Home » Articles posted by James A Jacobs (Page 70)
Author Archives: James A Jacobs
Georgia Claims Its Annotated Laws Are Covered By Copyright, Threatens Carl Malamud For Publishing The Law
Georgia Claims Its Annotated Laws Are Covered By Copyright, Threatens Carl Malamud For Publishing The Law, by Mike Masnick, techdirt (Jul 30, 2013). Masnick notes that, technically, states that claim to be able to copyright their laws are on reasonably firm legal ground, even if they're on completely illogical common sense ground but that fact "doesn't make it any saner to claim such a copyright." Among other things, Georgia claims (apparently as a justification) that the unannotated Georgia Code is available to the public at no charge at www.legis.ga.gov. Masnick continues:
It's not as if the state needed the "incentive" of copyright to publish an annotated version of the law. If anything, this seems like copyright misuse. But, even beyond that, it just seems counterproductive from a public policy standpoint to want to make your own laws harder to understand.Continue reading
CRS on Cloture and Filibusters
Cloture Attempts on Nominations: Data and Historical Development, by Richard S. Beth, Congressional Research Service, RL32878 (June 26, 2013). [Copy provided by the Federation of American Scientists.]
In recent years it has become increasingly common for Senators to seek cloture in order to limit chamber consideration of presidential nominations to positions in the executive and judicial branches of government. Cloture, which requires a super-majority vote, places time limits on consideration of a matter, and so may be employed as a means of overcoming filibusters. This report presents data on all nominations on which cloture motions have been offered... Continue reading
NARA search changes
The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) will be permanently retiring its Archival Research Catalog (ARC) on August 15th. NARA's other search engine, the Online Public Access search, contains all of the descriptions and digitized content that was in ARC. The Online Public Access search also searches the NARA web site, Archives.gov, and the web sites of the Presidential Libraries.
- Archival Research Catalog is Retiring on August 15th, by Rebecca, NARAtions (July 15, 2013).
Report of the Advisory Committee on Historical Diplomatic Documentation
From Unredacted: The Historical Advisory Committee to the Department of State (HAC) released a report assessing both improvements in publishing the Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS) series by the Office of the Historian (HO), and the pitfalls of NARA's declassification process. The report concludes with mixed results, noting that while it will remain difficult, if not impossible, for the HO to publish its FRUS series documenting events within 30-years of their occurrence as mandated by law, HO has made robust and encouraging progress and the office continues to increase the number of publications it releases. Continue reading
Science360: Breaking Science News That Shapes Your World
The National Science Foundation (NSF) website news.science360.gov gathers news "from wherever science is happening." This includes government sources that you might expect (National Science Foundation science and engineering centers, government agencies that fund scientific research) but also includes non-government sources such as individual scientists, college and university press offices, popular and peer-reviewed journals, dozens of not-for-profit organizations and private industry.
Latest Comments