8 November 2009, 3:02 pm
From the Open Book Alliance:
Like many others, the Open Book Alliance awaits the release on November 9 of a revised proposed settlement from Google, the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers. If repeated signals from Google and its partners over the last month are to be taken at face value, we don’t expect significant changes to the earlier settlement proposal that was soundly rejected by the Department of Justice and many others. “Settlement 2.0” is an opportunity to for Google and its partners to make things right, and help bring about the mass digitization of books in a way that embraces openness, competition and the public good.
The Open Book Alliance is issuing the following baseline requirements that the new settlement proposal must meet if it is to achieve those critical objectives. These requirements reflect the collective expression of concerns by the U.S. Department of Justice, authors, publishers, academics, libraries, foreign nations, state Attorneys General, consumer advocacy groups, and many others, and thus we think it appropriate to review the revised settlement within this framework.
8 November 2009, 2:52 pm
From the Electronic Frontier Foundation:
After a long two days of legislative battle, the House Judiciary Committee just finished its second day of debate on Chairman Conyers’ PATRIOT reform bill, HR 3845. . . the Committee rejected almost all amendments that would have weakened the bill’s reforms and voted to recommend the bill to the House floor by a vote of 16 to 10.
Even better, the Committee kept going after it was finished with PATRIOT to consider Representative Nadler’s State Secret Protection Act (HR 984), which would reform the state secrets privilege that the government has repeatedly used to try and throw EFF’s warrantless wiretapping cases out of court. After an impassioned defense by Mr. Nadler, who described how the government has used the privilege like a “magic incantation” to cover-up wrongdoing and warned that state secrecy “is the greatest threat to liberty at present,” the bill passed with even better numbers than the PATRIOT bill, 18 to 12!
8 November 2009, 2:51 pm
From AALL’s Washington Blawg:
Yesterday, the USA Patriot Amendments Act of 2009 (H.R. 3845) was reported favorably out of the House Judiciary Committee by a vote of 16-10. During the mark-up, the Committee adopted Chairman Conyers’ manager’s amendment that tightens the standards for issuing National Security Letters and adopts important new reporting, audit and oversight provisions. Unfortunately, the committee also adopted an amendment offered by Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA-29) that struck the “specific and articulable facts” language for Sec. 215 orders.