Intellectual Property:
Cybersquatting Cases Up in 2015, Driven by New gTLDs
Amid the roll-out of hundreds of new generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs) such as .GURU, .NINJA and .NYC, trademark owners filed 2,754 cases under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) with WIPO in 2015, an increase of 4.6 % over the previous year. Cybersquatting disputes relating to new gTLDs accounted for 10.5% of WIPO’s UDRP caseload in 2015, which covered a total of 4,364 domain names. Among these names, .XYZ, .CLUB and .EMAIL were the most common new gTLDs.
WIPO Director General Francis Gurry said: “As brand owners face the possibility of further abuse of their trademarks in domains – both old and new – they continue to rely on WIPO’s cybersquatting dispute resolution procedures. By combating opportunistic domain name registration practices, WIPO’s services help consumers to find authentic web content and enhance the reliability of the Domain Name System.” Country code Top-Level Domains (ccTLDs) accounted for 13.7% of all filings with WIPO in 2015, with 71 national domain registries designating this WIPO dispute resolution service. WIPO UDRP cases in 2015 involved parties from 113 countries. The U.S., with 847 cases filed, was the first-ranked WIPO filing country, followed by France (337), Germany (272), the U.K. (229) and Switzerland (169). The top three sectors of complainant activity were fashion (10% of all cases), banking and finance (9%), and Internet and IT (9%).
http://www.wipo.int/pressroom/en/articles/2016/article_0003.html.
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Open Data:
House Rules Committee to release data in XML format
The House Rules Committee took a big step for open and accountable government today: House Rules Chairman Pete Sessions, R-Texas, announced that the committee would publish the text of the House Rules and eventually other related documents in an easy-to-use and analyze XML format that will be available for download on Github. “Technology plays an important role in our daily lives, and it is necessary that the House keep up with the most efficient and effective ways to provide information about Congressional activities,” said Sessions in the announcement.
Releasing the rules as data as opposed to hard-to-parse PDF documents will allow organizations like the Sunlight Foundation the ability to integrate this data into our tools, track changes to the rules and educate the public about vital functions of our democracy. The Rules Committee plays an essential role how the House functions and conducts its business by managing the business of the House floor (like which bills get a vote and when) on behalf of the House speaker.
http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2016/03/23/house-rules-committee-to-release-data-in-xml-format/.
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Freedom of Information:
Access to Government Information in the United States: A Primer
This report offers an introduction to the four access laws and provides citations to additional
resources related to these statutes. This report includes statistics on the use of FOIA and FACA
and on litigation related to FOIA. The 114th Congress may have an interest in overseeing the
implementation of these laws or may consider amending the laws. In addition, this report
provides some examples of the methods Congress, the President, and the courts have employed to
provide or require the provision of information to one another. This report is a primer on
information access in the U.S. federal government and provides a list of resources related to
transparency, secrecy, access, and nondisclosure.
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/secrecy/97-71.pdf (PDF).
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Public Policy:
New international research reinforces the link between public policy and life expectancy
While average life expectancy has been rising steadily in most countries over the past century, new research led by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) shows that life expectancy declined significantly and rapidly in three countries where policy changes increased access to prescription opioids, alcohol or illicit drugs. Published in BMC Medicine, the study underscores the need for effective substance use policies and public health interventions, and provides key principles to guide policy decisions.
“Our study shows that failed substance use policies can reverse life expectancy trends for large population groups or even countries,” says Dr. Jürgen Rehm, Director of Social and Epidemiological Research at CAMH and first author of the study. “On the other hand, we also observed that effective policy changes are associated with substantial gains in life expectancy.”
The researchers investigated marked changes in life expectancy linked to substance use and related policies in three countries: the U.S., the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and Mexico. In the U.S., prescription opioids are used in larger quantities than in any other country. Usage started increasing rapidly in the mid-1990s, partly as a result of allowing family doctors to prescribe short-acting opioids such as oxycodone for chronic pain and other relatively common diseases. Non-medical use of these substances and associated harms, including overdose deaths, increased alongside prescription use. From 1999 to 2013, mortality increased by nine per cent in middle-aged white non-Hispanic Americans, despite life expectancy continuing to rise among other U.S. populations, including Hispanic and black non-Hispanic populations.
http://www.northumberlandview.ca/index.php?module=news&type=user&func=display&sid=40787.
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Privacy Issues:
Senator Markey Proposes Drones Privacy-Enhancing Amendments to FAA Reauthorization Act
The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee will mark up the Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization Act of 2016 (S. 2658) this Wednesday (March 16th). The bill includes a number of provisions designed to accelerate commercial and government use of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) – “drones” – as well as provisions outlining UAS data privacy requirements. Senator Markey has proposed various privacy-enhancing amendments to the bill that we hope the Committee will give particular attention during Wednesday’s mark up.
