Freedom of Information;

U.S. federal judge lifts ban on public access to Medicare data
A U.S. federal judge lifted a 33-year-old injunction barring public access to a confidential database of Medicare insurance claims, a decision that could lead to greater scrutiny of how physicians treat patients and charge for their services. Judge Marcia Morales Howard ruled in favor of a motion by Dow Jones, the publisher of the Wall Street Journal, that the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida lift an injunction imposed in 1979.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/31/medicare-lawsuit-idUSL2N0EC25U20130531.

Intellectual Property Issues:

Academic Authors: Guild Does Not Speak for Us
On June 11, some 133 academic authors filed an amici curiae brief in the Authors Guild v. HathiTrust case, in support of the HathiTrust. (In October 2012, The Honorable Harold Baer, Jr., held that the HathiTrust’s mass digitization is fair use, but the Guild filed an appeal in November.)
The brief distinguished their interest from that of the Guild’s members and pointed out that they are not only different, but diametrically opposed. "A ‘win’ for the Authors Guild would be a ‘loss’ for academic authors," the brief stated bluntly.
http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2013/06/litigation/academic-authors-guild-does-not-speak-for-us/.

Justices rule human genes cannot be patented
The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that human genes cannot be patented, a decision with both immediate benefits for some breast and ovarian cancer patients and long-lasting repercussions for biotechnology research.
Since 1984, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has granted more than 40,000 patents tied to genetic material. About one-fourth of the 22,000 human genes have been patented — patents that are now invalidated. That could open up competition in genetic testing for diseases ranging from Duchenne muscular dystrophy to inheritable heart arrhythmia.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/06/13/supreme-court-gene-breast-ovarian-cancer-patent/2382053/.

Open Access:

The Papers of the Founding Fathers Are Now Online
What was the original intent behind the Constitution and other documents that helped shape the nation? What did the Founders of our country have to say? Those questions persist in the political debates and discussions to this day, and fortunately, we have a tremendous archive left behind by those statesmen who built the government over 200 years ago. The Founders Online is a new website at the National Archives that will allow people to search this archive of the Founding Era, and read just what the Founders wrote and discussed during the first draft of the American democracy.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2013/06/13/papers-founding-founders-are-now-online.

Privacy Issues:

It’s Not Just About US: How the NSA Threatens Human Rights Internationally
The recent news about the NSA’s overreaching mass surveillance isn’t just about us in the US: it impacts everyone who uses the Internet and the major services that are offered over it. And although not everyone is entitled to rights under the US Constitution, every person is entitled to human rights – including the right to be free from unchecked surveillance.
That was the overriding message of a joint civil society statement delivered on Monday to the United Nations Human Rights Council. That statement in turn relied on a recent landmark report (PDF) to the UN by Special Rapporteur on the freedom of opinion and expression Frank La Rue highlighting growing concern about the impact of widespread government surveillance on human rights worldwide.
https://www.cdt.org/blogs/1206it%E2%80%99s-not-just-about-us-how-nsa-threatens-human-rights-internationally.

Internet Access:

Library For All Builds Ebook Platform for Developing World
Library For All has launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund an ebook platform that would enable the distribution of ebooks in the developing world. The organization is seeking $100,000 in pledges to roll out a pilot program at the Respire School in Gressier, Haiti this fall.
http://www.thedigitalshift.com/2013/06/ebooks/library-for-all-builds-ebook-platform-for-developing-world/.

International Outlook:

Open Wi-Fi Comes to Tunisia: Ex-Dictator’s House Turned Into "openwireless.org" Hotspot
The Open Wireless Movement has come to Tunisia! When former Tunisian dictator Ben Ali was ousted, the Tunisian Internet Agency (ATI) was quickly transformed from an institution of control to one of openness, reversing the oppressive censorship policies of the Ben Ali era. Similarly, the ATI’s building-once a private home of Ben Ali-is now being transformed into a space for citizens to innovate. Inside the basement of the building is #404Lab, a hackerspace that reclaims the space where censorship was once conducted.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/06/open-wi-fi-comes-tunisia-ex-dictators-house-turned-openwirelessorg-hotspot.

How Timbuktu’s manuscripts were smuggled to safety
When Islamist rebels set fire to two libraries in Timbuktu earlier this year, many feared the city’s treasure trove of ancient manuscripts had been destroyed. But many of the texts had already been removed from the buildings and were at that very moment being smuggled out of the city, under the rebels’ noses.
When Islamist rebels took over Timbuktu last year, looking after the documents began to look like an impossible task. The rebels soon began destroying shrines they considered "idolatrous."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22704960.

Report: "Library and Archives Canada Private Deal Would Take Millions of Documents Out of Public Domain"
Library and Archives Canada has entered a hush-hush deal with a private high-tech consortium that would hand over exclusive rights to publicly owned books and artifacts for 10 years. The plan is scheduled to be announced publicly on Friday and according to documents obtained by the Ottawa Citizen, a gag order has been placed on everyone involved in the project until then. The plan effectively means that Canadians will have to pay twice for timely access to material they already own.
http://www.infodocket.com/2013/06/12/report-library-and-archives-canada-private-deal-would-take-millions-of-documents-out-of-public-domain/.

