Freedom of Information

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

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

Public Policy

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

Intellectual Property

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

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

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

Freedom of Information

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

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

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

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

Public Policy

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

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

Digital History

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

Open Access

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

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

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

Freedom of Information

Debate Continues Over Enhanced, Interactive eBooks

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

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

Public Libraries, Corporate Publishers and

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

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

Public Policy

Hill’s newest earmarks: Sequester exemptions

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

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

Senate energy committee gives Ernest Moniz thumbs-up

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

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

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

Harry Reid wants online sales tax on Senate floor

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

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

 Privacy Concerns

Chuck Grassley eyes former aide in Medicare Advantage leak

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

http://freegovinfo.info/node/3918

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

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

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

Intellectual Property

 International Outlook

Australian census made both easier and more difficult to freely access

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

http://freegovinfo.info/node/3919

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

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

Freedom of Information

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

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

Reading, Writing and Video Games

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

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

Public Policy

Library collects food instead of fines

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

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

New Website for State Online Legal Information

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

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

Privacy Concerns

Cybersecurity: New version of old fight

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

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

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

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

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

Elsevier: All your data belongs to us

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

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

International Outlook

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

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

Freedom of Information

Sunshine Week: In Celebration of Open Government
“As President Barack Obama has stated, “Openness will strengthen our democracy, and promote efficiency and effectiveness in Government.” This week, we celebrate Sunshine Week — an appropriate time to discuss the importance of open government and freedom of information, and to take stock of how far we have come, and think about what more can be done.”
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2013/03/11/sunshine-week-celebration-open-government

Sunshine Week: A Round-up of EFF’s Year in Transparency
“This week, EFF once again joins a coalition of national and local transparency and press organizations in celebrating Sunshine Week as a way to bring attention to the importance of public records and the need to remain vigilant despite government push-back. Forty-seven years ago, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) into law, giving the public the right to access records pertaining to government activities. Pronounced “foy-yah” by those who regularly employ it, the law serves as a sort of citizen subpoena process; if you ask for a record that doesn’t fall under a confidentiality exemption, the government has to produce it. Each day this week, EFF will be sharing details about our efforts to hold the government accountable using this crucial tool, including our successes and challenges. To kick it all off, here’s a breakdown of our greatest transparency hits since the last time Sunshine Week rolled around.”
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/03/sunshine-week-year-transparency

Open States: Transparency Report Card
“Today we’re making available our Transparency Report Card, a byproduct of the work we did in producing Open States. In the course of writing scrapers for all 50 state legislatures, our Open States team and volunteers spent a lot of time looking at state legislative websites and struggling with the often inadequate information made available.  Impossibly difficult to navigate sites, information going missing and gnarly PDFs of tabular data have become daily occurrences for those of us working on Open States. People are always curious to know how their state stacked up compared to others — in fact one of the most frequent questions we have been asked has been “so which state was the worst?”  That question got us thinking:  How could we derive a measure of how “open” a state’s legislative data was?”
http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2013/03/11/openstates-report-card/ http://openstates.org/reportcard/ http://openstates.org/

Governor Cuomo Launches Open.NY.Gov Providing Public Unprecedented User-Friendly Access to Federal, State and Local Data
“Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today launched “open.ny.gov,” a new and comprehensive state data transparency website that provides – for the first time – user-friendly, one-stop access to data from New York State agencies, localities, and the federal government. The website, featuring economic development, health, recreation, and public services information, was unveiled today during Sunshine Week, a nationwide initiative designed to raise awareness about the importance of open government.”
http://www.governor.ny.gov/press/03112013open-data http://open.ny.gov/

Freedom of Information Act (FOIA): Background and Policy Options for the 113th Congress
“This report provides background on FOIA, discusses the categories of records FOIA exampts from public release, and analyzes statistics on FOIA administration. The report also provides background on severla legal and policy issues related to FOIA, including the release of controversial records, the growth in use of certain FOIA exemptions, and the adoption of new technologies to improve FOIA administration. The report concludes with an examination of potenital FOIA-related policy options for Congress.”
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/secrecy/R41933.pdf

