NET-POWER: Threat to Freedom-of-Information Killed in Four Days Flat!!! This illustrates the grassroots empowerment that the net gives citizens. Time-stamped last Tuesday at 5:35am-Eastern, Jamie Love of Nader's Taxpayer Assets Project (TAP) broadcast an emergency msg to TAP's thousands of net addressees, "Subject: Help! West Publishing seeks broad change in FOIA." At 11:51am-Pacific, I re-transmitted it to the thousands of GovAccess addressees, with inflamatory prefaces by me and by someone who had already responded to Jamie's msg, as 7:32am-Eastern (I also sent a second version, later): GovAccess.098: ACTION NEEDED ASAP! re public access to court rcds. At issue was the fast-moving HR 830 Paperwork Reduction Act. Jamie had discovered that it contained a special-interest Sec.3581(f) to benefit big-donor West Publishing [law books] while reducing public access to public records and damaging the federal Freedom-of-Information Act (FOIA). The legislation was fast-tracking through Congress like a freight-train, sliding on the huge amount of green grease that West had "donated" to key Democrat and Republican incumbents in the last year (documented in detail in earlier TAP postings). Already out of the House, HR 830 was scheduled for preliminary Senate committee vote that day, and final vote less than foud days later! On Wednesday, I emailed the American Library Association's Washington Office, asking if they were aware of this bill. They had already been looking into it and broadcast their own alert on Thursday at 19:43-Eastern. The net responded ... and got results - FAST! (note the time-stamps): === Date: Fri, 10 Feb 1995 08:39:23 -0500 From: James Love Subject: This morning's mark-up on HR 830 This is the memo [deleted here - jim] we are sending out on today's mark-up on HR 830. The response from the net community has been unbelievable, and things appear to be turning around. Yesterday the Republican majority staff said it would drop the entire FOIA assault! Now we are addressing three other issues, one involving a West citation type issue [where West has copyrighted the citation-codes required in many federal courts' briefs], one involving a provision that would create a legal barrier for new government information products, and one that would give agencies the right to charge high prices for government information. The calls, faxes etc have had a huge impact, and the mark-up will be interesting. jamie (love@tap.org; 202/387-8030) === Fri, 10 Feb 1995 12:16:58 -0500 From: James Love Subject: Internet 1, West 0 , Sec. 3581(f) out of HR 830 more later. jamie [That's what one tenacious individual can accomplish using net-power, when "the cause is just!" APPLAUSE for Jamie! --jim] &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Internal Revenue Code on the Web - Current Through 1994 and Hyperlinked! [I sorta prefer the caption that was on John's prelim announcement --jim: It's Big; It's Ugly & It's on the Web! - the Entire Internal Revenue Code] Thu, 2 Feb 95 19:32:00 +0100 From: kelvin@fourmilab.ch (John Walker) Last week I announced a Web server: which lets you browse the full text of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code (26 USC), with cross-references between sections compiled into hyperlinks to the cited text. A WAIS index allows fast full-text searches of the Code for words and phrases. The source document I originally used was a 1990 edition of the Code posted on Taxing Times (). Frank McNeil, maintainer of the TaxSites page: pointed me to the U.S. House of Representatives Gopher (Hmmm...wonder if it will turn into a Newt?): which has an ASCII copy of the entire U.S. Code, current as of January 24, 1994. I've just finished updating my server to this 1994 document, so it's as up to date as the the text being given out by the folks who write the U.S. tax laws. Enjoy! (Or perhaps I should say "read it and weep"?) ---------------------- ------------------- John Walker, Megalon S.A. | A sufficiently advanced 10, rue St. Honore | technology is indistinguishable CH-2000 Neuchatel, Suisse/Switzerland | from a rigged demo. [Prowl this document for all those exciting special-interest wierdo exemptions-for-the-few. And report them to the net! --jim] &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Washington Politicians *Also* Ignore NEW YORK TIMES Political-Writer Email Date: Sun, 5 Feb 1995 20:35:47 -0500 From: farber@central.cis.upenn.edu (David Farber) New York Times political writer Maureen Dowd finds that the Gore/Gingrich love affair with the Internet doesn't mean that either of them actually read or answer their e-mail. Her message to Speaker Gingrich was never answered, and her message to Vice President Gore got only "a robot response" saying: "Dear Friend ... Although the volume of mail prevents the Vice President from personally reviewing each message, be assured that your concerns, ideas and suggestions have been read carefully, and a detailed report of the mail is provided to the Vice President on a regular basis." (New York Times Magazine 2/5/95 p.26) [Somehow, I suspect that email from big-bucks special-interests - even those outside of a representative's district - may receive more-attentive treatment. However, there *is* another significant side to this issue - of responsiveness