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

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

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.

Take Action!

Call to action: Tell Congress you support the Bipartisan Fair Access to Science and Technology Research Act (FASTR)

Today (February 14, 2013), Senators Cornyn (R-TX) and Wyden (D-OR) and Representatives Doyle (D-PA), Yoder (R-KS), and Lofgren (D-CA) introduced the Fair Access to Science and Technology Research (FASTR) Act, a bill that will accelerate scientific discovery and fuel innovation by making articles reporting on publicly funded scientific research freely accessible online for anyone to read and build upon.

Every year, the federal government funds over sixty billion dollars in basic and applied research. FASTR will make these articles freely available for all potential users to read and ensure that articles can be fully used in the digital environment, enabling the use of new computational analysis tools that promise to revolutionize the research process.

Act Now!

http://www.taxpayeraccess.org/news/FASTR_calltoaction.shtml.

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Open Access

Open Access Journal PeerJ Publishes First Articles

Multidisciplinary Open Access journal publisher PeerJ announced the publication of its first 30 peer-reviewed articles today. Co-founders Jason Hoyt, formerly chief scientist and VP for research and development for Mendeley, and Peter Binfield, formerly publisher of the Public Library Of Science (PLOS), launched PeerJ in June 2012. They quickly garnered support for the project, ultimately assembling an Editorial Board of 800 academics and an advisory board of 20 – five of whom are Nobel Laureates. PeerJ is now hoping that its business model can help make academic publishing more efficient and less expensive for both researchers and libraries.

http://www.thedigitalshift.com/2013/02/publishing/open-access-journal-peerj-publishes-first-articles/.

California bill to release the state’s building codes online for free

Assemblyman Brian Nestande of California has introduced Assembly Bill 292, which would open source the California Code of Regulations (including the Building Codes!!). The summary reads: "This bill would provide that the full text of the California Code of Regulations shall bear an open access creative commons attribution license, allowing any individual, at no cost, to use, distribute, and create derivative works based on the material for either commercial or noncommercial purposes."

http://freegovinfo.info/node/3869.

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Public Policy

New GPO report suggests charging taxpayers twice for government info

The National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) recently released their congressionally mandated report, Rebooting the Government Printing Office: Keeping America Informed in the Digital Age.  NAPA’s five-member panel spent ten months conducting an audit of the Government Printing Office (GPO). The panel’s lengthy 166 page report does present some interesting, and at times, troubling thoughts.

On one hand the panel definitely grasps the difficult position that GPO is in considering that, with 97% percent of today’s federal documents are born digital, the GPO has had to make many changes over the past two decades. While much of the report is reasonable and responds to the needs of libraries, the public, and GPO itself, the section in Finding III-5, Government Information Dissemination and Access, is cause for concern. It gives some ideas on how GPO might ensure funding for FDsys in the future. One of these ideas is that "now might be the time to revisit charging the public for access to FDsys content."

http://www.districtdispatch.org/2013/02/new-gpo-report-suggests-charging-taxpayers-twice-for-government-info/.

What’s the Difference Between an Executive Order and a Directive?

The Obama Administration issued policy statements this week on critical infrastructure protection and cyber security, including measures to encourage information sharing with the private sector and other steps to improve policy coordination.  Curiously, the Administration issued both an Executive order and a Presidential directive devoted to these topics.

"There are probably two significant differences between an EO and a PD, at least to my understanding," said Harold Relyea, who served for decades as a Specialist in American National Government at the Congressional Research Service. "First, in almost all cases, for an EO to have legal effect, it must be published in the Federal Register. Second, is the matter of circulation and accountability. EOs are circulated to general counsels or similar agency attorneys, which can be readily accomplished by FR publication. Again, a PD may be more selectively circulated, and this is done through developed routing procedures."

http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/2013/02/eo_pd.html.

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Privacy Issues

CISPA is Back; All Your Data Are Belong to Us

Barely a year after the defeat of SOPA, Congress is back to testing the waters for legislation that many internet users believe to be in violation of their fundamental rights to privacy and free expression. CISPA, a bill that would make it easier for corporations and the government to share internet users’ personal data, was officially re-introduced in the House on Wednesday. It’s already being rushed forward in the legislative process. The House Intelligence Committee is holding a full hearing on the bill today [Feb. 14] at 10 am. They will hear from four witnesses – all from the business sector and all known supporters of CISPA. No experts with concerns about privacy issues in the bill were invited to address the committee.

http://www.opencongress.org/articles/view/2527-CISPA-is-Back-All-Your-Data-Are-Belong-to-Us.

Mandatory Black Boxes in Cars Raise Privacy Questions

The Electronic Frontier Foundation urged the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration today to include strict privacy protections for data collected by vehicle "black boxes" to protect drivers from long-term tracking as well as the misuse of their information.

Black boxes, more formally called event data recorders (EDRs), can serve a valuable forensic function for accident investigations, because they can capture information like vehicle speed before the crash, whether the brake was activated, whether the seat belt was buckled, and whether the airbag deployed. NHTSA is proposing the mandatory inclusion of black boxes in all new cars and light trucks sold in America. But while the proposed rules would require the collection of data in at least the last few seconds before a crash, they don’t block the long-term monitoring of driver behavior or the ongoing capture of much more private information like audio, video, or vehicle location.

https://www.eff.org/press/releases/mandatory-black-boxes-cars-raise-privacy-questions.

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International Outlook

Egyptian Court Orders 30-Day Ban On YouTube Over Hosting "The Innocence of Muslims" Video and There’s Plenty of Blame to Go Around

This weekend, the Cairo Administrative Court issued a 30-day ban order on YouTube and all other websites that host or link to content from the anti-Islam film "The Innocence of Muslims," which was protested worldwide after footage from the trailer was shown on Egyptian television. The court’s ruling may force the hand of the National Telecom Regulation Authority and the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, which have refrained from pursuing such a ban themselves.

It is unclear what the court hopes to gain by temporarily blocking access to YouTube. YouTube had voluntarily blocked access to the video in Libya and Egypt in mid-September – a clear breach of Google’s own policy of only removing content if it is found to be in violation on their Terms of Service or in response to a valid court order.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/02/egyptian-court-orders-30-day-ban-youtube-over-hosting-%E2%80%9C-innocence-muslims%E2%80%9D-video.

