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TOP STORIES FOR MONDAY, MARCH 03, 2003 Details Revealed about Government Data Mining New Spam Filter Only Delivers E-Mail from Approved Sources Red Herring Shuts Down AND Alexandria Library Project to Build Vast Online Collection Experts Find Fault with Current Copyright Legislation Senator Offers Market Approach to Copyright DETAILS REVEALED ABOUT GOVERNMENT DATA MINING A freedom-of-information request by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) has uncovered information about 26 research grants awarded for the Defense Department's controversial Total Information Awareness (TIA) program. The Defense Department tried to block the release of the grant information, but a federal district court ruled that the information must be turned over. Future funding for the TIA program has been blocked by Congress, pending an accounting of how the program will deal with privacy issues. The grants described were approved before Congress took action to limit funding. Grant applicants included large and small corporations and large research universities. According to EPIC, the grant program solicited proposals dealing with repository technologies; collaboration, automation, and cognitive aids technologies; and prototype system technologies. Internet News, 27 February 2003 http://dc.internet.com/news/article.php/1963191 NEW SPAM FILTER ONLY DELIVERS E-MAIL FROM APPROVED SOURCES The co-founders of AvantGo this week unveiled a new spam filter called Qurb that aims to provide users with strict restrictions on spam by combining a "whitelist" of approved senders with a challenge/response mechanism. E-mail coming from a source not included on the user's whitelist is automatically routed to a "quarantine" folder, where users can look for legitimate mail. Mail from someone not on the list triggers a challenge e-mail to that sender, who can choose to respond, thereby affirming that he or she is the real sender of that message. The Qurb user can then add that sender to the whitelist. The makers of Qurb say the tool is difficult for spammers to sidestep while being relatively simple for legitimate correspondents to negotiate. Critics said restrictions like those of Qurb are too strict and onerous for most users to use easily. Spam consultant Steve Atkins said Qurb won't save much time because most users will look through the quarantine folder for legitimate mail. He said there are other systems already available that function similarly and that no one uses them. Wired News, 3 March 2003 http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,57867,00.html RED HERRING SHUTS DOWN After seeing its fortunes fade with the high-tech downturn, Red Herring magazine has shut down. The magazine, widely seen as catering to and read by an upscale technology elite, saw its advertising revenue grow from $21 million in 1999 to $87 million in 2000, only to slide to $15.6 million last year. Tony Perkins, Red Herring's founder, said the publication also suffered from fallout of the September 11 attacks and of last year's numerous corporate scandals. The Industry Standard and Upside, two competing technology magazines, have also closed their doors in the past two years. Business 2.0, Wired, and Fast Company, each of which is owned by a large media company, continue operations. Perkins said he thought the magazine continued to be valuable, "but it would have been a miracle if we had survived all this." Associated Press, 2 March 2003 (registration req'd) http://www.nandotimes.com/technology/story/785972p-5628011c.html AND ***************************************************** ALEXANDRIA LIBRARY PROJECT TO BUILD VAST ONLINE COLLECTION A project at the new Alexandria Library in Egypt hopes to make virtually every existing text available online. The Alexandria Library Scholars Collective uses software called CyberBook Plus designed to link archives of digital texts from around the world. In addition to offering a single point of entry to access most of the world's texts, the software includes virtual lecture halls, a hub for international scholars, and a gateway for ordinary readers. David Wolff of online-learning venture Fathom noted that doing any one of these successfully would be challenging. The challenges confronting the project include copyright, language barriers, and funding. The project's primary sources of funding are currently the Egyptian government and UNESCO. New York Times, 1 March 2003 (registration req'd) http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/01/arts/01ALEX.html EXPERTS FIND FAULT WITH CURRENT COPYRIGHT LEGISLATION Experts speaking at a University of California at Berkeley conference were in general agreement that copyright law is currently being applied inappropriately. The event featured speakers from a range of companies and institutions, representing a variety of perspectives on the issue of copyright. Most speakers faulted the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and its application, saying the interests of the majority of persons involved are not being served. Notable DMCA opponents Larry Lessig and Edward Felten spoke out against the current state of copyright enforcement. Alex Alben of RealNetworks also attended the conference. He criticized a recent action by Lexmark, which has won a preliminary injunction under the terms of the DMCA to prevent a competitor from selling a chip that would allow Lexmark printers to function with non-Lexmark toner cartridges. "This is a travesty," Alben said. "This is not what we intended when we created the DMCA." CNET, 1 March 2003 http://news.com.com/2100-1023-990689.html SENATOR OFFERS MARKET APPROACH TO COPYRIGHT Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) has suggested that the answer to ongoing wrangling over copyright is a policy of full disclosure. If content producers are required to explain clearly to consumers how and under what conditions a copyrighted work can be used or copied, users can easily decide whether they will buy it. Wyden said his approach is a market-based one; although the government would have to specify and enforce disclosure provisions, market forces would compel action on the part of media companies to keep consumers. Wyden argued that the current influence of media companies on Congress will prevent any legislative alteration of copyright law from passing any time soon. San Jose Mercury News, 2 March 2003 http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/business/5298641.htm ***************************************************** EDUPAGE INFORMATION To subscribe, unsubscribe, or change your settings, visit http://www.educause.edu/pub/edupage/edupage.html Or, you can subscribe or unsubscribe by sending e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To SUBSCRIBE, in the body of the message type: SUBSCRIBE Edupage YourFirstName YourLastName To UNSUBSCRIBE, in the body of the message type: SIGNOFF Edupage If you have subscription problems, send e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For past issues of Edupage or information about translations of Edupage into other languages, visit http://www.educause.edu/pub/edupage/edupage.html ***************************************************** OTHER EDUCAUSE PUBLICATIONS EDUCAUSE publishes periodicals, including "EQ" and "EDUCAUSE Review," books, and other materials dealing with the impacts and implications of information technology in higher education. 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