Author archives

House Approves Extension for 9/11 Commission

Today the House approved, by voice vote, a 60 day extension for the 9/11 Commission to complete its work. Obstacles remain however, including obtaining what the Commission has determined an essential component of the job they were tasked to fulfill – the full and detailed testimony of President Bush, VP Cheney and other key administration …

Subjects: Congress, Freedom of Information, Government Documents

Using Biometrics to Combat ID Theft

Treasury notice from the March 2 Federal Register: Public Comment on Formulating and Conducting a Study on the Use of Biometrics and Other Similar Technologies to Combat Identity Theft For reference, see the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003 (FACT Act).

Subjects: ID Theft

House Passes Copyright Royalty Act

On March 3, the House passed the Copyright Royalty and Distribution Reform Act of 2004 (H.R. 1417): From the Washington Post, via BizReport, the act “would authorize a judge appointed by the Librarian of Congress to hear royalty disputes, eliminating a system that webcasters say excludes them from the process of determining the amount of …

Subjects: Congress, Copyright, Legislation

With New Acquisition, Ask Jeeves Raises Stakes in Search Engine Competition

Ask Jeeves today announced the purchase, for $150 million in cash in addition to stock, of Interactive Search Holdings, owner of “Web properties and businesses [that] include My Way, My Search, My Web Search, iWon, Excite and the MaxOnline advertising network.” [thanks Donna] For background, see this Information Week article and Smartmoney.com’s financial analysis of …

Subjects: E-Commerce, Search Engines

Children’s Listbroker Privacy Act

On March 3, Senators Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) introduced the Children’s Listbroker Privacy Act to ban the oline distribution and sale of personal data on minors. “Commercial list brokers routinely advertise and sell detailed information on children, including names, addresses, ages, and other data, for use in marketing. This data is commonly …

Subjects: Congress, Legislation, Privacy

Catalog of FDA Approved Drug Products

From the Food and Drug Administraton, Drugs@FDA is a “Catalog of FDA Approved Drug Products; Approved and tentatively approved prescription, over-the-counter, and discontinued drugs; Drug approval letters, labels, and review packages. (updated daily) Searchable by Drug Name or Active Ingredient, or Browse by Drug Name.

Subjects: E-Government

NY Court Rules Against Sale of DVD Decrypting Software

Paramount Pictures, Corp. and Twentieth Century Fox Films, Corp. v. 321 Studios (March 3, 2004): “A federal judge in New York rules that manufacturing and distributing software for sale that can decode the content scramble system used to encrypt DVDs violates the anti-trafficking provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.” [FindLaw] Statement of Robert Moore, …

Subjects: Copyright

The Journey of Supreme Court Justice Blackmun

From the New York Times, Documents Reveal the Evolution of a Supreme Court Justice. Other postings on the Blackmun papers, available to the public beginning March 4, at the Library of Congress. See also from NPR: Justice Harry Blackmun’s Papers, Documents, Oral History Reveal Supreme Court’s Inner Workings From NPR, via the SCOTUSBlog, Nina Totenberg’s …

Subjects: Courts