Take Action!:
Bring Reading Rainbow Back for Every Child, Everywhere (Kickstarter campaign)
Right now, 1 out of every 4 children in America will grow up illiterate. And: numerous studies reveal that children who can’t read at grade level by the 4th grade are 400% more likely to drop out of high school. And: as of 2011, America was the only free-market country where the current generation was less well educated than the previous.
"Hi. LeVar Burton here. You may know me as Kunta Kinte, from ROOTS, or Geordi La Forge, from Star Trek: The Next Generation. You also may have grown up with me on Reading Rainbow. It was my mother who taught me that, by picking up a book, I could "go anywhere" and "be anything." Ever since Reading Rainbow began in 1983, I have dedicated myself to fostering a love of reading in children, just as my mother did for me.
Over the past year, I have watched Kickstarter bring communities together to support artists and inventors. Again and again, I have been inspired by watching like-minded people team up to accomplish impossible dreams, and to change the world. Now, I am hoping you will join me on my mission: to bring Reading Rainbow back for every child, everywhere."
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/readingrainbow/bring-reading-rainbow-back-for-every-child-everywh.
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Intellectual Property:
Crushing Blow for Copyright Trolls: Appeals Court Halts AF Holdings’ Extortion Scheme
Striking a crushing blow against a legal linchpin of the copyright troll business model, a federal appeals court held today that copyright holders may not abuse the legal process to obtain the identities of thousands of Internet users.
The plaintiff in this case, AF Holdings, sought the identities of more than 1,000 Internet users that it claims are linked to the illegal downloading of a copyrighted pornographic film. Over the protest of the Internet service providers that received subpoenas for those identities, a lower court approved the disclosure of the names. EFF, joined by the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of the Nation’s Capital, Public Citizen, and Public Knowledge, urged the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to reverse that ruling and help keep the legal process fair and balanced by requiring AF Holdings to show it has a good faith basis for going after these defendants. This same coalition has fought for years in courts around the country to explain how the trolls were abusing the legal process to extort settlements from unsuspecting John Does. While several district courts have agreed, this is the first time a federal appeals court has weighed in.
https://www.eff.org/press/releases/crushing-blow-copyright-trolls-appeals-court-halts-af-holdings-extortion-scheme.
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Public Policy:
Big guns, big money and California
Since the nation’s latest eruption of gun violence in a beach town near the University of California’s Santa Barbara campus, little has been said about the influence of the gun rights lobby in the Golden State, an omission that at first blush seems to stand to reason. After all, the Golden State is reputed to have some of the toughest gun regulations in the nation, and its leading politicians include some of the nation’s most outspoken proponents of gun control.
So if there is any place that the gun lobby’s formidable influence machine would be likely to grind to a halt, you’d guess it would be California, right?
Guess again: At least $4.1 million in contributions from organizations and individuals opposed to gun control have found their way into political campaigns in the state since 1989; most of that money comes from the National Rifle Association, which, since 1989, has contributed more money to federal and state politicians in California than any other state.
http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2014/05/28/big-guns-big-money-and-california/.
Judge who stopped Wisconsin campaign finance probe tied to Koch-funded junkets
The federal judge who ordered an end to an investigation into possible illegal campaign coordination between Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and conservative groups during two recent recall elections regularly attended expenses-paid judicial conferences sponsored by conservative organizations including the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation and the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation – groups that have funded efforts against campaign finance reform, as well as by large corporations like ExxonMobil, Dow Chemical and Pfizer.
On May 6, Judge Rudolph Randa of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin ordered prosecutors to immediately halt its long-running investigation into the campaign spending and fundraising activities of Walker, the Wisconsin Club for Growth and other conservative groups. Prosecutors were trying to determine whether the Walker campaign and the conservative groups were illegally coordinating campaign strategies at the time of the 2011 and 2012 recall elections in Wisconsin. Randa wrote in his decision that the Wisconsin Club for Growth had found a way to get around campaign finance laws. "That circumvention should not and cannot be condemned or restricted," the decision said. "Instead, it should be recognized as promoting political speech."
http://www.publicintegrity.org/2014/05/27/14822/judge-who-stopped-wisconsin-campaign-finance-probe-tied-koch-funded-junkets.
Getting secrecy out of science
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is responsible for developing scientific measurements and standards for the government. Because of that immense responsibility, its recommendations are adopted across the world. This includes cutting-edge development of cryptography, otherwise known as the magic that keeps the Internet and your computer safe.
This is why it was so brutally disappointing when the Snowden leaks revealed that the NSA had subverted NIST’s rule-promulgation process, secretly weakening the math that individuals, companies and governments around the world rely on for informational security. That secrecy is unacceptable.
Last night, the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology adopted an amendment authored by Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Fla. that limits the NSA’s influence on NIST. Grayson’s amendment removes the requirement that NIST consult with NSA, which has been mandatory under the Frontiers in Innovation, Research, Science and Technology Act since 1987. This is one of the first successful legislative steps toward limiting the NSA since it came into existence.
http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2014/05/22/getting-secrecy-out-of-science/.
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Open Access:
FIRST Act Amended to Make Open Access Provision Actually Pretty Good
Patent and surveillance reform may be suffering setbacks, but open access may be recovering thanks to a new provision passed yesterday that mandates a solid public access policy for NASA, NSF, NIST, the National Weather Service, and the Office of Science of the Department of Energy.
