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From Eyeteeth, this interview with professor and author Siva Vaidhyanathan, whose books include The Anarchist in the Library, which details the impact of peer-to-peer networks on the dissemination of information, and Copyrights and Copywrongs: The Rise of Intellectual Property and How It Threatens Creativity. His comments about libraries and the Patriot Act include the following: …
The majority of states attorneys general expressed their opposition to federal anti-spam legislation during the course of the FTC’s three-day Spam Forum currently underway in Washington, D.C. “The states are concerned because both proposals (on the federal level – the CAN SPAM Act and the REDUCE Spam Act) would supersede any state laws, even if …
This statement now appears on the United Press International (UPI) site: “Thank you for coming to the UPI Web site. With the exception of selected articles, our content is no longer available for public view. For subscription inquiries, please contact the UPI sales staff.”
The RIAA launched yet another new anti-piracy campaign, this time using instant messaging (IM), to communicate with millions of individual users it has identified as sharing music files using KaZaA and Grokster. According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, the target group, college students, will be contacted in an “educational outreach effort” which also includes …
The Digital Library: Study of Feasibility and Viability (PowerPoint), by Catherine Sanders Reach (ABA Legal Technology Resource Center), presented at the ABATechShow 2003, April 4, 2003. By the same author, see also this related paper, Digital Libraries, which focuses “on the results of survey research regarding the feasibility and viability of a digital library, funded …
Via Slashdot, the Administrative Office of the United States Courts released 2002 Wiretap Report (For the Period January 1 through December 31, 2002), available in pdf. Data includes: Jurisdictions With Statutes Authorizing the Interception of Wire, Oral, or Electronic Communications Intercept Orders Issued by Judges During Calendar Year 2002 (federal and state) Types of Surveillance …
A single global patent system could simplify the international patent process. Will the United States sign on? See also the Technology Review Patent Scorecard 2003, (full-text available here in pdf), “which tracks the U.S. patent portfolios of 756 of the world’s top technology companies.”
GovBenefits.gov, the offical government benefits website, now offers access to 417 agency and foundation programs.
Information Technology: Terrorist Watch Lists Should Be Consolidated to Promote Better Integration and Sharing. GAO-03-322, April 15, 2003; Highlights (both documents in pdf). See also this related news on the report: GAO Criticizes System For Tracking Terrorists(Washington Post, reg. req’d).
From Microdoc News, this useful recommendation on improving your search results using Google. “If you can find a sentence in the Google database which you have just lifted from a website, you can find information you are looking for by writing a sentence in which the information you are seeking may be embedded.”
From the press release: “The Department of the Treasury, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, and the seven federal financial regulators today issued final rules that require certain financial institutions to establish procedures to verify the identity of new accountholders.” 326 Final Rule Banks 326 Final Rule MFS Final Rule BDS 326 Final Rule FCM 326 …
On April 29, Governor Mark R. Warner of Virginia signed two bills constituting the Virginia Computer Crimes Act (SB 1139 – became ch. 1016 and HB 2290 -became ch. 987), which in this press release is lauded as the “toughest such law in the United States,”…as…”half the worlds Internet traffic passes through the Commonwealth of …