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

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

White House Regulatory Office Too Quiet About Its Activities, Study Finds
“A notable portion of meeting records, oral communications and public comments related to agency rulemaking are absent from the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs website, according to a new study that faults OIRA for less-than-full transparency during the last 12 years.”
http://www.govexec.com/management/2013/02/white-house-regulatory-office-too-quiet-about-its-activities-study-finds/61536/

Senator Tester Keeps Fighting the Good Fight for Transparency
“Today, Senator Tester announced that once again he has introduced the Senate Campaign Disclosure Parity Act, (not yet online) a bill that would bring the Senate into the 21st Century by requiring senators and Senate candidates to electronically file their campaign finance reports with the Federal Election Commission.”
http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2013/02/26/senator-tester-keeps-fighting-the-good-fight-for-transparency/

Public Policy

E-rate’s looming Fiscal Cliff
“While Congress and the White House debate how to prevent the looming across-the-board budgets cuts known as sequestration, those of us in the E-rate world are worrying about our own “fiscal cliff.” For the past several years E-rate applicants have been biting their nails waiting to see what totals are going to be requested from the capped fund and if there will be enough money to fund their applications. In 2012, we heard a collective gasp when the school and library applications showed that for the first time in the 15 years of the program there was not going to be enough money to cover all the priority one requests, with a shortfall of some $2.8 billion. After shaking out the couch cushions and emptying the penny jars, USAC was able to make up the deficit so that all of these applications could receive funding and the first tier of priority two applications would also receive funding.”
http://www.districtdispatch.org/2013/02/e-rates-looming-fiscal-cliff/

Open Access

SLA Supports Open Access to Federally Funded Research
“SLA, along with 11 other library, publishing, research and advocacy organizations, wrote a letter thanking U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden for introducing legislation titled “The Fair Access to Science and Technology Research Act” (FASTR). This bill, introduced on February 13, will provide an important mechanism to ensure that manuscripts of peer-reviewed scientific articles reporting on research funded by the U.S. Government can be freely accessed and fully used by all American taxpayers – including researchers, teachers, students and businesses.”
http://slablogger.typepad.com/sla_blog/2013/02/sla-supports-open-access-to-federally-funded-research.html

Internet Access

Internet Governance, Policy Up for Debate at UNESCO Meeting in Paris
“This week, Internet governance experts and advocates gather in Paris to start preparing for the ten-year review of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in 2015. This week’s meeting is hosted by the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO); CDT’s Leslie Harris and Matthew Shears will be appearing on several panels addressing questions of privacy, free expression, and cybersecurity – key issues in Internet policy that will shape governance debates over the next few years. The WSIS+10 event will give government, industry, civil society, academics, and the technical community an opportunity to continue conversations about Internet governance and policy that were features of the WCIT debates.”
https://www.cdt.org/blogs/emma-llanso/2602internet-governance-policy-debate-unesco-meeting-paris

Digital History

Building the Digital Public Library of America
“The Digital Public Library of America will launch on April 18 after two and a half years of careful planning and preparation. The project known as DPLA is the first national effort that seeks to aggregate existing records in state and regional digital libraries so that they are searchable from a single portal. Up until now, the documents that tell the story of our nation’s history and cultural heritage have largely been siloed in state and local libraries, museums, and archives. Some institutions have the ability to digitize those valuable materials and put them online, but strained budgets mean that most do not. The project’s funding will also allow it to work with local communities to digitize their cultural-heritage—preserving them for the future and bringing them online as part of our first national digital library.”
http://www.knightfoundation.org/blogs/knightblog/2013/2/28/building-the-digital-public-library-america/

