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From the New York Times, Computers in Libraries Make Moral Judgments, Selectively, is a commentary by Geoffrey Nunberg who was an expert witness for the American Library Association in their case challenging the constitutionality of the Children’s Internet Protection Act.
Below are links with details about Wednesday’s arguments by Solicitor General Theodore Olson and Paul Smith, for the American Library Association, in United States v. American Library Association, 02-361. Start here, with Shelf-Censorship, an opinion piece that includes useful links and an important perspective on the key issues of the case, and then move on …
Today the Supreme Court ruled in two cases involving Megan’s law, one from Connecticut and one from Alaska. In Smith et al v. Doe et al, No. 01-729, (PDF – appeal in Doe I v. Otte, 259 F.3d 979, C.A. 9, Alaska, 2001) the court upheld the right of states to use the web to …
This Columbia Journalism Review article, Why Information Will No Longer Be Free, highlights the growing trend by newspapers to cut losses from free access to their websites with the addition of new subscriptions models, expanded advertising campaigns and the collection of more customer personal data for marketing purposes by third parties.
On February 21, Microsoft announced the Windows Rights Management Services For Windows Server 2003. The company also released a white paper,
Search engine Google is often the subject of news articles, but the February 15 announcement of the company’s purchase of the popular Blooger software has generated a steady stream of commentary and speculation in the blogging world and in the ‘mainstream’ press. What follows are several recent articles worth reviewing on the growing impact of …
The February 2003 issue of Spectrum (PDF), from the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL), published an article, beginning on page 7, “Supreme Court Hears Case on Copyright, Mickey Mouse and Congress.” Please see my previous post here for background on Eldred et al. v. Ashcroft, Attorney General. See also Larry Lessig’s February 20 article …
This commentary from the Lakeland, Florida Ledger clearly states the ramifications of cost-cutting plans by the state’s governor which will result in dismanteling a unique and valuable historical library collection developed over the course of 157 years. There is an effort underway to petition the legislature via collecting digital signatures to block implementation of the …
The Institute of Museum and Library Services commissioned a recently published study from the Information Institute at Florida State University, Public Libraries and the Internet 2002: Internet Connectivity and Networked Services, (PDF) to evaluate the extent of Internet connectivity in U.S. public libraries. The results, gleaned from 1,100 respondents, indicate that almost all public libraries …
The Center for Democracy and Technology issued a press release and a report (PDF) contending that a recent Pennsylvania law (18 Pennsylvania Statutes Sec. 7330) requiring ISPs to remove or disable access to Internet pornography upon notification by the state Attorney General violates constitutional principles of due process. The law also results in the blocking …
Web Sites Sharing IP Addresses: Prevalence and Significance, a study by Benjamin Edelman of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society, establishes that “more than 87% of active domain names are found to share their web servers with one or more additional domains, and more than two third of active domain names share their web …
The ACLU, on behalf of a group of civil liberties organizations and several Arab-American organizations, filed an appeal (PDF) with the Supreme Court on February 18 in re: The Sealed Case of the Foreign Intelligence Court of Review (FISA) (PDF) decided November 18, 2002. This controversial decision, the first in the history of FISA, gave …
