Intellectual Property:
Recovery.gov dumps DUNS, highlighting need for open entity IDs
Yesterday, the Washington Post reported that a treasure trove of data is about to disappear from the highly lauded website set up to track money spent via the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, Recovery.gov. The site is slated to sunset next year and The Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, which oversees the website, can’t afford to renew its license – up to $1.4 million for one year – with Dun & Bradstreet, the only firm authorized to assign ID numbers to entities doing business with the federal government. Without this license, Recovery.gov will no longer be able to display data about the entities that ultimately received recovery money.
http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2014/09/10/recovery-gov-dumps-duns-highlighting-need-for-open-entity-ids/.
NY judge: TV clip service not violating copyright
A media monitoring company distributing television clips and snippets of transcripts to customers including the White House and Congress hasn’t violated broadcasters’ copyrights by letting its customers search its database, but it’s unclear whether all facets of its business will get a judicial stamp of approval, a judge said Tuesday.
U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein in Manhattan ruled in a copyright case filed by Fox News Network against TVEyes Inc. He wrote that the company’s database and its searchable function for television clips and snippets of transcript were fair uses of broadcast content and thus were protected from claims of copyright infringement. But he said he must see additional evidence before deciding whether features that allow searches by date and time and that allow clips to be archived, downloaded, emailed and shared via social media are protected.
http://www.macon.com/2014/09/09/3296206_ny-judge-tv-clip-service-not-violating.html.
Libraries May Be Permitted To Digitise Books Without Copyright Owner’s Consent, EU High Court Rules
European Union governments may allow libraries to digitise books in their collection without rights owners’ consent in order to make them available at electronic reading posts, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) said on 11 September. The ECJ held that even if a rights owner offers a library a licence agreement for use of the work on appropriate terms, the library may take advantage of the exception, since it otherwise could not fulfil its core mission of promoting research and private study.
http://www.ip-watch.org/2014/09/11/libraries-may-be-permitted-to-digitise-books-without-copyright-owners-consent-eu-high-court-rules/.
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Public Policy:
Homeowners steamrolled as Florida courts clear foreclosure backlog
Florida Circuit Court Judge Diana Lewis was in a hurry. She had 93 foreclosure cases before her in the next two hours and she made it clear that she wasn’t going to let anything slow them down. "This is a 2009 case. You’ve had years to negotiate," she told one lawyer trying to delay a foreclosure judgment because his client and the lender were working out a deal.
Lewis’ manner may be brusque, but her actions aren’t unusual among foreclosure judges in Florida, who in the last year have been working under explicit directions from the state Legislature and Supreme Court to get rid of old cases and clear the court dockets, largely by awarding tens of thousands of homes to banks. "The state’s entire court system has been compromised," says Matt Weidner, an outspoken foreclosure defense lawyer who practices in Tampa and St. Petersburg and blogs about the system. "They’re stripping away private property rights and transferring billions of dollars in assets from individuals to large entities."
http://www.publicintegrity.org/2014/09/10/15463/homeowners-steamrolled-florida-courts-clear-foreclosure-backlog.
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Freedom of Information:
Tracking Toxic Trains in California and Boosting Federal Safeguards
The oil boom in North Dakota’s Bakken region has led to more crude oil being transported by train throughout the country and, consequently, a rise in oil train accidents. On Aug. 29, California passed new legislation that would help emergency response officials prepare for potential disasters. The legislation would require rail companies to submit emergency response plans and inform officials about the movement of crude oil and other hazardous materials through the state. The bill dovetails with related federal efforts to boost rail safety.
Each day, around 700,000 barrels of crude oil leave the Bakken region by rail, heading for refineries across the U.S. and Canada. In response to recent train accidents, the U.S. Department of Transportation released an emergency order last May requiring railroad companies to notify state emergency response officials when they plan to move oil train cars through a state. This applies only to trains carrying Bakken crude in excess of 1 million gallons. California’s legislation, if signed into law, would provide broader protections. The bill would apply to trains carrying more than 1 million gallons of any hazardous material.
http://www.foreffectivegov.org/blog/tracking-toxic-trains-california-and-boosting-federal-safeguards.
