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10/15/2008 01:56 PM
President Bush yesterday signed into law the PRO IP Act, an intellectual property enforcement bill that calls for expanding certain legal remedies, providing enforcement resources, and creating a new I.P. Enforcement Coordinator in the White House. CDT supports vigorous enforcement of existing intellectual property laws and appreciates improvements that were made to the bill during the legislative process. CDT still has concerns, however, about how certain provisions in the bill could operate in practice.
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10/15/2008 01:56 PM
The National Security Agency is intercepting and retaining communications of innocent Americans in Iraq's so-called "Green Zone"; agency workers even pass around the most titillating conversations, according to explosive allegations made by two NSA whistleblowers in an ABC News segment airing tonight. According to the report, collection of telephone conversations U.S. soldiers and aid workers in Iraq had with their families in the U.S. continued even after NSA analysts knew that the telephone numbers on which they were eavesdropping belonged to Americans who had no ties to terrorism. The report calls into question assurances the NSA and Justice Department repeatedly gave Congress that internally enforced "minimization procedures" are adequate to protect the private conversations of Americans.
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10/15/2008 01:56 PM
The Justice Department today issued new guidelines for FBI investigations, weakening the standards that have long been in place to ensure proper targeting of law enforcement and national security investigations. The guidelines represent another step in the creation of a domestic intelligence system in the United States. They permit FBI agents to go undercover to collect information, send in informants and tail citizens, all without suspicion of wrongdoing or connections to a foreign power.
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10/15/2008 01:56 PM
In testimony submitted to the Senate Constitution Subcommittee today, CDT called for the next President and Congress to impose checks and balances on governmental national security measures. The testimony, submitted in connection with hearings exploring proposals to restore the rule of law, calls for an update of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act and for measures to ensure that intelligence collection complies with FISA and is subject to judicial oversight.
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10/15/2008 01:56 PM
Random, intrusive searches of the contents of laptop computers at the border would be outlawed by legislation introduced on September 26 by Senators Feingold, Cantwell, Wyden, and Akaka. The Traveler's Privacy Protection Act (S. 3612) would require U.S. Customs and Border Patrol officials to have a "reasonable suspicion" of a crime before they could search a laptop computer and other data storage devices; a court order based on probable cause would be needed to seize a device. Travelers would have the right to be present while electronic devices were searched, discriminatory searches would be barred, and strict time limits for searching would be imposed. The bill, which limits its protection to residents of the US, would displace recently-disclosed Customs policies permitting suspicionless laptop searches at the border that could last for weeks.
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10/15/2008 01:56 PM
CDT, joined by groups from EFF to ITAA, told a federal court today that the law requires caution in assessing whether to impose copyright liability on the makers of multi-use technologies. In a legal brief filed in a lawsuit against the peer-to-peer file sharing service LimeWire, CDT and its allies did not take sides but rather urged the court to decide the case within the careful framework established by previous Supreme Court cases in this area. Those cases make clear that distributing a technology with "substantial noninfringing uses" should not raise rise copyright liability concerns, as long as the distributor does not actively promote the technology's use for infringement. Reinterpreting or expanding secondary copyright liability in ways that undermine this crucial limitation, the brief warned, it could significantly chill technological innovation.
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10/15/2008 01:56 PM
CDT issued a policy post today that takes a closer look at the privacy concerns raised by the ISP-ad network partnership model within the online behavioral advertising field. Behavioral advertising involves the compilation of detailed information about an Internet user’s online activities. That data, when collected, can be turned into detailed consumer profiles including articles read, web sites visited, and items purchased. Today's policy post says the ISP-ad network model may violate federal law if it deployed without express consent of subscribers. CDT notes that Congress is taking a closer look at the practice and that online consumer privacy law may be introduced to address concerns.
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10/15/2008 01:56 PM
For five years, the E-Government Act has promoted improvements in the federal government's use of information technology, including increased transparency for government information. The Senate is expected to pass the E-Government Reauthorization Act of 2007 by unanimous consent later tonight. CDT believes that the reauthorization includes two key improvements to the E-Government Act in a call for the development of best practices for Privacy Impact Assessments, and to make online government information more accessible to search.
