Intellectual Property:
Second Circuit Affirms Fair Use in Google Books Case
On October 16, 2015, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit unanimously affirmed the lower court’s fair use in Authors Guild v. Google, also known as the “Google Books” case. Google, through its Library Project, made digital copies of tens of millions of books submitted to it by libraries. It then included these copies in a search index that displayed “snippets” in response to search queries. The Second Circuit held that the copying of the books and the display of snippets is transformative and a fair use. Furthermore, Google’s provision of digital copies to its partner libraries that submitted the particular work is not an infringement.
This decision follows directly from last year’s positive fair use decision in Authors Guild v. HathiTrust. There were two main differences between the two cases. Google is a commercial party, while HathiTrust is non-profit; and Google displays snippets, while HathiTrust just provides page numbers. Judge Leval, the federal judiciary’s foremost expert on fair use who developed the concept of transformative use, carefully explained why these differences did not affect the fair use analysis. … The court notes that the snippet provides "just enough context" for a user to evaluate whether the book is responsive to her interests, but does not reveal enough to threaten the copyright interest.
The Second Circuit rejects the argument that Plaintiffs have a derivative right over the search and snippet view functions, stating that "there is no merit to this argument." The court points out that copyright "does not include an exclusive right to furnish the kind of information about the works that Google’s programs provide to the public. For substantially the same reasons, the copyright that protects Plaintiffs’ works does not include an exclusive derivative right to supply such information through query of a digitized copy." The court similarly dismisses the argument that Google Books harms the existence or potential for paid licensing schemes.
http://policynotes.arl.org/?p=1200.
This story was picked up all over the place, such as:
here, and here.
There’s No DRM in JPEG—Let’s Keep It That Way
If you have ever tried scanning or photocopying a banknote, you may have found that your software—such as Adobe Photoshop, or the embedded software in the photocopier—refused to let you do so. That’s because your software is secretly looking for security features such as EURion dots in the documents that you scan, and is hard-coded to refuse to let you make a copy if it finds them, even if your copy would have been for a lawful purpose.
Now imagine if you had the same problem with any image that you found online—that your computer wouldn’t let you make a copy of Gene Wilder when making a image macro, or would stop you from reposting photos from an online catalog to your Pinterest account, or would prevent an artist from using a digital photograph as the basis for a new artwork. That’s essentially what the JPEG Committee is discussing today in Brussels, when considering a proposal to add DRM to the JPEG image format.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/10/theres-no-drm-jpeg-lets-keep-it-way.
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Privacy:
Web design plays a role in how much we reveal online
How many people read online privacy warnings? Few probably do. Long, detailed and technical privacy notices are the current answer to one of the greatest privacy issues of our time: websites collect information about us all the time and we frequently allow it without really knowing or understanding the conditions. JRC scientists have found that web design, and the information shown on the screen, does influence how and whether a user discloses personal data.
A JRC study, "Nudges to Privacy Behaviour: Exploring an Alternative Approach to Privacy Notices", used behavioural sciences to look at how individuals react to different types of privacy notices. Specifically, the authors analysed users’ reactions to modified choice architecture (i.e. the environment in which decisions take place) of web interfaces. Two types of privacy behaviour were measured: passive disclosure, when people unwittingly disclose personal information, and direct disclosure, when people make an active choice to reveal personal information. After testing different designs with over 3 000 users from the UK, Italy, Germany and Poland, results show web interface affects decisions on disclosing personal information. The study also explored differences related to country of origin, gender, education level and age.
A depiction of a person’s face on the website led people to reveal more personal information. Also, this design choice and the visualisation of the user’s IP or browsing history had an impact on people’s awareness of a privacy notice. If confirmed, these features are particularly relevant for habitual and instinctive online behaviour.
http://phys.org/news/2015-10-web-role-reveal-online.html.
California Adopts Statewide Data Breach Notification Laws
In the wake of several recent large-scale data breaches, such as the UCLA Health System, California Governor Jerry Brown recently signed a law that would provide statewide regulations for data breach notification. The law, which comes as a three-bill package, describes standards for data encryption, the language with which an entity provides data breach notification, and standards for defining personal information.
The first portion of California’s new laws clarifies the definition of data encryption. According to Assembly Bill 964, properly encrypted data is "rendered unusable, unreadable or indecipherable to an unauthorized person through a security technology or methodology generally accepted in the field of information security."
The second portion discusses the language with which all data breach notifications are to be given. Assembly Bill 570 states that all notifications must be titled "Notice of Data Breach." Furthermore, each data breach notification must include subheadings titled "What Happened," "What Information Was Involved," "What Are We Doing," "What You Can Do," "Other Important Information," and "For More Information." This is notable because it creates a standard for how affected individuals are informed of data breaches and the information with which they are provided.
Last, the bill package includes details regarding personal information. Assembly Bill 34 increases the scope of personal information, and now includes data captured by automated license plate recognition (ALPR) systems. The bill states that all ALPR users must take reasonable measures to protect the information collected by such systems, and must create standards under which ALPR data is collected and used.
http://healthitsecurity.com/news/california-adopts-statewide-data-breach-notification-laws.
