Expect Resistance & Library Autonomous Zone

There’s an interesting discussion of the “Inducing Infringment of Copyrights Act” over at The Importance of…, a blog by Ernest Miller.

Senate Bill 2560 was introduced by Senator Orin Hatch on June 22, 2004. Strangely enough, the cosponsors are Leahy, Frist, Daschle, Graham
of South Carolina, and Boxer. Strange bedfellows to say the least.

Read on and decide for yourself if this bill is a big piece of pork for the DRM crowd (aka RIAA, MPAA, and other big copyright holders) or sane legislation?

House Cmte. Hearing on Electronic Voting Security [requires RealOne Player]
The House Administration Committee holds this hearing on the security of electronic voting systems. 11:00 AM.
7/7/2004: WASHINGTON, DC. 3 hours.

Witnesses addressing the issues of “direct-recording electronic” (DRE) voting machines include Britain J. Williams, professor emeritus of computer science and IT at Kenesaw State University, Michael I. Shamos, with the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University, Avi Rubin, director of Johns Hopkins UniversityÕs Information Security Institute, and Tadayoshi Kohno of the UC San Diego Cryptography and Security Laboratory.

An an article in Government Computer News on the hearing:
Lots of questions, few clear answers on e-voting
By William Jackson
07/07/04.

The Register also did two stories on electronic voting this week:
E-voting security: looking good on paper? By Thomas C Greene.
7th July 2004; and
E-voting security: getting it right By Thomas C Greene.
8th July 2004.

White House Moves to Protect Right to Spy on Readers

The White House has gone to preventive war — to protect the US government’s newly-acquired right to spy on readers as part of counterterrorism investigations, promising to veto a multibillion-dollar spending bill if these powers are curtailed.

Literary Reading in Dramatic Decline, According to National Endowment for the Arts Survey
National Endowment for the Arts, July 8, 2004.
(press release)

Literary reading is in dramatic decline with fewer than half of American adults now reading literature, according to a National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) survey released today.
Reading at Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading in America reports drops in all groups studied, with the steepest rate of decline - 28 percent - occurring in the youngest age groups….

Reading at Risk presents the results from the literature segment of the Survey of Public Participation in the Arts, conducted by the Census Bureau in 2002 at the NEA’ s request.

Also see, Fewer Noses Stuck in Books in America, Survey Finds
By BRUCE WEBER
New York Times,
July 8, 2004

Ashcroft Attempting to Silence Former FBI Translator

In a rare maneuver, Attorney General John Ashcroft has ordered that information about the Edmonds case be retroactively classified, even basic facts that have been posted on websites and discussed openly in meetings with members of Congress for two years. The Department of Justice also invoked the seldom-used “state secrets” privilege to silence Edmonds in court.

Memoryhole has the text of Leahy’s original 2002 letters.

Leahy’s 2004 letter to Ashcroft and Mueller:
Page 1
Page 2
Page 3

Here’s some more background in a March 31, 2004 article on worldnetdaily.

One thing’s for sure, there’s some serious cover-up going on. On an aside, with this post, a new category has been added called “fugitives”. We’ll attempt to keep track of those nasty fugitive government documents that don’t seem to flow into depository libraries as they should. Stay tuned!

AlterNet: Media Reformers Look Beyond Philadelphia

The June 24 federal appeals court decision against the FCC loosening of media-ownership rules marks a win for millions of Americans concerned about consolidation of media outlets, but the campaign against big media is far from over, advocates say.

This isn’t the end, however. The FCC rules were sent back to the FCC, not completely dismissed. For more background and information on how to get involved, go the Consumer Federation of America’s (CFA) site on media ownership.

Also check out the handy hallikainen.com to view the current and historical rules changes and submit comments directly to Michael Powell.

[Thanks Deborah Caldwell-Stone]

Disruptive? Who You Calling Disruptive?
By Marydee Ojala, Online, Vol. 28 No. 4 Ñ July/August 2004.

In this short article, Ojala discusses
Clayton Christensen’s book The Innovator’s Dilemma. She notes that some technologies, such as the printing press and the Internet, are
disruptive and require a “complete rethinking of an existing business model.” These, she notes are “endemic to the library and information world.”

She proposes, though, that people too can be “disruptive technologies” and proposes that
we “rethink our priorities, and assert our distinctiveness.”

Does the Internet disrupt how libraries operate? Yes. Does it alter their look and feel? Yes. Does it afford opportunities libraries lacked before? Yes. Does it disrupt the basic reasons why libraries exist? No.

Drum roll please… Are you ready for the featured blog for July? Here it is:

The Center for Democracy and Technology

The CDT “works to promote democratic values and constitutional liberties in the digital age. With expertise in law, technology, and policy, CDT seeks practical solutions to enhance free expression and privacy in global communications technologies.”

The CDT is fighting to keep free speech, privacy, and democratic values alive. After all, isn’t that what we’re celebrating on July 4th?!

Into the Blogosphere,
sponsored by the University of Minnesota libraries, provides an academic look at blogs with a distinuguinquished group of authors and editors.

This online, edited collection explores discursive, visual, social, and other communicative features of weblogs. Essays analyze and critique situated cases and examples drawn from weblogs and weblog communities. Such a project requires a multidisciplinary approach, and contributions represent perspectives from Rhetoric, Communication, Sociology, Cultural Studies, Linguistics, and Education, among others.

Thanks to Dan Gillmor.

Lion takes on Mouse in copyright row
by Rory Carroll in Johannesburg
Saturday July 3, 2004
The Guardian

Lawyers for the family of Solomon Linda, a migrant Zulu worker whose 1939 composition formed the basis for Wimoweh and The Lion Sleeps Tonight, announced the first of what are promised to be many lawsuits against the entertainment industry.