Part-Time Policy Wonk

From the New York Times:

It will be a Cinderella moment for the band of researchers who study the hidden history of American government.

At midnight on Dec. 31, hundreds of millions of pages of secret documents will be instantly declassified, including many F.B.I. cold war files on investigations of people suspected of being Communist sympathizers. After years of extensions sought by federal agencies behaving like college students facing a term paper, the end of 2006 means the government’s first automatic declassification of records.

Posted by Anne at 08:35 PM | Permalink

From the Boston Herald:

Already facing a legal challenge for alleged copyright infringement, Google Inc.’s crusade to build a digital library has triggered a philosophical debate with an alternative project promising better online access to the world’s books, art and historical documents.

The latest tensions revolve around Google’s insistence on chaining the digital content to its Internet-leading search engine and the nine major libraries that have aligned themselves with the Mountain View-based company.

A splinter group called the Open Content Alliance favors a less restrictive approach to prevent mankind’s accumulated knowledge from being controlled by a commercial entity, even if it is a company like Google that has embraced "Don’t Be Evil" as its creed.

Posted by Anne at 07:54 PM | Permalink

From the Associated Press:

Two filmmakers were refused access to the Smithsonian Institution's collections for their projects but researchers generally have not been restricted so far by the Smithsonian's semi-exclusive deal with a cable network, congressional investigators said.

Posted by Anne at 07:52 PM | Permalink

From the New York Times:

Federal prosecutors in New York yesterday withdrew a subpoena to the American Civil Liberties Union that had sought to retrieve all copies of a classified document.

In an opaque and defensive four-page letter to the judge in the case, the prosecutors said they were acting “in light of changed circumstances” and their determination that “the grand jury can obtain the evidence necessary to its investigation from other sources.”

Another factor may have played a role. A transcript of a closed hearing in the case that was unsealed yesterday suggested the government was going to lose.

Posted by Anne at 08:44 PM | Permalink

Highlights:

In March 2006, the Smithsonian Institution (Smithsonian) announced that it had entered into a 30-year contract with Showtime Networks Inc., (Showtime) to create a digital on-demand television channel. Members of Congress and other interested parties, particularly filmmakers, raised issues about the contract’s potential effects on public access to and use of the Smithsonian’s collections, its confidential nature, and the process by which the Smithsonian negotiated it. This report discusses (1) the extent to which the Smithsonian followed its internal contracting guidelines, (2) what the Smithsonian gave up and received in return under the contract, (3) the Smithsonian’s implementation of the contract, and (4) the contract’s potential impact on outside parties. GAO reviewed the contract and pertinent documents, and interviewed Smithsonian and Showtime officials.

GAO recommends that the Smithsonian better document its key decisions regarding filming applications and that it update the “Frequently Asked Questions about Filming at the Smithsonian Institution” on its Web site to better describe what the contract means for filmmakers.

The Smithsonian generally agreed with GAO’s findings and recommendations.

Full Report

Posted by Anne at 08:42 PM | Permalink

From the Akron Beacon Journal:

A bill mandating public-records training for elected officials and stiffening penalties for withholding records recently cleared the Ohio Legislature.

The bill also would increase the likelihood that those denied records will get their attorney's fees paid.

Posted by Anne at 08:39 PM | Permalink

From the Union of Concerned Scientists:

The United States government bears great responsibility for keeping our environment clean and Americans healthy and safe. And while science is rarely the only factor in public policy decisions, this input should be objective and impartial.

In recent years, however, scientists who work for and advise the federal government have seen their work manipulated, suppressed, distorted, while agencies have systematically limited public and policy maker access to critical scientific information. To document this abuse, the Union of Concerned Scientists has created the A to Z Guide to Political Interference in Science.

Posted by Anne at 08:04 PM | Permalink

From the Christian Science Monitor:

Both sides agree that nothing less than the nature of American society is at stake, although each side sees different threats. The administration says the danger comes from technically savvy terrorists who are out to exploit the nation's open society in order to undermine it. Critics contend that the real peril comes from the administration itself, which, they charge, is abusing the classification system to shield its activities from public scrutiny, thus undermining the workings of democracy.