Intellectual Property

Copyright Alert System Launching Today
“The long-discussed Copyright Alert System (CAS) is launching today — but don’t expect any immediate fireworks.  It’s going to take some time to see how the system operates in practice; all that will happen this week is that some Internet users may receive initial informational alerts. Under the CAS, ISPs will send warning notices to subscribers that copyright holders have identified as engaging in copyright infringement on peer-to-peer networks.  In the optimistic scenario, this notification-centric approach will serve a largely educational purpose, informing users that their file sharing activity may be both illegal and observable by rightsholders.  Some users may not have been fully aware of that.  And in some cases, notices may clue parents in to illegal behavior they weren’t aware of, such as file sharing by the household teenager.  This is why CDT has said that the CAS has the potential to help reduce peer-to-peer copyright infringement while sidestepping the serious concerns raised by approaches that involve (for example) government mandates or the adoption of new snooping or filtering technologies. There are risks, however.”
https://www.cdt.org/blogs/david-sohn/2502copyright-alert-system-launching-today

New German Law Will Allow Free “Snippets” By Search Engines, But Uncertainty Remains
“The good news for search engines like Google is a proposed German copyright law won’t require them to pay to show short summaries of news content. However, uncertainty remains about how much might be “too much” and require a license. The new law is expected to pass on Friday.”
http://searchengineland.com/new-german-law-will-allow-free-snippets-by-search-engines-but-uncertainty-remains-150131

Privacy Issues

Supreme Court Dismisses Challenge to FISA Amendments Act; EFF’s Lawsuit Over NSA Warrantless Wiretapping Remains
“Yesterday, the Supreme Court sadly dismissed the ACLU’s case, Clapper v. Amnesty International, which challenged the FISA Amendments Act (FAA)—the unconstitutional law that allows the government to wiretap Americans communicating with people overseas. Under the FAA, the government can conduct this surveillance without naming individuals and without a traditional probable cause warrant, as the Fourth Amendment requires. The court didn’t address the constitutionality of the FAA itself, but instead ruled that the plaintiffs—a group of lawyers, journalists, and human rights advocates who regularly communicate with likely “targets” of FAA wiretapping—couldn’t prove the surveillance was “certainly impending,” so therefore didn’t have the “standing” necessary to sue. In other words, since the Americans did not have definitive proof that they were being surveilled under the FAA—a fact the government nearly always keeps secret—they cannot challenge the constitutionality of the statute.”
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/02/supreme-court-dismisses-challenge-fisa-warrantless-wiretapping-law-effs-lawsuit

International Outlook

German National Data Portal Launched
“Wednesday saw the launch of the German national data portal. While the portal had been longtime expected, in the last days before the launch the German open data community has been vocal in its criticism of the introduction of a newly created national license framework, which includes the option to limit re-use to non-commercial use forms. The portal will also hold non-open data as well as data in closed formats. This in the expectation that once data is published in some shape or form the pressure on the data holder will rise to provide the data as really open data as well.”
http://epsiplatform.eu/content/german-national-data-portal-launched

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 consider Va. limits on access to public records

The Supreme Court’s justices suggested Wednesday that state laws limiting access to government records to their own state residents might be pointless, but the justices seemed not to be persuaded that the laws are also unconstitutional. Lawyers for two men who had sought government records from Virginia – joined by a broad group of media organizations and professional data miners – asked the court Wednesday to invalidate those restrictions, arguing that they discriminated against out-of-state residents in ways that violated two separate constitutional limits.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/02/20/supreme-court-state-access-laws/1932847/.

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Intellectual Property Issues

Free Speech Battle Over Publication of Federal Law

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) asked a federal judge today to protect the free speech rights of an online archive of laws and legal standards after a wrongheaded copyright claim forced the removal of a document detailing important technical standards required by the federal government and several states. Last month, the association of Sheet Metal and Air Conditioning Contractors (SMACNA) claimed an online post of a federally-mandated 1985 standard on air-duct leakage violated its copyright and demanded the post be removed. After a threat of legal action from SMACNA, the document was taken down.

https://www.eff.org/press/releases/free-speech-battle-over-publication-federal-law.

Public Domain, My Dear Watson? Lawsuit Challenges Conan Doyle Copyrights

Some 125 years after his first appearance, Sherlock Holmes remains a hot literary property, inspiring thousands of pastiches, parodies and sequels in print, to saying nothing of the hit Warner Bros. film starring Robert Downey Jr. and such television series as "Elementary" and the BBC’s "Sherlock."