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Freedom of Information

Congress Asking the Right Questions on FOIA

A recent letter from Congress to the Justice Department represents a positive development toward strengthening the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The letter (PDF), sent Feb. 4 by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, asks what steps the government is taking on a number of key transparency improvements. The reforms, if implemented, could significantly improve the public’s access to information about critical topics such as food safety, compliance with environmental standards, and special interest influence in government decision making.

Open government advocates praised the letter. The Sunshine in Government Initiative said the letter asks "pointed questions," and the Washington Examiner’s Mark Tapscott wrote that it "could be the most comprehensive congressional review [of FOIA] in three decades."

http://www.foreffectivegov.org/congress-asking-right-questions-foia.

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.

Intellectual Property Issues

Publishers and Library Groups Spar in Appeal to Ruling on Electronic Course Reserves

Fair use and electronic course reserves are back in court. A keenly watched copyright case that pitted three academic publishers against Georgia State University has entered the appeals phase, with a flurry of filings and motions this week and more expected soon. The case in question is Cambridge U. Press et al. v. Mark P. Becker et al. In 2008, Cambridge, Oxford University Press, and SAGE Publishers sued Georgia State, asserting it had committed widespread copyright violations when it allowed some of their content to be used, unlicensed, in e-reserves. The Association of American Publishers and the Copyright Clearance Center, which specializes in licensing content to universities, bankrolled the legal action.

https://chronicle.com/article/PublishersLibrary-Groups/136995/.

EPO and USPTO launch Cooperative Patent Classification

The European Patent Office (EPO) and the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) today launched the Cooperative Patent Classification scheme (CPC), a global classification system for patent documents. The system is the result of partnership between the EPO and the USPTO in their joint effort to develop a common, internationally compatible classification system for technical documents, in particular patent publications, which will be used by both offices in the patent granting process. The CPC is an ambitious harmonisation product that incorporates the best classification practices of both offices.

http://www.epo.org/news-issues/press/releases/archive/2013/20130102.html.

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Digital History

Update on the Twitter Archive At the Library of Congress

In April, 2010, the Library of Congress and Twitter signed an agreement providing the Library the public tweets from the company’s inception through the date of the agreement, an archive of tweets from 2006 through April, 2010. Additionally, the Library and Twitter agreed that Twitter would provide all public tweets on an ongoing basis under the same terms. The Library’s first objectives were to acquire and preserve the 2006-10 archive; to establish a secure, sustainable process for receiving and preserving a daily, ongoing stream of tweets through the present day; and to create a structure for organizing the entire archive by date. This month, all those objectives will be completed. To date, the Library has an archive of approximately 170 billion tweets. Press release (PDF).

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/032522.html.

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Open Access

World wide web creator sees open access future for academic publishing

Activists pushing for free, open access to academic papers will eventually defeat publishers who seek to lock scholarly findings behind paywalls, the founder of the world wide web said today. Sir Tim Berners-Lee, who revolutionised the way we access information on the internet through the creation of the world wide web over 20 years ago, has been a vocal proponent for making data freely available while also protecting people’s privacy.

http://phys.org/news/2013-01-world-wide-web-creator-access.html.

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Public Policy

Agency Attempts to Block Scientific Assessments of Toxic Chemicals

In a report released today, the Center for Effective Government (formerly OMB Watch) documents attempts by the Office of Advocacy at the Small Business Administration to thwart important agency assessments of chemical toxicity at the behest of lobbyists for large chemical companies. No actual small businesses requested these interventions, according to the materials the Center for Effective Government obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests.

Specifically, the report, titled Small Businesses, Public Health, and Scientific Integrity: Whose Interests Does the Office of Advocacy at the Small Business Administration Serve?, reviewed the Office of Advocacy’s activities regarding toxicity assessments by the Department of Health and Human Service’s National Toxicology Program and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Integrated Risk Information System of the cancer-causing potential of three substances: formaldehyde, styrene, and hexavalent chromium. "In each case," said Randy Rabinowitz, Director of Regulatory Policy at the Center for Effective Government and one of the authors of the report, "the Office of Advocacy claimed that small businesses took issue with labeling these substances as known or suspected cancer-causing agents. We found no evidence that this was the case."

http://www.foreffectivegov.org/office-of-advocacy-report-press-release.

EPA Releases New Report on Children’s Health and the Environment in America

EPA today [Jan. 25, 2013] released "America’s Children and the Environment, Third Edition," a comprehensive compilation of information from a variety of sources on children’s health and the environment. The report shows trends for contaminants in air, water, food, and soil that may affect children; concentrations of contaminants in the bodies of children and women of child-bearing age; and childhood illnesses and health conditions.

"This latest report provides important information for protecting America’s most vulnerable – our children. It shows good progress on some issues, such as reducing children’s blood lead levels and exposure to tobacco smoke in the home, and points to the need for continued focus on other issues", said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson.

http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/bd4379a92ceceeac8525735900400c27/1fe31a8bc6eb3c4385257afe0061b1f4!OpenDocument.

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Freedom of Information

Activists Flood Government Agencies With FOIA Requests in Tribute to Aaron Swartz

In honor of the transparency fights that coder and internet activist Aaron Swartz led while alive, an online records processing service has submitted more than 100 public records requests on behalf of members of the public.

Muckrock, a site that processes public records requests for a fee on behalf of journalists, lawyers, activists and others, decided to waive its fee (generally $20 for five requests) last week and offer to submit federal Freedom of Information Act requests for free to honor Swartz, who committed suicide earlier this month.

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/01/foias-honor-aaron-swartz/.

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Privacy Issues

Congress Will Battle Over Internet Privacy in 2013

Last year, we saw more battles in Congress over Internet freedom than we have in many years as user protests stopped two dangerous bills, the censorship-oriented SOPA, and the privacy-invasive Cybersecurity Act of 2012. But Congress ended the year by ramming through a domestic spying bill and weakening the Video Privacy Protection Act.

In 2013, Congress will tackle several bills – both good and bad – that could shape Internet privacy for the next decade. Some were introduced last year, and some will be completely new. They include:

• Update to the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA)
• Restricting Government and Corporate Use of your Cell Phone GPS Info
• Cybersecurity Legislation

and more.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/01/congress-will-battle-over-internet-privacy-2013.