Bipartisan Bill Aims to Beef Up FOIA Compliance
“The Republican and Democrat sitting atop Congress’ top watchdog panel unveiled joint proposed legislation Tuesday that would mandate a single online portal for all Freedom of Information Act requests across government. The 2013 FOIA Oversight and Implementation Act would direct officials to look closely at FOIA Online, a 5-month old joint FOIA Portal for the Commerce Department, the Environmental Protection Agency and a handful of other agencies. It would leave the door open for the governmentwide FOIA system to be built elsewhere, though, according to a press release from sponsors Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md.”
http://www.nextgov.com/emerging-tech/2013/03/bipartisan-legislation-aims-beef-foia-compliance/61821/

Freedom of Information Act Performance, 2012: Agencies Are Processing More Requests but Redacting More Often
“A building block of American democracy is the idea that citizens have a right to information about how their government works and what it does in their name. However, citizen access to public information was only established by law in 1966 with the passage of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The law has since been strengthened and improved over the years, and FOIA currently requires federal agencies to formally respond to requests for information within 20 working days or potentially face a lawsuit. While there are exemptions that agencies can use to avoid the disclosure of sensitive information or information that violates privacy rights, agencies processed over half a million FOIA requests in 2012. In about 41 percent of these cases, the information requested was released “in full” with no parts “redacted” – i.e., clean, complete documents with no blacked-out parts were provided to the person who requested the information. How does this compare to past years and past administrations? How well has President Obama met his goal of being the most transparent administration in history with regard to access to public information? This report examines the processing of FOIA requests from 25 major federal agencies in 2012 and reviews the processing of FOIA requests by agencies since 1998.”
http://www.foreffectivegov.org/freedom-information-act-agencies-are-processing-more-requests-but-redacting-more-often

Whither whistleblowing: Where have all the leaking sites gone?
“More than two years ago, a flurry of new WikiLeaks clones sprung up around the world inspired by the world’s most famous transparency-driven organization. They had all kinds of names: QuebecLeaks, BaltiLeaks, EnviroLeaks, and more. PirateLeaks (based in the Czech Republic), BrusselsLeaks (Belgium) and RuLeaks (Russia) all did not respond to Ars’ requests for comments. HonestAppalachia’s Jimmy Tobias wrote to Ars to say the group was “active indeed, and working on a variety of projects.” To date, HonestAppalachia has yet to publish anything, despite receiving a $5,000 grant from the Sunlight Foundation nearly a year ago. Most of these clones never got very far and appear to have all but shut down. Balkanleaks seems to be just one of a handful still actively receiving and publishing new documents. “I think this points to the fact that what WikiLeaks did was fairly unique and probably a few years ahead of its time,” said Trevor Timm, co-founder of the Freedom of the Press Foundation. So how does Balkanleaks thrive where others haven’t?”
http://arstechnica.com/business/2013/03/whither-whistleblowing-where-have-all-the-leaking-sites-gone/

Aaron Swartz to receive posthumous ‘Freedom of Information’ award for open access advocacy
“Internet activist and Reddit co-founder Aaron Swartz is slated to receive posthumous recognition in Washington for his efforts promoting free access to taxpayer-funded research. The James Madison Freedom of Information Award is administered by the American Library Association, and recognizes “individuals who have championed, protected and promoted public access to government information and the public’s right to know national information.”"
http://www.theverge.com/2013/3/13/4099792/aaron-swartz-to-receive-posthumous-freedom-of-information-award-for

Senator Tester Champions Government Transparency; Reintroduces POIA
“Today, Senator Jon Tester reintroduced The Public Online Information Act (POIA) a bill that would take already public government information out of file cabinets and put it online in user friendly formats.”
http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2013/03/12/senator-tester-champions-government-transparency-reintroduces-poia/

