Part-Time Policy Wonk

From Public Knowledge:

This morning, the House Judiciary Committee decided not to proceed with a markup of HR 6052, the Copyright Modernization Act. The bill would put in place a needed new system of licensing for digital music. At the same time, the bill would place new restrictions on innovative devices that allow consumers to record music for future listening by subjecting satellite radio services to extra fees for the creation of temporary computer files necessary for playback of music.

Posted by Anne at 08:43 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

From BusinessWeek:

Google Inc. will not meet a Brazilian judges' deadline to turn over information on users of the company's social networking service Orkut, a spokewoman said Wednesday.

Posted by Anne at 08:41 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

From the FOIA blog:

The Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Community Services Center has sued the Internal Revenue Service ("IRS") for its failure to produce records on a request made to it approximately 18 months ago. The request sought records on the plaintiff's attempt to get itself 501(c)(3) tax exempt status. While the IRS indicated over a year ago that it had located responsive records, it still has not produced anything, nor has it even responded to the plaintiff's communications to find out the status of the request. This is a prime example of how a little customer service could have prevented another FOIA matter going to the Courts.

Posted by Anne at 08:36 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Thanks to Free Government Information for pointing out this state-by-state map of ballot initiatives coming to a ballot box near you this fall. From PBS's NOW.

Click where you live to find ballot proposals you'll be voting on this November, as well as a campaign finance disclosure report card for your state (You might be surprised at the number of states with failing grades.)

Posted by Anne at 08:43 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

New LLRX Column by Scott A. Hodes:

One of the reasons that FOIA litigation is disfavored by people is the time it takes for the lawsuit to actually result in a decision. Even before a lawsuit has been filed, the requester has usually spent some time waiting for the agency to make a decision on his or her initial request and then more time on an administrative appeal. Then, after a lawsuit is filed, various procedural things occur that can result in years of litigation before a court even reaches a decision on the documents requested in the first place. And even if the court orders the documents released, agencies commonly appeal the release order to an appeals court, resulting in an even longer wait. A number of recent active lawsuits serve as a good example of this.

Posted by Anne at 08:39 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

SEC Press Release:

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox announced today that the SEC has awarded three separate contracts totaling $54 million to transform the agency’s 1980s-vintage public company disclosure system from a form-based electronic filing cabinet to a dynamic real-time search tool with interactive capabilities.

Posted by Anne at 08:34 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

From News.com:

The number of blog sites in China reached 34 million last month, a 30-fold increase from four years ago, state media said on Tuesday, despite a series of curbs on media and dissent.

China has more than 17 million people writing blogs and more than 75 million people reading them, Xinhua news agency said.

Posted by Anne at 08:31 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

From News.com:

British Library calls for digital copyright action

The British Library has called for a "serious updating" of current copyright law to "unambiguously" include digital content and take technological advances into account.

In a manifesto released on Monday at the Labor Party Conference in Manchester, the United Kingdom's national library warned that the country's traditional copyright law needs to be extended to fully recognize digital content.

"Unless there is a serious updating of copyright law to recognize the changing technological environment, the law becomes an ass," Lynne Brindley, chief executive of the British Library, told ZDNet UK.

Posted by Anne at 08:30 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

From Yahoo! News UK:

The Complutense University of Madrid is becoming the first library in a non-English-speaking country to join Google Inc.'s bid to scan every book in print, as the controversial project extends its global reach.

Posted by Anne at 08:27 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

About The Political Ads Database:

The database includes political advertisements funded by campaigns, parties, committees, and independent 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.

Posted by Anne at 08:25 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Yes socks. Free Government Information reports on another presidential signing statement.

Posted by Anne at 08:23 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Free Government Information is calling for help in collating examples of George W. Bush's use of presidential signing statements.

In the spirit of sunshine being the best disinfectant, we have decided to collect signing statements where the President appears to state that he will not honor an Act of Congress to provide information.

Since the President has used this hidden and untested veto power hundreds of times according to some accounts, we at FGI are hoping that you will send us instances of earlier signing statements that ignore reporting requirements

Posted by Anne at 08:20 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

National Conference of State Legislatures 50-State Legislative Tracking Web Resources, updated September 2006. The 15 covered topics include: Agriculture & Rural Development Elections, Campaigns & Redistricting, Ethics, Health issues and Transportation.