But according to a civil complaint filed on Thursday in federal court in Illinois by a leading Holmes scholar, many licensing fees paid to the Arthur Conan Doyle estate have been unnecessary, since the main characters and elements of their story derived from materials published before Jan. 1, 1923, are no longer covered by United States copyright law.

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/15/public-domain-my-dear-watson-lawsuit-challenges-conan-doyle-copyrights/.

DRM Lawsuit Filed By Independent Bookstores Against Amazon, "Big Six" Publishers

Three independent bookstores are taking Amazon and the so-called Big Six publishers (Random House, Penguin, Hachette, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster and Macmillan) to court in an attempt to level the playing field for book retailers. If successful, the lawsuit could completely change how ebooks are sold. The class-action complaint, filed in New York on Feb 15., claims that by entering into confidential agreements with the Big Six publishers, who control approximately 60 percent of print book revenue in the U.S., Amazon has created a monopoly in the marketplace that is designed to control prices and destroy independent booksellers. The complaint centers on digital rights management, or DRM, the technological lock that prevents consumers from transferring any ebook they buy on an Amazon Kindle onto, say, a Nook or Kobo ereader.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/20/drm-lawsuit-independent-bookstores-amazon_n_2727519.html.

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Internet Access

Oxford Blocks Google Docs in Response to Phishing Scams

The University of Oxford temporarily blocked Google Docs on Monday in an attempt to make its students and professors more aware of an increase in phishing scams that use the Web service. In a blog post, Robin Stevens, a communications programmer at Oxford, said university officials had decided to take "extreme action" after what they perceived to be Google’s inaction on the issue.

In the schemes, attackers, often pretending to be from Oxford, send out Google Doc forms that ask users to enter their personal e-mail passwords. Students and faculty members deceived by the form then freely type in that information, unwittingly lending their account to the attacker. "Almost all the recent attacks have used Google Docs URLs, and in some cases the phishing e-mails have been sent from an already-compromised university account to large numbers of other Oxford users," said Mr. Stevens.

http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/oxford-blocks-google-docs-in-response-to-phishing-scams/42401.

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Public Policy

33% of Seafood Mislabeled in Grocery Stores, Restaurants & Sushi Venues

Oceana, the largest international advocacy group working solely to protect the world’s oceans, uncovered widespread seafood fraud across the United States, according to a new report (PDF) released today. In one of the largest seafood fraud investigations in the world to date, DNA testing confirmed that one-third of the 1,215 fish samples collected by Oceana from 674 retail outlets in 21 states were mislabeled. Among the report’s other key findings include:

• Only seven of the 120 red snapper samples collected nationwide were actually red snapper
• 84 percent of the white tuna samples were actually escolar, a species that can cause serious digestive issues for some individuals who eat more than a few ounces
• Fish on the FDA’s "DO NOT EAT" list for sensitive groups such as pregnant women and children because of their high mercury content were sold to customers who had ordered safer fish

Oceana is calling on the federal government to require traceability of all seafood sold in the U.S. Tracking fish from boat to plate would not only significantly reduce seafood fraud and help keep illegally caught fish out of the U.S. market, it would also give consumers more information about the fish they purchase, including the species name, where, when and how it was caught, if it was farmed or previously frozen and if any additives were using during processing.

http://oceana.org/en/news-media/press-center/press-releases/oceana-study-uncovers-widespread-seafood-fraud-nationwide.

Research – Public Reporting of Hospital Infection Rates

Health-care associated infections (HAIs) kill about 100,000 people annually; most are preventable, but many hospitals have not aggressively addressed the problem. In response, twenty-five states and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services require public reporting of hospital infection rates for at least some types of infections, and other states and private entities are implementing such reporting. We report on work in progress, in which we assess the quality and suitability of different state websites and reports for different target audiences and the extent to which they meet best practices for online communication.

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/032662.html.

