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1994-07-17
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############ ########## Volume 2 Number 7
############ ########## April 10, 1992
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|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| EFFector
| | ONline
| THE CISLER REPORT: |
| Steve Cisler writes about | eff@eff.org
| Computers, Freedom and Privacy II |
| | 155 Second Street
| WHAT A DEAL! | Cambridge, MA 02141
| EFF offers spiffy t-shirts | (617) 864-0665
| |
| | 666 Pennsylvania Ave.SE
| | Washington, DC 20003
| | (202) 544-9237
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
COMPUTERS, FREEDOM, AND PRIVACY-2: A REPORT
by Steve Cisler (sac@apple.com)
[The opinions and views expressed are those of the author, Steve Cisler,
and not necessarily those of Apple Computer, Inc. Misquotes of people's
statements are my responsibility. Permission is granted for re-posting
in electronic form or printing in whole or in part by non-profit
organizations or individuals. Transformations or mutations into
musicals, docudramas, morality plays, or wacky sitcoms remain the right
of the author. This file may be found on the Internet in ftp.apple.com
in the alug directory.
-Steve Cisler, Apple Computer Library.
Internet address: sac@apple.com ]
The Second Conference on Computers, Freedom, and Privacy, (March
18-20, 1992. Washington,D.C.).was sponsored by the Association for
Computing Machinery and thirteen co-sponsors including the American
Library Association and a wide variety of advocacy groups.
The diversity of the attendees, the scope of the topics covered,
and the dynamism of the organized and informal sessions gave me a
perspective I had lost in endless conferences devoted only to library,
information, and network issues. I can now view the narrower topics of
concern to me as a librarian in new ways. Because of that it was one of
the best conferences I have attended. But there's a danger of these
issues being re-hashed each year with "the usual suspects" invited each
time to be panelists, so I urge you, the readers, to become involved and
bring your own experiences to the next conference in 1993 in the San
Francisco Bay Area.
++====================================================================++
Wednesday, March 18
The day began with concurrent tutorials on the following topics:
Getting on the Net (Mitchell Kapor, Electronic Frontier
Foundation);
Making Information Law and Policy (Jane Bortnick, Congressional
Research Service);
Communications and Network Evolution (Sergio Heker, JVNCNet),
Private Sector Privacy (Jeff Smith, Georgetown University);
Constitutional Law for Non-lawyers (Mike Godwin, EFF);
Computer Crime (Don Ingraham, Alameda County (CA) District Attorney);
Modern Telecommunications: Life After Humpty- Dumpty (Richard
Wolff, Bellcore);
International Privacy Developments (David Flaherty, Univ. of
Western Ontario);
and the one I attended...
Information Law and Policy: Jane Bortnick,
Congressional Research Service (CRS)
In Bortnick's tutorial, she covered the following points:
1)Setting information policy is not a linear process, and it's
not clear how or when it is made because of many inputs to the process.
2) Many policies sit on the shelf until a crisis, and the right
technology is either in place, or certain people grab it.
3)Events create renewed interest in information policy.
4)Industry, academic, or non-governmental groups play an
important role by testifying before committees studying policy and by
lobbying.
5)CRS is the institutional memory for Congress because of the
rapid turnover in the staff on the Hill.
6) The challenge is to develop policy that does not hinder or
hold things up, but there is a high degree of uncertainty, change, and
lack of data. The idea is to keep things as open as possible throughout
the process.
Bortnick said that the majority of laws governing information
policy were written in an era of paper; now electronic access is being
added, and Congress is trying to identify fundamental principles, not
specific changes.
Because of the economic factors impinging on the delivery of
information, members of Congress don't want to anger local cable, phone,
or newspaper firms.
To get sensible legislation in a rapidly changing environment you
have to, paradoxically, slow down the legislative processes to avoid
making bad laws. Nevertheless, in a crisis, Congress can sometimes work
very quickly.
We have to realize that Congress can't be long term because of
annual budget cycles and because of the hard lobbying by local
interests.
In making good policy and laws, building consensus is the key.
The current scope of information policy:
-spans broad range of topics dealing with information
collection, use, access, and dissemination
-global warming has a component because new satellites will dump
a terabyte a day: who is responsible for storage, access, adding value
to all of this data?
-many bills have the phrase: "and they will establish a
clearinghouse of information on this topic"
-information policy has increasingly become an element within
agency programs
-impact of information technologies further complicates debate
-result=more interested players from diverse areas.
Congress has many committees that deals with these issues. CRS
gets 500,000 requests for information a year: 1700 in one day. After
"60 minutes" is broadcast CRS gets many requests for information. from
Congress.
Jim Warren asked several questions about access to government
information. There was a general discussion about how the Library of
Congress would be digitized (size, cost, copyright barriers). It was
noted that state level experiments affected federal activity, especially
the states that are copyrighting their information (unlike the federal
government).
The discussion about Congressional reluctance to communicate via
electronic mail with constituents: a new directory does not even list
some fax numbers that had been quasi-public before some offices felt
inundated with fax communications.
++====================================================================++
Keynote Address:
Al Neuharth, The Freedom Forum and founder of USA Today
"Freedom in cyberspace: new wine in old flasks"
Lunch, following the tutorials, was followed by an address by Al
Neuharth. The high points were:
1. First amendment freedoms are for everyone. Newspaper publishers
should not relegate anyone to 2nd class citizenship or the back of the
bus.