Posted by Anne at 08:02 PM | Permalink

From Stuff.co.nz:

InternetNZ is crying foul over proposed changes to the country's copyright laws.

The Copyright (New Technologies and Performers' Rights) Amendment Bill, awaiting its first reading in Parliament, puts a maximum penalty of a $150,000 fine and five years in prison for anyone caught selling devices or publishing information which could be used to get around any technology used to protect digital copyright.

This means, for example, someone who showed people how to circumvent digital rights management on a downloaded music file would be a criminal.

The current Copyright Act bans this but has no criminal penalties.

Posted by Anne at 07:57 PM | Permalink

From Beyond Chron:

The 2007 Federal Budget proposed by the Bush Administration and currently before Congress includes a budget cut that would entirely eliminate the Environmental Protection Agency’s 27 libraries nationwide, including San Francisco’s own EPA Region 9 library. The Region 9 library provides the public, free of charge, with environmental data on CA, AZ, NV, HA and the lands of 140 tribal nations. The importance of this library cannot be understated. The importance of this library cannot be understated in providing citizens with scientific data about pollutants, wildlife, and energy resources in our city, state and beyond.

Posted by Anne at 07:55 PM | Permalink

From Editor and Publisher:

For the first time ever, an international court has declared that access to government information is a human right.

Ruling in a case brought by three Chilean environmental activists, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights declared that a "right of general access" to government-held information is protected by Article 13 of the American Convention on Human Rights. Article 13 deals with "freedom of thought and expression."

Posted by Anne at 08:23 PM | Permalink

From Egypt Today:

Since the 1960s and ‘70s, libraries in the West have been digitizing their catalogues and even the contents of their shelves, but a lack of resources has kept all but the most well funded Middle Eastern libraries from doing the same. The Yale University Library hopes to correct this situation, bringing the fruits of Middle Eastern scholars’ labors into the digital age.

Posted by Anne at 08:21 PM | Permalink

From Government Executive Magazine:

Environmental Protection Agency officials on Monday disputed charges of information suppression levied by some advocates and lawmakers, insisting that a hurried shutdown of several regional libraries is part of a larger plan to modernize the agency's library system and broaden access to resources.

Posted by Anne at 08:20 PM | Permalink

From Government Technology Magazine:

A joint report released today by the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS) and the National Electronic Commerce Coordinating Council eC3) provides state archivists and records custodians with proven strategies for improving states' digital archiving efforts and generating the support and funding necessary to develop new archiving programs and maintain existing ones.

The research paper, Digital Archiving: From Fragmentation to Collaboration was developed during an eC3 digital archiving symposium sponsored by NASS June 26-27, 2006. Secretaries of state, state archivists, state librarians and private-sector IT organization representatives participated in the symposium and shared their perspectives on state government digital archiving strategies.

Posted by Anne at 07:42 PM | Permalink

From the LA Times:

Mather is one of thousands of people who critics say could lose access to research materials as the government closes and downsizes libraries that house collections vital to scientific investigation and the enforcement of environmental laws.

Across the country, half a dozen federal libraries are closed or closing. Others have reduced staffing, hours of operation, public access or subscriptions.

Posted by Anne at 07:40 PM | Permalink

New York Times Op-Ed:

If you needed to find out how much pollution an industrial plant in your neighborhood was spewing, or what toxic chemicals were in a local river, where would you go? Until recently, you could discover the answer at one of the Environmental Protection Agency’s 29 libraries. But now the E.P.A. has obstructed the American public — as well as its own scientists and staff — by starting to dismantle its crown jewel, the national system of regional E.P.A. libraries.

Posted by Anne at 07:38 PM | Permalink

From the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility:

In defiance of Congressional requests to immediately halt closures of library collections, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is purging records from its library websites, making them unavailable to both agency scientists and outside researchers, according to documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). At the same time, EPA is taking steps to prevent the re-opening of its shuttered libraries, including the hurried auctioning off of expensive bookcases, cabinets, microfiche readers and other equipment for less than a penny on the dollar.

Posted by Anne at 07:36 PM | Permalink

From Governing:

During emergencies, citizens and even some disaster workers depend on libraries for Internet connections to the world.

They don’t pilot boats down hurricane-flooded streets or pull people from second-story windows. Nor do they wear uniforms, carry firearms or direct emergency vehicles. But library employees have been first responders nevertheless. People in coastal states who lost their homes to the wind and water of hurricanes Katrina and Rita flocked to public computers housed in libraries. They filed insurance claims, connected with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, contacted family members and found out via the Internet what was happening in the communities they’d had to flee.

Posted by Anne at 07:34 PM | Permalink

From the Chronicle of Higher Education:

After months of determined efforts to keep going amid Iraq's deepening violence and chaos, the National Library and Archive, the country's largest depository of books and documents, has closed.

Saad Bashir Eskander, the library's director-general, said in an e-mail message to The Chronicle on Wednesday that he had reluctantly decided to shutter the institution on November 21 after several staff members were killed and the building had increasingly come under fire.

Posted by Anne at 07:32 PM | Permalink

From Wired:

The first public meeting of a Bush administration "civil liberties protection panel" had a surreal quality to it, as the five-member board refused to answer any questions from the press, and stonewalled privacy advocates and academics on key questions about domestic spying.

The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, which met Tuesday, was created by Congress in 2004 on the recommendation of the 9/11 Commission, but is part of the White House, which handpicked all the members. Though mandated by law in late 2004, the board was not sworn in until March 2006, due to inaction on the part of the White House and Congress.

The three-hour meeting, held at Georgetown University, quickly established that the panel would be something less than a fierce watchdog of civil liberties. Instead, members all but said they view their job as helping Americans learn to relax and love warrantless surveillance.

Posted by Anne at 07:30 PM | Permalink

From AsiaMedia:

Malaysia may introduce tough Internet laws to control bloggers and prevent them from spreading "disharmony, chaos, seditious material and lies" on their websites.

Deputy Science and Technology Minister Kong Cho Ha accused some writers of posting controversial articles to attract readers, but said moves such as registering bloggers would be difficult.

Posted by Anne at 07:26 PM | Permalink

From the Mercury News:

Paul McCartney, U2 and Eric Clapton joined thousands of other musicians Thursday in an appeal to the government to extend the British copyright protection on their recordings.

The performers took out a full-page advertisement in the Financial Times newspaper calling for ``fair play for musicians,'' in response to a report recommending that the government maintain its current laws granting copyrights on sound recordings and performers' rights for 50 years.

Posted by Anne at 07:23 PM | Permalink

From the Globe and Mail:

Thanks to spiralling copyright licensing costs, payable to whoever holds the copyright (unions, archives, creators, corporations) -- and thanks, too, to the rising cost of insurance to protect against copyright claims -- more and more public film footage is no longer available to the Canadian public, nor for use by Canadian creators. That's the message of the DOC's new white paper, released yesterday by the 700-member organization.

Posted by Anne at 09:27 PM | Permalink

From the Sydney Morning Herald:

The controversial Copyright Amendment Bill 2006, which, as of yesterday, passed through both houses of Parliament, will become law by January 1.

Before it passed through the Senate, the bill underwent significant modifications, following immense criticism by industry bodies, the media and the public.

Posted by Anne at 09:24 PM | Permalink

From the Washington Post:

The Bush administration on Monday released new guidelines aimed at protecting the privacy of U.S. citizens as the government moves to enhance its sharing of information as part of post-September 11 reforms.

The guidelines, approved by President George W. Bush last month, cover a broad range of government agencies from the CIA and the Pentagon to the State Department, Homeland Security, FBI, Justice Department and state and local law enforcement.

Reforms mandated by Congress in 2004 require government agencies to create an "information sharing environment" to help protect against attacks like those that killed 3,000 people on September 11, 2001.

Posted by Anne at 09:20 PM | Permalink

From Common Dreams:

Concerned about the kinds of pollutants spilling into your local rivers and streams and how they could affect your health?

As the Environmental Protection Agency closes some scientific libraries around the country, EPA scientists and other environmental advocates worry whether that kind of information could become harder to find.

They fear that the agency's plan to save money by replacing printed resources with digitized versions on the Internet could make information less - not more - accessible.

Posted by Anne at 04:23 PM | Permalink

Press Release:

Thanks to the hard work of two great law school students of Peter Jaszi of American University, Jieun Kim and Doug Agopsowicz, the Internet Archive and other libraries may continue to preserve software and video game titles without fear of going to jail. This is a happy moment, but on the other hand this exception is so limited it leaves the overall draconian nature of the DMCA in effect. A total of more than $50,000 of pro-bono lawyer time has been spent to just affect this exemption and its continuation. We hope that Congress, and other governments, will pass more balanced copyright laws to allow at least libraries, archives, research and scholarship to flourish without the current dark clouds of litigation.

Posted by Anne at 04:22 PM | Permalink

From Government Executive Magazine:

Four Democratic representatives likely to lead key oversight committees next year have demanded that the Environmental Protection Agency halt actions to dismantle a system of regional libraries until the plans have been studied more closely.

Posted by Anne at 04:20 PM | Permalink

From the Boston Globe:

As the Environmental Protection Agency closes some scientific libraries around the country, EPA scientists and other environmental advocates worry that it might be harder for the public to find out about pollutants spilling into local rivers and streams.

They fear that the agency's plan to save money by replacing printed resources with digitized versions on the Internet could make information less accessible.

Posted by Anne at 04:19 PM | Permalink

From Information World Review:

The mid-term elections in the US are likely to delay the introduction of the Federal Research Public Access Act, with the bill having to be re-introduced to the US Senate in 2007. Despite the delay, the volume of support for the bill grows ever louder.

Posted by Anne at 04:17 PM | Permalink

From the New York Sun:

A New York Sun reporter won an unusual victory in federal court in San Francisco last week, when a federal judge ordered the Department of Justice and other government agencies to respond to the reporter's request for a variety of documents that could show what efforts the Bush administration has made to investigate leaks to the press.

The decision, by Judge Maxine Chesney of U.S. District Court in San Francisco, came after the federal government was slow to comply with a request from more than eight months ago by reporter Josh Gerstein made under the federal Freedom of Information Act.

Posted by Anne at 04:14 PM | Permalink

From BuzzFlash:

House Democratic leaders are using their new authority as pending committee chairmen to push the EPA to stop closing its research libraries. . .

. . .EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson was given a letter demanding he "maintain the status quo" by Committee Ranking Members Bart Gordon (Science), Henry Waxman (Reform), John Dingell (Energy and Commerce), and James Oberstar (Transportation and Infrastructure). They also requested that the EPA compile records of materials that have already been dispersed to ensure the information can be retrieved and used by Agency personnel and the public.

Posted by Anne at 07:20 PM | Permalink

From USA Today:

Yahoo has rebuffed Google's attempt to learn more about its efforts to create digital copies of books, dealing the Internet search leader another setback as it prepares to fight against a copyright infringement suit.

In rejecting Google's request, Yahoo adopted the same stance taken last month by Internet retailer Amazon.com.

Posted by Anne at 07:06 PM | Permalink

From China Daily:

Officials with the Internet Society of China (ISC) have confirmed that China is exploring adopting a real name system in parts of the Internet, Shanghai-based Oriental Morning Post reported Wednesday.

Hu Qiheng, chairman of the board of directors of the ISC, was reported to have said on Tuesday at Info China 2006 in Beijing that China is making attempts to strike a balance between individual privacy and public interests.

Posted by Anne at 07:02 PM | Permalink