White House Open Access Memo Strong, Could Be Stronger

Today [Feb. 22], the White House released a memorandum (PDF) in support of a more robust policy for public access to research, making the results of billions of dollars of taxpayer-funded research freely available online. The memorandum gives government agencies six months to detail plans to ensure the public can read and analyze both research and data, without charge. Both open access and open data are key to promoting innovation, government transparency, and scientific progress. This comes on the heels of Congress’ introduction of FASTR (Fair Access to Science & Technology Research), a bill that sets into law many of the same goals as the memorandum. There are, however, some key differences.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/02/white-house-open-access-memo-strong-could-be-stronger.

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Privacy Issues

Mobile Device Security: Boosting Confidence and Trust in Health IT

Mobile devices like laptops, smartphones and tablets have the potential to increase the quality and efficiency of health care by, among other things, making it easier for health care providers to access patient information when and where they need it. Because health care providers are increasingly using these devices, the HHS recently released a new set of online tools to help providers comply with their obligations under HIPAA when using mobile devices. Mobile devices pose unique risks to the security of health information; the biggest cause of health information breaches is theft and loss of laptops and other portable media.

http://www.ihealthbeat.org/features/2013/mobile-device-security-boosting-confidence-and-trust-in-health-it.aspx.

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Digital History

Kerala State Central Library Starts Digitizing Hundreds of Rare Books

The Kerala State Central Library, which happens to be one of the oldest in India, has made the big leap to the digital age by having digitized hundreds of books, some which dates back hundreds of years. During the initial phase, 707 rare documents which includes 644 English and 63 Malayalam books comprising 3,28,268 pages were added to the Digital Archive. 480 more English books comprising a total of 1,84,321 pages were added in the second phase in 2012.

http://www.librarystuff.net/2013/02/22/184-year-old-kerala-state-central-library-starts-digitizing-hundreds-of-rare-books/.

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

Update on the National Inventory of Legal Materials
“During the past 3 years, more than 350 AALL volunteers have contributed their time as part of their state working group to help AALL create the first-ever National Inventory of Legal Materials. After countless hours of research, calls to government offices and conversations with colleagues to discuss their findings, volunteers created state inventories that contain invaluable information about more than 7,000 legal titles from all three branches of government in print and online. This fall, the AALL Government Relations Office and Digital Access to Legal Information Committee (DALIC) completed our preliminary analysis of the inventories and posted the results on AALLNET. We’ve also linked to each of the 51 inventories so that anyone can see the underlying data.”
http://aallwash.wordpress.com/2012/12/12/update-on-the-national-inventory-of-legal-materials/

Internet Access

US says it won’t ratify UN telecom treaty
“The United States said Thursday that it will not sign a United Nations telecommunications treaty that U.S. technology companies warn would disrupt governance of the Internet and open the door to online censorship. The U.K. and Canada also said they would not ratify the treaty after negotiations ended at a conference hosted by the U.N. International Telecommunications Union (ITU) in Dubai.”
http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/272819-us-says-it-wont-ratify-un-telecom-treaty

Intellectual Property

Google Settles Copyright Dispute with Belgian Newspaper
“On Thursday December 13, 2012, Google and a group of Belgian newspaper publishers reached an agreement on a 6-year long copyright dispute.”
http://www.ipwatchdog.com/2012/12/16/google-settles-copyright-dispute-with-belgian-newspaper/

International Outlook

UK lost more than 200 libraries in 2012
“The fight to keep libraries open has dominated the headlines but the UK has quietly lost more than 200 branches over the past year, according to a detailed national survey. The rate of library closures has increased, reveals the annual report from the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy: 146 branches closed between 2010 and 2011, with the number stepping up to 201 this year. The UK now has 4,265 libraries, compared with 4,612 two years ago, and the number of closures is likely to grow. Campaigners in Newcastle are currently fighting plans to close 10 out of the city’s 18 libraries, with Billy Elliot playwright Lee Hall calling on the council to protect the city’s heritage last month.”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/dec/10/uk-lost-200-libraries-2012

