Freedom of Information

New Senate Bill Would Advance Spending Transparency
“The latest offering from the Senate on federal spending transparency is far less ambitious that its House counterpart, but if enacted, it would be a big win for transparency and accountability. There would still be some areas of spending transparency to be addressed in future legislation, but if the Senate’s version of the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act (DATA Act) becomes law, the public will have a clearer picture of federal spending and new tools for accountability.”
http://www.ombwatch.org/new-senate-bill-would-advance-spending-transparency

Deja Vu–Again–for Whistleblowers
“Last week, there was another big push in the 14-year effort to upgrade protections for federal workers who blow the whistle on waste, fraud, abuse, and illegality. On Friday, the last day before Congress broke for the elections, we and our allies in Congress were working on a miracle—we tried to move the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act (WPEA, S. 743, as amended) through both chambers with passage by unanimous consent. It was a heroic effort by the very committed cosponsors of the bill, their staff, and our allies, but in the end, there wasn’t enough time. Again.”
http://pogoblog.typepad.com/pogo/2012/09/d%C3%A9j%C3%A0-vu-again-for-whistleblowers.html

White House visitor log access debated
“Every year, hundreds of thousands of visitors come and go from the White House for a myriad of reasons, including official policy sessions, ceremonies and personal meetings with the president. With a nod toward greater transparency, President Barack Obama early in his administration began a voluntary disclosure program, publishing visitor logs online. “Americans have a right to know whose voices are being heard in the policymaking process,” he said in a formal statement in 2009. But are all of the records open for public review? Confronting a lawsuit over access, a federal trial judge in Washington last year ordered the U.S. Secret Service to process a document request for the visitor logs. The U.S. Department of Justice is now fighting on appeal to keep the information secret, pitching national security and confidentiality concerns.”
http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1202572237866

Public Policy

New GAO report, Electronic Government Act: Agencies Have Implemented Most Provisions, but Key Areas of Attention Remain (GAO-12-782)
“GAO is recommending that OMB identify in its annual report to Congress the provisions of the act that are not included and why, establish a federal research and development repository and website, and issue guidance on agency participation in this site.”
http://www.gao.gov/assets/650/648180.pdf

Open Access

Want to Change Academic Publishing? Just Say No
“When I look at the work I do as an academic social scientist and the remuneration I receive, I see a pattern that makes little sense. This is especially the case with regard to publishing. If I review a book for a newspaper or evaluate a book for a university press, I get paid, but if I referee an article for a journal, I do not. If I publish a book, I get royalties. If I publish an opinion piece in the newspaper, I get a couple of hundred dollars. Once a magazine paid me $5,000 for an article. But I get paid nothing directly for the most difficult, time-consuming writing I do: peer-reviewed academic articles. In fact a journal that owned the copyright to one of my articles made me pay $400 for permission to reprint my own writing in a book of my essays.”
http://chronicle.com/article/Want-to-Change-Academic/134546/

Internet Access

A Network Neutrality Meme That Will Not Go Away
“Recently, arguments against network neutrality as a “solution in search of a problem” have resurfaced. People who make this argument essentially claim either (1) discrimination predicted by Public Knowledge (and the FCC) will never actually come to pass, or (2) discrimination can be benign or even beneficial. For the reasons set out below, these arguments are not persuasive, especially in light of recent examples of discrimination by service providers.”
http://www.publicknowledge.org/blog/network-neutrality-meme-will-not-go-away

