Foreign Lobbyist Database Could Vanish
Foreign Lobbyist Database Could Vanish
By Kevin Bogardus.
Center for Public Integrity, June 28, 2004.
Justice Department officials say a huge database that serves as the public’s lone window on lobbying activities by foreign governments has been allowed to decay to a point they cannot even make a copy of its contents.
This item from the Center for Public Integrity, which conducts investigative research and reporting on public policy issues in the United States and around the world, combines elements of digital preservation problems with access to government information through the Freedom of Information Act. Although the system still works and employees can retrieve information, “the Justice Department’s Foreign Agent Registration Unit said it was unable to copy its records electronically.” The records are not available online to the public.
The records are available in paper “as long as those seeking it know the precise files they want” and are prepared to pay fifty cents a page; individual documents may be hundreds of pages each.
The system’s document handling software, itself an antique, operates on Microsoft Windows 95.