Facebook Graph Search: Privacy Control You Still Don’t Have

Facebook’s Graph Search has certainly caused quite a stir since it was first announced two weeks ago. We wrote earlier about how Graph Search, still in beta, presents new privacy problems by making shared information discoverable when previously it was hard—if not impossible – to find at a large scale. We also put out a call to action – and even created a handy how-to guide – urging people to reassess their privacy settings. One notable blog that has been making rounds on the Internet is Tom Scott’s Actual Facebook Graph Searches. Scott has compiled a number of unnerving—and in some cases, humorous—examples of Graph Searches, such as "Family members of people who live in China and like Falun Gong."

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/01/facebook-graph-search-privacy-control-you-still-dont-have.

Drone Programs Spark Budgetary, Privacy, Legal Concerns

The development of unmanned aerial systems (or drones) for military and civilian applications appears to be accelerating faster than the normal policy process can adapt to it. Aside from festering doubts about the legality, propriety and wisdom of their routine use in targeted killing operations, drone programs are beset by budgetary confusion, and a host of privacy and other legal problems are poised to emerge with the expanded use of drones in domestic airspace.

"With the ability to house high-powered cameras, infrared sensors, facial recognition technology, and license plate readers, some argue that drones present a substantial privacy risk. Undoubtedly, the government’s use of drones for domestic surveillance operations implicates the Fourth Amendment and other applicable laws," said a new report from the Congressional Research Service.

http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/2013/01/drone_legal.html.

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International Outlook

From Timbuktu, Reports That Most Manuscripts Were Saved

Reports from Timbuktu, Mali, on Wednesday indicate that most of the ancient manuscripts at a famed library may have been saved by residents before Islamist radicals had the chance to burn them. "I can say that the vast majority of the collections appear from our reports not to have been destroyed, damaged or harmed in any way," Shamil Jeppie, an expert on the documents who teaches at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, told Reuters.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/01/30/170680222/from-timbuktu-reports-that-manuscripts-have-been-saved.

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

The war that never was: Most elaborate Wikipedia hoax ever as 4,500 word article on ‘Bicholim Conflict’ – a fictitious fight for Goan independence – fooled site for FIVE YEARS

It was voted a ‘good article’ – a Wikipedia badge of honor – and sat happily on the online encyclopedia for more than half a decade. But editors have lately discovered a small issue with the site’s meticulously written 4,500 word article detailing the 17th century Bicholim Conflict.
It was entirely made up.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2257482/The-war-Wikipedia-fooled-years-Bicholim-Conflict-article-elaborate-4-500-word-hoax.html

Report on NYC Public Libraries – Branches of Opportunity

Branches of Opportunity, January 2013, Center for an Urban Future – “As more and more New Yorkers turn to digital books, Wikipedia and other online tools for information and entertainment, there is a growing sense that the age of the public library is over. But, in reality, New York City’s public libraries are more essential than ever.
http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/032346.html

US LIBRARY GIVES AFGHAN LEADER DIGITAL TREASURES

“The Library of Congress is using a $2 million gift to digitize cultural treasures and records from Afghanistan to give to that country’s libraries and universities. The gift was announced Friday at the U.S. State Department in a ceremony with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. A grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York will fund the project.”
http://www.librarystuff.net/2013/01/12/us-library-gives-afghan-leader-digital-treasures/

In this university’s laptop vending machine, the MacBooks are free

“Philadelphia’s Drexel University has installed a Macbook vending machine in the university’s Haggerty library. The kiosk dispenses MacBooks free of charge to Drexel students, staff, and faculty, who can use the machines for up to five hours at a time. The goal is simply to help students get better, safer access to technology. Students toting laptops are targets for muggers
http://www.librarystuff.net/2013/01/10/in-this-universitys-laptop-vending-machine-the-macbooks-are-free/

Public Policy

NYU Video At Risk Guidelines for Section 108 (c) Preservation

An exciting new resource developed by the Video at Risk team, this new report draws on the expertise of working video librarians, together with copyright lawyers Bob Clarida and Melissa Brown, to provide guidance on some of the thorniest questions surrounding application of Section 108 to decrepit video formats.
http://policynotes.arl.org/post/40102008798/nyu-video-at-risk-guidelines-for-section-108-c

National Cooperative Drug Discovery/Development Groups (NCDDG) for the Treatment of Mental Disorders, Drug or Alcohol Addiction (U19)

The purpose of the National Cooperative Drug Discovery/Development Group (NCDDG) Program is to create multidisciplinary research groups or partnerships for the discovery of pharmacological agents to treat and to study mental illness or drug or alcohol addiction. The objectives of this program are to: accelerate innovative drug discovery; develop pharmacologic tools for basic and clinical
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PAR-13-086.html

White House – National Strategy for Information Sharing and Safeguarding

“This National Strategy for Information Sharing and Safeguarding (Strategy) aims to strike the proper balance between sharing information with those who need it to keep our country safe and safeguarding it from those who would do us harm.
http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/032350.html

Digital Licenses Replace Print Prices as Accurate Reflection of Real Journal Costs

“Instead of purchasing subscriptions to individual journals, librarians are pursuing licensing agreements that provide perpetual digital access to a body of content. For major institutions with research needs across multiple disciplines, this means purchasing journal bundles or packages.
http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/032345.html

Privacy Concerns

Privacy on the Go – Recommendations for the Mobile Ecosystem

“Today, 85 percent of American adults own a cell phone and over half of them use their phones to access the Internet. The mobile app marketplace is also booming with more than 1,600 new mobile apps being introduced every day.
http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/032350.html

Intellectual Property

International Outlook

EU – Digital Agenda: Turning government data into gold

News release: “The Commission has launched an Open Data Strategy for Europe, which is expected to deliver a €40 billion boost to the EU’s economy each year. Europe’s public administrations are sitting on a goldmine of unrealised economic potential: the large volumes of information collected by numerous public authorities and services.
http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/032352.html

U.S. Health in International Perspective: Shorter Lives, Poorer Health

“Although the United States spends more on health care than any other nation, a growing body of research shows that Americans are in poorer health and live shorter lives than people in many other high-income countries. U.S. Health in International Perspective synthesizes available research, taking an in-depth look at this disadvantage in health and lifespan.
http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/032347.html

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

Intellectual Property Issues

Survival of the biggest: Concern about the clout of the internet giants is growing. But antitrust watchdogs should tread carefully

The four giants of the internet age—Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon—are extraordinary creatures. Never before has the world seen firms grow so fast or spread their tentacles so widely. Apple has become a colossus of capitalism, accounting for 4.3% of the value of the S&P 500 and 1.1% of the global equity market. Some 425m people now use its iTunes online store, whose virtual shelves are packed to the gills with music and other digital content. Google, meanwhile, is the undisputed global leader in search and online advertising. Its Android software powers three-quarters of the smartphones being shipped. Amazon dominates the online-retail and e-book markets in many countries; less well known is its behind-the-scenes power in cloud computing. As for Facebook, if the social network’s one billion users were a country, it would be the world’s third largest.