Public Policy:

"Fix the Debt" Corporate Supporters Would Reap $173 Billion Windfall from Territorial Tax
Fifty-nine corporations behind the "Fix the Debt" campaign could reap $173 billion in immediate tax windfalls if a "territorial tax" is enacted, according to a new report by the Institute for Policy Studies. The Fix the Debt campaign has lobbied extensively for a territorial tax system. The adoption of a territorial tax system, which would exempt U.S. corporations’ foreign profits from taxation, would ensure that the coalition’s members permanently avoid taxes on more than $544 billion in offshore profits.
http://www.foreffectivegov.org/blog/fix-debt-corporate-supporters-would-reap-173-billion-windfall-territorial-tax.

Weird Stuff:

11 Weird Books That Really Exist
Although not every author’s masterwork is cut out for The New York Times Best Seller list, there are some books that are just so downright bizarre that it’s hard to imagine anyone reading them at all. Online bookseller AbeBooks collects the best and strangest in its Weird Book Room, which is full of gems like these, including Dating for Under a Dollar: 301 Ideas, How to Land a Top-Paying Pierogi Makers Job, and Does God Ever Speak Through Cats?
http://mentalfloss.com/article/50925/11-weird-books-really-exist.

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:

Just How Many Drone Licenses Has the FAA Really Issued? 
The Los Angeles Times reported last week that the FAA has issued 1,428 permits to domestic drone operators since 2007 and noted this was "far more than were previously known." This new number points out again how difficult it is to answer the most common questions EFF gets from reporters about drones — just how many agencies have applied for drone licenses? How many licenses has the FAA issued since it started issuing licenses (which was earlier than 2007)? And how much has domestic drone use increased over the years?
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/02/just-how-many-drone-licenses-has-faa-really-issued.

Action sought on Farm Bill amendment that would exempt factory farms from Freedom of Information Act
I just got word that the terrible Farm Bill Amendment #970 proposed by Grassley-Donnelly could go to a vote as soon as tomorrow. The amendment would exempt factory farms from the Freedom of Information Act so that EPA would not be able to release any information about them to the public as it relates to any of their environmental regulations (e.g., the Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, CERCLA, EPCRA, etc.).
Luckily Senator Ben Cardin (MD) has introduced a side-by-side amendment that will hopefully be voted on as an alternative to Senator Grassley’s Amendment. It balances Freedom of Information to protect the public, but also respects information personal in nature.
http://rockrivertimes.com/2013/06/06/action-sought-on-farm-bill-amendment-that-would-exempt-factory-farms-from-freedom-of-information-act/.

Privacy Issues:

States’ Hospital Data for Sale Puts Privacy in Jeopardy
Hospitals in the U.S. pledge to keep a patient’s health background confidential. Yet states from Washington to New York are putting privacy at risk by selling records that can be used to link a person’s identity to medical conditions using public information. The potential for a patient’s hospital record to be made public by anyone buying data compiled by states adds to ways privacy is vulnerable in an age of digitized health record keeping and increasingly sophisticated hacking. State public-health agencies received an exemption from the federal law, formally the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, enacted in 1996. The privacy rules took effect in 2003, though they apply only to health-care providers, insurers, billing and claims processors and their contractors.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-05/states-hospital-data-for-sale-puts-privacy-in-jeopardy.html.

ALA calls for accountability and transparency in nation’s surveillance laws
The American Library Association (ALA) is gravely concerned, but unfortunately not surprised, at this week’s revelations that the U.S. government obtained the phone records of all Verizon customers for the last seven years. Leaders of the association again call upon Congress to provide more accountability and transparency about how the government is obtaining and using vast amounts of information about innocent people. ALA’s response follows media reports that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) has every three months, for seven years, been renewing a Section 215 order to obtain phone records of all Verizon customers.
http://www.ala.org/news/press-releases/2013/06/ala-calls-accountability-and-transparency-nation%E2%80%99s-surveillance-laws.

Internet Access:

The "Internet of Things": New Technologies and the Promise of Ubiquitous Computing
Refrigerators that can order fresh gallons of milk. Electricity meters that provide detailed usage analytics. Medical devices that can collect detailed biometric data. Until recently, such consumer products have been confined to the dreams of futurists and Jetsons devotees. But with the rise of smart grid technology and Internet-enabled consumer goods, the so-called "Internet of Things" has become less of a fantasy and more of a foreseeable future in consumers’ lives. However, the rise of such technologies will create new challenges for companies, policymakers, and regulators seeking to determine adequate privacy and security models.
https://www.cdt.org/blogs/gs-hans/0606%E2%80%9Cinternet-things%E2%80%9D-new-technologies-and-promise-ubiquitous-computing.

Public Policy:

Protecting Military Whistleblowers and Victims of Sexual Assault
Members of Congress are rightly outraged at the epidemic of sexual assault in the military. No one should have to suffer the trauma of sexual assault – least of all those Americans who have volunteered to serve our country, and whom our military has a duty to keep safe. Sadly, that promise is not being kept. Approximately 26,000 service members were victimized in the past year, according to a recent Defense Department survey. Even worse, of the women service members who suffered sexual assault, nearly 70 percent did not report the crime to a military authority – a majority of which said that they felt uncomfortable making a report. And no wonder why: of the women who did report, more than 60 percent said they suffered retaliation for doing so.
In response, lawmakers have proposed ways to strengthen whistleblower protections for members of the armed services. The legislation comes against a broader backdrop of government and media reports that have found problems with the handling of military whistleblower protection cases and weaknesses in the current state of the law over the last several years.
http://www.foreffectivegov.org/blog/protecting-military-whistleblowers-and-victims-sexual-assault.

