Accurate, Focused Research on Law, Technology and Knowledge Discovery With Daily Postings Since 2002
In the December 18, 2002 Federal Register there are proposed changes to sentencing guidelines for United States Courts in response to the Patriot Act and other post 9/11 laws concerning terrorism and national security.
Cryptome.org purchased copies of court documents from the USA v. Elcom ebook copyright case and has made them available at no fee here. A jury found the Russian software company not guilty on December 16, 2002. See also this News.com article for more details about the decision, as well as the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s (EFF) …
This USA Today article quotes several librarians on their views with regard to the issue of compliance with potential FBI demands for information on patron use of public library Internet access, as required by the Patriot Act.
The FCC issued a press release today with data indicating that broadband usage in the consumer and corporate sectors increased by 27% in the first half of 2002.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit reversed a lower court decision in Young v. New Haven Advocate, a case which merits note as it addresses the issues of jurisdiction and Internet libel, the focus of a recent high profile decision in Australia. Stateside, the court determined that two Connecticut newspapers and their …
This Federal Computer Week article heralds a new direction in comprehensive data mining as a means to dramatically extend information sharing efforts among U.S. and allied military forces. A process called operational net assessment (ONA – please note you have to scroll down the alpha list to find the description) is used to create a …
This Federal Computer Week article provides commentary and illuminating details on the Total Information Awareness program’s technology, objectives, data collection criteria, and funding. Far from being a small blip on the budget radar, the TIA project actually has at its disposal some $240 million in tax payer funds through 2003.
Reuters reports that ICANN announced during their December 15 meeting that there will be new topic/area specific domains added to the roster that includes .com and .org, in 2003.
A number of news sources just reported on a class action suit filed in the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, on October 29, 2002 by Amazon.com customer Gary Gerlinger. The source of the information apparently originates from a 12/11/2002 Form 10Q filing by Borders Group, Inc. The following statement appears in the filing: …
The EU Commission issued a press release indicating the importance of setting standards for health related data on the web, as “Europeans access more than 100,000 health websites, making such websites amongst the most frequently used.” The Commission recommended the adoption of 6 criteria for such sites: “transparency and honesty, authority, privacy and data protection, …
The non-profit Center for Democrary & Technology is involved in keeping discussions of digital copyright issues front and center. The organization filed comments with the FCC concerning the escalating controvery over proposed copy protection systems for digital TV broadcasts for coypyright holders. They support the position that there must be a balance of the discretionary …
As I reported in November, the USPTO has undertaken an ambitious plan to transition to a paperless public access system. However, this new agency announcement indicates that there is now a greater understanding of the tremendous challenges inherent in this project, and the need to ensure that paper copies continue to be available to prevent …
