[SLA-SF] Intersect Alert, April 18, 2006

Tue Apr 18 20:22:00 PDT 2006

Freedom of Information

National Archives Complicit in Reclassification

The National Security Archive has uncovered a secret agreement between the National Archives and various military and intelligence agencies to conceal the reclassification of thousands of pages of declassified documents. 

http://www.archives.gov/press/press-releases/2006/nr06-85.html

NARA Final Rule on National Industrial Security Program Directive 

Federal Register: April 10, 2006: "This order establishes a National Industrial Security Program (NISP) to safeguard Federal Government classified information that is released to contractors, licensees, and grantees of the United States Government. Redundant, overlapping, or unnecessary requirements impede those interests. Therefore, the NISP serves as the single, integrated, cohesive industrial security program to protect classified information and to preserve our Nation's economic and technological interests. This Directive sets forth guidance to agencies to set uniform standards throughout the NISP that promote these objectives."

http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/01jan20061800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2006/06-3383.htm

Florida Residents' Data Exposure A Statewide Issue

"The Social Security numbers, driver's license information and bank account details belonging to potentially millions of current and former residents of Florida are available to anyone on the Internet because sensitive information has not been redacted from public records being posted on county Web sites." 

http://www.computerworld.com/databasetopics/data/story/0,10801,110389,00.html

Orwellian

With Patriot Act Debate Over, Government Drops Fight to Gag Librarians >From Discussing Objections to Controversial Law

"Less than six weeks after the reauthorization of the Patriot Act, the government has given up its legal battle over a gag order on Connecticut librarians affected by a controversial provision of the law, which will allow them to speak publicly for the first time about their objections to secret FBI demands for patrons' library and e-mail records, the American Civil Liberties Union announced today."

http://www.aclu.org/natsec/gen/24995prs20060412.html

>From the ALA press release:

"While we are pleased 'John Doe' will finally be able to speak, the government's timing is highly suspicious coming merely a month after the reauthorization of the USA PATRIOT Act.  The American public should be outraged that the one person in the United States who could have spoken from real experience with a National Security Letter (NSL), and who was seeking to join the national debate, was forbidden from doing so until after that debate was complete. This appears to be secrecy for the sake of control of the public debate, rather than a true concern for national security.

http://www.ala.org/ala/pressreleases2006/april2006/nsl.htm

EFF Files Evidence in Motion to Stop AT&T's Dragnet Surveillance

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) on Wednesday filed the legal briefs and evidence supporting its motion for a preliminary injunction in its class-action lawsuit against AT&T.

"The evidence that we are filing supports our claim that AT&T is diverting Internet traffic into the hands of the NSA wholesale, in violation of federal wiretapping laws and the Fourth Amendment," said EFF Staff Attorney Kevin Bankston. "More than just threatening individuals' privacy, AT&T's apparent choice to give the government secret, direct access to millions of ordinary Americans' Internet communications is a threat to the Constitution itself. We are asking the Court to put a stop to it now."

http://www.eff.org/news/archives/2006_04.php#004538

George Washington U. to Receive Jack Anderson's Papers -- but FBI Wants to See Them First

During his life and career as a muckraking journalist in Washington, Jack Anderson cultivated secret sources throughout the halls of government -- sources who passed on information that allowed Anderson to investigate and write about Watergate, CIA assassination schemes, and countless scandals. . . His archive, some 200 boxes now being held by George Washington University's library, could be a trove of information about state secrets, dirty dealings, political maneuverings, and old-fashioned investigative journalism, open for historians and up-and-coming reporters to see. But the government wants to see the documents before anyone else. Agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation have told university officials and members of the Anderson family that they want to go through the archive, and that agents will remove any item they deem confidential or top secret.

http://chronicle.com/free/2006/04/2006041801n.htm

Internet Access

Google defends cooperation with China

Google Inc. CEO Eric Schmidt on Wednesday defended the search engine's cooperation with Chinese censorship as he announced the creation of a Beijing research center and unveiled a Chinese-language brand name. Google is trying to raise its profile in China after waiting until January to launch its Chinese-language site Google.cn.  Activists have criticized the company for blocking searches for material about Taiwan, Tibet, democracy and other sensitive issues on the site. "We believe that the decision that we made to follow the law in China was absolutely the right one," Schmidt said at a news conference.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12283735/

AOL Charged with Blocking Opponents' E-Mail

America Online on Wednesday apparently began blocking e-mail on its servers containing the Web address of a petition against the company's upcoming certified-mail program, an issue the company called a "glitch." The Internet service provider, which has roughly 20 million subscribers in the United States, began bouncing e-mail communications with the URL "Dearaol.com" sometime late Wednesday and continuing through Thursday.

http://news.com.com/2100-1030_3-6061089.html

Copyright Issues

EFF Report Highlights More Unintended Consequences in Seven Years of DMCA

In the seven years since Congress enacted the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), examples of the law's impact on legitimate consumers, scientists, and competitors continue to mount. A new report released today from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), "Unintended Consequences: Seven Years Under the DMCA," collects reports of the misuses of the DMCA -- chilling free expression and scientific research, jeopardizing fair use, impeding competition and innovation, and interfering with other laws on the books. The report updates a previous version issued by EFF in 2003. Find the report at: http://www.eff.org/IP/DMCA/?f=unintended_consequences.html. 

http://www.eff.org/news/archives/2006_04.php#004554

International Outlook

Canadian Supreme Court to rehear copyright case

In an unusual move, the Supreme Court of Canada has decided to re-hear a controversial case involving the rights of freelance writers so that its newest judge -- an expert in copyright law -- can participate in the decision. . . While the court did not explicitly say so, lawyers familiar with the case say the judges may be having trouble making a decision, and will want to take advantage of Judge Rothstein's expertise in intellectual property rights. 

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060408.gtscoc10/BNStory/Technology/home

Censors losing grip on wired Chinese

China certainly has the most sophisticated censorship regime in the world. And it is utterly outmatched. The government is adept at curbing expression, sometimes brutally, with prison terms of more than 10 years for unlawful political speech. But understanding China today means looking beyond the confines of mainstream communication--the dutiful newspapers, the censored films, the Google-scrubbed search pages--to a shadow marketplace of ideas in which Chinese citizens are finding, watching and reading a growing share of what they want.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-0604090064apr09,1,7408839.story?ctrack=1&cset=true

Germany Finally Agrees to Open Holocaust Records

Germany agreed Tuesday to help clear the way for the opening of Nazi records on some 17 million Jews and enslaved laborers who were persecuted and slain by the Nazis and their collaborators during the Holocaust more than 60 years ago.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=1855249

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