August 2001

Copywrong

Salon has a Story on the U.S. Copyright Office report giving the Digital Millennium Copyright Act a passing grade.

\”Libraries could not exist without first sale. If they had to get permission or pay a fee every time they lent a copy of a book, they would have to stop lending. There would be no functional difference between a public library and a Barnes and Noble.


It\’s no secret that some big publishers have been waging commercial and legislative war on libraries for some years now. These publishers see every use of interlibrary loan as a lost sale. And the DMCA is a big ICBM in that war. These publishers would like nothing better than to be able to dictate the terms of use in libraries. And by moving all their content to digital streams, encrypted, tethered to specific devices and controlled by restrictive contracts, they can effectively squeeze libraries to death.
\”

Regulating Minors’ Access to the Internet Can Backfire

Bob Cox passed along This One from SfGate that talks about the Child Internet Protection Act. This one comes down solidly against filtering, and says filters tend to block sites in a way ACLU representative Emily Whitfield describes as \”capricious.\” One interesting note in this story, the privately run Waldorf schools refuse to allow their under-12 students to use computers or television.

\”We\’re not concerned with online content. Instead, we believe that children should be free to develop their imaginations, and we feel the Internet provides prepackaged information that makes kids passive. Plus, we feel that physical activity leads to healthier minds. Sitting in front of a computer, pointing and clicking, is not a picture that we support as leading to later health.\”

Libraries ordered to filter Web in South Carolina

APRIL SIMUN from The State newspaper writes:

\”The S.C. State Library board voted 5-0 Thursday to comply with a new state law requiring them to filter their own computers and to withhold money from local public libraries that don\’t filter.\” Full Story

And Annalee Newitz from the San Francisco Gate writes:
\”…many experts and activists say our current methods for regulating kids\’ access to the Internet, like blocking, are worse than useless.\” Full Story

Kansas City – We’re all going to read a book

MIKE HENDRICKS from the Kansas City Star reports that \”KC loves this idea\” of the city reading the same book at the same time.

\”My phone has been ringing off the hook from Kansas City Metropolitan Library & Information Network members asking if and how we will be participating in this project,\” wrote Susan Burton, executive director of that group of 76 area library systems.
Full Story

County library patrons doing a cushy job

Are comfy chairs an issue at your library?

Patti Brandt from the Bay City Times writes about the selection of chairs at the Bay County Library System:


\”Staff members there have been asking visitors for the last week or so to rate six different chairs on size, comfort and eye appeal…Thomas Birch, managing librarian of the Bay City Branch, said choosing a chair is a very subjective matter.\”

Full Story

Home alone — and at the library alone

An editorial in the Seattle Times says:


\”Libraries are icons of our sense of community. They\’ve long been seen as safe havens where adults and children spend hours immersed in books, maps and videos.

Now they want to limit children. It\’s not that libraries don\’t want children.\”

It calls for more common sense and less rules.
Full Editorial

Oppose Expanded Government Secrecy!

Amy Kearns writes \”I got this alert from the ACLU!

TAKE ACTION! SEND A FREE FAX IN JUST TWO CLICKS! TO OPPOSE EXPANDED GOVERNMENT SECRECY!

You can read more and send a FREE FAX from the action alert Here


Last year, with little debate and no public hearings, Congress adopted an intelligence authorization bill that contained a provision to criminalize all leaks of classified information. A firestorm of criticism from civil libertarians, major news organizations, academics and LIBRARIANS resulted and President Bill Clinton vetoed the bill. Unfortunately, at the request of Senator Richard Shelby (R- AL), this year\’s intelligence authorization bill may include the identical provision.
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Separating Students From Smut

Wired has a rather indepth Look at Filtering and CIPA. They say 75 percent of schools use filtering already.

\”We believe schools should be a safe haven for children –- a place for children to learn and grow, not cesspools for the destruction of the minds and souls of children,\” said Kristen Schultz, a legal policy analyst with the Family Research Council.

Seems as though the internet is still the least of most peoples worries:


\”We have far more complaints about written materials like certain classics, novels, and plays than anything having to do with Internet resources.\”

125 years later, Twain fans end a story

Someone writes \”the USAToday is running a Story story on Mark Twain\’s unpublished \”blindfold novelette\” entitled \”A Murder, a Mystery, and a Marriage\”. The summer issue of The Atlantic Monthly ran it, and the Buffalo and Erie County Public Library launched a writing contest to finish the mystery that drew 730 entries from as far as Japan and Australia. The winners will be announced Oct. 13.
\”

Breaking Microsoft’s e-Book Code

Slashdot pointed the way to This Techreview Story on An anonymous programmer that has found a way to decrypt Microsoft Reader e-books.The decryption program enables purchasers of \”owner-exclusive\” Microsoft Reader titles—Microsoft\’s most highly protected form of e-book—to convert these titles to unencrypted files viewable on any Web browser. The programmer hasn\’t released it, saying he developed it for his personal use.