Proposals to Children’s Privacy Rule Pose Real Problems for Free Expression and Innovation
“The FTC is proposing changes to the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) rule that will increase uncertainty for website operators and app developers and could bring a whole new set of sites and services into COPPA’s scope. COPPA requires operators of websites and online services that are targeted to children, or who know a particular user is a child under the age of 13, to obtain verified parental consent before collecting the child’s personal information. A lot has changed about the collection and use of personal information online since COPPA was enacted in 1998, and the FTC started the current Rule review process in 2010. CDT weighed in on previous rounds of comments, recognizing the need to bring COPPA up to date but cautioning the FTC that changes to COPPA’s age limit or the range of sites it covers would have severe consequences for minors’ and adults’ First Amendment rights. The FTC has been a strong voice in keeping COPPA focused on children under 13, but, as we discussed in Ars Technica last week, several of their most recent proposals introduce vagueness and uncertainty into COPPA’s scope, which could have real impacts on online innovation and free expression. CDT, joined by the American Library Association, filed comments yesterday that discuss how.”
https://www.cdt.org/blogs/emma-llanso/2509proposals-childrens-privacy-rule-pose-real-problems-free-expression-and-innov

New Report Rates Countries on Internet Freedom
“On Monday, Freedom House released Freedom on the Net 2012, an annual report that summarizes threats to user rights online, access to ICTs, and a range of policy developments that affect openness on the global Internet. The report includes narrative profiles and Internet freedom “scores” for 47 countries around the world, with an emphasis on countries where Internet openness and user rights have historically been at risk.”
https://www.cdt.org/blogs/2709new-report-rates-countries-internet-freedom http://www.freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-net/freedom-net-2012

Lofgren’s Task Force on the Global Internet
“There has been a flurry of activity around Internet freedom recently. Not only have both parties included it in their platform, but Rep. Zoe Lofgren has taken an affirmative step in its favor by proposing the Global Free Internet Act of 2012, H.R. 6530 (a predecessor bill called the “One Global Internet Act” was proposed by Lofgren in 2010 with bipartisan support). The newly proposed bill does not directly change substantive law. Rather, it creates a group whose job would be to tackle Internet freedom on a national and international level, and could potentially do something about regimes around the world that lack openness—including, potentially, our own.”
http://www.publicknowledge.org/blog/lofgren%E2%80%99s-task-force-global-internet

Cleansing the Internet of Terrorism: EU-Funded Project Seeks To Erode Civil Liberties
“A new project aimed at “countering illegal use of the Internet” is making headlines this week.  The project, dubbed CleanIT, is funded by the European Commission (EC) to the tune of more than $400,000 and, it would appear, aims to eradicate the Internet of terrorism. European Digital Rights, a Brussels-based organization consisting of 32 NGOs throughout Europe (and of which EFF is a member), has recently published a leaked draft document from CleanIT. On the project’s website, its stated goal is to reduce the impact of the use of the Internet for “terrorist purposes” but “without affecting our online freedom.”  While the goal may seem noble enough, the project actually contains a number of controversial proposals that will compel Internet intermediaries to police the Internet and most certainly will affect our online freedom. Let’s take a look at a few of the most controversial elements of the project.”
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/09/cleansing-internet-terrorism-leaked-eu-proposal-would-erode-civil-liberties

Intellectual Property

The Secrecy Must Be Stopped: Congress Members Probe USTR on the Confidential TPP Negotiations
“The Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement (TPP) threatens to regulate and restrict the Internet in the name of enforcing intellectual property (IP) rights around the world, yet the public and civil society continue to be denied meaningful access to the official text and are even kept in the dark about what proposals countries are pushing in this powerful multilateral trade agreement. With users having sent over 80,000 messages to Congress asking them to demand transparency in the TPP using EFF’s Action Center, Congress members have been urged into action to uncover the secrecy.”
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/09/TPP-secrecy-must-be-stopped

International Outlook

Iran Moves to Isolate Its Citizens Online
“The news that Iran might be seeking to create a ‘halal Internet’ isn’t new. But while speculation about Iran’s withdrawal from the online world abounds, the country’s recent move to block Gmail and—though inconsistently—Google Search, is one of the first concrete measures to indicate just how serious the plans may be.”
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/09/iran-moves-isolate-its-citizens-online

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The Intersect Alert is a newsletter of the Government Relations Committee, San Francisco Bay Region Chapter, Special Libraries Association.

