Friday, May 09, 2003

Law And Contemporary Problems: The Public Domain, James Boyle, Special Editor (LAW AND CONTEMPORARY PROBLEMS, Volume 66, Winter/Spring 2003, Numbers 1 & 2). Contents: Foreword: The Opposite of Property?: James Boyle 1 The Second Enclosure Movement and the Construction of the Public Domain James Boyle 33 Nine-Tenths of the Law: The English Copyright Debates and the Rhetoric of the Public Domain Mark Rose 75 Romans, Roads, and Romantic Creators: Traditions of Public Property in the Information Age Carol M. Rose 89 Ideas, Artifacts, and Facilities: Information as a Common-Pool Resource Charlotte Hess Elinor Ostrom 111 Mapping the Digital Public Domain: Threats and Opportunities Pamela Samuelson 147 Through the Looking Glass: Alice and the Constitutional Foundations of the Public Domain Yochai Benkler 173 Reconciling What the First Amendment Forbids with what the Copyright Clause Permits: A Summary Explanation and Review William K. Van Alstyne 225 Two Relationships to a Cultural Public Domain Negativland 239 "Fairest of them All" and Other Fairy Tales of Fair Use David Nimmer 263 Bayh-Dole Reform and the Progress of Biomedicine Arti K. Rai Rebecca S. Eisenberg 289 A Contractually Reconstructed Research Commons for Scientific Data in a Highly Protectionist Intellectual Property Environment J. H. Reichman Paul F. Uhlir 315 Reimagining the Public Domain David Lange 463 12:39:40 PM    comment []

Pulling FBI's Nose Out of Your Books, by Bernie Sanders, in the L.A. Times. (U.S. Rep. Bernie Sanders represents Vermont as an independent.) An unnecessary chill has descended on the nation's libraries and bookstores: The books you buy and read are now subject to government inspection and review. . . . Few who voted for the Patriot Act — I did not — knew that among its provisions was one that gave FBI agents the authority to engage in fishing expeditions to see what Americans read. Although it does not mention bookstores or libraries specifically, the sweeping legislation gives the FBI the power to seize all of the circulation, purchasing and other records of library users and bookstore customers on no stronger a claim than an FBI official's statement that they are part of a terrorism investigation. Surely the powers the government needs to fight terrorism can be subject to more meaningful checks and balances than that, especially when the right to read without government intrusion is at stake. . . . Until the Patriot Act, the FBI had the authority to obtain bank records, credit records and certain other commercial records only upon some showing that the records requested related to a suspected member of a terrorist group. The Patriot Act expanded the FBI's authority in two ways. First, it gave the FBI the authority to seize any records of any entity. Most members of Congress probably didn't realize it, but this included libraries and bookstores. Second, Congress dropped the prior requirement that the FBI actually have some evidence that the person whose records it sought was a member of a terrorist group or otherwise involved in terrorism. Now, one Patriot Act provision allows the FBI to obtain whole databases, including records of citizens not suspected of any wrongdoing. The FBI has a history of abusing its power: monitoring, keeping records on and infiltrating civil rights organizations, Vietnam War protest groups and others that had broken no laws but were considered controversial. Little has changed to prevent the FBI from abusing its powers again if it is left unchecked. The new powers appear to have been used already — a University of Illinois survey shows libraries were targeted at least 175 times in the year after 9/11 — yet the FBI refuses to explain how or why. . . . . . . . [I]f we give up some of our most cherished freedoms — the right to read what we want without surveillance; the need for "probable cause" before searches are made — the terrorists win, for their attacks will have struck at the very heart of our constitutional rights. To remedy the excesses of the Patriot Act that threaten our right to read, I have introduced the Freedom to Read Protection Act. (Available directly at the LA Times site, still as Pulling FBI's Nose Out of Your Books, but that url will break in transit, I expect.) 11:39:32 AM    comment []

This is the link I looked for yesterday morning and could not find, when I blinked the Fairfax counterfeit CD crackdown story: copious coverage coverage of physical bootlegs from back in December, including what happens when the bootleggers shoot back, a big bust in New York (and a photo of Spin Music), and piracy and export controls. 8:38:30 AM    comment []

The Inquirer: RIAA an undemocratic, unelected, overpowerful regime. [Hack the Planet] 6:59:56 AM    comment []