Open Access:

Publishers Offer CHORUS as Solution to Federal Open Access Requirements
The Association of American Publishers (AAP) has put forward its bid for a coalition of publishers to handle many of the requirements outlined in the recent Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) memo requiring open access to federally funded research, in the form of the Clearinghouse for the Open Research of the United States (CHORUS). The publishers are in discussions with OSTP, the funding agencies, universities and research library communities (as are other proposed solutions by other stakeholders, not yet announced).
Others in the scholarly community have raised sinister ideas as possible motivations. "Given that the AAP clearly thinks that public access policies are bad for their businesses, they would have a strong incentive to make their implementation of a public access policy as difficult to use and as functionless as possible in order to drive down usage and make the policies appear to be a failure," PLOS co-founder Michael Eisen wrote.
http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2013/06/oa/publishers-offer-chorus-as-ostp-solution/.

The Impact of Opening Up Zoning Data
The content, format, and quality of the zoning information municipalities share varies widely. Posting this information online empowers policymakers to better understand the impact of their decisions and allows people to provide accountability on the process. Access to this information can also help people understand what they are or are not allowed to do — but zoning data, even in an open format, is not always easy to understand. Thankfully, having this data publicly available has also enabled applications and news stories that contextualize the information and show people just how zoning regulations and processes can impact them.
http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2013/06/05/the-impact-of-opening-up-zoning-data/.

Intellectual Property:

US Takes Apple to Trial Over E-Books Price-Fixing
Apple goes to trial Monday over allegations by federal and state authorities that it conspired with publishers to raise the price of e-books. The trial pits the maker of the popular iPad and iPhone against the U.S. Justice Department in a case that tests how Internet retailers interact with content providers. "This case will effectively set the rules for Internet commerce," said David Balto, a former policy director for the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/100782703.

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

Major Library Associations Thank Committee on House Administration for Rejecting NAPA Suggestion to Charge for FDsys
“The five major library associations – AALL, American Library Association, Association of Research Libraries, Medical Library Association and Special Libraries Association — joined  together this week to thank the Committee on House Administration for opposing the suggestion in the National Academy of Public  Administration’s (NAPA) report, “Rebooting the Government Printing Office: Keeping America Informed in the Digital Age,” that GPO charge public user fees for FDsys.”
http://aallwash.wordpress.com/2013/05/30/major-library-associations-thank-committee-on-house-administration-for-rejecting-napa-suggestion-to-charge-for-fdsys/

The Declassification Engine: Your One-Stop Shop for Government Secrets
“. . . “The state of the declassified archives is really stuck in the middle of the 20th Century,” says Aftergood. He calls it a “fairly dismal picture,” but he also says there’s an enormous opportunity to improve the way we research declassified materials — and improve it very quickly — through the use of modern technology. That’s the aim of a new project launched by a team of historians, mathematicians, and computer scientists at Columbia University in New York City. Led by Matthew Connelly — a Columbia professor trained in diplomatic history — the project is known as The Declassification Engine, and it seeks to provide a single online database for declassified documents from across the federal government, including the CIA, the State Department, and potentially any other agency.”
http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2013/05/the-declassification-engine/

Calif. to post raw campaign filings online daily
“California Secretary of State Debra Bowen has agreed to expand the way her office presents campaign finance data online after initially rejecting the request from a coalition of good-government groups, research organizations and newspapers, her spokeswoman said Tuesday.  The Secretary of State’s Office will make California’s entire campaign finance and lobbying database, known as Cal-Access, available for download on one spreadsheet daily by Labor Day. Currently, the secretary of state’s office creates CD-ROMs upon request and sends them by mail for $5, or the public has to search online by each candidate, group or committee.”
http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_23291664/calif-post-raw-campaign-filings-online-daily

Intellectual Property

Treaty for the Blind in Jeopardy, Copyright Zealots to Blame
“In a few weeks, the 186 governments that are members of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) will gather in Morocco with the goal of crafting a Treaty For The Blind.  The agreement would facilitate global production and lending of audio books, Braille translations, and otherwise enable the visually impaired and those with certain learning disabilities to have affordable access to books. This will most benefit the millions of blind people in the developing world who live in poverty, by adopting many of the rights to translate works into braille or other forms accessible to the visually impaired that are already law in the United States. But last minute lobbying by Hollywood and publishing interests in the U.S. and Europe have threatened to derail the Treaty for the Blind at the last minute.”
http://www.publicknowledge.org/blog/treaty-blind-jeopardy-copyright-zealots-blame

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

Data.gov embraces open source data management
“As part of a series of major upgrades, Data.gov today moved to a new data catalog based on an open source data management system, the Comprehensive Knowledge Archive Network – better known as CKAN. The new data catalog is a key component of the Data.gov 2.0 coming in the next few months. Users visiting the new data catalog will notice the improved search function, which now allows the user to find all datasets for a particular location, better sorting and tagging of datasets and improved metadata.”
http://fedscoop.com/data-gov-embraces-open-source-data-management/ http://www.data.gov/

DATA bill introduced
“A bill to change the way federal government spending data is reported was formally introduced in the House and the Senate on May 21. The Digital Accountability and Transparency Act establishes standards for federal spending data published to the USASpending.gov portal, and requires agencies to report internal spending in addition to awards, grants, and contracts. The House version was quickly and unanimously approved on May 22 by the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, where it has the strong backing of committee chairman Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and ranking member Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.). Passage in the full House is widely expected. The Senate companion measure was introduced by Sen. Mark Warner (D-Vir.) and Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio).”
http://fcw.com/articles/2013/05/22/data-act.aspx