Freedom of Information

In Year of Political “Big Data,” NationBuilder Makes Voter Data Free
“The team at NationBuilder announced Thursday that they were releasing API and limited bulk data access to a nationwide voter file with records on 170 million voters, for free. As NationBuilder co-founder Jim Gilliam explained in a blog post, data on voters is becoming increasingly important for campaigns, advocacy organizations and researchers hoping to understand the American electorate. At the same time, U.S. voter records have two crucial and widely accepted problems.”
http://techpresident.com/news/22856/year-political-big-data-nationbuilder-makes-voter-data-free

Open Government, Open Data, Open Source
“Thomas Jefferson once wrote that when you share an idea with someone, they receive that idea without taking it away from you, just, “as he who lights his taper (candle) at mine, receives light without darkening me.” Almost two hundred years later, that theory of openness is transforming how we think about government services.”
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/09/17/open-government-open-data-open-source

New Freedom of Information Guidance Advances Openness
“New guidance issued Friday by the Department of Justice (DOJ) will help to ensure that a little-known part of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) will not be inappropriately used to shield agency activities from public scrutiny.”
http://www.ombwatch.org/new-foia-guidance-advances-openness http://blogs.justice.gov/oip/archives/887

One Year Later, Delivering on the Commitments of the Open Government Partnership
“Sept. 20 marks the one-year anniversary of the launch of the global Open Government Partnership (OGP) and the release of the U.S. National Action Plan detailing the Obama administration’s commitments to strengthen transparency in the federal government. The partnership and the administration’s implementation efforts have both made significant progress toward their goal of more open and responsive governments in the U.S. and worldwide.”
http://www.ombwatch.org/one-year-later-delivering-on-open-government-partnership

Long Overdue Whistleblower Protections Finally Near?
“While the vast majority of public servants are competent and well-intentioned, problems can crop up in government (as in any large organization). To address those problems, we need strong transparency and oversight, including the courage of public servants themselves to step forward and blow the whistle. But currently, federal employees with knowledge of misconduct are discouraged from reporting it due to a lack of protections and fear of retaliation, including being fired. A whistleblower protection bill that would change this could be up for a vote in the House and Senate later today or tomorrow: the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act‎ (WPEA, S. 743).”
http://www.ombwatch.org/long-overdue-whistleblower-protections

Whistleblower Protections Under Federal Law: An Overview
“This report provides an overview of key aspects of the 18 selected federal statutes applicable to individuals in certain private-sector industries. It focuses on the protections provided to employees who believe they have been subject to retaliation, rather than on how or where alleged misconduct should be disclosed. In addition, the report also includes an overview of the Whistleblower Protection Act. While state law may also provide whistleblower protections for employees, this report focuses only on the aforementioned federal statutory provisions.”
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R42727.pdf

Congress.gov Unveiled Today: Public Beta Site Provides Free, Fact-Based Legislative Information
“The Library of Congress, in collaboration with the U.S. Senate, House of Representatives and the Government Printing Office (GPO), today unveiled Congress.gov, a new public beta site for accessing free, fact-based legislative information. Congress.gov features platform mobility, comprehensive information retrieval and user-friendly presentation. Congress.gov, at beta.congress.gov, eventually will replace the public THOMAS system and the congressional Legislative Information System (LIS).”
http://www.loc.gov/today/pr/2012/12-171.html http://beta.congress.gov/

Public Policy

Some Successes, Room for Improvement on E-Gov
“Ten years after the passage of the E-Government Act of 2002 (P.L. 107-347), a new GAO report finds federal agencies have yet to address key areas to improve citizen access to government information and services. While the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and other agencies have taken significant steps to comply with the act—including releasing guidance, coordinating reporting, and assigning leadership responsibilities—further action is necessary.”
http://aallwash.wordpress.com/2012/09/20/some-successes-room-for-improvement-on-e-gov/