The digital revolution these giants have helped foment has brought huge benefits to consumers and businesses, and promoted free speech and the spread of democracy along the way. Yet they provoke fear as well as wonder. Their size and speed can, if left unchecked, be used to choke off competition. That is why they are attracting close scrutiny from regulators.

http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21567355-concern-about-clout-internet-giants-growing-antitrust-watchdogs-should-tread

Digital Rights Activists Gather in Auckland, New Zealand Next Week for the 15th Round of TPP Negotiations

Next week, the 15th round of Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement (TPP) negotiations will begin in Auckland, New Zealand. Hundreds of delegates and private representatives from the now 11 participating nations will gather at a luxury casino to discuss this multi-faceted trade agreement. EFF, KEI, and the Stop the Trap coalition will also join dozens of other public interest groups to sound the alarm over the TPP’s intellectual property (IP) chapter that could likely prompt countries to enact restrictive copyright enforcement laws that would have huge ramifications for users’ access to digital content and information. As we mentioned previously, countries continue to join the negotiations with no end in sight.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/11/digital-rights-activists-gather-auckland-new-zealand

Another fair use victory for libraries

We knew some time ago that the second complaint filed in the copyright infringement case brought against UCLA by the the trade association AIME over streamed digital video had been dismissed. But last week Judge Consuelo Marshall filed her order that explained the grounds of that dismissal (PDF). What we have learned is that this case is a slight victory for fair use in libraries.  On the specific issue we do not have clear guidance, just an affirmation that fair use arguments for streamed digital video are not unreasonable or obviously wrong.  But it is helpful to see this ruling as part of an overall picture, one in which all three cases claiming copyright infringement by academic libraries which were defended on the basis of fair use have now been decided at the trial court level and NO INFRINGEMENT HAS BEEN FOUND.

http://blogs.library.duke.edu/scholcomm/

Public Policy

Senate Passes Amendments to Shed Light on Contractor Misbehavior

The Senate has approved several amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act (S. 3254), which will bring greater transparency and accountability to federal contracting. The amendments would strengthen whistleblower protections for federal contractors and grantees, require the Defense Department to publish its "revolving door" database of senior department officials who seek employment with defense contractors, and require the Defense Department to conduct an annual study on defense contracting fraud.

http://www.ombwatch.org/senate-passes-amendments-to-shed-light-on-contractor-misbehavior

Open Access

Scientists Seek New Credibility Outside of Established Journals

The Open Access movement continued gaining steam in 2012. A third iteration of the Research Works Act was quashed, the number of universities adopting official open access policies continued to grow, dozens of new open access journals were launched, and a petition calling for public access to all federally funded research gathered enough signatures to get the attention of the White House. But Open Access is only one part of a larger shift taking place in the academic world—particularly the sciences—says Richard Price, founder and CEO of academia.edu. Price argues that academia is moving toward a system where the credibility of research, publications, and ultimately researchers themselves, is gauged not by the prestige of the journal in which works are published, but by the usage, citations, and professional feedback that the works generate online.

http://www.thedigitalshift.com/2012/11/research/scientists-seek-new-credibility-outside-of-established-journals/

United Nations Development Programme opens data on over 6,000 projects in transparency drive

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) today launched a new online portal allowing open, comprehensive public access to data on UNDP’s work in 177 countries and territories, fulfilling a commitment to full transparency by 2013 above and beyond international standards. The new portal, open.undp.org, comprises comprehensive programmatic information – from income and expenditures to activities and results – on more than 6,000 active UNDP projects, as well as those that financially closed in 2011, along with more than 8,000 outputs or results.  Users can sort projects by focus areas, funding sources, and locations and extract detailed data related to budgets, implementing organizations, and targeted results in areas from governance and rule of law to crisis prevention and recovery.

http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/presscenter/pressreleases/2012/11/29/undp-opens-data-on-over-6-000-projects-in-transparency-drive/

Privacy Issues

Heart Gadgets Test Privacy-Law Limits

The small box inside Amanda Hubbard’s chest beams all kinds of data about her faulty heart to the company that makes her defibrillator implant. Ms. Hubbard herself, however, can’t easily get that information unless she requests summaries from her doctor – whom she rarely sees since losing her insurance. In short, the data gathered by the Medtronic Inc. implant isn’t readily accessible to the person whose heartbeat it tracks. The U.S. has strict privacy laws guaranteeing people access to traditional health files. But implants and other new technologies – including smartphone apps and over-the-counter monitors—are testing the very definition of medical records. At the same time, companies including Medtronic are pushing to turn the data into money. The company is contemplating selling the data to health systems or insurers that could use it to predict diseases and possibly lower their costs. At a July industry event, a senior Medtronic executive, Ken Riff, called these kinds of data "the currency of the future."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203937004578078820874744076.html?mod=djemalertNEWS

NASA Suffers More Data Breaches

NASA has announced that the theft of an unencrypted laptop has compromised the personal information of a "large number" of NASA employees and contractors. A similar theft earlier this year exposed the data of thousands of Kennedy Space Center employees. The federal agency said that by the end of the year all NASA laptops must have full-disk encryption. The recent developments follow a 2010 United States Supreme Court case, NASA v. Nelson, in which a federal contractor challenged NASA’s overly broad collection of personal information. EPIC filed an amicus curiae brief (PDF) in support of the contractor Robert Nelson, arguing that there were insufficient legal protections and that NASA’s systems are vulnerable to data breaches. Robert Nelson is among the employees and contractors who this week received a notice from NASA about the data breach. For more information, see EPIC: NASA v. Nelson and EPIC: Privacy Act.

http://epic.org/2012/11/nasa-suffers-more-data-breache.html

Leahy Reaffirms Strong Support of Warrants for Content

Senator Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has released a manager’s amendment (PDF) that reaffirms the underlying premise of the legislation that the Judiciary Committee will mark up on Thursday: Law enforcement officials need a warrant in order to access the contents of electronic communications. (A section-by-section summary of the manager’s amendment is here.) If the manager’s amendment is adopted the Leahy bill will establish a clear, consistent, easy to apply warrant rule. It will protect consumer privacy, remove the uncertainty law enforcement currently faces, and foster the growth of U.S. cloud computing companies, which will be able to promise their clients that the information they store in cloud will be as secure against government access as information stored locally.

https://www.cdt.org/blogs/greg-nojeim/2711leahy-reaffirms-strong-support-warrants-content

Digital History

Building a Digital Public Library of America

The Boston Public Library, America’s first publicly funded municipal library, will host a celebration in April, 2013 to launch the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA): an ambitious, broad-based effort to establish a new library platform for our digitally-mediated age.

