Open Access:
JSTOR Releases Documents and Summary of Its Role in Swartz Case
JSTOR, the digital-journal archive, has released all the documents it provided to federal prosecutors relating to the case of Aaron Swartz, the activist and Harvard University researcher.
Mr. Swartz, who committed suicide in January, faced criminal charges after downloading 4.8 million scholarly articles from JSTOR in 2010 in defiance of the the archive’s terms of service. He used a laptop hidden in a wiring closet at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/jstor-releases-documents-and-summary-of-its-role-in-swartz-case/45185.
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Freedom of Information:
KRRP [Kid's Right to Read Project] Defends ‘The Bluest Eye’ Among Others in Latest Spate of Book Challenges
School’s out for the summer, but there’s no vacation from book challenges. The Kids’ Right to Read Project is battling a handful of censorship cases…
In Adams County, CO, The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison, has come under fire from a handful of parents. The book was taught this year to 11th grade students in Advanced Placement Language classes. In order to inform parents beforehand, a permission slip was sent home with information about the book and an alternate assignment was offered. Notwithstanding the fact that their children were able to opt out and did so, a group of parents filed a complaint with the district. After reviewing the challenge, the district superintendent offered to create a special section of the course without the book next year. Still not enough, parents say, though their children opted out of the lesson. Meanwhile, a student petition to keep the book has garnered almost 1,200 signatures.
http://ncac.org/KRRP-Defends-The-Bluest-Eye-Among-Others-in-Latest-Spate-of-Book-Challenges.
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Digital History:
Library of Congress races to preserve TV history
Discover the TV treasures that the Library of Congress is racing against time to preserve.
(Video post)
http://www.librarystuff.net/2013/07/31/library-of-congress-races-to-preserve-tv-history/.
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Privacy Issues:
XKeyscore: NSA tool collects ‘nearly everything a user does on the internet’
A top secret National Security Agency program allows analysts to search with no prior authorization through vast databases containing emails, online chats and the browsing histories of millions of individuals, according to documents provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden.
The NSA boasts in training materials that the program, called XKeyscore, is its "widest-reaching" system for developing intelligence from the internet.
Here’s a link to a XKeyscore Training Presentation.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/31/nsa-top-secret-program-online-data.
Oakland’s Creepy New Surveillance Program Just Got Approved
Earlier this week, the Oakland City Council voted to approve the second phase of a $10.9 million surveillance center that would enable the City to engage in widespread warrantless surveillance of Oakland residents who have engaged in no wrongdoing whatsoever. This is a terrible blow to privacy. The so-called Domain Awareness Center (DAC) would consolidate a vast network of surveillance data. The project was initially supposed to be about port security. But in a classic illustration of mission creep, the project as proposed would have pulled in over 1,000 cameras and sensors pointed at Oakland residents, including 700 cameras in Oakland schools.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/08/oaklands-creepy-new-surveillance-program-just-got-approved.
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Intellectual Property:
Copyright Report Shows (Mostly) Positive Shift In Copyright Debate
The demise of SOPA and PIPA seems to have left its mark on policymakers in the copyright realm – and that’s a good thing. A report released today by the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) Internet Policy Task Force reflects a much better understanding of the fact that copyright policy affects just about everyone these days – including individual Internet users of all stripes.
In the report, the DOC calls for a series of public discussions and meetings to address the multi-faceted nature of the U.S. copyright system. The good news is that these discussions aim to go well beyond the black-and-white debate of rights holders vs. pirates and the tech industry vs. Hollywood.
https://www.cdt.org/blogs/david-sohn/3107copyright-report-shows-mostly-positive-shift-copyright-debate.
Ninth Circuit Rules That Celebrity "Rights" Trump Free Speech
Should a minor celebrity’s right to wring every drop he can from his fame trump the right to create a realistic work? The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals put its thumb on the scales today, issuing a terrible decision holding that a celebrity’s right of publicity is more important than any First Amendment right to depict real people in a video game. This ruling follows closely on the heels of a similar decision from the Third Circuit and threatens a wide range of speech – such as biographies and documentaries – which seeks to realistically depict famous people.
Taken literally, this reasoning could impact an extraordinary range of protected speech. As Judge Sidney Thomas explained in dissent:
"The logical consequence of the majority view is that all realistic depictions of actual persons, no matter how incidental, are protected by a state law right of publicity regardless of the creative context. This logic jeopardizes the creative use of historic figures in motion pictures, books, and sound recordings."
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/07/ninth-circuit-says-celebrities-are-more-important-free-speech.
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International Outlook:
Secret Trade Negotiations Could Threaten Britain’s Popular National Health Service
The Trans-Atlantic Free Trade Agreement (TAFTA) is set to include dangerous Investor-State Dispute Resolution mechanisms that grant private corporations the unprecedented right to sue sovereign governments in extra-legal tribunals for "lost revenues" that they claim resulted from important public protections. This poses significant threats to essential standards and safeguards including environmental preservation, food security, and chemical safety.
Now the British Medical Association, England’s largest union of doctors and medical students, is warning its members that the trade agreement’s inclusion of these unprecedented corporate privileges could also result in "significant damage to the health of Europe’s citizenry" by opening up the widely popular National Health Service to less effective and more expensive private competition.
http://www.foreffectivegov.org/blog/secret-trade-negotiations-could-threaten-britains-popular-national-health-service.
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Government Information:
Updated Database Reveals Significant Chemical Risks Are Distributed Across the Country
The latest data on chemical storage risks shows that over 50 billion pounds of toxic and flammable chemicals are stored at 12,761 facilities nationwide. The distribution of high-risk chemical facilities – i.e., those that handle significant quantities of 140 dangerous chemicals – are available at a website the Center for Effective Government created and maintains through the Right-to-Know Network (RTKNET.org).
At facilities that store large quantities of toxic or flammable chemicals, accidents can quickly become major catastrophes for workers and residents of surrounding communities. Since 1999, high-risk chemical plants have reported 1,844 accidents that have resulted in 58 deaths, 17,054 injuries, and over $1.6 billion in property damage. Moreover, almost 263,000 people in surrounding communities had to be evacuated when the accidents occurred.
http://www.foreffectivegov.org/updated-database-reveals-significant-chemical-risks-are-distributed-across-country.
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The Intersect Alert is a newsletter of the Government Relations Committee, San Francisco Bay Region Chapter, Special Libraries Association.