Intellectual Property

Opposing Views: The Impact Of Canada’s Access Copyright Decision
“One of the five Canadian Supreme Court cases handed down in mid-July considered whether photocopying by kindergarten to grade 12 teachers constitutes fair dealing. Since then, opinions have varied on whether the decision represents a broadening of the fair dealing doctrine or simply fact-specific guidance.”
http://www.ip-watch.org/2012/09/21/opposing-views-the-impact-of-canadas-access-copyright-decision/

Copyright Issues on the Legislative Agenda for 2012-2013
“Back from its extended August recess, Congress has some unfinished business to settle before the end of the calendar year, such as funding the Federal Government for FY 2013 and addressing expiring Bush tax cuts.   Though they are unlikely to take center stage during the truncated session before elections or the post-election lame duck session, lawmakers will have to contend with several key copyright issues during the 113th Congress. Thus, no matter who wins on November 6, IP leaders in the House and Senate are likely to use the remainder of this calendar year to set the stage for next year’s copyright agenda.   The priority copyright issues for the remainder of 2012 and 2013 are: (1) Anti Piracy Initiatives; (2) Internet Issues; (3) International Agreements; (4) Music Licensing; (5) Book Licensing; and (6) TV Broadcast Issues.  Each is discussed more fully below.”
http://www.ipwatchdog.com/2012/09/18/copyright-issues-on-the-legislative-agenda-for-2012-2013/id=28130/

Authors, Academics and Students Protest Publishers’ Move in Delhi University Copyright Case
“If you have been following the recent copyright dispute between a group of publishers and Delhi University, you will acknowledge that the case primarily concerns three groups: (1) the publishers (2) authors, and (3) end users themselves (including universities, academics, research scholars, professors and students). But with the vehement objections from both authors and students to the publishers’ move against the university, raising concerns about restrictions on access to knowledge, perhaps it is time for the Government of India to seriously consider the potentially detrimental impact of this case on the future of Indian education and academia, and implead itself as a party to the suit immediately.”
http://spicyipindia.blogspot.com/2012/09/authors-academics-and-students-protest.html

Please feel free to pass along in part or in its entirety.

The Intersect Alert is a newsletter of the Government Relations Committee, San Francisco Bay Region Chapter, Special Libraries Association.

Freedom of Information

FOIA backlog grows even as agencies process more requests
“Federal agencies processed more than 631,000 requests for government records under the Freedom of Information Act in fiscal 2011, 5 percent more than the year before. But the number of backlogged requests government-wide nonetheless shot up from less than 70,000 to more than 83,000. The growing backlog is due in part to a significant increase in the number of FOIA requests sent to agencies in 2011. Submissions went from 597,000 in 2010 to 644,000 in 2011, an 8 percent increase. While the government as a whole dedicated 9 percent more full-time staff to FOIA processing and spent almost $20 million more on FOIA-related activities than the year before, backlogged requests nonetheless grew by 20 percent. The figures come from the Justice Department’s 2011 summary of annual FOIA reports, a compilation of data contained in each agency’s yearly performance report under the 1966 open government law.”
http://www.federalnewsradio.com/489/3029492/FOIA-backlog-grows-even-as-agencies-process-more-requests

2012 Secrecy Report: Sunlight Overshadowed
“The 2012 Secrecy Report released today by OpenTheGovernment.org — a coalition of more than 80 groups advocating for open and accountable government— reveals that positive changes from the Obama administration’s open government policies nevertheless appear diminished in the shadow of the President’s bold promise of unprecedented transparency. Ultimately, though, the public needs more information to judge the size, shape, and legitimacy of the government’s secrecy.”
http://www.openthegovernment.org/node/3578

Technology Reforms Pave the Way for Greater Transparency
“The federal government recently unveiled a number of valuable reforms that will pave the way to a more transparent, efficient, and innovative government. The reforms implement and complement the Digital Government Strategy released by the Obama administration in May. The strategy establishes a vision for modernizing the technology government uses to improve the delivery of information and services to citizens, with a detailed one-year plan for doing so. Reporting on their progress at the three-month milestone, agencies highlighted several accomplishments designed to make government more accessible and responsive.”
http://www.ombwatch.org/technology-reforms-pave-way-for-greater-transparency