In its first iteration, the DPLA will bring together digital resources that are today distributed around the country and make them easily accessible and useful. Today, digital library materials are scattered in ways that no single librarian or patron could find them all. It would be prohibitively expensive for the DPLA to bring together materials from every single library, archive and museum in the country. Instead, the DPLA plans to connect existing state infrastructure to create a system of state (or in some cases, regional) service hubs, each offering standardized digital services to local institutions, including digitization and metadata services, and serving as an on-ramp for all by aggregating metadata and data from local institutions to feed into a new DPLA network.

http://www.thedigitalshift.com/2012/11/digital-libraries/building-a-digital-public-library-of-america/

International Outlook

Syrians Use Old and New Tools to Stay Online During Internet Shutdown

Information coming out of Syria has slowed to a trickle in the wake of Thursday’s country-wide communications shutdown, which included nearly all Internet traffic and intermittent cellular network and landline outages. Earlier today, Renesys reported that the last five networks that had survived the initial outage were off the air. In the meantime, experts have cast a skeptical eye on the Syrian Ministry of Information’s claims that the outage is the result of sabotage by "terrorists," a term that the Assad regime has frequently used to describe the opposition.

Even under these adverse conditions, some Syrians have found ways to get online, stay in touch with family and loved ones abroad, and keep the world appraised of events on the ground at a time when fighting has escalated and reliable intelligence is scarce. Dlshad Othman, a Syrian activist and IT specialist, estimates that the number of people online in Syria at the moment is probably "less than 1,000," yet Global Voices reports that videos of protests are still finding their way online.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/11/day-2-syrias-internet-shutdown

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.

Public Policy

Accuracy Isn’t Priority as VA Battles Disability Claims Backlog

A lawsuit filed by the former VA disability claims representative provides a rare glimpse into what veterans’ advocates call systemic problems in how the agency handles compensation claims filed by Americans wounded physically or mentally in the line of duty. A Center for Investigative Reporting review of the VA’s performance data reveals chronic errors – committed in up to 1 in 3 cases – and an emphasis on speed over accuracy that clogs the VA system with appeals, increasing delays for all veterans. "When the VA makes a mistake processing a veteran’s claim, then our veterans face another unacceptably long wait," said Paul Sullivan, a Gulf War veteran and former senior VA project manager who now works for the Washington, D.C.-area law firm Bergmann & Moore. "These veterans, many of whom are unemployable due to disabilities, often lose their homes and are unable to put food on the table for themselves and their families."

As of mid-October, appeals represented nearly a third of the more than 819,000 pending disability claims. Nationwide over the past year, the average time a veteran waits for a decision has increased by more than two months – to 260 days. Veterans who appeal wait an average of 3½ years, according to VA performance data obtained by CIR through the Freedom of Information Act.

http://blogs.kqed.org/newsfix/2012/11/09/accuracy-isn%E2%80%99t-priority-as-va-battles-disability-claims-backlog/

Court Blocks [California's] Proposition 35′s Restriction on Anonymous Speech

A few hours after EFF and the ACLU of Northern California filed a class action lawsuit in San Francisco federal court challenging California’s recently enacted Proposition 35, the court issued a temporary restraining order, blocking implementation of the initiative due to the existence of "serious questions" about whether it violated the First Amendment. Proposition 35 is ostensibly about increasing punishment for human traffickers, but would also require all registered sex offenders in California to turn over a list of all their Internet identifiers and service providers to law enforcement.

Proposition 35 eliminates the ability of a whole class of people — 73,000 individuals in California — to speak anonymously online by forcing them to turn over any identifier they use, whether its "Anonymous" or their real name. Plus, it requires disclosure of information about online accounts unrelated to criminal activity, like Yelp or Amazon.com. And most troubling, it allows the government to monitor and record a wide swath of innocent Internet activity, from a registrant with a fantasy football team to the one who comments on a political discussion group.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/11/court-blocks-proposition-35s-restriction-anonymous-speech

Intellectual Property Issues

HathiTrust Verdict Could Transform University Access for the Blind

While the verdict in the Authors Guild v. HathiTrust case has been widely hailed for its impact on how libraries can handle digitization for search, the findings on access for the print-disabled may lead to even more profound changes in practice. On an Association of Research Libraries (ARL) webcast, Daniel F. Goldstein, counsel of the National Federation of the Blind (NFB), said the decision could revolutionize university services to their blind and print disabled students.

According to Goldstein, up until now, many colleges and universities have re-digitized the same books over and over, on demand, for each blind or print-disabled student that needs them. Now that the HathiTrust verdict has held that digitizing works for the purpose of providing access to the blind and print-disabled is not only a fair but a transformative use, schools can feel safer hanging onto those scans until the next student who needs them comes along, and can spend their efforts on improving them or scanning more books, instead of doing the same bare minimum of texts over and over.

http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2012/11/copyright/hathitrust-verdict-could-transform-university-access-for-the-blind/

LCA Issues Statement on Authors Guild’s Appeal of HathiTrust Decision

The Library Copyright Alliance (LCA) has issued the following statement regarding the appeal filed yesterday by the Authors Guild in its lawsuit against the HathiTrust and five partner libraries:

"We are deeply disappointed by the Authors Guild’s decision to appeal Judge Baer’s landmark opinion acknowledging the legality, and the extraordinary social value, of the HathiTrust Digital Library. Libraries have a moral and a legal obligation to provide the broadest possible access to knowledge for all of our users, and the HathiTrust and its partners have assembled an invaluable digital resource that will ensure for the first time that library print collections can be made available on equitable terms to our print-disabled users. The database also facilitates preservation and cutting-edge scholarship, all with no harm to authors or publishers. As we predicted, Judge Baer did not look kindly on the Guild’s shortsighted and ill-conceived lawsuit, saying, "I cannot imagine a definition of fair use that … would require that I terminate this invaluable contribution to the progress of science and cultivation of the arts that at the same time effectuates the ideals espoused by the ADA." If there is an upside to this misguided appeal, it is that the Second Circuit will now have the opportunity to affirm that powerful insight.

http://www.arl.org/news/pr/hathitrust-appealstatement-09nov12.shtml

Freedom of Information

When Congress Comes Back: How It Can Help Protect the Internet

Now that the election is over, Congress can get back to work doing the people’s business. And if that work is going to affect online expression, innovation, and/or privacy, it should start with a simple proposition: bring in the nerds (aka experts) and Internet users who care deeply about protecting their digital rights.

