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SLA's Public Policy Update for July 2002
SLA's Public Policy Update for July 2002
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Privacy of Patron Records in Public Libraries Under Attack Homeland Security Homeland Security and FOIA E-Government Act of 2002 Copyright Bill may Severely Limit Rights Inadvertent Disclosures of Classified Information Copyright Term Extension Act AFFECT Will Continue to Oppose UCITA Americans for Fair Electronic Commerce Transactions (AFFECT), chief among the many critics of the Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act (UCITA), is preparing to continue its steady opposition to UCITA even if the currently proposed amendments to UCITA are approved by the National Conference of Commissioners of Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL) at its annual meeting in Tucson on July 26-August 2. SLA is a member of AFFECT. These amendments to UCITA, the controversial proposed state contract law, have been drafted in the hopes of mollifying longstanding opponents and to respond to recommendations made earlier this year in an American Bar Association report. (Jan. 30, 2002) AFFECT finds no significant improvements to UCITA in the proposed changes and notes that of the 38 changes proposed in May almost half had been issued by NCCUSL?s UCITA Standby Committee in December 2001. Only two of the remaining amendments are new; most merely involve grammatical and stylistic changes or the addition of sub-headings that do not alter the meaning of the text. For more information, go to: http://www.affect.ucita.com AFFECT?s analysis of the proposals are available in its Response to the Proposed Amendments to UCITA, June 28, 2002 http://www-affect.@ucita.com/ProposedChanges.htm SLA Statement Regarding UCITA http://www.sla.org/content/memberservice/communication/infobank/UCITA.cfm Privacy of Patron Records in Public Libraries Under Attack Submitted by Barbara Folensbee-Moore On October 26, 2001, the US Patriot Act became law. The Act was a direct response to the events of September 11 and the government?s desire to monitor and hopefully deter any terrorist activity in the future. One result of this effort included expanded activity by the FBI in reviewing public library records of ?suspected terrorists.? In addition, any public librarian discussing the probes or reviews is subject to criminal charges. (see 50 USCA §1861). While nowhere in the Act is the word ?library? used, the act has been interpreted to cover the patron records collected by public libraries. The language of the Act allows ?access to certain business records for foreign intelligence and international terrorism investigations.? All that the FBI need include in their request to the court for access to the records is that the investigation is not conducted against a ?United States person (read citizen) solely upon the basis of activities protected by the First Amendment? and that it is for the purpose of obtaining ?foreign intelligence information.? The Act also allows for search warrants versus a subpoena which adds an element of immediate intrusion. Under a subpoena, the library would produce the information. With a search warrant, the FBI can begin searching records immediately. News stories about the searches hit the papers over the weekend of June 22 and 23rd. The searches, which have been going on for some time, are mainly targeting libraries in large urban areas. Because of the restraint on libraries discussing the FBI searches details of what was looked at or found are not available. For more information on the issues, the ALA Office of Intellectual Freedom (www.ala.org/oif) contains a good deal of information. For a copy of the act go to Public Law 107-56. For a lighter look at this subject, a cartoon might be appropriate. Go to: http://www.danzigercartoons.com/cmp/2002/danziger1363.html Homeland Security Recent media has been filled with stories about the how the FBI and CIA are looking at ways to develop terrorist databases linked to the proposed Homeland Security Department in an effort to identify and stop these individuals or groups before action is taken. "We are examining how best to create and share a multi-agency, government-wide database that captures all information relevant variety of agencies," CIA Director George Tenet told the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee. The intent is to have the intelligence community electronically linked with the Homeland Security. SLA is in the initial stages of promoting the value of Information Professionals in the area of Homeland Security. More information on this initiative will be forthcoming. The following links are just a few to review recent happenings in Homeland Security. Intelligence agencies to link databases with new department http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0602/062702td1.htm Bush Is to Propose Broad New Powers in Domestic Security http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/16/politics/16HOME.html Senate chairman to circulate homeland security draft bill http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0702/071502cd2.htm White House willing to negotiate on homeland security privacy concerns http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0702/070902tdpm1.htm Homeland Security and FOIA The Bush Administration's proposal for a Department of Homeland Security includes an exemption