National Security Letters Are Unconstitutional, Federal Judge Rules
“A federal district court judge in San Francisco has ruled that National Security Letter (NSL) provisions in federal law violate the Constitution. The decision came in a lawsuit challenging a NSL on behalf of an unnamed telecommunications company represented by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). In the ruling publicly released today, Judge Susan Illston ordered that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) stop issuing NSLs and cease enforcing the gag provision in this or any other case. The landmark ruling is stayed for 90 days to allow the government to appeal.”
https://www.eff.org/press/releases/national-security-letters-are-unconstitutional-federal-judge-rules

Shining a Light on FOIA Practices
“In celebration of Sunshine Week, a number of organizations released Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) reviews. These reviews, conducted by National Security Archives, the Center for Effective Government, Cause of Action, Associated Press, and OpenTheGovernment.org, indicate how agencies measure up when it comes to providing the public with information. Although the studies indicate that agencies on the whole increased their responses to FOIA requests in 2012, disparities remain between agencies on things like response time, compliance with the 2007 Open Government Act and 2009 Guidance from the White House, cost of responding, fee waivers, and backlog reductions. A majority of responses to FOIA requests in 2012 were only partial responses, and use of exemptions to withhold or redact information increased. The following snapshots contain some of the highlights of each review.”
http://www.pogo.org/blog/2013/03/20130315-shining-a-light-on-foia-practices.html

Public Policy

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

National Archives to Help Launch the Digital Public Library of America’s Pilot Project
“Archivist of the United States David S. Ferriero announced today that the National Archives, as a leading content provider to the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA), will help launch its first pilot project. The DPLA is a large-scale, collaborative project across government, research institutions, museums, libraries and archives to build a digital library platform to make America’s cultural and scientific history free and publicly available anytime, anywhere, online through a single access point.”
http://www.archives.gov/press/press-releases/2013/nr13-72.html

Open Access

IMLS Director Susan Hildreth Supports Broad Access to Federally Funded Research
“The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) announced today its continuing commitment to expanding public access to IMLS funded research. In a February 22 memorandum, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy directed agencies to develop plans to increase access to federally funded scientific research and improve the management of research data. The following is a statement from IMLS Director Susan H. Hildreth.”
http://www.imls.gov/imls_director_susan_hildreth_supports_broad_access_to_federally_funded_research.aspx

Intellectual Property

What Librarians Need to Know about the New Copyright Alert System
“Late last month, the Center for Copyright Information (CCI) launched its Copyright Alert System, creating a new effort by rights holders (including the Recording Industry Association of America and Motion Picture Association of America) and Internet Service Providers (ISPs), such as Comcast, Verizon, Cablevision and Time Warner Cable) to curb online copyright infringement.”
http://www.districtdispatch.org/2013/03/new-copyright-alert-system-what-librarians-need-to-know/

Privacy Issues

Wimberly, Jasey Introduce “Reader Privacy Act” Bill Upgrading NJ Book Privacy for the Digital Age
“The rise in popularity of digital book purchasing, borrowing and concerns for individual privacy protections has prompted Assembly Democrats Benjie E. Wimberly and Mila M. Jasey to introduce legislation that would place readers and purchasers of books and electronic books –”e-Books”– under similar protections as library records by expanding reader privacy law. Wimberly and Jasey note the invention of digital books and e-readers has raised questions around the country about privacy and broadening protections to include new literary mediums. California enacted similar legislation in 2011 extending library privacy laws to include digital book records.”
http://www.politickernj.com/64006/wimberly-jasey-introduce-reader-privacy-act-bill-upgrading-nj-book-privacy-digital-age
http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/2012/Bills/A4000/3802_I1.HTM

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

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

Freedom of Information

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/.