Just about a year ago, we watched in horror as ranking members of the House Judiciary Committee did their level best to ram through the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), a massive piece of legislation that would have undermined basic Internet architecture and security, chilled innovation and free speech. Standing against them were a few brave legislators, who suggested that maybe, just maybe, it would be a good idea to hear from the numerous folks who had expressed concerns about the bill, including the widely-respected engineers who helped create the Internet, law professors, human rights groups, and ordinary Internet users.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/11/when-congress-comes-back-how-it-can-help-protect-internet

FOIA for Profit

The next time you request documents for declassification, it is likely your submission will be processed by a private contractor, not a government employee. The privatization of the FOIA process has proliferated in recent years. According to a recent Bloomberg article, "At least 25 agencies are outsourcing parts of the FOIA process, a 40 percent jump since Obama’s inauguration." Since 2009, the government has awarded at least 250 FOIA related contracts, and in most cases contractors now outnumber government employees three to one.

Levels of involvement vary from agency to agency, but these contractors are now routinely involved in nearly every stage of the process, including submitting recommendations for what to redact, corresponding with requesters, locating records and drafting responses to FOIA requests.

http://nsarchive.wordpress.com/2012/11/06/foia-for-profit/

Pentagon Inspector General to Probe Overclassification

The Department of Defense Inspector General (IG) announced that it will begin to review the Department’s classification practices, as required by the 2010 Reducing Over-Classification Act. The review will evaluate the policies and procedures "that may be contributing to persistent misclassification of material." It will also address "efforts by the Department to decrease over-classification," wrote Acting Deputy Inspector General James R. Ives in an October 3 letter sent to Department officials.

http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/2012/11/dodig_overclass.html

Privacy Issues

As Libraries Go Digital, Sharing of Data Is at Odds With Tradition of Privacy

Colleges share many things on Twitter, but one topic can be risky to broach: the reading habits of library patrons. Harvard librarians learned that lesson when they set up Twitter feeds broadcasting titles of books being checked out from campus libraries. It seemed harmless enough – a typical tweet read, "Reconstructing American Law by Bruce A. Ackerman," with a link to the book’s library catalog entry—but the social-media experiment turned out to be more provocative than library staffers imagined.

Harvard suspended the practice after privacy concerns were raised. Historically, libraries have been staunch defenders of patrons’ privacy. Yet to embrace many aspects of the modern Internet, which has grown more social and personalized, libraries will need to "tap into and encourage increased flows of personal information from their patrons," says the privacy-and-social-media scholar Michael Zimmer.

https://chronicle.com/article/As-Libraries-Go-Digital/135514/

Lawmakers Release Information About How Data Brokers Handle Consumers’ Personal Information

A bipartisan group of lawmakers, including Reps. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and Joe Barton (R-Texas), co-Chairmen of the Congressional Bi-Partisan Privacy Caucus, today released responses to letters sent to nine major data brokerage companies querying each about how it collects, assembles and sells consumer information to third parties. The companies – Acxiom, Epsilon (Alliance Data Systems), Equifax, Experian, Harte-Hanks, Intelius, Fair Isaac, Merkle, and Meredith Corp. – responded to lawmaker questions about policies and practices related to privacy, transparency and consumer notification. Data brokers represent a multi-billion dollar industry, aggregating information about hundreds of millions of Americans from both online and offline sources, which they then may sell to third parties for targeted advertising and other purposes. Consumers often have little knowledge of the existence of these companies.

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/031794.html

Pediatrics Group: EHRs [electronic health records] Should Better Protect Privacy of Adolescents

The American Academy of Pediatrics recently released a new policy statement calling for modifications to electronic health record systems to better protect the privacy of adolescent patients, FierceEMR reports. AAP wrote, "Continued lack of privacy protection in EHRs risks diminishing adolescent access to care, potentially resulting in higher adolescent pregnancy and [sexually transmitted infection] rates, and unraveling significant gains that have been achieved."

http://www.ihealthbeat.org/articles/2012/11/6/pediatrics-group-ehrs-should-better-protect-privacy-of-adolescents.aspx

International Outlook

UNESCO launches Global Survey on Internet Privacy and Freedom of Expression

How do the "digital footprints" of Internet and cellphone users affect privacy, and what impact does this have on freedom of expression? These questions lie at the heart of a new study released by UNESCO this week … This publication seeks to identify the relationship between freedom of expression and Internet privacy, assessing where they support or compete with each other in different circumstances. The book maps out the issues in the current regulatory landscape of Internet privacy from the viewpoint of freedom of expression. It provides an overview of legal protection, self-regulatory guidelines, normative challenges, and case studies relating to the topic.

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/031819.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.

Public Policy

Court: Memphis library cards can be used at the polls

The Tennessee Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that photo ID cards issued by the Memphis Public Library qualify as a valid form of identification in Tuesday’s election. In a statement, state election officials said Memphis residents will be allowed to use library-issued IDs in next week’s election. The ruling applies only to voters within Shelby County.

After Tuesday’s presidential election, the high court will take up the question of whether the state’s new voter ID law is constitutional.

http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2012311020065&nclick_check=1

Nonprofits, shell corporations help shield identity of ad backers; Names occasionally slip through

In the 2012 election, nonprofits have been the preferred vehicle for donors who prefer to keep their identities secret. But with the right lawyers, super PACs, which are supposedly transparent about their donors, can accomplish the same feat.

Super PACs do report their donors. In some instances, though, those donors are nonprofits. Or the funds might come from shell corporations, which have passed through millions of dollars to the political organizations from unidentified donors in this election. Last week, the American Energy Opportunity Fund, a 501(c)(4) group led by two executives at an oil and gas company, revealed it had paid for nearly $800,000 in radio ads targeting President Barack Obama on his energy policy and the funds came thanks to a donation from Las Vegas casino titan Sheldon Adelson. Adelson and his family have given more than $53 million to super PACs this election.

http://www.publicintegrity.org/2012/10/30/11661/nonprofits-shell-corporations-help-shield-identity-ad-backers

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Privacy Issues

Angry Birds Has A Ravenous Ability to Collect Personal Data

Angry Birds, the top-selling paid mobile app for the iPhone in the United States and Europe, has been downloaded more than a billion times by devoted game players around the world, who often spend hours slinging squawking fowl at groups of egg-stealing pigs.