The House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology marked up H.R. 4186, the Frontiers in Innovation, Research, Science and Technology (FIRST) Act. This science funding bill was controversial for a number of reasons, but we have been focused on one part: Section 303, dealing with public access to scientific research. Calling this a "public access" section is a charitable reading: it extended embargo periods to up to three years, it allowed for simple linking to articles rather than the creation of an archive, and it delayed implementation unnecessarily long. But a glimmer of hope appeared at yesterday’s markup. It sets the embargo period at 12 months (like the NIH’s current policy), though it allows stakeholders to extend this by 6 months if they can show a "substantial and unique harm."
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/05/first-act-amended-make-open-access-provision-actually-pretty-good.
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International Outlook:
Civil society in Ukraine seizing the momentum for real reform
It looks like this is the week of elections amidst political unrest. Two of the world’s most fragile democracies, Egypt and Ukraine will elect their new presidents this Sunday and their situation bears a striking resemblance: Revolution in both countries started with a protest against acute corruption, perceived as very high in both societies, and each of these protests were fueled by the Internet. Besides the many similarities though, there is at least one significant difference: While transparency is far from becoming a reality in Egypt, civil society in Ukraine might be winning an important battle – though certainly not the entire war – for more accountable politics.
In the past few weeks, the Chesno movement, a larger coalition of Ukrainian civil society organizations working towards fair elections, have been campaigning hard to reveal the size and sources of the [campaign] funding, as well as the scope of spending in the presidential elections – before voters go to the polls. With the election only two days away, five presidential candidates — including Petro Poroshenko and former prime minister, Yulia Tymoshenko — have already agreed to disclose some information on their finances, thanks in part to public pressure and a potential hope to look more transparent than their predecessors.
http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2014/05/23/civil-society-in-ukraine-seizing-the-momentum-for-real-reform/.
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Publishing:
Wikipedia Is NOT A Doctor — And A Study Confirms It
The online encyclopedia that can be edited by experts and idiots alike is an easy source of information when trying to learn about a new topic. But a new study confirms what we all (hopefully) already know: Many entries — especially medical entries — contain false information, so don’t use Wikipedia in place of a doctor.
Dr. Robert Hasty of Campbell University in North Carolina, along with a team of researchers, published the study in this month’s issue of the Journal of the American Osteopathic Association. For the study, researchers identified the "10 costliest conditions in terms of public and private expenditure" — which included diabetes, back pain, lung cancer and major depressive disorder — and compared the content of Wikipedia articles about those conditions to peer-reviewed medical literature. Two randomly assigned investigators found that 90 percent of the [Wikipedia] articles contained false information, which could affect the diagnosis and treatment of diseases.
Now for those of you who are saying that it’s not the doctors themselves checking Wikipedia, you’d be wrong. According to a pair of studies from 2009 and 2010, "70% of junior physicians use Wikipedia in a given week, while nearly 50% to 70% of practicing physicians use it as an information source in providing medical care."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/27/wikipedia-study-medical-information-doctor_n_5398691.html.
HighWire Press Becoming Standalone Biz: Private Equity Firm Accel-KKR Will Own Majority Interest, Stanford Will Have Minority Position
Stanford U./Stanford University Libraries will no longer be in control of the HighWire Press business. HighWire Press, Inc. will be the formal name of the new standalone company and Accel-KKR will have a majority interest in it. Michael A. Keller, university librarian at Stanford, will serve as the Stanford representative on the HighWire Press, Incorporated board of directors.
HighWire was founded in 1995 under the leadership of Keller, to ensure its partners – academic societies and independent publishers – would remain strong and able to lead the transition toward use of new technologies for scholarly communication. Known for combining cutting-edge technology with long-term organizational stability in support of its community-oriented mission and model, HighWire facilitates the development, dissemination and discovery of nearly four thousand prominent journals, books, and other scholarly works online, as well as a manuscript submission, tracking, and peer review system for journal editors. "The HighWire team has built an outstanding business," said Ben Bisconti, Managing Director at Accel-KKR. "The team, their customers and the technology platform are world class. We are excited about partnering with Stanford to continue supporting Tom and the rest of the HighWire team as they focus on delivering market leading solutions to their customers."
http://www.infodocket.com/2014/05/30/highwire-press-going-solo-a-private-equity-firm-kkr-will-own-majority-interest-stanford-will-have-minority-position/.
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Privacy Issues:
Warrant? Who Needs a Warrant??!!??
Remember Mad Cow Disease, Chernobyl and the Iran-Contra Affair? They were big news in 1986, the last time that Congress passed a law intended to protect the privacy of our electronic communications. Problem is, that was five years before almost anyone had even heard of e-mail let alone owned a computer. As a result, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) has been behind the times for decades . . . along with the privacy rights of every American.
While law enforcement agencies need a court order and a warrant to search your physical mail and paper files, amazingly in 2014 they still don’t need one to access communications like your saved email, Dropbox documents, or a host of electronic messages older than six months including texts, tweets, chats, Facebook posts and Instagram photos! Fortunately, legislation is finally working its way through both chambers of Congress to update ECPA and, unlike prior efforts at reform, these bills actually could become law IF the public demands action.
http://www.districtdispatch.org/2014/05/warrant-needs-warrant/.
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The Intersect Alert is a newsletter of the Government Relations Committee, San Francisco Bay Region Chapter, Special Libraries Association.