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From Federal Computer Week:
The Government Printing Office has awarded a contract to Harris, an international communications and information technology company, to develop the agency’s first Web-based document distribution system. The contract, more so than the project for which GPO awarded it, has procurement analysts talking.
Secrecy News reports:
The annual financial costs attributable to the national security classification system reached a record high of $9.2 billion in 2005 according to a new report (pdf) from the Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO).Classification-related costs include not merely the direct costs of classifying information, which are modest, but also the derivative costs of the personnel security clearance system, physical security for classified material, classified computer security, and more. Most of these costs are incurred within government, but some are due to the handling of classified information within industry.
See "2005 Report on Cost Estimates for Security Classification Activities," Information Security Oversight Office, August 2006.
Read Scott A. Hodes' LLRX column on FOIA and Executive Order 13392. His conclusion:
I believe FOIA operations will not significantly improve until:
• the Congress passes legislation that ties up lose ends caused by the march of technology and fully funds FOIA operations at agencies to reduce backlogs; and
• High level agency officials support FOIA Offices in their agencies by making sure they get the support they need on the various troublesome issues in those agencies. Hopefully someone will get the message and a real effort to improve FOIA operations in the near future.
A recent debate about the Bush administration's use of presidential signing statements has raised questions about their function, legality, and value. We argue that presidential signing statements are legal and that they provide a useful way for the president to disclose his views about the meaning and constitutionality of legislation. Although President Bush has challenged more statutory provisions in signing statements than prior administrations have, his signing statements are similar in many respects to the signing statements issued by prior presidents, such as President Clinton. In addition, basic tenets of positive political theory suggest that signing statements do not undermine the separation of powers or the legislative process and that, under certain circumstances, they can provide relevant evidence of statutory meaning.
A new business model for scholarly journals, open access, has gained wide attention recently. An open-access journal's articles are available over the Internet free of charge to all readers; revenue to cover publication costs comes from authors' fees. In this paper, we present a model of the journals market. Drawing upon the emerging literature on two-sided markets, we highlight the features distinguishing journals from examples economists have previously studied (telephony, credit cards, etc.). We analyze the efficiency of equilibrium author and reader fee schedules for various industry structures and for various assumptions about journals' objective functions. We ask whether open-access journals are viable in these various economic environments.
From the Miami Herald:
The state's record keepers must delete sensitive personal information from government websites. Until that's done, many Floridians are in danger of having their identities stolen.
Special Libraries Association Press Release:
The Special Libraries Association (SLA) announced today its continued grave concern with the actions of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as they move to begin closing the network of 27 EPA libraries and information centers across the country. These closures will terminate public access to important research materials and environmental impact information on the assumption that Congress will not reverse President Bush’s proposed budget reductions when they return from recess in mid-September. In an August 15, 2006 document, “EPA FY 2007 Library Plan”, EPA indicates that it will begin immediately implementing President Bush’s proposed budget cuts for the next fiscal year, which begins in October, without waiting for Congress to act.“We are extremely disappointed to hear that the leadership at EPA is acting without Congressional approval on the closure of its libraries,” said SLA Chief Executive Officer Janice R. Lachance.
From News.com:
The U.S. Department of Education has disabled the online payment feature for its Federal Student Aid site, following a security breach that could affect up to 21,000 borrowers.Federal Student Aid recipients who between Sunday and Tuesday accessed one of six Web pages on the Department of Education site may have had their personal information exposed to others, said Lesley Pool, a spokeswoman for software company Affiliated Computer Services.
From News.com:
The Internet Archive is off the hook in a lawsuit accusing it of negligence for allowing old Web pages to be viewed using the Wayback Machine, which archives pages unless Web site owners specifically ask that they be excluded from the database.
From Government Executive magazine:
With 40 percent of its librarians eligible for retirement by 2010, the Library of Congress is trying to retrain and adjust its workforce while preparing to digitally preserve its extensive collection of print and broadcast media.
From Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility:
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is moving ahead this summer to shut down libraries, end public access to research materials and box up unique collections on the assumption that Congress will not reverse President Bush’s proposed budget reductions, according to agency documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). At the same time, EPA’s own scientists are stepping up protests against closures on the grounds that it will make their work more difficult by impeding research, enforcement and emergency response capabilities.
From the Sydney Morning Herald:
Brazilian prosecutors have asked a federal judge for permission to file a civil lawsuit against Google Inc., alleging it was withholding user information required for a separate criminal investigation.The prosecutors want Google to pay a $US61 million fine and asked that if it refuses to comply with its information request, its Brazilian unit be dissolved. . .
. . . The prosecutors want a federal judge to order Google to hand over user information on those Orkut pages that are being investigated for promoting crimes.