Posted by Anne at 08:09 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

NARA press release:

House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-IL) joined Archivist of the United States Allen Weinstein today to open the new National Archives "Legislative Treasures Vault." The Legislative Treasures Vault holds records identified by the National Archives, with the input of the Clerk of the House and Secretary of the Senate, as the most significant historical documents of Congress.

Posted by Anne at 08:45 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

From the Mercury News:

The U.S. Commerce Department said Wednesday it will extend its oversight of the California organization that handles domain name policies, while finding ways to improve the group's accountability and transparency.

Posted by Anne at 08:42 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

From News.com:

Global publishers, fearing that Web search engines such as Google are encroaching on their ability to generate revenue, plan to launch an automated system for granting permission on how to use their content.

Posted by Anne at 08:39 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

From Computerworld:

A Chinese journalist jailed in part due to e-mail evidence provided by a Yahoo subsidiary plans to file a lawsuit in the U.S. against the Internet company within the next few months.

Posted by Anne at 08:36 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

From American Libraries Online:

A federal appeals court ruled September 20 that government libraries can bar religious groups from holding worship services in public meeting rooms.

Posted by Anne at 08:33 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Abstract:

Section 108(b) of the Copyright Law, which deals with unpublished works, is often described primarily has a “preservation” clause, with its primary purpose being to ensure that our manuscript heritage is not lost. A closer look at the legislative history of the section, however, reveals that Congress was primarily concerned with increasing scholarly access to unpublished materials. Limited distribution to other libraries and archives to enhance research access to the original materials, it concluded, does not compete with the copyright owner’s right to commercially exploit the work. Under the original section 108(b), there were no limits on the number of copies that could be made for deposit in other repositories. Today digital technologies could provide a means of providing access to research materials without having to distribute physical copies to other repositories (though distribution of copies for preservation purposes would still be desirable).

Posted by Anne at 08:31 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

From the Committee on Government Reform Minority Office:

Rep. Waxman requests Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez explain emails that appear to show that his office denied a media request to interview a NOAA scientist who had concluded that global warming may lead to more dangerous hurricanes.

Posted by Anne at 08:25 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Press Release:

A bipartisan group of Senators who serve on the Senate Intelligence Committee today asked an independent board that oversees classification of information to review the documents to determine if in fact too much was kept secret in the recently released Senate Intelligence reports.

in a letter to the head of the Public Interest Declassification Board, the Senators wrote, “The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, on which we serve, recently released two reports addressing prewar intelligence issues regarding Iraq. We believe that portions of these two reports remain unnecessarily classified. We ask that the Board Review these two documents and evaluate whether any of the currently classified portions could be made public without negatively impacting national security.”

Posted by Anne at 08:23 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Federal Register: September 20, 2006 (Volume 71, Number 182)

The EPA Headquarters Library will close its doors to walk-in patrons and visitors on October 1, 2006. This notice provides information regarding how members of the public can access EPA documents held in the Headquarters Repository Library collection and in electronic format.

Posted by Anne at 08:21 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

New from LegiStorm:

Based on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, LegiStorm's first information product is a database of congressional staff salaries. The information is provided in a strictly factual, non-partisan fashion. We have no political purpose except to make the workings of Congress as transparent as possible. We expect this resource to be useful to journalists, researchers, and current and would-be staffers - as well as regular citizens who simply want to know how their representatives spend public money.

We obtain our data for this site from the official record books: the Secretary of the Senate and the Clerk of the House reports. The Senate publishes its data every six months; the House, every three months. It takes several weeks for these offices to publish their data and it takes another few short weeks for LegiStorm to get the data into our database. Therefore, the most recent information is not available on our site.

Posted by Anne at 08:19 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

From the Financial Times:

Google has vowed to appeal against a Belgian court ruling that represents the first legal blow against its controversial Google News service which has provoked the ire of European publishers.

A Brussels court told the world’s most popular internet search engine to scrap links to a number of newspapers after ruling that the company had broken Belgian copyright laws by publishing their material without permission. It was told to remove stories from certain publications on its Belgian news website or face a daily fine of €1m ($1.27m).

Posted by Anne at 08:18 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

From Information World Review:

Cambridge University Press has made 15 of its journals open access. Contributors will be able to have their paper made freely available online as soon as it is accepted for publication.

Authors, their institution or funding body, will have to pay a £1,500 fee to cover costs.

