Monday, October 28, 2002

enemy combatants DoD Response to ABA's Task Force Preliminary Report on Treatment of Enemy Combatants. Enemy combatants:  I haven't posted anything lately about enemy combatants, but I saw this today and thought it was worth a post. U.S. Department of Defense responds to American Bar Association's report on the detention of enemy combatants. The United States Department of Defense has, through its general counsel, issued a letter responding to the American Bar Association's report that criticized the federal government's policies on the detention of enemy combatants. [via How Appealing] The letter is dated exactly a month ago, Sept. 23, but I hadn't heard about it.  DoD issued a news release with most of the text of the letter on Oct. 2. The ABA has added links to the letter and the news release to its page on the report, perhaps in an attempt to respond to General Counsel William J. Haynes II's request that the response be publicized in the same manner as the preliminary report. I don't think adding links to the press release page is quite what Mr Haynes had in mind, but it is better than nothing. I can't really address the substance of the response, other than to note that it relies on repeated assertions of the President's power in this area to do pretty much what he wants. [Leah's Law Library Weblog] (my emphasis) I know this has been mentioned before, but just what is to stop the cabal of Cheney, Ashcroft and Rumsfeld from declaring anyone to be an enemy combatant? They claim to be above the judiciary and the entire constitution. Will they get away with it? If they do, what will future generations think of us for letting this happen? 9:25:31 PM     Bowers v. Baystate - fair use and licensing agreements - "Law professors and academic-library groups are .... - "Law professors and academic-library groups are asking a federal appeals court here to modify a recent ruling to make it clear that established copyright provisions, like fair use, sometimes trump software-licensing agreements that would otherwise narrow consumers' rights." "The case in question, Harold L. Bowers v. Baystate Technologies Inc., involves the shrink-wrap license on a piece of software Mr. Bowers created to improve computer-aided-design software. Mr. Bowers, of Memphis, said Baystate had purchased a copy of his software and then "reverse-engineered" the product -- figuring out how it worked and then creating a similar product for sale under Baystate's name." (from The Chronicle of Higher Education) [Library Stuff - Updated daily by Steven M. Cohen] 9:09:30 PM     ebooks: copyleft or anti-books - "At the height of the dot-com bubble, twenty-som .... - "At the height of the dot-com bubble, twenty-somethings with goatees were telling us that e-books were the wave of the future. Those e-books they had in mind were like proprietary software: they weren't free (-as-in-anything), they only worked on proprietary hardware, and they came with shrinkwrap licenses and digital rights management. They failed. The successful model that's sneaking under the radar is the copylefted book." (from Light and Matter via Slashdot) [Library Stuff - Updated daily by Steven M. Cohen] I've long been interested in how the open source software movement could be applied to books. Although I don't think the evil DRM anti-books can be written off yet. The Microsofts, Adobes and publishing conglomerates stand to make too much money on exploiting libraries and book buyers for them to give up that easily easily. I love digital technology and the idea of ebooks, but not when this is code for wringing more money out of consumers and exploding the public domain. I hope that this author is right. 7:44:58 PM     Piece on special librarians in regional business publication - "When you seek legal expertise, you find a lawye .... - "When you seek legal expertise, you find a lawyer, when you seek tax advice, you find an accountant, and when you seek valuable information [~] find a special librarian. Rather than relying solely on technology to find and select important information, many organizations are hiring special librarians, also known as information professionals or specialists." "Special librarians perform services that may include organizing internal information, gathering competitive intelligence, training staff to research effectively and efficiently, evaluating information resources, and searching patents and trademarks, to name only a few." "These information professionals connect organizations, and individuals within those organizations, to the quality information they need in a way that is most useful to them. Recently, the importance of this role has dramatically increased, particularly in nontraditional settings where a librarian's organizational skills, knowledge of technology, and research expertise result in more efficient operations for many private businesses and organizations." (from The Business Courier) LS Thoughts - Show this article to your bosses and administrators. It discusses one aspect of librarianship that many do not realize we do: gather information and disperse it to our customers. [Library Stuff - Updated daily by Steven M. Cohen] The only downside to this is that it was an opinion piece written by a librarian. Still, that doesn't make the information any less true! 7:29:09 PM

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