Wanted: Astronomer with Top Secret Clearance
NASA’s orbiting James Webb Space Telescope will be "the premier observatory of the next decade, serving thousands of astronomers worldwide, and studying every phase in the history of our Universe, ranging from the first luminous glows after the Big Bang, to the formation of solar systems capable of supporting life on planets like Earth, to the evolution of our own Solar System." So why does its Director need to have a Top Secret/SCI security clearance, as specified in the job description posted last month on USA Jobs? Clearly, the secrets of the universe do not lend themselves to, or require, national security classification controls, let alone non-disclosure agreements or polygraph testing.
http://fas.org/blogs/secrecy/2014/09/astronomer-clearance/.
Senator demands US courts recover 10 years of online public records
The head of the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee is urging the federal bureaucracy to restore a decade’s worth of electronic court documents that were deleted last month from online viewing because of an upgrade to a computer database known as PACER. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) said the removal of the thousands of cases from online review is essentially erasing history.
"Wholesale removal of thousands of cases from PACER, particularly from four of our federal courts of appeals, will severely limit access to information not only for legal practitioners, but also for legal scholars, historians, journalists, and private litigants for whom PACER has become the go-to source for most court filings," Leahy wrote Friday to US District Judge John D. Bates, the director of the Administrative Office of the Courts.
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/09/senator-demands-us-courts-recover-10-years-of-online-public-records/.
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Libraries:
Taking A Long-Overdue Sledgehammer To The Public Library
The day after the Oakland Public Library reopens after a long weekend, branch manager Nick Raymond doesn’t have time to talk. "I could give you maybe five seconds," he says good-naturedly before returning to the flocking patrons. It’s a scene more typical of a blockbuster opening at a movie theater than Wednesday afternoon at a library. But Raymond manages a different kind of collection: Oakland is among a growing number of libraries across the U.S. that lend tools–as in awls, sledgehammers, and hacksaws–as well as other unexpected items like bakeware, Moog synthesizers, and human skeletons to keep pace with the times.
Some libraries have broadened their collections in response to a dip in print material circulation–a tactile solution to digital disruption. But many see it as a natural extension of their core mission to serve communities through the collective buying power of tax dollars. And community needs have changed.
http://www.fastcompany.com/3035406/innovation-agents/taking-a-long-overdue-sledgehammer-to-the-public-library.
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Privacy Issues:
Health-Related Data Mining Growing; Lawmakers Consider Action
Data mining companies are using social media websites, health-related mobile applications and medical websites to collect health information on tens of millions of U.S. residents. According to Bloomberg, data aggregating firms are using consumers’ online activity to acquire information about their medical histories and pharmacy purchases. That information then is used to create directories or lists categorized by diagnoses or symptoms. For example, some of those directories include:
A list of 2.3 million cancer patients;
A list of 14 million individuals who suffer from depression; and
A list of 600,000 homes in which a person has autism or attention deficit disorder.
Such directories generally sell for about $0.15 per name.
In February, Sens. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) and Jay Rockefeller (D-Va.) introduced a bill (S 2025) that would allow individuals to see what data companies have collected on them and make it easier for consumers to opt out of being included in such directories.
http://www.ihealthbeat.org/articles/2014/9/12/health-related-data-mining-growing-lawmakers-consider-action.
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Internet Access:
From reddit to Pornhub, Websites Slow Down for Net Neutrality on September 10
You know the net neutrality conversation is breaking new ground when even the porn sites are weighing in. And that’s just what we’re seeing: Major adult platforms Pornhub and Redtube are joining an online protest on September 10, calling for stronger protections for net neutrality. They’re teaming up with dozens of digital rights organizations, including EFF, Demand Progress, and Fight for the Future, as well as other Internet companies like Etsy, reddit and Mozilla, in a digital day of action designed to bring the net neutrality debate to hundreds of thousands of Internet users worldwide.
Net neutrality – the idea that Internet service providers (ISPs) should treat all data that travels over their networks equally—got major attention this Spring when the FCC released proposed regulatory guidelines that left Internet users and companies alike deeply concerned. The proposal included new language giving ISPs leeway to create a "fast lane" for certain websites (i.e. websites with deep pockets that were willing to shell out more money for faster access to users). But you can’t have a fast lane without also having a slower lane. That’s why the protest on September 10 will showcase a slow-lane Internet, by putting graphics of "page loading" warnings on participating sites.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/09/reddit-pornhub-websites-slow-down-net-neutrality-september-10.
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The Intersect Alert is a newsletter of the Government Relations Committee, San Francisco Bay Region Chapter, Special Libraries Association.