Posted by Anne at 08:15 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

From the Mercury News:

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Tuesday that Congress should require Internet providers to preserve customer records, asserting that prosecutors need them to fight child pornography.

Posted by Anne at 08:46 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

From News.com

Producers of networking hardware and applications gathered around a podium at the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday with a single message: Not all "high-tech" companies support so-called Net neutrality legislation.

Posted by Anne at 08:45 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

From Voice of America:

The Vatican has opened its secret archives of the pre-World War Two papacy of Pius XI.

The documents detail the 1922 to 1939 papacy of Pius XI, when his successor - the wartime Pope Pius XII - served as the Vatican's secretary of state.

Posted by Anne at 08:41 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Press Release:

Earlier this morning the Senate Judiciary Committee approved the OPEN Government Act (S. 394) [Openness Promotes Effectiveness in our National Government]. This act is the most comprehensive legislation to reform the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in a decade.

Posted by Anne at 08:32 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Press Release:

Prominent House Committee Ranking Members Reps. Bart Gordon (D-TN), John Dingell (D-MI) and Henry A. Waxman (D-CA) today asked the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to investigate efforts underway at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to close EPA’s libraries and reduce access to environmental information.

Download the Ranking Members’ letter

Posted by Anne at 08:24 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

From American Libraries Online:

Touting it as part of a plan to put more information online, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has been closing its regional libraries in spite of protests by federal employees. The Chicago library shut its doors August 28, and the Dallas and Kansas City, Missouri, libraries are set to close by the end of September. On September 13, employees of the EPA Headquarters Library in Washington received notice that their physical space would close to walk-ins beginning October 1. The closures are part of President Bush’s dramatic cost-cutting plan that includes a proposed reduction of $100 million for FY 2007 and further cuts for FY 2008.

Posted by Anne at 08:27 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

From the Star Tribune:

Most Americans, even most American scientists, will never have cause to visit one of the regional technical libraries maintained by the Environmental Protection Agency. But to environmental scientists in Minnesota or any of 14 other states, working inside or outside EPA, the pending shutdown of these repositories will be a serious blow.

The general public, too, should be concerned about what this means for EPA accountability, which has come under repeated challenge in recent years -- most notably over unduly rosy postdisaster assessments in lower Manhattan after the 9/11 attacks, and in New Orleans after last year's hurricanes.

And perhaps every taxpaying citizen should be offended by the way in which this action was taken -- essentially, by EPA officials anticipating a $2 million budget cut for fiscal 2007 that has been proposed by the White House but not yet considered by Congress, which alone has the authority to appropriate or withhold federal funds. Certainly the relevant congressional committees should object.

Posted by Anne at 08:26 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

From Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility:

Lab Closures, Buyouts and Other “Disinvestments” on the Drawing Board

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is preparing for a new even larger round of budget cuts for the 2008 Fiscal Year, according to an internal memo released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). These new cuts are being readied even as Congress is still reviewing administration proposals to reduce EPA spending by a record $100 million in FY 2007.

Posted by Anne at 08:24 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

From Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility:

Prosecution of polluters by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency “will be compromised” due to the loss of “timely, correct and accessible” information from the agency’s closure of its network of technical libraries, according to an internal memo released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). EPA enforcement staff currently rely upon the libraries to obtain technical information to support pollution prosecutions and to track the business histories of regulated industries.

Posted by Anne at 08:22 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

From YubaNet:

Author: EPA Employee

Response to the Marcus Peacock Letter to the Editor Published in Yubanet on 8/22/06

Marcus Peacock's Letter to the Editor, sent in response to the PEER article, "EPA Begins Closing Libraries before Congress Acts on Plan," could not have been more discouraging.

I am an EPA employee who, for obvious reasons, must remain anonymous. I was extremely upset to see that the US EPA's Deputy Administrator is peddling the same lies and half-truths that the Office of Environmental Information has been spouting for the past year. Why is the second-in-command at our Agency getting involved in these EPA library closures?

The sad fact is that, if all ten of EPA's Regional libraries close, the public will not have easy access to our extensive collection of technical reports and studies. Three of the ten Regional libraries will close by September 31, 2006; as will the EPA Headquarters library. Large parts of EPA's collections will remain "in stasis;" which means locked away in a room until the Agency gets the funding to digitize all of these documents.