From the Washington Post:
The U.S. government sued Maine officials on Tuesday to block their demand that Verizon disclose whether it gave the government's spying program access to its customer data, documents showed.
Thanks to ResourceShelf for pointing to:
Access to Information Canada: Annual Report, Information Commissioner, 2005-2006
Countless individuals reported that senior officials, both political and administrative, find various ways to deny providing information to the public.
Berkman Center Research Publication No. 2006-09 (August 2006)
This foundational white paper reports on a year-long study by the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, funded by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, examining the relationship between copyright law and education. In particular, we wanted to explore whether innovative educational uses of digital technology were hampered by the restrictions of copyright. We found that provisions of copyright law concerning the educational use of copyrighted material, as well as the business and institutional structures shaped by that law, are among the most important obstacles to realizing the potential of digital technology in education.
From the Washington Post:
Amateur historian Matthew M. Aid made news this spring by exposing a secret federal program to remove thousands of public documents from the National Archives. It turns out that Aid harbored a secret of his own.
Twenty-one years ago, while serving as a staff sergeant in the U.S. Air Force in England, Aid was court-martialed for unauthorized possession of classified information and impersonating an officer, according to Air Force documents. He received a bad-conduct discharge and was imprisoned for just over a year, he confirmed in an interview Monday.
From Information World Review:
Open access publisher BioMed Central has launched Chemistry Central, a site that the London based company hopes will see chemistry become as prolific in the open access arena as physics.Access to Chemistry Central, and its sister site BioMed Central is available through a newly-launched portal, Open Access Central, which will provide a single point of access to all the publisher’s open access journals. A new site, PhysMath Central, is also planned for physics and mathematics.
From the New York Times (registration required):
United States and European authorities, looking for more tools to detect terrorist plots, want to expand the screening of international airline passengers by digging deep into a vast repository of airline itineraries, personal information and payment data.A proposal by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff would allow the United States government not only to look for known terrorists on watch lists, but also to search broadly through the passenger itinerary data to identify people who may be linked to terrorists, he said in a recent interview.
From News.com:
Privacy rules will be closely regarded as intelligence gathering and sharing get a boost, Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff said.Collecting more information and correlating data from various law enforcement agencies is crucial to national security, Chertoff told reporters Friday after touring a new, high-tech law enforcement center in this Los Angeles suburb. But increased intelligence gathering and sharing doesn't equal less privacy for U.S. citizens, he said.
From the Mercury News:
AOL's chief technology officer left the company and two other workers were fired in the aftermath of a privacy breach that involved the intentional release of more than 650,000 subscribers' Internet search terms.
From News.com:
The head of the Federal Trade Commission on Monday expressed sharp skepticism toward proposed laws that would levy extensive Net neutrality regulations on broadband providers.Deborah Platt Majoras, the FTC's Republican chairman, said extensive Net neutrality legislation currently pending in the U.S. Senate is unnecessary because there has been no demonstrated harm to consumers, that normal market forces would likely prevent any problems, and that new laws would cause more problems than they solve.
What the U.S. Government No Longer Wants You to Know about Nuclear Weapons During the Cold War
National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 197
The Pentagon and the Energy Department have now stamped as national security secrets the long-public numbers of U.S. nuclear missiles during the Cold War, including data from the public reports of the Secretaries of Defense in 1967 and 1971, according to government documents posted today on the Web by the National Security Archive.Pentagon and Energy officials have now blacked out from previously public charts the numbers of Minuteman missiles (1,000), Titan II missiles (54), and submarine-launched ballistic missiles (656) in the historic U.S. Cold War arsenal, even though four Secretaries of Defense (McNamara, Laird, Richardson, Schlesinger) reported strategic force levels publicly in the 1960s and 1970s.
From Reuters:
Hearings that could dramatically alter the way labels and publishers share online music revenue in Canada begin September 6.The proceedings, before the Copyright Board of Canada in Ottawa, will mark the first time the federal-appointed tribunal considers rates for the online sale of music.
From Yahoo! News:
Three Vietnamese arrested last October for engaging in an Internet discussion about democracy have been freed after almost nine months in detention, a global media watchdog said.
BACKGROUND
S. 3774, a bill To amend title 18, United States Code, to prohibit the unauthorized disclosure of classified information, was introduced by Sen. Christopher Bond (R-MO) on August 2, 2006. Endorsed by eleven other senators, it would criminalize the unauthorized disclosure of classified information. Bond's bill would give the executive branch broad discretion to prosecute individuals engaged in disclosure of government secrets because it allows for the prosecution of individuals without proving that a disclosure poses a threat to national security. We believe that government transparency and accountability are vital to a democratic society and that Bond's legislation is an ill-advised, draconian measure.
S. 3774 uses the same language as the highly controversial legislation vetoed by President Clinton late in 2000. To date, Congress has refused to pass legislation that would make it a crime for any person to willfully disclose, for any purpose whatsoever, information classified as secret or top secret.
