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Wednesday, March 16, 2005 |
Request denied. Freedom of Information Act requests have spiked since 9/11 -- and the Bush White House has increasingly spiked them. [Salon.com]
9:35:15 PM 
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Fingerprint Identification Technology To Be Adopted At Internet Cafes in China.
Fang Chunming, head of the Anhui Provincial Youth League, has disclosed to local media that a fingerprint identification system will be adopted in all Internet cafes across China's Anhui province by July this year, reports China Tech News.
The system is expected to prevent underage patrons from entering the cafes and to help improve management in those cafes in the province.
According to Fang, a great number of illegal cafes are spreading throughout the communities, and it is difficult for the local government to monitor. Fang also says online games contribute to lower examination scores for students and the fingerprint system will better track the effect that computers have on society's youth.
[Smart Mobs]
6:06:13 AM
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In Broadcast Flag news, Donna Wentworth says, "Susan Crawford has the scoop." [Text Susan's, emphasis Donna's]
Good news from the DC Circuit today, which issued an opinion asking for further facts about petitioners' right to be in front of them complaining about FCC's jurisdiction in the broadcast flag matter. Everyone (including, apparently, the FCC) assumed quite reasonably that the petitioners had every right to be there -- in other words, everyone thought petitioners had "standing."
But the DC Circuit wasn't so sure about it. Under the applicable legal standard, you have to show a concrete, particularized, actual/imminent harm from an administrative rule in order to complain about it. The petitioners in this case include the American Libraries Association, Public Knowledge, and EFF. (Things would have been simpler if a single consumer electronics manufacturer had wanted to face the ire of the content community and join the lawsuit.)
At oral argument, petitioners' concrete etc. harm was sharply questioned -- how was one consumer's harm any different from that of the rest of the populace?
The court has given petitioners two weeks to provide statements of facts showing special harms caused by the broadcast flag rule -- and has provided some helpful hints: show us whether any of your members are engaged in storing TV broadcasts and sending them to distant locations; show us whether you'll be hindered in lawful copying and distribution; show us whether your member-educators (if you have any) will be hindered in distance education efforts.
I think this court wants to find standing. Once this legal threshold is in place, the court can walk right in and declare that the FCC had no jurisdiction to adopt the flag rule. And we'll be back at Congress.
The implications of this case are much broader than they may appear on the surface. FCC is asserting very broad jurisdiction over anything associated with the overall circuit of messages sent and received via all interstate radio and wire communication. The Madison River flap of two weeks ago is part of this overall picture. I don't think the FCC's powers extend beyond what is specifically given them by Congress -- and Congress hasn't given the FCC the internet, PCs, or consumer electronics devices.
When this hot potato is back in Congress's lap, it should act to lead the world in self restraint. Don't do it. Don't let one industry (content, law enforcement, or telecom) control another (high-tech innovation) without a strong social consensus to do so. [Copyfight]
6:05:40 AM
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New Dr. Who Leaked on Purpose?. The BBC might have slipped a new episode of a cult classic onto the internet to generate buzz, says a consultant. He should know -- he told the BBC to tap the power of viral advertising to make people talk about its TV shows. By Daniel Terdiman. [Wired News]
6:04:33 AM
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R.I.P., educational filmmaker, Sy Wexler.
Sy was a great educational filmmaker - part of Churchill-Wexler Films, one of the big educational film companies in the 1960s and 1970s. Churchill-Wexler Films made hundreds of educational shorts over the years.
 Sy made one of my favorite films, Squeak the Squirrel. On the surface the film is about a squirrel who figures out how to get a peanut attached to a string, but viewing it as an adult I find myself identifying with Squeak as a working-class hero. I've uploaded the film to the AV Geeks section of the Internet Archive and it can be seen here.
Here's some links about Sy and his work:
New York Times Obit
Piece on NPR's All Things Considered including an interview with his son Howard.
Also, Sy helped work on the World War II Frank Capra propaganda "Why We Fight" series, which can be found here: War Comes To America and Divide & Conquer (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3,Part 4)
[Stay Free! Daily]
6:04:20 AM
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