From The Moscow Times:
The government has drafted legislation that would make it easier for news agencies to contest plagiarism of their reports, drawing cheers from big outlets like Interfax and RIA-Novosti, but critics say the bill is too vague to be effective.
The law, drafted by the Communications and Press Ministry, would extend copyright protection to [...]
Archive of entries posted on July 2009
Bill Extends Copyright Protection to News
CDT Releases Privacy Recommendations Report for Google Book Service
From the Center for Democracy & Technology:
CDT today released a report analyzing the privacy risks associated with the proposed expansion of Google Book Search. The report urges Google to commit to a strong privacy regime for the new service in advance of the settlement fairness hearing this fall. The tentative settlement between Google and publishers, [...]
A.P. Cracks Down on Unpaid Use of Articles on Web
From the New York Times:
Taking a new hard line that news articles should not turn up on search engines and Web sites without permission, The Associated Press said Thursday that it would add software to each article that shows what limits apply to the rights to use it, and that notifies The A.P. about how [...]
Public Knowledge Study Finds Internet Content Filtering Ineffective, Harmful
From Public Knowledge:
Public Knowledge today released a landmark analysis showing that filtering of Internet content as advocated by big media companies will not work and will be harmful to the Internet. The full paper is here.
Gigi B. Sohn, president and co-founder of Public Knowledge, said: “Our study, ‘Forcing the Net Through a Sieve: Why Copyright [...]
Google Books causes concern
From the Boston Globe:
Dan Clancy makes librarians nervous.
When the Google Books engineering director participated in a panel discussion at the Boston Public Library this week, his opening remarks focused on the search engine’s efforts to enable access for “every kid in Arkansas’’ to Harvard-size digital libraries. But soon afterward, he was hearing from librarians on [...]
University of Michigan, Amazon announce book-printing deal
From Michigan Live:
Reprints of hundreds of thousands of out-of-copyright books from the University of Michigan libraries will be available for purchase by the general public through Amazon.com, under an agreement announced Tuesday.
Reprints of 400,000 rare academic books contained in the U-M libraries will be available for purchase for $10 to $45 from the online retailer’s [...]
Advocates Ask Google for Privacy Guarantees in Online Library
From the New York Times:
Three advocacy groups have asked Google to commit to protect the privacy of readers in its book search service, which is poised for a major expansion under a pending class-action settlement. The groups, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Samuelson Law, Technology and Public Policy Clinic [...]
Library fight riles up city, leads to book-burning demand
From CNN:
A fight over books depicting sex and homosexuality has riled up a small Wisconsin city, cost some library board members their positions and prompted a call for a public book burning.
The battle has stirred much of West Bend, a city of roughly 30,000 people about 35 miles north of Milwaukee. Residents have sparred for [...]
Students can help archive the Internet
From the Library of Congress:
There is a growing awareness among libraries, archives, and other cultural institutions of the importance and urgency of preserving the often transitory digital cultural artifacts distributed over the Web. But so far, the vast majority of decisions about what Web sites will live into the future have been made by adults, [...]
Wrapping up the Declassification Policy Forum
From the White House blog:
As members of the Public Interest Declassification Board, we would like to thank each of you who have participated in the Declassification Policy Forum over the last several weeks. We have received over 150 comments with specific, detailed recommendations for revisions to Executive Order 12958, as amended, “Classified National Security Information.”
Your [...]