Public Policy

Public to lose most access to state archives
“Budget cuts will cost the public most of its access to the Georgia Archives. Secretary of State Brian Kemp announced Thursday the archives starting Nov. 1 will accept only limited public appointments to see Georgia’s important and historical records dating to at least 1733. Some of the institution’s 10 full-time employees also will lose their jobs, although just how many has not yet been determined. The move, which comes in response to Gov. Nathan Deal’s request for state agencies to again trim spending, could make Georgia the only state in the nation without full-time, centrally located public access to historical government and state records, Kemp said.”
http://www.ajc.com/news/news/state-regional-govt-politics/public-to-lose-most-access-to-state-archives/nR93N/

Privacy Concerns

Online Privacy Laws
“These reports describe the data protection laws of the European Union (Part I) and of selected foreign countries (Part II). They describe the constitutional foundations of data privacy and the statutory requirements that must be met in order for data to be collected, used, and transferred to third parties. They also explain the concepts of informed consent, transparency, and data minimization, and describe the rights and remedies of data subjects, particularly the rights of access, rectification, and erasure. In addition, the reports examine whether the existing laws on data privacy are adequate to deal with online privacy in an era of rapid technological development and globalization, and with an increased scale of data sharing and collecting.”
http://www.loc.gov/law/help/online-privacy-law.php

House Votes to Reauthorize FISA Amendments Act
“The House of Representatives voted yesterday to renew the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Amendments Act for five years. The Act generally authorizes electronic surveillance of non-U.S. persons and U.S. persons who are believed to be outside the United States, while prohibiting the “intentional” targeting of persons in the U.S. without an individualized warrant, seemingly leaving a wide opening for unintentional or incidental collection.  This and other features of the Act prompted concerns about the expansion of surveillance authority and the erosion of constitutional protections. . . The Congressional Research Service has produced a new report on Reauthorization of the FISA Amendments Act, dated September 12, 2012.”
http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/2012/09/house_faa.html

Twitter Told to Produce Protestor’s Posts or Face Fine
“Twitter Inc. has to turn over information about an Occupy Wall Street protester’s posts or face a fine, a judge ruled, giving the company three days to show it isn’t in contempt of court. New York State Supreme Court Judge Matthew A. Sciarrino Jr. in Manhattan today said Twitter must produce the information by Sept. 14 or provide its earnings statements from the last two quarters so he can decide on a fine. The judge had asked Twitter to show why it wasn’t in contempt of court after refusing to produce information about Twitter posts by protester Malcolm Harris in response to a subpoena from Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-09-11/twitter-told-to-produce-protestor-s-posts-or-face-fine.html

Open Access

Diverse OA Coalition Issues New Guidelines to Make Research Freely Available
“In response to the growing demand to make research free and available to anyone with a computer and an internet connection, a diverse coalition issued new guidelines that could usher in huge advances in the sciences, medicine, and health. The recommendations were developed by leaders of the Open Access movement, which has worked for the past decade to provide the public with unrestricted, free access to scholarly research—much of which is publicly funded. Making the research publicly available to everyone—free of charge and without most copyright and licensing restrictions—will accelerate scientific research efforts and allow authors to reach a larger number of readers.”
http://newsbreaks.infotoday.com/Digest/Diverse-OA-Coalition-Issues-New-Guidelines-to-Make-Research-Freely-Available-85003.asp

Intellectual Property

A not-very-appealing appeal
“To the surprise of no one, I think, the plaintiff publishers in the Georgia State litigation filed a notice of appeal on Monday.  There has already been considerable coverage of this decision, in, for example, Inside Higher Ed, the Chronicle of Higher Education, and Library Journal. The actual Notice of Appeal is a very dull document; it merely lists the orders from the District Court with which the publishers take exception, and “respectfully give[s] notice” of the intent to appeal.  The real action yesterday was in the press releases, and there the publishers respect for the District Court was much less evident.”
http://blogs.library.duke.edu/scholcomm/2012/09/11/a-not-very-appealing-appeal/