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

Finding Agency FOIA Regulations a Shockingly Difficult Task
“Today the National Security Archive published its latest Freedom of Information Act audit to assess which agencies have best followed the FOIA. The audit highlights outdated agency FOIA regulations (the principal tool agencies use to process their FOIA requests) government-wide, and made the  disheartening discovery that fifty-six out of ninety-nine government agencies have not updated their regulations since the most recent amendment to the FOIA. Along with being outdated, formatting inconsistencies, broken links, and in one case a complete lack of regulations, made tracking down each agency’s latest FOIA regulations unduly cumbersome.”
http://nsarchive.wordpress.com/2012/12/04/finding-agency-foia-regulations-a-shockingly-difficult-task/

Transparency and the Obama presidency: Looking Back and Looking Forward – Video and Event Recap
“How transparent has President Barack Obama’s administration been? While the first term seemed to start with several bold initiatives, members of the transparency community have been disappointed with the apparent lack of initiative since then. Panelists gave the administration mixed reviews at the Dec. 3, 2012 Advisory Committee on Transparency event examining what’s happened over the past four years and what in store for the next four. . . The video of the event is available on C-Span.
http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2012/12/07/transparency-and-the-obama-presidency-looking-back-and-looking-forward-video-and-event-recap/

House Rules Changes: Sunlight’s Proposals for the 113th Congress
“Congress runs on rules. With the upcoming changeover from the 112th to the 113th Congress, the House of Representatives will adopt new regulations that innervate every aspect of legislative life. The last time it did this, in 2010, the House set the stage for greater openness and transparency in the lower chamber.  At that time, Sunlight issued a series of recommendations, some of which were adopted. The House of Representatives made significant progress toward ensuring the people’s house belongs to the people, from the new transparency portal docs.house.gov to expanded video coverage of House proceedings to retaining the Office of Congressional Ethics. In advance of the 113th Congress, we’re issuing an updated set of transparency recommendations, each of which would mark a significant step towards increased transparency.”
http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2012/12/06/house-rules-changes-sunlights-proposals-for-the-113th-congress/

OGP transparency officials chosen to hold ‘government’s feet to fire’
“The Open Government Partnership (OGP) has officially unveiled the senior advisors that will oversee transparency commitments made by member countries to coincide with the launch of the Open Data Institute (ODI).”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/public-leaders-network/2012/dec/01/ogp-odi-francis-maude-digital-data

Advisory Board Urges White House to Lead Secrecy Reform
“In a long-awaited report to the President, the Public Interest Declassification Board urged the White House to take the lead in fixing the national secrecy system. The Public Interest Declassification Board is an advisory committee that was established by Congress to help promote possible access to the documentary record of significant U.S. national security decisions and activities.  In 2009, President Obama asked the Board to develop recommendations for “a more fundamental transformation of the security classification system.””
http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/2012/12/pidb_report.html

Privacy Concerns

Updating the Electronic Communications Privacy Act
“Yesterday was a watershed moment in the fight for electronic privacy: the Senate Judiciary Committee overwhelmingly passed an amendment that mandates the government get a probable cause warrant before reading our emails. The battle isn’t over — the reform, championed by Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), still needs to pass the rest of the Senate and the House, and be signed by the President to become a law. But yesterday, thanks to thousands of people speaking out, we were able to begin the process of overhauling our archaic privacy laws into alignment with modern technology.”
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/12/deep-dive-updating-electronic-communications-privacy-act

Warrantless Surveillance 101: Introducing EFF’s New NSA Domestic Spying Guide
“On December 14th, EFF is back in federal court challenging the NSA’s domestic spying program in our long-running case Jewel v. NSA. In anticipation of our court appearance, we’ve launched a new section of our website to give everyone a clear understanding how the NSA warrantless wiretapping program works and why we’re challenging it as unconstitutional.”
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/12/warrantless-surveillance-101-introducing-our-new-nsa-domestic-spying-guide