to citizens' communications, and I will address it in a forthcoming GovAccess. --jim] &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Free Money (I.e., We Gave at the Office) - Fed Grants for Info Infrastruc Sun, 5 Feb 1995 08:14:56 -0500 From: farber@central.cis.upenn.edu (David Farber) An announcement from Communications Catalyst, a nonprofit clearinghouse. We encourage nonprofits to apply for these federal funds, especially in partnership with other private and nonprofit organizations. $64 MILLION FOR "INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAY" GRANTS FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE APPLICATIONS AVAILABLE IN EARLY FEBRUARY COMPLETED PROPOSALS DUE IN EARLY APRIL The Department of Commerce's Telecommunication and Information Infrastructure Assistance Program will "provide matching grants to state and local governments, health care providers, school districts, libraries, universities, community organizations, public safety services, and other nonprofit entities to help them access and use new telecommunications technologies." FOR APPLICATION FORMS BY MAIL: Send name, position title, organization, address, phone, fax, e-mail (if available) and request for application package to: DOC\NTIA\TIIAP 14th and Constitution Ave, N.W. Washington, DC 20230 Tel 202-482-2048 Fax 202-501-5136 e-mail tiiap@ntia.doc.gov FOR GRANT AND APPLICATION INFORMATION ELECTRONICALLY: * NTIA BBS via Internet: ntiabbs.ntia.doc.gov or iitf.doc.gov * NTIA BBS via dial up: 202-482-1199; modem set at either 2400 or 9600 baud, 8 data bits, 1 stop bit * Internet gopher: iitf.doc.gov or gopher.ntia.doc.gov (login as gopher) * Internet ftp: iitf.doc.gov in the /pub/grantinfo directory or ftp.ntia.doc.gov in the grantinfo directory (login as anonymous, password is your e-mail address) * Internet WWW: http//www.ntia.doc.gov or http://iitf.doc.gov [...] Tom Freebairn Communications Catalyst NII Clearinghouse Project 1742 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington, DC 20009 Tel 202-234-8494 Fax 202-234-8584 e-mail freebair@rtk.net TO REQUEST FUTURE ALERTS of communication grants from COMMUNICATIONS CATALYST, contact freebair@rtk.net . &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Call for Florida Volunteers to Advocate Florida Legislature's I'net-Access Mon, 6 Feb 1995 13:52:22 -0500 (EST) From: Rep Tracy Stafford The Florida Legislature is presently considering a bill which will require all legislative information to be placed on the Internet. House Bill 167 by Rep. Tracy Stafford and Senate Bill 282 by Sen. Robert Wexler will be considered during the 60-day session beginning on March 7. It's important that every Floridian contact his/her own state representative and state senator to tell them how important it is to place bill texts and vote information on the Internet. Send a message to Rep. Tracy Stafford at: "stafford@bcfreenet.seflin.lib.fl.us" If you don't know who your state legislators are, please place your name and address in the message. [Sunshine Staters! If you want the bright light of *timely, useful* access to shine on your state's legislative activity, ask Rep. Stafford how you can help push this bill through the legislature. --jim] &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Virginia Legislative-Access Bill Moving Forward Sun, 05 Feb 1995 17:58:14 EST From: NJTX76A@prodigy.com (DR ROGER A HOFFORD) Va House of Delegates voted February 4, 1995, on Delegate Newman's amended resolution(upgraded version for action as opposed to study) to get Virginia legislature on Internet 100 Yea - 0 Nea ... it is now off to the state Senate for action. Will keep you posted. Delegate Newman has copy of all your material you have sent me. Thanks. Roger Hofford, M.D. &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Why Virginia Legislation Moves So Fast [In GovAccess.096, I commented with suspicion about how fast legislation appeared to be moving through the Virginia State Legislature. --jim] 04 Feb 95 12:32:21 EST From: Kaye Caldwell <72260.2414@compuserve.com> The Virginia legislature only meets for a couple of months a year - that's why things seem to move so fast - they DO move fast - at least during those couple of months. [It's amazing what can be accomplished by part-time citizen-legislators, who don't have well-paid months and months in which to dawdle over political trivia and conduct endless committee hearings, each hearing creating another opportunity to generate evermore donations from nervous lobbyists. --jim] &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& 5th Computers, Freedom & Privacy Conf., San Francisco Peninsula, Mar.28-31 From: Carey Heckman Sun, 5 Feb 1995 08:58:05 -0800 (PST) The Fifth Conference on Computers, Freedom and Privacy Sponsored by: * ACM SIGCOMM, SIGCAS, SIGSAC, and * Stanford Law School 28 - 31 March 1995 San Francisco Airport Marriott Hotel Burlingame, California We have reached the crossroads of the Information Age. No longer is the electronic frontier inhabited solely by a small band of technical pioneers sharing a common code of conduct. Computer and telecommunications technologies have become part of mainstream living, conversation, and politics. These changes compel us to reexamine the definition of our rights and the processes by