Committee on House Administration Supports Public’s Right to Gov’t Docs
“The influential Committee on House Administration released a letter yesterday that endorsed the principle that “the documents of our democracy should be available to all Americans electronically, in perpetuity, and for free.” The letter, signed by every member of the committee, rejected a recommendation made in a flawed report issued by the National Academy of Public Administration, which had called for the Government Printing Office to consider charging “end uses” for online access to government documents made available through the online portal FDsys.”
http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2013/05/23/committee-on-house-administration-supports-publics-right-to-govt-docs/

House Administration Rejects NAPA Recommendation to Charge Public for Access to Legislative Documents
“Today, House Administration Chairman Candice Miller, R-Mich., and Ranking Member Robert Brady, D-Pa., issued the following statement after the full Committee sent a letter to the Acting Public Printer of the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) rejecting a recent recommendation by the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) to charge the public for access to GPO’s congressional documents.”
http://cha.house.gov/press-release/house-administration-rejects-napa-recommendation-charge-public-access-legislative

Open Access

Illinois State Senator Biss’ open access legislation passes House
“Legislation State Senator Daniel Biss (D-Evanston) sponsored to work toward making state universities’ taxpayer-funded research available to the public passed the House today by a vote of 98-16. Senate Bill 1900, which will require each public university to convene an open access task force, now awaits the governor’s signature.”
http://www.illinoissenatedemocrats.com/index.php/sen-biss-home/3420-biss-open-access-legislation-passes-house

Don’t Believe the Publishers’ Hype: Support Open Access
“Once again, we are seeing entrenched interests try to fight the future with scare tactics and misinformation. This time, it’s major journal publishers, and their target is open access to taxpayer-funded research.”
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/05/dont-believe-publishers-hype-support-open-access

Intellectual Property

Obama Stops Championing Treaty That Gives the Blind Better Access to E-Books
“The Obama administration went on record four years ago supporting a proposed international treaty to make books more accessible to the blind. But as world leaders prepare to gather in Morocco next month to finalize a deal that Brazil, Ecuador and Paraguay proposed in 2009, the administration is mum on whether it supports a treaty that would, for the first time, loosen copyright restrictions. Many fear lobbying by Hollywood and dozens of the world’s largest corporations, including ExxonMobil, may scuttle the treaty altogether.”
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/05/ip-blind-treaty/

International Outlook

Her Majesty’s Government Wants to Monetize Open Data
“A new paper from the chair of the U.K. government’s Open Strategy Board outlines the best practices for the government’s open data policies. The government-commissioned Shakespeare Review – after author Stephan Shakespeare – looks into ways to monetize open data, and recommends an all-encompassing National Data Strategy. According to Shakespeare, CEO of YouGov and chair of the Open Strategy Board, the U.K. leads the world in making government data public. However, his report cautions the government against releasing data willy-nilly if they want to capitalize on the open data market (which the report finds could generate £2 billion ($3 billion) in the short term and £6 – 7 billion ($9 – 10.6 billion) later on. Many of his suggestions are aimed at simply streamlining the open data: designating leadership for the initiative, ensuring that what is said will be done is done, and releasing rough data quickly and refined and verified data in a second, higher quality data set. The Open Rights Group took issue with some of Shakespeare’s provisions for privacy and transparency. They found the “exclusive focus on economic growth, against transparency and accountability” troubling.”
http://techpresident.com/news/23901/making-bank-open-data-uk

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

Seeing Like a Citizen: How Activists Are Making State Laws Legible
“The Open Government Foundation announced Friday that it had released MarylandCode.org, a web-friendly and restriction free publication of the Maryland Code of Public Laws. Prior to the new website, state law was only available in PDF documents on the Maryland Legislature website and through Lexis Nexis. Anyone trying to access the laws through Lexis Nexis has to agree to an almost 5,000 word Terms of Service agreement, and the laws published through the service are subject to copyright restrictions, according to the press release.  The new platform makes the legal code available to developers through an API and in XML format published on GitHub. For regular users, the website, built with free, open-source software, offers the legal code in what the Open Government Foundation calls a searchable, user-friendly format. In addition, users are invited to share their ideas for projects or improvements building and expanding on the provided legal code.”
http://techpresident.com/news/23867/new-web-platform-publishes-maryland-code-public-laws http://marylandcode.org/

DATA Act discussion draft emerges
“Close to a week after the White House unveiled its open data policy, a congressman has released a new discussion draft of the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2013, which would unlock and standardize federal spending data. Released by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, the new document is the culmination of months-long discussions between Issa and Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.). The two are expected to soon formally reintroduce the bill, according to the Data Transparency Coalition.”
http://fedscoop.com/data-act-discussion-draft-emerges/

Public Policy

Subpoena of AP Phone Records Said to Damage Press Freedom
“The government seizure of Associated Press telephone records in the course of a leak investigation undermined freedom of the press in the United States, congressional critics said yesterday.”
http://blogs.fas.org/secrecy/2013/05/ap-phone-records/

