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Mother Jones: From FBI and CIA headquarters to small-town police departments, the government is building a massive intelligence network designed to spy on terrorists — and on everyday Americans. Washington Post: U.S. Backs Florida’s New Counterterrorism Database – ‘Matrix’ Offers Law Agencies Faster Access to Americans’ Personal Records. Washington Post: Crossing Lines to Fight Terrorism …
From PBS NewsHour: Terence Smith examines Howard Dean’s success at building grassroots support in cyberspace, and how other presidential candidates are using the Internet and other technologies to their advantage. Sen. John Kerry launches Internet-based petition: John Kerry To Petition Against Overtime Bill.
Airline Security’s False Hope?: An expert on aviation safety statistics says a new computer system to screen out terrorists may actually make things easier for them, by Arnold Barnett (reg. req’d). “The latest incarnation of security screening for our airports has many friends in high places. U.S. secretary of transportation Norman Mineta described it as …
From ZDNet: “A judge has ruled in favor of holding company NTP in its patent-infringement case against BlackBerry maker Research In Motion, awarding monetary damages and fees. The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Richmond, Va., ruled late Tuesday in the case brought against Waterloo, Ontario-based RIM. It awarded NTP $53.7 million.”
S. 1517: A bill to revoke and Executive Order relating to procedures for the consideration of claims of constitutionally based privilege against disclosure of Presidential records (introduced July 31). From the Congressional Record: July 31, 2003 (Senate), “Mr. Bingaman. Mr. President, I rise today with my colleague from Florida, Senator Graham, to introduce a very …
Specialized Court for Tech Cases Starts to Operate in Maryland: “Maryland, with the enactment of Rule 16-205, effective on Jan. 1, has become the first state in the country to adopt a specialized court for business and technology cases. This specialized system is an effort to respond to the increased complexity of these cases arising …
Search query saving tips, by Gwen Harris: “Saving a search query for resubmission later is standard practice among users of for-fee information services. With some tweaking, this can also be done on the open Web. Saved searches can be used to watch for pertinent news stories on the major news search engines — Google, Alltheweb …
Health & Safety Information on Household Products Portal: this new database service from the National Library of Medicine is a portal to information on over 4,000 products arranged in seven categories (auto, home inside, pesticides, landscape/yard, personal care, home maintenance, hobbies & crafts). Users are provided with data on brands, manufacturers, health effects, handling/disposal, and …
From the Federal Trade Commission Consumer Alert, File-Sharing: A Fair Share? Maybe Not: “…file-sharing can have a number of risks. For example, when you are connected to file-sharing programs, you may unknowingly allow others to copy private files you never intended to share. You may download material that is protected by the copyright laws and …
“Google introduced a new advanced search feature that enables users to search not only for a particular keyword, but also for its synonyms. This is accomplished by placing a ~ character directly in front of the keyword in the search box. For example, to search for browser help as well as browser guides and tutorials …
U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth last week held the Environmental Protection Agency in contempt for destroying electronic documents in violation of a court order issued as a result of a Freedom of Information Act request. [Link] Landmark Legal Foundation v. EPA, Civil Action No. 00-2338, Opinions issued July 24, 2003 by Judge Royce C. …
ID Theft Continues to Increase: “The number of Americans who fell victim to identity theft in 2002 grew 81 percent over the year before. And incidents reported so far in 2003 suggest a major rise over last year…More than 13 million Americans have fallen victim to identity theft or fraud since January 2001,” according to …