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Freedom of Information:
Rushdie warns of new dangers to free speech in West
Violence against writers and a misplaced sense of political correctness pose new dangers to freedom of speech in the West, writer Salman Rushdie said on Tuesday. Rushdie, the subject of an Iranian death threat in 1989 for his book “The Satanic Verses”, which was deemed blasphemous by many Muslims, said he had not expected freedom of expression to come under attack again to this extent in the western world. “It seems to me the battle for free expression was won 100 years ago,” the 68-year-old told an audience at the opening of the Frankfurt Book Fair, under heavy security. “The fact that we have to go on fighting this battle is the result of a number of regrettable, more recent phenomena.”
After Islamist gunmen killed 12 people in January in an attack at the office of French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, which had mocked religions including Islam, Rushdie defended the murdered cartoonists. He still faces criticism from his religious opponents: the Iranian Ministry of Culture canceled its national stand at this year’s book fair because of Rushdie’s appearance, and Saudi Arabia protested against a new Czech translation of “The Satanic Verses” only last week. Rushdie criticized restraints on freedom of expression at universities, referring to recent examples in Britain and the United States. “The idea that students should not be intellectually challenged at universities is exactly what we should fight,” he said.
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/rushdie-warns-dangers-free-speech-west-075130454.html.
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Open Access:
GPO to Digitize Two Million Pages of the Federal Register
The U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) partners with the National Archives’ Office of the Federal Register (OFR) to make every issue of the Federal Register digitally available to the public. A total of 14,587 individual issues, which go back to 1936, will be digitized. GPO employees will hand pack and catalogue every issue. The project is expected to be completed in 2016.
http://www.bespacific.com/gpo-to-digitize-two-million-pages-of-the-federal-register/.
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Government Information:
GAO Posts Titles of Restricted Reports
The Government Accountability Office this week quietly published a list of titles of its restricted reports that have not been publicly released because they contain classified information or controlled unclassified information. A new link to “Restricted Products” appears at the bottom of the GAO homepage (under Reports & Testimonies).
"This list is intended to keep Congress, federal agencies, and the public informed of the existence of these products. The list consists of all such classified or controlled products issued since September 30, 2014 and will be updated each time a new report is issued," the GAO webpage says. "We did not issue a statement or announcement" concerning the new listing, said Timothy L. Minelli of GAO Congressional Relations. A congressional staffer said the move was prompted by concerns expressed by some Members of Congress and staff that they were unaware of the restricted reports, since they had not been indexed or archived by GAO.
Publication of the titles of restricted GAO reports "was not necessarily universally desired by everyone in Congress," the staffer said, and “it took about a year” to resolve the issue. But "GAO deserves a lot of credit. They decided it was the right thing to do, and they did it."
Although primarily aimed at congressional consumers, the new webpage also serves to inform the public. GAO is not subject to the Freedom of Information Act, but will usually entertain requests for records anyway. However, GAO is not authorized to release information that has been classified or controlled by an executive branch agency.
http://fas.org/blogs/secrecy/2015/10/gao-restricted/.
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Internet of Things:
CRS – The Internet of Things: Frequently Asked Questions
"Internet of Things" (IoT) refers to networks of objects that communicate with other objects and with computers through the Internet. “Things” may include virtually any object for which remote communication, data collection, or control might be useful, such as vehicles, appliances, medical devices, electric grids, transportation infrastructure, manufacturing equipment, or building systems. In other words, the IoT potentially includes huge numbers and kinds of interconnected objects. It is often considered the next major stage in the evolution of cyberspace. Some observers believe it might even lead to a world where cyberspace and human space would seem to effectively merge, with unpredictable but potentially momentous societal and cultural impacts. Two features makes objects part of the IoT —a unique identifier and Internet connectivity. Such “smart” objects each have a unique Internet Protocol (IP) address to identify the object sending and receiving information. Smart objects can form systems that communicate among themselves, usually in concert with computers, allowing automated and remote control of many independent processes and potentially transforming them into integrated systems. Those systems can potentially impact homes and communities, factories and cities, and every sector of the economy, both domestically and globally. Although the full extent and nature of the IoT’s impacts remain uncertain, economic analyses predict that it will contribute trillions of dollars to economic growth over the next decade. Sectors that may be particularly affected include agriculture, energy, government, health care, manufacturing, and transportation. The IoT may also pose increased risks to privacy, with cyberattacks potentially resulting in exfiltration of identifying or other sensitive information about an individual.
http://www.bespacific.com/46512-2/
Watch us explain the Internet of Things with a jellyfish
What do a smartphone, a Nest thermostat, and a Fitbit all have in common?
If you guessed that they’re all products of our cultural obsession with gadgets, then yes — you’re correct. But more specifically, all of these devices are part of the Internet of Things. If you’ve never heard of it, don’t worry — many people who have heard of the Internet of Things don’t really know what it is. But what if you care more about, say, trees than Silicon Valley-born electronics? You may be surprised to learn that the Internet of Things can do just as much for saving the planet as it can for tracking your heart rate during SoulCycle. In the right hands, it could be a powerful tool to fight climate change, reducing greenhouse gas emissions by as much as nine gigatons by 2020. Watch our video to learn how!
http://grist.org/business-technology/watch-us-explain-the-internet-of-things-with-a-jellyfish.
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The Intersect Alert is a newsletter of the Government Relations Committee, San Francisco Bay Region Chapter, Special Libraries Association.