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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

The Orphan Works Problem: Time to Fix It

Can Congress embrace and enact sensible copyright policy? Four years ago, for a brief shining moment, it seemed the answer might be yes, as various interested stakeholders rallied around long-overdue legislation that would have helped to fix the orphan works problem. Orphan works are those whose owner cannot be located. Consequently, those who would like to use and share these works may hesitate to do so out of fear that they could later be found liable for copyright infringement because they didn’t get permission. In 2008, a variety of interested parties managed to come up with a way to limit that liability. It wasn’t perfect, but it represented real progress. Sadly, that effort collapsed. In the past several months, however, momentum started slowly building once again toward a solution.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/02/orphan-works-problem-time-fix-it.

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Public Policy

Law Library Sues San Francisco for Breach of City Charter

The San Francisco Law Library filed a lawsuit today against the City and County of San Francisco, alleging that since 1995 the city has violated a City Charter provision that requires it to provide proper funding and adequate space for the Law Library. Since 1995, the Library has been housed in a cramped, leaky and damaged upper room of the San Francisco Veterans War Memorial building. The Veterans building is set to close for renovation in May 2013, meaning that if the city continues to violate the Charter and fail to meet its obligations, the Law Library will then be homeless.

http://www.heraldonline.com/2013/02/06/4600104/law-library-sues-san-francisco.html.

Tech, telecom giants take sides as FCC proposes large public WiFi networks

The federal government wants to create super WiFi networks across the nation, so powerful and broad in reach that consumers could use them to make calls or surf the Internet without paying a cellphone bill every month. The proposal from the Federal Communications Commission has rattled the $178 billion wireless industry, which has launched a fierce lobbying effort to persuade policymakers to reconsider the idea, analysts say. That has been countered by an equally intense campaign from Google, Microsoft and other tech giants who say a free-for-all WiFi service would spark an explosion of innovations and devices that would benefit most Americans, especially the poor.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/2013/02/03/eb27d3e0-698b-11e2-ada3-d86a4806d5ee_story.html.

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Open Access

Researchers opt to limit uses of open-access publications

Academics are – slowly – adopting the view that publicly funded research should be made freely available. But data released yesterday suggest that, given the choice, even researchers who publish in open-access journals want to place restrictions on how their papers can be re-used – for example, sold by others for commercial profit.

http://www.nature.com/news/researchers-opt-to-limit-uses-of-open-access-publications-1.12384.

NISO Launches New Initiative to Develop Standard for Open Access Metadata and Indicators

NISO [National Information Standards Organization] voting members have approved a new project to develop standardized bibliographic metadata and visual indicators to describe the accessibility of journal articles with respect to how "open" they are.

Many offerings are available from publishers under the banner of Open Access (OA), Increased Access, Public Access, or other names; the terms offered vary both between publishers and within publishers by journal, and in some cases, based on the funding organization of the author. Adding to the potential confusion, a number of publishers also offer hybrid options in which some articles are &quotopen&quot while the rest of the journal’s content are available only by subscription or license. No standardized bibliographic metadata currently provides information on whether a specific article is openly accessible and what re-use rights might be available to readers. Visual indicators or icons indicating the openness of an article are inconsistent in both design and use across publishers or even across journals from the same publisher.

http://www.niso.org/publications/newsline/2013/newslinefeb2013.html#report2.

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Privacy Issues

In a Major Privacy Victory, Seattle Mayor Orders Police to Dismantle Its Drone Program After Protests

In an amazing victory for privacy advocates and drone activists, yesterday, Seattle’s mayor ordered the city’s police agency to cease trying use surveillance drones and dismantle its drone program. The police will return the two drones they previously purchased with a Department of Homeland Security grant to the manufacturer. EFF has been warning of the privacy dangers surveillance drones pose to US citizens for more than a year now. In May of last year, we urged concerned citizens to take their complaints to their local governments, given Congress has been slow to act on any privacy legislation. At least thirteen states are now considering legislation to restrict drone use to protect privacy, and there are also members of Congress on both sides of the aisle pushing the same thing.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/02/major-privacy-victory-seattle-mayor-orders-police-not-use-surveillance-drones.

