Harvard P2P lawyer says file-swapping is fair use
Harvard Law professor Charlie Nesson, in a recent conversation with ArsTechnica, argued that file-swapping is fair use. The context for this conversation was that Nesson and others from harvard Law School are defense attorneys in the case of Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) v. Joel Tenenbaum, a case where the RIAA is suing Tenenbaum for allegedly downloaded seven songs from a file-sharing network. In the interview with ArsTechnica, Nesson was laying out his strategy for the case. While I -- admittedly a non-lawyer! -- think this is quite an elegant argument, other "free culture" academics seem puzzled by Nesson's strategy. Wendy Seltzer, who heads up the Chilling Effects clearinghouse and served as an EFF staff attorney, was quoted as saying, "I fear that we do damage to fair use by arguments that stretch it to include filesharing—weakening our claims to fair use even for un-permissioned transformations. I am much more comfortable disagreeing with the law than claiming at this point in time that it already excuses filesharing." Continue reading
Army Journal removal highlights need for digital deposit
According to Secrecy News, the Army has pulled the unclassified Military Intelligence Professional Bulletin from the open web:
The former MIPB website states that “The MIPB is now being hosted on the Intelligence Knowledge Network (IKN). (AKO account required).” AKO (Army Knowledge Online) accounts can only be obtained by military and contractor personnel. The MIPB, which is unclassified, has long been available on the world wide web and has even been sold commercially. Back issues from 1995 to 2005 are available online from the FAS website, though no longer from the Army.In addition to being sold commercially, this journal was also distributed through the Federal Depository Library Program until 2006, according to its entry in GPO's Catalog of Government Publications at http://catalog.gpo.gov. After 2006, it went online only and access was through a PURL. As of today, that PURL directed folks to the takedown page. Libraries that depended on the "official repository" of the Army for post-2005 issues were out of luck. If these digital copies had been instead deposited to depository libraries, access might have gone on unhindered. Unless the Army had asked GPO to have depositories destroy their electronic archives of MIPB. But even then, the fact that multiple digital copies of MIPB existed would have triggered GPO's public process laid out in ID 72: Withdrawal of Federal Information Products from GPO’s Information Dissemination (ID) Programs. With that public process and the fact that prior issues were widely available, I think that the MPIB archive would have been safe. Instead, the Army as "The Official Repository" has made the online archives go away until FAS gets its FOIA request responded to. Or maybe it will come sooner. The fact that MPIB had a PURL indicates that GPO may have been archiving it. But can they now post their copy of the archive? Do they need to consult the Army first? What if the Army says no? Has anyone contacted GPO Help on this issue yet? What kind of a response have you gotten? Be sure to be kind to GPO as the decision on documents withdrawals rests with the agency. In this case, the Army. Don't blame Ric Davis if the Army nixes an FDLP restoration of the 2005-2009 MIPB archive. It's cases like these where decisions are made with a flip of the switch without a public process that makes us wary of the Official Single Repository of Federal Publications, no matter who the federal agency is. Sunlight and good decision making require digital deposit outside the federal government. Continue reading
FGI on facebook
Heads up loyal readers, FGI now has a social media posse in the form of a Facebook fan page. So go on over and become an FGI fan, you may even win a trip to Hawaii (ok that last bit was a lie :-) ). But please do become a fan and tell all your friends. We're all govt information librarians now! Continue reading
Air Force Blocking the Military’s Own Video Site
Air Force Blocking the Military's Own Video Site By Noah Shachtman, Wired, March 27, 2009. trooptube.tv is the "online video site designed to help military families connect and keep in touch while miles apart" maintained by "Military OneSource" which is an authorized Department of Defense program for Active Duty, Guard, Reserve and their families. As Wired describes it, trooptube is the "military's taxpayer-funded, security-scrubbed, low-bandwidth-optimized video sharing site." But now, Wired says that military bases, especially Air Force bases, are blocking TroopTube as part of a larger, Air Force-wide decision to cut off access to it. This isn't the first time the military has sent mixed signals. See Pentagon promotes itself on YouTube, but prohibits troops from using it. Continue reading
Grants.gov in the news again
The rise and fall (and rise again) of Grants.gov, By ELISE CASTELLI, Federal Times, March 30, 2009.
Since December, Grants.gov has seen a doubling of applications. In the second week of March, more than 8,000 applications were filed. On at least two days that week, more than 2,000 users were on the site, dangerously close to its 3,000-user limit. As the numbers swelled, performance buckled, prompting howls of anger from users. ...HHS is scrambling to give the Web site a boost over the next 100 days to accommodate the anticipated 60 percent increase in use over the next few months, Conley said. The department will add servers, bandwidth and storage to allow more people onto the system at one time.Continue reading