1.       Comments on the Digital Media Consumers Act
2.       Oversight Hearing Comments on GPO
3.       GPO's Digitization and Preservation Initiatives and Survey
4.       Government Printing Office Moves to Digital Only
5.       Canada Targets Spam
6.       U.S. Spam Reaches All-Time High of 82%
7.       SLA and Others Submit Comments on Proposed U.S.-Thailand Free Trade
8.       SLA and Others Submit Comments on Proposed U.S.-Andean Free Trade
9.       Open Access to Italian Cancer Research
10.   Stanford University Law Professor Sues for Free Online Access
11.   E-mail Service Sparks Orwellian Privacy Concerns
12.   Agencies Classify 25% more Information as Secure
13.   U.S. PTO to Provide Electronic Access to Cited U.S. Patent References

Comments on the Digital Media Consumers Act
A statement was given on behalf of several library associations, including SLA, on H.R. 107--the Digital Media Consumers Rights Act. When Congress passed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act in 1998, it provided additional protections for copyright owners, but it omitted corresponding allowances for fair use and other exceptions. The library and information community believes that the Digital Media Consumers’ Rights Act is needed to redress those changes -- to restore a proper balance in copyright law between the rights of copyright users and the rights of copyright owners. This balance is essential to the future conduct of research and education in the digital age. H.R. 107 Comments.

Other news stories can be found at:
http://maccentral.macworld.com/news/2004/05/13/digitalrights/

http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,116121,00.asp

http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_title=Congress-Mulls-Digital-Copyright-Law-Amendment&story_id=24025

Oversight Hearing Comments on GPO
Comments were given on behalf of several library associations, including SLA, for an oversight hearing on the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO). SLA and others have a very strong interest in Federal information policy and a commitment to public access to government information and a Federal Depository Library Program (FLIP) in the 21st Century.
Full Comments.

GPO's Digitization and Preservation Initiatives and Survey
The U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) is collaborating with the library community on a national digitization plan. The goal is to digitize a complete legacy collection of tangible U.S. Government documents to ensure that these materials are available, in the public domain, for permanent public access. The conversion of tangible materials will begin with print publications, but will eventually include microfiche and other tangible formats. Information will be digitized based on established priorities or local needs. Full details . The GPO is conducting a survey to develop a list of priority government documents titles or series that should be among the early items to be digitized. Please review the list of candidates for digitization that have already been proposed and add other titles that you feel should be on the list. This part of the survey will close on May 21, 2004. You do not have to be a depository library to participate in the survey. The survey is available at: http://www.gpoaccess.gov/legacy/priorities/.

Government Printing Office Moves to Digital Only
Linda D. Koontz, Director, Information management, provided a statement to Committee on House Administration (http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d04729t.pdf ) on April 28, 2004. Highlights are provided at: http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d04729thigh.pdf Bruce James, the U.S. Public Printer, also gave a statement on the transformation of the U.S. GPO. http://www.gpoaccess.gov/cr/testimony/oversight.pdf

Canada Targets Spam
Canada has unveiled a new action plan to combat unsolicited commercial email, or spam, which jams inboxes and clogs Internet traffic worldwide. http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s1106448.htm

U.S. Spam reaches All-Time High of 82%
According to this report, U.S. spam hit 82% in April 2004. After a two-month drop in spam, the number of unsolicited bulk emails skyrocketed in April, bringing the saturation number up to record levels here in the U.S. and across the world. http://www.internetnews.com/stats/article.php/3349921

SLA and Others Submit Comments on Proposed U.S.-Thailand Free Trade Agreement
SLA and others have submitted comments seeking to ensure that the Thailand FTA will not interfere with the ability of libraries to support education and research. Thailand FTA comments

SLA and Others Submit Comments on Proposed U.S.-Andean Free Trade Agreement
SLA and others have submitted comments seeking to ensure that the Andean FTA will not interfere with the ability of libraries to support education and research. Andean FTA comments

Open Access to Italian Cancer Research
Alleanza contro il cancro, (Alliance Against Cancer (ACC)) has purchased BioMed Central membership for nine oncology institutes in Italy. The membership agreement covers the cost of publication in BioMed Central’s 100+ Open Access journalsfor all researchers at ACC institutes. Open Access models to research information continued to be explored though out the world. For more information, go to: http://www.biomedcentral.com/

Stanford University Law Professor Sues for Free Online Access
As reported by the Chronicle of Higher Education, scholar Lawrence Lessig
has filed a federal lawsuit in an attempt to allow old books and films to be placed in Internet archives where anyone can use them freely. Lessig is challenging copyright law on behalf of two Internet archives that scholars use and are helping to develop. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, says copyright law is impeding the development of the "One Million Book Project," an effort by the Internet Archive, Carnegie Mellon University, the National Science Foundation, and the governments of India and China to create a digital archive of one million books by 2005. http://chronicle.com/prm/weekly/v50/i31/31a03401.htm

E-mail Service Sparks Orwellian Privacy Concerns
Search giant Google has devised Gmail as a rival to Microsoft's Hotmail and toYahoo! Mail. Privacy campaigners have objected to plans to send users advertisements associated with the content of messages, and to the permanent storage of email.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3602745.stm

Agencies Classify 25% more Information as Secure
The U.S. Executive Branch classified 25 percent more information last year, the Information Security Oversight Office noted in its latest annual report to the President. Critics argue that significant amounts of information are classified unnecessarily; a practice that they say harms national security. The report supports that argument. http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0404/042704td2.htm

U.S. PTO to Provide Electronic Access to Cited U.S. Patent References
In support of its 21st Century Strategic Plan goal of increased patent e-government, beginning in June 2004, United States Printing and Trademark Office (U.S. PTO) will begin to phase in its e-patent reference program, and ceases supplying paper copies. http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/dapp/opla/preognotice/nocopies.pdf