European Parliament Passes Orphan Works Directive
“The European Parliament today passed a “directive on certain permitted uses of orphan works” with 531 in favour versus 65 opposed (11 abstentions). The directive will be a good first step toward allowing the digitisation and making available to the public of older copyrighted works that are buried in the archives and libraries of the Union because no rights holder can be located, the lead rapporteur Lidia Geringer de Oedenberg (S&D) and many supportive MEPs said.”
http://www.ip-watch.org/2012/09/13/european-parliament-passes-orphan-works-directive/

Please feel free to pass along in part or in its entirety.

The Intersect Alert is a newsletter of the Government Relations Committee, San Francisco Bay Region Chapter, Special Libraries Association.

Freedom of Information

Technology to clear FOIA backlog underused, GAO finds
“Government transparency hinges partly on the public’s access to information, but a new report finds agencies are struggling with a backlog of Freedom of Information Act requests and aren’t fully using the technologies that could help smooth the process. In a July 31 report to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, the Government Accountability Office examined how agencies are managing  FOIA programs and the extent to which they have implemented technology to support FOIA processing.” h
ttp://fcw.com/articles/2012/08/31/gao-foia-management.aspx

Public Policy

Library PAC Will Back Local Ballot Questions
“EveryLibrary is creating a new twist on the saying “think globally, act locally.” The new political action committee (PAC), a non-partisan 501c4 organization, will raise funds nationally and spend them in support of local library ballot initiatives like taxes, bonds, and referenda. It will also serve as a political campaign consultancy for libraries.”
http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2012/09/organizations/library-pac-will-back-local-ballot-questions/

Open Access

UK Government invests £10 million to help universities move to open access
“A £10 million Government investment announced today by Universities and Science Minister David Willetts will help universities with the transition to open access to publicly-funded research findings. The investment will enable a number of research-intensive UK institutions to kick-start the process of developing policies and setting up funds to meet the costs of article processing charges (APCs). This is in line with the recommendations of the Finch report on open access, published in June.”
http://news.bis.gov.uk/Press-Releases/Government-invests-10-million-to-help-universities-move-to-open-access-67fac.aspx

Internet Access

Bipartisan Letter Questions Domain Name Seizures
“On Friday, Zoe Lofgren, Jason Chaffetz, and Jared Polis sent a letter to the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security, demanding to know more about Operation In Our Sites, the program through which law enforcement authorities have been seizing the domain names of websites accused of hosting infringing content. The letter, addressed to Attorney General Holder and Secretary of Homeland Security Napolitano, notes that seizing domain names without the proper respect for transparency and due process can suppress free speech and cripple legitimate businesses.”
http://www.publicknowledge.org/blog/bipartisan-letter-questions-domain-name-seizu

Intellectual Property

Eyes Wide Open?
“Ask a librarian how many books she has in her collection, and you will usually get a pretty accurate answer. But ask where those books were printed, and you will get a confused look. Notice I said printed, not published. Our catalog records contain place of publication, but that is not the same as place of printing. Most publishers have their books printed in different places, and even in other countries, from where their offices are located. And up until now, that has not been information that libraries have needed to know. So what has changed? A court case out of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals held recently that the “doctrine of first sale,” which is the part of the copyright law that allows libraries to lend the materials they purchase, applies only to works that are manufactured in the United States. The Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case during its next term, and the decision they make could have a profound effect on the future of libraries.”
http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2012/09/opinion/peer-to-peer-review/eyes-wide-open-peer-to-peer-review/

Please feel free to pass along in part or in its entirety.

The Intersect Alert is a newsletter of the Government Relations Committee, San Francisco Bay Region Chapter, Special Libraries Association.