Intellectual Property

German online copyright law to take effect in August
“A German online copyright law that will give publishers the exclusive right to the commercial use of their publications on the Internet will come into effect on Aug. 1. The law was published in Germany’s Federal Law Gazette (Bundesgesetzblatt) on Tuesday. After a law is published in the gazette, it will come into effect, a spokeswoman said. The new rule is a toned down version of a controversial online copyright bill that aimed to give publishers the right to charge search engines like Google for republishing short text snippets of the kind used in Google News. The law as published does not extend to news snippets though. It states that publishers have the exclusive right to commercialize their products or parts thereof, except in the case of single words or very small text snippets. This change has made the impact of the new law on search engines and publishers unclear.”
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2038881/german-online-copyright-law-to-take-effect-in-august.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

New Executive Order will increase government transparency
The White House has issued a new Executive Order (EO 13642) making open and machine readable the new default for government information and a memo, Open Data Policy – Managing information as an asset.  These documents provide a new set of guidelines for government agencies that will help to ensure a more open and accessible government. “This Memorandum establishes a framework to help institutionalize the principles of effective information management at each stage of the information’s life cycle to promote interoperability and openness.”
http://www.districtdispatch.org/2013/05/new-executive-order-will-increase-government-transparency/

Internet Access

ALA Highlights Benefits of Federal Broadband Funding, Argues that E-Rate Must Be Enhanced to Sustain Progress
“The National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s $4 billion Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) has helped about 20 percent of U.S. libraries make improvements to publicly available technology resources and digital literacy within their communities, according to a report released on Monday by the American Library Association’s (ALA) Office for Information Technology Policy (OITP).”
http://www.thedigitalshift.com/2013/05/digital-divide/ala-highlights-benefits-of-federal-broadband-funding-argues-that-e-rate-must-be-enhanced-to-sustain-progress/

Intellectual Property

New Bipartisan Bill Proposes Real Fixes to Bad Copyright Law
“A new bill introduced in Congress today aims to resolve the restrictions that complicate phone unlocking, and it’s doing it the right way. While other proposals would apply temporary “bandaid” fixes that fail to address the underlying problems behind the restrictions, this bi-partisan proposal from Representatives Zoe Lofgren, Thomas Massie, Anna Eshoo, and Jared Polis, gets to the root of the issue.”
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/05/new-bipartisan-bill-proposes-real-fixes-bad-copyright-law
H.R. 1892, the Unlocking Technology Act of 2013

Google, Authors Guild Back in Court
“After a nearly eight-month delay, lawyers for Google and the Authors Guild were back in court this morning. In oral arguments scheduled before a panel of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, Google was set to argue that Judge Denny Chin’s 2012 order granting the Authors Guild’s motion for class certification should be reversed. The long-running case over Google’s library book scanning has been stayed since September, 2012, pending the Second Circuit’s review of Chin’s decision.”
http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/digital/content-and-e-books/article/57146-google-authors-guild-back-in-court.html

LCA Submits Comments Regarding the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIF)
“LCA welcomes this opportunity to comment on the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). LCA has long been engaged in trade matters, submitting comments on many of the free trade agreements, TPP, and GATS. At this preliminary stage, we offer a few brief recommendations.”
http://www.librarycopyrightalliance.org/bm~doc/lca-ttip-comments-final-10may13.pdf

New Research Report from the National Research Council
“Copyright in the Digital Era: Building Evidence for Policy examines a range of questions regarding copyright policy by using a variety of methods, such as case studies, international and sectoral comparisons, and experiments and surveys. This report is especially critical in light of digital age developments that may, for example, change the incentive calculus for various actors in the copyright system, impact the costs of voluntary copyright transactions, pose new enforcement challenges, and change the optimal balance between copyright protection and exceptions.”
https://download.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=14686

International Outlook

A Battle For Open Public Data In South Africa
“Amid growing calls for the controversial Protection of State Information bill to be referred to the Constitutional Court of South Africa, open data activists are fighting a separate but related battle for government to release its data to the public.  Critics of the bill, popularly referred to as the secrecy bill, fear it will be used to persecute whistleblowers and stifle press freedom. The bill was passed by a majority vote in Parliament on 25 April and now needs to be signed by President Jacob Zuma in order for it to become law.  It is against this backdrop and the debate about information control that data activists are turning up the volume on their demands for government and publicly funded institutions to release data. Activists and others argue that to do so will increase transparency and is the impetus for building free and commercial information products that can aid decision-making.”
http://www.ip-watch.org/2013/05/08/a-battle-for-open-public-data-in-south-africa/

Syrian Internet Goes Dark, Leaving Questions and Uncertainty
“Earlier today, we learned that Internet traffic between Syria and Western online services had plummeted drastically, indicated that the country’s connection to the wider Internet had been shut down. Reports from Renesys and Google confirmed the routes into Syria had been withdrawn, implying either a massive infrastructure cut, or a deliberate silencing of online communication.  The details of the situation in Syria are still unknown, but we’re deeply concerned that this blackout is a deliberate attempt to silence Syria’s online communications and further draw a curtain over grave events currently unfolding on the ground in Syria.”
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/05/syrian-internet-goes-dark-leaving-questions-and-uncertainty-0

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

Justices say states can limit access to public records
“The Supreme Court on Monday said states are free to allow public records access only to their own citizens, delivering a blow to freedom of information advocates who had challenged a Virginia law. In a unanimous ruling, the court said two out-of-state men did not have a right to view the documents. Various other states, including Tennessee, Arkansas and Delaware, have similar laws, although some do not enforce them.”
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/29/us-usa-court-records-idUSBRE93S0N420130429