The primary concern with S. 3774 is that it would be an attack on the First Amendment rights of the press, whistleblowers, and others whose intention it is to monitor government actions and ensure that the government does not abuse or overstep its authority. The legislation would severely inhibit the ability of individuals to serve as a legitimate check on the executive branch.
ACTION NEEDED
The Senate is currently on its August recess, which runs through Labor Day. S. 3774 could be quickly pushed through as an attachment to other legislation when the Senate reconvenes in September. The bill has been referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee and every member of the committee needs to hear from his or her constituents. If your Senator is listed below as a member of the committee, please call or send an email urging them to oppose this legislation and protect the First Amendment. You can reach your Senator through the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at: 202-224-3121, or via email at http://www.senate.gov/general/ contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm. Below are talking points to use in your correspondences.
• It is our strong belief that the public has a right to know important information pertaining to government actions, particularly when that information is used as a check on the executive branch.
• S. 3774 challenges the First Amendment rights of all Americans. Open government and access to government information are important to our democracy, and the press serves as a vital mechanism for reporting certain types of government information that the public otherwise would not have access to.
• S. 3774 creates a new federal felony crime which is subject to fines and up to three years imprisonment for making an unauthorized disclosure of any information if there is "reason to believe" the information has been properly classified. This suppresses the media and their ability to keep the public informed.
Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee
MAJORITY
Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA), Chairman
Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL)
Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AR)
Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-IA)
Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS)
Sen .Mike DeWine (R-OH)
Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK)
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC)
Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX)
Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-UT)
MINORITY
Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-VT), Ranking Member
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)
Sen .Joseph R. Biden, Jr. (D-DE)
Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-IL)
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA)
Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-NY)
Sen .Russ Feingold (D-WI)
Sen. Herbert Kohl (D-WI)
Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today joined a coalition of groups and websites to launch an interactive online database of the more than the 1,800 earmarks in the House version of the fiscal 2007 Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act (H.R. 5647). The effort aims to make government more open and accountable by getting the public directly involved in tracking and researching earmarks.
Thanks to beSpacific for pointing out this one:
Researcher Jim Klotz recently discovered and obtained a useful and comprehensive information resource - a detailed explanation of how military records are retrieved and reviewed for release in response to FOIA requests.
From Reuters:
A federal judge ordered the Bush administration on Thursday to halt the National Security Agency's program of domestic eavesdropping, saying it violated the U.S. Constitution.
From the Guardian:
On August 2, the government rolled out the second stage of a long-delayed project to make the consolidated law of parliament accessible to the people. So how does it look? The public - who paid for the whole project - can't get a look in.No free public access sites have been granted permission to view the current system and testers of the database - predominantly from commercial legal publishing firms - have been told not to share their login and password. Even so, some testers are not entirely happy with what they've found after logging on to the top secret database of our country's laws.
Firstly, an astounding Crown copyright notice greets the reader: "The Statute Law Database and the material on the SLD website are subject to Crown copyright protection. The Crown copyright waiver that applies to published legislation generally does not apply to SLD because it is a value-added product. Any reuse of material from SLD will be the subject of separate and specific licensing arrangements. No such arrangements have yet been entered into. Users should not therefore reproduce or reuse any material from SLD until further guidance is issued."
From the DOJ Report:
Section 1001 of the USA PATRIOT Act (Patriot Act), Public Law 107-56, directs the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ or Department) to undertake a series of actions related to claims of civil rights or civil liberties violations allegedly committed by DOJ employees. It also requires the OIG to provide semiannual reports to Congress on the implementation of the OIG’s responsibilities under Section 1001. This report – the ninth since enactment of the legislation in October 2001 – summarizes the OIG’s Section 1001-related activities from January 1, 2006, through June 30, 2006.
From the Mercury News:
Google's benevolence becomes reality today.Well, in Mountain View, at least.
After months of beta testing and anticipation, the Internet giant plans to open up its free, wireless Internet network to Mountain View's 72,000 residents.
The network covers about 90 percent of the city's 12 square miles and offers maximum data-transfer speeds of up to 1 megabit per second -- slightly slower than DSL.
From the Mercury News:
Iranian authorities are stepping up arrests and pressure on popular bloggers as part of a wider Internet clampdown launched after hard-liner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad became president last year, ending years of freewheeling Web access that once made Iran among the most vibrant online locales in the Middle East.
From News.com:
Cyberspace, one of the last true havens of free speech in Malaysia, may soon fall victim to a squabble between the country's two most powerful politicians, with the government vowing to punish defamatory remarks on Web sites.As in many Asian countries, Malaysia's mainstream media have long engaged in self-censorship. Now authorities are trying to get free-wheeling Web sites and blogs to adopt the practice in a country keenly alert to racial and religious sensitivities.
