'Civil Liberties' Category
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Library computer authentication
June 27, 2004LibraryLaw Blog: Library computer authentication Library Law Blog points to and comments on an article, To Use That Library Computer, Please Identify Yourself, By Scott Carlson. Chronicle of Higher Education June 25, 2004 Volume 50, Issue 42, Page A39 [subscription required for online access]. Marc Rotenberg of the Electronic Privacy Information Center is quoted in [...]
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Case vs Greenpeace thrown out
May 21, 2004MSNBC – U.S. loses court case against Greenpeace The U.S. government’s unusual criminal suit against Greenpeace USA was rather unceremoniously booted from federal court yesterday by U.S. District Judge Adalberto Jordan. In a rare “directed verdict,” the judge found the group not guilty midway through the trial, after the prosecution had presented its case but [...]
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China issues US human rights record
May 20, 2004Human Rights Record of the US in 2003 This is the reply of China’s State Council In March, 2004 to the U.S. State Department’s Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, an annual report on human rights abuses. US problems of murder, police brutality, prison overcrowding, poverty, and inadequate health care are detailed and combined with [...]
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Technology and Privacy Advisory Committee Final Report
May 19, 2004The TAPAC was created to advise the Secretary of Defense concerning the use of advanced information technologies to help identify terrorists before they act, while at the same time, protecting civil liberties. The committee has a “library” of of documents on their web site. On May 18, the committee released its final report (PDF, 2.8 [...]
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Votes and archives and the Nation
May 7, 2004There are several good articles in this week’s Nation. First there’s Greg Palast’s Vanishing Votes reminding us of the FL voting fiasco that disenfranchised so many people. Voting — and e-voting in particular — will hopefully be watched more closely this time around. Then there’s The Archives and Allen Weinstein by Jon Wiener (a history [...]
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FCC vs Free Speech
May 5, 2004F*cked by the F*CC by Jeff Jarvis. The Nation, May 17, 2004. p.11-15. Jarvis outlines the First Amendment issues behind the recent regulation fury of the Federal Communications Commission and Congress. Consider, too, that any citizen could be subject to fines under this legislation. “Imagine if a television crew had filmed an Abbie Hoffman speech,” [...]
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E.R.A. for Iraq
March 9, 2004Iraq now has something the United States does not. The Equal Rights Amendment. Paul Bremer says, Iraqi Interim Constitution Guarantees Women’s Rights. People “lobbied, marched, rallied, petitioned, picketed, went on hunger strikes, and committed acts of civil disobedience” in this country for the ERA for, well, centuries. In 1776, Abigail Adams wrote to her husband [...]
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Does your data belong to you?
January 26, 2004RFID, JetBlue… personal information and it’s protection has been on my mind since my parter sat in on several panels at ALA midwinter 2 weeks ago. Here’s an article from ZDNet that discusses radio frequency ID (RFID) and its implications for privacy: Does your data belong to you?. Privacy has always been part and parcel [...]
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The FBI Almanac Memo
January 6, 2004FBI: 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 [...]