In addition to giving the agency rulemaking authority to create UAS data privacy rules, Markey’s amendments would mandate the creation of an “easily searchable online database” of government and commercial UAS operators. The existing reauthorization bill also mandates creation of a database; however, the bill does not require an operator to be listed in the database if inclusion would interfere with “national security, homeland defense, or law enforcement.” This exemption is far too broad and could exclude the majority of (if not all) government UAS operators. Sen. Markey’s amendments more appropriately scope the exemption; the database requirement would not apply to situations involving immediate danger of death, serious physical injury, or “activities threatening the national security interest” (although we should note that “national security interest” could be broadly interpreted as well). Markey’s amendments would also require a more complete UAS profile to be included in the database.
https://cdt.org/blog/senator-markey-proposes-drones-privacy-enhancing-amendments-to-faa-reauthorization-act/.
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International Outlook:
World Happiness Report Update 2016
The World Happiness Report 2016 Update, which ranks 156 countries by their happiness levels, was released in Rome in advance of UN World Happiness Day, March 20th. The widespread interest in the World Happiness Reports, of which this is the fourth, reflects growing global interest in using happiness and subjective well-being as primary indicators of the quality of human development. Because of this growing interest, many governments, communities and organizations are using happiness data, and the results of subjective well-being research, to enable policies that support better lives.
This year, for the first time, the World Happiness Report gives a special role to the measurement and consequences of inequality in the distribution of well-being among countries and regions. In previous reports the editors have argued that happiness provides a better indicator of human welfare than do income, poverty, education, health and good government measured separately. In a parallel way, they now argue that the inequality of well-being provides a broader measure of inequality. They find that people are happier living in societies where there is less inequality of happiness. They also find that happiness inequality has increased significantly (comparing 2012-2015 to 2005-2011) in most countries, in almost all global regions, and for the population of the world as a whole.
http://worldhappiness.report/ed/2016/.
India’s Billion-Member Biometric Database Raises Privacy Fears
India’s parliament is set to pass legislation that gives federal agencies access to the world’s biggest biometric database in the interests of national security, raising fears the privacy of a billion people could be compromised. The move comes as the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) cracks down on student protests and pushes a Hindu nationalist agenda in state elections, steps that some say erode India’s traditions of tolerance and free speech, reports Reuters. It could also usher in surveillance far more intrusive than the U.S. telephone and Internet spying revealed by former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden in 2013, some privacy advocates said.
The Aadhaar database scheme, started seven years ago, was set up to streamline payment of benefits and cut down on massive wastage and fraud, and already nearly a billion people have registered their finger prints and iris signatures. Now the BJP, which inherited the scheme, wants to pass new provisions including those on national security, using a loophole to bypass the opposition in parliament. “It has been showcased as a tool exclusively meant for disbursement of subsidies and we do not realize that it can also be used for mass surveillance,” said Tathagata Satpathy, a lawmaker from the eastern state of Odisha. “Can the government … assure us that this Aadhaar card and the data that will be collected under it – biometric, biological, iris scan, finger print, everything put together – will not be misused as has been done by the NSA in the U.S.?”
http://www.newshour.com.bd/2016/03/16/indias-billion-member-biometric-database-raises-privacy-fears/.
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Libraries:
The libraries of Herculaneum: Not quite destroyed by Mt. Vesuvius?
It may require a particle accelerator, X-ray vision, and a highly toxic metal, but researchers believe they could soon be reading from the libraries of Herculaneum, an ancient Roman town destroyed by a volcano to the benefit of archaeology. Scientists have discovered that ancient scholars in the town which, along with its more-famous neighbor, Pompeii, was destroyed by the volcanic eruption of Mt. Vesuvius used a lead-based paint, which they may be able to read using X-ray technology.
Archaeologists found about 800 ancient papyrus scrolls when they began digging through a private library, dubbed the “Villa of the Papyri,” in Herculaneum in 1752, but 200 remain too delicate even to open. Discovering lead among the ink’s components surprised physicist Vito Mocella of the Italian National Research Council and his colleagues, who published their findings in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2016/0322/The-libraries-of-Herculaneum-Not-quite-destroyed-by-Mt.-Vesuvius.
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Internet Access:
Thousands Support Expanding Lifeline to Broadband in Petitions Submitted to FCC
Today, Public Knowledge joined MAG-Net, Communications Workers of America, Color of Change, and OC Inc. in submitting more than 20,000 signatures to the Federal Communications Commission urging the agency to expand its low-income phone subsidy program, Lifeline, to broadband Internet. The petitions will be added to the public record, which the Commissioners will consider before they vote on the Lifeline modernization proposal at the March 31 Open Meeting. Public Knowledge supports modernizing Lifeline to include broadband Internet as the new essential communications tool for the 21st century.
“30 years after the introduction of Lifeline, the addition of broadband access is a clear next step for the Lifeline program. Americans increasingly rely on broadband Internet for education, employment, health care, news and information, access to government and social services, commerce, and basic communications. However, for many Americans, broadband is simply not affordable. Modernizing the Lifeline program to include broadband Internet access will help millions of Americans stay connected, further closing the digital divide and supporting a thriving American economy. We look forward to the Commission’s decision on its Lifeline modernization proposal.”
https://www.publicknowledge.org/press-release/thousands-support-expanding-lifeline-to-broadband-in-petitions-submitted-to-fcc.
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The Intersect Alert is a newsletter of the Government Relations Committee, San Francisco Bay Region Chapter, Special Libraries Association.