Posted by Anne at 08:20 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

From YubaNet:

Author: Marcus Peacock, Deputy administrator, U.S. EPA

The Environmental Protection Agency is committed to ensuring agency-generated materials are available to the general public, the scientific community, the legal community and other organizations.

This letter is in response to the Aug. 21 letter, "EPA Begins Closing Libraries before Congress Acts on Plan," which mischaracterizes EPA's library budget and our plans for modernizing library holdings.

In fact, the EPA is providing comprehensive access to agency documents and materials through EPA's public Web site. Retrieving materials will not only be more efficient but also is easier to locate by using the agency's online collection and reference services.

Posted by Anne at 08:17 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

GPO Press Release:

The official most responsible for working with the library community on establishing an authentic digital collection of published Government information, has announced she will be retiring from the Government Printing Office early next year. Judy Russell has been with the GPO for nearly a decade, most recently as Superintendent of Documents. Russell has been key in designing the Federal Depository Library Program of the future, creating GPO Access, and developing innovative plans for the publications sales program.

Posted by Anne at 08:05 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

From the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press:

The CIA has promised to stop judging the individual newsworthiness of the FOIA requests of the National Security Archive, a private research organization, in a move that could affect groups that have been charged higher fees under a recent change in CIA policy.

Posted by Anne at 08:02 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

The Federal Communications Commission ordered its staff to destroy all copies of a draft study that suggested greater concentration of media ownership would hurt local TV news coverage, a former lawyer at the agency says.

Posted by Anne at 08:00 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

From the Center for Democracy and Technology:

Several of these are linked to government information policies.

As Congress mounts its final push before the midterm elections, a number of bills that threaten the bedrock of Internet privacy and civil liberties could either come up for votes or worm their way into larger legislative packages that end up being rushed into law. The Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) compiled the Internet Watch List so that lawmakers, journalists and Internet activists can keep close tabs on the dangerous legislative efforts that cannot be allowed to succeed in the so-called "silly season" at the end of the 109th Congress.

Posted by Anne at 07:57 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

From KTVZ:

Sens. Ron Wyden (D-OR), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Trent Lott (R-MS) and Chris Dodd (D-CT) launched a new offensive Thursday against the Senate's practice of secret holds, under which a single senator can block legislation or a nominee without revealing his or her identity.

Wyden has worked with Grassley for more than a decade to end the practice of secret holds. Their amendment requiring a senator who places a hold to make it public within three days was included in the Senate version of lobbying reform legislation.

Posted by Anne at 07:55 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

ALA Washington Office Offers FREE Online Advocacy Training

Just in time for Congress' return to Washington, D.C, and designed for both veteran library advocates and those who are new to Capitol Hill, the three-part online course "Messaging and Talking with Congress: An Interactive Workshop" will help library supporters build or hone effective messages and successfully communicate library needs to Congress.

This course guides you through every step of the process for effective communication -- from background research, to developing and delivering your message, to effective follow-up. You'll gain practical insights, such as how to use the Internet effectively to answer critical questions, the secrets to getting someone in a government office to listen to your concerns.

The ALA Washington Office is making this course available free to ALA members! "Messaging and Talking with Congress" guides users through the process of developing messages, teaches users to communicate effectively with Members of Congress and other elected officials, and offers strategies on building lasting relationships with Congressional staff. Users may navigate the course at their own pace and download and print helpful worksheets.

Visit their site to access the course. Click on the blue "course catalog" tab at the top of the screen. Select the first class "ALA Advocacy Classroom." Click "Add to cart". ALA members can take the course free of charge by entering "library" into the coupon code field and then clicking "Apply code."

Posted by Anne at 08:25 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

From Government Computer News:

Legislation to create a central database that will track all sorts of federal spending passed the Senate last night, ending a dizzying turn of events in which a handful of senators placed and removed opposition to the bill since it cleared a committee in late July.

Posted by Anne at 08:16 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

From Reuters:

A U.S. State Department official on Wednesday said that the United States should retain control of the Internet domain naming system and not relinquish it at the end of September when the current agreement ends.

"It won't happen on my watch," said Ambassador David Gross of the State Department's Bureau of Economic Affairs.

Posted by Anne at 08:15 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

From the L.A. Times:

Storing information is easier than ever, but it's also never been so easy to lose it -- forever. We could end up with a modern history gap.

