Intellectual Property:
Why Your Library May Not Have the E-Book You Want
While most small presses sell all their books freely and happily to libraries, the "Big Five" publishers continue to be terrified by the idea of letting public libraries have their e-books, and to punish libraries for even trying to get their e-books to customers.
In October, 2012, a certain best-selling book sold in print for $15.51. If you bought the e-book on Amazon, the price was $9.99. If your public library bought the e-book, they paid $84.00 for it.
http://bookviewcafe.com/blog/2013/05/20/why-your-library/.
How Copyright Makes Books and Music Disappear (and How Secondary Liability Rules Help Resurrect Old Songs)
A random sample of new books for sale on Amazon.com shows three times more books initially published in the 1850′s are for sale than new books from the 1950′s. Why? This paper presents new data on how copyright seems to make works disappear. First, a random sample of 2300 new books for sale on Amazon.com is analyzed along with a random sample of 2000 songs available on new DVDs. Copyright status correlates highly with absence from the Amazon shelf. Together with publishing business models, copyright law seems to stifle distribution and access.
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2290181.
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Freedom of Information
Farm groups file lawsuit to stop EPA release of farmers’ personal data
The American Farm Bureau Federation and the National Pork Producers Council filed a lawsuit and sought a restraining order on Friday in an attempt to stop the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from releasing personal information about farmers and ranchers in response to Freedom of Information requests from environmental organizations. The EPA is expected to respond to several Freedom of Information Act requests this week and the groups hope to stall disclosures of farmers’ and ranchers’ names, home addresses, GPS coordinates and personal contact information until a court can clarify EPA’s obligation to keep personal information about citizens private. The lawsuit was filed before the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota.
http://www.agri-pulse.com/Farm-groups-file-lawsuit-to-stop-EPA-release-of-farmers-personal-data-07082013.asp.
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Libraries:
San Francisco’s library spending higher than average, report finds
When it comes to spending money on libraries, San Francisco is leaving other cities in the dust. A new report from the city controller’s office shows that the library’s operating expenditures per capita are $100.17, or twice the average spending of libraries in other big cities like Los Angeles, Boston and Seattle. San Francisco also holds a lead over other cities in staff members per borrower and circulation per borrower. The report also finds that San Francisco has the most branch libraries per square mile at one branch for every 1.8 square mile.
http://blog.sfgate.com/cityinsider/2013/07/01/san-franciscos-library-spending-higher-than-average-report-finds/.
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Public Policy:
Who pays for all those public records?
In the end it wasn’t really about public records or the people’s right to see them. It was about money. And a generation-long spat between state and local governments about who pays for what.
To recap: Gov. Jerry Brown proposed a budget that would have saved the state some money by lifting the mandate on cities, counties, school districts and other local governments to help members of the public get public records. The Assembly at first said no but ultimately went along with the whole budget package, as did the Senate.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/opinion-la/la-ol-public-records-20130621,0,5334967.story.
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Privacy Issues:
Montana Tells Police: No Location Tracking Without a Warrant
Throughout the country, elected officials are working to update 4th Amendment protections to reflect the technological demands of the twenty first century.
Montana recently became the first state to enact a comprehensive law requiring law enforcement officials to obtain a search warrant before obtaining location information generated by the operation of electronic devices such as cellular telephones. The bill requires a warrant regardless of whether the location information is generated by GPS or by proximity to one or more cellular towers. It appears to require warrants for such location information no matter how it is obtained.
https://www.cdt.org/blogs/0207montana-tells-police-no-location-tracking-without-warrant.
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International Outlook:
Iran’s Internet Throttling: Unacceptable Now, Unacceptable Then
Last week, Iran’s minister for communications and information technology, Mohammad Hassan Nami, admitted the government purposely slowed Iran’s Internet during the days leading up to their June 2013 election in order to "preserve calm in the country" and to prevent interference from "foreigners trying to disrupt the election process." During that time, users reported both slower Internet speeds as well as the censorship of popular communications services such as Gmail, Skype, and Viber.
https://www.cdt.org/blogs/0307iran%E2%80%99s-internet-throttling-unacceptable-now-unacceptable-then.
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The Intersect Alert is a newsletter of the Government Relations Committee, San Francisco Bay Region Chapter, Special Libraries Association.