Interview with Carl Malamud

Library Journal posted an interview with Carl Malamud of Law.gov. Here's a brief snippet:
Public Information for All: An Interview with Carl Malamud

LJ talks to the public information advocate and founder of PublicResources.Org about barriers to access, trends in copyright, potential legal fixes, and where libraries fit into the puzzle
By Debbie Rabina
Library Journal
Nov 1, 2010

Since the early 1990s, Carl Malamud has made it his business to return to the public what is rightfully theirs: free access to public information. Despite legislation that mandates such access to government information, some categories of information have been excluded, notable among them court opinions (with the exception of the U.S. Supreme Court) and state laws. (cont)

PACER changes coming

Just saw this:

NEWS RELEASE


Judiciary Approves PACER Innovations To Enhance Public Access

March 16, 2010 — The Judicial Conference of the United States today approved key steps to improve public access to federal courts by increasing the availability of court opinions and expanding the services and reducing the costs for many users of the Public Access to Electronic Court Records (PACER) system. (cont)

Compilation of Presidential Documents

The GPO has a section devoted to the Compilation of Presidential Documents. More information from their page:

In conjunction with the change of administration in 2009, OFR and GPO are pleased to provide more timely access to Presidential Documents by making materials available in electronic format on a daily basis. The Digest of White House Announcements, Nominations Submitted to the Senate, Checklist of White House Press Releases, and Acts Approved by the President will continue to be made available electronically on a weekly basis.

URL: http://fdsys.gpo.gov/fdsys/browse/collection.action?collectionCode=CPD

IDEA replaces EDGAR

SEC is replacing the old EDGAR database with the new interactive IDEA database. See the press release for - partial quote here:

The new system is called IDEA, short for Interactive Data Electronic Applications. Based on a completely new architecture being built from the ground up, it will at first supplement and then eventually replace the EDGAR system. The decision to replace EDGAR marks the SEC’s transition from collecting forms and documents to making the information itself freely available to investors to give them better and more up-to-date financial disclosure in a form they can readily use.

Updated business filings article

Kathy Biehl's Business Filings chart on LLRX.com has been updated as of August 25, 2007. She has a short narrative paragraph for every state with links to business, secretary of state, business name, UCC, or trademark registrations that are available. She also notes which are no charge and which are subscription or pay per view.

Tip of the hat to BeSpacific.com for the update.

Public records on the web

Interesting column in the Wall Street Journal Online today (free access).

REAL TIME By JASON FRY

Wall Street Journal Online
When Public Records Are Too Public

Open Records Are an Established Tradition, But Does Internet Access Call for a Change?
June 25, 2007

The Web wasn't created to appeal to our sense of voyeurism. It just feels that way sometimes. cont.

Finding Hidden Intelligence in SEC Filings

PDF of a presentation by Barbara Fullerton, Manager of Librarian Relations, 10-K Wizard and Catherine Whitney, Research Librarian, Thompson & Knight LLP. The presentation was given on May 2, 2007 at SCIP (Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals).

The PDF can be found at LLRX.com

Update on SSN Bill

"A bill that would allow individuals to ask that their Social Security numbers be kept private on documents maintained by Texas' 254 county clerks is awaiting a signature from Gov. Rick Perry after it blazed through both chambers of the Texas Legislature.

It took House Bill 2061 a little more than three weeks to land on the governor's desk."

Read the entire article at: http://www.topix.net/content/kri/2486725776317661387310563293774081014344

Texas bill passed to release SSNs

I saw this on The Virtual Chase this morning.

News story from Fort Bend Now:

Bill Declaring Social Security Numbers Not Confidential Awaits Gov's Signature
by Bob Dunn, Mar 19, 2007, 04 33 pm
Fort Bend Now

A bill changing the Texas Public Information Act and declaring that Social Security numbers not be considered confidential has passed the Texas Senate and is awaiting Gov. Rick Perry’s signature.

Voted on Monday under the name HB 2061, wording in the bill was left identical to the bill the Texas House passed unanimously on March 6.

The bill is HB 2061 (80 R). Here's a blurb from TLO:

Bill: HB 2061 Legislative Session: 80(R)
Last Action: 03/19/2007
S Passed Caption Version: Senate Committee Report

Caption Text: Relating to the acquisition or disclosure of the social security number of a living person by a governmental body, including by a district or county clerk.

Previous Lex Scripta posts:

• More on SSN redaction
• Texas Courts to Remove SSNs

Copyright and fair use and goverment committees

There's an interesting post over at LibraryLaw Blog about access to government information and fair use concerns. The post mostly discusses the CSPAN/Pelosi flap where the Speaker of the House posted a short video clip of herself from CSPAN and was subsequently requested to take down the clip, citing copyright issues.

WHOIS data

Web Site Owners May Get Tougher to Find
Proposal could aid infringers on the Net
Lynne Marek
The National Law Journal
March 1, 2007

My summary:

Two sides to this story: the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) will consider a policy that would allow web site owners to keep their contact information private when registering for a domain name. What this would mean is that their information would be placed with a proxy, and the proxy contact information would show up in WHOIS databases.

Side one: companies wanting to protect their intellectual property don't want an extra layer to work with when asking people to stop using copyrights, trademarks, etc.

Side two: ordinary people who want a domain but don't want to have their personal information available on the web for anyone to see, similar to choosing an unlisted telephone number.

More on SSN redaction

SSN masking in Texas has been delayed (re: Opinion No. GA-0519)

Now Arkansas is revising access to court records. In Re: Access to Court RecordsArkansas Supreme Court, Administrative Order No. 19,

Texas Courts to Remove SSNs

Finally!
Here's something we law librarians have talked about concerning social security numbers on court documents and it looks like the Texas Attorney General Office has issued an opinion on this topic.

GA-0519 published on Feb. 26th, 2007
http://www.oag.state.tx.us/opinions/ga/ga0519.pdf

Read carefully thru the 13-page opinion. This could mean no or limited access to public records.