Security fears slow cloud progress: Concern over government stopping companies from using the cloud

Almost half of IT professionals are deterred from keeping sensitive data in the cloud because of fear of government intervention and possible legal action. The survey, which looked at IT and cloud experts’ attitudes to storing data in the cloud, revealed that government and legal interference puts 48% of them off from entering the cloud environment. These figures highlight that IT managers are deterred from the Cloud, because they are unsure if their organisation’s sensitive data is adequately protected and will therefore pass IT security audits or indeed government regulatory checks which hosted cloud environments are subjected to.

http://www.iwr.co.uk/information-management-and-technology/3011477/Security-fears-slow-cloud-progress.

Obama wants your immigration story – and personal data

Writing from a BarackObama.com email account, self-described "undocumented immigrant" Jose Magana last night shared his personal immigration story with the masses. Magana said he came to the United States from Mexico at age 2. He slept on a couch for much of his young life. He worked hard and excelled in school but lived in fear of being deported to a country he barely knows.

"Everyone has a story – I’m sure you do, too," Magana wrote in touting immigration policy reform on behalf of Organizing for Action, President Barack Obama’s new nonprofit advocacy organization that sprung from his campaign committee. "Will you share your immigration story? Organizing for Action will use these stories to move the conversation forward."

What isn’t immediately evident to people inclined to submit their names, emails, ZIP codes, photo and personal immigration story through a provided online form: that the group reserves the right to use submissions "for any purpose whatsoever at the sole discretion of OFA, including without limitation any political, advertising or commercial use of any kind."

http://www.publicintegrity.org/2013/02/07/12166/obama-wants-your-immigration-story-and-personal-data?utm_source=iwatchnews&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=rss.

The FTC and Mobile Privacy: Be Careful in Collecting User Data, or Face the Consequences

The FTC’s announcement late last week of a settlement with a mobile app developer and the Commission’s simultaneous release of a mobile privacy report highlighted the agency’s focus on protecting consumer privacy in the popular mobile space. Moreover, the Commission’s actions provided a pointed reminder to app developers that they must consider privacy at the earliest stages and in all phases of creating their innovative products.

The settlement was with Path, a social networking company, arising out of alleged violations of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and the FTC Act. With respect to COPPA, the company had not actually targeted children, but it collected birthdates in the enrollment process and that, the FTC concluded, was enough to give the company knowledge that it was collecting data from children under 13.

https://www.cdt.org/blogs/gs-hans/0702ftc-and-mobile-privacy-be-careful-collecting-user-data-or-face-consequences.

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Digital History

Rebooting the Government Printing Office: Keeping America Informed in the Digital Age

The National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) independent study of the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO), Rebooting the Government Printing Office: Keeping America Informed in the Digital Age (PDF), was released January 2013.

"Over the past two decades, the shift from an industrial age to an information age has affected the way both public and private sector organizations operate. For GPO, the demand for federal print products has declined by half over the past twenty years, but the demand for information that government creates has only increased. While conducting this review, the Panel determined that GPO faces challenges in dealing with the movement to the digital age that are shared across the federal government. Critical issues for the federal government include publishing formats, metadata, authentication, cataloging, dissemination, preservation, public access, and disposition. The Panel believes that the federal government needs to establish a broad government-wide strategy to manage digital information through all stages of its lifecycle. The absence of such a strategy has resulted in a chaotic environment with significant implications for public access to government information—and, therefore, the democratic process—with some observers describing federal digital publishing as the "wild west." Now that approximately 97 percent of all federal documents are "born digital," many important documents are not being authenticated or preserved for the future, and the public cannot easily access them. GPO has a critical role to play along with other agencies in developing a government-wide strategy that streamlines processes, clearly defines agency responsibilities, avoids duplication and waste, and effectively provides information to current and future generations."

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/032568.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.

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.

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