Supreme Court FOI Decision Foolish and Shortsighted
“Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a Virginia law that generally prohibits non-Virginians from making use of its Freedom of Information law. As part of its decision in McBurney v. Young, the Court held that the Constitution’s Article IV “Privileges and Immunities” clause does not extend to a non-Virginian’s right to access public information on equal terms with Virginia citizens.”
http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2013/04/30/supreme-court-foi-decision-foolish-and-shortsighted/

Support for the PIDB’s Recommendations Continues to Grow
“The Public Interest Declassification Board received recognition at a recent academic conference titled The Legal and Civil Policy Implications of “Leaks” at the American University Washington College of Law.  A panel focusing on the legislative response to “leaks” discussed what impact over-classification and the current state of the security classification system have on the prevalence of leaks.”
http://blogs.archives.gov/transformingclassification/?p=467

USAID releases open data tools to increase government openness
“The U.S. Agency for International Development announced April 29 the launch of a plethora of new datasets and tools to increase transparency. The unveiling took place at the G-8 Conference on Open Data for Agriculture in Washington, D.C., and brought together G-8 countries and the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition to discuss open data for agriculture and to create action plans for food security datasets.”
http://fedscoop.com/usaid-releases-open-data-tools-to-increase-government-openness/

Public Policy

As Works Flood In, Nation’s Library Treads Water
“The Sea Creatures, who recently sent their recording “Naked in the Rain” to the Library of Congress, probably did not ponder the impact of sequestration on their music’s journey from dream to copyright. Just as military contractors, air traffic controllers and federal workers are coping with the grim results of a partisan impasse over the federal deficit, the Library of Congress, whose services range from copyrighting written works — whether famous novels or poems scribbled on napkins — to the collection, preservation and digitalization of millions of books, photographs, maps and other materials, faces deep cuts that threaten its historic mission.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/04/books/budget-cuts-hobble-library-of-congress.html?_r=0

2013 World Press Freedom Index: Dashed hopes after spring
“After the “Arab springs” and other protest movements that prompted many rises and falls in last year’s index, the 2013 Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index marks a return to a more usual configuration. The ranking of most countries is no longer attributable to dramatic political developments. This year’s index is a better reflection of the attitudes and intentions of governments towards media freedom in the medium or long term.”
http://en.rsf.org/press-freedom-index-2013,1054.html

Digital History

Are digitization and budget cuts compromising history?
“”When people say everything’s online,” says Jerry Dupont of the Law Library Microform Consortium, “they’re woefully uninformed.” Dupont, founder of the LLMC, a nonprofit law library cooperative, estimates that of the 2 million unique volumes contained in America’s law libraries, only about 15 percent are available in digital form. That figure includes access via proprietary, commercial services like Westlaw and LexisNexis. Across the country, law libraries are trying to adapt to the digital revolution and preserve historic and precedential documents. But budget cuts have hit hard at academic law libraries, which historically have hosted some of the most robust legal collections. And the pressures are creating concerns that the public will lose access to essential legal documents.”
http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/article/are_digitization_and_budget_cuts_compromising_history

Open Access

Open Access Spreads
“A bill in the California legislature would require state-funded research to be made public free of charge within a year of its publication. If it passes, the bill would create an open access policy for California’s state-funded research similar to a policy announced earlier this year by the Obama administration. The federal policy, which is not yet finalized, would apply to most federally supported non-defense research. California is not the only state moving to make public the published research it helps to fund; Illinois is weighing a similar proposal.”
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/04/29/california-weighs-its-own-open-access-plan

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

US government sends itself a takedown notice

As you may know, works of the U.S. Government are not protected by copyright in the U.S. (17 USC §105), but we often discover copyrighted government publications that one would reasonably think would be in the public domain and, more recently, we see works that were treated as public domain in print suddenly being treated as copyrighted when they are converted to digital. No matter how clear the law is, this can lead to confusing situations.
http://freegovinfo.info/node/3920

Open access: four ways it could enhance academic freedom

The power of funding alone should not be enough to override academic freedom, argues Curt Rice, nor does open access automatically skew the world of scholarship
http://www.guardian.co.uk/higher-education-network/blog/2013/apr/22/open-access-academic-freedom-publishing

Order and Liberty: The DPLA Launches

I wasn’t entirely sure what the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) would look like when the long-awaited launch date of April 18 approached. The suspense is finally over: it looks great.
The DPLA is an effort to unify access to cultural assets of the nation and make them free to all. We are not the first country to try this; in fact we’re a bit behind, perhaps because we have a tradition of local library planning and support and because we don’t have a true national library.
http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/library-babel-fish/order-and-liberty-dpla-launches#ixzz2SBtsGG8R

Owner, new CEO of Powell’s Books see strength in brick and mortar

It’s tough to think about how people will read in 50 years when you’re worrying about what they’ll read tomorrow. So after just a couple of years as chief executive of Powell’s Books, Emily Powell — granddaughter of the bookseller’s founder — told employees last month she would step down and focus on the Portland company’s long-term strategy in a quickly changing market.
http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2013/04/owner_new_ceo_of_powells_books.html

Public Policy

3D-printed guns are inevitable

NEW YORK–For months, a debate has raged in the media and on Capitol Hill about whether or not society (and the law) should allow 3D-printed guns. After listening to Cody Wilson speak for a few minutes, one can’t help but come away feeling that the national discussion is moot: 3D-printed firearms are inevitable.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-57581053-76/3d-printed-guns-are-inevitable/