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10/15/2008 01:56 PM
CDT and numerous other domestic and international public interest organizations sent a letter yesterday pressing for public disclosure of specific provisions being considered by negotiators of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. The proposed treaty could touch on a range of intellectual property issues, including such broadly important topics as how I.P. enforcement regimes should address Internet distribution and information technology. But no draft text has been released. The lack of transparency, combined with an aggressive timetable aiming for a completed agreement by the end of the year, creates a serious risk that controversial provisions could be adopted with no meaningful opportunity for input or debate.
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10/15/2008 01:56 PM
A federal court ruled September 10th that stored cell phone location information is protected by the Fourth Amendment. The court said the government needed a warrant, based on probable cause, in order to gain access to stored cell phone location information. Other courts have required probable cause for law enforcement access to real-time cell phone location information; however, this decision is particularly important because it extends the probable cause requirement to stored location information. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, joined by CDT, ACLU and the ACLU of Pennsylvania, had argued for the warrant requirement that the court adopted in an amicus curiae brief filed in July.
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10/15/2008 01:56 PM
In comments submitted today to the Copyright Office, CDT, EFF, Public Knowledge, and four other groups expressed support for the goal of providing greater licensing clarity to digital music services. That clarity could assist in the continued growth of the lawful online music market. The comments warned, however, that this goal could be undermined by rules that unnecessarily address controversial questions with important implications outside the music licensing context, such as the legal status of "buffer copies." CDT and its allies instead argued for a narrowly-tailored rule that would serve as a "safe harbor" covering any copies created in the course of providing a digital music service.
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10/15/2008 01:56 PM
In comments filed with the Department of Homeland Security today, CDT highlighted privacy concerns implicated by DHS' new system of databases to record personal information and border crossing history. CDT called on DHS to reduce the 15-year period for retaining records of the date, time and place an American re-enters the United States at the land borders, and to limit the vast array of "routine uses" for which that data can be shared with other government agencies, foreign governments, and the public. In related comments, CDT urged DHS to work with states and other issuers of new "enhanced drivers licenses" to provide the department with access only to personal information about drivers crossing the border rather than information about all those holding EDLs, and to ensure that states do not create their own records of drivers' border crossing activities.
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10/15/2008 01:56 PM
President Bush today announced his intention to nominate CDT Vice President for Public Policy James X. Dempsey to serve a five year term on the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, an independent agency within the executive branch that will review the civil liberties impact of anti-terrorism policies and programs, providing advice on policy development and implementation and oversight of government actions relating to terrorism. In legislation adopted last year, Congress reconstituted the Board and made it independent of the White House. The position, which is subject to Senate confirmation, is part-time, so Dempsey, if confirmed, will continue in his position with CDT.
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10/15/2008 01:56 PM
State attorneys general received thousands of complaints about online fraud and abuse in 2006 and 2007. Yet, with the exception of several notable standouts, few states brought significant cases in response to those complaints, according to a report released today from the Center for American Progress and the Center for Democracy and Technology. The study finds online fraud and abuse aren't given a high priority by most attorneys general. The report recommends several steps state attorneys general can take to protect online consumers, such as: assess the applicability and adequacy of state laws; develop computer forensic capabilities; train investigators and prosecutors to identify Internet fraud; and devote greater resources to enforcement efforts.
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10/15/2008 01:56 PM
Today CDT and the Progress & Freedom Foundation jointly filed a "friend of the court" brief in the U.S. Supreme Court against the FCC's regulation of "fleeting expletives," arguing that the Commission's new policy of censoring one-off curse words violates both the Constitution and administrative law. CDT also called into question the FCC's overall authority to regulate speech on broadcast, noting that dramatic changes in media and technology over the past 30 years no longer make broadcast a "unique" medium deserving less than full First Amendment protection. The brief also argues that the convergence of broadcast with the Internet and other new media, and the rise of technological tools that allow families to control what media content enters the home, eliminates the need for continued government regulation of broadcast.
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