The National Journal reports today that The Copyright Office will not, as earlier announced, force people and companies that want to “pre-register” their works online to use Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE) browser.
- Copyright Office Backs Away From Browser Mandate, by Sarah Lai Stirland, National Journal’s Technology Daily [subscription required] October 17, 2005 p.m. edition.
The article says that off-the-shelf software from Siebel Systems caused the anticipated glitch related to Internet Explorer. (see What the Copyright Office / Internet Explorer rule tells us about government information)
Complaints about the earlier announcement from the Copyright Office that it intended to require IE was criticized by software programmers, musicians and filmmakers who use computer-operating systems, such as Apple Computer’s Macintosh, that do not support current versions of Internet Explorer. The Homeland Security Department has warned Web surfers not to exclusively use Internet Explorer because IE is considered a security risk. The World Wide Web Consortium, noted that making pre-registrants use a specific browser may violate federal e-government rules.
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Jim,
Thanks for this story. It’s proof that we the citizens of this country don’t have to take every IT related decision of our government laying down.
Although in this case, the copyright office initially ignored the computer security advice of its own government.
Thanks again for sharing this victory of right over convenience!
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“And besides all that, what we need is a decentralized, distributed system of depositing electronic files to local libraries willing to host them.” — Daniel Cornwall, tipping his hat to Cato the Elder for the original quote.