Privacy Concerns

The Dark Side of the Digital Revolution

How do you explain to people that they are a YouTube sensation, when they have never heard of YouTube or the Internet? That’s a question we faced during our January visit to North Korea, when we attempted to engage with the Pyongyang traffic police. You may have seen videos on the Web of the capital city’s “traffic cops,” whose ballerina-like street rituals, featured in government propaganda videos, have made them famous online.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324030704578424650479285218

Feds Push for Backdoor Wiretap Capabilities

Washington – The Washington Post reported today that the FBI is seeking authority to require surveillance backdoors in all popular Internet products and services.
“A wiretapping mandate is a vulnerability mandate,” said CDT Senior Staff Technologist Joe Hall. “The unintended consequences of this proposal are profound. At the very time when the nation is concerned about cybersecurity, the FBI proposal has the potential to make our communications less secure. Once you build a wiretap capability into products and services, the bad guys will find a way to use it.”
https://www.cdt.org/pr_statement/feds-push-backdoor-wiretap-capabilities

Intellectual Property

Human genome: US Supreme Court hears patents case

The US Supreme Court has heard arguments questioning whether the human genome can be claimed as intellectual property. The case relates to a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union in 2009, and centres on whether companies should be able to patent genes.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-22157410

International Outlook

World Book Night 2013: half a million free books to be handed out

20,000 volunteers will hand out half a million books tonight as part of World Book Night 2013. The event, now in its third year, aims to promote literacy and share the joy of books with people who might not normally read.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/10011224/World-Book-Night-2013-half-a-million-free-books-to-be-handed-out.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

Debate Continues Over Enhanced, Interactive eBooks

“Last week, The Guardian ran an article about the introduction of “next generation” ebooks at this year’s London Book Fair. Publisher Faber&Faber unveiled an updated, gaming-style edition of John Buchan’s The 39 Steps, created with the help of The Story Mechanics, with enhancements like hand-created digital visuals of turn-of-the-century Great Britain, stop-frame animation, and the ability to unlock achievements throughout the book

http://www.librarystuff.net/2013/04/22/debate-continues-over-enhanced-interactive-ebooks/

Public Libraries, Corporate Publishers and

“Last week Simon & Schuster signed a deal with 3M and the NYPL to distribute eBooks into libraries. Now all of the “Big6? corporate publishers have some type of agreement selling eBooks into public libraries. Libraries are indispensable. Publishers agree on this. Eventually the business models will all align and every publisher will make available their entire list of digital to libraries.”

http://www.librarystuff.net/2013/04/19/public-libraries-corporate-publishers-and-ebooks/

Public Policy

Hill’s newest earmarks: Sequester exemptions

Sequestration exemptions are shaping up to be Washington’s newest version of earmarks.  Agencies, companies and other groups are on the hunt for Capitol Hill allies with the juice to save their pet issues from the full force of the across-the-board cuts. Some have already been successful.

http://www.politico.com/story/2013/04/hills-newest-earmarks-sequester-exemptions-90470.html#ixzz2RVik3qAZ

Senate energy committee gives Ernest Moniz thumbs-up

Massachusetts Institute of Technology physics professor Ernest Moniz has emerged as the anti-Chuck Hagel, easily passing his first Senate test and even winning support from conservative Republicans.

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee voted 21-1 Thursday morning to approve Moniz’s nomination for energy secretary.

http://www.politico.com/story/2013/04/senate-energy-committee-gives-moniz-thumbs-up-90303.html#ixzz2RVjNute9

Harry Reid wants online sales tax on Senate floor

Majority Leader Harry Reid began the process late Tuesday that would allow the bill, known as the Marketplace Fairness Act, to come before the full chamber without first going through the Senate Finance Committee — whose leaders largely dislike the proposal.

http://www.politico.com/story/2013/04/harry-reid-wants-online-sales-tax-on-senate-floor-90233.html#ixzz2RVk0jtrG

 Privacy Concerns

Chuck Grassley eyes former aide in Medicare Advantage leak

A Washington law firm and a former congressional aide are facing scrutiny over a leak of sensitive details on Medicare Advantage payment rates that may have sparked hundreds of millions of dollars in stock trading on insurance companies before the information was made public.

http://www.politico.com/story/2013/04/grassley-eyes-former-aides-role-in-market-intelligence-90197.html

 House Passes CISPAfrom Center for Democracy & Technology – Keeping the Internet Open, Innovative and Free

Washington — Today, the House of Representatives passed the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA). Although the bill was improved before final passage, it remains fundamentally flawed. CDT reaffirms it opposition to the bill.

https://www.cdt.org/pr_statement/house-passes-cispa

Note to Full Text Reports followers — Grab It When You See It!

Our friends Gary Price and Shirl Kennedy over at Full Text Reports have a handy reminder today:

…some of the papers and reports posted on FullTextReports.com are freely available online for just a limited time before they disappear behind a paywall (or go away entirely). If you see something you suspect might be useful to you (or a colleague) in the future, download it the day you see it because it may not be accessible later without a subscription (or it may have been moved or taken offline).

