House Votes to Continue Internet Tax Moratorium
H.R. 49, to permanently extend the moratorium enacted by the Internet Tax Freedom Act, passed the House by voice vote today. For related information, see this Internetnews.com article.
Law Firm Technology Survey
The Eighth Annual AmLaw Tech Survey, September 2003. Survey results were compiled from responses provided by 137 law firms, and address the following categories: document management, docketing & calendaring, spam defense, litigation support, and electronic evidence vendors. Additional information on expenditures related to hardware, software and IT related personnel is provided in another survey titled …
Supreme Court Review Sought in Cheney Energy Task Force Case
Cheney Wants Supreme Court Review on Energy Case: “Last week, the appeals court refused to reconsider its previous ruling against Cheney, leaving him with the option of appealing to the Supreme Court or complying with a lower court order to release information about his task force’s contacts with the energy industry while drafting policy in …
Follow-Up To Ashcroft’s Comments on Librarians and Patriot Act
Additional links related to yesterday’s New York Times article: The text of the Prepared Remarks of Attorney General John Ashcroft, “The Proven Tactics in the Fight against Crime” Washington, D.C., September 15, 2003. He uses the word hysteria six times. Letter to the Editor, New York Times, September 17, from Rep. Bernie Sanders (I-VT): Ashcroft …
New Bill on Digital Rights Management
On September 16, Sen. Sam Brownback introduced the Consumers, Schools, and Libraries Digital Rights Management Act of 2003. From his press release: “This legislation responds directly to ongoing litigation between the Recording Industry Association of America and Internet service providers Verizon and SBC Communications. This litigation has opened wide all identifying information an ISP maintains …
National Archives Collection of Historic Documents Once Again Available
“The marble rotunda at the National Archives will reopen tomorrow after two years of renovations designed to make the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence more accessible to visitors and less obscured by distance, awkward angles and green-tinted glass.” [Link]
Report on Privacy and the Workplace
From the October 2003 issue of Wired Magazine: Ranking Privacy at Work. Of the top-tier publicly traded companies reviewed, IBM, Ford and HP set the highest standards for employee privacy, while Eli Lilly, The New York Times and Wal-Mart are at the other end of the spectrum.
Consumers Union Publishes Guide to Thwart ID Theft
The October 2003 issue of Consumer Reports has two free resources on their corresponding website to assist consumers in combatting ID theft: Stop thieves from stealing you What you can do to avoid identity theft In addition, Consumers Union is also sponsoring a website on financial privacy, at www.financialprivacynow.org
Controversy Over New Web Typo Site
Yesterday came news that VeriSign had launched a new service that redirects users who mistype urls of websites (apparently at the rate of 20 million times per day) to Site Finder, which in turn markets the availability of these mistyped .com or .net domains. A Slashdot posting provided this link to a pdf document on …
Library Net Filtering Not Implemented Comprehensively
“A new Florida State University Institute on Information study has found that only about half of the libraries surveyed have filters on even one computer.” [Link]
E-Gov Website User Survey Indicates Overall Satisfaction
User satisfaction with federal e-government efforts, measured in a recent survey of 22 websites, indicates that many users rate them competitively with the best of the commercial sites. The survey, American Customer Satisfaction Index, E-Government Satisfaction Index, available free in pdf, but requiring registration to download, is a joint effort of the University of Michigan …
Ashcroft, Libraries and the Patriot Act
From today’s New York Times: Ashcroft Mocks Librarians and Others Who Oppose Parts of Counterterrorism Law: “Attorney General John Ashcroft today accused the country’s biggest library association and other critics of fueling “baseless hysteria” about the government’s ability to pry into the public’s reading habits.” American Library Association responds to Attorney General remarks on librarians …