rep. Waxman Introduces Legislation to Restore Transparency and Open Government Laws:
From Computerworld Today, "Australia's Workplace Surveillance Bill 2005, which will go through the country's parliament on Wednesday, makes it a criminal offense to read employee e-mails."
Enterprise Information Portals: The Logical Next Step?
Anti-Spyware Tips And Tricks - "Get the straight dope from IT managers and security consultants about the best anti-spyware products, links to favorite anti-spyware information and software, how to tell if your system is infected, and what to do about it if it is."
Press release: Microsoft to Deliver Automated, All-in-One PC Health Service for Consumers
On May 10, Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue signed the Wireless Privacy Act
From the Federal Judiciary: Each Judicial Circuit, District Defined in Newly Posted Map - "A new map delineates each of the 12 regional judicial circuits and 94 judicial districts within them. Clicking on the map will lead you to the web sites of the federal courts in a particular circuit or district."
This NewScientist.com article suggests that Teamwork will beat the spammers by using a social network to identify spam in a dynamic, collaborative effort.
From Editor and Publisher, the text of the addendum to White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan's follow-up to questions during the May 11, 2005 press briefing about the plane incident: "The President's detail was informed when the decision was made to raise the threat level at the White House to yellow. A determination was made that the threat posed no danger to the President since he was at an off-site location, and protocols were in place to protect people in the area of the threat. Those protocols did not require any presidential authority. Given such circumstances and the fact that the plane turned away from the White House, the decision was made to inform the President upon conclusion of his bike ride."
From FirstGov.gov, this U.S. Government RSS Library webpage aggregates links to a wide range of resources, including news releases, press briefings, transcripts, reports, advisories, statistics and technical documents, in one easy to use location, providing content on the following topical areas:
Video News Releases (VNRs): Unattributed Prepackaged News Stories Violate Publicity or Propaganda Prohibition - Statement of Susan A. Poling, Managing Associate General Counsel (GAO), to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, GAO-05-643T, May 12, 2005 Highlights:
EFF recently published a white paper on blogging anonymously, and today posted additional information in response to reader feedback, and encouraged an ongoing dialogue on the issue.
From the UK Guardian Unlimited: "Some of Britain's leading medical research funders have banded together to finance the country's most comprehensive online repository of medical knowledge. The multimillion-pound UK PubMed Central project is a big boost to proponents of open access to scientific research. It will enable academic researchers to post papers published either online or in subscription-based scientific journals, on a single searchable database which anybody can access free."
Related references:
The Terror Watch List, under development for several years, has been plagued by set-backs; administrative, technical and political in nature. This BusinessWeek.com article reviews the origins of the system, the technology hurdles encountered during the course of its development, and the plans for its completion.
Connie Crosby contacted me with news of availability of this article, Cool Things I am Doing in My Law Library, to be presented at the upcoming CALL/ACBD meeting. Kudos to all our terrific colleagues on their innovative work.
House Judiciary Committee, Immigration Subcommittee Hearing on Rep. Dreier's Legislation Establishing a Tamper-Proof Social Security Card: Legislative Hearing on H.R. 98, the "Illegal Immigration Enforcement and Social Security Protection Act of 2005"
Senate Commerce Committee on Spyware, May 11 2005
Press release from Sen. Charles Schumer: "DSW, ChoicePoint, Lexis-Nexis, Westlaw – Just the Recent Examples of Egregious Loopholes Which Are Compromising People's Personal Information."
Information Management: Implementation of the Freedom of Information Act GAO-05-648T, May 11, 2005, Highlights.
From the May 3, 2005 Federal Register: Presidential records; management and custody: Clinton Administration electronic backup tapes; proposed disposal:
"NARA proposes the disposition of 9,193 backup tapes created during the Clinton Administration by White House Communications Agency (WHCA) staff because NARA has determined that they lack continuing administrative, historical, informational or evidentiary value. The tapes contain duplicate versions of classified electronic records for a small number of staff members in the Clinton Administration National Security Council, consisting primarily of electronic calendar data. NARA will continue to retain on other electronic media a full set of copies of the Presidential records on the backup tapes proposed for disposal."
Related reference:
Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security, Oversight Hearing on the "Implementation of the USA PATRIOT Act: Prohibition of Material Support Under Sections 805 of the USA PATRIOT Act and 6603 of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004."
From FindLaw, In Re Cheney, May 10, 2005: "A federal appeals court rules that the Sierra Club and Judicial Watch "failed to establish any duty...owed to them by the federal government" to disclose any documents which may have shown what, if any, communications the White House Energy Task Force had with energy industry lobbyists and business executives."
REAL ID: "The United States is getting a national ID card. The REAL ID Act (text of the bill and the Congressional Research Services analysis of the bill) establishes uniform standards for state driver's licenses, effectively creating a national ID card. It's a bad idea, and is going to make us all less safe. It's also very expensive. And it's all happening without any serious debate in Congress."
Speech delivered by US House Judiciary Committee Chairman Sensenbrenner at Stanford University, May 9, 2005: The Relationship Between the Legislative and Judicial Branches (text of the speech, 6 pages, PDF)
Continued Oversight of the USA PATRIOT Act, Senate Judiciary Committee, May 10, 2005
This May 1, 2005 UK Times article, Blair hit by new leak of secret war plan, is referenced in this May 5, 2005 letter of inquiry (8 pages, PDF) to President Bush, signed by 88 U.S. Representatives. The letter asks five specific questions in an effort to seek verification that the "United States and Great Britain had secretly agreed to attack Iraq in the summer of 2002, well before the invasion and before [you] even sought Congressional authority to engage in military action."
Related references: