Expect Resistance & Library Autonomous Zone

According to this Wired story, Adrian Lamo has pled guilty to hacking into the NYT and LexisNexis computer networks. This is a strange case in which the NYT, LexisNexis, and federal prosecutors (IMHO) have been extremely heavy-handed. Lamo is a “white hat” hacker who broke into networks and then reported security flaws to the companies. Perhaps the companies should’ve hired him instead of prosecuting him. Opinions?

RFID Position Statement
on the Use of RFID on Consumer Products,
November 14, 2003. Issued by:
Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and numbering (CASPIAN),
Privacy Rights Clearinghouse,
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU),
Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF),
Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) , Junkbusters,
Meyda Online, and
PrivacyActivism.

Includes a brief discussion of implications for libraries.

> Features >> Fourth Annual Weblog Awards” href=”http://www.fairvue.com/?feature=awards2004″>Fourth Annual Weblog Awards. Vote for your favorite blog!

Do Web search engines suppress controversy?
by Susan L. Gerhart. First Monday,
Volume 9, Number 1 Ñ January 5th 2004.

Web behavior depends upon three interlocking communities: (1) authors whose Web pages link to other pages; (2) search engines indexing and ranking those pages; and (3) information seekers whose queries and surfing reward authors and support search engines. Systematic suppression of controversial topics would indicate a flaw in the WebÕs ideology of openness and informativeness. This paper explores search enginesÕ bias by asking: Is a specific wellÐknown controversy revealed in a simple search? Experimental topics include: distance learning, Albert Einstein, St. JohnÕs Wort, female astronauts, and Belize. The experiments suggest simple queries tend to overly present the “sunny side” of these topics, with minimal controversy. A more “Objective Web” is analyzed where: (a) Web page authors adopt research citation practices; (b) search engines balance organizational and analytic content; and, (c) searchers practice more wary multiÐsearching.

Google’s (and Inktomi’s) Miserable Failure
A few weeks ago, blogs and emails pointed out that if you searched Google for “miserable failure” the top ranked site was a George Bush biography page at the U.S. Whitehouse web site. This article examines why and concludes that
“the real miserable failure is Google itself.” The article includes links to other articles on “Google Bombing.” Useful insights for those who rely on Google.

IP @ The National Academies
IPR-NEWS is a quarterly e-newsletter featuring information on intellectual property rights-related events, reports and projects at the National Academies.

FBI: Potential Terrorist Use of Almanacs
A few days ago, the news was full of stories about the FBI memo that warned of “potential terrorist use of almanacs.” Now,
Cryptome has the memo itself.
This might be just silly and worthy of ridcule, parody, and even a light moment on NPR:

BLOCK: Maybe it’s there on Page 79 of The World Almanac, those statistics on the percentage of high school-aged students who never wear bicycle helmets. Could that be used to bring America to its knees?

— “FBI bulletin labeling almanacs as possible terrorist tools” All Things Considered - NPR
December 30, 2003
Anchors: Michele Norris; Melissa Block.

But when the FBI can seriously
worry because “Almanacs, available both in print and online, provide comprehensive information on a variety of topics, including government, geography, vital statistics, the economy, health matters, science and technology, weather trends, and tourism…” what will they want to scrub off the web and censor out of publication next?

According to yourDictionary.com , “blog” is the #2 word of 2003. #!? “Embedded”. Read on.

High-tech black market by Annalee Newitz of the SF Bay Guardian. An interesting article about fair use, and how the DMCA is creating a large black market for software to circumvent DRM.

“But as the stakes get higher in crimes of circumvention, the losers are bound to be innocent consumers and white-hat hackers. In their efforts to stop crime, corporations and the government are using DRM and the DMCA to stamp out our ability to make fair use of our media. When we cannot do what we like with our machines in our own homes, we are losing what Princeton professor Felton calls our “freedom to tinker.” Ultimately, we may lose far more: our ability to innovate, to pass on our knowledge, and to understand how the technology that runs our world works.”

Here’s the The january issue of the SPARC Open Access Newsletter, 1/2/04. In addition to the usual round-up of news and bibliography from the past month, it takes a close look at open access momentum during 2003, the “many-copy problem” and “many-copy solution”, and the gap between the literature directly available through a university library and the literature that campus patrons need for their research.