from the Freedom of Information Act for certain critical infrastructure information provided to the Department by private industry. In testimony before a House Subcommittee yesterday, David Sobel of the Electronic Privacy Information Center argued against that idea. "Rather than seeking ways to hide information, Congress should consider approaches that would make as much information as possible available to the public, consistent with the legitimate interests of the private sector," said Mr. Sobel. "This is particularly critical in the context of the new Department, which will assume an unprecedented range of responsibilities involving public safety." See his July 9 testimony here: http://www.epic.org/security/infowar/07_02_testimony.html For details on Critics of White House position on FOIA exemption, go to: http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0702/071202td1.htm E-Government Act of 2002 With everything that have been going on surrounding Homeland Security, not as much attention has been given to laws dealing with information and technology management. One of these bills, S. 803, the E-Government Act of 2002, introduced last year and reported by the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee this spring. The "EGA" is relevant to the federal information technology community in terms of setting policy, creating oversight mechanisms, requiring action by agencies, and establishing reporting requirements to Congress and provide funding. For more details, go to: http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2002/0701/mgt-bruce-07-01-02.asp Copyright Bill may Severely Limit Rights Legislators are readying a bill that could severely affect rights relating to the copying music, TV programs, and transferring files through the Internet. Two key House legislators (Reps. Howard Coble of North Carolina and Howard Berman of California) wrote the double-edged proposal in consultation with the Library of Congress' Copyright Office. This two-part draft comes at a time when many are struggling with the complex issues of high-speed Net access, digital content, and the popularity of file-swapping networks. Recording labels have indicated that they might broaden their scope to encompass lawsuits against individuals. For more details, go to: http://www.zdnn.com. Want to read a different view from a recording artist? Go to: The Internet Debacle?An Alternative View by Janis Ian. http://www.janisian.com/article-internet_debacle.html Inadvertent Disclosures of Classified Information The Department of Energy has published its quarterly report to Congress on classified nuclear weapons information that has been inadvertently disclosed through declassification of historical records. Out of approximately 2 million pages of publicly available declassified records that were examined between November 2001 and February 2002, DOE reviewers found 239 pages of classified information. The report is located at: http://www.fas.org/sgp/othergov/doe/inadvertent6.html Copyright Term Extension Act In late May library associations, including SLA, and others filed an amicus brief in U.S. Supreme Court challenging constitutionality of Copyright Term Extension Act. Briefs were filed on May 20 in the U.S. Supreme Court in a case challenging the constitutionality of the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act. The appeal in Eldred v. Ashcroft asks the Court to overturn a decision by the federal appeals court for the D. C. Circuit, which in February 2001 rejected the argument that the Copyright Term Extension Act is unconstitutional. The Act, passed by Congress in 1998, extends the copyright term for an additional 20 years, so that a commercially-produced work is now governed by the provisions of copyright law for 95 years; for an individual's work the term is "life of the author" plus 70 years. The federal government's brief, defending the law, will be filed in June. The Supreme Court is expected to hear arguments from the parties this fall. In support of the challenger's case, the five major national library associations and ten other groups have submitted an amici curiae (friend of the court) brief asking the Supreme Court to rule that the extended term of protection for copyrighted works is unconstitutional. In addition to showing how the law exceeds the "limited times" of protection authorized by the Constitution's Copyright Clause, the brief highlights the substantial harms that flow from keeping works under copyright protection almost perpetually, thereby stifling the public domain. Joining the brief of the American Library Association, American Association of Law Libraries, Association of Research Libraries, Medical Library Association, and Special Libraries Association were the following organizations: American Historical Association, Art Libraries Society of North America, Association for Recorded Sound Collections, Council on Library and Information Resources, International Association of Jazz Record Collectors, Midwest Archives Conference, Music Library Association, National Council on Public History, Society for American Music, and Society of American Archivists. A pdf version of the brief may be viewed at: www.sla.org/pdfs/eldredvashcroftbr.pdf. E-mail the Editor If you have any questions or comments about Public Policy Update, we would like your feedback. Please share your comments at Doug@sla.org. |
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