From The Independent:
Search engine giant Google, known for its mantra "don't be evil", has fired off a series of legal letters to media organisations, warning them against using its name as a verb.
From Human Rights Watch:
In this report, we have documented the different ways in which companies such as Yahoo!, Microsoft, Google, and Skype are assisting and reinforcing the Chinese government’s system of arbitrary, opaque and unaccountable political censorship.1 This report documents the way in which these companies actively, openly, and deliberately (by their own admission) collaborate with the Chinese government’s system of Internet censorship.
The Washington Post has launched a new political ads database.
The database includes political advertisements funded by campaigns, parties, committees, and indepdendent advocacy groups. Most of the ads are tied to specific U.S. House, U.S. Senate, or gubernatorial races throughout the country. Some of the ads are more general "issue" or advocacy ads not tied to a particular race or candidate. You can search for ads based on the criteria listed below.
From the letter:
The Project On Government Oversight ( POGO ) is an independent nonprofit that investigates and exposes corruption and other misconduct in order to achieve a more accountable federal government. POGO has been made aware that there is an unreleased 20-page unclassified report documenting the findings of an independent investigation led by Michael Stern into the activities of former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham. We are writing to urge you to make public this unclassified report.
From the Mercury News:
Although he was alarmed by AOL's haphazard release of its subscribers' online search requests, Google Inc. CEO Eric Schmidt said Wednesday the privacy concerns raised by that breach won't change his company's practice of storing the inquiries made by its users.
From the Mercury News:
A federal panel of judges has consolidated 17 lawsuits throughout the United States filed against telephone companies accused of assisting the Bush administration monitor Americans' communications without warrants.The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation transferred the cases to U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker, who last month declined to dismiss one of the lawsuits brought against the federal government and AT&T Inc., according to an order released Thursday.
From News.com:
AOL's recent privacy gaffe that exposed user search histories may breathe new life into a proposal to slap strict rules on what data Internet companies may collect.
Wasn't the Justice Deprtment just trying to force Internet providers to store their data?
And wasn't Congress going along with it?
From News.com:
A federal judge has temporarily halted further review of a lawsuit charging that AT&T illegally allowed the U.S. government to monitor phone and e-mail communications. . .. . . Last month, U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker rejected a request from the head of U.S. intelligence and other officials to dismiss the suit.
But on Tuesday Walker said he would stay the case pending an appeal of his earlier decision by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. He said he was also awaiting another court decision that could bundle similar lawsuits across the nation before his or another court.
From Sports Illustrated:
Fantasy baseball leagues are allowed to use player names and statistics without licensing agreements because they are not the intellectual property of Major League Baseball, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.
Hearings have been held on the current version of S. 2686 by the Senate Commerce Committee, where efforts to amend it with meaningful net neutrality provisions failed by an 11-11 vote. The August recess begins August 7th and runs through Labor Day. Your Senators will be back in your states, and this presents an excellent opportunity to take a hands on approach to this issue, especially if your Senator is running for re-election. Attend a rally, schedule a meeting at your Senator's district office, or, at the very least, send them an email. Urge them not to support any communications reform bill unless it includes meaningful net neutrality provisions. Also, be sure to personalize your message so that it relates specifically to your institution and your patrons.
Secrecy News reports some good news:
The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) said this week that it will not administer a grant to a San Antonio, Texas law school to study state freedom of information laws.
From the Washington Post:
Robert Bombard has always been a voracious reader. He worked at the city library as a teenager and was a volunteer there as an adult. Even when he served two years in jail on a drug charge, he did his time working in the lockup's library. . .. . .So when Bombard went to check out more than two volumes after spending a day as a volunteer at Worcester's main library branch last summer, he was shocked when they told him no.
"They said 'Oh, no _ you live at a shelter,' right in front of everybody," he said. "It made me feel like a second-class citizen."
From the Boston Globe:
Nearly all members of the House of Representatives opted out of a chance to read this year's classified intelligence bill, and then voted on secret provisions they knew almost nothing about.The bill, which passed by 327 to 96 in April, authorized the Bush administration's plans for fighting the war on terrorism. Many members say they faced an untenable choice: Either consent to a review process so secretive that they could never mention anything about it in House debates, under the threat of prosecution, or vote on classified provisions they knew nothing about.
Most chose to know nothing.
The American Civil Liberties Union and the New York Civil Liberties Union announced today that they have returned to court to challenge the constitutionality of the reauthorized Patriot Act's National Security Letter (NSL) provision. The provision permits the FBI to prohibit anyone who receives an NSL from disclosing that the FBI has sought or obtained information from them.
From the Mercury News:
AOL released the Internet search terms that more than 650,000 of its subscribers entered over a three-month period and admitted Monda