Intellectual Property

Copyright Laws Slow DPLA
“As the Digital Public Library of America approaches its April 2013 launch, copyright laws still hinder the library’s ability to make a wide array of written materials accessible to the public. Two years into its initial efforts—the DPLA was first envisioned in October 2010, soon after Harvard withdrew its collections from the Google Books digitization project due to legal concerns—primary founding member and Harvard University librarian Robert C. Darnton ’60 boasts that the DPLA has the potential to become the “mother of all libraries.” But as the project moves forward, the problem of digitizing copyrighted material, essential for public collections, remains unsolved.”
http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2012/12/7/dpla-copyright-slows-progress/

Copyright for a digital age
“We live in a digital age and therefore we should have a fully functioning knowledge-based economy. Why then do we remain saddled with a copyright framework more suited to the 19th century than the 21st? At the British Library we estimate that by 2020 75 per cent of all books and journals will be published in digital form.  Add to that the exponential growth of the internet and the explosion of mobile technology, and we see that the world is a dramatically different place to the 1980s (the era of the Betamax and personal cassette recorder) when the last major change to copyright legislation took place.”
http://www.newstatesman.com/cultural-capital/2012/11/copyright-digital-age

Appeal Filings Outline Authors Guild’s Objections to HathiTrust Opinion
“With a new round of filings hitting the docket last week, the Authors Guild appeal of Judge Harold Baer’s landmark copyright decision in the the HathiTrust case is underway. The broad appeal raises a handful of key questions on which the Guild is seeking review by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, including whether the district court erred in finding the scan plan to be fair use.”
http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/digital/copyright/article/54982-appeal-filings-outline-authors-guild-s-objections-to-hathitrust-opinion.html

TPP: Why it Matters in the USA
“The U.S. and other governments are meeting yet again to hash out the secret Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP), this time in New Zealand. International trade agreements may seem far removed from our daily lives. Why should people in the U.S. take action against TPP? Although we don’t know what’s in the draft treaty, and the U.S. Trade Representative refuses to publish it, the leaked drafts we’ve seen are alarming. TPP is likely to export some of the worst features of U.S. copyright law: a broad ban on breaking digital locks on creative work, even for legal uses, a copyright term of life plus seventy years (the current international norm is life-plus-fifty), ruinous statutory damages with no proof of actual harm, and government seizures of computers and equipment involved in alleged infringement.”
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/12/tpp-why-it-matters-usa

US Isolated In Opposition To WIPO Treaty For The Blind, Group Says
“The United States now stands alone in its opposition to a World Intellectual Property Organization treaty on copyright exceptions for blind and and other print-disabled readers, the World Blind Union (WBU) said today.”
http://www.ip-watch.org/2012/12/03/us-isolated-in-opposition-to-wipo-treaty-for-the-blind-group-says/

International Outlook

European Commission Embarks On Process To ‘Modernise’ Copyright
“The European Commission today (5 December) agreed on a process to ensure copyright is best suited for the digital age with the aim of possible legislative reform in 2014. Commissioners in a meeting decided to launch a stakeholder dialogue immediately, and to complete market studies, impact assessment and legal drafting work.”
http://www.ip-watch.org/2012/12/06/european-commission-embarks-on-process-to-modernise-copyright/

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

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.

Freedom of Information

Why Do Librarians Expect a Fair Price for an Ebook?

Hachette’s recent big price increase coupled with Random House’s large increase earlier this year got me thinking.  Does the publishing community understand why librarians would balk at increases on the order of 100% or 200%?

http://www.districtdispatch.org/2012/10/why-do-librarians-expect-a-fair-price-for-an-ebook/

Join the Team

Here’s a friendly reminder to complete our quick survey to become a member of AALL’s Advocacy Team if you haven’t already done so!

