Southern District of NY to Initiate E-Filing
The U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, issued a press release on December 2 stating its plan to implement a new e-filing and case management system in February 2003.
Commentary on Total Information Awareness in the Extreme
This article by Matt Smith was published on November 27, but took some time before generating what has resulted in continually escalating interest in the activities of the TIA program by the mainstream press, privacy advocacy groups, and alternative web sites. Mr. Smith obtained and posted personal information on TIA program director John Poindexter, including …
New Doctor-Patient E-Mail Guidelines
Patient’s increasingly indicate that they want to communicate with their physicians via e-mail. However, there are major impediments to this process, including medical liability issues, patient privacy concerns, and billing considerations. However, according to this press release from the eRisk Working Group for Healthcare, new unified guidelines for physician-patient e-mail are now available that have …
More On Internet Censorship In China
Jonathan Zittrain and Benjamin Edelman from the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School have published a new report on Web censorship: Empirical Analysis of Internet Filtering in China. From the abstract: “The authors are collecting data on the methods, scope, and depth of selective barriers to Internet access through Chinese networks. …
China Net Censorship
Amnesty International has published a well researched report on the impact of state controls on Internet access to one of world’s fasted growing population of users. The report provides a timeline that documents the imposition of various controls and regulations on Web access since its introduction to the public in 1995, and their impact on …
DMCA in the Spotlight
FatWallet.com has taken up the fight against the Digital Millennium Copyright Act with their claim that “a group of national retailers forced FatWallet.com to remove Day After Thanksgiving sales information from its site. In letters sent to FatWallet, each retailer claimed that the Copyright Act gives it a monopoly over this price data.”
Oregon City Opposes Patriot Act
Although primarily a symbolic action, the Eugene City Council passed a resolution, with impetus from 2,000 citizen signatures on a petition, stating the city’s opposition to the USA Patriot Act. See also my other posting on a growing movement by municipalities to oppose the Patriot Act.
ISPs Provide User Data to Gov't
This Forbes article addresses the changing landscape of ISP liability in regard to providing the government with access to personal data on subscribers, as well as to their IT infrastructures, to facilitate surveillance of customers. The legal issues inherent in such actions have shifted significantly with the passage of the Homeland Security Bill (H.R 5005), …
Overview of OPM's E-Gov Initiatives
If you are interested in the President’s e-government plan, this OPM site provides an overview of the E-Clearance, E-Payroll, Enterprise Human Resources Initiative, E-Training and Recruitment One-Stop projects, including objectives, current status and future milestones.
ACLU and Gov't Docs on Patriot Act
The ACLU and EPIC have secured an order from Judge Huvelle, U.S. District Court, D.C., in response to their FOIA complaint for Patriot Act related documents. A list of those documents the DOJ will release must be provided to the groups by January 15, 2003, however, the agency has indicated that documents will be withheld …
FTC Resource on Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act
This FTC site on the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act – Financial Privacy and Pretexting, is an excellent resource on the topic. It provides links to the code, rules and regs, press releases, business guidance documents, and official state documents.
How to Obtain a DMCA Exemption
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) published a paper by Seth Finkelstein titled How To Win (DMCA) Exemptions And Influence Policy, which includes key links concerning the act and carefully documents specific directions and references essential to apply for an exemption.