. . .No one has compiled an inventory of lost records, but archivists regularly stumble upon worrisome examples. Reports detailing the military's spraying of the defoliant Agent Orange in Vietnam, needed for research and medical care, were obliterated. Census data from the 1960s through 1980s disappeared. A multitude of electronic voting records vanished without a trace.

Records considered at risk by the National Archives include diagrams and maps needed to secure the nuclear stockpile and policy documents used to inform partners in the war on terror. Much like global warming, the archive problem emerged suddenly, its effects remain murky and the brunt of its effect will be felt by future generations. The era we are living in could become a gap in history.

"If we don't solve the problem, our time will not become part of the past," said Kenneth Thibodaux, who directs electronic records preservation for the National Archives. "It will largely vanish."

Posted by Anne at 08:12 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

SLA, in collaboration with the Library Copyright Alliance (LCA), continues to participate in a dialogue with members of U.S. Congress expressing support of legislation that will alleviate the problem of orphan works. We encourage you to write a letter in support of H.R. 5439, the “Orphan Works Act of 2006,” to the U.S. House Committee on Judiciary. This legislation, once enacted, will tremendously assist in making cultural heritage more broadly available to the public.

Go to SLA’s Legislative Action Center to write a letter now. You can identify instantly if you have a representative on the Judiciary Committee by entering your zip code.

Background information on Orphan Works can be located at: http://www.copyright.gov/orphan/.

SLA comments are located at:
http://www.sla.org/pdfs/032505orphanworks.pdf
http://www.sla.org/PDfs/PublicPolicy/orphanworks.pdf

Members of the Judiciary Committee are included below by state:
Alabama --Hon. Bachus
Arizona, Hon. Flake
Arizona, Hon. Franks
California, Hon. Sánchez
California, Hon. Berman
California, Hon. Gallegly
California, Hon. Issa
California, Hon. Lofgren
California, Hon. Lungren
California, Hon. Schiff
California, Hon. Waters
Florida, Hon. Wasserman Schultz
Florida, Hon. Keller
Florida, Hon. Feeney,
Florida, Hon. Wexler
Illinois, Hon. Hyde
Indiana, Hon. Hostettler
Indiana, Hon. Pence
Iowa, Hon. King,
Maryland , Hon. Van Hollen, Jr.,
Massachusetts, Hon. Delahunt
Massachusetts, Hon. Meehan,
Michigan, Hon. Conyers Jr., Ranking Member
New York, Hon. Nadler
New York, Hon. Weiner
North Carolina, Hon. Coble
North Carolina, Hon. Watt
Ohio, Hon. Chabot
South Carolina, Hon. Inglis
Tennessee, Hon. Jenkins
Texas, Hon. Gohmert
Texas, Hon. Jackson Lee
Texas, Hon. Smith
Utah, Hon. Cannon
Virginia, Hon. Boucher
Virginia, Hon. Forbes
Virginia, Hon. Goodlatte
Virginia, Hon. Scott
Wisconsin, Hon. Green
Wisconsin, Hon. Sensenbrenner Jr., Chairman

Posted by Anne at 08:39 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

From News.com:

A rift over Net neutrality is the No. 1 issue holding up a massive communications bill and could cause it to be derailed this year, the chairman of a key U.S. Senate panel said Tuesday.

The less-than-sunny prognosis from Sen. Ted Stevens at a committee event here indicates a departure from the position he held before Congress left town for its August recess.

At that time, the Alaska Republican suggested he was confident he would be able to drum up the 60 votes needed to end a filibuster on the sweeping proposal, which includes everything from changes to the way the government subsidizes rural telecommunications to a revival of the controversial "broadcast flag" copy protection.

Posted by Anne at 08:37 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

From the Center for Democracy and Technology:

The Senate Judiciary Committee approved several NSA bills today -- two of which would radically expand the President's authority to conduct warrantless surveillance inside the United States. Senator Arlen Specter's (R-Pa.) bill (S. 2453), which Specter revised to accommodate White House requests for greater authority, would ratify and dramatically expand the President's authority to wiretap Americans without judicial approval. Senator Mike DeWine's (R-Ohio) bill (S. 2455) would authorize warrantless wiretapping programs without prior judicial approval and under a lower standard than the Fourth Amendment requires. CDT supports the Specter-Feinstein measure (S. 3001), which, unlike the other bills, restores the constitutional balance of power while addressing the legitimate concerns the Administration has raised. The full Senate could take up the bills as early as next week.

Posted by Anne at 08:35 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)