RIAA Issues New Round of Lawsuits for Music Downloads
The RIAA filed 41 new lawsuits in a continued effort to stem the tide of music file-sharing, and indicated that previous lawsuits have resulted in settlements that average $3,000.
House Cmte. Plans Library E-Rate Fraud Hearings
“The U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee plans a February hearing to probe fraud allegations in the E-Rate program, the nation’s $2.25 billion initiative to help schools and libraries connect to the Internet.” [Link] Previous postings on the e-rate program
President Signs Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003
President Bush Signs Identity Theft Legislation From the Congressional Record, H.R. 2622 White House Fact Sheet on the Act, which provides that consumers may obtain each year, free of charge, a personal credit history report, that merchants must omit from sales receipts all but the last five digits of a customer’s credit card number, and …
Prospects for Spam Relief Remain Dim
From tech research firm Gartner: Spam Will Likely Worsen Despite U.S. Law. See the CAN-SPAM Act
History of FOIA Includes Denial and Exemptions
From the November/December 2003 Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists: How agencies thwart the Freedom of Information Act, by Jeffrey T. Richelson, a senior fellow with the National Security Archive, Washington, D.C. “Although the Freedom of Information Act has been a blessing to academics, journalists, and activists, it is seen as a curse by some in …
New on LLRX.com
Blogging: One Firm’s Experience The Fourfold Path to Email Enlightenment Virtual Tours and Law Library Websites Search the Web More Efficiently European Union Law: An Integrated Guide to Electronic and Print Research – Updated Food is the Anytime Gift – Part II Are You Practicing What We Preach about Searching? FOIA Facts: Human Error – …
Essay on Information Law
Information Quality and the Law, or, How to Catch a Difficult Horse: “This essay seeks to provide, first, a brief overview over the genesis and content of the Federal Data Quality Act and the implementing OMB Guidelines. Second, against this background, the article examines this set of rules and regulations from the viewpoint of whatat …
Google Adds Word Variations
From Google Help: “Google now uses stemming technology. Thus, when appropriate, it will search not only for your search terms, but also for words that are similar to some or all of those terms… Any variants of your terms that were searched for will be highlighted in the snippet of text accompanying each result.” [Search …
Supreme Court Hears Oral Arguments in Privacy Cases
Today the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Buck Doe v. Elaine L. Chao, Secretary of Labor (No. 02-1377), involving the Privacy Act of 1974 and the wrongful disclosure of the social security number of a coal miner seeking benefits for black lung disease. EPIC Files Amicus Brief in Supreme Court SS# Case The Supreme …
E-Voting Not Ready for Prime Time
Dr. Avi Rubin of the Johns Hopkins’ Information Security Institute gave the keynote today, Electronic Voting: A case study of how closed systems fail, at the Secure Trusted Operating System Consortium Symposium underway at George Washington University. Dr. Rubin’s research identified critical security flaws in e-voting machine manufacturer Diebold Inc.’s software. The company announced this …
New Task Force Report Addresses Flaws in National Cybersecurity Infrastructure
From the press release: “The Markle Foundation Task Force on National Security in the Information Age today released its second report, concluding that the U.S. government has not yet taken advantage of America’s technology expertise to fight the war on terrorism. In its report, the Task Force catalogs current gaps in the nation’s system for …
CRS Accessibility Act Introduced
On November 21, Rep. Christopher Shays (R-CT) introduced the Congressional Research Accessibility Act (H.R. 3630), To make available on the Internet, for purposes of access and retrieval by the public, certain information available through the Congressional Research Service Web site. The press release from Rep. Shays states: “CRS products are created with taxpayers’ dollars and …