While regular players are familiar with the particular destructive qualities of certain of these birds, many are unaware of one facet: The game possesses a ravenous ability to collect personal information on its users.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/29/technology/mobile-apps-have-a-ravenous-ability-to-collect-personal-data.html?ref=technology

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Freedom of Information

Judge Orders DOJ to Justify Secrecy of Watergate-era Wiretaps

A federal judge in Washington today ordered the U.S. Justice Department to justify the continued need for secrecy over certain Watergate-era wiretap and grand jury records that remain sealed in a high-profile criminal prosecution.

Government lawyers oppose the public disclosure of any papers about illegally obtained wiretaps tied to the Watergate scandal. The Justice Department this summer, in response to a demand for those records, argued there’s no First Amendment or public right of access to illegally obtained wiretaps. Historical or scholarly interest, the government said, doesn’t justify discretionary disclosure.

http://legaltimes.typepad.com/blt/2012/11/judge-orders-doj-to-justify-secrecy-of-watergate-era-wiretaps.html

Latest Dark Money Tallies: $213 million in the general election and counting, 81% on behalf of Republicans; 34 races with $1 million or more

Back in July, Senate Republicans successfully blocked the DISCLOSE Act, which would have required all organizations spending $10,000 or more to reveal their donors. Now we understand why.

Through Nov.1, at least $213.0 million has been spent in the general election by "dark money" groups to influence the 2012 elections. Of that, $172.4 million (81%) has been spent to help Republican candidates, as compared to $35.7 million (19%) to help Democrats. (By "dark money" we mean groups that do not disclose their donors and only are required to disclose their congressional race spending within 60 days of House and Senate elections and their presidential race spending following the national party conventions).

http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2012/11/02/dark-money-tallies/

Redistricting: GOP and Dems alike have cloaked the process in secrecy

When state legislators in Wisconsin began work last year on a plan for redistricting, the once-a-decade process when states draw new district maps for Congress and state legislatures, they found themselves presented with non-disclosure agreements requiring them to keep their deliberations confidential.

In the lead up to the most recent round of redistricting, which began last year with the release of data from the 2010 census, politicians, advocates and "good government" groups nationwide pushed to open the process to citizens and allow for broader debate than in the past. The idea was that a transparent process would lead to maps that made more sense geographically and better reflected voters’ interests.

But with few exceptions, the political parties in control of statehouses rammed their own partisan proposals through the legislatures as quickly as possible, leaving little more than nominal opportunities for the public to influence the process. In several states, legislatures outsourced the actual work to lawyers and used claims of attorney-client privilege to further exclude the public.

http://www.publicintegrity.org/2012/11/01/11670/redistricting-gop-and-dems-alike-have-cloaked-process-secrecy

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Intellectual Property Issues

Good News for Libraries in Latest Round of DMCA Exceptions

Last Friday the Librarian of Congress officially issued the latest iteration of rules describing exceptions to the general rule in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) that it is unlawful to break digital locks (also known as technical protection measures (TPMs) or digital rights management (DRM)).

The law requires that every three years the Copyright Office seek information about noninfringing uses that are frustrated by digital locks, and based on submissions from the public, recommend exceptions to the Librarian, who issues a final order with classes of works that can be unlocked. This time around, two rule changes should be of particular interest to research libraries.

First, there is a significantly expanded exception to allow breaking digital locks on ebooks in order to facilitate access for the print disabled. ….

Second, the exception for using video materials is significantly expanded. ….

http://policynotes.arl.org/post/34574967404/good-news-for-libraries-in-latest-round-of-dmca

Supreme Court seeks a way around "perpetual copyright" on foreign goods

If the Supreme Court is looking for a middle ground in Wiley v. Kirtsaeng, it’s going to be hard to find. That copyright case, argued this morning, could have a big impact on resale markets around the country.

It’s impossible to know from reading into oral arguments which way the court will go. Questions from the bench today show the justices are seriously concerned about the possible effects on resellers of common goods, as well as legal obstacles that could be created for museums and libraries. At one point, Justice Stephen Breyer grilled Wiley’s lawyer about how a victory for his side would avoid interfering with the sale of millions of used Toyotas.

The case started in 2008, when textbook manufacturer John Wiley & Sons sued Supap Kirtsaeng for re-selling textbooks he bought in Thailand on the cheap. Wiley argues that by importing and selling the books without permission, Kirtsaeng violated copyright law – even though the books aren’t pirated, they’re simply cheap foreign editions.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/10/supreme-court-seeks-a-way-around-perpetual-copyright-on-foreign-goods/

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International Outlook

Torture Fears for Open Source Software Activist Detained in Syria

In July, the Electronic Frontier Foundation called for the immediate release of open source developer and Creative Commons volunteer Bassel Khartabil, who had been detained in Syria since March 12, 2012 as part of a wave of arrests made in the Mazzeh district of Damascus. We felt that the situation was especially urgent in light of a recent Human Rights Watch report documenting the use of torture in 27 detention facilities run by Syrian intelligence agencies. Now it appears that our concerns were well-founded. According to a new Amnesty International report, a released detainee has informed Bassel Khartabil’s family that he is being held at the Military Intelligence Branch in Kafr Sousseh and had been tortured and otherwise ill-treated.

In response to this alarming news, Bassel’s friends and supporters around the world have launched a letter-writing campaign, hoping to flood Syrian officials and diplomats with physical mail demanding that Khartabil be formally charged and given access to a lawyer or released immediately. Participants are encouraged to send photographs of their letters to info@freebassel.org.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/10/torture-fears-open-source-software-activist-detained-syria

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Libraries

New York City Libraries Relatively Unscathed; New Jersey Still Taking Stock

As New York City public transportation crawls back to life and New Yorkers struggle to resume their lives after Sandy, those seeking refuge–or simply reading materials–will be able to plug in and warm up at 55 of the New York Public Library’s 90 branches this morning. The rest, including the main 42nd Street branch, remained closed on Thursday–mostly due to power problems rather than flooding, says Angela Montefinise, NYPL’s Public Relations Director.

