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Darrell M. West, from the Center for Public Policy at Brown University, published a report this week evaluating e-government initiatives on the state and federal level. The report, U.S. State and Federal E-Government, Sept., 2002, is available via Mr. West’s site, Inside Politics. From the press release: “West…. and a team of public policy students …
A new grant report, State Government and E-Procurement in the Information Age: Issues, Practices and Trends, from the PriceWaterhouseCooper’s Endowment for the Business of Government, reviews e-procurement techniques that can save money and develop and speed services to consumers.
The United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California indicted Dennis Baker of San Jose, California for the operation of a website through which he marketed pirated copies of game and business software.
From the White House, this 65 page PDF draft report is divided into 5 content areas: Home User and Small Business; Large Enterprises; Critical Sectors (federal government, state and local government, higher education and private sector); National Priorities; and Global. Public comments on the Draft Strategy to Secure Cyberspace will be accepted until November 12, …
“The Copyright Office of the Library of Congress is providing an opportunity to all interested persons to file comments to a motion requesting a stay of its final rule which clarifies that transmissions of a broadcast signal over a digital communications network are not exempt from copyright liability under section 114(d)(1)(A) of the Copyright Act.”
StateWatch.org reports that the Commissioners’ stated: “Where traffic data are to be retained in specific cases, there must therefore be a demonstrable need, the period of retention must be as short as possible and the practice must be clearly regulated by law, in a way that provides sufficient safeguards against unlawful access and any other …
This Federal Register notice for comments from the Copyright Office, with a closing period of September 16, 2002, deals with addressing claims for royalties on copyrighted music that is webcast.
The use of crawlers (automated index tools) to mine data from web sites to create market comparison shopping services for subscribers is the focus of this Wall Street Journal article, Are Bots Legal?. An example of such a service is Bargain.com , whose home page proclaims, “Never Pay Retail Again!.” Users may search through categories …
DigitalConsumer.org is an advocacy group (that states a membership of 44,000) that is promoting a Consumer Technology Bill of Rights that supports the right of consumers to use their PCs to make and view copies of digital content (CDs, DVD’s, TV broadcasts) for personal use. The site links to current news on files sharing, copyright …
Judge William S. Ostten of the U.S. District Court, Middle District of North Carolina, decided in favor of the University of North Carolina in a trademark case against Jack R. Erickson. Mr Erickson ran a now defunct porn website that infringed on the university’s trademark, UNC.
S.B. 1614 would preclude the sale or distribution on the Internet of birth and death records created and maintained by state agencies.
Various flavors of privacy legislation are before state and federal legislators, no doubt spurred on by the PATRIOT Act. Awaiting a vote by the House this month is H.R. 4561 which would “require that (federal) agencies, in promulgating rules, take into consideration the impact of such rules on the privacy of individuals.”