which those rights are being defined. The Fifth Conference on Computers, Freedom and Privacy will assemble experts, advocates and interested people from a broad spectrum of disciplines and backgrounds in a balanced public forum to explore and better understand the definition of our rights at this crossroads. Participants will include people from the fields of computer science, law, business, research, information, library science, health, public policy, government, law enforcement, public advocacy, and many others. [...] Some of the topics in the CFP'95 program include: FREEDOM AND RESPONSIBILITY OF ELECTRONIC SPEECH -- Exploring recent controversies in online free speech, including a Socratic forum that will ask whether the Constitution can indeed be viewed through a technologically transparent lens. HIS MASTER'S VOICE ... -- Probing the future for "net propaganda" from governments, government officials, and politicians, and who will pay so whose message will get to whom. STUDENT DATABASES: FOR EDUCATION AND FOR LIFE? -- Looking at how gaining the benefits of nationwide information about K-12 students could also spell serious privacy problems. CAN THE NET SURVIVE COPYRIGHT? CAN COPYRIGHT SURVIVE THE NET? -- Delving into the controversies surrounding copyright protection that throttles freedoms and copyright protection that protects just rewards for creativity. INTELLIGENT TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS: PAVING OVER PRIVACY -- Examining the privacy implications of tracking and surveillance technologies now being planned for vehicles and roadways nationwide. "IT OUGHTA BE A CRIME..." -- Debating with law enforcement representatives about who should set the rules for governing the net and when should bad manners become a crime. WHEN DO THEY NEED TO KNOW 'WHODUNNIT'? -- Discussing the right time and places for identified, anonymous, and pseudonymous transactions. TRANSACTION RECORDS IN INTERACTIVE SERVICES: WHO WATCHES THE SERVERS? -- Looking at the issues raised by the collection of personal information as part of the new interactive home entertainment, telecommunications, and online services. DEFINING ACCESS PARADIGMS: LIBRARIES, RURAL AREAS, AND INTERNATIONAL ASPECTS -- Evaluating the differing models of "open access" to Internet and computer-mediated communications in the library, rural, and lesser-developed country contexts. THE CASE AGAINST COMPUTERS: A SYSTEMIC CRITIQUE -- Daring to discuss whether computers may be doing our world more harm than good. A NET FOR ALL: WHERE ARE THE MINORITIES? -- Examining how and to what degree minority groups participate on the net and asking whether social class is relevant to net participation or non-participation. WHO OWNS THE LAW? -- Reviewing the debate over legal citation form and online databases, and what it means to all of us. CAN WE TALK LONG-DISTANCE? REMOVING IMPEDIMENTS TO SECURE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATIONS -- Covering export and import controls, outright prohibitions, and other technical and policy obstacles to secure international communications. The Fifth Conference on Computers, Freedom, and Privacy will also offer a number of in-depth tutorials on subjects including: * Inside Washington: The New Congress and Secrets of Advocacy * National ID Card Initiatives * The Law of Fundamental Rights for Non-Lawyers * Everything You Need to Know to Argue About Cryptography * Digital Activism * Inside the World of Law Enforcement * Intellectual Property for the Information Age FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT CFP'95: Web: http://www-techlaw.stanford.edu/CFP95.html Gopher: gopher://www-techlaw.stanford.edu/CFP95 FTP: ftp://www-techlaw.stanford.edu/CFP95 Email: Info.CFP95@forsythe.stanford.edu Fax: (415) 548-0840 Call: (415) 548-9673 [...] * Information for sending a PGP-encrypted registration available at http://www-techlaw.stanford.edu/CFP95.html and ftp://www-techlaw.stanford.edu/CFP95. CFP'95 Scholarships: The Fifth Conference on Computers, Freedom and Privacy will provide a limited number of full registration scholarships for students and other interested individuals. These scholarships will cover the full costs of registration, including three luncheons, two banquets, and all conference materials. Scholarship recipients will be responsible for their own lodging and travel expenses. Persons wishing to apply for one of these fully-paid registrations should contact CFP'95 Student Paper and Scholarship Chair, Gary Marx at: Gary.Marx@colorado.edu or call (303) 492-1697. [...] &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& "Groundless hope, like unconditional love, is the only kind worth having." -- EFF co-founder John Perry Barlow, "Cynthia Horner's Eulogy", Apr. 1994 Mo' as it Is. --jim GovAccess is a list distributing irregular info & advocacy, maintained by Jim Warren, columnist, MicroTimes, Government Technology, BoardWatch, etc. 345 Swett Rd., Woodside CA 94062; voice/415-851-7075; fax/<# upon request> jwarren@well.com (well.com = well.sf.ca.us; also at jwarren@autodesk.com) & To add or drop the GovAccess list, email to jwarren@well.com . & & Past postings are at ftp.cpsr.org: /cpsr/states/california/govaccess & & and by WWW at http://www.cpsr.org/cpsr/states/california/govaccess . &