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TOP STORIES FOR FRIDAY, APRIL 14, 2006 Library Group Wins Dispute with FBI Programming Contest Crowns Russian Students EFF Lists Consequences of DMCA Legislators Get Behind ISP Tracking Parents Find Kids through Cell Phones LIBRARY GROUP WINS DISPUTE WITH FBI Following a recent change in terms of the Patriot Act, federal authorities said they will end their efforts to prevent a library organization from identifying itself as a part of an antiterrorism investigation. Last year, the FBI sent a so-called national security letter to the Library Connection, an organization of 26 libraries in Connecticut, seeking patron records and e-mail messages. As it was originally enacted, the Patriot Act authorized the letters and forbade recipients from disclosing that they had been sent the letter. The group protested, saying the gag order violated their First Amendment rights, and last September a federal judge agreed. Ironically, it was during those proceedings that the government inadvertently identified the group in question as the Library Connection when attorneys for the government filed court documents with the group's name not redacted. Congress has since revised the Patriot Act, which now grants the government discretion to allow some recipients of national security letters to identify themselves. Kevin O'Connor, the United States attorney in Connecticut, said that in light of the changed legislation, the government would end its appeal of the decision to allow the Library Connection to come forward. New York Times, 13 April 2006 (registration req'd) http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/13/nyregion/13library.html PROGRAMMING CONTEST CROWNS RUSSIAN STUDENTS A team of students from Saratov State University in Russia won the 2006 Association for Computing Machinery's International Collegiate Programming Contest. Working in teams of three, contestants had five hours to answer as many of 10 complex problems as possible. The winning team, which correctly answered six of the problems, won a $10,000 scholarship and computer equipment from IBM, sponsor of the event. Runners-up were from the University of Twente in the Netherlands, Altai State Technical University in Russia, and Jagiellonian University of Krakow, Poland. Doug Heintzman, director of IBM's Lotus division, noted that over the years, IBM has hired 80 winners of the contest. The questions in the contest were similar to problems that programmers would typically take months to puzzle out. Bill Poucher, executive director of the contest, described the difficulty of the contest by asking, "When was the last time you heard someone say 'I need a piece of software in 10 minutes'?" Associated Press, 13 April 2006 http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060413/ap_on_hi_te/battle_of_the_brains EFF LISTS CONSEQUENCES OF DMCA The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has issued a report detailing what it said are the unintended effects of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). The law was enacted seven years ago to address intellectual property issues that arose with the development of the Internet and other technologies. Among other provisions, the law includes a prohibition on circumventing antipiracy measures, even if such circumvention was done for reasons that reasonable people would see as legitimate, according to the EFF. In a number of cases, the DMCA has been invoked to suppress information obtained by researchers about security weaknesses. The EFF's report said that the law has been used not so much to limit piracy as to "threaten and sue legitimate consumers, scientists, publishers, and competitors." The Cato Institute recently released a report on the DMCA with similar findings. Internet News, 14 April 2006 http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/3599026 LEGISLATORS GET BEHIND ISP TRACKING A number of government officials, including state and federal legislators, have endorsed the notion of requiring ISPs to keep detailed records of users' activities online. A data retention would force ISPs to collect and store some data that they currently do not capture and to keep other records far longer than they currently do. Officials including Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.), head of a Congressional subcommittee on oversight and investigations, have said that such a law would aid law enforcement. Michael Chertoff, secretary of homeland security, has also voiced support for such legislation. Critics of the idea have questioned whether storing such records would genuinely benefit law enforcement; raised concerns about who would have access to such records; and noted that it's not clear who would have to pay for such data warehouses. ZDNet, 14 April 2006 http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9588_22-6061187.html PARENTS FIND KIDS THROUGH CELL PHONES Sprint Nextel has announced a new service that allows parents to use cell phones to locate their kids if they are carrying their phones. The Family Locator service takes advantage of technology that cell phone companies were required to implement to allow emergency workers to locate cell phone callers. With the new service, parents can locate children on maps that display on phone screens. When a parent checks a child's location, the service sends a text message to that child informing them of the inquiry. Marina Amoroso, analyst with Yankee Group, noted that the market for family plans is driving cell phone business, representing more than half of most companies' new subscribers. In this area, Sprint trails competitors Verizon and Cingular by a considerable margin, according to Amoroso, though she said she doubted whether the introduction of this new service would help Sprint narrow the gap much. CNET, 13 April 2006 http://news.com.com/2100-1039_3-6060858.html ***************************************************** EDUPAGE INFORMATION To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your settings, or access the Edupage archive, visit http://www.educause.edu/Edupage/639 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] ***************************************************** OTHER EDUCAUSE RESOURCES The EDUCAUSE Resource Center is a repository for information concerning use and management of IT in higher education. 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