Just another reason to remember that libraries should be collecting, not pointing.

http://freegovinfo.info/node/3918

Leaked E-mails Show the State Department’s Top Watchdog May Lack Independence

The independence of the de facto State Department Inspector General (IG), Ambassador Harold Geisel, is in question due to information obtained by POGO, including several troubling State Department e-mails. For instance, POGO has learned that Geisel has recused himself from a State Office of Inspector General (OIG) investigation involving Under Secretary of State for Management Patrick Kennedy and a company called Aurora, LLC. Geisel’s recusal is due to a perceived conflict of interest between him and Kennedy. Kennedy is in charge of State’s day-to-day operations.

http://pogoarchive.pub30.convio.net/pogo-files/alerts/government-oversight/go-ig-20101118.html

Intellectual Property

 International Outlook

Australian census made both easier and more difficult to freely access

Here’s a reminder that we all have to be constantly diligent to make sure govt information continues to be freely available for the long term!  Australian Census Data Released Under CC License, But Official Site Tries To Make It Hard To Download.

http://freegovinfo.info/node/3919

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

Wikileaks opens Public Library of US Diplomacy (PLUSD) with large cache of 1970s US diplomatic and intel documents

Wikileaks today announced the launch of the Public Library of US Diplomacy (PlusD), a searchable database with the release of Special Project K: the Kissinger cables — ostensibly, PlusD will include other records in the future. WikiLeaks has published more than 1.7 million U.S. diplomatic records — including cables from previously released Cablegate cables, intelligence reports, and congressional correspondence — from January 1, 1973 to December 31, 1976, the period during which Henry Kissinger was secretary of state and national security advisor. The documents were formerly confidential, classified, or labeled “NODIS” (“no distribution”) or “Eyes Only”.
http://freegovinfo.info/node/3908

Reading, Writing and Video Games

WHEN I was a child, I liked to play video games. On my brother’s Atari, I played Night Driver. On his Apple II, I played Microwave, Aztec and Taipan! When I got to go to the arcade, I played Asteroids and Space Invaders.

Here’s what I learned: At a certain level on Microwave, the music from the bar scene in Star Wars comes on. If I am at the front line when aliens descend to Earth, we’ll all be in trouble. Also, dealing opium in the South China Sea is more lucrative than trading in commodities.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/17/sunday-review/reading-writing-and-video-games.html?_r=0

Public Policy

Library collects food instead of fines

T.B. Scott Free Library will celebrate National Library Week, April 14 to 20, with food, programs and an opportunity to give back to the community.  For the 14th consecutive year, library patrons are encouraged to settle their overdue fines and, at the same time, help others in need through the Food For Fines program.
http://www.wausaudailyherald.com/article/20130412/WDH1010/304120014/Library-collects-food-instead-fines
Budget projects FHA bailout, draws criticism

The Obama administration’s announcement that a key housing program will most likely need a taxpayer bailout drew sharp criticism from House Republicans who are making the Federal Housing Administration a piñata this year in an effort to highlight their differences with Democrats over housing policy.
http://www.politico.com/story/2013/04/budget-projects-fha-bailout-and-draws-criticism-89908.html

New Website for State Online Legal Information

The Digital Access to Legal Information Committee (DALIC) of the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) has created a new website to host information about the status of online legal materials in every state with respect to authentication, official status, preservation, permanent public access, copyright, and universal citation.
http://freegovinfo.info/node/3910
OpenGov Champion Sandra Moscoso used open data to fund DC school librarians

Sunlight Foundation’s OpenGov Champion of the month is Sandra Moscoso. Sandra is a mom of two public school students in Washington DC, and a member of the Capitol Hill Public School Parent Organization (CHPSPO) — oh and she just happens to manage an open data portal at the World Bank’s financial sector.
http://freegovinfo.info/node/3909

Privacy Concerns

Cybersecurity: New version of old fight

Battling rogue hackers and digital spies — it’s precisely the sort of cutting-edge challenge that typically confounds Congress.

But the cybersecurity debate about to begin in the House this week is merely a more modern take on an old political fight: a classic lobbying battle set against the backdrop of a post-Sept. 11 struggle between privacy and security.
http://www.politico.com/story/2013/04/security-vs-privacy-goes-cyber-in-post-911-world-90048.html
EPA nominee Gina McCarthy is grilled on email, transparency

Republican senators grilled EPA administrator-nominee Gina McCarthy over the agency’s recent email controversy on Thursday, asking her to commit to greater transparency at the already embattled agency.
http://www.politico.com/story/2013/04/epa-nominee-is-grilled-on-email-transparency-89972.html
CISPA still missing the mark for Dems, White House

A bill to fortify U.S. cyberdefenses is returning to the House floor — and right back to the political scrum that enveloped it last time.

For backers of the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, it all comes down — yet again — to convincing skeptics in Congress and the White House that the proposal won’t trample on Americans’ privacy.
http://www.politico.com/story/2013/04/cispa-still-missing-the-mark-for-dems-white-house-89973.html
Intellectual Property

Elsevier: All your data belongs to us

A distinct sense of déjà vu kicked in Tuesday afternoon as I read a series of outraged tweets decrying the news that Elsevier, the giant publisher of scientific journals, was buying Mendeley, a cloud-based social media research platform popular with academics for such tasks as organizing citations and managing access to articles.
http://www.salon.com/2013/04/09/elsevier_all_your_data_belongs_to_us/
Scientific Articles Accepted (Personal Checks, Too)

The scientists who were recruited to appear at a conference called Entomology-2013 thought they had been selected to make a presentation to the leading professional association of scientists who study insects. But they found out the hard way that they were wrong. The prestigious, academically sanctioned conference they had in mind has a slightly different name: Entomology 2013 (without the hyphen). The one they had signed up for featured speakers who were recruited by e-mail, not vetted by leading academics.
hhttp://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/08/health/for-scientists-an-exploding-world-of-pseudo-academia.html</

International Outlook

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.