With Congress making cuts to Government Printing Office and Library of Congress funding, looming threats to eliminate crucial print legal resources, and important information policy issues competing for attention in the upcoming lame-duck session, now is the critical time to make your voice heard. Whether you’re new to our advocacy efforts or a seasoned veteran, the Government Relations Office would like to invite you to become a more effective, engaged member of AALL’s Advocacy Team by providing us with some brief information about yourself and your interests. The information you share with us will help us help you become your most effective advocate.

http://aallwash.wordpress.com/2012/10/09/join-the-team/

Obama Issues Directive on Intelligence Community Whistleblowers

President Obama yesterday issued Presidential Policy Directive 19 on “Protecting Whistleblowers with Access to Classified Information.”

The directive generally prohibits official reprisals against an intelligence community employee who makes a “protected disclosure” concerning unlawful activity or “waste, fraud, and abuse.” It does not authorize disclosure of classified information outside of official channels to the press or the public.

http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/2012/10/ppd_19.html

Public Policy

LCA Comments on Authors Guild v. Hathi Trust Decision

The Library Copyright Alliance (LCA) welcomes Judge Baer’s decision (pdf) yesterday that the HathiTrust Digital Library’s (HDL) use of digitized works is a fair use permitted under the Copyright Act. Judge Baer’s key holding was:

I cannot imagine a definition of fair use that would not encompass the transformative uses made by [HDL] and would require that I terminate this invaluable contribution of the progress of science and cultivation of the arts that at the same time effectuates the ideals espoused by the ADA.

http://www.districtdispatch.org/2012/10/lca-comments-on-authors-guild-v-hathitrust-decision/

National Medal Nominations Open

Library supporters who believe their libraries are providing communities with exceptional service now have the opportunity to get national attention for their libraries. Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) announced this week that the agency is accepting nominations for the 2013 National Medal for Museum and Library Service, the nation’s highest honor for exemplary service by museums and libraries. The award nomination deadline ends on October 15, 2012.

http://www.districtdispatch.org/2012/10/national-medal-nominations-open/

Internet Access

AAP and Google settle… questions remain

The Association of American Publishers (AAP) announced today they have reached a settlement in their lawsuit filed in 2005 against Google, Inc. According to AAP’s press release,

US publishers can choose to make available or choose to remove their books and journals digitized by Google for its Library Project….Apart from the settlement, US publishers can continue to make individual agreements with Google for use of their other digitally-scanned works.

http://www.districtdispatch.org/2012/10/aap-and-google-settle-questions-remain/

International Outlook

Highest Court in the European Union To Rule On Biometrics Privacy

Courts are investigating the legality of a European Union regulation requiring biometric passports in Europe. Last month, the Dutch Council of State (Raad van State, the highest Dutch administrative court) asked the European Court of Justice (ECJ) to decide if the regulation requiring fingerprints in passports and travel documents violates citizens’ right to privacy. The case entered the courts when three Dutch citizens were denied passports and another citizen was denied an ID card for refusing to provide their fingerprints. The ECJ ruling will play an important role in determining the legality of including biometrics in passports and travel documents in the European Union.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/10/highest-court-european-union-rule-biometrics-privacy

Kiriakou Not Allowed to Argue Lack of Intent to Harm U.S.

A court ruled this month that former CIA officer John Kiriakou, who is charged with unauthorized disclosures of classified information to the media, will not be permitted to argue at trial that he intended no harm to the United States, or that his entire career testifies to a deep commitment to national security.

http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/2012/10/kiriakou_intent.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 Senate Bill Would Advance Spending Transparency
“The latest offering from the Senate on federal spending transparency is far less ambitious that its House counterpart, but if enacted, it would be a big win for transparency and accountability. There would still be some areas of spending transparency to be addressed in future legislation, but if the Senate’s version of the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act (DATA Act) becomes law, the public will have a clearer picture of federal spending and new tools for accountability.”
http://www.ombwatch.org/new-senate-bill-would-advance-spending-transparency

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

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

Public Policy

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

Open Access

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

Internet Access

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

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

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

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

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

Intellectual Property

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

International Outlook

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

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

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

Freedom of Information

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

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

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

Public Policy

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

Privacy Concerns

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

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

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

Open Access

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

Intellectual Property

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

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

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