Remarkably, NYPL’s system, incorporating libraries in Manhattan, Staten Island, and the Bronx, suffered virtually no structural damage, says Montefinise.

Elsewhere, in New York and New Jersey, assessments are still being made.

http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2012/11/industry-news/new-york-city-libraries-relatively-unscathed-new-jersey-still-taking-stock/

Freedom of Information

Court Orders FBI to Release Withheld Information

As often happens, the Federal Bureau of Investigation invoked national security a few years ago to justify withholding certain information from a Freedom of Information Act requester named Deirdre McKiernan Hetzler.

But as rarely happens, a court last month critically assessed the FBI national security claim and ordered the Bureau to release some of the withheld information.
http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/2012/10/hetzler_fbi.html

Kiriakou Pleads Guilty in Leak Case

This morning former CIA officer John Kiriakou pleaded guilty to one count of disclosure of information identifying a covert agent, a violation of the Intelligence Identities Protection Act.

“When KIRIAKOU disclosed the identity of Officer A to Journalist A, KIRIAKOU acted willfully in that defendant knew the disclosure was illegal,” according to a Statement of Facts approved and signed by Mr. Kiriakou today.
http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/2012/10/kiriakou_plea.html

Stephen King’s ‘Different Seasons’: Banned, briefly, at Rocklin High School

“Think about Stephen King books with disturbing themes and the tale of the Overlook, a malevolent hotel, might come to mind, or Christine, a malevolent Plymouth. As a bestselling horror novelist, King made his bones and his fortune by frightening the wits out of readers. Yet it was his collection of non-horror novellas with themes more societal than scary that was briefly banned this month from a high school outside Sacramento.”
http://www.librarystuff.net/2012/10/28/stephen-kings-different-seasons-banned-briefly-at-rocklin-high-school/

Public Policy

DLC Annual Meeting and Conference

The Government Relations Office staff is attending the Depository Library Council Meeting and Federal Depository Library Conference this week in Arlington, VA!

In addition to educational sessions offered by government agencies and librarians, the Government Printing Office will be presenting the preliminary results from the FDLP Forecast Study, and you can tune in online. More information is available on the FDLP Desktop, and a transcript will be available after the event.
http://aallwash.wordpress.com/2012/10/17/dlc-annual-meeting-and-conference/

Conservatives’ Tax Strategy: Use Economic Fears to Cut Taxes for the Wealthy

Congressional conservatives have revealed their negotiating strategy for dealing with the fiscal cliff slope: scare the public and congressional Democrats into a deal that reduces the deficit through spending cuts alone. These fears have been blown out of proportion. A fiscal Armageddon will not happen on Jan. 1, 2013.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) tipped their strategy when they responded to a speech by Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who called on Democrats to fight to retain Clinton-era income tax levels for upper-income households. Schumer urged Democrats to allow the top two income tax brackets to revert back to 36 and 39.6 percent (from their current levels – 33 and 35 percent) and to increase the capital gains tax rate to some level below 40 percent (from today’s 15 percent).
http://www.ombwatch.org/conservatives-tax-strategy-use-economic-fears-to-cut-taxes-for-wealthy

D.C. Council members push for longer library hour

“D.C. library advocates told D.C. Council members Thursday that they want libraries to be open longer, but are worried that extra hours would mean more staffing. “We want extended hours, but there needs to be funding to staff these hours,” said Susan B. Haight, president of the Federation of Friends of the DC Public Library. “My concern is that legislation will be passed and the funding will not follow. An unfunded mandate does not work for us.”
http://www.librarystuff.net/2012/10/26/d-c-council-members-push-for-longer-library-hours/

Privacy Concerns

Privacy & Civil Liberties Oversight Board Invites Public Input
The long-dormant Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) announced that it will hold its first public meeting next week and it invited members of the public to provide input to help shape the Board’s near-term agenda.
“In anticipation of setting the agenda of issues on which the Board will focus its attention, the Board would welcome the views of nongovernmental organizations and members of the public,” stated a notice in the October 23 Federal Register.
http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/2012/10/pclob_meeting.html

Open Access

Government Accountability Office Report Debunks Industry Criticism of New Federal Fracking Rules

As of Oct. 15, oil and gas operators must notify the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) via e-mail two days in advance of extracting natural gas from a hydraulically fractured or refractured well. This notification requirement is part of EPA’s new Clean Air Act (CAA) standards, which will reduce emissions from volatile organic compounds (VOCs) released during natural gas production by requiring “green completions” after January 2015. Industry opposes the standards, but a new report shows they are crucial to protecting the public.

The oil and gas industry appears to be ramping up its lobbying efforts to dismantle the new rule, beginning with criticism of the advance notice requirement that went into effect last week. In particular, drillers are upset that they must send the advance notice to EPA, preferring state regulation of hydraulic fracturing.
http://www.ombwatch.org/gao-rpt-and-new-clean-air-act-fracking-rule

Fracking Continues to Expand Rapidly Despite New Evidence of Health Risks

Another public interest report has confirmed that shale gas extraction is creating new public health risks. However, the fracking boom grows unabated, and drilling is occurring near schools and other locations. This could lead to increased chemical exposures among children and other vulnerable populations.
http://www.ombwatch.org/fracking-expands-despite-health-risks

Scaling Up Transparency: New Approaches Could Yield Greater Openness

Two reforms launched by federal agencies this month represent new approaches to more efficiently releasing government information. New websites to publish declassified documents and records released under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) could set new precedents and improve on older practices by making the information available to everyone online.
http://www.ombwatch.org/scaling-up-transparency

iPads set to take over from books in school libraries, principal says

“Principal of Madison Park Primary David Lawton said books would become a “thing of the past”. “The day has arrived – iPads are here … look out books,” Mr Lawton told the News Review Messenger. “School library budgets are being lowered and our budgets for technology are higher, so it’s only a matter of time before technology takes over from the traditional way of teaching. “IPads are increasing the rate and quality of learning and schools have to lead in this area.”
http://www.librarystuff.net/2012/10/26/ipads-set-to-take-over-from-books-in-school-libraries-principal-says/

International Outlook

Podcast: The Foreign Policy Auction with Ben Freeman
POGO’s Ben Freeman just released his book The Foreign Policy Auction, so we sat down with him to find out who is paying to change U.S. foreign policy and how.
http://www.pogo.org/pogo-files/podcasts/government-corruption/podcast-foreign-policy-auction.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.